Kathy Najimy is in “The Rocketeer,” Disney Junior’s new animation series redo from the ’90s. Only now the superhero is female.
“I play her mother. And I love doing voice-overs. No early wake-up. No big makeup. No learning lines. No flying anywhere. I’m just not a person who runs around happy all the time — so I love doing this. It’s easy.
“They send you a script. No memorizing. You go to a studio in LA and in just a couple of hours you knock out a couple of episodes.
“Great is that this character’s family is Lebanese, which is how I grew up. I know all those words. A Lebanese woman created the show, and I was asked to play the character of mom Sareena, who runs a diner and does Arabic food. Happens I’m familiar with that whole culture and those dishes. I grew up eating Arabic meals. I know these recipes. Listen, I still remember my gravy stains.
“This mom doesn’t know her daughter’s about to be the Rocketeer. Only the girl’s best friend knows. The Rocketeer flies, and each week’s segment it’s another adventure. But only learning good lessons. No bad guys getting hurt. We already recorded the whole season, right up to one with Christmas carols.
“Listen, besides my really long career with speaking roles, I’ve done voice-overs for at least 200 animated cartoons.
“Next up for me is Provincetown, Mass., Sunday, with my best friend Debra Messing. We’re doing a Town Hall, 500 people. It’s ‘An Evening With Kathy and Deb.’ We talk politics, career, and it’s just like us sitting around a kitchen talking. I’m a political person and I’m funny, and so we’ll just see where it goes.”
Names spill out
September Skyhorse’s “Dr. Feelgood Casebook: Einstein or Dr. Frankenstein” by Richard Lertzman and William Birnes is heavy on name-dropping. Like Dr. Max Jacobson having treated JFK, and Eddie Fisher saying Air Force Chief Curtis LeMay predicted Bobby Kennedy’s assassination, and etc., etc. All are gone. All are beyond lawsuits.
As the Crowe flies
Showtime’s “The Loudest Voice” immortalized Roger Ailes as Fox News’ once fearsome leader. Russell Crowe, while shooting, stayed in character even during downtime. Throughout a whole working day, over an easy moment at Central Park South’s Park Lane Hotel, where the topic of conversation was DJT, he never broke character. Co-workers even called him “Roger” on and off-camera.
Pricey flick for Netflix
Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” which opens the New York Film Festival is a multimillion-dollar disappearing-act story. A where-oh-where-did-nice sweet Jimmy Hoffa finally end up has ended up costing Netflix almost $100 mil. A bankroll went to hours and hours de-aging De Niro and Pacino. With computers.
Consultant Gary Tacon, alongside for physical and facial adjustments during key scenes, said: “I can take 40 years off anyone by adjusting how they stand or sit. One minute they slouch, next they’re sitting straight up. It’s not just the neck, it’s tilt of the head, the back, the diaphragm, how they breathe.” In his effort to adjust how the stars bent, Tacon himself bent over backwards.
Pay attention
Lucie Arnaz did a shtick in Cape May, NJ. Under the impression that all audience members were leftists, she stuck a shiv in with “the bully who is leader of the free world.” Boo-ing was loud . . . Park Avenue’s abfab luggage shop T. Anthony got sold. New owner’s Clo Cohen, whose husband Charles owns the D&D Building, Landmark Theatres, downtown’s Quad Cinema and most of East 57th.
In the Garment District: “What are they wearing?
Females wear pants so they look like boys, plus see-through blouses to prove they’re not.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.