2008 Summer TCA

In the whimsical world of Pushing Daisies, it's nice to have a straight-talking detective like Emerson Cod to cut everyone down to size. Emerson's real-life alter ego, Chi McBride, was hanging out on the show's set when I visited back in July, and I stole a few minutes with him to talk about Emerson's dry humor and love for yarn crafts. Here are highlights:

Does Emerson's function on the show shift at all this year?
He's on a mission to find his daughter, but he's going to go about it in a very unconventional way. He's also a huge fan of pop-up books, and he wants to create a pop-up book that will lead a little girl who reads it to find her father. He feels sure that some little girl is out there wondering, "Where's my daddy?" And so he writes this book to try to see if he can get her to find him since he can't find her, so that's his mission this year. And in the meantime, if he happens to make a couple bucks, well, good! It's not just about getting stacks and stacks of money. I think that him being a provider, or not being able to be one, probably has a lot to do with why he's so obsessed with money. He just takes on a completely different tone once you start peeling those layers and finding out what he's really after.

Do you feel like it's a problem to have been off the air for so long?
I hope not, I really do. That's one thing I really wish people would wake up and understand, is that . . . audiences do not like to be played with. Sometimes I think we're in this business and we take it for granted —"Aw, everybody wants to go to the movies! What are you worried about?" Look, the audience does not like to be fooled around with! When baseball went on strike, it took years and a juiced ball and steroids to get everybody back. . . . Television's the same way. People take this stuff really seriously. They want to get home, they want to kick their shoes off, they want to watch their television shows. You start messing around with that, especially when you can make reality shows for nothing and get any schmo off the street to open his train wreck of a life, and people are saying "Hey, what's that?"

Lots more on Emerson's witty one-liners and that knitting, so just read more

Ugly Betty had barely finished its move to New York when the cast was called back to LA for this Summer's TCA press tour. Luckily, Michael Urie, who plays the delightful and scheming Marc, was able to make the trip. At an ABC party, I pulled him aside to get some quick insights into Betty's third season, which airs its second episode tonight. Here are highlights:

How do you get along so well with Becki Newton? Did you know each other before?
We'd never met before. We must have known each other in another life — we just connected immediately.

The No. 1 thing I always hear about the show is, "I want more Marc and Amanda." So, are we going to get more Marc and Amanda?
There's a lot of Marc and Amanda. I don't think they'll go an episode without us being together anymore. That was hard — we had to go like three or four apart, and it was not easy.

Other than Amanda, do you have a favorite character to play off?
Other than Wilhelmina and Amanda and Betty, I love working with Christina. That's a great dichotomy, too. You can't put two characters on that show together and something interesting doesn't happen.

For lots more from Urie, just read more

By far, my favorite moment of the TCA press tour this Summer was getting to wander around the set of Pushing Daisies, which returns tonight for its second season. As lovely and fanciful as the Daisies world looks on television, it's even more wonderful in person, filling up two full sound stages on the Warner Bros. lot. The entire set wasn't open, but I did get to slide into a Pie Hole booth, check out the aunts' stuffy living room, and see the confessional in the nunnery where Olive will be starting the new season. To hear what the insanely detailed rooms looked like up close, just read on:

The Pie Hole
It makes total sense that the Pie Hole set doesn't have a top; how else would they get the cameras in for those overhead shots? But it was still funny to see this huge, looming pie crust edge with nothing in the middle, like a Gorg had come along and scooped out a bite. Inside, it's a surprisingly roomy restaurant, with cushy booths, lights shaped like giant cherries, and a spacious kitchen with a walk-in fridge (no bodies this time; I checked).

In one corner, candy jars and waffle cones are piled high; in another, there's an antique mirror where diners can check their hair on the way out. If you want a slice of pie at the Pie Hole, it'll cost you $5.95, but there's a pretty wide range of choices (four berry, Dutch apple, strawberry rhubarb, lemon meringue, sweet potato, three plum, peach, and derby). And if for some reason pie's not your thing, their butter pecan ice cream is apparently also world-famous.

To read about Emerson's office, the nunnery, and the aunts' place, just read more

Private Practice had its ups and downs last year, but there was one consistent good thing about the show for me: Paul Adelstein as Oceanside Wellness's pediatrician and unlucky-in-love bachelor, Cooper. When I spotted Adelstein after the Private Practice session at the TCA press tour in July, I convinced him to stop for a quick chat. In person, he was quite charming (and even laughed off my good-natured ribbing about his bright-white sneakers), and he gave me some hints about what's coming up for Cooper, who's still involved with the uptight Charlotte (KaDee Strickland) when season two begins. Here are highlights from our chat:

I hear from a lot of people that Cooper is their favorite part of the show. Does that surprise you?
Yeah, that surprises me. I think that one of the things with Shonda [Rhimes]'s writing — being a longtime Grey's fan — is that people identify with different characters differently, and I think that everybody has a favorite Grey's character, and so on. But it's nice to hear! I'm a little surprised — I don't think I'm my favorite character.

What are some of the things you do like about Cooper?
As an actor, it's a great gift to have to show up to work as loose as possible because that's who your character is. It's a challenge as an actor to try to be really loose and present, and when the character is loose and present, it's easier to do that. It kind of demands that you come and have a good time, and so that's a nice way to go to work every day.

Is the whole idea that he is the comic relief? And does that come from you, or is it kind of built in there?
I really try not to think about it that way because you never want to be the schticky guy. But I think Cooper is a funny guy. I think he uses humor as a defense. You try not to think about how it's fitting into the show too much, 'cause I think you can drive yourself crazy and go down the wrong path, so I just try to do whatever he's doing and hope that it translates. You know, last year, I think that we were all struggling a little bit with the tone of the show because [Rhimes's] writing is so good, you can play things very differently. I think that we're better at figuring out where we all sit this year.

To hear about the real pediatricians he met while preparing to play Cooper and what might be coming down the pipeline romantically for his character, just read more

One week from today, we'll get to see what this updated 90210 is really all about. For some more hints, I spent some time at the TCA press tour chatting with star Shenae Grimes — who previously played Darcy Edwards on Degrassi: The Next Generation — about her role as Annie Wilson, the new girl in the hottest zip code around. Here are highlights:

Did you ever watch the original 90210?
Yeah, my mom raised me on that show. I watched it all my life.

So what did you think when you first heard there was going to be a new 90210?
I thought, awesome! Super excited to watch it. And then when they called me to audition on tape, I was like, ha! OK, whatever, if I can find the time — it doesn't matter if I put it down or not, cause no one's gonna see it, whatever. And I crammed to put it down one day, got a call the next day saying — I actually auditioned for Silver originally, and then I got a call the next day saying, "They want to try you out for Annie." I was like, what? Whoa, hold on, step back for a minute. Literally never thought I'd hear anything ever again. I didn't even think the tape would get watched. But things happened, and here I am, and it's the most surreal thing in the world for a kid from Canada.

You did several seasons on Degrassi. Being a kid from Canada, where Degrassi is a big deal, what was that like?
Degrassi's the be-all and end-all for Toronto's youth actors. There's not a lot of great material at home, and the stuff that there is, it's cute, but you're always playing 14-year-olds. No one has roles that are hearty and challenging for young actors there. So Degrassi was really it. I mean, that's the show that everybody's trying to get on. I finally did, and I had to work my way up the food chain, and it took me a few years to "prove myself" for my producers, but I finally did, and I felt like, seventh season, I had the best storylines in the world. It doesn't get much more challenging than that. I felt like it was time for me to, you know, step off a little bit and let some of the new kids come in, cause it's the pinnacle for young actors.

More from Grimes on Degrassi and 90210, so read more

One of the biggest reasons I'm excited for the new 90210 is the casting of Tristan Wilds. For two seasons on The Wire, Wilds played Michael, a tough and complex kid from the Baltimore streets. It was an incredibly nuanced performance from someone so young, one that had me hanging on his every word. When I heard someone that talented was making 90210 his new TV home as Dixon, the adopted son of Debbie and Harry Wilson (Lori Loughlin and Rob Estes), it made me take notice.

At the CW's party at the TCA press tour, I chatted with Wilds about making the transition from Baltimore to Beverly Hills. Here are highlights:

How did you find 90210 — or how did 90210 find you?
My manager called me and told me about 90210. I was a little skeptical about it, but I definitely wanted to show that I had a broader range than just Michael. Of course, when I went out for it, I found out that Dixon isn't really that much different than Michael. They both grew up with a really bad beginning — Dixon has been in and out of group homes his whole life, landed in Kansas, got into a little fight over something that got him in real trouble and that was going to send him to a juvenile detention center until the Wilsons came in and rescued him. They adopted him, so they saved him in a place where Michael really needed to be saved.

When you told your friends from The Wire that you were going to be on 90210, what did they say?
Actually, all they were saying was, "Really, you're on 90210? Wow!" They were all giving me accolades and all that. It was great.

What's it like going from a show like The Wire, which had a lot of acclaim but maybe not the viewers, to something like 90210 that has so much buzz?
It has so much buzz, and the way that we're shooting it — it's going to be edgy, it's going to be a little bit racy, but it's going to show the real lives of teenagers. Every character is a different aspect of teenagers' lives. I think that every teenager will be able to identify themselves with at least one character on the show.

To learn whether Wilds watched the original 90210 and what his experience was like on The Wire, read more

Gearing up to promote her newest season of Lipstick Jungle, mama Brooke Shields still finds time to skip and cuddle with her two favorite girls — daughters Rowan and Grier. Life imitating art or vice versa.

When Pop saw the fab mom at the TCAs, she asked her what her perfect day off would be like. Her answer:

You'd just be with them. I like the morning to start late which never happens with babies. So, they come into my bed and that’s a good start. We just dance and play and then, you know, walk in parks, eating, shopping — just listening to them. Literally, it’s just about babies.

Seems like the triple threat Henchy girls shared a "perfect" day together as they took on Manhattan in their summery blue and white stripes and golden clogs. Brooke appears to be taking notes from a much younger fashionista. Suri, are you already a stylist for some of Hollywood's hottest?

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