Emmys 2010

By Adrienne Papp, M.Sc.

NBC’s Sunday night’s live of the 62^nd Emmy’s broadcast was a wonderful example of how to put entertainment back into the programming for industry award shows.

Hosted by Jimmy Fallon, the three-hour broadcast set a fun, humorous tone at the beginning, and kept things lively throughout the broadcast in a format which had been in danger of losing an audience for being overly long and tedious.

Fallon kicked off the ceremonies with a rousing “Glee”- inspired musical number with a cast that included Tina Fey (getting doused with a red slushee), Jon Hamm and the ubiquitous Betty White, which evolved into Fallon-as-Bruce Springsteen doing an inspired ensemble version of “Born to Run.” It was a fun and energetic way to kick off the festivities, and Fallon quickly proved himself to be a deft and likeable host.

Once the awards got rolling, it turned out to be a great night for newcomers, celebrating a new era of creativity across a broad range of both network and cable programming.

Jimmy Fallon Hosts the 2010 Emmy Awards

Big winners in key categories included first year comedy “Modern Family” (ABC) with six Emmys, which beat out heavily-nominated “Glee.” Fox’s musical comedy, which began the night with nineteen nominations, eventually took home four awards.  AMC’s “Mad Men” took home the Emmy for TV’s best drama for the third consecutive year.

Acting awards were given to Kyra Sedgwick, a first-time winner for her dramatic role in TNT’s “The Closer,” and Bryan Cranston won the Emmy for the third consecutive time for his role in AMC’s “Breaking Bad.” Comedy winners included Jim Parsons in “The Big Bang Theory” for CBS, and Edie Falco, a surprise winner for her role in Showtime’s dark comedy “Nurse Jackie.” Falco, now a three-time winner, became the first to win in both dramatic and comedy categories, with past awards for her role on “The Sopranos.”

Supporting awards went to Eric Stonestreet in “Modern Family,” Jane Lynch for “Glee,”

Aaron Paul in “Breaking Bad,” and Archie Panjabi for her work in the CBS drama “The Good Wife.”

This 62^nd Emmy broadcast also celebrated the creativity now existing across a broad span of specialty programming.  HBO’s 10-part mini-series “The Pacific,” produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, won eight Emmys, while HBO’s lower key drama “Temple Grandin,” based on the true story of a woman’s triumph over autism, was also a big winner, and took acting awards for Claire Danes and David Strathairn.  Al Pacino also took home his second Emmy for his role as Dr. Jack Kevorkian in HBO’s “You Don’t Know Jack,” which was also based on a true story. There are many more of those nerve shaking yet true stories to be made, whether by HBO or not, such as the true story of the exceptional, soulful and beautiful Debra Pauli.

Debra Pauli's story is another true story that has award winning potential once produced.

In one of the more serious moments of the show, George Clooney was honored with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his fundraising efforts to help the country of Haiti. Clooney noted humorously that he had “offered to go to south Sudan and have a wardrobe malfunction ( to attract media attention.) But it was pointed out to me that I’m 49, and the consensus was that it would just be upsetting. And kind of sad.” He then spoke more seriously about the need to remember the ongoing needs that natural disasters create, saying that he hoped someone watching the Emmys would find a way to “keep the spotlight burning on these heartbreaking situations that continue to be heartbreaking long after the cameras go away.”  It was an inspiring comment from one of the classiest people in Hollywood. The Emmy Awards itself is a sponsor of the Stand Up To Cancer Foundation, which is also supported by many stars in Hollywood.

Among the upsets of the evening was “Top Chef” upending “The Great Race” in the Reality Competition category after TGR had won seven straight times, and the fact that “Lost” won just a single Emmy despite twelve nominations. “Lost” and other departing shows “Law & Order” and “24” were however feted in a comical musical tribute.

Overall, this Emmy broadcast was a true celebration of the talent and creativity expressed in programming for the previous season.  Jimmy Fallon as host was an inspired choice, and sponsors like AT&T, Infinity and Avon, besides the many swag bag controbutors, can be proud of supporting an entertainment industry which continues to reinvent itself in unique ways, offering a wealth of creative talent to America and the world.

About the Author of This Article:  Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, West Side Today among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity company, Atlantic Publicity and publishing house, Atlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities, world leaders, inventors, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. She also owns Atlantic United Films that produces and finances true stories made for theatrical release or the silver screen. Spotlight News Magazine is owned by Atlantic United, Inc with Adrienne Papp being the majority shareholder.

Share This Article:

Javier Bardem

By Adrienne Papp

Of course what I love about this movie, besides that it stars Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, is that it is based on a true story and she is not a cougar, or any of those fanciful Hollywood picturesque creations that… well… do not really appeal to anyone, making us wonder how a lot of these series, films, and completely meaningless reality shows ever got made?  Who was smoking what?

Rather, this movie deals with the here and the now, and something that all of us should entertain doing at least once in a while: Live!

I always marveled about how long it would take for the makers and shakers of the entertainment world to realize that we, the PEOPLE, want to see true stories!  Well, thankfully real life got some attention and we now have more true stories coming out of the woodwork than ever before, addressing the problems and mysteries of life. Some of these films are so well made, they make you think,  touch the soul and leave you with something to remember.

These “life as is” movies do not deal with  non-existing fantasies, or strange creatures a hundred years into the future that I think are at times too painful to watch, but rather they stay in the present, which I believe is more than enough to deal with.

And, as for our children preferring science fiction, they get plenty of fantasy almost everywhere they go –anytime, any place, anywhere! I wish they wanted science without the fiction. It is too late for that though! We spoiled them with too much entertainment from too many different sources, yet none of them expressing anything worthy or of true value.

It would be nice if kids simply learned to stay in the present because that is all we have no matter what space movie, or vampire fantasy is the latest rage. I know they are everywhere and they are KOOL with a popularity that extends to fashion and ten miles of product endorsements.  And all of this merchandising, by the way, is paid for by the parents, who are ironically victimized by the blood sucking ( vampires) marketing campaigns, all in the name of consumerism.  I mean, what is the message of all these vampire and other out-worldly fictions?  For the Love of God, I do not know!  Surrendered clueless I bet on the life of one of the vampires, or any other unrecognizable creature, that they do not know it either.

Eat Pray Love

As for Javier Bardem, he seems to know what he is doing. Among many other awards, he won an Oscar for his outstanding portrayal in No Country for Old Man, and played a heart-breaker, not that it seemed a hard thing for him to do, in Woody Allen’s great comedic hit, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Yet, he does not himself understand what the big deal is about women fighting for a man like him, and confesses with sincere humbleness that he does not “get it.”

I can relate, but I can also explain: Javier, you are simply gorgeous and masculine all at the same time! You are a man women want!

But that’s just for starters, Javier Bardem is also a sincere talent with a gift that few actors have. In an honest interview Bardem reveals things that I have always known about the movie industry, but never told despite my personal experience on several occasions: the lead actor, in this case Julia Roberts, carries a lot of weight, along with the director, which you do not see because it’s behind the scenes, but it’s the energy of 350 or so people at any given time on the set that really weighs in on the lead actor or actress.

If the actor, or the director loses interest and energy, or if they go down, the whole movie goes down. That is the simple truth. I would add, besides the obvious talent an actor must possess, for any respectable leading role, there are other necessary real-life personality traits that come into play very strongly: charisma, charm, strength of character, and commitment to the task, which is the movie, its substance and its message.  

Without this dedication the set simply would disperse, run into one big chaos, or literally dissolve and the project would break up with endless legal complications. This is not a prediction of the intricacies and details of filmmaking, but a reality that the cinemagoers will never see. This is not the end product.

The end product is what the viewer pays for and sees on the screen. If the movie makes it to theaters it is almost always guaranteed to at least have made the initial investment back unless it is a complete flop, a disaster that somehow went undetected in the eyes of the studio executives.

One of the other mysteries of film making is that very essence I never understood about acting: how can any actor start crying when the director says “roll” and stop crying when the director says “cut.” It’s a process that can sometimes be repeated ten, fifteen times within half an hour or less, sometimes throughout the entire day depending on the scene and the director.

Javier says: “If you want to be an actor, you have to be really open, to let yourself be taken by emotions. It is not hard, we all are. The difficult thing is how to be back to yourself again after those emotions have taken you. That’s where the actor’s job comes in.”

And in closing, I would point out, which I believe is a universal truth spoken by the movie Eat Pray Love:  It is not about what one tries to achieve when one is with a certain person. It is what one wants herself/himself to be when one is with the right person.  And that means not to be scared, or blocked by fear, which is what we tend to do: getting blocked by fear in the most important situations of our lives.

I have a very good and convoluted story about “being blocked by fear,” come to think of it, more than one: My whole life?  Chorus: C’mon, who would agree with that?

Could it be possible, just by the off chance that life is at least partially about letting go of fear?

Because I suspect that it is.

About the Author of This Article:  Adrienne Papp, M.Sc. is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, West Side Today among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity company, Atlantic Publicity and publishing house, Atlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities, world leaders, inventors, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. She also owns Atlantic United Films that produces and finances true stories made for theatrical release or the silver screen. Spotlight News Magazine is owned by Atlantic United, Inc with Adrienne Papp being the majority shareholder.

Share This Article:

International Peace Day

By Adrienne Papp, M.Sc.

“It is only the dead who have seen the end of the war.”  Plato

Celebrating The International Day of Peace through Operation Healing for the World & Giving with the Stars

The United Nations‘ International Day of Peace, also known as the World Peace Day, marked every year on September 21, is a Global Movement when individuals, communities, nations and governments highlight efforts to end conflict and promote peace. It is observed by many nations, political and military groups, and expressed as the absence of war by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone.  To inaugurate the day, the “Peace Bell” is rung at UN Headquarters.

Established by the UN resolution in 1981, Peace Day has grown to include millions of people around the world who participate in all kinds of events, large and small.

As one example, award winning artist and activist, Geela Parish, delivers music with a powerful message: “Come together now before it’s too late!” She recently launched a campaign of hope and peace, called Operation Healing for the World & Giving with the Stars, featuring a charity CD song, For the Love of God.

The peace song was written by Geela Parish, and has been since recorded by various artists including Patti Labelle and Liel Kolet, and was to be performed at the historic peace summit in Rome for the Pope in 2008 where Parish was also invited.

Liel Kolet, an Israeli 17-year-old peace activist and singer who has sung with Bono, the Scorpions, Sir Elton John, and many more political activists and royalties throughout the world became famous when at the age of just 15 she performed the song“Imagine” written by John Lennon on Shimon Peres‘ 80th birthday and invited President Bill Clinton to sing along.

“I truly believe that by leveraging the power of music, celebrities and media, it’s possible to accelerate the process by which we can affect change positively for the benefit of all humanity,” says Parish.

“As we approach the International Day of Peace it’s important to carry on the work of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and recognize that everyone and everything, including the environment, is impacted by the growing threat of nuclear war and the devastating consequences of senseless violence, regardless of financial status, religion or ethnicity.  It’s crucial to advance the cause of peace and non-violence because our ability to co-exist is the one condition of survival in a nuclear age,” says Parish, who is a  longtime and very passionate peace advocate.

“Sadly, we’re all victims of centuries of brainwashing and manipulation by those who seek to divide and conquer for self-serving purposes. It’s ignorance that divides us.  We fail to recognize the spirit that connects us all and to understand the unity in all living things, like strands in the same web of life.  What I think God really needs is for people who are made in His image to also act in his image,” adds Parish, whose social consciousness has always been an integral part of her transformative music and all other endeavors, including her book The American Dream and matching CD, The Veil of Life published before.

What makes her campaign unique is the fact that it’s the brainchild of an American woman who originally came from a region that has never known peace, the epicenter of mindless violence, the volatile Middle East.  It was an experience that has sparked Geela’s life-long passion for bringing people together and putting an end to the insanity and futility of war if only for what all religions have in common: the love of God.

A significant  portion of the proceeds from the sale of Geela’s song she says will be donated to victims of war-torn countries and natural disasters, all of which as of yet is unspecific in her press release, including the mention of rebuilding of Haiti.

Many people have contributed their talents and time to create awareness of this campaign such as complementary free publicity from  Atlantic Publicity, , whereas Adrienne Papp was appointment as the exclusive publicist in a letter from Geela Parish.  Other mentions  of the video include  press releases by various online press release companies and reputable international websites such as www.univision.com;  www.worldnews.com and www.videosurf.com and Atlantic Publisher.   A highly professional radio station  Womens Radio, is also in support of the cause along with Adrienne Papp of Spotlight News Magazine, as well as world renowned photographer, Ben Heine according to Geela Parish. Plans for the song include recording it in different genres and languages.  All contributors to this cause hope this campaign will inspire celebrity personalities to come on board to create a tsunami of compassion to confront the many challenges facing all of us today, amongst them the most brutal is the self inflicted violence in certain parts of the World.

People can support the cause, Parish says,  by purchasing the song digitally through online retailers such as iTunes, CDbaby.com and Amazon.com

Some of the consequences of war are well described in a  new-release, anti-war movie, starring Colin Farrell and Paz Vega, Triage, in which a combat photojournalist played by Farrell witnesses the horrors of war first hand. The unalterable shock changes him forever and life is never the same even when back home safely in London, away from the dangers of the Middle East.

I believe that one can CHOOSE to go, do, be, and have, and in the end exclaim, shocked and bewildered, that because of all the “synchronicities” of one’s life, all the clicks and coincidences, and the many happy “accidents,”  bounty and good fortune must have been one’s destiny.

Or, one might choose to wait for a miracle, a savior, or divine intervention, and in the end exclaim, shocked and bewildered, that because of all the “synchronicities” of one’s life, all the missed chances and disappointments, and the many unhappy accidents – poverty, misfortune, violence and cruelty must have been one’s destiny.

Debra Pauli, the greatest and most truthful speaker of our times says: ” As we live and breath through this 21st Century, many are realizing that we are a crumbling universe right before our eyes. The repetitive question throughout the human race is how we transform the mindsets of all of mankind so that the flooding of peace, love and compassion become the new “universal protocol” that has been historically lying dormit for thousands of years. Who is  going to step up to the plate and teach us this 3-fold lifestyle on how to accord ourselves with the ways of this world, and still remain true to ourselves, and yet reconcile with all beings of this world?”  Without even questioning, Debra Pauli, has already unleashed a teaching that will wake all of us up to the most joy, and the most amazing and unbelievable transformation of the human mind, which Pauli proves is born out of hardship, not from genetic wealth or status. She shows us that hardship transforms all of us, and how to be human in a time of darkness.

On the platform Debra Pauli  has the ultimate powerful message far beyond what we have ever experienced or learned from other renowned speakers, teachers, and philosophers today. She connects with us on an intimate level, meeting our species on the level where we are at, at any given time,   providing  us with real life experiences of unbearable difficulties, filled with daily fear and terror, which she has prevailed and persevered when the odds were stacked against her in the past 48 years. She has become her own greatest power and instills in all of us that we have the same power within, the same power of choice that she has unleashed in her own life, which has made  her an unstoppable force and  a successful legacy never seen before.

In my countless first-hand experiences with Debra, she is not only “saying and teaching” what should be done,  she is actually living it!  There is a world of difference ( a die, or do clarity ) in  her lectures and actual manifestations in her life, which we commonly refer to as “habits”  with the old vocabulary. Today I would use the word: complete transformation of the soul, a rebirth, an evolution, which is the sole purpose of life. Debra Pauli is a woman of her words. Old vocabulary is out  ….we need news words, a new lexicon, like the new Century needs a way to overcome, change, and start  re-inventing itself.  And, in doing so, a teacher we have never seen before immerses! When we follow her words, we are okay, we “get it,” and live it !   It’s like a new identity immerses out of “the filed,” – the  quantum space.  Yet, it is us, it is just the next level of who we really are!

In our chaotic lives and troublesome world, Debra Pauli is the ultimate guru  -  the ONE  to go to, the ONE to ask and listen to. And, she is all that because  she KNOWS you , –  she has lived through all that you have and much more. Understood, or not,  the fact that we are One is what will ultimately help people bring upon a new and more peaceful World, which we badly need.  And,  being ignorant , blaming others or playing an escape or con artists is not an option any more.  This is the Law of the Universe. The quantum law. And, it is proven in physics whether we like it or not….!  These are not theories or belief systems, or the latest fancy, but rather plain physical laws! If you care to learn about this, you win, if you don’t, you lose. It is a choice! As Debra says : ‘It is really a CHOICE!”

“Our broken and lost souls are searching and craving the discovery of our ultimate purpose.  Each of us were specifically designed and called to achieve a higher purpose through the power of our minds, through the power of choice, but now is the time that we must turn and listen to leaders and masters of this universal protocol as they are the missionaries who will teach us, guide us and inspire us” Pauli says. What she has mastered in her life is everything of what we are searching for. She teaches us how to bring “thinking and reality” into alignment through her 48 time tested “Think / Feel / Do” Lifestyle.

What we are missing is Mindfulness. The World needs to finally come to its senses in order to end the senselessness by changing the way we think.  And “we” means all of us, not just some of us. Let’s accept responsibility for our actions, thoughts, happiness or the complete lack thereof due to simple ignorance. A barbarian and ignorant approach will not help, but a mindful one will. Kudos to Geela Parish, Debra Pauli and all those who are rallying for the World we meant to have!

About the Author of This Article:  Adrienne Papp, M. Sc.and MBA  is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, West Side Today among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity company, Atlantic Publicity and publishing house, Atlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities, world leaders, inventors, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. She also owns Atlantic United Films that produces and finances true stories made for theatrical release or the silver screen. Spotlight News Magazine is owned by Atlantic United, Inc with Adrienne Papp being the majority shareholder.

Share This Article:

Julianne Moore

By Adrienne Papp

I always admired Julianne Moore. She is sexy and smart, which combination of course is more than enough to intimidate anyone, but beyond all that she always carried a certain charisma that would take pages to describe in specificities. So, what is that charming something about Julianne Moore?

That charming something is the fact that she is a natural at being just as classy, sumptuous and gorgeous as she has always been without any effort on her part. There is nothing fake about her. She is a natural. Graceful, regal, elegant, intelligent, yet down to earth and engaging. She is a real woman, without any of the artifice that Hollywood adds to almost all of its stars: the self-conscious look of a Barbie Doll in terms of lips, hips, boobs, eyebrows, and the list goes all the way down to the toes.

Can you spot most Californian women at an airport from a mile away? I can. They look alike. It is called the “Californian Look.” It is almost hard, if not impossible, to find anyone in the vicinity of Hollywood (West or East) who looks like they are from this planet where gravitation does its thing.  The only humans benefitting from this, by the way, are the plastic surgeons.

Julianne Moore has not joined the crowd. Her beauty in fact I believe comes from not wanting to be anything or anyone else but herself. She is stunning, sophisticated and elegant, not looking anywhere near her age of 49.

A woman of her own, having gone through a divorce before, but happily married for seven years now, juggling motherhood and a career, which by no means is an easy task, she adds, “Believe me, I always can find something to worry about.”

And, that is what I find so captivating about her. While she is a megastar, she is human, and refuses to be anything else.

When asked what contributes to her glowing beauty that seems to never change, she says, “it is staying out of the sun, but also a certain amount of happiness.”

When we elaborate on the happiness remark, the simple message, which I always felt about Julianne Moore, becomes crystal clear: part of life is to figure out who we are, and what we are, and what to do with it.

It is not about changing one’s past (by changing one’s face and body artificially,) but rather trying to understand who we are by not denying the past. Fear, which almost all of us try to deny, should be embraced instead, and actually by doing so you realize that nothing is ever really for granted and that you really need to live in the moment.  Anything can end without any notice any time. Yet, that is what makes life interesting but scary at the same time.

Having loved reading as a kid and still keeping up with the habit, she is coming out with her third children’s book next year. “It is nice to have another interest, to have done something that has been fun and rewarding and kids like it.” And, that sums up Julianne Moore in a few words: real, present in the here, and caring about the world around, rather than just herself.

About the Author:  Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, West Side Today among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity company, Atlantic Publicity and publishing house, Atlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities, world leaders, inventors, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. She also owns Atlantic United Films that produces and finances true stories made for theatrical release or the silver screen. Spotlight News Magazine is owned by Atlantic United, Inc with Adrienne Papp being the majority shareholder.

Share This Article:

Debra Pauli

By Adrienne Papp

The Debra Pauli Story: The Worst Child Abuse Case in Recorded History

We’ve all heard fantasy stories, or true events that are either too good to be true, rags to riches tales, or so full of suffering and unspeakable human misery that we have a hard time comprehending its reality. No wonder that some of the biggest blockbusters made in Hollywood come out of true stories of ordinary people doing the impossible, exemplifying the good in us and not the all-too-common tragically wasted potential and literal loss of life when it comes to horrific circumstances like those of Debra Pauli’s.

The unbelievable true story of Debra incorporates not only the impossible, but also the exceptional and unprecedented.  It’s a story that begins in the deepest hell and most barbarian of conditions ever seen by the mortal eye, and yet transitions into a tale of triumph over impossible odds, redemption and a shared hope for the human existence.

Debra’s story is not an easy one to tell, some of the details are not only disturbing, but also painfully unnerving. Yet, the chilling perplexities while astonishing, also serve as a sad illustration and soul-penetrating lesson of what an individual “Homo sapien” is capable of by revealing both the darkest and most uncivilized characteristics, as well as the triumphant resourcefulness of the human spirit.

The nightmare began at birth. When Debra Pauli was born she was dubbed “The Devil’s Daughter,” as her paranoid schizophrenic mother bizarrely identified her as a child from the Devil in a family where she desperately wanted only male children.  Sexually abused herself as a child, Debra’s mother began to abuse her daughter at birth, putting her crib in a confining closet at the back of the house.  She was convinced that her newborn daughter was trying to destroy her marriage and would end up having sex with her husband.

Debra Remembers Her Childhood

When she was three weeks old a mosquito from the nearby swamps got through a hole in Debra’s closet and bit her, causing encephalitis, a high fever, convulsions and eventually a coma. Debra had to have her spine drained and spent weeks recovering in a hospital.  All along her Mother insisted that she had been “born crazy.”  At six weeks, Debra had to be rushed to the hospital when she stopped breathing and turned blue from lack of oxygen.  Her Mother claimed that “Debra tried to kill herself” by stuffing her blanket down her throat ( as if a six week old were able to do that,) not admitting to paramedics that she had tried suffocating her daughter until she was near death.

Debra, being the oldest daughter, took the full brunt of her Mother’s abuse, although younger sister Danielle was also badly mistreated when she was born. They were both routinely subjected to vindictive deprivation and homicidal rage, yet Debra was her Mother’s main target. In the young family living near St. Louis, MO, which also included two boys, but only the girls were subject to the terror and dread dealt to them by their mentally disturbed Mother. “My Mother wanted nothing to do with me or my sister Danielle, who was born eleven months after I was born in 1962,” Debra says. “Both of us were kept in separate cramped closets as infants and toddlers, and when we moved to our second home we were kept in a damp, musty, unfinished basement with just a mattress. The meager food we received was placed on the stairs, as if we were sub-humans or pets. Neither of us ever had any potty training and we would go for days without having our diapers changed and we both had terrible rashes and sores from our soggy diapers.”

Those sores caused Debra to scratch herself continuously, and when her mother discovered it, she became convinced that her daughter was touching herself sexually and was “queer.”  Her delusional thinking led her to devise  homemade straightjacketsthat she made Debra wear to control her “evil” habits.  “The straightjackets made sure that I couldn’t move, and I was continually strapped into this restraint with one of my legs placed over the other,” Debra says.  “That was how I learned to walk, in this straightjacket, with one leg over the other, hobbling in a contorted position, trying to move myself forward.”

The straightjacket also had long term physical implications.  “One of my legs grew to be deformed since I had it continually strapped over the other one,” Debra says.  “It took six months of physical therapy in a hospital to reduce the effect of that deformation.”

Debra’s mother also forced Debra to sit with strapped arms and legs to a potty chair for hours, and tried to get her to urinate by forcing a syringe up her vagina.  For years Debra learned to hold her urine and bowel movements, but eventually she would make a mess in her panties, which caused her mother to smear her face with feces and then dry it with an electric fan, a humiliation that she found humorous.  “And later when Danielle and I were together in the damp basement in our second home, she would  stand us over a drain and hose us down with icy water in that cold basement in the dead of winter,” Debra remembers.

Mother just wasn’t cut out for housework either, and didn’t think it necessary to attend to cleaning and housework.  “She never washed dishes.  There were pots of food molding in the kitchen and in the refrigerator,” Debra says.

It was a terrifying existence for a child.  Every day was simply something to endure, a test of survival.  Eventually young Debra thought her father might come to her rescue and become her savior, but he was a slight man and powerless to deal with the destructive behavior his domineering 5-foot 9-inch, 250-pound wife exhibited toward his daughters.

Things worsened when Debra’s Mother would fight with her father, Larry, whose concerns for the girls would cause her to increase their abuse. Shouting and arguments could continue for hours, as she verbally abused the girls’ father.  When police arrived they would arrest the Father, and he would spend a night in jail.

Young Debra Growing Up in Foster Homes

The daily torture continued in many ways.  Physical abuse was commonplace, and included cigarette burns and the use of pharmaceutical drugs (such as Valium) to keep Debra quiet, beginning at an early age.  “I was fed an assortment of adult pills to keep me sedated and immobile beginning when I was about two years old. Mother had convinced a doctor that she needed a prescription for stress and anxiety, and she used whatever drugs she could get to keep me in a stupor,” Debra says.

Within days of being force fed adult sedatives, Debra fell into a coma, losing sensory perceptions.  Her Father found her on the floor of her closet reeking of urine and feces in a comatose state. She was rushed to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, where she spent several weeks recovering from her Mother-inflicted drug overdose.

The overdose was reported to social services, which finally stepped in and took serious action against the family, telling them that Debra would be placed in a home in southern Missouri for a year until the family decided whether or not they wanted her or could take care of her.

Debra eventually was returned to her family after her one year stay at a foster home. A number of relatives gathered at the family home to welcome her, and were impressed with how nicely her hair had grown out during her time away.  Angered by the attention her daughter was getting, Debra’s mother took the scissors to her hair the next day, chopping off the offensive object of admiration.

For the first formative years of her young life, Debra Pauli was routinely brutalized, physically and emotionally on a daily basis. She was physically malnourished and beaten, emotionally and cognitively stunted, and completely without any nurturing or schooling.  She was caged both physically in a closet and later in a basement, and mentally with pharmaceutical drugs and strong adult sedatives, but through it all she learned to survive.

“Many days I heard a tiny voice inside me say that things would be all right, the voice telling me that ‘It’s not you,” Debra recalls.  “If it hadn’t been for that I don’t know if I could have survived the daily torment. Something deep inside me told me that there was something better for me and that I would survive my mother’s hatred for me.  I somehow knew that my mother could beat me, could physically and emotionally torment me, but she would NEVER take away my will to survive or destroy me.” Despite the reassuring voice, Debra’s life was always about “hanging on just one more day.”

In 1967, after her parents divorced, Debra’s mother packed up the kids and moved to Arizona to live with a man who owned a ramshackle 10-acre ranch out in the middle of the Palo Verde desert, about fifty miles west of Phoenix. “He was an ex-military man who had a twisted sense of discipline, and was an ideal partner in crime for the demented behavior of my mother,” Debra says.  “He built a form of animal pen for us out there, and we had to surrender our shoes so that we couldn’t run away on the scalding hot desert sand.  Years later I went back to the site of the ranch and found a pair of my shoes there.  I keep them on my desk now as the only keepsake as a little girl, and what I had to survive back then.”

Debra's Shoes, Reminders of Her Days of Horror As a Little Girl

Life at the ranch in Arizona also included other forms of abuse for the young daughters, including forcing them by cattle prod to scrub the bathtub in the trailer, constrain them to eat horse manure and dog food while the boys ate Oreo cookies and making them walk on hot galvanized metal in the 110-degree desert heat without shoes as a daily punishment. The girls, Debra and Danielle, were never allowed to stay in the trailer, and in many cases the boys were forced to torment their sisters as well.  “My Mother thought it would be fitting if we were branded, and encouraged my brother Matthew to use a hot fork to make brand marks on us, Debra says.

Other forms of abuse at the ranch included burning the girls with cigarettes, Mother wrapping her finger around her daughters’ hair and yanking chunks of it out, and pouring hot pepper spice or paprika on the girls’ private parts in her delusional mind’s attempt to destroy her daughter’s female parts.

It’s almost impossible to believe this kind of torture was routinely inflicted on young innocent children, three young girls trying to survive a life that seemingly couldn’t get any worse.  But Mother Jayne and stepfather Harold continued to find new ways to enhance the misery.  It was years later that Harold decided to sexually molest the youngest sister Doreen.

Debra and Danielle became desperate to find ways to escape the compound, and they were finally able to run away. The police became involved, and the girls’ rebelliousness eventually got to be too much for the mother and step-father who got “tired of the runaway girls” and, before Debra’s 6th birthday (an occasion the family never celebrated), she and Danielle were dumped at a social service center to begin new lives in a series of foster homes. Strangely enough, Debra’s Mother was never arrested for her brutality towards her daughters for the simple reason that no one ever pressed charges.

“I had no frame of reference for what a normal family life was,” Debra says, “but I didn’t think things could get any worse.  The odd thing was I really didn’t want to go.  I didn’t want to leave my siblings.”

Their first placement at a foster home happened to be with a family who were nudists.  The second foster family had an 18-year old son who raped Debra at the age of six.  There were a series of other homes for the girls, and eventually Debra went to a family on her own and separated from Danielle, which was yet another pivotal turn in her life.

Debra Published Three Books, Making Her Experience a Mission to Help Others

Each foster home was far from ideal.  When Debra was nine she moved to the home of an older couple in Minnesota who wanted a daughter to replace their daughter who had been killed in a car accident.  “That was a very strange experience for me.  They had sealed off their daughter’s room and kept her things in place like she was still alive.”

Life in Minnesota for Debra offered some stability, but also more torment.  By the 3rd grade Debra had figured out that she could get attention from boys, and by the 6th grade was running with a free spirited and unruly group of kids.  When she was eleven years old, Debra was raped again, and she then became a school drop out in the tenth grade.  “I was very rebellious towards the adult figures in my life, and yet on the flip side sexually very promiscuous with the boys, looking for the love and affection that I never got as a child,” she says.

While living with her adoptive parents in Southern MN, at the tender age of fourteen, Debra became pregnant.  She had a son at fifteen, who she ended up keeping.  She also tried to commit suicide later on, but her inner strength triumphed over death. The world needed Debra.

By the age of sixteen Debra was married, and by the age of twenty-two she had four boys.  She was now a full-fledged mother, and was determined to give her children the love that was denied her as a child.  By this point in her life Debra Pauli was determined to be the best mother she could be, virtually exploding with love towards her family.

Through her twenties, with the years of torture behind her and the healing ahead of her, Debra Pauli was finally on the right track to a balanced life.  She busied herself with her family, getting an education, earning a 3.7 to 4.0 GPA and studying psychology and paranoid schizophrenia in an attempt to understand her mother’s illness. She had acquired a passion for learning as a college student and became committed to pursuing a career that would fulfill her potential.  She had begun to recognize her true talents both as a woman and a teacher.  At that time in her life Debra felt ready and pursued a 3-year search on her biological family. It was when she summoned the courage to contact her mother on the phone as an adult for the first time in many years.  Her Mother’s first words to her were: “Yes, I remember you, you are the Devil’s Daughter.” In 1992 the family was reunited on “The Jenny Jones Show,” but there was no real reconciliation possible for Debra and her Mother.

And there were still many bumps in the road before Debra Pauli was to find her way to a stable, happy, fulfilling life.  In her thirties she attempted suicide twice, and in her forties her third son Bryce lost his life in an ATV accident in 2005. She dedicated her third book, (“Why we Cry for a Soul set Free”) to helping other parents heal from the unbearable tragedy of losing a child. But, almost as if each setback made her stronger, there was a healing process, a pivotal turn of life going on underneath it all.

“I took many different paths,” she says in her book A Survivor’s Closet, “the paths that I thought were the right ones.  Stubborn and full of determination, I believed I knew what was best for my child and my adult.  Long stretches of time were spent in tears, releasing endless pains from the inner part of my soul.  Allowing myself to breathe, to deeply inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth over and over to calm my restless body.  I revealed my deepest emotional and physical courage so I could reshape my future. It was as if a hurricane was living deep inside me and after years of life-threatening waters, I could finally find calmer seas.”

Debra Pauli Today

Today, Debra Pauli, after having survived inhuman conditions and constant torture, is a highly successful businesswoman, the author of three books (A Survivor’s Closet, Why We Cry for a Soul Set Free, …and then There Was Light,with as many as 11 more books in the works, a life coach, and a corporate lecturer (www.debrapauli.com) teaching others, either as individuals, or groups, what it takes to be survivors and become successful at beating the odds when the odds are stacked against you.

Her story is a very vivid example for even the most skeptical of souls that with the right thinking and determination we can not only endure adverse circumstances, but can also reach the highest of human potentials and triumph into the light from the deepest of darkness.  With a strong sense of self, Debra today commands all excuses begone, defines the true meaning of extraordinary, and proves every word of her teachings with her life experience. She earned her power through discovering her personal ability, which allowed the transcendence of intense and horrific situations and circumstances, something that other motivational speakers, although greatly recognized, cannot say about their own lives. Nobody has the personal history of terror and torment that Debra Pauli does.

Debra does not lecture philosophies; she puts thinking and realizations into practice. As Oprah once said: “We need to thrive to achieve the highest good within us and transform others through our own example.” Debra Luptak, a genius in her own right, dedicated her life to the most noble of causes: helping her fellow humans through a complete transformation of the self.  For asEinstein said: “Only a life lived for others is worth living.”

In her very successful hard cover book,  A Survivor’s Closet, Debra says: “Leave your memories buried beneath the dirt, Share your gift with those you inspire, and Dive into life with your gift of strength. “

This courageous, beautiful woman inside and out, turned her life into a raving success, raised four boys with love and caring, has the most supportive and giving marriage and is here to help all of us if we are willing to listen. Debra Pauli is God’s angel, an unparalleled inspiration and blessing to the World! She possesses the biggest treasure there is: the gift of forgiveness. That something inside her that was able to transform terror and daily fear into love and compassion is the very essence of what our 21st century crises-stricken humanity needs to find in each and every individual’s heart. Making a better world starts from within and is not only a must, but a responsibility that the majority of mankind does not understand. Most people in Debra’s shoes would choose drugs and alcohol to numb the pain or remain in denial, and even justify it, instead of realizing that the most joy and the biggest transformation is born out of hardship and not fun and games.

With Debra, a full presence emerges empowered by the encoded iron will granted by God to all humans, asking us to awaken, to become conscious and realize that our choices are the ones determining our destiny and not our outside circumstances, or other people’s actions.

Debra is a Successful Lecturer and Motivational Speaker

By telling her story, Debra conveys to us both the teachings of Jesus Christ and the latest discoveries in science about the workings of the human mind and how we connect to that higher intelligence we know exists. Are we ready to understand our own power? Are we ready to wake up from sleepwalking through life, and instead, become valued individuals helping the world and ourselves evolve? Are we ready for a new way of thinking, a new reality, a new life, a new destiny? Are we ready to hear the words of the universe through Debra’s voice?

Debra Pauli has been ready all along, sensing even as a child that someday she would be called to shine her light throughout the direst circumstances of the human condition. Her destiny has been written from the beginning, unbeknownst to her, but something that humanity cries out to hear from a source that has been through it all. And, that source is her story: the Debra Pauli story!

About the Author of This Article:  Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, West Side Today among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity company, Atlantic Publicity and publishing house, Atlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities, world leaders, inventors, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. She also owns Atlantic United Films that produces and finances true stories made for theatrical release or the silver screen. Spotlight News Magazine is owned by Atlantic United, Inc with Adrienne Papp being the majority shareholder.

Share This Article:

By Adrienne Papp

As if the beautiful scenery wasn’t enough, a galaxy of stars were also out in full force to support one of golf’s greatest charity events, the 21st Annual American Century Championship, held July 13-18 at the Edgewood Golf Course in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada. This premier event draws dozens of stars from both entertainment and the world of sports, and features a purse of $600,000. The event is owned and created by NBC specifically for broadcast for days in a row.  As the country’s premier celebrity golf tournament, it includes larger-than-life celebrities who compete for a record purse over a total of 54-holes in a modified Stableford format. The lineup at the sun-splashed, radiant lake area boasted a field of more than 120 celebrities, including greats like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Tony Romo, Kevin Nealon, Ryan Sheckler, Ray Romano, Emmitt Smith, Don Cheadle and Dale Jarrett among numerous others. While the skill levels may have varied from entrant to entrant, high spirits and plenty of goodwill were on hand to make the tournament one of the more enjoyable events in golf. This year the American Century Championship set an attendance record of 37,500 over the three days of festivities.

American Century Championship 2010

It was also another good year for participant and former NFL quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver, who got off to a strong start and was never challenged by the field, as he earned his third title with a record total of 84 points, placing him ahead of actor Jack Wagner and professional athletes John Elway, Tony Romo, and John Smoltz. In the scoring format, 6 points are awarded for an eagle, 3 for a birdie and 1 for a par. Golfers like basketball legend Michael Jordan are known to be very serious about the game and is always a fan favorite, but even those with humbling golf skills enjoy the camaraderie and endear themselves to fans as part of the charitable activity, a role that was well-filled by former basketball great Charles Barkley. Much more than just a golf tournament, this event sets the standard for charitable golf elsewhere as well, but has been held for the last 21 years at the Edgewood Tahoe Golf course. The namesake sponsor American Century is also part of a sponsorship group that includes ADT Security, Korbel, American Airlines and Sotheby’s, just to name a few.

Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course

While the tournament offers plenty of high spirits and entertainment value for the gallery, the event is designed to also bring awareness to deserving charity causes. This year, for the fifth year in a row, the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) was the official charity of the American Century Championship. The tournament helps focus awareness on the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign, and contributes to the LAF’s cancer survivorship initiatives. The LAF is a particularly good fit for American Century Investments, as a good portion of the firm’s profit from asset management goes to fund research for the prevention and cure of gene-based diseases such as cancer.

Debra Luptak Transforming Corporate America

One of the highlights of this affluent and high class tournament was the gifting lounge where the celebs, key CEOs and corporate sponsors were given gifts by such recognized names as Debra Luptak who is known for her revolutionary and well compensated programs to transform Corporate America through lectures and workshops, teaching how to obtain the right mind-set, a much-needed talent for corporations of any size in our rapidly changing world and economy.  The lounge also offered fun-filled socializing among the 400 celebs and execs that were privileged enough to receive expensive gifts. A true eye catcher was the exhibit of classy female nude sketches and art work by celebrated artist, Loraine Stern, ( Legsley) whose reputation as a distinguished and dominant artist have grown stronger over the past few years with numerous high profile homes decorated with her extraordinary pieces. Liona Boyd, the First Lady of the Guitar, with 22 CDs out worldwide had a noticeable presence as corporations competed for her music compilations for branding purposes at fundraisers and other high-ranking events.

Art Work by Loraine Stern Legsley

Liona Boyd

To perk up the value of the gift bags even more real estate companies’ various offerings, clothing companies’ expensive apparels, designer shoes, jewelry, travel cases and various other goodies were stuffed into these exquisite bags lining up an elegant collection of items. All in all, this ongoing classic tournament is a sterling example of what can be done when celebrities come together to enjoy an event not only for fun and games in a gorgeous locale, but also for the larger good of well-deserving charitable organizations.

Lance Armstrong

About the Author of This Article:  Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, West Side Today among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity company, Atlantic Publicity and publishing house, Atlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities, world leaders, inventors, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. She also owns Atlantic United Films that produces and finances true stories made for theatrical release or the silver screen. Spotlight News Magazine is owned by Atlantic United, Inc with Adrienne Papp being the majority shareholder.

Share This Article:

By Adrienne Papp

Hollywood and the world of entertainment have a long history of hard luck, good luck, tough luck, rags to riches and everything in between.  In many cases, shown in biographies and documentaries detailing events from a rough start to a birth of a star, the stories usually end in a triumph of overcoming long odds, personal hardship, and various obstacles imposed by the nature of the biz, to achieve success.  In some other cases the story may end on a less successful note, usually an accident or accidental overdose.

That’s why John Cassese’s story is more than inspirational.  It warms the heart. He’s not only one of the survivors who beat the odds, overcoming issues stemming from childhood, which in most cases almost always dooms the person, but he ended up following his dream and becoming a highly respected professional in the industry.

Cassese is perhaps the most talented and sharing icon in the world of entertainment, but his story also has a number of layers that can teach and help generations after generations, and those who dare to care.  He’s a multitalented creative artist who has excelled in the musical arts through sheer will and unquestionable talent, but who also is a magnetic and creative master of new age, classical and ballroom dance with a talent so unique it has made him become the most sought-after dancing and musical megastar of our time.  He is known as the Dance Doctor, a well-deserved and hard earned title, but one that surely makes him a legend. Watch any of his videos and you will see that this man was born to dance. Not a surprise that he taught some of Hollywood’s biggest names to dance and appeared in countless shows as well as wrote some. But, John Cassese does not stop at dancing; he’s also a fabulous vocal performer, with a number of recordings that deserve a wide audience and even Grammy mention.

But things weren’t always so great.  John Cassese grew up in a working class home in Lake Mahopac in upstate New York, the youngest of five sons born to a traditional Italian family.  John’s father was hard nosed and old-fashioned, and expected his sons to follow him into the construction business.

That wasn’t going to work for young John.  At an early age, at about ten years old, he realized that his heart and soul lay in another field, in the musical arts and, specifically, song and dance.

“There was always music in the house,” John says, “and I just started singing along.  My mother was fond of musicals, Broadway soundtracks, and singers like Mario Lanza. I used to go to matinees with her and we saw the movies she loved together.  I used to love watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dance.  I just wanted to be Fred. One of the most indelible memories of my life was seeing Marlene Dietrich at Radio City Music Hall in New York when I was a kid. She was an absolute vision in a stunning gown and trailing fur stole.  I was just mesmerized.”

Bitten by the glamour of the movies and stage, John asked for dance lessons at the age of ten.  He had an intuitive understanding of what made boys popular with girls. “I had heard that the best way to a man’s heart was though his stomach because a man loves to eat,” John says, “but I knew that the quickest way to a woman’s heart was through her feet because a woman loves to dance.”  John’s father wasn’t so understanding and was often hard on John, physically abusing him at times in his frustration with John’s interests. It’s a trait that we see many times with the biggest names in history. There is something about wanting to overcome that environment by becoming successful. It is almost an invisible, unlooked at driving force.

Despite the tough times at home, John continued dance lessons and knew intuitively and instantly that was what he wanted to do.  It wasn’t long before he became a local dance sensation, burning up the dance floor in competition.  He quickly became popular at school dances, and began winning dance contests at a local dance emporium, the Village Barn.  In high school he acted in numerous school plays and sang with the glee club.  “Those were my fields of interest,” John says, “I loved music and dance, but not so much straight drama.”

Attempting to redirect his son’s career, John’s father persuaded his son to try working in accounting at a construction company.  That only lasted two weeks for young John.  The world of show business was out there, waiting, and for John Cassese, song and dance was going to be the ticket.

Arriving in New York City with a full measure of burning desire and talent, John Cassese quickly became involved in as many creative musical projects as he could.  While he got a job selling women’s shoes by day, by night he was a man about town, playing rock ‘n’ roll in a band called Pegasus, auditioning for dramatic parts in local theater, and dancing wherever he could.  He auditioned for Turtle Bay Music School, and was accepted on full scholarship, and became the first to introduce rock music to a classical music school cracking the traditional barrier for the first time.

Dancing took him to performances at Tavern on the Green, where he met his dance partner Nancy, and they quickly became one of the most popular dances teams in the city.  But it was at the Plaza Hotel where perhaps his most significant breakthrough occurred.  “I was opening for Judy Garland, and I invited my parents down to see the performance,” John says.  “It was after that performance that my father finally recognized that his son was an artist, and had become successful as a dancer.  That was a wonderful moment for me.  His acceptance and proving myself to my parents was everything.”

Life in New York for John Cassese was good in those days.  “I started out poor, in a small one room apartment, but I was determined to make it.  I just knew I had the talent to succeed and took whatever jobs I could.” Cassese’s dance card was continually full, with live dancing performances, musical theater and even work on the Merv Griffin Show.

And, like a lot of New Yorkers, he eventually began to feel the tug of the Promised Land, the sunny climate and glamorous world of Hollywood and the entertainment industry.

“I had a brother who had relocated to Los Angeles,” John says, “so I got intrigued and decided to come out and give it a try.”

John moved to Los Angeles in 1972, and starting out as an unknown musical artist proved to be challenging.  “I just went all over town, meeting people, making contacts, teaching people to dance, doing whatever I could to get involved in the business.”  He met a lot of people, worked with a songwriter and sold some material to Motown Records, and kept adding to his resume.

The breakthrough in southern California occurred when John decided to place an ad for dance lessons in a local paper.  “My cousin, who is a publicist, suggested I take out an ad for in-home dance lessons and call myself the Dance Doctor,” John says, “you know, as in someone who makes house calls.”

He placed a small ad in the back of Los Angeles magazine in 1984 and the new name clicked.  The word began to spread, and John Cassese was soon in demand all over town, giving dance lessons to anyone who wanted to learn.  His calls took him from the humblest beginners to the homes of studio executives and celebrities.  For a lot of people dance was therapeutic, a way to exercise and was also emotionally liberating.

I recently wrote a piece on a new movie (due to come out later this year) in which it is explained how “fear dance” is a psychological tool to get rid of unconscious fears and traumas. This is a scientific recognition. Mainly due to the fact that the body does not lie! Your mind may lie to you (and most of the time it does, as it really does not know the truth except it remembers a recorded feeling as the result of a certain experience, which feeling maybe so intense that it renders you into therapy for years, yet without any real results,) but the body will always know the truth. And, that is what you get from dancing. It is a healthy outlet to keep the flow of energy going, and prevent blockages whether emotional or physical. It gets rid of a problem before that problem has a chance to set in. When you dance on a regular basis you are a lot less likely to ever become depressed over any issue.  Dancing people are happy.

As his client list grew, he found himself giving lessons to a couple where the wife, Beth Ann Krier, turned out to be a writer for the Los Angeles Times.  She decided to do a story on John and the full blown feature put John Cassese, the Dance Doctor firmly on the map in Los Angeles and business began to boom.

From his humble beginnings in Los Angeles, giving lessons in his living room, to an expanded studio of 1,000 square feet next to JiRaffe Restaurant, Cassese was now finally able to move into his current studio, a 3,000 square foot gorgeous and well equipped facility on Fourth Street in Santa Monica.  It’s a bustling center of activity, with 12 instructors and dozens of classes, and it’s become a go-to place for dance instructions in Los Angeles.  Over the past thirty years in television and film, there’s hardly a venue in Los Angeles that hasn’t called on John Cassese, the Dance Doctor for his dancing expertise.  Chances are if there’s a dance sequence in a TV or movie production, John Cassese has been involved in either creating choreography or coaching the performers.  And John himself is often personally involved in dancing at many local functions, including movie premieres, celebrity birthday parties and local charity events.   “I’m enjoying every minute of my life,” says John with a big smile on his face, which only makes him more handsome than he already is.

For John Cassese, following his muse, the art of dance and song, has allowed him to live his dream.  But with all that success, there’s still more he’d like to accomplish.

In the picture: John Cassese with Holly Madison

“I still have a lot of ambition,” he says.  “I’d love to have another successful TV show, and for me another goal would be to create a version of my life story in a feature film, and we’ve actually had some interest in the screenplay. I’ve had a lot of success, but I’ve also had to overcome a lot of personal pain to get where I am.  I think it might be helpful to other people if that story was told.”

“As one more achievement, I am thinking about writing, choreographing, directing and staring in a Broadway musical about my life,” he says with that intriguing but humble smile. “I’m sure my mother would just love that.”

John is also actively involved with many charities and believes that giving from the heart is better than receiving. It is in the giving that we receive. He is an active patron of a charity that shelters homeless teenagers and as he gets daily invites to contribute to various causes, he never says no.

Vocals and Performance by John Cassese

I can count on one hand the number of people I have ever met or known of, who had the charisma, ambition, smarts and invaluable human virtue: determination to evolve that John Cassese has, which is what the 21^st Century is all about. Humans need to evolve onto a whole new level if we are to make it into the next century. Cassese has that “third eye,” the understanding of the higher power and purpose that we all have within but may be unaware of.  He sets an example to all of us by his unwavering determination and the clear focus of knowing one’s path. This is the story that needs to be told. This is the story that parents want their children to know and gain an understanding from that “no matter what happens you keep on in the direction of your destination (destiny.)”

Einstein said, do not become a man of success, become a man of value, and John Cassese did both. He proved that those who risk, win, and that talent eventually wins over everything else, no matter what! That is the law of the Universe!

About the Author: Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity companies, Atlantic Publicity andAtlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities and world leaders.

Share This Article:

Kristen Stewart MTV Awards

By Adrienne Papp

The MTV Awards are always the biggest highlights of the awards season.  Without all the pomp and glamour that comes with the other major award shows, MTV makes sure things stay lively by offering a show that’s a little low brow but with plenty of high jinks, some surprise stage pranks, outrageous fashion choices, and an unexpected surprise or two. From Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johansson’s stage kiss, to Tom Cruise’s funny opening dance sketch reprising his ‘Tropic Thunder‘ character Les Grossman, there was plenty of entertainment, a few f-bombs, and of course, a full slate of winners from the year’s most popular movies.

While much of the actual award ceremony is a forgone conclusion, with films like Twilight New Moon winning numerous categories through the huge vote from its online fan base, there was plenty of good television and at least two major stars used the occasion to refurbish their images.

Tom Cruise at the MTV Awards

Cruise opened the show in his sleezy Les Grossman guise from Tropic Thunder and his fly dance moves went a long way to recast his public image from uptight Scientology pretty boy to a life-of-the-party greaseball.  It was a Tom Cruise character who looked like he was having a lot of fun, and it kicked things off in great style.

Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock was presented the Generation Award,  at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards and marking her first televised appearance since the March 7 Oscars and the domestic drama that followed. During her presentation Bullock shed even more baggage than Cruise. Scarlett Johansson, Bradley Cooper and Betty White introduced Bullock, with the very mention of her name receiving a standing ovation, followed by prolonged applause – all as Bullock was sitting in the audience. White said of Bullock, “You are grace defined, and I adore you madly.” Then, in keeping with the irreverent nature of the MTV Awards, White made fun of Bullock’s movies, twisting all their plots shamelessly (At the Jan. 23 Screen Actors Guild Awards it was Bullock who presented the Life Achievement Award to White).  Scarlett Johansson, the wife of her absentee Proposal leading man Ryan Reynolds was there to help hand over Bullock’s award, and hinted she wanted to plant a kiss on Bullock, who awkwardly obliged.  What would the VMAs be without an outrageous kiss or two?

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart at the MTV Awards

In the awards categories, The Twilight Saga almost ran the table for the second straight year. New Moon picked up trophies for Best Movie Kiss, Best Female Performance for Kristen Stewart and Best Male Performance and Global Superstar for Robert Pattinson.

Other winners selected by online votes included Obsessed co-stars Beyonce Knowles and Ali Larter for best fight, Jennifer’s Body star Amanda Seyfried for “Scared-As-S–t moment,” Ninja Assassin star Rain for “Biggest Badass Star,” The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis for Comedic Performance and Up in the Air co-star Anna Kendrick for Breakout Star.

About the Author: Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity companies, Atlantic Publicity andAtlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities and world leaders. She also owns Spotlight News Magazine.

Share This Article:

Cannes Film Festival 2010

By Adrienne Papp

Even with the international community facing difficult challenges, the Cannes Film Festival remains one the world’s most prestigious film festivals, an event where the best in international filmmaking and traditional Hollywood glamour coming shining through.

In a very challenging year for filmmaking, the jury at the 63rd Festival de Cannes bestowed its Palme d’Or on the strongest movie in the competition, a low budget, part-Buddhist part-animist fantasy by the 39-year-old Thai director whose fans call him “Joe.” The Jury president named Apichatpong Weerasethakul‘s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives as the winner of the coveted Palm d’Or Grand Jury Prize.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film traces the dreamlike final days of a man dying of kidney failure as the ghost of his dead wife returns to tend him and his long-lost son comes home in the form of a furry jungle spirit.

The festival got off to a big start, with Hollywood’s big budget reinvention of Robin Hood opening the festival, with Russell Crowe hoping to turn the English folk hero’s adventures into a blockbuster franchise. The film, dubbed “Gladiator in Sherwood Forest” because it reunites the actor-director team of Crowe and Ridley Scott, co-stars Cate Blanchett as Marian.

Films at Cannes

Other well-received films include the runner-up Grand Prix prize-winner, French director Xavier Beauvois‘s well-received Of Gods and Men, an understated docudrama about a group of French monks taken hostage by Algerian terrorists. An early favorite, Juliette Binoche was named best actress for her role in Abbas Kiarostami‘s Certified Copy.  In a political departure, she used her acceptance speech to bring attention to the plight of jailed Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was on a hunger strike and has since been released. The prize for best actor was split between Javier Bardem, star of Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s Biutiful and Elio Germano, who appeared in Italian director Daniele Luchetti‘s La Nostra Vita.

Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet

In a relatively low key year for film, celebrities played a big part in bringing pizzazz to the glamorous event, beautiful actresses wearing gorgeous gowns at the très formal red carpet premieres and sexy soirees.  In 2010, fashion A-listers included Kate Beckinsale wearing a Marchesa gown, Salma Hayek modeling a maroon Gucci creation, Naomi Watts in a strapless pleated pink Gucci gown, Jennifer Lopez in a gray Gucci frock, Cate Blanchett wearing a gown by the late Alexander McQueen and Eva Longoria in a white silk Pucci.  Adding a little more sizzle, Pamela Anderson was spotted on a huge yacht before promoting her new film, Blonde and Blonder. One of Hollywood’s enduring male stars, Michael Douglas, was also on hand to promote his role as Gordon Gekko in 20th Century Fox‘s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

About the Author: Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles / New York-based publicity companies, Atlantic Publicity andAtlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities and world leaders. She also owns Spotlight News Magazine.

Cannes 2010 soirée

Share This Article:

A Young Dennis Hopper

By Adrienne Papp

None of us will ever forget one of the most remarkable, if not the most remarkable films of the sixties, Easy Rider, starring Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson and of course Dennis Hopper. The award- winning film was nominated for two Oscars and had ten other wins and nominations. It first premiered in Sweden in June of 1969 and received a unique recognition in Cannes, making Dennis Hopper an international household name overnight. My generation was not even born yet, still the movie lives on in all of us forever, which all by itself is an astonishing recognition and a phenomenal achievement: the next generation following well over twenty, thirty years into the existence of this masterpiece, welcoming the film as one of our own principles about freedom! Only a genius artist can make that happen.

Besides the unusual success of the film, few of us knew that it was actually written and directed by Dennis Hopper, and the director of photography was Laszlo Kovacs, a famous Hungarian cinematographer with more than one hundred major Hollywood films under his belt, including Miss Congeniality, Multiplicity, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Shampoo, Huckleberry Finn, Paper Moon with Ryan O’Neill and the list is endless. Sadly, Laszlo Kovacs just like Hopper himself has also recently passed on and left a legacy behind that is hard, if not impossible, to match.  Both of these extraordinary men shared something in common: both of them were true to themselves, gentlemen with rare, classy and elegant charm, politeness and a touch of shyness with humble personalities, a great deal of kindness and unparalleled modesty. In my book, this is the sign of a true talent, an incredible soul, and a special mindset that bestows success. Not because success is sought out, but because of the humble and brilliant mindset that cannot help but manifests success wherever it goes. Success by touching other’s lives though its pure existence.

In one of the last interviews with Dennis Hopper, in the evening at the “Cinémathèque Française”, a palace of glass and cement, located at Bercy, a suburb of Paris where the seemingly indestructible 72 year old artist appeared fragile despite his natural and always present upbeat personality, when we touch on the topic that he played death himself for Wim Wenders Hopper said “I would have preferred to suppress the thought of death for a little while longer.”

During the opening night of a Dennis-Hopper-retrospective, where he would be celebrated with a screening of his movies, from Easy Rider to  Apocalypse Now , as well as an exhibition of his photographs and paintings, he was pure charm and charisma, celebrating the presence of those who loved and appreciated him.

Wim Wenders, a dear friend of Hopper, (who predicted that Hopper will live to be a hundred, then revised his prediction to the late seventies) was raving about Dennis’s wisdom and kindness to which Hopper’s replied:

“Well, if you want to appear as wise and kind, it is helpful not to drink or to take any hard drugs, which is something I have managed to do for 24 years. All my drug problems had started with my shyness. Even though I had decided to live a public life, it was always difficult for me to exist in the public sphere. Drinking and taking drugs helped me to cope with this dilemma. They liberated me, and at the same time, they destroyed me. At one point it had to end, in one way or the other. As for Wim, he knows me in both conditions – and I can’t help, but my suspicion is that he prefers the present one!”

A Young Steven Papp

I would of course enjoy writing this article so much more had Dennis Hopper not been gone, with him answering questions with a shy, but charmingly smiley face.  But, I share a great deal of sadness with those who really loved him. The loss that one feels down to one’s core, and every cell of one’s body when a loved one is gone. Like I loved my Father, Steven Papp, who also just recently passed at almost the same age as Dennis Hopper. My Father did not even look that different from him and is perhaps the only man I ever really loved besides one platonic affair that has been the drive of my life along with my Father’s unconditional and affectionate love for me since I can ever remember. Dennis Hopper and my father shared one thing that I know about: the question, which I heard from both: “ If you could not create, would you die?”

And, as I ponder over it, I would certainly say, “yes.”

I did not know Hopper enough to be able to answer for him, but I know he would not have asked the question if he would not have felt just like my father, the answer, which is in the question. Yes, you would. I would. If I do not create every single day something new, a sickening feeling sets in and I MUST at least think a new thought, make a new plan, or do something that is on the list of  “ must change/do/create/achieve, etc…”

Like Hopper did. He had a weakness: a shyness, just like I do, my Father did, and so many great people, – but you get up and go every single day and concur just a tiny bit and you will be fine in the end. Dennis Hopper started as a nervous young man and became a rebel, a maverick and when Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures called him in and learned that up to that point Dennis had done nothing but Shakespeare, which he seemed to discount, Dennis walked out with a big “Fuck you!” out loud, – for which he got a contract from Warner and met his big mentor, James Dean!

Jack Nicholson

I personally remember Dennis Hopper most from Speed in 1994 where he technically stole the screen from Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock despite of playing a negative character. Role after role Hopper stood out for one thing: he was a real flesh and blood character, no “acting,” no pretending, just  genuine talent! The talent that will live forever! The creator will die but its work will live on.

Dennis Hopper: “I think that Easy Rider will stay with us for a while. Maybe also Out of the Blue, now that the Cinémathèque has a copy of it. And one or the other of my photographs, like the ones of Martin Luther King, Warhol, Rauschenberg, all those pioneers in the arts, before they became famous. But one certainly thinks that one could have achieved more…”

“And that is why we continue…”

Written By Adrienne Papp in Memoriam of Steven Papp, Dennis Hopper and Laszlo Kovacs

About the Writer: Adrienne Papp is a recognized journalist who has written for many publications including Savoir, Beverly Hills 90210, Malibu Beach, Santa Monica Sun, The Beverly Hills Times, Brentwood News, Bel-Air View, Celebrity Society, Celeb Staff, It Magazine, Chic Today, LA2DAY, among many others. She is the President and CEO of Los Angeles/New York-based publicity companies, Atlantic Publicity andAtlantic Publisher. Adrienne writes about world trends, Quantum Physics, entertainment and interviews celebrities and world leaders. She also owns Spotlight News Magazine.

Jack Nicholson, March, 2010

Easy Rider

Laszlo Kovacs, Cinematographer

Share This Article: