Battles go way back for Chad Johnson and Evelyn Lozada
By Bill Zwecker August 12, 2012 8:48PM
FILE - In this March 7, 2012, file photo, NFL football player Chad Johnson, right, poses with his fiancee, Evelyn Lozada, at an event in New York. Johnson was arrested Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012, on a domestic violence charge, accused of head-butting Lozada during an argument in front of their home outside Miami. Johnson and Lozada, now married, were at dinner and she confronted him about a receipt she had found for a box of condoms, said Davie police Capt. Dale Engle. The argument got heated and continued on the drive home, he said. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)
Updated: September 14, 2012 6:14AM
The domestic violence charges filed against the Miami Dolphins’ Chad Johnson (formerly Ochocinco) do not come as a surprise to those close to the former “Dancing With the Stars” contestant and his bride, reality TV star Evelyn Lozada.
“They have been battling even before they got married,” said a Lozada associate about the duo, who have been wed only a month. The Dolphins reportedly released Johnson on Sunday.
Another source who works with Lozada on VH1’s “Basketball Wives” added, “I do think that head-butt of Chad’s probably was more of an accident than an intentional move to injure Evelyn.”
The couple are working on their own reality series for the network. No word on how Johnson’s arrest over the weekend — reportedly initiated by a fight when Lozada discovered a receipt for a condoms purchase — will impact that show.
TV TALK: First “The Revolution” bombed as the replacement for “One Life to Live,” and now the summer-only edition of “Good Afternoon America” is attracting an audience 70 percent smaller than the axed, long-running soap opera. While “GAA” is basically a place-holder for the much-anticipated launch of Katie Couric’s “Katie” chatfest on Sept. 10, you can bet the ABC honchos are hoping the veteran broadcaster will be a lot more successful.
Speaking of Couric, the TV star is said to be very happy with her new boyfriend, financier John Molner — who reportedly is a big hit with Couric’s daughters Ellie and Carrie Monahan.
† At the Friday taping of “ Steve Harvey” (set to air Sept. 4), the comedian and host told his audience the hardest thing for him to do with his new talk show was “no cussing!” Harvey laughed and admitted it’s been really hard work, but he has really, really “practiced.”
STREEP’S ZINGERS: In case you missed it, Meryl Streep was very funny — and quite candid about former leading men — on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live” on Bravo.
Asked to choose “marry, shag [have sex with] or kill” between her “Heartburn” co-star Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford (“Out of Africa”) and Dustin Hoffman (“Kramer vs. Kramer”), Streep owned that she would marry Redford, shag Nicholson and kill Hoffman. Asked which character she’d like to portray, Streep said it would be iconic women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony.
LAKE GENEVA SHINDIGS: It was a busy weekend up at the popular Wisconsin resort community as many of Chicago’s Very Visibles were spotted enjoying a fun-filled family picnic — complete with stilt-walking jugglers, puppet shows and pony rides — at Shirley and Pat Ryan’s elegant lakefront estate. Hours after Mitt Romney announced his veep pick of Paul Ryan, from nearby Janesville, Pat gave Ryan a thumbs-up, with the hope it will move the campaign rhetoric back to economic issues — though the former Aon chair and loyal GOP’er pointed out a vice presidential choice can’t win an election, “but can lose one,” as Sarah Palin proved. Among those on hand for the Ryan fete were Robin and Mark Tebbe, Ellen and Jim O’Connor, Abra and Jim Wilkin, Lawrie and Ed Weed, Catherine and Reed Eberle, Elizabeth and Michael Cole, Andy McKenna, Jack Sandner and Liz Stiffel.
† Many of the Ryan partygoers kept going Saturday night as Shauna and Barry Montgomery organized a musicale at the Lake Geneva Country Club — showcasing Shauna’s songbird sister Shelley MacArthur Farley, who truly wowed the sophisticated crowd with her repertoire from the great American songbook, now expanded to include several beautifully executed operatic arias. Those singing Shelley’s praises were Jacky and Michael Ferro, Ald. Ed Burke, Ellen and Tom Tully, Bob Clifford, Michael Monico, Jim Karas, Whitney Lasky, and Richard Driehaus.
WAY TO GO: Kudos to James Remar (“Sex and the City,” “Dexter”) — an actor who often plays bad guys but proved he’s not an example of life imitating art.
My Hollywood gossip pal Janet Charlton points out that it was Remar who whipped into an L.A. area supermarket to buy gauze, antiseptic medicine and bottled water — then ran outside to clean up and bandage the injuries of a homeless man.
CORRECTION: The Friday item about Jewel Lafontant omitted an important word. She was the first female African-American to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School in 1946. Male African-Americans had graduated since the 1920s.
SI! SI! The Second City Training Center is reaching out to a potentially huge new market by launching its first “Drop-In Improv for Spanish Speakers” class, beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday. The two-hour class welcomes students with little or no experience and will be run by Cesar Jaime , a well-known improv pro who performs at Chicago’s iO Theater.
