Sure, Covid-19 may be no laughing matter, but Phil Leirness gets things started with a quarantine lockdown joke nonetheless before he and Dean Haglund dig down into the protests surrounding stay-at-home orders, the hopes they have for how society might change in the long-term, and about the dangers of placing your faith in “distrust”. Ageism in Hollywood gets discussed, and then “Star Trek: Picard” and season 2 of “Star Trek: Discovery” get compared and get praised before the commercial break. In the back half of the show, Phil regales Dean with “Star Trek”-related tales involving the likes of JJ Abrams and … Toshiro Mifune?! In “Celebrity Deaths”, two of the all-time great character actors, three legendary jazz musicians, a ground-breaking sculptor, a pop-culture influencing illustrator, an award-winning cinematographer, and a glass-ceiling breaking animator get remembered. Keep calm, stay safe, and enjoy YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

Another big week here at YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour we welcome our first guest of 2020! Phil interviews the wonderful Annette Andre, a natural born performer who worked as a dancer, singer, and actress in radio, theatre, television and film in Australia, Europe, the UK and Hollywood. She performed opposite the likes of Peter Graves, Bob Hope, Benny Hill, Michael Crawford, Buster Keaton, Roger Moore and Richard Harris. She witnessed Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s romance firsthand on the set of Cleopatra. She stood toe to toe with the mercurial Patrick McGoohan on “The Prisoner”. She picknicked with Sammy Davis, Jr. She became not only a fixture on British Television, appearing on such shows as “The Saint” and “The Avengers” and her own “Randall and Hopkirk Deceased”, but was immortalized in photographs as one of the “Birds of Britain” during the height of the swinging 60’s! She is also the author of the spellbinding memoir Where Have I Been All My Life? The bad news is that the heater in the historic Ranger House where Phil interviewed Annette makes a lot of noise during the show! The good news (at least for listeners here in the USA) is a very special offer described during the show (click on Annette’s book title in this episode description to take advantage of the offer)!

Phil was out late imbibing. Dean has been battling a bad late summer cold. Yet, somehow, they both come out guns blazing! This week’s show begins with several “Live Events of the Week”, ranging from immersive theatre to a Halloween X-Files improv show, from Leif Erikson Day to the first mixed cocktail! Then, it’s time for “Celebrity Deaths” wherein legendary journalists Cokie Roberts and Sander Vanocur, and performers Suzanne Whang, Aron Eisenberg and Sid Haig are remembered. From there, it’s on to the silver screen, where one of the all-time greats gets discussed in relationship to how we consume movies now, and a legendary “failure” gets re-appraised. In fact, the importance of “failuring” (Dean’s term) gets championed! Finally, the Emmy Awards were this weekend, and your friends in podcasting discuss “Fleabag”, Kirsten Dunst, “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”, and season 2 of “Big Little Lies” and the behind-the-scenes chicanery that may have been responsible for the season’s lack of focus.   

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.

Because Dean Haglund is packing up for Galaxy Fest in Colorado Springs, Colorado (to perform comedy and show The Truth Is Out There), and Phil Leirness is hitting the road for the 2012 International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills, Arizona (where the TRUTH is also screening), this week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour is coming to you a few hours later than we like.

It is, however, one of our very best shows!

That it’s President’s Day in the U.S. leads to a discussion of presidential UFO lore, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball and Merv Griffin. The special friendship between The UK’s “The Midweek Drive” and YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, leads to a discussion of Phil’s pajamas and his forthcoming tour of the UK. The book The Wayfinders leads to a discussion of cultural relativism, the biosphere, the ethnosphere, the living history of Los Angeles, and Dreamtime and The Dream Factory. An Albert Einstein quote leads to a discussion of the intuitive mind and the rational mind and the way we might move beyond divisiveness in an effort to address the common challenges facing us all. The Chillpak Hollywood Live Event of the Week leads to a discussion of Phil’s admiration for an actress he had never before seen, the best director working in theatre today, and the way storytellers’ strengths in one medium can serve as weakness in another.

All that, plus TWO Chillpak Hollywood Lawsuits of the Week (the one involving Chris Pine, “Captain Kirk” from JJ Abrams’ re-boot of Star Trek is a particular hoot.

Your friends in podcasting definitely brought their “A” game. We hope you will enjoy it enough to share it with others …

Happy 2011! Welcome to a very special episode of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. This is the 4th year running that your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness will boldly proclaim their New Year’s Resolutions. First, they discuss the importance of resolutions before launching into a recap and appraisal of how each of them fared in living up to their resolutions for 2010. Finally, they state their goals for 2011, as well as the intent with which they intend to embody these resolutions.

Phil just got back from rubbing elbows with the D.C. social set. Dean stayed in town and hit a Hollywood party and hit it hard based on the stories he shares (Fran Drescher? Poop? Three bottles of champagne?). In addition to comparing notes on their holiday hijinx, Dean and Phil discuss the many films they’ve seen during the past two weeks. Phil saw several foreign language films, including a couple of fantastic ones you won’t want to miss. Dean reveals he saw The Spirit. This makes Phil very angry. Truth be told, though, from the Screen Actors Guild to Proposition 8, from people not knowing history to Dean’s viewing habits, Phil really comes out swinging … The boys are back and 2009 can finally begin!

Ouch! My freakin’ ears! Our most obscenity-laden podcast to date! No more description needed, honestly, cuz’ in this crazy business, dirt sells. Just make sure that the kids and Grandma are out of the room before you listen.

 

The original description of this show from 27 August 2007 (back when we were called “From the Heart of Hollywood”):

“From the Heart of Hollywood’s Super Summer continues, this time with a special guest! In fact, it’s FTHOH’s first ever guest! Listen!”

That guest was Philip Newby, a brilliant actor, and a tremendously funny and engaging man who killed himself in January 2009.