Dining with the Stars: Who sits with whom
How do you decide where to seat all those stars at the SAG Awards? Get a white erasable board as big as a table, lock your team in a room with enough sushi to last six hours, and go to it. That's how producer Kathy Connell and her two "brilliant" assistants, Jon Brockett and Dana Kenerson, got to the seating arrangements you see in the slideshow below (that's me with the 10-foot, 200 pound 'Actor' and Kathy welcoming you to the red carpet.) Some of their placements are playful - Ricky Gervais, who starred in the British version of The Office and is nominated for his role in the current Extras, will sit next to NBC's The Office crew; Hollywood newbie Ellen Page, a nominee for Juno, is at Tom Cruise's table. Click on any of the pictures below to get more info about what you're looking at.
Megan Mullally's ballet beginnings
As part of our cover story celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Screen Actors Guild, out this weekend, I got to talk to celebrities about their paths to becoming the stars they are today. All of them had funny or interesting stories about their humble beginnings, which you can read here. But one of my favorites was former Will & Grace star Megan Mullally: She was just so friendly, and even called me three times because I was having phone trouble. Most of my friends wouldn’t bother calling me three times, so imagine my surprise when a TV star was so patient.
Megan is a great storyteller. She shared with me that she was always singing and dancing around as a child, and announced to her parents when she was 8 that she wanted to be an actor “after a bout of making them sit on the couch while I stood on a stool and go-go danced.” She continued dancing all the way through her high school years, but when she was a high school senior realized she should branch out into acting. “ I was in a ballet company and did a lot of roles that required a lot of acting,” Mullally told me. “I couldn’t do as many pirouettes as some of the other dancers but I could act a little better.” She decided to focus on acting after she came off stage from a ballet about a circus, in which she played a tight rope walker who went crazy, and realized the only part she really liked was the scene when she got to act insane.
Mullally hit it big with Will & Grace, but before that she did a lot of voiceover work and was a waitress at a diner in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. “I was horrible. I’d forget to turn in orders, take the wrong food to the wrong tables.” She’d been out of acting work for two years – she said she’d get so downcast about not working that she was considering enrolling in UCLA to study interior design -- when she was cast in a episode of the old CBS drama Murder, She Wrote, which she said she was so excited about it was “like I’d gotten cast in a Scorsese film.”
January 25, 2008
Nikki Blonsky, Shelley Fabares, JoBeth Williams talk SAGs
Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky — adorable in a belted black jersey dress and patent leather ankle boots — charmed the press Friday morning doing interviews non-stop to promote the Screen Actors Guild Awards. (Check out Kathy's quick video clip of her being interviewed below.) She let slip that she'll be presenting an award with "my dear friend" (and on-screen mom) John Travolta. I love John, too. I got a chance to spend a long, easy lunch with him a few years ago - he had his chef prepare a three-course meal at his home - and we sat in the dining room for hours talking about any topic I wished. That man can wax philosophical about anything. Nikki, John and the whole Hairspray troupe is up for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture ...
You may remember Shelley Fabares from the sitcom Coach but I was watching her when she played teen daughter Mary Stone in The Donna Reed Show from 1958-1963. And there was a time when I could sing every line of her one-time hit song Johnny Angel. So imagine how much fun it was for me to meet her in person during the preparations for SAG Awards. I didn't recognize her at first with her current short, platinum and pink shaggy hair. Shelley is a member of the SAG Awards planning committee ...
JoBeth Williams is on that committee, too, and I got a chance to catch up with her in person here. We had talked on the phone about her work with SAG Awards auction and the SAG Foundation but I had to tell her how good it was to see her in the Showtime drama Dexter (now airing on CBS, too) as the interfering mother of Dexter's girlfriend. In person, JoBeth is petite and years younger-looking than what she played on Dexter. She certainly doesn't look 25 years older than her Big Chill character Karen Bowens — the one who was carrying a torch for old boyfriend Sam Weber, played by Tom Berenger. JoBeth is a great advocate for the SAG Foundation, which helps actors in need. You can join in the auction bidding online. Use the link above.
Nikki Blonsky gets ready for SAG Awards
It's a soggy morning here in L.A. and a big winter storm is predicted for Sunday, which means heavy rains for the SAG Awards. Crews will being tenting the red carpet area this morning to keep the stars, the fans, and, thank goodness, the members of the press, dry as toast. Still, buying a big umbrella is high on my list today.
Kathy and I head back to the exhibition hall to see Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky, get the low-down on seating all these stars from producer Kathy Connell and watch the set and the hall begin to take final shape.
January 24, 2008
SAG's Sunday dinner
Imagine this: You must come up with a dinner that you can serve all on one plate that can be put on the table two hours before 1,200 guests arrive and still taste great when they sit down. It needs to be elegant, appeal to the eye and contain no drippy sauces or other substances that could cause embarrassment if they don't make it from fork to mouth. L.A. Chef Alan Jackson - yes, like the country singer - did just that and I got a look at his creations, as well as the table the way it will be set for the stars who will sit down to dine at them Sunday. I'll be honest. I hadn't eaten breakfast and I could have inelegantly taken a few bites right there. Jackson was going over the pieces: tuna nicoise, grilled vegetable turnover, lamb... An Awards Committee of the Guild does several tastings of wine and food before the big day so I have no doubt it's all scrumptious even if I didn't get a morsel.
Check out the preparations in our slide show below. Click on the photos for details.
SAG President Alan Rosenberg on the strike
Everyone is talking about the writers strike; you can't be here in Hollywood without quickly becoming aware of it. Even a local deli displays a sign telling WGA members to show their cards for a 10 percent discount while the strike goes on. I asked Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg for his thoughts on settlement and he wasn't as positive as I thought he would be. SAG has been showing solidarity with the writers and the SAG contract is up for negotiation in June. Rosenberg said his union would be looking closely at the deal that producers and the Directors Guild of America settled on earlier this month but that doesn't mean the DGA deal is good for the writers or for actors.
The SAG Awards show on Sunday night may be all about actors but it also will be an occasion at which some people who have been in what Rosenbeg called "adversarial relationships" — producers and writers — will be breaking bread together. No one expects fireworks, but will there be tension? SAG members are definitely ready for a party, though. "They like to celebrate their work and each other's work," says Rosenberg, who is married to CSI's Marg Helgenberger. The fact that they supported the WGA to force cancellation of the Golden Globes ceremony is an indication of how much it means. He calls the WGA strike "an important one for America" because it deals with the
"corporatization of America."
Jon Tenney opens SAG Awards red carpet
Just finished chatting here at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles with The Closer's very handsome Jon Tenney. He's the actor who this year will get things started by popping the cork on a big bottle of champagne to open the SAG Awards red carpet on Sunday about 5 p.m. ET, some three hours before the show. Of course Tenney, who plays Kyra Sedgwick's boyfriend Fritz Howard on TNT's hit drama, is nominated for a SAG Award as part of The Closer ensemble. It's no accident. Tenney says they really are a close-knit group and it helps that all of them "have been around the block." Except for Corey Reynolds, who plays Sedgwick's right hand man Sgt. Gabriel. He's working on his first series and the cast teases him about
it.The cast would have been getting ready to go back to work next month if not for the writers' strike. The writers would have been working on new scripts now, but that's obviously not happening. When they do finally get back to it, there are good things in store for viewers. Each season The Closer has a theme and the next season, Tenney tells us, is going to be all about power. The possibilities there are endless. One other little-known tidbit Tenney told me: When he first read the script it was with an eye toward playing Sgt. Gabriel but he thought the actor in that part needed to be younger (Tenney is 46). He was right. I asked Jon what he's watching on TV now that choices are fewer and he confesses he's a big news and politics junkie. He TiVos Keith Olbermann, George Stephanopoulos and Tim Russert. He's a registered Democrat but says he hasn't decided on his candidate yet. He's working on it though. He even has watched all the debates.
(photo by Andrew Eccles/TNT)
Talk radio
Just got off the phone after two hours spent with morning drive time radio show hosts all around the country so if you think you heard me on the radio in Seattle, Nashville, Baltimore, San Diego and numerous other cities you are correct. I was talking SAG Awards, of course, and had a lot of fun because, as listeners know, morning show hosts have an abundance of energy. It must be all those venti lattes they drink.
Most of the radio hosts ask why they should watch the Screen Actors Guild Awards. That's an easy answer - because it's all actors and they come from both movies and television. Because the show on TNT and TBS is two hours, never more. And this year the buzz is building because it's clear that Hollywood A-Listers will be there. Tom Cruise was just added as a presenter. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are expected. John Travolta will present, as will Matthew McConaughey.
Now, the sun is breaking through the morning clouds here in Los Angeles and Kathy Rowings and I will soon be off to the Shrine Exposition Hall, the site of Sunday's awards ceremony. Check back wiith us later in the day.
Desperate Housewives' Nathan Fillion
He's not nominated for a SAG Award but our readers really want to know about actor Nathan Fillion and he was very forthcoming with our reporter intern Caren Oppenheim recently. The actor, best known these days for his role on Desperate Housewives and who was good in last year’s Waitress, came across as an all-around nice guy. He delivered everything a few secrets from the top-secret set of DH, talked about his upcoming movies (more of that in an upcoming Who’s News), who’s going to win this season of American Idol and what fans could find at his garage sale.
He says he TiVo's Idol and after watching last Tuesday’s season premiere, he’s already chosen his winner: "The blonde girl who trains horses. I said, ‘She’s winning.' ’’ (That’s Kristy Lee Cook for those of you keeping track). In addition to the popular reality show (he made Caren promise not to tell him what had happened on Wednesday night’s part two of the premiere), his TiVo houses episodes of Saturday Night Live, Shark Battlefield on the BBC, lots of Discovery Channel, documentaries and Chappelle’s Show.
Insider information about his Desperate Housewives character was limited but he did say that crumpled piece of paper his character found in the last new episode that aired, which revealed his wife’s big secret, was "a grocery list. There was nothing in particular on the note. I think a prop guy wrote a note to me about something I had done. Just guys on set having fun with you."
The conversation really picked up when Caren started talking electronics. A proud owner of an iPhone, an electric pepper grinder, a welding kit, countless remote control helicopters and much more, Fillion is a gadget guy. "If there’s a gadget, I’ve got it. If it cuts and slices and dices, I’ve got it." He’s got so many toys, in fact, that he could have quite a sale, he says. "If I was to go broke, I think my garage sale would be pretty cool.”
(photo by Ron Tom/ABC)
January 23, 2008
L.A. on a rainy day
Kathy and I have landed in L.A. on a rainy Wednesday. Some rental car troubles forced us to shop in Barneys of Beverly Hills for an hour, where who should we spy but Heidi Montag from The Hills. Our Barneys makeup artist, Taline Harmandian, who was giving us tips for looking special on Sunday at the SAG Awards while making us look fabulous for a weekday dinner, told us that Alanis Morrissette had been in earlier in the day. Tonight it's a business dinner but tomorrow it's over to the site of the SAG Awards where we'll bring you the insider's view.
January 22, 2008
Heath Ledger's death belongs with family
In this era of instant communication it took one hour and 16 minutes this afternoon from the time Heath Ledger was found dead by a housekeeper until his death was announced to the world by the Associated Press. The journalist in me approves but the mother in me finds it unspeakably sad that Ledger's family got so little time. One hour and 16 minutes is not long enough to be alone with your shock, your grief and your questions, or to hold tight the others in your circle who care for the man as a son, a friend, a father, not just as the actor, the talent.
In just two hours after his death, Ledger's obituary was ready with a list of his credits and his girlfriends but, of course, no cause of death or any reasonable explanation for why a man with extraordinary ability to act on screen and a two-year-old daughter to brighten his life would wind up dead on a dreary Tuesday afternoon in January.
There are lots of questions to consider in the days ahead and an autopsy tomorrow might begin to answer them. I'm as curious as the rest of those who followed his life and his work. I thought he was brilliant in I'm Not There and looked forward to seeing his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight. But tonight, I'm sorry his family can't have him to themselves.
LA Bound
It's Oscar nomination day, but I've been so busy getting ready to go to the SAG Awards this weekend that I haven't had time to digest them — till now. Of course, there are the oversights - actors James McAvoy and Kiera Knightley for Atonement, for example. But overall, the nominations will make for an interesting and glittery Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 24. That is, if they have one. The writers' strike continues to make that iffy.
But first, the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Kathy Rowings and I fly to L.A. tomorrow to begin five days of covering the awards live in the Who's News Blog. It's unprecedented USA WEEKEND coverage of one of Hollywood's most glamorous nights and we intend to bring new meaning to the words "we'll keep you posted."
The coverage is part of the magazine's partnership with the SAG Awards and TNT, which will air the two-hour show at 8 p.m. ET Sunday on both TNT and TBS.
I will post from L.A. when we arrive on Wednesday, but starting Thursday Kathy and I, laptops and digital camera in hand, will post from the Shrine Auditorium — the site of the Sunday night event — as crews build the set for the SAG ceremony and transform the former cow palace into an elegant Hollywood-worthy hall.
Saturday is rehearsal day with presenters stopping by to practice their position and their words. You know that I'll be watching for George Clooney (at left), a nominee for best actor for both SAG and, now, the Academy Awards. Kathy will have eyes open for John Krasinski (at right below), a nominee with his mates from The Office. We know that Steve Carell, John Travolta, Kate Beckinsale, Debra Messing, Denis L
eary and Forest Whitaker are among the presenters, as is the very hot actor who is on our coming cover, Terrence Howard.
Of course, Sunday is the big day. Kathy and I, in evening wear, will be at our spot on the red carpet at 2 p.m PT – 5 p.m. ET – for arrivals of both nominees and presenters. After our red carpet observations, we will move backstage where we’ll blog all the details of each winner’s meeting with the press.
On Monday we'll follow up with photos, video and a party report.
Last, but certainly not least, we want you to join the fun. Use our comments section to ask questions, post opinions, or just say hi.
(Clooney photo by Craig Sjodin/ABC; Krasinski photo by Chris Haston/NBC)
Happy birthday to Diane Lane
Diane Lane, at left in her new movie, Untraceable, which opens this weekend, celebrates her 43rd birthday today. Also turning 43 is the one and only DJ Jazzy Jeff. Other birthdays today include actresses Linda Blair, 49, and Olivia d'Abo, 37, and Beverley Mitchell, 27, and former NFL player William "Bucky" Brooks, 37.
(photo courtesy Sony Pictures)
January 21, 2008
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is alive and well
Attention Grey's Anatomy fans — and I know there are plenty of you still hanging in there. Maybe you have been wondering what happened to Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the actor who played Denny Duquette, the patient awaiting a heart transplant but who died when his girlfriend (intern Katherine Heigl) tried to speed up his need for a new heart. Well, If you missed Morgan in the Hilary Swank romance P.S. I Love You, you can catch him In The Accidental Husband, opening in early March. Morgan plays a fireman who romances another tall blonde — Uma Thurman — who happens to be engaged to Mr. Darcy (oops, I mean Colin Firth). This new role allows Morgan to play soccer, taste wedding cake, look manly jumping off a fire truck and generally be cute, as you can see in the trailer below. Of course, Morgan's leading lady in real life is Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker. She is among the Screen Actors Guild Award nominees so I'll be looking out for them on the red carpet Sunday.
Birthdays
Happy birthday to golf great Jack Nicklaus, who turns 68 today. Also with birthdays today are actor/director Robby Benson and actress Geena Davis, both of whom turn 52 today.
