Lucky, lucky me, I got to interview the legendary Martin Short for Today’s Parent today. And legendary he is. Tell me you didn’t adore him as Franck Eggelhoffer in Father of the Bride (“Papalah, coom vit us!”), and did you see him in this Saturday Night Live synchronized swimming skit (my fave ever!), and have you and your kids been watching him on Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, not to mention How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men? How about SCTV days (Ed Grimley, anyone?)…, Three Amigos, the list goes on and on and on for this multiple Emmy and Golden Globe award winner. Amazing. Amazing!

Well, he was in town today to promote Canada’s Got Talent (which debuts March 2012). With hilarious Martin as a judge (along with the awesome Measha Brueggergosman and Stephan Moccio), and the truly fabulous (and lovely!) Dina Pugliese as host, it’ll definitely be a great show!

I was beyond honoured to interview Martin today. Check out the interview HERE!

In addition to Martin, I got to see opera star Measha Brueggergosman’s famous hair, and listen to her famous voice as she gave interview after interview….

AND the beautiful AND funny Dina Pugliese….

Great day! Love, love, love!

By the way, these photos of Martin Short are by my sidekick today, Laura Grande (editorial assistant, Todaysparent.com). She was so hungry (it was a long day), she dove into my purse and ate my apple…. Haha!

Love!

xo Haley-O

Photos of Martin Short by Laura Grande. Photos of Measha and Dina by me (Haley Overland / Todaysparent.com).

I WAS supposed to interview Heidi one-on-one; but to tell you the truth, celebrity interviews are nerve-wracking…. So it was just perfect for me to sit back and watch a real pro, Tracy Moore, do it so naturally in front of a live audience. It’s not like I wasn’t nervous, though. I really didn’t know if they were going to pull me out of the audience to do a quickie interview after the show, drag me to the Eaton’s Centre (where Heidi was headed next), or what. When the interview was over and Heidi stood up to leave, I finally took a deep breath and enjoyed the rest of the show…. Makeovers!

As the Monkey likes to say, well anyway, the interview was quite fascinating, and it was really hard for me to take my eyes off her. She’s that stunning. Read all about it (lots of good deets!), and check out the pics on my Celebrity Candy blog HERE, and see if you can spot me in the audience in tomorrow’s show — CityLine, CityTV, 9am and 2pm EST (I’ll update you with the online edition here ASAP, in case you miss it)! I’ve never been in a studio audience before. It was REALLY FUN!

In other news I’m pretty sure I’ll be stalking Jessica and Ashlee Simpson this weekend. I got a vague invite to an event they’ll be at, and I’m dragging the whole family with me. Hey, it’s a Saturday! I insist on being with my family on the weekend, even if it means they go to work with me!

So we’re back in the celebrity swing of things. High energy. Lots of events. Tomorrow, I’m taking the Rascal to the worldwide debut of the “Canuck Monster Truck.” Funny little Rascal, he went right to bed this evening because he couldn’t wait to wake up for the show in the morning: “I’m goin’ right to bed, Dada! I’m goin’ right to bed.” I was warned on Facebook that I need to bring some earplugs for him. So we’ll be running out first thing in the morning to get those earplugs.

But before that, reeeeally early in the morning, I’m going to yoga.

In the meantime, I have to feed Betty White her rice….

It seems we’re both on the macrobiotic diet…. Well, I am, thanks to my gorgeous friends at the brand new Macrobiotic Centre of Toronto (website to come). Looking back at my life so far, I can’t really believe I have friends who run a macrobiotics centre. Nothing in my life really ever pointed here. But here I am. Hovering among celebrities, Monster Trucks, rice, school pick-up, fairies and Ashtanga yoga. Kind of an amazing place to be.

Oh, and Betty’s not really on a macrobiotic diet, FYI. She has DIARRHEA. The macros would cringe at that instant white rice the vet insisted on (in the photo)!

Let’s just say Betty’s hungry. She’s really, really hungry.

Arf! She’ll be back on her regular food tomorrow. Fingers crossed for no more crap! Heh. Poor dog is so exposed on this blog. But we all love her and want the best for her, right, Gorgeouses?

Love!

xo Haley-O

PS: Check out my Twitter feed (@cheaty) and Today’s Parent’s Twitter feed (@todaysparent) for live Monster Truck action tomorrow morning!

Yes, a little too much Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF): I’ve been sick with a cold/flu — Heather Graham’s cold — and exhausted from interviews with gorj stars on the red carpet, interviews with awesome filmmakers in the heart of downtown Toronto, transcribing all of these interviews, and I’m still recovering from my peek at James Franco and my Clive Owen birthday encounter. *Swoon!*

Now, many of you have known me for years, right? So you know that, of all the celebs in the world, Clive Owen’s my number-one celebrity boyfriend, right? RIGHT? Even if you haven’t known me for long, just look at my Twitter bio. Clive Owen is part of WHO I AM. This is serious business, Gorgeouses. And, although I write about celebrities around the clock, trust me when I say I’m not obsessed with celebrities — not one bit — except for Clive just a little bit….

So when I saw the real Clive Owen standing before me, thanks some sweet VIP tix at the Killer Elite TIFF gala, I was beside myself — waving subtly, arm extended stick straight in the air, mouth uttering I-don’t-know-what, “I love you”?

But, because I love you, Gorgeouses, I’ll share the first photo with you, which no one’s seen yet because I was saving it for you. It’s added proof that (no matter what a certain dinner-party jealous-person-who-shall-not-be-named-you-know-who-you-are might say) Clive was STARING AT ME. Ready? CHECKIT!

Exhibit 1….

Bald guy on the right is Jason Statham, by the way. And pardon the fuzziness. It’s hard to wave and take photos at the same time…. Note that there is not a crowd of people around me. I had ample space on either side of me…!

Exhibit 2….

STARE, right? Doth mine eyes deceiveth me Gorgeouses? No. There it is. Gosh, now I think I may have underplayed the stare a little bit on Celebrity Candy. Now that you see the two exhibits together, you see — RIGHT? — that there was, indeed, a stare.

What the stare was about, I have no idea. Maybe he was thinking there’s that cheaty girl from the Internet, who’s been calling me her boyfriend all these years bwah…!

Anyway. For me it was a surreal experience, like staring at a shark — mysterious, awesome, sublime. Clive.

One more thing before I leave feeling (as my favourite radio host Taylor Strecker likes to say) happy of myself. I may have had a little “too much festival,” but I’ve also been thinking about other more serious stuff lately — like the provincial election here in Ontario, Canada. Gorgeouses, those of you who’ve known me for years know that I stay away from politics because, unlike Clive, it’s so totally not my forte. But I did take to the keyboard the other day to write about an unsettling situation that involved an electoral candidate.

Sighh, I suppose, in the worst case, there’s always Jon Hamm…. But I’ll always have my stare.

Love!

xo Haley-O

PS: I’ll be posting more TIFF pics up on my Cheaty Monkey Facebook page, asap!

Photos: Haley Overland/Cheatymonkey.com

We did have a post in mind to write tonight, and we were totally excited — we really wanted to write it. And in case you’re wondering, we’re speaking in the first-person plural because we just read a book in which one of the characters was trying to obliterate his ego by speaking in the first-person plural, and we quite liked the idea of that. What do you think, Gorgeouses?

Yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of reading on my vacation. We went to Josh’s parents’ farm for a few days, and we’re doing another week in cottage country — which would be sweet if only my Internet were working properly and I could load photos of sweet Rascal in the now-shallow lake water…. For now I can only tweet them.

So keep up with me by checking my Celebrity Candy blog, Twitter and Facebook (like us?)! I’ll be back up and running as soon as we (Josh and I) figure out this photo issue! Could be as soon as tomorrow, so check back — I got farm pics!

OH! Wait! We — well he — JUST figured it out…!

Sigh, I love this pic. Ooo! And now that we can post pics again, I’ve been meaning to share this pic from earlier this month….

That’s awesome Todaysparent.com editor Alex Mlynek, moi and Tori Spelling. Tori was totally lovely this time and felt bad for insinuating that I was short (“I feel so tall! It must be these shoes.” No, not the shoes!). Read all about it here!

Well, life can go on now. Josh put an end to the photo crisis. I can’t tell you how many back flips I want to do right now….

More to come — it’s been a long frustrating night. I plan on updating a little more regularly here. But you know where to find me now when I’m not here, right?

Here’s one more photo for the road woohoo!

Betty White! (And don’t worry about Minden and Maaarge! We have an awesome yogi taking good care of them and our home. But they do say hi…! Meoowww! Miss….)

Love!

xo Haley-O

Last week was basically the most insane week ever. And if you follow me on Twitter and Facebook, or if you’re a regular reader of my Today’s Parent celebrity news blog, Celebrity Candy, then you pretty-much know most of this already. But here’s the basic roundup:

• Last Sunday I went to New York again for another overnight trip to meet and interview a celebrity mom for Today’s Parent. This time it was Alyson Hannigan! Long time Gorgeouses will know how very dear WILLOW is to my heart, so this was incredible….

Check out the great interview HERE! I even got to say “This one time? At band camp?” to her! It was definitely a highlight of my life…. Hee!

• Then, just as I’m finally starting to recuperate from Monday’s trip, yesterday (Friday) was CRAZY! The Canadian entertainment news show ETALK came to interview moi about celebrity secrets for post-baby weight loss….

My amazing and thoughtful General Manager Elana Schachter and my totally awesome NEW MANAGING EDITOR Nadine Silverthorne insisted that I get hair and makeup done so that I’d feel my best (verklempt, right?). So here’s me getting my makeup done in the Rogers offices by the sparkly and fabulous Elise Tremblay (closeup pics of that to come – I forgot my USB chord at home!)….

Here’s me apparently bending forward unflatteringly (!) while talking to eTalk….

Eeep! I hate to share this photo because, aside from Elise’s fab hairstyling, I look horrid, but it gives you a good idea of the environment I was working in, i.e., pretty scary at Today’s Parent/Flare/Chatelaine/Hello Canada Magazine reception area with camera in face — but the wonderful eTalk producer Heather Lin (above) was wonderful at making me feel relatively at ease (as were Nadine and our PR guru Hazel Picco).

So the episode of eTalk airs TUESDAY (July 26), 7pm, CTV. You can also catch it on channel 63 (in Toronto), at 6pm and 11pm. I’ll keep you posted on any changes on Twitter.

Gosh, I hope I look okay on TV and that I don’t twitch or anything!

• SO THEN! After I finish the interview, I’m in the middle of writing an article due yesterday, and I get a phone call. Apparently I’m interviewing JESSICA ALBA. She’s going to call me on the phone in a few hours.

So I spend the rest of the day scrambling to organize a blurb about it for Today’s Parent Magazine ASAP (huge thanks to the print team and Nadine for making THAT happen!), devising questions for Jessica, catching my breath…. The interview itself was great. She’s very sweet and real and had lots of useful things to say about motherhood and balance, and I can’t wait to share (next week on Celebrity Candy).

So how was your week, Gorgeouses?

Love!

xo Haley-O

eTalk photos c/o Nadine Silverthorne | Photo of Jessica Alba c/o Georges Biard

Gorgeouses! As many of you now know from Twitter, Facebook, my Today’s Parent blog Celebrity Candy, the schoolyard, my new detox group (more on that later), yoga, let’s see, the grocery store, Shopper’s Drug Mart, etc., etc., I’m off to NYC to meet my all-time favourite celebrity mom, JENNIFER GARNER!

Seriously, if anyone asked me who my favourite celebrity mom was, it would 100% be Jennifer Garner. Not only is she a FELICITY alum and star of 13 Going on 30 (among other things, like wife of my friend Lisa’s pretend celebrity boyfriend Ben Affleck), but she’s just awesome with her kids. I mean, checkit!, checkit! and (oy!) checkit!

I leave for NYC at 4:30am tomorrow (Thursday) morning. I’ll be whisked off to New York City and then, apparently, off to a farm to meet Jennifer, pick produce and learn to cook and preserve it. All of my favourite things!

At some point during lunch, I get to sit down with Jennifer and interview her one-on-one…. It’ll be a very brief interview, but…wow.

The whole event is for the amazing charity Save the Children, which does a truly incredible job saving children’s lives in Canada and abroad — in partnership with Frigidaire. I’m really looking forward to immersing myself in this cause.

Of course, I had a brutal time figuring out what to wear to this event. I took the Rascal with me to Yorkdale Shopping Mall yesterday thinking — obviously delusional — that I could get some shopping done. And it was next to impossible because, let’s just say, the Rascal lives up to his name. Hmph, cheaty little RASCAL! But I ended up getting a gorj outfit at Mendocino that I’ve now decided I’m not going to wear after all.

I mean, it’s supposed to be 36° in NYC tomorrow! So comfort is my main goal. And I just don’t wear tight tight skinny capris jeans, or sundresses for that matter. So I’m basically wearing loose khaki capris and a light black top, which, OMG, I have to put in the dryer RIGHT. NOW. Be right back.

By the way, digression, if you haven’t seen Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never movie? SEE IT. LOVE. I’ve never been prouder to be Canadian. And that might be sad (and, admittedly, a tad exaggerated) but, just, see the movie.

First, though, please go check out the Save the Children/Frigidaire microsite, which goes live tomorrow (June 9). As many of you know, I do what I can help animals — eat a vegan diet, keep a vegan food blog (that desperately needs updating, I know!), donate, etc. — but children’s causes are also, obviously, extremely dear to my heart. So I’m excited to learn more about Jennifer’s cause. I’m in. Very very in.

Deets to come! Eek! Wish me luck!

Oh! And I’ll try to live tweet throughout the day at @cheaty and @todaysparent.

Huge THANK YOU to the lovely Rachelle Stark and, of course, my amazing colleagues at Today’s Parent for making this happen!

Love!
xo Haley-O

Photo: Karon.liu

You might have seen on Twitter (here and here) that the Monkey and I had quite an adventure yesterday (Tuesday).

We went to Citytv’s Summer in the Square to celebrate their hot new show lineup — America’s Got Talent, Bachelorette, Modern Family, Cougar Town, 30 Rock and more — and, best of all, to sit down with Jackie Evancho and her family, and to hear her sing.

Jackie Evancho is the now-legendary 11-year-old singing SENSATION who finished second in the fifth season of America’s Got Talent. She now has one top-selling album behind her and another forthcoming (full-length) album in stores June 14th, Dream with me, which David Foster produced.

I’ve got all the deets, plus videos of Jackie singing (ANGELIC!), photos, our interview and a funny little incident during the interview, in which the Monkey crawled quietly over to Jackie’s sparkly iPhone and stared at it. Go check it out HERE — it’s CUTE!

In the meantime, here are some more photos from the day….

The Monkey at the Citytv building, holding tightly to the rose she brought for Jackie (you can see Jackie sweetly holding it in the photo above!)….

The VIP Monkey….

Jackie on stage with Breakfast Television‘s Kevin Frankish….

It was such a great day for the Monkey and me. And I’m grateful to my awesome team at Today’s Parent and Citytv for sending us. I tend to need a big kick in the butt to go to events. I guess I’m not really that adventurous. So this was huge — exhilarating!

As for the Monkey, she’s learning a bit too quickly about fame. And I’m being mindful about how she perceives it. “Mama’s going to meet a big big big big big movie STAR,” she said today about a big DEAL of a thing I’m doing in the very near future. But I can tell, thankfully, that she doesn’t really know what that means. And I’m not encouraging any fascination, that’s for sure. It’s just no big deal. And it really isn’t. We’re all human, here and now.

But there actually is a rather extraordinary meeting with a big big big big big STAR (#nobigdeal!) in my very near future. Stay tuned for deets….

Now go check out our Jackie Evancho story!

Love!

xo Haley-O

Surprisingly, I got to meet Ellen’s 1-year-old daughter and had the pleasure of seeing Ellen interact with her. Adorable. And I have it all on tape! But Ellen keeps little Stella as private as possible, and I of all people respect that. So this vague written account of the sweetness will have to do.

For the rest, check my teaser at Celebrity Candy, and the interview by tomorrow (Friday) noon. Update: The article is live, now, CHECKIT!

…There’s another celeb interview coming in the next few weeks. I didn’t catch him while he was in Toronto recently (hint), but his rep wants us to do a phone interview, anyway. He’s testy. He’s a foodie. And, apparently, if I don’t read his book he’ll “pick up on it”…. So, once I finish the book that just landed on my desk this morning, he and I are talking. He’s been known to jokingly hate on vegetarians, but they tell me his young daughter’s softened him up, and he’ll apparently to be nice to me…. Can you guess who he is?

LOVE!

xo Haley-O

You know, though, that’s okay. I got the press pass, and it was really exciting, Gorgeouses!

(Pardon my nails. Manicures are at the very bottom of my priority list these days…. If only I inherited my mother’s manicure and haircut discipline. Nope. BUT, I do shower daily.)

I loved the press junket. That was so thrilling for me. People were buzzing and stressing and schmoozing….

I know the photo doesn’t show much (bygones!) — I really should get an iPhone if I’m going to be “press.” But you can see all the Macs in the background, no? And, seriously, it’s hard to take pictures with your shoddy blackberry while a very little man is practically pulling your pants down to get your attention, screaming “I’M HUNGAWY! I’M HUNGAWY!” (I had JUST fed him.)

The press could have cared LESS about the very blond little thing in the very big yellow top that I brought to the junket….

There we are in the hotel lobby. I appeased him with a few pennies to toss in the apparently fascinating water fountain. Luckily he didn’t toss any in a journalist’s Starbucks cup…. Though there were a few close calls.

Nope. I didn’t see a single celeb. But I spoke to some producers, and I got familiar with the scene and what to do when you’re press…. All great prep for next year when, I just learned, my press privileges will increase. Yeehaw!

I’m not celebrity obsessed at all, though, contrary to popular belief. I just love writing about celebrities because it’s fun and light and makes people smile. But I don’t regret that I missed seeing Ed Harris (*crush*) or Keanu Reeves because the kids didn’t want to leave the schoolyard and I got stuck in traffic.

And now to bed. I’m so tired that I bought TWO diet books today — and ate a bowl of sugary dry cereal for dinner.

The little Rascal, as friggin’ adorable as he is….

…He’s been keeping me up at night. Sending me on water runs in the middle of the night and insisting on sleeping TOTALLY on top of me. ARRRGHH!

Between the not-eating-well and the not-sleeping — OH! and the TIFF — I look like carp. I need more than a manicure. I need a complete spa day, spa week, alone, in Arizona…. Complete with BLISS and coconut smelling things.

So there you have it. I hope a little repetition didn’t bore any of you who’ve been reading Celebrity Candy…. It’s fun over there — click on the GOSSIP link at the top of the page to checkit regular, ‘kay? Thanks!

To bed! No edits. Love! xo Haley-O

Some of you remember I gave up celebrity blogging after Rascal was born because, well, something had to go. But, as soon as I started my first Celebrity Candy post just yesterday, it felt like HOME.

Of course, you won’t find much celebrity snark from me. I’ve always been a bit of a goody-two-shoes when it comes to celeb blogging (except for that darn Worst Celebrity Feet post that brings hundreds of visitors here every day — gahh!). And Today’s Parent likes to keep things positive. So we are, indeed, a match made in heaven — laaa!

What else? I’ve also been busy writing tons of articles. I honestly haven’t written this much since grad school. And, again, all this writing feels like HOME.

Want to check my stuff? I promised I’d keep you posted. Here are the latest online articles by me (on MSN and/or TodaysParent.com):

1. Help My Kids Are Out of Control

2. Bringing Sexy Back

3. How To Dress Like a Hot Mama This Summer

4. Still Carrying the Baby Weight?

Stay tuned, too, for my first PRINT article — in the August issue of Today’s Parent!

THAT’S what I’m up to at work. And more. And more. And more. More later, including très cool pics of the office that I’ve been meaning to share for, like, weeks now!

Love!

xo Haley-O