LYDIA CORNELL FAN CLUB

Sunday, September 12, 2010

KISS TOUR BREAKS UP LYDIA CORNELL'S MARRIAGE

This is an outrageous story. Stay tuned for the details from IMPULSE magazine.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

LYDIA CORNELL, MARIO LOPEZ, JOE MANTEGNA IN THE O.C.

In MSNBC and OC Register: Stars turn out on the Red Carpet for the PAGEANT OF THE MASTERS in Laguna Beach

Lydia Cornell, Mario Lopez, Joe Mantegna, Marg Helgenberger, Donna Mills, Vicki Gunvalson

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38904984/ns/local_news-orange_county_ca/38902743

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/gala-264171-laguna-pageant.html

Other celebrity guests included Marg Helgenberger ("CSI"), Joseph Mascolo ("Days of Our Lives"), Drew Tyler Bell ("The Bold and the Beautiful"), A.J. Cook ("Criminal Minds"), Sarah Drew ("Grey's Anatomy"), Kate Linder ("The Young and the Restless"), Donna Mills ("Knots Landing"), Matthew Gray Gubler ("Criminal Minds"), Lydia Cornell ("Too Close for Comfort") and Vicki Gunvalson ("The Real Housewives of Orange County").

"The show is mind blowing," said Gubler, who recently turned 30. "It's so hard to describe something like this." Gubler had a role in the film, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," and described the experience of working with Bill Murray as "a dream come true."

Laguna Beach Mayor Elizabeth Pearson, councilmember Kelly Boyd and other city representatives also attended the gala, which included dinner at Tivoli Terrace and a live presentation of the 77th annual Pageant of the Masters.

"This is one of the best events of the year in Laguna Beach," Pearson said. "We always look forward to having our visitors from Hollywood here. They are artistic and appreciate the arts as much as Laguna Beach residents do."

Reality TV star Gunvalson brought her friend Judy Koulias to the pageant gala. "I'm very happy to be part of this," said Gunvalson, one of the original "housewives" on the popular Bravo TV show. "It's so beautiful. I love it. I love the arts. It's magical. It's like Disneyland in an adult world."

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

JOIN LYDIA LIVE ON KELSEY GRAMMER'S TODHD

Too Close for Comfort's Lydia Cornell Returns to Comedy with TV Icon Kelsey Grammer on his new Entertainment Network

Sunday, April 11, 2010

ABOUT LYDIA CORNELL: QUICK FACTS

Lydia Cornell has been Invited to contribute her writings to The International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou & Sir Edmund Hillary.

ABOUT LYDIA CORNELL

"AFI Best Actress nominee and People's Choice Award winner Lydia Cornell, currently starring in the new Kelsey Grammer-Bill Zucker Comedy Hour (2010), is an international celebrity, award-winning actress, writer, comedienne, and talk-radio host best known for her role as "Sara Rush” - Ted Knight's dazzlingly beautiful yet stereotypically dumb blonde daughter on ABC's hit series, Too Close for Comfort — and for her headline-making feud with Ann Coulter.

Known for her knife-sharp humor on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, in her headline-making feud with Ann Coulter, in her standup comedy concerts, on her morning-drive radio show and award-winning blog articles Cornell has been called: “A fresh voice; one of the most original voices in America today.”

Lydia starred in over 250 TV shows & films including Full House, Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, A-Team, Hunter, Hardball, Hotel (2), Love Boat (6), Fantasy Island, T.J. Hooker and the pilot of the cult series Quantum Leap with Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. She signed hundreds of autographs at their convention earlier this year in Los Angeles. She co-starred with three Oscar winners James Earl Jones, Jose Ferrer and Lila Kedrova in The Red Tide, shot in the Greek Isles.

• Lydia was recently seen in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, currently in the new Kelsey Grammer-Bill Zucker 2010 Comedy Hour
• Lydia costars with Robert Downey, Jr, Jon Bon Jovi, and Sara Silverman in Dean Grakal’s upcoming Sundance release Me, Miami and Nancy;
• Lydia costars in the critically-acclaimed feature Damage Done.
• Lydia is in talks with Dancing with the Stars
• Cornell has a new comic memoir coming out in 2011.
• Lydia Cornell's blog - a triple Koufax nominee for best writing, recipient of the Thinking Blogger Award and winner of the Freedom Award and three World Report Awards, is “a consistently thought-provoking firecracker of pointed socio-political commentary and observant, caustic wit.” (Yahoo News; Shotgun Reviews.)
Stars in her original three-woman show: Pain is Inevitable, Sex Optional.
• Political Voices of Women Best Writing Awards ~ World Report Award, Thinking Blogger Award; Weblog Award and Double Koufax Nominee.
• Standup Comedy ~ Improv, Laugh Factory, Las Vegas at the Riviera, Sahara; opening for Paul Rodriguez at Pechanga 1500 seat theater
• Radio Show Co-Host www.BashamandCornell.com KLAV 1250 AM morning drive Las Vegas' New Entertainment talk show
• Teen Mentor - Mentors teens; Hosts “The Answer Room” for troubled youth. Volunteers with sons for Red Cross, Imagine L.A., homeless children, and houses a domestic abuse survivor.
• Raising a special-needs child with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease)
• Host of Oxygen Network documentary “Safe Passage” on battered women.
• Too Close for Comfort has been in worldwide syndication for over 25 years and recently began airing again on WGN and in top markets nationwide.
• John Conley, a disabled Marine combat vet, sent her his Purple Heart for her courage in standing up to Ann Coulter's 'extermination speak' in her article “Death is Sexier than Sex.”
• Received the USO Distinguished Service Award for her Beirut war zone trip.
• Google Hot Trends: What is Popular/What is Hot: Lydia Cornell in Google's top 100 trends for October, November 2008. And most read articles. Cornell has written over 250 spiritual-political articles on government, politics, the election, sex and religion.
• Most read stories of 2005.
• Breaking Yahoo! News: Too Close for Comfort actress Lydia Cornell interviews world leaders, presidential candidates and Pulitzer Prizewinners for new radio show http://www.lydiacornell.com/yahoocached.pdf
• In January 2009, Lydia Cornell was profiled in 2009 on TMZ. “In the '80s, Lydia Cornell became famous as Ted Knight's blonde daughter on the TV series Too Close for Comfort. Guess what she looks like now? “Fergie from Black Eyed Peas…”
• Interviewed Elizabeth and John Edwards during his affair with Rielle Hunter
• Founder of the upcoming Comedy Dance Film Festival, which she will cohost with Saturday Night Live alum Jon Lovitz, for a network, at his Comedy Club in Universal City Walk in 2011.
• Has been invited to contribute her writings to The International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou & Sir Edmund Hillary

Monday, June 15, 2009

LYDIA CORNELL INTERVIEW * THE BIG QUESTION

Reprinted from
SHOTGUN REVIEWS

Living in the '80s
A column by Michael Sutton

An Interview with Lydia Cornell - Chapter I

Her beautiful eyes, wide open and brimming with youthful wonder, awakened male adolescence in 1980.

For boys of the '80s, actress Lydia Cornell was the first page of a colorful, thrillingly creative decade. Playing the sexy yet virginal daughter of Ted Knight in the ABC-TV sitcom Too Close for Comfort , Cornell was the last pin-up girl before MTV's arrival, when the trashy, tramp-look of Madonna defined - and constantly updated - the standard by which cathode-ray crushes are measured. Cornell radiated Girl Next Door innocence and angelic loveliness even when attired in the most skimpy shorts allowed by network programmers at that time.

However, that was over 20 years ago. Like many TV teenage actors and actresses who quickly found fame but then suddenly became lost after their once-popular weekly series was over, Cornell plummeted from Cloud 9, drowning herself with insecurities and dangerous addictions. But a wake-up call and the birth of her son brought the gaining of wisdom. As "pain is the touchstone of all spiritual progress," Cornell found her center and eventually herself.

Ironically, even though Cornell is actually more stunning today than in the '80s, it's her ideas that are landing her headlines. Cornell's blog, http://www.lydiacornell.com/blog.html , a double Koufax nominee for best writing, is a consistently thought-provoking firecracker of pointed socio-political commentary and observant, caustic wit. A Marine combat vet even sent her his Purple Heart for her courage in speaking out about the war in Iraq. Although still somewhat active in Hollywood, recently appearing on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and garnering indie acting nominations, Cornell spends most of her time, creatively speaking, in front of her keyboard. She has several novels awaiting publication including the thriller The Sylvia Plan , about the Trotsky assassination; the comedy Venus Conspiracy ; and the hilariously insightful one-woman show Relationshop .

Born in El Paso, Texas but raised in New York, Cornell didn't have to wait long before the celebrity spotlight cast its attention on her. Losing the role in the first pilot she auditioned for, Cornell was quickly snatched up for Too Close for Comfort . As Sara Rush, Cornell was the naive knockout blonde counterpart to Deborah Van Valkenburgh's street-smart older brunette. Simultaneously Cornell was cast in the horror film Blood Tide with James Earl Jones and Jose Ferrer. However, it was a double whammy that Cornell wasn't quite prepared for. "It was so much," Cornell revealed. "I panicked, thinking I wasn't good enough, didn't look good enough." It certainly didn't help that Knight, trying to follow up his career-making success on The Mary Tyler Moore Show , was initially challenging to deal with. "It was difficult in the beginning because Ted wasn't easygoing," Cornell explained. "He was trying to make a comeback." Sometimes Cornell's relative inexperience caused minor irritations with Knight which were then inflated as major on-set troubles by The National Enquirer . "I got yelled at by Ted because I was looking at his forehead. In the middle of a scene, I was afraid to look into his eyes because I might laugh out of nervousness!" Cornell recalled, laughing. Such incidents would be then by warped by the tabloids, falsely claiming that she was causing friction on the show.

Cornell became infatuated with JM J. Bullock, who played Sara's effeminate pal Monroe Ficus, completely unaware of his sexual orientation. "I was the only person who didn't know he was gay," Cornell revealed. "Everybody knew but me!" As they walked out onto the stage, Bullock often wiggled his ass in front of Cornell, who would then blow a shot because she couldn't stop giggling.Despite all of the laughter, and an improving relationship with Knight, the producers constantly warned her that if she didn't stay thin and perfect, they would lose ratings. One day they caught her walking from the lunch room with a burrito, a box of Oreos, and a bag of M&M's and scolded her, shouting: "Don't you know you're a sex symbol!? You can't eat starch!" (Their actions would later spark artistic fuel for Cornell's screenplay for Venus Conspiracy , an indie film about Hollywood pressures on young women to remain skinny and unsure of themselves.)

Cornell developed problems with her mother as well. "My mother was a genius and a perfectionist. I adore her, but we had terrible conflicts growing up," Cornell said. "She wanted me to be a Wall Street banker, but I didn't have the numbers gene; I was a tortured artist.” Consequently, Cornell's acting career became the foundation of her self-esteem. "When you don't feel validation or approval, you try to get it from masses of strangers." And so for five years Too Close for Comfort became Cornell's primary source of attention and acceptance.

But then Ted Knight died in 1986 and ABC pulled the plug.

The spotlight, which had shown so brightly, was abruptly dimmed, leaving a very fragile girl in the darkness. It would take years of learning - and living hard - for Cornell to find her way out.

Cornell vanished from the public eye, using her savings to travel, write and jet-set around the globe. Like a planet knocked out of orbit, Cornell's life then spiraled into the abyss, descending into a black hole of drugs and alcohol. Then one day Cornell came home and found the body of her younger brother Paul, who had just died from an overdose of narcotics. The walls were collapsing around her, leaving her in depths of despair.

Until the light appeared.

To Be Continued

Michael Sutton has been a professional freelance entertainment writer since 1987. His work has appeared in magazines such as Amazing Heroes, Cinefantastique, and Fantazia. He wrote more than 500 articles for the All-Music Guide, mostly about New Wave artists. He won First Place at the Washington Press Association Awards in 1989 (A&E) and 1999 (Column) and Greater Northwest Journalism Awards (Editorial) in 2002.

Return to the Big Question