First of many, I hope...

I have blogged on extratv.com (my show's website) but now welcome to my own personal blog. This will be exciting, because there is so much going on both at work and otherwise in my life which will be fodder for the blog. This week has been a busy one starting with the Oscar nominees luncheon at the Beverly Hilton hotel, where I had VERY revealing conversations with some of the nominees poolside. Amy Adams introduced her fiance for the first time, and Josh Brolin was getting work-out tips from the ripped Robert Downey, Jr. for his next role. (Downey still in great shape from Ironman and about to do the sequel). Anyway, fun day all the way around... followed up with interviews with Clive Owen (no, he's not sulking about the James Bond thing) and Naomi Watts (who just literally had her second kid, and is sleep-deprived beyond belief, but still going strong). Naomi told a story that I've never heard before. She talked about growing up very poor, and that getting a new pair of shoes was a real 'event' in her life. I was touched by her honesty, and then she got very candid about the economic downturn we're all experiencing, and shared her concern about her own finances... Not the kind of thing you expect a big movie star to share with you.

EXCITING NEWS

Many months ago, I filled out an on-line application to be a part of the Mini E one-year-long trial experiment. Mini Cooper (made by BMW) is testing an ALL-ELECTRIC Mini Cooper and only a couple hundred would be made available in California, with the same number available in the NY/NJ metro area (all because of the close proximity of Mini dealers in those areas). I applied like John Q. Citizen, and got a phone call last week from the Mini people saying that I was accepted and, in fact, was the very first phone call! I was like a kid getting his first bike. Now, let me be clear, this is not a freebie deal. This is a lease which I am paying and will have to give the car back at the end of the year-long trial. So no favors are being done here, and they are only accepting people who have a tremendous love for the car (which you had to express in your essay on the application) as well as a tremendous desire to leave less of a carbon footprint on our environment. The car gets, I've read, 150 miles to the charge and takes about 2 hrs or so of charging in your garage! How cool is this???! I cannot wait to get this car and will be blogging right here about the experience...

That's it for now, and we'll catch up later.