Weaver Gets ‘Extra’ Credit

A familiar face is behind the desk at the nationally syndicated news show “Extra.”

Libby Weaver, formerly of KHQ-6, was named last week as the new coanchor of this tabloid-style show, which airs locally at 6:30 p.m. on KREM-2. Weaver and Brad Goode, a former L.A. news anchor, will replace former anchors Arthel Neville and Dave Nemeth.

Weaver put in a stint as co-anchor of KHQ’s early-morning news show beginning in 1992. She left for Salt Lake City in 1993, and from there went on to bigger and better things in L.A.

Well, at least bigger things. She was the weekend host of “Extra” before being bumped up to the top spot.

She was also listed as a “senior correspondent” for “Extra,” which almost sounds like a contradiction in terms.

So long to the amazing Randi

Randi Von Ellefson, 43, has been hired away by the University of Chicago as director of choral activities and conductor of the Rockefeller Chapel Choir.

Von Ellefson has been Whitworth College’s director of choral activities for 12 years, director of the Spokane Symphony Chorale for 11 years, conductor of the Uptown Opera for 10 years and conductor of the Holiday Pops for four years.

He leaves in August.

Jimmy Rowles tribute

Spokane-born jazz pianist Jimmy Rowles has received many accolades following his death in L.A. last month at age 77.

But many of us in Spokane weren’t aware of just how revered Rowles was for decades in the nation’s jazz community. He attended Gonzaga University and began his jazz career in Spokane in the 1930s, but he left for L.A. in 1940.

Here’s what pre-eminent jazz critic Leonard Feather once wrote about him: “Long acknowledged as the favorite accompanist of every singer for whom he has played, Rowles is an artist of consummate harmonic imagination.”

He was so revered in the L.A. jazz community that the Los Angeles Jazz Society honored him with a tribute concert in 1986, on a day declared by then-Mayor Tom Bradley as Jimmy Rowles Day.

Saint Julia

Spokane’s Julia Sweeney has just opened her stage show, “God Said, ‘Ha!’,” in L.A., and she is getting the kind of reviews that an actress/ playwright can only fantasize about.

Take a look at what the influential Laurie Winer, L.A. Times theater critic, wrote Tuesday about the show:

“There’s something stirring about seeing Sweeney, her face free of all that Pat makeup or of any character’s eccentricities, just shining out at the audience, telling her tale. The unalloyed Julia is her best character ever. She’s the kind of person you’d want to be near in a horrible situation. And she tells her tale so free of self-pity or bitterness that she seems actually, authentically saintly, if saints could be hilariously funny and not conventionally religious, which I don’t think they can. Anyway, the church’s loss is our gain - Julia Sweeney, cancerfree today, says ‘Ha’ right back to God with the grace of an angel.”

That’s right, she’s calling Sweeney a saint. Talk about a good notice.

U-DUB grads on TV

The University of Washington’s graduation ceremonies took place Saturday, but you can relive all the glory in a series of taped showings on Cox Cable’s channel 17.

Both the Purple and Gold ceremonies will be shown today, beginning at 1 p.m., followed by daily showings Monday through Friday from noon-2 p.m. (Purple) and 3-5 p.m. (Gold) and then next Saturday and Sunday from 1-3 p.m. (Purple) and 4-6 p.m. (Gold).

, DataTimes MEMO: To leave a message on Jim Kershner’s voice-mail, call 459-5493. Or send e-mail to jimk@spokesman.com, or regular mail to Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.