'90s soap hunk and "Celebrity Circus" champ Antonio Sabato Jr. on his reality TV love search

Exclusive extras from my January 2009 Muscle & Body cover story interview with Antonio Sabato Jr., whose matchmaking VH1 reality show is set to premiere in late spring or early summer:


What can you tell us about your upcoming VH1 reality show?
It’s an opportunity for me to go out there and hopefully find the right person and really see what people are all about. You never know who you’re gonna meet in Hollywood. Sometimes you meet the wrong people who seem to change overnight and become someone completely different. I know it’s a TV show and a lot of people just want to be on camera, but I’m gonna use this (show) to be real on a real show, and make it something that might work for me rather than against me. It’s gonna test me and test these girls to see who they are. I’m gonna say,

“Look, I’m a real dude who wants an opportunity to find someone to be with and be in love with and be a better person with.”

I want to test the waters and find out if that can happen. Obviously, the possibilities are probably slim, but I’m gonna go along with it and have great fun. The scenery will be beautiful to look at—we’re going to Hawaii or Miami.

Does true love exist?
In my opinion, I think love does exist. I want to really psychologically get into the heads of these girls in the show. That will be a challenge.


When can we expect to see your reality show?
Filming was pushed to January. We’ll do 10 episodes and go from there. We’re looking to release it before the summer.


You said doing Celebrity Circus was a challenge both physically and mentally—and was like “holding up a mirror” to yourself.
It was a challenge. And the show was different. There was nothing like that on TV. It was a contest of endurance, physically and mentally. I thought it was cool the NBC was backing it up and putting a lot of money into it to make it classy and not trashy. It didn’t exploit any of the celebrities. They’d done something like that (Circus of the Stars) back in the Eighties, but it wasn’t a contest; it was more of a showcase. But this was a showcase on a weekly basis. I was attracted to it from the beginning.

TV's Nanny on surviving cancer, lobbying D.C. and her tabled plans for a sitcom wih Rosie

Previews of my exclusive extras from my Great Health magazine interview with Fran "The Nanny" Drescher:

What’s up with your plans to do a sitcom with Rosie?
We have to find the right project. We were thinking of doing a sitcom together. But it hasn’t found a home yet, so we may have to go back to the drawing board. I’m very fatalistic. I’ve had so many irons in the fire. Maybe it’s not the right time for me, either (to return in a series). Maybe life is gonna take me in a whole other direction, and I’ll be glad I didn’t make a long-term (series) commitment. I like climbing new mountains. I don’t like to feel like I’m standing still. It was almost a nuance of relief when it didn’t come together the way I anticipated. And I kind of stepped back a bit and said, “Let’s see what’s happening.”

You’ve kept busy lately as a stage performer, writer. and sociopolitcal activist.
I was in Camelot in the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, and that also aired as a Live at Lincoln Center PBS special. I’m also deep in the throes of rewriting a screenplay. And I’ve just turned in my latest draft to a publisher for a children’s book. And of course the work I do as a women’s health advocate is probably the most significant and time-consuming, but it’s very worthwhile.
So then I started to remember all of the things that, you know, we’re human, that I write about in the book—things that transpired through this whole, tremendous, life-changing, growing experience. I always say I’m not glad I had cancer and I don’t wish it on anyone, but I am better for it. Sometimes the best gifts come in the ugliest packages.

Many people let fear of the unknown even prevent them from seeking a diagnosis.
The day when you can be in denial no more, and at that point it may be too late. Don’t be afraid to say, “This doesn’t feel right, something’s wrong with me and I’ve gotta figure it out right now.” Because God forbid, if it’s something serious, I want to be able to be cured of it. This kind of thinking goes against the way insurance companies want us to think. We’re done being drones and passive with our own health. That was back in the twentieth century. Now it’s a new dawn.
Because of the big business of insurance, who do not want to include the transvaginal ultrasound as basic healthcare, women are going for far too long without the information they need. And that has to stop. This is a kind of trickle-down effect of a society that really didn’t want to talk about gynecology at all. And for many years, until very recently, even the National Institute of Health didn’t have a gynecologic department. They had an obstetrics department. Nobody wanted to talk about a woman’s gynecology unless she was pregnant. And that’s why we’re in the mess we’re in right now with gynecology. This isn’t our only concern with the Cancer Schmancer movement, but it’s certainly become our first frontier. Because it’s absolutely the most neglected and the most in-the-dark issue.

For all of her "extras," visit www.Retroality.TV

"Survivor" Fan-Fave Finalist Matty Whitmore on Tribal Muumuus, Mrs. Roper and His Plans to Survive Hollywood

Check out the new cover story on Retroality.TV!

Preview (much, much of his interview is at www.Retroality.TV and www.Retroality.TV/features.html):

You still handled it all like a TV pro. Which must come natural to you, considering your grandparents are James Whitmore—who just yesterday showed up on my TV screen in The Shawshank Redemption—and the wonderful Audra Lindley, known the world over as Mrs. Roper in Three’s Company. Was Audra your biological grandmother?
Well, she was married to grandfather during my whole early childhood. She wasn’t necessarily my natural grandmother but she was my grandfather’s wife, so she was my grandma.

What do you think she would’ve said about your Survivor experience?
Well, my grandfather, who’s still alive, just thinks it’s too bad that all the contestants couldn’t have scripts. He’s an old-school guy and he believes in the craft of acting. I think initially they’d both definitely be turned off by it, because it’s reality TV and it doesn’t require skills or craft, according to them. But according to (my family) now, the feedback has been positive. I think they’re happy with how I played the game, and I didn’t really embarrass the family necessarily too bad.

You have quite a family legacy to uphold. Was it tough for you to go onto Survivor knowing people would be expecting certain things from you, given your heritage?
That was tough for me, and that’s why I didn’t notify anyone out there that that was my heritage. I kept it under wraps because my whole life I’ve been judged because of that. People create their judgments without really knowing me. That’s why I held that in.

Was it your goal to be a sort of everyman on the show, let your Hollywood background kind of fly under the radar, and play a solid game free of preconceptions?
You know what, I never really saw Survivor prior to going on the show. I saw snippets of the first season when it first came out and was kind of a novelty—like, look at this wild show. But I’m not really a TV watcher; I’m really a kind of physical guy and outdoorsman kind of guy. I never really knew about the show. I was at a Whole Foods market in Santa Monica, and the head casting woman approached me when I was with my girlfriend and asked me if I’d ever thought of being on the show and if I was interested. I told her I hadn’t thought of being on it but I was definitely interested. I gave her my number and a month later I was in Africa.
What I was advised to do was stay under the radar and what I learned to do out there was stay in the moment and not project into the future or reflect into the past—because that’ll get you into deep trouble in Survivor. So I tried to just stay in the present and stay with the task at hand. That’s the only way I would play it, and if I had to do it again, I would do the same thing.

Both of your grandparents could be called survivors. They’ve had long careers on stage, film and television, and they kept working when many other actors fell by the wayside. And certainly Audra—after Mrs. Roper, she took that wig off and she was a chameleon on stage and on screen.
The funny thing is people don’t realize that (Mrs. Roper) is not my grandma. Her hair in real life wasn’t even close to that big, red ‘fro Mrs. Roper wore. In real life, she was a lot different than that character. That character was great, but my grandma was such a talented actress.

Do you feel acting is your destiny?
Yeah, it’s something I’d like to pursue. I’m gonna keep doing it. The thing about acting is it’s all about perseverance. It’s about showing up next year. It’s all about staying power, and I’m not going anywhere. I live on the west side of Los Angeles, I have forever, and I’m not going anywhere.

Audra had an amazing sense of comic timing. Did you get the value of a sense of humor in part from her personally?
When she was playing Mrs. Roper, she was just carefree and as humorous as can be. That’s what she wanted to world to see, and I really appreciate her for that, because that’s what we need to see. But she also had the ability to come home and be a mother and a stable force in the home. That was also breathtaking.

One last thing. The wrap you donned during the last few episodes—you wore it as kind of a skirt or kilt—I thought, man, that so looks like one of Mrs. Roper’s muumuus.
(Laughs.) That’s funny, man. That muumuu was given to me. I won a Gabonese feast. We got flown to a Gabonese village and had drinks and were fed and had dancing. It was one of the most fantastic nights of my life.

Maybe your grandma was watching you from above and made sure you got that prized relic.
I believe wholeheartedly that she’s there still.

Was this the retro trainwreck that inspired the NBC abomination known as "Rosie Live!"?!?

Feel polyester shame no more, America. Break out your disco ball and get ready to shoot glitter out of your ass.

Finally, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour story can be told.



I'm proud to announce that my friend, LA-based writer Ted Nichelson, is co-authoring a Brady Variety Hour book with none other than Cindy Brady herself, pop culture hipster Susan Olsen. Their book, set for release in September, will tell all about the Bradys and their shocking variety show misadventures. I promise it'll be an entertaining must-read for Brady fans and "enquiring minds" alike. Really, who isn't dying to know what drug-induced hallucinations were responsible for this sequin-soaked prime time nightmare--which featured the Bradys doing the Hustle with a confetti-mad Rip Taylor in the wings while synchronized swimmers dicked around in an Olympic-size swimming pool mere feet away?






Official Brady Variety Hour book press release: www.bradyhour.com/press.release.html

Also, I must acknowledge that today, Jan. 2, is Fake Jan Day. Check out the following links and embrace your inner, angst-ridden middle child (who, in the variety hour, was played not by the brilliant Eve Plumb--the only cast member smart enough to run screaming when offered this gig--but by equally talented actress-singer-turned-pop icon Geri Reischl): www.fakejan.com



By the way, Geri shares that the cheese ball is the official food of Fake Jan.

Unlike ABC in 1976-77, I can wisely say I'm not touching that.

'80s Sitcom Siren-Turned-Talk Radio Host on Sarah Palin, Gay Marriage, TV's New "Porn Era"

Retroality Cover Story on "Too Close for Comfort" star (and frequent '80s Aaron Spelling TV guest star)-turned-political blogger and talk radio host Lydia Cornell: www.Retroality.TV , www.Retroality.TV/features.html and www.Retroality.TV/RetroHotLydiaCornell.html


On Sarah Palin:
"(E)lecting Sarah Palin would be like electing William Hung as Vice President. It seems like the message is this: if you look pretty, love guns, kill endangered species, and are against women’s rights —you are fit to be Vice President!"

"I think she takes pride in willful ignorance. That’s different than being dumb; one you are born with—the other is a choice. I can’t sympathize with her because I am horrified at her lies and propaganda about Barack Obama. How unpatriotic to smear a fellow American in such a hateful way! I feel we are in the Salem witch trials, and Palin is judge and jury."

On gay marriage:
"My sister is gay, and she never made a choice, but that’s beside the point. The marriage contract is a private contract between two individuals. How does it hurt anyone to let two souls honor their monogamy by allowing them the dignity of marrige, as other human beings have a right to? Isn’t this in the Bill of Rights? I am heartsick at the bigotry I see in America today. I can’t believe my sister may never have the same rights I have!"



On "belligerant" Ann Coulter and Hollywood's bimbo factory:
"Here is where I agree with Ann Coulter: There are very few parts for women who are not 18, and even fewer parts for black actresses who don’t look like Halle Berry. Hollywood needs to stop manufacturing bimbos for us to worship. As a recovering bimbo, I should know.
But if Coulter thinks liberals are responsible for Britney Spears’ bellybutton taking over our airwaves for the past 5 years, or Paris Hilton’s porn tape on the Internet—she’s been drinking too much Kool-Aid...
Why blame Democrats for what big corporations advertise in magazines, movies and on TV? Who are the culprits selling products that seduce us? I love American capitalism, but at this point it’s over-kill. All this soft-porn immorality comes from free enterprise run amuck. Our system lavishes Paris Hilton with more fame and nightclubs just because she is a 'bad, rich girl.' Isn’t this more dangerous to society than allowing monogamous gays to sanctify their union by getting married?"



On TV's new "porn era" and her cleavage past:
"In the porn era we’re in now, with shows like Gossip Girl and 90210—I think it would be refreshing to see a TV character get shocked at stuff like this and to see a parent actually snoop on their kids like I do. Just kidding, Jack (my son)! I’m not a prude but I’m sick of 9-year-old girls dressing like hookers!
Let me just get this out of the way: I am bitterly sick of cleavage. I’m not spiritually evolved enough to stop dressing like a hooker, but at least I tried on a turtleneck the other day. Somehow wearing death-defying cleavage is supposed to make us more employable or marriageable. And since the only valuable women in our society are teenage, wombless, buttless, mutants — I can’t just quit cold turkey. So I’m in withdrawal from cleavage. I mean you can’t get a job in Hollywood without 'lap dancer' on your resume—and I’m talking about the writers, not the actors."