| Iggle Piggle co-star 'fired over suit complaint'
In another incident in May 2006, Mr Blake says he suffered pelvic injuries after being asked to lean over for long periods while wearing the pink and brown bear suit. After visiting hospital he was signed off work for a week with an injured pelvis. Mr Blake added: "I do believe in my heart of hearts that if I didn't mention anything about the suit or the verbal abuse, I would still be working at Ragdoll now. "I complained that the choreography caused me pain but I was told to carry on regardless. "It was fun being a teddy bear, it was a fun job. If I had just shut my mouth and took the abuse, I would still be there." In The Night Garden is a BBC children's television series, particularly aimed at babies and preschool children, produced in 2005 by Ragdoll Productions.
Art Deco tours show the various architectural styles of the era
Modern day South Beach is still a vibrant monument to the Art Deco designs of the late 1920s and '30s. The narrow streets are lined with hotels and buildings designed with curved edges, porthole windows and pastel-colored facades, all touchstones of the style. The Miami Design Preservation League is offering tours of the Art Deco district - guided, recorded and one that can even be done listening on a cell phone. On a recent sun-drenched morning, guide Erika Brigham, who has lived in the area since 1988, kicked off the tour with a lively talk about the architectural history of the neighborhood. She wore palm tree-shaped earrings, a gold-and-black speckled visor and a T-shirt promoting the annual weekend event celebrating Art Deco, which was scheduled this year for Jan.
Laurie Metcalf
Right out of college, she and a group of Chicago friends started Steppenwolf Theatre, which grew into one of America's most distinguished companies. (Her 20-minute monologue in Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead is an off-Broadway legend.) Later, she picked up a little sitcom called Roseanne, which rewrote the rules of television comedy with its unblinking look at blue collar life. Now Metcalf is exercising her gift for being up to the minute on Broadway, co-starring in David Mamet's new comedy November. It's a Mamet play unlike any other, with the structure of a classic comedy in the Kaufman & Hart vein but filled with scabrous jokes on such hot-button topics as the torture of prisoners, campaign fundraising, the Middle East and gay marriage. Nathan Lane stars as a U.S. President willing to shake down the national turkey lobby to save his faltering re-election campaign, with Metcalf as his lesbian speechwriter, who's not above a little blackmail to get married on national television.
Les Savy Fav: indiedom's best-kept secret
A visit to Les Savy Fav's Web site reveals this proud motto: "Missing out on cashing in for over a decade." It's been the Brooklyn-based band's curse–or blessing–to be slightly ahead of the curve without ever quite benefiting from it. "We're not really a career band," acknowledges bassist Syd Butler, reached in Washington, D.C., where he and his family are visiting his mom for Thanksgiving weekend. "We never signed to a major label, we never took advantage of the Brooklyn hype or whatever the trend was. We just kept putting along, like the Little Engine That Could. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Liars, they're amazing bands, but signing to a major label wasn't something Les Savy Fav was interested in." Known for singer Tim Harrington's unpredictable live shenanigans–kissing audience members, dangling from the rafters–as much as for clever art-rock records like The Cat and the Cobra, Les Savy Fav has been one of indiedom's best-kept secrets for over 10 years.
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