Adventures in Babysitting

• Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue of Cousin Bette, Leaving Las Vegas) agrees to babysit after her dread date stands her up. Expecting a dull evening, Chris settles down with three kids for a night of TV.and boredom. But when her frantic friend Brenda calls and pleads to be rescued from the bus station in downtown Chicago, the evening soon explodes into an endless whirl of hair-raising adventures! Baby

Imagine experiencing life through the eyes of an innocent child forever. Beautiful and vibrant, Molly McKay might have a mental disability but she's not about to let the world pass her by. Starring Academy AwardÂ(r) nominee* Elizabeth Shue in an inspired performance, Molly is a joyous celebration of the irrepressible human spirit. Autistic since birth, 28-year-old Molly (Shue) isa carefree young woman with an incredible zest for life. Her brother Buck (Aaron Eckhart), a 32-year-old with a full soc! ial calendar and a booming career, has had little contact with Molly over the yearsuntil the facility that cares for her closes down. Now it's up to Buck to take his sister in and that's turning into a full-time job! Bold, childlike and very energetic, Molly completely envelops her brother's life and turns his ordered world into chaos. Then, just when Buck is at his wit's end, Molly becomes a candidate for a new medical procedure that could cure her completely but is it worth the risk? Molly sure thinks so'she's ready to experience everything! *1995: Actress, Leaving Las VegasThe title character of Molly, played by Elisabeth Shue (Oscar nominee for Leaving Las Vegas), suffers from one of those afflictions that are only found in Hollywood movies: she's sort of mentally challenged, sort of autistic--but only enough to give her a childlike appreciation of rhythmic water fountains and The Wizard of Oz. An operation that somehow activates brain cells brings! Molly to a more sophisticated level of intelligence, much to ! the asto nishment and joy of her brother Buck (Aaron Eckhart, playing a much more sympathetic character than he did in In the Company of Men). Then, when her brain cell progress becomes threatened for some unclear reason, Molly and Buck are faced with her mental reversal. Aside from being scientifically dubious and somewhat insulting to mentally challenged people and their families, the developing sibling relationship has an emotional pull. Eckhart brings a quiet dignity to his role, lending a bit of realism with his understated performance. Shue, though saddled with an impossible character, has moments of naked emotion that almost make Molly believable. Thomas Jane (Deep Blue Sea), as a medical assistant with a never-explained "learning disability," does all he can with his equally inconsistent part but fares less well. Molly wants to be a combination of Forrest Gump and Flowers for Algernon, movies about discovering the meaning of life through an ! appreciation of simple things, but falls short. --Bret Fetzer Chris Parker (Elisabeth Shue) agrees to babysit after her "dream" date stands her up. Expecting a dull evening, Chris settles down with three kids for a night of TV ... and boredom. But when her frantic friend Brenda calls and pleads to be rescued from the bus station in downtown Chicago, the evening soon explodes into an endless whirl of hair-raising adventures! Babysitter and kids leave their safe suburban surroundings and head for the heart of the big city, never imagining how terrifyingly funny their expedition will become.Way before she grabbed an Oscar nomination for her searing performance as a world-weary prostitute in Leaving Las Vegas, Elisabeth Shue was known as one of the squeaky-clean actresses of the '80s. Having made a splash in The Karate Kid and the '60s-nostalgia TV series Call to Glory, Shue cemented her good-girl reputation with the charming but badly titled ! Adventures in Babysitting. Set in the John Hughes-style! suburbs of Chicago, the titular adventures follow babysitter Chris (Shue), who agrees to watch the Anderson kids (Keith Coogan and Maia Brewton) when her boyfriend cancels their anniversary date. All is quiet on the home front until Chris is called upon to rescue her best friend (Penelope Ann Miller, also doing good-girl duty) from the seedy downtown bus station. She can't leave the kids, and she can't leave her friend alone in the big bad city, so she packs everyone in the station wagon and heads into Chicago. Screwball craziness begins as they encounter car thieves, knife-wielding gangs, gun-toting truck drivers, and, worst of all, Chris's duplicitous boyfriend. It's hardly mature entertainment, but Shue makes it work; when she wins over the audience at a blues club with her improv singing, you'll be won over, too. In his directorial debut, Chris Columbus (who later went on to helm the sap-fests Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone) gently skewers the suburbia white-bread ! mindset of the main characters, and plays up the comedy over the schmaltz with a subtlety of which he now seems incapable; the near romance between Shue and Coogan is played lightly and adorably. Look for brief appearances by art-house faves Lolita Davidovich as a college party girl and Vincent D'Onofrio as an unlikely savior. --Mark Englehart

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US Weekly Magazine Inside Britney Spears Recovery, Jennifer Aniston's Secret Lovers, Bachelorette Jillian Harris, Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom Renew Their Vows, Kristen Bell, Issue #817, October 11, 2010 Jessica Simpson, Padma Lakshmi, Rhianna

• October 11, 2010
• Issue #817,
• US Weekly Magazine
• Jennifer Aniston's Secret Lovers,
• Inside Britney Spears Recovery

As host of Bravo's popular Top Chef, Padma reaches millions of viewers each week and returns to the page with recipes for sophisticated international cuisine that are easy to prepare. Inspired by her travels to some of the most secluded corners of the planet, Padma shares with cooks the origins of her latest exotic recipes. But you'll never have to feel as though you've just traveled the world in order to prepare them. Padma makes it simple to impress your guests with more than two hundred elegant and savory dishes such as Hot and Sour Fruit Chaat, Tangy Jicama Salad, Purée of Roasted Aubergine, Couscous with Merguez Sausage, South Indian Spinach and Lentil Soup, Red Snapper with Green Apple and Mint Chutney, Roasted Citrus Chick! en, Barbecue Korean Short Ribs, and Honeycomb Ice Cream. From appetizers to entrées, soups to desserts--Tangy Tart Hot & Sweet is the perfect book for anyone who wants cooking to be easy, elegant, and unforgettable.From international model Padma Lakshmicomes a collection of low-fat recipes that are delicious and simple to prepare. New in paperback, a tie-in to the upcoming, 13 part series starring Padma Lakshmi, to air on the Food Network in September. As an international model, Padmas schedule often leaves her with very little time to cook; yet she manages to create healthy and delicious meals. From her family and experiences of travel, she has put together easy-to-prepare recipes for the health-conscious chef. Each dish can be prepared in thirty minutes or less.The much-anticipated follow-up to the New York Times best-selling Top Chef: The Cookbook is here! Drawing from all 5 seasons of the show, Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook features! 75 of the best recipesfrom Spike's Pizza alla Greek to Stepha! nie's Bi ttersweet Chocolate Cakeculled from the Top ChefQuickfire Challenges. Everything the home chef needs to assemble an impressive meal and channel the energy of the Quickfire kitchen is collected here, including advice on hosting a Quickfire Cocktail Party and staging Quickfire Challengesat home. Best of all, this book is spilling over with sidebar material, including tips for home chefs, interviews with contestants, fabulous photos, and fun trivia related to the chefs, dishes, and ingredients that make Top Chef a favorite.With Think Like a Chef, Tom Colicchio has created a new kind of cookbook. Rather than list a series of restaurant recipes, he uses simple steps to deconstruct a chef's creative process, making it easily available to any home cook.

He starts with techniques: What's roasting, for example, and how do you do it in the oven or on top of the stove? He also gets you comfortable with braising, sautéing, and making stocks and sauces. Next he in! troduces simple "ingredients" -- roasted tomatoes, say, or braised artichokes -- and tells you how to use them in a variety of ways. So those easy roasted tomatoes may be turned into anything from a vinaigrette to a caramelized tomato tart, with many delicious options in between.

In a section called Trilogies, Tom takes three ingredients and puts them together to make one dish that's quick and other dishes that are increasingly more involved. As Tom says, "Juxtaposed in interesting ways, these ingredients prove that the whole can be greater than the sum of their parts," and you'll agree once you've tasted the Ragout of Asparagus, Morels, and Ramps or the Baked Free-Form "Ravioli" -- both dishes made with the same trilogy of ingredients.

The final section of the books offers simple recipes for components -- from zucchini with lemon thyme to roasted endive with whole spices to boulangerie potatoes -- that can be used in endless combinations.

Written in To! m's warm and friendly voice and illustrated with glorious phot! ographs of finished dishes, Think Like a Chef will bring out the master chef in all of us.


From the Hardcover edition.Cookbooks by chefs can be daunting. They're apt to include tricky restaurant recipes, or, alternately, watered-down "translations." Tom Colicchio, chef at Manhattan's top-rated Gramercy Tavern, has a better way. Think like a chef, he advises, and you tap into food preparation creativity--the ability to forgo recipes, when you wish, for spontaneous kitchen invention. In a series of innovative chapters that explore cooking fundamentals, culinary themes and variations, and "plug-in" component preparations, Colicchio provides a cooking "anatomy" for gaining kitchen mastery. The book's 100-plus recipes are offered not as ends in themselves (though they stand as delicious examples of Colicchio's simple yet sophisticated style), but as illustrative keys to the culinary processes.

How does it work? Beginning with a chapter that review! s basic cooking techniques, and includes exemplary stock- and sauce-making formulas, the book then presents a series of "studies," building-block recipes like Roasted Tomatoes, followed by simple-to-sophisticated variations, such as Roasted-Tomato Risotto. A chapter called "Trilogies" explores clusters of three-ingredient recipes--duck, root vegetables, and apples is one ingredient grouping--that show how various techniques, applied to the same ingredients, yield various exciting dishes. "Component Cooking," which focuses on vegetables (Colicchio's major source of inspiration), provides recipes like Corn and Potato Pancakes to be used for assembling a "plate." Concluding the book is "Favorites," a selection of Colicchio's specialties that range from My Favorite Chicken Soup to Poached Foie Gras, a taste bonus that also stimulates the cooking imagination. Illustrated with more than 100 color photos, and including a wide range of tips, Think Like a Chef su! cceeds at helping readers see through a chef's eyes--and in so! doing t o visualize cooking with fresh insight. --Arthur BoehmUS Weekly Magazine Inside Britney Spears Recovery, Jennifer Aniston's Secret Lovers, Bachelorette Jillian Harris, Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom Renew Their Vows, Kristen Bell, Issue #817, October 11, 2010 Jessica Simpson, Padma Lakshmi, Rhianna

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