Listen to Positive Talk With Kevin McDonald on the Brushwood Media Network
318 | Amy & Nancy Harrington back on KKNW 1150AM!
October 04, 2022
318 | Amy & Nancy Harrington back on KKNW 1150AM!
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We're huge pop culture fans. In fact, you could say it's our passion. Growing up, we developed a love of TV, movies, music, and food as well as a fascination with celebrity. This blog is where all our passions collide.

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Positive Talk Radio
Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:00  
This is a production of km media dot Pro.

Unknown Speaker  0:08  
Welcome back to positive talk radio. Our goal is simple to explore evolving ideas one conversation at a time. So come on over into our world. I know you'll like it. Because on today's show,

Unknown Speaker  0:22  
you're not going to believe the two ladies that we have for today's show. And I'm hoping you'll stay for the entire time. I gotta tell you, we're gonna have a lot of fun with us. They've been on the show before, and they just completed last week. This year's version of I'm going to say it correctly. This time I've been practicing the passion Easter's project.

Unknown Speaker  0:46  
And they do this on an annual basis now. And it's been a lot of fun. But they were they were holding out on us. Because there are people that they've interviewed on a wide variety of people. And Nathan, first of all, welcome Nathan, it's nice to have you here.

Unknown Speaker  1:09  
Pick up pick a, a relatively well known television celebrity or somebody who's your favorite. I've always been a big fan of Jim Carrey.

Unknown Speaker  1:22  
And I didn't. It's not quite television. It's more of movies, but maybe how about let's go with Ryan Stiles for television.

Unknown Speaker  1:32  
Who the heck is that? He's on Whose Line Is It Anyway? Oh, Ryan's he actually lives in Mount Vernon now. Yeah, he's up in northern Washington. Yes, indeed. Have you ever heard of somebody by the name of? Let's see, Carol. Carol Carol. Burnett? Oh, of course. Have you heard of Danny DeVito?

Unknown Speaker  1:53  
Have you heard of, Oh, I've got a list here. And I'm blanking on it for a second. But But these two women have interviewed all these people. They are also passionate about women's issues and taking care of women so that women business owners and and others can reach their highest potential. I'm so enthusiastic about these two, because they are taking they've gone above and beyond. They don't need to be doing what they're doing. They could just have done what they were doing before and for like ever. And it would have been great. But they had something in their heart that wanted them to go above and beyond. And Amy Harrington and Nancy Harrington are here. And they are the past passion Easter's.

Unknown Speaker  2:42  
Welcome. How are you?

Unknown Speaker  2:44  
Thanks for having us again, Kevin. We're great. We are we are rested after a crazy week last week. So tell us tell us about the passengers passion Easter's project this year? How did it go? And was it as successful as you'd hoped? It was fabulous. It went it was a three day virtual event last week called The Power of passion Easter's and we had a film festival and award ceremony, nine storyteller panels, speed networking, and it was just absolutely phenomenal. We had women from all around the globe, attend this event, and we couldn't be happier. That was really great. That is awesome. Now if you'd like to follow along, you can by going to the Passion, Passion Easter's project.com. And they've got they've got a tremendous amount of information here for you, as well as the podcast that they've been doing for a long time and all of the things that they've been working on and the it's it really is phenomenal. And we've been fortunate enough because Selena Luna was here and, and, and several others that are working with you. i We had a great time. I hope they had a good time on the show. Oh, they loved it. They thought you were great. And they they hope you they get to talk to you again. I hope to get to talk to them too again. And because you guys may have become my favorite people that I'm that I'm kind of modeling myself after because you guys have been doing this for Wow. You're both in your mid late 20s. And so you've been your

Unknown Speaker  4:25  
you've been doing this for a little while a

Unknown Speaker  4:28  
little bit, give or take. Yeah, I mean, we we are we're happy to say we're in our 50s we've been around the block a bit and yeah, we you know, we started in our other careers in the entertainment industry but we've been doing the interviewing

Unknown Speaker  4:46  
for about 12 or 13 years now now and and started the passion Easter's project got no that's actually been going for

Unknown Speaker  4:58  
eight years has

Unknown Speaker  5:00  
needless project, we started in 2016 2016.

Unknown Speaker  5:05  
That means I've been doing interviews since 2010. It doesn't intend so. So I gotta ask you, what is your passion? I mean, obviously, it's this project, but what led you to it? I mean, you created this quite literally out of thin air. So how did how did you come up with it? And, and what was your? I can just imagine the two of you sitting around Starbucks going, you know, we should do something exciting and stuff. And And is that how it came about? That's exactly how it came.

Unknown Speaker  5:40  
I knew it would be simple like that. You were sitting there going, we needed to give back, we needed to do something for women. And we would really like to do some phenomenal things for our, our, our sisters out there that that don't have the ability or the understand what their abilities can be. And we need to help guide them. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we we did stumble into this world of celebrity interviewing. And, you know, you asked what our passions are, and our you know, we're happy to say that our passions have changed through the years, you know, Amy and I have always been passionate about pop culture. I mean, we grew up watching television, 24/7, reading books, listening to music, going to theater, you know, we've always loved pop culture. And we were so fortunate to be able to turn that into, into careers for both of us. And we had fabulous careers, and we loved every second of it. And then we, you know, left our left our corporate jobs to work together. And that's when we started the pop culture, passion, Easter's. And that's where we stumbled into this world of celebrity interviewing. And that became our passion. And we had no idea that we would, you know, were to shy little girls from the suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, who like hated going to parties and would drop out of classes, if we knew we had to do an oral presentation. And here we are making a living talking to people, you know, so we never in a million years thought that would happen. But we always had this little inkling, and it got stronger and stronger in 2016, as the presidential election was happening, and as the metoo movement was heating up, and we just really wanted to use the skills that we had acquired to make more of an impact. And, and that's when we decided that we wanted to start shining a light on women who are doing wonderful things. And as you said, it's just sort of evolved and grown from that little spark of an idea to Starbucks, literally to a global summit.

Unknown Speaker  7:47  
It's really the the work that you're doing on behalf of women is is nothing short of amazing, because there's a lot of we've been talking with Selena.

Unknown Speaker  7:59  
She has been the recipient of some

Unknown Speaker  8:04  
some disability problems and some stuff like that, then she's had to deal with a lot of that. And she's a successful artist at the same time.

Unknown Speaker  8:15  
And so we've talked to folks like that, I'd like to play a game real quick so that people can get an understanding of who you are and who you've talked to, and how broad spectrum of people they are. So I'm going to give you a name. And then if you can, like in a sentence or two, give me a sense of who they were, or are and the interview that they did with you. Can we do that? Excellent. Yep.

Unknown Speaker  8:42  
The first the first one I'd like to do for you is somebody who recently passed and she was almost 100 years old. And her name is Betty White.

Unknown Speaker  8:52  
Betty White, we got to do a phone interview with a group of bloggers and and she was everything that you would want her to be she was lovely and funny and charming and just exactly the person that we would have expected.

Unknown Speaker  9:13  
Her Carl Reiner.

Unknown Speaker  9:17  
Well, that one was awesome. That was at a television honors event and they were honoring a number of people including Cloris Leachman and Carl Reiner was there and we we got to ask him a few questions. And at the very end he made a joke and I remember that we kind of paused to like in our heads there was going to be like an audience laugh track because it was one liner. And he was on to you know, I was like oh, it's called rider I must be on tell him watching him on television. And and there was this awkward pause and he was like, is that everything?

Unknown Speaker  9:53  
Yes, thank you so much Mr. Reiner. That was horrible. But now he was great. And it was you know, sometimes

Unknown Speaker  10:00  
You just get in the presence of these people that you've literally have known your entire life. And it's, it's mind blowing. And he is definitely in like the top 10 coolest people we ever got to talk to, I think, speaking of that, you know, we get to see people who are on stage and around their best behavior, and all of that. And I would like to believe that they're all that way. Now the one person that I think is genuinely that way would be Carol Burnett, talk about her. Carol Burnett was delightful. That is the absolute perfect word for cabinet. And my favorite thing about Carol Burnett was you know, we, we do a lot of our interviews we do over the phone, and especially presume era, they were literally on the phone. And oftentimes you would get most of the time, you'd get a press person who and you'd get their phone number. And you'd call and they'd say, Hold on one second, we'll get Miss Burnett for you, and they'd connect you and

Unknown Speaker  10:58  
we, we interviewed Carol Burnett for a release of a box set of The Carol Burnett Show. And we were given a phone number call this number out this time. So we call the number and the voice on the other one says, Hello, this is Carol.

Unknown Speaker  11:17  
It just blew us away like What celebrity on that level just gives phone gives her phone number and picks up the phone for herself. And she was just so delightful. And we had chills from head to toe the entire time we talked to her. I also love that we always ask people if you could be a pop culture icon or famous person in history and walk in their shoes for one day, who would you choose and why? And she very simply said I would be Hitler and I would kill myself.

Unknown Speaker  11:48  
Because Oh, well that's brilliant.

Unknown Speaker  11:52  
Didn't expect that from the funniest woman of all time.

Unknown Speaker  11:57  
That is That is so good. That's it that is really funny. Now, the next the next one I want to ask you about started in a show with Carl Reiner.

Unknown Speaker  12:08  
And it was a show from a long long time ago and Dick Van Dyke is his name and he was he was in the obviously the Dick Van Dyke Show and and Mary Poppins and, and all sorts of things and tell us a little bit about Mr. Van thank Well, I have to say Dick Van Dyke. Here we go. We're really getting deep here. addict Van Dyck was my first childhood celebrity crush, like I I just adore Dick Van Dyke. And so getting to talk to him. We talked to him on a red carpet for an event. It was a television Academy event for Bob Newhart. I think it was The Bob Newhart event. Yeah. And.

Unknown Speaker  12:52  
And he, he was just so charming and handsome, and, and adorable. And I don't remember a word that he said, because I was in a daze that I was literally talking to Dick Van Dyke. And it was, it was just absolutely incredible. Yeah, sometimes they are blackout moments, because you're like, Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Unknown Speaker  13:17  
So this was this was on your bucket list, to be able to interview?

Unknown Speaker  13:22  
Yeah. And it'd be like me interviewing Paul McCartney, it'd be like, add the dads out there. Go into that Chris Farley mode. Like when you're in the

Unknown Speaker  13:32  
awesome.

Unknown Speaker  13:35  
It was like to be, you know, the big question is, and you guys are professional interviewers. And so you know, the hardest thing to do is to try and come up with a question they haven't had been asked before. Yeah, totally. Yeah. The best phrase to hear is Oh, no one's ever asked me that.

Unknown Speaker  13:52  
Love when they say that to us? Yeah. Because then then they get engaged, because most of the time they just go on autopilot. Because it's the same. Same stuff. Same thing every time. But if you can deep delve deep into something that they haven't talked about before, that'd be great. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So I've got I've got another one for you. One of one of my favorite ladies of today. And that would be Tina Fey.

Unknown Speaker  14:19  
Tina Fey was amazing. What's funny is back when we interviewed her, there was a period of time where Tina Fey and I had similar haircuts and similar glasses. And, and a lot of people used to tell me, I looked like Tina Fey, I didn't see it, but she did. Exactly. Tina Fey, Sarah Palin, Nancy all looked exactly the same.

Unknown Speaker  14:43  
So it was a really funny surreal moment when we got to talk to Tina Fey on the red carpet and as I recall, Amy, correct me if I'm wrong, Tina Fey was.

Unknown Speaker  14:53  
Tell the story. She was not. You were interviewing Ken Russell, the white shadow on the red card.

Unknown Speaker  15:00  
I said, and he was the No, I think you were interviewing Tina Fey on the red carpet. And Ken Russell was right next to us being interviewed because at the time, I think he was the president of the television of the DGA, or something Writers Guild. And so you were interviewing Tina Fey, and she was lovely. But she also doesn't like to do red carpets, I don't think so she was looking for her out. And she was like, oh, but you should really be talking to the white shadow. And she kind of pulled him in. And

Unknown Speaker  15:30  
she was great. She just said that a lot of people, especially the Emmys, where it's such an assault of reporters, I think people try and get out quickly when they can. And on the red carpet at the Emmys we don't ask the typical questions, because we're there for the Television Academy Foundation, which is a historical and academic wing of the founding of the Television Academy. So we always ask them questions more about you know, who their influences are, or their mentors. And as I recall, Tina gave a lovely answer about her a theater teacher when she was in school.

Unknown Speaker  16:06  
I've got another name for you that that you may decide, and feel free to decide to take the fifth on this one, because I think he did like 450 times about two weeks ago.

Unknown Speaker  16:20  
I think you might, we might know who's coming.

Unknown Speaker  16:23  
That would be Donald Trump, for those of you who don't know who he is never mind.

Unknown Speaker  16:30  
There's lots about him online. I think he was a reality TV star one time he was and that's when we spoke to him. We had you know, you get on these press circuits. And so they're they're these calls that they that you make. And each each reporter gets to ask her, you know, blogger gets to ask two questions, you get to ask a question and a follow up, and you get put in a queue. And when it's your turn, you ask him questions. And we were on this list for a while. Every week we were doing the bachelor, and we were doing Celebrity Apprentice and the apprentice. And so we would get calls with you know, Bret Michaels and Penn from Penn and Teller. And one week, it was I think it was pretty sure it was, it was either Bret Michaels and or Gene Simmons and Donald Trump. And

Unknown Speaker  17:19  
everybody called him Mr. Judd, the only two people in the history of all of the interviews we've done that everybody refers to them as Mr. Or at least used to refer to them as Mr. And I think it's very telling that these are the two people, Bill Cosby and Donald Trump. Everybody called Mr. Cosby and Mr. Trump, because they were it really insisted that they do so. So it was Donald Trump. And we got to ask two questions. And I think we asked how he would do as an as a contestant, how he would have done as a contestant on The Apprentice as a younger man. And, of course, he was like, I would have been like, I don't wanna I don't want the whole thing. As a matter of fact, yeah. We have since taken the interview off of our website, so there's no confusion that we we have any attempt at supporting the man anymore, but we have to admit, there was a period where we were giving the apprentice attention. Unfortunately,

Unknown Speaker  18:19  
this next one is one that you've interviewed almost our entire cast, I think. And that was it was a seven D show. And it was based upon a movie that was that George Lucas did prior to that. And it was, do you remember the name of the show?

Unknown Speaker  18:39  
Sure. Henry Winkler was on it. Oh, happy days. Happy Days, the Fonz. What was he, you know, it's interesting, because as the character that he played, he was this tough, you know, guy that everybody was scared of this stuff. And but as a human being, I get the sense that he's just the softest, kindest man out there. He's a marshmallow. The most delightful marshmallow. Yeah, you want to tell that one? Yeah, I honestly do think that the rumors are true that he is the nicest man in Hollywood. I think that we actually have had the pleasure of meeting him a few times. But the I think the best engagement he had that reality show a few years ago with it was such a strange cast. And I'm blanking on who it was George Foreman. Yeah. Henry Winkler.

Unknown Speaker  19:32  
He's a ex football player can't think of his name. And then some young guy, and they traveled, they went on international trips. Like I think they went to Asia. I think they went to Tokyo or Tokyo, but they were shot of water. It was

Unknown Speaker  19:46  
actually a very funny show. Went to a press event for that, huh? Carrie Bradshaw, Carrie Bradshaw.

Unknown Speaker  19:55  
A younger more. No, no, no. And we

Unknown Speaker  20:00  
interviewed him for that. And we went to, we went to a press event, they showed the first episode. And then the cast spoke. And it was in a, you know, probably 200 seat theater. And so when the when the screening ended, the audience started walking out, they were going to feed us in another room. And Henry Winkler was walking up the aisle, and we ended up standing next to him. And so we talked to him. And we were like, that was, you know, such an amazing show, we really loved it really funny. And he's like, you know, what show is funny. And he started telling us about a brand new show that was on TV at the time that he started watching, and he really loved it. And he started promoting somebody else's show to us. And we're like, you know, that is the sign of a really wonderful person who is not self centered, he could have taught, walked us up the aisle and talked about his show and plugged himself and, and he spent the time he had with us talking about somebody else's show. And it just made me love him forever. And then at the at the luncheon, he went to every single table and spoke to every single person, including us again and showed us he had just been to India, I think it was showing us pictures of the baby elephant that he had met and fell in love with and oh, he was just, you just want to hug him any chance. Any chance you get to be around Henry Winkler. It's a good day. You know, and I'll tell you the

Unknown Speaker  21:25  
there aren't very many people that I can name in Hollywood that you've watched literally grow up from a five, six year old kid, all the way through his teenage years and his adult years. And even still today. And, and I know you you know who I'm talking about. And the question I have for you is, did you interview Ron Howard before he lost his hair? I don't know that that's possible. That was a very small window. God bless them.

Unknown Speaker  21:54  
No, we ever that was another television honors event. And he was being honored. I think it was the Television Hall of Fame, maybe that he was getting inducted into. And it was a great red carpet is hearkening back to your earlier reference. George Lucas was there to honor him. And you know, he was great. He was really nice and polite, and we were asking questions, and then we asked him the last question, which is, what was your favorite TV show as a kid and he all of a sudden looked like

Unknown Speaker  22:28  
Obi he just like, was a little kid again. And he was so excited and he started talking about Gumby. Gumby. I loved that Gumby so much and he just went on about Gumby. But it's so fun to see sometimes, like if you are someone just the right question to kind of tap into that moment in their life. Like it takes them back. And he he just lit up and it was so much fun. It was great.

Unknown Speaker  22:53  
Now this next, this next one is a late night guy. And he's not doing it anymore. But he took over from Johnny Carson. And he did the did the tonight show for years and years. I can't remember how many But Jay Leno it was he is He is funny in real life as he pretends to be.

Unknown Speaker  23:13  
Yeah, I have to say I have always been a letterman girl.

Unknown Speaker  23:18  
So I didn't really have expectations about when Oh, I kind of you know, we're from Boston. He's from Boston. So he's always kind of been this, you know, hero.

Unknown Speaker  23:26  
But I didn't really have any expectations one way or the other. And he was real. And it was another Television

Unknown Speaker  23:32  
Hall of Fame event. I think he was getting inducted and he was great. He was really funny, really charming, very willing to answer your questions. I think sometimes when you interview people for a living, you're not that great at being interviewed. But he was having a really fun night and it was a great conversation. Yeah, it was great. That's it. That's really cool. Now the next guy is a comic that is active today. He also I believe the office he created and then several other things. Ricky Gervais, Asus Gervais, Ricky, you know who I'm talking about? The question I have for you is, did he have a beer in his hands when he was talking to you?

Unknown Speaker  24:16  
Because every time I see him doing stand up, or like when he opens up for the Oscars or whatever, he's got a beer in his hand. Yeah, no beer, red carpet, red carpet at the Emmys no beer. And I remember I think we had I think you did that interview and I remember you made him laugh. I don't know what you said. That is so proud of you. It was like whenever you can make a comedian laugh. It's like the most fulfilling feeling when you're doing an interview and I remember like you said something and he laughed and we were both

Unknown Speaker  24:49  
honored and I don't remember what I asked him but I did make him laugh. You're right. Yeah, it was fun. The red carpets at the Emmys I have to say is like a big blackout moment.

Unknown Speaker  25:00  
it like there are very few of them that I actually remember it goes by so quickly. It's so intense. It's so high energy and we crash at the end of it. And it's like, who did you talk to?

Unknown Speaker  25:13  
I don't remember.

Unknown Speaker  25:15  
There's a few standout moments, but most of them are just like a blur. You know, we only remember them by going back and watching the footage. You know, this is this is, Are you guys having a good time? I'm having a great time. Forever.

Unknown Speaker  25:32  
The next one was in a series called Breaking Bad. And it was a series of to had was really quite popular. But that's not the only thing that Brian has ever done. And he is a tremendous actor. I think he doesn't get the appreciation that he's do Bryan Cranston is he's one of the best actors of our generation. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Yeah, we this is actually one of my favorite red carpet moments. And one that I do remember.

Unknown Speaker  26:02  
It was the year that Breaking Bad

Unknown Speaker  26:06  
was the season finale of Breaking Bad was airing at the exact same time as the Emmys on the West Coast.

Unknown Speaker  26:16  
And learning from the Television Academy, and it wasn't it wasn't the final season. It was like the seat. I think it was a season before the final season. And so it was at the height of the craze of Breaking Bad. And we had we have people on the red carpet that are wrangling for us because we're with the Television Academy. Most people don't get that so we had someone wrangling they got Bryan Cranston, it was like a huge get. And they were across the carpet. And they pointed to me and I waved and they were like, We're sending Brian over. And he started walking towards me. And right next to me where you know, we're sardines in this little area to do the interviews right next to me was this gorgeous, absolutely stunning,

Unknown Speaker  27:00  
tall, brunette, slender, young woman from I forget which network she was which channel she was from, but it was it's, you know, fairly sizable network. But you know, where the TV Academy says Emmys on our mic flag, you know, but anyway, she was stunning. And he caught her eye as he was walking over and went right to her. And I was crushed. Because I knew I wasn't gonna get him. I knew he was doing one interview. And that was it. And so she started interviewing him. And she said to him, you know this, it's an important night for you guys the finale and Emmys at the same time. And he said to her, yeah, it's kinda like the sharks and the Jets.

Unknown Speaker  27:45  
And God bless her. She was not her fault. She was no idea. Free remake on her face had no idea what he was talking about. And I lost control. And I was very unprofessional in the moment. And I said, Oh, come on, really loudly.

Unknown Speaker  28:07  
And he looked at me. And he said, Donna, and I said, then and

Unknown Speaker  28:15  
so I had my moment with Bryan Cranston. And she went on to finish her interview, and the next year I did get him. So I had my interview with him. But that was it was one of my favorite of all time moments on the red carpet.

Unknown Speaker  28:30  
The next actor I want to talk about as was in the show, that on his final episode, was one of the most watched shows of all time. And that would be Alan all the from Mash. That was another phone interview. And and like you were saying, We it's really hard, especially on those group call interviews to come up with a question that is somebody else isn't going to ask, you never know how late in the call you're going to get. So you have to have make sure you have enough questions so that if everybody's already asked your, your other questions, you have something that you can still ask. And

Unknown Speaker  29:12  
and we reach real deep on that one. And we decided to ask him about science because he is obsessed with science. It's his hobby. And we asked him about I feel like we asked him about some like, some like NASA related thing that was going on. And he loved it. He went on, he just dove right into and talked about sighs I'm sure all the other bloggers were really mad at us because they wanted to talk about whatever show he was guest starring on like the blacklist or something. And he got completely distracted and talked about science instead. And they were probably like, I can't use this.

Unknown Speaker  29:53  
It was great. So he liked us because we asked him about something. He also did the archive interview with that

Unknown Speaker  30:00  
his cast mates Jamie Farr. Oh cool, which was really really fun to be a Jamie spark Jamie forest house at Christmas time he sat in front of his tree, and it's just part of his Christmas tree. And he was he was absolutely delightful. And that lovely crimson. You know, sweater love bulky sweater, he was just so sweet. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  30:21  
I gotta I gotta I gotta tell you,

Unknown Speaker  30:24  
you've interviewed the guy that is famous for

Unknown Speaker  30:28  
the seven degrees of, of

Unknown Speaker  30:32  
this particular actor, which is, I guess the premise is, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but the premise is that if you go far enough that you can find seven connections to this actor, and everybody on the planet can do this is Am I right? In that because that's how it goes. It's 66 degrees, we like to say we're zero degrees from Kevin Bacon.

Unknown Speaker  30:55  
On the red carpet, that was like our very first Emmys red carpet. And we had been doing interviews for like,

Unknown Speaker  31:06  
five months maybe, and had done had never done anything that big and had really only done a handful of red carpet interviews at that point.

Unknown Speaker  31:15  
And I can't remember what he was there for. I can't remember if he was there with Karish Sedgwick because she was nominated, or I think maybe he was just there with Kara for the club. And I do not remember what we talked to him about. I just remember how excited everybody was around us. But especially like the girls our age, who we're working with, and who are nearby, everybody was just like, it's because at the time, there were very few movie stars on the red carpet. Now, it used to be, we could always tell when it was the very end of the red carpet, because it would just be this constant stream of people. And then there'd be this Okay, everybody go inside this show was going to start so all the news outlets would pack up, we would always wait because there was always this big cheer from the audience that were in the bleachers, and then the movie star would walk around the corner. What if tell tro, Al Pacino. But there was there was one. And that year, Kevin Bacon was the one.

Unknown Speaker  32:16  
And now it's every third person as a movie star, who's in case you don't realize this, there was a time in television history, when television was looked down upon by actual, quote unquote, movie stars. And they would not make that transition, because they felt it was kind of beneath them to be on TV and Emma, you're nodding your head. Am I right? In that 100% mean, basically, since the creation of television, everybody TV star and movie stars, anybody in the I worked in films, and everybody in the film industry looked down at TV, and I was always the one like, I guess it's cool working in movies. I, I liked TV.

Unknown Speaker  33:01  
And now, all of a sudden, with, you know, with with these limited series, and with just the quantity HBO really changed that.

Unknown Speaker  33:11  
Now, it's like everybody wants to do TV, you know? So it's great. I mean, I we watch, we used to go to the movies every weekend. And now we're now we're not going still not going to theaters co COVID. But we maybe watch a movie a month. But I watch you know, I have like seven TV shows going at once.

Unknown Speaker  33:34  
almost literally.

Unknown Speaker  33:36  
Since you guys have been into into the industry for a long time. I would really like your opinion on what's going to happen with movies. Now that streaming is so prevalent. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I was just reading today I forget which movie chain it was Regal Cinemas are something that they have a good first quarter this year. But they are predicting that it's going to basically remain at like COVID level movie attended. They're saying for two years, it's going to remain at like COVID level movie attendance. I don't know that they're ever going to come back from it

Unknown Speaker  34:13  
will recover. It's so expensive to go to a movie. It's really hard to you know,

Unknown Speaker  34:20  
find a movie I think that makes me want to go out to a theater and see something. And unless it's like a big action movie, I'm like, I still like to see you know, a big effects movie on a big screen with a huge sound system then you can see all the detail. Everything else like you know, I got a word 42 inch or 50 inch, whatever it is TV in the living room that has great sound. I can make my own popcorn. I don't have to park and I just I don't see it ever bouncing back and like our nephews and niece. They never go to the movies. They're you know, teenagers they don't. That's just not their excuse.

Unknown Speaker  35:00  
Ariens it's not like it was so I don't know, I don't know that movie theaters are going to be the wave of the future, you know, a good friend of mine and I got together and we had dinner and we decided to go to a movie. And and I hadn't been to a movie. Quite literally, I haven't been to a movie in 10 years. Because I hate to be the you know, because I'm single. And I hate to be the single guy that has the popcorn on the pop walking down the aisle, and people are looking at you going, Oh, that poor man. He doesn't have any friends.

Unknown Speaker  35:32  
You know, so, so I thought that we will go to a movie. And so we went to see Top Gun. And I figured, well, you know, it's that's the if I'm gonna go to a movie. That's the kind of movie I'm gonna go to. We were it was a Thursday night, seven o'clock performance. And we were the only ones in the theater.

Unknown Speaker  35:55  
So you know, and it's just I think, I think times they be changing. And now they're releasing top good movies first run to streaming services, and stuff like that. They're not even going to the theaters. Yeah, when I worked at Warner Brothers, like opening weekends for Batman movies, and Harry Potter movies and things like that were like $80 million weekend 17, whatever. They were $50 million weekend, so I can't really remember. But like I saw the other day, there was the big movie that opened and it was like $17 million at the box office. And it was like, oh, people would have been fired. large mass groups of people would have heads would have rolled. If that was like the big news opening weekend for a tentpole movie in the 90s. You know, so different. Yeah, it has changed so much. You know what I'm looking at this list of WoW, Claire Danes should easy she has been nominated for and one not as many as as no more name escapes me real quick, but

Unknown Speaker  36:59  
yes, yeah. But Claire Danes is it has had quite a movie career herself. Yeah, she had just won for Temple Grandin for many series

Unknown Speaker  37:10  
at the Emmys and

Unknown Speaker  37:13  
so it was the whole group and including the the real Temple Grandin was there on stage with with Claire and the producers.

Unknown Speaker  37:25  
So yeah, we got to ask, you know, at the Emmys

Unknown Speaker  37:30  
they're after you when you come back to this press room and the press room is probably 200 reporters 150 reporters from around the world. And people can ask questions. So it's this like really high energy. David Cameron cavernous room and all the you know, the entire cast to Game of Thrones will come back if the show wins or the entire cast of Veep. And so she was there. I remember her there for Temple Grandin. I don't think we ever

Unknown Speaker  37:56  
I don't think she I don't know that homeland ever won. Well, I think we did it. Again, the Emmys are such a blur. I think we did a Emmys early on with her early on in the homeland run red carpet interview with her. I was just remember that every time I see her, I think I just wish I could wear that Calvin Klein dress and look like

Unknown Speaker  38:20  
one person on the carpet when she's always there. And it's simple. It's not like super girly or super Glitz or whatever. It's always like a very simple dress. And it just fits her perfectly and she sweeps by and looks gorgeous. As always, she's my number one fashion icon on the red carpet. And because I tell you I'm looking at over these lists of people and it's it really is like a who's who. And Julia Louis Dreyfus and Danny DeVito. And Cindy Williams and, and Penny Marshall, who of course became a fabulous director and later on after, after the after parents end work together. Matt LeBlanc Is he is he kind of a funny guy like you think seems to be

Unknown Speaker  39:08  
I remember him being really nice. Like I think we all kind of expected him to be aloof. And, and he wasn't he was really. He was just really like a normal guy pretty down to earth as I recall. Yeah, he was there for the HBO show. I mean, Showtime show episodes, which was a great show, if you've never seen it where he plays a version of himself. It's kind of like Curb Your Enthusiasm. And, and so he plays this on the show. He plays Matt LeBlanc

Unknown Speaker  39:42  
who's kind of reviving his career and and he's a real soul on the show. But in that in real life, he was really, really nice.

Unknown Speaker  39:53  
But the Penny Marshall Cindy Williams thing was actually the greatest day went well. Dr. Jane Goodall good

Unknown Speaker  40:00  
Ever number two greatest day of our lives because we got to interview them together. Oh, that would be awesome. So it was our penny Marshall's house. Oh, wow. Cool. So I gotta ask you, when you when you talk to these people who are in iconic series like an Alan Alda or a Matt LeBlanc, or or a Ted Danson with chairs or, or the some of these other folks that have life change or even Bob Cranston they had life changing series is series is that's not even a word. But I've changed a series that that just changed them as people. Because some of these guys went from Mel Blanc was poor. And then it was making a million dollars an episode.

Unknown Speaker  40:45  
Does it change them?

Unknown Speaker  40:48  
That's that's hard for us to say because we didn't know them before. Right. But the point, the point, but I think I think I have two observances in general from celebrities. One is that the majority of them are really, really lovely, lovely people every once in a while you get a diva, but for the most part, they're really lovely. And two is they really do have something like indescribable essence that you there's no way to pinpoint what it is. But it's like, I get it, I get why that person is is so talented and so famous and such a big celebrity, like there's just some it factor. And There literally is such a thing as a person having a sparkle in their eye.

Unknown Speaker  41:40  
Which sounds really weird, but we've seen it with like Julia Julia Louie Dreyfus, and

Unknown Speaker  41:48  
people there are people like that, that there's you actually can physically see this presence that is beyond the the average human being.

Unknown Speaker  42:01  
It's, it's an amazing thing that you guys that you guys are doing. And I really, it really is a lot of fun for me to talk to you about this. But But Holly promised me or I promised Holly, we would talk about the development of the past Denise's project and how you guys put it all together because it was a it's a huge undertaking. To do that. By the way. We're talking with Nancy and Amy Harrington. And they have put together the past Denise does project from 19 From 16. Going forward, it's designed to help women.

Unknown Speaker  42:40  
And this this year was designed to help women of color women with disabilities. You know, I found that some horrible things during the interviews I did with some of the folks that we had on that Miss Luna was saying that, you know, people with disabilities can get paid as little as 22 cents an hour, which, which I'm hoping that we can shed some light on that. And that's what you're working to do with that program. But there's also a great big production. And if somebody wants to do something like what you're doing, first of all, would you tell them to rethink it? Don't do this.

Unknown Speaker  43:15  
Turn back if I were you.

Unknown Speaker  43:18  
I'm totally worth doing.

Unknown Speaker  43:20  
Yeah, how much work? Is it? How long does it take? How many people does it take all that kind of thing? Because I'm I'm thinking about doing something called positive Talk Live is down down the road. But and but so go ahead and talk me out of it, please? Well,

Unknown Speaker  43:36  
we this this particular year, we took about eight months to plan it. We started well, even probably sooner, frankly, we probably started the end of last year talking about it. But in earnest. We started planning it in January or February of this year. And the last I would say two and a half, three months. We barely did anything else. We do have clients. We do have other work, but we barely did anything else but the summit. It is an extensive amount of work. And Amy and I do. I would say this year, probably 85% of it ourselves. We do have some interns that help us out and we do have a very supportive group of women. Melissa, Dr. Melissa Byrd, who you interviewed on your show was she's marvelous. He's fantastic. And she was a crucial member of the team this year. She really helped us find a lot of the speakers and, and just was our cheerleader. She we had a weekly call and when we were down, she would cheer us up and hear us on and but it is a lot of work. You know, I mean, just the logistics of we had over 50 women that were speaking so just the logistics of keeping in touch with all of them and scheduling it and figuring out who can do what when because of course, it was global. So you know, we were like well if it's if it's two o'clock in the

Unknown Speaker  45:00  
Afternoon here. It's three o'clock in the mornings there. And it's midnight here. And how do you know?

Unknown Speaker  45:07  
So it was kind of crazy logistically, we used an incredible platform called hoppin, that made it a lot easier this year in the past. We used a different website the first year and last year, we just did it on our own website and sort of blanked out to YouTube.

Unknown Speaker  45:24  
But this platform was amazing. It makes it a lot easier to have everything centralized.

Unknown Speaker  45:32  
What else do you need to know what else you want to hear? I just want to hop in and say, I think you've got no pun intended. I want to jump in and say, I definitely think you should do it. And we're here to support you all in whatever way we can. Yes, absolutely. Well, you guys have been you guys, since we've met. You've been fabulous

Unknown Speaker  45:50  
encouragers of the show. And I just really want to thank you for, for doing all that you're doing because you're helping you know, you're really working to help people. And it's got to feel good to be able to do that. And again, go to the past and Easter's project.com. And if you want me to spell that, forget it. I'll have them do it if they want to.

Unknown Speaker  46:14  
Can you spell that for? It's the passion nice does project that Well, you did did really well. Today, Kevin? I'm totally unimpressed. So it's passion. nista is passion. The word passion with is T A S on the end of it passion. Nice. Does Project dot passion is just project.com.

Unknown Speaker  46:36  
And you've also got something that I'm intrigued about. And it is called the past Tanisha that Paston Easter's project pack. What is that?

Unknown Speaker  46:50  
That is project pack sort of came out of our interviews and when we started realizing that these women all had amazing products to sell. And this is an interesting statistic that I think you do like to hear Kevin or your hope you won't like to hear but you'll be interested by it is that only 2% of all venture capital money goes to women owned businesses. I'm sorry, say that again? Only 2% of all venture capital money goes to women owned businesses.

Unknown Speaker  47:21  
That's a crime. I mean, you're 50% of the population then you get 2% The men get 98. Yeah, and women are businesses are growing at 27% faster rate than men, male on businesses and family and women owned businesses only get like 11% of SBA loans. So they're wildly underfunded. Yep. So we decided that we would use our little corner of the universe to promote women owned businesses. So the passion is this project pack is a subscription box. So you sign up once and then every quarter. You get a new box in the mail, and it's filled with products exclusively by women owned businesses. And it's anything from T shirts to jewelry to food with this this month. We have a mixology pack, which is different drink mixes from margaritas and Cosmo's and lemon sours. So it's always really unique, always really interesting items. And, and on top of the products, we do an interview with every woman that owns the business. So you not only get to experience the product, you get to understand her journey, why she's doing what she's doing, what her passions are. So you really get to know the woman behind the product. So we're trying to build a micro economy of women owned businesses so that the women who buy this pack will go back and buy the products from the women. Again.

Unknown Speaker  48:45  
That is that is a phenomenal idea.

Unknown Speaker  48:50  
Who whose whose idea was that sitting at the Starbucks, that was our friend Sashi Shonda and who is one of the greatest modern business women out there. So Sashi was one of our second or third interviews on the podcast. And she is the founder of a company called T drops. And she has this patented product so it's pressed T it's it's loose leaf tea, there's no tea bag, and they're pressed into shapes like little flowers, little little hearts, and it's really high quality tea, you drop it in hot water and it dissolves and it makes you a great cup of tea. And she has this patented

Unknown Speaker  49:31  
you know patent for the T drops. And she we are interviewed her early on and we asked her to be on our our advisory board as we were building the company, and we went to meet with her one day and we said we were thinking of starting a store on our website, which we also have where we sell some of these products. And she said you know what you really should do you should do a subscription subscription box and we were like with with almost everything we've ever done either. We've had

Unknown Speaker  50:00  
The idea of someone has suggested something it for us to do. And we're like, I don't know how to do that. And so we Google it. And we figure out how to do it. So we googled what a subscription box was, because we didn't even know that. And then we found the subscription box school online that had a checklist of all the things you needed to do to start a subscription box. And so we started one.

Unknown Speaker  50:22  
You know, I gotta tell you, a you guys, I was looking at your sponsor list. By the way, that's a that's a wonderful idea. And it's really good for everybody. And I really want to do sponsorships and things that are that benefit everybody involved, and you guys do that. But you've got a lot of sponsors. What do you have the time you're spending all this time doing this? You've got your own lives to live you've got to do when do you have time to go? So listen sponsorships.

Unknown Speaker  50:51  
That is where Dr. Melissa bird came in this year. We have to say she Missy signed on last year. She was in the summit last year. She really enjoyed it. She thought it was a great idea. So she reached out to us and said, How can I help we get on the phone. She said, I'll ask anybody for money.

Unknown Speaker  51:08  
We said great, because we hate doing that. And she started making calls. And she she was responsible for those sponsors. I love people that can say,

Unknown Speaker  51:19  
I don't have a problem asking for money. I'm like groveling, like, I don't know, can you do what

Unknown Speaker  51:26  
you don't want to go? I don't know, I'll be the one. You know, that kind of thing. So by the way, we've just got about four minutes left on the show. And I want each of you to have a moment alone with my audience with the people that are listening today. For you to tell them anything it is that you would like them to know about you about life about anything that's on your heart. What's on your mind. So Amy, would you like to go first? Sure. Um, hello, listener. I would like to say that, really the core of everything we're doing with the passion Easter's project is about building community. And we have personally benefited from the core group of people that are part of our little world. And all are welcome. We this year, we had non binary people, transgender people, bisexual people, LGBTQ people with disabilities, black people, AAPI people. I mean, any any group is welcome. And I know it's hard sometimes to feel like there's a safe place in the world where you belong. But we want you to know that if you're if you're looking for like minded people who want to do positive things in the world, our door and virtual social media door and our doors are always open to anybody who wants to be a part of fashionistas community.

Unknown Speaker  52:53  
Yeah, Nancy, you said, what else can I add to that?

Unknown Speaker  52:58  
You know what I actually if I since I can see you said I can say anything, I'd actually like to come up Oh, completely off topic. Because this has been the thing that's been weighing on me the last few days, I would love to just send thoughts and prayers down to all the people in Florida. I have been glued to the television and my computer. I have friend in Fort Myers Beach, which was the first place where the hurricane hit land. And it's just devastating down there. And I'm so saddened and by that specific event, and by the the world's climate crisis, and you know, we got it, we got to fix this people. So a lot of our science, a lot of our passion Easter's are science, climate scientists, we have a great panel, you can go back and watch the replay if you came to the summit of our

Unknown Speaker  53:49  
power of resilience panel, but I'm just really saddened by what's happening to our, our world and our climate. And I'm devastated for all those people in Florida that lost their homes and their businesses this week. And that's all and in Puerto Rico and yeah, Cuba and now the people hitting getting hit in South Carolina. So yeah, you know, I've been around for a couple of years and I've seen footage of a lot of hurricanes. I don't recall ever seeing. They show this on CNN, they were flying by and there were on the on the beach, there were homes and there were hotels and there were multi storey buildings. The only thing that was left was the platform that they had been built on. Everything else was gone. Yeah, it's twigs.

Unknown Speaker  54:36  
It looks like a tornado aftermath. But it's a hurricane. I've never seen anything like it. It's and in the in the huge swath that it took. I just hope that that then that people are able to get rescued and and the loss of life won't be so horrific. And to your other point about you know, it doesn't matter who you are. We want to support you and I look forward

Unknown Speaker  55:00  
Are to the day when we can all look at one another and say, you know, we're all one. And we are all responsible for each other and we care for each other. And I don't care what you look like, I don't care who you love. I don't care what you do. We want to make sure everybody's healthy, happy and can lead the best lives possible. That's That's my hope. And we agree, there's nothing we would like more than to not have to be activists. But you know, what will people like you are the ones that are getting it started so that we can get down the road. And Nathan's going to turn us off if I don't say goodbye soon. So, I want to thank Nancy and Amy Harrington for being here. And ladies. Thank you gola pastor Lisa project.com and find out all the information about them. And Nathan, thank you very much and have a great day everybody and we'll see you on Monday.

Kevin McDonaldProfile Photo

Kevin McDonald

Owner

Creator and Host of Positive Talk Radio and its Parent Company KMmedia.pro

Amy and Nancy HarringtonProfile Photo

Amy and Nancy Harrington

Co-Founders, The Passionistas Project

Sisters, Amy and Nancy Harrington, founded The Passionistas Project out of a deep desire to empower ALL women around the world. Both co-founders walked away from high-profile jobs in Hollywood to work together. Amy was the Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production for all feature films at Warner Bros, working on movies like the "Harry Potter" franchise, the original "Matrix" trilogy and "Space Jam." Nancy left the ad agency where she created Academy Award campaigns for Miramax. Now Amy and Nancy shine a light on the positive stories of self-identified women and non-binary people through their media company. They have conducted more than 60 one-on-one oral histories for The Interviews for the Television Academy Foundation, including in-depth conversations with Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Ed O'Neill, Danny DeVito, and more. At the Emmys and other press events, Amy and Nancy have chatted with many stars including Rita Moreno, Lily Tomlin, Laverne Cox, Deepak Chopra, Carol Burnett, and many others. They have also produced interviews for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame including a sit down with Mick Jagger. They were handpicked by OWN to be part of the VIP digital press corps covering "Oprah's Lifeclass" during Winfrey's tour of the U.S. and Toronto. Amy and Nancy founded The Passionistas Project in 2018 and through their podcast, subscription box, and Power of Passionistas summit, they strive to inspire women to follow their passions and jo…