Brendan Fraser was making the rounds promoting Journey to the Center of the Earth and he takes his job very seriously.  Maybe just a bit too seriously.  Not a lot of small talk, no “how has your summer been so far” chit chat, just right to the task at hand – the movie.
Now, Fraser is attractive and personable enough so that’s ok, I guess, and on this film in recognition of the fact that no actor has probably had so much experience with special effects as Fraser, he was accorded an Executive Producer credit for the first time, so he may feel a little added “suit-like” responsibility,  but you can’t help but get the feeling that his “passion” for the project may be just slightly getting in the way of the fun.  He did make one irresistible offer when he started talking about his second summer blockbuster release The Mummy:  Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, he was willing to guarantee that if viewers didn’t love Journey he’d give them a discount on The Mummy.  (Send your emails, cards and letters to…)

Fraser did finally have a bit of fun at the end of the interview, by walking around in a bright red pair of high heels in honor of Kelly Ripa’s first High Heel-a-Thon.
Nothing monumental here, just good, solid promoting.

Just keep it a little lighter here Brendan and we’ll be happy to take your word that your pics are well worth the price of admission and we won’t wait for the DVD.

Judd Apatow is one of the few “behind-the-scenes” Hollywood people recently to cross in front of the camera, as evidenced by his recent appearance on The Tonight Show. Thanks to his successful films, 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, he is in demand as a talk show guest, and he did have a good rapport with Jay Leno. Apatow came dressed in a respectful suit, which he also did on a recent visit to The Daily Show with John Stuart.  A nice touch for the movie business today, where some of stars have given new meaning to the term “dressing down.”  (Yes, Mr. Sandler, we mean you.) And being primarily a writer and not a performer, he wisely didn’t try too hard to be funny.  He was, however, funny… in a natural, intelligent way. He joked about being roommates with the aforementioned Adam Sandler in college and how, even though he was pretty sure he was better looking than Adam (he brought a photo of the two of them to prove it), he had to admit he couldn’t even get Sandler’s overflow of girls at parties.

There to promote his new film, co-written with Sandler, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which he calls an Israeli James Bond, Apatow offered his theory on the Middle East conflict. “Many Jews and Arabs worked on the film and got along great. So, it’s possible to have peace if you’re paid to work on an Adam Sandler movie.”

Not screamingly funny, but certainly thoughtful and quick.  Being one of Hollywood’s newly minted moguls, Apatow has found his niche primarily behind the camera, but he has the presence to pull off an occasional sit down stint as a star guest as well.

When something looks too good to be true… sometimes it just might be. Such is the case with Cindy McCain. She made a visit to Jay Leno’s show recently and appeared nearly perfect – pretty, well-put-together, forthright, humorous, a little overly controlled… and even willing and able to make fun of her Presidential candidate husband, John McCain, saying “he’s not a very good driver” and admitting that he lied about his age when he met her (he subtracted five years). Guess what? So did she (she added five). They didn’t find out until they applied for the marriage license.

McCain talked about her medical problems (prescription drug addiction, a stroke), being a pilot (she flew hubby in his first bid for the Senate) and a race car driver (drift cars with her son) and teaching special education. I bet she’s a gourmet chef, too.

She did achieve what, I think, she set out to – conveying how fit and young her husband really is — he’s going to hike the Grand Canyon again this summer, without her.

Interestingly, Leno was compelled to behave. He had a few mild zingers but, perhaps because she could be the next First Lady, he treated her with respect. And, in all fairness, she was, as Jay said, a “great guest.” Only time will tell if she’s the real thing.

If you didn’t know much about David Beckham other than his soccer prowess, half-naked billboards and marriage to Posh Spice Girl Victoria, you might have been surprised to see and hear him on The Tonight Show recently. A very polite, slightly nervous English chap, who dressed up for the show (is that just a British thing?) in a suit and tie, chatted with Jay like they were mates – well almost, they are actually neighbors. And in connection with that, Beckham took the opportunity to apologize for all the paparazzi.

The surprise about the usually silent superstar is that, while he looks like he might be upper crust, he is actually a working class bloke. His accent bespeaks his upbringing with a gas-fitter dad and a hairdresser mum. He was really quite humble and proud when he said he is living his father’s dream. (His dad was a huge soccer fan and his parents completely supported him throughout his career.)

On to the interview.

What is it with Jay that he has to continually pull out the juvenile pranks to try to embarrass guests with ambush photos, video and “grade school” level questions? Didn’t he learn anything from his recent “tail between his legs” apology to Ryan Philippe for going down a ridiculous gay round of queries?

When Jay showed the aforementioned half-naked billboard, Beckham was genuinely uncomfortable. He said he was “so nervous” doing the shoot because he had never posed in his underwear and he knew his wife, friends and mother would see it. While being nervous and shy can be the kiss-of-death for a talk show guest, Beckham made it work by coming off real and charming.

Eventually they got to the reason for his visit, his 100th game for England (the National Team), an achievement only reached by four other players in history, and not for 20 years. Oh yes, he did mentioned that the Galaxy’s season was about to begin – good thing as we seem to recall they paid him a pretty penny to turn around the fortunes of the LA franchise.

The best part of the interview, however, was not part of his interview at all. It was actually when the next guest, Sherri Shepherd, came out and continually flirted her butt off, saying “he’s fine!” over and over again. She admitted that she even had cut out a picture from a magazine of Beckham and his wife in bed, and put her face over Victoria’s…and it was “HOT!” The entire time, Beckham’s reactions were priceless. Reverting to his silent nature, he never uttered a word, just grinned appropriately and laughed like he loved every minute of it. And we believe he was, which made the audience love it even more. Sometimes, silence is golden.

Helen Mirren seemed almost as if she had never been on a talk show before when she joined David Letterman recently to promote her new book, In the Frame. She actually asked Dave which chair to sit in (he motioned to the one nearest him). She then shattered all illusions of the proper British lady when, upon sitting, she commented that this was the first time she had ever sat down in this dress and she admittedly was expecting to hear a big ripping sound from the ultra tight frock. Dave quickly parried with “that would be our good luck.”

They had a quite extensive discussion about her honorary title of Dame and everything that goes with it (literally and figuratively). The best part of this chat was Mirren describing going to Buckingham Palace with her husband in his ill-fitting morning suit and top hat in a filthy cab (most honorees take a private car) that smelled like a pub and cigarettes.

Dave then held up her book and several photos from the book. The book is more photos than text because Mirren always goes to the photos first when SHE reads a book. Of course there were the requisite risqué pix, which tickled Dave and Mirren seemed to relish.

While there was nothing exceptional about her visit, Mirren was lovely and jaunty, and tight dress notwithstanding, still a charming interview.

Courtney Cox and Ellen DeGeneres are clearly friends. And there lies the blessing and the curse in a talk show appearance. We know they are friends, because not only did Ellen mention it several times, but she opened the interview asking Cox when she was last over to the house. They then proceeded to discuss the visit to Ellen’s “amazing” house for an evening of Pictionary, how well they (Cox and husband David Arquette) played the game, and how much fun they all had! Too close and too cute for the average host, but Ellen does have a way of keeping it from getting sickening sweet.

The problem with this level of familiarity is that Cox, a seasoned veteran of the talk show circuit, lost control of why she came in the show in the first place to promote her FX series Dirt and a cosmetic line.

Ellen relentlessly stayed on the personal track when she brought up Cox’s daughter, Coco and asked if Cox wanted to have more kids, to which she replied, “Now?” Ellen, clarifying that she didn’t mean with her, but with someone else. Cox politely attempted to answer and move on, but Ellen kept pushing, saying “you could adopt, you could use a surrogate, you could have another baby…” Cox said “maybe we’ll talk about it some other time… I don’t know.” Ellen replied “no, let’s talk about it now.” Ellen finally got off the issue by suggesting that Cox adopt her and give her an allowance.

Ellen then cornered Cox with the dreaded Friends reunion question. Cox bobbed and weaved, berating Ellen, a bit, saying they never talk about THIS stuff at home. Ellen chose to hide behind her roll as host of a show where the viewers demand her to ask such questions. Cox deftly put it to bed saying, “has that Sex and the City movie come out yet? Let’s see how that does.”

They then segued into a previously ignored reason for her booking, the discussion of a cosmetic line Cox represents, Kinarese. Ellen proceeded to eat it – yes eat it — much to the delight of the audience. When Ellen offered Cox a crackerful, Cox wiggled her way out, replying “I ate so much of it before I came out!”

Overall, Cox did a good job trying to maintain her composure, managing to remain natural and unaffected even as Ellen felt the need to show her familial ties to her “friend” and smother the plugs.

It was a squealing fawn fest as Barack sat with the ladies on a recent edition of The View. Although it does bring to mind whether he is running for the President of the United States or Prom King. As usual, he handled himself beautifully, an almost perfect mix of humor and import, physicality and distance. Not only did he charm the panel with that natural charisma, but he took everything they threw at him in stride, including a lengthy barrage of questions about the controversial Reverend Wright, in which he remained calm, collected and thoughtful.

At one point, Joy Behar asked him about being related to Brad Pitt and amid the hoots and hollers, he commented that “Pitt got the better looking side of the gene pool.” To which Barbara Walters said “we think you’re very sexy.” Obama coolly feigned embarrassment, fanning his face with his hand. Oh, please!

Even right wing panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck found herself praising Obama’s 2004 DNC speech and gushing about how it inspired her, to which he said, “That was a pretty good speech.” Proving yet again, he’s got the aw shucks, self-deprecating thing down to a science at this point. Behar later asked if he’s tough enough to survive the republican “swiftboat” attacks that would certainly come out in the general election. To which Obama replied, “You know, I’m a pretty tough… I’m skinny, but I’m tough.”

At the end of the day though it was a “safe” appearance, at time echoing the now classic SNL parodies of press softball questions. There was not a lot of new information here, but Obama is so adept and comfortable with his smooth demeanor, that he makes it all look so easy.

When Demi Moore strode onto the Letterman stage in a very flattering bright red dress, she was every bit the consummate actress and star (even perfectly raising her foot when Letterman hugged her). Through the course of the interview, she was flirty and fun and filled with just the right kind of racy stories for late night TV. And other than her annoying nervous habit of keeping her hands clasped together almost the entire time, which transmitted a palpable tension, she was a great interview for a fawning Dave.

Letterman showed pictures of her with her three daughters in Bazaar magazine and when he asked how she keeps them on the straight and narrow, she said “I beat them with a belt…” PAUSE…then she cracked up laughing.

She then spent a good deal of time discussing her recent trip to Austria for leech therapy, “but with highly trained medical leeches!” She got very graphic when describing the first leech crawling in her bellybutton and biting down. “You bastard!” she said. She also informed everyone that the leeches don’t like hair, so a “proper Brazilian” was necessary. Dave and the audience broke up. She mentioned that she even brought photos, which were deemed too explicit for even late night, much to Dave and Paul’s disappointment.

Moore then talked about her new film with Michael Caine, Flawless and discussed their first film together, Blame It On Rio, some twenty years ago. Moore confessed that she was certain such a comedy could never be made today as Caine, her father in the film, has an affair with her 17-year old best friend.

Moore handled herself with poise and playful charm…now if she could just pry open those hands and let us all relax she’ll get a 5 Whisper score next time.

Thandie Newton is tiny. You may not think so, when she’s paired with vertically challenged leading men like Tom Cruise, but she is a mere slip of a thing, which became apparent when she walked onto the set of The Late Late Show. Yet diminutive as she is, she was almost big enough to stand up to the comic onslaught that is Craig Ferguson. You have to throw out some of the usual talk show rules when dealing with Craig, whose inventive mind and natural-amphetamine bloodstream keep quips flying at supersonic speeds. Perhaps that’s why the producers chose to show her clip from Run Fatboy Run before Thandie came out: any clip would have fallen flat had it been shown after the whirlwind Craig put Newton through.

Considering what she was up against, Thandie played this situation beautifully. Rather than coming on as a performer, she showed up as the witty and accommodating guest – sophisticated, but unafraid of dropping the occasional rude bomb about plastic surgery. Although she was hardly shy and certainly vocal, she wisely refused to play competitively with Craig. Instead she raised the game of reacting to an art form, amplifying the impact of her host’s humor and winning the admiration of the audience at the same time. She treated Craig like one would handle a rambunctious and outrageous friend, both calling him on his naughtiness and surrendering to the fun of it. When he launched a running gag on Tom Cruise’s height, she gently slapped him down while still going with the laughs. A splendid balancing act that demonstrated some of the ruling principles of guest-dom: research your host well, but remain flexible so you can steer with the prevailing winds. Remember that there is more than one way to make a good impression.

Ray Romano is so Ray Romano. Self-deprecating, slightly uncomfortable and but always funny. When Craig said he looked good, Romano said that if looking good meant being unemployed and depressed, then that’s him.
He joked about doing non-gay Pilates with a male friend and knowing he needs to get back to work because he recently found himself crying while watching “Deal or No Deal.”

Ostensibly booked on the show to talk about the small release of his latest film “The Grand,” the conversation quickly migrated to a subject, and obvious better talk show fodder, the Internet. He talked about not liking the web much because he always finds something about himself he doesn’t like…such as “Ray Romano sucks.” His well-honed physical comedy timing was evident as he used his water glass to punctuate several humorous moments while talking about a visit to a website, the name of which he almost couldn’t say on air. After warning Craig and the audience that he was going to say a bad word, he said it, got embarrassed, covered his mouth and then drank some more water. He went on to explain that the site compares three celebrities and lets people decide if they want to #@$% them, marry them or kill them. It turns out that six out of ten people want to kill him. He deftly wrapped the bit up by finding the positive side of coming in second, as he saw it, saying “if you’re not going to #@$% me, then just kill me.”

Ray Romano was a good talk show guest. He kept Craig Ferguson on his toes and he kept the audience laughing throughout.