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Isabella Rossellini's Going Green, In a Porn-y Kind of Way
Isabella Rossellini: Come fly with me. (Image courtesy Sundance Channel) What do you get when you cross Isabella Rossellini with the green movement? Porn. That doubletake you just did -- that's what Isabella wants -- and, in this case, she's hoping that short film aficionados and fans of her work will embrace her latest project, "Green Porno." In the series of eight short films Rossellini wrote, directed and starred in for the Sundance Institute she plays a range of cartoonish insects having sex. "Personally I've always had an interest in animals and everyone is interested in sex, so I thought that writing little shorts about how bugs mate would not only get a laugh, but would also be interesting," said Rossellini Monday in a phone interview. "My hope is that people laugh watching my film and then say, 'Hmm, I didn't know that about a fly or an earthworm.'"...
By Liz | April 22, 2008; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (14)
Catching Up with Kate Walsh
Kate Walsh, at Thursday's 'Stand Up For Real Sex Education' briefing on Capitol Hill and, bottom, at that evening's Planned Parenthood gala. (Top: Getty Images/Bottom: Liz Kelly for washingtonpost.com) I'll just come right out and say it: Even at a proximity of three feet Kate Walsh is utterly stunning, as I found out last night sitting opposite the "Private Practice" star in the bowels of a local hotel. Not bad, as she admits herself, for a 40-year-old actress, a mainstay on "sexiest" lists: Sexiest TV actresses, sexiest TV docs, sexiest Hollywood Obama supporters. Coincidentally, Walsh was in D.C. yesterday to talk sex -- sex education -- at a packed Planned Parenthood event. Walsh's briefing drew hordes of Capitol Hill staffers hoping to catch a whiff of her star power and get a load of the woman who has kissed both McDreamy and McSteamy. Walsh, though, says she was happiest...
By Liz | March 28, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (36)
Catching Up With Sheryl Crow
(AP) Sheryl Crow doesn't consider herself an "A" list celebrity. I laugh -- to myself, because I'm not going to stop the interview to debate her on where she ranks in the often ridiculous, but very real, pantheon of stars. I mean, it's not my place to chuckle dismissively and remind her that in addition to winning multiple Grammys, she dated Lance Armstrong or that she's BFF with Jennifer Aniston or that she is revered by some (and reviled by others) for taking Karl Rove to task at the 2007 White House Correspondents Dinner. We're talking about something much more important, anyway: cancer. Crow herself is a breast cancer survivor and now that she's beaten it, she's a vocal advocate of prevention, research and helping those diagnosed with the disease cope with treatment and recovery. So that's how I found myself sipping my Saturday morning coffee while chatting on...
By Liz | March 17, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (23)
Catching Up With Jane Fonda
Fonda on Valentine's Day in New York. (AP) So I'm on the phone talking with Jane Fonda and everything is going swimmingly. We're officially chatting to discuss a charity event, but she's already gone into her thoughts on Lindsay Lohan at great length and hinted about a book in the works. So why not slip in a question about the "Today Show" incident? Though I've been asked to avoid the subject, surely she'll have something to say. No dice. Jane isn't discussing it -- at least not with me. But, as hinted above, she opens up in a big way about "Georgia Rule" co-star Lindsay Lohan and her Marilyn-esque New York magazine cover shoot. "The issues are more than a layout in a magazine," says Fonda. "That's a temporary blip. The issues go really deep." Fonda's work to prevent teen pregnancy in Georgia over the last decade or so...
By Liz | February 27, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (32)
Catching Up With... Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady)
Barry Williams as Greg (top center) surrounded by his 'Brady Bunch' co-stars. With apologies to anyone born after the bicentennial, back in the early '70s, the sometimes sappy, sometimes hip "Brady Bunch" (watch the show's intro) was practically required viewing. Young actor Barry Williams was the prince of the shag-carpeted, orange-kitchened, astro-turfed backyard Brady manor as oldest son Greg. And, as Greg hit his teens, he soon morphed into serious competition for other eight-track era heartthrobs like "The Partridge Family's" David Cassidy. We pulled for Greg when he battled Marcia for the groovy attic space, cringed when he suffered through an accidental hair bleaching and tut-tutted knowingly when he fell under the spell of alter ego Johnny Bravo. In 1992, Williams's autobiography "Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg," spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list and was adapted into a made-for-TV movie. Williams has...
By Liz | January 25, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (34)
Catching Up With Dave Navarro
Dave Navarro and 'Spread' co-host Todd Newman. (Spread Entertainment) Dave Navarro is a little annoyed when I ask him about the "reality show curse." "If you say there's a reality TV show 'curse' then you're saying curses are real," said Navarro in an interview yesterday. "And if curses are real, all the other unknowns must be potentially real -- such as UFOs, Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster. So, maybe we should be looking for those things instead of putting Nick and Jessica through hell." Point taken. Though the guy who staked his claim in the entertainment business as the Jane's Addiction guitarist does admit that his own experiences in documenting his wedding with then-bride-to-be Carmen Electra may have been one factor that ultimately led to their divorce. Another may have been the uptick in interest from tabloids (and, by extension, readers) in prying into stars' private lives....
By Liz | December 13, 2007; 11:20 AM ET | Comments (48)
Doubletake: Celebrity Clones as Art
A Bush-a-like takes on the Rubik's Cube. (TASCHEN) Artist Alison Jackon's work gives one pause, to put it mildly. The British artist's work -- both on film and in still images -- centers on interjecting celebrity lookalikes into jaw-dropping scenarios. There's the peek inside a nightmarish Scientology-approved delivery room as Katie Holmes delivers Suri, playful shots of Princes William and Harry cavorting in Nazi regalia and peeks at a very domesticated Paris Hilton behind bars. Casual observers, though, can easily mistake Jackson's fantastical, elaborate recreations as the real thing. Maybe because we suspect they mirror reality. Jackson describes herself as an interpreter of public fantasies, an artist giving concrete form to our wild speculations and shrewdly tapping into the insatiable appetite for celebrity dirt. "It's really about an obsession with celebrity and how we think we know celebrities intimately, but we don't really know them for real," said Jackson....
By Liz | November 8, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (12)
Catching Up With... Andy Dick
Andy Dick. (Reuters) To download a 45-minute MP3 of my entire interview with Andy Dick, right click here and save to your computer. Andy Dick is tired of the negative publicity, the TMZ cameras, celebrity feuds and -- for now -- drinking. Oh, and he's got something to say to Jon Lovitz. We'll get to that in a sec. When I talked to Dick on Wednesday afternoon he was refreshingly upbeat. Driven. Defiant. Sober. And, well, domestic. In fact, he interrupted our phone conversation to instruct a friend on the proper way to re-heat lasagna ("We don't want it to get all crispy") for his roommate, 19-year-old son Lucas. So that was unexpected and quaint. As Dick himself said, a Rachael Ray moment. What wasn't surprising was Dick's trademark stream-of-consciousness high-speed download. He's a guy with a lot to say and, if you ask him, a lot more than...
By Liz | November 2, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (19)
Perez Hilton Comes to Town
Perez Hilton -- aka Mario Lavandeira. (Liz Kelly for washingtonpost.com) Video: Liz Quizzes Perez Aug. 17, Arlingon, Va. 10:05 p.m. It's Friday night at Clarendon ballroom and event promoters -- in this case radio station Hot 99.5 -- are buzzing the assorted journos gathered in a basement greenroom regularly to assure us that he --- Perez Hilton -- is still coming, and soon. Perez Hilton is hot. So hot that in the past month he's turned up in the realities of both Victoria Beckham (on NBC's one-hour "Welcome to America" special) and Kathy Griffin (on her Bravo show "My Life on the D List") and, for one brief shining morning, in Rosie O'Donnell's vacated "View" seat. He calls his celeb-skewering blog "Hollywood's Most-Hated Web Site" and this self-described "queen" -- who tonight is sporting haphazardly-dyed orange hair, a rumpled shirt and a shiny red tie -- is a bona...
By Liz | August 20, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (30)
Catching Up With Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake. (Getty Images) It's Tuesday morning and Ricki Lake is calling from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she's wrapping up work on the Lifetime movie "A Very Lucky Girl" and looking forward to a weekend visit from her kids. While Lake had her make-up touched up between shots, we talked about her acting debut in the 1988 John Waters-directed "Hairspray" (she originated the role of dance-crazed Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad), her cameo in this month's well-reviewed remake and, in light of Lindsay Lohan's latest arrest, how she managed to navigate celebrity as a young actress. With a few movies in the offing, a documentary project and a possible ABC pilot, things are picking back up for the woman who credits "Hairspray" for giving her a 20-year (and counting) career. Read the full interview after the jump......
By Liz | July 25, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (18)
Catching Up with Tony Danza
Tony Danza. (Photo courtesy PBS) From "Taxi" to "Who's the Boss" to his own talk show, Tony Danza is an American TV institution. So it's only fitting that this Italian-American actor -- who considers himself the embodiment of the American Dream -- host Wednesday's Capitol Fourth Independence Day celebration, to be broadcast live on PBS tomorrow night starting at 8 p.m. ET. This year's show will kick off with a Danza-led dance number feting patriotic songs and include performances from Little Richard, Elliott Yamin, "Heroes" co-star Hayden Panettiere and former "Cheers" regular Bebe Neuwirth. Despite his excitement about the show, Danza admits that the war in Iraq is never far from his mind. "It's really hard at a time of war, I think, to celebrate," Danza said on the phone from New York last Thursday. "That's my only problem. I have a heavy heart. I can't imagine what it's...
By Liz | July 3, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (47)
Catching Up with Joe Mantegna
Joe Mantegna. (Courtesy PBS) For Joe Mantegna, Memorial Day weekend means a bit of work. The actor -- best known for roles in "Godfather III," "Searching for Bobby Fischer," "Joan of Arcadia" and as the voice of mobster Fat Tony on "The Simpsons" -- is in town this weekend to co-host Sunday's National Memorial Day Concert for the sixth time. This year, Mantegna and Gary Sinise will preside over a line-up that includes Natalie Cole, Jimmy Smits, Bonnie Hunt, Josh Turner, Charles Durning and Colin Powell. I talked to Mantegna yesterday afternoon about the concert, politics, his musical chops and, of course, "The Simpsons." A longtime advocate of Veterans Administration volunteer opportunities and troop support, Mantegna says he'd rather keep his personal beliefs about the war to himself. "I never get political. I wouldn't be involved in this concert if it was a political statement. I'm 100 percent behind...
By Liz | May 25, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (13)
Catching Up With Ralph Macchio
Ralph Macchio. (Getty Images) How to explain the duality of Ralph Macchio? One of his first film performances, as raspy-voiced, tentative Johnny Cade in 1983's "The Outsiders," hit a magic sweet spot channeling teen angst, insecurity and purity through the lens of S.E. Hinton's tale of warring gangs in 1960's Tulsa. Macchio became the sacrifice made to the altar of innocence and the performances of a microcosm of young Hollywood talent (Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez) all spun around his unassuming axis. But, as we learned in "The Outsiders," nothing gold can stay and Macchio spent the remainder of the '80s utterly subsumed by his role as plucky karate wannabe Daniel LaRusso in the wax on-wax off "Karate Kid" trilogy (except for 1986's guitar-nerd flick "Crossroads"). By 1989's third installment, an initially endearing story was hopelessly corrupted by what became a...
By Liz | February 6, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (22)
Catching Up with Robbie Rist
I am a dork. A huge dork. You read the blog, you know this. I am caught up in "Rock Star: Supernova," I wrote a thesis yesterday about "Celebrity Duets" and I admittedly worship a William Shatner video. We all have issues. Cousin Oliver, circa 1974. I wasn't aware of how big of a dork I am, though, until I was on the phone with a certain Robbie Rist and spied my reflection in my darkened computer monitor. I was grinning from ear to ear like a corn-syrup-addled six-year-old. That's because Rist is, you guessed it, the guy in the picture to the right here. Cute, wholesome, precocious Cousin Oliver from "The Brady Bunch" and if you, too, were reared by the television in the early- to mid-70s, the Bradys are also a part of your extended family. So, when I found myself talking to Rist on Tuesday, I knew...
By Liz | August 31, 2006; 10:40 AM ET | Comments (28)
