Celeb Alert - Jai Cunningham, Steve Uyehara & Daniel Bess

I've been slacking on my celeb updates . . . and yes, I consider newscasters celebs, especially in Hawaii. I mean, c'mon! They are on TV, right? Not many of us can claim that. So here's a brief update on the celeb's I've seen in the last three to four months.

Jai Cunningham


I saw Jai sometime in January. I was sitting at the Ala Moana Zippy's killing time because I was having my watch battery replaced at Sears. When I looked up Jai Cunningham walked in. It was a Saturday around lunchtime so I figured he was working across the street and came in to get a bite. I'm not sure what his plate lunch of choice was as I couldn't see his order from where I was, but I'm sure he and the rest of the KHON crew frequent Zippy's quite a bit. I looked around to see if anyone else noticed him, but no one seemed to even care. Perhaps they frequent Zippy's as well and are used to it? Or maybe it's just that they don't consider reporters to be anything more than reporters?

Initial impressions of the real-life Jai:
1) To be honest, he looked older in person. This could be due to the copious amounts of makeup and floodlights they use to make everyone TV-ready on set.
2) Seemed to be very nice. He waited patiently like everyone else for the Zippy's lady to call his number.
3) He wore a suit on a Saturday afternoon like it was a T&C shirt and surf shorts. Despite being way overdressed for Zippy's, apparently he's comfy in his own skin.

Steve Uyehara


I haven't seen too much of Steve since he transferred over the the KGMB morning broadcast. (I don't usually get up early enough to catch any station's morning news.) But the other day at the Beretania Foodland, I knew instantly that it was him. He was several lines down from the one I was standing in. I should've gotten into his line just to get a look up close. However, the lines were long and there were a couple of people behind me already. It'd look too obvious if I left my spot just to get back into another line. From my position, I had to peek around a pillar to see him, but he was dressed very casually in a gray sweatshirt. I'm not sure if he had shorts or long pants on. I couldn't see what was in his shopping basket either.

Initial impressions of the real-life Steve:
1) Taller than I expected, although how can you really tell when most newscasters are sitting down right?
2) Looked pretty much the same as he does on TV - not fatter or skinnier.
3) Guess he lives in the area if he's shopping at Foodland or could it have been the sales that lured him over? Nah, guys probably don't look for sales. They just buy what they need.

Daniel Bess

Caption: He enters around 1:36.

Ok, I didn't really see Daniel in real life, but I did just watch him on an episode of "Numb3rs." He played the son of a man on death row. I'm glad he's still acting over there in Hollywood. I hadn't seen him in any TV shows for a while and wondered what he was up to. It's always good when local boys (and girls) make it big.

Initial impressions of the on-screen Daniel:
1) I think he did a good job with what he had to work with for the character. There was a great close-up shot of him, so hopefully his acting and looks will bring other job opportunities.
2) A little Googling brought me to his MySpace page, although I've got no way to really verify that it's the "real" him, of course.
3) More digging uncovered his music on CD Baby. His voice reminds me of Bob Dylan - sorta blues-driven with a touch of country. And as you know, country is my new nirvana.

Images: http://www.khon.com/ and http://www.kgmb9.com/