No broken finger can keep Dean Haglund from joining Phil Leirness for another brand new installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! This week, your friends in podcasting talk about what they miss because of Covid-19 (and are certain to be missing for the rest of this year at least). Dean and Phil then explain why there might not be many new movies or television shows for a long while. They will, however, discuss several recent titles like Cats, Alita: Battle Angel and It Chapter Two as well as several under-appreciated, vintage gems like John Frankenheimer’s Seconds, Samuel Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono and the jazz adaptation of “Othello” All Night Long. Plus, Phil has harsh criticism for a couple beloved musicals from the 1950s! In “Lawsuit of the Week”, Dean and Phil discuss a courtroom victory for Jerry Seinfeld. Then, following a mea culpa from Dean about an error made on last week’s show, the Chillpak Morgue opens for “Celebrity Deaths” where a glass ceiling-shattering broadcaster and a world-class independent filmmaker and director of top television are remembered. Finally, Phil shares a story about perhaps the greatest phrase ever uttered before death. 

The sad, the irritating, the hilarious, the ridiculous and the sublime – It’s all fair game on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour in the age of Covid-19! On this week’s show, Dean discusses the steam room he is building, and Phil explains why the pandemic is making him sad and how people’s under-reaction and over-reaction to the pandemic along with bad puns in jokey emails by elected officials are pissing him off! Phil went down a rabbit hole, researching what in 1952 were considered the greatest movies ever made and in so doing, he discovered an amazing, and long-since forgotten, horror: Louisiana Story. Then, Phil poses the question in honor of what would have been the late Toshiro Mifune’s 100th birthday: Was Mifune the greatest movie actor of all time? The discuss that ensues is terrific. Dean and Phil then weigh in on how movie theaters and movie release schedules will be altered once there ARE movie theaters and movie releases again. Finally, Dean and Phil preview next week’s discussion of “Star Trek: Picard” and the year in cinema 1973 before paying tribute to several notable figures in “Celebrity Deaths”, including a jazz giant, a country music great, a soul legend, a popular sitcom actor from the 90s, a soap opera star, and a much beloved children’s book author.

You will be hard-pressed to find another episode of this or any other show biz-centric podcast that covers as much ground thematically OR temporally as this installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! Silent film legends John Gilbert and Harold Lloyd both made transitions to the sound era and Dean and Phil, with the help of a loyal listener like you (yes, YOU) dig into this history. Dean’s live streaming sci-fi adventure series “Gravity Hole” is back and Dean will tell all! Last week, Phil waxed rhapsodic while singing the praises of two female performers of Asian-American descent. This week, he reveals a startling personal connection to one of them, while previewing a potential “Live Event of the Week” and celebrating another actor he believes is due great things. The actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA held a contentious (possibly contested) election and your friends in podcasting will try to make sense of it. In a jam-packed installment of “Celebrity Deaths” a multi-Emmy-winning TV star, a modern-day “robber baron”, the “king of puns”, a pioneering animator, a “Star Trek” actress, a comic book artist, and a counterculture icon of the late 60’s and 1970’s all get remembered. 

On the agenda in another action-packed installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour is a full report on Dean and Phil’s movie The Lady Killers  at the historic BAL Theatre, and a full report on what makes that theater so darn historic, the aftermath of the devastating California fires, Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind, movie pacing, and in “Celebrity Deaths”, an innovator in motion picture title design, a country music and television icon, a screenwriting legend, a beloved television villainess, and a Shakespearean actor who gave one of the all-time great big screen performances without actually appearing on-screen are all remembered.

We were going to say that after a one-week absence (during which they released a spectacular pre-recorded episode with a special guest), your friends in podcasting come out with guns blazing … And then, as they were getting set to record, ANOTHER mass shooting in the USA occurred. Dean and Phil address the event and get into a seriously fascinating conversation about rage and despair and about how people can obtain the tools necessary to explore these bedrock emotions without being taken by them. Then, in the return of “Live Events of the Week”, Tchaikovsky and a non-binary gender identifying performer are celebrated, and Dean discusses his “Down Under Bucket List”, including scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef (a list item he has checked off, thank you very much!). Romantic comedies and diversity both get discussed in the wake of Crazy Rich Asians‘ box office success (and surprisingly decent reviews) and the documentary profile Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda gets recommended. Finally, the Chillpak Morgue is opened for “Celebrity Deaths” where the lives, accomplishments and lasting impacts of a true American hero, a giant of international diplomacy, the Oscar-nominated actress who founded modern improv, the journalist who coined the phrase “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” and the Queen of Soul are all remembered. All that AND Phil finally learns the usage of modern-day pronouns!

This week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour comes at you a little bit later than we like, though it’s definitely worth the wait and boasts almost 15% more “hour”! During their intercontinental connection, your friends in podcasting discuss Dean’s trip to Melbourne, where he hosted Melbourne WebFest, an award show honoring the best in web series. Finally, at long last, Dean also talks about his work (as Iago!) on the award-winning web series “Shakespeare Republic”. After that, it’s time for “Celebrity Deaths” where a noted futurist and a music family patriarch are remembered. There is some more feedback on their “Top Ten Comedies of All Time” episodes, Phil asks Dean about the 1930’s comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. Then Phil sings the praises of HBO’s “Westworld”, which leads to he and Dean waxing rhapsodic about the brilliance of Jeffrey Wright, before they turn their attention to movies. Kingsman: The Golden CircleOcean’s 8Won’t You Be My NeighborFirst ReformedUpgrade, and Hereditary all get (spoiler free) reviewed and discussed.

With how much ground your friends in podcasting cover on this week’s show, you’ll forgive them going almost eight minutes overtime, won’t you? The show starts with a “Live Event of the Week” as Phil regales Dean with tales of his 49th birthday celebrations on a day that involved marionettes, Norse mythology and the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. Then, for the first time in ages, Dean and Phil discuss what they’re reading. After that, it’s onto “Celebrity Deaths” which contains a correction of a correction from last week, as well as remembrances of a former teen idol, a jazz great, a country music great, a gospel great and two award-winning actors. Then, a few more thoughts about the latest news involving toxic masculinity, the United States Senate and “Whataboutism” before Dean and Phil roll up their sleeves to discuss almost a dozen movies, including both the 1974 and 2017 versions of Murder on the Orient Express, Orson Welles’ 1952 Othello, Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, and this year’s award hopefuls Last Flag FlyingCall Me By Your Name,Lady BirdMudboundHostiles and The Disaster Artist.

It’s the first Top Ten show of year 11! After years of celebrating Live Events of the Week, your friends in podcasting count down their Top Ten All-Time Favorite Live Events, starting with a healthy and diverse list of “honorable mentions” … Musical concerts are NOT included. Those must be saved for another show! THIS episode is a fun and fascinating look into what your friends in podcasting find memorable and into what inspires them.

Before taking off on their holiday travels, your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness are doing what they do best: Making sense of a (show business) world gone wild …

They weigh in on the cyber terrorist attack against Sony. They celebrate a milestone achieved by one of their favorite shows. They discuss live events starring the likes of Angela Lansbury and Jeff Goldblum. They dish on an animation price-fixing lawsuit, the decades-long Roman Polanski judicial drama and the idea of actors owning a copyright interest in their performances. They discuss casting news that has them hopeful and casting news that gives them pause. They champion three outstanding films from earlier this year that you probably missed that are available now on home video and they warn you against an award-hopeful Christmas Day opener that is without a doubt one of the worst films of the year. All that PLUS much more as they wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

All together now (singing): “We need a little Chillpak, right this very minute!”