Ask American Profile

Michelle Kwan, Red and Sonny West, Jerome Hines, Logan Bartholomew

Is Michelle Kwan engaged? Is she still skating?
—Beverly S., Ohio

The ice-skating champion from Torrance, Calif., is single and not engaged. She still competes regularly and takes classes at the University of California at Los Angeles in the off-season. "During a typical day, when I’m training, I usually skate three times a day: morning, afternoon and night for about an hour each," says Kwan, 24. "I take a nap in the afternoon and work out off-ice after my evening session. I do that about five days a week. On the weekends I lift weights, hang out with friends—go to a movie, beach volleyball, rollerblade—or just chill. When I’m home, no matter how crazy my schedule, I always carve out time for my friends. It’s a priority for me."

I’ve already met one of Elvis’ bodyguards, Ardell Ricketts, but I would like to know more about Red and Sonny West, the two cousins and bodyguards who betrayed Elvis.
—Kolbey G., Utah

"Red and Sonny are alive and well," says Alanna Nash, author of The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. Red, who lives in Memphis, Tenn., continues to act in movies and is currently in production on a Jerry Bruckheimer film, playing a trainer for a basketball team. Sonny, who worked for Presley from 1960 until 1976 and now lives in Nashville, Tenn., makes personal appearances throughout the world, speaking about Elvis. He is working on his second book, tentatively titled Taking Care of Business, about his years with Presley. In 1977, the Wests published a book, Elvis: What Happened?, detailing Presley’s downward spiral into drugs. While some fans considered the book to be a betrayal, the cousins contend it was only an attempt to save Presley’s life by convincing him to change his ways. As for Ardell Ricketts, "Never heard of him," says Marty Lacker, another of the King’s bodyguards, "and he didn’t work for Elvis."

I would like to know about Jerome Hines, Metropolitan Opera’s bass vocalist for many years.
—Norma S., Oklahoma

Hines, who died last year at age 81, performed in 39 different operas at the Met in New York City before retiring in 1987. He spent 41 years at the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang most of the great roles for bass vocalists, including Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Verdi’s Padre Guardiano. He was known for his rich timbre, his 6-foot-6-inch athletic build and the research he conducted of the characters he portrayed. After retirement, Hines continued performing with regional opera companies and at benefits. The Hollywood, Calif., native graduated from UCLA, taught chemistry for a year and worked as an oil company chemist before his singing career took off.

Logan Makes a Run at Acting

As a boy, when Logan Bartholomew envisioned seeing his name in lights, it was adorning a baseball scoreboard. "I was in high school and I was pitching pretty well," says Bartholomew, 20, a native of Galion, Ohio (pop. 11,341). "They were already talking about whether I would go to Cincinnati and train with the farm league. But my arm snapped on me, so I couldn’t do that anymore. It was sad at first, but I think now it was a blessing in disguise, because acting kind of fell into my life." He enrolled in acting and modeling classes in Akron, Ohio, at age 16 and quickly fell in love with acting. Five years later, he landed his first starring movie role in Love’s Enduring Promise, which airs on the Hallmark Channel at 9 p.m. ET Nov. 20. The movie is based on the famed Love Comes Softly series by author Janette Oke and is a sequel to the Hallmark movie of the same name. "I had no idea how big these books were," he says. "Now I know, of course. And I hope the second movie draws a lot of the same crowd in." Bartholomew recently completed filming his first feature movie, Nearing Grace.

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