Alan Cumming & Sam Trammell raise awareness for
Project Angel Food
You
would be hard-pressed to find more unlikely stars on the step-n-repeat than
actor/writer/producer/director Alan Cumming (known in this country for his role
as Eli Gold on the CBS show The Good Wife) and Sam Trammell ( “Sam” from HBO’s
True Blood) but the two came together to promote the Project Angel Food event
at the opening of a new Kiehl’s store in Manhattan Beach.
Both
stars are long-time supports of the cause, a charity who provides home-cooked
meals to people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses. In
turn, Kiehl’s is donating a percentage of ALL 2012 purchases from the new store
to the Project.
As the True Blood hunk told us, ” You can buy
a great product and know that 1% is going to Project Angel Food.” And watch out
for the True Blood finale where Sam exclusively tells us “It’s a HUGE
cliffhanger…like WTF!?”
Read
more at Celebzter
Cumming
attractions: actor Alan visits some of Glasgow's hidden gems
Actor
Alan Cumming has finished his TV tour of the world’s Urban Secrets with a trip
home to Scotland. This
week, he explores the nooks and crannies of Glasgow, the first city he lived in
after moving from rural Perthshire to study drama.
He
said: “Glasgow is energising, stimulating and diverse. It is a no-nonsense kind
of town but also full of culture. It still has such a capacity to surprise.”
Despite
having lived in the city for several years, Alan was surprised at the many
treasures he had failed to explore.
For
the first time, he took a tour of the Necropolis, the 37-acre cemetery full of
wonderful architecture, sculpture and fascinating stories relating to the
50,000 people remembered there. Glasgow’s
“city of the dead” may not be a secret but some of the tales behind those
buried there are hardly known.
Alan
visited the grave of Dr James Jeffray, professor of anatomy at Glasgow University,
who is said to have conducted an experiment on a corpse by attaching batteries
to it, causing it to convulse, sit up and open its eyes. Novelist Mary Shelley
apparently witnessed it and used it as her inspiration for Frankenstein.
Alan
said: “I used to think people who wandered around graveyards were weirdos but I
was fascinated.”
Alan
was enthralled by the oldest surviving music hall in Britain, which was founded
in 1857. The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall is a gem, hidden behind an
amusement arcade in Trongate. More than 1500 people used to cram on to benches
for every show. The
audience gained itself a reputation for “leaving no turn unstoned” and over the
years the stage saw performances by greats such as Harry Lauder. It was also
where 16-year-old Stan Laurel made his debut in 1906. The
hall was filled with a putrid smell. People would scrape horse muck off the
road and keep it in their pockets to warm their hands and then throw it at dud
acts. Performers
would also get peed on from the balcony and the theatre was said to have been
saved from fire as the floor was saturated with urine. For
many decades it was derelict but, in 2000, a team of volunteers started
restoring it.
Alan
also headed to Sharmanka, an exhibition of kinetic sculpture made out of scrap
and rubbish. Underground artist Eduard Bersudsky brought his entire collection
to Glasgow after leaving the oppressive former Soviet Union.
Alan
said: “It is mysterious, scary and fantastical. It is absolutely amazing.
Russia’s loss is our gain.”
In
the city centre, he dropped in on the Glasgow City Chambers, which has the
largest marble staircase in the world. There are 4000 square metres of marble
over three floors – the Vatican only has two marble floors.
“It
is possibly the most glamorous council office you will ever see. It feels more
like a cathedral than an office block. Every corner oozes palatial glamour,”
said Alan.
He
stopped off at Rab Ha’s, a pub named after a man known as the Glasgow Glutton.
People would pay to watch him stuff his face with food. It
is claimed he ate a pie which encased an entire cow.
Alan
joined Hollywood actor Billy Boyd in vintage cafe the Hidden Tea Room. The
cafe is in the cobbled Hidden Lane, just off Argyle Street, which is full of
artisans and artists. Glaswegian Boyd had his wedding rings made in a jewellers
there. Scottish
band Belle and Sebastian record there, as have Franz Ferdinand, and every June
it hosts its own festival.
Alan
also had a drink in bourbon bar Chinaski’s, near Charing Cross, who took their
sign down to encourage a more exclusive clientèle. For
a whisky to be called a bourbon, it has to be made in the United States and
Chinaski’s is Glasgow’s only bourbon bar.
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