Pushing Daisies

Here are a couple of interviews featuring Lee Pace and Kristin Chenoweth for the Houston Chronicle.

Lee talked about his childhood…

• Pace had a somewhat rootless childhood. He was born in Oklahoma and spent part of his youth in the Middle East, before the family settled in Spring. He’s not sure if that informs Ned’s awkwardness around people in any way. To wit: “I bet it does. Or maybe not,” he says. He laughs. “I don’t know . . . I’m not as self-reflective as many other actors are. So maybe. Probably.” Pace says he fell into acting. He’d wanted to be a swimmer but recurring ear infections kept him out of the water. He needed another high school elective, which is when his mother suggested acting. “I thought she was kidding.” He says “in Texas they can make anything competitive,” so he found himself in speech tournaments that included actors and debaters interacting.

  Pace did some work at the Alley Theatre before studying acting further at Juilliard. He suggests that time between high school and drama school was particularly important. “It gave me some perspective,” he says. “You hear people in drama school ask things like, ‘When I get out do I want to work in theater, TV or film?’ When you get out you don’t have time to ask that. You have to hustle.”

Kristin dished on her upcoming autobiography…

• Chenoweth, whose on-again, off-again romance with West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin was mined for material in Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip — in which the Christian character played by Sarah Paulson was not-so-loosely based on Chenoweth — has stories of her own to tell, and she’ll be doing just that next year in a book titled A Little Bit Wicked. “I had a ghost writer, I’m not going to pretend I wrote it by myself. I worked on it solid for three months,” Chenoweth said. “It’s about my adoption, but it is about my life. I didn’t want to call it a memoir, because I don’t think that fits yet,” she said, laughing.

  One thing it’s not about is the search for her birth parents. “It’s actually kind of the opposite, about what it’s like not to do that, and what it’s like not to have that family history, but to connect with the people who raised you,” Chenoweth said. At first, she was nervous about telling her family about the book, “because I didn’t want to hurt them. Because my mom’s always like, ‘You know, if you ever want to find your real parents . . . ‘ But they were thrilled. Because I wanted to kind of give other people inspiration.”

Here’s an interview with Lee Pace and Anna Friel which was printed on a broadsheet daily in the Philippines. The interview took place during Pushing Daisies’ press junket a couple of weeks ago. In addition to discussing the series, the two also gave a few tidbits about their personal lives like first kisses…

Some excerpts to the interview…

• In real life, how much of a touch person are you?
• A: I’m really tactile. I’m very close to my mum and dad. I get my big lovely hugs all the time. It’s not nice to be able to work with someone so gorgeous (as Lee is) and not be able to go “Hi” (and she demonstrated physical contact by locking an arm with Lee’s).
• L: I sometimes have a hard time getting close to people. Anna caught me when we were shooting. Someone had come up to me and touched me. I kind of flinched. Anna said, “That’s Ned.”
• Since you play childhood sweethearts who shared the first kiss, can you tell us about your first kiss in real life?
• L: My first kiss was very awkward. I’ll say the girl’s name if people promise not to print it (laughter). Her name is actually very funny. [He mentioned the name.] I remember walking around the back of the junior high school and holding her hands. Both our hands were all sweaty. We kissed and we didn’t know what to do with our tongues. Then we pulled away and went like, “Was that it? Yeah, I think that’s it (laughter). All right, let’s go home.”
• A: I got taught. I got to practice. I used to go to my godparents every weekend. Their son taught me how to do it (laughter) because I didn’t know how. He showed me on his hand so it wasn’t particularly romantic. I thought, at least when it does get romantic, I’ll know what to do. My girlfriends and I used to lie in bed and we’d practice on our own hands. I don’t know how many girls will ever admit to doing that. You quite don’t know what to do with the tongue bit.
• What kind of comments about the show or your characters do you get from strangers?
• L: I get the “Oh, shake my hand. Oh, I’m dead” bit.

You can read the full interview here.

There’s also an interview with Kristin Chenoweth.

I’m not certain if these are old promo photos for Season 1 or the latest ones used for Season 2. But I do know he looks really smashing in these sets!

From Celebutopia

Oh my god…here are some amazing videos for Season 2’s first episode. The scenes are a sight for sore eyes, it looks really wonderful!!

The videos are from Pushing Daisies TV

I wasn’t sure he was at the Emmy’s. But thanks to Lauren for this video:

These are photos from the third episode, Bad Habits:

• “Bad Habits”- Chuck, Emerson and Ned go undercover as a Catholic nun and priests and pass themselves off as investigators from the Vatican to help Olive prove that her best pal at the nunnery (Mo Collins as Sister Larue) didn’t kill herself, but was actually murdered, on “Pushing Daisies”.

Source

Below is the official episode description of Season 2’s second episode - “Circus Circus” from ABC…

NED, CHUCK AND EMERSON GO LOOKING FOR A GIRL WHO’S RUN OFF TO THE CIRCUS, AND LILY TURNS UP AT THE NUNNERY, ON ABC’S “PUSHING DAISIES”

“Circus Circus”- Ned, Chuck and Emerson search for a missing teen (guest star Hayley McFarland as Nikki Heaps) who’s run off to the circus . . . a circus where people keep turning up dead. Meanwhile, overcome with guilt, Lily pays Olive a visit at the nunnery, on “Pushing Daisies,” WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
“Pushing Daisies” stars Lee Pace as Ned, Anna Friel as Chuck, Chi McBride as Emerson Cod, Ellen Greene as Vivian, with Swoosie Kurtz as Lily and Kristin Chenoweth as Olive Snook. Jim Dale is the narrator.

Guest starring in “Circus Circus” are Diana Scarwid as the Mother Superior, Nicole Greenwood as Ms. Moss, Rachael Harris as Georgeann Heaps, Casey Weiant as Randi Jean, Michael C. Alexander as customer no. 1, Theodore Zoumpoulidis as Pierre, Lee Arenberg as Bailey, Jackie Harris as Bailey’s assistant/De Jong, Mark Povinelli as the small person, Googy Gress as Von Deenis and Hayley McFarland as Nikki Heaps.

“Circus Circus” was written by Peter Ocko. Lawrence Trilling directed the episode.

E! Talks to Kristin Chenoweth and Lee Pace at the Emmy party:

Always adorable and funny, Kristin Chenoweth talks about deodorant(!) to TV Guide at the red carpet:

Did your bets win at this year’s Emmy Awards? Sadly, only one of mine did. All the rest…well, I was half-expecting a 30 Rock and Mad Men victory, anyway. I couldn’t turn to a site on the internet analyzing the Emmy’s without mentioning how great these programs are. But these weren’t my bets (except, I do enjoy watching 30 Rock).

But congratulations are in order for Pushing Daisies’ director Barry Sonnenfeld, who won the Emmy for Best Directing, Comedy! This is probably his first Emmy (if I’m not mistaken). This would also be the show’s 3rd Emmy Win, having won two more at the Creative Emmy Awards last week. For a program that only had 9 episodes total in its first Emmy Season, Pushing Daisies was nominated for 12 categories and won three of it. Not so bad, eh?

Lee Pace and Kristin Chenoweth (who lost the trophy to Jean Smart) were in tonight’s awards show and Kristin was a presenter.

The complete list of winners and nominees are after the cut…

(more…)

So, we’ve got tonight to find out if Kristin wins the award for Best Supporting Actress (Comedy) at the Emmy’s. But she was present at the rehearsals and even accepted her gift as presenter of the show.

Good luck tonight, Kristin! Hope you win it!

Our favorite foursome were in a press conference last Sept. 18th at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Star Trek was last seen on TV with the Enterprise which concluded in 2005. But for its whole run, Star Trek had a solid two decades. JJ Abrams, creator of Lost and Fringe, is reviving the cult series for the big screen and questions about its TV return are inevitable.

Will Star Trek come back to television after the movie is shown?

Bryan Fuller, creator of Pushing Daisies who have actually worked on Star Trek Deep Space Nice and Star Trek Voyager, says he is willing to work on another series, “One where you could go back to the spirit and color of the original ‘Star Trek,’ because somehow, it got cold over the years. I love ‘Next Generation,’ but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the ‘60s, which were so dynamic and passionate.”

But his idea of a new Star Trek series would have to be big different as he wants a series that’s a bit more fun and one that can test the waters, which is similar to what the upcoming movie is all about. Suffice to say, he is very impressed with what JJ Abrams has done to it.

“’Star Trek’ has to recreate itself,” Fuller said. “Otherwise, all the characters start to feel the same. You always have a captain, a doctor, a security officer, and you have the same arguments based on those perspectives. It starts to feel too familiar. So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up.”

I’m hardly a fan of the Star Trek series, though but would you want it back on television? With Bryan Fuller do his magic to it?

You can read the full article of Bryan Fuller’s interview here.

Below is the official episode description of Season 2’s first episode - “Bzzzzzzzzz!” from ABC…

CHUCK GOES UNDERCOVER AS A “BEE GIRL” TO SOLVE A MURDER, AND LILY GETS OLIVE TO A NUNNERY, ON ABC’S “PUSHING DAISIES”

The Critically Acclaimed Series, Nominated for 12 Emmy Awards, Makes its Second-Season Premiere, Wednesday, October 1

“Bzzzzzzzzz!” - Chuck goes undercover as a “Bee Girl” at a honey-based cosmetics company after their new spokesmodel (guest star Autumn Reeser) is stung to death.  She soon discovers that office politics are killer (literally) between the founder (guest star Missi Pyle as Betty Bee) and the new owner (guest star French Stewart as Woolsey Nicholls). Meanwhile, Ned can’t stand her growing independence - or the fact that she wants to move out of his apartment. In other developments, Lily spirits Olive off to a nunnery so she won’t spill Lily’s deep, dark secret, on the Second-Season premiere of ABC’s critically-acclaimed “Pushing Daisies” - nominated for 12 Emmy Awards — WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

“Pushing Daisies” stars Lee Pace as Ned, Anna Friel as Chuck, Chi McBride as Emerson Cod, Ellen Greene as Vivian, with Swoosie Kurtz as Lily and Kristin Chenoweth as Olive Snook. Jim Dale is the narrator.

Guest starring in “Bzzzzzzzzz!” are Field Cate as Young Ned, Sammi Hanratty Young Chuck, Sy Richardson as the coroner, Diana Scarwid as the Mother Superior, Peter Cambor as Dusty Fitz, Autumn Reeser as Kentucky Fitz, Missi Pyle as Betty Bee, Robin Gwynne as the customer and French Stewart as Woolsey Nicholls.

The actress is a first time Emmy Nominee, which is why like many of Olive’s admiring fans (Olive is Kristin Chenoweth’s character on the show), the Primetime Emmy Awards on the 21st is one so highly anticipated.

USAToday has a delightful feature on her as well as the rest of the actresses up for Best Supporting Actress (Comedy)…

(more…)