PRETTY Season 2 Premieres!

Hey Dougsploitation readers - you can see the first Season 2 episode of the hit webseries PRETTY (of which I am one of the producers) at www.prettytheseries.com. Additionally you can still watch all of Season 1 and see our trailers, blooper reel, behind-the-scenes footage, cast bios, read about our fabulous guest stars (including TV stars Jennifer Elise Cox, Kirsten Vangsness, Melissa Peterman, Denise Alexander and Joan Van Ark!) and much more PRETTY stuff. So visit the site, spread the word and visit (& "like") us on Facebook for the latest news on cast appearances on TV, radio, internet and "in person".

PRETTY Season 2 Coming Soon!

PRETTY, the hit web series of which I am one of the producers, will be beginning its second season in a few weeks. Returning are all the fantastic characters from season one, plus a whole slew of friends and family that expand the story of the Champagnes and their quest for pageant stardom. We've got some great guest stars from film, sitcoms, soaps (and even a prime-time procedural) plus some very big surprises are in store for our fans - and we hope to win over many more new fans with the outrageous happenings in the world of Michael, Ribina and Annette. If you liked the first season, this one is going to blow your mind. Now repeat after me.."There is a unicorn, his name is Gumdrop..."

Get Ready for RUBDOWN

RUBDOWN is my production company's third collaboration with the amazing writer/director Dennis Hensley. The first two, SCREENING PARTY and REUNION have been entertaining film festival audiences for the past few years, and it looks like RUBDOWN will continue in that tradition. Having premiered at San Francisco's Frameline festival last month, RUBDOWN has it's LA premiere at OUTFEST this coming Sunday night as part of the unfortunately titled program "FROM URANUS TO TITICACA".
Here's the brilliant trailer (edited by Nicole Opyr).
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Hope to see some my Dougsploitation readers there!
Sunday, July 11th @ 9:45 p.m. DGA
(with pre-screening reception starting at 7:30 PM)
Thursday, July 15th @ 9:45 p.m. Sunset 5
$9 Outfest Members -- $13 Non-Members
Tickets: www.outfest.org -- 213-480-7065

THE MIKADO PROJECT World Premiere

Hey gang, my production company Velvet Candy Entertainment's co-production of THE MIKADO PROJECT, a feature film directed by Chil Kong (SCREENING PARTY) will be premiering this coming Saturday May 1 at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival at 9pm at the Directors Guild of America Theater. I also worked on the film a bit as a designer and set decorator, and I look forward to seeing the film on the big screen.. This event marks the World Premiere of the film and cast and crew will be in attendance, and will be followed by a Q&A session.

THE MIKADO PROJECT is a musical comedy (based on the stage performance written by Ken Narasaki and Doris Baizley and adapted for film by Chil Kong) of a struggling Asian American theater company that, in a desperate publicity stunt to save their company, decides to produce a modern reconstruction of Gilbert and Sullivan’s, The Mikado, to stir controversy and jolt ticket sales.

The Mikado, one of the most beloved comedy operas by legendary collaborators, Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert, first opened on stage in 1885 in London . The story was set in Japan (considered an exotic land to the British during that era) which allowed Gilbert & Sullivan to satirize British politics. However, by doing so, Asians around the world and Asian Americans today have found this opera hard to embrace—making the notion of Asian American actors performing The Mikado controversial and palatable only through a comedic reconstruction.

With new hip-hopera versions of the Gilbert & Sullivan’s original compositions and dance numbers choreographed by members of the dance troupes, Kaba Modern and Jabbawockeez, from MTV's AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW, this is not your grandma's Mikado.





The talented cast includes Raymond J. Lee (from Broadway's Mamma Mia), Allen Liu (Broadway's Flower Drum Song), Rizwan Manji (Charlie Wilson's War), David Lee McInnis (Never Forever), Gerald McCullouch (CSI, Law and Order, NCIS), Erin Quill (Screening Party, Broadway's Avenue Q), Freda Foh Shen (Primal Doubt, Red Doors), Yui Tag (America’s Best Dance Crew), Tamlyn Tomita (Tekken, The Eye) and Ryun Yu (Kissing Cousins).

For more information on THE MIKADO PROJECT visit www.themikadoproject.com.
Tickets can be purchased directly here.

PRETTY Season Finale

PRETTY, the web series that I produced through my company, Velvet Candy Entertainment reaches it's season one climax...and you can watch all the drama right here or at prettytheseries.com

PRETTY Bloopers

While we await the Episode 5 Season Finale...here's some silly stuff from out new web series hit, PRETTY...

PRETTY Episode 4

Too lazy to go to the website? No worries, you can watch PRETTY right here on DOUGSPLOITATION.

THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW with Michael Taylor Gray

Doug: In PRETTY, the outrageous new hit web series from creator Steve Silverman and Velvet Candy Entertainment, Michael Taylor Gray plays Royce, the assistant director of the Miss Star Eyes Pageant.

Royce is one bullet away from taking over from Ms. Parker Kensington Parker. Have you ever had a boss like Parker?

Michael Taylor Gray: Yes, my first pimp, Roscoe at the Chicken Ranch in Amarillo was a real task master. Demanding, over-bearing and freaky kinky. I still can't drink coke from a bottle to this day.

D: I'm not gonna ask. So, if Royce ran his own pageant, how different would things be?

MTG: There'd be a helluva a lot more glitter and a boy band on the pageant stage. More one-on-one sessions with pageant dads, more jazz hands & spirit fingers and a retractable roof. (I look my best in natural light.)

D: Love it! Did you base your performance on anyone you know?

MTG: Royce is a combination of Steve Silverman, Brian Boitano and Rip Taylor. Hold the mayo.

D: That's hysterical...and probably true. When you're not being Royce, you're usually doing stage work, do you have a favorite role?

MTG: Yes I do! The "Emcee" from CABARET... a role I played 300 years ago my freshman year in college. I'd love to play that role again now that I have so much more life experience than when I was 19. And by life experience, I mean sex, drugs and church camp.

D: Isn't Church Camp just sex, drugs plus Jesus? If you could play any sitcom character (from all of TV history), who would it be and why?

MTG: It would totally be "Bernice" from Designing Women. What sheer joy to have the freedom to play a character who has absolutely no filter between her brain and her mouth. I had the pleasure of meeting Alice Ghostly several years before she passed away ('cause meeting people after they die sucks). She's a classic.

D: Yes - Alice had such great timing and an amazing career. Who are your other comedy heroes?

MTG: Oh my...let's see...Shields &Yarnell, The Mandrell Sisters, Flip Wilson...

D: Cool. Variety shows have been a major influence on me as well.

MTG: ...and also Ruth Buzzi, Marla Gibbs, Pamela Anderson, George W. Bush, Emmanuel Lewis and Christopher Hewitt ("Mr. Belvedere").

D: What a crew! Bush...really? I don't wanna know. After PRETTY, what's up next for you?

MTG: A massage with a Hollywood Happy Ending.

D: That sounds like a great idea to me! Speaking of happy endings, I've been working out for over fifteen years and my arms are like noodles. What's your secret?

MTG: Paprika.

D: Julia Child wouldn't have said it better! Well, thank you, Mr. Taylor Gray for taking time to chat with me. You're so PRETTY.

MTG: I certainly feel PRETTY! Watch Episode 3...it's my big debut!

D: We will certainly be keeping our eyes on Royce!

PRETTY Episode 3

Here's the third episode of Velvet Candy's new web sensation PRETTY. You can view all three episodes at prettytheseries.com and also become a fan on Facebook!

THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW with Terri Simmons

Regular readers of this here blog may be aware that I'm one of the producers of a little web sensation called PRETTY. PRETTY is the continuing story of the Champagne family and their quest for the crown in the Miss Star Eyes Pageant - a child beauty pageant. Their daughter Annette is five years old, but due to a sudden growth spurt, she looks about 29+. Episode two premiered earlier this week and introduced us to pageant director Parker Kensington Parker, played by today's guest: the lovely Terri Simmons.

Doug: Howdy Terri! First of all how could you NOT laugh when saying your character’s name?

Terri Simmons: I LOVE saying Parker’s name. I can’t even THINK her name without feeling like I am in control of the world. It gives me a huge sense of power.

D: Yes - she's pure power. I love the character of Parker because she’s such a “soap opera diva.” Her name, her clothing, her hair – she could be at home at Pine Valley, Port Charles or even Salem. Did that dawn on you at all when you were playing her?

TS: Oh, absolutely! I was left alone a lot as a child, and I watched soap operas constantly. I was a very literal child and thought that the characters were real people, that Pine Valley was a real town. I cried in my room for two days when Jenny died in a jetski accident on ALL MY CHILDREN.

D: Poor Jenny. I don't think she's ever came back from the dead. I may be wrong though. Back to Parker. Have you ever met anyone like Parker? Did you base your performance on anyone you know?

TS: Well, I was raised in a small East Texas town, so OF COURSE I know people like Parker and I love them! My family is full of Parker Kensington Parkers (feel the power)! I think Parker is a cross between my mother (“Babes”), my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Cash (kept me after school to tell me I was fat like I didn’t know that already) and Jane Lynch from GLEE.

D: I've worked with Jane. She's a wonderful person and actress and I am so happy for her success. Back to Parker. I also love that Parker is an avid scrap booker, because when I was purchasing art department supplies at the local scrapbook store for PRETTY, the woman who ran it told me that SHE was a former child beauty pageant contestant! Have you ever scrapbooked?

TS: I am a horrible scrapbooker! I have an obsessive compulsive personality and I’m very detail-oriented, so it takes me 8 hours to do one page! I’d rather be outside hiking, water skiing, riding a Harley or building something with tools.

D: I may have to tutor you in scrapbooking for season 2. Speaking of season 2, I would like to see a flashback of Parker from her pageant days. How do you imagine that would look?

TS: Funny you should ask! I actually have pictures of myself from when I was in the Miss Nacogdoches pageant back in my college days, and I’m thinking that’s what Parker would have looked like back then. I did it on a dare, and when it was over the judge pulled me aside and told me to drop some weight, take a drama class and come back next year. I’m thinking Parker would have punched him in the nose and then taken all of the other loser contestants out for beer.

D: That's hysterical! Miss Nacogdoches - LOVE it! I ask these questions of most of my interview guests. If you could be on any comedy show (from all of TV history) which would it be? And who are your comedy heroes?

TS: I love the classics. I would love to have been on MARY TYLER MOORE, BOB NEWHART, or THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW. My comedy heroes are Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner, Tina Fey, Ellen DeGeneres…so many.

D: I love 'em all too. I get CAROL BURNETT SHOW cravings every once in a while. Thank heaven for YouTube! So after PRETTY, what’s up next for Terri?

TS: Oh wow! I’m having so much fun being PRETTY, that I can’t imagine what’s next!!

D: Well, maybe the casting director from GLEE will see PRETTY and cast you as Jane's sister?
How cool would that be?

D: Thanks for the chat Terri, see ya soon!

TS: Thanks very much, Doug!! xoxo

PRETTY Episode 2

Here's the second installment of PRETTY. Here we meet pageant director, Parker Kensington Parker.

THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW with Dee Freeman

Continuing my interviews with the cast of the new hit web series PRETTY, today on THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW, I welcome the lovely and talented Dee Freeman.
Doug: Ms. Dee Freeman is a force of nature. You play Ribina Champagne, mother of pageant contestant Annette in PRETTY. From the first second Ribina appears, it's like a comedy hurricane has swept through the room. Did you base your performance on anybody you know?

Dee: Yes, a part of this character is loosely (very loosely) based on an aunt of mine from Louisiana who owned a bar/restaurant. In a wild neighborhood, my aunt never had a bouncer or bodyguard cause she didn’t need one. It wasn’t because she was a big woman, she wasn’t. People knew her reputation and were afraid to step over that line with her. If her reputation wasn’t enough, she carried a pistol with her everywhere she went.

Doug : Wow, your aunt sounds like a hoot! Did you do any other research?
Dee: I also watched a lot of those reality shows dealing with pageants. There was a lot to pull from there. A lot. 


Doug: Ribina is a professional smoker, which is totally hysterical. On set we used those herbal cigarettes. Do you smoke in "real life"?
Dee: I used to smoke but I quit 3 years ago. Just when I was weaning myself from the addiction to the nicotine gum, this role came along. One of my friends asked me if I considered not doing the role because of that. Hell no! Actually…it was harder to quit the nicotine gum than the actual smoking.


Doug: Those fake cigarettes smelled even worse than the real thing. Ribina also tosses around "the F word" pretty freely. Was that hard to do, or did it just come naturally?


Dee: No, it was pretty f----in easy.


Doug: LOL! You've done so many TV comedies, from COACH to a continuing role on THE HUGHLEYS, (one of my mom's favorite shows). Do you have a favorite comedy series?

Dee: Tell your mom she has fabulous taste. But…favorite comedy series? I guess it would depend on when you asked me. My favorite tv show of all time is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. But there’s a show on the air right now that I think is simply BRILLIANT, and that’s MODERN FAMILY. I LOVE it!
Doug : I totally love AB FAB, of course. I think Ribina would fit in nicely with Edina and Patsy! Along the same lines, who are your comedy heroes?


Dee: I’m glad you said heroes as in plural, cause I could never name just one. Whoopi Goldberg is one of my shereos. (no one could have been as brilliant as she was in GHOST. NO ONE!!!) Will Ferrell is hysterical and I think Tina Fey is just genetically inclined to be funny.

Doug: I remember running into Whoopi once on the street in New York back in the 80s. This was before THE COLOR PURPLE. She has the biggest brightest smile in the world. Like Ms. Goldberg, you've done lots of drama too. THE X FILES to DEXTER. Which genre do you prefer, comedy or drama?


Dee: I actually love them equally, but If I were forced to choose between the two (It would be hard. Much like Meryl Streep in SOPHIE'S CHOICE hard) But if forced, I would pick comedy. I love to make people laugh.

Doug: And that you do so very well! You were on an ABC AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL! That is awesome. What 
was that all about? Did you play a wise-ass school teacher?


Dee: Actually, I was a wise-ass cop. I was able to use my strength from my background as a Marine in this role. Oorah!
Doug: I think you are the first Marine I ever met. The Few. The Proud. The Pretty!!! So after PRETTY, what's next for Dee?


Dee: Well…I just finished filming a TV show called SVETLANA, which will be airing the beginning of this year. I’m scheduled to start a film sometime mid March/early April called WAY OF SEEING. I’m also performing in another play this summer (an original production written by a friend of mine). And…I’m writing two projects. I got the idea for a travel show a while back and hopefully I’ll be pitching that this year. Also…No one has really told the women Marines story. When people comment on the Marine Corps to me they’ll say…”Oh! We loved PRIVATE BENJAMIN”, or “Did it bother you to cut all your hair off?” We seem to be the service people know very little about. I’d like to change that. 


Doug: That could be really interesting, especially if you base it on your real experiences-but inject your sense of humor. Best of luck with all these projects. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me. Looking forward to seeing more Dee Freeman!


Dee: Thank you! And everybody keep watching PRETTY!

THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW with Sam Pancake

I've know Sam Pancake (yes, it's his real name) for almost a decade now. We've worked together on several TV shows and films where he was an actor and I was an art department schlub. When I started producing projects through Velvet Candy Entertainment, I'd run into Sam and he would ask me when I was gonna put him in one of my shows. Well kids, that time is now! Ladies and gentlemen, today I welcome Sam Pancake, one of the stars of Velvet Candy's new hit web series PRETTY (created by the genuius named Steve Silverman), as my very special guest on THE DOUGLAS MICHAEL SHOW!
D: Sam Pancake - you are one of the hardest working people in showbiz. If you're not on TV, you're in a film or in one, two or three stage shows at a time, or a Prevacid commercial...or hosting karaoke night! What's your secret?
SP: My secret? Fear, my magic go-fast pills, and unstoppable sparkle.

D: I love those magic go-fast pills!!! In PRETTY you're playing Michael Champagne, father of pageant contestant Annette Champagne. I've seen you in so many films and TV shows, but is this the first time you've played a dad?
SP: Ummm...I know I had a baby daughter in an orange juice commercial in the late 1990's, though of course I was barely old enough to have a child then.

D: One of those teen-age juice-drinking Dads, I guess. What kind of research did you do for this role?
SP: I am from the South. Research complete.
D: That's hysterical. You've done tons of sitcom work from WINGS to FAT ACTRESS to LOVESPRING INTERNATIONAL. Is there a particular sitcom that you haven't been on that you wish you would have?
SP: LIDSVILLE, PHYLLIS and that one where the fat, slobby unfunny guy has a thin, hot wife and an overbearing laugh track. Oh, wait..

D: Imagine if Phyllis visited Lidsville!!! I love Cloris Leachman and Charles Nelson Reilly. Who are your comedy heroes?
SP: W.C. Fields, Lily Tomlin, Tracey Ullman, Kids in the Hall, Dame Edna, Lucy, of course, all the SCTV crew (but especially Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin), my girlfriend Meryl Streep, French and Saunders, Madeline Kahn and Cary Grant & Irene Dunne in "The Awful Truth," to name but a very few. AND all my hilarious friends and family, famous or otherwise!

D: Those are some funny people there. Aside from your comedy work, you've also done WITHOUT A TRACE, NYPD BLUE and THE WEST WING. How is working on serious shows like that different than something like PRETTY?
SP: You get paid a helluva lot more and it actually appears on the television, dear.

D: Ouch! I have to ask you about your hysterical impersonation of Lisa Whelchel. You've played her (and/or Blair Warner) for years know. What was the first time you donned that famous feathered wig?
SP: It's so cute you think I can remember things!! Umm...I'm guessing...1998?

D: So, after PRETTY, what's next for Mr. Pancake?
SP: The sweet peace of the grave---because I hope PRETTY runs until I die!!!!

D: From your lips to Maude's ears...Thanks for chatting with me Sam. See ya at the bar!

SP: Only if you're buying, tiger. Don't forget to check out PRETTY, y'all!