The first season of Dexter was pretty much based on the book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. There weren't spoilers so much as there were dramatizations of the novel. Season two went off with an original story, though still resolving some issues from season one. Now entering its third season, everything... more

The first season of Dexter was pretty much based on the book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter. There weren't spoilers so much as there were dramatizations of the novel. Season two went off with an original story, though still resolving some issues from season one. Now entering its third season, everything is fair game on Dexter.

SuicideGirls joined the show's star, Michael C. Hall, and executive producer, Clyde Phillips, before the Television Critics Association this month. Experts at talking to the press without revealing any spoilers, Phillips and Hall teased the upcoming episodes with specific references to dangling threads, but only enough to make you that much more eager to watch.

Question: What can you say about the new season?

Clyde Phillips: What can I say about the new season of Dexter? There are a couple of huge surprises.

Q: Well, you've explored so much of his psychology, where do you go?

CP: Well, we have explored a lot of psychology but what we haven't done is made him whole.

Q: Is that the overall goal, to eventually complete him?

CP: Perhaps in the course of a number of years but once he's completed as a person, the show's over. Once the true morality of what he does comes to the fore and the moral ambiguity goes away, we're done. This year, Dexter inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events that will change his life -- not only for this year -- but change his life forever. I really can't do spoilers…

Q: No, we don't want spoilers. But to continue being vague, this pebble that's being set in motion, is this something Dexter is aware of when he does it?

Michael C. Hall: No. No, he's basically thrust into an immediate, in the moment situation where he has no choice but to do something that, in turn, sets a great deal of what the third season focuses on in motion. But it's not something that he appreciates at the time.

Q: Is he still being hunted, even with Doakes out of the picture?

CP: Well, we're done with that. That doesn't mean that he's not in great jeopardy, but in season one we had the book. We had the Ice Truck Killer and we had the brother and we had all of that stuff. Season two we had the bodies coming up, we had the FBI coming in, we had Sergeant Doakes saying, "I'm watching you, motherfucker" and all of that. Season three we had to basically start it all over. We really had to cut it from whole cloth. So he is always going to be in jeopardy because he basically is a killer among us. He's a killer among this family of his relationship with his girlfriend, his relationship with her children, his relationship with his sister, his relationship with the police department. So he's always looking over his shoulder. That's the best I can tell you without giving anything away.

Q: Are you going to miss Erik King as an actor?

MCH: Absolutely. I miss Erik every time I step into the bullpen. It's weird that he's not there and he actually sent me a really sweet text yesterday and we communicated yesterday. Yeah, I was sad to see him go as an actor.

Q: Could Laguerta follow up and keep pursuing that?

MCH: Yeah, I mean I think that is lying dormant at the moment, but it's there and is a source of tension. Whether it's explicit right now that that will probably resurface at some point.

Q: What is Jimmy Smits' part going to be?

CP: It's interesting. What a get for us. We are so pleased. He's been spectacular. He plays an assistant district attorney who is a rising star in the city of Miami, whose brother dies in the first episode. He and Dexter form an alliance. Jimmy Smits is going to go, I believe, places he's never explored before as an actor or as a character. It is really the first adult friend that Dexter has had and it's new to him and what Dexter strives for or perhaps longs for. We get into the whole thing of how dented is he really is and whether that's camouflaged or whether it's genuine is something that we continue to explore. As that friendship progresses, Dexter becomes more and more open with the Jimmy Smits' character and is able to talk, not through voiceover, but in reality, in our reality, for the first time and open up a little bit about who he is and that's what we're going to explore this year.

Q: Michael, what's your reaction when you hear about that casting?

MCH: That I was going to look really short. No, that we can attract people of that caliber to sign on to an open-ended, sort of not-entirely-defined commitment is a testament to the fact that our show is appealing to actors. It's a real shot in the arm when that happens.

Q: Is there an unhappy love story for Debra?

CP: It's funny you ask that. That's such a great question because we have noticed the pattern that we've created and now we have that character, his sister, Debra commenting on the fact that, "I got engaged to the Ice Truck Killer and then I fell in love with an older man. What is it about me?" So we do explore a love story with her but I won't tell you whether it's happy or unhappy. She's very self aware.

Q: Do you think Dexter will ever open up to her?

MCH: I don't know. I mean once that happens, however it happens, it's happened. I think maintaining that possibility or that tension was really of value. That tension ebbs and flows but ultimately intensifies as more time passes, as she becomes more and more capable as a detective and therefore more of a potential threat.

Q: How do all these new developments affect Rita?

CP: Rita is very involved in what goes on. She's in fact pivotal to what goes on in the year. Again, because we're that kind of show, it's like asking the guys on Lost what's going to happen. I just can't tell you the specifics. All I can tell you is that she's part of what changes Dexter's life.

Q: Where is Dexter and Rita's relationship at the start of the season?

MCH: At the top of the season it's in a very, very good place, about as good a place as it's ever been. You know the plot, things develop in ways that immediately complicate that situation, but yeah, they're in a really good place.

Q: It's not a show where people stay happy, is it?

MCH: No. Nobody wants to watch that.

Q: How do you balance the horror and the humor?

CP: That's a good question. It's more instinct. In fact, there's not that much horror. When we aired on CBS, when we went from Showtime to CBS because of the strike, they made the following changes in the show in the following order: 1) Minutes. We had to cut because we're a cable show and they're a commercial show so we had to cut out seven or eight minutes. 2) Language for obvious reason. "I'm watching you, motherlover." 3) Nudity and then gore. Gore is really the bottom of it so it's psychological. I often have said that if you think of Reservoir Dogs, great movie, and if anybody thinks of one scene in Reservoir Dogs, it's cutting off the cop's ear. They never show it. If we added up all the minutes in 24 [episodes], now we've just finished the 25th episode, if we added all the minutes of actually seeing blood caused by Dexter rather than a police crime or something, it's a minute and a half. It's seconds per show.

Q: Do you shoot alternate scenes?

CP: No we don't shoot alternate scenes but we do go in and dub. We don't have time to shoot alternate scenes so we go in and dub but we write alternate dialogue for them and then they go in and try to fill it in but it turns out a little bit like a Japanese movie. Again, "I'm watching you, motherlover." Friggin' that.

Q: Does Showtime ever give you notes?

CP: Often we will get notes from them saying, "This scene was a little gory." We shoot everything and then pull back from it to make it. Let me just say one thing. This is a character show. It's not a horror show. I just want to make sure. But yes, I do find that ironic that they cut back or they want to cut back and we're happy with that, but then I go to Hollywood and Highland and they've got a fountain of blood, or there are fountains of blood all over the country. Then when they advertise it on the air, they're showing mostly the gory stuff. They know what they're doing. The show's a hit. We're doing all we can to keep it that way.

Q: How many more seasons do you imagine Dexter going?

CP: Well, I'm not sure. I was talking with Bob Greenblatt who's the president of the network the other day, with my partners John Goldwyn and Sarah Colleton. We're sort of plotting out the rest of this year. He had mentioned just in conversation, six seasons. That was just a conversational thing but you always like hearing that on your end. You don't want to hear, "This is your last season." You want to get as much as you can that will support the character. As much as you can that your star wants to continue to do and wants to stay fully involved. It's a big challenge every day and every week to do the show. It's a difficult show.

MCH: I don't know. I am very much focused on telling the story we're telling this season as I was last season and the one before. It's a shark. It has to continue to move forward. You can just sort of luxuriate in the day to day lives of Dexter or any of the other characters. So there will be an end when it comes. I can't really tell you.

Q: There are more books. Would you ever go back to them?

CP: We had to sort of launch it and own it. We harvested the best of that book and then our characters just sort of went off on their own and we just followed them.

Q: What can we look forward to in the season two DVD?

CP: Actually, I don't know what the plans are. I know it's coming out soon. We did commentary but there's not a lot that I know of. I wasn't involved with the DVD the way some shows are. I think I did the commentary but I don't really see the DVD. I don't know what the other stuff, I don't think there's a lot of un-shown scenes.

Q: How much recognition do each of you get for Dexter?

CP: I went to the movies with my daughter the other day. I had a Dexter T-shirt on under a shirt. People came up to me. I suddenly had four or five people who wanted to talk about the show and they all talk about they're watching it in marathons. I get everybody's card and I send them all DVDs. You guys want DVDs? I'll send you DVDs.

[Note: True to his word, Clyde sent me both seasons on DVD.]

MCH: I think right now anybody who makes a point to say something it's probably 80 to 90 percent of the time for Dexter just because that's what sort of on people's radar right now. But people do certainly approach me and talk about Six Feet Under still, which is nice.

Season three of Dexter premieres September 28 on Showtime. For more information go to www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do.

SuicideGirls has a new app for the iPhone called Seduce a SuicideGirl Meet the sexy Zoli Suicide in a comic book shop and—if you make the right choices—you will get a sexy, 17+ make-out session with her (it’s not that racy, but it’s cute). Make the wrong choices and get shot down by a SuicideGirl... more

SuicideGirls has a new app for the iPhone called Seduce a SuicideGirl

Meet the sexy Zoli Suicide in a comic book shop and—if you make the right choices—you will get a sexy, 17+ make-out session with her (it’s not that racy, but it’s cute). Make the wrong choices and get shot down by a SuicideGirl in 10 different humiliating ways!

Shot and created specifically for the iPhone & iPod Touch, we decided it would be fun to make our own little app that was entertaining like those old choose your own adventure books. A little funny, a little sexy, and maybe a little goofy.

Written by Anthony Zuiker, creator of the CSI franchise, directed by Troy Miller, executive producer of Flight of the Conchords & Bored To Death, and starring those naughty, internet, art-sleaze superstars the SuicideGirls.
We want to make a few more of these, so please let us know in the feedback what we should do differently in the next episode or what SuicideGirl you’d like to see in it. Thanks for the cash! We’re going to spend it all on strippers!

Download the app, Seduce a SuicideGirl here!

There comes a time in every rock chick’s life when even the most badass of the bunch needs a little refresher course on self-empowerment and simple life maintenance like properly preparing absinthe. Enter the new book from entertainment journalist and rocker wife Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna, titled Cherry... more

There comes a time in every rock chick’s life when even the most badass of the bunch needs a little refresher course on self-empowerment and simple life maintenance like properly preparing absinthe. Enter the new book from entertainment journalist and rocker wife Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna, titled Cherry Bomb: The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Better Flirt, a Tougher Chick, and a Hotter Girlfriend, and to Living Life Like a Rock Star.

With chapters on “Tour Bus Etiquette,” “Bottle Service” and “Infidelity Pacts,” Borzillo-Vrenna flips the idea of a “girl guide” head over spiked heels and delivers an encyclopedia of awesomeness for gals who aren’t afraid to take life into their own hands and live by their own rules. Cherry Bomb also features contributions, advice and tips from Tori Amos, Dita Von Teese, Betsey Johnson, Kat Von D and our very own NicoleLee Suicide, among others.

SuicideGirls had to get the scoop because, as Carrie would say, “Admit it. We’d all like to be just a little bit cooler.”

Cherry Bomb is out now. Buy it here.

Erin Broadley: Let’s start by talking about why you wrote this book. What do you think is important for other women to absorb and take away with them after reading it? It’s fun but there's also a lot of serious advice and messages about believing in yourself and living life to its fullest. Do you think these messages get mixed and/or lost in the bombardment of mainstream media?

Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna: I kept coming across “girl guides” and they started pissing me off. A lot of them had pink covers and dished out generic advice to the “everywoman” as if all girls or women think the same, want the same thing, and need the same advice. I never came across a book that spoke to me and my friends. So, I wanted to dish out some alternative advice to girls like me — girls who are a bit edgier, a bit darker, a bit left of center, and a bit more wild. But in doing so, I found myself still maintaining a “nice girl” attitude. You don’t have to be a bitch to be a strong, fierce, cool chick and that is the underlying message in the book. Sure, there’s a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll in the book, but it’s really about feeling strong and confident and getting what you want out of life — whether it’s a backstage pass or a cool new job.


EB: Tell us a little bit about your background as a female rock journalist.
CBV: I’ve been a rock journalist since age 17 when I covered local bands in Connecticut for free fanzines. Since then, I’ve worked for or written for Billboard, Spin, Rollingstone.com, People, Us Weekly, Alternative Press, and others. Balancing having fun in the industry and being respected was the biggest challenge.
EB: What are some of the experiences you have had as a woman in the field that informed the chapters in this book?
CBV: I’ve pretty much done everything in the book, except for a few fetishes, tattoos, and piercings. For the areas I didn’t live and breathe, I called in the experts. But it’s mostly a culmination of my experiences for the past 20 years being an entertainment journalist, author, rock wife, and just living it.
EB: Any particular challenges or funny anecdotes stand out you'd care to share?
CBV: I don’t remember writing the first chapter in the book, the chapter on absinthe, because, well, I was drunk on absinthe that day.


EB: Are you still working as a journalist or has your focus shifted to books?
CBV: I’m trying to balance the two because I LOVE magazines but it’s really hard to write a book AND freelance at the same time. I have to say, after doing this book all I can think about is my next book.


EB: How did you go about selecting the awesome contributors to Cherry Bomb?
CBV: I had my wish list and then I wrote everyone a love letter explaining why they are perfect for the book and simply couldn’t say no. Thank God, they obliged! (I don’t believe in God, by the way, but there isn’t a good alternative for that feeling yet, is there?)


EB: You make a point in the book that women don’t have to use their bodies to barter their way backstage... that they don’t have to be whores to hang out with their favorite band. Why do you think so many chicks do take the whore route? Needing to feel "special"? Lack of creativity?
CBV: Let me first say that I’m actually not against women using their bodies for anything. I truly believe prostitution should be legal and that porn stars get a bad rap. But, that’s a different book. For Cherry Bomb, I wanted to show girls how to get what they want the smart way. And, that being cool is better than being slutty any day.


EB: What was your favorite band growing up? Any creative ways you ever snuck backstage?
CBV: Where do I start?! In grade school I loved the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and the Grease soundtrack. I moved onto AC/DC and Judas Priest and then I’m embarrassed to say, hair bands in the ‘80s. The ‘90s were all about everything from Nirvana to Marilyn Manson to Radiohead. As for sneaking backstage, I snuck backstage at an Iron Maiden concert by asking the security guard to please let me in so I can get an autograph. He did and I still have that signed Heineken beer bottle today.


EB: I love the Anaïs Nin quote in Cherry Bomb, "Good things happen to those who hustle." What are some tips to stay motivated and inspired?

CBV: Try to accomplish something every day. You might not always be inspired, so don’t wait for that to come. Even if you’re just not feeling it, try to be productive in some way every day.

EB: How did you meet NicoleLee Suicide and what was it like working together on this book for the chapter on piercings?
CBV: I met her through her husband who manages the band A.I., who my husband worked with. We’ve become great friends with A.I. and in turn with Nicole and Kyle. She rocked her chapter on piercings. I don’t have any myself, so it was nice to have an expert like her chime in.


EB: What do you think the most obvious but most overlooked tip is to becoming a radder chick and living life like a rock star?

CBV: Don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself or have others judge you. If you care about what others think, you’ll never feel comfortable being yourself.


Book Signings:

You are invited to a Book Signing, Celebration, & Art Show with CHERRY BOMB author Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna & the book’s illustrator Liz Adams.

Cherry-flavored libations & nibbly bits will be served. 3-7 p.m. RSVP: CherryBombBook@gmail.com

August 9 2008 Book Signing/Art Show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, 90027. Cost : Free

August 16 2008 Book Signing/Art Show at Billy Shire Fine Arts, 5790 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California 90232. Cost : Free

SuicideGirls has a new app for the iPhone called Seduce a SuicideGirl Meet the sexy Zoli Suicide in a comic book shop and—if you make the right choices—you will get a sexy, 17+ make-out session with her (it’s not that racy, but it’s cute). Make the wrong choices and get shot down by a SuicideGirl... more

SuicideGirls has a new app for the iPhone called Seduce a SuicideGirl

Meet the sexy Zoli Suicide in a comic book shop and—if you make the right choices—you will get a sexy, 17+ make-out session with her (it’s not that racy, but it’s cute). Make the wrong choices and get shot down by a SuicideGirl in 10 different humiliating ways!

Shot and created specifically for the iPhone & iPod Touch, we decided it would be fun to make our own little app that was entertaining like those old choose your own adventure books. A little funny, a little sexy, and maybe a little goofy.

Written by Anthony Zuiker, creator of the CSI franchise, directed by Troy Miller, executive producer of Flight of the Conchords & Bored To Death, and starring those naughty, internet, art-sleaze superstars the SuicideGirls.
We want to make a few more of these, so please let us know in the feedback what we should do differently in the next episode or what SuicideGirl you’d like to see in it. Thanks for the cash! We’re going to spend it all on strippers!

Download the app, Seduce a SuicideGirl here!

Did your parents read you Where the Wild Things Are before bed? It may have seemed like an epic, but they probably finished Maurice Sendak’'s story in minutes and had you to asleep before prime time. Even with the illustrations performed in real time, the book alone would not fill 90 minutes of... more

Did your parents read you Where the Wild Things Are before bed? It may have seemed like an epic, but they probably finished Maurice Sendak’'s story in minutes and had you to asleep before prime time. Even with the illustrations performed in real time, the book alone would not fill 90 minutes of screen time. Spike Jonze elaborated on the story when he co-wrote the script and directed the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are. It won’t be everybody'’s idea of their childhood fantasy, but it is distinctly Jonze'’s.

In Sendak’'s book, Max gets a little too wild playing in his wolf suit and his mom sends him to bed without supper. A forest grows in his bedroom and he becomes king of the wild things. In the movie, Max runs away from home to discover the land of the wild things. He still becomes their king and leads a wild rumpus, but Jonze has the wild things throw dirt clods at each other, build a massive fort and step on each other’s heads. These aren’t just random bouts of whimsy, however. They mirror Max'’s destructive behavior.

Hollywood shouldn’t expect a traditional kids movie from the director of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. He even gave his early music videos a touch of the surreal. When Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” came on, you might have thought you were watching an episode of Happy Days. Heck, his Sabotage video for The Beastie Boys even fooled Beavis and Butthead into thinking it was only a coming attraction for a video.

Jonze doesn’t particularly want to explain Where the Wild Things Are. Put him in front of a group of reporters and he’'d rather have everyone share their interpretations of the film. If they insist on doing an interview, he’ll still throw in some whimsical nonsense. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Question: Why do you take so much time between film projects?

Spike Jonze: Well, they just take a long time. My other two movies took three years. This one took five years and I think after I finished my last one, I didn’t start right away. I wanted to take some time and then I didn’t realize how long this one was going to take. Everything about this movie became twice as complicated as we thought it was: The script and obviously the way we shot it with these creatures and going to locations. Like, building the suits took almost a year. Doing the faces took another year. We just finished the faces a month ago. Everything about it was more complicated than I ever would have thought.

Q: How much of that time was spent looking for the right Max?

SJ: That was hard. I mean, probably a year. It came down to crunch time. We were already living in Australia and I’d fly back here to audition with kids. We were prepping the movie and we still didn’t have our hero. Our friend Lance Bangs found Max in Portland, OR. It was a huge relief. We got the first tape from Lance and then Keener was working in Oregon on Into the Wild so I asked Keener to go audition with him. Then they sent me a tape and each tape was more exciting. Then we flew Max to Los Angeles and I came in from Melbourne and we auditioned and basically just beat each other up with blow up boxing gloves and shot NERF guns at each other. I thought, “Wow, he’s got a good shot. He has good aim so I cast him.”

Q: You have to add things to the plot. Where did the new story elements come from?

SJ: We got beaned by a dirt clod and we’re just like whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know. Again, all those things, I don't know where they came from. They came from Spain?

Q: Okay, maybe you can’t pinpoint your inspiration, but you must have known you’d have to add to the story to make a whole movie.

SJ: Yeah, I think for a while I was hesitant to add a story on it because I didn’t want to add something that wasn’t in the book already because I loved the book so much. The idea I came up with was more just sort of figuring out who Max was and who the wild things were and writing the characters, the invention that the wild things could be wild emotions and that Max goes to this place to try and understand that better. So in creating the wild things as wild emotions, it sort of gave room for basically anything to happen. That was really the way in. Everything did happen because once you start writing characters, the story just came out of that, who Max was and who the wild things were and let the relationship create the story.

Q: Were you nervous about taking on such an iconic story?

SJ: I feel like very early on, before I even was really writing, when I was just writing notes, I sort of got hit by this fear. I started working on it, I would tell my friends and tell people and everyone would have such personal reactions to the book, because they read it when they were a kid and everybody has such a personal relationship to that book. So I started to talk to Maurice about it and Maurice was the one who said, “You can’t worry about any of that. You can’t even worry about what I think of the book. You have to make your version of this movie and make it personal to you. All I ask is that you don’t condescend to children, don’t pander, make it honest and make it personal.” So from that point on, once Maurice gave me that freedom, I gave myself that freedom to not really worry. All I can do is make my version of it. I always look at the book as like a poem because it’s so sparse yet so deep and there’s so much to it. A great poem leaves so much room for everybody to have a different reaction to it.

Q: Were you surprised Sendak trusted you with his book?

SJ: Yeah, I think his attitude was “I don’t want to make a movie just to make a movie. I don’t want to just make some crap to fill the multiplexes for a month.” That’s why he didn’t make it for 20 years. He trusted us which is astounding and I’m grateful. Once he decided to let us make it, he really just gave us his book and said, “Make it your own.” There was not a sort of protective artist at all. All he was protective of was making it honest. Any time we’d write a scene that felt dishonest, he’d be the first one to say, “This feels phony.” He’s an artist through and through. It’s pretty remarkable to have a mentor and a producer and a friend who guided us through it. One thing I was just thinking about Maurice is he’s such a hard person to explain because he’s this one of a kind person. We just did this documentary on him. It’s a 40 minute documentary. It comes out on HBO October 14 and it’s just basically conversations with him. It’s like a video portrait of him.

Q: Was the studio a little less receptive to your interpretation of the book?

SJ: Yeah, definitely. I’m sure you guys have read about it. In editing, when they finally saw the movie, they were surprised as probably in the same way that Maurice described when he handed the book in, the publishing house was equally surprised. But that’s kind of to be expected. What happened was when we made the movie, we were editing it, we showed it to the studio at a certain point and they were just sort of surprised by what the movie was, and what the movie is that you see. I think it just isn’t what they expected it to be. It’s just not a traditional children’s film. I think they were sort of expecting more of a pixie dust magical fantasy film where we set out to make a movie about childhood. It doesn’t have a movie kid in it. It has a real kid in it. Max’s performance is so real and raw. That’s just not really what they were expecting.

Q: Did you make changes to placate them?

SJ: Hell no. We just made the movie we wanted to make. We weren’t going to work on something that long and care that much about it. It was just a process of getting them comfortable and basically, they had to learn to love the child they had. We triumphed. We stepped on their head.

Q: How did you explain the film’s tone to the studio, and now to audiences?

SJ: The idea was we weren’t thinking about whether it was dark or light. We were just trying to make a movie that represents what it’s like to be a human being at that age. What it feels sometimes, what it can feel like at times when you’re nine. When you’re nine, there’s fun, there’s love, there’s safety and then there’s also times where there’s loneliness and longing and loss of control. We were trying to be true to Maurice’s work and I think Maurice’s work, his book actually when it came out was attacked by librarians and child psychologists and Better Home and Garden type magazines because it wasn’t like a traditional children’s book. It showed this boy being wild, acting out, yelling at his mom and his mom, instead of calming him down and helping him through his emotions and teaching him a lesson, his mom reacted too and yelled at him and sent him to his room. That was something that they said, “This book is dangerous for kids” because it wasn’t teaching the kids a lesson. But, it was truthful and kids recognized that. Kids started taking it out of the library and it became popular because kids loved it. Now, 40 years later, it’s a classic. It’s something that everybody gets. If your friend has a baby, you get them Where the Wild Things Are. I think the movie is coming from the same intention, just to be truthful and not condescend to kids.

Q: What was your introduction to the book?

SJ: My introduction to the book was when I was a kid, my mom read it to me and it was one of the books I loved. There’s probably a handful of books that I deeply, deeply remember. It was Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Nutshell Library of Maurice’s stuff and then some Shel Silverstein stuff. Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Missing Piece, The Giving Tree. I feel like those are the ones I’d go back to. I remember going back to them when I was eight or when I was 12 or even when I was 15. For some reason, even when you’re 12, you go back and read Where the Wild Things Are or In the Night Kitchen, you don’t read them in the same way you did when you were five, but at least I remember again when I was 12 looking at the way the bedroom turns into the forest and how the magic of that imaginative creation and being excited by it and inspired by it.

Q: Why was Karen O’s music the soundtrack to the film you decided on?

SJ: Karen is one of my favorite artists and she’s so childlike in her freedom of expressing herself. Not that she makes innocent music but there’s an innocence to her and a depth at the same time, even her most wild stuff from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. I thought her music could sort of be the heart of the film because her music has so much heart to it. The idea was that we thought we would have pop songs be the score, not pop songs like Britney Spears but pop songs in the great sense of like Brian Wilson or John Lennon, Paul McCartney and David Bowie. I think as a kid, I connected so much to pop songs. As a kid, I remember listening to “Across the Universe” and feeling that feeling. Even though I didn’t really understand exactly what they were writing about, I understood the feeling of it. “I Will Survive,” the Gloria Gaynor song. When I’m seven years old, I could sing along that song and I guess I felt every word of it. I didn’t probably relate so much to the woman being dumped and left by the man, but I related somehow to the sense of heartbreak and longing and whatever the things are. Pop music, I think there’s a reason kids connect to it. We wanted to tap into that so Karen wrote from that place and didn’t write songs about what the scenes were about. [She] wrote songs about what the themes of the movie were about. So even if the specific words aren’t directly one to one, it’s the themes and feelings of the songs.

Q: Was there ever discussion of doing CGI wild things?

SJ: I think before we started, Maurice had been trying to make a movie for a while and the studios had sort of talked to him about doing CG, so they were going to do a CG version, they were going to do an animated version but when we started on it, I’d always wanted to do it live action. I just thought it would be more exciting and fun. Not only fun, I guess that’s the wrong word. More visceral and dangerous.

Q: Which wild thing do you most identify with?

SJ: I think all of them. I think all the characters I feel a part of. In my other movies too. In the movies that Charlie Kaufman wrote, I feel like even those, you kind of have to be connected to them all.

Q: What’s the wildest thing you’ve done?

SJ: I ate a building, a hotel.

Q: Why’'d you do that?

SJ: I was mad at it.

Q: Did it taste good?

SJ: No.

Where the Wild Things Are opens October 16.

For a man capable of making so much noise, Gavin Rossdale is very soft-spoken, his somewhat guarded reticence being understandable given all that he's been through. The singer, songwriter and musician is currently enjoying his first Billboard Top 40 hit since the heady days when he fronted the post-grunge... more

For a man capable of making so much noise, Gavin Rossdale is very soft-spoken, his somewhat guarded reticence being understandable given all that he's been through.

The singer, songwriter and musician is currently enjoying his first Billboard Top 40 hit since the heady days when he fronted the post-grunge band Bush. For a while in the mid-nineties their singles ("Comedown" and "Glycerine") ruled the airwaves, and the band toured virtually non-stop -- with a quaint little Orange County band called No Doubt supporting them.

After the Bush's demise in 2002, Rossdale struggled to keep his identity in a strange La La Land amidst the turmoil of a lost band, a new marriage (to No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani), and the tabloid attention that came with it. Rossdale's 2004 release under the Institute moniker failed to make its mark. It was, "for all intents and purposes, a solo record, it was just a bad marketing decision to call it something else," says Rossdale, who picked himself up and came back with what he regards as his second solo album, Wanderlust, in June of this year.

The lead song, "Love Remains The Same," entered the Billboard Hot 100 at # 76, rising to #27 in October 2008. It remains on the chart for the twenty-fourth week at the time of writing. Rossdale describes the Bukowski-influenced track as a "drinking song -- my drowning of the sorrows song." And it would seem it has done just that, as its success allows him to sate his desire for the road with a full-scale tour scheduled for Spring 2009.

We caught up with Rossdale at his manager's offices in Westwood, CA, and chatted about the album, the song, and the feelings of isolation that inspired the rousing ode to friends, love and libations. But first, in the spirit of friendship, it seemed only polite that we formally thank him for counting SuicideGirls amongst his MySpace Top Friends.


Gavin Rossdale: I love SuicideGirls forever. Who doesn't? What's not to love?

Nicole Powers: So is that actually your MySpace? Do you keep it up, or is it someone else?

GR: I do it. I'm slightly obsessed about it. When I'm doing stuff in the day I always take time out. I keep up. There's a couple of pages now that I haven't answered, but generally I'm on it.

NP: So we're very flattered to be in your Top Friends then.

GR: Oh right, yes, you are!

NP: It's a very socially tricky thing, who's in your Top Friends and who isn't.

GR: It's a political statement. It's amazing, I see that over a million and a half people have watched my video on there. So there's a lot of traffic going through there. And I get some people who write to me and complain, like my guitar player who was like, "Why am I not in you Top Friends?" I mean he should be in my top friends, he's one of my best friends.

NP: It's worse than missing someone's name out during an award acceptance speech. At least now it's not restricted to just a Top 8. It's weird, I noticed one Christmas and New Year, not last year but the year before, that all the Brits were bored around the holidays and joined Facebook en masse. Everyone I knew.

GR: Yeah, I use Facebook, but I only really do it with people I know, whereas the MySpace is twenty thousand close friends who I'm not sure I know so well, but it's fun being friends with everyone. "Thanks for being my friend. Thanks for writing a comment." It's easy to do nice things for people.

NP: You've got a song called "Drive" on the new album. In the press notes you talk about the fact that it's about you being a Brit in L.A. and feeling alone.

GR: Alien, yeah. I've become reconciled, I really love living here. I don't have any problem with it, but at first I was a bit, you know, I didn't really know anyone, I was just here for love, and work, in that order -- because I could have worked somewhere else.

I think a lot about Soho in London, my old stomping ground, and going out in London. It's weird because I have a different life here. I moved here and my life is just different, it's a different style, you know. You kind of go to people's houses more here rather than actually really going out a lot.

NP: Well you can't go to bars, because you can't drink and drive, and you can't get cabs home very easily. It you're driving, a night out is two drinks and that's it.

GR: Designated driver -- or pregnant wife -- sometimes they're both the same person. [laughs]

NP: So you need to have another kid.

GR: No, no, no, I'm fine for now, thanks.

NP: You called the new album Wanderlust, and obviously, you spent a lot of your adult life on tour. Do you miss that? Do you have wanderlust right now?

GR: Yeah, I really miss it. Some people are born to be on tour and take it on, some people get done in by being on tour, and some people get done in by being on tour but love it. I think I'm the latter, you know. It's like it's a form of combat, with your body, with your mind, socially, you're ability to function with the same people in the same bubble. Do they drive you nuts? Do you drive them nuts? How you miss your friends and your family.

It's really tough. That's the reason why Bush isn't working right now, because one of the guys just doesn't want it anymore -- doesn't want the travel, doesn't want the fight. It reminded me of when I first started working on films. I was realizing that, God, it's such fucking hard work that even the crap ones deserve your respect. You've still got to slog it out and turn up for work everyday, and believe in what you do.

So being on tour, I love it, and totally miss it. I'll be going on tour soon. Now I've got a new complication because I'm so crazy about my son. I can take him for some of it but clearly not all of it, and that's a bit of a heartbreaker. When I was in Bush, it was all about leaving my dog. That was always the payback. I always used to think, "OK, you've got this unbelievable life, so everything has its cost." There's no free lunches right? That was the price. It was traumatic leaving my dog. It used to destroy me. I'd be silent, depressed, down for a couple of days and then I'd be, "Well, you're a musician, and things are looking up compared to where they were, and so you've got to deal with it and that's the price." So I'm sort of sensing that that's coming again.

It's a bit sad. I've been away on different trips, and I ring home and speak to him. He's just old enough now to speak to on the phone, and he says, "Daddy, get off the airplane." But yeah, I am looking forward to going and playing. I love playing. It's so fun to sing, it's such an ancient job. It's a minstrel. You wander in and you play -- it's just brilliant! The crowds...I mean basically, to be in a band, especially probably singers, you know, such needy people. This need for expression, and large gestures, and connection. 'Cause you're out on the stage, and even the most extreme form of performer, Johnny Lydon, being Richard III in the Sex Pistols, he wanted to hate everyone but at the same time he wanted to do it in front of everyone. It's the affirmation thing -- that you're worthy or something twisted like that.

NP: And being in a band, there's the constant camaraderie.

GR: Or not.

NP: You can hate these people, but you love them too -- it's like you often hurt the people that are closest to you.

GR: It is pretty testing to live at such close quarters with people, but I feel quite lucky. I mean some people you hear talk in bands about how, "Why would anybody be in a band when you could have the freedom?" If you can to be successful enough, you could have the freedom of not having to defer to someone else's opinions, no democracy, you know. But for me in Bush, you know, I really loved being with those guys, it felt very connected. We went through so much together, we didn't really wear it out. And if ever we wore it out between each other, it's pretty mutual and you'd just make it back up. I think if you start out as friends there's a pretty good chance you'll stay friends. So I feel pretty good about that.

NP: Do you still talk to the guys?

GR: Yeah, I mean I reached out to them. Two of the emails got sent back because I had the wrong emails in my Blackberry. But I heard from the drummer, Robin [Goodridge], he's on tour with someone and he's like... You know, I can't really work them out. They're English, you know, weird and a bit twisted -- you know, a lot of subterfuge. I mean they're not ringing me up. They probably know what's going on with my record but they wouldn't be ringing up saying, "That's' great!" Whereas the American friends I have are the kind of people that do that, but English people don't do stuff like that. It's way too nostalgic.

NP: English people tend to resent success rather than be supportive of it.

GR: Yeah, so, I haven't been hearing from them. The more the record does well the less I'm likely to hear from them. [laughs] But that's OK, I understand.

NP: With this record, in a way you've been able to create the best of both worlds, of being a band and being a solo artist. You recorded it almost as a band, in five days with five band members, hired guns like Josh Freeze. It's a choice situation, but you still have the control of a solo artist.

GR: I have and I love that. I've only ever made records actually playing as a band.

NP: In the notes for "Love Remains The Same," you reference Bukowski as an influence. Did you ever get to meet him?

GR: I didn't ever meet him, no. I would have loved to have met him, but never got the chance. When I first began to live in L.A. I'd be kind of [excited], you know, to see the areas he'd write about, and imagine the places he was.

NP: What were your favorite pieces of Bukowski's writing?

GR: My favorite book is one hundred percent You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense that was the one that really nailed it for me. And Play The Piano [Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument] Until the Fingers Begin To Bleed [a Bit]. There's obviously Post Office and Factotum, the novels, they were fun and irreverent, and like him as I got to know him through interviews and footage and stuff like that. But I mainly liked the poetry. I liked the brevity, and how succinct he was, and how he could put a whole world into a page.

It just has a way with it, which is weird, because I also liked [Allen] Ginsberg and Ted Hughes. Ted Hughes is a bit more flowery, like a proper poet, lyrical. "Lovesong" is probably my favorite poem of all time...Ginsberg is completely different, because he is super flowery, super stream of consciousness. I just thought if I had these disparate inspirations it would go to make a more interesting view. If you only had lyrical poets as a backdrop to stuff, like all the Beats, you were into all of them, it would be one-sided. Bukowski to me was so far removed from the Beats, he was much more alcohol and street and flop house and struggle and that side of life.

NP: Some of your Bush material, "Comedown" and "The Chemicals Between Us," referenced chemicals. Are they part of your life now?

GR: No, no, no, no. Just the fun follies of a life well lived.

NP: While you're having the fun and follies of life, when you're busy leading the life, you don't think about the fact that you might have kids, and they're going to read about that life. How will you explain that to them?

GR: Oh, evasive. Evasive, really evasive, really slippery. Just like poker-faced and slippery.

NP: That's your guide to parenting, poker-faced and slippery.

GR: I guess, on that subject. Because anyone I've ever known would have a very shaky leg to stand on if they're trying to sort of pontificate to their children. People I've seen in various states of entertainment. So it's a very tricky point. In fact that's the biggest thing that you've touched on. It's very perceptive, because it's like, it's the one area, it used to be that when you do interviews that would be the one area you didn't give a shit about. You'd let it rip because you want to be just as wild as Jim Morrison, and just as wild as the band next door. You know, if Liam's mad for it, everyone's mad for it, you know, all that stuff. And now it's like, "Whoa! Err? Hmm!" I got asked that the other day and got super slippery about it. Super slippy. Born Slippy. Now there's a great band.

NP: Parents have the stock phase, "Do as I say, not as I do." What do you think was the issue your parents were slippy about?

GR: My parents were evasive in a different kind of way -- busy -- and so that never really came to pass. The generations were so distinctly different. My version of fun and their version of fun, I think, were so separate. I don't think there was ever a case of like finding my dad's stash, or something like that. That never really happened, more the other way around, you know.

NP: You have a song called "Happiness." What's happiness for you?

GR: Happiness. [thinks] Happiness, well, it takes many forms. I mean I take that line of Spalding Grey, the great Spalding Grey. He talks about perfect moments. I don't know whether you've seen Swimming to Cambodia, he's an amazing actor. He's no longer with us but you should see Swimming to Cambodia. It's all about perfect moments. Life is just a series of perfect moments perforated by the fucking drag of the rest of it.

So happiness can be anything from, you know, I experienced happiness this morning when I was on a step at 8 a.m. helping my son crayon on the pavement, and eating toast and drinking coffee. I was really happy. Then I was also really happy last night. I was at a dinner for twenty-two people, drinking in a private room, eating amazing food, laughing and just having a really great time. And when I'm on stage, or when I finish a show; I played three nights ago. I played this party in Santa Monica, and it was so intense because there were acrobats, there were trapeze artists, there were flame-throwers, and all these stalls. I did this acoustic show, and the audience was like this close to me, all the way up. It was a party, it was packed, and I sang a bunch of songs, and it was just magic. I just thought it was one of the most funnest nights. And so I find happiness everywhere.

NP: You seem to have done really well staying focused on the important things: your family and your creativity. And you have been surrounded by a lot of tabloid shit. You got shit with Bush because you were either too much or too little like Nirvana, just by virtue of the fact you hit around the time everyone was obsessed with searching for the next big grunge thing, and obviously the elephant in the room is your marriage to Gwen, and there's that whole tabloid monster, but you seem to have done really well at just keeping your head down and staying focused. How have you done that?

GR: Because I realized that everything is so fleeting, and there's not enough time for the great things, let alone the crappy things. And clearly they'll be times when those outside elements begin to crush you, and the claustrophobia sets in, the shrinking wall of a Terry Gilliam film. As soon as you feel that way I just know the only way out is through, you know. So suddenly, if I realize it's really getting me down, I consider that that's all winning, and I'm losing. I'm just too English or Scottish –– I'm half English and half Scottish –– I can't stay down. I get hit down, and then I just get up. I just have to find a way through you know because what else is there to do? What other way is there?

And then the other one is to appreciate what you have. For every positive of course there's a balancing thing that is not as good and is taxing, but I just think that you can't expect to always have it your way. My life is so extreme, that when it's amazing it's shocking, and then when it's painful it's equally as shocking, so I just try to keep away from the pain.

NP: So have there been times when it's been too much?

GR: Yeah, but there is no such thing as too much. The only thing which is too much is death. So it's never too much. You may think it's too much. I always think, let the calendar flip and in a few days with a few nights' sleep...We're durable, we're all durable.

_______

Lita Ford is one of the few women who've made a dent in the male-dominated world of heavy metal. She first rocked our world in the late 70's as the lead guitarist of the groundbreaking jailbait rock band The Runaways. Despite being just 17 at the time of joining, her skills were accomplished... more

Lita Ford is one of the few women who've made a dent in the male-dominated world of heavy metal. She first rocked our world in the late 70's as the lead guitarist of the groundbreaking jailbait rock band The Runaways. Despite being just 17 at the time of joining, her skills were accomplished beyond her years and helped the all-girl band win the respect of peers such as The Ramones with whom they toured.

After the band's premature demise following much documented inter-band acrimony, Lita, who had wanted to steer the group into heavier territory, embarked on a solo career. She toured with metal heavyweights such as Black Sabbath, Anthrax, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden, and released a total of six albums between 1983 and 1995. Her most successful, Lita, released in 1988, went platinum and spawned the Top 10 single "Close My Eyes Forever," a power-ballad duet recorded with Ozzy Osbourne. Lita was never able to repeat this success however, and each of her three subsequent records sold less than the last. After marrying Jim Gillette of the extreme hair metal band Nitro, Lita put her recording career on hold and thrust herself into the role of wife and then mother (the couple have two sons, Rocco, 8, and James, 12).

Returning to the public eye after a hiatus of close to 15-years, Lita's seventh solo album, Wicked Wonderland (released October 6), is the first of three Lita-related projects hitting stores in quick succession. Having sealed her reputation as the self-styled Queen of Metal two decades back, Lita has been immortalized as Queen Lita in Brütal Legend, a music-based Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 adventure. The game, which stars Jack Black and features metal legends Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, and Lemmy Kilmister, is unleashed on "Rocktober" 13. To complete the hat-trick, a new comic will turn Lita and her family into zombie-fighting superheroes. Written by 14-year old comics prodigy Jake Tinsley (Night Owl) and illustrated by Manga artist, Jason Dube, The Gillettes: Family Business, will be published next month.

With so much to look forward to, Lita chooses not to look back. However, the release of a Runaways biopic next year may force her to. Produced with the co-operation of former-bandmates Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, the project stars Kristen Stewart (as Joan) and Dakota Fanning (as Cherie) -- and the relatively unknown Scout Taylor-Compton (as Lita). The much-anticipated film is already reopening still tender old wounds as it threatens to air dirty laundry Lita would rather was left in the basket. On the plus side, it promises to expose the Runaways' music to a new generation and cement their legacy as the band that showed women how to rock.

SuicideGirls caught up with Lita by phone during a break from rehearsals as she prepares to embark on a tour with prog metal heads Queensrÿche later this month.

Andrea Larrabee: Wicked Wonderland is your first album since 1995's Black. Where have you been and what have you been up to in the intervening years?

Lita Ford: We have been living in the Caribbean. I got pregnant with my first child and I really just wanted to focus on being a good mom, which is very different for me. I'm used to guitars, I'm used to things with strings attached not little babies. And when god blessed me with my first kid I was like, "Holy Shit! What do I do with this? I've never held one of these!" I never had sisters that had kids. I didn't know what to do. I was really in the dark and so I just really wanted to concentrate on learning how to be a good mom and a good safe place to be is in the Caribbean on a deserted island. There's not much that can hurt you out there -- except the crabs.

AL: Right, you moved out there after 9/11.

LF: We did, yeah. 9/11 really freaked us out. We were talking about moving anyway and then 9/11 hit and that was the topper, and we just bailed.

AL: You seem to have this amazing existence, a semi-survivalist lifestyle. I understand that you built your own house and that you grow and catch your own food, and you've home-schooled your children.

LF: Yep, that's true. We started with nothing. I mean there literally is nothing on this island. There's no grocery store, there's no Federal Express, there's no Pizza Hut, you can't find anything on this island...So it was nice to be out there. It felt safe to be out there...When the sun comes up we get up, when the sun goes down we pretty much go to bed because there's nothing. We're pretty self-sufficient on the island.

AL: It sounds like it's been a process of getting back in touch with your primal instincts - not only to survive but as a mother.

LF: That's true. That's very true, and it's really good to know, for your children, especially in case anything severe should happen, I think our kids would be one of the survivors. It's just stuff that people just take for granted these days. Say, for instance, a box of peanut butter cereal; You can't get it out there so when you do come back into the United States you go down the cereal isle in the grocery store and you're screaming "YES! THEY GOT PEANUT BUTTER CEREAL MAN!" And the kids are like, "ALRIGHT MOM! GET SIX BOXES." And everybody's looking at me like I'm out of my friggin' mind. What's wrong with that girl? Hasn't she ever seen peanut butter cereal before? We not lately, no, I haven't. So you do take things for granted.

AL: I would also imagine you're stocking up on piles of soft toilet paper.

LF: Oh everything, yeah, we do. There's a place called Rock-It Cargo that ships out into the Caribbean, and you can load containers and stuff and just buy whatever you want to buy, I mean right down to cars, trucks, anything like that, You just ship it out, ship it on over. So we do stock up on food and clothes and toys and dildos...

AL: Dildos by the container load! [laughs]

LF: Absolutely. [laughs] That's funny.

AL: It sounds like an idyllic life. What on earth made you want to return to music?

LF: We're in the United States now because we rehearse in Florida but we still live there. Our home is sitting there waiting for us.

AL: But the music industry can be a very toxic place. It must have been relaxing not to have that in your life.

LF: It is. It's very different. When we retired from the music industry, we really didn't know when we were going to return. My husband got himself into developing this island along with his partners and made excellent money doing that, and it freed me up so I could focus on being a good mom and trying to raise our kids.

AL: So your husband's been developing the island for tourism?

LF: You know what, let me put him on and I'll let him explain. Here's Jim.

Jim Gillette: We're tag-teaming you. We're going to wear you down.

AL: Lita mentioned you were developing the island. I just wondered in what respect?

JG: Well what didn't we do there? We buy big chunks of land and then we make them into lots for houses. We put in roads, put in sidewalks, we put in canals, put in bridges, ports. We've kind of done it all.

AL: So you're developing your own community, your own town -- Gillette Town?

JG: You couldn't get away with that in the States, but you can do that in the Caribbean.

AL: So you and Lita get to be king and queen of you own Caribbean island?

JG: Yeah, pretty much. It's pretty cool. It was tough for her to get me to come out of the old coconut palm.

AL: Well I was reading that there was a family vote to decide if Lita should go back to music?

JG: Not really a vote. I'm fine. I always knew that we were going to end up doing this again. Lita was just waiting 'til the boys were ready. She's an excellent mom. I don't think that many people would think that, I mean she looks like a Suicide Girl right?

AL: Hell yeah! She's one of the originals.

JG: But you know what I mean. She probably helped pave the way for sites like SuicideGirls.

AL: Absolutely.

JG: I mean she's got seven tattoos.

AL: What's your favorite?

JG: The one that says "My Husband" right above her ass, so when she's bent over I can look at it. It's pretty nice. [laughs] That's my ass.

AL: Fair enough. I can appreciate why that might be your favorite.

JG: Nah, you know what? That was my favorite, but now she's got the Gillette family logo on her left arm. I have the same basic thing on my back only mine's the size of a truck 'cause it covers my whole back. And she's got this kind of cool cross with a skull on her right arm that has our wedding anniversary on it in roman numerals -- that's on the album -- so that's pretty cool.

AL: In keeping with the Caribbean theme, I understand there's some proverbial sunken treasure over there in the form of album that you guys recorded but never released.

JG: Oh boy! We were not in the Caribbean when that happened. That was about thirteen years ago because Lita was actually pregnant with our first boy James. You want to talk about a funny sight? [laughs] This music was as heavy as hell and we'd be in rehearsals and she's got these goddamned pink pig slippers on and her belly's sticking out and she's playing these Metallica type riffs with her guitar sticking up at an angle because her belly's in the way - that was amazing! It was some good stuff. We may let it out one day. I don't know if we'll actually put it out or just put it on a website or something and let people check it out for free.

AL: It's a shame YouTube wasn't around then. I'd have loved to have seen a pregnant Lita rockin' it in her pink fuzzy pig slippers.

JG: I'm kind of weird, but it made me horny. Her little pregnant fat belly sticking out, her pink slippers, playing [sings heavy guitar riff]. It was very strange.

AL: I understand there was quite a sexual undercurrent to this album too? What was the inspiration behind the music you did together?

LF: The music we did together isn't something that we had planned. It's not like we had 15 years worth of music sitting around. It was literally a spur of the moment idea and we really didn't know where we were going with it until we started going. It's pretty much about us, about our family, about our sex life, our love life, our hate life, pleasure, pain...

JG: ...Bondage.

LF: It's about us, our own personal wicked wonderland.

JG: Yeah, our marriage is very, very, very - did I say very? - sexual. We have a belief: Great, adventurous, crazy sex every single day, keeps the divorce lawyer away.

AL: So when you were writing the album together what was the process?

JG: We'd come into my office and crack open a bottle of champagne and literally kind of compare notes from the last night's sexual escapades.

AL: Do you care to share an example of that in a song?

JG: "Push." Whenever she's ready to pop she says, "Push." We literally tuned the "push, push" into a song. It's kind of the way she does it in the chorus and it's called "Push."

AL: Lita, I understand one of your favorite tracks on Wicked Wonderland is "Sacred."

LF: Jim wrote that song for me and I adore the song. It's close to me, it's close to my heart.

AL: So who wrote most of the lyrics on Wicked Wonderland?

JG: Most of the lyrics I wrote, and she would sit there and say, "I didn't say that." And I'd say, "Bullshit, you said it last night." It's kind of weird, because we didn't mean, in the beginning, for it to be so personal. We just started writing and it was very sexual. It was about us, it was about our experiences together. After about two songs we kind of thought, "Gee, should we do this? Should we be this open and let everyone into our bedrooms like this?" People, they know exactly what we do now. And we thought, "You know what? Let's do it. Because it's real, it's from the heart. This is what we're feeling, this is what we're writing, so let's just go with it."

AL: You seem like a very open family anyway. I mean you have The Gillettes: Family Business comic which is based on your family.

LF: Yeah. My kids get to beat up zombies and be superheroes. It's pretty cool.

AL: So it's seems like you're not afraid to share your family and personal life with the world.

JG: That's just happened with all this. I mean for a while there we weren't even on the planet. I mean we were gone -- nobody knew where we were. We could have told you where we were and you couldn't have found us, it's that remote where we are. We just kind of decided, coming back, it kind of started with the lyrics honestly. It was like this is who we are, this is what we're about, this is what we dig and this is where our heart is, so lets just go for it. And doing that we decided if we can let people into our bedroom and know what kind of frickin dildos we use, know that I like to go down on my wife's toes, all this weird fetish stuff, if we're going to talk about that why not let them see our kids. After that it's kind of wide open. The gloves are off at that point you know.

AL: I'm seeing a reality TV show - The Osbournes meets Survivor.

JG: We've been approached a few times for reality TV.

AL: And you're not tempted?

JG: We're tempted but we want to control it. We're the management company, we're the record company for this. We wrote the songs with a friend. We produced the album with a friend. We're not going to let somebody take six weeks worth of filming and make it look like whatever they want it to look like -- they're notorious for that. We want control of the editing. If we do a reality show we want it to be what a reality show is supposed to be, to really show the real picture. We're not going to let me and Lita get into an argument and let them run that every goddamned week, you know? Out of six weeks of filming we argued once so they try and make it look like we're at each other's throats every day. We're not going to do that. We're not going that way. They can do that with other people.

LF: Yeah. So far we have been offered a few things and we're just not, actually I'm not ready for it yet. Of course if a deal comes across that we absolutely can't refuse, have to have, of course, you know, we're going to jump on it. But, as of now, we have the comic book, we have the Xbox game, we've got this wonderful album coming out, we haven't even made a video yet. We've just got so much going on, so many irons in the fire, so to speak, that we don't need it right now. I think in time, when it's the right time and place, the right offer comes around, of course we're going to dive on it.

JG: We've got a very different family. If you see us we're very strange. You know what Lita looks like, I'm 280 pounds, covered in tattoos. I've got a Mohawk, our kids have Mohawks, our kids have been learning to kill people since they were 2-years old.

AL: You're all into martial arts which makes the manga comic very fitting.

JG: Yeah, well the kids grew up with the Gracie family and the Valente family who created the UFC. I was a sparing partner with Royce Gracie -- he's a UFC legend. We've got videos of our kids doing triangle chokes and arm bars when they were two years old.

AL: Talking of kicking ass, Lita's featured in the Brütal Legend game as Queen Lita, and you're a martial arts family, so she's probably one of the few characters in the cast that can kick ass as hard in real life as in the game.

LF: Oh, absolutely. There's no doubt about that man. You don't want to tangle with these guys. Holy crap! They're really good. My 8-year old could literally put a grown man to sleep.

AL: What do you love about your Brütal Legend character?

LF: Oh she's very sexy and she gets to ride a beast. I am an animal lover, so she gets to ride her own beast, which I think is just awesome. I'm the only one in the game that has a pet.

AL: And you have a Wicked Wonderland track, "Betrayal," in Brütal Legend?

LF: Correct. That track was written specifically for the game. It didn't start being that way, but it turned out they were looking for material for the game and Jim through that up and said, "Hey! What about this one? Check this out." And they fell in love with it. We changed the lyrics and made the lyrics fit the game. It fits the game perfectly so it really worked out well.

AL: And now you're embarking on a tour with Queensrÿche?

JG: We're excited about that.

LF: That is bad to the bones. I mean how blessed: The Queen and Queensrÿche.

AL: And that's going to be a family affair again?

JG: Oh yeah. You get one Gillette, you get four of us.

AL: So what do you and the boys do on stage?

JG: I do a lot of singing and the boys stand behind me and run out and throw balloons at the crowd or squirt the crowd or bring bottled water or just come out and start rocking out. It's pretty cool.

LF: If you've heard the whole album in its entirety you'll hear Jim a lot on the album. He sings a lot of the background vocals, and does a lot with the production. He's just a huge part of this. I just couldn't imagine doing it without him.

AL: How would you describe the live show?

LF: We get on stage and we jam our asses off for as long as they'll allow it.

AL: I kind of feel sad for the girls that rock today. The way the music industry presents them, it's all very safe, pre-packaged and contrived. You're of a generation that actually got to rock -- and be seen to rock -- for real. It feels like the truly wild days of rock & roll are behind us. Do you feel like that at all?

LF: Not with me. I do understand what you're saying. I think the generation of kids these days is even more wild than our generation, or my generation, I just think it hasn't been brought out yet. Everything is all flowers and sunshine, and it's those kind of people that watch that stuff that I think are really dying for the vampire side of things. With me, I don't do flowers and sunshine. I don't even wear pink on stage. If I did I'd probably throw up. But I think if anybody's going to crack that ice, I think it's going to be me. So that's a good question. Maybe that's why I'm back for that reason.

AL: You're back and very much in control. The album's coming out on your own record label and you manage yourself. Obviously The Runaways were managed by Kim Fowley, and as a solo artist you were managed by Sharon Osbourne at one point. Both are notorious figures -- for very different reasons -- but what have you learnt from them that you've been able to take forward into your career now?

LF: Well Sharon is the one that I really have a lot of respect for. She's a wonderful business woman and she's taught me how to deal with people. There's certain people you want to stay in touch with, there's certain ways of handling somebody, because you're really in it for the long haul. It's not a one-night stand. It's a lifetime commitment. Sharon treats people with class and dignity, and if she doesn't like someone she's tell them flat out, "Go fuck yourself," and that's it, she's gone, you'll never see her again. She's been a good help and somebody to follow as far as that sort of thing goes. She's a class act definitely.

AL: So are the two of you still in touch?

LF: No. Not so much anymore. I'm off in the Caribbean and she's, I believe, living in California, so we don't speak too much anymore. I don't speak to anybody too much anymore actually. We live a very private life when we are home, and when we're out on the road, you know, all hell breaks lose. But when we're home, we stay to ourselves.

AL: You were quoted recently in Rolling Stone as saying you have nothing to do with the upcoming Runaways film. Has anything been done to rectify that situation? Has there been any outreach to you?

LF: There has been, but I didn't like it. I really don't care for Joan's management. I have a real problem with working with them. I don't want to work with them. I don't have to work with them. They insist on using me in this film. That's their business I suppose. I tried to take out the pieces that I absolutely despised and that's it.

I'm a public figure, so it's pretty hard for me to say no, you can't use me on that. They're going to do it anyway, and it's the law, as disgusting as that sounds. Like Angelina Joile is in The [National] Enquirer every five minutes. She has no say, she's like a piece of meat, she's a public figure, and so am I.

If they have respect for you, and hopefully they will enough that they'll listen to my requests and please take that piece out. And they did. Thank god they at least did that, and offered me a ridiculously low amount of money, which wasn't even worth accepting. I just thought this is just a joke. The only reason they're using me is to hopefully sell more tickets to their theater, and that's it, which I could really care less. If I were to do my version of The Runaways movie it would be about the music.

AL: Would you want to produce a documentary or book so that you're able to present your side of the story?

LF: Not yet. I'm really not interested in it. I've got bigger and better things going on right now. One of my old girlfriends who was the main producer on [Runaways documentary] Edgeplay, she wants to do a biography on Lita. I told her I thought that would be great and if anybody does it, you would be the person I would choose to do it. The problem is, I only have half of it. I don't have the ending. There's no ending.


For further information on all things Lita Ford go to litaxx.tv/lita/.

A constellation of A-list stars worked for scale on writer/director Paul Haggis' film Crash, just so they could be a part of the socially-charged indie project. It paid off for them as everyone involved with Crash got some acclaim and indie cred. The film plowed on to win three Academy Awards. The... more

A constellation of A-list stars worked for scale on writer/director Paul Haggis' film Crash, just so they could be a part of the socially-charged indie project. It paid off for them as everyone involved with Crash got some acclaim and indie cred. The film plowed on to win three Academy Awards.

The new small-screen version of Crash, which premieres on Starz on October 17, has an impressive legacy to live up to, but only one big name; Screen legend Dennis Hopper plays a record producer in one of many interweaving ensemble stories. All of the characters are original to the series, and yes, Hopper's goes crazy.

"I don't think that I can only play crazy people but maybe that's all I can play," says Hopper, who redefined the Hollywood psycho archetype when he played sociopath Frank Booth in the 1986 David Lynch noir flick Blue Velvet. "I love acting and as long as I can act, I will be doing it. I'm rather a mild mannered, quiet kind of guy, an introvert, so these characters that I play have very little to do with my reality. That's interesting for me, and it's a drag for me also."

Still, when Hopper appears in a movie, you can usually expect him to go nuts on someone. In person, the once wild-living, motorcycle-loving renaissance man is calm and cool, more like one of the mellow characters from Easy Rider, the 1969 classic American counterculture road movie which Hopper co-wrote, directed and starred in.

After a press conference with the producers of Crash, Hopper hung around to chat about his character and its connection to fellow Easy Rider, Phil Spector.

Question: Were you looking for a TV show to do?

Dennis Hopper: No, this all happened on a Sunday. I'd just gotten back from the Cannes Film Festival...I got back on Friday and Sunday they hit me with this and said I had to make a decision by Monday because they wanted me to start shooting on Wed.

Q: You'd done TV before though, so has it been a good experience for you?

DH: I did 24 and then I did E-Ring for a while. This has been an incredible experience for me. This is a wonderful part. We've been doing long hours but it doesn't bother me at all because the material is really good. It's really wonderfully written.

Q: Did you have to consider how it would take you out of the film game for a while?

DH: Yeah, I had to consider it because I wanted to direct a movie. There were a lot of things going into consideration, also going from Los Angeles to Albuquerque. I have to be in Albuquerque three days a week so that was a big decision too. But we're working through it. We just finished the third one so going into the fourth.

Q: Did you take a second home?

DH: No, I've taken a hotel room. I used to live in Taos, NM, so my brother and my cousins all live up in Taos. I have a choice of coming back to L.A., where my family is, or going up to Taos where my family is, so it's beginning to work out –– haven't quite figured it out yet. I've only been doing it for three or four weeks.

Q: What journey do you see this character on?

DH: Wow, man, I don't know. He could go anywhere. He's an open ended guy. Every week I get my new script and I'm surprised. He's out there. I don't put any limits on it at all. He's totally out of control.

Q: Are there any music industry execs you base your character on?

DH: Phil Spector and I shared offices for about 10 years. He's a music mogul who wants to get one last big hit going and he's totally off the wall. He changes directions about 20 times in a minute. It's a great part. It's beautifully written and we have no language barriers or sexual...It's just free. It's as free as television will ever be.

Q: So it's a tribute to Phil?

DH: No, I'm doing a tribute to me. I based this on my life.

Q: Which of the other ensemble characters are you working with?

DH: Well, I really only deal with two characters right now. I deal with a doctor who has lived with me for a while, who takes care of my medical problems and my chemical imbalance. He gives me drugs in other words. And my young driver who I'm now mentoring.

I'm waiting for women to come into my life -- except for the young lady who is driving me at the beginning when I'm having a conversation with my penis. When she looks back and I've exposed myself and am talking to my penis, she pulls the car over and jumps out and asks for people to come and get her because she's with a pervert. I try to convince her to come back and so on, but she doesn't.

Besides that, I haven't really seen any other characters. Well, that's not true. There is the uncle of the young man that I've hired and I go down and buy some drugs from him. That's some very funny stuff.

Q: When you talk to your penis, does it talk back?

DH: No, but she does.

Q: Is it actually a nude scene or just implied?

DH: No, I'm just sitting with my dick out in the back of a limo.

Q: But do we see it?

DH: No, no, no, but you see me jamming it back in. It's the first scene I have in the series and I'm being driven by a beautiful young woman in a big limo. She thinks I'm talking to her but I'm really not talking to her and you can't really see what's going on.

I'm having a conversation which sounds a little like poetry, a little like Shakespeare, a little like a lot of things, but in point I'm talking to my cock about its not functioning anymore. It's a rather private conversation that she thinks is directed to her about the veins standing out and she's starting to look in the mirror to see.

Then she finally stops at a stoplight and looks back and sees me actually addressing my penis. However, she gets alarmed, jumps out of the car and I try to convince her that this was a private conversation and it really wasn't something that was addressed to her and that she should probably reconsider and come back and drive for me. She decides that she wants money, and at that point my characters goes into a little bit of... Well, you should see it. It's very funny.

Q: What other outrageous scenes can we expect?

DH: Oh, there are a lot of them. It's constant. My character is just off the wall. You've got to see it. I can't go into it. He also gives speeches so the writing has been so exceptional.

Q: What are your memories of watching the movie Crash?

DH: I just remember I really liked it. I'd known Bobby Moresco for a while. We did a film called 10th & Wolf together that he directed and wrote, so I was really happy for him when he won the Academy Award for writing it. Then that was the end of my thinking about it very honestly until they offered me this. I had a day and a half to make a decision.

Q: What else was going on for you this summer?

DH: I really don't have much time at all. I'm having a big show at the Cinémathèque in Paris that they've been working on for five years. They're showing 50 films and they're taking about half of my art collection and half of my work and exhibiting it in Paris in the Frank Gehry building. So that opens October 13, then the series opens October 17, so I'm pretty busy. .

Q: Are you still painting?

DH: Yeah, painting, I had a big show at the Hermitage museum in St. Petersberg last year, one in Moscow. I'm having a big show at the Cinemateque. October 13th it opens in Paris.

Q: How was the Moscow trip?

DH: It was incredible. We took a motorcycle trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow with the Guggenheim. Jeremy Irons, Laurence Fishburne and myself. It was an incredible thing. It took us five days to get from St. Petersberg to Moscow but it was wonderful. We opened 300 years of American art at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Guggenheim. So it was cool.

Q: Are you a big collector?

DH: I collected through the years, yeah.

Q: Who's your favorite artist?

DH: Well, of what I collected, probably Basquiat right at the moment.

Q: Did you buy them back in the day?

DH: I bought them when he was still alive, yeah. I couldn't afford to buy them now. I have some nice ones.

Q: As a motorcycle enthusiast, did you know Ewan McGregor is doing a motorcycle show?

DH: I saw him before they started it. I had no contact with them while they were in Africa. They had a really rough trip. It was really, really a hard ride. They had really a bad time. When they told me they were going to go through Africa all the way down there, I said, "That sounds really dangerous to me." And it turned out that it was. But he's an incredible young man.

Q: How are you fighting the economic crisis?

DH: It's a big problem, isn't it? I'm trying to downgrade my car so I don't have to spend so much on gas. I'm trying to find something that gets me 35 gallons, 40 gallons. Everything's changing for all of us. We can't go on this way.