LilMtnCbn
09-05-2004, 07:27 AM
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-livpartridge05090504sep05
,0,7528746.story?coll=orl-home-entlife
'Partridge Family' search hatches a happy ending
A mother and son reunited after 21 years now find they might be on a national
TV show together.
By Nancy Imperiale | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 5, 2004
She was sure she'd never see her baby again.
And it broke her heart.
When nurses took her 3-day-old baby away, Krissy Todd felt as though "they were
ripping a part of my body off."
But she was 19, and unmarried, and allowing her baby to be adopted by a stable
older couple seemed like the responsible course.
For 21 years she never saw him. Or expected to.
Then last year, from his home in Virginia, he contacted her. They saw the
similarities. He was charming and musical, just like his biological mother.
They hit it off.
When in July, Todd auditioned in Orlando for a role in the VH1 remake of The
Partridge Family, she beat out others to become one of eight finalists for the
role of mom Shirley Partridge.
She raved about the experience to her biological son, Leland Grant, and urged
him to audition, too.
So he did. Now he's one of eight finalists for the role of son Keith Partridge.
They are competing for final spots on the show, which begins tonight at 9 with
a look at the auditions in several cities, including Orlando.
"It's so wild," says Leland Grant, 22. "It blows my mind that more than 20
years ago somebody gives a kid up for adoption, and now they meet and might be
on a national TV show together!"
Mother and son, reunited to sing "I Think I Love You." Reality TV has never had
it so real.
He's another Keith
Grant hmms and sighs over the phone when asked what his most David Cassidy-like
quality might be. (Cassidy, for those living under a rock or not yet born in
the 1970s, played Keith Partridge on the show and was a teeny-bopper idol par
excellence.)
"Well," Grant finally offers, "I think I can perform and leave people wanting
more?"
He may not be sure, but his mother in Virginia says the world couldn't pick a
better Keith Partridge.
"Leland can act. He has stage presence, and that kind of charisma that lights
up a room," says his adoptive mother, Jennette Cook, 49. "I'm excited for him.
Singing and performing are what he loves."
Cook says friends and family will gather at her Norfolk-area home to watch the
show and cheer on her son, who already has flown to Los Angeles to compete in
final auditions that will cull the contestants to three. The TV audience,
voting by phone a la American Idol, will eventually choose the final Keith.
While she's back home in Virginia, Cook says, she's glad that her son has his
other mom in California to look after him.
"It's just been wonderful," she says. "I'm just so happy for everybody. It
worked out great, that she got to see him and learn what a great guy he is. You
can't have too many people that love you."
After Cook and her husband, since divorced, adopted Leland, Cook says she
always wondered about his biological mother.
"All the time he was growing up, I would just think about her and wish I could
get in touch with her. I just wanted to let her know that he was doing well,
and having a great life."
So when last year her son expressed a desire to meet his biological parents,
she gladly gave him the number of the Cocoa Beach attorney who handled the
adoption. Through the attorney, he found Todd in Oviedo, where she was married
and raising a teenage son and daughter.
"I can't believe he came to find me," says Todd. "I thought about him all the
time. The only way to describe it is it's a hole in your heart, a missing
piece. And when he came and found me and we met, it's like we were whole
again."
Todd later introduced Grant to his biological father, and the whole clan has
become a cheering section for Grant, who is lead singer for a Virginia-based
touring band called Butter.
"The first time I heard Butter perform, I was really astounded," says Cook.
"They were good. I'd heard all Leland's garage bands in high school. They were
loud."
Viewers will be able to judge for themselves whether all that practice paid
off. After tonight's episode, which introduces the premise and 32 performers
vying for a spot, each week's episode focuses on the auditions for an
individual character. Next Sunday's installment? The battle of the Keiths.
In the final and seventh episode, the new Partridge Family will be revealed and
then "be whisked away to begin rehearsals for a sitcom pilot," says a VH1 press
release.
Whether she and her son make the final cut, nobody needs to sing "C'mon Get
Happy!" to Krissy Todd.
"I used to feel all my life that I made a mistake," she says. "But now that I
met Leland, I don't feel it's a mistake. I feel that God turned it into a
wonderful thing."
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
,0,7528746.story?coll=orl-home-entlife
'Partridge Family' search hatches a happy ending
A mother and son reunited after 21 years now find they might be on a national
TV show together.
By Nancy Imperiale | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 5, 2004
She was sure she'd never see her baby again.
And it broke her heart.
When nurses took her 3-day-old baby away, Krissy Todd felt as though "they were
ripping a part of my body off."
But she was 19, and unmarried, and allowing her baby to be adopted by a stable
older couple seemed like the responsible course.
For 21 years she never saw him. Or expected to.
Then last year, from his home in Virginia, he contacted her. They saw the
similarities. He was charming and musical, just like his biological mother.
They hit it off.
When in July, Todd auditioned in Orlando for a role in the VH1 remake of The
Partridge Family, she beat out others to become one of eight finalists for the
role of mom Shirley Partridge.
She raved about the experience to her biological son, Leland Grant, and urged
him to audition, too.
So he did. Now he's one of eight finalists for the role of son Keith Partridge.
They are competing for final spots on the show, which begins tonight at 9 with
a look at the auditions in several cities, including Orlando.
"It's so wild," says Leland Grant, 22. "It blows my mind that more than 20
years ago somebody gives a kid up for adoption, and now they meet and might be
on a national TV show together!"
Mother and son, reunited to sing "I Think I Love You." Reality TV has never had
it so real.
He's another Keith
Grant hmms and sighs over the phone when asked what his most David Cassidy-like
quality might be. (Cassidy, for those living under a rock or not yet born in
the 1970s, played Keith Partridge on the show and was a teeny-bopper idol par
excellence.)
"Well," Grant finally offers, "I think I can perform and leave people wanting
more?"
He may not be sure, but his mother in Virginia says the world couldn't pick a
better Keith Partridge.
"Leland can act. He has stage presence, and that kind of charisma that lights
up a room," says his adoptive mother, Jennette Cook, 49. "I'm excited for him.
Singing and performing are what he loves."
Cook says friends and family will gather at her Norfolk-area home to watch the
show and cheer on her son, who already has flown to Los Angeles to compete in
final auditions that will cull the contestants to three. The TV audience,
voting by phone a la American Idol, will eventually choose the final Keith.
While she's back home in Virginia, Cook says, she's glad that her son has his
other mom in California to look after him.
"It's just been wonderful," she says. "I'm just so happy for everybody. It
worked out great, that she got to see him and learn what a great guy he is. You
can't have too many people that love you."
After Cook and her husband, since divorced, adopted Leland, Cook says she
always wondered about his biological mother.
"All the time he was growing up, I would just think about her and wish I could
get in touch with her. I just wanted to let her know that he was doing well,
and having a great life."
So when last year her son expressed a desire to meet his biological parents,
she gladly gave him the number of the Cocoa Beach attorney who handled the
adoption. Through the attorney, he found Todd in Oviedo, where she was married
and raising a teenage son and daughter.
"I can't believe he came to find me," says Todd. "I thought about him all the
time. The only way to describe it is it's a hole in your heart, a missing
piece. And when he came and found me and we met, it's like we were whole
again."
Todd later introduced Grant to his biological father, and the whole clan has
become a cheering section for Grant, who is lead singer for a Virginia-based
touring band called Butter.
"The first time I heard Butter perform, I was really astounded," says Cook.
"They were good. I'd heard all Leland's garage bands in high school. They were
loud."
Viewers will be able to judge for themselves whether all that practice paid
off. After tonight's episode, which introduces the premise and 32 performers
vying for a spot, each week's episode focuses on the auditions for an
individual character. Next Sunday's installment? The battle of the Keiths.
In the final and seventh episode, the new Partridge Family will be revealed and
then "be whisked away to begin rehearsals for a sitcom pilot," says a VH1 press
release.
Whether she and her son make the final cut, nobody needs to sing "C'mon Get
Happy!" to Krissy Todd.
"I used to feel all my life that I made a mistake," she says. "But now that I
met Leland, I don't feel it's a mistake. I feel that God turned it into a
wonderful thing."
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
