Katie Couric is due in Denver on Thursday to meet and greet the brass at KCNC-Channel 4, where her CBS Evening News will place its bets in September. She’ll hold a kind of Town Meeting for 100 that morning at one of the DCPA’s venues. No press allowed, and none of the staffers from KCNC either. Just plain folks telling Katie what they want to see on the news. More than 1,000 people applied to be part of the party. Many are called, few are chosen.
After the Town Meeting, she’ll walk to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House where she’ll speak at a cancer benefit luncheon at Kevin Taylor’s restaurant. Just a smattering of local press and “Entertainment Tonight” will attend the repast for 150 who paid $250 to the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers.
Couric is in Aspen this week for the Ideas Festival. She had something to say about Ken Lay’s death in nearby Old Snowmass. “The whole thing is a sad commentary on corporate malfeasance and then the effect it can have on an individual and an entire community,” she told Aspen Daily News reporter Troy Hooper.
I hope she doesn’t use big words like “malfeasance” on the news.
Word is Couric will not stay over during her Denver visit. She’s here for the morning meetings and lunch, then out.
Local huzzahs
Mike Drumm’s Denver-based video production company, Music Link, has been nominated for two national Emmys for its work on the HBO special “Bill Maher: I’m Swiss.”
Drumm also assisted Peter Bogdanovich last week when he shot Tom Petty at the Pepsi Center for his Petty documentary.
Denver’s Francisco Chacon, known as DJ Cysco-Rokwel, keeps moving up in the competition – hoping to land in the Sept. 1 Spin Off Grand Finals in San Fran.
The River Boys Dutch Hop Band, a northern Colorado polka group, played the Kennedy Center June 21 at the invitation of the Library of Congress. And those people know their polka!
Nobody beats the Wiz
PHAMALy (Physically Handicapped Amateur Musical Actors League) presents its unique adaptation of “The Wiz” Friday through July 30 at the DPAC’s Space Theatre.
Don Mauck, the actor who plays the Cowardly Lion, has been blind since birth – so his ocular prosthetist has made him special glass cat eyes for the show.
Juliet Villa, the actress who plays Dorothy, is also blind, so Toto fits in perfectly, played by Deidra, her seeing-eye dog.
City spirit
Big happy birthdays to Michael Geller, 60 last week and Dutch Hilderbrand, 80 last Thursday … Al Franken booked into the Paramount Aug. 24 for The Stand Up for Change tour … To celebrate its new in-house BBQ smokers, Hard Rock Cafes will dole out free BBQ to all firefighters on Tuesday … The 19th annual Denver Polo Classic kicks it Friday through July 16 at Columbine Polo Club. It starts with the Diamonds and Divots Black Tie Ball Friday. Tix at Ticketmaster … “The Dreams of Laura Bush” and “The Passion of Terry Schiavo” performed by Karen Finley July 14 and 15 at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art … Sez who: “I just need to work forever.” Jodie Foster
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-820-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com.
