February 2008 - Posts
(From TODAY's Jenna Wolfe)
When I was 7, my parents took me
to see "Annie" on Broadway. Two things I'll never forget about that day: 1.) the
red curly wig in the gift shop afterwards I had to have, and 2.) the moment
right after the show ended. (Don't get me wrong ... the show was fantastic,
although Carol Burnett’s Ms. Hannigan gave me nightmares for like a week), but
the aftershow was what intrigued me. When the curtains closed, I remember
feeling an overwhelming sense of curiosity about the actors: What were they
doing behind the curtains? Were they all friends? Were they having fun? If I
could just get a little peak behind those scenes....
Well, I folded up my
inquisitiveness, tucked it way back in the cerebrum and went about the endless
task of growing up.
Fast-forward 20-plus years and
here I am working at the TODAY Show, when one day my producer, Josh, comes to me
with this idea of going behind the scenes of Cirque Du Soleil’s Mystere show
in Las Vegas.
Read the full story in Jenna's reporter's notebook.
UPDATE: Due to popular demand, we've added a few more pics of Giada's shower...
With just a little over a month to go before her due date, Caryln Chinn and TODAY threw a baby shower for our own Giada De Laurentiis. Producer Jennie Thompson shares her photos of the event...
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It's rare that a two-on-two basketball game breaks out in the middle of TODAY, but that's what happened this morning when Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson, the stars of the new movie Semi-Pro, took on Meredith Vieira and New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson.
NBA referee Bennett Salvatore tried to keep things clean, and Bob Costas of NBC and HBO Sports returned to his ABA roots to call the action.
The game was an ugly affair, as the players threw elbows, talked trash and got in each other's faces (with few made baskets). It may have set basketball back decades, but at least the TODAY team won. WATCH VIDEO
After the game, I tracked down Meredith in the locker room to discuss her team's win (after the jump):
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Our series, TV's Greatest Casts Reunited, continued today with the cast of "One Day at a Time."
Bonnie Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips, Valerie Bertinelli and Pat Harrington joined Matt for a few minutes (and check out the video to see which special guest crashed the party). WATCH VIDEO
Before the segment, I sat down with Pat Harrington -- who was the iconic 1970s character Dwayne Schneider -- for a few minutes to talk about his life in show business.
Here's our conversation:
DF: Why do you think the character Schneider resonated so much with people?
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We began our week of reconnecting with TV favorites by welcoming the cast of "Happy Days" back for a little reunion.
Henry Winkler (Fonzie) and Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) were in Los Angeles, while Tom Bosley (Howard Cunningham), Marion Ross (Marion Cunningham), Anson Williams (Potsie Webber), Don Most (Ralph Malph) and Erin Moran (Joanie Cunningham) joined Matt in the studio. WATCH VIDEO
Before the segment, I had a chance to sit down with Anson and Don -- Richie's old sidekicks -- to talk about their characters and what life was like for young guys on a hit television show.
(Full disclosure: as a kid, I had Fonzie-themed sheets -- though they originally belonged to my brother Jeff).
Here's our conversation (after the jump):
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Remember "Knight Rider," the classic 1980s show starring David Hasselhoff (as Michael Knight) and the talking car KITT?
Well, it's back in an updated fashion in a new movie, Knight Rider, which premieres Sunday, February 17, on NBC at 9/8c.
The new Knight Rider star, Justin Bruening, stopped by for a quick chat with Matt, Natalie, Al and Hoda this morning. WATCH VIDEO
Before he appeared on the show, Justin and I discussed how his life changed at a McDonald's, what to do when you're bored in Nebraska, and who's cooler: Hugh Hefner or David Hasselhoff.
Here's our conversation (after the jump):
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Yesterday at around 3:50 p.m., my friend Freddie Ballgame called me to say that he had an extra ticket to a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
I've been a big Conan fan since he first started doing the show in 1993, and although I've worked at NBC for almost seven years, I had never actually been to a taping.
So I met up with Freddie, his sister and our friend Keefe, not knowing who the guests on the show were going to be. While sitting in the audience, we thought maybe Conan would have a movie star (since the writers' strike is over) or a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model or something.
Instead it was...Matt Lauer. WATCH VIDEO and WATCH VIDEO
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From Ann Curry, TODAY anchor
Rape and sexual violence against children and women are spreading in conflict zones in Africa like an epidemic, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Tuesday. Ann Curry reports from the Congo. Tune in to Thursday's TODAY for more of Ann's reports.
She was stunningly beautiful, this 18-year-old girl lying on the operating table.
We knew she had been brutally raped. Only today did we find out even that was not the worst of it. She had just turned 17 when the soldiers attacked, killing her mother and father as she watched.
Even now, two years later, she says, "It was not possible for me to mourn my parents because I myself was almost dead."
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They're calling him the "Regal Beagle"...say hello to Uno, this year's Best in Show selection at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
He stopped by our studio this morning to discuss his victory, though after a long night of celebrating, all he could manage was a series of unintelligible barks.
Fortunately, Uno's handler, Aaron Wilkerson, as well as USA Network commentator David Frei, were also here to discuss Uno's win and what's next for this historic hound. WATCH VIDEO
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Remember this guy? It's American swimmer Michael Phelps, who became the first swimmer ever to win eight medals at a single Olympic Games four years ago in Athens.
He won six golds and two bronzes, and since then, almost impossibly, he has gotten even better.
At last year's World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, he won seven gold medals, matching Mark Spitz's legendary performance from the 1972 Munich Olympics. Improving on that output is in Phelps's sights six months from now at the 2008 Beijing Games.
This morning, he appeared on TODAY with teammates Dara Torres, Ryan Lochte, Kate Ziegler, Katie Hoff, Amanda Beard and Natalie Coughlin. WATCH VIDEO
A few minutes before they all sat down with Matt Lauer, Michael chatted with me. Here's our conversation (after the jump):
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Valentine's Day is just two days away, and you can give your sweetheart a special shout-out on TODAY. If you want a member of the TODAY family to send Valentine's Day wishes to your special someone on the air, use your cell phone to text "love" to 622639.
We'll select a message from one lucky viewer for this, just as we did for Mother's Day and Father's Day last year. So send those texts!
From Sigi DeVos, TODAY producer
When you're born into a life of royal privilege, you'd think life could only be peachy. It is in some respects, but in many ways a 21st century prince or princess is looking at doing some unexpected hard work, as we found out when we spent some time on a TODAY shoot with some of the young royals form monarchies in different parts of the world.
These days, if you're born into a constitutional monarchy there are any amount of official duties as well as charitable engagements - and you're looking at taking up a personal challenge, be that as a UN ambassador like the crown prince of Norway, as a trade representative like Britain’s Prince Andrew or helping to drag your country from the abyss of an AIDS epidemic like Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.
I had a little peek at the working lives of those royals when we were shooting profiles of Prince Andrew (video), Prince Haakon and Prince Seeiso (video) for TODAY. For some of the more memorable moments behind the scenes, there's little to beat the adrenaline rush of keeping up with the royal convoy during Prince Andrew's visit as Britain's trade and business envoy to Cairo earlier this year. Stuck in a British embassy vehicle, lurching through the Cairo traffic jams at an impossible speed with the help of an impenetrable code of honking horns made me think where in my study at home I had filed the life insurance papers. Lane markings might as well not exist, ditto for traffic lights, and pedestrian crossings are for sissies, as the population of Cairo takes its life in its hands everyday to get to work.
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Here's a funny coincidence from today's show.
We covered the latest divorce proceedings between Paul McCartney and his estranged wife, Heather Mills (and in a bizarre twist, Mills, who is representing herself, could end up cross-examining McCartney). WATCH VIDEO
Later in the morning, we also covered a little-known social disorder called selective mutism, which I wrote about earlier.
Here's the coincidence: even though few people have heard of selective mutism, you get the sense that McCartney not only has heard of it but has actually written a song about it.
Check out the lyrics to "She's Given Up Talking" from his 2001 album Driving Rain: (after the jump)
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This morning, Amy Robach of Weekend TODAY brought us the story of Jacob Hanna, a 7-year-old who suffers from a disorder known as selective mutism.
Basically, Jacob is a regular, chatty kid at home, but in public settings, including at school, he is too anxious to speak. WATCH VIDEO
For example, his teachers have never heard him speak. Doctors say selective mutism is usually a social disorder that occurs in about one percent of children.
It's certainly an interesting story and a disorder that not many of us here had previously heard of. If you'd like to read more about Jacob, check out the feature on him in People.
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Meredith pays up on her Super Bowl bet with Matt...
Today was a busy first full day for our crew out here in Phoenix, but TODAY correspondent Tiki Barber and I found a few minutes to talk about his retirement, his relationship with Giants fans, and whether his former team would have made it to the Super Bowl if he had played this year.
You can read our Q&A HERE.
And there's more Tiki this weekend...you can catch him on Weekend TODAY and MSNBC on both Saturday and Sunday, and he'll be back on TODAY on Monday morning to recap Super Bowl XLII.
A note on the Super Bowl bet between Matt and Meredith. I was traveling during the show on Thursday, so I don't know the complete context of how the bet came about. But Matt needs a refresher course in odds.
Depending on whom you ask, the Patriots are favored by somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 points or so. So Matt should have gotten something additional out of Meredith.
If the Giants win, she should have to have a plane fly over New York with "Giants rule, Meredith drools," plus some additional embarrassment to mitigate the overwhelming likelihood that the Patriots are going to win on Sunday.
(some ideas after the jump)
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I'm out in Phoenix this weekend for the Super Bowl (Tiki Barber is reporting for us), and my first "celebrity" sighting actually occurred on the flight out here on Thursday. Sitting a row behind me was Andy Rooney of "60 Minutes" fame.
When we arrived in Phoenix, I decided to say hello to Mr. Rooney and confess to him that when I had a column in my high school newspaper, I had taken the title of one of his books, Pieces of My Mind, as the title of my column.
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