Table of Contents
August 2008
Catch: Editor’s August picks
page: 16
Splash of Personality
StyleIQ: It's All on the Wrist
page: 18
Gucci Chiodo watches
12 Things She Can't Live Without
page: 19
Chris Pfahler
Shop Talk: Two Bees, One Hive and a Whole Lot of Buzz
page: 20
Newlyweds Justin Kingsley Noyes and Rachel Vanatta imbue their Anna Maria Island shop, The Hive, with bohemian charm.
Style IQ: Trend
page: 22
Trend Spotting 101 at the ICFF
Nest: House*Home
page: 32
Recipes for an Italian Kitchen in Sarasota
The Spirit of New Orleans
page: 24
Featuring the work of photographer Craig Litten.
Agenda: Sarasota’s Reality Stars
page: 36
The Landers family makes their small screen debut.
"Just act normally," the television producer told the SRQ: Sarasota's Premier Magazine photo crew. More accustomed to being on the other side of the lens, our team
listened closely to the advice of the producer from Hollywood. "Pretend the cameras aren't here and do whatever you normally do: work, fight, yell at each other . . . just kidding." Then, with a helpful smile and no sense of irony, she added, "But yelling is what gets you on TV."
When you spend time with the Landers, Sarasota's most prolifically performing family, it's hard not to get a little "celebrity confused." Every mom, son and daughter seems to have a recording deal, a TV series or at least a quick listing on IMDB (The Internet Movie Database). Throughout 2008, Real World producers Bunim-Murray have been following the family while in Sarasota and Los Angeles and on concert trips to Germany. With two famous performing beauties as mothers and four teen children—two beautiful blond daughters and twin performing sons—it was probably only a matter of time before the mighty engine of reality TV took notice.
The matriarch of the family, Ruth Landers, was a model herself before she turned her attention to her daughters' careers. She has shepherded both of her daughters and all four of her grandchildren into successful and thriving careers. Audrey and Judy were the go-to bombshells of the entertainment industry in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Audrey is best known for her roles as Afton Cooper on Dallas and Val Clarke in A Chorus Line, and Judy was a TV staple with regular appearances in popular shows of the era such as The Love Boat, Night Court, Vega$ and B.J. and the Bear. They capped this period of their lives off with a well-known, non-nude pictorial in Playboy in 1983.
Judy's twin sons, Adam and Daniel, and Audrey's daughters, Lindsay and Kristy, all in their early teens, are all performers and recording artists. The four radiate for the camera—this is a family that is always "on." Add a little bit of sibling-cousin rivalry and what for all four kids will be a very public exploration of their awkward teenage years, and we may be seeing a lot more of the Landers than we are used to.
The videographers followed the Landers into a photo shoot for SRQ. Unfortunately, for our moment of fame, the SRQ team neither yells nor fights, so we may have missed our shot at reality TV immortality—although we are pretty certain that they will use Ruth leading her daughters and grandchildren in a rousing chorus of "Umgowa! Umgowa! Landers Family got the Powa!"
For those of us in Sarasota accustomed to seeing the ever-glamorous Landers family around town (Panera Bread regulars) and at all the hippest events (Sarasota Film Festival), it will be a bit of a shock to see "our" girls and our town on the small screen later this year. Ruth knows the risks of turning television producers loose on her family but is confident that they will be able to thrive with the attention. “It will be okay,” she says. “We are a show business family, and that means the whole family knows that show business is a business."
Having worked with a lot of talent through the years, our crew found the Landers to be supportive and kind—and this pretty much guarantees that the Landers won't seem anything like themselves when we see them on TV. The producers and crew were clearly experts at capturing every personality blemish in microscopic detail—a very particular skill that is in high demand today. As one of the crew told SRQ: "We don't need compliments, that's why we get paid ridiculous money."
From left to right front row: Judy, Ruth, Daniel, and Audrey Landers. Back row: Lindsay and Kristy Landers. Upper right: Wes Roberts (center) and the Landers review images from the photo shoot.
—By Wes Roberts, Portrait by Salvatore Brancifort and Behind-the-Scene photo by Cat Horton
Bourne Legacy
page: 40
Ballet buddies Iain Webb and Matthew Bourne bandy about mutual fandom and more Bourne in the Sarasota Ballet’s upcoming season.
The Power of Protagonists
page: 47
A cast of forward-thinking characters writes a new chapter for Sarasota’s future.
The Power of The Equalizer
page: 62
District 13 Rep. Vern Buchanan is up for re-election this November. Will the businessman’s first-term political accomplishments be enough to keep him in office? Here, SRQ examines 10 issues that have defined the congressman’s personal and political agendas thus far.
Wine Country
page: 74
Extended OenoFamily
Local Sarasotans Christiaan and Bettina Von Walhoff, Barry and Susan Collier, Bob Broman and Bob and Diane Roskamp adventure into the romance of owning a piece of wine country.
Dish: Chop the Kasbah
page: 83
Moroccan Chop Salad at the Bean Stalk.
The Five Quintessential “Power” Foods
page: 84
The Art of the Meal
Uncorked
page: 94
“We toasted to the continuation of the club … but eventually we all went our separate ways.”
Body Dimensions: Are We Clueless About Cancer?
page: 104
A survey suggests we think “everything” causes cancer and that there’s nothing we can do to protect ourselves from it. Can we really be that ignorant?
Body+: Body Updates
page: 110
Bone health, 20/20 vision and memory boost.
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