The first PaleyFest event I went to was their “Community” night on March 3rd. Here is my LAist post about the night (or just check out the video here). I was bowled over by the opportunity to exchange a few words with Chevy Chase, an idol of mine since 1977. He thoroughly took advantage of me as he did everyone in the press line as well as the panel – I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. He was irrepressible and hilariously so.

The following night was “Dexter” night (full LAist write-up) where I finally had the chance to ask a couple questions of Julie Benz (aka Rita Bennett) – I had missed her at both the SAG awards and the Emmys so I’m glad it finally happened. I also spoke with Desmond Harrington and Brando Eaton whom I hadn’t connected with before.

Because I went to the 25th Film Independent Spirit Awards on Friday the 5th at the Nokia Center I missed the PaleyFest’s “Cougar Town” night which is unfortunate because, although I’m not a fan of the show personally, I know that a lot of my readers at LAist enjoy the program. I’m not sure what to say about the Spirit Awards. I was invited by IFC to cover it but it was somewhat miserable: they had overbooked press so there was literally no room on the carpet – we were jammed into each other which would have been even more uncomfortable except it was so cold and windy we actually benefitted from each others’ warmth.

You can see my LAist post on the Spirit Awards which was somewhat of a failed experience. A lot of the talent didn’t have publicists with them and were largely inapproachable. Organizers put the photographer pool at the wrong end of the line which created a gridlock of invited guests and their friends in front of us, but no one to manage who they talked to and for how long – a lot of the talent simply left. When I went to go upstairs I discovered that my accreditation gave me virtually no additional access so I hopped from foot to foot for a while until I got some pictures with Richard Kind, Matt Dillon, and Anvil, who were very nice and gracious. I did get a lot of photos – check out the published pool at LAist or my Flickr set which has even more. If I get asked to do it again next year I will demand an all-access pass or no go.

March 6th I went back to PaleyFest for “The Vampire Diaries” where I only got footage with Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley but, of course, because of the teenybopper factor, that video and those photos have been getting more views than anything else I did during the trip. Nina Dobrev was actually very engaging and I think that she would have talked a lot longer if there hadn’t been other people waiting – a cute Canadian girl who was psyched about how well the Vancouver Olympics went. [See the LAist PaleyFest photo pool or my Flickr set.]

Sunday the 7th was manic because of the Oscars – actually, most of Hollywood was a complete mess for the week because of the closing of Hollywood Boulevard for set up. It took me less time to get to the residential area of Burbank than from Santa Monica/101 to the Wilshire district, which, if you aren’t so sure of the layout, is ridiculous, let me assure you. I decided not to go to the Oscars as I knew I’d just get a bleacher seat and 10+ hours of timesink. Instead I decided to hang out with my hosts for the morning and afternoon before heading over to the new W Hotel in Hollywood for E!’s Oscar party.

Unfortunately nobody from the Oscars showed up but I talked to plenty of TV people which is my beat anyways. Got some good interactions with cast from “Glee” and the upcoming “Dancing With The Stars” contestants. Snapped some photos but not many, although I think there are some winners in there of Buzz Aldrin.

My last day in LA was similarly busy, starting out with an interview I had scheduled with veteran actor Len Lesser (most popularly known as Uncle Leo from “Seinfeld). We talked for about an hour at his house in Burbank, a modest, if not classic bungalow, and the footage really looks good – I’m trying to figure out how to edit it together. I’ll probably have to make a 10 minute chunk for YouTube and perhaps a 1/2 hour piece for LAist.

My Lesser experience was followed by an interview with comedian Tom Green at his house/studio in the Hollywood Hills. Green was friendly enough but we were pressed for time as he had phoners to do with Australian outlets pending his 10 day trip out there. I do appreciate him setting aside time to speak with me as he had just arrived that morning from touring most of the United States and he could have used a rest instead of dealing with more press. The interview was posted and most people seem to like it a lot – I hope to interview him again later this year before his trip to Boston.

I have some invites to go to the TCM Festival and the TV Land Awards in April but I need to see how feasible that trip would be. I’m forever indebted to my hosts Molly and Desiree, Tim, and Elizabeth – but I don’t want to otherwise overstay my invitations as that would be my 3rd trip in 4 months. I’ll keep you posted here as I learn more about the future. Thanks for reading.

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There is a very important political discussion taking place on Beacon Hill that will affect all of us. As lawmakers finalize the fiscal year 2010 budget, they have unexpectedly included a new 6.25% tax on alcohol. This is the result of the combination of raising the sales tax from 5% to 6.25% and of applying the sales tax to alcohol for the first time. Keep in mind that while beer is not currently subject to sales tax in Massachusetts, it is subject to both state and federal excise taxes, corporate taxes, and other fees totaling on average about 37% of the retail price of a case of beer. That’s $8.88 in a $25.00 case of beer. Do you want to pay an additional 6.25% at the cash register? Didn’t think so.

What can YOU do?
Call or email your State Representative and Senator. You can use this link to find contact information for your legislators . Please tell them to oppose the application of the 6.25% sales tax to beer. This discussion is going on NOW. Please contact them NOW. We are all facing economic challenges right now. The last thing we need is to pay more for one of life’s true remaining simple pleasures: enjoying a cold Harpoon on a warm summer afternoon!

Here are some particularly influential legislators to contact:

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I already have a lot of problems with alcohol policy in the state of Massachusetts but this new tax could be one straw too many. Let me go over the short list:

- Prohibiting Direct Mail of Alcohol to Residents: If you were a wine club member in other states and move to Massachusetts, sorry, but you can’t receive your shipments any more. A state rep I talked to told me that this was done “to protect local producers” which is ridiculous as the only thing it does it hurt local producers. Why is this? Because states act reciprocally, when we ban shipments from them, they ban shipments from us. In the Berkshires, where we have several local producers of wine, cider, and distilled beverages, we also have a huge amount of tourist visitors – these local producers can not ship their product to these visitors because of this law. It’s a classic example of how to squash an industry in its infancy.

Why is Massachusetts doing this? Because the state is beholden to distributors who spend big bucks with politicians. Just go to your local “package” store and special order some wine (wine selection in MA is pitiful) and be dismayed by the outrageous markup due to distributor charges.

- Limited Alcohol Sales in Supermarkets/Drug Stores: Only a handful of licenses have been given to supermarkets (none to drug stores) and the vast majority of these are only for beer and wine sales. Limited access means limited competition and thus higher prices for a limited choice of products.

- Store Alcohol Sales Prohibited on Sundays: The ancient blue laws can’t be put to death. The law has been relaxed a bit for people living within a certain distance from the border with a state that does sell alcohol on Sundays. Think about it though, you can’t buy a six pack of beer on the way to a Sunday BBQ but you can get hammered in some local seedy tavern. It makes no sense.

- Drunk Driving OK on Snowmobiles: Every year we have several deaths, and countless injury accidents involving drunk snowmobilers in the Berkshires and the drunk snowmobilers involved can’t be charged with DWI because there is no law against it. There are also a ton of drunk ATV riders involved in accidents in the area but even if there was a law against DWI snowmobiling the state has gutted the means to enforce it – the Berkshires have more state land and state park acreage than any other county in Massachusetts but there are supposedly only 2 or 3 officers for this huge land area. In my very active use of state trails over the past 8 years (hundred of miles of hiking, thousands of miles of XC skiing and biking) I have never seen a state officer on a trail in Massachusetts. By contrast, in my much more limited usage (perhaps 40 miles of hiking, 300 miles of XC skiing) of the trail system in Vermont, I have encountered state officers 3 times.
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Thankfully I live not even 5 miles from a package store on the New York side of the border. If the proposed tax goes through, that will probably be enough for me to take the short drive thus denying Massachusetts _any_ revenue from the sale. I know I won’t be the only one doing this. I’m also seriously considering dusting off my home beer brewing set up.

If you are a Massachusetts resident, please use this link to find contact info for your legislators and call/email them.

Try to get them to justify these industry-killing policies as well as the hypocrisy of not criminalizing alcohol abusers.

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Janeane Garofalo with "Chloe" on "24"

I got to do a fun walk and talk interview with comedian Jon Lajoie in Hollywood last month. I followed that up with seeing him at tthe Wilbur Theatre in Boston which I documented on video – the man is seriously talented and will probably be huge in the next couple years, I am so forutnate to meet someone like him now before he becomes too busy and/or inaccessible.

The same day I went to the Wilbur I did a couple interviews outside of Fenway Park with some great up-and-coming comedians who will be featured in “NESN’s Comedy All-Stars”: Ira Proctor and Tyler Boeh. The videos of those interviews will be going up in a few weeks.

What followed soon after was the AltCom Festival in Somerville where several “alternative” comedians hit the stage, among them: Eugene Mirman, Rob Riggle (not really alternative, but what the heck), Leo Allen, Jamie Kilstein, and Janeane Garofalo. Janeane Garofalo was very kind and gave me several exclusive minutes for an interview. This was no surprise really, since, as she smoked cigarettes behind the theater with friends, she graciously talked to anyone who came up to her, took pictures, and was happy to talk about any subject that came up. She was also very brave as there was serious concern that her performance would be disrupted by right-wing O’Reilly-heads – but she jumped into the crowd from the first minute of her act with no resulting incident. This was just a couple days after she had been stalked and harassed by a FOX News producer. Her performance included a hilarious reading of some dialogue from her role on “24″ (above right).

A lot of these performers will be coming back to Boston this year, including a bizarre Garofalo/Riggle pairing at the Wilbur in November. I hope to be able to do another round of interviews with them.

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They again let me use their home as a base as I ran all over Hollywood and Burbank like a madman for 4 days. It started out with going on the set of E!’s “The Soup” which is shot on the same set as all of E!’s programs – they have an amazingly compact soundstage with easily configurable sets. The actual set of “The Soup” is a green screen and a TV monitor in front of which host Joel McHale does his dynamic act. I put together a little video (below) of interviews with the producers, KP Anderson and Edward Boyd, and a snippet of Joel McHale. I loved their dynamic team of writers and staff who were in the wings during the entire taping – available for quick huddles of rewrites. Andrew Zimmern was the special guest and he performed admirably. Being at the taping was a privilege and I have huge respect for that crew. Go Soup!

The TV Junkie Goes to E!’s “The Soup” from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

Friday the 17th was spent going to New Wave Entertainment to interview producers and comics involved with the creation of “NESN’s Comedy All Stars”. I interviewed comedy producer legend Barry Katz (creator of “Action”, “Last Comic Standing”, about a jillion HBO comedy specials, etc.) and comedians Jen Kober, Al Del Bene, and Freddy Lockhart. I’ll be editing those videos for the next few weeks (I’ve got hours of footage). It was a pleasure to talk to all of these people – total pros, very friendly, and very funny!

Saturday I took a bit of a break – got my equipment ready, ran up into the Hollywood Hills, went to Santa Monica with Desiree just to hang out and chill, and then went to dinner with AJ who was visiting LA from Brooklyn, and the infamous Tony Pierce, and the ever mysterious Jeanine Natale. Everyone was very kind to me, Tony bought my dinner as a payback from his visit back East (totally unnecessary!) and AJ bought us all drink. I’ve known these people for 20 years now and they are still so real and supportive, how fortunate can I be?

Sunday was pandemonium as I went to the TV Land Awards. It was easily 100F in the red carpet arrival area where I was stationed. They didn’t provide enough space for the journalists so we were standing all over each other. I was incredibly dehydrated after soaking all my clothes with sweat and was amazined that any of the actors would choose to walk that gauntlet to talk to such a bedraggled bunch as we were. I still count myself fortunate for the experience as I was able to talk to a pretty amazing set of people. Check out the video below, I still can’t believe it happened.

The TV Junkie at the 2009 TV Land Awards from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

After TV Land I got out of my soaking clothes and popped another tape in the camera to go interview comedian Jon Lajoie who is an internet sensation. Jon creates these absolutely hilarious videos and is a real artist who does so very much with very few resources. He’s on tour and will be hitting Boston this week. Even though he was incredibly jet-lagged he conceded to do a walk-and-talk through Hollywood with me. Below is the result:

Comedian Jon Lajoie Walks & Talks in Hollywood from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

More tomorrow!

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Timothy Hutton - photo by Tom Lewis

Had an great week last week! Got to interview, in person, the incredible actor, Academy Award-winning Timothy Hutton. Hutton is someone I really looked up to as a kid for his roles in Taps, Ordinary People, and The Falcon and the Snowman. Turns out he’s a real technophile: loves the web, his Mac, ESPN.com, and Boston Dirt Dogs. He still lives in New York which I was mistaken about and has some interesting perspectives on how basic cable is taking on the Big Three networks in terms of well-produced original content.

Hutton was on tour promoting his new series on TNT, “Leverage”, and had just come in from Chicago the night before. He was a little grizzled but still calm, suave, and just-friendly-enough. This is a man who has been performing for as long as I’ve been alive so I imagine he’s used to these kind of situations.

Since he’s someone I’ve been familiar with over the years I didn’t have to do too much research prep. I was happy that I knew enough about Hutton’s vastly underappreciated A&E “Nero Wolfe” series to engage him. “Nero Wolfe” is the show that brought high-quality original programming to basic cable and it made classic mysteries interesting and fun to watch with a distinctly American flavor, unlike what we get in the form of British imports on PBS or BBC America.

I think the pilot for “Leverage” was very good but I’m not so sure about the rest of the series. I’ve only seen the first (post-pilot) show and it seemed like it was done by completely different writers and another director. But if you like Hutton then there’s definitely something there to enjoy. I hope they are given enough time to work out the kinks.

I was unhappy that I couldn’t record the interview with my Flip camera but I’ll be posting on that over at Needlemine. Here’s how the interview looked at LAist.

Below is the unedited audio of the interview recorded at the Four Seasons in Boston.

The other voice you hear on the recording is Al Norton from “Two Tivos to Paradise” who split the interview with me:

Then the day after this interview I gave a presentation on Web Analytics. Including Q&A it took about an hour and fifteen minutes. A little longer than what I wanted but it seemed like information that people wanted to hear. I had plenty of questions during key slides and I thought it went well. The technical college I did the presentation at asked me to teach a course there on analytics – I’ll have to get back to them soon.

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