The Golden Globe Experience

First up, around 9am, was Jeremy Piven who was nominated for the third year in row for his role on HBO's "Entourage" (which by the way I am missing like crazy!) I can't wait 'til it comes back in March paired with the final season of "The Sopranos." While Jeremy deservedly won the Emmy in September, he's been missing out on the Globe. I love me some Ari Gold but admittedly I'm torn here, now that Justin Kirk of Showtime's incredibly funny and so much better than "Desperate Housewives" take on suburbia, "Weeds" plus the infectious, Hiro, Masi Oka from "Heroes" are also nominated in this category.

Jeremy is first in my heart though because he is always such a joy to interview. So funny. So full of life. So ready to play when the cameras roll. When Shaun Robinson presented him with our congratulatory cake he blessed it with a Jewish prayer which had me near tears. I was laughing so hard. My Jewish mother would be so proud. I'm sure his is too. Shaun was his first interview but not the first person Jeremy had spoken too. While there doing press for his film, "Smoking Aces," he ran into one of his heroes.. retired basketball great, Scottie Pippen, of Piven's hometown Chicago Bulls. Scottie congratulated him on his GG nomination early that morning. Leave it to Shaun to make Jeremy take her straight to Scottie, whose room was down the hall. Scottie played along with us and it was all caught on tape.

In a moment that will stick with me forever (since it's never happened to me in all my years in the entertainment business) Jeremy looks at me and says "Do you remember me? You were at my house in Malibu." Um hello! Of course I remember. Usually, I'm asking the celebrity if they remember that time I interviewed them. The day in question would be Emmy nomination morning, this past July, when Jeremy so graciously let crews into his home and even had breakfast waiting for all of us. Oh, and Jeremy if you are reading this, I was hoping for a little bacon and eggs this morning but I realize you're busy!

9:30am Jeremy was off to interview with other TV outlets and we were off to interview Forest Whitaker about his nomination for the film "The Last King of Scotland." He finally shows up 45 minutes late around 10:30am forcing us to quickly hoof it across town to interview Maggie Gyllenhaal, nominated for the film "Sherrybaby." She and her people have been waiting for us to show up but just as I arrive at 11:15am, I'm informed that Maggie can't wait any longer because she needs to leave to go feed her baby (10 week old Ramona). The baby has woken up and needs her mama. Nice to see a Hollywood mom has her priorities straight. However, I have a job to do so I frantically call my crew to see where they are. Turns out they were walking into the hotel. So, we pull Maggie aside right by the entrance and do our interview there. Then bang, she is off for a feeding.

Meanwhile, our producer, Bryant Huddleston, who was with Tony Potts at the early morning announcement, had just left the Four Seasons where they interviewed nominee Penelope Cruz. Here's Bryant's take on nomination morning:

Well Salty, after leaving the nomination announcements at the Beverly Hilton early this morning I cruised over to the Four Seasons. I got there just after 6:30 a.m. and soon after nominee Penelope Cruz showed up with her dog. She told us that she had stayed up all night with her girlfriends including Salma Hayek. She had eaten ten pancakes but still had a bite of the cake we delivered to her as a Golden Globe surprise. Sweet and surprisingly approachable is what I found. You could tell she had been crying. Her nomination for the Spanish film, "Volver", which she says is the first time a Spanish actress has been nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes. This is for sure one of the best days of her life.

Later this morning, I ended up at my favorite pastime-the set of "Heroes." We first interviewed Masi Oka who was nominated for Supporting Actor. Such a down-to-earth gracious guy. He is doing his best to get his mom (who lives in Japan) to LA to attend the Globes with him. He admitted he cried for fifteen minutes after hearing the first of over 80 messages on his cell phone. The moment was overwhelming. Later his cast joined us. We waited nearly 15 minutes before starting because the cheerleader, Hayden Panettiere, was searching for the right blouse. We waited and waited. She showed up and delivered as usual. She admitted that at VH1's "Big in '06" award show, last week, the lead singer of Supernova, Lukas Rossi, hit on her. She better get ready for more of that. She's not only a beautiful girl but she's got spunk. She will be a big star. Hayden and the cast devoured the red velvet cake we were passing out as congratulations gifts. But I have to say my favorite moment of the day was meeting their co-star, Adrian Pasdar. Not only is he incredible on the show but he is married to one of my favorite ladies...the outspoken, say it like it is Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. I admitted to him that my photo of me with Natalie and the other chicks is on my Christmas card this year. He was delighted to hear it. He did let me know without telling me too much that there's a big turn coming up with his character the senator-wanna-be. But apparently this hero can't keep a secret. He's already told his little boy. - Bryant Huddleston

Also out on the Golden Globe hunt was our producer Kristin Smith who was getting her first taste of the craziness that is Golden Globe morning. Here is her take on it all:

This was my first Golden Globe nominations and it was pretty much a whirlwind from start to finish. As near as I can figure there are 2 words that equal success on a morning like this: coordination and communication. As a producer, you're trying to coordinate a lot of people on very different schedules, and also communicate as clearly, quickly, and concisely as possible with the producers who are writing back at the office, trying desperately to make the 1PM show feed. My morning began on the set of "Ugly Betty". My crew (which included a cameraman who'd been working since 4AM) and I arrived at 8am only to find out that our talent, Tony Potts, was stuck in traffic in Santa Monica (coming from a different nomination shoot), so he wouldn't be there until 9am -- at best. America Ferrera had to go back to shooting by 9:15AM, so I was trying to stall the publicist as long as possible without losing America. Thankfully, Tony walked in right at the last possible second and we got rolling immediately.

As the interview is going on, I get a call from my Production Coordinator to be at the set of "Grey's Anatomy". When? Now. Right now! Nancy O'Dell is there, ready and waiting. So myself, the crew, and Tony finished up with the adorable America, as quickly as we could, and jetted over to "Grey's Anatomy." At first, we were relieved to find out the cast wasn't ready yet and we hadn't missed anything. Then as the minutes ticked by -- and we got closer and closer to show feed time -- the nerves kicked in. Finally, we got Katherine Heigl and Patrick Dempsey, and fearing the late hour (around 11:15am) we sent that footage back to the office via satellite from a strategically pre-positioned feed truck. Just as Nancy was being called back to the office we got Ellen Pompeo and Nancy was able to interview her -- another close call! We fed back the rest of the footage and then -- after waiting around a bit to make sure there wasn't any last minute shooting that needed to happen -- we all head back to the Burbank office, wrapping up quite a morning! - Kristin Smith

Thanks guys! You know, it's interesting even for me to read the other people's take. And also a big shout out to everyone who is back here in the office writing the pieces for the show. It's not easy trying to produce a piece when you don't get your interviews until an hour or so before the show feeds. Hey, it's all in day's work here at Access Hollywood!

Be sure and check out our Golden Globe page for more info, video and everything you need to know leading up the awards on Monday, January 15th. Plus, I'll be there giving you live updates of all the action from the red carpet.

http://www.accesshollywood.com/goldenglobes/