Title: Latest in Carter line works toward stardom
Date: May 12, 2001
Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)
Source: Lifestyle; Pg. E6
Topic: Other
Author: Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
Leslie Carter, 14-year-old sister of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and pubescent pop phenomenon Aaron Carter, has just started an extensive promotional tour -- that'll take her up to the mid-June launch of the summer concert trek on which she's serving as Aaron's opening act. She doesn't mind her awesome schedule.
"This is one of the most critical parts of my career -- getting known," informs the pop princess in waiting, whose "Like Wow!" hit song shows up on the soundtrack of DreamWorks' soon-to-open "Shrek." She adds, "It's a lot of work. Sometimes you feel like you don't want to do it. Sometimes I'd like to go off and do things like other girls my age. But it's really paying off."
Leslie says it's Nick who gives her career and performing advice, while "Aaron is my little brother. We're almost two years apart," she reminds. "He's a brat." Really? "No, I just call him that because he's my brother. He'll squirt me with a hose, that kind of thing. We just went on a fishing trip. Nick stuck squid down Aaron's pants. Then I blew a blowhorn in Nick's ear. He couldn't hear for a while," confesses Leslie.
Just as Aaron got a big break when he served as an opener for the Backstreet Boys, Leslie got a first taste of the big time as opening act for Aaron on his concert swings through Germany and Canada. The upcoming tour will definitely be her biggest yet.
There are two more children in the Carter clan. One is Aaron's fraternal twin, Angel. "I guess she's becoming a model," Leslie reports. And there's also 19-year-old Bobbie, "who's helping out with the tours and stuff."
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: Former En Vogue singer Dawn Robinson is using her upcoming solo Atlantic album to respond to her growing number of detractors in the industry.
Robinson first left En Vogue at the height of that group's success to pursue a solo career. She then joined Raphael Saadiq from Tony!Toni!Tone! and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest to form the supergroup Lucy Pearl -- only to bail after the very successful release of its first self-titled CD last year.
As a result of those actions, "Some people have this view that Dawn's kind of a diva and hard to work with," notes songwriter/producer Travon Potts. "So we put together this controversial record, 'You Will Never,' as an answer to what people have been saying about her." Potts, who's worked with such artists as Christina Aguilera, Monica and Bebe Winans, is juggling Robinson's album with upcoming CDs for Montel Jordan and Kenny Lattimore. He says thus far he's found Robinson nothing but a pleasure to work with. "I think with this project she's kind of coming into her own as a solo artist ... she's going to surprise a lot of people."
THE BIG-SCREEN SCENE: Bruce Willis, who plays the WWII colonel in charge of Americans interned in a Nazi prison camp in "Hart's War," "became the leader of the guys on the set right away" according to co-star Michael Landes. The actor, who recently returned from four months of Czech Republic location work on the feature, tells us that with about 30 actors playing POWs, "it was a guy kind of set, and Bruce was definitely one of the guys."
Speaking of the drama involving racism among 1940s U.S. POWs, Landes adds, "This is a really intense and dark story, and after we would deal with a dramatic situation in a scene, Bruce could make a joke or a comment that would kind of lighten everybody up for a while. He's what you see, what you think you know -- a little wild, but fun," says Landes, who plays a priest/chaplain in the camp.
GOOD NEWS: Shelley Fabares, who underwent a liver transplant last October, is well on the road to recovery. She's not looking for acting assignments yet, but, according to one of her close associates, "She's getting around beautifully, seems totally well." The former "Coach" actress and her husband, "Providence" star Mike Farrell, are two of the most philanthropic people in the business and have spent a tremendous amount of time over the years doing for others. It's nice to be able to report upbeat news about them.
(With reports by Stephanie DuBois)
To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
