How indebted was former Marquette University basketball coach Tom Crean to Dick Strong? Strong is a huge Golden Eagles fan and quite wealthy. He paid a $175 million forfeiture to settle an investigation against him by former New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, then sold his Strong mutual funds company and its $34 billion in assets to Wells Fargo. Crean was earning $1.85 million a year from MU, and one insider says, “Strong was paying $500,000 of the salary.” Odds are that Crean’s successor, Buzz Williams,will be earning a lot less.
TMJ4-TVanchor Courtny Gerrish has been running since sixth grade and has no intention of stopping. “It all helps you focus,” she says. Gerrish recently ran in the Pleasant Prairie Triathlon in August, swimming three-fourths of a kilometer, biking 20 kilometers and running a 5K. In all, Gerrish has done six or seven triathlons and has her eye on an Iron Man.
Did lobbyist Sharon Cook get dumped by the city of Milwaukee? Cook left her job lobbying for the Cook & Franke law firm to become a full-time lobbyist for the city in January 2005, but left in June 2007. “She was pushed out quietly,” says one city insider. “[Mayor] Tom Barrett felt she wasn’t effective with the state legislature.” Barrett’s chief of staff, Pat Curley, says “it was a mutual decision to part ways.” Cook, who says she left the city “under my own steam to take care of my 88-year-old mom,” now works as a program director for the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
Wauwatosa West alumnus Ben Strothmann (son of Gary and Suzy Strothmann, owners of the famed Suzy’s Cream Cheesecakes and the never-forgotten Boulevard Inn) has been living in New York City for the past eight years and has finally gotten his big break. He performed in the off-off-Broadway show Dutch Courage. Strothmann also just finished shooting The Playbill Broadway Yearbook, in which he photographed more than 7,500 people involved in every Broadway show of the past year.
Controversial local columnist Robert Miranda, editor of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal, will also now write for – huh? – the Turkish newspaper Yeni Asya,the oldest and largest paper in Turkey. He is the only American to have his own weekly column there.
“The Escape,” a new interactive Web show directed and produced by Milwaukee native Steven Binko, is being billed as a mix of Saw, Clue and “Survivor.” The show, which debuts Dec. 30, pits eight contestants against each other in a secret location with one single goal: to escape. It will be the first reality show that allows viewers to interact directly with the show, from choosing the cast to deciding who stays and who goes.
Local chef and restaurateur Sandy D’Amato got a shout-out in The Wall Street Journal’s “Chefs At Home” column. The article includes two of D’Amato’s recipes featuring “Wisconsin’s best homegrown products: beer and cheese.” Thanks, Wall Street Journal, for reinforcing that Wisconsin stereotype.
Josh Kilmer-Purcell proves that any little boy from Wisconsin can grow up to be an acclaimed memoirist. And drag queen. In his second book, Candy Everyone Wants, the Oconomowoc native sets his newest book in the very city where he grew up. Kilmer-Purcell’s first book was a memoir about growing up in Wisconsin and gravitating to New York, where he worked in advertising and became a famous drag queen at night known as Aqua. He’s now retired from performing.
MTV has shined the spotlight on some Wisconsin locals recently. For the 100th episode of the popular TV show “Made,” which aired in June, Kimberly, Wis., native Ryan Watkins got matched up with Brookfield martial arts trainer Master Chang Lee. Crews filmed over 100 hours to make the 30-minute episode that documented the trials and triumphs of Watkins’ quest for martial arts merriment. Ginny Lane of Cedarburg is also being hounded by MTV’s cameras for “True Life: I’m Living Off The Grid.” Lane is spending a year without electricity or running water in The Wilderness Guide Program of Teaching Drum Outdoor School in Three Lakes, Wis. The episode will air in the fall.
Celebrity Sightings
Capital Grille seems to be where the winners go. Milwaukee Mile Indy driver Ryan Briscoe and his team had dinner there after a victory in early June. Tony Kanaan also dined there and congratulated Briscoe by buying him dinner. Also, after a win over Arizona on June 2, Brewers pitcher Manny Parra and outfielder Ryan Braun ate at the Grille. No word on who paid, but our bet’s on the new $45 million man. And Rick Majerus got some $200 worth of Jing’s Chinese Restaurant takeout in June (for a party, we hope). Not a bad endorsement.
Flashback 25 Years
The August 1983 Pressroom revealed that Milwaukee Journal advice columnist Ione Quinby Griggs took sick leave for the first time in her 49 years at the paper. The tiny, 5-foot-tall Griggs, who would get 150 letters a week seeking advice, finally retired in 1985 at age 94. She was 100 when she died in 1991.
