Exclusive radio interviews by Mr. Media®, a.k.a., Bob Andelman, with celebrities and newsmakers in TV, radio, movies, music, magazines, newspapers, graphic novels, and comics! Now in its 4th year! Listen LIVE or download to your iPod or other portable MP3 player!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Biographer or stalker? Nevin Martell wants the head of 'Calvin and Hobbes' creator Bill Watterson!
There are plenty of creative people whose work I love but you’ll never catch me pursuing an interview with them. Bruce Springsteen, for one. I like the idea of leaving a little mystery out there, a little bubble I’ll never personally pop.
Nevin Martell, on the other hand, had a different idea.
He is devout fan of the old comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, created by Bill Watterson. And who isn’t? It is one of the most brilliant dailies ever created and when Watterson decided to suddenly stop producing it in 1995 after 10 years and 3,160 strips, no one was more disappointed than I.
Okay, maybe Martell was.
Owning a complete edition of the published strips wasn’t enough; he wanted to know more about Watterson, to talk with him and the people who knew and admired him and write a book about what made the man fly as high as Spaceman Spiff.
Watterson, however, had other ideas. The last time he made a public appearance was 1990 and he had no interest in returning to the glare of the public spotlight or helping Martell analyze his work product.
But Martell, unbowed, wrote his book anyway. Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip was published in October.
I’m, like, totally up on Manhattan society—of the 1980s. If they were ever mentioned in Spy magazine, I know who they are and what they’ve done.
But this is, like, 2010, and I couldn’t be further from knowing who’s hot, who’s not—or why it matters. Sometimes, though, it’s not about me—hard t believe, I know—it’s about you, beloved listeners.
So I’m delighted to welcome Devorah Rose to today’s show. Devorah is the editor-in-chief of Social Life Magazine in the Hamptons and, more germane to being in the moment, she’s a star of The CW’s new reality TV series, “High Society.” It airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m.
On the show, Devorah is locked in mortal verbal combat with Manhattan social climber Tinsley Mortimer, who I actually have heard of, but probably not for any reasons of which she’s beaming with pride. If you dig beautiful young blondes engaged in catty, full claws behavior, you’ll snarl with delight at their antics on “High Society.”
This is not Devorah’s first does of TV fame, incidentally. She’s also made cameo appearances on “The Real Housewives of New York City” and “New York City Prep.”
DEVORAH ROSE AUDIO EXCERPT: "Something about having class that a lot of people don't understand is being humble. You should never make anyone feel badly about themselves or try to act like you're better than anyone. Because you're not. No one is."
It’s always fun to welcome familiar faces—and voices—to the show and today I get that pleasure with actress Elaine Hendrix.
Probably best known for her role in The Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan and Natasha Richardson, Elaine is one of those beautiful, distinctive actresses who is always working. In fact, she joins us to discuss the release of several new films: Good Intentions (now on DVD) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2.
Elaine was also be seen in the March 4 episode of “The Mentalist” on CBS. Her film Rock Slyde will be available on DVD in June, while Dear Lemon Lima is currently in the Nashville Film Festival (April 12-15) and Spork will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival (April 21-May 2).
Perhaps less well known is that Elaine is involved with several animal rights organizations. She appears in the documentary Skin Trade (now on DVD), about the fur industry, and ois slated to appear on the cover of an upcoming issue of American Dog magazine.
(LISTEN! Elaine Hendrix's first appearance on Mr. Media Radio in May 2009)
ELAINE HENDRIX AUDIO EXCERPT: "I tend to play a lot of meanies with Disney. I am the antagonist and I like it that way... Quite honestly, I think I play a really good bitch, to be frank about it. It has to do with being blonde, having arch eyebrows. My look tends to be a little icy."
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I recently found this typewritten story in my files from July 25, 1985. Probably produced on my Apple IIc! I believe it was a freelance piece I wrote for the St. Petersburg Times when I was writing most of the paper's pop music articles and reviews. This version was not edited by the paper.)
The Vatican. The Mafia. Hundreds of millions of dollars, earned and laundered. International finance and intrigue. It sounds like a Mario Puzo novel, but it's actually the setting for Power on Earth, a journalistic work-in-progress by Nick Tosches.
For Tosches, the new book marks a change in stride after establishing himself as a writer of mostly music articles and short stories for Rolling Stone, Playboy, Penthouse (including the text for the much-publicized Madonna photos), Creem and the Village Voice. He has also written four books, including biographies of Jerry Lee Lewis (Hellfire) and Hall & Oates (Dangerous Dances).
He is a man who congratulated himself in the introduction to Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll by writing, "Thanks are due ... most of all to me, without whom this book might never have been written."
He is also a man who began a chapter of the same book by writing, "This is not a funny story, so try not to laugh," and a page later added, "I told you that this wasn't funny. I forgot to tell you that it wasn't interesting, either."
Tosches' levity and asides to the reader will be missing from the much more serious Power on Earth.
The story of international financier Michele Sindona (scheduled to be published in 1986 by Arbor House) is a major departure for the 35-year-old author.
"It's probably the biggest thing I ever tackled," he admitted recently while being interviewed in his compact, Greenwich Village apartment.
Michele Sindona was one of the world's most powerful financiers of the 1960s and '70s, owning banks and companies around the globe, and hotels throughout his native Italy and France. He held the land where the Montreal Stock Exchange sits, according to Tosches, and owned large shares of Paramount Studios and Gulf & Western. Tosches speculated that Sindona was worth about $500 million in the mid-'70s.
In 1974, Sindona's empire began to collapse. He first came to public attention as mastermind of the Franklin National Bank failure, the largest collapse in national history. Just four years into serving a 25-year sentence for those crimes, Sindona became a central character in the vatican Bank scandal. Last September, he was extradited to Milan, Italy in a unique legislative deal to face charges of bank fraud and instigating murder, both relative to the loss of millions to the vatican. Now 65, Sindona is in prison and still on trial.
"I came across him as the one person in the world that interested me," Tosches explained. "I thought, 'But how the hell do I get in touch with this guy?' My girlfriend, sometimes having the brains that I lack, said, 'Write a letter.' I wrote a letter. Two weeks later, I got a call from his lawyer saying go down and see him."
The two met in prison and Sindona quickly agreed to be the subject of a Tosches book. According to the author, "The book deals with how a poor boy from Sicily becomes the head of the Vatican Bank, acquires $500 million and becomes friends with presidents, sheiks, and Chiang Kai-shek, and then suddenly falls ...
"He's also going to reveal some things that have never been revealed, among which is something which no government actually knows, although they claim to, which is how large amounts of money are laundered. They just know how money is passed from one place to another; they do not know how you take $10 million and make it appear clean ... He said there were certain people (still) in the Vatican who knew exactly what happened ... He's going to reveal some things about who in certain governments has been selling missiles to Khadafy. He's also going to reveal how, with a thousand dollars, you can make a million.
"This is a book about power and wealth that actually centers on someone that actually had power and wealth and amazing knowledge. His first job was as a Latin teacher and he moved up from there."
Sindona's cooperation on the book has been "wonderful," Tosches allowed. For the former financier, there may be no good reason not to cooperate. Outside of courtrooms, he won't be going anywhere for a long time.
"I was with him on his 65th birthday in the womens' prison they have him in," Tosches said. "He looked terrific, smiling. I said, 'You're never gonna get out of here, how can you be in such good spirits?' He said, 'Nothing bothers me. What can you hope for? To die.'"
For Tosches, Power on Earth may reflect a change in subject, but not in the quantity of, and his devotion to, research. By his own description, Tosches is an indefatigable miner for buried facts and clues. His music books are as memorable for their writing as for their attention to detail and painstaking appendices, a standard the writer plans to maintain.
"I've always loved libraries and books," Tosches said, noting he never went to college. "Something's always intrigued me about the minutiae, the tiny aspects, particles of so-called knowledge or information. It's self-tormenting. Unsung Heroes - it's like a modest book, but there were months of hard research, faded microfilm, going blind using eyewash.
"With the Sindona book, God, it makes the Unsung Heroes research look like child's play," he continued. "Trying to run around Italian libraries with different catalogue systems and writing letters to cardinals in the Vatican, asking for interviews in Italian, dealing with the Italian prison system and the international department of the FBI ..."
So thorough is the author's search for important and trivial facts about his subjects that he has a tendency to completely exhaust his interest in them when he's done. Tosches rarely listens to the Jerry Lee Lewis records he once loved, and predicts that in a year he'll have no further interest in Italian politics or the Mafia.
"All of those books could have been published with one-tenth of the work. But then again, they'd sort of be indistinguishable. Someday, if I ever write a book about money, I'll really be in trouble - I won't have any interest in it anymore," he said.
• • •
Born in New York but raised across the river in Jersey City, Tosches' first dream as a child was to be a garbageman, then an archaeologist. "And I was the only kid in the history of Jersey City that wanted to be a farmer. Couldn't even find grass in Jersey City and I wanted to be a farmer.
"When I was 10, 11 years old, I wrote a novel, which I dictated to my cousin Dorothy, and she typed it out for me. I always wanted to be a writer; now, sometimes, I want to be a plumber ... Only fleetingly. I think there's very little psychic reward."
Twenty-two years after Tosches penned his childhood tome, he set out to write a definitive history of one of his personal musical heroes, Jerry Lee Lewis.
Hellfire begins with perhaps the most infamous of all episodes in Lewis's stormy life story, the November, 1977 night the pianist drove to the gates of Graceland, waving a .38 derringer. The Killer wanted to dethrone the King, Elvis.
"I didn't put it in the book, but I always felt like (Lewis is) so convinced that he's going to Hell that even if there is no Hell, he'll invent one of his own and go there.
"(Lewis's) cousin, Jimmy Swaggert, the evangelist, said he had never actually believed in possession by the devil until he took a long look at his cousin," Tosches said. "That convinced him."
The biographer said he interviewed Lewis directly a few times for his unauthorized book, but "with Jerry Lee, you don't want his help .. He was the worst authority on his own past. He didn't remember it, or he remembered it wrong. He didn't even know where he was certain years."
Hellfire is the kind of story which lent itself to film. "My agent said he'd never seen so many movie offers in one week," Tosches claimed. The problem came in dealing with a living person. "We had one deal worked out with Columbia Pictures for $100,000. So we went to Jerry Lee and said we'll split it, 50/50. He said no. Like I mentioned, he's crazy. Jerry Lee had a better idea, he's going to make a movie with a guy from France. He's going to get 100 percent and he's going to be the creative consultant. I think Jerry Lee had his cousin, Myra, who he was married to, writing the screenplay, and that fell apart. Who knows?
"But it would make a great movie. It wouldn't make a great movie if it was just Jerry Lee going to church and being a victim of circumstances. I mean, have you seen some of these TV movies? The Tammy Wynette Story with Tammy as the Virgin Mary?"
When he wrote his first book, Country, Tosches tackled a musical tradition that he felt had become a shell of its former self, a cliche. In reviewing the book, Roy Blunt, Jr. wrote, "I wish somebody were making country music that revived the essential hairiness of the tradition as well as this book does."
Beyond tracing the roots of country back to 1607 and a man named John Laydon, who fiddled "as a man wilde by Fever," on through a "blowzy" girl singer he interviewed in a Cheyenne motel about Jim Reeves, Tosches used Country to put a blowtorch to many southern music fables.
"Since I was a teenager, I was interested in country music. At that time, country music was a disrespected thing. People back then were always talking about how meaningful rock 'n' roll was but nobody said it about country.
"Most country music stuff I had read," he continued, "it was cliches, myths. People would peg Jimmy Rogers as a hillbilly singer. That's the farthest thing he was. The guy was probabnly one of the coolest guys of the times. He always dressed the best, drank the best. He was sharp, smart. He was no hillbilly."
Two of the best-known country stars to be dressed-down in Country were Roy Acuff and Johnny Cash.
"I think Roy Acuff is probably one of the best examples of a guy who is a sleazy politician, who put on an act as a down-home boy, which he never was. He just wanted to take the state of Tennessee for a ride. He thought they were stupid so he played down and (when he ran for governor in 1948) they didn't vote him into office.
"I have a very low opinion of Johnny Cash. (He) is one of these guys who makes terrible music and just calls on God for an excuse. I think someday, God's going to kick him in the ass," Tosches suggested. Unsung Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll picks up the first traces of rock music from the 1920s to the 1950s and the advent of Elvis. It is heavily researched yet lightly written, including a final chapter about one "Esau Smith," who purports to be Presley's twin brother.
"Most of the people in there, I just really loved listening to. As a matter of fact, Big Joe Turner ("Steak for Breakfast, Gal Meat on a Rainy Day") is on the turntable now. I really love that stuff. I just really wanted to give those guys credit.
"I was watching television, 'The Roots of Rock 'n' Roll,' and it started with the Beatles. Sometimes I actually think kids are getting stupider, they don't read, go to school, they take pills. I mean, historical perspective has its value, right? You can't say that anything started with the Beatles or even Elvis. Nothing has a starting point."
Many of the men and women Tosches has labeled "heroes" in this book were unsung and long gone when the writer went in search of them.
"I talked to Amos Milburn ("The Chicken Shack Factor") just months before he passed away, Roy Hall ("See, We Was All Drunk") in Nashville a year before he passed away. The Treniers ("Their God Wore Shades") are still doing great, selling out Atlantic City. They still sound like they're 20 years old. That was cheerful," he said.
Tracking the old artists, Tosches found, "they were even amazed that anyone, for example, connected that the Amos Milburn who lived in a rundown project in Houston was once the Amos Milburn at the top of the Harlem hit parade, wore silk suits, had hit records." Finding Milburn was "freak luck," Tosches said. "I had read in a Billboard or something from 1960 that he retired and lived in Houston. I called up Houston information and got the number." This was about 1982, 22 years after the magazine article appeared.
• • •
Dangerous Dances, the music book Tosches wrote "for two guys that live in the neighborhood, Hall and Oates" is the one he gets the most mail about.
"This is like, frightening," he said with mock horror.
"I've gotten more letters and fan mail about that book than anything I've ever done. Fan mail is always flattering, but it's so depressing."
Tosches admitted, "I had never heard one of their albums," when he start the 1984 Hall & Oates pop bio. Obviously, he wasn't writing this one for love of music.
"Let's put it like this - now), keep in mind that I really like Daryl and John as persons, they're real nice, and to a certain extent I enjoy their music, they were real good to work with, nothing like their public image - the manuscript of that book was 80 pages typewritten, for which I was paid $20,000. So that'll explain it. At the time, l owed a great deal to the government for taxes and this was a very convenient way to pay. You really can't beat a deal like that and I was in no position to exercise any sort of moral objections or artistic indulgences because every month I was getting a bill from the government that was bigger than the month before. There are very few deals like that. Some people say, 'You did it just for the money. '" Well, yeah, who else is going to pay my bills?"
Tosches, who said he would like to tackle Dean Martin's life story one day but has so far been turned down by the singer, said the trouble with current artists of "superstars" is they really have no lives.
"Even Daryl told me that. Once they became famous millionaires, it was just work. There was no more adventure left, nothing happens. They're on the roiad eight months a year, in the studio three. In the press, they've always been painted as snotty. You're that famous, you have literally a million people trying to get to you everyday and there's no time. If you don't see them all, then you're snotty. The only thing that was interesting was the figures, the sheer amount of money.
"It was interesting to see them working in the studio," Tosches added. "They know how to make hit records. They go in with no songs and come out with million-selling records. But that's that. If I had more than $2,000 to my name as I always do, I wouldn't have done it."
While Tosches completes the research and writing for Peace on Earth, his agent is shopping around his first novel, Cut Numbers, about the numbers rackets in New York and New Jersey. "This is a real labor of love," the first-time novelist said. "It's totally terrifying and funny. It's real good."
In the meantime, the writer will finish the Sindona book, which is due at Arbor House in December. "The publisher wants the book in a hurry, Sindona wants the book in a hurry," Tosches said. "It's immense work, reading economic tracts in Italian, federal court transcripts, 3,000 pages in both Italian and English."
The hardest part of staying on schedule, Tosches joked, will be staying sober.
"My Italian's not that good so if I go out and get drunk it takes me three days before I can write in Italian. And you write a letter to a cardinal - it's got to be perfect." Copyright 2010 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!
Some stories may appear in this archive in unedited or different versions that are different from their print counterparts.
The post-war baby boom is becoming something else, more than half a century later.
But is that something else a bust?
In his new book, Baby Boomer Bust?—and the title ends in a question mark—Roger Chiocchi (pronounced KEY-o-key) says it may be a problem that the average baby boomer nearing retirement only has $68,000 in a 401k. And no, if you’re looking at the totality of retirement, and not just the first year, that is not much.
Tomorrow, April 15, 2010, I’ll be attending the second day of the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference, which will be held in Clearwater at Ruth Eckerd Hall. (By the way, the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference is open to the public. You can register online at www.floridaboomerlifestyle.com) It is designed to help us understand how the recession has impacted boomers. I expect to learn what they’re spending money on right now, which messages resonate most with them, and what they want from businesses today.
Apparently “deeper senior discounts at Denny’s” is not the correct answer.
Joining me today, in advance of his appearance as a guest speaker at the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference, is Roger Chiocchi, a principal in the Connecticut-based marketing firm Brandloft and author of Baby Boomer Bust?, which will be in great bookstores everywhere this June. You can also pre-order it on MrMedia.com.
ROGER CHIOCCHI AUDIO EXCERPT: "What we find is that people in the lower and middle end of the spectrum are much more resilient than those at the high end. They're used to living hand-to-mouth, so it becomes not a big deal to them when things get even tougher."
Sportswriter Peter Golenbock is one of my heroes, a guy I want to be like in many ways when I grow up. For now, however, I’ll settle for just being to call him a friend.
The major characteristic I admire about Peter is his ability to be working constantly. He’s always writing a new book, always engaged in an envious research project. Actually, more than one. As a guy who also makes his living writing books, it drives me nuts.
Let me give you an example.
The first time Peter was on my show, he was promoting his hotly controversial first stab at fiction, 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel. But while he was setting the New York media community on fire with wild tales of the Mick getting up to bat with Joe D’s gal, Marilyn Monroe, he was already hot at work with actor Tony Curtis on his autobiography and on a history of Brooklyn.
When I had him back to talk about those books, he was chomping at the bit to talk about his George Steinbrenner biography.
Today, I thought I’d have him on to talk about prospects for the 2010 baseball season, but it happens he has another new book out, Growing Up NASCAR, which he wrote with Humpy Wheeler, the long-time president of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the inventor of both the All Star race, and night racing. Oh, and I should probably mention the just-released paperback editions of George, Dynasty and Balls.
PETER GOLENBOCK AUDIO EXCERPT: "It looks to me like the Rays are going to win 90 games this year. The question is whether the Yankees and Red Sox are going to win more than 90 games. And, come August and September, are some of those older players going to break down? Is John Lackey going to have more arm trouble?"
You can LISTEN to this interview with PETER GOLENBOCK, author of GROWING UP NASCAR, GEORGE, 7: THE MICKEY MANTLE NOVEL, by clicking the audio player above or clicking HERE!
It’s a weird sensation, knowing AARP is prepared to invite me into its ranks, that I probably have fewer years ahead paying into Social Security and Medicare than getting money from Social Security and Medicare, that middle-age is finally, officially, about to catch up with my more salt-than-pepper thin hair and beard, that all the talk about preparing for retirement is no longer just talk.
Whoa, slow down, Bob. You’re depressing everybody—yourself included.
Next week, on April 15, 2010, I’ll even be attending the second day of the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference, which will be held in Clearwater at Ruth Eckerd Hall. It is designed to help us understand how the recession has impacted boomers. I expect to learn what they’re spending money on right now, which messages resonate most with them, and what they want from businesses today.
Apparently “more Early Bird Dinner Specials” is not the correct answer.
Joining me today, in advance of his appearance as a guest speaker at the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference, is Mark Miller, author of the upcoming book, The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security, which will be in great bookstores everywhere this June. You can also pre-order it on MrMedia.com.
By the way, the Florida Boomer Lifestyle Conference is open to the public, April 14-15, 2010.You can register online at www.floridaboomerlifestyle.com.
MARK MILLER AUDIO EXCERPT: "A fundamental idea in the book is that we're going to have to retire the old notion of what retirement was. Even before the economy changed, that was case for most Boomers."
It’s a shame Lorne Michaels didn’t sign up Danny Pudi for “Saturday Night Live” before the producers of the NBC sitcom “Community” cast him as “Abed.” He is so flexible in body, mind and voice as to suggest a combination of Jim Carrey, the late Phil Hartman and a thoroughly modern Rich Little.
Pudi looks so unassuming that no matter how often you see him do his stuff on “Community,” you can’t help but do a doubletake, rewind and watch him do it again. And again.
In moments you'll hear a clip from a recent episode, in which co-star Chevy Chase goads him into practicing his manly technique with fellow community college student Annie, played by Alison Brie. Here’s a tip: Brie also plays “Trudy,” a character on AMC’s “Mad Men.”
Maybe Woody Allen could remake the film Zelig with Pudi as the lead.
Besides “Community,” Pudi also had a lead role in the 2009 film Road Trip: Beer Pong and you might also recognize him for a certain T-mobile commercial.
Pudi is here to promote his upcoming gig as host of “ACME Saturday Night” this Saturday, April 10. You can watch the online comedy TV show streaming live online @ http://www.acmecomedy.com at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Pacific.
(Note from Mr. Media: I discovered after the interview that I pronounced Danny's last name wrong throughout the interview. He was too kind to correct me, but I do apologize. It was an honest mistake!)
DANNY PUDI AUDIO EXCERPT: "It's really amazing to watch Chevy Chase. To learn from him and watch him... His hands are fun. And the fact I have a Christmas card with Chevy Chase on my refrigerator is wild enough, but the other day he told me my Christmas card is on his fridge? I don't think it gets any stranger that knowing my face is on Chevy Chase's fridge right now. It's pretty insane."
I start each show talking about “So much media, so little time…” But David Mathison sees the media differently. Instead of observing it from afar, he wants you to be the media—you, yourself.
Mathison, a former executive with the Reuters news agency, takes the whole notion of 21st century media very seriously. In his new, self-published handbook, Be The Media: How to Create and Accelerate Your Message… Your Way, Mathison lays out how anyone can have a message and spread it using online tools ranging from standbys such as print, radio and video to blogs and podcasts.
Forget the so-called media elites, he says—and as one of them I object!—and take control of spreading the word about your own project yourself, whether you’re the producer of music, films, podcasts, radio or television programs.
I couldn’t agree more. And I would add that Mathison’s book, which you can order on Amazon.com or his website, BeTheMedia.org, is a perfect companion bookend for Guy Kawasaki’s most recent book, Reality Check. Together, these are 3 pounds, 13 ounces of paper you really should own and study.
DAVID MATHISON AUDIO EXCERPT: "We're trying to teach people to repurpose your work and have a back end. The incremetal revenue streams may be strong, but when you add them all up..."
When I was a little boy, it was common to see matchbook covers with ads saying things like “Learn to Draw!” The idea was that if you could draw the pokey little donkey, you, too, could one day become a famous and wealthy artist.
(More people smoked back then, so matchbooks were everywhere. Not so much anymore, of course.)
Today, if you think you might have drawing talent, sooner or later you’re going to wind up studying a book by artist Christopher Hart.
Hart has sold more than 2.5 million books, most of them instructional manuals in which he has taught a generation how to draw cartoons for comic strips, Japanese manga, American superheroes and much more. His latest book is Humongous Book of Cartooning and he joins us today to give away a secret or two and compel the artist in you to crack the spine of one of his books.
CHRISTOPHER HART AUDIO EXCERPT: "If you can draw a squiggly line, you can learn to draw. People think they have to draw a straight line. I've got news for people: that's what they make rulers for. I don't know any cartoonists that can draw a straght line, anyway."
Christopher Ventura, Peter LaSala, IT'S OK, I'M AN ACTOR online TV producers: Mr. Media Radio Interview
By BOB ANDELMAN
There was a lot of chatter during the 2009 Emmy Awards broadcast about the future of the broadcast television networks. ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox are under assault by cable TV and… a guy named Joe.
That’s right, Joe.
Joe is the star of an Internet reality TV series called, “It’s OK! I’m an Actor.” You can watch it yourself at ItsOK.TV.
Originally from Ellsworth, Kansas, Joe moved to Brooklyn to pursue an acting career. While he looks for his big break, Joe is the subject of an online reality series in which a camera crew documents his life, 24/7.
It’s not always pretty. Like the episode in which we discovered that Joe had crabs. Or when he cheated on his ex-girlfriend with a stripper—although the jury is still out on whether it’s cheating if it’s your ex-girlfriend.
Christopher Ventura, a 2009 graduate of the film program at Syracuse University, is the man behind Ventura Creative, which produces “It’s OK! I’m an Actor.”
Also joining us is Ventura’s co-producer, Peter LaSala. He’s created several film and video shorts in both narrative and documentary genres.
If you're a fan of such shows as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, you may feel right at home watching “It’s OK!” And you may agree that the Television Academy should keep looking over its shoulder.
CHRISTOPHER VENTURA AUDIO EXCERPT: "We have to look up all these products we do to be sure we're not encroaching on any trademarks. When we were looking up ManPooh, we found somebody had registered it. But we figured it's just promotion for them."
No matter what form the media takes—print, broadcast, online or even telepathy—there will always be corporations, organizations and individuals that need to get the word out about their product, service or mission.
In that regard, public relations practitioners are like plumbers: they’ll always have work maintaining a flow and, in an emergency, unclogging a pipe.
Hmmm. That analogy worked a lot better in rehearsal.
Anyway, my guest today is Robert Dilenschneider, founder and chairman of the New York City-based Dilenschneider Group and former president and CEO of one of the world’s best known and most successful public relations agencies, Hill and Knowlton.
He is also the author of a new book, The AMA Handbook of Public Relations. AMA, in this case, stands for the American Management Association, by the way.
ROBERT DILENSCHNEIDER AUDIO EXCERPT: "(Joslyn James) and the other fourteen see this as a platform for themselves and to move ahead. But Gennifer Flowers saw that, Monica Lewinski saw that. Others of the same character saw that. John Edwards' wife has seen that... I wish we would all say to ourselves this guy (Tiger) should be much more repentant and we should all learn lessons."
It’s been like “Beauty Visits the Beast” around here lately at Mr. Media Radio, with recent drop-bys from “Supergirl” Laura Vandervoort, “10 Things I Hate About You” star Lindsay Shaw and Mulan’s Ming-Na.
Today brings another lovely treat as WWE diva Brie Bella—who works with her twin sister Nikki Bella on “Raw”—joins me to discuss her appearance this Sunday, April 11, as a special guest with Nikki on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” hosted by Ty Pennington.
If you somehow have missed catching the Bellas on the WWE—and for you non-rasslin’ fans, that’s World Wrestling Entertainment—the WWE ladies don’t just hold up “Round3” cards, they actual wrestle. You can catch the Bella twins on “Raw” every Monday at 9 p.m. on USA Network:
BRIE BELLA AUDIO EXCERPT: "We're not scared of dirt. When we threw the toilet out, the window was so strong, the toilet rejected back and along with it came the toilet water. I got it all over me."
Real estate fortunes have been won and lost at record speed in recent years with millions of families “under water” in their current homes, losing their homes to foreclosure and just plain befuddled by what was once the safest of investments.
Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial transactions that most people will ever make. First-time homebuyers in particular have no idea where to start. What they need is a road map and an experienced guide that can advise when to shop and when to not, what’s a gem and what’s a scam.
Peter Richmond is probably that guy. He’s the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying a Home. If anyone can offer good, simple advice on how to do it, it’s got to be him.
PETER RICHMOND AUDIO EXCERPT: "A pre-approval means you actually made a formal application for the loan. It's been under-written and you do have a loan. If you're in a competitive seller's market, having a pre-approval is absolutely the gold standard. It gives you an advantage, absolutely."
Okay, fanboys today’s your lucky day—if you don’t mind living vicariously through me.
My guest is Laura Vandervoort, one of the most stunning young women with a virtually unpronounceable name since Paulina Porizkova.
She plays Lisa, a recruiter for the Visitors on ABC’s new edition of the sci-fi series, “V,” alongside some of TV’s equally stunning ladies, including “Firefly” star Morena Baccarin, who plays her mother, Anna, leader of the Visitors, and “Lost” veteran Elizabeth Mitchell in the role of a kick-ass FBI agent. Before this, Laura played Kal-El’s cousin, Kara—you know, Supergirl—on The WB’s long-running show “Smallville.”
LAURA VANDERVOORT AUDIO EXCERPT: "I'm wearing pink sweatpants and a black tank top. Not that exciting. I wish I could say, like, my Supergirl outfit or something."
When the producers of the CBS reality TV hit “Undercover Boss” brag that their show is about corporate presidents getting their hands dirty, they couldn’t be more accurate than this week’s episode.
Because on Sunday, April 4 at 9 p.m., the boss going undercover is Rick Arquilla, president of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Roto-Rooter Services Company. That’s right the top guy at America’s largest plumbing and drain cleaning service will be shown as one of the guys, one of the grunts, repairing and snaking America’s pipes.
I know I want to watch that episode—don’t you?
Arquilla, whose background is in sales, not plumbing, joined Roto-Rooter in 1989 and rose from regional vice president to president and chief operating officer just three years later.
RICK ARQUILLA AUDIO EXCERPT: "I can assure you that there were certain jobs that no one in their wildest dreams would hire me to do at Roto-Rooters. I was incompetent on numerous levels!"
'Merlin' TV prince Bradley James on Mr. Media: 'Off with his bloody head!'
Merlin stars Katie McGrath and Bradley James, image by Claire-Elizabeth via Flickr
By BOB ANDELMAN
Merlin exists to protect Prince Arthur, the young Pendragon, until he becomes king and magic is returned to the realm.
Life in the days before Camelot were complicated that way.
Today I’m joined by Bradley James, the young man who plays Arthur, the future king of the realm, on the Syfy series, “Merlin.” The show—which aired last summer on NBC—is back with 13 new episodes beginning April 2 at 10 p.m. on SyFy.
James is a relative newcomer to television, but his good looks and natural athleticism quickly made him a popular star of genre TV.
BRADLEY JAMES AUDIO EXCERPT: "Anthony Head and I play father and son. And it seems to be that dynamic off-set as well in that I seem to annoy him in a son-like way. He feigns annoyance but I think he appreciates it."
If there was a religious beat at ABC News, Elizabeth Vargas would probably be the reporter covering it.
This Friday night, April 2, at 10 p.m., the 20/20 anchor tells the story of four “Saints”—or sainthood candidates—from around the United States. It’s no coincidence the tale will be told on Good Friday, just days ahead of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
For Vargas, this is familiar territory; in 2003 she did a report for ABC News titled “Jesus, Mary and DaVinci”; two years later, she reported on “Resurrection: A Search for Answers.” She also is the anchor of a History Channel//ABC News documentary, “Last Days on Earth,” which presents seven possible apocalyptic, doomsday scenarios. You can order all of them on DVD at Amazon.com, by the way.
ELIZABETH VARGAS AUDIO EXCERPT: "Good Friday is also the fifth anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death. And there is a rigorous investigation at the Vatican underway right now on whether or not they have found the first of the miracles to be attributed to him. There is a real push on sainthood for him."
I always dreamed there would come a day when I would meet the lovely actress Ming-Na. But I thought it would be in a smoky, out of the way bar, we’d both be single…
I’m sorry—where was I?
Most of us probably remember Ming-Na best from her run as a young doctor on the long-running NBC medical drama, ER. Or, if you’ve got a daughter, like I do, you’ve probably sat through the Disney animated films Mulan and Mulan 2 a couple hundred times. That’s right, Ming-Na was the voice of the heroic Mulan.
More recently, she did an eye-popping arc as one of Charlie Sheen’s love interests on Two and a Half Men, which somehow led to her joining the star-filled ensemble of SyFy’s new series, Stargate Universe. New shows begin airing Friday, April 2 @ 9 p.m.
MING-NA AUDIO EXCERPT: "As much as I'm proud to be part of the Disney legacy as 'Mulan,' I'm also proud to be one of the Charlie Harper women--that legacy. We're acting, we're working. And even though we're in bed together, it's just part of our crazy, crazy job."
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About Me
Name: Bob Andelman
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida, United States
Bob Andelman is the host and producer of the “Mr. Media Radio” online interview show, now in its 4th year. He is also the author or co-author of 10 books including: The Profiler; Will Eisner: A Spirited Life; Built From Scratch; Mean Business; The Profit Zone; The Corporate Athlete, Stadium For Rent and several others. Complete biography & book reviews here. Looking to hire a collaborator or writer for a book? Contact my agent, Michael Bourret. Magazine editors can contact me directly.
Billy Powell (1983) (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rossington-Collins Band, Allen Collins Band)
Legs McNeil (Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk,” “The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored History of the Porn Film Industry,” Punk Magazine)
Bob Gruen (John Lennon, The Clash, New York Dolls rock ‘n’ roll photographer)
Image via WikipediaNEVIN MARTELL AUDIO EXCERPT: "I went into the project wide-eyed and hopeful that maybe Watterson would break his silence."
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