Hallie Jordan: Possibly the Hardest Working Woman in Show Business

Photo courtesy of Hallie Jordan

If you think you’re busy, you should meet Hallie Jordan. The young actress and producer has a lot on her plate, but that’s been her goal from a very early age when she was inspired to follow her father and grandfather into show business.

As she explained during a recent one-on-one interview, “My family has always been in entertainment. My grandfather was a publicist for RKO. My father was an inventor and a pioneer in cable television in the ‘80s. So it’s always been encouraged.”

Although she was born in New York City, Jordan moved around a lot growing up. She recounted, “I went to a new school every year between fifth grade and college. I lived in Orange County, in Florida. I did Second City Chicago for a little while. And then I graduated from the University of Redlands out here in California.”

Patton Oswalt Will Be the Biggest Fan at the Film Independent Spirit Awards

Photo Courtesy of IFC

While some mega-stars will spend Saturday night getting their beauty sleep for Oscar day, a far hipper band of movie-making brethren will be gathered to celebrate the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Although it seems each year, the crossover between the two events gets larger, this is still the place for the lesser known (and funded) fare to get their dues, too. In a recent conference call, host Patton Oswalt, explained what sets this show apart from all the others. “This awards show digs pretty deep in trying to find movies that took risks and rolled the dice… It rewards people that are clearly emerging and are going to be doing great stuff with their careers.  You get to see them early.”  

Of course, with the ever-changing entertainment climate, a lot of veteran actors will be popping up at the award show as well. “What I also love is that they keep an eye open for veterans like Robert Redford and Bruce Dern who continue to take risks and seek out challenging, different materials.”

Being a cinefile himself, Oswalt has his own opens about what projects he think deserve a flying bird this year. “The Spectacular Now, I thought was fantastic. Enough Said.  I hope Enough Said wins everything that it gets nominated for.  The documentary, The Act of Killing, I thought it was crucial — hard to watch, but crucial.  Then I really hope that Bruce Dern gets wins for ‘Nebraska’ because I thought he was just amazing.  That guy has had awards coming for a long time in my opinion.  That would be great.”

John Henson Counts Down the Funniest Commercials of the Year

Courtesy of truTV

Every year TV viewers tune in to the Super Bowl not only to see the action on the gridiron but to catch the cutting edge commercials peppered throughout the big game. But fans of clever ads don’t have to wait until February 2 to see the best the small screen has to offer thanks to truTV’s Funniest Commercials of the Year!

In a recent one-on-one interview, two-time host John Henson explained why he was back to emcee the countdown once again, “First of all, the clip show format of showing amusing video clips and having fun with them is a genre that is near and dear to my heart. That was how my career began on Talk Soup. And something about the format and the tone of these specials feels like a little bit of a throwback to the beginning stages of my career. So it’s like a bit of a past life regression. I really enjoy it. It’s a nice change of pace creatively and the team is a lot of fun to work with.”

And the special has more to offer than just the top ads of 2013. “There are clips of funny commercials from years past, there are runners up and honorable mentions,” noted Henson, “and a variety of glimpses of really creative and humorous advertising from not just here in the United States but all over Europe and Asia and South America. So it’s a very interesting, eclectic mix.”

Anne Heche Returns to Primetime in Save Me

  Photo by Neil Jacobs/NBC

It’s been a couple of years since Anne Heche’s last TV series, Hung, went off the air. But she obviously had faith that she’d return to the small screen and now that’s come to pass with her new comedy about a mid-Western woman who starts to talk to God when she hits rock bottom. In a recent conference call interview the Emmy-nominated actress talked about what drew her to the role in Save Me and striking the right tone on the new show.

Anne explained what attracted her to the script in the first place, “I believe that we get second chances in life. And Beth, my character, is in a situation; she's an Ohio housewife, I'm from Ohio. That's the first of many things that Beth and I have in common. She’s a housewife and she hasn't done it very well. She's not a great mom, she's not a great wife, she drinks too much, she plays too hard and she hasn't really been responsible. And by the time we come in to meet her and she's choking on a hoagie, her life isn't great. And she gets a second chance to do it again.”

No stranger to suffering from the lows of living a public life, Anne seemed to be able to rate to the need to start with a clean slate. As she confessed, “I've been so blessed with many chances in my life that I get really excited by being able to play women that get to do it all again.”

Patricia Steffy Spotlights the City Where Dating Goes to Die

Courtesy of Patricia Steffy

No matter where you live it isn’t easy being a single girl on the dating scene. But Los Angeles based writer-producer-actress Patricia Steffy has discovered that her city is particularly rich with trials and tribulation in the area of romance as she recounts in her blog, Dating in LA and Other Urban Myths. 

In a recent exclusive interview, Patricia explained that she originally started the blog in reaction to an ex boyfriend’s engagement, “Even though we had broken up years before, it was still somehow a surprise that we were quite clearly not going to end up together. I hadn’t been in Los Angeles long, but even I knew the social structure here was particularly challenging outside of a really narrow demographic of young, beautiful and/or famous.”

The blog began as a chronicle of her experiences on the dating scene. Soon it grew into what Patricia calls, “a more general account of finding my place in the world at this new stage of my life.”

Now, thanks to Patricia’s producing partner, Danielle Turchiano, the written word is being spun into a web series. As Patricia recounted, “Danielle had seen a tote bag I had with the tag “L.A. — where dating comes to die” on it, thought it was funny and began reading the blog on her own.  At some point, I told her that I was actually writing it and she’s really the person who said, ‘This is a story that needs to be on screen.’”
 

Marion Ross Gets Down to the Nitty-Gritty on The Middle

ABC/Michael Ansell

Every once in a while pop culture icons converge. Such will the case tonight when Marion Ross, who played Happy Days iconic mother Mrs. Cunningham, appears on the modern family sitcom The Middle. Although she won’t be going head-to-head with the Heck matriarch, Frankie, she will be lording her Vice Principal powers over Brick.

Fans of Mrs. C shouldn’t expect the same, sweet character they’ve come to expect. In a recent exclusive interview, Marion explained laughed that she’ll be portraying “this lovely, wonderful woman who turns out to be just as mad as a hatter.”

But it seems her angst isn’t completely unwarranted. As Marion remarked, “I’m so disappointed in Brick Heck, played by Atticus Shaffer. He’s supposed to have put together this wonderful film of all his classmates, taking these pictures for the last four years. Of course, he hasn’t taken any pictures at all and it is a tremendous crisis. I can’t believe that he hasn’t done all this wonderful stuff and he’s going to get into a lot of trouble. And it’s fun for me to be so fierce and mean.”  

Jack McBrayer Turns in His Page Jacket for a Dentist Smock

                                                          Photo by ABC/Michael Ansell


When Jack McBrayer hit the scene playing Kenneth the Page on 30 Rock in 2006, he instantly created one the most lovable characters in TV history. One of the greatest disappointments in the demise of Tina Fey’s sitcom was the fact that we wouldn’t get to see the adorable Southern actor in our homes each week. So we were thrilled recently when Jack made an appearance on one of our other favorite shows, The Middle. And more good news was on the way — Jack is back in a follow up installment.

In a recent exclusive interview the 39-year-old reflected on getting the part of Dr. Goodwin the Dentist opposite Patricia Heaton’s Frankie Heck. When asked what got him interested in appearing on The Middle, McBrayer jokingly replied, “Un-em-ployment.”

All good humor aside, he answered, “I had actually been a fan of The Middle from way back. I know Neil Flynn, who plays Mike, from Chicago days, from Second City, even back when Tina Fey. We all knew each other. That’s why I started watching the show but then I was like, ‘Oh, no, this is my life.’ A lot of things I was able to latch on to, growing up with three kids in the family, two parents who were always working and always very tired and having to fix your appliances with duct tape… So I was very, very pleased when the opportunity came up to join them on the show.”

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: John Krasinski

  Photo by Chris Haston/NBC

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things, a TV shows that inspires us to be better or a philosophy that we should all strive to live by. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

This week, after nine seasons, The Office comes to an end. John Krasinski has played Jim Halpert for the run of the show. His character has fallen in love, become a husband and father, started his own sports marketing company and hit some trouble in his marriage. John went from waiter to megastar — and married British actress Emily Blunt along the way. In a recent conference call interview he talked about saying goodbye to the show that launched his career and transformed his life.

John talked about his meteoric rise to fame on The Office, saying, “I was a waiter before this show, so what I miss most about this character is way too complexly entwined in my real life. So to me, this was a winning lottery ticket, except with a winning lottery ticket you just get money and with this you get a whole change of your life. And everything about my life has changed and become better. And I feel so lucky to be where I am. It’s hard to separate the two because I’m meshed in the experience.”

John Krasinski on Jim and Pam’s “Office” Love Affair

  Photo by Danny Feld/NBC

After nine seasons the gang at Dundler-Mifflin is calling it quits. With just two episodes left of The Office, fans have been on a roller coaster ride this season as the show’s romantic core, Jim and Pam Halpert, have struggled through some major relationship growing pains. Pam (Jenna Fisher) has been less than happy as her husband has split his time between the paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and his new sports marketing company in Philadelphia. But after some serious tension, they finally seem back on track. In  a recent conference call interview star John Krasinski talked about the decision to pursue the difficult storyline.

John recounted how the whole idea came about, “My whole pitch to [Executive Producer] Greg [Daniels] was that we’ve done so much with Jim and Pam. And now after marriage and kids there was a bit of a lull there for them about what they wanted to do. And the idea of Jim’s ambition was always one of my favorite things from the early seasons — between Australia and trying to be the boss at corporate and NYC. And all those things, for me, were really exciting that Jim always felt like there was something that he could be doing more of and then I wanted to explore that.”

Alison Brie and Danny Pudi Talk About Changes on Community

 

Photo by Colleen Hayes/NBC 

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for Community fans since day one. Could The Soup’s Joel McHale carry off an acting gig? Who was right in the feud between co-star Chevy Chase and showrunner Dan Harmon? Would the show be canceled (this one came up over and over again)? Would the show lose its edge after Harmon was replaced by Just Shoot Me’s Moses Port and David Guarascio? But true devotees have weathered the myriad of storms over the years.

In a recent conference call interview two of the show’s stars, Alison Brie and Danny Pudi, talked about how the changes affected them. As Alison confessed, “It’s a tough thing to learn that your showrunner is not coming back to the show... So we were a little nervous and didn’t know what to expect. But that’s not really a new feeling, having worked on our show for four years now.”

But the actress, who plays Annie Edison, acknowledged, “When we met the new guys they really stressed a lot how much they loved the show and wanted to keep it the same. And some of our writers were still the same.”

Amy Poehler and Adam Scott Reflect on Parks and Rec Love Affair

  Photo by Tyler Golden/NBC

We like a good love story as much as the next girl, but we have to admit that we like our TV working girls to stay single. It’s not to say they can’t find a nice guy, but we don’t want them to pin all their hopes on romance when they’ve worked so hard to build their careers. We felt like Carrie Bradshaw copped out in the Sex and the City movies and we felt a little cheated by the fact that Liz Lemon tied the knot on 30 Rock — even though she ultimately proved she wasn’t going to be the world’s best stay it home mom.

And still, we were thrilled when Parks and Recreations Leslie Knope met Ben Wyatt. Clearly they were destined to be together. And he’s proven time and time again that her ambitions are what make her who she is — the woman he fell in love with.

Their surprise engagement last fall, was one of the best kept secrets on TV in recent years. Not an easy task. And when Ben raised the concept of a sudden wedding ceremony at Leslie’s big charity event, it seemed equally perfect. We weren’t the only ones who loved the idea. In a recent conference call interview Amy Poehler and Adam Scott reflected on the evolution of their on screen personas’ relationship and their recent walk down the aisle.

Amara Miller Skyrockets to Success in Hollywood

  Photo by Chris Haston/NBC

Everyone’s heard the tales of actors who weighted tables or drove taxicabs, struggling for years until they got their big break. This is not one of those stories. That’s because Amara Miller admittedly was lucky when it came to finding success in Hollywood. In a recent exclusive interview she explained it all.

As the 12-year-old actress recounted, “My aunt, Carrie, who lives in L.A., she was at a Valentine's party and heard that Alexander Payne, the director of The Descendants, was looking for a 10-year-old girl to be in his next movie. And she's like, 'My niece, Amara, she's 10.'  So she calls up the next day and asks do I want to audition for a movie and I thought, ' Sure why not? That would be really fun.' So I put myself on tape and sent it to Alexander and he said that within 20 seconds of the tape he knew that I had the part. It was really exciting.”

The result was a breakout turn as George Clooney’s youngest daughter, Scottie King, in one of the hottest movies of 2011. With that came instant success and changes at home in Monterey, California. As Amara explained, “At home a lot of kids were treating me differently. Some jealous kids were being a little meaner. People wanted to be my friend a lot more. I have definitely learned how to tell people apart, definitely who your real friends are, who are friends with Amara Miller and who are friends with the girl who was in 'The Descendants.'”

Wilmer Valderrama Gets Wacky on Suburgatory

   

Suburgatory fans will certainly remember the brief but hilarious appearance by Wilmer Valderrama in Season 1. Tonight he returns to the suburban sitcom as Yoni, Dallas Royce’s spiritual guru. In this latest guest appearance the former That ‘70s Show star talked about grounding a wacky character and working with dogs.

Wilmer described Yoni, who peeked viewers’ curiosity in 2012, “I developed this character that’s this very mystical creature, this mysterious man to bring light and spiritual life into the people he touches. And it’s just a riot. It’s ridiculous. It’s just an excuse to be out there and be funny.”

The 32-year-old actor talked a bit about the storyline that’s set to unfold, “Yoni gets called in for a very tough job. [Dallas’ Chipoo] Yakult is going thorough a very depressing time and they want me to spiritually bring him back.”

Patricia Heaton Is in The Middle of a Stellar Career

  Photo by ABC/Bob D'Amico 

When the annals of TV history get updated, Patricia Heaton will go down as one of the only actresses to achieve an amazing feat. Not only has she played an iconic mom on Everybody Loves Raymond but she’s managed to portray a second legendary television matriarch — Frankie Heck on The Middle.

And despite the fact that the TV star and the struggling suburban mom might seem like they live worlds apart, Patricia acknowledged that she can relate to Frankie. She conceded, “True, I’m on a different financial plane as the Hecks. But as every parent knows, you’re only as happy as your unhappiest kid. So that goes a long way in being relatable.”

“I really feel like we connect, having four boys and different personalities that correlate to ones on our show and different issues to ones on our show.” Patricia elaborated, “We totally, totally bonded over going through many things in the show that go on in my life.”

Cheryl Hines Unleashes Her Wacky Side on Suburgatory

Photo by  ABC/Carin Baer 

Anyone who watched Curb Your Enthusiasm back in the day when Cheryl Hines played Larry David’s wife, will remember her as a grounding force in a chaotic world. She was always truly funny, but she tended not to be the wacky one in a given scenario.

That all changed when Cheryl joined the cast of Suburgatory. Now she plays Dallas Royce, the super-optimistic, extravagant but lovable woman next door. And anyone who knows her history as an actress, knows that she was well trained to tackle such an out there character.

In a recent exclusive interview, Cheryl recounted, “My experience is at The Groundlings Theater, where we created different characters and did sketch comedy. And sometimes the characters were outrageous, but they always came from a real place. So even working there, we had to create characters from the people that we knew.”

Sara Rue Recalls Her Past on the Malibu Country Set

                                                                      --> ABC/Edward Herrera

Sara Rue has played a lot of varied characters throughout her 24-year career. She played a wise-cracking trailer park kid in the ‘90s sitcom Grand. She was a bad influence on the sitcom Phenom. And she portrayed the eternally optimistic assistant on Less Than Perfect. But these days she’s taken on a whole different type of role on the Reba McEntire comedy Malibu Country. In a recent exclusive interview, Sara talked about playing yet another personality in primetime.

Sara plays Kim, Reba’s cheery, nosy and opinionated neighbor. She explained that although she sees very little similarities between herself and her onscreen persona, she did connect to her on one level.

Sara remarked, “The thing that is so wonderful about Kim is that she never means any harm. She’s the least malicious person on the planet and I’d like to think that I’m like that.”

Krysten Ritter Talks Turkey and the B— in Apt 23

 Photo by ABC/Kelsey McNeal

If you lived by the motto Don’t Trust the B — in Apt 23 before, you really might want to avoid her around the holidays. In an exclusive interview with Krysten Ritter, we confirmed what we had assumed. She’s much nicer than her TV persona. But she warned us that Chloe is up to no good this Thanksgiving.

Krysten talked about the very special holiday episode of ABC’s sassiest sitcom. She explained her character’s fundamental issues with the special day, “Chloe hates Thanksgiving because she thinks it’s a fake holiday where people pretend to be nice to each other and wear Uggs. It’s against everything she stands for.”

Not surprisingly to fans of the show, Chloe concocts a dastardly plan. Krysten explained, “This Thanksgiving she needs June to come with her and be her emotional support because she can’t get through one day with her mom without blowing something out, without causing some big scene. So her solution is to put June in a wheelchair so she can level the playing field with her mom and then expose June for being a fraud — for faking that she needs to be in a wheelchair.”

Laura Benanti Talks Go On and Pop Culture

  Photo by Colleen Hayes/NBC 

Laura Benanti is a relative newcomer to TV viewers. Her first sitcom, Starved, debuted in 2005. But the humorous take on group therapy for people with eating disorders didn’t resonate with audiences and it was canceled after seven episodes. Her second go at small screen support systems, Go On, is much more likely to last a while — thanks in no small part to the fact that Matthew Perry is the star.

But before Laura became a television actress, she had quite an impressive career on Broadway. She’s had four Tony noms and one win for her 2008 turn as Louise (aka Gypsy Rose Lee) in Gypsy. And even though she loves the theater, she’s also clearly a TV fan.

In a recent interview she talked about Go On, some of her favorite shows to watch and the star of the Great White Way she’d most like to work with.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing on Parks and Recreation

 Photo by Danny Feld/NBC 

TV fans were stunned a couple of weeks ago when the eternally optimistic career girl Leslie Knope accepted Ben Wyatt’s proposal on Parks and Recreation. While the series’ creators had always planned on Leslie bouncing from one not-so-great boyfriend, the introduction of her soul mate could not be denied. In a recent conference call interview stars Amy Poehler and Adam Scott joined Executive Producer Michael Schur to talk about the impending nuptials.

Amy admitted that she was brought to tears of joy for Leslie when she read the engagement script. She recalled what touched her most about the pivotal moment, “I loved that the scene is about everything to come. It's an empty room, which can be depressing in some respects for some people, but in this context it was all about [possibility], that nothing had filled that room. That room was empty and open and ready to be filled with the future.”

The Emmy-nominated actress continued, “It was really cool that Dean Holland, our Director, and Mike Schur picked that. It happened in front of the fireplace of the empty room, which is just really nice because it was warm. I just loved that Leslie looked around to see what was around here and there was just this big empty room, which was like basically the idea. It's basically what happens when you're thinking about committing to someone. The future seems really wide and open and clean and so that ended up being what it was and I thought it was perfect.”

What You Don’t Know About Matthew Perry

  Photo by Justin Lubin/NBC

Chandler Bing was such a staple of ‘90s television that most fans feel like they really know the actor that portrayed him. But there’s a lot to learn about Matthew Perry, which we found out in a recent conference call interview. Here were some insights that we were surprised to discover about the star of the new comedy Go On.

He Has a Soft Spot for Chandler Bing

“I loved playing Chandler. I grew up playing that part. I would say, probably in all honesty, [my favorite characters are] Chandler and this character that I’m playing now, the character of Ryan King. It’s a very deep, enriching character to play because he’s going through so much and he’s also being very funny about it.”

Could He Have Been more like Chandler Bing?

“I don’t that that is a current trait of mine. It certainly used to be. One of the tenants of Chandler was that given any kind of serious situation, he will divert it by trying to make it a joke. And it makes for a very good character in a sitcom because it’s a built in excuses for someone to be funny.”