Gossip Should Have No Friends

[November 29th, 2006] ACTING OUT As first reported on wweek.com's WWire this past Monday, the ongoing drama between John Monteverde , the former artistic director of Northwest Children's Theater and School , and his erstwhile employer just got messier. Monteverde was fired with little explanation in June, and immediately formed a new children's theater company, Blue Monkey Theater , which announced a debut season remarkably similar to the one he'd planned at NWCTS. Now, after a failed mediation session this summer, Monteverde is suing NWCTS for wrongful discharge, defamation, invasion of privacy and misappropriation of likeness. In a complaint filed Nov. 15, he alleges that the board of the venerable educational institution fired him when he threatened to expose financial shenanigans by managing director Judy Kafoury, and then implied that he was let go for molesting his students. Kafoury told WW she isn't "at all worried" by the suit, and that "Monteverde was terminated because of the way he treated the people in this organization."

THE HOMELESS ACT More nasty Portland theater news: The Brody Theater, Portland's leading venue for improvised theater, has lost the lease on its building on Northwest 27th Avenue and will, as of Dec. 16, be officially homeless. The news comes just after the Brodys finished a monthlong 10th anniversary celebration and what artistic director Tom Johnson called the company's "best year ever." "This is not another case of a small theater biting the dust out of financial failure," he wrote in a press release Monday morning. Johnson says he and the company have no intention of letting the loss of their space get them down: They'll be travelling to Amsterdam in January as the only American participants in the Amsterdam International Improv Festival , and classes scheduled for January should happen as planned. The Brodys will say goodbye to their home with a final performance, ...And Stay Out!, on Dec. 16 at 10:30 pm. All tickets are $6. Call 224-0688 for reservations.

SHIT'S TALKER As if the nation didn't get enough of Portland-based syndicated radio talk show host Lars Larson, now audiences can see him on the hot seat. The local right-wing mouthpiece will be featured on magicians/provocateurs Penn & Teller's Showtime series Bullshit! which, according to the pair, is dedicated to "revealing truth and exposing hypocrisy." So far, the show has called you-know-what on people who favor the death penalty, virgins, bigfoot supporters and the Boy Scouts of America (among other targets). Specifics on the show featuring Larson are hazy, but the radio host did email WW to let us know that "patriotism is the subject. [It] should be fun...but their new season doesn't begin till March," Larson continued, "so we'll have to wait to see what they do to me." We're betting it may have something to do with what English wit Samuel Johnson said about patriotism being the last refuge of the scoundrel....

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WHAT YOU MISSED ON WW LOCALCUT.COM THIS WEEK: NME's "Cool List 2006" names local cool person Beth Ditto of The Gossip totally cool...Also cool: Amy McCullough's latest installment of Band Name of the Week, featuring the super-cool Cancer Fags...Rad America bonds over turkey fried and faux in Jason Simms' cool column "Friendly, Friendly World"...New, cool tour diaries from Norfolk and Western...And what's cooler than MP3s from Jon Garcia, Fontanelle and more?