DEBORA SHAULIS | On the Scene Chris Columbus projects due

Before moviegoers spend "Christmas with the Kranks," they can get to know the film's writer, Chris Columbus.
The former Trumbull County resident's career will be traced during a one-hour episode of "The Directors" on Nov. 6 on Encore, a cable TV channel that's affiliated with Starz premium movie services.
Columbus doesn't mention this area by name, but the facts are there. Born in 1958 in Spangler, Pa., Columbus was 3 years old when his parents moved to Ohio -- specifically, Warren. His father found work in an aluminum factory and his now-deceased mother got a job at General Motors. The boy loved Marvel comic books and briefly considered being an illustrator before turning to films.
When Columbus says he persuaded his high school theology teacher to let him fulfill his assignments by making Super 8 films rather than writing papers, he's referring to his alma mater, John F. Kennedy High School.
Headed to film school
His parents wanted him to study medicine or law, but Columbus opted for film school at New York University. His career soared after Steven Spielberg's production company, Amblin Entertainment, accepted his script titled "Gremlins" and turned it into a hit movie. Columbus also wrote "The Goonies" and "Young Sherlock Holmes" for Spielberg but says he was fired during the making of the third Indiana Jones movie because he was journaling Spielberg's and director George Lucas' story ideas rather than developing his own.
Columbus made a few films before getting another big break -- the chance to direct the 1990 comedy "Home Alone," starring young Macaulay Culkin as a stranded boy who foils burglars' attempts to break into his home. More recently, Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter movies.
His "Christmas with the Kranks," directed by Joe Roth, stars Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as a couple that chooses a vacation over a traditional holiday celebration, until their adult daughter makes a last-minute decision to come home.
Those interviewed about Columbus for "The Directors" include Maureen O'Hara ("Only the Lonely"), Daniel Stern ("Home Alone"), Harvey Fierstein and Robin Williams ("Mrs. Doubtfire") and Daniel Radcliffe ("Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone").
Bosley's book
Meanwhile, broadcast personality Catherine Bosley is getting ready to bare her soul after that nude dance that put her in the national spotlight.
"I am writing a book on all the craziness that has made up my life, actually, for the past several years with the wet T-shirt contest, of course, being the focus," Bosley wrote in a recent e-mail. "So, even though I'm moving on, I feel my story, told in detail, has some valuable, interesting lessons in it." She's working with a literary agent in Boston who has just begun to search for a publisher, she said.
"Also, writing that book has been such therapy for me and is really helping me put things in perspective enough where I am again comfortable to be in the public eye, or ear, again!" she added.
Bosley, who left WKBN-TV Channel 27 News after nude photos of her began to circulate on the Internet, joined Y-103 Radio last week. Her participation in that contest won't become a running joke on the morning show she now co-hosts, she said.
"The Florida fiasco will always be a part of me now, and I've come to terms with that. I will address it when I have to and can finally joke about is somewhat, but, that's not what this job is about; both Scott [Kennedy] and I strongly agree on that." Kennedy is the station's program director.
Bosley continues to work as marketing director the Medical Imaging Network's MammoVan program.
Scholarship fund
Finally, local artists will raise money for the Cookie Pesce Scholarship Fund at Ursuline High School with a show at 9 p.m. Sept. 25 at Cedar Lounge, 23 N. Hazel St.
"Calling Down the Gods" will be an evening of dance, music, poetry and film. Performers will include poets Billy Knighthawk and Frank Polite; dancer Sarah Terlecki; and singer Obie Savage, Pesce's son, with jazz musician Teddy Pantelas. Admission will be $7.
Before Pesce died of breast cancer last spring, she taught dance and worked as a director and choreographer for 30 years. She directed many shows at Ursuline. The scholarship will be awarded to a student who is involved in performing arts.
XDebora Shaulis is entertainment editor. Write her at shaulis@vindy.com.