Owen Elliot-Kugell remembers the last time she saw her mom. It was the summer of 1974, and the seven-year-old was on an airplane departing London. Just like that scene in Almost Famous, Elliot-Kugell said goodbye through the window. “She puts my seat belt on and kisses me and says, ‘Look in the window,’” Elliot-Kugell tells Rolling Stone. “I’m going to go to the airport terminal, and I’m going to wave. Go wave! Go wave!’ That’s the last time I saw her.”
Elliot-Kugell’s mother, the one and only Cass Elliot,...
Elliot-Kugell’s mother, the one and only Cass Elliot,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
What do Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, and a top-down convertible ride on a cliff in Majorca have to do with folk-rock legend Cass Elliot?
The answer — like most things nowadays — involves a new meme sweeping TikTok. Taken from a scene in the 2022 film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the short clip features a scowling Cage looking at a cheesing, completely unbothered, nothing-behind-the-eyes, Pascal — all set to the tune of Elliot’s 1969 song “Make Your Own Kind of Music.” Since February 2023, it’s become part of a meme on TikTok,...
The answer — like most things nowadays — involves a new meme sweeping TikTok. Taken from a scene in the 2022 film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, the short clip features a scowling Cage looking at a cheesing, completely unbothered, nothing-behind-the-eyes, Pascal — all set to the tune of Elliot’s 1969 song “Make Your Own Kind of Music.” Since February 2023, it’s become part of a meme on TikTok,...
- 3/9/2023
- by CT Jones
- Rollingstone.com
The Monkees Peter Tork may have been known as the happy-go-lucky member of the music group. But, behind the scenes, he enjoyed a life filled with the perks of celebrity. He counted some of his fellow 1960s musicians as his friends and hosted legendary “clothing-optional” parties. In looking back on those carefree times, Tork once joked, “a good time was had by most.”
Peter Tork | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Peter Tork hosted some prolific 1960s musicians during parties at his California home
Just north of Laurel Canyon, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, was Peter Tork’s home. His home was a hotbed of musicians who regularly stopped by to commiserate and have fun. These pals included The Byrds’ David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Denny Doherty, Barry McGuire, and Steven Stills.
He told Rolling Stone his pals would “mostly come over in the afternoon. Sometimes I would wake...
Peter Tork | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Peter Tork hosted some prolific 1960s musicians during parties at his California home
Just north of Laurel Canyon, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains, was Peter Tork’s home. His home was a hotbed of musicians who regularly stopped by to commiserate and have fun. These pals included The Byrds’ David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Denny Doherty, Barry McGuire, and Steven Stills.
He told Rolling Stone his pals would “mostly come over in the afternoon. Sometimes I would wake...
- 3/9/2023
- by Lucille Barilla
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Michelle Phillips, the lone survivor of 1960s Mamas & the Papas has opened up about the band’s dark history.
Formed in 1965, the four-piece folk-rock group – comprised of Michelle, John Phillips, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty, and best known for their hits “California Dreamin’” and “Monday, Monday” – shared a wealth of melodrama that would eventually contribute to their 1968 breakup.
In a wide-ranging new interview with Rolling Stone, 78-year-old Michelle revealed new truths about the band’s dramatic love quadrangle, her former marriage with John and his alleged incestuous relationship with daughter Mackenzie – whom he shared with his first wife Susan Adams.
After meeting years before the band’s establishment, John and Michelle got married. However, later during the group’s active years, she engaged in an affair with Doherty.
“John didn’t actually find us having sex, but he did come downstairs, and I was sitting on Denny’s bed in my nightgown,...
Formed in 1965, the four-piece folk-rock group – comprised of Michelle, John Phillips, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty, and best known for their hits “California Dreamin’” and “Monday, Monday” – shared a wealth of melodrama that would eventually contribute to their 1968 breakup.
In a wide-ranging new interview with Rolling Stone, 78-year-old Michelle revealed new truths about the band’s dramatic love quadrangle, her former marriage with John and his alleged incestuous relationship with daughter Mackenzie – whom he shared with his first wife Susan Adams.
After meeting years before the band’s establishment, John and Michelle got married. However, later during the group’s active years, she engaged in an affair with Doherty.
“John didn’t actually find us having sex, but he did come downstairs, and I was sitting on Denny’s bed in my nightgown,...
- 10/13/2022
- by Inga Parkel
- The Independent - Music
There’s a modest home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Cheviot Hills, with a stucco roof, a jacaranda tree out front, and a 1989 Mercedes 560Sl in perfect condition resting in the driveway. Beyond a front porch with wind chimes and a couch pillow that reads “This is our happy place,” past a kitchen with copper pots hanging above the sink, you’ll find a living room with a floral stained-glass lamp standing in a corner. It’s the very lamp that Michelle Phillips seized from her Bel Air mansion...
- 10/13/2022
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
If the Monkees were supposed to be uncool, someone forgot to tell Jimi Hendrix, the Who, half the Beatles, Mama Cass and the future members of Crosby, Stills and Nash — all of whom spent a good chunk of 1967 and 1968 hanging out with Peter Tork in Los Angeles. In 2007, Tork called up Rolling Stone to reminisce about his Sixties heyday for one of our 40th anniversary issues. Here, for the first time, is that interview in full.
Jimi Hendrix had some fond memories of hanging out at your house.
He would...
Jimi Hendrix had some fond memories of hanging out at your house.
He would...
- 2/22/2019
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
Mackenzie Phillips' best friend released a statement to "Extra" on Friday, backing-up Mackenzie's claim of an incestuous relationship with her father, John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas.
Owen Elliot, 42, is the daughter of Mama Cass Elliot of the The Mamas & the Papas. She tells "Extra," "Mackenzie is my best friend. She speaks her truth, and it's not a pretty truth. She has lived with this for 30+ years, and talking about this now is...
Owen Elliot, 42, is the daughter of Mama Cass Elliot of the The Mamas & the Papas. She tells "Extra," "Mackenzie is my best friend. She speaks her truth, and it's not a pretty truth. She has lived with this for 30+ years, and talking about this now is...
- 9/25/2009
- Extra
Singer and actress Michelle Phillips, 65, says she's "so embarrassed -- and mad" about stepdaughter Mackenzie's recent revelations about incest with her father, John Phillips -- who was married to Michelle for eight years in the 1960s.
Sheila Weller interviewed Michelle for Vanity Fair two years ago, and called her for comment on the Mackenzie story. Michelle said she was also mad "At Oprah, at the publisher, and at Mackenzie, who should be on a psychiatrist's couch,...
Sheila Weller interviewed Michelle for Vanity Fair two years ago, and called her for comment on the Mackenzie story. Michelle said she was also mad "At Oprah, at the publisher, and at Mackenzie, who should be on a psychiatrist's couch,...
- 9/25/2009
- Extra
Two years ago I wrote a lengthy Vanity Fair profile of Michelle Phillips, who, along with her then husband John Phillips, Cass Elliott, and Denny Doherty, jump-started the sybaritic phase of the counterculture with their iconic group, The Mamas and the Papas. What struck me most, and what I tried to convey in the piece, was what a survivor Michelle has been. With pragmatism, wit, and a polished form of street smarts, she made it through the tumultuous years of sex, drugs, and rock-’n’-roll that battered or killed so many of her friends and partners—foremost among them John Phillips, whose destructiveness was too florid even for Keith Richards, who once kicked Phillips out of his house for being too out-of-control. Incidentally, father-daughter incest played a role in my story. As a young teenager, Michelle’s mentor had been an older girl, Tamar Hodel, who at age 16 had been raped by her father,...
- 9/25/2009
- Vanity Fair
Dr. Drew Pinsky tells "Extra" the topic of Mackenzie Phillips' incestuous relationship with her father came up while shooting the upcoming season of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab." The addiction specialist breaks down the relationship between the 1960's rock star and his troubled daughter.
Dr. Pinsky says he and Phillips talked privately about the relationship, but out of respect for her family, she told him she didn't want those discussions televised.
"What's unusual about Mackenzie's...
Dr. Pinsky says he and Phillips talked privately about the relationship, but out of respect for her family, she told him she didn't want those discussions televised.
"What's unusual about Mackenzie's...
- 9/24/2009
- Extra
In a shocking admission, Mackenzie Phillips revealed her father raped her and introduced her to heroin. Read on for more facts about the troubled star, including revelations about her drug use, famous family -- and her real name.
15 Facts about Mackenzie PhillipsReal NameMackenzie’s birth name is Laura Mackenzie Phillips.
Her RootsMackenzie was born November 10, 1959 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Breakout RoleMackenzie Phillips was first known for her role in the 1973 hit movie “American Graffiti.” She began...
15 Facts about Mackenzie PhillipsReal NameMackenzie’s birth name is Laura Mackenzie Phillips.
Her RootsMackenzie was born November 10, 1959 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Breakout RoleMackenzie Phillips was first known for her role in the 1973 hit movie “American Graffiti.” She began...
- 9/23/2009
- Extra
Former child star Mackenzie Phillips has publicly dealt with drug addiction, arrests and divorce, but the actress' memoir "High On Arrival" reveals she engaged in an incestuous relationship with her father, John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.
People reports in the book Phillips recalls the time she had sex with her father on the eve of her wedding to Jeff Sessler. She was 19 and already abusing drugs.
"My father showed up, determined to stop [the wedding,]" Phillips writes.
People reports in the book Phillips recalls the time she had sex with her father on the eve of her wedding to Jeff Sessler. She was 19 and already abusing drugs.
"My father showed up, determined to stop [the wedding,]" Phillips writes.
- 9/23/2009
- Extra
Village Theatre, New York
Runs indefinitely
Part autobiographical performance piece, part rock concert, this theatrical show devised by former Mamas & the Papas member Denny Doherty is a cannily executed attempt to break free from the confines of the rock 'n' roll oldies circuit.
Telling the story of the rise and fall of the famed folk-pop group, of which Doherty and Michelle Phillips are the sole remaining living members, "Dream a Little Dream" is a particularly authentic example of a burgeoning theatrical genre exploiting the history of pop music. As Doherty has an understudy, the show is clearly meant to be not just a personal vehicle but rather an independent theatrical piece.
Doherty, who co-wrote the show with Paul Ledoux, certainly had no shortage of raw material from which to work. He details his early career as a folk singer with such groups as the Halifax Three, who, as it happened, played in many Village coffeehouses on Bleecker Street, a stone's throw from where the current show is being performed. He then joined Cass Elliot, John Sebastian and others to form the Mugwumps, an early folk-rock group, before eventually winding up with Elliot and the married John and Michelle Phillips in the Mamas & the Papas. The group had phenomenal success with such beautifully written and performed singles as "California Dreamin'", "Monday, Monday" and "I Saw Her Again" before romantic tensions and drug and alcohol abuse spelled their downfall. Elliot died in 1974, while John Phillips passed away in 2001.
Doherty recounts the story in frank and humorous fashion, peppering the tale with humorous anecdotes in which the distinctive personalities of the group's members fully emerge. Unfortunately, it also comes across as more than a bit self-involved -- according to Doherty, both Michelle and Mama Cass were desperately in love with him pretty much from the beginning -- and his delivery, filled with imitations of drug stupor and frequent droppings of '60s jargon, is far too cutesy. Considering the show's 2 1/2-hour running time, the narration, which is helpfully accompanied by photographic projections, could definitely use some pruning.
Interspersed throughout are renditions of many of the group's hits, as well as other songs of the period, which are performed by Doherty and a trio of singers, including a zaftig belter and a pert blonde, who bear a rather disconcerting resemblance to the original group members. While they and the well-preserved Doherty (who's in his early 60s) do a reasonably good job of re-creating the famed harmonies of the original group, there's still something a bit off-putting in the sight of Doherty performing alongside facsimiles of his former co-stars.
Dream a Little Dream
Presented by Eric Nederlander Prods
Credits:
Playwrights: Denny Doherty and Paul Ledoux
Director: Randal Myler
Set designer: Walt Spangler
Video projection designer: Jan Hartley
Costume designer: David C. Woolard
Lighting designer: Brian Nason
Sound designer: Lucas J. Corrubia, Jr
Cast:
"Papa" Denny Doherty
Richard Burke
Angela Gaylor
Doris Mason...
Runs indefinitely
Part autobiographical performance piece, part rock concert, this theatrical show devised by former Mamas & the Papas member Denny Doherty is a cannily executed attempt to break free from the confines of the rock 'n' roll oldies circuit.
Telling the story of the rise and fall of the famed folk-pop group, of which Doherty and Michelle Phillips are the sole remaining living members, "Dream a Little Dream" is a particularly authentic example of a burgeoning theatrical genre exploiting the history of pop music. As Doherty has an understudy, the show is clearly meant to be not just a personal vehicle but rather an independent theatrical piece.
Doherty, who co-wrote the show with Paul Ledoux, certainly had no shortage of raw material from which to work. He details his early career as a folk singer with such groups as the Halifax Three, who, as it happened, played in many Village coffeehouses on Bleecker Street, a stone's throw from where the current show is being performed. He then joined Cass Elliot, John Sebastian and others to form the Mugwumps, an early folk-rock group, before eventually winding up with Elliot and the married John and Michelle Phillips in the Mamas & the Papas. The group had phenomenal success with such beautifully written and performed singles as "California Dreamin'", "Monday, Monday" and "I Saw Her Again" before romantic tensions and drug and alcohol abuse spelled their downfall. Elliot died in 1974, while John Phillips passed away in 2001.
Doherty recounts the story in frank and humorous fashion, peppering the tale with humorous anecdotes in which the distinctive personalities of the group's members fully emerge. Unfortunately, it also comes across as more than a bit self-involved -- according to Doherty, both Michelle and Mama Cass were desperately in love with him pretty much from the beginning -- and his delivery, filled with imitations of drug stupor and frequent droppings of '60s jargon, is far too cutesy. Considering the show's 2 1/2-hour running time, the narration, which is helpfully accompanied by photographic projections, could definitely use some pruning.
Interspersed throughout are renditions of many of the group's hits, as well as other songs of the period, which are performed by Doherty and a trio of singers, including a zaftig belter and a pert blonde, who bear a rather disconcerting resemblance to the original group members. While they and the well-preserved Doherty (who's in his early 60s) do a reasonably good job of re-creating the famed harmonies of the original group, there's still something a bit off-putting in the sight of Doherty performing alongside facsimiles of his former co-stars.
Dream a Little Dream
Presented by Eric Nederlander Prods
Credits:
Playwrights: Denny Doherty and Paul Ledoux
Director: Randal Myler
Set designer: Walt Spangler
Video projection designer: Jan Hartley
Costume designer: David C. Woolard
Lighting designer: Brian Nason
Sound designer: Lucas J. Corrubia, Jr
Cast:
"Papa" Denny Doherty
Richard Burke
Angela Gaylor
Doris Mason...
- 4/23/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.