Gossip should have no friends

[January 16th, 2008]

»DIGGORY DUE: One of two Hogwarts Champions in the Triwizard Tourney of ’94, Cedric Diggory is making his way to PDX. Well, actually, the actor who played him in those Harry Potter flicks is, and he’s come back from the dead to play a teenage vampire. Robert Pattinson will begin filming Twilight, Catherine Hardwicke’s (Lords of Dogtown ) latest film, in and around Portland beginning Feb. 25. Based on Stephenie Meyer’s popular novel, the hope is Twilight will be the first in a tweener’s trilogy. Hardwicke, who has family in Bend, has another local connection, too: She directed ’06’s The Nativity Story , written by Portland-based screenwriter Mike Rich.

»BACK IN BLACK: The collectively owned and operated Red&Black Cafe (400 SE 12th Ave., 231-3899 ), which was ousted from its Southeast Division Street home last September, has settled nicely into its freshly painted red and yellow new digs , formerly the Anne Hughes Kitchen Table cafe. Open abbreviated hours—9 am to 9 pm—while the mostly new staff gets acquainted with equipment and a pared-down vegan menu, the cafe will soon resume its familiar lineup of activist-centered events. Don’t try calling the phone number, though; all calls are being forwarded to an employee’s cell phone until the service is turned on.

»radioHEAD-free?: Bummed that Radiohead’s 2008 U.S. tour doesn’t include a Portland stop? You aren’t the only one. Greg Glover , founder of Arena Rock records and KNRK morning radio show host, talked to Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien last Friday for an interview to air this week. When pressed about the band’s Northwest bypass, Glover says O’Brien claimed the band didn’t consult him, “because I’d end up staying there.” Emboldened by the interview, Glover’s started an email petition to persuade the band to come to Portland in 2008. “Let’s just say my dialogue within the Radiohead camp [a.k.a. management] was encouraging,” says Glover. “Or I wouldn’t be wasting my time.” Just email portlandwantsradiohead@gmail.com with your impassioned plea for the band to play in Oregon for the first time since it lit up the Salem Armory in April 1998.

»HAPPY AS A PIG IN...: The words “pata negra” refer to Spanish black-hoofed pigs fed on a strict diet of acorns from cradle to knife, resulting in the most revered and spendy product in the entire pig universe: cured Iberian ham. Its lingering flavor delivers the ultimate gastro high. Ricardo Segura had the foresight to name his Northwest Portland tapas house Patanegra (1818 NW 23rd Place, 227-7282) after said ham, a product he couldn’t even obtain because of a USDA ban that was only recently lifted. It was impossible to find pata negra ham in PDX until Segura tapped his Madrid connections and imported the city’s first two legs of pata negra last weekend. For $19 a plate, which is pretty close to what you’d pay in Madrid, Segura will slice it right from the bone and you’ll be one of the first people in town to try the most celebrated element of Spanish gastronomy on Portland’s soggy winter soil. Act fast.