You have no idea how high we can fly.
A little lighting birdie told us in the chat room last night that yesterday was Phyllis Smith’s birthday, so
We hope you had a fantastic day, Phyllis!
Here is a radio interview with Phyllis from back in February of this year. Get that birthday girl a TV!
Tipster: DestroyPhone
MTV.com has an interesting story about the role of improv comedy in current film and TV show hits.
The story includes quotes from The Office’s Steve Carell, Leslie David Baker, and Phyllis Smith, as well as a video clip of Jenna Fischer “improvising” with her Blades of Glory co-stars.
I have to agree with what Phyllis says — during the pivotal Jan/Michael scene in “Women’s Appreciation,” where she’s in his office listening to his “break up” voicemail, Steve and Melora improvised brilliantly.
From my set visit notes:
One time Jan growls, another time she starts to cry, and another time, she accidentally gets tangled up in some phone cord or something, and exits Michael’s office in a flustered huff.
On another take, Jan actually throws an orange (or an orange ball, I couldn’t tell which) at Michael. We asked Steve later if he knew that Melora was going to throw something at him. He said, “she got that look in her eyes, so I knew something was coming.”
Link: Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, Others Reveal Magic Behind Improv Comedy
Backstage.com has a wonderful interview with Phyllis Smith:
In 2004 the company was testing the series regulars for The Office when Smith heard Kwapis say he wanted her to read one of the characters. “I didn’t really think anything about it; I just thought I was being a reader,” she recalls. “I was just hoping I did a good job for the actors.” Over the next few days, Smith heard from other actors in the running that Kwapis wanted her in the show.
“Then when we took people to network, we were walking down the stairs at NBC, and Ken turned to [current NBC co-chairman, then head of production company Reveille] Ben Silverman and said, ‘I want Phyllis in the show. I have a whole backstory for her,’ ” she recalls. “But I’ve been in this business long enough to know that until it’s in writing, I shouldn’t get my hopes up.”
Link: ‘Office’ Space (you’ll need to scroll down the page a bit)
Tipsters: Kelley, Nick
Check out this video montage of E!’s Kristin Veitch talking with some of the Office cast at Paley Fest. (And did Angela reveal a little spoiler there?)
Link: Office Gone Wild!
Tipster: GMMR
STLtoday has a sweet little descriptive tour of Dunder Mifflin, courtesy of Phyllis Lapin, bride-to-be:
Because she’s in on her day off, Phyllis sees what was supposed to be a surprise. The conference room is decorated for her bridal shower. Wedding bells hang from the ceiling, and letters spell out “Congratulations, Phyllis.”
“They used all my favorite colors,” she says of the pastel decorating scheme, including pink spoons. “You can see Angela’s touch here. Everything’s very straight.”
Link: Phyllis-as-the-bride guides us on a tour of her ‘Office’
When you want to take a break from football today, check these items out:
Tipsters: Melody, Nick, Jennifer, Amy, Megzy
SPOILER WARNING! Photo and subsequent comments will contain spoilers.
Here’s the first of, I’m sure, many photos we’ll be seeing from the upcoming episode, Phyllis’ Wedding.
This is a scan from the latest issue of US Weekly.
Source: Samantha