Night at the Museum: The Segment

Happy last day of 2006! As a special parting gift, here's the much-anticipated footage from the premiere of Night at the Museum. Let me know what you think.

Also, stay tuned for some fun upcoming pieces. This week we'll be filming a 'behind the scenes' segment at Tarzan, the Disney musical on Broadway. And then it's T minus three weeks to Sundance!

Do you have any exciting new year's plans for tonight? If not, then you should watch New Years Eve with Carson Daly on NBC. Why? Because Carson Daly is so darn charming... okay, not really. But I'll be there in Times Square working in the talent department on the show- so keep an eye out for a guy with a beard.

Puntastic with Kate Winslet & Patrick Wilson

This clip is from my interview with Kate and Patrick for Little Children a few months ago, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. This interchange took place before the actual interview started- we were chatting about how intense the film was, and I couldn't help going for the pun. Here's the clip:


After this interview, Patrick and I exchanged a few more country puns, (i.e. you better 'belize' it, 'uganda' do what 'uganda' do). I think he was impressed...

Questions? Comments? Let me know. Also, the Night at the Museum premiere clip will be up soon...

The Matthews on C&Q

The wait is over! You can finally watch my We Are Marshall interviews with Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox. Watch the latest episode here:

Any questions or comments? Let me know.

Night at the Museum: The Premiere

I've been dreading this premiere, because we tend to get snubbed a lot at these kind of events, but it turned out surprisingly great. It was held at the Natural History Museum, and in addition to the movie premiere, a lot of the people were also staying after for a sleep-over at the museum. As usual we were dead last in the line of media outlets, so I separated myself from the other journalists by wearing one of those footsie pajamas, (it was a sleepover, after all). It was tough to find PJs that fit, and in the end I had to squeeze into the largest kid's size I could find. Everybody really took a liking to the outfit though. Even guests at the premiere who weren't talking to press felt compelled to swing by us and comment on my sleepwear. I chatted very briefly with Al Roker, Lorne Michaels, Christine Taylor, and Jerry Stiller. Then I got some real interviews with:

Jake Cherry: He plays Ben Stiller's son in the movie, and he's very cute. He was very well-spoken for a ten year old, although he could work on his handshake.

Shawn Levy: He directed this movie as well as a laundry list of sub-par big budget comedies, (The Pink Panther, Cheaper by the Dozen, etc). He was very nice, and willing to make a fool out of himself. He had his young daughter with him, who wanted to know why I was wearing PJs.

Ricky Gervais: He was very amused by the outfit. He could barely even concentrate during the interview with the woman before me- he kept looking over and eyeing me. Our interview pretty much consisted of him commenting on the size of my crotch. I think I did get a question or two in though. I think he liked me though, and I'm looking forward to watching the footage.

Ben Stiller: He snubbed us over a year ago at the Madagascar premiere, but he was super nice tonight. He liked the pajamas a lot and wanted to chat about them for a minute or so before I got to my questions. I also asked him about CivilWarLand in Decline, which is a short story by George Saunders that he's been working on adapting- he said she's having a hard time getting it made. I also gave him a Furilla. He was a little suspicious of it at first, but he was playing with it within a few minutes.

The footage should be up soon. Next up was supposed to be the junket for Notes on a Scandal, (which is an awesome, funny, beautiful, and gut-wrenching film starring Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, and Bill Nighy), but I just got an email saying that we got booted. They invited us to the premiere, but I'm not sure whether I'll attend...

Questions? Comments? Let me know...

P.S. Okay- Gabrus posted a pretty cool picture of him with Sam Jackson. I just want to point out that in this post I have two pictures of me with famous people.

Gabrus knows famous people too

I was going to entitle this post...Where has Gabrus been? but i decided against it because none of the readers actually care where my rambling TV reviews are. I do get a bit jealous of Boaz having footage of all these interviews with all these glammed out celebs, he is our own little Perez Hilton. I thought I would post a picture explaining where i have been for the last week or so.



I am the guy on the left.

The OC 12/14/06

Earlier in the week, I made a decision to cut the OC out of my life. I just didn't have room for it any more especially since it was on Thursday night which is inundated with great shows. I was stoked to free up another 43 minutes for Mythbusters/Avatar the Last Airbender/Top Chef.
But last night I was treated to yet another Grey's Anatomy repeat, i know 'treated' isn't the right word, but due to the lack of GA iw as able to watch the OC guilt-free and boy was I taught a valuable lesson. Give a favorite show another episode or two before you give up on it. Case in point last night's OC was insanely awesome.
Usually when the episode of a fave tv show turns out to be one of the 'main character in a coma experiencing an alternate reality where deceased girlfriend may or may not still be alive' most people would cringe, this guy (me) included. Yet due to some persisting from my non-deceased girlfriend I left it on and I was in for the ride of my life.
Ryan and Taylor fall off a roof and go into an alt reality where no one knows who they are, but they know who everyone is. As i am writing this, I am trying to figure out what i still liked about the show, and I am not too sure. I will tell you this, I have a wicked crush on Julie Cooper

and in this particular episode she was two timing Sandy Cohen, played by Peter Gallagher and his eyebrows (another of my favorite characters) and she is cheating on him with Summer's hippie turned Long Island douche-bag boyfriend Che(ster).
There was a delightfully uncomfortable scene where Julie spanked a young Che in her brassiere.

Tall man is to dolphins as high fives are to...

Just saw this awesome story. Apparently, the world's tallest man, (who also has some of the world's longest arms), has saved a pair of dolphins. Veterinarians had been using various medical instruments to try to remove some plastic that the dolphins had swallowed, but they just couldn't get in far enough. Enter the world's tallest man, who just shoves his arm down there and retrieves the plastic.

As some of you may know, I am also a world record holder, (although, technically Guinness is still verifying it). In October, I broke the world record for most high fives in an hour. You can read about it here and watch it here. It got me to thinking whether I could use my high-fives to save any animals... Any ideas?

Also, I recently read that the most expensive "ad words" all have to do with school loans, loan consolidation, and insurance quotes. I wonder if by including those words in this post, loan and insurance related ads will show up in the grey box at the top of this page? If so, we might really start raking in the bucks. So if you're looking for any help with paying off loans or car insurance or college loan consolidation, then you've come to right place...

Celebrity Elevator

I left out some details from my account of the We Are Marshall junket from a few days back, because frankly, they were exciting enough to be the basis of their own post. When I got to the Waldorf Astoria, where they were holding the junket, I wasn't exactly sure which floor I was headed for, so I headed for one of the elevator banks. I figured I'd just hop on the first one that came, and then figure it out from there. I heard a ding, approached an elevator, and as soon as the doors opened I walked inside... and suddenly I was mere inches from Clint Eastwood. He was in there with an elderly gentleman and younger woman. He looked great for being pretty old. "Is this it?" he asked. "No," the woman said, "we're getting off at G." He looked to his gentleman friend. "Gee," Clint joked. "Golly," I said, and then Clint laughed. And then the elevator opened on G, and Clint and his posse were gone. I eventually figured out my way to the junket, but a few hours later I was at the elevator bank again, waiting for one to take me back to the lobby. I waited for a few minutes, but finally it arrived. The doors opened and John McCain came out with a few other people, and then I went in. Two celebrity elevator encounters in one day! Which got me thinking about other encounters I've had. Here are the ones I can remember:

Drew Barrymore: She was hosting SNL that week, and I was an intern at NBC. I knew she was around the building, so I would always take the long way to get anywhere and walk by Studio 8H, (where they film SNL). Finally, my timing was right one day and we shared an elevator down to the lobby. She asked how to get to J. Crew, and I gave her detailed instructions.

Robin Williams: He was talking to some woman about a fancy Bar Mitzvah she had been to that weekend where they handed out hats and accesories with the kid's name on it. I then commented, "At my Bar Mitzvah we had a nice lox platter." Robin Williams chuckled a little.

Naveen Andrews: I recognized him immediately, but it was only five minutes after the elevator ride that I figured out who he actually was.

Horatio Sanz: This also happened when I was an intern at NBC. I told him that I had liked his Billy Joel impression from the previous week's show, and he said thanks. I hadn't really like it that much, but it was the first thing I could think to say.

Anyone out there have celebrity elevator stories? Please share...

A Random Smattering of Things...but mostly FNL

Just got back from LA after writing for the Spike VGAs, i might watch it, then blog about it...Causing the meta-community to get up applaud then implode. Did not have as much time as i would like to watch as much as i would like to talk as much as i would like. Buuuuut....
Did do a 60 minute cringe as i watched Studio 60, I watch this show purely so I have something to kavetch about with my friends.
Heroes mid season finale(is that what they are going to be called?) was pretty good, tis a shame that the short haired girl got killed but it was totes obvs from the get-go. Don't ever think you have a bad guy with limitless powers outwitted!

Now onto the show that I absolutely love to talk about Friday Night Lights (or FNL as the peeps are calling it, peeps meaning me and the one other person I know who likes this show). This show has everything I need/want in life no less a prime time weeknight show. Football, high school kids with drinking problems, drug problems, girl problems...hey i have had all those problems!
some choice quotes from Coach Taylor this week
-is that a members only jacket?
-wanna beer? -i was only kidding your in 10th grade

the acting and cinematography on this show alone kick enough ass for me (had to say that to justify spending 100K on a degree in film/tv)...but the main reason I tune in week after week is for a certain player...Riggins!
ok so maybe he has made some poor decisions, like an addiction to cheap beer at the age of 17 or maybe it was boning his best friends girlfriend? Everyone is aware that Riggins' best friend is Jason Street a PARALYZED quarterback...Why gabrus? why do you like this character? You know why...because he gives it his all every time he steps on the field. He was only in this past episode for a total of 2 minutes and it was the best 2 minutes of television. He threw a block that scored the winning touchdown...Not scored it himself, but blocked for someone else...Riggins is the kind of guy that makes me want to go out and buy a jersey for a fictional team with his fictional name on it.
Forget Smashball (juice-ball) and GET RIGGY WITH IT!

We Are Marshall: The Junket Report

I just came back from the We Are Marshall press day. I got there a little early, which usually means sitting around for a while, but they were ready for me and got me from the "press holding pen" within a few minutes. First us was Kate Mara and Ian McShane.

Ian McShane and Kate Mara:
Going in I had a pretty big crush on Kate Mara. She is sooo cute in this movie, and she wears a chearleader uniform for a lot of it. I've never seen Deadwood before, but I've heard good things, especially that Ian McShane is awesome. When I walk into a junket, I try to take a conversational approach, but sometimes the actors or directors are so into their "junket mode," that they have a hard time following. By "junket mode," I mean the compulsion to only talk in soundbytes perfect for your typical four minute packaged segment about the movie. Unfortunately, this was one of those cases. I would say something like, "You filmed in Huntington, where the actual events took place. What kind of interactions did you have with the residents and people who were involved with the story?" And then Kate Mara would say, "Well, I play a cheerleader named Annie, whose boyfriend dies in the plane crash, and she is really crushed by it. Then, Ian plays my boyfriend's father, and..." Then, Ian would chime in with something that had a little more to with my actual question. Sp it was sort of a stilted conversation. Then at the end, as I was walking out, I stopped in front of her and said, "I sorta had a big crush on you in this movie." She looks up at me kind of embarressed, as Ian and all the camera crew start laughing. "Well, I guess this is kind of awkward, which is why I decided to tell you after the interview." She smiled at me, and said something like, "Awww- that's sweet." I wouldn't have minded a hug or something, although I later learned that she was going out with someone at the junket. Whoops...

McG (The Director):
As soon as I walked in the room with McG, I had a confession to make. "I have to come clean," I said, "whenever I used to see you in the credits of movies, I was always sort of sort of confused by your name. I mean, who is this? But then after I did some research, I realized that this has been your nickname since you were a kid. So now I feel bad, and I wanted to apologize for secretly scorning you for all these years." He was happy to accept my apology, and he agreed that it did sound sort of weird if you didn't know the whole story, (see last post for more info). I suggested working together on a documentary that would inform the world of the actual origin of McG's name, to finally put to rest the too-accepted theory that he's simply going the route of Cher and Madonna. He was very interested- so much so that he even had me talk to his producing partner later and we exchanged information. I'll let you know how that goes... McG spoke very passionately about the film which clearly meant a lot to him. He was friendly, willing to goof around, and pleasant to spend a few minutes with.

Matthew Fox:
As a big fan on Lost, I was super excited to talk to Matthew Fox, (aka Jack), but I wanted to try to get on his good side before I tried to get any plot secrets out. I talked to his publicist in the hallway, and tried to get some information out of her. She just said not to ask him about the Golden Gloves- apparently a lot of people had been doing that. So then it was my turn. I walked in excitedly and shook his hand. He was nice and all, he just seemd sort of tired. It's definitely understandable. He had probably been in that room for about five hours, answering many of the same questions again and again, but it was still a little disheartening. He looked off into the distance, and didn't make much eye contact. I asked whether there were ever any issues with having two lead actors named "Matthew," and he said that McG actually called them by their character names. Towards the end of the interview, I started joking around a little more, and he got with it a little more. We talked about Lost briefly, and then it my slot was up. I won't hold it against him though. The problem with these tiresome interviews is that I keep replaying them in my mind, trying to think of ways I could have rescued the interview. I talked to a few other journalists after I got out though, and they had similars interactions as well, so I guess it wasn't all my fault.

Matthew McConaughey:
Up until this point, I had been running ahead of schedule, and there was only one more interview that stood between me and the subway home. I walked down the hall to wait outside Matthew's room. There were only two people ahead of me, but then I started hearing talk about a phone interview Matthew had to give. Sure enough, in about ten minutes, Matthew walked down the hall to meet up with McG and do a phoner. They said it would take ten minutes, but it was closer to twenty-five minutes. By the time he got back, there were about twelve journalists waiting to interview him. Luckily, I was one of the firsts. Matthew's junket room had been set up a little different. Instead of two chairs facing each other, there was only one chair for me to sit in. Then Matthew did the interview while standing and pacing in front of a locker room backdrop as he tossed a football from hand to hand. I guess it was supposed to be reminiscent of a coach lecturing to his athletes, although he didn't do the interview as a charactor. It was conducted like a normal junket interview, except I had to crane my neck up to look at him. A stool might have helped, or maybe if I could have stood up. There was a jib, (a small camera crane), that moved back and forth filming him, then there was a camera filming a wide shot my back as Matthew paced in front of me, and then there was the third camera behind Matthew which filmed his butt and my face. I've definitely never seen a junket like this before, and neither had the crew members who I talked to afterwards. We'll see how the piece comes out after I edit it...

Did I leave anything out? Do you have a follow-up question? If so, shoot me an email or post a comment and I'll fill you in. And check back tomorrow, for another exciting post titled, "Celebrity Elevators." Is your interest piqued? It should be...

Ben Stiller is not neurotic

I saw Night at the Museum yesterday. At first I thought this might be based on From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but it's actually based on this other picture book. I went in ready to be dissapointed, but I was sorta surprised. It was prety fun- no masterpiece, but it was definitely fun to see all the museum exhibits come to life. The CG was really good- the animals looked super realistic. And it was nice to see Ben Stiller in a role where he's not completely neurotic, (i.e. Along Came Polly, Royal Tenenbaums, etc). The movie seemed liked it was clearly written for him, and he was a lot of fun to watch. Paul Rudd is in it briefly, and he's hilarious even though he might only be present for five minutes or so. Ricky Gervais is funny as well, although all his scenes seem somehow abbreviated and he plays a sort of one-joke character. Even Robin Williams was fun, although he did have one sappy monologue that came close to ruining the whole movie for me. And it was neat to see Dick Van Dyke on screen again, (Mary Poppins might be one of my favorite kids movies ever). I'll be covering the premiere next weekend, so hopefully we'll get a chance to talk to some of the cast.

I'll be covering the We Are Marshall press day tomorrow, and practically the whole cast will be there. I'll be talking to Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, Kate Mara (who is sooo cute, but I already mentioned that a few posts ago...), and the director, McG. I don't get this whole "McG" thing. It just sounds sort of pretentious, but according to an interview with Joel Cunningham:

That's just been my name since I was a kid. My real name is Joseph McGinty Nichol, but there was an Uncle Joe in my family, and a Grandpa Joe, and rather than Joe they called me McG, short for McGinty, since the day I was born. People don't even know my name is Joe, because in school and everything it was always McG. I figured it wouldn't be very accurate to all of a sudden go by Joseph, since it's not my name. It is my name, but no one calls me that.

So I guess it's legit... I was going to ask him about it tomorrow, but I guess it's sort of silly now. Anyone out there having burning questions they want to ask McG or any of the others? Let me know... and I'll let you know how the press day goes tomorrow.

Ixnay Otterpay

Well, I'm not unfamilliar with rejection, but this one's still a downer. We just got uninvited from the Miss Potter premiere on Sunday. I guess Renee Zellweger's publicist doesn't like us for some reason, or she thinks we're not important enough to be able to occupy two feet of her red carpet. This is actually the first time we've ever been disinvited from a premiere, (and only two days before to boot). I had already prepared and come up with some fun stuff to do, but I guess that solid gold material will never see the light of day. Feel free to picket for "Clips & Quips" if you want- just don't tell them I sent you. I don't want to make any more enemies...

Miss Potter and We Really Are Marshall

So, first of all- we got the thumbs up from Warner Bros and I'll be going to the We Are Marshall press day this weekend. Hopefully that will be fun, and I'll get some good interviews. I've heard some mixed things about Matthew McConaughey, so I'll let you know what the real deal is. Anyone out there have any questions they want to ask? Let me know, and I'll try to use them.

Also, just saw Miss Potter, which is a spin-off of the Harry Potter films... Okay, it's not really. It's actually a biopic about Beatrix Potter, the British woman who wrote the Peter Rabbit books. Renée Zellweger plays Beatrix and Ewan McGregor plays her publisher. It was pleasant to watch, and seemed to be pretty faithful to her story. Beatrix was a little wonky- according to this film she talked to her drawings and they were sort of her only friends... Renee gave a good performance, (I think her accent seemed ok, but I'm always a bad judge), although I can't help but think why in a British film like this, they wouldn't cast a British actress. Not that she was bad, and I guess that's what acting is about, but it's not like there's a lack of British actresses or anything... Especially when you cast someone like her, I can't help but try to listen for her southern accent. Anyway, I'll be at the premiere for Miss Potter this weekend, so hopefully I'll get to talk to Renee and Ewan, (although we often have bad luck at premieres). If anyone knows them, ask them not to ignore Clips & Quips...

Are We Marshall?

Just saw We Are Marshall, starring the Matthews, (McConaughey and Fox). I'll let IMDB synopsize(sp?) it for you:

"When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach (McConaughey) and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive."

I couldn't do play-by-play for a football game to save my life, so some of the game re-enactments were lost on me, and I think it could could have been thirty minutes shorter, (it was 2 hours long). It was pretty gripping at points though, and that plane crash scene was powerful. The cast is pretty solid. One thing that was sort of weird was that Matthew M. always talks out of the side of his mouth. There are also a lot of crushable actresses- Kimberly Williams, (ok, it's Williams-Paisley now), January Jones, and Kate Mara, (who looked soo familliar- it's because she was in Brokeback Mountain). There's a junket this weekend, although it's unclear whether we're invited or not. That's the problem with being the bottom of the "television food chain." But hopefully they'll let us in, and hopefully Kate Mara wil be there, and hopefully we'll fall in love. Also, I wouldn't mind getting some Lost plot points from Matthew Fox...

An Early Look at Sundance...

We're already in the middle of planning for the Sundance Film Festival this January, and there should be some cool stuff in store. JetBlue is generously taking care of our airfare, and Thrifty is kindly providing us with an automobile- now all we need is a place to stay. Anyone own a hotel chain out there? Sundance was a blast last year! Lots of awesome movies, dozens of interesting interviews, and as much Stella Artois as you can drink. Remember Furilla? We did a segment about them last season, and now we're joining forces again to premiere the Clips & Quips Furilla which will make its debut at Sundance. Then there's all the really secret stuff that we can't even tell you about it. And now a shout out to two of our favorite and most distant fans:

• Joyce from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
• Robert from Jerusalem, Israel

That's all for now. There's some great interviews coming up though, including Catherine O'Hara, Ben Stiller, and more! Questions? Comments? Feel free to drop me a line...