Word: towns
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...same man: Louis J. Pearlman, a florid 44-year-old entrepreneur based in Orlando, Fla., whose countenance suggests Ken Starr crossed with the late Chris Farley. Pearlman's ambition for his Trans Continental Entertainment and related companies is nothing less than to create a new Motown. O-Town, for Orlando, is the name he has given his sprawling $6 million recording studio that doubles as a boot camp for would-be stars. Here the crushes of tomorrow are groomed by teams of choreographers, vocal coaches, personal trainers, marketers, stylists and p.r. experts. Pearlman's stable includes a young girl group...
...recent afternoon at the O-Town complex, C-Note is huddled inside a sound room harmonizing with a vocal coach, while down the hall, Take Five, a younger-than-'N Sync quintet for pre-preteen fans, is practicing footwork with a choreographer. Pearlman comes in to take a look, and the kids stop to give him hugs and shake his hand. "What's up, Big Poppa?" one of them asks (they actually call him that). "Did you get a haircut, man?" "You look like Tom Cruise," jokes another. Big Poppa beams...
...studio, most found through ads in the trades or auditions; many are from the Orlando area, where performers now flock because of the increasing film and television production at Disney and Universal, as well as all the singing and dancing jobs at theme-park shows. The O-Town kids are paid $500 to $1,000 a week until their groups take off and they start making real money. Or not. A reporter jokes that if things don't work out, the boys can always go to work for the Chippendales chain, which Pearlman owns. "Or make pizza," Big Poppa adds...
...than almost every other Sundance screening. Former brat packer Ally Sheedy, who resurfaced after a decade of TV movies with her acclaimed performance in last year's High Art, has a chance with two new films, the dysfunctional-family weepie The Autumn Heart and the music-industry romp Sugar Town. But your best bet might be Sarah Polley, a 20-year-old Canadian actress who stars in the way-cool teen comedy noir Go and in Guinevere, a serious coming-of-age story about a May-September romance...
KATHARINE MERLIN, Town & Country: I think it will continue to hold its own in the astrological community. Curiously, Pluto is the "planet of transformation," so maybe this is entirely in keeping with what it symbolizes astrologically...