LA LEGENDS: ALLEN EDWARDS, A "SHEAR FORCE" IN HAIR DESIGN

by Don Rose

What does it take to become an LA legend? One part experience, one part charm and warmth, and then there's that magic "X Factor" talked about by George Plimpton and others. Add a long list of clients from the famous to the infamous. A passion for excellence. A strong reputation. All these characteristics and more fit beauty icon ALLEN EDWARDS.

Now is an exciting time for Edwards. He and his wife and business partner Lisa are celebrating their 35th Anniversary in business this year. And "SHEAR FORCE: An Image-maker’s Memoir" (written by Allen Edwards with Lorin Shields-Michel and published by Durban House Press) is now available at bookstores across the country. The book is an inspiring personal story of Allen Edward’s triumph over adversity. Edwards takes us behind-the-scenes into the glitzy Beverly Hills beauty industry during the ‘70s and ‘80s.

The innovative Edwards was the first to start exposing hairdressers on TV back in 1975, and personally has over 1,000 television appearances including OPRAH, REGIS and LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH & FAMOUS. Recent media coverage includes Discovery Channel's “THE SINGING OFFICE”, NBC’s “1ST LOOK LA”, “FAMILY JEWELS” on A & E and “SPLIT ENDS” and “HOW DO I LOOK” on The Style Network. Edwards and his team styled 5 female Hosts from E! Entertainment for the cover of the September issue of HOLLYWOOD WEEKLY Magazine. And SALON CITY MAGAZINE voted Allen Edwards Salon + Spa #4 on their list of “HOT 100 Salons In America”.

What is the Allen Edwards secret for being an industry leader for over 3 decades in the competitive world of beauty? He customizes each hair style and color to work for each client and emphasizes constant change with his styling team. “When a client says that they love the way they look and feel, I know my team and I have done our job. This has always been my goal," explains Edwards.

Allen and his team of personally trained stylists have coiffed some of the world’s most recognizable celebrities including Brooke Shields, Ted Dansen, Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman, Kirsten Dunst and Donna Mills. Edwards is the original creator of the Farrah Fawcett layered cut which started a trend that still exists today.

Allen has been doing book signings of "Shear Force" here in the LA area, and more are sure to follow. Whether you are a fan of Allen's or simply curious, make a point to attend one of these signings as it is a great time to meet a wonderful man whose incessant passion and energy has created generations of new hair styles.

I had the pleasure of meeting Allen Edwards recently at the W Hotel. He is very friendly and looks every bit like the legendary hair stylist that he is, with perfectly coiffed mane and cool goatee. I couldn't help but wonder: can my hair ever look as cool as his? Well, stay tuned for Part 2 of this feature on Allen, as I will talk about my visit to his salon to get a style from the man himself!

ALLEN EDWARDS Salon + Spa is located in Brentwood and Woodland Hills, California -- and coming soon is a new product line: ALLEN EDWARDS GREEN. For more information go to: www.allenedwards.com.

CHARLIE SCOLA THROWS BOFFO BORDERS BOOKSTORE BASH FOR HIS NEW BOOK "PARTY PLANNING SECRETS;" NET PROCEEDS BENEFIT MAKE A WISH

Event Report by Don Rose, Los Angeles, CA : May 8, 2008

Wow. For a book signing, it was quite a party. Best Borders Books bash, bar none.

At today's creative colorful colossal circus-like event at Borders Books in the Westfield Century City mall, Charlie Scola proved he not only knows how to throw a party for celebrities and VIPs, but also for himself. "Party Charlie" was the man of the hour, center of attention, signing his new book "Party Planning Secrets."

Never had I seen a booksigning event totally take over a bookstore, with activities in every corner. For example, there was the closeup magic of Paul "Fig" Fegen; speaking of parties, Fig's New Years shindigs were legendary - his being the last place I saw Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain (as well as the only place). Speaking of tall, Charlie's party also featured stiltwalkers. Then there were the fortune tellers foretelling people's futures under a mini tent, plus old style upright videogames being played by happy kids, a spinning prize wheel for winning Party Charlie mugs, two bubbly blonde babes from Charlie's "Naked Catering" company passing out giftbags (yes, wearing clothes), excellent food (featuring Chinese Chicken Salad and other tasty bites), a couple of open bars featuring Absolut Vodka, a raffle of cool prizes... and, of course, a line of folks waiting for the chance to get Charlie's John Hancock on their books (all net proceeds being donated to the charity Make A Wish).

Judging by all the celebs in the video montage playing on TVs throughout the store, Charlie is a very well connected guy, but he is also the nicest and humblest person to talk with, as I had the privilege of doing a few days ago. We recommend you buy Mr. Scola's book, which will not only help you throw killer parties but will be sending money to a great cause, too. I just hope Charlie will pen his autobiography next, because the brief highlights of his life that he relayed to me (full of peaks and valleys that ultimately led to great success) sounds like it would make a great read.

Special thanks to publicist Teri Danz for her assistance, and to Charlie for being such a gracious guy. Kudos to both for throwing a very cool affair.

LOVELY LADY OF LA: ANDREA HARRISON, ACTRESS/MODEL

The LA Report always loves running into Andrea E. Harrison, as we've done twice at the cool clothing store EM & Co on trendy West Third (7940 W. 3rd St, to be exact) - most recently on Feb. 1st for the Zachariah Bryant private showing of his new clothing line for women. Ms. Harrison, a creative triple threat (actress, producer and model), always exudes class, charm and a warm smile for those who engage her. (Not that she's engaged, as far as we know - don't get those rumor mills going just yet.)



Down-to-earth Andrea hails from Florida (we're sure Jacksonville misses her), and now resides in trendy Brentwood (okay, maybe we meant pricey Brentwood). We at The LA Report think this tall thin terrific talent is going places. She has been very busy this past year; you may have seen her in Starting from Scratch , Grindin' and Perfect Red (all in 2007).

Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage.com

You can check out Andrea's credits on her IMDB page and visit her official website at andreaeharrison.com. (For those intrigued with mane matters, this 5'10" beauty is currently a blonde. Va va voom.)



Oh, and you are probably asking, what's the "E" stand for? We think it may be Exciting.

JAN. 27, 2008: CHARLES DURNING TO RECEIVE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

44th Annual Accolade to be Presented During the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Simulcast on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced that Charles Durning, the quintessential character actor and highly decorated World War II veteran, will receive the Guild’s most prestigious tribute—the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Durning will be presented the Award, given annually to an actor who fosters the “finest ideals of the acting profession,” at the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which premieres live on TNT and TBS Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT.

In making the announcement, SAG President Alan Rosenberg said, “Charles Durning is the perfect choice for the Life Achievement Award as Screen Actors Guild celebrates its 75th anniversary. Throughout his career, he has epitomized the art and grace of acting and brought something special to every role. He is above all things a great actor with the talent to which we all aspire: the power to create indelible characters.”

That talent has earned Durning numerous accolades during his more than 50 years as a performer. He was honored with an Oscar® nomination in 1983 for his musical turn as the tap-dancing Texas governor in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and again in 1984 for his lecherous Nazi Colonel Erhardt in the Brooksfilm remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or Not To Be,” a role which also brought him one of his four Golden Globe® nominations. He made his film debut in 1965 in “Harvey Middleman, Fireman,” followed by appearances in “I Walk the Line” and two early Brian de Palma films, “Hi, Mom” (credited as Charles Durnham) and “Sisters.” He achieved breakout status in 1972 when, after seeing Durning on Broadway in Jason Miller’s “That Championship Season,” George Roy Hill cast him as a corrupt police lieutenant in “The Sting.” Durning’s nearly 100 feature roles include hostage negotiator Det. Moretti in “Dog Day Afternoon” (for which he received his first Golden Globe® nomination), the villainous frogs-leg restaurant magnate in “The Muppet Movie” “Tootsie" “Home for the Holidays.”

For the Coen Brothers, Durning appeared in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and played the pivotal title role “The Hudsucker Proxy”. In 2000, as a member of the ensemble cast of David Mamet’s “State and Main,” he was honored by the National Board of Review, the Online Film Critics Society and the Florida Film Critics Circle. That same year he starred in another Mamet screenplay, “Lakeboat.” along with Dennis Leary, whose father he has played for the past three years in 23 episodes of the FX hit “Rescue Me”.

Other film credits include “North Dallas Forty,” “The Greek Tycoon,” “When a Stranger Calls,” “Harry and Walter Go to New York,” “True Confessions,” “Twilight’s Last Gleaming,” “The Final Countdown,” “The Choirboys,” “An Enemy of the People,” “Far North,” “The Man With One Red Shoe,” “Death and Texas,” “One Fine Day,” “V.I. Warshawski" and comic-strips-brought-to-life “Brenda Starr” and “Dick Tracy,” among many others.

In 1975, Durning was honored with the first of eight Emmy® nominations for his romantic turn opposite Maureen Stapleton in the television movie “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.” Nominations followed for his performances in the miniseries “Captains and the Kings” (which also earned him a Golden Globe® nomination) and the telefilms “Attica” and “Death of a Salesman,” the latter opposite Dustin Hoffman, whom he had earlier romanced in “Tootsie.” Durning was twice nominated for supporting actor Emmys® during his 1990-1994 run as Dr. Harlan Elldridge in the comedy “Evening Shade,” which starred his friend and frequent collaborator Burt Reynolds. The two co-starred in the features “Stick,” “Starting Over,” “Sharkey’s Machine,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “Forget About It,” as well as the “Hard Time” series of telefilms. The Television Academy also nominated Durning twice for guest performances: in 1995 for “Homicide: Life on the Street” and in 2005 for “NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service.”

Durning starred as Supreme Court Justice Henry Hoskins in the television series “First Monday,” in the short-lived series “Orleans,” “Eye to Eye” and “The Cop and the Kid,” as well as early in his career in the daytime drama "Another World.” His dozens of television guest-starring roles include his March 2007 appearance on “Monk,” seven appearances as Father Hubley on “Everybody Loves Raymond” and character arcs on “Everwood,” “Family Guy,” “The Practice” and “Cybil.” His more than 50 television movies include “The Best Little Girl in the World,” “Crisis at Central High,” “The Rivalry,” “The Girls in their Summer Dresses and Other Stories by Irwin Shaw,” four outings as Santa Claus, one as the Pope, one as Casey Stengel and roles in the televised versions of such classics as “Look Homeward Angel,” “Mister Roberts,” “Dinner at Eight” and “Studs Lonigan.” He received a CableACE nomination for his performance as a southern prison camp warden in “The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains.”

Durning was born in Highland Falls, N.Y., on Feb. 28, 1923. Widowed when Durning was 12, his mother worked as a laundress at the U.S. Military Academy in nearby West Point. As a teenage usher in a burlesque house, Durning was hired to replace a drunken “second banana” on stage, then hoofed his way through upstate New York as half of ballroom dancing act for 11 years. Durning’s early career was punctuated by stints as an elevator operator, Western Union delivery boy, cab driver, bartender, night watchman, boxer and construction worker.

His heroic yet horrifying experiences during World War II loomed large in shaping his 20s. He was in the first wave to land on Omaha Beach during the D-Day Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, killing seven German gunners and suffering serious machine gun wounds to his right leg and shrapnel wounds over his body in that bloody battle. Later, he was stabbed eight times with a bayonet by a young German soldier, whom he killed with a rock in hand-to-hand combat. Taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge, he was one of a few survivors of the infamous attack on American POWs at Malmedy, Belgium, and was the sole survivor of 40 men who took out a German machine gun nest. For his valor he was honored with three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. Although he had starred as a World War II veteran in the 1985 film “Stand Alone,” Durning did not speak publicly about his war experiences until the 50th anniversary of D-Day, when it was suggested by Durning’s “Evening Shade” co-star Ossie Davis (SAG’s 2000 Life Achievement Award recipient) that he appear in the National Memorial Day Concert, which Davis was hosting. Durning has since made the concert an annual appearance. For the anniversary, Durning also narrated The Discovery Channel’s “Normandy: The Great Crusade” and read Ernest Hemmingway’s account of the invasion in a “CBS Reports” D-Day special.

Durning employed dance, speech and acting studies as part of his post-war recovery. In 2007, he was recognized as a “Legend” by the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he studied in the late 1940s. He was also educated at Columbia University and New York University.

By the 1960s Durning had become a prolific actor on the New York stage and in regional and touring companies. He performed in some 35 productions with Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, both in the Bard’s work and in such contemporary mid-‘70s premieres as “In the Boom Boom Room” and “The Au Pair Man,” opposite Julie Harris.

For his work on Broadway, Durning has been honored with Tony and Drama Desk awards for the role of Big Daddy in the 1990 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” starring Kathleen Turner; the Drama League Distinguished Performance Award for the 1997 revival of “The Gin Game,” which reunited him with Julie Harris; and a 1972 Drama Desk Award for “That Championship Season.” More recently, he starred in the 1996 revival of “Inherit the Wind,” opposite George C. Scott, and the 2000 revival of Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man.”

He received the 2006 Lucille Lortell Award for Outstanding Featured Actor for Wendy Wasserstein’s “Third” at Lincoln Center and played the title role in “Trumbo: Red White and Blacklisted” Off-Broadway in 2003. His numerous Off-Broadway and regional theatre credits include “On Golden Pond,” “Sweet Bird of Youth,” “Prelude to a Kiss,” “Brigadoon” and “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

His upcoming films include Deal, his seventh film opposite Burt Reynolds; “Polycarp,” which premiered at the 2007 Hoboken Film Festival; and a starring role in “Chatham.”

The “14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®” are produced by Jeff Margolis Productions in association with Screen Actors Guild. Jeff Margolis is the executive producer and Kathy Connell is the producer. Yale Summers, Daryl Anderson, Shelley Fabares, Paul Napier and JoBeth Williams are producers for SAG. Gloria Fujita O’Brien and Mick McCullough are supervising producers. Benn Fleishman is executive in charge of production.

Screen Actors Guild is the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists’ rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors who work in motion pictures, television, commercials, industrials, video games, Internet and all new media formats. The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights. Headquartered in Los Angeles, SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO. More information is available online at www.sag.org.

TBS, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is television’s top-rated comedy network. It serves as home to such hot contemporary comedies as “Sex and the City,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Family Guy,” “King of Queens,” “Seinfeld” and “Friends;” original comedy series like “My Boys,” “The Bill Engvall Show,” Tyler Perry’s “House of Payne,” “10 Items or Less” and “Frank TV;” specials and special events, such as “Funniest Commercials of the Year” and The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas; blockbuster movies; and hosted movie showcases.

Turner Network Television (TNT), television’s destination for drama and one of cable’s top-rated networks, offers original movies and series, including the acclaimed and highly popular detective drama “The Closer,” starring Golden Globe? winner and Emmy® and Screen Actors Guild Awards? nominee Kyra Sedgwick, and “Saving Grace,” a provocative new drama starring Oscar® winner Holly Hunter. TNT is also home to powerful one-hour dramas, such as “Law & Order,” “Without a Trace,” “Cold Case,” “ER,” “Charmed” and “Judging Amy;” broadcast premiere movies; compelling prime-time specials, such as the “Screen Actors Guild Awards®;” and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR and the NBA. TNT is available in high-definition.