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Today's cuppa: Scottish breakfast tea

Each week, as part of our syndicated feature package, we do a column devoted to music on television. I suggested talking to someone whose day job is very far removed from music, but whose private life is full of melody and rhythm...

Lauren Green finds freedom on 'Huckabee'

By Kate O'Hare

©Zap2it

Usually when Fox News Channel viewers see Lauren Green, she's either talking about news -- which she used to do daily as news anchor for the morning show "Fox & Friends" -- or she's talking about faith as FNC's religion correspondent.

But there's another side to the former Miss Minnesota -- she's a concert pianist with a degree in piano performance from the University of Minnesota. And she released a CD, "Classic Beauty," in 2004.

While Green says that dealing with the neurological disorder dystonia keeps her from performing up to classical concert standards these days, she still keeps the keyboard fingers warm as part of the Little Rockers, the house band on Fox News' weekend talk show "Huckabee," starring former Arkansas governor, GOP presidential candidate and bass player Mike Huckabee.

"This is a real experience for me," Green says. "When they asked me to do this, I said, 'You do understand that I'm a classical pianist. I don't play country, pop, that kind of stuff.' They're like, 'Oh, yeah, it'll be fine.'

"So the first rehearsal was so interesting. I'd gotten the music, and I was practicing, and I realized the drums and the bass and the guitar take over most of the melody, and the keyboards are really there to fill it out.

"So I don't have to worry about doing all of that, which is what I was doing before, trying to play the whole piece. What I've learned is now I'm basically filling in and adding texture, color -- musicwise."

After spending her musical career in the rarefied air of classical piano, Green has cut loose playing with Huckabee's pop and country guests and with the band, which is chiefly made up of behind-the-scenes FNC staffers.

"What I've learned," Green says, "in playing with the governor is the freedom of the music. I was always so tied to the written music, the notated music.

"Working with pop musicians without very much training, formally, there's a lot of freedom involved in music that is so wonderful to be a part of."

As for singing, Green says, "Not on the show. A couple of times, somebody has asked me to do a couple background things. I think I did OK in rehearsal, then when the show was on the air, I really just forgot everything, and I just didn't sing at all."

Asked when her fellow Minnesota native, pop star Prince, was going to be on "Huckabee" and play with the Little Rockers, Green says, "I know! He should. I haven't really kept in contact with Prince -- not that I was ever really in contact with Prince -- but whenever I'm in contact with him, I'll say, 'Hey, want to be on "Huckabee?" ' That'll be my opening line."

Because of her classical focus, Green isn't familiar with many of the guest musicians who've sat in with the band -- except one.

"Well," she says, "Rick Springfield  -- he was like a heartthrob for me years ago.

"But I didn't play with him. I think he played with Mike himself, a solo thing. But I was there  when they recorded it, so it was nice to be around."

She also became a new fan of one country star.

"Oh, Aaron Tippin," she says, "I love Aaron Tippin. We played with him twice. He was just wonderful. I really like him, and I didn't know who he was before."

As a religion reporter, she also got to have an interesting behind-the-scenes talk with Rick Stanley, the stepbrother of Elvis Presley.

"We had discussions about Elvis," she says, "and his spirituality and what he believed. He was a tormented sinner. I thought that was really powerful."

In addition to her FNC duties, Green is busy writing a book called "A Living Reality," exploring the universal implications of the First Commandment, and being host of the one-hour "God Talk," a segment of the Fox News online show "The Strategy Room," presented Fridays.

But when it's suggested the Little Rockers should release a CD, Green says, "Oh, you'll have to talk to Mike about that. We kid a lot that we should be on tour."

Tonight's cuppa: decaf Irish breakfast tea

Click here for a bit of wish fulfillment for anyone who's had to deal with people who break my number-one rule of using Twitter -- don't be boring.

Then click here for a good reason to close the lid on those piano keys at night. You just never know what Kitty is doing when you're not looking.

Click here for my latest eGuiders video recommendation, a little ditty that pays tribute to a book that's never at a loss for words.

Today's cuppa: decaf Irish breakfast tea

First up, click here for my latest eGuiders video pick, a pretty sweet music video by the Japanese band Sour.

Next, click here for a shortened version of my syndicated feature story on the new Syfy Channel (formerly known as Sci Fi Channel) series "Warehouse 13," which premieres Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, fitting the story for newspaper space cut out the quotes in it from series star Eddie McClintock, and that's unacceptable -- and not just because he's my Facebook friend and an all-around good guy (you can see him at right, with co-star Joanne Kelly).

So, I'm waiting on a proofed copy of the full text of the story from the home office, and as soon as it arrives, I'll drop it in here. And if you're very good, I just may toss in some bonus McClintock for good measure.

UPDATE: As promised, here is the full text of the "Warehouse 13" feature story. You have been very good indeed, but I'll save the new McClintock for a separate post later on ..

All sorts of new things in Syfy's 'Warehouse 13'

By Kate O'Hare

©Zap2it

On Tuesday, July 7, a popular cablenet gets a new name, along with opening the door to a passel of mysterious artifacts and enigmatic relics.

With the two-hour premiere of "Warehouse 13," Sci Fi Channel becomes Syfy and shakes up its on-screen image, hoping to expand its audience even further beyond science-fiction fans and guys who'd watch Tricia Helfer in anything.

Luckily for those guys, statuesque blonde Helfer is one of the guest stars in the self-proclaimed "thrilleromedy," which focuses on two Secret Service agents -- Peter Lattimer and Myka Bering (Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly) -- who save the life of the president and wind up transferred to a storage facility called Warehouse 13.

Located in South Dakota, the top-secret bunker houses a collection of bizarre objects, all under the care of long-time Secret Service agent Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), who answers to Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder, "The Shield").

"Everybody is a closet conspiracist," says Jack Kenny ("The Book of Daniel," who executive produces with David Simkins ("The Dresden Files"). "We all want to think, 'Oooh, there is all this stuff going on that we don't know about.'

"And, you know, there probably is a bunch of stuff we don't know about and probably don't want to know about. We like the idea that there's a warehouse out there that houses everything the government doesn't know what to do with but needs to safeguard and protect."

According to Kenny, it's not just an American thing.

"We've gone beyond the U.S. government of it all," he says. "In the mythology, this is the 13th iteration of the warehouse. The first one was the library at Alexandria, maybe. All through the centuries, the warehouse has been moved to whatever empire was in power at the time that could protect it.

"It currently happens to be in the United States. Maybe, during the '40s, there was a slight chance that the warehouse was going to move to Germany. Fortunately, it didn't.

"There's a group called the Regents -- Frederic's bosses -- that controls the warehouse and deals with its relationships with various governments."

He also emphasizes that we're not talking about alien bodies from Roswell or anything of that sort.

"We don't want to go into alien stuff," Kenny says, "because it stretches the point of believability. Every one of these artifacts, we want to be absolutely viable."

"We had a very strong mandate," Simkins says, "to make sure the artifacts are not extraterrestrial, are not supernatural, are not mythological.

"The artifacts come from history; they come from science. They come from strong-willed individuals (like) Lucrezia Borgia. All the artifacts are based in reality.

"You could go to Wikipedia or Google and look this stuff up."

Luckily for science-fiction fans, while the artifacts may not be from outer space, a few of the guest stars have worked there.

Along with Helfer, there's her "Battlestar Galactica" co-star Michael Hogan, and "Stargate Atlantis" star Joe Flanigan.

Other guest stars include Ivan Sergei ("Charmed"), James Naughton ("Gossip Girl"), Roger Rees ("The West Wing") and Erica Cerra ("Eureka").

"Warehouse 13" also has some pretty impressive names from the science-fiction genre who worked on it during its development, including Jane Espenson ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Battlestar Galactica"), Ronald D. Moore ("Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Battlestar Galactica") and Rockne O'Bannon ("Alien Nation," "Farscape").

Along with these heavyweight credentials, the show also promises a sense of humor. For example, there's the purple goo.

"Generally," says McClintock, "I would say we work at least 12 to 13 hours a day, and we get to do a lot of running and stunts -- and then there's purple goo. We get purple goo squirted all over us.

"The purple goo is a big story point. It's called neutralizer, and when we put an artifact into the purple neutralizer, it takes all its power away and makes it easier to transport.

"The purple goo is a running theme throughout the episodes. It's made of purple dye and K-Y Jelly. We use it, shoot and then we have a kind of Roman orgy afterwards."

While McClintock is just kidding -- one assumes -- about the orgy, relationships are at the heart of the show.

"This is a dysfunctional family," Kenny says. "There are two opposites, brother and sister, with a kind of crazy, demanding dad that doesn't tell them everything they need to know, but they keep going anyway.

"It's that family dynamic, both dramatically and comedically, that makes this show different from most of the shows that Syfy has done."

Apparently the family dynamic carries through both on- and off-screen.

"I look at myself," McClintock says, "as the kid brother who's always pulling Joanne's pigtails, and she's always punching me in the arm and yelling for her mom.

"I'm constantly at her, and it's the same thing that Pete and Myka are going through now, these growing pains."

Today's cuppa: office coffee

By happenstance, when I went on Shaun Daily's TV Talk show on blogtalkradio.com yesterday for my regular Thursday appearance, it was just a few hours after the death of Farrah Fawcett and scant minutes before the confirmation of the death of Michael Jackson.

I come in at roughly the half-hour mark. Prior to me, Shaun pays tribute to Farrah; we talk about her then move on to the breaking Jackson news, which I was following on TV before and while talking to Shaun. I was a Jackson fan as a kid, so it was a strange confluence of events for me.

Click here for the podcast version of the broadcast.

A lot of people are having a lot to say about Jackson especially, since his demise was so sudden, his fame and infamy so widespread and with the existence of ongoing questions about his physical and mental state and cause of death.

On the way to work today, I listened to Dennis Prager's radio show, and he had a searching, thoughtful conversation (a Prager specialty) with counselor and TLC TV personality ("Shalom in the Home") Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

Access to Prager's podcasts (for a price) can be found here, but the main topic of conversation was Boteach's friendship with Jackson, his ultimately unsuccessful attempts to help the pop star put his life back on track and a piece Boteach wrote for the Jerusalem Post. Click here for that.

Click here for a more sharp-edged take on Jackson's life and death from wicked smart and wickedly witty columnist Mark Steyn.

Lastly, just when disturbing videos and Internet reports of the violent struggle for freedom in Iran -- including the horrifying shooting of a lovely young woman -- and the deaths of celebrities you've known since childhood, may throw a dark pall over the world, glory still shines through the clouds.

Click here for blogger The Anchoress' embedded link to a beautiful video from "America's Got Talent" of a performance by three wonderful children who sang their comatose mother back to consciousness.

I link to the blog instead of the video directly because I like what The Anchoress has to say on the topics of toxic fame and God-given talent (and she did introduce me to Mystic Monk coffee, for which I will always be grateful).

For more with "AGT" judge Piers Morgan, including a link to a story where he talks about these very children, click here for an earlier post.

UPDATE: Lisa Marie Presley has posted an open letter about her relationship with Jackson. Very interesting, revealing and provocative.

Today's cuppa: Office coffee -- yes, office coffee! I've missed you, office coffee. OK, not really.

Today was the last day of the Television Critics Association Press Tour, which was really more of an actual tour, because TV critics were able to visit sets both at Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. I had to give up WB to knock out some work in the office, but I did head to Fox in the afternoon for a visit to the set of Joss Whedon's upcoming Fox series "Dollhouse" (not airing until January) and a table read of the 250th episode of the animated Fox series "King of the Hill."

More on that later, once I assemble all my materials, but meantime, here's a story that I can just about guarantee you will not appear on any other TV critic blog. Of course, after you read it, you may think it was better left that way, but here goes.

It all starts with some hair -- not just any hair, but rockstar hair -- which ended its useful life on Monday, July 21, in a wastebasket in room 704 of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Here's the story as related to me via email by publicist pal Carina Sayles, former occupant of said room.

She writes, "Hair stylist to the stars Daniel Erdman was at TCA to do hair for Bar Refaeli, host of Bravo's 'Ironic Iconic America' and supermodel girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio.

"While the lovely Bar is in her electronic interviews in the Executive Suite of the Beverly Hilton, Daniel goes over to hang out in the hair/makeup touch-up room that NBC has set up and runs into his friend Gilby Clarke ('Rock Star Supernova'), who is distressed that his locks do not look their best.

"Having time to kill and his shears at hand, Daniel starts snipping away quickly at Gilby's head -- after first asking permission to use a chair of the head NBC hair girl, who grants it. Nonetheless, an NBC staffer (who I shall not name; he's a nice guy but was very tense at the time) responsible for 'moving everything along' in the interviews and keeping all on schedule, comes in, sees the haircut in progress and freaks out, asking Daniel to stop, Gilby to vacate the chair and for the hair to be cleaned up.

"Bar wraps up her interviews and Daniel is given a break. Feeling a need for a respite from the madness, Daniel retreats to the room of the 'Ironic Iconic' publicist, who kindly lends him her key so he can decompress. Said publicist has to go set up for the next round of interviews anyhow.

"'Ironic Iconic' publicist eventually makes it back to her now-empty room to change for the NBC All-Star Party, and when she goes to toss out a tissue, spies a basketful of rockstar hair. Back in Bar's makeup area, she asks Daniel, 'Is there Guns 'N Roses hair in my wastebasket, Daniel?' He replies that indeed there is and explains the traumatic (but funny) situation..."

At this point, I entered the story, having seen the lovely Carina -- while I was interviewing Robin Dunne of the upcoming Sci Fi series "Sanctuary" -- and accepted her offer of her room as a resting place for my computer bag during the party. I spied the hair in the wastebasket, and as a big fan of "Rock Star Supernova" (and its predecessor "Rock Star INXS") and a frequent attendee at Sunday-afternoon tapings for both shows, I snapped a photo of the tresses.

Carina continues the story, "'Ironic Iconic' publicist is very excited at the prospect of taking a lock of the hair back to her 13-year-old son, who's a major 'Rock Star Supernova' fan" -- hear that CBS?? -- "However, she cannot quite bring herself, now nicely dressed for the party, to reach into the basket and take some out ...ew. She decides she will do so later, once she's located a nice baggie.

"But sadly, the Beverly Hilton housekeeping staff, doing their job, tidy Ms. Publicist's room during turndown service and decide that the hair was offensive and should be removed...and it is."

For those wondering what Gilby Clarke was doing at the Hilton during NBC's press day, Erdman reports via Blackberry, "He was there for a meeting. He's not allowed to say with whom or for what, but it's very 'rockstar.'"

Mysterious! BTW, for trivia fans out there, there was a murdered prostitute character named Carina Sayles in "Avatar," a third-season episode of "The X-Files," written by current "24" producer (and friend of Sayles') Howard Gordon, from a story he concocted with star David Duchovny. They both appeared at Press Tour -- Gordon for "24" and Duchovny for his Showtime series "Californication."

Playing the dead Carina Sayles was Canadian actress Amanda Tapping. She's starring in the aforementioned "Sanctuary" (which is based on a Web-only project). Since Sci Fi is part of the NBC Universal family of cablenets, Tapping attended the NBC party (saw pic of her 3-year-old daughter, so cute!).

So, at one point. the fake dead Carina Sayles was standing only a few dozen feet from the real living Carina Sayles. When worlds collide...

Only at press tour could you talk to a news producer on a Monday and be listening to a ballroom dancer singing country on Wednesday.

And since I got to hear both, you will, too.

As for the news, I previously posted clips from Matt Frei of BBC News and John King from CNN, and I had hoped to catch a few minutes with Chris Wallace of Fox News last Monday. That may happen down the line, but I did grab a quick chat after the session with John Moody, executive vice president, news editorial.

Here's his take on what he learned from his almost-14-year stint at Time Magazine before coming to Fox News (he pauses a bit to answer, so don't be alarmed):

Professional ballroom dancer Julianne Hough has won two editions of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," with speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno and with auto racer Helio Castroneves, and then didn't quite go all the way with Adam Carolla. But she has also always been a singer, and now she's released a self-titled debut country CD. She performed a few songs from the Mercury Nashville Records CD at a themed luncheon for the upcoming CMA Awards, airing Nov. 12 on ABC.

Here's a clip from a song called "Hide Your Matches":

And here's a bit of her new single, "That Song in My Head":