IN THE PALM OF SPRING

Palm Springs is so beautiful.
Have been here since Friday May 22. It hasn't broken 100 Degrees...Yet!!
Spent time with friends on Memorial Day and had the obligatory BBQ. I cooked on the gas grill and the Margaritas were also my task. All eats and drinks were super!
Saw lots of pals who I haven't seen for a long time.
The homes here are to die for. It is such a pleasant and comfortable place.
The Casinos are always a destination and sometimes you can win a nice little amount. I was lucky and did just that. Never enough of course!!
A friend is helping designer Mark Nichols "stage" a house for HGTV and we went over to see the layout since we contributed the leftover Red, White and Blue Memorial Day cupcakes...for Color !
Nearby was the house where Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their Honeymoon.
We had breakfast with the unbelievably warm and generous and ultra talented Kaye Ballard. And we also spent time with her cousin the incredibly talented ceramic artist Paul Bellardo who I knew from my early New York years. He had a wonderful shop on Christopher Street for many years. Paul is now 85 and has become a prolific painter as well. He has a lovely home in Rancho Mirage and it is full of his glorious works.
We have also been looking at property as one friend is looking to retire here. It is a good time for a bargain in buying a home.
But some of the houses are so over the top. Some have huge and spacious rooms but with some garish or odd colors and rather strange internal wall angles as well.
It is an interesting place and full of wonderful restaurants and shops. Along with those haunts are cultural aspects like the Desert Museum which is beautiful.
Hope you are all enjoying the Pre-Summer I know I am or will until I come back to the Big Apple which will no doubt be more humid than not! New York has great thins for Summer fun and I intend to enjoy them all.
Hope you do too.

XXX
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STEP UP

I had the terrific experience of working on a film yesterday. The title is
STEP UP 3-D.
A terrific Asian Director named John Chu headed an atmosphere of professional fun and creative discovery. That is IF he leaves in all the stuff I did in the Diner scene. =0-)
The cast that day included the handsome leading man Rick Malambri as Luke and the quirky, funny and talented Adam Sevani as his side kick Moose. I played an irate customer in the Diner and we did a lot of Ado-Lib stuff. SOme of it was not useable due to infringement. I couldn't use FOOTLOOSE as a reference in a tyrade..John said that would cost them $20,000!! Wow who knew! It was funny however...Damn.
It was a long day but due to the temperament and light attitudes on the set it went very quickly. Alot of the pace of the day was set by a stellar crew including the make up and wardrobe and hiar as well. The lighting was amazing. The Cameras were diffrent from those I had seen or worked with before. Well it is 3-D!
I had to find not only Williamsburg, Brooklyn but the Relish Diner on N4th and Wythe
Street. I was up before 5 AM and on the L train by 6:15..I was in Brooklyn on the set site by 6:30. Wow who knew!?
I was home by about 8:30 and felt exhilerated and exhausted.
On Monday night about 12 of us attended Jon Peterson's show at the Triad on 72nd St.
SONG AND DANCE MAN was a hit and so much fun. His last show was tonight and I hope it was another smashing success.
On Sunday four of us went north to Chester Connecticut to see LUCKY GUY. A wonderful Country Western spoof written and conceived by veteran performer Willard Beckham. It included Tony Winner Gary Beach and EVITA tour and Broadway Vet Stacia Fernandez.
Stacia and I did teh 1993 EVITA tour and Gary & Willard and I worked on Broadway in SOMETHING'S AFOOT!! Small world!!
It was so much good fun and major frolic! It was well paced and directed, as well as choreographed by Warren Carlyle.
The audience jumped to its feet with hoots and hollers.
We were the guests of L. Glenn Poppleton and Jeffrey Finn and they were so generous to share this with us.
I hope it has NY life and we all get to see it again.
Meantime...I look forward to summer..It looks like I may go to Maine for a summer job lasting until mid August. If negotiations improve it would be lovely to spend some time in a state I have never seen!
I hear it is beautiful and a popular resort town, Ogunquit.
So if I get there and you travel up north.....hope to see you.

XXX
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OUT AND ABOUT

Have been bouncing about and indulging lately.
Friends from out of town and friends doing shows and acts in town.
We loved pal Jon Peterson's SONG & DANCE MAN at TRIAD . He is appearing Monday the 18th t 9PM and again on Wednesday May 20th at 7PM 158 W 72nd. Go see this wonderful show.
Colleague April Nixon, an astonding performer and great girl, is performing late on Monday the 18th at Splash on 17th St. FREE before 10Pm and $5 after 11PM! She is worth the trip to Chelsea.
Reconnected with friend from San Francisco and his husband. They married under the California new law and are legal. I hope New York FINALLY grows up and stops being a victim of the provincial Puritanism that has nothing to do with, what I feel, is the absolute disregard for Human Rights. These are NOT Special Rights. I LOVE how the Republicans Radical Right has stamped that phrase on anything THEY want to vilify and marginalize. I don't want to go beyond that as I think the whole country has been dumbed down and dis-educated when it comes to human rights and human cohabitation and human understandings in general.
The Gay Marriage bill is active in Albany and they are debating it as I write.
Anyway..I am all for it and I think any couple who have been sharing their lives for many years have every right to be accepted into a "legalized" union. The horror stories of gay couples losing their loved one and the loved one's family TAKING..ok let's go there..STEALING..what should be lawfully sanctified.
We also have been enjoying the wonderful SAG Screenings at the Director's Guild on 57th.
We saw EASY VIRTUE last night and it is SUPERB! When it is released I highly recommend this witty,humorous,stylish and flawlessly acted film. Based on a lesser known Noel Coward play and adapted beautifully and filmed gloriously.
Kristin Scott Thomas is unbelievable and sturdy as the Matriarch of a disintegrating High born English family whose fortune is dwindling. Jennifer Biel and Colin Firth are in great form as well. I have said too much and you will think I am pushy. Well I AM! Go see it!!
We are seeing the presentation of the musical adaptation of SHIP OF FOOLS. I guess it is a backer's audition.
Pal Sean McDermott is singing and Linda Balgord, Mark Jacoby and Karen Akers are assuming the roles that were so wonderfully portrayed by Geroge Segal, Vivien Leigh, Oskar Werner, and Simone Signore in the 60's film. I am so curious to hear and see what they do with the piece.
The awful rain has finally ceased and we are in a wonderful cool Spring at last.
During the rainy deluge I shot a short film called P.I. over a week ago and the post production is going on now.
We set up a temp site for P.I. , you can check out a few stills: http://fwdlabs.com/film/pi/
I did LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON last Thursday May 7th. It was so much fun.
Here's the story;
I came back from a film audition that was downtown on Spring & 6th Ave. It was a beautiful day and I decided to walk north through the Village, take pictures and spend a quiet afternoon after going to the gym.
I got home by 1:30 and was at the computer when I got a call from my agent;

"I don't know if you are interested in this but..."
Seems they needed someone to play an Italian Chef in a skit on JIMMY FALLON complete with accent.
It was almost 2PM..they needed me at 30 Rockefeller Center by 2:30!!
I got there in time.
As I signed in at the Visitor's desk and I bumped into a girl I had done CABARET with..small world..Then after getting into my Chef's coat, hat, striped pants and red bandanna ..a Wardrobe fellow started to adjust my bandanna. As I looked at him I said.."What is your name..?"
"Michael.." I told him my name and he said "Oh my God we worked together on..."
He rattled off a Broadway show and a TV show I had done. So the small world became tiny!! =0-)
In the "STAR TREK " Beam Us Up skit..I was 3rd character to be "Beamed" into the studio. The fourth was a GOAT. We rehearsed without Fallon and then with Fallon and then shot the piece at 5:30.
In BOTH the rehearsals the Goat POOPED Prolifically all over the set. And poor Fallon almost got a face full as the Goat occupied the seat near the desk,
I never experienced Goat Poop and was glad to see it was pellets which were easily cleaned up by its trainers.
I leaned over to one of the writers and said
"I hope one of your sponsors is a Laxative !"
Luckily the Goat wasn't sharing his excrement when we actually taped the show..although Fallon was a bit edgy when the Goat was back up on the guest seat next to his desk. Who could blame him. He handled it all very well. He is a very funny guy and easy to work with.
Martha Stewart was also on the show and she brought her 2 dogs.Frannie and Sharky I think were their names. Cute little bulldogs, French I think. They were more interested in the goat than any of us. However, they were gracious enough to pose for many pictures.
Martha Stewart was very nice and personable and fun. She came equipped with may "Designer Collars" and outfits for the animals which were to be featured on the show.
She collared the dogs in BLING an it was very funny.
I left after my bit was over and all the feedback I got from the writers and Stage Managers was very good.
I watched the show that night and the whole skit was very funny and well done by all. A highlight on that broadcast.
I thought how great to go to Gorgeous Radio City and walk through those amazing halls and have a job in those historical Studios.
All I could think as I ascended the escalator was; "SID CAESAR".."JACKIE GLEASON" all were here and made history!!
It was a wonderful spur of the moment thing and I had a great time.
I got some wonderful emails form friends and family who saw it.
So it was more than worth it.
I hit the Brookstone store on the Rockefeller Plaza Promenade yesterday and bought a second "desk fan." It is a very good little fan that has power and is QUIET! I have one and needed one to circulate the air in the kitchen which has no vent when cooking.
If you need a small efficient fan go see this one.
Anyway..It is a gorgeous day and I must go to the gym and sweat some.
Hope you all are enjoying this Spring at last!
xxx
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ANIMAL QUACKERS & TURTLE SOUP

A WALK IN THE PARK

Friday I had the fun of shooting a short film in Central Park. That was a first for me. It was shot in the passageway near Bethesda Fountain. I hadn't been in the Park since Easter Sunday. It was an odd day for the weather kept fluctuating from very cloudy to sort of sunny to cloudy and then after 5 PM it downpoured. But by then I was already at my neighborhood Starbucks watching the torrential flow.
That passageway is a world all its own. Street performers have divided up the time in there and we were privileged to hear an overly enthusiastic Sax player wailing to break the sound barrier..which in that acoustically reverberant place was a possibility...and then a wonderful Bass Cellist whose music was absolutely enthralling and beautiful. Needless to say the passing crowds dropped him a few dollars as they wafted by in that romantic arcade. The Sax player was too loud and although good didn't really invite that sort of generosity.
The general idea that LOUD NOISY HARD EDGED Music is ubiquitous in restaurants and public places is a thorn in my EAR! Try to have a meal and you have agita before you can swallow in such a percussive atmosphere. They have abolished smoking in restaurants-- can we now please have a city ordinance about noise..even melodic noise in eating establishments?
Sometimes it is like sitting at a dinner table next to one of those BLARING CAR Audio Systems that are so desperately making their aggressive presence an intrusion on public venues.
We have many terrific eating places in Chelsea. Most have undergone extensive renovations to bring them into the 21st Century. One that is lovely is Intermezzo..But the music is so loud that a week or so ago, we sat down opened a menu, looked at each other, tried to say something and couldn't hear even when we shouted. We got up and left and went to a Diner.
Amazingly the place was packed.
It seems that the only way to enjoy a meal and the company of those you re with is to PAY HIGHLY for it at more sophisticated venues like the undeniably classy and superb Del Posto on 10th Avenue. But one has to save up to go there. But the experience, the decor, the service and the food , let alone the pianist are all what NY should be about ,,All About when dining out with friends.
I got off mark..or off Park.
I am always amazed at Central Park and how breathtakingly beautiful it is, especially this time of year when it is still seasonably fresh.
To think it is ALL planned and that the desingers are long gone and never saw it in actuality, but dreamed it as we live it.
Think of it we New Yorkers can walk through a dream any day we wish to.
The boats were out in force and sliding across the lake. Many Ducks were in attendance and of allthings, turtles. Small guys about a foot long. They were nibbling some food a lady was feeding the Ducks at the mouth of the lake near the Bethesda Fountain.
Many dogs were being walked and groups of tourists and schools were being lectured and photographed by tour guides.
newlyweds were also being photographed. I was asked to take a picture of a couple that were from Ecuador.
The Hansom cabs and the Pedicars were tooling about as well.
We shot the film from 11AM till about 4PM and I enjoyed doing it. It was also curious to see people's reaction as they passed us. Some even took photos of us as well.
I have yet to bicycle through the Park as I have in many years past. But if weather permits I may give it a go this weekend.
So if you are adventuresome and take a stroll through the park I may be gliding by on my Trek.
Hope you are all enjoying the comfortable temperatures and are taking advantage of the great places and things NY has to offer. Just don't Bust an eardrum indoing it.

XXX
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