Billy Ray Cyrus

Billy Ray Cyrus is the latest celebrity to sign up with Amazon.com

The singer of “Achy Breaky Heart” and father and former co-star of Miley Cyrus has a memoir, “Hillbilly Heart,” coming in spring 2013.

Amazon.com, which has been aggressively expanding its publishing operation, announced Thursday that Cyrus would discuss with “great candor” everything from his early years to life as the parent of a teen superstar. Cyrus and his daughter starred together in the hit TV series “Hannah Montana.”

Others with Amazon deals include actress-director Penny Marshall and actor James Franco. Those books, however, will not be available everywhere. Barnes & Noble Inc. announced earlier this week that it would not stock releases from its rival retailer.

Louis Tyrrell, producing artistic director of the late, lamented Florida Stage, launches his new venture – dubbed The Theatre at Arts Garage, in Delray Beach – with a Master Playwright Series, this Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

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For his first bestseller, novelist Eric Weiss exploits his New York outer-borough background and his Jewish roots. But in his personal life, he has turned his back on both of them.

It is no coincidence that the main character of Donald Margulies’ semi-autobiographical play Brooklyn Boy has the same name as that of illusionist Harry Houdini, but he cannot escape his past. In the middle of a promotional book tour for his new book – also named Brooklyn Boy – he is duty-bound to return home to visit his father, who is dying of cancer. It is a trip that will put him on a collision course with his ethnic identity which he has long denied.

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'Recapturing the Real West' at the Society of the Four Arts features works like Philip Goodwin's 'A Pause on the Journey'. (John Woolf / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

ART-A-PALOOZA TIME!

Big fairs and new exhibits are stretching from West Palm Beach to Delray Beach.

The American International Fine Art Fair opens tonight and runs through Feb. 12 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach. Click here for more

One of the most intriguing museum exhibits of the season opens Saturday at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. Recapturing The Real West: The Collections of William I. Koch looks at the true story of Western expansion through paintings, photos and more, including the only known tintype of Billy The Kid. Koch, the Palm Beach energy magnate, has long been fascinated by the West and has meticulously collected its lore. The show will kick off with a lecture by Koch at 11 a.m. Saturday. Information: (561) 655-7226. | Directions, invite a friend

Opening today at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach is Tacita Dean, a self-titled show of the English artist’s "photo-based" work, in which she uses film images and adds to them everything from paint to text. Information: (561) 832-5196. | Directions, invite a friend

In Delray Beach at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, two shows open on Tuesday. Old Techniques, New Interpretations: Japanese Prints from the Paul and Christine Meehan Collection features 75 prints from masters of the form in 20th-century Japan. A second show, Mariko Kusumoto: Unfolding Stories, features the artist’s ability to turn metal sculptures into everything from street scenes to music boxes and clocks. Information: (561) 495-0233. | Directions, nearby dining

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Pete Correale performs this weekend at the Improv at CityPlace, while Derek Richards and the Irish Comedy Tour head to Jupiter's Atlantic Theatre.

Pete Correale brings his perspective on the quirks of everyday life back to the Palm Beach Improv this weekend. He first stepped on stage in 1994 after graduating from Fredonia State College in New York. Since then he has showcased his material on television on Premium Blend, Shorties Watchin’ Shorties, Tough Crowd, Last Call with Carson Daly and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In addition to working the stand-up circuit, he is a writer and radio personality. For four years he, along with former Saturday Night Live actor Jim Breuer, co-hosted Breuer Unleashed on Sirius satellite radio.

Directions, invite a friend: Pete Correale | Irish Comedy Tour

The laughs continue in Jupiter this weekend at the Atlantic Theater where it’s never too early to start celebrating St. Patrick’s Day! Get in the spirit with the Irish Comedy Tour, complete with a guitarist (Derrick Keane) from Dublin, on Saturday. Detroit native Derek Richards, who has appeared on the Bob & Tom Show, will entertain with tales about his pale Irish skin, the holidays and dating a stripper. Boston-born Mike McCarthy will showcase the no-holds-barred humor that has landed him on Comedy Central and Showtime. The boisterous, belly-laugh trio will perform two shows, one at 7:30 and one at 9:30 p.m on Saturday.

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Paul Stapleton transforms ordinary objects into an unusual breed of sculpture. (Photo provided)

Things are changing in the art world, changing fast.

The evidence will be on view at the 16th annual American International Art Fair, which opens in downtown West Palm Beach Friday for a 10-day run.

What began as an art and antique fair is making a transition to an art and design fair.

The colors will be stark – black and white and gray, with LED lighting throughout the show. "There’s a movement toward minimalist works," says David Lester, whose company runs this fair and January’s ArtPalmBeach.

"A contemporary home tends to have white walls and neutral colors. The furnishings of today are rarely as ornate as in the past. Mar-a-Lago was typical of Palm Beach in its time, but today’s house is much more contemporary in nature."

Directions, invite a friend, nearby dining

The fair will still present a broad range, from 19th- and 20th-century paintings and photographs and sculpture to objects that are intrinsically beautiful, from a 17th-century Stradivarius violin to World War I-vintage automobiles.

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At this year’s Red Cross Designers’ Show House in The Mansion in Old Northwood, open now through Feb. 18, area design firms have decorated 15 spaces and in three of the spaces, you will see the work of local artists incorporated into the décor.

Arruza's 'D-Vine Baby, $1,500.

Interior designer Joseph Publillones’ dining room is eclectic with a continental flair. The color palette is gray, with black, orange and touches of gold.

He started with a table base with feet created by Pedro Friedeberg, who is known for his Hand Chair sculpture. The chairs are Louis XVI style; the 1950s screen once graced a Christian Dior boutique, and the side table is hand-artisan-made from metal. The carpet is a new style by Stark, a patchwork with an overdye.

The table is beautifully set with crisp linens, a centerpiece featuring a collection of Japanese Kutani vases and Meissen china, celebrating the Year of the Dragon.

For art for this room, Publillones used a work by West Palm Beach photogrpaher Tony Arruza.

“I choose Tony’s photograph because of its detail,” Pubillones said. In the photograph, there’s an image within an image of a trellis and a vine. “It’s beautiful, taken in Puerto Rico, and as you look at it you’ll see an Asian baby’s face,” he said.

“The image appealed to me, but in addition, since the room has an underlying Oriental flavor with the vases, carpet and the dragon plates, it tied into the overall theme of the room.

“I call the painting, D-vine Baby.”

To lighten and update the dark mahogany den, Joseph Cortes of HomeLife Interiors used whites and ivories, and the Stark grass cloth on the walls is backed with silver, “to reflect light and give the room the glamor factor,” he said.

“The Stark carpeting is another big focal point. Its contemporary geometric pattern sets the tone in that room.”

He chose to integrate works by Palm Beach artist Clemente into the decor. “Clemente works in many different styles,” Cortes said. “The works we used in the den are free flowing forms of geometric shapes with energetic color. He wants to engage the viewer’s imagination to create his or her own interpretation.”

'Pendant' by Clemente, $11,500.

Cortes was drawn to Clemente’s work because they are expressive and airy. “They also created a focal point backdrop with our two HomeLife custom-designed chairs and the Mies van der Rohe table. Pendant, with its bold lines against a background of color, had the right amount of energy for the space and imparted a contemporary accent to the interior.”

Christopher Leidy of Christopher Leidy Images said that he painted the upstairs hallway his “usual color of battleship gray” and then he installed pieces of his limited edition fine art photography. “You will feel like you are doing the breaststroke through my upstairs underwater hallway world,” he said. “Please come and check it out!”

Christopher Leidy's photographs start at $4,000.

The 36th Red Cross Designers’ Show House is at The Mansion, 3001 Spruce Avenue in Old Northwood. The house was built in 1923 by Orrin Randolph and currently owned by Monique and John Book. Show House hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $30.

Photography by Carol Korpi-McKinley

'The Last Supper', one of Da Vinci's most famous works, is among the works on display in the Fathom Events showing 'Leonardo Live'.

In an effort to get people into movie theaters, many of the multiplex chains are offering one-night only showings of everything from rock concert films to New York opera productions.

This month, NCM Fathom, which does most of the screenings across the country, is broadening its cultural offerings.

On Feb. 16, you can see a filmed tour of the current Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at London’s National Gallery, where the Wall Street Journal reports that patrons are queuing up at dawn to get tickets that are being scalped for prices up to $600. Here, you can see it for a ticket price of $12.50.

The HD movie will show highlights of the 60-work show, which features paintings and sculptures from the years Da Vinci was a court painter in Milan.

Speaking of British, Fathom will also offer a screening of the National Theater’s production of Travelling Light, the new Nicholas Wright play about the dawning of cinema. Other films include two Metropolitan Opera productions, a sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera and a concert by the L.A. Philharmonic.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber has made his mark on Broadway with some of the world’s most successful musicals (Phantom of the Opera, Evita, CATS).

After a record-breaking 25 years on Broadway, the Tony Award-winning composer has breathed new life into Phantom of the Opera with the sequel Love Never Dies, which follows the Phantom and Christine to turn-of-the-century New York, where the pair have come to Coney Island.

“It’s high romance. I have to say; I even find the end of it difficult to watch. It’s quite an emotional piece,” Webber told Parade.com.

The Australian production of Love Never Dies has been filmed for the big screen and hits movie theaters nationwide on Feb. 28 and March 5. The DVD will be released May 29.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, 63, talked to Parade.com about bringing the long-awaited Phantom sequel to Broadway, his journey into reality TV, and more.

Were you hesitant about bringing back characters that you are so close to, and that the audience is so close to as well?
“Not really. I wanted to write it because it closes a chapter emotionally for me. I wanted to revisit these characters once more. I always felt that the moment they met again would be a wonderful opportunity.” Read the full story

Alan Shayne and Norman Sunshine met more than 50 years ago. They have written a dual memoir of their lives together as a gay couple in the upper reaches of society. (Taylor Jones / Palm Beach Post)

Begin with the beginning.

They met in 1958, after a matinee of Jamaica, a Harold Arlen musical starring Lena Horne. Understudy Alan Shayne went on that day in place of star Ricardo Montalban. In the audience was a young artist named Norman Sunshine, who had gone to the show with a friend.

After the show they went backstage because the friend had worked with Shayne on television. Alan and Norman met, shook hands. There was a slight spark, but nothing spectacular. That came later, but not much later.

Fifty-three years later, the part-time West Palm Beach residents have written Double Life, a dual memoir of two lives lived openly together, at a time when that sort of thing wasn’t done, or, if it was done, was done surreptitiously.

Each of them has focused on creative endeavors – Shayne eventually quit acting, got into production and rose to become president of Warner Bros. television; Sunshine devised the "What Becomes a Legend Most?" ads for Blackglama, later serving as creative director for Lear’s magazine. Mostly, though, he’s concentrated on his fine art.

But the book makes clear that the most meaningful creation for these men has come from the mutual making of their life together. In one sense, it’s a book consciously written by tribal elders for those who come after. This is how we did it, they’re saying. This is the way it was. Weren’t we lucky? And aren’t you even luckier?

"We decided to tell the truth," says Shayne, as the two men relax in their stunning wrap-around downtown waterfront condo. "In retrospect, we can see that much of what we lived through was because people were afraid to be themselves. So we made a conscious decision to be ourselves. We felt we had a responsibility to tell our story for anyone who thinks that gay life is paradise and costumes."

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