Czechmatediary

You may have glanced at the TV show Wifeswap (where families exchange their wifes/moms for a certain period of time) while surfing your TV channels or it can be one of our favorite shows that you faithfully watch every week. If that is the case then you are not alone. Not only it is a hit in the US but the Czech version (Vymena manzelek) produced by the NOVA channel has become pretty much the number one reality TV show (even more popular than Big Broher!) in the Czech Republic. According to the ATO-Mediasearch about 58% of people are hooked on the Vymena manzelek where the final episode was watched by 1/3 of the Czech population (2.82 million Czechs). In fact, the show is so popular that the members of the Czech Parliament want to take it off the air. (more…)

I LOVE THIS! Do you remember Ivan Mladek’s song called “Jozin z Bazin” (the Swampland Jozin) (see the words to the song by clicking here) ? Well, if you don’t, it is a 30-year old, folk song that became a huge hit at the time. The song is about this monster Jozin who lives in the swamps somewhere in Moravia and eats only people from Prague - the city snobs. Although he doesn’t eat the locals they are tired of him. That is why the town mayor makes an offer to give away his daughter and a half or the “JZD” (the communist word for the town farm) to anyone who destroys this monster. The Czechs still play it on the radio from time-to-time. Every time I hear this song it brings me back to my childhood: I am 7 years old, hanging out with my friends at my parent’s cottage during the summer and lazily munching on Nanuk (an awesome communist ice cream bar). Anyway - it’s crazy - but this song ( and the video) has just now become a HUGE hit in Poland! It’s been the number one song on most of the Polish Top Song list (in Polish it is Jozek z bagien). The teenagers have the disco version uploaded in their MP3’s and are dancing away, trying to copy the dancing style of Ivo Pesak. (more…)

The legendary Czech singer, Karel Gott (68), got married on Monday in Las Vegas! His new wife is called Ivana Machackova and comes from the city of Opava. Ivana is 31 years old (37 years younger than Gott) and although young in age, she has had some exciting dating history. Among her past boyfriends is also listed the famous American actor, Michael Douglas, whom she dated for 2 years. The Gott family is now expecting another baby and everyone is hoping for a boy since Gott has 3 other daughters, 2 of them coming from his former relationships. (more…)

On Christmas Eve the most popular movie in the Czech Republic became Shrek! 1,8 million of Czechs (45% TV viewers) decided to betray the all-time Christmas classics such as Popelka or Mrazik (a super-popular Russian winter fairytale) and watched Shrek…I can’t believe it! I guess the times in the Czech Republic are really changing…

• 2nd place: “Would you like to dance” (Richard Gere movie)
• 3rd place: “Popelka” (more…)
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An actor, writer and a poet George Voskovec, known as the “11th angry man“(from a famous American movie called “12 Angry Men“) definitely belongs to my favorite famous Czech American. He was born to a Czech father and French mother in Sazava in 1905 , went to high school in Prague, where he ended up meeting his best friend as well as the life-long acting partner Jan Werich. Together, while still university students, they joined the acting team at the Liberated Theater in 1927. Thanks to their wonderful acting and singing abilities the place soon became one of the most hip places in Prague. Even the German theater scene loved them until their performances became mostly anti-fascist which also led to closing the theater in 1938 and them immigrating to the USA in early 1939.

After the war both of them returned to Prague to their re-established Liberated theater where they again started happily performing until their humor became “not welcomed” by the communist party. Once again, Woskovec and Verich were under a political pressure. Voskovec did not feel like dealing with it anymore and went back to the United States, while Werich decided to stay in communist Czechoslovakia. (more…)

A former beauty of a Czech descent is getting married for the fourth time! The 58-year old, today already a grandma, Ivana Trump (Zelnickova is her maiden name), is tying the knot with a 36-year old Italian model Rossan Rubicondi. Ivana was born and raised in Zlin, Czech Republic. She became known all over the United States when she married an American millionaire and a businessman Donald Trump. Together they had three children: Ivanka, Donald and Eric. The Cesky a Slovensky Svet magazine (Czech and Slovak World) calls her the second most famous Czech American of all times after Martina Navratilova (I am not sure if I agree with that…). Ivana Zelnickova was born in Zlin in 1949. Ever since she was a young girl she loved to do sports, especially skying and swimming, which led her to enter the Charles University of Physical Education in Prague. There she also met her first husband, an Austrian skier Alfred Qinklmayer. Ivana doesn’t make secret of the fact that she married him just to get out of the country. She filed for a divorce after two years of marriage and moved to Montreal, where she continued in her modeling career. And it was one of those modeling jobs that took her to New York in 1976 where she also met her “prince on a white horse” (also her future sugar-daddy) - Donald Trump. After 9 months of dating the two of them got married and after 13 years of marriage the two of them got also divorced. Ivana didn’t walk away quite empty-handed from that marriage though: she got $10 million in cash, a $12 million house in Connecticut, $4 million housing allowance and a $100,000-a-year child support. (more…)

Screamed Angelina Jolie at the relentless press crowd. Although partially of a CZECH DESCEND (her father is half Czech and half German; more on her biography go to http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/bio), this actress also said that she would never come back here even if she was payed billions of dollars. The poor soul got upset because one of the czech photographers got adventurous and climbed the fence of their rented property. One of the American press people commented that ” we dare to do a lot of things to the celebrities in the US but climbing their fences is little too much..” Yep, in the US that guy would get arrested or even shot at for what he did. But common’….Prague worse than Africa???? Then you, Angelina, must have been to different “Africa” than the one I know! Plus, how can you say that if some of that “disgraceful blood” is running in your veins too!!!!

Toto kricela vystresovana Angelina Jolie pote, co se jeden z ceskych fotografu rozhodl prelezt zed u jejich pronajate vily v Dejvicich. Tato cecho-americanka (jeji otec je puvodu ceskeho a nemeckeho) take konstatovala, ze se do Prahy uz nikdy nevrati, i kdyby ji za to nabidli bilion dolaru.Jeden z americkych novinaru se k tomu vyjadril: “my si v Americe dovolime dost k nasim celebritam, ale tohle uz je trosku moc”. No, v US by byl nefinitvne zatknuty, ne-li postreleny. Ale ze by Praha byla horsi nez Afrika??? To tedy, pani Jolieova, musite navstevovat jinou “Afriku”, nez kterou znam ja….A navic kricite na na svoji vlastni krev!!

for more info go to http://pikant.atlas.cz/celebrity/117345-brad-a-angelina-zuri-cesky-bulvar-hyeny.aspx