Leah Remini & Corbin Bleu Interviews: Get Excited For DWTS Season 17!

Is it Wednesday yet? I'm dying for the ABC reveal of the Season 17 cast for DWTS. As I was going over the rumored cast list, I realized I had two old interviews with possible cast members: Leah Remini and Corbin Bleu. Coincidentally, the red carpet interviews I have with them were both done at the same event. It was the LA opening of the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus back in July 2011.

Both of the interviews were pretty hilarious. Leah misunderstood my question, so watch have the whole thing goes down...over and over...



My interview with Corbin was kind of awesome because I had tickets to see him in Hairspray at the Hollywood Bowl as Seaweed J. Stubbs...and yes, the boy can dance. I think both Corbin and Leah are going to add a ton of personality to Season 17. Bring it on!

Are you ready for this season? I sure am!

Opening Night At The Hollywood Bowl with Reba and Chaka Khan

One of my greatest summer pleasures in Los Angeles is the Hollywood Bowl.  I go every year to catch everything from Hall and Oates to Gustavo Dudamel to the Broadway musical, Hairspray.  I have never been to the Opening Night at the Bowl which always honors the inductees to the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.  My amazing friend, Annie, who was working on the production, offered me two tickets to opening night.  How could I say no?  Well, the seats turned out to be gorgeous box seats with the most incredible view of the stage--a completely different experience for someone like me who normally buys the $10 seats in the last row.  If you live in the LA area and you haven't taken advantage of the Bowl in awhile, check out their schedule here.  It's an affordable entertainment option for the summer season.

Here are a few photos from my evening with my usual inside commentary.....

 Tarrah and I joked about our "terrible" seats all night long.......

 Okay, see that last section all the way in the back?  Yep, that's where I normally sit. By the way, the bathrooms are way nicer and more plentiful by the box seats too.  Higher price=better life?

 This photo makes me giggle--I'm taking a self-portrait on my iPhone while Tarrah is busy Tweeting on her iPhone.  Steve Jobs would be proud.

 The host of the evening, Julie Andrews.  She's a Dame, but prefers to be called, "Julie".

 The super sweet Reba McEntire.  Her awesome fans followed me all night on Twitter.  They love their gal, Reba. 

 Souvenir chocolate bars for the box seats!  We never get this in the bleacher seats.

 I was happy to see there wasn't any corn sugar or high fructose corn syrup in this chocolate bar.  

 Hey, Dawg, it's Randy Jackson!

 The diva-licious Chaka Khan even had a costume change with only a 5-song set.  "Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan!"

The best way to end the night......Hollywood Bowl fireworks.  

Don't forget, it's #RadioBurtt night!  I will be on the Driving With Gass show at 7:35PM PT/10:35PM ET tonight on KWSS.  I hope you join me for the latest in entertainment news.

If you missed my appearance last week with Dara on Radio, click here to listen in about how I got my start in entertainment reporting. You can find most of the archives to other media appearances here.  

Disclosure:  My tickets were complimentary.  I was not asked to post on this event, all opinions are my own.

The Friday Five

Friday is here and I have a busy weekend planned.  I will be moderating a panel on the "New Critics" at ITVFest on Saturday at 6PM.  If you are in LA and looking for the inside scoop on film and TV critics that work in the online space, click here for more info.  On Sunday, I am headed back to the Hollywood Bowl where I get the opportunity to see my pal, Corbin Bleu, perform onstage in the Broadway hit, Hairspray.  So, enjoy your weekend and here's my Friday Five, my favorite moments from the week:

1.  The Change-Up:  Um, I interviewed Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman AT THE SAME TIME!  Want to see it?  Go here or if you are a dude, here's Olivia Wilde.  It's my first correspondent gig for NBC/Univeral's iVillage website and it was an absolute blast.  If you like the interview, I would love it if you could comment over on their site under the video.  You don't need to register, you can just enter name, or you can even comment anonymously. (Thanks!)  I have another series of interviews from Spy Kids 4 coming up soon.  Think Jessica Alba, Joel McHale, Jeremy Piven, and Alexa Vega.

2.  Spy Kids 4: Speaking of Spy Kids, this was the amount of tape I walked out of the press junket with.  That's a lot of tape!  They gave the press an opportunity to talk to a majority of the press which is rare, but it is appreciated. The iVillage editor is going to have a lot of work to do!  To see what a press junket is like, take a look at my article on the A Little Help press junket for Starpulse.

3.  The Amazing Mat:  This was a first:  a marching band playing in a house on an infomercial set.  It was wild and so much fun.  The house we shot the show in was gorgeous, one of those houses you aspire to own.  My co-host, Jordan Murphy, might be familiar to you too. He was the host of NBC's For Love or Money and VH1's Tool Academy.  I'll let you know when the show begins to air.

4.  Godspell:  My pal, Larry, sent me a text yesterday saying, "Hey, producer girl, isn't this your show?'  Well, it's not MY show, it's being helmed by my friends, Daniel Goldstein and Ken Davenport, but yep, I'm an investor.  I love getting the word out whether it is my new iPhone case or the cool time lapse video they posted of the billboard going up in Times Square.

5.  The Help:  Go see this movie.  It's a wonderful break from robots, aliens, wizards, and the explosive summer movie fare.  If you have read the book, I think you will be satisfied with the screen adaptation. (My mom just sent me her copy yesterday, so I am going backwards:  movie first, book second.) The performances are award-worthy and it's an important story to tell.  I saw a screening and I was lucky enough to hear a Q& A after with stars Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, and director Tate Taylor, and author/writer Kathryn Stockett.  Go see the film on August 10th.  You won't be disappointed.