Saturday, September 27, 2008

Paul Newman, 1925-2008



From the NY Daily News
Ten-time Oscar nominee Paul Newman, creator of iconic movie anti-heroes in "The Hustler," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," has died after a battle with cancer.
The 83-year-old screen legend with the piercing blue eyes died Friday at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn., said publicist Jeff Sanderson. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.
Word of his illness leaked earlier this year after Newman, citing health issues, dropped out of directing a fall production of "Of Mice and Men."
Newman, in addition to his cinematic brilliance in more than 60 movies, became known as a director, race car driver and philanthropist.
He won three Oscars - two honorary, and one for the Martin Scorsese-directed "The Color of Money." Newman reprised his memorable role as pool shark "Fast Eddie" Felson from "The Hustler" to capture the 1986 award.
Newman always appeared high up on any list of screen legends, box office stars or sex symbols.
APPRECIATION: MATINEE IDOL HANDSOME, NEWMAN PREFERRED GRITTIER STUFF
In 1982, along with writer A.E. Hotchner, he founded "Newman's Own," a company that began producing salad dressing and now also makes pasta sauce, lemonade, popcorn, salsa and dog food. Newman once sampled the dog food on an appearance on the Jay Leno show.
His share of the profits of "Newman's Own" goes to charity - as of 2006 he had already contributed more than $220 million. Newman joked about the "embarrassment" that "my salad dressing grosses more than my movies."
One of the charities he founded is the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, a camp for terminally ill children.
Although he played the leads in "The Desperate Hours" and Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" on Broadway in the '50s, just around the time his movie career was taking off, he didn't receive his first Tony nomination until 2003, when, at 78, he played the role of the Stage Manager in "Our Town."
NEWMAN'S FIVE BEST ROLES: OUR FILM CRITIC'S CHOICES
Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on Jan. 26, 1925. His father owned a dry-goods store where he briefly worked.
He was training as a pilot during World War II but stopped because he was color blind, instead serving as a Navy radio operator.
After the war he attended Kenyon College, where he met and married his first wife, Jackie Witte. They had three children, Scott, Susan and Stephanie; Scott died in 1978 of a drug overdose.
He was "discovered" by two New York agents while studying at the Yale School of Drama. They quickly found him work in the burgeoning world of TV drama.

Chandra Wilson from "Grey's Anatomy"-September 24, 2008


Grey's Anatomy star and mom of three Chandra Wilson unveils a new OTCsafety.org campaign to educate parents on the safe use of over-the-counter children's cold medicines.
She is smart, funny, personable, nice, and so much prettier in person than on tv.

Friday, September 26, 2008

David & Victoria Beckham Launch Their New Fragrance "Signature" at Macy`s Herald Square-September 26, 2008



2 photo ops-outside, and inside.
Photographers, videographers and fans ALL OVER West 34th Street. It was completely nuts. I have never seen so many people screaming on the street. Was it the Beatles???
Nope-just Victoria and David

Monday, September 22, 2008

Happy 59th Birthday Bruce Springsteen, September 23, 2008





the music
the performances
the words
the friends
the photos
I wouldn't be where I am today in my career, and in my life, without discovering this man's music 31 years ago.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Heather Mills donates one million dollars in food to up the nutritional standards of the children in Hunts Point in the Bronx-September 20, 2008




Heather Mills donates one million dollars in food to up the nutritional standards of the children in Hunts Point in the Bronx. She is named the honorary chairperson of Hunts Point Alliance for Children. She grilled a "meatless meat" bar-b-que for 1000 families living below the poverty level at the Hunts Point Back to School Fair. Afterwards, she went for a row boat ride.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Sex and the City: The Movie - Extended Cut DVD Launch, NY Public Library, September 18, 2008









all the women minus Kristin Davis were there to the delight of all the fans awaiting along 5th Avenue. Sarah Jessica Parker looked radiant and was as gracious as ever, making sure ALL the photographers got what they needed.
Mario Cantone joked with the crowd and surprised Kim Cattrall, offering to put on a pair of Manolo Bhlanik shoes on her feet.
Other than Kristin Davis, Chris "Mr Big" Noth was the only other cast member who was not present.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Celine Dion Live at Madison Square Garden, September 15, 2008




This woman can sing! I think she has one of the best voices out there today, and the sold out audience would agree.
Remember the name CHARICE PEMPENGO. She is the young woman who was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show last week-she had a tragic life and Celine Dion was her hero. Live on the Oprah Show, she sang "My Heart Will Go On" from the "Titanic" soundtrack and there was not a dry eye in the audience, or in my household. This young woman has an incredible voice. Her dream was to sing with Celine, and Ms. Dion granted that wish to her tonight and they sang a duet together.
Remember her name...it is a name we are going to be hearing A LOT from down the road.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Remembering 9-11







It's hard to believe it has been 7 years since this TRAGIC day.

This is something I wrote a fews years ago remembering 9-11-01:
5 years ago, our lives changed. Forever. I remember lying in bed with my soon to be husband in our apartment on University Place and 10th Street in downtown Manhattan and hearing and feeling the roar of a huge plane. It rocked our apartment. I vividly remember saying to him "Oh my God, did you hear that plane?" Philip is a pilot/photographer and he quickly replied "sweetheart, that plane is flying way too low and that's not the normal flight pattern." Seconds later, he said "it crashed. I heard a boom." Right then, our phone rang and it was a friend telling us a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Moments later, the phone rang again-some friends calling to see if it was Philip's plane. We turned on the tv, got dressed, and then went onto the street. A block from our apartment, along 5th Avenue, we had a clear view of the Towers. We went back to our roof where we had a clear view also and started shooting. All of a sudden, I remember pointing and saying "oh my God, look at that plane" when the second plane vanished from my site and we saw a ball of flames into the second tower. It never registered with me what happened. People were huddled together crying. We called our families to let them know we were ok, got off an email to a friend in St Louis who wanted to know if we were ok, and then the phone and internet went dead. A woman from my floor was in the corner on our roof hysterical, crying to her mother who was in Paris saying "mommy I am so scared, mommy mommy." Just typing this makes me cry for the fear she had, the pain she was in being all alone. She was probably in her mid 30's and crying for her mother. At the time, one of my big clients was the Port Authority and weeks before, we were on a shoot on the 68th floor of the North Tower. I know if this happened on a day I was up there on a shoot, I just don't think I would have gotten out.
I don't remember much else about the day.
I think I was on overdrive. It took me a long time to cry because I still was in some kind of daze. I remember we walked down there after the towers clapsed and as soon as we got to Church Street, I couldn't breath anymore. We turned around and walked home. We tried to help along the way but so many people were out that there was not much we could do. Later that day, we went back and we were right at Ground Zero, staring at the metal piece that was stuck in the ground for so long. I do remember the Daily News calling me to see where I was and I told them I was at Ground Zero. They asked me to shoot some firemen, and get up to the paper FAST. I asked how fast and they said NOW. A policeman took me in his car and we sped up 6th Avenue to 33rd Street. There was not a single person anywhere. If anyone has ever seen Charlton Heston in "The Omega Man" this is what NYC felt like.
4 weeks later was our wedding. The following Saturday I was supposed to shoot a wedding and I got the call that it was cancelled because 4 family members had died that day. My friends were planning a surprise wedding shower for me in NJ on September 16 but they decided to tell me because they knew I wasn't going to leave NYC otherwise.
We went to Greece on our honeymoon and were pretty much glued to CNN 90% of the time.
There's not much else I can do but cry.I cry alot remembering this day. And let us ALWAYS remember all those innocent people we lost on that day.

There was a woman with my last name, Donna Marie Rothenberg, who perished on 9-11-01, and a man from NJ named Mark Rothenberg. As far as I know, we were not related but from everything I have read about them, they sounded like remarkable people. I would have liked to have known them in this life. Here is something I found that was written about them:
http://valley-of-the-shadow.blogspot.com/2006/09/in-memoriam-donna-marie-rothenberg-d.html
http://www.september11victims.com/september11victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=229


http://www.september11victims.com/september11victims/victims_list.htm

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

All in a week's work, September 2008














It has been a very busy week in NYC. Fashion Week started last Friday and there are shows all over the city. I shot the front row at designer Charlotte Ronson's show. Charlotte's twin sister, Samantha, is a DJ and is all over the news these days since she is the girlfriend of Lindsay Lohan. I have never seen so many photographers trying to get a shot of anyone like they were trying to get these 2 young women.
The annual Marc Jacobs show took place at the Armory and guests included Kelly Osbourne, Jennifer Lopez who walked in with her friend Victoria Beckham, Stephanie Seymour, Martha Stewart, who brought along her digital Canon camera, and dozens of others.
Jessica Simpson kicked off "Good Morning America's" Fall Concert Series with a performance outside their Times Square Studios.
Selena Gomez from "The WIzards of Waverly Place" made hundreds of girls who waited in the pouring rain very, very happy by signing autographs and posing for photographs.
Heidi Klum Launched "Heidi Klum by Jordache" at Bloomingdales on Lexington Avenue.
Times Square at 5:30 am is, believe it or not, pretty desolate. So, to look up and to see 20 "Chucky's" was quite a sight. The same day Jessica Simpson was performing on GMA was the same day "Chucky" the movie was celebrating it's 20th anniversary and 20 people dressed as Chucky stopped traffic.

Friday, September 05, 2008

Lindsay and Andrew's Wedding-The Grand Colonial, Perreyville, NJ
































one of the greatest things about being a photojournalist is being able to meet wonderful people and sharing in their life. When it is a wedding, I get to go in on one of the best days of a couple's life and document it for them. And when those people are as wonderful as the MacDonald and Weitz families and all their friends, it just makes me even more thankful that I stumbled upon photography almost 3 decades ago.
Lindsay and Andrew were/are...the perfect couple. Gorgeous to look at, and as personable as they come. Their warmth and glowing personalities as well as every single family member and guest made this wedding definitely one of the best ones I have shot. Their wedding band was Mike Dalton, a popular musician from the Jersey Shore that I first photographed over 20 years ago and who also played at my wedding in 2001. Known as a "bar band" and not the "traditional" wedding band, Mike Dalton has EVERYONE dancing the entire night. I can honestly say that there is not a better band to play a wedding, and I have been to, and photographed A LOT!
Many photographers hate shooting weddings. I love them. I am a photojournalist and a wedding is a story. There is a beginning,a middle and an end. I love capturing moments when sometimes, no one realizes I am there.
I often find myself getting teary eyed at the speeches that are given.
I am a lucky woman. I love what I do and twice in a month, I got to photograph incredible weddings...the first at the beginning of August when my sorority sister Faith married the love of her life, Scott.
Congratulations to both couples

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

In Memoriam, MAX, Sept. 10, 1992-Sept. 2, 2003, 1pm





missing the BEST cat ALWAYS
It's hard to believe it has been 5 years since you left us