Judd’s life like a country song.
If Wynonna Judd’s life so far reads like the lyrics from a country music song, she’s perfectly OK with that. She has always believed that real country music is real words in the real world for real people.
Nothing could be more “real” than the events of the past year. It was only last June that the country star married longtime friend-turned lover Cactus Moser. Two months later, during a leisurely ride on their respective motorcycles, he was involved in a catastrophic accident that cost him his leg, and nearly his life. In the blink of an eye, Judd went from being a newlywed to a caregiver.
Always at his bedside in the hospital, she became his nurse when he returned home, cleaning his wounds and devoting herself to his recovery. This spring, when she took on the challenge of competing in TV’s Dancing With the Stars, Moser surprised her backstage following a performance, taking his first tentative steps toward her with a newly fitted prosthetic leg.
When Judd steps out onto the stage at the Ponoka Stampede on Thursday night, Moser will be right behind her, not just as moral support but as a fellow performer. Moser is the drummer for The Big Noise, a band they formed even before they became husband and wife and are now taking on the road. Ponoka is the beginning of a North American tour that includes two other stops in Alberta — Saturday in Fort McMurray and Sunday in Grande Prairie.
“People wonder how we got through it,” said Judd last week from her home near Nashville, Tenn., as the couple prepared to hit the road. “We’re still a
WYNONNA JUDD
were in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They appeared on the Oprah show more than a dozen times. They were still riding the crest of the wave when a chronic bout of hepatitis forced Naomi to retire in 1991, at the end of a tear-filled farewell tour.
It proved to be a watershed moment in Judd’s life, both personally and professionally. Their relationship, while both complex and tumultuous, was incredibly close.
“When Mom left the road, that was definitely a challenge for me,” she acknowledges. “I was at a crossroads in my life. I had to decide whether the glass was half-full or half-empty. I thought: ‘OK, what am I going to do about this? This is life.’”
She carved out a successful solo career in the ’90s, producing three platinum albums. work in progress, but we have a message of hope, and people see that message when Cactus walks out on the stage. I want to share my story with people. What do you do when something tragic happens to you in life? You can either be bitter or better. You can either be a victor or a victim.”
“Life is about making choices.”
Most of Judd’s life has been lived on a public stage, her choices chronicled in the world media. Now 49, she was only two years older than her 16-year-old daughter Grace is now when she stepped onto that stage with her mother, Naomi, in 1983. Her son Elijah is 18.
As The Judds, the motherdaughter duo was a country music powerhouse, selling upwards of 20 million albums and earning five Grammys and nine Country Music Association awards. They performed at the Super Bowl. They sang for four U.S. presidents. They
“Life is about making choices.”
LOS ANGELES — Long before the new Man of Steel, actor Terence Stamp delivered the screen General Zod of a generation. Stamp portrayed Superman’s Kryptonian arch-enemy opposite Christopher Reeve and Canadian-born Margot Kidder in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980).
“I can’t go out on the street in London without somebody saying, ‘It’s Zod!’ It’s fun for me,” said Stamp in a recent interview, adding he’d yet to see the new Man of Steel, which casts Michael Shannon as Zod.
Thirty-five years since Superman, Stamp returns to theatres in the dramedy Unfinished Song, which opens in the U.S. this weekend after an overseas run with an alternative title, Song for Marion.
Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave play English pensioners Arthur and Marion. He’s a codger; she is full of life, but dying. And yet this is no odd couple.
They are, instead, something rarely seen in entertainment: earthbound, elderly soulmates.
Forget high-flying romance. These two are real.
Eventually, Marion drags Arthur into an over-60s singing group, which has a repertoire including everything from the smoothest Stevie Wonder to Salt-N-Pepa’s hip-hop classic Let’s Talk About Sex.
“Let’s Talk About Sex, I thought, ‘Great! Absolutely,’” remembered the 74-year-old Stamp. “(Talk) is all I can do at the moment,” he continued, laughing. “I’m past my sell-by date.”
In a separate interview, costar Redgrave said that between takes on the set, she loved listening to Stamp’s stories. “What I remember most about Terence was his enthralling discussions about all kinds of experiences ... to do with voice.”
“I worked with (Laurence) Olivier briefly on my second movie (Term of Trial, 1962),” Stamp said. “And he said to me, ‘You should always study your voice.’” Stamp then segued into a spot-on Olivier impersonation, continuing, “‘Because, as you get older, your looks go, but your voice will become empowered.’”
The London-born Stamp started his film career with 1962’s seafaring Billy Budd, for which he earned an Oscar nomination. Stamp’s 50-year filmography is peppered with highlights, including his touching portrayal of the transsexual Bernadette in The Adventure of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). Stamp also was widely praised for his lead in director Steven Soderbergh’s 1999 crime drama, The Limey.
Now, distributor Weinstein is attempting to generate early award-season buzz for Stamp’s work in Unfinished Song.
After this interview, Stamp was off to meet with members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the annual Golden Globes.
Clearly, Stamp already feels like a winner. And it also appears his landlord is paid in full.
“I don’t have any psychological ambitions,” Stamp explained.
“I’ve practical ambitions. I don’t do crappy movies, unless I haven’t got the rent.”