A portfolio of Chris Serico's top celebrity interviews and other entertainment articles for major media outlets. Please consider the original dates of publication before analyzing article content. For more self-indulgent madness, visit ChrisSerico.com and my Twitter page.
The Ben-Hur of Sports: Behind 1986’s Jubilant ‘Let’s Go Mets’
The Mets wouldn't have won the World Series without this music video. Probably.
Chris Serico • Esquire • Oct. 27, 2015
"Let's Go, Mets" was bigger than a stadium anthem. It was a gift from the sports gods. "The fact that there was no Mets music video caused such a clamor across the Great Plains states," pun-loving film critic Gene Shalit once observed, "that it's very good that [the Mets] did it because the wheat crop was withering, the corn was shriveling, the boll weevils had nothing to look at, and I'm glad [they] did it just for the farmers of America."
OK, maybe the New York Mets didn't revitalize a nation with its pop rock video. But in August 1986, the song burrowed into the collective conscious. And with the Mets back in the World Series, the delightfully dated "Let's Go, Mets" music video is resurfacing on fan blogs and Facebook pages, thanks in large part to Shelly Palmer, an advertising consultant and composer whose lofty cinematic aspirations made the rah-rah industrial into timeless Internet fodder. Four-minute, Huey Lewis-ish, baseball-themed sing-a-longs don't dream themselves up, after all.
In late July 1986, when the surging Mets led the National League East by a whopping 15.5 games, team executives hired Madison Avenue ad icon Jerry Della Femina to expedite a team theme song, music video, and a half-hour documentary to sell on VHS. Della Femina recruited Palmer to bring it home. The ad creative dismisses comparisons to the Chicago Bears' "Super Bowl Shuffle," released a few months earlier. "That was like a home video that was cute, and it was interesting," Palmer, 57, told Esquire. "But we were trying to make the Ben-Hur of sports videos."
"Let's Go, Mets" will rouse you. Alan Schwartzberg's opening drum solo and Ira Siegel's epic guitar slide justify seven consecutive highlights of diving infielders. Vocalist Tom Bernfeld, who sang backup on several Eric Clapton records, begs us to submit to fun with a salvo of "Lets go!"s. The rest of the video is one step away from a Lonely Island parody. Mets pitcher Roger McDowell greets the camera with a series of strategic pelvic thrusts. Cheerleaders perform the can-can. The boys wrestle in the dugout. Life is pure joy in the world of "Let's Go, Mets," a barrage of permed mullets, '80s celebrities, and enough cheese to slather two sleeves' worth of Ritz crackers. Palmer is a hit-maker. He spent 20 years churning out 45 minutes of music a week, and estimates spending about seven or eight days composing "Let's Go, Mets" with Gregory Smith and Hal Hackady. They asked themselves, "What could 50,000 people who are completely drunk and cheering for their team do together?" Hackady's optimistic lyrics—including the thumbs-up-inducing "We got the teamwork / to make the dream work"—paired with a mainstream sound that Palmer described as "L.A. corporate rock and roll, [like] Toto: very polished." Palmer later added his own backing vocals and supplemental keyboards to the track.
A 30-minute "Let's Go, Mets" documentary depicts Palmer unveiling the song for the players before a mid-August road game in Philadelphia. "They wanted to know what we expected from them," he says in voiceover. "We wanted to know if they could rock and roll." The late Mets catcher Gary Carter, whom Palmer describes as "such a gentleman," nodded and offered a polite smile as he and his teammates heard it for the first time. Many of his peers were stone-faced. Palmer remained head cheerleader, out of necessity: "When I told everybody what the plan was [for the video], at first, there was a classic group dynamic, like, 'I ain't gonna do that.'" He found refuge in at least two early allies: Carter, and eventual World Series hero Mookie Wilson, who, Palmer said, "thought this whole thing was hilarious, but didn't know quite what to do about it."
Summer sun melted away their teammates' too-cool-for-school façade. McDowell wound up game for almost anything; he shoves a bat sideways into a back pocket of his uniform pants and juggles baseballs in the video. Young slugger Daryl Strawberry and back-up catcher Ed Hearn grabbed bats and played them like electric guitars. And when all the players grinned and tossed their caps into the air for a freeze-frame, Palmer realized they were going to make it after all.
"It was fun," outfielder Lee Mazzilli later told the documentary crew. He believed the players expected the worst and came out feeling like it was not quite the worst. "[We] kind of shed the outside and let the inner-goofiness come out," McDowell, the Mets' resident poet, said in the behind-the-scenes film. "That's what it's about. We're not superhuman people. We're just regular people who like to have fun. We're just in the spotlight, on TV, looked up to by kids. We're as goofy as the next guy, be it a doctor, lawyer or the garbage collector."
Fans got into it, too. Shea Stadium was packed when Palmer, in a quest for B-roll, grabbed a public-address mic and shouted directions to tens of thousands of frenetic Mets fans. On his command, the crowd pumped their arms in the air while shouting the song's primal title. "It is the definition of power," he declared. "The biggest orchestras I ever conducted— the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road— 100 pieces. But a chorus of 55,000-ish people? I'm sorry, that's mind-blowing."
And like most trends involving a camera, celebrities from A- to D-list jumped on the bandwagon. "I thought, 'We'll put a lot of real famous people in it, and it will be awesome,'" Palmer said. "And, of course, that's not exactly what happened." Featuring at least 16 celebrity cameos ranging from transcendent (Tony Bennett, Howard Stern) to more era-specific faces (Joe Piscopo, Twisted Sister), the video crams its "hey, that guy!" moments into a repetitive, 12-second "Let's go, Mets go!" montage that feels far, far longer.
When the "Let's Go, Mets" music video premiered at Shea Stadium before an Aug. 29 Mets-Dodgers game, "fans cheered loudly for their players, [but] when we didn't have the players on the screen, they went silent," Palmer said. "By the end of the song, they had learned to sing the song, which I thought was amazing … but if I had to recut, I would have made it all baseball action: Mets porn."
Within three months of its Shea Stadium debut, the "Let's Go Mets" song sold more than 50,000 copies and was certified gold. The video went on to achieve triple platinum status, according to Palmer. Oh, and the Mets won the 1986 World Series.
"Thirty years ago, did you really think that working on a little music video, in the age of music videos, was going to matter?" he asked himself. "And a music video for a sports team!?"
Sure, but c'mon: it was the Mets. The Great Plains states were waiting for this.
Megan Fox, starring in 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,' is red carpet-ready – but would rather avoid all the glitz.
Chris Serico • New York Daily News • Aug. 3, 2014
If it were up to Megan Fox, she’d leave the red-carpet life for good.
“It’s never something that I really enjoyed, so, I’ve always tried to stay away from it as much as possible,” the actress told the New York Daily News during a candid interview about her career, her family and her troubled “Transformers” co-star, Shia LaBeouf. “When you’re promoting a movie, you have to be out on the red carpet – that’s just part of it – but that was never a choice.”
With appearances at the Kids’ Choice Sports Awards and San Diego Comic-Con, Fox has been sucking it up to promote her new movie, a reboot of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” franchise that grossed more than a quarter-billion at the box office in the early ’90s. Like reporter April O’Neill, whom she plays in the film that premieres Friday, Fox has been known for her fearlessness in media.
“I think that’s something you’re born with,” she said. “Maybe not in all cases, but a lot of people that have made it to that sort of level of fame have to be a strong person.”
The box-office bombshell has relied on that strength ever since paparazzi hollered for her at screenings for the first live-action “Transformers” movie in 2007. Many in mainstream media declared her the hot, young mainstream actress of the moment – with multiple outlets comparing her to Angelina Jolie – but Fox said she wasn’t really thinking much about it at the time, when she was in her early 20s.
“I was just trying to figure out who I was,” she told the News. “I’ve never been somebody who gets on the Internet and reads about myself. It’s so damaging to the psyche and to emotional well-being.”
The Hollywood gossip mill and Internet trolls exhaust her. In 2009, while engaged to her husband – “Beverly Hills 90210” alumnus Brian Austin Green – she denied rumors she was dating LaBeouf. Later, stories swirled about her feud with “Transformers” director Michael Bay, a “Turtles” producer with whom, she claims, she’s since made amends. And in 2010, when she joked to a red-carpet reporter that she was “a man,” some mongers ran with that claim on the Web.
“I don’t understand why people don’t have common sense and can’t identify sarcasm or, you know, some kind of self-deprecating humor, but people don’t expect that coming from me, for some reason,” she said with a sigh. “There have been so many salacious, ridiculous stories about me in the past. They were all asinine.”
There’s a reason Fox, who “definitely [does] not” consider herself sensitive, has advice for young actresses: “If you have an insecurity issue or if you seek your validation through the opinions of others, the industry is not for you, because it will tear you to pieces and you will not survive.”
For this and other reasons, she raved about Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence, not just for her talent and versatility, but also for being a fellow “fearless female” in show business.
“I definitely think she’s ruling the world right now,” Fox added.
And that’s fine with Fox, who calls herself a “homebody,” and says she wants to limit her work to “one or two” projects per year. When she takes on new roles, she laments the time it takes time away from her family, which includes her husband; their sons Noah, who turns 2 next month, and Bodhi, who was born in February; and her 12-year-old stepson, Kassius.
“You’re working sometimes 16 to 18 hours a day, and that makes it really hard to spend time with your children,” she said. “So, the process has been difficult for me emotionally – it’s different for everyone, I guess – but I feel like I’m being pulled in two different directions.”
Sleepless nights, she added, compound the problem.
“People always tell you when you’re pregnant, ‘Sleep as much as you can now, because once your children are born, you’ll never sleep again,’ and you’re like ‘OK,’” she said with a laugh. “But it’s true. You don’t ever sleep the same. Also, I was not prepared for how much I was going to worry. I worry every moment of every day about their safety, and I’m going to for the rest of my life.”
One guy she says she’s not concerned about is LaBeouf, despite his public Manhattan meltdown June 26, when he was ejected from Broadway’s “Cabaret” for disruptive behavior, and reportedly spit on a cop in the aftermath, leading to trespassing, disorderly conduct and harassment charges.
“I’m not worried about Shia,” said Fox, who perked up at the mention of his name. “I love my Shia. He’s perfectly fine. I haven’t talked to him in a couple of years, but I don’t worry about him. He’s a brilliant kid; he’s a talented kid, funny. … He’s going to be all good. There’s no reason to worry.”
Perhaps she was thinking of his Indiana Jones affiliation when the News asked about her fantasy lifestyle, far from the flashbulbs of the red carpet.
“I would be archaeologist,” she said with a laugh, “on the search for the Ark of the Covenant.”
Rob Reiner: Hollywood no longer 'makes movies about real people''
Chris Serico • New York Daily News • July 22, 2014
Ask Bronx native Rob Reiner about climbing out of the director’s chair and stepping in front of the lens, and the man who earned five Golden Globe nominations for acting on CBS’s “All in the Family” star will offer a broad smile.
“I love acting; it’s fun. I don’t have any responsibilities,” Reiner told the New York Daily News during a junket interview for his latest directorial effort, “And So It Goes,” premiering July 25.
Yes, he has a small part in the rom-com as the toupée-wearing Artie, a bumbling pianist who accompanies amateur singer Leah (Diane Keaton) when she isn’t sparring with her cranky landlord, real estate maven Oren Little (Michael Douglas).
More than a decade before taking on this role and another as the flummoxed father of corrupt stockbroker Jordan Belfort in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Reiner was overjoyed when fellow director Ron Howard asked him to appear in the 1999 movie “EdTV.” Reiner claimed he didn’t even read the script before accepting the gig.
“I said, ‘If it’s no good, it’s not my fault! You know, if it stinks, I didn’t do it,’” he added. “To me, acting is like a party. It’s like a fun thing to do. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to agonize about anything.”
But one can understand why Reiner appreciates the rigors of life behind the camera, as his diverse directing résumé includes critical darlings (“Stand By Me,” “The Sure Thing,” and an Academy Award nomination for “A Few Good Men”); box-office hits (“The Bucket List,” “When Harry Met Sally…”); and cult classics (“This is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride”).
“When I was doing ‘All in the Family,’ half the time, I was looking at where the cameras were, where were the other actors in the scene, what the audience was doing,” he said. “I’m always looking at the overall [picture].”
Often, that picture is framed by complicated relationships. While the ages of his subjects may shift – from adolescents in “Flipped,” to college kids in “The Sure Thing,” to young adults in “When Harry Met Sally…,” to older adults in “And So It Goes” – the dynamic, he says, remains the same.
“Women, they’re just more evolved than men,” he said. “They’re born more mature. You know, they always say girls mature faster than boys. It’s not true; they are more mature than boys, and they stay more mature than boys their whole lives. They know what’s important.”
Reiner sold “And So It Goes” as an opportunity for audiences to revel in watching two Oscar winners in Douglas and Keaton have fun playing off each other on the big screen. And reuniting with Douglas, whom Reiner directed nearly 20 years ago in “The American President,” proved just as entertaining for the director when the cameras weren’t rolling.
“He was great then, and he’s always been a terrific actor, but he is really getting better,” Reiner said. “His craft is just honed. I mean, look at the work he did [as] Liberace [in HBO’s ‘Behind the Candelabra’]. It’s just an amazing piece of work. And I think he’s better now than he’s ever been. And I love working with him.”
It’s an experience he doesn’t appear to take for granted. Sympathizing with the arduous process it took Scorsese to fund “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Reiner says the work it takes to direct a movie pales in comparison to the effort to get it even off the ground.
“They make three types of movies, and if you don’t make one of those three, you have to find independent financing: It’s either big-action superhero tent-pole thing or it’s an animated film or it’s an R-rated, raunchy sex comedy,” he lamented. “They don’t make movies about real people.”
Perhaps movie producers can make it up to Reiner by reprising his role as a delivery boy on the original “Batman” television series.
“Come on!” he said with a laugh. “The reality is that that franchise would’ve gone nowhere without my performance.”
Here's a map of "Mad Men's" Westchester County hot spots I plotted for The Journal News, as well as my related articles that earned honors from the New York Associated Press Association for entertainment coverage.
Chris Serico • Newsday • March 29, 2013 • Photo: Newspixs
Mandy Patinkin's versatility as a performer is so impressive that he can go from playing CIA Division Chief Saul Berenson on the gritty Showtime drama, "Homeland," to headlining Tarrytown Music Hall with his cabaret show, "Dress Casual," without missing a beat.
Golden Globe-nominated for his performance on "Homeland," Patinkin told Newsday Westchester last week that it's incredible that two of the Emmy Award-winning series' biggest fans are American presidents.
THE START OF 'HOMELAND'
When his agent called him to consider "Homeland" in November 2010, Patinkin said he went out of his way to make the role happen -- going so far as to shoot pilot scenes in Charlotte, N.C., during mornings before flying back to New York City to attend evening dress rehearsals for a staging of "Compulsion" at the Public Theater.
"I actually almost wasn't able to make the pilot," he said. "The scheduling was rather precarious ... but everybody [bore] down and they made it work."
When Showtime picked up "Homeland" as a series, Patinkin, 60, said the cast and crew were confident that they were making something special.
"Even the young ones knew that this doesn't come along every day," he said. "And, believe me, I kept reminding them."
Once "Homeland" started airing, viewers and Emmy voters seemed to share his enthusiasm.
"It was sort of like meeting the love of your life -- and you know how you feel -- but then the day comes when you have to bring your future mate to meet your family and friends," he said. "Then you bring this person home, and then you realize that they feel the same way you do."
AN ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER
If Patinkin is used to the accolades he's earned over the last 35 years, he certainly doesn't seem to tire of them. An Emmy Award winner for portraying Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on CBS' "Chicago Hope," Patinkin's first big break arguably occurred when he won a Tony Award in 1980 for playing Ché in "Evita," his Broadway debut.
And that's just part of his impressive show biz résumé. On TV, he appeared on Showtime's "Dead Like Me" before carrying CBS' "Criminal Minds" for three seasons. On Broadway, he was nominated for a second Tony for his performance in "Sunday in the Park with George." In the studio, he's recorded several eclectic albums, including "Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim" and "Mamaloshen," a compilation of Yiddish songs. And on the silver screen, he's been in "Yentl," "Ragtime" and "Dick Tracy." But perhaps he's never had a more endearing cinematic role than that of swashbuckling swordsman Inigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride."
Asked why "The Princess Bride" continues to resonate more than 25 years after its theatrical release, Patinkin referred to a conversation he once had with the movie's director, former New Rochelle resident Rob Reiner.
"I said, 'The Princess Bride' has so many stories, for God's sake; how would you say that in one sentence?'" Patinkin said. "And he didn't even hesitate. He said, 'It's easy: A little boy is sick, his grandpa comes over to read him a story to tell him the most important thing in life is true love.'"
A CABARET SHOW AT TARRYTOWN
With "Homeland" in between seasons, Patinkin has more time to pursue side projects, like his cabaret show, "Dress Casual," which headlines the Music Hall this Saturday night. The one-man show offers his unique interpretations of show tunes and popular standards by musical masters. And Patinkin does it all with piano accompaniment by his longtime friend, Paul Ford, the original pianist for Broadway productions of "Sunday in the Park with George," "Into the Woods" and "Assassins."
"Every show we do is different," he said. "It's the show tunes show, and it's called 'Dress Casual,' but I [also] call it the smorgasbord or the pops concert. It's a mixture of everything, so, a lot of [Stephen] Sondheim and Yip Harburg and Randy Newman and Tom Waits."
For decades, the duo has teamed up for these kinds of concert performances, but something Ford said to Patinkin after their first such collaboration led to an epiphany for the actor.
"He said, 'Listen to me' -- and I get choked up every time I think about this -- he said, 'You're always going to need to do both of these things: You're going to need to do literature and the classics and profound material, and you're going to need to couple it with your music. And you're not going to be happy unless you find a way to do them both,'" Patinkin recalled. "And he was damn right."
Although Patinkin admitted that making a living as an actor has its liabilities -- even the most prolific projects only last a few years, he noted -- there's nothing else he'd rather do.
"What I've loved about my job is every play, every movie, every TV show, every recording, every concert you know is going to be over before you even show up to start," he said. "All in all, they're very short, so the addiction is always knowing there's a change coming: a change of material, a change of experience, a chance of meeting new people."
And not just people like Ford and Sondheim. In the 1978 Off-Broadway production of "Split," Patinkin met co-star Kathryn Grody, who'd become his wife.
"We have no idea what our future is," Patinkin said. "To embrace the unknown is thrilling. And I feel so lucky to be alive, as corny as it sounds. I hope I get a lot more time, but I've had one of the greatest lives in the world. I have the most beautiful family and friends and work. And I hope I get more. I'm a selfish pig. I want more and more and more."
*****
Patinkin told Newsday Westchester about the Inigo Montoya quote from "The Princess Bride" that most resonates with him to this day — and it's not the one you might think.
What's the one you might think? Well, many fans of his swashbuckling swordsman character can recite this one verbatim: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
But Patinkin says that a few years ago, he was rewatching the end of "The Princess Bride" while preparing for one of his concert performances. In his late 50s at the time, he was taken aback by one of the other lines he'd been given.
"I [heard] 34-year-old Mandy say these words that I know I said, but I didn't pay attention to," Patinkin told me. "[Inigo says,] 'You know, [it's very strange], I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.' And, as a grown man, that, to me, is the line of the movie. I spent so many years as a young person, feeling things weren't good enough, being envious, being angry, full of revenge and anger — my father died early — and I realized what a gift that line was, and that young man didn't even hear it."
Chazz Palminteri bringing 'A Bronx Tale' to Port Chester
Chris Serico • Newsday's Hudson Buzz blog • March 18, 2013 • Photo: Handout
“As great as he is as an actor, he’s a great director,” Palminteri told me. “He’s just so caring for the actors — obviously, because he is a wonderful actor — and everything has to be perfect and right. And most important: All he does is care about the work. He just wants the work to be right. He listens to opinions. He’s very collaborative as a filmmaker.”
Palminteri has worked steadily ever since, with an Oscar-nominated performance in the Woody Allen 1994 film “Bullets Over Broadway” and a memorable turn a year later as a coffee-dropping detective in “The Usual Suspects.” More recently, he has been popping up on hit TV shows, with recurring roles on the TNT drama “Rizzoli & Isles” and ABC’s “Modern Family."
Palminteri also was slated to appear at the Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford late last year to raise money for an Armonk theater group, but that appearance still hasn't been rescheduled.
