"Fruitvale Station" Brings Tragedy to the Big Screen

Ready for a "Twilight" Spin-Off? Here's How the Stars Say The Series Could Go On

Trashing "Lincoln" on NBC. Hey, Somebody Had to Do It.

Behind the Scenes of Private Chefs of Beverly Hills: The Great Artichoke Heart War of 2010

Anyone who watches Private Chefs of Beverly Hills or reads our press knows that Chef Brian is my favorite; I call us "Team Awesome" and consider him my brother-from-another-mother.

But on tonight's episode, when we're tasked with catering a party for Alison Sweeney of Biggest Loser and Days of Our Lives fame, that love evaporated when The Great Artichoke Heart War of 2010 erupted.

Even though there was a moment when I honestly thought it might be the end of Team Awesome, Goonies never say die and we're better than ever now. Within hours, we were back to playing kissy-face, giving each other high fives and chest bumps.

Here's the recipe that got our battle started, one I'd still go to war for, it's that good...


Mini Grilled Artichoke Hearts with Low Fat Spinach and Artichoke Dip
makes 10-12 servings as an appetizer
2 cans extra small artichoke hearts, preferably Reese, packed in water, drained and patted dry
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon olive oil1 cup Greek yogurt, preferably Fage 2%
1 cup fresh spinach, julienned
1/2 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded
4 tablespoons parmesan
3 tablespoons fresh basil, julienned
dash of nutmeg
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Halve all but two artichoke hearts and grill (a grill pan may be substituted) until lightly charred and warmed through. Keep warm in a low oven (175 degrees) while preparing spinach and artichoke dip.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté onions until tender and translucent. Add spinach and cook until wilted and all moisture in the pan has evaporated, about 3 minutes. Chop reserved artichoke hearts and add, along with Greek yogurt, mozzarella and parmesan. Cook until cheese has melted. Add basil and nutmeg, season with salt and pepper and serve on top of grilled artichoke hearts.

And the recipe for my new obsession, Kale Chips...



Kale Chips
1 bunch fresh kale, stems trimmed and leaves washed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
kosher or sea salt and red chili flakes to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wash kale and dry well.

Toss kale leaves in oil, vinegar, salt and chili flakes. Place leaves in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 25-30 minutes or until crispy.

If you'd like to make the White Bean Puree that accompanied it, here it is as well:
2 cans cannelili beans
1 tablespoon sage, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
juice and zest of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Puree all ingredients until smooth. Serve on top of kale chips.

Behind the Scenes of "Due Date" and The Morning Truck Stop: A Grilled Donut with Bacon, Egg and Cheese

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Behind the Scenes of "Private Chefs of Beverly Hills:" Chef Sasha's Baklava and Grilled Watermelon and Halloumi Cheese Recipes

Tonight's episode of Private Chefs of Beverly Hills holds a special place in my heart for two very important reasons.

Reason Number One: the day we filming it, I discovered why our outstanding art department smokeshow, Trent, looked so familar to me. That's right, ya'll, he's Trent Ford of "How to Deal" fame.


You remember "How to Deal," don't you? It's from Mandy Moore's prime "Walk to Remember"-"Candy" days and it co-starred Tropical Trent. See! That's him on the DVD cover.

Reason Number Two: We filmed the episode the day before my birthday.

At the end of the shoot, totally oblivious to what they had in store, the producers and crew surprised me with a birthday cake that was a replica of the Tahitian Vanilla Cake from last season, probably the most contraversial item ever featured on the show (and, yes, I am still proud of it).

Carried out by Chef Stuart, who led everyone in a Happy Birthday serenade, I was so shocked and deeply touched, I turned fuschia and burst out laughing, which quickly moved to tears.

It was a moment I will never forget. I know I'm a loud, gregarious, roaring Leo, but the truth is, I'm tough like a cream puff and stuff like that means the world to me.

Grilled Watermelon and Halloumi Cheese “Croutons” with Herbs, Feta and Arugula

makes four servings
4 slices sweet seedless watermelon, with rind
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, preferably sheep’s milk
1/2 cup baby arugula
1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons Italian parsley leaves
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Zest of one lime
1/4 cup Halloumi cheese, cubed
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Heat a grill pan over high heat until very hot.

Sprinkle each slice of watermelon with salt and a pinch of sugar and grill quickly on each side, just until grill marks show and the fruit is lightly caramelized, about 1 minute per side. Arrange on serving plates and sprinkle with crumbled feta, salt and pepper. In a small bowl, toss fresh herbs and arugula with olive oil, vinegar, lime zest, salt and pepper. Place small mounds on top of grilled watermelon and feta. Just before serving, heat a small skillet over medium-high heat and quickly sauté Halloumi until golden and crispy. Garnish each plate with Halloumi cheese croutons and serve immediately.

Rose Water and Orange Blossom Baklava
makes 16 servings

1 pound walnuts, lightly toasted and roughly ground in a food processor or blender
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 package phyllo pastry
1 cup unsalted butter, melted

Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup honey
Zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon Rose Water
1 teaspoon Orange Blossom Water

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine walnuts, cinnamon and sugar and set aside. In the bottom of a greased 9 by 13 pan, place one layer of phyllo and brush liberally with butter. Repeat six more times, buttering each delicate layer, until you have 7 layers of phyllo. Spoon 1/3 nut mixture over phyllo and top with 5 more individually buttered sheets of phyllo. Repeat the process two more times and finish with 7 layers of phyllo. Brush final layer with butter and bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown.

While baklava is baking, make syrup by boiling all ingredients together for 10 minutes.

Remove baklava from oven and pour syrup over it. Cut into squares or diamonds and serve.

Private Chefs of Beverly Hills Season Two Premieres! Behind the Scenes Shots

Tonight, Private Chefs of Beverly Hills returns to Food Network at 9pm.

The first episode has me, back in full-on "Chef Sasha" mode, and Stuart cooking for Lorenzo Lamas...

That's right, ya'll, Renegade! In a bike shop! Does it get any better?

Here are a few shots from the days we shot the episode, when Stuart and I were dubbed, "Team Red Irish."

Hanging at Ducati of Beverly Hills just before meeting Mr. Lamas (yeeee!).

At the prep kitchen, getting our empanada love on!
Recipes are coming soon so stay tuned...

Behind the Scenes of "Secretariat"

Spoiler alert: If you know anything about horse racing, you already know how Secretariat ends. But for those who aren’t familiar with the 1973 events that inspired this film about Penny Chenery, played by Diane Lane, and her racehorse, Secretariat, director Randall Wallace, who previously scribed Braveheart, and writer Mike Rich, who specializes in heartwarming, bring-a-tear-to-your-eye stories of triumphant over adversity like Miracle, Radio and The Rookie, have made a film that ensures “a pony” will be at the top of everyone’s holiday gift wish list.

To celebrate the film’s opening, the director and his stars ventured out to the art deco grandeur of Santa Anita Park, the oldest race track in Southern California, where Secretariat ran a key race and scenes from the film were shot, to discuss the majesty of horses, the horror of 1970s fashion and the power of an $800 camera.

“For thousands of years, the human race has spoken of horses in a way that referenced that magnificent mystery about them,” Wallace says. “That spirit of the horse is timeless and about transcendence.”

“I personally really love horses as a species. It’s my totem animal, if you will,” Lane offers bashfully. “I know it’s a little corny, but that’s my truth.” The actress says she had great affection for the story of Secretariat long before she was approached to appear in the film. In 1973, the horse was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated, becoming a national celebrity, and Lane felt the story was aimed directly at her. “It made perfect sense to me that a horse was on the cover of all those magazines. I took that very personally being eight years old, thinking everyone was waking up to what a great species they are.”

Stepping back to that time offered different challenges for each of the actors. For Lane, she felt tremendous responsibility to do justice to the real life Chenery, who she got to know while preparing for the role. “Invariably, to spend time with someone you’re going to be portraying onscreen raises the stakes. And I personally wanted to make [the film] a gratifying experience for her,” Lane says. “I don’t think Penny ever saw herself in a vain, glorious manner representing any gender or any generation. [But] with the patina of time you can say, there’s a hero.”

For John Malkovich, who plays Secretariat’s trainer, Lucien Laurin, a man who is described as dressing like Super Fly, it wasn’t acting but his costumes that tested his mettle. “For me the challenge [in a role] is always the same, which is to try and do something well. But 1973 is really the nadir of the history of fashion. When you watch [Secretariat’s] races on YouTube, the astonishing ugliness of the clothes just blinds you.”

Wallace took great pains to recreate those races with an eye on authenticity (meaning lots and lots of polyester) while also infusing them with new life.

“We had to experience these races as participants, not as observers,” the director explains. “That required we shoot the movie in a way that no horse racing movie had ever been shot.” Instead of shooting the race sequences from the stands, Wallace got in the dirt and muck with the horses and jockeys, in order to create something that resembles a hoof’s point of view.

“You’re not seeing what it was like to watch Secretariat run, you’re seeing what it was like to run like Secretariat. It’s not something we’re showing; it’s something you’re living through.”

While preparing for those sequences, Wallace and his crew were doing tests with a tiny, consumer camera and realized they’d stumbled on the solution to their quandary. “We were getting shots of speed, dirt, excitement and chaos. As soon as we saw it, I was like, ‘Okay, this million dollar piece of camera equipment that we rented, I don’t want that anymore. I want this $800 consumer camera that’s about as big as your hand. We used that for most of the horse racing.”

Choosing the right horses for each race was also imperative and Wallace took the same pains he’d take in casting an actor in order to find the right horses for the film.

“Horses are a lot easier to cast than people, and probably easier to direct too,” Wallace jokes. “We had a Secretariat look-a-like contest and the horse that won was absolutely convinced he was the best looking horse in the whole world. There’s a shot in the movie where he’s coming around the corner in this amazing burst of speed, turning from right to left, he’s angled with the other horses coming around, and, literally, the horse turns his head to the camera, like, ‘Are you getting this?’”

Secretariat opens October 8.

Behind the Scenes of Animal Kingdom

Pound for pound, Animal Kingdom might be the best film of 2010.

Made for a fraction of Inception’s catering budget, writer-director David Michod’s gritty, enthralling, casually brutal Australian crime drama took top honors at Sundance earlier this year and opens in limited release on August 13 amid an cluttered summer weekend which includes Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Expendables and Eat, Pray, Love. But don’t let this indie get lost in the shuffle because missing out on Michod’s debut feature would be to deny yourself one of the year’s best film-going experiences.

Entrenched in a family of Melbourne criminals, Animal Kingdom stars a slew of exceptional Australian actors, including Guy Pearce, Jacki Weaver, Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Luke Ford and Sullivan Stapleton, but the film centers newcomer James Frecheville, who was cast through open call auditions, after competing with over 500 kids. Plucked out of high school in the last semester of his senior year, Michod knew the success of his project hinged on finding a young unknown who would be the film’s nucleus.

“When you cast a kid at the center of your film, it feels a little like you’re on a high-wire when you go into [the auditions] because you have no idea if you’re going to find the kid that you need,” Michod explains as he settles into a chair in a 12th floor suite at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Young and handsome, the writer-director looks like he could be the love child of Wes Anderson and Tom Cruise. Michod says he was searching for someone who was capable of creating a character so emotionally stunted, they seemed autistic. “I needed an actor who could create that blankness [and still be] interesting to watch,” he says. “It wasn’t like with James there were twelve close contenders and we had to make a decision. It became quite apparent early on that James was the only contender. It was the level of detail in his performance that thrilled me.”

The details of Animal Kingdom are well tread territory for Michod who’s been working on the film for almost a decade. While 2010 is a big year for him, with both Animal Kingdom and Hesher, a film he co-wrote which stars Natalie Portman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, debuting at Sundance and making their way into theaters, Kingdom has been his pet project since he graduated from film school.

“It took eight years to write,” Michod admits, smiling a little sheepishly. “I taught myself to write over those years. I was fresh out of school when I started writing and I just had this idea of a big Melbourne crime film. That first draft is laughably infantile. It’s just full of cool, crime-y shit. I look back on it now and there’s not a single line of dialogue, not a single scene, that’s still in the movie. I can observe how the script improved as my writing matured and as I matured personally.”

Part of that maturation was realizing no one was going to let him direct his own script simply on the merits of his eager charm or screenwriting abilities, so he directed a short film to prove he had the visual chops as well.

“I went and made a short film called Crossbow which, like Animal Kingdom, was an attempt to represent a world that was sort of dark and dangerous but yet had a poetry to it, a contemplative beauty,” he says. The short was a huge hit at film festivals, including Venice and Sundance, and Michod quickly found his career taking off. “One of the beautiful things about Hollywood is that when you’ve done something new that gets attention, it can transform your career overnight, even if it’s a short film. On the back of [Crossbow], Animal Kingdom started to feel inevitable, which was scary in itself. From that point, everything happened really quickly.”

He says throughout the pre-production and filming process, it was fear that propelled him and made him a better filmmaker. “The terrifying thing and the exhilarating thing about shooting,” he smiles, “is you live in a state of adrenalized semi-anxiety for the whole duration of the shoot. But it’s kind of necessary. That anxiety produces a kind of critical rigor from which better work comes.”

Animal Kingdom opens August 13.

Behind the Scenes of The Other Guys

One of the biggest shockers in store for movie goers this summer won’t be found in the last few seconds of Inception. The real revelation is that Mark Wahlberg is seriously funny, a fact audiences will come to realize when his hilarious new film, The Other Guys, hits theaters August 6th. “If you come from a different background, doing serious films, and you try to do a broad comedy and it’s not funny, you’re probably not going to get the chance to do it again,” Wahlberg says of his decision to dive into the comedy fray with two of the strongest talents working in the genre today.

The movie co-stars Will Ferrell and was directed and written by Adam McKay, who also helmed Ferrell’s earlier opuses, Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. Considering Ferrell and McKay’s relationship dates back to the beginning of their tenure at Saturday Night Live in 1995, grew to include co-founding FunnyorDie.com, and birthed some of Ferrell’s most beloved roles, Wahlberg easily could have taken a backseat and let them handle the comedic pyrotechnics. But rather than play the patsy and let them have all the fun, the actor exploits his brooding tough guy image, perfected with roles such as his Oscar-nominated turn in The Departed, and turns in a side-splittingly funny performance that’s neck-and-neck with Farrell’s.

“It was really just about letting go, being fearless, not being afraid to look ridiculous and have people laugh at you instead of with you,” the actor explains. “Coming from the background I come from, you can be a little self-conscious. It’s okay to be cool but it’s not okay to be corny. That’s something I’ve dealt with over the years as an actor; not worrying what people think.”

He says the most important parts of the equation were finding a script that suited him, in this case one McKay wrote specifically with Wahlberg and Ferrell in mind, and a group of collaborators who were like-minded. “This set was so loose and relaxed. On most sets I’ve worked on, it’s always kind of fun but then it’s time to get serious. Usually I’ll take the fun too far and the director will come over (whispering), ‘Hey, calm down, we’ve got to shoot this, let’s get serious for a minute.’ That never happened on this movie. They let me go nuts and then they’d encourage me to go even further, to the point where I’d get to my trailer at the end of the day and I’d be exhausted with laughter.”

As the only member of the cast with demonstrable cinema cop experience, Wahlberg also had the pleasure of knowing he was on solid footing, firmly inside his wheelhouse. “I certainly felt very comfortable when it came to anything cop-ish or action-y, but I basically just wanted to follow their lead when it came to anything [comedic]. I did whatever they told me. I’d learn the lines, show up and say the lines and if they wanted me to try anything else, I would---.”
In the middle of downplaying his comic abilities, his co-star Michael Keaton, who got his big break alongside legendary Jim Belushi in the short-lived comedy series Working Stiffs and knows a hell of a lot about what constitutes “funny,” can’t help but interject. “I have to jump in and say something here,” Keaton blurts. “[Mark] is ridiculously funny. We’d all go, ‘Who the fuck knew this was in this guy?’ He does voices and impressions. I was knocked out. When you look at him, he seems nice enough, but he’s ridiculously funny.”

When Wahlberg demurs, shaking his head and seeming to blush a bit, McKay speaks up as well. “[Mark’s] got such great instincts, when he points it towards comedy, it’s such a pleasure to watch.”

Wahlberg does not, however, need any help looking like a bad ass. McKay laughs when he recalls Wahlberg’s nonchalance at the action portions of their buddy cop flick. “We’d be shooting a big action scene,” McKays says, “and Will and I were like, ‘Wow! Look at this! We’re breaking a window,’ and Mark would come over, almost yawning, and be like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we did this one time except I was being shot out of a canon and I was on fire.’”

The Other Guys opens August 6.

Behind the Scenes of Middle Men

Fuck you. Keep up.

Those were the words writer-director George Gallo (Midnight Run, Bad Boys) scrawled across the front of his break neck script, Middle Men, and they became his mantra. The film, starring Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi, Gabriel Macht, Kevin Pollack and James Caan, a fictionalized retelling of the men behind the founding of what would become one of the biggest industries in the world; internet porn, is a freight train of a tale that doesn’t slow down for a second as it plows through Russian mobsters, the FBI, barely legal porn stars, two idiotic genius inventors (Ribisi and Macht) and a straight-laced businessman (Wilson) who found themselves in a tsunami of money and intrigue thanks to society’s unwaning erotic desire.

Ribisi and Macht play Wayne Beering and Buck Dolby, best friends who stumble upon the idea of internet porn from the dregs of their cruddy apartment in a drugged out haze and become multi-millionaires within weeks. Ribisi, an actor’s actor known for tackling complicated character, had no problem with the subject matter Middle Men embarked on. “Just by virtue of the fact that George Gallo is written on the front [of the script], it already has an incredible pedigree,” Ribisi begins one Sunday afternoon at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Sitting down to discuss the film, his slight frame appears fragile and lithe and he sports a heavy beard over an impish smile. “Opening it up to read, you know it’s going to be [about a lot more than porn.] I think the concern was, are they going to do this for the right reasons or is it going to be more of an exploitative nature? What project could you do that more with than this? But I think they really did go in the right direction with it. I think across the board, the editing, the acting, the directing, the cinematography, it’s just phenomenal.”

Macht, however, wasn’t as immediately certain and had some concerns about what his almost three-year-old daughter might think of his role. Tall, handsome and wholesome-looking, Middle Men is a family affair for the actor, whose wife, Jacinda Barrett (Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, Ladder 49), plays Wilson’s wife in the film. When the subject of porn is broached, Macht blushes and differs to Ribisi before admitting, “I was hesitant getting into the arena. There’s a scene where we talk about names of websites and I had a moment where I was like, ‘Do I really want my daughter seeing daddy, twenty years from now, talking about ass banging housewives? Mmmm?’ But then I thought, ‘It’s actually funny.’”

“For me, that’s sort of the mise en scene of it,” Ribisi replies, using the French term meaning, literally, placing on stage or setting. “[Middle Men] is about so much more; America, the American Dream, how these guys go in, achieve [success], almost get bombarded by it, and eventually get devoured. It’s a classic epic story about greed and lust, what people will do for money and the underbelly of America.”

“It’s like the Rockefellers or the Hunts or Bill Gates,” Wilson offers, “where one minute these guys are working in their parents’ garage and the next, they’re billionaires.” The soft-spoken Texan, looking trim and tan, says he’d always envied actors who got the chance to play parts that required intense research in order to portray a real person. “I always got these scripts, not in a bad way, where it was right on the page,” he shrugs.

But in Middle Men, Wilson not only had the chance to bring a real man’s story to life but he had unfettered access to the script’s source since the movie was inspired by producer Christopher Mallick’s experiences during internet’s Wild West days in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“To get to meet the person [I was playing] and spend time around them, I felt so lucky to get to do that. It’s wasn’t like Johnny Depp playing Hunter S. Thompson. Chris wasn’t someone who walked funny or talked funny, he was more of a straight forward businessman, but you could ask him anything and just having him there was great.”

As for Gallo’s credo, Wilson laughs and nods his head. “That’s how the movie rocks along,” he smiles.

Middle Men opens August 6.

Behind the Scenes of Charlie St. Cloud

Sitting on a sunny stretch of Marina del Rey on a recent Saturday afternoon, sipping a cup of tea while waiting my turn to speak with Burr Steers and Zac Efron, respectively the director and star of the new film, Charlie St. Cloud, I started to notice everyone who passed, joggers with strollers, speed walkers in Shape-Ups, tourists in Bermuda shorts, would look above me and get a bizarrely beatific, stupefied smile on their face as they strolled along the water front.

What’s inspiring those beaming faces?

Efron is sitting in a second story window, brightly lit by television cameras, being interviewed about his latest role. His trademark locks are pushed back to reveal a forehead rarely seen during his meteoric rise in the High School Musical trilogy, making his turquoise blue eyes even more striking, and his relaxed charm is palpable even gazing up at the newly minted movie deity from below. The beach cruisers are being treated to a fleeting glimpse of a movie-star-in-the-making and the mere proximity to glory has them drunk with wonder.

When I speak to Efron a short while later, I ask if he realizes he has that kind of effect on people.
“Ooff,” he grunts, shaking his head. “It’s not really tangible to me. I don’t really notice it. But I know my mom gets pissed off when she hangs out with me. She walks behind me and she says no one says anything until after I’ve walked past. After they look and [freak out]. But they never give it away, they’re always really good, so I never see it. I don’t really notice,” he shrugs.

Even if he doesn’t, Hollywood does, knighting Efron the heir apparent to the leading man throne. Although Charlie St. Cloud is only his third major leading role, Efron is already drawing weighty comparisons from Steers.

“All of our leading guys it seems started out as child stars,” Steers points out. “Ryan Gosling was a Mouseketeer, [Leonardo DiCaprio] did Growing Pains, Johnny Depp was on 21 Jump Street. They get those jobs because they’re charismatic and then build on that and understand that there is someplace to go from there, an evolution that has to happen.”

Part of that evolution is strategically chosen roles and the careful cultivation of working relationships. This most recent project has that in spades. The film, based on Ben Sherwood’s novel about a young man literally and figuratively haunted by the death of his younger brother and unable to move past the pain of that loss, reunites Efron and Steers who previously worked together on 17 Again.

Efron brought Steers into the project, feeling the director, who is perhaps best known for his debut, Igby Goes Down, would be able to help him reach the level of performance necessary for the role and he’s absolutely right. The great revelation of the film is that Zac Efron is quite talented and can handle emotionally demanding material beautifully. So how did the director lead his leading man through the performance?

“I don’t walk anyone through anything,” Steers insists. “I create a situation where actors feel safe.” He says he focused on the emotional stakes of the film and the made “[Zac] find it in himself. I don’t let him avoid anything.” Steers explains that one of the things that attracted the actor to the project was his own extremely close relationship with his younger brother, Dylan. Steers used that emotional bond to help Efron tap into his character’s pain. “I made him go there,” the director says. “This wasn’t an easy process for him.”

Though, according to Efron, one he loved, especially since it reunited him with Steers. “He’s very generous with the actors,” Efron says. “Every take, he’s running over to talk to us and he’s got so much to say; an opinion, a new point of view or something to think about, which is great for me. I enjoy that much attention from the director when they really care about your performance.” It was invaluable guidance the actor craved after deciding to step away from the musical genre that earned him legions of fans, even dropping out of the planned Footloose remake in favor of Charlie St. Cloud.

“There’s a style to High School Musical that I knew I didn’t want to stick with forever,” Efron admits. “It’s incredibly fun, it’s very addicting, those movies, I’m constantly chasing that dragon, so to speak, trying to bring that energy to everything I do, but I definitely want to make films with substance, move on, try new things and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Charlie St. Cloud opens July 30.

Behind the Scenes of Dinner for Schmucks

After sharing the screen in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd have teamed up for a new comedy inspired by the 1998 French film, Le Diner de Cons. Dinner for Schmucks is about Tim (Paul Rudd), a rising executive who has to find the ultimate imbecile guest to bring to his boss’s monthly dinner party of pathetic losers in order to get a promotion. When he almost runs over IRS employee Barry (Steve Carell) as he’s bent in the street foraging for dead mice to use in his taxidermy still life dioramas (possibly the best part of the film), Tim thinks he’s hit the jackpot until his new friend causes his life to unravel.

Directed by Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers), Dinner for Schmucks features a powerhouse comedic cast, including Ron Livingston, Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) in supporting roles. But the weight of that many frighteningly funny minds on one set was an embarrassment of riches that led to one major problem: blown takes thanks to a nasty case of the giggles.

“It’s a challenge not to ruin a take by laughing,” Rudd says in his signature deadpan when the cast gathers for the film’s press day at the Beverly Hills Hotel on a cool July afternoon. “I didn’t rise to that challenge on many occasions.”

Unable to control those irrepressible giggles, when one reporter compares Galifianakis to a combination of “Marlon Brando and Andy Kaufman,” both Carell and Rudd erupt.

“I can’t get that combination out of my head,” Carell giggles. “I want to see that movie!” When he finally simmers down, Carell continues, “[Zach] is intensely funny and he’s so specific in the choices he makes. He’s just really a joy to work with.”

Offering similar praise to Clemens who, in many ways, straps the movie to his back and walks off with it, even in such stellar company, Carells says, “[Jemaine] is a really good improviser in the sense that you never feel him going for a joke, you never get a sense that he’s waiting for his turn to say or do something funny. He’s really just part of the scene and always ends up making it better. He’s a really fine actor. He committed to his character so completely. There’s a sense of calm and inner dignity to the character, even in the face of absurdity, which I just loved. He was a hard person to work with and not ruin takes because he’s just so good.”

“He’s so good at subtlety,” Rudd offers, spring boarding off Carell. “There were many moments when he would just say something, it wasn’t really a joke, but it would just really make me laugh. He’s good in everything.”

Continuing the love fest, both actors have only the highest praise for their director, who they both agree was a major element in their desire to make the film. When asked what their favorite Roach film is, they’re both quick to respond.

“Austin Powers was one of the funniest movies I’d ever seen,” Carell trumpets, “and it was such a surprising movie. That’s what first attracted me to want to work with Jay.”

“One of the things I think is amazing about Jay is how versatile he is,” Rudd offers, referring to Roach’s comedies and his TV movie about the 2000 Presidential election, Recount. “He’s such a smart guy, he’s got all this talent and yet he’s the most self-effacing guy, stealthy with his humor, his ability to write, edit, he’s amazing. I was thrilled to get to work with the guy.”

Less based on and more inspired by the French original directed by Francis Veber, who Roach calls “the Mike Nichols of France,” the actors decided the best way to make their performances click was to forge their own path.

“I approached this the same way I approached The Office,” Carell explains. “I still haven’t seen the original Office because I didn’t want to do an impersonation of Ricky Gervais. I still haven’t seen the original French film because I didn’t want to have that inform what I was going to do. I tried to look at it like a blank slate.”

“Yeah,” Rudd nods, “to prepare for this I watched the British Office.”

More Behind the Scenes Shots of the Private Chefs of Beverly Hills on KTLA

That time is AM, not PM. And we'd already been awake for three hours. God bless Sugar Free Red Bull!




"I don't know who's crazier; the clients or the chefs." Ummm, the chefs. Definitely the chefs.





Stuart O'Keeffe and Brian Hill, bright eyed and bushy tailed.







Brooke Peterson, the MILF-iest MILF in America.








Who would ever guess that it's 6am?