Louise A. Barile

5 days ago | closerweekly.com | Louise A. Barile |Lindsay Hoffman

If Vanna White hadn’t become a star on Wheel of Fortune, she’d probably be working in real estate! “Before all those HGTV shows came out, I would buy a little condo, fix it up, and flip it,” she exclusively tells Closer. “I would be the OG!”Of course, Vanna has been a fixture on television for the past 40 years, and she admits that even as a little girl she wanted to be famous. The South Carolina-reared letter turner got her start in beauty pageants and modeling before heading out to California.

6 days ago | closerweekly.com | Louise A. Barile |Lindsay Hoffman

In writing about his late sister Karen, Emmy-winning actor Kelsey Grammer recalled details of his childhood he hadn’t thought about in decades. “Recall is just extraordinary,” Kelsey, 70, exclusively tells Closer. “I’m seeing the bedroom the way it was laid out. I’m remembering the way a little television was perched on a chair when we were both kids together.”The Frasier star was studying acting in New York City in 1975 when he received word that his younger sister Karen had died in Colorado.

6 days ago | closerweekly.com | Louise A. Barile |Lindsay Hoffman

Before Hogan’s Heroes was cancelled in 1971 after six seasons, Bob Crane, who played Col. Robert E. Hogan, was working on a live version of the TV series called Hogan’s Heroes’ Review. In addition to comedy skits and music, the show would have revealed what happened to each of Hogan’s main characters after the war ended. Sadly, it never materialized. Sixty years ago, television audiences were introduced to the charming residents of fictional Stalag 13 and their inept camp guardians.

2 weeks ago | closerweekly.com | Louise A. Barile

Ron Howard learned the brutal limits of TV make-believe when he was handed an ice cream cone on the set of The Andy Griffith Show. “The hot lights melted any frozen dessert in a matter of seconds, so my cones were filled with cold, lumpy mashed potatoes,” he recalled. “I mean, try licking that and smiling ear to ear as a 6-year-old.

3 weeks ago | closerweekly.com | Louise A. Barile |Lindsay Hoffman

In 1915, Helen Gibson found herself in a plane flying over Los Angeles arguing with the pilot. “He refused to let her jump out of the plane,” author Mallory O’Meara exclusively tells Closer. “Helen said, ‘I’m going to jump out of this plane either way.