tour

Dancing with the Stars is getting a roadshow. Celebrities paired with real dancers will tour 38 U.S. cities, starting with San Diego on Dec. 19th. Celebrity contestants include Drew Lachey, Joey Lawrence, Willa Ford, Harry Hamlin (what?!?), Lisa Rinna and Joey McIntyre.

Why would anyone want to see this live? Absent-mindedly watching this on a Tuesday night is one thing... but actually paying cash to see mediocre dancers? American Idol does the same thing-- it sends mediocre singers on an American tour each year. I think the difference is the demogaphics.

Would you pay to watch Dancing with the Stars if they visited your town?

What did Katharine McPhee do to tip the balance in the universe so bad things happen to her? Maybe it's because she continues to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow as if she wrote the song herself. Earlier this week, she broke her foot during a performance. Her wranglers say she tripped on something backstage at the Idols concert in Charlotte, North Carolina. She sang two songs wearing "slipper sandals" (huh?) and then went directly to the hospital for x-rays, which revealed a broken left foot. She had just rejoined the tour last Friday after suffering from bronchitis and laryngitis. This mishap, however, is not enough for her to leave the tour.

If you're a trekkie and find yourself suddenly extremely wealthy and in New York City on October 5, you might want to stop by Christie's auction house to bid on memorabilia from the myriad TV and film versions of Star Trek. The auction, where you can bid on over 1,000 items including Vulcan jewelry and a replica of Kirk's famous chair, is being conducted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of the original series. Right now the items are on display in London, but they'll be making their way to US cities as part of an international tour. People in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Uncasville, CT should click here to see when the items will be beaming into your neck o' the woods.

This season's American Idol finalists hit the road yesterday for their summer concert tour, but runner-up Katharine McPhee was missing. She has been sidelined with severe bronchitis and laryngitis. Doctors say she's on "total voice rest", which means even talking is out of the question. The tour started in Manchester, New Hampshire on Wednesday and Thursday. There's no word yet on when McPhee will return to the tour.

For a list of tour dates, check here.

With all the stories that have been buzzing around the season premiere of The Sopranos, you knew that the inevitable "somone's running a Sopranos tour" article would come out eventually. Well, now it's official; the writer of this AP story rides along with a tour group to see the New Jersey locations where various episodes of the show were filmed. Included in the tour was the Lodi strip club Satin Dolls (you can see it from Rt. 80!), where the scenes at the Bada Bing club were shot. Also on the tour was a stop under the Pulaski Skyway, spots in Newark, Kearny, and Harrison, and the giant lumberjack that fronts a carpet store on Truck Route 1&9 in Jersey City.

Now, I see many of these sites on an average drive from my humble Garden State abode into New York City... heck, I drive over the Skyway at least twice a week. So it's odd to hear about people from London, Wales, and Florida snapping pictures of these places and saying that the tour ranked up there with going to the Empire State Building. But, hey, at least New Jersey is getting tourists to go to places other than Atlantic City (let's just say the NJ section in Lonely Planet's USA guide is a bit thin).