The feisty local tabloid has been something of a Wahlflower in the past week’s Marky Mark rumpus, but today’s edition jumps into the pool with this column from Jessica Heslam.
Clean slate requires coming clean
Wahlberg’s records still sealed
Mark Wahlberg wants the commonwealth of Massachusetts to wipe his violent, racially fueled criminal record clean — but the state won’t let you see what’s in his court files.
The Dorchester thug turned Hollywood star’s criminal and civil files in Boston courthouses have been sealed shut as the former rapper known as Marky Mark seeks a pardon.
It’s not surprising. His crimes are disturbing.
To detail just how disturbing those crimes were, Heslam draws on court papers posted on The Smoking Gun website in 1997. But we’re not like to see any more, Heslam reports.
The Probation Department couldn’t say when or why Wahlberg’s cases were sealed, citing privacy laws. The Parole Board said his criminal records are protected by the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information law.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, those zany Namesniks add yet another wrinkle to the Ballad of Marked Mark.
Huh. Life imitates art, eh? Or at least melodrama.
Dorchester-born Holly-wood heartthrob Mark Wahlberg is asking the state to wipe his record clean of a 26-year-old assault rap and other convictions, arguing that by “formally” forgiving his dark past, it could inspire troubled youths to turn their lives around.
The 43-year-old actor/producer/restaurateur served 45 days of a three-month sentence for an April 1988 crime he says he has spoken “openly and publicly about” during his rise to stardom.
With the request, filed Nov. 26, he’s asking the state to expunge it from his record, in part, so he could become “more active in law enforcement activities.”
Note: The Globe does not include the “reportedly left one of the victims blind in one eye” that the Herald does; the Herald does not include the racial slurs and the NECN credit that the Globe does.
Regardless, only one of them follows up on the story today.
The report by Maria Cramer and Nestor Ramos starts with the 1988 racial incident, but also includes this:
In a separate episode, some from a class that was harassed in 1986 by a group of teens that included Wahlberg were not impressed with his request for a pardon.
Mary Belmonte, the class teacher, remembered leading her terrified elementary school students down a side street to avoid the hail of rocks. “I’m sure he’s sincere and he wants to clear his name,” Belmonte said. “It would be nice if he could apologize and really own up to what he was.’’
Huh.
Curiously, today’s Globe piece also says nothing about Lam losing his sight in one eye.
Double huh.
But the Globe website does include an archive of its coverage of the allegations from 1988-2000. Well worth a look.
There was some fierce competition at The Home for Little Wanderers’ annual Gingerbread House Decorating Competition, held Tuesday at Showcase Cinema de Lux at Legacy Place in Dedham. Among those constructing homes worthy of Hansel and Gretel were former TV anchor Bianca de la Garza, “American Hustle” actresses Erica McDermott and Melissa McMeekin, actress-producer Christy Scott Cashman, Magic 106.7’s Candy O’Terry, Summer Shack’s Jasper White, and baseball scribe Peter Gammons. The event raised $30,000 for The Home for Little Wanderers, which is one of New England’s largest child welfare agencies.
That’s okay, but the frosting local tabloid gave a clinic on how to hit the sweet spot.
I was lucky enough to judge the competition with Joan Wallace-Benjamin, the president of the Home, our very own Kerry Byrne, Celtics mascot Lucky, Boston Magazine’s Leah Mennies and Magic 106.7’s Chris Shine.
Since the days of the sainted Edward R. Murrow, the first rule of TV newswriting has been Say Cow, See Cow. It’s also a pretty good rule of thumb for print media. But not so much in today’s local dailies. In reporting on the celebrity sighting at Gillette Stadium yesterday, they adopted a Say Cow, See Whatever approach.
Turns out you have to go to the Globe’s website to see it.
Fans got a good laugh when Mark Wahlberg accidentally left Robert Kraft hanging for a high five after the Patriots scored their touchdown Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Wahlberg, who’s still in town to shoot “Ted 2,” sat in the owner’s box during the game and (above) chatted with QB Tom Brady before kickoff.
Or go to YouTube:
Globe print subscribers are welcome to have a cow over the slight.
For years the hardreading staff has described the feisty local tabloid as a sort of sprightly daily summary of the Boston Globe.
No more.
The crosstown rivals are absolutely living in parallel universes at this point.
Exhibit Umpteen: There are three big local stories on the front page of today’s Globe – the region’s big hit from climate change; GOP gubernatorial wannabe Mark Fisher’s alleged shakedown of state party officials in return for his dropping out of the race; and Boston College’s returning its Belfast Project tapes to the interviewees to avoid more mishegoss like last week’s Gerry Adams rumpus.
Exactly none of those three stories appears in the Herald.
Then again, there is this kickoff to the Herald’s two-part series on Bay State legislative shenanigans, which gets just about all of Page One:
And let’s not forget this exclusive from Track Gal Gayle Fee:
Those Namesniks at the stately local broadsheet need to get crackin’, yeah?
Start with full disclosure: The hardreading staff met Masterpiece Mystery man Alan Cumming at his Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Friends Speakers Series appearance Monday night and found him to be the sweetest guy ever.
Exhibit A: His Twitter feed that featured this selfie with his mum:
So we were a bit dismayed when we saw this Names item in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
The comings and goings of Alan Cumming
Alan Cumming spent a busy day in Boston Monday. The Scottish actor, who stars on CBS’s “The Good Wife” and is currently reprising the role of the lascivious emcee in “Cabaret” on Broadway, began the afternoon at WGBH’s Calderwood Studio, taping a series of intros for the new season of “Masterpiece Mystery.” Then it was off to BU’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, where Cumming talked about his life and work. The actor was adorable as ever, even if The New York Times, in its review of “Cabaret,” called him a “little softer around the jaw.”
(Fuller disclosure: The hardreading staff has numerous connections to the Gotlieb Center, which we’re happy to detail upon request.)
Not to get technical about it, but said Times review of “Cabaret” was a full-throated endorsement of Cumming’s reprise of his 1998 performance as the M.C.:
Alan Cumming, who won a Tony as the nasty M.C. in 1998, is back, offering a slightly looser, older-but-wiser variation on the same performance . . . Mr. Cumming’s M.C., who commandeered a part that Joel Grey would have seemed to own exclusively, has become the new model for most interpretations of the role . . .
So that Names item might have been a little soft around the jawboning, yeah?
Filmmaker Woodycame to his own defense today. This New York Times piece aims to rebut allegations from last Sunday’s Times that Allen had sexually molested his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Allen writes:
TWENTY-ONE years ago, when I first heard Mia Farrow had accused me of child molestation, I found the idea so ludicrous I didn’t give it a second thought. We were involved in a terribly acrimonious breakup, with great enmity between us and a custody battle slowly gathering energy. The self-serving transparency of her malevolence seemed so obvious I didn’t even hire a lawyer to defend myself. It was my show business attorney who told me she was bringing the accusation to the police and I would need a criminal lawyer.
I naïvely thought the accusation would be dismissed out of hand because of course, I hadn’t molested Dylan and any rational person would see the ploy for what it was . . .
Then again, maybe not. Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan blowtorches Allen in this piece today.
Rebuttal does little for Allen
Better to keep your mouth shut and just appear to be a pedophile than open it and remove all doubt.
Or most doubt anyway.
I know, I know. We cannot say with certainty that filmmaker Woody Allen sexually assaulted his then-7-year-old adopted daughter Dylan Farrow two decades ago.
But, in an apparent tit-for-tat against that daughter, Woody Allen doesn’t just open his mouth but shoves his foot right in it. He’s written a loathsome and skin-crawling rebuttal to Dylan Farrow printed in the New York Times, his hometown paper.
And etc.
Crosstown, the Boston Globe relegated Allen’s response to a largely nonjudgmental item in the Names column. The hard waiting looks forward to some judgmental action from Globe columnists soon.
Nifty compare ‘n’ contrast in the Boston dailies today regarding their coverage of Emerson College’s renaming its communication school the Ron Burgundy School of Communication.
Will Ferrell’s visit to Emerson College as TV newsman Ron Burgundy — the latest in his tour of quirky in-character appearances to sell the “Anchorman” sequel — is a “brilliant” marketing strategy, industry insiders say, that could set a new standard for movie promotion if it pays off at the box office.
“It is quite an amazing campaign,” said John Verret, a Boston College advertising professor and former ad executive.
(Not to get technical about it, but John Verret teaches at Boston University – not BC. Ron himself couldn’t have done it better.)
“If there are people in the movie business who thought they could pull it off and this does work, then I think you are going to see lots of attempts to do it,” Verret added . . .
After James Taylor’s mini-flub on the national anthemin Game 2 of the World Series, the pressure was on Game 3 singer Colbie Caillat to hit it out of the park last night — and the “Bubbly” singer was feeling it! . . .
Taylor, a grizzled veteran who’s done three World Series anthems at Fenway, had a little blip in Game 2 when he started singing “America The Beautiful” instead of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Sickly Sweet Baby James sang both the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” for Game 2 of the World Series Thursday night, as both local dailies kind of reported.
Five-time Grammy Award winner James Taylor is doing his part for a Red Sox World Series victory … and he’s getting some heat for it on the homefront!
“Well, you know it takes a long time for me to grow a beard, and this one is a couple of weeks old, and it’s not really a beard, I just look like an unshaven person,” Sweet Baby James told the Track. “There’s a lot of pressure on me at home to shave this thing off.”
But Taylor, who performed the national anthem and “God Bless America” at Fenway for Game 2 last night, said he’s committed to taking one for the team.
Singer James Taylor, who’s been hard at work at his home in the Berkshires on a new album, took the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston to sing the national anthem (and, with wife Kim and son Henry, “America the Beautiful” during the seventh-inning stretch).
James Taylor Sings Wrong Patriotic Song to Kick Off World Series
James Taylor sang the Star Spangled Banner prior to Game 2 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals last night.
Eventually, that is.
But the veteran artist initially thought he was on hand to belt out a version of “America the Beautiful,” getting a couple of words into that ode to this great nation before course-correcting and serenading fans at Fenway Park with the national anthem.
The hardreading staff will let you know if today’s local dailies admit the omission.
And whether “God Bless America” is the same as “America the Beautiful.”
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