I made Denis watch this movie with me tonight, again. Can’t explain why I love it so much. SO corny and dated, and yet…

Comme nos voix ba da ba da da da da da da
Chantent tout bas ba da ba da da da da da da
Nos cœurs y voient ba da ba da da da da da da

Sigh

Today, at 2:00 PM(ET) tune into WHDD-91.9FM to listen to my IN HOUSE interview with Milos Forman. You can listen to to it as it’s broadcast by clicking on the WHDD link above, or anytime after the interview by clicking here.

Here’s a shot of Milos standing next to what appears to be a giant Oscar:

He won the Oscar for this:

And this:

And was robbed for films like this:

And began his career with films like this:

Join my discussion with the engaging and brilliant Mr. Forman this Saturday at 2:00 on IN HOUSE.

I was out all day and when I arrived home I found bits of white fluff all over our floor. I followed the trail of fluff to the living room where I learned that the girls had decided to destroy their “puppy”.

They have been taking turns gently carrying this stuffed animal around for over a year – I actually thought that they sort of thought it was their puppy. I have no idea what made them decide to suddenly commit infanticide. When I removed it, to photograph how they had gnawed off one of its eyes, Daphne made a lunge for the other!

Then, I went to the pantry for a little morsel- you know, like five handfuls of Oreos – and I found this abomination:

One (or more) of my kids had unscrewed the Oreos and scraped out the middle gunk with their teeth AND THEN PUT THE REMAINDERS BACK! They put the half-eaten cookie shells back into the tray and then placed the tray back in the pantry. You’re probably thinking, “typical little kids.” But my kids are 16 and 18 years old.

Just a reminder to tune in tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 to 91.9 WHDDFM to hear my IN HOUSE radio interview with Academy Award winning director Milos Forman. It’s really good, guys. I’m not just saying this because it’s my show. Milos is a very, very interesting man with great stories. Just click on my IN HOUSE Radio page if you miss it and you can listen to it anytime.

This beautiful image is a still from Milos Forman’s film, Loves of a Blonde, which was made in 1965 in Czechoslovakia and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. You might be more familiar with Mr. Forman’s American films which include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ragtime, Amadeus, Hair, The People vs. Larry Flynt among many others.

I know it’s only Monday, but I have to start raving about this Saturday’s IN HOUSE Radio program, because in it, I interview Milos Forman. The man is so fascinating and sexy and charming (his wife Martina is too young and beautiful to be jealous) that I could listen to him tell stories all day.

I visited their home a few weeks ago and we talked about his Bohemian childhood, the loss of his parents to the Nazis, the film school he attended in Prague, the logistics of shooting Cuckoo’s Nest in a real mental hospital with real patients as extras …I could go on and on. TUNE IN! Saturday, August 30th at 2:00(ET). If you live in northwestern CT, it’s WHDD 91.9FM. Otherwise, click here to hear it after the broadcast, anytime, anywhere.

So, I’ve been a little busy, these past 24 hours. Yesterday I had three interviews – two in which I was the interviewer for my new radio show, IN HOUSE, and one in which I was being interviewed about my book, Outtakes from a Marriage. I’ve gotten so caught up in this radio thing that I was a little confused when the other radio hosts asked me questions about my book.

“What’s that you say?” I wanted to ask, “Am I to understand that I have written some sort of …book?”

My first IN HOUSE interview of the day was with dynamic accessories design duo Richard Lambertson and John Truex who described the way they started their business in their Chelsea loft, with animal skins and patterns and orders strewn everywhere. Then I visited the home of the great film director Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus) who described the way he watched the Nazis remove his parents from his childhood Bohemian home and how he ended up in his beloved country home in Connecticut.

The day before, I visited the home of bestselling (mega-selling) author Jane Green. Jane’s charming book, The Beach House, is about a Nantucket house that brings people together, and in real life, it was actually a beach house that united Jane with her partner Ian Warburg.

So when will you be able to listen to IN HOUSE? Possibly later today! We are working out a few last-minute glitches but you should be able to hear my interview with Richard LaGravanese later today. I will post a link so you can hear the whole broadcast here on my website!

In my first IN HOUSE episode, screenwriter/director Richard LaGravanese (The Fisher King, Bridges of Madison Country, Freedom Writers) discusses the way the offbeat zaniness of his home’s previous owners added to its appeal for him. “They were going through a divorce,” Richard recalls, “and they would mix up a pitcher of martinis and decide to paint a room, but would only paint parts of the room. They’d paint around the sofa….they painted the fireplace purple…”

Richard’s charming antique Connecticut home – the first he’s ever owned – is a far cry from the series of drafty apartments he inhabited as a child in Brooklyn and he discusses the important role the home workspace plays in the life of a writer.

So tune in! I’m going to send updates to my mailing list so if you haven’t added your name, just go to my home page and click on “Mailing List” and sign up to hear about future broadcasts!

Last night we attended a screening of Recount, the new HBO film about the 2000 election fiasco in Florida.

The film stars Denis, Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson among many others, and it was directed by Jay Roach (Meet The Family, all the Austin Powers movies). The performances are all wonderful, of course, with that cast, but what really makes the movie outstanding is the great script, written by a formerly unknown screenwriter named Danny Strong. If you go to the HBO/Recount website, you will find an interview with Mr. Strong, which I found very interesting.

Here are Kevin, Laura, Jay Roach and Denis.

I was nestled in among the photographers, and journalists, as usual, listening to their comments about the stars who lined up for photos. I love Laura Dern’s smile so much. Every muscle in her face smiles and somehow, it breaks your heart to see it – or mine anyway, because it always reminds me of the many fragile yet courageous characters she has portrayed so brilliantly over the years. In Recount, she does a scathingly funny and dead-on Katherine Harris (Florida’s dull-witted state Attorney General). Denis plays Michael Whouley, Gore’s Chief Field Officer and a key Democratic strategist from Boston. Denis and I went up to Boston last fall so that Denis could meet him just before shooting began. Whouley is a very private man but a powerful resource for Democratic campaigns. Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, Gore’s Chief of Staff. Tom Wilkinson plays James Baker.

Who else was there? Naomi Watts, Mike Myers. My friends Bob and Nancy. All sorts of studio and industry executives. A giant who worked for security and whose picture Denis forbade me to take. The man was a living, breathing giant, I tell you, standing right out in front of MOMA, talking into his sleeve. Now that I think of it, there must have been some important politician there last night because there were quite a few people talking into their sleeves.

One day, last fall, my friend Paula and I were in ABC Carpet and Home in Manhattan. Paula is an interior designer (among many other things) and so I was running around with her, envying her very fun job. Anyway, we hadn’t seen each other for awhile and as we walked up the stairs from floor to floor, we were chattering and laughing with such gusto that we barely registered the fact that there were all sorts of men and women on each landing. They were all dressed in suits, talking into their sleeves. Finally, we walked into the Bath and Bedding floor and Paula grabbed my arm. “It’s ….her!” she said. “It’s Laura Bush!” So I turned and there, no more than three feet away from me, was that walking zombie Laura Bush. She smiled toward me – I can’t really say she smiled at me, because that would require some focusing of the eyes. Whatever medication cocktail sustains her these days (can you imagine trying to dull that level of shame?), has turned her eyes into two flat, glassy, unfocusing pools. One eye seemed to be a little crossed. It was hard to imagine that she wasn’t seeing double. And yet she smiled toward us, and we smiled back. And then she floated off, buoyed by her assistants, and tailed by her huge Secret Service staff.

I couldn’t stop thinking about poor Laura after that. No wonder she’s never interviewed or allowed in front of the cameras. I wonder when they decided it was time for her chemical lobotomy. Does she agree to the drugging, or does George slip her a mickey each morning? Laura, if you’re reading this, do what Jack Nicholson did in Cuckoo’s Nest. Hide the pills under your tongue and then spit them out. Later, you can sneak out a window. I know tons of nice guys you could date, not everyone will reject you. Many people marry losers and go on to meet great men later in life.

I’m fascinated by the women behind certain men, so much so that I wrote a novel about one. Yes, that’s right, I wrote a novel called Outtakes From a Marriage, which will hit bookstores June 3rd!

Not that you were asking, but I came up with the name of my new novel,

after Denis and I watched Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage, one night last winter.

Scenes From a Marriage was recently re-released on DVD. It’s very long, as it was originally a series on Swedish Television. It’s shot like a documentary but it’s a drama. Like a Christopher Guest film – only not funny. And artfully shot. It’s beautifully shot (okay, it’s not like a Christopher Guest film at all.)

The film, Scenes From a Marriage was made in the 70’s, and my first thought, while watching it, was that the clothes and hairstyles reminded me of my parents and their friends during that time. As the drama unfolded, and this couple’s marriage was revealed as being hopelessly frayed, I became riveted. These people really were like my parents and their friends. And also, I realized, like Denis and me and our friends, and probably all married people, everywhere. I watched it all in one sitting, on a winter night in front of a dying fire. Denis fell asleep during the first 15 minutes and slept right through.

I borrowed something from the film. The Liv Ullman character, at one point, tells her husband of a love affair that she had with her psychiatrist and a shrink/love interest found his way into my novel soon after.

Anyway, Netflix it if you’re a 70s junkie like me. I love 70s films. I watch Klute every couple of months and delight in it anew each time. I watched Klute for the first time, years ago with my sister Meg, and to this day, when I see Meg’s name on the caller ID, I answer the phone, rasping “Bree Daniels,” in Jane Fonda’s sexy whore voice. Meg does the same thing when I call her and it shames me to have to tell you that we actually laugh until we can’t breathe every single time we do this. What can I say; we’re simple people. Anyway, I’ve seen Rosemary’s Baby countless times. For some reason, I find it soothing. I could recite The Godfathers I and II – every word. Our friends Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme made a documentary called A Decade Under The Influence about 70s films. Netflix that too while you’re at it. Anyway, there’s something very comforting to me about the style of certain 70s era films, even the scary ones.

Okay, I have to list a few more: Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The Sting. Dog Day Afternoon, and my all-time favorite – Paper Moon, starring our friend Tatum O’Neal , who is now a star of Rescue Me.

Outtakes From a Marriage hits bookstores on June 3rd.

The other night we attended a screening of our friend Peter Tolan’s new film, “Finding Amanda,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Peter is the co-creator/writer/producer of Denis’s FX show “Rescue Me,” as well as the writer of major television and film hits such as, “Analyze This”, “Guess Who,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” and “Murphy Brown.” “Finding Amanda,” stars Matthew Broderick and is a really funny movie about a gambling addict who must go to Vegas to rescue his wayward niece.

There was a press line outside the screening. Here’s Denis being interviewed:

And here’s something you might not know about red carpets: almost always, the people on the other side of it – photographers, journalists,etc are more attractive and more animated than the actual stars. You just never get to see them, but I do, because I am usually hustled off to the side so that they can photograph Denis either by himself or with another actor. I am what’s known as a waste of editorial space. Photographers will usually take photos of Denis with me, to be polite, but then will insist on some with Denis and somebody worth photographing.

I hope I don’t sound bitter, because, in fact, the photographers are so gracious and good-humored about the whole thing that I’m usually thrilled to step up next to them, out of camera range. There, nestled in amongst the guys lugging the sound equipment and cameramen, I have heard some of the juiciest gossip and filthiest jokes you can imagine, and Denis usually has to drag me away.

“Wait,” I’ll say, as he tugs on my arm, “here comes that crazy Ramona from “Real Housewives of New York City!” And then my new friends will tell me all about the other times they’ve seen her hustling press, and all her outrageous antics. They make it look so easy, these journalists, that I have often thought I would like to have their jobs. Once, at an Emmy party, a TV interviewer asked me to interview Denis and instead I grabbed Cloris Leachman, who was walking past, and interviewed her, because she’s my childhood comedy idol, and I get to talk to Denis all the time