BY MARILYN BECK and STACY JENEL SMITH
Jeffrey Tambor is acting super optimistic about the fate of his CBS "Welcome to the Captain" sitcom, exhorting its quality and pedigree and predicting its future is secure because, "Starting Feb. 4, it'll be airing on Monday nights at 8:30 p.m. That's a wonderful time slot. Just wonderful."
And what makes it so wonderful?
He pauses, then admits, "I don't know. That's just what everyone tells me."
The actor who has racked up multiple Emmy nominations for such shows as "Arrested Development" and "The Larry Sanders Show," does know a lot about the subject of acting and has, in fact, taught the craft over the years between his own acting assignments. His advice to parents whose children might want to pursue acting as a craft: "You can't stop them. Nothing can stop them -- so give them support. It can be a wonderful profession -- but tough."
He feels his new "Captain" series will provide pointers to those determined to make it in show biz.
The sitcom that co-stars
Chris Klein, Raquel Welch and
Fran Kranz is set in a fabled Hollywood apartment building housing an eclectiic group of show-business wannabes. To hear Tambor tell it, “I stayed in place like that when I was starting out. Get this -- my character plays a writer on 'Three's Company,’ " and I was actually on that show long ago."
SCIENTOLOGIST NO LONGER: Tambor is distressed by internet reports that he belongs to the ranks of Scientology members and wants people to know that “I took some Scientology classes at one time, studied Scientology for a while, but no more. I have nothing against it, but I am no longer a Scientologist.”
TAKE A CAB, WIN $$$: Ben Bailey has become a fan favorite with his hit show on the Discovery Channel “Cash Cab,” which allows unsuspecting taxicab passengers the chance to win money if they answer certain questions correctly. While hosting is something Bailey loves, he tells us his passion remains with stand-up comedy. “I’ve been doing it for 15 years. Stand-up is my thing. It’s who I am,” claims Bailey, who has performed his comedy all over the world. “I still do stand-up as much as I can when we are shooting. Now that we have shorter shooting days, I’m trying to perform every night because my hope this year is to do a DVD.”
Luckily his comedy has helped him tremendously with his day job. “With stand-up, it’s just you. You’re just out there talking. It gives you a foundation for a lot of other things because you have to learn how to write, how to captivate, how to read people, and how to perform and interact. That has definitely helped talking to people in the cab,” he notes.
However, Bailey is the first to admit that he’s still getting used to the fact that more and more people are starting to recognize him from the show. “People give me that look like, ‘Where do I know that guy from?’ It’s a very specific look in a person’s eye when they recognize you from TV. It’s a little weird to go all these different places see people you don’t know be happy to see you.”
SCORING POINTS: Will Ferrell acted like just one of the guys when it came to basketball practice for his Feb. 29 “Semi-Pro” comedy about a pro basketball squad, circa 1976, in Flint, Mich. That’s according to stand-up comedian and actor
DeRay Davis, who relates, “There were no egos on that set…Will doesn’t even know he’s a star yet. He drives a simple car. He’s not even into it like that.” According to Davis, “We had two weeks of basketball training, which helped a lot, and he was there. It was a very cool experience.”
Also a cool experience was his involvement in the current dance movie, “How She Move,” says Davis. He notes that he’s relieved to see an urban movie that focuses on things other than violence. “I miss the days where people in the movies would meet in the middle of the street and have dance-offs. I think this movie is good because instead of everybody shooting everybody and everything being about the gang territories, there’s a lot more to it.” Including, and especially, leading lady
Rutina Wesley’s character’s drive to get an education. Says DeRay, “A lot of time in the urban community people think you can only do one thing. You can only rap or go to school, but you can’t do both. This movie shows that you can do more than one thing. It’s nice to see movies like this being made.”
READY TO SHOOT: Now keeping busy behind the scenes as a director,
Fred Savage is soon to begin making a pilot called “The Extreme Adventures of Mongoose and Luther” about 15-year-old skateboarders.
A March 10 production start date has been set for
Sam Raimi’s latest scary movie, “Drag Me to Hell.” Has to do with the victim of a curse. Raimi also has “The Grudge 3” in preproduction. He’s among the producers,
Toby Wilkins is directing, and this time the action moves to Tokyo.
With reports from Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster.
Photos of Jeffrey Tambor by Ethan Miller, Ben Bailey by Noel Vasquez and DeRay Davis by Stephen Shugerman, all from Getty Images.
