DECEMBER 15, 2008 --  Well, okay, so it's more than a year since my last blog. No real reason, or excuse, just never got round to it. Maybe I just had writer's blog block. Or possibly it's because it hasn't been a particularly memorable year. Nothing to write home about, as they say. The writer's strike pretty much knocked out January February, and March. At which point, the leadership of SAG should have quickly piggy-backed a deal to get the town back to work. But, suffering from delusions of grandeur and just plain old-fashioned delusions, they didn't. But AFTRA did, thereby stripping SAG of whatever leverage they might have had remaining. Ignoring the pleas from many actors (including yours truly, sometimes vehently and abusively) to make a deal quickly, as the very threat of a strike was causing a de facto strike and creating "uncertainy", which showbusiness hates every bit as much as Wall Street. But sadly it dragged on... and on... and on, until finally the more sensible and moderate "Unite For Strength" faction gained some traction and valuable SAG board seats. However, at this date in time, there is still no settlement and the prospect of a "strike authorization" vote (only 9 months too late) early in 2009.

Well, at least, Obama got elected and we finally have a smart, eloquent, globally sensitive President instead of -- in Russell Brand's words -- "a retarded cowboy" running the country. Which can't be bad. Unfortunately, he inherits the biggest mess in American history and, thanks to the near total collapse of the entire economy in the last few months, there is a pervasive atmosphere of doom and gloom within and without the entertainment world. So what does one do, when faced with a pervasive and collective economic and psychological Depression all around one? Have a big party, of course.  To be specific, the first party I've thrown at my "new" house that I've been in for almost 5 years. I say "I", but I really mean "we", because my girlfriend Deb, a highly accomplished private chef and caterer, gave me the requisite nerve and encouragement to take the social plunge (and also did most of the work, which helped). So we invited as many people as we thought we could handle for a Holiday/Xmas "Open House" for Dec 14, 2008 (yesterday). Happily, it all went swimmingly well. Deb's extraordinary food was plentiful and greatly appreciated by one and all. And I had a great time, coming out of my socially reclusive shell of late, playing host to so many talanted and lovely people I've been priviliged to work with over the years. Namely, or name-droppingly, (in no particular order)... Victor Garber, Fred Willard, John Cho, Sean Maguire, Alan Mandell, Ron Fassler, Catherine O'Hara, Jean Smart, Diedrich Bader, Dulcy Rogers, CJ Vanston, Andy Wolk, Eric Idle, Wendel Meldrum, Francis Conroy, Ross King, Ed Begley Jnr, Michael McKean, and Annette O'Toole. Plus so many other great friends -- old and new -- from the worlds of work and play, including many of the ageing weekend warriors I've shared a soccer field with over the last 25 years. Who knows, maybe it'll become an annual fixture? I'm still a big fan of Christmas and always open to a new tradition.

NOVEMBER 12, 2007 -- Thankfully, the two performances of "What About Dick?" were extraordinarily well-received. Huge laughs throughout, rapturous applause, and standing ovations. Everyone I spoke to couldn't believe we'd only rehearsed for a couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon, just before the first performance. It was truly a privilege, not to mention incredible fun, to perform on the same stage with some of the most talented (and my favorite) British comic actors/actresses. It was also absolutely, mind-bogglingly, arse-clenchingly, terrifying to be in front of a live theatre audience for the first time in almost 19 years.

Since I stopped doing theatre, in favor of apportioning the time I wasn't acting in tv/films to writing and producing, I've had the occasional urge to do a play again. But the urge either quickly went away, or I was never offered anything I wanted to do, or the timing/location was impractical. However, actually being up there again, hanging out in an old theatre, and hearing the laughter and applause, was a taste of the old drug. If the WGA strike continues for any length of time, maybe the timing could be right to do some stage work again.

As with the Chris Guest films, much of the joy this weekend was in hanging out backstage with the incredible cast. Eric Idle and Emily Mortimer are good friends and I love spending any amount of time with either of them. Tim Curry, Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, and musical composer John Du Prez I know a little less well, but have spent quite a bit of time with socially with over the years. Billy and Tim are genuinely two of the funniest people I've ever met. And sharing a dressing room with Eddie gave us a chance to talk about our shared (and extremely obscure) passion for Crystal Palace Football Club. It must be the first time two supporters of Crystal Palace -- an unfashionable, second-tier soccer team in South London -- have ever appeared on the same stage together in the history of the theatre. Tracey Ullman I first worked with 20 years ago, and haven't seen in a while, so it was wonderful to cross paths with her again. I always felt she was technically the most gifted comedienne I'd seen and nothing I witnessed this weekend changed that belief. It was also delightful to meet Jane Leeves properly for the time (we'd nodded "hello" at overlapping voice-over sessions a year or so ago), although sadly we didn't really have any scenes together on stage.  Finally, a quick mention for the last onstage performer... sound effects artist, Tony Palermo. It was great to watch him dazzle the audience with what must now be a dying art form, but seemed very much alive under his guidance.

All in all, a weekend to remember. And an especially emotional one for me in that it was the first time that my wonderful daughter, Alexandra (13), had ever seen her dad onstage. I also got a particular thrill to see her excitement at being backstage. She currently has no ambitions to be an actress (thank god!), but "Stagecraft" is her favorite subject at school and seeing her reaction walking around the wings and dressing rooms, it's obvious she clearly has something of the theatre bug in her.

A quick footnote: At the "meet and greet" reception after the Saturday night show, I saw a middle-aged man, with a strange hat and a pencil-thin moustache, staring at me from across the room. I started to get slightly uneasy as he slowly zeroed in and came over to talk to me. It was only after he offered his first, kind words of praise that I realized it was Steve Martin, who I've met a few times, but don't know that well. His "disguise" was still the remnants of shooting "Pink Panther Deux" and had completely fooled me. It was, however, one of those unforgettable moments in one's life, because I've always believed Steve Martin to be one the finest -- if not the finest -- comedic film actors I've ever seen. Certainly an all-time personal favorite.

NOVEMBER 7, 2007 -- From the production line to the picket line. This time last week, I was busy shooting an episode of "Without A Trace". Today, I walked the picket line outside CBS Radford in support of the WGA strike. It's a strange position. As a SAG member I'm bound by a "no strike" clause, which means I can't refuse to show up for work. But as a WGA member, I'm not allowed to work. There's no question this is the biggest strike in my substantial time (22 years) in Hollywood. It's a watershed moment for all creative members of the industry. I'm not a big fan of strikes, or Union posturing, but we're at a point in history when the half dozen corporations who own Hollywood have reached such an extraordinary position of greed and megalomania that there is absolutely no option but to strike. 

The writers are in the front line, with the WGA contract with the AMPTP ending on October 31st, and they're closely followed by actors and directors, whose contract is up in June, 2008. The idea that corporations have made obscene amounts of money on dvd sales at writers' expense (a astonishly paltry 4 cents of any dvd sold goes to the writer) over the last 20 years and that the Studios/Networks now want writers to make absolutely no money whatsoever off their material being sold on the internet and other new media, which will be the main subsidiary markets very soon, is patently absurd. Maybe it's a reflection of how far to the right this country has swung over the last few years. The gap between the haves and the have-nots in showbusiness, like the rest of society, has reached levels that are almost akin to the 1920's. And the pendulum has to swingthe other way, before the middle class is completely eradicated and we only have the super-rich and the super-poor.

The good news is SAG is 100% behind the WGA. And I don't care what any jumped-up accountant or lawyer, who has found himself at the top of the pyramid in a Film Studio or TV Network, believes... without actors and writers, there will be no essential and valuable "content" left. And without content and the storytellers who provide that content, you don't have an entertainment industry. End of story.

On a lighter note, I'm delighted to report that I managed to substantially lower the tone last Saturday at the "Actors And Others For Animals" celebrity lunch tribute to Fred Willard at the Universal Hilton. I'd never given a toast from the dais at an event like this before and was a little nervous, to say the least. Especially telling an appalling true story about being exposed (literally) while having a "number twos" in the bathroom on a train in England last Summer. However. I'm happy to say, most people were crying with laughter during my recounting of this most traumatic personal episode, as opposed to throwing up over their chocolate mousse cake... which bore a strong, but distinctly less palatable, resemblance to the central subject of my story.

Meanwhile, the staged reading of "What About Dick?" this weekend, at the Ricardo Montalban theater, is an astonishingly hot ticket. Over 600 people on the waiting list for the 2 performances. I'm still pinching myself to wake up when I look at the other seven members of the cast I'll be performing with... Billy Connolly, Tim Curry, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Jane Leeves, Emily Mortimer, and Tracey Ullman. I'm certain 99% of the audience will be looking at their programs asking "Who the f*** is Jim Piddock?". A question I've been asking myself for many years. At least the fun part (for me, anyway) is that, apart from Jane Leeves who I've only met fleetingly at a recording studio doing voices for "Garfield 2", I know all the other members of the cast at least well enough for it to be more of a relaxed reunion than a trial by fire.

OCTOBER 16, 2007 -- I've just been told that the two performances of the staged reading I'm doing in November, with some very illustrious company (as mentioned on my home page), sold out in less than two hours when tickets went on general sale this week. Which is terrific. But I can't help reflecting on the extraordinary vagaries of the industry I work in. I say this primarily because "The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising" -- a film I spent three hard months slaving away on in Romania -- is currently playing in over 3,000 movie theaters nationwide, and being watched by almost no-one (only $7 million in ticket sales in two weekends). I'm sure the name(s) factor and the very limited viewing opportunity accounts for the brisk sales of "What About Dick?", but it's still something of a mystery why a $45 million film made by Fox/Walden Media should be struggling so much at the box office. Especially as "The Seeker" is a pretty decent film and certainly delivers the goods for a younger "tween" movie-going audience.

OCTOBER 12, 2007 -- The last 12 months have been the busiest of my acting career, in terms of making films, so when things finally came to a halt this week, with no immediate next project already in the calendar, I experienced the all-too-familiar "I'll never work again" anxiety that all actors go through at the end of a project. It's not like I don't have a lot to get on with -- I'm already re-writing my latest screenplay (a summer camp comedy with a distinct twist) and in discussions with a website about doing my own show -- but the paralyzing fear that grips any free-lance gun-for-hire, when the body in motion finally comes to rest, always seems to come with the territory. We all tell ourselves that we have to enjoy our "down time", that we aren't defined by what we do for a job, and that it's important for any creative person (although I still hesitate to call myself that after almost 30 years in showbusiness) to "re-charge the batteries"... but every time it happens, we always seem to endure a period of anti-climactic depression and anxiety. In my case, it's coupled with a back-to-school type resignation that I can't avoid sitting down at the computer and working on a script again. Hell, I'm even writing this to avoid doing that!

OCTOBER 5, 2007 -- A reunion of kinds at "The Lot" in Hollywood, where we shot an additional scene for the end of "Meet The Spartans". It was great to see the members of the cast I'd enjoyed working and hanging out with in New Orleans -- Diedrich Bader, Carmen Electra, Nicole Parker, Sean Maguire, Phil Morris, Kevin Sardo, etc -- and meeting others who I hadn't been in Louisiana with at the same time, like Ken Davitian and Crista Flanagan. It's also a real pleasure spending time with the directors, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, and producer Peter Safran, who make the working environment so relaxed and enjoyable.

I don't want to give too much away, but the new scene involved a lot of singing and dancing. And I cannot express my intense relief when I was told I could do all mine, seated behind a desk. I may be a workaholic when it comes to most aspects of my career, but where singing and dancing are concerned, I'm first in line to be a total sloth.

OCTOBER 1, 2007 -- Been bouncing up and down to Spokane the last couple of weeks, shooting "The Golden Door", a romantic comedy, for my old pals David Rosenthal and Joe Smith, who co-wrote it and are directing and producing, respectively. Their last film, which I did with them three or four years ago, was "See This Movie", and was one of my favorite working experiences. And the film itself, which Chris and Paul Weitz also produced, is something I always recommend to family, friends, and acquaintances who I still wish to speak to again. It's really fun. A terrific independent movie, with wonderful performances from Seth Meyers, John Cho, Jessalyn Gilsig and Jessica Pare. And I was as happy with my own contribution as anything else I've done on film.

"The Golden Door" is another low budget independent, but the cast David and Joe assembled was very impressive: Joseph Cross (from "Running With Scissors") and Sarah Roemer (from "Disturbia") play the romantic couple from different sides of the tracks. Mimi Rogers and I play Sarah's parents. Annette O'Toole, Rachel Leigh Cook, and Gordon Clapp play Joseph's mother, sister, and uncle. Add Joe Pantoliano, Samuel Page, Peter Jason, and Snoop Dogg into the mix and you've got a pretty interesting line-up.

The only downside was that I was shooting all nights, which I really never adjust to and makes me very grumpy. But, thankfully, Mimi Rogers and Annette O'Toole were delightful company. Annette I knew a little bit already, as she's married to fellow Chris Guest cohort Michael McKean, and I'd worked with Mimi once before on an episode of "The Geena Davis Show", although we never had any scenes together. They couldn't be more different, in terms of personality, but they are both wonderful women and terrific actresses.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2007 -- Returned to L.A. after an intense week's work in Dallas, shooting 14 puppy training videos for Eukanuba's upcoming new website, being launched this November. The good folks at Eukanuba had kindly asked me to host the 3-4 minute videos and it was a blast doing them. I enjoyed being able to play myself, working off a teleprompter and given free reign to improvise off it whenever I felt the inclination. Beats learning lines and having to create a character!

Many thanks to director Stewart Cohen, producer Suzanne Lancaster, Bart from the agency imc2, Mike from Eukanuba, Barri the wardrobe designer (14 outfits in 4 days was no mean feat), dog expert and on-camera cohort Martin Deeley, and everyone else who made it such a fun experience. And, of course, not forgetting the very talented and adorable pups who were all (mostly!) so professional and cooperative in front of camera.

AUGUST 24, 2007 -- An exercise in Acting With Jet Lag (as opposed to Jet Li) yesterday. Did a brief cameo in "Endless Bummer", a film my manager is producing. It probably helped that most of the part involved delivering a speech to a group of graduating students, which was legitimately read from notes on a lecturn. Shot it in a park next to a beach in Ventura, an hour north of L.A. Never been there before. Very pleasant. About 20 degrees cooler than where I live in L.A. And downright chilly when the sun went down.

I remember a teacher at drama school once telling us that an actor's worst enemy is their brain. I don't entirely agree, but there's no doubt that when the brain isn't fully engaged -- as with jet lag -- instincts, particularly reactive ones, take over more. One of my most natural, and personal favorite, performances ("Best In Show") was done very jet-lagged and I think there's definitely something to be said for it.

AUGUST 3, 2007 -- From time to time, I'll be posting some random (and possibly rambling) entries on this page. But I'm just about to take a much-needed vacation for a couple of weeks, so there probably won't be anything until later in the month - JP