STAGE BITZ STORIES of 2013

HEY OUTSTAGRS!

ITS THAT TIME!!

RANKIN THE TOP  ILLI MO STORIES of 2013!!!

The year 2013 is just about over, but as with any year, it is filled with memorable entertainment based events that will go down in the annals of time. From the Second Inauguration Ball of President Barack Obama to Dr. Maya Angelou's commemorating the passing of Nelson Mandela (with doses of Kanye rantings in the middle of things), to the passing of St Louis Cardinals baseball legend Stan Musial to the ongoing court battles of former STL news anchor Larry Conners, the year 2013 was definitely a year of reckoning.

OUTSTAGN will rank the Top 10 National Entertainment News Stories of 2013 that were Illinois and/or Missouri based as well as the Top 10 St Louis based entertainment news stories of 2013 that had some national notoriety or was an ongoing news bit in the city.


BELOW ARE THE TOP 10 NATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT NEWS STORIES with an ILLI MO base.

#10 MAYA ON MANDELA

St Louis born  educator/poet Dr Maya Angelou wrote a poem for the passing of African leader and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela in early December entitled, “His Day is Done” that was posted on YouTube and commemorated by the State Department.

#9 BOB NEWHART WINS FIRST EMMY

In September, Oak Park, Ill native Bob Newhart won his very first Primetime Emmy Award  for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for his work on the CBS sitcom on “Big Bang Theory.” Newhart, 84, has been nominated seven times throughout  his 52-year career.

#8 EMINEM MAKES MUSIC  HISTORY

In  November,  St. Joseph, Mo native rapper Eminem charted 10 concurrent songs on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, a first in the charts history, including “The Monster” that at years end was No. 1 on the Rap, Hip hop and Hot 100 charts on Billboard. All songs came from his comeback album, Marshall Mathers 2” which debuted on Billboard Album 200 with over 700 thousand copies sold its first week released.

#7CRAZY SEXY COOL DRAWS BIG RATINGS

The tele-film  CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story  raked in big numbers for VH-1 when it aired in October.  Pulling in 4.5 million viewers, VH1 scored the highest-rated original cable movie of 2013. The biopic chronicles the R&B group’s rise to fame, was VH1’s highest-rated original movie ever. Two of its stars were from Illinois. Keke Palmer, who played Chilli,  who's from Robbins, Ill and Drew Sidora, who played T-Boz, who is from Chicago. The movie also caused controversy over the validity of the facts and depictions the film mainly through TLC's ex manager, Pebbles.

#6JENNY MCCARTHY JOINS THE VIEW

In September, Chicago native and comedic actress Jenny McCarthy was hired to  fill one of the empty seats around the table on  ABC’s "The View" vacated by Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck,  McCarthy, who has been on the daytime talk show 17 times -- eight as a co-host -- joined the remaining ladies in its 17^th season this fall. 

#5TINA TURNER IN VOGUE, GETS MARRIED, REVOKES USA

Music legend Tina Turner made news all of 2013….first, she made history becoming the oldest person to be on the cover of German Vogue Magazine at aged 73…then she got married cover of the April issue of German Vogue. This summer, she married her longtime love, record executive Erwin Bach, 57, with a lavish  Buddhist ceremony(Oprah was one of the guests),  and she made Switzerland  officially when she renounced her citizenship in the United States. For a spell, she lived in St Louis and East St Louis, Ill attended Sumner High School and joined Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm in the 1950s and early sixties.

#4 NELLY CRUISIN ON THE CHARTS, WINS OVER ARSENIO

It was a good year for the St Louis bred rap superstar. Although his latest album, “M.O” came and went on the charts, he made it up with his collaboration on the remix to country duo Florida Georgia Line’s hit, “Cruise” which peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 of the Billboard charts. The song also won Single of the Year at this years American Music Awards, became the longest reigning No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts (22 weeks) and was the No. 1 Country Song of 2013. The rapper also made headlines when he made two appearances on Arsenio’s new talk show waging a bet with its host Arsenio Hall on whether the St Louis Cardinals or L.A> Dodgers will take a spot in the World Series and what each would do if one lost the bet (Arsenio would rap Country Grammar in Cards gear if Dodgers lost and Nelly would  rap the same song in Dodgers gear): Arsenio ended up losing the bet.

#3OPRAH’s OWN PULLS NUMBERS, WIGS OUT, RETURNS TO FILM, WINS FREEDOM MEDAL

Former Chicago resident  and TV mogul Oprah Winfrey had a big year (one hiccup on that Switzerland boutique profiling)  as her network OWN finally pulled in its highest numbers since its inception in 2011 mainly die to shows produced by Tyler Perry (who's a shareholder) including The Haves and Have Nots, Love Thy Neighbor and the former TBS stationed For Better of Worse. In September, the cover of her O Magazine had her spouting a huge Afro wig…  In October she placed her Chicago based Harpo Studios and condo up for sale.  She also returned to acting in film when she was seen in the box office success Lee Daniels’ The Butler in August and  receiving a Supporting Actress nomination when the Screen Actors Guild nominations were announced later in the year. She closed out the year receiving the National Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama at the White House. 

#2.THE MANY FITS OF KANYE

The year 2013 would not be 2013 without the news that Chicago bred rap superstar Kanye West made sans Kimye. Three of big news items that Kanye made headlines by himself after the summer hit. First, in September was his Twitter fit with talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. He launched it, after Kimmel poked fun of a  BBC Radio interview on "Live!" with a kid-Kanye spoof interview. Soon afterwards, Kimmel invited Ye on his show to make amends which ended up in more self aggrandizing. Then, he made news when his Yeezus tour started and he had an actor to portray Jesus during one of his moments of his tour that caused controversy over the depiction. Next, he started sporting Confederate flag jackets, got into an now infamous verbal fight with MTV news anchor and radio personality Sway on his SiriusXM station Shade 45. And in December he cursed the Grammy Awards at a concert for not nominating his album in the Album of Year category.

#1 KIMYE

 You had to be under a rock to not know that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian became a hot item in 2013 and became a phenomenon in amalgrammed couples since Bradjolina.With the birth and naming of their first child, North, in August their relationship in media went into the zenithsphere….Kanye also claimed that he and Kim were more fashionable and popular than President Barack and Michelle Obama that had people scratching their heads. Then, he staged a pop the question the moment at San Francisco Giants AT and T Ballpark in front of friends and family. It was speculated that it was staged for Keeping Up with the Kardashians upcoming season, but the couple took matters in their own hands when they sued YouTube for leaking their proposal on the interactive video channel…they ended the year when Ye released a parody ready music video for the song, “Bound 2” from his Grammy Award nominated CD, “Yeezus” depicting Kim topless riding a motorcycle in front of with Kanye in the opposite direction .

BELOW ARE THE TOP 10 STL STORIES of 2013

#10 BLACK REP HOME CLOSES

This summer, The St Louis Black repertory Company received a notice from the owners of the Grandel Square Theatre, Grand Center Organization,that the venue was sold  and  leaving the seminal theater troupe without a home for its upcoming 37^th season. After a vigorous search, the landed with Emerson Theatre at Harris Stowe University. 

#9 BRETT HULL RETURNS TO BLUE

St. Louis Blues organization announced this summer that Hall of Famer Brett Hull would return to the franchise as the club's new executive vice during a press conference at Scottrade Center on Monday. Hull was acquired from Calgary late in the 1987-88 season and over the next 10-plus campaigns rewrote the franchise record books. 

#8 LARRY CONNERS FILES AGAINST KMOV

Former KMOV anchor Larry Conners spent most of 2013 in court than on air fighting his former bosses for their part in his getting fired.. Late late year. Conners was fired from KMOV after a Facebook post inquitring if his URS troubles escalating after his Obama interview. Connors filed suit forallegedly  being unfairly terminated and later on in the year filed another suit alleging race and age discrimination an an African American co anchor and younger, less experienced staff with less seniority were given major, breaking news stories that. He was seeking at least $50,000 in damages, His suits were still pending as of press time.

#7LARUSSA GOES INTO THE HALL

In December, it was announced that Former St Louis Cardinals manager Tony Larussa (LEFT) along with baseball coaches and former players Joe Torre, and Bobby Cox, were unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame  La Russa who won World Series titles with Oakland in 1989 and St. Louis in 2006 and 2011, finished with the third most wins by a manager in a career that began with the Chicago White Sox in 1979 and ended with a record of 2,728-2,365.

#6 LUCY GOES VIRAL 

Early this year, St Peters, Mo. resident Lucy is the latest in many who has gone viral in 2013.  Lucy became an Internet sensation when the little girl laughs hysterically when Lucy’s father pulled out his video camera to record her hysterical attempt to walk the family dog. put the video on his Facebook page then to YouTube. Thus, the video gotten nearly 2 million YouTube views and was shown on news programs across the U.S. as well as in Belgium and London.

#5PUJOLS SUES CLARK

Former St Louis Cardinals slugger and current Angels slugger  Albert Pujols followed through on his threat of legal action in St Louis County against former St Louis Cardinals player and radio host Jack Clark  filing a defamation lawsuit for his accusation that Pujols used performance-enhancing drugs. Clark  said the accusations this summer on his radio show that was aired on the now defunct WGNU 920 AM station. After Pujols; filed suit, Clark aired an apology but was eventually fired. The suit is currently pending as of press time.

#4CARDS LOSE WORLD SERIES

In October, the boys of summer were not able to pull off a return to the championships  when the St Louis Cardinals lost to the Boston Red Sox in Game 6, 6-1, at the World Series  at Fenway Park. The Series also had its share of controversy as well with the now infamous third base obstruction call that gave St Louis Cardinals the win in Game 3 at Busch Stadium.

#3 SOCCER IN ST LOUIS

The city of St Louis was introduced to three 

international soccer games , a first for the city. The first

 was Manchester City vs Chelsea in front of a sold-out 

crowd May 23 at Busch Stadium. The second game was

 played in September at Edward Jones Dome with Real 

Madrid and Inter Milan and Busch Stadium was the 

venue again for the third international soccer game 

between Argentina  and  Bosnia 2 city. Of the three 

games, the first one was the most attended.

#2 STAN THE MAN DIES, LAST GAME RECOGNIZED

In St. Louis, the big entertainment news story was the passing of St Louis Cardinals legend Stan Musial over 

the Martin Luther King Jr weekend.  He was 92. In
memoriam, there was a public viewing of Musial
Thursday where hundreds attended at the Cathedral
Basilica of St Louis. A tribute was given to him during opening day of the St Louis Cardinals season opener in April in Busch Stadium. Also on Sept. 29, the 50th anniversary of Stan Musial’s last game at Busch Stadium was also recognized. The St. Louis Cardinals legend ranked at or is near the top of baseball’s all-time lists in almost every batting category.

#1 BATTLE OF THE TIGERS

The Battle of the Tigers, Mizzou and Auburn was a game

 for the annals of time especially after Mizzou big 

winning streak leading up to the championships and its

 debut in the Southeastern Conference division and 

accolades for its coach Gary Pinkel. The Tigers game

 had taken place in the ATL in November and aired on

 CBS., Although Mizzou (11-2) ended up losing 59 to 42, 

they were invited to play in the 2014 AT&T Cotton Bowl

 Classic, set for Jan. 3rd in Arlington, Texas at the world-

renowned AT&T Stadium. Kickoff for the game, which

 will pit the Tigers against former conference foe 

Oklahoma State (10-2, 2nd place in Big 12), It will 

be MU's 30th all time bowl appearance.

Well those are our pick of 2013....see you all with a new 

STAGE BITZ on Jan 10, 2014!