Q and A: Week of March 24
A: NBC has confirmed that it will air a 13-episode “miniseries event” of the show, which is called “Heroes Reborn,” to air in 2015. It is being billed as a stand-alone series, and there is no word yet on which, if any, characters from the original series will be resurrected for the new series. According to the show’s website: “NBC will launch a digital series prior to the 2015 premiere that will introduce the characters and new storylines. This leveraging of social media is a way for fans to re-engage with what was one [of] the true pioneers in multiplatform storytelling.”
Q: What are Michael J. Fox’s plans now that his sitcom has been canceled? — Kathy I., via email
A: Michael will return later this season to “The Good Wife” as Louis Canning for a multi-episode, season-ending story arc. As for “The Michael J. Fox Show,” a representative at NBC says that the network will air the remaining episodes at some point this season. Also pulled from NBC’s Thursday night lineup, freshman comedy “Sean Saves the World,” starring “Will and Grace” favorite, Sean Hayes.
Q: One of my favorite shows is TNT’s “Cold Justice.” Can you tell me if there will be a third season? — Justin R., via email
A: Unless something incredibly crazy happens between now and renewal time, “Cold Justice” is a shoo-in for a season-three pickup. The network recently announced that the show’s second season, which is currently airing, has been extended by six episodes to air this summer.
“Cold Justice,” which airs on Fridays at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), follows former prosecutor Kelly Siegler and former crime-scene investigator Yolanda McClary as they dig into murder cases that have gone unsolved for years. Working with local law enforcement, Kelly and Yolanda help bring about real results in real time for the police, investigators, district attorneys and families who have worked tirelessly on these cold cases for years.
Q: Can you tell me what happened to Golden Boy? I never saw a finale episode for it. Is it gone for good? — Diane B., via email
A: “Golden Boy” — which aired on CBS for one season — followed the meteoric rise of Walter Clark, an ambitious cop who became the youngest police commissioner in New York City’s history. The show starred Theo James, Chi McBride, Kevin Alejandro and Bonnie Somerville, and was received to very positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. However, the show fell victim to the old “mediocre ratings” syndrome, and was canceled after its freshman season.
Q: I was glad to read in your column that “Game of Thrones” is returning to HBO on April 6. Does that mean season 3 will be out on DVD soon? — Doug C., via email
A: Season three of the adventure-fantasy series was released on DVD on Feb. 18. So now you can now catch up on what you’ve been missing, just in time for season four. But keep all spoilers, including “The Rains of Castamere” — aka “The Red Wedding” — close to the vest.
Interview: Jon Lindstrom's Passion for Mystery
Celebrity Extra: Tell me about “How We Got Away With It.”
Jon Lindstrom: It’s a mystery thriller about a young man and his friends who react very violently to an unexpected tragedy during their annual weekend reunion. They are all coming into their early 30s, with a sense that some are getting a little dissatisfied, thinking that maybe these kinds of reunions are for people younger than them. You have a sense that they are about to blow apart anyway, or at least just away from each other. And then this terrible thing happens and other things start to come up. You find out that the tragedy is a result of something else.
CE: I know how hard it is to get a film put together, financed and distributed. How did you make this happen?
JL: I met the guy who ended up playing the lead role, McCaleb Burnett, at a wedding of mutual friends of ours in Las Vegas, of all places. And we were both living in Los Angeles at the time. He knew that I had written a movie that had been made a couple of years earlier called “The Hard Easy.” That was made with Bruce Dern and Vera Farmiga and Peter Weller. It was a wonderful cast. So, I guess he just kind of presumed that I knew what I was doing. I don’t — really, nobody does. But I had a fairly good idea of what makes a good movie.
He came to me with a screenplay that he and the fellow that plays the other lead, Jeff Barry, had written together. I liked it, but I felt that there was a better opportunity for a more highly structured kind of mystery noir, which is really a reflection of my own sensibility. It gave us a chance to talk about subjects that were important to all of us, such as what secrets can do to people. So, I got involved, and McCaleb and I did a rewrite. I’m a big fan of the European crime films from the ’60s and ’70s, and I felt we had a good opportunity to play with that creatively.
CE: Because of time and budget constraints of producing your own feature film, I’ll bet your background in daytime helped in that regard, since you’re used to knowing what you want and working quickly to get it.
JL: It did. There’s no way that my time in daytime couldn’t inform my work discipline. I’m really thankful for it now. I did do some directing in daytime. I certainly learned how to move fast as an actor in daytime. One of the reasons why that helps you, at least as an actor, is you develop a pretty strong sense of when you’ve got what you’re looking for. You know when to say: “OK, that’s great. Let’s reset at the top and do another take,” or “We’ve got it. Let’s move on.” I surprised myself in that I have a pretty finely tuned sense of that now.
The other thing I was able to draw from was that I direct short films. I’ve made several of them, and I’ve done a lot of my friends’ acting demo reels and things. Filmmaking has been in my life for some time. With a short film, you usually do it out of your own pocket, and you’ve got maybe one day to shoot it. I’ve been able to draw upon that as well, which helps a lot. I wouldn’t recommend anybody going into this untested. Practice. Do something before you go out and do it.
CE: The setting for this movie is really gorgeous. You filmed in Rochester, N.Y., correct? Tell me about the shoot. JL: Yes, we filmed in Rochester. Jeff Barry (one of the stars of the film) is from Rochester; we got a lot of free things from his family. His father is a restaurateur, so that is how we were able to get two restaurant locations and feed the crew at cost. Jeff’s grandfather also owns a cabin outside of town. Since the film is a reunion where everybody stays in a big house, I was able to put all the actors into this cabin, and they could stay there for the three weeks or so that we were on location. They all got to know each other and learn how to play that way, and get on each other’s nerves and all those things that happen.
In the case of the two leading men, who kind of operate separately from the rest of the ensemble, I had them sleep in the big house that we shot in. They were always kind of separated from the main group. I think it worked very well.
CE: What was it like switching hats from director to actor when it was time to film your scenes?
JL: Stepping into an acting role really wasn’t that difficult. All we needed was a work flow, and Jeff Barry is a filmmaker. He has made a lot of shorts and is very passionate about it. He had written the original draft of the script in about three days. He’s great to work with, as all of them were. All I had to do was set up the shots that I wanted to get in the scene that I was in, and then I would step in front of the camera. Jeff would watch the monitor, give me a little direction until he felt we had it, and then I’d step behind the monitor, look at the playback and say: “Yep. We got it. Let’s move on.” It was a nice collaboration. A lot of the look of the film itself — because it really does look beautiful — is a credit to our young director of photography, Michael Belcher.
CE: It really is a gorgeous movie.
JL: Color correction has a lot to do with it. You shoot on high definition, and you can do a lot with that later on. I recommend trying to get it looking as good as possible when you actually shoot it, and that is thanks to Michael. It does look great. It looks like a much more expensive movie than it actually is.
CE: Was there a moment or a scene during the shoot when you thought, “Wow — we’re making something really special here,” or was the whole shoot one big special moment for you?
JL: The whole shoot was really special for me, just being as it was the first time I was doing a feature-length film. There was one night, though — there’s an entire sequence, it comes probably about two-thirds of the way through the film, where there are some characters doing something at a pier at night. Fortunately it was very calm that night. The lake was like glass, and we were in the water, and it’s August, so the water still gets cold after a while. There’s essentially no dialogue in it, and the sequence runs for about 10 minutes.
That’s a challenge to visually have it make sense, because you don’t have the support of dialogue to be expository. This was the moment where we all knew that the movie was going to work, because everyone knew exactly why they were doing what they were doing, and the reason why it had to be cold like that. That’s one of the rare things that comes along, when so many things have to go right to make a decent movie. That was the moment I knew this might actually work after all.
JL: She really was there for me every step of the way. She was my sounding board all the way through it. Technically, an associate producer is someone who does production work on behalf of the production company, and that’s technically what she did. She definitely deserves the credit. She was with me every step of the way.
In fact, I wasn’t even going to be in this movie. I had another actor attached, and unfortunately he had to drop out, and I said: “Aw, man. Now I’ve got to go find another guy to play the detective.” She said: “No you don’t. You’re going to play that part.” I said: “Oh my God, you’re right. I can do that — and I won’t drop out.” It’s one of my favorite characters that I ever played. We’re thinking of doing a Web series based on that character.
As for us working together again, we would always love to be able to work together, and we do on a daily basis. With my encouragement, I’m proud to say that Cady made a couple of short films on her own. I think she’s a terrific director and has a great eye. We collaborate on our various projects every day, day in and day out. But yeah, we would love the opportunity to work together again.
CE: Do you have another feature film in your sights yet?
JL: I’m going to direct a feature called “The Invisible Fifth.” It’s a teen thriller by way of genre, but it also has to do with secrets and lies. It’s very dark with a lot of mystery.
Interview: Mark Steines' Perfect App for Your Life
Now we get to see Mark in an environment that suits him for his — and his fans’ — changing life. Since October 2012, Mark has co-hosted, along with Cristina Ferrare, the Hallmark Channel’s hit daytime talk show “Home and Family.” I spoke with Mark recently, and he told me all about his new job at Hallmark, which, he says, truly is like family.
Celebrity Extra: You were a mainstay on “Entertainment Tonight” for 17 years; what made you decide to leave?
Mark Steines: I think it had to do with a variety of things, but mostly it was personal. Just to spend time with my family — my kids were growing, and I was gone so much on the road several times a week. I have over 3 million miles just on American Airlines alone. And when I was present, I was either tired or recuperating from things. Almost every vacation I took I was called away from early or was delayed taking off because of something that I felt was consequential. The older I got I went, “Really? My family is much more important to me than some of these things.”
But pop culture has to thrive, and you have to continue to stay on top of it. It’s ever-changing. And with TMZ and the Internet — I don’t want to give all the credit to TMZ, but they really came in and made a big splash with their website — things were breaking constantly. Trying to keep up with them and ahead of them doing a show every night at 7 or 7:30 — they’re breaking news around the clock on their website — was hard.
CE: What’s a big difference between working on “ET” versus “Home and Family”?
MS: The big difference is I used to have to go to the stars, now they come to me. And our show isn’t really “star” based in that regard. Typically when they come on, we try to unmask that celebrity, and we take them into the kitchen with us or we’ll do a DIY project with them. We’ll build something. We’ll make something. We’ll do a catch-water system. We’ll talk about gardening, if they are into that. What I always really wanted to do with celebrities is to see the other side of them. What really makes them tick? That’s what I like about this show. Plus I don’t have to go anywhere. Granted, it’s about an hour commute for me every day each way. So, that’s a pain in the butt, but it’s a lot better than having to go to LAX, sit at the terminal and wait for my plane.
CE: Was it difficult to adjust to your new work schedule and pace?
MS: It took a while for me to do a couple of things: With “ET,” the style of hosting — and this is an editorial on my part — it’s very sort of superficial, high energy, almost yelling, trying to make it look like you’re not. Just really ramped up. With “Home and Family,” I had to shed that skin, and know that taking the beats and letting them play was enough. We have a two-hour show. We have a lot of real estate to cover.
And the other thing was with “ET” it was very hard to show personality because there just wasn’t time for it. You could find a couple of moments here and there maybe, but it was just so edited. So, here, when it came time to really be me, I didn’t know which end was up. I thought, “Well, do I say that? Should I say that? We don’t have time for that. Does anybody really care about my opinion or my insights or my thoughts on this and how I feel about it?” But I learned to talk a little bit more and share a little bit more of my personal life on camera. It was tough at first. Cristina, my co-host, is very good at that. So, that part was quite a transition.
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| Mark and Cristina at "Home" |
CE: What are some of the things you really like about hosting “Home and Family”?
MS: There are so many, but I think what I enjoy most about the show is when people come on, there’s the same reaction — it doesn’t matter if they are a big celebrity or a doctor who’s come on to talk — they comment about how different this show feels from any other that they’ve been on. And it’s because we are in a real house. This isn’t a fake set with flaps and you think: “Oh, I see. That’s where the host goes, behind that flap.” This is a real house with real, working appliances, bathrooms, everything. It disarms people, because we don’t have high-end furniture, and it’s flatly lit. So, you come on and you feel like you’re just hanging at somebody’s house. Our guests become very comfortable very quickly.
Some people, when their segment is up, they don’t want to leave. We had singer Edwin McCain on the show, and it turned out that he and his wife had adopted a baby, and we were doing a segment with this doctor about swaddling babies. He was like, “Can I be in that? I’ve always wanted to know, because I have my little one, and I’m trying to learn to do this, and I’m not quite getting it right.” It was a very organic thing that happened, and people enjoy that.
CE: I love seeing celebrities just doing normal things like that: learning to swaddle, to garden, to cook.
MS: Yeah, people come on our show, and they’ll get a chance to go in the kitchen, if we are doing cooking, or are working on a grill. They share with us the things that they are into, and we try to incorporate that into the show. That is what I really like about it. There’s no other show like it on television, and that’s what made me want to be a part of it. This is something that I want to do. It’s home and it’s family. And that’s what I’m into.
This weekend at the Television Critics Association’s press tour, Cristina and I were reflecting on our show, and I said, “You know, you can’t have a home and a family, and not really be a family in a home and make it work.” The same thing is, you can’t fake two hours a day — pretend to be somebody you’re not two hours a day, five days a week. Over a period of time, the real jerk will come out if that is who you are. So, you have to be who you are and just trust that the audience is going to like it. You have to be authentic. And our viewers, I think, get a good dose of that.
CE: It sounds like you all really have become a family on the show.
MS: I worked with “ET” for 17 years, and I was never this close to people there; it’s just such a big operation, and you feel like you get lost in it. This is a small show with a big heart. And Hallmark believes in us. We’re the cornerstone of their daytime programming, and I love it. I watched the Golden Globes, and I was thinking that I just didn’t miss it at all. The red carpet is one of the worst assignments, in my opinion, that you can get because there’s so much pressure to get something, and you typically fall flat.
CE: What can we expect from “Home and Family” to come?
MS: We typically look at the different seasons like everybody. We want to live our lives, and we teach you how to live your life better. So, as we go through the different seasons — right now we are heading out of the holiday season, and we’re moving into Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl stuff. I know we are going to have relationship experts on. I always find those segments fascinating, because we talk about body language, sleep positions that people are in. What does it say about your relationship?
We’re also moving into spring, so I know we’ll start doing more and more stuff with Shirley Bovshow, our gardening expert. How to take care of a good lawn to moving more outdoors, so we’ll have that sort of thing. And then we’ll move into cooking and barbecuing. I’m sure we’ll start moving into that direction once things start thawing out. Our show is the perfect app for your life.
Speaking of guests, I have to tell you about this. We had “The Amazing Kreskin,” the world-famous mentalist, on the show recently. That guy blew me away. I have no idea how he did his stuff. It was ridiculous. He put a locked container in our house and told us, “I’ll be back here next year, and we’ll open it.” He predicted what was going to happen in 2014 and wrote it down, and he put it inside the container. So, I think that’s a good sign because that means we’ll get picked up for season three if he knows he’s coming back next year.
Q and A: Week of March 10
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| Mark Steines |
A: Instead of seeing Mark every night, now you can see him for two hours each morning. Along with Cristina Ferrare, Mark co-hosts the Hallmark Channel’s “Home and Family Show” every weekday morning from 10e/9c. I spoke with Mark recently about his hosting gig, and he told me he is having such a great time on his new show that it doesn’t even feel like work. According to Mark: “I worked on ‘ET’ for 17 years, and I was never this close to people there because it’s just such a big operation, and you feel like you get lost in it. This is a small show with a big heart. And Hallmark believes in us. We’re the cornerstone of their daytime programming, and I love it.”
And each day Mark is eager to discover what that day’s show will bring. “I used to have to go to the stars, now they come to me. And our show isn’t really star-based, in that regard. But when they do come on, we try to unmask that celebrity. We take them into the kitchen with us or we’ll do a DIY project with them. We’ll build something. We’ll make something. It’s always what I really wanted to do with celebrities, to see the other side of them. That’s what I like about this show.”
Q: This season of “Justified” has just been super so far. Can you tell me if it has been renewed for a sixth season yet? — Kyle L., Baltimore, Md.
A: The hit FX show has indeed already been renewed for another season, however its sixth season will be its last. According to FX Networks’ CEO John Landgraf, the decision had nothing to do with the show having low ratings or lack of critical acclaim. The decision was made by showrunner Graham Yost and star Timothy Olyphant, as he explained at the Television Critics Association press tour: “We talked about it a year ago, and [Graham and Timothy] felt that the arc of the show and what they had to say would be served by six seasons instead of seven, and I regretfully accepted their decision.”
Q: Can you tell me what Sharon Stone has been up to lately? — Kellie T. via email
A: Oscar nominee and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Sharon Stone has signed on to star on a new TNT’s action-drama, which is tentatively titled “Agent X.” Written by William Blake Herron — who wrote “The Bourne Identity” — “Agent X” stars Sharon as America’s first female vice president, Natalie Maccabee, a woman with brains, beauty and a cool composure that belies a restless mind. Initially apprehensive that her job would be only ceremonial in nature, she soon learns that it comes with a top-secret duty: protecting the Constitution in times of great crisis with the aid of her chief steward and a secret operative designated as Agent X. There is no word yet on when the pilot will air, but I’m thinking it’d be a perfect summer series.
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| The Mindy Project cast |
A: “The Mindy Project” will return to Fox with all-new episodes on April 1 (no joke). In the meantime, the Golden Globe-winning comedy, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” has taken the place of “Mindy,” with “Mindy” returning when “Brooklyn” ends its freshman season. Earlier today, Fox announced that both shows have been renewed for new seasons this fall.
Q: My grandfather would like to know when “Longmire” is going to be back on. — LeeAnn R., via email
A: Longmire will return for a 10-episode third season this summer on A and E. I’ll be sure to let you know when I have an exact date.
Q: It’s good to see Jennifer Lopez back in the saddle as a judge on “American Idol,” but I miss seeing her on the big screen. Does she have any plans for a film in the near future? — Gigi R., Chicago
A: Jennifer Lopez and Viola Davis (“The Help”) are set to co-star together in the film “Lila and Eve.” The film tells the story of a grief-stricken mother (Viola) who, in the aftermath of her son’s murder, attends a support group where she meets Eve (Jennifer), who has lost her daughter. When Lila hits numerous roadblocks from the police in bringing justice for her son’s slaying, Eve urges Lila to take matters into her own hands to track down her son’s killers. The film is scheduled for a late 2014/early 2015 release date, and is expected hit the festival circuit before opening to wider audiences.
Q: I haven’t seen Samantha Brown on TV in a very long time. Will I see her again soon? — John L., Leesburg, Fla.
A: Next up for Samantha is co-hosting the Travel Channel’s “The Trip: 2014”— which also features Adam Richman, Don Wildman and Anthony Melchiorri — as they explore the ultimate insider experiences in Spain and Morocco. This television special is also a sweepstakes: Go to travelchannel.com by March 24, and enter for your chance to win this $100,000 dream vacation.
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| David Smith |
A: The show you are thinking of is “The Next Joe Millionaire” — a follow-up to surprise hit “Joe Millionaire” — which aired on Fox in 2003. Rodeo-cowboy David Smith of Midland, Texas, went to Italy to find “true love” — by masquerading as a millionaire to a group of European women who were unaware of the show’s actual premise. At the end of the season, David Smith and Linda Kasdova rode off into the sunset together, only to break up a short time later.
Q: Now that Rob Lowe is gone from “Parks and Rec,” what’s he got coming next? — Paul F., The Villages, Fla.
A: Rob may have left “Parks and Rec,” but he’s staying with NBC. He’s been tapped to star in a new pilot, a single-camera comedy called “The Pro,” which centers in and around a golf and tennis club. Rob stars as Ben Bertrahm, a former doubles champion who is reunited with his ex-partner Bobby Welch (the hilarious Rob Riggle) after a public feud that left them both floundering in life.
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