Mr. Media Interviews by Bob Andelman

Today's Guest: Brittany Perry-Russell, actress, dancer, Honey 2   Brittany Perry-Russell Order Honey 2 with Brittany Perry-Russell, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! Maybe the name Brittany Perry-Russell is not instantly recognizable to you. It probably wouldn’t be, not unless you’re in the music business and you go by the name of Rhianna. Or Lil Wayne. Or Usher. Or Ciara. Or Michael Jackson. She was a dancer for what became the singer’s final production, captured forever in the DVD This Is It. And “Glee” TV fans might recognize her as a “Cheerio” from one of her four recent appearances as a cheerleader on the Fox show. BRITTANY PERRY-RUSSELL audio excerpt: "I love working on 'Glee.' By far it's been one of my favorite TV shows to work on. And I love Jane Lynch. I'm a big fan." Brittany is one of the industry’s most talented and sought-after dancers, someone who makes a dramatic impression in every music video in which she appears. The problem with those is that they’re highly visible but largely uncredited roles. Likewise, the national Listerine commercial Brittany made. You’ve probably seen that spot on TV, felt yourself smiling back at the face—grinning at you and returned to your regularly scheduled program. Well, that face is about to get an indelible name: Brittany Perry-Russell. She just finished shooting her biggest movie role to date as one of the leads in the movie Honey 2, a Universal Studios release scheduled for February 2011. You might have head of the original 2003 film called Honey: it starred another young actress on her way up: Jessica Alba. Brittany Perry-Russell Twitter • Facebook • IMDB • Instagram • YouTube • Order Honey 2 from Amazon.com 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: George Gray, host, "What's With That House," announcer, "The Price is Right" with Drew Carey "The Price Is Right" announcer George Gray and host Drew Carey George Gray is having way too much fun on his HGTV show, “What’s With That House?” The show, now in its second season, is kind of a goof on the proliferation of shelter TV shows, where viewers are taken into fabulous homes and mansions and led around by announcers in hushed, respectful tones. There’s no respect in Gray’s tone -- and rightfully so. If you haven’t seen the show, I absolutely insist you pause this interview and set your DVR, Tivo, or VCR to record the show. It’s on HGTV every Wednesday at 11:30 PM Eastern or Pacific. You won’t be sorry. (You could also sample it by watching a clip...) Back now? Okay. If Gray seems familiar, it means you probably saw him in ESPN’s sports fantasy reality series “I’d Do Anything” or the syndicated version of “The Weakest Link.” George Gray Facebook • Twitter • Wikipedia • IMDB • "The Price is Right" on CBS BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: George, welcome to Mr. Media. GEORGE GRAY: I am so excited to be here. Actually, you were talking fitness. I’ve been doing Kegels the whole time I’ve been listening to you. ANDELMAN: Well, I hope whoever you’re with next appreciates that I gave you the opportunity to do that. GRAY: And you used the word proliferation. You gotta slowly ramp up to a word like proliferation, which is nice. ANDELMAN: Well, I thought this was kind of a nuclear moment. GRAY: Makes me sound way heavier than I really am. So glad to be here. ANDELMAN: Well, that is quite a head you’ve got on your shoulders, if you’re gonna make that reference. GRAY: It’s just the ego. ANDELMAN: What color is that hair? GRAY: Actually, it’s funny because my hair…you achieve that kind of blond by sticking your head in a bucket of Clorox about every five days. And so it’s very natural. But, actually, now that the show is on hiatus right now, my hair sort of looks like I got whacked with a carrot. I seem to go to extremes. ANDELMAN: What is the natural color of your hair?   GRAY: Oh, when I was doing “The Weakest Link,” that was pretty close, although the lights were so dark in the room, it looked darker than it was. Kind of a dark blond, I think. Dirty, dirty blond, something like that. I don’t even know. Who knows? I started growing the soul patch. I did a show called “Junkyard Wars” before “Weakest Link,” and I grew the soul patch that I have now worn for years as a joke. Not a lot of guys were wearing them at the time, not that I was the first to ever do it, but they really weren’t in vogue. And I really did it as a joke, and I thought it looked so silly and stupid that I just decided to wear it for a couple of weeks. Then I booked “Junkyard Wars” and just left it. And so that’s been on my face. So I sort of do things, I don’t know, just out of sheer stupidity. ANDELMAN: This is way off topic, but as a guy who’s worn a beard for way too long, how do you trim that soul patch thing so it always looks the same? Do you ever slip with the razor or the electric? GRAY: No, I’m a Braun man. I don’t really pay that much attention to it. My mother hates it. She wishes that I would slip with the razor by accident. A beard would drive me nuts. I couldn’t do that. I don’t know how you do it. You got a really long one, do ya? ANDELMAN: No, no. It’s not too long, but my wife refuses to let me cut it. She says I look about 10 years old without it, which, as I’m pushing my way up to 50, I guess maybe that might be a good thing. I don’t know. GRAY: Maybe she’s got a Santa Claus fetish. “C’mon, go gray baby, go gray.” ANDELMAN: I’ll try that little red hat on tonight. So what’s this, you got a TV show? I don’t remember what we’re here for. GRAY: TV, shmevee. Very nice words, by the way. Thank you for telling everybody that they should tune in to watch. “What’s With That House?” is a guilty pleasure show. It really is slamming on your brakes – a...

Today's Guest: John Amato, political website founder, CrooksAndLiars.com It’s not just this generation. Politics has always been dirty, nasty, bare-knuckle affairs. In the American two-party system, one side always blames the other for whatever ails the country. The new twist in the 21st Century is the emergence of political Web sites and political blogs in particular. Anyone with a point of view can get a free blog from blogger.com or wordpress.com and be online telling the world what they think about anything, anywhere in about ten minutes or less. Some of these new voices are surprisingly thoughtful, literate, and inspiring. Some are just idiots with cyber-megaphones. Some are on the right, some are on the left, but there is no doubt that the best of them and some who are just louder than the others will wield unprecedented influence going into the 2008 Presidential primaries and election cycle. One of the rising stars of the genre is John Amato, agent provocateur of the best-named blog of the bunch, CrooksandLiars.com. CrooksandLiars.com Website • Facebook • C&L Twitter • John Amato Twitter BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: John, you are a professional musician by trade. What prompts a man like yourself to go public with his politics? AMATO: Well, you know, a couple of reasons. First of all, politics obviously influences everybody’s lives, and I think at some time in each of our lives, we have taken a look and seen who is running for President, even if we never bother with politics, and I was that type of person, which would sort of be on the periphery, you know, read what I can, and it was something that interested me. But being a professional musician, obviously, I practice for six hours a day and go on the road and travel and still keep abreast of things. But I got injured. JOHN AMATO audio excerpt: "I was touring with Duran Duran, and a doctor crippled me. We won’t get into what he did, and I was unable to perform. I was home disabled, and that’s when I started to really follow the blogs because I was able to read, and I decided, you know, I want my voice to be heard, even if nobody reads it, because I felt that things in this country were in the wrong direction."  If for nothing else, I would be able to express myself, and that’s all I wanted to really do at that time. ANDELMAN: Was there a particular incident, a political incident that set you off? AMATO: Well, I would say initially there were two things. Obviously, the Iraq war was one that I felt was a dishonest war. I felt that it was something that we should have never done, so that got my blood boiling. And as a touring musician, this might be funny to some, but when people started to protest the Dixie Chicks -- and when I heard that they were burning their records and kicking them off the radio -- I was playing at the time. It caused me to pause and say, “Wait a second.” I mean, before, I grew up in the 1970s where protest and music were part of the culture. Music told The Man, you know, “Get out of here. We’re not taking it.” Music was the instrument. It sort of obviously changed society, and there was a big break in the 1960s and 1970s, so when I heard that people were attacking the Dixie Chicks just because they said something negative against President Bush, I really realized that there was something very wrong with the country. ANDELMAN: Did you ever imagine a New York boy like you would be supporting a bunch of Southern chicks like them? AMATO: I never did. I like Patsy Cline. I can’t tell you that I’ve been a big country fan, but some of the greats I enjoy, some of the old Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard, but it was just interesting. That story just stuck with me, obviously a musician playing, and I just could not understand. And I realized that there were people really organizing to do this, and this is America! We talk against power. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Democratic nominee in the White House, if it’s a Republican, we all question or at least say, “What...

Today's Guest: Mac Montandon, author, Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was   Order 'Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was' by Mac Montandon, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! I want a damn jetpack. Is that so hard to understand? There was actually a guy on the “Jimmy Kimmel Show” recently who had one and used it to fly around Hollywood High’s football field in Los Angeles. But he was on the show because it was unusual. I think everyone who wants a jetpack and has the balls to use one, should have one. Maybe it’s a guy thing – I also want to see a man walk on Mars in my lifetime. (Not me, mind you, but some guy.) It’s not like I’m asking for some silly flying car, like in the Back to the Future movies. No, that would be silly. And while we’re at it, I want to drive a really cool car that doesn’t look like every fourth car on the road. Is that too much to ask? Mac Montandon knows exactly what I’m after. He wrote the book, Jetpack Dreams: One Man Up and Down (but Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was. Let’s see how crazy I really am. Mac Montandon Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Scribd • Order Jetpack Dreams 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!

Today's Guest: Danny Pudi, actor, "Community" Inspector Spacetime -- "Conventions of Space and Time": (l-r) Gillian Jacobs as Britta, Danny Pudi as Abed, Donald Glover as Troy -- (Photo by: Vivian Zink/NBC)   Danny Pudi as Abed on the NBC sitcom "Community." (Photo: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC) 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 double-take, rewind and watch him do it again. And again. 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." Danny Pudi stars as Abed -- and sometimes, Batman, in the NBC comedy "Community" (Photo: Chris Haston/NBC) 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 . (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  Twitter • Facebook • Order "Community" Season One on DVD Order 'Community: The Complete First Season,' available from Amazon.com by checking on the DVD cover above! 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: Barbara Corcoran, businesswoman, "Shark Tank," author, Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of guys pitching me on all kinds of ridiculous ideas, including spray can music… in the new new media capitol of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida! Part 1 of 3     Order 'Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business' by Barbara Corcoran from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Barbara Corcoran has spunk. I, unlike Lou Grant, like spunk. Okay, is that TV reference too old for you? Let’s try one that’s more recent: Barbara Corcoran, a former Manhattan real estate magnate who once beat Donald Trump at his own game, is one of the stars of ABC’s business reality show, “Shark Tank,” airing Fridays this spring at 8 p.m. She’s the girl in the band, but this chick shakes a lot more than a tambourine. In any given episode, sweet, flirty Barbara is as prepared to elbow out a competitor on Shark Tank as any of the boys. Order 'Shark Tank Jump Start Your Business: How to Launch and Grow a Business from Concept to Cash' available in print or ebook edition from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! BARBARA CORCORAN audio excerpt: "There is nothing reckless about Mark Cuban. He's very calculating. He's a phenomenal negotiator. And more than anything else, he's a great strategist. I learned that within 20 minutes of being on the panel with him. I frankly hated him within a half hour of meeting him. But he's probably the best advocate of any entrepreneur there." Everyone on the show has a unique entrepreneurial story to tell and Barbara Corcoran is no different. Down on her luck, she got a boyfriend to give her $1,000 to launch a real estate business. And when she broke up with him later, well, I’ll let her tell the rest of the story. Or you could read it in Shark Tales, an update of her bestselling memoir, If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails. This is the Shark Tank star’s second appearance on Mr. Media, putting her even with my other favorite shark, FUBU apparel founder Daymond John. Barbara Corcoran Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Instagram • Wikipedia • Order Shark Tales from Amazon.com LISTEN! Barbara Corcoran's first podcast interview with Mr. Media (2010) LISTEN! Shark Tank's Daymond John's first appearance on Mr. Media (2009) LISTEN! Daymond John returns! (2010) Part 2 of 3     Part 3 of 3     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: Barbara Corcoran, entrepreneur, "Shark Tank," author, Shark Tales Order 'Use What You've Got, and Other Business Lessons I Learned from My Mom' by Barbara Corcoran, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran has a sense of humor. She must: an incredibly successful real estate mogul, she’s the author of three books, including my favorite title, If You Don’t Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails. Yikes! On her ABC show, which airs its second season finale this Friday, February 5 at 9 p.m., Barbara is on a panel of experts assessing potential business investments. There are some great ideas; and there are some horrible ideas. BARBARA CORCORAN podcast excerpt: "Think of the opportunity and the sheer entertainment value of 'Shark Tank'! We're working 11-hour days, listening to pitch after pitch and we're never bored. It is so fascinating! And then you go home with new business partners. Who would say no to something like that?" Barbara is the only woman on the panel and presents some of the best “Are you out of your mind?” facial expressions to the deer-in-the-headlights, wannabee capitalists. But she’s also invested in a few good ideas along the way. Barbara Corcoran Website • Twitter • Facebook • LinkedIn • Instagram • Wikipedia • Order Shark Tales from Amazon.com LISTEN! Shark Tank’s Daymond John’s first appearance on Mr. Media (2009) LISTEN! Daymond John returns! (2010) 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!

Oscar Isaac, actor, Pu-239 Order 'Pu-239' starring Paddy Considine and Oscar Isaac, available right now at a great price by clicking on the book cover above! Oscar Isaac, my guest today, co-stars with Paddy Considine in a riveting new HBO film, Pu-239. Based upon a short story by Ken Kalfus, PU-239 tells the story of a devoted father and husband -- Paddy Considine -- in post-Soviet Russia who labors in a deteriorating nuclear plant. After being exposed to a deadly dose of radiation while trying to avert a plant disaster, he is made a scapegoat and suspended without pay. With just days to live and desperate to provide for his wife and young son, he impulsively steals a small amount of Pu-239 -- weapons grade plutonium -- and heads to Moscow to attempt a quick sale. In Moscow, Considine’s character gets caught up with an inept, wannabe gangster -- played by Isaac -- to help him sell the dangerous goods on the black market. Oscar Isaac Facebook • IMDB • Order Pu-239 from Amazon.com BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: I appreciate your time. I gave kind of a brief synopsis of the film, but the name of the film won’t mean a lot to the average person any more than it did for your character, actually. What would you like people to know about this movie? OSCAR ISAAC: I think there are so many elements that make it such a unique film. I think it’s very unlike any film I’ve really seen in some while. The closest I can think of it is films from the 1970s that weren’t afraid to kind of experiment with tone and genre and all that, so it is a very sad, tragic film about this man that’s trying to help his family, but then at the same time, there’s this very humorous side to it when he meets this criminal and this unlikely bond, kind of buddy thing, happens with the two of them. I think it’s very exciting. It’s kind of Jacovian in that way, a lot of humor and, at the same time, the tragedy is involved just in the same intensity. Star Wars Episode 7 Pop! Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron. Order yours now by clicking on the figure above! ANDELMAN: You mentioned 1970s movies, and I hadn’t thought about it until you just said that, but, of course, The China Syndrome, there’s a little bit of that here with the… ISAAC: Right, right, exactly. ANDELMAN: What drew you to this movie? Was it the drama? Was it the politics, the buddy…. Oscar: Honestly, it was the script, the way it was written, and the character. It’s just fantastic. I mean, I think it’s just really full of life and humor. Both the director, Scott Burns, and myself, one of our favorite movies, at least for me, my favorite movie of all time was Dog Day Afternoon. It reminded me of it in that kind of way, where you have this guy who’s way in over his head, but he’s just trying to make it work, and you end up feeling sympathy for him even though he’s kind of a screw-up. I like that a lot about him. Order 'Inside Llewyn Davis' [Blu-ray] starring Oscar Isaac, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! ANDELMAN: There are actually two guys in this movie that are way in over their heads. ISAAC: Exactly. And you know, that’s also a great point that these two different characters really are mirrors of each other in different extremes. Paddy Considine’s character is way in over his head by deciding to go into the black market. He’s a scientist and suddenly he’s forced to do this wheel and deal, something he just doesn’t know how to do, but he’s trying to save his family. And on the other side of it, you’ve got my character, who is also trying to save his family -- whatever his definition of family is, his girlfriend that’s a prostitute and his son that he’s not sure if it’s his -- but even that, he’s trying, he’s working in this new, crazy, anything goes Wild West of capitalism in the Soviet Union, the former Soviet Union, and now he’s just trying to do what he can, and I think that’s ultimately what’s really great is that these two guys are trying to fight for their families. ANDELMAN: I...

Today's Guest: Brittany Snow, actress, Pitch Perfect, Hairspray, "Harry's Law" Brittany Snow   Order 'Hairspray' starring John Travolta, Zac Efron, Brittany Snow, available on Blu-Ray from Amazon.com by clicking on the DVD cover above! Actress Brittany Snow is part of a small but growing contingent of Tampa Bay area natives making their mark on network TV. With the debut of “Harry’s Law” on NBC – in which she co-stars with Kathy Bates and Nate Corddry — Snow will rejoin the primetime spotlight alongside St. Petersburg’s Monica Raymund – star of “Lie To Me” – and Tampa’s, Maulik Pancholy of “30 Rock.” (Angela Bassett is from St. Petersburg and Channing Tatum is a fellow alumnus of Brittany’s from Tampa’s Gaither High School, by the way.) BRITTANY SNOW podcast excerpt: "Zac Efron dropped me a couple times when we were doing our dances for Hairspray. He didn't have that good strength back then."  I think my favorite Brittany Snow moment to date was in the movie Hairspray, in which she played Michelle Pfeiffer’s spoiled daughter Amber. The movie was my daughter’s Grease and we’ve seen it dozens of times. Brittany, who has been acting since she was a child, was a star of “American Dreams” and had a recurring role on “Nip/Tuck.” On the big screen, you’ve also seen her in John Tucker Must Die, The Pacifier, Prom Night and last year’s Janie Jones. In “Harry’s Law,” which airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC, Brittany is once again playing alongside a major talent: Academy Award winner Kathy Bates, who plays the title character, Harry. Brittany is her assistant and shoe salesman – I’ll let her explain that part. Brittany Snow IMDB • Wikipedia • Instagram • Twitter • Facebook Order 'Pitch Perfect' starring Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Brittany Snow, by clicking on the DVD cover above! The Millionaire's Convenient Arrangement by 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: Jeff Keane, daily cartoonist, Family Circus. Mr. Media is recorded live before a studio audience of men and women who will be pausing for a moment of silence every time my guest answers a question… in the NEW new media capital of the world… St. Petersburg, Florida!   Jeff Keane's contribution to Cartoonists Remember 9/11 We all know where we were when the attacks of 9-11 took place. I was here at my desk, working on a new book, The Today Show playing in the background. I stopped what I was doing for days. The President of the United States, of course, was listening to elementary school students about an hour south of me read a book about a goat, in Sarasota, Florida. An aide whispered the news in his ear, a quizzical expression came over his face, and he returned to finish learning about the goat. It seemed like we would never laugh again. Except about that goat story. WTF? JEFF KEANE audio excerpt: "I didn't want Family Circus to be heavy-handed. I wanted to be appropriate for the characters. The characters in Family Circus are young; it's the ten-year anniversary of 9/11--none of them would have even been born yet (when the tragedy occurred)." It fell to the professional funny men and women among us to reestablish the nation’s funnybone. Late night talk show host David Letterman is often credited with deciding it was time to go back to work and tell jokes. But truly, morning radio’s Howard Stern worked through the event calming nerves in New York City and returning to work on September 12th and every day after that. Order 'The Family Circus' by Bil Keane, available from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover above! And thanks to their habit of working weeks ahead, America’s daily cartoonists never missed a beat. Their gags still appeared in most newspapers and eventually they began peppering their work with respectful references to the tragedy at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Now, on the 10th anniversary of the event universally recalled as 9-11, nearly 100 comic strip creators are joining forces this Sunday to pay tribute to a day that has become as painful in modern American history as Pearl Harbor Day was for the World War II generation. “Cartoonists Remember 9/11” will bring together cartoonists and the many syndicates that distribute their work this Sunday, September 11, 2011, for a common purpose. Joining me today to preview the cartoonists’ salute is Jeff Keane. Jeff is now in charge of creating “Family Circus,” the cartoon his father Bil started in 1960. He still seeks out his fathers’ invaluable guidance and advice that is a key to keeping the feature a favorite for readers of all ages. And he has been deeply involved in the Cartoonist Remember 9/11 event – and keeping "Pearls Before Swine” cartoonist Stephan Pastis in line. Cartoonists Remember 9/11 Website Family Circus Website • Daryl Cagle: Cartoonists Look Back at 9/11 Click above to visit CartoonistsRemember911.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!