When Marissa Jaret Winokur isn’t working on her weight loss goal of dropping 25 lbs. by the time the Dance Your Ass Off reunion airs tonight, she takes time to hang out with baby Zev.
Posts Tagged ‘Marissa Jaret Winokur’
Red Carpet Confidential: Marissa Jaret Winokur Makes Mommy Time as She Loses Weight
September 7th, 2009 / Author: Valerie NomeVIDEO: Jimmy Fallon Gets His Groove On with Marissa Jaret Winokur
July 29th, 2009 / Author: Chris Morran
On Tuesday night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy got up to get down and boogie with guest, Hairspray star Marissa Jaret Winokur. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP!
Winokur is Caught Red Handed
June 30th, 2009 / Author: Chris Morran
Hot Shots!
June 5th, 2009 / Author: Chris Morran
Original Tracy Turnblad Returns
November 19th, 2008
As Hairspray gets ready to shake its last can of Aquanet this winter on Broadway, Marissa Jaret Winokur will return to the cast to reprisethe rolethat won her a Tony, as full-figured, dance-loving Tracy Turnblad.
Harvey Fierstein has already rejoined the cast in his role as Tracy’s mother, Edna Turnblad, in the musical based on the cult movie by John Waters.
The original co-stars are set to sing and dance on the Hairspray set from Dec. 9 to Jan. 4 at the Neil Simon Theatre in NYC.
But while the popular musical might be leaving the Great White Way, fans could be in for more dancing and big hair soon. Nikki Blonsky, who played Tracy in the Hairspray movie, says she’s onboard if a sequel is in the works, confirming that John Waters is working on a script.
"All I have to say, on the record: I am so down," she tells Entertainment Tonight. "I am ready to play Tracy Turnblad again!"
Marissa Jaret Winokur Welcomes a Son
July 24th, 2008
Marissa Jaret Winokur has a new tiny dancer!
The Dancing with the Stars alum and her husband, writer Judah Miller, have welcomed their first child, a boy. Zev Isaac Miller arrived Tuesday, weighing 8 lbs., 7 oz.
The tyke was born via surrogate as Marissa, 35, had a hysterectomy during her successful battle with cervical cancer.
“I’ve wanted a baby for as long as I can remember," she told OK!. "It finally worked. It’s been a long journey to have this baby.”
Marissa announced the pregnancy in March, during her fourth-place run on DWTS. With an arduous rehearsal schedule, the Hairspray star admitted she was behind in prep-work for Zev, which means "wolf" in Hebrew.
“I’ve got to start painting my nursery and getting ready to be a mom,” she said. “It’s overwhelmingly exciting and I just can’t wait.”
As for the surrogate mother, who often cheered Marissa on from the DWTS sidelines, the bubbly pint-sized actress says she’s second to none.
"She’s the most remarkable woman in the world," the Tony winner told OK!. "She’s become one of my dearest friends and will be my child’s godmother. We’re super close and I honestly couldn’t feel more pregnant. I feel like I’m the husband waiting for my baby to come. I’m with her that much so we’re very close. She’s changed my faith in the human race because she’s a good person."
Camping With Deborah Gibson
July 5th, 2008
Woo-hoo! Monday is the first day of camp for those attending Deborah Gibson’s Camp Electric Youth. Geared for those ages 7-17, the students are immersed in performing arts classes for ten days.
“It’s basically not only to teach kids about singing, dancing and acting, but also the mental side of the business, too, and how to emotionally navigate being a young performer,” she tells me. “There will also be courses for the parents involved so that they can learn the business end and how to look out for their child’s emotional well-being. This is my idea, and I really love kids. I want to mentor.”
98 Degrees singer Jeff Timmons, Wayne Brady and Dancing With The Stars finalist Marissa Jaret Winokur will also make appearances.
In this interview, Deborah, 37, talks about dealing with stardom at a young age.
How is fame different for today’s stars than it was for you?
The obvious is the Internet. You can’t make a move without people knowing. You can’t make a mistake without people knowing. I have no skeletons in my closet. I don’t think I made any major mistakes, but that’s my point. I don’t think I did. But people can capture any little thing and make something of it, and I think that’s really daunting. It doesn’t allow for much room for kids to be kids. That’s probably the biggest thing. The paparazzi.
It’s like I don’t know which came first — the chicken or the egg. On one hand, the paparazzi is more present. On the other hand, I didn’t give them anything to write about or follow. Where were they going to follow me? To the skating rink in Long Island? I was living such an innocent, true, young person’s life that I wasn’t feeding them, but they weren’t as present either.
So now it’s become a combination of kids wanting to grow up too quick and the paparazzi being right there.
So many child stars are getting into trouble. Do you think starting out at a young age is a good thing or a bad thing?
It’s definitely not for everybody. I would never say it’s good or bad, it’s just simply not for everybody. And it’s not for everybody’s parents either. The parenting is where it really comes in to play. I’m lucky my parents never got more caught up in it than me. I never got caught up in it at all, but you see some of these parents who are enjoying the fame and the perks even more than the kids are, which is very scary, because kids need parents to be solid and to be just parents.
I definitely think there are some people cut out for it. Neil Patrick Harris is a friend of mine. He’s a prime example of a survivor. He’s a survivor. He was always a real actor and a real singer. Kids who are in it from the right reasons, who have a passion for it, who have a work ethic at a young age, will be OK. But the kids who get in it because they simply want to be famous to be famous, those are the ones who get into trouble.
Miley Cyrus got into trouble for Vanity Fair. What’s your take?
On one hand, it’s a big deal out of nothing, but on the other hand it’s a brilliant example of … parents cannot leave their kids alone at 15 and assume they can make adult decisions. That’s the lesson that every parent and kid can take away from it.
The picture itself I don’t think is that awful or scandalous. She’s showing her back. But on the other hand, I have a fifteen-year-old niece, and I couldn’t imagine my fifteen-year-old niece being comfortable. She barely wears makeup.
This is again a case where a kid is in the business and being treated like an adult. Miley employs people — and I was that age and employing people so I can understand it. People really do forget that emotionally she’s 15 and you’re not prepared to deal with the ramifications that come from such a photo or the male attention that comes from such a photo. That’s the bigger issue.
Your camp is called Electric Youth, and you also had a perfume called Electric Youth. What’s your favorite celebrity fragrance these days?
I don’t have any celebrity fragrance. One that I use is Victoria’s Secret Love because it’s just fresh and it’s kind of like a new version of Electric Youth. It’s kind of fruity. [Laughs] I don’t like perfumey kinds of musky perfumes.
Camp Electric Youth begins Monday.
Marissa Jaret Winokur: Katie Will “Do Very Well” on Broadway
May 23rd, 2008 / Author: OK! Staff
There’s still a few more months to go before Katie Holmes takes to the Broadway stage, but Marissa Jaret Winokur thinks Mrs. Tom Cruise will earn raves for her theater skills.
“I think she’ll do very well,” the 35-year-old tells OK!. “She’s got great people surrounding her.”
As OK! exclusively reported, Katie will hit the Great White Way this fall, playing Ann Deever in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. She’s just the latest Hollywood film star to dabble in theater, and that sits fine with Marissa, who won a Tony for her role in Hairspray.
“I think it’s amazing,” she says. “I love when celebrities do Broadway to bring people to Broadway. They open up Broadway to people that might not see a Broadway show and then they’ll fall in love with Broadway, so I’m very excited that Katie is doing it.”
As for herself, the Dancing with the Stars alum is looking forward to returning to the stage one day, but with a talk show in the works and a baby via surrogate on the way, that will have to wait.
“I have done nothing to prepare for the baby!” Marissa says of her impending July arrival. “I’m freaking out. I have so much to do and on Monday, I painted the nursery, so that was the first thing I did when I got kicked off my show.”
OK! Interview: Marissa Jaret Winokur & Tony Dovolani
May 9th, 2008
Dancing With the Stars’ Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani are sharing a lot more than the dance floor! The partners are both expecting children around the same time as well. Tony expects twins to join him, his wife Trendelina, and daughter Luana, 2, while Marissa, a cervical cancer survivor, and her husband, Judah Hill, will welcome a boy via surrogate. The always excited and chirpy duo sat down with OK! for a healthy meal to discuss impending parenthood, maintaining a good diet and why they don’t expect to bring home the Mirrorball trophy.
How are you two getting along?
Marissa: We get along great! He’s easy going, but as a teacher, he’s much more strict. If he would goof around as much as I goof around, we’d never get anything done.
Tony: We’re having a good time. What I’m enjoying most about Marissa is her outlook on life. She lives everything to the fullest and there’s no point waiting ‘til tomorrow — do it now because tomorrow may never come. In her case, she was tested in having the cancer and so on, so she has this love for life and you can’t help but be contagious to it. You want to live like her because she enjoys everything to the fullest.
Marissa, did you have any qualms about doing the show?
Marissa: No. I’ve told everybody — I went in and banged on their door and begged them to let me do it. It’s more than I expected — I loved it more than I thought I was going to.
Do you think you have a shot of winning this?
Marissa: Not a shot in hell! I think the joke backstage is we’re all fighting for third and fourth. We’re not even fighting for first and second anymore. Kristi [Yamaguchi] and Jason [Taylor] are going to be fighting for one.
Tony: Nobody enters a competition without wanting to win it but at the same time, we’ve realized we’re having so much fun that it doesn’t matter how far we get. We’re just going to cherish the moments we spend together, the moments we learn how to dance.
What’s a typical day’s diet like now?
Marissa: Egg whites for breakfast with low-fat cheese and toast. A grilled-chicken salad with goat cheese for lunch and a salad for dinner. I have apples in my bag. When we’re tired, Tony says, "Go eat your apple."
Tony: Breakfast is egg whites, turkey bacon, whole-grain toast and a fruit plate. Lunch is salad with chicken and goat cheese. For dinner, my favorite dish is filet mignon with broccoli.
What types of food did you grow up eating?
Marissa: I only ate healthy food because my parents were healthy eaters. I remember going to my friends’ houses and they would have normal pizza and sandwiches and my family was always — on Thanksgiving, they were like, "We’re going to have a New Mexican-themed Thanksgiving dinner!" And I’m like, "But Thanksgiving is a theme. Can’t we just have normal food on Thanksgiving?"
Tony: I’m from Kosovo. Food is very important where I come from. We did a lot of tomato salads for the summer. We used to do a lot of salads, a lot of fruit plates. For a summer stew, we’d take all the different vegetables like peppers, tomatoes, onions and cook them in these spices that are really good — a lot of garlic. You cook it boiling to a point where everything soaks in together and then you let it cool down and you eat it with a salad at the same time with a little bit of feta cheese, which is natural where I come from.
Do you like to cook?
Marissa: Yeah, I bet I can cook better than Tony! I like cooking salmon; I love baking. Salmon, asparagus and I’m always on the barbeque for the entire year. We have the barbeque going with chicken, grilled vegetables on the barbeque. I pretty much just cook on the barbeque as much as I can. I pretty much never cook inside, actually. I never care about my kitchen.
Tony: My favorite dish to cook for dinner is marinated steaks. I take different sauces and I marinate the steak. It takes three hours to marinate because I punch holes in the steaks with the fork and I take a honey-glazed barbeque sauce and I mix it with all my peppers — I have all these spices I’ve collected over the years. I love cooking with scallion onions and I mix that in. It’s a sweet and sour type of thing. When you mix it and let it marinate. And then you barbeque it. That’s the best.
You’re both expecting children around the same time.
Tony: Very close, actually. Marissa’s due in July and we’re due in the beginning of September because with twins it’s unpredictable. It’s quite exciting.
What was it like learning you were having twins?
Tony: We were planning on being pregnant, but we didn’t plan on twins! We didn’t have any help. I guess in her family, a couple of generations removed had twins so it kind of runs in her family. I’m ecstatic about it because I just love being blessed with twins. We’re extremely happy parents and my daughter can’t wait to see the babies. He’s already pointing to her stomach.
What kind of preparations are you making for the twins?
Tony: Anybody has any suggestions, by all means, contact me! As a dad, all you can do is be there for your wife and hopefully I can be a great dad.
Do you have enough room in your house?
Tony: Actually, I immediately panicked and wanted to upgrade my house! But my wife quickly calmed me down and said we have plenty of room. We have a very nice three-bedroom house in Connecticut. That’s the ideal house. For me, it’s the white picket fence and the two-story house and two-car garage. It’s perfect. I live very modestly.
How are you preparing for your son, Marissa?
Marissa: I’ve been planning a nursery, but now I don’t have that much time on my hands to work on it. I’m like, "I’ll do it when I’m done with the show." We have a lot of house work happening. We didn’t have a kitchen. Now that we’re having a baby, all the construction is getting done, finally. Give a man a baby and he’ll get the house cleaned up! And we’re naming him Zev, which means wolf in Hebrew.
How is the surrogate-mother situation going?
Marissa: She’s the most remarkable woman in the world. She’s become one of my dearest friends and will be my child’s godmother. We’re super close and I honestly couldn’t feel more pregnant. I feel like I’m the husband waiting for my baby to come. I’m with her that much so we’re very close. She’s changed my faith in the human race because she’s a good person.
