Daily News
This section should just be called “name-dropping”. I wrote film and music reviews for my university paper and had done some amateurish work for a friend’s blog. That led to a stint moonlighting as a freelance reporter for the New York Daily News. I covered entertainment for a columnist who was stretched too thin. That meant going out to film premieres and parties in the evening and filing my background coverage and interviews by the next morning. Then she’d take my reporting and write up some of the items you see below. It was a pretty wild experience. To this day, I still have some fond memories. Like Susan Sarandon shouting at me and storming off after a personal question. Or a failed interview with Woody Harrelson, paralytically stoned and answering every question with one word.
John Cleese
The Python’s were always childhood heroes of mine. John Cleese may have felt guilty that my hands were ice cold after hovering around the red carpet, because he was surprisingly open about his grown-up divorce. After talking money problems, Cleese landed a couple of ad campaigns. I’m glad I could play my part in keeping him out of squalor.
Marcia Gay Harden
I was a little nervous waiting to interview Clint Eastwood at his Museum of the Moving Image tribute. Then Marcia Gay Harden explained what happened the first time she met the legend, and I felt a lot better.
Kevin Spacey
I interviewed Kevin Spacey before the allegations against him came to light. These days I mostly think about how I saw him at a restaurant a couple months later. I was convinced he’d be offended if I didn’t go over and say hello. Ah, the delusional confidence of a 25 year-old.
Mad Men Cast
Being a copywriter, my first assignment was covering a party with the cast of Mad Men to celebrate the release of a Mad Men edition suit. (Go ahead and roll your eyes.) I found myself milling around with cast in between games of pool. Scotch seemed like an appropriate drink at the time. Transcribing my interviews the next morning, less so.
