A new Chris Pine obsession

Plus the return of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sarah Paulson on 'Smartless,' and more

So in my last post, I casually dropped Chris Pine’s visit to Armchair Expert in a list of fun episodes worth your time. I saw he’d also made his way over to WTF with Marc Maron, so a week or so later, I hit the play button and managed to listen to it for all of five minutes before life got in the way.

I have since listened to the whole thing, which I highly recommend. They had a great rapport, they talked about old movies and things, it’s a good listen.

But there must have been something in that first five minutes, because that night, before I even had time to listen to the rest, I had a very (very) hot dream about Chris Pine, so preoccupying that I’ve been remembering the highlights several times a day since. And it’s not because of Star Trek! (Shocking, right?) I liked him as Kirk but didn’t find him sexy in those movies. I realized, based on the setting of my dream, that sexy Chris Pine is Wonder Woman Chris Pine. Steve Trevor for the win.

May you all have such enjoyable dreams.

Tip for other Chris Pine fans who, like me, haven’t followed his movie career as closely as we should have: He’s naked or close to it in multiple movies, and they’re on Netflix and Amazon Prime and YouTube. Just sayin’.

Sarah Paulson on Smartless

This was one of their more entertaining episodes as of late, and that’s saying a lot, considering they just had Steve Martin & Martin Short on together.

I thought I was the only adult who (a) has never been stung by a bee, and (b) remains absolutely terrified of them, but it turns out I am in good company. Sarah is afraid of bees and also clowns, which means she and I could totally hang out together, as long as our chosen hangout venue is bee- and clown-free. She’s so funny and smart.

Wiser Than Me is back!

I’m going to SLOWLY make my way through the season so these episodes will last awhile. I couldn’t resist starting with Anne Lamott, who wrote an absolutely wonderful book about writing called Bird by Bird.

Hard to top, except that my next one was Bonnie Raitt, who was also, as you can guess, full of laughter and wisdom and honesty.

I keep thinking I didn’t binge this, but boy did I enjoy listening to Sally Field after that.

Then I had to stop! But Debbie Allen is next, and then Julie Andrews. Wiser Than Me won the Webby Award for Podcast of the Year, and Julia’s one-sentence speech was perfection.

Larry David talks about the old days with Marc Maron

I was never a Seinfeld person, so it’s weird that I’m writing a post that segues from Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Larry David, yet here we are. Larry was on WTF with Marc Maron and I loved every single minute of it. He’s a much happier guy than his Curb Your Enthusiasm counterpart.

He talked about how he walked right up to (the late) Budd Friedman, legendary owner of The Improv and launcher of many huge comedy careers, and asked to go on stage even though he had zero experience. “I think I could do it,” he said. It’s a great story.

I have a Budd Friedman story too.

Many (MANY) years ago, I produced a special for Comedy Central. We were filming at The Improv with about six different comedians, and I was still a pretty green producer, so I didn’t really have control of the room, if you know what I mean.

At some point, Budd walked in, and all the comedians started vying for his attention—“Hi Budd, how are you, hey Budd, hi Budd”—as he walked through the room.

I took a breath. “Hey Budd!” I shouted. “We’re related!” He stopped.

“Whose daughter are you?” he asked.

“Joel Ulster’s. And I just was just out for dinner with them and Helene,”

Helene was his sister, so I got an “oh my god” and a big hello and some nice chit-chat… and from then on, the shoot was mine.

The usual suspects

I have managed to keep up with the Delta Flyers, I listened to a fun Armchair Expert with Sanjay Gupta, and Office Ladies had a fantastic interview with John Krasinski. Star Trek: Discovery finished its run and Tony and I reviewed the finale, now we’re taking this week off.

I’m still behind, mostly because I can’t get on the treadmill as I still have Mal de Débarquement Syndrome.

It’s been… challenging.