Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Love Is Dead
It brings us no joy whatsoever to report that Chapel of Love, the Mall of America wedding venue that's been marrying couples for 28½ years, is closing at the end of August. Owner Felicia Glass-Wilcox is retiring; their last day will be August 28. "It will be a sad day, but we know that the future will hold many great adventures, plus we have our fond memories or our wonderful clients which we will forever hold in our hearts," reads a farewell Facebook post from Glass-Wilcox, who told Bring Me The News that selling the business would have been too much of an "uphill battle." The chapel has performed more than 8,300 ceremonies since opening in '94, according to its website, and they'll sneak in a few more before closing the doors—they're offering $50 off in their August wedding special.
More WCCO Staff Joins SAG-AFTRA
Some good labor news from the world of broadcast journalism. WCCO-TV’s employees and newsroom producers are already included in the nearly 117,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Now they’ll have some new union siblings among their co-workers. The station’s 15 digital content producers and assignment desk editors voted unanimously to join the union, and have been officially recognized as a bargaining unit following a National Labor Relations Board certification. Discussion began with SAG-AFTRA in 2019. Locally, SAG-AFTRA represents employees at Minnesota Public Radio, its stations the Current and MPR Classical, and the radio folks at WCCO-AM.
Kris Lindahl Sues Alleged Canadian Imposter
Is there a Kris Lindahl imposter in Canada, grinning down from billboards with arms outstretched, promising the people of Ontario an unbeatable real estate experience? That's for the courts to decide. Lindahl, the inescapable Twin Cities mega-realtor, is suing Rob Golfi, a Canadian counterpart whose arms-forward marketing appears eerily similar to Lindahl's. (You can read the lawsuit here; you can view two allegedly smoking video guns below.) Bring Me the News provides a nice breakdown of the goofy legal action, which sees Lindahl seeking damages over alleged trademark infringement and breach of contract. "In this case, taking legal action was a last resort, and it followed our repeated requests and efforts to resolve the situation outside of court," the strange-tweetin’, doomed-Zillow-partnerin’, lake-lovin’ local real estate tycoon said in a statement Monday to Racket. As you surely recall, the OG local arm-stretcher filed a curious trademark application to project his "arms out" pose in June, though this international legal complaint is unrelated.
Is It Time for an Al Franken Comeback Tour?
This week, the public may decide, as the former SNL cast member/U.S. Senator is up to a lot of stuff, including hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live and headlining at Acme Comedy Co. A refresher on how Franken canceled himself: In 2008 he was elected to rep Minnesota in the U.S. Senate. About nine years later, radio personality Leeann Tweeden came forward in an interview alleging that he'd forcibly kissed and groped her during a USO Tour rehearsal. Then a pic of Franken making a lewd gesture while Tweeden was asleep surfaced. At the urging of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Franken resigned in 2018, and we were ushered into a new Tina Smith era.
Tonight, Franken will be on Kimmel with Bob Odenkirk, fresh from his Better Call Saul series finale. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) will also be there (testing those waters too, eh?). Then, from Wednesday through Saturday, he’ll be headlining six sold-out shows at Acme. I guess the Acme crowd has forgiven him, but this is the same venue that sold out shows to Louis C.K., so YMMV.
Comedian Alexis Guerreros Didn't Have a Good Time at the Hilton Garden Inn
And he documented his experience on Twitter with plenty of bug and rash photos. The voice actor/comedian was in town for some gigs, and upon checking into the downtown Hilton near the convention center, he was unimpressed. “The place looked & smelled like the only people staying there were waiting until things with the police cooled down or their wives took them back,” he tweeted. After spending some time in his room, he found a bug on his sock and asked to speak to management. “First he tried to tell me it’s a tick, but he had looked up bed bug on his phone and it’s the twin of the image on his phone,” he writes. After cleaning up, Guerreros relocated to a different hotel, “one not located next to an off ramp and a crumbling building.” The horrors didn’t end there, though, as Guerreros had a bite reaction that involved redness and swelling, ultimately leading to trip to the hospital for meds he has to take every six hours for a week. The Hilton, however, says they are officially bed bug-free. “The hotel responded swiftly and conducted third-party testing which resulted in no traces of bed bugs in the room,” the company told Bring Me the News.
