Mr. Media Interviews by Bob Andelman

Today's Guest: Kelli Williams, actress, "Lie To Me," "The Practice" Kelli Williams, star of 'Lie To Me' and 'The Practice'   Order 'Lie to Me' starring Tim Roth and Kelli Williams, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! Kelli Williams is the star of the new Fox drama, “Dollhouse.” Okay, that’s a lie. Kelli Williams is the star of the new Fox drama, “Lie To Me,” which co-stars Chef Gordon Ramsay. Okay, okay, that’s another lie. My upper lip quivered when I said it, my eyes are blinking more rapidly and my blood pressure is racing. But that’s not because I lied; it’s because Kelli Williams—a husband and three kids after rising to prominence as a star of “The Practice”—is just as lust-inducing as ever and she’s about to join us. Kelli Williams IMDB • Wikipedia • Facebook • Twitter BONUS! Listen to Mr. Media's radio interview with "Lie To Me" co-star Monica Raymund!   The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Miles O'Brien, TV journalist Miles O'Brien Miles O’Brien was a great guy with whom to start your day. Flip on CNN at breakfast and for years, there he was, a calm and reassuring presence on the news channel’s “American Mornings” program, alongside Soledad O’Brien, giving the headlines, keeping us centered and calm no matter how bad the overnight reports might be. Then, one day, he was gone. Oh, the new duo in the morning are fine and professional, but more than a few of us miss Miles. But after 17 years with CNN, he’s moved on. In fact, he’s constantly moving. Today, he’s in Lakeland Florida—that’s right, nearby the new media capital of the world, St. Petersburg, Florida, the headquarters of the Mr. Media empire—where he premiered a new movie, Over Africa. Tomorrow, who knows where he’ll be. O’Brien is pursuing all of his interests at once in a whirl of activity. Miles O'Brien Facebook • Twitter • Vimeo • Blog "Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great" by Albert J. Dunlap with Bob Andelman, available in print, e-book or digital audio. Order your copy now by clicking on the book cover above!   The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Jonathan Bennett, actor, Van Wilder: Freshman Year, Mean Girls Order 'Van Wilder: Freshman Year' starring Jonathan Bennett, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! When I was a freshman at the University of Miami back in 1978, Animal House was all the rage and the coolest guys on campus wanted to be like “Otter,” played by Peter Riegert. He knew all the girls, glided through school and was envied by all the guys. Well, it’s 30 years later—damn, where did the time go—and now all the young college dudes want to be like another National Lampoon character: Van Wilder. There have been two Van Wilder movies and two talented actors who played the smooth, suave young dude: Ryan Reynolds—whatever happened to him?—and my guest tonight, Jonathan Bennett, who starred in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder: Freshman Year. JONATHAN BENNETT podcast excerpt: "There are more Vans down in the pipeline... I will play Van Wilder until I'm 90, I love that character so much. We can do Van Wilder: The Senior Years and do it in the retirement home!" A heavy responsibility befalls the man who wears the crown of a guy like Van Wilder, the model of horny, party-going young men everywhere, but I suspect Young Master Bennett can handle the pressure—he’s made a cottage industry of being second to step in time-honored roles, including starring as Bo Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning. You may have also seen him in Mean Girls as Lindsay Lohan’s boyfriend, Bachelor Party Vegas, opposite Kal Pen of Harold & Kumar fame, or in the Steve Martin movie Cheaper By the Dozen 2 as Bud McNulty. But this Saturday night, September 19 at 8 p.m., he faces a real challenge as celebrity host of Acme Comedy Theatre’s “Acme Saturday Night.” Jonathan Bennett Twitter • Facebook • Instagram • Wikipedia • IMDB • Cake Wars on Food Network Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: John Fricke, author, Judy: A Legendary Film Career Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of former gay icons who refuse to acknowledge their fabulosity in this world or the next… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Order Judy: A Legendary Film Career by John Fricke, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! In the pantheon of movie stars who will live forever in the memories of cinema fans, few burn brighter than Judy Garland. She lived a well documented life of extraordinariness, from her big screen breakthrough in The Wizard of Oz on through A Star is Born and Meet Me in St. Louis. There was no medium she couldn’t conquer, whether it was movies, radio or, later, television. Wherever she went, whatever she did, she was universally respected for her God-given talent and adored for her smile and spunk. JOHN FRICKE audio excerpt: "Judy Garland married the wrong men again and again or trusted the wrong men again and again. It must have been very difficult for someone who was as intelligence as Judy was, to keep picking herself up and starting over, realizing she had yet again made the same mistakes." Order The Wonderful World of Oz: An Illustrated History of the American Classic by John Fricke, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! There have been, of course, entire bookshelves of research and publications devoted to the magic of Garland and it could be argued that what the world didn’t need was another coffee table book of pictures and facts about the actress who brought Dorothy Gale to life in 1939. But biographer John Fricke – who also wrote The Wizard of Oz: An Illustrated Companion to the Timeless Movie Classic — knows his subject better than most and found a fresh way to present his case for another print celebration of her life and art. Judy: A Legendary Film Career breaks down the movies of the actress and singer into four parts of her life. It then entertains the reader with synopses, cast lists, behind-the-scenes credits, musical numbers when appropriate and photos. Lots and lots of great photos. If you love Judy Garland, you’ll love this book. Judy Garland Museum Website • Database • Wikipedia • IMDB • YouTube • Order Judy: A Legendary Film Career from Amazon.com     The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangementby Jane Peden. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge, co-authors, The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution Order Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR by clicking the book cover above!   Order The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution by clicking the book cover above! I have a lot of respect for the practitioners of public relations services. Publicists are responsible for many of the interviews you hear on Mr. Media; they’re either pitching their clients to me or I go to them seeking their clients. And in this show’s third year, I feel like every day I’m either getting schooled in PR 2.0—the web iteration of public relations—or getting spanked by it. So I’m feeding a personal curiosity by inviting today’s guests, Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge. BRIAN SOLIS audio excerpt: "When PR people write press releases today, they're writing it for the CEO and the product team, not the people who need to read it. It's a totally backwards phenomenon." Together, they are the co-authors of a new book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR. Separately, Solis is the principle behind FutureWorks, a PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. And Breakenridge is president of PFS Marketwyse, a New Jersey-based marketing communications agency. Brian Solis Website • Posterous • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Order The End of Business As Usual Deirdre Breakenridge Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Order Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great by Albert J. Dunlap with Bob Andelman. Order your copy now by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Michael Uslan, executive producer, Batman, The Dark Knight films, author, The Boy Who Loved Batman Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of Batman pajamas wearing youngsters dreaming of slaying their dragons and laying their Vicki Vales… in the NEW new media capital of the world, St. Petersburg, Florida! Order Michael Uslan's 'The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir' by clicking the book cover above! I’ve never produced a Batman movie, but other than that slight difference between us, I completely related to producer Michael Uslan’s autobiography, The Boy Who Loved Batman. It probably starts with us both being Jersey boys smitten by four-color dreams as young boys, buying the latest comics at a neighborhood drugstore or Mom & Pop convenience store. Then it was our similar devotion to organizing our friends according to their interest in arguing about who would win a fight, DC’s Batman or Marvel’s Daredevil, Superman or Batman, Deadman or, uh, never mind. MICHAEL USLAN audio excerpt: "I think Michael Keaton was essential to that first movie taking hold and setting the standard for what would come in the entire genre over the next 20-plus years. Christian Bale totally nails Bruce Wayne for every single generation of Batman fans... Christian Bale makes you believe in Bruce Wayne and therefore, Batman, completely." And there were the creative professionals who made appearances in our teens; for him it was comic book writer Otto Binder; for me, hard-boiled detective novelist Michael Avallone. Also: Uslan made a pilgrimage to DC Comics and spent a day with vice president Sol Harrison; my friends and I went to Marvel, met a very young artist named George Perez and followed him home, where we watched him draw. (Harrison later hired Uslan; Perez and I are friends on Facebook but I can’t swear he remembers our momentous meetup in 1976.) Order 'The Dark Knight Trilogy" (Batman Begins / The Dark Knight / The Dark Knight Rises) [Blu-ray], available from Amazon.com by clicking on the box set above! There were other, smaller things that tickled me in The Boy Who Loved Batman: • Uslan wrote many of the DC adaptations of The Shadow, which I loved as a teen and, many years later, it was one of the few comics I kept and that I introduced to my wife and she enjoyed at least as much I did. • And just days after my teenage daughter finished reading Beowulf for her English Honors class and I remembered a comic book version in the 1970s, I discovered in his memoir that Uslan conceived and wrote that, too! • It also turns out we have a mutual acquaintance, Steve Huntington. Huntington and Uslan went to grade school and high school together back in Jersey; I covered smooth jazz radio program director Huntington as a media writer in the Tampa Bay area in the 1980s. I could go on and on without even getting close to the meat of the book: how Uslan obsessed over the need for a full-length movie of The Dark Knight to redeem Batman after the campy ‘60s TV series nearly ruined the character forever. Not only did Uslan acquire the rights and bring every modern version of the Caped Crusader to the big screen, from Michael Keaton to Christian Bale, he also was responsible for TV and film versions of Swamp Thing among other characters. His book does leave out a couple of his movies he’d probably rather forget, though, including Catwoman and Frank Miller’s The Spirit. (Sorry, Michael.) And one more thing: at the top of his IMDB page is this curiosity: Untitled Batman Reboot, 2015. Hmm… Michael Uslan The Boy Who Loved Batman Website • The Uslan Company Website • Order The Boy Who Loved Batman Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Michael Uslan, comic book writer, "Archie Marries Betty" Betty   Archie Marries Betty by Michael Uslan I remember the first time I encountered Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, Moose, Mr. Weatherbee, Miss Grundy, Hot Dog and the rest of the Riverdale gang. It was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1971, and we were visiting our cousins, the Sirotkins. Fred Sirotkin, the youngest of the three children, had a basement filled with shelf after shelf of neatly ordered comic books. It was nirvana for me—and probably still would be, if not for the great flood that hit Wilkes-Barre a year later, obliterating Fred’s collection and everything else in the wall of water’s path. MICHAEL USLAN podcast excerpt: "Yes, we take the Archie story one step beyond anything it's ever been taken before... This has become a firestorm on the Internet on a worldwide basis. The Today Show took a poll on who Archie should marry. It was 80% Betty, 20% Veronica--and Jughead came in a strong third." Fast-forward to January 2010 and America’s oldest teenager, Archie Andrews—sorry, Dick Clark—has graduated college and announced his engagement to Betty Cooper. The writer of this six-part Archie Comics series, which takes us through the characters’ future, is as much a surprise, perhaps, as Archie choosing girl-next-door Betty over girl-with-a billion-bucks Veronica. His name is Michael Uslan, and while he’s written a few comic books before, he’s based known as an executive producer behind some of the biggest comic book movies of all time, including Batman and The Dark Knight. This is Michael’s second visit to Mr. Media Radio; he was previously a guest to discuss The Spirit movie, of which he was a producer. Michael Uslan Website • Facebook • LinkedIn • Wikipedia • IMDB • Order The Boy Who Loved Batman from Amazon.com Order 'The Boy Who Loved Batman' by Michael Uslan, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! MORE COMIC BOOK CREATOR INTERVIEWS WITH MR. MEDIA! Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) Monte Wolverton (The Wolverton Bible) Craig Yoe (Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster) Gary Groth, Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics) Mark Wheatley, Robert Tinnell (EZ Street, Lone Justice) Gene Colan (Iron Man,” “Daredevil,” “Howard the Duck,” “Batman) Bill Schelly (Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert) Mike Gold (ComicMix.com editor) Blake Bell (Strange & Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko, I Have to Live With This Guy!) Blake Bell and Michael Vassalo (The Secret History of Marvel Comics) Daniel Pink (The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, Free Agent Nation, A Whole New Mind) Jonathan Riggs (Prism Comics: Your Guide to LGBT Comics) Arie Kaplan (Speed Racer, MAD Magazine) Paul Fitzgerald, Cindy Jackson and Stuart Henderson (Will Eisner & PS Magazine) Paul Fitzgerald (Will Eisner & PS Magazine) Danny Fingeroth (Disguised as Superman, Superman on the Couch) Danny Fingeroth & Roy Thomas (The Stan Lee Universe) Wendy Pini and Richard Pini (Elfquest, Masque of the Red Death) Pete Von Sholly (Capitol Hell, Morbid) Joe Sinnott (Fantastic Four, Brush Strokes with Greatness) Chuck Dixon (The Simpsons Comics, 2007) Peter Kuper (Stop Forgetting to Remember, 2007) Peter Kuper (Drawn to New York, 2012) Trina Robbins (The Brinkley Girls, 2009) Trina Robbins (GoGirl! 2007) Drew Friedman (Old Jewish Comedians, 2007) Drew Friedman (Too Soon?, 2010) Drew Friedman (Even More Old Jewish Comedians, 2011) Dennis O'Neil (Batman, 2007) Mike Richardson (Dark Horse Comics, 2007) Aaron Warner (The Adventures of Aaron, 1997) Jim Lee (Heroes Reborn, 1996) David Hajdu (The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare, 2008) Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Michael Uslan, executive producer, Batman, Dark Knight movies Order Michael Uslan's 'The Boy Who Loved Batman: A Memoir' by clicking the book cover above! Kids, if you want to grow up to be a successful executive producer of movies like Michael Uslan ("YOU-slin") did, the key is education – and patience. Lots and lots of patience. Uslan secured the rights to make Batman movies years before Tim Burton, Michael Keaton, and Jack Nicholson dreamed of working together. And he couldn’t give away the rights to Will Eisner’s The Spirit. But his patience and determination paid off. This year, the sixth Batman movie – The Dark Knight – and first Spirit movie will come to a multiplex near you, joining previous Uslan productions such as Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Batman Begins, Catwoman, Constantine, National Treasure, Swamp Thing – well, you get the idea. And he’s not one to rest on his laurels, either. Uslan’s current projects in development include Shazam!, The Shadow, and Constantine 2. If you love comic books, and especially movies made from comic books, please welcome Michael Uslan to Mr. Media. Michael Uslan The Boy Who Loved Batman Website • The Uslan Company Website • Order The Boy Who Loved Batman Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Kevin Avery, author, editor, Conversations With Clint, Everything is An Afterthought Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of Rolling Stone magazine writers and past Mr. Media guests such as Ben Fong-Torres, David Wild and Parke Puterbaugh who are hanging on every word today as they seal their own unpublished interviews in air-tight mayonnaise jars and hide them under my bed… in the NEW new media capital of the world, St. Petersburg, Florida! Order 'Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson's Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983' by clicking the book cover above! I completely get Kevin Avery – I think. Growing up, he admired the writing and reviews of a long-time Rolling Stone journalist named Paul Nelson. He even wrote a fan letter to the magazine about Nelson; it was published in the April 30, 1981 issue. Personally, while I was a regular reader of Rolling Stone in those days, Nelson’s name and work didn’t have quite the same impression upon me. In fact, I didn’t remember it at all. KEVIN AVERY audio excerpt: "Paul Nelson had a fascinating life. If we worked together, it would not have been the same book; being a very private man, Paul would not have revealed everything that I found out." And, sadly for Avery and other Nelson fans, the legendary writer eventually faded away, a victim of his own inner demons and compulsions. Order 'Everything Is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson' by clicking the book cover above But Avery never forgot him. And when he relocated from Salt Lake City to Brooklyn in February 2006, Avery sent his idol a note suggesting they work together to compile a “best of” collection of Nelson’s work. Nelson never responded – directly. I’ll let Avery tell you what happened in a moment. But it won’t spoil the suspense to say that Avery is the author-slash-editor of two new Nelson books, Everything is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson, and Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson’s Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood 1979-1983. There is a truly compelling story here -- Paul Nelson rediscovered -- whether you’re interest in pop music, film or the mysteries of the writing life. And Everything has a genuine bonus: the foreword is by my own literary idol, Nick Tosches. Kevin Avery Website • Twitter • Facebook • Order Conversations with Clint • Order Everything is an Afterthought src="http://mrmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Ritch_Shydner_Kicking_front_cover_FINAL-72dpi.jpg" alt="Kicking Through the Ashes by Ritch Shydner, Mr. Media Interviews" width="335" height="502" /> Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life As A Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom by Ritch Shydner. Order your copy today by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!

Today's Guest: Freddie E. Williams II, comic book artist, The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics Order The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics by Freddie E. Williams II, available right now at a great price by clicking on the book cover above! I am old enough to remember what a sensation Stan Lee and John Buscema caused back in 1978 when the book, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, was published. That book promised to pull back the curtain and teach would-be comic book artists how the House of Ideas did things and how you could, too. But that was then—this is now. In the digital age, knowing how to hold a pencil is so 1999. If you want to make it in comics today, you need a lot more technical skills and information. And that, no doubt, is why Freddie E. Williams II is going to do very well with his timely new instructional book, The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics. Freddie E. Williams II, artist, The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics FREDDIE WILLIAMS podcast excerpt: "If you have a fledgling design sense, you could take elements already drawn by someone else and lay them out; if you know how to use Photoshop, it opens up opportunities. But you still need to know the entire skill set of drawing comics before working digitally."  Williams is already on a bit of a roll, having worked on the DC miniseries Countdown, as well as Robin, The Flash and others. Freddie E. Williams II Website • Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Order The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics from Amazon.com Order Will Eisner: A Spirited Life (2nd Edition) by Bob Andelman, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above!     The Party Authority in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland!