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.
Interview: Patricia Richardson's Cause That's Close to Her Heart
To almost anyone you ask, Patricia Richardson is the mom we all wanted (no offense, real-life Mom): She played opposite Tim Allen for the entire decade of the ’90s on ABC’s “Home Improvement” as Jill Taylor — loving, smart, sassy and funny. She went on to star in “Strong Medicine” and guest-star on “The West Wing,” but it’s her lifetime role of loving daughter that brought Patricia to her latest project — that of celebrity spokesperson for Cure PSP (psp.org). In 2005, Patricia lost her father to progressive supranuclear palsy, a neurodegenerative brain disease that has no known cause, treatment or cure. Now, as Patricia told me when we spoke recently, she is doing all she can to raise awareness of the disease and money toward finding the cure. She has partnered with the National Organization of Rare Disorders (NORD) to help bring her cause to light.
Celebrity Extra: Tell me what you’ve learned about PSP in your research in trying to help your father, and now, in helping others who are trying to come to grips with this disease.
Patricia Richardson: All of these brain diseases — PSP, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, CBD, ALS — are what we are now calling prion disease, which stands for infectious protein. They are all caused by sort of like a bacteria or virus, but it’s proteins that are coming out of the cells and multiplying and spreading infectiously. These protein diseases are spreading slowly within the brain. In Alzheimer’s and PSP, it’s something called tau protein. That’s also the same protein that spreads in the football head injuries and in soldiers coming back from Afghanistan. Understanding this cause is a new development.
CE: Tell me about NORD and your involvement with them.
PR: NORD is sort of an umbrella group to not only help patient-advocacy organizations like Cure PSP, but they’re helping people suffering from all of these other diseases that don’t even have a support group. It’s a place for people to meet and talk and share their experience or maybe connect with a group. We’ve been asking people to go to rarediseaseday.us, which is a website that will not only tell them about the Rare Disease Day [which is today, Feb. 28], but it’ll help people find information they need about their own disease, how they can help NORD, and how they can help somebody with a rare disease.
CE: What are some of the things you’ve been involved with in helping NORD?
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| Patricia with her father, Laurence |
PR: I’ve hosted the NORD dinner for several years, and they’ll have patients there, legislators, doctors, scientists. The things you learn when you go to these: One time they talked about a girl across the country with symptoms no one had ever seen. It was a new disease. The doctors had never seen it. This poor family thought: “We’re the only people that have this. What could this be?” And then NORD connected them with another family on the other coast whose child had the same thing. And then they were able to connect those two doctors together so they could share information.
NORD connected us (at Cure PSP) to the government agency that helped us get the compassion and care allowance. We had to establish ourselves as a rare disease so we could get our people fast-tracked to get their Social Security disability payments faster. But first you have to get declared a rare disease. So, NORD helped us figure out how you write that protocol, how you get declared a rare disease and then get into that program.
What I tell people is, “My Dad had a rare disease, but our experience was not rare.” Thirty million people have a rare disease. We didn’t feel that at the time Dad was diagnosed. We felt like we were the only people going through this.
CE: Changing gears a bit, what do you have coming up for your fans actingwise?
PR: After “Home Improvement,” I quit pretty much for a year or two so I could go home and be with my kids. I’m the least ambitious actor you’ve heard of. Then I did “Strong Medicine” because I had a four-day workweek, and I could be with my kids. So, I did that for a couple of years. And then I tried to do “West Wing” because I thought, “Well, that won’t take me away from them too much.” And then I ended up doing way more than I thought I would — nine or 10 episodes over a couple of years. What I learned was that I just couldn’t be away from my teenagers without that being a problem, so that was when I just really stopped. I think I may have done one movie that was a couple of days, but mostly I just got them through high school.
I went back to work four years ago when the last one went off to college. It’s been slow going. I started doing theater again — I’ve been doing a play every year. I did a play off-Broadway last year. And then I’ve done like three Hallmark movies in the last year. There was one at Christmas, one just now on Valentine’s, and that’s been sort of good for me to have the chance to get in front of a camera and feel comfortable again. I’m the world’s worst auditioner, and I’m so bad at auditioning. It’s been hard to kind of get back to where I felt comfortable after all that time off.
So, by getting on stage again and slowly sort of getting in front of a camera, I’ve gradually gotten back to the place where I’m now once again starting to feel, “Oh yeah. That’s what this is. It’s not as terrifying as it was.” I’m kind of coming around to again and where I’m starting to feel like, “Oh yeah, now I remember why I liked this.” And my kids are doing really well, so I feel good about it. I feel really good about the people I made. I'm very lucky, and I’ve been really blessed.
Interview: Katie Boland's Long Story, Short
“LSS” consists of 11 five- to seven-minute episodes centering on 20-something Kristen Harvey as she tries to navigate through the summer after dropping out of art school in NYC. I spoke with Katie recently about the series, which she also wrote and stars in. Read on for more about “LSS,” as well as Katie’s work on the CW’s “Reign” and other projects she has in the pipeline.
Celebrity Extra: I see you’ve been acting professionally since you were 9 — was this pretty much something you’ve always wanted to do?
Katie Boland: Yes, it was something I’ve always wanted to do. I remember being 3 and telling my mom (Gail Harvey) that I wanted to be an actress. I was always around the film industry because my mom is in it. She was resistant at first in letting me try acting, and so was my dad, because they both knew the realities of the industry. They finally let me try when I was 9. And I haven’t stopped since.
CE: And your parents, both being creative types themselves — your mom a director and your dad and award-winning author and journalist — were they supportive of your decision?
KB: I’ve realized as I’ve gotten older that I was so lucky for how supportive they always were in any creative endeavor I wanted to try. I think when you grow up in a home where creativity is just a part of life, you don’t realize how lucky you are to be supported. So, it was a very supportive environment. And we were pretty normal. It wasn’t like a crazy, artistic household; it was just one where feelings were allowed, and we were encouraged to try anything we wanted to artistically.
CE: How did the idea for “Long Story, Short” come about?
KB: My mom and I were interested in Web content, and she asked me if I had any ideas for a Web series. I had written some personal essays on what I call “The Summer I Lost My Mind.” That was the material I used for “Long Story, Short.”
CE: Since the series is somewhat autobiographical, you really put yourself out there for the world to see. Were you nervous about opening yourself up like that?
KB: I was nervous about it, definitely, but I felt like I didn’t really have another option. This was the story that I wanted to tell. And I was excited to be able to make something positive about a period in my life that was confusing.
CE: I like the format of 11 episodes, each about five to seven minutes long. How’d you come up with that format?
KB: Originally we had 10 episodes, but one was too long, so we cut one episode into two. It’s the same as any other kind of writing, it’s just a shorter arc. So, you need to start and then get to the middle faster, and then get to the end. With a lot of Web stuff and things that are shorter, you do want to end on a cliffhanger. I do feel I had some parameters that helped me. We’re thinking about season two now and writing season two, and I think I learned a lot through writing season one. There are definitely things I’m going to take from the experience of the first season and put into the second one.
CE: Since “LSS” is based on experiences in your own life, are Kristen’s friends, Lucy and Carson, based on people you know in real life?
KB: They are sort of an imagination of a lot of my friends and a lot of my friends’ experiences. There was just so much happening emotionally at that time in our lives, so I felt like I really wanted to take it all and talk about it all, but I was limited with the amount of characters I could have. So that’s why there are only two friends.
KB: We shot in my childhood home, where my mom still lives. It was really a skeleton crew, and all the crew members were around my age, so it was a very young and excited crew. We would just shoot all day and take a break for lunch. We never shot more than 12 hours. But it was the most fun I’ve ever had being creative. It was an amazing experience, and I’m really excited to do it again. (Author’s note: Katie good-naturedly wanted me to make it clear that she directed her character’s love scenes, so as not to put her mother through that.)
CE: What’s great is because you’re using an alternative form of media to get your show out there, you have the freedom to be as creative as you want.
KB: Yeah, it has allowed me to have a lot of creative freedom that I would not have with a broadcaster, and also I would not be able to do this with a broadcaster because I don’t have enough experience. It’s allowed me to get my foot in the door as a writer and a creator, where otherwise I wouldn’t be able to hold those positions at all. It’s been cool.
CE: You spoke about season two ... can you give me any scoop as to what to expect?
KB: Well, all the girls are going to return. And I would say most of the boys would make a reappearance because, as in life, no one ever truly leaves. Everyone comes back. I like asking, Why are we attracted to the people we are attracted to? Why do certain lovers come into our life? And what does that teach us about ourselves? I find that very interesting as I get older. Maybe it would be good to keep exploring that in a fictional framework.
CE: And you get to go from a creative, smaller project like “LSS” to a big-budget CW show like “Reign.” What is it like playing Clarissa on that historical-fiction series?
KB: I feel very grateful that in my career I get to work on projects in both worlds — the very independent and then a huge show. It’s been a wonderful experience. The show has a really great fan base, and I think the show’s excellent. It’s pretty fun; the show’s pretty scandalous.
CE: It reminds me of Showtime’s “The Tudors.”
KB: Yeah, it’s definitely similar to “The Tudors.” I’m really lucky to be a part of it.
CE: What else do you have in the works?
KB: I have two films that are coming out. One is called “Gerontophilia,” and the other is called “Sex After Kids.” I’m developing a number of other shows for TV. My mom and I have started a production company called Straight Shooters, so we’re excited about that. And then I’m just working on another novel and season two of “Long Story, Short.”
CE: So, you’re not that busy, then?
KB: (Laughs) Yeah, I guess pretty I’m busy when you look at it that way.
Interview: 'Get on Up' with James DuMont
Celebrity Extra: Just a few months back you played a key role, D.J. Bobby Delmont, on one of my favorite prime-time shows, “Nashville.” What was it like working on that show?
James DuMont: That’s a great little character, and Hayden Panettiere is fantastic. She is such a wonderful actress. And she was so much fun and so good, and I was like, “Well, you know, I’m going to be manhandling you.” She goes, “Don’t be afraid, because the more you give it to me, the more I’m going to take care of you later on.” So we just had this little pact together, which worked out pretty well.
CE: You’ve also been busy with “American Horror Story” and “Treme,” but what I really want to talk about is “Dallas Buyers Club,” which was just nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, as well as Best Actor for Matthew McConaughey and Best Supporting Actor for Jared Leto. Tell me about the film and your role in it.
JD: It’s an amazing film. The director is Jean-Marc Vallée, who is a French-Canadian director who directed a movie called “C.R.A.Z.Y.” a few years back. He’s a brilliant director. I have this really wonderful, amazing role playing Jared Leto’s father — Jared plays the character of Rayon, who’s transgender and is dying of AIDS. Rayon becomes part of the Dallas Buyers Club with Matthew McConaughey, who plays the real-life Ron Woodroof, a pioneer in the creation of the cocktail that kept people alive and was much more effective in warding off the early HIV to AIDS than AZT. He becomes an unlikely kind of hero in this movie.
It’s a really powerful scene Jared and I share. He does powerful work in this; as soon as we finished our scene, I tweeted that Jared would get an Oscar nomination for this role. I’ve worked with Oscar winners, and I can see and identify Oscar-caliber work.
CE: Speaking of Oscar-caliber actors, you played opposite Robin Williams and Forest Whitaker in “Lee Daniel’s The Butler.” Tell me about that.
JD: That’s true. I’m working with Robin and Forrest, and I’m thinking: “Well, one of these things is not like the other. Who doesn’t have an Oscar in this scene? That would be me!” It’s interesting to be the guy who can hold his own with what’s recognized as the highest caliber of folks. I love being able to play a historical character in “The Butler” like Sherman Adams, who was the chief of staff under President Eisenhower (played by Robin). He was kind of like Dick Cheney to George W. Bush.
And then I get to play an estranged father who has a transgender son who now has AIDS. And how do you deal with that scenario? It’s kind of a powder-keg moment. I’m just plugging along. I’m doing the James Brown biopic next, which is called “Get on Up.” I play a USO envoy for when James Brown comes to perform in Vietnam; I welcome him to come perform for the troops, which is pretty fun.
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