Sundance: Casey Wilson Kind of Regrets Scripting Her Own Nude Scene
Last night at the Grey Goose Lounge at Park City, Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael were celebrating the premiere of Ass Backwards, the dark, Romy and Michele–ish comedy they wrote and star in. Did they ever pen something so outrageous that once they found themselves on set, they had second thoughts about performing it? “You took the words right out of my mouth,” said Wilson. “We wrote that the movie opens on a shot of our bare asses, and when we were on all fours in a van on the side of the road, with our makeup artist lovingly touching up our asses with ass makeup, I thought, Why did we write this? And I needed an ass double, but we didn’t have the budget!”
Are they happy with how the final result looks on the big screen? “I always say that June is a badass with a good ass. She’s looking good. Me? Eh, it is what it is. I’m a Method actress, and I had to put my ass out there.” As for Wilson’s beloved but indifferently rated sitcom Happy Endings, the actress is just happy that the network is no longer airing episodes on Sundays at ten. “Now they’re gonna double us up on Tuesdays,” she said. “I think the network really loves the show, but we just have to attract more viewers. I think the Sunday thing was more of an experiment, but I’m excited that we’re doubling up on Tuesdays. Two for one!”
Happy Endings is about to ID the guy (at least partly) responsible for Penny’s considerable man issues: her dad!
The ABC comedy has tapped former universe controller Andy Richter to play Casey Wilson’s (relatively young) onscreen father, TVLine has learned exclusively.
Conan O’Brien’s longtime sidekick will appear in a spring episode that I’m told will address the pair’s relatively tiny age difference (Richer is only 14 years older than Wilson).
According to an insider, Richter’s Roy and Megan Mullally’s Dana had Penny when they were really, really, really, really young.
Roy reappears in his daughter’s life as things are getting very serious between her and first-ever steady beau Pete (Nick Zano).
The Guys of “Happy Endings” Answer Relationship Questions
The male stars of the hit ABC show Happy Endings—Damon Wayans Jr., Zach Knighton, and Adam Pally—answer all your puzzling male-behavior questions. In detail!
Why are guys so afraid of the phone? What’s up with texting only? —Caitlin, 25 DAMON: It’s just easier. ZACH: It’s more efficient. ADAM: I hate getting a voice mail. I’m not going to listen to your message so I can hear what you’re about to tell me when I call you back. I mean, when you’re starting to date, you’re on the phone; you put your best foot forward. But if a guy is only texting you, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like you. DAMON: Unless there’s a top-out to the number of words. If he just says, “Hey,” “OK,” “Yeah,” “You up?”—no good. Just say, “I’d rather you call me.” If he likes you, he’ll adjust.
Is my husband thinking of me when he’s masturbating? And when does he even have time to? —Julie, 38 ZACH: There’s always time. ADAM: I’ve had the flu, with a 105-degree fever, and I’ve said to my wife, “Can you please go out for cough syrup?” And when she did, I jerked off. Twice. Do I think of my wife? Most of the time, no. Sometimes, yes. But, really, no. DAMON: No. Unless you haven’t seen her for a long time, you’re not going to “use” her. ADAM: And you have to masturbate. If I couldn’t, I’d be, like, a crazy person with a machete. DAMON: And an erection. A machete and a boner. ADAM: Not good.
Eliza Coupe Loves Jack White, Hates Cats, Thinks A Lot About What Her Last Meal Would Be
Eliza Coupe is probably best known for her work as Jane Kerkovich-Williams on Happy Endings — a show we adore around here — and as Dr. Denise “Jo” Mahoney on Scrubs. Raised in New Hampshire, Coupe played ice hockey as a kid and is well-tattooed (her tats are covered for the show). Prior to her success on television, Coupe studied improv at The Groundlings, toured France in an all-female production of King Lear, and staged a one-woman sketch show at Upright Citizens Brigade.
Eliza was nice enough to take a few minutes out of her busy schedule recently to answer a few of our questions.
1. You walk into a bar. What do your order from the bartender?
Before I order anything from any establishment I use their bathroom first. I have a walnut sized bladder. Then I order a water with lemon to start….which makes me have to pee more, I’m a wicked good time.
2. Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter?
Hmmm…That’s a tough one…..I wanna say some news org to sound smart but really these are my top five peeps to follow: Damon Wayans Jr.: @wayansjr ,Tom Riley: @thisistomriley, Briana Venskus: @thevenskus, Thom Coupe: @ThomCoupe ,Erin Whitehead: @girlwithatail
They ALL make me laugh like a muthafuckah.
3. What’s currently waiting for you on your DVR/TiVO?
Downton Abbey
4. It’s your last meal — what are you going out with?
I play this game all the time when I’m eating my boring salads day in and day out. Ok, so it’s probs gonna be fettuccine alfredo, a burrito, a king sized snickers bar, cereal (a mix of all my faves), pumpkin pie, a couple of Cadbury eggs, toast with homemade raspberry jam, a grilled cheese sandwich and then something with peanut butter and chocolate. And then for desert…..
Elisha Cuthbert: I’m Planning Wedding to Dion Phaneuf on My Own!
Elisha Cuthbert is a DIY bride-to-be.
After a four-year courtship, the Happy Endings actress, 30, accepted a proposal from Canadian hockey player Dion Phaneuf, 27, in September 2012. Since then, Cuthbert has “really enjoyed” planning their big day without the assistance of a wedding planner.
“You hear a lot about people saying that it’s a stressful thing to do, planning a wedding, but I have to say — knock on wood — so far so good,” the actress told Us Weekly during Disney-ABC’s post-TCA cocktail party in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 10. “Every step has gotten me more excited about our actual wedding day.”
Phaneuf has been a hands-on groom, Cuthbert added. “We’ve been doing it together, and it’s just been lovely.”
The actress — known for her roles on the TV hit 24 and the box office comedy The Girl Next Door – has the perfect wedding dress in mind. “I have a No. 1 contender, but I’m not pulling the trigger quite yet,” Cuthbert admitted. “When you’re 30 and you know your personal style and you know who you are as a person, it’s a good age to plan a wedding.”
‘Happy Endings’ EP on ‘Friends’ similarities, ‘Year of Max’ & Penny’s proposal
We have made it no secret that Happy Endings is one of our favorite comedies on television right now (actually, with Community still on hiatus, it is probably our *most* favorite comedy on television, literally right now). The underrated gem has won our hearts with its colorful cast of characters, ridiculously quotable original lexicon, crazy creative props, and yes, even if unintentional, callbacks to Friends.
“It’s mostly the nature of the genre, and the fact that I think all of us, to some degree, have that show in our DNA because that show was such a landmark show and on for so many years, they did just about everything,” Happy Endings executive producer Jonathan Groff said to LA TV Insider Examiner about recent storyline similarities to that “little” sitcom about six friends that predated his own.
“There have been a few things where we said ‘If Friends did this, we have this new way of doing the story so we still can do it’.”
The recent episode, “Fowl Play/Date,” was one example, in which Dave (Zachary Knighton) and Jane (Eliza Coupe) each wanted to set up Max (Adam Pally) with a guy they thought was the perfect guy. A key season six episode of Friends saw a similar concept when Monica and Chandler and Phoebe got too competitive with each other trying to find a guy for Rachel. Happy Endings took a concept you’ve seen before and put its own specific, quirky twist on it: the guy each character chose for Max was a doppelganger of his or herself.
“Sometimes what happens is, we’ve got a great story that we like for some of the characters, like Penny, Brad, and Alex, which was the dead parrot thing. We hadn’t seen Dave and Jane work together on something; Max has a problem, which is that he hasn’t dated somebody in a while, and you just kind of end up there in a way that feeds into the natural narcissism of our characters,” Groff said.
A key aspect to Happy Endings has been not dragging out the will they/won’t they aspect of potential pairings within friendships that you could get away with for years, years earlier. Season three has seen Dave and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) get back together and officially try their relationship again after she left him at the altar in the pilot, but it has also put seemingly perpetually single girl Penny (Casey Wilson) in a serious and healthy relationship with new guy Pete (Nick Zano).
“There’s a pretty big proposal in the works,” Groff said, though noting that he wasn’t sure Penny was ready for the next big step that usually comes after a proposal (and a positive response) just yet.
‘Happy Endings’ producers on ‘Kickball,’ Sunday scheduling and renewal hopes
When I was at ABC’s press tour party a few nights ago, I ran into “Happy Endings” producers David Caspe and Jonathan Groff, and asked them about “Kickball” finally seeing the light of day, their thoughts on this scheduling strategy, and whether they think they have a shot to come back next year.
You had an episode left over from the first season, too. Why was this one dangling out there?
David Caspe: Literally, we got the schedule from, they were launching “Bitch,” and we had one left over. We didn’t know when to air it, and when they started talking about the Sunday thing to give us more exposure, and they wanted us to have as many new episodes as we could. Because of our shooting schedule, we didn’t have that many on the shelf right now, and that one allowed us to put a new one out and still stay on the schedule.
Jonathan Groff: It’s going to be a little weird, continuity-wise. We were hoping they might promo it as a lost or hidden episode.
Other than Dave and Alex not being together, what’s weird about it?
Groff: Penny is totally on the make. She’s big-time single in this episode, and really loaded for bear — literally loaded for Bear. Loaded for Lance Briggs. So if the fans of the show are following the series closely but yet don’t know this is an old episode, it’ll be, like, ‘What?’ But hopefully it’s funny — it’s a bit of a romp of an episode — and people will just go with it.
Damon Wayans, Jr. on ‘Happy Endings’ Season 3 & ‘In Living Color’
One of the happiest parts of “Happy Endings” is Brad (Damon Wayans, Jr.) and Jane (Eliza Coupe), the married couple. Brad gets giddy with their little schticks and he’s even having a good time being unemployed, although Jane gets kind of stressed out trying to make everything work out for everyone else.
Earlier this year, we got to chat with Wayans about “Happy Endings,” his stint on the “New Girl” pilot and his participation in his uncle Keenen Ivory Wayans’ “In Living Color” reboot. CraveOnline: If the Kerkovich Way rears its head again, will Brad know how to handle it this time?
Damon Wayans, Jr.: I feel like he will try, but he will fail and she will somehow pull the wool over his eyes.
CraveOnline: She’s got to have more tricks, right? We only saw the beginning of it.
Damon Wayans, Jr.: Yeah, I can’t wait. I really feel like we’re making a lot of room for comedy in this season. The fact that Brad’s unemployed, as far as Brad and Jane go, there’s a lot of room for us to have the role switching, a bit of me not having the stability of having a job and having to pick oddball jobs, dealing with Max (Adam Pally) who’s a professional unemployed person. It’ll be good to see what happens.
CraveOnline: What other crazy jobs would you like to see Brad have?
Damon Wayans, Jr.: I don’t know, maybe like some Pulp Fiction. He could be a hitman. Maybe just a contract killer, maybe a professional superhero. A model, like some nude painting classes, posing like in Titanic.
Adam Pally: ‘My go-to karaoke jam is, ‘If I Were a Rich Man”
It’s surprising that Adam Pally, who plays Max on ABC’s ”Happy Endings,” went into show business considering how he fared in his first performance.
“There is a video of me doing standup at 5 for my cousin’s Hanukkah talent show,” he tells Zap2it. “I am bombing, and everyone is heckling me. It prepares you for the rejection of this business.”
Pally recalls trying next for the fifth grade production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“It was clear in my audition — even at a young age — I was blowing everyone away,” Pally says, deadpan. “There were politics. I wound up playing Lazar Wolf. I f… stole that show. My go-to karaoke jam is, ‘If I Were a Rich Man.’”
Unlike most kids who target show business as their dreams, Pally grew up knowing success in the business was hardly a given. Both of his parents had been entertainers, his dad an actor and his mom a singer. His dad lost a few parts and decided to switch gears, and went to medical school in Chicago.
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Last night at the Grey Goose Lounge at Park City, Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael were celebrating the premiere of Ass Backwards, the dark, Romy and Michele–ish comedy they wrote and star in. Did they ever pen something so outrageous that once they found themselves on set, they had second thoughts about performing it? “You took the words right out of my mouth,” said Wilson. “We wrote that the movie opens on a shot of our bare asses, and when we were on all fours in a van on the side of the road, with our makeup artist lovingly touching up our asses with ass makeup, I thought, Why did we write this? And I needed an ass double, but we didn’t have the budget!”
Happy Endings is about to ID the guy (at least partly) responsible for Penny’s considerable man issues: her dad!
The male stars of the hit ABC show Happy Endings—Damon Wayans Jr., Zach Knighton, and Adam Pally—answer all your puzzling male-behavior questions. In detail!
Eliza Coupe is probably best known for her work as Jane Kerkovich-Williams on Happy Endings — a show we adore around here — and as Dr. Denise “Jo” Mahoney on Scrubs. Raised in New Hampshire, Coupe played ice hockey as a kid and is well-tattooed (her tats are covered for the show). Prior to her success on television, Coupe studied improv at The Groundlings, toured France in an all-female production of King Lear, and staged a one-woman sketch show at Upright Citizens Brigade.
Elisha Cuthbert is a DIY bride-to-be.
We have made it no secret that Happy Endings is one of our favorite comedies on television right now (actually, with Community still on hiatus, it is probably our *most* favorite comedy on television, literally right now). The underrated gem has won our hearts with its colorful cast of characters, ridiculously quotable original lexicon, crazy creative props, and yes, even if unintentional, callbacks to Friends.
When I was at ABC’s press tour party a few nights ago, I ran into “Happy Endings” producers David Caspe and Jonathan Groff, and asked them about “Kickball” finally seeing the light of day, their thoughts on this scheduling strategy, and whether they think they have a shot to come back next year.
One of the happiest parts of “Happy Endings” is Brad (Damon Wayans, Jr.) and Jane (Eliza Coupe), the married couple. Brad gets giddy with their little schticks and he’s even having a good time being unemployed, although Jane gets kind of stressed out trying to make everything work out for everyone else.
It’s surprising that Adam Pally, who plays Max on ABC’s ”Happy Endings,” went into show business considering how he fared in his first performance.
