ARKANSAS REPRESENTED! Who were among the guests attending reality star Kim Kardashian's and rapper Kanye West's recent over-the-top week-long wedding celebration, which included private jets, an international entourage, a famed chateau and a 16th-century fortress? Hamburg native and retired Chicago Bulls NBA player Scottie Pippen and his wife, Larsa Younan. Younan is a friend of Kardashian and was featured on her pal's last televised wedding special back in 2011, reports TMZ. She also briefly starred in the TV show The Real Housewives of Miami. The Pippens have made their homes in Chicago and Fort Lauderdale. The couple attended the lavish European jet-set event, which began with pre-parties in Paris (a brunch with legendary designer Valentino and a rehearsal dinner at the Palace of Versailles) and concluded in Florence, Italy, with Kardashian, 33, wearing a Givenchy gown as she wed West, 36, at Forte di Belvedere.
SWEET SOUNDS OF SUCCESS: The Tiger Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports Central High School in Little Rock, has raised the $37,081.80 needed to fully restore the 1927 Steinway & Sons grand piano that is original to the school, reports Julie Keller, the foundation's secretary and treasurer.
"Our restoration team will make every effort to retain as much of the original piano as possible," Keller says. "And all replacement parts will be purchased from Steinway & Sons."
The restoration will begin immediately and is expected to take a full year to complete, due in large part to the extensive damage to the piano's case. The piano was made the same year the school opened.
AN AP(PEA)LING AFFAIR: The folks at the Travel Channel are interested in featuring the PurpleHull Pea Festival & World Championship Rotary Tiller Race in Emerson on the pilot of a proposed new show, Small Towns, Big Events. The TV network is so interested, in fact, that it is planning to send a nine-person crew to shoot footage of the Columbia County event for three days, says Bill Dailey, who handles public relations for the festival. That's interesting in itself as the festival only lasts for one day, set for June 28 this year on the grounds of Emerson High School. The crew is expected to arrive for the two days before the event, which marks the 25th anniversary of the festival, says Dailey.
IN THE NEWS: Camden native Candace Randle, now director of office of corporate communications and public affairs for the RLJ Cos. in Washington, D.C., was recently featured as Essence magazine's weekly Network profile in its online newsletter as a "D.C. Power Player." She first moved to Washington to work for former first lady Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2008, after which Randle worked for the U.S. Senate, then joined RLJ. Visit http://tinyurl.com/ojmwrf7 to check out her profile.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or [email protected].
Metro on 06/01/2014