- By Entertainment Reporter James Tobin

 

 

++ UPDATED 17 September 12.10pm 

Now resting after eight weeks of long days in training with his dancing partner Jade Hatcher, Sunrise Entertainment Reporter James Tobin says in his blog the two will be seeing more of each other…

 

Dancing with Jade

Jade and I got on very well.

She was fantastic. I couldn’t want anyone better. It was her first time on Dancing With The Stars too, so we went through that together.

Spending 6 hours a day with someone, you certainly get to know them

We’ll definitely continue seeing each other.

Going to work each day, and being physical with Jade every day certainly wasn’t hard.

She doesn’t have a professional partner at the moment so I’m saying “Lets go to Nationals together later in the year!”

 

 

A weekly adrenaline buzz

Jade said to me ‘you are always gunna get something wrong.’

And that’s so true.

It’s like when you see yourself on TV or hear your own voice, you go ‘urrrgh’. But it’s such a supportive little green room we never felt bad.

You come off the floor feeling so buzzed.

All your senses are firing for live television, so you come off so amped, it’s a really fantastic feeling.

Doesn’t really compare to anything else, it’s a pretty unique feeling.

There’s a huge surge of adrenaline just before you go on.

Then, the next day you’re straight back into training (View exclusive behind-the-scenes video and photos.)

 

Being voted off

It is definitely disappointing to be gone – but at the same time I feel it was something I wouldn’t trade for anything.

I was on the show for 3 weeks plus 5 weeks of training. I’m sure it would’ve been great to get a few extra weeks, but I feel I got everything out of the show that I wanted.

I just wanted to be a slightly better dancer!

Lifts were my biggest challenge. I was happy with all my lifts, except the last one.

Every week I made time to practice the Dirty Dancing lift (see pic), so at the end of the show when we lost, and you come back on to dance, I was saying to Jade, come on! Let’s do the lift now! And she went totally red.

We’re back in week 10 – so maybe I will convince her to let me try it then.

We have to practice in a river or a lake!

See you all back on the show in week 10. We will really need to wow the crowd.

 

++ UPDATED 23 June 2008 1.54pm

I am blogging from the airport on my way back to Brekky Central from the Gold Coast where I have just met the stars of Get Smart!

I interviewed Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway together and they really do have the same chemistry you see between them on screen.

I guess that’s one reason they combine them for interviews.

That, and each journo takes them half as much time!

I only had five minutes, I had a gag which they both played along with, thankfully.

When it was done, Anne said to Steve, ‘You know you everyone is going to do that to you now!’

I couldn’t have asked for two more obliging stars really easy to talk to.

 

“Stars in the true sense of the word.
No star-size egos.” 

Very generous with their answers. Stars in the true sense of the word. No star-size egos.

(All the really big stars, well, the ones I have met, have all been wonderful easy people. I am yet to find someone who throws their weight around.)

I read stuff that Steve had said in researching the interview, and he said that if he had been younger coming into fame - he talks lightheartedly - he might have behaved differently and lived a life of excess, been more arrogant. He’s not though, he’s just a brilliantly funny man.

Anne Hathaway looked amazing. She’s quite little, then these massive eyes and massive lips. Definitely stunning.

I would have loved to have spoken to them individually; I had so many questions for them, but oh well.

As for the film, which I saw last night at a big premiere, they really do manage to keep it in the same vein as the TV show but in a modern setting.

The original characters were, if you think about it, quite old fashioned.

Their relationship is unique, and it doesn’t seem exactly as it was. Anne (playing 99) is more into the action, and as for Max, he’s a brainiac analyst who gets a shot at being a field agent.

There was a party last night following the red carpet premiere up here on the Gold Coast.

And let me tell you, it was a pretty wild affair. ‘Chaos’ and ‘Control’ agents roamed around Movieworld, they did stunts, there was a lot of role playing.

They really did spend a lot of cash on this one.

Be sure to watch the interview tomorrow on Sunrise (more on that here).

James.

 

 

 

++ UPDATED  Wed 30 Apr 2008 09:45:55AM

Going into any interview, you hope that you will make a connection – you hope you can break down the barriers, find the real person, during your short, intense chat with a stranger.

 

This is how it was when I interviewed Dannii Minogue.

Before the interview I did my research so I knew a fair bit about her, but with Dannii there was no pretense.

 

“...maybe all the women watching knew what was going on!”

 

She was funny, self-deprecating. In a moment we didn’t show on Sunrise, she made a joke about having little legs and that she couldn’t sit back too far on the couch.

 

She’s such an international star, you are always hearing rumours about her private life

 

So when I started asking about rumours that were out there, all of a sudden she turned it back on me!

 

She threw a curveball asking about my relationships.

 

You can see clearly by watching that she threw me. (Watch video)

 

It all got a bit cryptic (maybe all the women watching knew what was going on)

 

After the interview was finished and Dannii left, the 2 cameramasn in the room stopped me and said “Wow mate, what was going on there!” As if I knew what was going on there!

 

They said, “If you didn’t know something was going on there you’re mad.”

 

I still think she was having a bit of fun with it – the interview

 

But we’ll soon find out.

We see each other again at the logies