‘Local boy’ helms reality cop show
When he was younger, actor Donnie Wahlberg often was on the wrong side of the law. Now, he’s not only on the right side, but he’s also leading a cheering section for the boys in blue.
Wahlberg, one of nine kids from a blue-collar suburb of Boston, not only has played a policeman on two impressive TV series: “Boomtown” and CBS’ “Blue Bloods,” but he’s also producing his own reality show about Beantown’s cops, “Boston’s Finest,” airing on TNT.
“It’s a big risk for any police department to do something like this, and I think, for them, they would only entrust it to a local boy,” he says.
“I speak the same language as the people that the show is about, and I come from the streets that they patrol and that they grew up on themselves.”
Wahlberg’s own problems with the police happened when he was a kid scaling the charts with his band, New Kids on the Block. “My troubles were not in Boston, thank goodness. I didn’t get into trouble back home,” he says.
Boyle takes acting gig
Susan Boyle is making her big-screen acting debut in a Christmas-themed British period drama.
The Scottish singer appears in “The Christmas Candle,” a story of angels and wishes set in an English village in the 1890s.
A shy church volunteer from a small Scottish village, Boyle became a global sensation in 2009 after she performed “I Dreamed a Dream” on the television program “Britain’s Got Talent.”
Lopez to emcee jazz festival
George Lopez is taking over as master of ceremonies of the annual Playboy Jazz Festival.
The comedian was announced as the festival’s new host Thursday at an event at the Playboy Mansion.
“This is iconic,” said the former star of the ABC sitcom “George Lopez” and the TBS talk show “Lopez Tonight.” “I’ve never been here before. I was married for 17 years. I couldn’t even have a Playboy air freshener.”
Bill Cosby previously served as the festival’s host for more than 30 years.