CELEBRITY SNIPPETS

BY SUSAN HORNIK

GREAT CATCH!

One of the highlights of Discovery’s uber-popular documentary series Deadliest Catch this season is the addition of Captain Linda Greenlaw. She became famous after her commercial ﬁ shing trip turned deadly during a record-breaking storm in the Atlantic Ocean. “Sebastian Junger wrote
the bestselling biography, A Perfect Storm, about the ship disaster, and it was made into a movie,” she explained. “It was very exciting to be portrayed in the ﬁlm. When I heard that George Clooney was the lead, I begged Warner Brothers to let me play myself. No dice! Still I was delighted – and quite relieved – with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Linda Greenlaw. She played me better than I could have done myself!” Greenlaw said she enjoys being a part of the Discovery series. “It portrays commercial ﬁ shermen in their element. It’s not glamorous or romantic. It’s a grind most of the time. I love that the show sometimes focuses on the very real parts of life at sea, such as Sig missing his mother’s death because he was at sea.”

CATCHING UP WITH CHRISSY

Ever since NBC’s smash series This is Us ended, actress Chrissy Metz has been very busy, challenging herself by starring in new movie Stay Awake, in which she plays a prescription-drug-addicted mother. She also co-wrote a children’s book, When I Talk To God, I Talk About You, with her boyfriend/songwriter Bradley Collins, which recently became an NY Times bestseller. “This sweet, rhyming picture book introduces families
to the power of faith, love, and conﬁ dence from the perspective of animals,” Metz said. “From bears and otters to rabbits and raccoons, each animal family describes the many things they pray to God for as their little ones grow right before their eyes.” Inspiration for the “sweet and tender” book came from her late grandma. “She instilled my conscious contact with God,” said Metz. “She really bolstered my self-conﬁ dence and was always so encouraging and loving.”

CHIU REFLECTS

While the Netﬂ ix cancellation of the popular reality series Bling Empire feels bittersweet for cast member Christine Chiu, she is grateful for the platform it created for Asian visibility. “I am immensely grateful for not only the opportunities provided through Netﬂ ix/Bling Empire, but also for the global platform the show had lent each one of us during a very pivotal time in the world,” Chiu acknowledged. “We were able to tell such diverse, heartfelt, culturally important stories throughout the three seasons.” Never one to sit still for long, Chiu remains very busy with several other projects, and she is “deeply passionate” about the philanthropic eff orts and commitments she has made to non-proﬁ t organizations like the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation, for which she is co-chairing the annual gala this year, with Paris Jackson. Chiu also runs the operations at her business, Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery, and is now working on West Coast fundraising eff orts for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON

Angie Dickinson was “honored beyond words” when Turner Classic Film Festival organizers invited her as a special guest at the annual Hollywood event, where she was tapped to introduce a 4K world premiere restoration of her epic Western, Rio Bravo. Dickinson acknowledged that starring in the ﬁlm was, “without question,” a seminal moment for her. “For sure, I would be working at See’s Candies if I hadn’t been picked up by (director/producer) Howard Hawks,” she quipped. “It was extra scary because the ﬁ rst night that I was on set, the cast were all already there…and it hit me how big of a movie this was.” The veteran actress enthused how generous Wayne was. “You can often see in pictures from the movie he’s sort of leaning on the edge of the screen. He’s waiting for me to be ready. This was his 300th movie! He was such a pro and a gentleman.”

NO FILTER

When watching Alex Borstein talk to the audience on her new Amazon musical comedy special Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits, viewers might glimpse bit of Susie, her no nonsense, brutally hon-est character on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In real life, the veteran comedienne is just as much of a badass, voraciously unafraid to speak her mind on a variety of provocative topics. Talking openly about loss and the death of her marriage, viewers will feel great empathy for Borstein, and may well be reminded about their own failed relationships. I have spent 40 years of my life in a clown suit,” she acknowledged during the special.

“Twenty years I have spent with the same person. Only it turns out, I didn’t really know that person. My perception was way off . The joke was on me. The clown has been clowned.” The talented actress is especially endearing per-forming in front of a live audience, as she tackled other vexatious subjects, like aging, motherhood, childbirth, menstruation, and superheroes. Borstein was equally passionate about trans equality and women’s equity, and even jokes about a subject most comedians don’t touch: Hitler.