At the beginning of the season, we set out to travel to all of the 50 states — well, at least 25 this year and 25 next year — to help a different family in each state. We started in Alaska back in June and just recently finished in New York. What a great way to finish off a very long, but very incredible season.We arrived in a little town called Colonie, which is located in upstate New York. Snow covered the ground and temperatures were near freezing, but by the end of the week, the snow had melted and the sun was shining. We had a bigger crew than normal — Ty, Michael, Tanya, Tracy, Paul, Eduardo and myself — because we had a bigger job than normal. Not only did we set out to make a difference in the lives of an amazing family, the Oatman-Gaitans, but we also set out to make a difference in many families' futures by building a recreation building for Camp Heartland — a camp for kids with AIDS and their families.We were met by George Sr. and George Jr. of Am...
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Meredith from The Office here. Where has my drink gone? Where has Season 3 gone? It seems like only yesterday I was licking hand sanitizer in the season opener. I hope you all have enjoyed this year as much as I have. I've been topless, had a bat in my hair, and hit a parked car in the mall. Are you happy now? Is it enough? Is it ever enough? The season finale is finally here. The rumors are true: We shot more than one ending. The rumors are totally true: The cast doesn't know how it ends. I remember we were at the beach shooting "Beach Games" when we read this jam-packed awesome finale script out loud. We were so excited that we almost had another hot dog eating contest. Not. It's a great script. Lots of questions answered. Lots. The Office fans have been anxiously awaiting a one-hour episode, and guess what? You got it. That's an extra half hour to drink. And speaking of partying, I just partied with the Dunder-Mifflin gang last night in NYC! We finished shooting about a month ag...
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I can't believe there are only two more weeks left in the season. Two more competition shows and two more results shows. Two more weeks of waiting anxiously to hear what the judges and the viewers think of the 40 hours of rehearsals we've done each week. Two more weeks to hear the crowds cheer at the choreography. It's hard to wrap my head around the fact that yet another season of Dancing with the Stars is coming to an end.For us dancers, it's like preparing for our summer break from college. Right now we're studying hard for our finals and we're hoping we pass our classes and get to graduate. We're starting to think about what we're going to do on our summer vacation, but mostly we're chattering to take our minds off of our stresses. We're getting sad because our semester is coming to an end and we know that some of us might not see each other for a very long time. These last few weeks are the most emotional and it gets harder and harder to remember to have fun. We all want to be ...
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Listen. If you concentrate, you can hear it: the sound of some enterprising young lad in their basement, printing off T-shirts that say "Free Paris." Timely. Give me a frickin' break. Honestly, if I hear one more thing about this chick, I'm gonna commit hari-kari with a spatula in front of my children. Why a spatula? "Because it will hurt more, you idiot!!!" Think Alan Rickman in Robin Hood, and you'll get the gist.Well, Week 2 of this blog and a few things have happened. First, my beloved Canucks were knocked out of the playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks. I'm not angry. I actually went to Game 5 in Anaheim with one of my favorite people in the whole world to watch the game. Honestly, if Vancouver had won that game, it would have been a crime — they were so outplayed it was ridiculous. Poor Roberto Luongo (the Canucks goalie) is in therapy right now, he had so much rubber flying at him. I actually had to go drink for him. The Anaheim Ducks were simply a better team. That's right, "D...
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This week we're back in Kansas City, Missouri, to meet the Jacobo family: Jesus and Michelle, their four biological children, their five nieces and nephews whom they've taken in, as well as Grandpa Ray, who is Michelle's father. That makes 12 people living in one house. One very tiny house. Our builder, Kevin Green Homes, and his team know what the heck they're doing. This was not an easy build. This house was on a grade and they had to dig into the lot, drop a basement in, and build 5,400 square feet on three floors. They did the quickest, most efficient quality build you could ever ask for, and they did it in awesome time. Kevin Green is one of a kind. He's an awesome guy. We've worked with him in the past. He truly builds from his heart, loves what he does and loves the people who work with him — he calls them his angels. I think we were all his angels this week. We were all here for the right reason and I think Kevin, most of all, supported that. He knew that those kids ne...
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I love being on The Office even when it's not in the office. This week's episode is "Beach Games" and it was shot out of the office, or as we say in the business, "on location." That means off the regular premises. Write that down, young upstarts. I do my best to spread the knowledge I have acquired through the school of Hollywood's hard knocks. Take notes, kids. OK, so as you guessed by the title, there is a beach involved this week. The beach at Lake Scranton, that is. No St. Tropez tan here. Just the pasty and the pale. (I personally lead the pack in the pasty department.) There is nothing like beachin' and boozin'. Not as easy working in the sun every day. I must say I now have a newfound respect for the actors/models on Baywatch. I feel your pain. We got to work with the great Harold Ramis again for this episode. We shot at a fake beach at the reservoir of a dam off the 118 above Hollywood. The sun was hot. Did I mention it was hot? Lots of umbrellas and sunscreen. Stanley got ...
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So this week John Ratzenberger got sent home. People may not remember, but he did step in at the very last moment to replace Vincent Pastore, and even though he was playing catch up, he had a really positive attitude about this experience, and was sort of the father figure of the crew. So it was sad to see him go. I know Billy was on the chopping block with John and I would have felt awful if Billy got sent home since this past week he took time out of his rehearsal to hang with me a little and help me loosen up. I had a blast learning the bubba chicken (I had no idea what I was doing but I certainly had fun doing it), and I think Billy's fun-loving attitude really helped me relax and start having more fun.Believe it or not, I think the fact that we had two dances to learn this week gave me the chance to stop stressing. There just wasn't any time for me to overanalyze (which I certainly do): I learned the steps and moved on. And with Billy's help, I had fun, too! If I get sent home ...
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Thanks to all of you who have been watching The Real Wedding Crashers [Mondays at 10 pm/ET, on NBC]. People keep asking me for insight into the next episode, so I may as well give it all away. This is actually one of my favorite episodes. There are pranks involving a mishap at a tanning salon and an audition for wedding singers. I got to play three different characters: a horrible wedding singer with neck tattoos, an animal rights protestor, and, of course, an annoying wedding guest. I really had fun doing all three, but my favorite had to be the animal rights protestor. I am conducting a protest because a store sells fur, and the bride enters with one of her bridesmaids. When they exit the store, I give them a hard time for shopping there, and let's just say, the mark does not like me very much at all. The bit also includes live farm animals. It's always been a dream of mine to work with farm animals. Now, I'm proud to say it's a reality. I guess all kinds of weird things start to...
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Robert Frost's oft-quoted poem ends with the lines: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference."It's funny to sit here on the eve of Traveler's series launch and think back to the point where I stood at the proverbial fork in the road. It was about two years ago. We were finishing production on my first produced screenplay, Disney's family adventure film Eight Below. The phone rang. It was my agency. The agent on the line — who, by the way, is nothing like Ari Gold on Entourage — asked me a simple question: "What do you think about TV?" To which I quickly replied, "I enjoy it. Regularly. Why?" The answer came back: "Because now that you have a movie made, you should really think about television."And there it was, in all of its metaphorical glory — the fork. Should I go back to writing movies? Or should I take this new, less trodden path towards the land of TV? I, of course, went right back to the co...
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There are moments in this week's episode where everything I think Brothers & Sisters [Sundays at 10 pm/ET, on ABC] should come together perfectly; comedy and tragedy coexist — just like they do in real life, turning, dancing with each other in perpetuity. The episode has it all — male passions run amok, female passions threaten to cause thermonuclear war, farce, drunkenness, sorrow and laughter. In my humble opinion, a great episode. There are moments of acting in "Grapes of Wrath" that took my breath away when I saw it. One in particular stands out. I don't want to say too much, but it takes place in a kitchen during a showdown between Nora and Holly. Both actresses, Sally Field and Patty Wettig are real and funny and frightening in a way that brings to mind some of the great turns that John Cassavetes managed to capture on film — I'm thinking of Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence in particular. The camera comes close in so as to deprive them of any pri...
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