Nina Yeh
Age:18
Height 5’1”
Weight 130 lbs.

She’s from Queens and she hopes to make it to Broadway.

Eighteen-year-old Nina grew up attending P.S. 165 and Our Queen of Peace in Flushing.

After recently moving from the borough and attending high school in Dutchess County, Nina is poised to graduate high school next month and has her sights set on an acting career.

Nina has already acted in school and community theater productions of Broadway classics like “South Pacific,” “Hello Dolly” and “Damn Yankees.”

About acting, she said “ I love it. The live audience gives off a good energy.”

Live audiences are one of the reasons she’s not a fan of acting on film.

“There’s a lot of waiting around,” she said telling us about her experience playing a part of an abused girlfriend in a New York State safety film.

Nina said she plans to pursue acting at a local community college first and later at NYU.

She hopes to use modeling as a springboard for acting.

You can take the girl out of Queens, but you can't take Queens out of the girl, Nina explained.

“I come back to Queens all the time to visit with family,” she said.

When in Queens, Nina goes to Shea Stadium to watch her favorite team, the Amazin’ Mets.

Look for Nina there soon.

“We always go there on the Fourth of July,” she said.

Queens’ very own superhero Spider-Man has been thrust onto the big screen in a blockbuster film that has brought the web-slinging crime fighter and his native borough into the spotlight.

Director Sam Raimi shot several of the movie’s scenes in Queens, and one of the first lines in the flick mentions Woodhaven Blvd. It would certainly seem that Raimi did his homework and discovered that Spidey’s alter-ego Peter Parker is a kid from Forest Hills. Then why, QConf wants to know, is he quoted in the article “A Web and Prayer” in the Wizard Magazine Spiderman Giant Movie Preview as saying, “We’ve always seen the great strength of Spider-Man as the fact that he’s a real person, he’s one of us. He’s a kid from Brooklyn who doesn’t have a lot of money. He doesn’t get the girls, he’s got acne, he’s a fairly average-looking kid.”

Brooklyn? He’s a kid from Brooklyn?

Not only is he not from Brooklyn, but his exact address in Forest Hills is given in the Spider-Man comic books at least once. Didn’t this director do any research on which neighborhood Spider-Man is from?

Mike Cotton, author of “A Web and Prayer,” told us, “Sure, Raimi said that at a press conference when he first started publicizing the movie in 2001. He got called on it big time. People love Spider-Man and it got them angry that he got that wrong. He later said it was just a mistake, and that he really meant to say Queens.”

Spider-Man’s motto is “With great power comes great responsibility.” Raimi, a top director, has the power. We'll have to see about the other part.

Last month, nicknamed “stamp dude” by President Bush, Congressman Gary Ackerman wasn’t satisfied.  When the two unveiled the World Trade Center stamp in the Oval Office – a measure to raise funds for the families of rescuers killed on Sept. 11 which the Congressman sponsored – Bush discovered that Ackerman was a “stamp collecting crazy” and  appropriately so dubbed him.

Then during a recent press conference at the White House to announce billions of dollars in Sept. 11-related aid for New York, reporters were wondering what Ackerman and the Prez – who were standing next to each other during the announcement – were laughing about while the two were talking off mike.

As we all know, the Congressman sports a white carnation boutonniere on his lapel each and every day – it’s long been his trademark. He’s been wearing it for more than 30 years. There are only two times during the year when it’s not white – green on St. Patrick’s Day and red on Valentine’s Day

Well, while the President was giving his speech, he talked about how the money would help, among other things, New York businesses downtown get back on their feet.

After the President finished his remarks, Ackerman put his arm around him and said, “I’ll be the flower guy.” To top it off, the press conference took place in the Rose Garden! 

The quip was made while others were speaking at the podium. The event was also attended by Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, Senators Clinton and Schumer and other members of New York’s Congressional Delegation.

Cool

LL Cool J

SE Queens born rapper, LL Cool J will return to the music industry with a new album in the works.  According to Def Jam Records, “a release date has not been set.” 

However, avid hip-hop music listeners may have heard an exclusive cut on radio station 107.5 FM WBLS, which aired on the Wendy “mother” Williams show. 

After more than a decade in the industry Ladies [still] Love Cool James.

Insiders at the New York State Power Authority told QConf that Queens residents will have no fear of power outages during summer 2002.

There will be plenty of juice to light up the Big Apple, but not as a result of new, controversial generators that were installed in 2001, sources said.

Rather tragically, the surge comes with the fall of the World Trade Center. The Twin Towers consumed as much power as 100,000 private homes – enough electricity to keep residents cool throughout the worst heat wave, they said.

Confidentially New York . . .

E-MAIL your items to: conf@queenspress.com