Star Bright Robert McCollum wasn’t always a star. The Dallas actor, filmmaker and father of two lent his vocal talents to Blockbuster Video and Church’s Chicken before nabbing the lead role in the WinStar Casino ads, currently airing on local television. His likeness is now plastered on billboards and DART…
For a crime fighter, Peter Fleet seems on the smallish side, his slight appearance lacking a command presence, his reedy voice a bit nervous around the edges. But two weeks ago, after his car was burglarized for the third time in three months, after the neighbors in his condominium complex…
Dead Man’s PartyStiffed: I just finished reading the excellent article “Grave Robbers,” by Thomas Korosec (November 6), and I’m walking around my apartment incensed. I’d sure love to know why the mayor’s new crime initiative is focusing on lap dances and shopping carts, and lousy criminals like these are left…
When the century-old Lajitas Trading Post reopened late last month after six weeks of renovation, the yuppified new look included a wine and espresso bar, a gourmet food section, modern indoor bathrooms and air conditioning. Customers can now buy crisp deli sandwiches on LaBrea sourdough bread, premium organic beef or–for…
As you might expect, I’ve gotten my ass kicked plenty during the past 26 years. Generally it’s a direct result of opening my stupid mouth–an involuntary action that just can’t be helped, sort of like breathing. I am proud to say that I’ve never been beaten up by a girl…
Welcome to Full Frontal, Bitch In case you haven’t been paying attention, we love The O.C. here at Full Frontal. As Zac Crain pointed out, we’re just two stories away from having our own fan site. Of course, he didn’t want any part of this because we’re also getting dangerously…
Look at the run-down Inwood Theatre, with its peeling paint and cramped upstairs theaters and dusty-musty vibe. Now look at the brand-new Magnolia Theatre, with its digital projector and spiffy bar and five comfy screening rooms. Then ask yourself, if one theater were to, say, take over the other, which…
Badu to the BoneThe dirty dirty: I am the weird girl. I picked up the Dallas Observer with her pic on it (“The Weird Girl,” by Robert Wilonsky, October 16), and strangely enough, I didn’t have to read the article to know what it said. Don’t get me wrong…I did…
Imagine Richard Surrell’s astonishment when he learned that he owned a house he didn’t buy, a Dallas house 1,400 miles away from his Southern California home. Someone with a detailed knowledge of Surrell’s credit history and a fake Texas drivers license stole his identity and used it to buy a…
Stop the presses: “You might think the possibility of forged documents would have come up by now,” The Dallas Morning News opined Saturday in an editorial about the Dallas police fake-drug scandal. The self-congratulatory editorial appeared the same day the daily ran a front-page story “revealing” that a lawyer for…
You would never know Robert Benton had been here. A minute ago, he was sitting in this chair in this hotel restaurant, drinking a Shiner, nibbling at fried squid, chewing over the past. His chair is still warm. But now he is gone, and it’s as though he had never…
With the rise of brick-and-mortar megastores marketing countless toys, chews, clothing and hair-care products to man’s best friend, word is spreading about a company marketing a set of vanity plates made exclusively for the dog that has almost everything: Neuticles. Neuticles are testicular implants for pets. Produced by Missouri-based CTI…
It has been 40 years since these journalists played their various roles in the most dramatic and devastating event in Dallas’ history. It was a different media era, when cops and reporters were routinely best of friends; when local TV stations didn’t even argue over the idea of pooling cameras…
It was early Monday morning, and I was on my way to the dentist. A friend called with good news just before my appointment: Raef LaFrentz had been traded to the Celtics. I didn’t even hear whom the Mavs got in return before I started doing a little dance and…
Tattoo You After meeting in a coffee shop as “blank slates”–or rather, sans tattoos–The Enigma (better known as “that puzzle-piece tattoo guy with horns”) and Katzen (she of the tattooed tiger stripes and Teflon whisker implants) transformed themselves into full-body works of art, a rock band and sideshow legends. Ten…
Watch ‘Em BlowNot just “bad” teachers: I experienced nothing short of a panic attack as I read Jim Schutze’s “Schoolhouse Dynamite” (October 16). You see, I teach for DISD in a school that is predicted to be low-performing after the 2003 TAKS scores are released this spring. I predict that…
It is midafternoon, and another day of Mavericks training camp has wrapped up, sending the players scurrying from the practice court in the lower reaches of the American Airlines Center. Some head to the ornate locker room and gorge themselves on chicken and fish and warm, fresh breads; some camp…
Lets Hear it for the Boy As we reported a month or so ago (“Can’t Boogie No More,” September 11), Mayor Laura Miller is considering revising Chapter 14 of the city code, requiring all clubs to shut down at 2 a.m. (They’re currently allowed to stay open until 4 a.m.)…
Two old ladies were vacationing at a Catskills resort. “The food here is horrible,” one said. “I know,” said the other, “and such small portions.” Lisa Luna is in no mood for classic food jokes, not with the recent cuts to the meal budget of the Texas Department of Criminal…
When Buzz last checked in with the Dallas-based Vice Fund (VICEX) at its birth late last August, the mutual fund’s managers were betting that investing in sin would pay off big. There are few certainties in life, the reasoning went. There are death and taxes, then there’s the human hunger…
Pretty in PinkI’m being followed: Thank you for your article on the Mary Kay Company (“Think Pink,” by Sarah Hepola, October 9). It was interesting to note the comment by Ms. Piro: “That’s why we don’t go looking for salespeople. We want people who can let the person who’s trying…
When we last left Richard Daniels, he had been removed as a security guard at the Dallas office of KTVT-Channel 11 (Buzz, October 9). He was let go after he had a run-in with Deborah Norville of Inside Edition, who was in town and had to tape her show in…
