Originally published by The Huffington Post, 08 August 2014. "Women are making great strides in all professions, and I hope that I can draw inspiration from them and keep doing it in mine." Some know her as True Blood's sassy Southern ginger Arlene Bellefluer, while others fell in love with her as The Good Wife's deceptively ditzy Elsbeth Tascioni. But Carrie Preston also has her hands in directing and producing through her independent film company Daisy 3 Productions. What's more, Preston shadowed True Blood director Scott Winant on the finale episode, as she is critical of the dearth of female directors in the male-dominated industry and hopes for a future as an episodic director. I had a chance to chat with Preston about her history with True Blood, winning an Emmy, women in the industry and that now-famous pool table sex scene.   Will you tell me about the audition...

Originally published by The Huffington Post, 21 July 2014. Barbara Rosenblat's storied career includes time served on Broadway (pioneering the role of Mrs. Medlock in the Tony-winning The Secret Garden, among multiple others), more film and television roles than you could throw a pie at (Law and Order: SVU, Veep, Girls), and a nun-scattering behemoth of an audiobook career: she's narrated nearly 500 titles and even has an e-book on the subject. But you probably know her best as Orange is the New Black's Miss Rosa, the husky-voiced, curmudgeonly, terminal cancer patient who comes up for air just long enough to pluck a "tit hair" or knock off a bank. This week, I spent an hour chatting with Rosenblat about everything from Miss Rosa's future to her poignant fan letters and from Jodie Foster's interest in aforementioned tit hair to what piece of the set currently resides in her freezer....

Originally published by The Huffington Post, 11 September 2013. Jeanne Robertson is contagious-contagiously funny! When this 6-foot-2-inch-former Miss North Carolina (50 years ago!) was told she'd gone viral (on YouTube), she joked, "I don't think so, I've had all my shots?!" But the metaphor is fitting, y'all: I spoke with a long Southern drawl for a good two weeks after our first encounter, which raised more than a few eyebrows in my state of Wisconsin. On a rare visit north of the Mason Dixon line, Jeanne performed her one-woman show at the beautiful old Orpheum Theatre in the tiny town of Galesburg, Illinois. I, of course, arrived late for our meeting-constantly braking for Illinois' endless supply of cleverly-hidden patrol people. I raced into the lobby of her Holiday-Inn Express frantically searching for a quiet place I could find to interview her on camera. Although the sitting...

Originally published by The Huffington Post, 07 August 2013. He watches the computer monitor over his son's shoulder as web-embedded images from his life scroll across the screen interluded with tributes typed over a jarring green background spattered with stars. He's a father, a husband, and a teacher, the headline announces; he's Walter White, and he's "in trouble. It's lung cancer." As Walter White, Jr. (Junior), presents his website to his father, his mother, and his aunt, the immediate sense emoted is touching: Walt's face reveals his admiration, his adoration, and his deep-seeded pride in what his son is able to accomplish given the limits of the Cerebral Palsy that restrains him. But when his aunt whispers out the link to the site, "SaveWalterWhite.com," Walt's countenance quickly changes from honored humility to tentative panic: "Uh, wait a minute. You're not asking for...

Originally published by The Huffington Post, 05 June 2013. "Some people might say, though, that the gay rights movement has come such a long way. It wants everything all at once, and it just doesn't happen that way!" --Carol Costello, CNN I didn't give the FLOTUS heckling much thought until I ran across CNN Newsroom anchor Carol Costello's condescending interview with CNN analyst LZ Granderson. In the video, Costello mentions Obama's rising popularity, but, as Costello dismissively puts it, she's still subject to hecklers. In this introduction, we've a clear sense of how Costello will approach these "hecklers" throughout the rest of the interview, as if they are nothing more than nuisances who don't know their place. Costello makes a dismissive grimace when she reports the cause of the heckler, Ellen Sturtz: The LGBT community is not protected from workplace discrimination. Both...

Originally published by The Huffington Post, 15 March 2013. Last year, TechCrunch turned the social media circus on its side by reporting that Facebook was strongly considering integrating a "hate" button ahead of their IPO to boost interactions with the site. Scores of Facebookers, Tweeters, and Tumblrs alike took to their profiles to praise, debate, and/or protest the move by the social media giant because of its inevitable impact on our increasingly corporate-controlled culture. Those in favor argued that integrating such a button would tear an already-polarized world to extremes, bringing unnecessary bullying, fighting, and negativity to a cyberspace and social media sphere long overrun by hate. Those in support of the button believed it would give them a platform from which to publicly air their grievances with big businesses, political leaders/political movements, celebrities...

Originally published in Antenna from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, 22 March 2013. From Oz the Great and Powerful – Kansas once again represented monochromatically A small Kansas carnival, 1905: From the four corners of the earth, acts to delight, to thrill, and to mystify. There’s a fire breather, a strong man, a stilt walker. A mammoth hot-air balloon looms in the distance and beyond that clouds promise a wicked storm. A magician cowers in his wagon after a young paralyzed girl begs him to walk again. She naively believed in his powers, as did her parents and all the good, simple-minded Kansans in attendance. A knock on the door reveals the magician’s sometimes-love, Annie, who has come to tell him of her engagement–to see if he wants her back. “You could do a lot worse than John Gale, he’s a good man,” Oz explains. “I’m not. I’m many things, but a good man is not...