and i look at the chair, click on all the things in the list, turn the statue, cell phone lights up, click read, nothing.
Well, I just played it. Once the statue's belly opened up and I got the key, the phone popped up and I had no trouble clicking Read. So something is definitely wrong if you can't do that. You can try uninstalling and reinstalling the game and see if that helps.
Do you have the Big Fish version of the game? It's possible that an older, CD version might have a problem and need a patch.