Emmyway

I am trying to think of the most crazy part of my Emmy weekend.

Was it meeting the real Temple Grandin in a gifting suite at the Four Seasons hotel? Seeing her being part of the swag machine was a little bizarre.

Is it the large bruise and scrape I mysteriously have on my right shin?

Was it holding Archie Panjabi's Emmy as we walked to the Governer's Ball and being congratulated by so many people on my win, and even letting a child hold it in a photograph?

Was it being gifted an eat for free at Johnny Rocket's for a year voucher?  Or a year's supply of tic tacs?

Was it being asked to do an impression of George Clooney on the red carpet?

I am about to fly home to NYC. I will muse on't on the plane.

Ask Alan

I am back in LA for the Emmys tomorrow. I flew Continental this time, and had a lovely Indian vegan meal and the flight attendant did not comment on the body odour of any passengers as her American Airlines counterpart had last weekend.  Yes, really.

Natalie asks: Out of all the magnificent roles you've played, what's your favorite line you've had to say? What's the weirdest? It can be from a play, musical, movie, or anything. I thought of this while watching Tin Man (which you're amazing in of course). Keep being inspirational and fantastic!  See the blog from yesterday about the Terence McNally reading. I think that has to take the biscuit, don't you?!

Clarissa Crabtree (what a great name) writes: As I was chopping and dicing the veggies from my recent CSA delivery, I got to thinking about vegies around the world.  Since you travel so much, you must have tried lots of different veggies around the world - what was the wierdest, and what's your favourite?   I have had some weird and wonderful veggies, but my favourite exotic one is jackfruit.  Oh, it's so delicious and the texture is very satisfying.  But my favourite vegetable of all time would have to be the potato. I could easily have mashed potato for every meal.  I am also nuts about arugula, the kind that tastes all mustardy.

Jessy from Germany says: What do like about your work? I meanbe an actor is a fascinating jobbut what fascinated you ?
I just like pretending to be other people. It's fun.  I think of it as a very child-like thing, committing to play in a really total way.  And I like that I get to play as an adult and be able to make a living and do things I like because of it.  I think my inner child is very outer.

Hey Alan! I know you're anti-circumsicion, and there are people asking why...so here's a link that may be of interest to you: http://www.drmomma.org/2009/09/functions-of-foreskin-purposes-of.html  Thanks so much, this is a great article.  It's a good one to forward to anyone who needs to be enlightened on the foreskin front!

Matt writes: I love, with a big L, The High Life. What was it that made your decision to move on?
It was really a combination of things but mostly it was because Forbes and I had reached a decision to not to do another series during the writing process. I guess we felt really unsupported by the BBC and that they just didn't get us.  It felt a lot like banging our heads against a brick wall.  Then we shot it and it came out and people really liked it for the same reasons that the people at the Beeb had been trying to get us to change. And then of course they were all over us to do another series. But by then I had already moved on in my head, and also logistically it became impossible because I had started to do more films. But really we didn't do another series because we made a pact not to.

Quite a lot of people have written asking for the playlist of my recent shows. It varies from show to show a little but this is how it is basically right now..
Almost There (Tom Baxter)/Mein Herr (Kander & Ebb)/I Want To See You (Alan Cumming)/Wig In A Box/Wicked Little Town (Stephen Trask)/American (Lance Horne)/What More Can I Say (William Finn)/I Still Have That Other Girl/Losing My Mind (Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach/Stephen Sondheim)/Taylor The Latte Boy (Heisler/Goldrich)/Next To Me (Cumming/Horne)/Edinburgh Festival Song (Cumming/Masson)/Beautiful (Jeff Harris)

From Lynn: I was wondering if you were planning to write another book at some point? My friends and I all loved 'Tommy's Tale' and hoped you might feel the urge to write another novel! Although....a biography would be great too :)
I am indeed planning to write another book. It's just the old enemy, time. And I even want to do something that would in a way be my version of an autobiography: a sort of book of short stories about things that have happened in my crazy life.  Stay tuned.  But maybe I should get down to writing the book more instead of doing this blog every day?! Actually, doing this blog has been a good discipline both in just writing something every day and also getting back into the habit of searching the cavities of my mind and finding out what I think about things. So thank you all for your encouragement.

Katie writes: I'm thinking of trying to major in musical theatre or acting in college, but I'm not sure if I should. I've only been in a couple shows, and I've done a lot of vocal stuff, but I fell in love with acting when I did my first show. Do you think that if you are really passionate about something, you might as well try to make it into a career, even though it's more than likely you could completely fail?!  Do it! I think the worst thing would be to live your life thinking 'if only'.

Alan, have you ever gotten or wanted a tattoo?
Yep, I had one.  It was a boy's name.  We had each other's names tattooed on our groins after two weeks of knowing each other! Four months later we broke up. I had mine lasered off.  Since then, much as I love them, I've been wary of getting another. But I always ask people to show me their tattoos because I think they are beautiful and people get them so that others can enjoy them too.

Doris from Germany: What means the title of your debut album:" I Bought A Blue Car Today"?
It's the sentence I had to write down in my US Naturalization test to prove I could write in English. I thought it was cute at first and then I realised it was about consumerism and gas-guzzling.

I know you've probably heard this before, but what is the tastiest way to cook tofu.
I am a big fan of a stir fry with some vegetables and sesame oil or a teriyaki sauce. I try to steer clear of the deep fry option

Liam asks: I've aways loved the roles you play and i wondered is there a role that you'd love to play again in a sequel or a remake?  Actually there is a Spy Kids 4 in the works and we are trying to make the dates work so that i can be in that for just a little cameo. But as for remakes, I would love to play a character like Auntie Mame.  Alan Cumming as Uncle Mame doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?  Or I would like to be Maude in Harold and Maude!!

Michael from Austria: I saw yesterday the fantastic movie "the anniversarry party" first time. congratulation to this artwork. since hours i try to find out who sing the song in the scene on the pool. please tell me this important information via eMail. I must have this song ;-)  It was written by Michael Penn and is on The Anniversary Party soundtrack which I bet you can get on itunes or Amazon.

Theatah

Today I didreading of a Terence McNally play called It's Only A Play at the Manhattan Theatre Club.  It's an old play that he has re-worked about the first night of a play on Broadway and it was very very funny.  I have nearly worked with Mr T many times and this reading was actually the first time it had ever happened. I hope I get to do a full production of something of his soon.

I played a theatre director and my favourite line was: Wicked is the pimple on the hemorrhoid in the rectum of the flatulent institution they call the American theatre.

Ouch.

Later I went to see a play by Stan Richardson called Veritas at the NY Fringefestival. It's a really amazing story about a group of gay men at Harvard in 1920 and how their treatmentended in such tragedy.  It has its last eprformance at the fringe Saturday so check it out if you can.

Then I watched again my friend Joe's documentary about Norman Mailer.  What a crazy troubled thing he was.  I met him once at a benefit for the drama bookshop in NYC.  I had forgotten all about it till last night. Isn't it funny how our memories are rebooted by certain stimuli?

And here is a picture of me playing Hamlet that I really think encapsulates that time of my life.

Ear wax and more!

Here is the first picture of The Good Wife cast for the marjketing campaign for the launch of season 2, which happens on CBS on September 28th. This is one of these funny pictures that was shot at lots of different times and we were never all there together at once.

Anf then here is the single of me, and I can truthfully say that I was indeed there when this picture was taken.

Today I did something fantastic. I went and had an ear candle treatment.  This is where they put a funny wick thing into your ear and light it - a quite extraordinary aural experience I can tell you - and then you lie there as it burns down and a lady massages round your ear and then when she takes the wick out and cuts it open you get to see all the wax that has somehow been sucked out of your ear. My doctor told me the other day that by using Q Tips I had pushed wax further into my ear so I thought a good old candle wax extraction was in order. There was tons of the stuff! The little lady actually gasped when she saw how much.  And now I feel that the volume of the sountrack of my life has been turned up to beyond the max.  I just shot a scene in a court building in The Bronx with a lot of extras and when everyone was talking at once it was really a little overwhelming!

I'm going to be making some videos for CBS.com about life on the set of The Good Wife, so that will be fun.  I promise there will be no ear wax involved, unless it somehow part of a storyline in the show.  Which I doubt very much.

Thanks to Elise for sending me this video of a flash mob in Target.  Keep up the good work, people!!

Foreskin man!

I was saddened to hear that President Clinton and Bill Gates made statements last week at the AIDS conference in Vienna strongly advocating circumcision as a preventitive measure in the fight against HIV/AIDS, citing 'overwhelming evidence' that it works and saves lives. 

Of course, the word 'might' being used in the same sentence as an exhortation to genitally mutilate on a mass scale should perhaps ring alarm bells.  It certainly does mine, and reports such as this one make me wary.  I have been looking at a lot of material online about this issue, here for instance and have been gratified to see that the issue has made it into the comic books, and as well as being entertaining, Foreskin Man highlights the politics and lack of objectivity in the reports and studies that advocate hacking off genitals above education on safe sex and more money for research and drugs.

On a happier note my friend Sue's company Streetwse Opera has made it through to the televised finals of the National Lottery Awards.  Streetwise takes music to homeless people and thereby inspires them and gives them confidence to move on in life, and I really advocate you all voting for them to help their work, and the lives of many who so need a leg up, in the future.

Finally, here's a little video of me swimming in Kuala Lumpur a few years back.

me in specs

This first picture of me in specs was taken at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1992 when I was there with my first ever feature film Prague.  

The next one was taken at the Sundance film festival in 2009 when I was there with the film Dare.  I am slightly obsessed with pictures of me in specs today because I thought that my failing eyesight was a recent thing and quite clearly it is not, as I was wearing specs 18 years ago.  I think though that there has been a marked downward spiral in my eyesight, all part of the slow march towards death which we all must come to terms with.  I actually like wearing specs, and I need to so much now that maybe I should think about contact lenses.  Though that would defeat the purpose and the joy of my spec wearing.  I even have my prescriptions in a few pairs of sunglasses

Oh, talking of the sun, it's not here.  Today is the first day in ages in New York City where I can remember wearing socks (except at work when I am Eli Gold - he is definitely not a Crocs man). It rained big time during the night and it was actually a little chilly this morning. I went off to work with a JACKET on. Can you imagine?!!

Of course it is rather exciting to suddenly have a whole new array of wardrobe possibilities available again. I am so looking forward to winter and to wearing a coat that one of the extras from The Runaway (a thing I shot recently in South Africa) was wearing and I nabbed it. It's a sort of big furry pimp coat and I am going to be so superfly in it this winter!  I also have a pair of galoshes which I yearn to wear.  I always feel like I need to drink some vodka and start weeping about Moscow when I wear them.  

I am typing this on my office computer and I have to say young Brian my assistant is a mucky pup. This is the dirtiest keyboard I have seen in some time.  I am going to actually go and get a bottle of spray stuff an clean it after I type this. That'll show him.

Today I did some voice work for a movie called Outback which will come out next year and in which I will be giving my Bog, a nasty crocodile. Oh yes, I am extending my range with every passing day. I also played a bratty Australian boy for a couple of lines too, though I should keep that quiet in case anyone in Australia ever hears it and wonders about the wonky accent.

Brian is off getting my outfit for the Emmys on Sunday. My dear friend Cynthia Rowley has made me a lovely ensemble, so at least I can be sure that at these Emmys I will not be wearing anything that Perez Hilton has already worked on the red carpet. By the way, thanks to the over a hundred thousand people who voted that I looked better than Perez. Much as I abhor popularity contests and fashion police type of things, it was very flattering.

Right I am off to scrub this murky keyboard and, yikes, the screen is a disgrace too.  Then I am going to walk the dogs. But finally here is another picture of me in specs. This one was taken in the Villa Borghese during the Rome Film Festival in 2008 by Gael Garcia Bernal.  Go figure!!

flipping heck

I am distraught.  Lat week my flip HD camera broke. The little USB thing got stuck and then wouldn't stay in my computer properly.  So I borrowed my man's flip to do the films from Edinburgh. Now that one has stopped working!! And at the weekend I heard of someone else's flip that has conked out.  What is hapening in the world?!  I so wanted to do an Emmy vid but unless there are free flips at some swag place that I will be wheeled around on Saturday I don't know if it's going to happen. Chant for me, people.

Also did you know that Target donated $150,000 to anti-LGBT bigot Tom Emmer's campaign? This is Target, people, who have been so amazing in the past both in terms of philanthropy, and equality within their corporate structure.  And now they are giving large chunks of change to a man who wants to ban same-sex marriage! WTF! Obviously this is a corporate PR blunder, but come on Target, make amends here.

It's assumed that Target didn't know that when they donated money to the pro-business group, MN Forward, that under state law MN Forward would have to disclose its contributors, or that it was supporting Emmer as a candidate for Minnesota governor.  But since the mounting protests nationwide (see below) Target's chief executive, Gregg Steinhafel, wrote a letter of apology to employees, explaining that the company's political donation had been a misguided effort to foster economic growth

"While I firmly believe that a business climate conducive to growth is critical to our future, I realize our decision affected many of you in a way I did not anticipate, and for that I am genuinely sorry," Steinhafel wrote. He continued, "The diversity of our team is an important aspect of our unique culture and our success as a company, and we did not mean to disappoint you, our team or our valued guests." He added that the retailer would more closely review any future political contributions.

I think everyone should call Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel at 612-696-6234 and DEMAND they get the $150,000 back or donate $150,000 to queer youth or transgender services!

ask and tell

So here is what my Creative Emmy day looked like... This is me in my hotel room getting groomed by my friend Ermahn. He was the make up guy on Spy Kids and we have stayed friends ever since and whenever I have to do something in LA that involves looking pretty, he is my go to person. I love him.

Here he is again after I am groomed.

I find it so crazy when people on red carpets ask you to talk them through your outfit. I mean, I know what they mean, but let's get real here.  I find it so hard to resist the urge, and indeed I have not been able to in the past, to say 'Well, it's shoes, trousers, a jacket, a shirt and a tie'.  Anyway here I am talking through my incredibly controversial fashion choice from Saturday's Creative Emmys.  Just wait till you see what I am wearing for next week's Emmys!!

I was sitting next to the lovely Neil Patrick Harris and his man David and it was so exciting to be so close to a TWO time Emmy winner!!  We walked across to the dinner thing together and here is a snap of us having fun. Neil and David are about to welcome twins, and guess what? They now have twin Emmys. Woah! Go figure!

Then the most exciting thing happened to me.  One of my idols, Fred Willard, came up to talk to me.  I am so happy!  If you don't believe me, check out this picture of us both. What an honour!!

And finally here are the two lovely people who made up the whole idea of The Good Wife, Michelle and Robert King. They are both so talented and kind and lovely. And they know my husband Grant because their kids go to school with his first girlfriend's child!!  You couldn't make this up.

But MOST IMPORTANTLY, tonight I went to see a truly amazing piece of theatre and I exhort you all who live in NYC to do the same. It is called Another American: Asking and Telling and is a brilliant piece of docu-drama conceived and perfomed by Marc Wolf.  The subject matter is obviously Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the current heinous policy in the US military for gay people which was introduced by President Clinton.  Ten years ago Marc went out and interviewed a cross-section of society about this topic and then made this piece in which he becomes, there is no other way to describe it,becomes those very people. It is one of the most stunning things I have seen in a very long time. Brilliantly executed, and utterly though-provoking and moving. Indeed, it is what theatre should be about. A triumph!! Click on the link above for tickets and go go go. It is only on a couple of nights a week for the next month and it would be a great shame to miss it.

Finally here is a lovely article in Departures magazine about itsasickness.com

who am i emmy way?

Well, I was right to listen to myself. I did not win the Emmy.  And the lovely John Lithgow did.  And so did my friends Chiara and Toni for make-up on The Pacific

I will write more about it all tomorrow, as I am about to get on a plane back to NYC.  But here in the meantime is a picture of me in a bar later last night, holding my imaginary Emmy. 

My suit caused a bit of a sensation. Than you, Moods of Norway.

Stinky

Today I flew to Los Angeles.  I was on American Airlines.  As soon as we boarded I heard one of the lady flight attendantscomplaining rather noisily about a bad smell.  A moment later the air was filled with the pungent smell of that kind of chemical air freshener that you get in gift shops. You know, like those awful scented candles.  Now, I don't mean that all scented candles are awful per se, far from it. But you now those cloying ones that catch in your throat and are called things like cinnamon dream, and you're suposed to put them on at Christmas to add to the ambiece of peace and tranquility?  Well imagine a cheap aerosol version of that being sprayed around you as you've just sat down on a very early flight.

We asked the lady if she'd mind not spraying it so near us and she replied - and she really did say this - 'I have to work here and some of the passengers stink'.  I guess she missed the customer relations classes at flight attendant school.

This afternon I have been lounging by the hotel pool with two friends from Australia who are here because they are nominated for the Best Make Up award at tomorrow's Emmys for The Pacific.  I worked with them on Son of the Mask which was shot in Oz.  We chatted about what we are wearing and also if there is a chance of us winning.  I told Chiara (for that is her name) that I am a good omen because the last time I attended the Creative Emmys the make up category was won by another friend of mine for Tin Man. We then freaked each other out about the possibility of going up on stage and having to make a speech. 

I am totally convinced that John Lithgow is going to win for Dexter.  But what if he doesn't?!!  I suddenly realised that if I won I would be utterly unprepared and would sound like a buffoon, so now there is that to worry about to. I have hastily begun to think of the list of people's names I should thank.  And my stomach is in knots.

You see, I have just made this all up in my head.  John Lithgow will win because he is brilliant and because he won the Golden Globe and if he didn't win the SAG then he should have.  I would like Robert Morse to win just because he is the cutest thing ever on Mad Men.  But I just never imagined I would stand a chance.  I just thought it would be a good laugh and a chance to see some friends and have a dirty weekend in LA.  Ony now, the day before, have I allowed the possibililty (and I am nominated so it isn't as if it would be insane for it to happen) to begin to ruin my fun.

 I am going to Rufus Wainwright's concert at the Greek theatre in a minute and not going to think about it anymore. But what if I win and I haven't practsied my speech enough?  And what if I don't win and I have written this blog and everyone will feel sorry for me?

I hate awards.