News Round-up: Gilford, Delaney, Avari, Smith, Wright

Robin Wright talks raising kids outside of Hollywood and divorcing Sean Penn
“I didn’t want to raise my kids in this weird, sycophantic society,” says Wright (ex-Kelly, SANTA BARBARA), referring to Hollywood. “If you have celebrity parents, it’s not a good recipe for the kids, or anyone at any age. Look at what Brad and Angelina go through.”

In the print edition she talks about getting her first whiff of fame scoring a major role on SANTA BARBARA. "People were like, 'We can make you a star,' and I was like, 'Whoa, back the f---- off,'" recalls Wright. "I was so young and I could have been in Kristen Stewart's shoes. But that is so not who I am. I didn't want to be in the light."

INTERVIEW: DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' Dana Delaney
On PADADENA: "It was just the worst timing. Fox's two new big shows at that time were 24 and PASADENA. But when 9/11 happened all the money went to "24" because it's a show about anti-terrorism and no one thought the country wanted to see a show about a dark dysfunctional family at that point."

On turning down the role of Carrie on SEX AND THE CITY: "Oh God, I'd hate to be thought of as the person who turns everything down. I should clarify this one: I had done a movie called Live Nude Girls with Kim Cattrall that was somewhat similar. It was women sitting around talking about sex. Darren Star was a friend of mine and he had joined up with Candace Bushnell and came up with this idea and he asked if I'd be in it. It was very much in the early stages, and I had just done Nude Girls and Exit to Eden and I just said to Darren, 'I cannot do a show with 'sex' in the title.' People will lynch me if I do one more thing about sex."

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS' Zach Gilford would like to be first choice. Just once.
Unlike Matt, who is painfully, endearingly inarticulate, Gilford is a stone-cold extrovert; the smile his character rarely flashes works overtime off-camera. At breakfast in an Austin café, the 27-year-old tells me about growing up outside Chicago and majoring in theater at Northwestern. After living in New York for a year after college, he landed an audition for FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. “It was down to me and another kid,” says Gilford, “but his manager had double-booked him on a made-for-TV Disney movie. Legend has it Peter Berg said, ‘Good, I don’t want that kid anymore, I want that Zach kid.’ Peter’s crazy,” he adds. “In a good way.”

MAD MEN FINALE: Spectacular. Magnificent. Stunning.
"And that was just Joan’s triumphant return scene! The finale of Mad Men Season Three was everything a rabid fan could have hoped for, and more."

INTERVIEW: DAYS' Erick Avari (Omar)
"TV is a quicker medium with multiple pages a day. Movies are more leisurely and move like molasses. TV has smaller cast and it's an intimate setting. It's like comparing apples to oranges."

Can Gordon Smith Save Broadcasting?
New National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith covers spectrum, legislation, ownership and politics in a new interview with B&C.

"Chrysler just announced that it is putting mobile TV in its new cars. So that kind of market pressure is going to mean that automobile manufacturers on a very regular basis are going to be putting mobile TVs in automobiles."