Straight Talk | Tami Lane to be recognized

ROGER MONROE

Plans are underway to recognize the only Peoria person to receive a Hollywood Oscar, movie industry’s highest award. Tami Lane, a graduate of Woodruff High School and Bradley University, received the 2005 Academy Award for Best Makeup in the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” She accepted the award along with her mentor, Howard Berger, who had hired her not long after she graduated from Bradley. Lane was nominated again in 2013 for her work in the film “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” While she lost, the Peorian gained more recognition as a skilled prosthetic artist and was in high demand, especially for horror flicks.

Lane has traveled all over the world working with producers, directors, actors and actresses in a variety of movies. She has received credits for such films as “Spiderman 2,” “Splice,” “Water for Elephants,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “The Return of the King,” “Wishmaster,” “Edge of Darkness,” “Fright Night,” “The Final Destination,” “The Awakening,” “The Wall,” “Surrogate,” “Patriots Day” and many more.

Lane has also worked on a number of TV series including “Masters of Horror,” “The Green Mile,” “Super Fun Night,” “The Spoils Before Dying,” “The Orville,” and “Legion.”

In honor of her professional success, the City of Peoria will designate West Lyndale off North Knoxville in her honor. This is a street she told us she walked along daily when attending Hines Elementary School as a child.

“It holds a lot of wonderful memories for me,” she said.

The day and time in June for the honorary naming will be determined by Lane’s availability since she’s currently working on another movie.

Tami is the daughter of Roger and Linda Lane. Her father, who was head baseball and golf coach at Woodruff High School, died in 2018.

She was a catcher at Woodruff and Bradley where she received a degree in Art. Tami was presented the Woodruff High School Distinguished Alumni Award the same year former New York Yankee pitcher Zack Monroe was recognized. Further details about the date for the street naming ceremony will be announced as they become available by local media including on ”Breakfast with Roger and Friends,” at FM 90.7.

Media Notes

I’ve been involved in and with the media for over 60 years. Yes, I know. I’m old. It’s a fun profession, but it’s riddled with bad people doing bad things to good people. When stations dump on their employees, they do it without mercy or any sense of compassion. “Here today, gone tomorrow,” is a familiar quotation. More accurately, it could be, “Here today. Gone today.”

Weatherman Jesse Guinn was reportedly dismissed unceremoniously by WEEK-TV last month. Obviously pre-planned, his replacement was there almost overnight. You can go on the Internet and read stories of people in broadcasting fired instantly, often for using a bad or inappropriate word, phrase or thought. A TV weatherman in Springfield was fired quickly for saying he didn’t like the “Code Red” term used in forecasts. Management didn’t like his thoughts, so they dumped him the next day. My advice to those in the industry is to keep your bags packed 24-7 or join a union.

Not to pick on WEEK, but the “Digging Deeper” story about murdered Peoria surgeon Dr. William Marshall provided one conclusion; Channel 25 didn’t dig very deep. It was like watching a movie that closed without an ending. Did viewers know at the end anymore than what they knew at the beginning? Truth is, producers were handicapped because police are not providing much information. Not sure why. The department’s Public Information Officer, Amy Dotson, appearing on our morning show on FM 90.7, reassured listeners detectives are working hard everyday to find the killer. She did not give us any clues what that means, so we’ll take her word for it and will assume someday, somehow, the person who committed the heinous crime will be brought to justice.

The new word in broadcasting is “podcasts.” Everyone wants to do a podcast. And I mean everyone. Did you know there are more than two million people doing podcasts? 63% of those producing podcasts are white. Listeners have plenty to choose from, too. It’s estimated there are 48 million episodes available for people around the world. For a time, the Peoria newspaper was doing podcasts, but I think they gave it up. Good decision.

Losing is no fun

No one likes to lose. Just ask Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. It happens in elections. There are winners and losers. Jim Montelongo is a nice guy. While the request for a discovery recount is rather benign in significance, it does carry risks of criticism, such as “sore loser” and “get over it.” Frank Abdnour, another nice guy, was well aware of those risks and decided not to move forward in his quest to overturn election day results for the office of Township Relief. Montelongo did concede the race for mayor to Rita Ali, but his attorneys are not happy with the way Tom Bride and his staff at the Peoria Election Commission handled some ballots. The attorneys used the commission’s own video recordings to prove their point. In one photo, a commission employee is seen rejecting a pile of ballots brought in by an alleged voter. The next photo shows the same voter going outside and dumping the same pile of ballots into the commission’s drop box. The sequence raises questions. Should the commission have accepted the ballots and required the name of the person who “harvested” the ballots and then separated them for examination? What happened to the ballots? Were they counted? Were state election laws violated? Executive director Tom Bride says no laws were broken. Attorneys have filed a lawsuit so the courts will determine who’s right.