1E

The Palm Beach Post | Monday, September 10, 2012 See Winter the dolphin at the E Accent Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Culture Editor: Larry Aydlette (561) 820-4436 [email protected] | On the web: palmbeachpost.com The Scene, 3E

‘I’m excited about the future. After all, life’s a journey.’

Cristiana Shields Gardens resident and jewelry designer More than a star’s sister

Gardens resident Cristiana Shields has discovered her passion for life through jewelry design.

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO / NBC, TRAE PATTON Andrew Rannells as Bryan (left) and Justin Bartha as David in a scene from “The New Normal,” premiering at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on NBC. Fathers know best?

‘New Normal’ more old-fashioned than you might think.

By David Wiegand San Francisco Chronicle PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON NUTTLE, MAKE-UP BY MISH. JEWELRY BY SHIELDS JEWELRY. I wish I didn’t have to write Cristiana Shields at FUKU, a new restaurant opening on Clematis St. about what Ellen Barkin’s char- acter calls “the gay elephant in ByJanis Fontaine Brooke Shields All the pieces are handmade us- the room” in the new sitcom Palm Beach Post StaffWriter and her sister, ing stones she purchased from The New Normal, but since the Cristiana, are 10 all over the world. show was targeted by a conser- Cristiana Shields’ entrepre- years apart in “If I don’t like the person, vative moms group before any- neurial spirit showed up early. age. I don’t buy their stones,” she one saw it and has since been At age 7, she ran a successful said. “If I feel negative energy, I rejected by a Utah NBC station lemonade stand. With an un- don’t want that energy to come by programmers who did see canny understanding of sup- out onto the person who wears it, there’s just no way around ply and demand, Shields hoard- the piece.” it. ed her Halloween candy until have a dog,” she says with a For Shields, the work is ther- Co-created by Ryan Murphy November when everyone else laugh. apeutic. She feels most creative of Glee and American Horror ran out. The sisters were born 10 after most of the world has Story fame, New Normal is Then she sold it. years apart. Their father, Frank gone to sleep. Before she be- about a male couple in a com- She remembers turning out Shields, was the son of a Wim- gins designing, she often says a mitted relationship who de- the lights to save electricity, bledon legend and Italian roy- prayer or spends a few minutes cide to have a child through a and laying in the dark, listen- alty. Brooke’s mother went on in quiet thought. “Sometimes I surrogate. It is no more offen- ing to her dad talk about paying to manage her daughter’s ca- lie on the floor and stare at the sive than Mitchell and Camer- the bills. reer. Cristiana’s mother, Diana, ceiling and do deep breathing. on’s relationship in ABC’s Mod- “I was the quiet one,” Shields known as Didi, owned John- “I title each piece,” she said. ern Family, there is one ex- said. “I had five sisters and nie Brown’s, a successful bou- “Sometimes a line from a song tremely brief kiss between the a brother and they were al- tique on Worth Avenue, and fre- will stick in my head or some- two guys in the pilot and the ways talking. Until I was 5- or quently chairs events on Palm thing I’m thinking about will only offensive language spews 6-years-old, I never said any- Beach, including the Ryan Licht come through. It’s as though from the heavily lipsticked thing. They thought there was CONTRIBUTED PHOTO FROM CRISTIANA Sang Bipolar Foundation’s an- the pieces have a voice. I in- mouth of Barkin’s character: something wrong with me.” SHIELDS nual event. clude descriptions with each You’d have to be an idiot not to Shields, burdened by adult- Homeless dogs model jewelry Despite what on paper piece so people know what the see that her bigotry is played sized anxiety, struggled in from Shields Jewelry. Designer looked like an idyllic life — stone does.” for laughs, a tradition that goes school. “I had a learning dis- Cristiana Shields works with Big growing up on Long Island and Minx Boren, a life coach in back at least as far as, oh, I ability, and teachers didn’t Dog Ranch Rescue in Wellington Palm Beach, boarding school in Palm Beach Gardens, has pur- don’t know, Archie Bunker? know how to teach me. My old- to fi nd homes for dogs, and if she New Jersey and art school in Mi- chased several pieces from Watch or don’t watch, it’s er sisters were smarter and got sells some jewelry, too, so much ami — Shields said, “I never felt Shields. “Each piece has a your choice; but if you do opt better grades. I was an artist the better. like I fit in.” unique energy, and each is orig- out, you’ll be missing a fairly and never good at math and sci- Fast forward 15 years. inal, truly one-of-a-kind. I want- promising new show with a lot ence. It seemed like teachers “We’re close,” Shields says of Shields, who now lives in Palm ed a piece that would empow- of humor, solid performanc- were always comparing me to her half-sister, Brooke, “be- Beach Gardens, owns her own er me, and she designed a pair es, a snappily written script my sisters.” cause we look so much alike company, Shields Jewelry, and of earrings that are flowers and and, yes, a lot to say about the Of course when one of your and we have the same sense of she designs custom, one of a evolving nature of families. sisters is a famous actress, peo- humor, but she has a husband kind, jewelry, which she sells Most of all, you’ll be missing ple like to make comparisons. and a family. I’m single and I online and at local trunk shows. Shields continued on 4E a show with so much heart, it feels almost old-fashioned. Fa- thers Know Best? Bryan (Andrew Rannells) MY GETAWAY and David (Justin Bartha) are a traditional sitcom couple, ex- cept that they’re both guys. Early evening on Lake Worth: sweet serenity Bryan is a flighty shopaholic while David is a more ground- ed OB/GYN who likes hanging ByJanis Fontaine flowers is almost always vacant. out on the couch watching Palm Beach Post StaffWriter The ski boats and jet skis are all sports. One day, on a shopping home in the garage, and the on- trip, Bryan realizes he wants Some evenings, when I’m ly people on the lake are fish- to be a dad. David is skeptical: driving home from work and ermen. A dozen yards away, a A kid isn’t something you can the humidity is low and the air young man casts his line, over take back to Barneys, he cau- temperature is just right, in- and over: plink, whir. Plink, tions. stead of going home to make whir. I focus on the faint sound The guys sign up for a surro- dinner, I drive to John Prince and the setting sun, and the gate through an agency and in- Park and sit on my favorite chaos of the workday fades terview several hilariously in- bench beside the water. away like the dying light. appropriate choices, including It feels like the summers of I recall my childhood and Gwyneth Paltrow as a Gwyneth my youth in upstate New York the promise of a summer eve- Paltrow look-alike. and lower New Hampshire, be- ning, when nothing mattered fore words like divorce and can- but what was happening to me cer became part of my vernacu- right then. When falling in love New Normal continued on 4E lar, before I’d ever felt the pain was the answer to every prob- of betrayal, before I’d cried my- GARY CORONADO / THE PALM BEACH POST lem. When books and movies self to sleep, the weight of the Cliff Cotts, (left), and Tim Ruse, both of Lake Worth, fi sh for large-mouth and music were all that mat- TV REVIEW loss of my mother like a heavy, bass and sunshine bass as the sunsets upon Lake Osborne at John Prince tered to my romantic spirit. THE NEW NORMAL damp blanket on my heart. Park in Lake Worth last week. And I recall the Desiderata, B John Prince Park in Lake the 1927 prose-poem by Max 9:30 p.m. today, NBC, after Worth is more than 700 acres water. It’s a paradise for nature it’s quiet. Ehrmann, an American po- “The Voice” of prime land smack in the mid- lovers, with miles of winding The little bench under the dle of Palm Beach County. More paths perfect for an after-work yellow tabebuia tree with its than 300 acres are covered by stroll or bike ride. But mostly, coarse bark and vivid yellow Getaway continued on 2E