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| Simone. Just as beautiful in person |
Hannah Simone is such a pro. Always relaxed and friendly at TCA press tour events, the former MuchMusic VJ was one of several New Girl cast mates–including Zooey Deschanel–who cheerfully took part in impromptu interview sessions earlier this month at the TCA press tour in Pasadena.
You can read more about Simone and New Girl at this feature I wrote for The Canadian Press.
Simone had plenty to talk about, including working with Prince. The rock star guests on Sunday’s post-Super Bowl episode of New Girl, airing approximately at 10 p.m. this Sunday on Fox. A new episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine follows.
City, which doesn’t have the Super Bowl, plans to simulcast the two sitcoms anyway. Smart move considering all those Fox affiliate border station eyeballs will be counted as City viewers. Look for CTV–which plans to air Masterchef Canada Sunday night–to set some sort of record for bailing during the trophy presentation. What they’ll be praying for is no repeat of last year’s 30-minute power outage–which pushed CTV’s well-hyped premiere of Motive past 11 p.m.
Back to the press tour chat. These breezy little press scrums are occasionally snuck onto crowded network schedules at TCA and I like ’em. Instead of the crowded panels in the big room, where stars and showrunners field questions on stage, the Fox meet-and-greets build time for critics to yak informally with talent in the large anteroom room adjacent to the main banquet space. This allows for one- or two-on-ones instead of the usual conference quotes which are transcribed and available to as many as 200 reporters later.
Fox will theme them as snack breaks, allowing critics to cram more sugar down our yaps as we lurch from meal to meal like Homer Simpson at a Krispy Kream convention.
Still, when you’ve got a local angle–Simone grew up in Canada and was educated in both Vancouver and Toronto–these informals are great. You can bring home more of a local story without holding up the big room with a Canada question.
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| In the Fox scrum with Samberg. Winning a Golden Globe draws press |
Andy Samberg was at the same interview break, although he drew a much bigger scrum, having come off his surprise Gold Globes win just the night before for his role on the rookie sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He swore he did not prepare a speech, being “100% sure” he wasn’t going to win in the Best Actor in a comedy category. He still hadn’t seen a clip of him accepting and cringed at the thought of watching, feeling bad for forgetting to thank several people, including his parents and SNL mentor Lorne Michaels. At least he didn’t seem as lost or over-served at the Globes as Jacqueline Bissett. “Did she get to the stage yet?” Samberg cracked.
Samberg predicted big things for his old SNL cast mate Seth Meyers, who takes over Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night towards the end of February.
“He’s going to destroy it, he’s the best,” said Samberg. “He’s an incredibly good talker–we always described Seth as the guy we want to meet your parents.”
Having spoken with Meyers a few times over the last couple of years, I can’t think of a more apt assessment.
