SHOW BIZ
Two awards shows honor Hawai'i stars
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor
LIFETIME LAURELS: The Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts will bestow Lifetime Achievement awards on five recording-industry titans — Krash Kealoha, former deejay; Tom Moffatt, concert promoter and record label executive; Noelani Mahoe, veteran Hawaiian artist and Leo Nahenahe honcho; Nora Santos, veteran performer on the club circuit; and the late Haunani Kahalewai, contralto featured on yesteryear's "Hawai'i Calls" radio show and once a headliner at the Royal Hawaiian and Kahala Hilton hotels.
The salute starts at 10:30 a.m. March 30 in the Tapa Ballroom of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The recording organization, marking its 25th anniversary, will also stage its 2002 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards event from 5 p.m. May 21 at the Hawaii Ballroom of the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, and the Lifetime Achievement recognition will be spliced into the live telecast then, presumably reducing the running time of the show.
Tickets are available for both events; $55 for the Lifetime Achievement luncheon show ($45 for academy members, if bought by Monday), $95 for Na Hoku night ($80 for academy members, by May 1). Corporate tables are available. Call 235-9242 ...
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FURTHERMORE: And the "other" local music awards show, the Fifth Annual Hawai'i Music Awards, will be presented from 5 p.m. April 7 at Kapono's at Aloha Tower Marketplace. Danny Couch and Melveen Leed will join Music Foundation of Hawai'i founder Johnny Kai to emcee the evening, which includes a peculiar roster of finalists that begs the question: when will the Hawai'i Music Awards join hands with the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts? While this award program professes to salute achievement in areas not recognized by the academy, omissions of valid candidates abound, compounded by curious special awards to selected community names. Tickets are $10. Call 951-6699 ...
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BITS 'N' PIECES: James McCarthy, the singer, storyteller and musical troubadour, has been living on the Mainland since taking on an acting role in the Kaua'i-filmed "To End All Wars" with the likes of Keifer Sutherland and Robert Carlisle. McCarthy's Association of Troubadours will celebrate Celtic music and tales in a late-nighter from 9:30 to 11 p.m. tomorrow at The ARTS at Mark's Garage. In the past two months, he's been rubbing shoulders with "Seinfeld" actors, preparing a one-man show for West Coast theaters, and has been cast in the Obie Award-winning Lanford Wilson play, "Sympathetic Magic," premiering next week in L.A. ...
Charlotte Kandel, former V.P. of publicity at Warner Bros. Pictures, and hubby Stanley — holidaying at the J.W. Marriott Ihilani Resort — dined with pals the other night at Auntie Pasto's in Kapahulu, where talk invariably turned to the Oscars, in which she still votes ...
Ginai Johnston, who has been one of the lead voices in Hula Joe and the Hutjumpers, has married big-wave surfer Ted Curti III after a five-month courtship. She's off to New York Tuesday to audition for the Jennifer Holliday part in "Dreamgirls," concert versions of which are in revival. It's deja vu for her, since she was in the Tommy Aguilar/Hawai'i Theatre version of the musical years ago ...
Nalani Olds and sister Maoli Aspelund leave for Washington, D.C., this weekend to sing, by invitation, at the Smithsonian Institution. They'll do tunes by Queen Lili'uokalani ...
And that's Show Biz ...
Wayne Harada's Show Biz runs Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him by e-mail at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, phone 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.
