JUNKET ROUNDUP

Last week, for the first time ever in L.A., I brought a guest to a junket. My friend Eddie is a big fan of Sylvester Stallone and always wanted to see him in person, possibly because he wanted to judge for himself how tall Stallone is (I’ve never been a reliable witness when it comes to celeb height because I’m always sitting when a star comes into the room).

So last Wednesday Ed and I headed down to the Four Seasons for the “Rambo” junket. We got to interview Sly first. Ed’s close-up investigation reveals that he’s not really that short despite what you might have heard. Ed was also impressed by how good Stallone looks and hopes he looks half that good at Sly’s age (sadly, its already too late for me…).

In addition to talking about the movie (which I had a great time at and you will too if you like to see platoons of bad guys mowed down by machine gun fire…),  Stallone spoke about his love as a boy for the Steve Reeves’ film “Hercules,” which inspired him to want to make movies.

Saturday brought a trip down to sunny Santa Monica for the interviews for “Over Her Dead Body” starring Eva Longoria Parker. The hotel was surrounded by paparazzi, but they weren’t there to photograph Eva. No, it turned out Katie Holmes was also in the hotel, promoting her movie, “Mad Money.”

After being charmed by the lovely Lake Bell and laughing at the very funny Jason Biggs, the main attraction walked in. Eva was feeling a little under the weather but still looking good, even if she had wrapped a pink baby blanket around her shoulders (which she insisted didn’t mean she was pregnant, just cold).

Of course, all the guys wanted to know all about her life with the San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker, with one journalist asking how she feels when she sees her hubby hit with a hard foul on the court. Although she knows that sometime he stays on the ground just to try and draw some sympathy and a foul from the refs, Eva still wishes that he would quit the faking and get right up.

She also told us about her goals while growing up, and they’re just the opposite of dream big. She started out wanting to be in a soap opera, which she finally did after working as a background extra. Then while on the soap, she hoped that someday she would land on a primetime TV show, which happened when she got a part on “L.A. Dragnet.” After that, she dreamed about a leading role on TV and you know how that turned out. Now she’s just happy to be in “Desperate Housewives” and getting to do a movie now and then (in fact, Eva was very disappointed when the Golden Globes were cancelled because she missed out on a chance to hang with her “Desperate Housewives” co-stars, who she misses terribly).

On Tuesday, I got to visit with a trio of big stars for a small but excellent movie called “The Air I Breathe.” Imagine this cast: Kevin Bacon, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Emile Hirsch and Forrest Whitaker! I especially liked Brendan’s portrayal. For a guy who usually plays happy-go-lucky adventurers, he does a great emotionless underworld legbreaker.

Andy, Brendan and Sarah (as well as director Jieho Lee) all showed up for the interviews. I haven’t interviewed Sarah since the first “Scooby Doo” movie, and of course, thanks to her work on “Buffy,” I’m a big fan. She was quite happy to acknowledge her pride in the show, and said she had only recently heard that they were showing “Once More With Feeling,” the show’s musical episode, in theaters and at conventions. Unfortunately Fox recently pulled the permission to show the episode on the big screen and Sarah never got to attend one of the performances.

It turns out the reason you see Sarah appearing in a lot of small indie movies these days is because it’s something she could never do while on “Buffy.” While she could slot in a small part in a major movie during her hiatus, indie movies often have to change shooting dates while waiting until the money comes through. Now that she’s not tied down to a series, Sarah has the freedom to be in anything she wants to.

Sarah does miss TV though… that is, watching it. She’s heartbroken that she won’t be able to watch one of her favorites this season, “24,” due to the writer’s strike. And although she doesn’t have to stay in shape to beat up all those vampires on “Buffy,” she still works out hard at the gym, feeling especially sore during our interviews. That’s because she had taken advantage of the sunny California weather by adding some outdoor athletic activities to her indoor workouts while she’s here in L.A. from her home base in New York.

That’s it for the junkets for this week. Next time I’ll be writing about another TV icon, one who I owe my career to…

IDOL WILD!

Our long national nightmare is finally over… “American Idol” is back! I have to admit my home state of Pennsylvania, site of tonight’s auditions, didn’t really shine. In fact, my favorite song of the night came when the show was over and I switched over to ABC to watch “Boston Legal.” “Carpoolers” was just ending and was showing the four carpoolers singing along to “Come On Eileen.” Now that was entertaining! But why worry about the quality of tonight’s “Idol” contestants when the standouts never come from the northeast anyway?

I did enjoy seeing Angela Martin’s total change in personality when she started to sing. I can’t help but think that there’s more drama inherent in the people who get the golden tickets and go through to the next step. More of them please! As for the bad singers, I had a good laugh from James, who sang “Let My People Go.” I also got a kick out of the fact they followed the guy who sang the song about stalking Paula with an audition by a girl named Beth Stalker! Kudos to the editor!

But as often is the case, the most interesting person on display was Simon. Whether being dragged along to be nice to Temptress and her family or saying how America is different from England because we root for our friends and families to do well (shades of Daniel Day Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” talking about how he doesn’t want anyone else to be successful), he’s still one of a kind. I also have to wonder how he keeps a straight face while seeing the worst of the worst. It reminds me of the old show, “Make Me Laugh,” where contestants had to keep a straight face while a panel of three comedians were each given a chance to make a contestant laugh. The longer the stone face, the bigger the amount of money the contestant took home. Simon would have been a huge winner!

And speaking of Simon being a contestant on a game show, he actually has been one!  He appeared on the English version of “Sale Of The Century.” Check it out on YouTube!

ANGEL BABY

Spent Sunday at the Los Angeles Comic Book & Science Fiction Convention selling at the Astounding Comics table (well, actually four tables). The next table down from ours was the guest table, featuring the current artist for DC Comics’ “Supergirl,” Drew Johnson, as well as Brian Lynch, the writer of “Angel: After the Fall,” IDW’s  comic book sequel to Joss Whedon’s TV series, “Angel.”

With my excellent vantage point, I was able to go over and talk to Brian a few times when the line to say hello to him was short. The first time I got a poster signed for some friends of mine. Later I thought of a question I had wondered about after reading the first issue, so I asked him, “Why didn’t any of the characters die in the epic battle that ended the TV show?” Brian had a logical answer: If they were going to kill anyone, why not do it within the comic and get to use those emotional moments?  I then added that I thought the comic really improved from issue one to issue two. He agreed and said that he thought issue three was even better.  In fact, he said Angel dies in issue three! He then assured me he was kidding and that he didn’t want to see that Angel was going to die all over the internet! He did admit though that there might be some pretty important deaths ahead.

I then asked if there would be a big bad in the series. He said for now it was Gunn, but there might be some other villains coming up too.

Tomorrow, I’ll leave Angel’s L.A. behind for a trip to the Buffyverse, or so I’ll be pretending when I interview Sarah Michelle Gellar for her new film, “The Air I Breathe”…

FAVORITE CELEB STORIES, PART 3

Most junket interviews go well. After all, the stars are there to publicize their film and know what’s expected of them. But some actors are painfully shy and others don’t like to talk about their personal lives and end up turning every question into a quote about their movie.

One of the best examples of how different actors can be when it comes to interviews occurred during a trip to New York for the political satire, “Wag The Dog.” On one hand, you had Dustin Hoffman. You can ask Dustin a question and he’ll go on and on. One story will lead to another and before you know it, fifteen minutes will have gone by (and very enjoyably, I should add).

Dustin was followed by another actor’s actor, Robert DeNiro. Very pleasant, but a man of few words, which meant we had to keep coming up with questions… over fifty of them in fifteen minutes!

Ask one bad question and an interview can easily go off the rails. I once reminded Stockard Channing how casting directors used to cast her as lower middle class types ( like Rizzo in “Grease”) and now she often gets asked to play classy well off socialite types (as in “Six Degrees Of Separation” and “The West Wing”). She really let me have it, believing she’s never been typecast and has played different roles all through her career.

But it could have been worse. I could have been the journalist who asked Delroy Lindo at the interviews for 2003’s “The Core” about his thoughts on Black History Month, which she said had started that very week. Delroy insisted that it wasn’t Black History Month, and they proceeded to argue about it, both insisting they were right (and if you’ve seen Delroy play a villainous role, you know he can seem like a man you don’t want to argue with). It turned out the interviewer meant to ask about Black Music Month and had gotten confused!

That same day, they brought in a scientist to tell us about the scientific basis for the film. At one point, the expert started telling us about what scientists thought about conditions on Uranus and what flying into Uranus would be like. For some of the male journalists (and I include myself), it became hard to keep a straight face. We could see the scientist getting a bit miffed, but we couldn’t help ourselves. Laughter spread around the room. The fact that we knew we weren’t supposed to laugh made it all the harder not to.

Another tough interview featured Courtney Love. The first time I interviewed her, she really appreciated my question, “As an actress, how do you prepare to do a scene? Is it similar to the way you prepare to go on stage at a concert?” She liked the question so much that when another interviewer asked her something, she said, “I like him (pointing at me). I don’t like you.”

So I was definitely looking forward to my second roundtable with Courtney, at least until she came in the room and asked us what radio outlets and networks we worked for. She had some of us thrown out (not me) when she discovered that they were from radio companies that weren’t playing her new record, as if journalists covering movie junkets have anything to do with those kinds of decisions.

Next up, we’ll look at this week’s junkets for “Rambo” and “Over Her Dead Body.” Hopefully they’ll go better than the interviews I just told you about!

FAVORITE CELEB STORIES, PART 2

One thing that can make an interview stand out is when an actor tells it like it is and doesn’t stick to the typical Hollywood promotional playbook. My favorites in this category are all foreign born actors, like Scotland’s Peter Mullan, who’s proud of his working class background and has no patience with Hollywood egos, and France’s Michael Vartan, who the first time I ever interviewed him kept pointing out how easy acting is and made no secret of how much he hated having to kiss Madonna for “The Next Best Thing.” Then there’s Ireland’s Colin Farrell, who has become a bit more circumspect when talking about his personal life in recent years, but when he did his first American interviews, he never hid his fondness for pubs and drinking. He also swears more than any other actor, bar none. I’m just glad it isn’t my job to edit out the swear words so he can be heard on the radio.

Another thing that doesn’t work for radio is to have the interviewers interrupting the celebs while they’re speaking, or laughing at their jokes until they finish telling them. We try to strive for as clean a sound as possible. There’s one star who takes that as a personal challenge, who tries as hard as he can to crack us up. Unfortunately, he happens to be one of the funniest men alive: Robin Williams. Trying not to laugh in that case is a lost cause.

Another star who seems to enjoy his time in the radio room is Russell Crowe. In fact, he once enjoyed himself so much that when it was time for him to move onto another room for his next interview, he chased a publicist out of the room, locked the door and proceeded to take questions for another twenty minutes. I’ve often wondered if Russell’s fondness for us stems from the many awards he has received from the Broadcast Film Critics Association or the fact that he’s a musician who wants to publicize his latest album.

Other superstars who seem especially nice include Will Smith, Matthew McConaughey and the very humble Johnny Depp, who once invited one of our interviewers to hang out with him at the Viper Room when he found out how much she enjoyed his work. Perhaps most personable of all are John Travolta and Tom Cruise, who both have a knack for really focusing on the person they’re talking to and making them feel like you’re their best friend. In fact, when interviewing him for “Vanilla Sky,” Tom came in and started off by shaking everyone’s hand and said to me, “Good to see you, buddy,” even though we had never met before. Its probably part of their Scientology training, but they come off like they’re interested in whatever you have to say. Of course, John has made so many movies that for a few years, we were talking to him every few months, so maybe he did get to know us.

I once tried to find out what it takes to be a nice guy in Hollywood. At the junket for “Ocean’s Eleven,” we did a press conference with George Clooney, Andy Garcia and Matt Damon, and I asked them if it becomes harder to be a nice guy the more successful you become. George pointed his finger at me and said, “F–k you!” That brought down the house, but there have been times when things haven’t gone so well. You’ll get to hear about some of those when our series of favorite celeb stories continues in Part 3!

FAVORITE CELEB STORIES, PART 1

People often ask me who was your favorite celebrity to interview (the runner-up question is who’s the best looking celeb, to which I always answer Amanda Peet). But how should I choose my favorite? Is it the funniest star? The most truthful actor? Is it the person I got some new information out of?

Some of my favorite junket memories are the times celebs appealed to my ego by complimenting my questions (hey, I’m human!). During my first interview with Vin Diesel for “The Fast And The Furious,” I remembered that Vin supposedly attended parties over the years given by one of my friends, so I used that info to formulate a question. I asked him, “I bet before you were famous, you used to go out and create a scene in order to attract attention, but once you became famous, you’ve tried to keep a low profile.” Vin looked up at me and said, “You really get me.”

That wasn’t my last success with Vin though. At the interviews for “The Chronicles Of Riddick,” someone commented about the colorblind ethnic casting in Vin’s movies. He said, “Well, you all know the name of my production company, right?” Well, it turns out no one did… except for me, mainly because I had just read the notes on the movie. I said, “One Race,” and Vin replied, “You get to ask the next question.” Of course, at the time, I thought One Race referred to the car races in “The Fast And The Furious” and not how we’re all human beings…

Perhaps the greatest boon to my ego (aside from the time a lovely member of a top girl group told me I had the most beautiful eyes) was when I got the chance to interview the late Dan Fogelberg when I was working on Dick Clark’s “Countdown America” radio show. The publicist told us Dan liked to be interviewed by women, so we should send a female to the interview. But it was my job and I was determined to do it! As it turned out, the interview went so well, I ended up staying an extra half hour over my allotted time. I think Dan appreciated my knowledge of his music and that led to him enjoying himself.

More junket memories in part two, coming soon!

PLAYING CATCHUP

Every January and February, I catch up on all the Oscar hopefuls via DVD’s and screenings and this year is no exception. Saturday night, I checked out “Lars And The Real Girl,” which was well acted but suffered from a lack of surprises, so I can’t recommend it.

Yesterday I saw “Michael Clayton,” and couldn’t figure out why so many critics said it was confusing. Yes, it helps to pay attention in the beginning, and maybe I do have an advantage having watched “The Practice” all those years, but still…

George Clooney was good in the title role, but I thought the real showcase performance was by Tom Wilkinson. Tom usually plays uptight guys, and he had a field day playing a mentally ill lawyer who’s fed up with being on the wrong side of a big case.

Of course, even while I’m catching up with last year’s releases, the parade of new movies doesn’t stop. I saw “Be Kind Rewind” last week and didn’t like it much. An interesting idea (a quiet video store clerk played by Mos Def, and his friend, a motormouth conspiracy nut played by Jack Black, are forced to make their own versions of hit movies after they erase all the VHS tapes in Danny Glover’s video store), but I can’t help but think it would have been more fun if the main characters had been played smarter, making them real movie buffs who enthusiastically jump into remaking the movies because they love them and think they can make them better. Yes, as they redo the films, they evoke some laughs with their low budget ingenuity, but there’s also some pandering to the releasing studio, New Line, thanks to a crawl listing all of New Line’s movies. I also disliked the movie’s ending, which features a tear-jerking climax that should remind us of the movies’ ability to bring people together, but feels unearned.

I attended the press day for “Be Kind Rewind,” but there’s not much to say about it, save that Jack Black showed up with his hair dyed blond, due to his just completed role in “Tropic Thunder.” Black, often so manic on screen, plays things a little more laid back and sly in person. And wouldn’t you know it, the minute I got home from the interviews, I saw on the internet that the day before, Jack announced he and his wife were expecting their second child. Well, we didn’t know about it, so we couldn’t ask about it…

COMMENTMENT!

Hey, to everybody who’s commented so far… thanks for reading!  I didn’t really do much reading about WordPress before I started the blog, so I didn’t know I had to approve the comments for them to show up, but now that I know, I’ll keep an eye on them. Next up, putting up a bio so you know why I care so much about Alvin when my name isn’t even Bagdasarian!

ALVIN AND THE MILLIONS

So for everyone that’s asked me how much “Alvin And The Chipmunks” cost to make, I finally have an answer, thanks to an article in today’s Los Angeles Times. The movie cost $ 55 million, of which my salary took… well, hardly anything at all. So far “Alvin” had banked $ 154 million. Strangely the Times article quotes two different Fox executives yet never once mentions the movie’s director, so I will. Congratulations to Tim Hill! And here’s the one thing I know about Tim. Between shots, he likes to head for his office and play the guitar. Very well too…

LIFE ON MARS

So tonight if I’m not too tired after checking out all the returning talk shows, I’m going to enjoy some episodes of the excellent BBC series, “Life On Mars.” They’re currently showing the second season on BBC America and some friends I introduced to the series are taping the episodes for me.

The show’s about a police detective named Sam Tyler (played by the very likable John Simm) who gets hit by a car in 2007 and wakes up in 1973, a time when his fellow policemen, led by the hard edged, blustery Gene Hunt (the great Philip Glenister), have never heard of forensics and prefer to plant evidence on suspects when they’re not beating them up. Not only are the weekly detective stories interesting, but there’s a larger arc concerning Sam: is he in a coma in 2007 and fighting to stay alive or did he really travel back in time? Highly recommended!

Oh, and anyone who’s missing “24″ due to the postponement of the season, check out another BBC series called “MI-5.” Unlike “24,” each episode stands on its own, but the show, called “Spooks” in Britain, is every bit as exciting as its American cousin, just a little more realistic. And unlike “Life On Mars,” five seasons are available on DVD here in the U.S.