From Zap2it
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) It's Monday morning, and "Alias" star Greg Grunberg has been up for three minutes. He was awake until the wee hours the night before editing "The Catch," his ABC pilot with "Alias" and "Lost" executive producer -- and childhood pal -- J.J. Abrams, for which Grunberg is also a producer.
But losing a little sleep doesn't bother Grunberg, if it's for a good cause. In this case, he's gotten on the phone to talk about The Pediatric Epilepsy Project at UCLA (PEP), and what he's doing to raise cash for research.
"The charity has grown into this thing that I never thought it would, and it's become incredible," he says. "My son, Jake, got epilepsy. He was having about 200 petit mal seizures a day. It started off as staring spells, and then it progressively got worse.
"We'd gone from doctor to doctor, and finally we were fortunate that we saw Dr. Raman Sankar at UCLA. In talking to the doctors, I was realizing that they were so underfunded that they might have to go under. They need private funding. They've never had a face behind them. So I thought, I'll take this on as my charity, and I'll enlist the help of every celebrity I can to finger-paint for me."
Turned into greeting cards, the finger paintings -- by such celebrities as Jennifer Garner ("Alias"), Teri Hatcher ("Desperate Housewives"), Sylvester Stallone ("The Contender") Sarah Jessica Parker ("Sex and the City") and Ryan Seacrest ("American Idol") -- are sold by KidsArt Inc.
Now Grunberg has branched out into on-line auctioning.
"Gibson Guitars came in," he says, "and said they wanted to donate 50 electric guitars and have celebrities paint them. Now Yamaha Guitars is coming on board, and they want to donate guitars.
"You can go to GuitarCenter.com and then click on "Charity Auction.' The auction ends May 1."
Among those contributing decorated guitars are musicians Alanis Morissette, Brian Wilson, Buddy Guy, Smokey Robinson, Sting, Stevie Nicks, Maroon 5, Mick Fleetwood and Pink. Actors include Anthony Michael Hall ("The Dead Zone"), David Schwimmer ("Friends"), Grunberg, Garner and fellow "Alias" star Michael Vartan, and Josh Holloway ("Lost").
There's also real-estate mogul and "The Apprentice" star Donald Trump, radio star Howard Stern and boxer Oscar de la Hoya.
Grunberg says he also has 20 more celebrity-finger-painted guitars waiting for the next auction go-round.
"The ones up there now are pretty impressive," he says. "I'm surprised at how low some of the bids are. I'm hoping to reach people that can afford to pay what I think they're worth. I mean, Sting!
"And we're having a big event June 2 at Avalon Hollywood, that Guitar Center is behind. There's going to be a huge rock band -- I can't say which right now -- and we're going to be auctioning off guitars there too."
In the meantime, Grunberg keeps working on "The Catch," which casts him as a Los Angeles private eye. Kym Whitley ("Along Came Polly") plays his partner.
"She's a Queen Latifah-type," Grunberg says. "I begrudgingly take her on as my partner, because she buys her way into the P.I. firm. It's like Shrek and Donkey, the relationship. It's great."
He also has Don Rickles playing his grandfather. "It's pretty incredible, working with Hollywood royalty. He's the last of a breed of actors and comedians."
Grunberg will likely find out in May if "The Catch" has been picked up, when ABC announces its fall schedule to advertisers in New York. Since Abrams already has "Lost" and "Alias" airing back-to-back on Wednesday night, the possibility exists of an entire Abrams evening.
Grunberg quips, "J.J. needs to introduce the evening the way Walt Disney used to. 'Sit back, relax and enjoy the next three hours of television.'"
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) It's Monday morning, and "Alias" star Greg Grunberg has been up for three minutes. He was awake until the wee hours the night before editing "The Catch," his ABC pilot with "Alias" and "Lost" executive producer -- and childhood pal -- J.J. Abrams, for which Grunberg is also a producer.
But losing a little sleep doesn't bother Grunberg, if it's for a good cause. In this case, he's gotten on the phone to talk about The Pediatric Epilepsy Project at UCLA (PEP), and what he's doing to raise cash for research.
"The charity has grown into this thing that I never thought it would, and it's become incredible," he says. "My son, Jake, got epilepsy. He was having about 200 petit mal seizures a day. It started off as staring spells, and then it progressively got worse.
"We'd gone from doctor to doctor, and finally we were fortunate that we saw Dr. Raman Sankar at UCLA. In talking to the doctors, I was realizing that they were so underfunded that they might have to go under. They need private funding. They've never had a face behind them. So I thought, I'll take this on as my charity, and I'll enlist the help of every celebrity I can to finger-paint for me."
Turned into greeting cards, the finger paintings -- by such celebrities as Jennifer Garner ("Alias"), Teri Hatcher ("Desperate Housewives"), Sylvester Stallone ("The Contender") Sarah Jessica Parker ("Sex and the City") and Ryan Seacrest ("American Idol") -- are sold by KidsArt Inc.
Now Grunberg has branched out into on-line auctioning.
"Gibson Guitars came in," he says, "and said they wanted to donate 50 electric guitars and have celebrities paint them. Now Yamaha Guitars is coming on board, and they want to donate guitars.
"You can go to GuitarCenter.com and then click on "Charity Auction.' The auction ends May 1."
Among those contributing decorated guitars are musicians Alanis Morissette, Brian Wilson, Buddy Guy, Smokey Robinson, Sting, Stevie Nicks, Maroon 5, Mick Fleetwood and Pink. Actors include Anthony Michael Hall ("The Dead Zone"), David Schwimmer ("Friends"), Grunberg, Garner and fellow "Alias" star Michael Vartan, and Josh Holloway ("Lost").
There's also real-estate mogul and "The Apprentice" star Donald Trump, radio star Howard Stern and boxer Oscar de la Hoya.
Grunberg says he also has 20 more celebrity-finger-painted guitars waiting for the next auction go-round.
"The ones up there now are pretty impressive," he says. "I'm surprised at how low some of the bids are. I'm hoping to reach people that can afford to pay what I think they're worth. I mean, Sting!
"And we're having a big event June 2 at Avalon Hollywood, that Guitar Center is behind. There's going to be a huge rock band -- I can't say which right now -- and we're going to be auctioning off guitars there too."
In the meantime, Grunberg keeps working on "The Catch," which casts him as a Los Angeles private eye. Kym Whitley ("Along Came Polly") plays his partner.
"She's a Queen Latifah-type," Grunberg says. "I begrudgingly take her on as my partner, because she buys her way into the P.I. firm. It's like Shrek and Donkey, the relationship. It's great."
He also has Don Rickles playing his grandfather. "It's pretty incredible, working with Hollywood royalty. He's the last of a breed of actors and comedians."
Grunberg will likely find out in May if "The Catch" has been picked up, when ABC announces its fall schedule to advertisers in New York. Since Abrams already has "Lost" and "Alias" airing back-to-back on Wednesday night, the possibility exists of an entire Abrams evening.
Grunberg quips, "J.J. needs to introduce the evening the way Walt Disney used to. 'Sit back, relax and enjoy the next three hours of television.'"