About Daniel Day-Lewis

Last night, Saturday, I had a wonderful time.  I had Italian food with one of my most treasured friends in life -- my former roommate and his absolutely sensational wife.  While we twirled our spaghetti onto our forks, we talked movies.  We talked actors.  One actor we talked about was Tom Cruise.  When I got home, via Twitter I found an article entitled "10 Random, Weird Film Casting Choices that Somehow Worked" by Dustin Rowles.  It originated on the pajiba.com website.  Who did Rowles include?  Tom Cruise.  I told my friends at dinner about another wonderful time  I had.  This one was back in New York City one night in the Loeb Boathouse of Central Park.  I met one of the most charming, polite and down-to-earth men who has won two Academy Awards:  Actor Daniel Day-Lewis.  This was after he'd won a Best Actor Oscar for My Left Foot (1989) and several years before his victory in the same category for There Will Be Blood (2007).

My late partner and I were in the first year of our relationship and I was in the first year of employment for WNBC as one of the original on-air team members of its new morning show, "Weekend TODAY in New York."  I'll just be honest -- that was one of the most annoying and frustrating jobs of my entire broadcast career.  I only stayed on it to pay off some bills and, even though it was a hit show, I left in January 1995.  Why?  My boss told me that although my work was good and I was very popular with viewers, I would not be moving up within the company.  I'd work only weekends.  Without a contract.  I certainly would not be getting a shot at network exposure.  So I quit.

We premiered in September 1992.  I was approached to be on this new show and do entertainment segments which included film reviews.  That opportunity appealed to me.  The day before our premiere, my role changed.  I would not do entertainment.  Instead, I'd to the community calendar segments and they'd be called "Bobby's Best Bets."  This would consist of telling viewers about local street fairs, bake sales, birthday parties at the zoo and what-not.  And my remote liveshots in the field would be the same.  This was not what I'd been approached to do on the show and that's where the friction started.  I was fresh off three years on VH1, where I'd had my own prime time Monday-Friday celebrity talk show, semi-regular guest appearances on a CBS Late Night talk show and I hosted a syndicated summer replacement nighttime game show.  Why couldn't I review a new Sharon Stone movie instead of being live at a shopping mall in New Jersey?  I occasionally got some entertainment features to do and lobbied to do them on a regular basis.  While working at WNBC, I got invited to an AIDS benefit -- with food -- at Central Park's Loeb Boathouse.  I think it was for amfAR.  I took Richard, my HIV+ positive beau.  Daniel Day-Lewis was there.  Just like a cool guy hangin' out.  No entourage.  No publicist following behind him like a duenna.  He was there, taking time to chat with fans and enjoying himself.  I introduced myself and introduced Richard.  We thanked him for his time at the benefit.  Before we parted, I said "..and good luck with Interview with the Vampire."  He was slated to play Lestat.  He thanked me then added that he was bowing out of the project.  He was tired and really needed some time off. (He'd done 1992's The Last of the Mohicans followed by The Age of Innocence and In the Name of the Father, both released in 1993).  I told him that I worked on a WNBC weekend morning news show and asked if it was okay to mention that.  This was a weeknight benefit event and he gave me the okay because all the folks who needed to know would've been informed by the time I aired.  I told my show producer boss that I had a good entertainment item for the upcoming Saturday show.  She told me I couldn't do the item because I wasn't an entertainment reporter. Yes, of course I was pissed and felt like calling Al Sharpton to have folks picket on my behalf.  I called Michael Lewittes.  At the time, he was a columnist for The New York Daily News and had written a couple of nice things about my work.  He's now the top man behind GossipCop.com.  I gave him the item as a "thank you" for the mentions.  He wasn't even aware that Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was being filmed by Warner Bros.  I told him, "If you print that item, you may hear from Tom Cruise's people.  Word is he really wanted the part."  Lewittes broke the news that Daniel Day-Lewis was too tired to stay up all night and play a vampire.  Lewittes was contacted by a Tom Cruise rep to make sure it was real.  The item went national.

Tom Cruise sank his teeth into the role of Lestat for the 1994 Interview with the Vampire.  He got to have same-sex domestic coffin benefits with Brad Pitt as the vampire Louis.

That may have been a "Random, Weird" film casting choice to Dustin Rowles.  But tell Dustin that Tom was a replacement set of fangs.  Daniel Day-Lewis was the original choice.  The 2-time Oscar winner will be onscreen as a famous American president.

Maybe he can play the president again, grab a stake and chase Tom Cruise reprising Lestat.  Hollywood could call it Abraham Lincoln:  Vampire Hunter 2.  Just a thought.