Entrepreneur Jack Cione is back from a Broadway visit, where he took in 10 shows, but the journey was marred on his final night. Exiting "Chicago," he was robbed of his money clip plus a credit card by a gang of youths.
"I was shoved from the back, and my glasses fell from my face but a guy ‘saved’ me with both his hands in my armpits," Cione recalled upon returning home. "Someone picked up my glasses (unbroken), and the group members asked me if I was all right and were concerned I needed help back to my hotel."
He declined but later realized it was a scam. Several hundred dollars and a credit card were extracted from his trousers pocket during the distraction. Though uninjured, Cione became a statistic: a senior victimized by punks. Penniless and helpless, he reported the incident to hotel authorities and filed a police report and was told several similar robberies took place that evening. "Fortunately, I had my passport stored at the hotel, so I had ID, and the hotel was kind enough to provide me breakfast before I departed for my flight and also paid for a shuttle ride to the airport," said Cione. Some goodness prevailed, after all.
Ironically, "Something Rotten," the favorite of all the musicals he saw, unintentionally summed up the incident. …
SMALL WORLD: Cha Thompson, in Brussels for a European cultural mission on the environment and South Pacific island nations, ran into dancer-choreographer Peter Espiritu of the Tau Dance Company, who recognized her in the hotel gym while he was there with a 30-member Fijian dance group to perform for heads of state. "Are you Cha Thompson?" he asked, not anticipating seeing a fellow islander so far away from home. "We hugged, and I told him I knew his mom," she said. …
While in Brussels, Thompson visitedSaint Damien de Veuster‘s crypt. "This man was truly a saint; it made me cry," she said of his legacy with Hansen’s disease patients. "While I am not a Catholic, you can’t deny a holy man; it was so serene."Thompson has been living the life of a jet-setter the past few weeks. She was in Samoa for a week, returned home for a couple of days, then flew off to Brussels via New York and a Frankfurt stopover. She returns Friday — eager to sleep in her own bed. …
TALK ABOUT PEOPLE:Have you seen those YouTube postings of a buff Zac Efron and Adam DeVine swimming with the tiger sharks off Haleiwa?The actors, who portray brothers in "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates," filming on the North Shore, weren’t acting in the stunning underwater footage. Efron, 27, and DeVine, 31, cavort with the sharks and even ride the currents by holding on to one shark’s fin — the stuff ofeither sheer bravery or simple foolishness. They tweeted that they ate sardines before going under the sea (a video had ’em pulling off the cover of a tin) and they flashed a few shaka signs during the snorkeling adventure via One Ocean Diving. Efron has been highly visible, earlier hiking in Lanikai with co-stars Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza, and hitting golf balls at Turtle Bay. "Wedding" will be released July 8, 2016, but Efron has roles in two other upcoming flicks, "Dirty Grandpa" and "We Are Your Friends."DeVine is currently in "Pitch Perfect 2." …
DATEBOOK: Direct from the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., Honu the larger-than-life mascot for Johnson Enos‘ "Honu by the Sea — the Musical," will make its first island appearance July 4 at the Celebration of Turtle Independence Day at the Waikiki Aquarium. The event is a prelude to a Sept. 9-20 run for school and public audiences at the Hawaii Theatre — and with Disney participation, you can count on exceptional costumes and production values. …
Hawaii Public Radio will stage "Jeff Peterson & Friends: Back in the Day" at 4 p.m. Aug. 9 at Paliku Theatre at Windward Community College.The friends include Keola and Moanalani Beamer, Nathan Aweau and Kawena Mechler. Tickets — $30 to $60 — go on sale Monday. Call 955-8821. …
And that’s "Show Biz." …
———
Wayne Harada is a veteran entertainment columnist; reach him at 266-0926 or wayneharada@gmail.com; read his Show and Tell Hawaii blog at www.staradvertiser.com.
