I am currently blogging to you from a hotel room in the Middle East, listening to all the songs on my iPod that begin with "H," and enjoying a tarte tatin I just transported from Paris. This is the glamorous half of my winter vacation — the second half will be spent sleeping on an air mattress in an Ohio basement with my boyfriend and his two brothers. But for now I'm in a city called Dubai, which is located in the United Arab Emirates, next to Saudi Arabia and just across the Gulf from Iran. It is also the current residence of my grandmother, and my parents and I have traveled here for some much-needed grandma face time. As to why my grandmother is in the Middle East, I don't think I can really explain the whole story of my crazy family without going all the way back to the Russian Revolution, and part of that explanation could lead to the indictment of certain family members, so I'll leave that one for my memoir. Right now I'm sitting in a Marriott in the middle of the desert...
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Welcome to another Men in Trees blog by your friendly host, Bergl. I've just returned from a promotional shoot for the UK launch of Men in Trees, which is very exciting for me because I'm originally from England (my dad is British and my mom is Irish). Did you know that Jason O'Mara, who plays the charming publisher Stuart Maxson, is Irish? He has the most amazing American accent, which you will be hearing again in subsequent episodes. (Ladies, don't you love how they keep adding even more handsome men to the show? James Tupper can't be expected to shoulder all the burden on his fisherman sweater-clad shoulders, which, yes, do look as good in real life.)Jason O'Mara is from Sandycove, which is right around the corner from the town of Dalkey, where my mother grew up. Now our Irish relatives can watch us on Men in Trees. Up until now, my appearances on UK TV were mostly limited to The Rage: Carrie 2 and an episode of CSI: Miami, and in both of these I kill people — most notably...
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Greetings, virtual community, it's good to be back! I just got back from the movie theater with Justine Bateman, where we saw this slasher movie called Fur. OK, it's not really a slasher movie, it's a movie about photographer Diane Arbus, but the one thing that did get slashed was my part. Between that and the Bears losing, it could've been quite the downward spiral today, but I count it as a step on the way to becoming a real actor. In my book, you're not a real actor until your part hits the cutting-room floor, you get a bad review, and you've been fired. So I am two-thirds of the way there — I just hope the firing doesn't happen on Men in Trees, because I love seeing these people at work every day. And Justine Bateman may or may not be one of those people (whom, as I see at work, no one can resist loving). I can't reveal any more except that she may or may not have one of the greatest lead-ins and entrances on a television show I've ever seen. A literal and metaphorical stor...
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Wow! I was just about to turn in this week's blog, procrastinating as usual and pushing it down to the wire, when I got a call from James Tupper that we are picked up [for the full season]! It was extremely bizarre because I had just finished typing his name moments before. I never thought the words, "I was just blogging about you" would come out of my mouth. Anyway, I promised that you would all know the moment I knew, so here it is. And if that wasn't enough good news, they're moving us to the slot after Grey's Anatomy beginning Nov. 30! Exclamation points are actually warranted here! I know some of you were enjoying having something good to watch on Friday nights, but it looks like you're going to have to go out to dinner instead. So here's this week's blog — and I guess there will be more of them to come! A new episode of Men in Trees premieres tonight [at 9 pm/ET, on ABC], and so the Bergl blog is back. I'm sorry I didn't post a little warning that there wouldn't be a new...
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Greetings, all! I'm back from the wilderness of Men in Trees [Fridays at 9 pm/ET, on ABC]. Actually, I am back from being trapped in the wilderness, literally! It's as if I was living this week's episode of Men in Trees, "The Buddy System," which also involves a couple of characters getting trapped in the wilderness. It's a real cliff-hanger.Yesterday I went on a hike with Adrian McMorran, who plays Carl on Men in Trees. He's the rather morose drunk who's always at the bar next to Jerome (the hilarious Timothy Webber, whom I also worked with on a Spielberg miniseries called Taken.) Well, it turned out this hike Adrian and I went on was a 10-mile, 1,700-meter climb up to the top of West Lion Mountain. We were a little ambitious, and by the time the sun had set, we were way up on the side of this mountain, in the middle of the forest, where large bears and cougars reside. Even outside of Alaska, bears seem to be a recurrent theme in my life. It took us three hours to find the trail in...
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I have to begin by giving a major shout out to Marsha Smith, the publicist from ABC who hooked me up with this whole TVGuide.com blog thing. And also to Sara Glasser Havens, [executive producer] Jenny Bicks' assistant, who always catches the typos and makes everything sound better, as well as makes sure everything goes through the proper channels (so you're not exposed to the initial dirty versions I put out.) Basically, I've been procrastinating more and more, turning the blogs in later and later, and these ladies have made sure that they get out there. Props!This week's episode of Men in Trees [Fridays at 9 pm/ET, on ABC], "The Caribou in the Room," made me very happy, because our writer, Tim Davis, put Annie in bed for a good portion of the show. This meant that I could shoot almost all of my scenes in one day, which meant I could go back to L.A. and get in bed with Tyler! So I have very fond memories of this episode. I also remember getting a frantic call one day from Cynthia St...
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... Also known as the continuing true-life adventures of Bergl's search for the real Alaska.I write this blog from yet another airplane (I think that the last three blogs have been at least partially written from the air) after a delightful seven-hour delay at O'Hare airport. What should have been a five-hour flight from New York to Vancouver has turned into 19. Of course, I have waited until the 16th hour of that journey to begin this blog, upholding a well preserved Bergl tradition of procrastination. And there's a whole lot of turbulence and lightning going on right now. If the character of Annie mysteriously disappears on Men in Trees, you'll know why. Tell Tyler I love him! All right, sorry for the drama, but I am an actor after all....I have to apologize first off for the fact that last week's blog was billed as "the dirtiest blog to date." I know that Coley Laffoon, Anne Heche's handsome husband, was one of the many disappointed. It seems as if it was a little too dirty for s...
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... Also known as the continuing true-life adventures of Bergl's search for the real Alaska — and the dirtiest blog to date!Greetings from the set of Men in Trees (Fridays at 9 pm/ET, on ABC). I just returned to my trailer — I still get a kick out of saying that: "Oh, you know, my trailer... " — with a fabulous spread for lunch. I think there's only one thing about the entertainment business that isn't over-glamorized, and it's the food! I've never met a caterer I didn't like, although I must admit that I find "free" to be one of the best spices. On my way over here one of our drivers, Jerry, remarked, "Are you really going to eat all that?" Yes, Jerry, yes I am.Our story continues as Tyler and I were kayaking outside of the town of Pelican. We couldn't believe our eyes at first, but a short distance from our kayak were what appeared to be a large mama bear and two cubs. They were practically cavorting like in some kind of Discovery Channel special. Tyler was quick on...
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... Also known as the continuing true-life adventures of Bergl's search for the real Alaska.This is the story of my search to discover Alaska, to find for myself the little towns that are like our town of Elmo on Men in Trees, which, in case you haven't heard, was the No. 1 show on Friday, woo-hoo! I'm really looking forward to seeing this week's episode (people always think I see them ahead of time, but I watch them on TV like everybody else), not only because it's written by another redhead, Anna Fricke, but also because I can't wait to see our auction scene. I will reveal that in this episode we hold an auction of Elmo's eligible bachelors, although I won't tell you if Annie ends up walking away with one of her own. What a crazy day it was shooting that auction. I think we worked on that one scene for at least 15 hours. The most amazing part was that Anne Heche, who has almost all of the dialogue, entertained us the entire day as our auctioneer. Even when she was off camera, she ...
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... AKA the continuing true-life adventures of Bergl's search for the real Alaska.You're in for a treat tonight with the second episode of Men in Trees, "Power Shift," written by our creator, Jenny Bicks, and directed by the awesome film director, Allison Anders [airing tonight at 9 pm/ET, following an encore of the pilot]. I'm trying to figure out how to make that sound like it isn't just a plug, because I'm in love with this show! Annie is definitely one of my all time favorite characters I've every played. Although I'm a little worried about how we're going to get any press, because we don't have any feuds, crazy dieting, lateness due to partying, or even "creative differences." It's a big ole boring love-fest over here at Men in Trees! Practically every Saturday night, which is sometimes our only real night off during the week, we're all hanging out with each other, usually playing poker. If you ever find yourself at a poker table with our star, Anne Heche, or our producer, Rick...
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