Odd Couple

The 2009 cast of "Moonlight and Magnolias"... me, David McClutchey, Mike Brocki and Temple Theatre Producing Director Peggy Taphorn. (Click image to up-rez.) — The 2009 cast of “Moonlight and Magnolias”… me, David McClutchey, Mike Brocki and Temple Theatre Producing Director Peggy Taphorn. (Click image to up-rez.)

Peggy Taphorn called this afternoon to offer me the role of poker player Vinnie in her February production of The Odd Couple. Craig Rhyne will direct and Temple stalwart Mike Brocki will play Felix/Oscar in rotation with another actor. (They’re calling it “an experiment.”) Craig directed Peggy, Mike Brocki and me in Moonlight and Magnolias back in 2009.

Mark Filiaci, who directed Mike and me in Dial ‘M’ for Murder last October, will play poker player Roy and Peggy has cast herself as Gwendolyn, one of the two Pigeon sisters. That makes this a 75% Moonlight reunion – or something like that – and a 25% Dial ‘M’ reunion. Or something like that. Whatever. My script is in the mail.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta recently launched its Strong4Life childhood obesity campaign with a series of controversial black and white ads. Obese children speaking hard truths about their condition. So hard are these truths, in fact, that some folks believe the ads will harm the very children they seek to help by encouraging ridicule and lowering self-esteem.

Georgia has the second highest childhood obesity rate in the country. That’s almost one million children, many of whom suffer from historically adult disorders like hypertension, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The social demographics skew as one might expect, so how to convince unhealthy, uneducated, underachieving parents to stop feeding their obese children potato chips and soda pop without hurting anybody’s feelings? According to the Strong4Life website, ” 75% of parents in Georgia who have overweight or obese children do not recognize the problem.” They don’t even know their kids are fat!