News

As part of hunky boy band 98 Degrees, Jeff Timmons grew accustomed to hordes of women going wild with ecstatic screams each time he went shirtless. “98 Degrees weren’t known as being incredible dancers -- we were the guys next door who were fit,” the now 44-year-old performer laughs. At 18, Channing Tatum also got a taste of serving as eye candy while working as a stripper in Florida. Model Tyson Beckford, 46, meanwhile, recalls walking past New York’s Chippendales club as a kid, thinking, I want to look like that someday. He has since become used to ogling eyes excitedly checking him out in shirtless ad campaigns.

While the thrill of physical adoration has undeniably helped the trio make a buck over the years, none of them could have imagined that years later they would help transform the male entertainment scene in the strip show-saturated city of Las Vegas. Tatum recently launched Magic Mike Live, capitalizing on the...

Chicago – Director Jack C. Newell ended up meeting one of his great collaborators while taking classes at Columbia College Chicago. His future filmmaking partner turned out to not be a fellow peer, but his teacher, Ron Falzone. Together, they made the acclaimed short, “Typing,” about two Hollywood screenwriters whose brainstorming session draws inspiration from the clacking of typewriter keys in the next room.

Newell and Falzone’s first feature effort is “Close Quarters,” an endearing and insightful collection of parallel vignettes set in a Chicago coffee shop. Baristas Abby (Erica Unger) and Barry (Seth Unger) flirt with the possibility of long-term romance while observing the dysfunctional relationships of their customers. Two friends, Patrick (Tj Jagodowski) and Olivia (Kate Duffy), chat upstairs while their respective partners, Dina (Holly Laurent) and Cary (Dave Pasquesi), make love in the downstairs bathroom. An estranged couple (Susan Messing and Jim Carlson) argue over Skype while...