Three, three, three plugs in one. That’s what actor Jeremy Piven offered on a recent edition of Dave Letterman’s show. Dressed in a pin-stripped suit with a too-tight jacket, too-long tie and sporting a five-o’clock shadow, Piven carries a humbleness that belies a layer of cockiness. When asked about winning three Emmys in a row, Piven said “I need more, Dave,” but you got the sneaking suspicion that he really meant it.

I think he was there to promote his new film Rocknrolla, but he also discussed his current Broadway stint in Speed the Plow and, of course, we couldn’t forget his TV show Entourage. Wow!

Piven was enjoyable, although sometimes it felt like he wasn’t completely listening to Dave. At one point, Dave asked an admittedly confusing question and Piven answered with a semi non sequitur that was just about what he wanted to say seeming as if he was getting coaching from a certain VP candidate instead of his publicist?  Dave wrapped the exchange up saying “It’s interesting because I’m not sure I understood my question and clearly you didn’t understand my question…” “I didn’t either,” Piven replied and quickly and cleverly added, “I felt like Sarah Palin. I was confused and I played through.”  To which Dave said “nice job.” And it was a nice job. Not stellar, but nice.

These types of reviews are classically tough for The Guest Whisperer.  I struggle with the ability to separate the person from the performance.  Whatever I think of Sarah Silverman’s well-cultivated brand, this site is dedicated to their talk show performances and that is what we choose to review.

Today Sarah Silverman is in a class by herself – no one can touch her blend of part cute, part smart, part over the top comedy, and firecracker delivery.  For some the over the top part can be hard to take, but she is unquestionably a breakthrough personality.  Sarah Silverman brought it all to Dave Letterman’s show booked to promote the debut of the third season of The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central.

Upon arriving at the guest chair, Silverman stuck a Late Show T-shirt between and around her legs saying that her skirt was too short to sit in the chair. Perhaps she should have thought about that before she came out. If she did it strictly for the “bit,” it set the tone for a successful in-character performance.  Which is the only sticking point I have with the Silverman shtick.  You never really get a fix on the REAL Sarah Silverman; there is never a crack in the armor except for purely comic setup and release.  This can get a little tedious for the casual watcher, but she is in no way obligated to do more than entertain on a show like Letterman where sitting down is really a “stand-up.”

Silverman managed to avoid answering repeated and relentless questioning from Dave about the current state of her relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, even when Dave expressed his desire for them to be “happy together.” She can bob and weave with the best of them.  She did have a good rapport with Dave, even offering him suggestions on how to handle the upcoming appearance of (finally) John McCain. They did talk briefly about the return of her series. Though, she didn’t talk about her website and pro Obama movement, thegreatschlep.com., which in these final weeks of the campaign, I would have thought was one of the reasons for her visit. I guess her appearance was political enough and in the end her job was done.

Much less smug and much more humble than he used to be, Russell Crowe seems to have calmed down a bit these days. At least that’s the impression we got on his recent visit to Dave Letterman’s show. Crowe was down-to-earth while discussing his weight gain (“I was a big boy”) for his new film Body of Lies, his long-time relationship with Leo DiCaprio (their first film was 1993’s The Quick and the Dead) and his family, even quoting his young son in a discussion about cow poo versus horse poo. Just like a regular, doting dad!

Crowe came prepared with good stories from the set, from several sets actually and included the audience while he told them. He had fun with Dave and a prop he brought to illustrate a long-played practical joke on Leo (a small atomizer to simulate a sneeze) and even had Dave asking to have it done to him. “Oh yeah” was his response to the “mist.” And in a perfect example of knowing your host, he related his own experiences owning a rugby team to Dave’s owning a racing team – they both sign a lot of checks and get ignored.
My only criticism, and it’s a small one, is the extensive set-up he felt he needed to explain the clip. It wasn’t really necessary and I started to not only get confused, but also lose interest.  Otherwise he was low-key, funny and entertaining.

It seems family life has tamed the wild beast…at least on talk shows.

Kate Walsh is bright, bubbly and beautiful. We know the beauty part because David Letterman commented on it and her dress – a very tight, revealing little black number.
The bright you can sense from the way she speaks and carries herself – very poised - and the bubbly became evident during her many meandering stories…too bubbly and too meandering. Just a bit. She laughed a lot while telling those stories, which can be cute if done sparingly, but beware, too much can diminish your overall appearance.

Walsh did have some nice, clever moments, which made up for the giddiness – one political and one provocative. When discussing the fact that she was raised in Arizona, she added “I can see Mexico,” (a smart, current reference). And when Dave showed a few pictures of her, she commented about one in which she was wearing a very tight red-carpet dress, “it took a village to get me into that dress,” which set Dave up perfectly to respond “where do I sign up for that!” Always a good move to flirt with and make the host shine. They did briefly discuss her show Private Practice, but she also managed to plug a book she’s a part of (another sexy photo), Hollywood Pinups.
All in all, Walsh was entertaining and a good guest. I think if she reigns it is just a smidge, she could be a great one.

It’s often hard to walk out on stage when an interviewer has just taken a serious tone, as Julia Louis-Dreyfus was forced to do after David Letterman had just paid tribute to his friend Paul Newman. Louis-Dreyfus took the right tack by not trying to lighten up the moment immediately, but by adding her own comments and complimenting the organic nature of his Newman’s Own products. A nice tip of the hat to a great man and I’m sure Letterman appreciated it.  She was then able to segued into the now infamous non-appearance by John McCain on Dave’s show and his ultimate dissing of Dave by making it to a Katie Couric interview. She found that very rude.  So, in an effort to “show my support for you and sort of set the universe straight, I also scheduled an interview for exactly this time and I’m not showing up for it!”  Dave, afraid she was going to leave, asked her with whom. With perfect timing, she said “Katie Couric, of course.” They then cut to a shot of Couric sitting alone in the studio, waiting, staring at an empty chair. A nicely set up bit that obviously pleased Dave.

Most of the rest of the interview was an entertaining recount of her family vacation in Africa. “I’d like to go,” interjected Dave. “Would you? Well, listen to this,” she warned and proceeded to regale us with all the nightmares they encountered with lions, scorpions and baby black mambos.  Clearly Dave was souring to the whole adventure as the interview progressed.

They did finally get around to talking about her show, The New Adventures of Old Christine, which is in its fourth season. She wasn’t too happy with its season premiere being against Dancing with the Stars, but she said she wasn’t worried.  And she really shouldn’t be…she and Dave had a great time, laughed a lot, as did the audience.

Hayden Panettiere is the thinking man’s Paris Hilton…although Paris’ ensemble would have had more flair and color than Panettiere’s conservative, drab cowl neck sweater and tight-bunned hairstyle.

Panettiere’s first few minutes with Dave, smacked of Paris’ vapid, giggly persona, but then they started to get serious (deadly with Dave if you’re a hot young woman) and began talking about her summer trying to save whales in Japan.  They talked and talked and talked.  Not that her intentions weren’t good, but the stories about almost being hit by long poles and her vivid explanation of the bloody harpooning not to mention her feeling of imminent arrest, just didn’t play on Dave’s stage. Panettiere almost missed her objective of promoting the return of her series, Heroes, until Dave saved the day with a last minute exit plug.

Yes Hayden, we understand you aren’t just a kick ass cheerleader, you are a real, caring and intelligent person! Blah, Blah, Blah – next time save it for you Barbara Walters pre-Oscar special.  On second thought, have you considered blogging?

Shannen Doherty made quite the first impression on Dave Letterman recently…an impression that started before she had even entered the building. Prior to her actual appearance on the show, Dave and Paul watched video of Doherty exiting her car and crossing to sign autographs for fans. Cameras captured her every move, from her short, shiny dress glinting in the sun to her high heels with the red soles, as wolfishly commented on by Dave and Paul in the slow-mo replay. Unfortunately, first impressions don’t always lead to good second impressions or good interviews.  Doherty wasn’t as “put together” this night as is necessary for a successful appearance on the Late Show.  The look and prep that guests put into hair, make-up and fashion goes a long way on Dave’s turf.  Perhaps, a long day of promotion in New York may have taken its toll.

(Note to publicist: I know schedules are tight and big apple hotel rooms mid-week prices are high, but isn’t a good appearance on Letterman worth one more night in town? – she must at least be getting a decent per diem from the CW based on the money they’re saving on Tori!)

Dave and Doherty did chat about her new show, redux 90210, so she achieved that goal. However, while she did have a few funny stories and retorts (several revolving around shoes), overall she was trying too way hard to be provocative.  You got the feeling she had planned the “spontaneous” moments and even though Dave helped when he could, she couldn’t quite pull it off.  Maybe that’s why she hasn’t been on the show in 13 years.

Doherty needs to learn to lighten up, get a little more rest, and be herself. That would leave the right kind of lasting impression.

One of the Guest Whisperer guidelines for talk show appearances is to keep stories and pitches in the 30-to-60 second range.  This is partly because audiences are conditioned by the fast pace of shows to expect bite-sized nuggets.  Another reason is that short anecdotes keep the guest on track and moving forward.

Rules are made to be broken, of course and Luke Wilson has a Jimmy-Stewart-aw-shucks kind of persona that would feel straitjacketed in a rushed approach to guesting.  Yet I was still worried at first when he launched into a wandering story about shooting a movie at a girl’s college.  You could feel the natives in the bleachers getting restless.

But his laid back approach began paying off, though, as he pulled the audience into his ordinary-guy-in-a-star’s-world life with stories like the teamster driver who picked him up for an early morning shoot.  Wilson was dragging his feet, prompting the driver to admonish him with, “Look, I’ve driven Oliver Stone and Val Kilmer and I’m not in the mood for any of your B.S.!”  When he related how fans often accosted him with “Hey, you’re one of the Owens brothers, right?”, we know the universe is keeping his ego in check.

Promoting his new movie, Henry Poole Is Here, was a tough task, since it is a quirky little, low-key comedy-drama.  As Letterman noted: “A nice simple story – no explosions, no lasers, no Martians…”  At which point Wilson interrupted with “A lotta nudity, though!”  It broke Dave and the audience up, letting us know that the movie, like Luke Wilson, might have some surprises up its sleeve.

We have to hand it to James Franco – he did warn us right from the start.  He did his best to lower our expectations.  “I did one other talk show before this [that scintillating talkmeister] Tony Danza…I’m really nervous.”  But even that failed to prepare us for his scattered performance during an appearance to promote his new movie, Pineapple Express.

The ingredients were there.  He had a pocketful of great stories:

•    His grandmother named her dog Dave and decided to teach it Stupid Pet Tricks.
•    His parents hated the idea of him being an actor – now the whole family is in show business
•    In his struggling actor days, he worked at McDonalds and used to pick up girls by doing a fake Italian accents

All terrific stuff, but here was the BIG mistake: these stories were woefully under-rehearsed.  Even the best actors (and James Franco is a real pro) often fail to realize being a talk show guest is about performing.  It takes prep, people!  It’s hard work being naturally you, and just dredging up a few stories (however cute or funny) doesn’t cut it unless you rehearse.  And don’t depend on the show’s producers to get you up to speed – this is a task that should be tackled well in advance.

It’s all so hard on TGW because Franco is just so damn likeable!  He has the potential to be a great guest, once he focuses his anecdotes and gets some feedback (are you listening, managers, agents and publicists?) to help him gauge how his stories work.  We’ll certainly watch for him on his next outing.

In 1996, readers of FHM voted Gillian Anderson the “Sexiest Woman in the World.”  Over a decade later, now 40 years old and sporting an admitted baby bump, Anderson is still major sexy, and she scored big in her Late Show appearance by making David Letterman look sexy, as well!

Although she began her career as a young actress with a punk edge, Anderson has always walked the line between rebellious counterculture icon and respected mature professional.  That balance was evident when she walked onto the Late Show stage, dressed in sleek taupe and black, but with stray wisps of hair escaping her do, looking both elegant and mom-like.  Flirty and irreverent from the start, she asked Dave if he was sucking up to her.  He denied it but, glancing at her b-bump, replied “It looks to me…”  “…like someone else has sucked up to me!?” she finished.  The big laugh that got paved the way for the story of how she and Dave had made out the last time she was on the show.  (A clip provided proof.)   “You didn’t write, you didn’t call,” pouted Anderson, while Dave blushed and ate it all up.

Anderson connected to the show’s ongoing comic campaign coverage with a story about meeting Bill Clinton on the campaign trail.  When Dave turned the focus back to her motherhood, she still kept him tightly in the circle of attention by asking about his being a father.  And she always maintained the flattering flirtatious edge to the banter.  Referring to her ex-pat residence in London, she rued, “After you rejected me, I decided I was going to move…countries.”  By the time a clip from “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” was shown, all it needed to provide was a reminder of her chemistry with David Duchovny; she had already won us over as a star.

How does a deft display of talk showmanship like this pay off?   Anderson’s presence was so memorable that when Simon Pegg came on after her (it’s always good to have a comedian as a closer), he and Dave spent the first part of his appearance talking about…Gillian Anderson!