  
He's
Not only America's youngest A-list celebrity journalist but one of its
most thought-provoking. "What kind of research do you do," Medill asked
Jim Carrey at the 2000 premiere of Me, Myself & Irene, "to play a
man suffering from advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary
narcissistic rage?" Medill was 14 at the time. Now he's starring on his
own Website, FredTV, as well as hosting a movie news show on WAM!, a
premium channel eared toward 8- to 16-year-olds. The Secret to getting
good quotes from Julia Roberts or Denzel Washington? "You've got to be
aggressive," says Medill, "but not obnoxious."
His
red-carpet ride began when his Father, Cary, 57, won tickets to the
premiere of Big Daddy and requested a press pass, giving Fred a chance
to interview the film's star, Adam Sandler. Since then, Fred has tried
to give others that same opportunity through his work with the
Starlight Children's Foundation, an organization that provides support
for seriously ill kids. With the help of his Father, Fred has invited
about 25 youths to screenings in L.A. to meet their favorite celebs.
His
future plans include hosting his own talk show--of course--and getting
a serious girlfriend. He's never had one, though he has a raging crush
on Hillary Duff. Compared with the other stars he's interviewed, he
says, "she's at least closer to my age.
A
few months back, I was covering a Paul McCartney charity event, and of
all the stars I met that night from Brian Wilson to Jay Leno to
McCartney himself the one person who I was most impressed with was Fred
Medill.
Who is Fred Medill? Well, he's not a
household name yet, but Medill is the most interesting entertainment
reporter I've ever seen. He has just the right mixture of
aggressiveness (without being obnoxious) and charisma, which makes all
the stars on the red carpet want to stop and speak with him.
By
the age of 12, Medill knew he had a natural talent and ease for
starting conversations with stars. Now only 16, he has attended more
than 350 red-carpet events (where he's interviewed nearly every major
celebrity) and he even hosts his own entertainment show ("Fred TV") on
STARZ! Movie Channel.
I asked Medill what triggered him to make a career out of this.
"Well,
oddly enough, it started out with a party I had," he said. "We put a
concept video together. This had to be real big, so we taped stuff of
me just walking up to celebrities like Larry King in a deli and Neil
Sedaka on the beach. I got great interviews with them, and I loved
doing it, so that's basically how it got started.
"Then that June, I developed a Web site and I covered my first premiere when I was 13, which was 'Big Daddy' with Adam Sandler."
Since
then, Medill has become a darling among publicists in Hollywood. He
gets e-mails from every studio inviting him to premieres (sometimes two
on the same day), and he keeps a Rolodex of every contact name and
phone number he comes across. (I think the fact that Medill is more
organized than people twice his age is a key to his success.)
Medill
has a cooperative dad who helps him get to all the different events
which is very important for a minor working the Hollywood beat but he
basically does everything on his own, from researching the event he's
covering to coming up with all those great questions he asks the stars.
I asked Fred to name some of the nicest stars he's met.
"Wow,
there's so many nice ones," he said. "I could tell you that there's
more nice ones than there are ones who are not nice. There's Denzel
Washington, Mel Gibson, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise,
Harrison Ford -- the list goes on and on."
But what we all want to know is, who are some of the not-so-nice stars?
"The
only bad experiences I've had are not necessarily between me and the
stars, but like when you're at a premiere staring (at) some big star,
and that person doesn't stop to talk with the reporters. It's upsetting
and it gets frustrating sometimes because that's why I'm there. If the
stars won't stop to talk, then I can't do my job. Fortunately, that
doesn't happen much. Most of the stars are very nice and cooperative."
I know Medill has met hundreds of stars, but I wondered if there's still someone he wants to meet.
"Yeah,
actually there's a lot of people I would like to meet," he said. "I'd
say my top three are Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor would be cool,
and Jack Nicholson -- who keeps eluding me somehow."
I asked what some of his future goals were.
"In
the future I'd want to do the same thing I'm doing now just on a higher
level. I know I want to do this for the rest of my life, and I want to
go to journalism school."
Another thing I'd like
to add about Medill: Many of my friends tune in to his show just
because, as they say, he's a "HOTTIE!" So I had to ask him if he had a
girlfriend. His reply: "No girlfriend right now, I'm just so busy."
If
you're interested in learning more about Fred Medill, go to his Web
site, FredTV.net, to see all his past interviews, premiere events, and
photo galleries.
I think it's safe to say that Medill is a mentor for any young reporter, and for me, he's not just a mentor, he's a friend.
As
Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe make their way to glitzy parties after
Sunday's Academy Awards, amid the throng of reporters seeking face time
with Tinseltown's elite will be a clean-cut kid who would seemingly be
more at home at a high school prom.
But Fred Medill won't have to
fight to be noticed. He will easily be the youngest journalist there,
wearing a tuxedo and filing celebrity interviews for his popular FredTV
Web site.
"I
admire people for who they are and their talent but I'm not usually
star-struck," said the articulate 16-year-old, who launched the site
(www.fredtv.net) in March 1999.
Fred's rapport
with Hollywood's major players has been evident at industry events like
Saturday's premiere of "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" where he chatted up
director Steven Spielberg for the first time.
At
the Directors Guild of America Awards the weekend before, Fred was
placed at the end of the red carpet and far away from the likes of
"Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood." But the celebrities
still found their way to him.
"Hi, Fred!" said
Kidman, the most sought-after star at the event. The "Moulin Rouge" actress gave Fred a lengthy interview -- she approached him -- as did
the film's charismatic director, Baz Luhrmann.
"I
see Nicole Kidman at a lot of events and she is always very nice to
me," Fred explained later. "She took a liking to me and so did her
publicists. You have to get to know the publicists and be nice to them."
Also
at the DGA Awards was flashbulb magnet Halle Berry who Fred met for the
first time. Guy Pearce, Helen Mirren and Ron Howard stopped for chats
as well. Howard lingered the longest, peppering Medill with questions
about his Web site before entering the awards dinner where Howard was
named best director of the year by his peers.
FredTV
combines the teen's exclusive interviews with celebrities with movie
trailers and analysis. It is available in about 600 hospitals in the
United States and Canada where hospitalized children can view the
Internet broadcasts on special mobile computers called PC Pals.
The
teen has also become involved in the Starlight Foundation, a charity
that grants wishes to seriously ill children who Fred sometimes brings
with him to Hollywood events.
Recording most of
the proceedings with a digital camera is Fred's father, Los Angeles
attorney Cary Medill, who has accompanied the oldest of his three sons
to hundreds of Hollywood events.
"Just seeing him
in action and seeing him get better and better is a father's greatest
pleasure," Medill said. "When I saw that he had the talent and was not
afraid of approaching people, we sort of let him run with it. This kid
has no fear and a good gift for gab."
But that
gift can sometimes make for a breakneck schedule for father and son.
The day after the DGA Awards, the pair traveled to the Shrine
Auditorium to cover the even more star-studded Screen Actors Guild
Awards. The next afternoon, they were at the Beverly Hilton for the
annual Academy Awards nominees luncheon, where Fred landed poolside
interviews with nominees Sissy Spacek, Marisa Tomei and Howard. And
later that night, they headed to Graumann's Chinese Theatre for the
premiere of "Showtime" starring Robert De Niro who "I was really
excited about interviewing," the teen said.
He is
quickly learning to handle unexpected situations with aplomb, such as
the time a well-known actress suddenly belched on the red carpet during
the premiere of "What Women Want." At another event, Fred was waiting
to interview Crowe when another reporter asked the star of "A Beautiful
Mind" an inane question to which the actor barked, "That's the most
stupid question I've ever heard!"
"My turn was
next and I was so scared," Fred recalled. "But he was very nice to me
and treated me with respect. He also straightened out my tie for me."
Since
covering a premiere generally takes about an hour, Fred has become
adept at time management, doing his homework then editing the evening's
event on a Macintosh G4 so it can appear on his site the next day.
The
teen's foray into celebrity interviewing began when he was 12 and was
invited on a tour of CNN's Los Angeles studios by Larry King whom he
and his father had met during one of their weekly outings to the famed
Beverly Hills eatery Nate 'n Al's.
Later that
year, his parents won tickets to the movie premiere of the Adam Sandler
comedy "Big Daddy." When Cary Medill called to R.S.V.P., he asked if
his son could cover the event from the press line. Fred has since
worked more than 200 movie premieres and award shows.
"The
first red carpet interview I ever did was with Adam Sandler, and I kept
turning toward the camera and my questions weren't very thought
provoking," he admitted. "But I've learned a lot being out on the press
line."
His Web site has gained such a high profile
that he was invited to guest on "The Tonight Show" and traveled to New
York to appear on "Today."
Last year, FredTV
caught the attention of StarzEncore, a Colorado-based network cable
channel. About three times a month, they will send a cameraman with
Fred to a premiere and air his two- to three-minute reports.
The
increased demands on his time led to a decision a few months ago to
begin being home-schooled. But Fred expects to return to the private
Milken High School in Beverly Hills next fall.
"I miss my friends," he said.
Ever
dreamed about meeting your favorite star face-to-face? For Fred Medill,
15, that dream comes true on a regular basis. He interviews
celebrities--Tom Hanks, Kobe Bryant, Cameron Diaz, and 'N SYNC, to name
a few--for his Web site, www.FredTV.net.
Fred discovered his knack
for interviewing celebs in 1999, when he managed to get talk show hosts
Larry King and Jay Leno, as well as singer Neil Sedaka, to do cameos on
his bar mitzvah video. Now Fred and his dad regularly produce FredTV
interviews for the Starlight Children's Foundation, an organization
that provides entertainment programs for seriously ill kids in
hospitals. Kids watch the programs on Internet-connected mobile
computers called "PC Pals."
"Where
there's a red carpet, there's Fred TV," is Fred's Web site motto. And
it's the truth: After nearly two years of reporting, Fred has gotten to
know lots of movie publicists, who give him prime positions in line
where he can talk with top celebrities. "Stars go right to me because
I'm young," says Fred. "They know I won't embarrass them--I won't ask
questions that make them think."
Fred posts the
interviews on his Web site, where he also sells DVDs and advertising
space to raise money--with all profits going to the Starlight
Foundation. He also brings Starlight kids to movie premieres.
"Sometimes they are so thrilled to see their favorite stars they actually have tears in their eyes," he explains.
What's
in Fred's future? Someday he wants to have his own TV show and become a
serious journalist. And that time may come sooner than he thinks--he's
already discussing a talk show with Disney and Nickelodeon.
Want to find out more about the Starlight Children's Foundation? Check out their Web site: www.starlight.org.
"He's
quiet at school", says Cary Medill, a prominent Los Angeles attorney,
of his 15-year old son, Fred. "But put a microphone in his hand and
watch out!" The eldest of Medill's three sons, Fred is the host,
interviewer and producer of FredTV.Net.
Fred's foray into
entertainment journalism began when he spied talk show Larry King at a
Beverly Hills deli. Fred, then 12, "walked right over and asked King if
he could visit his show," recalls his father. King said yes and ended
up making an appearance in the film Fred was making of his Bar Mitzvah.
After a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Fred and the host
adlibbed a skit that also ended up in the film. Then, at a school
auction, Fred's dad won tickets to the premiere of the film Big Daddy
starring Adam Sandler. The package included access to the red carpet
and a chance for Fred to interview celebrities.
But
it was his Bar Mitzvah film that clinched Fred's future as a celebrity
interviewer. Impressed by the effort, film producer and family friend
Peter Samuelson invited Fred back onto the red carpet for the premiere
of his movie Arlington Road. Samuelson is also the chairman of the
Starlight Foundation, the charity that grants wishes to seriously ill
children. "Things just snowballed from there," says Fred, who's known
by practically every publicist in Hollywood.
In
the future, FredTV may be streamed via Internet to hospitalized
children. In the meantime, Fred, who hopes one day to attend journalism
school, juggles classes, his show and stints as an entertainment
reporter on several kids' networks. "Interviewing celebrities is no big
deal," says Fred, whose list of stars includes Denzel Washington, Mel
Gibson, Cameron Diaz and Helen Hunt.
Whenever
possible, Fred brings Starlight kids to movie premieres. And it's the
kids, not the stars, who leave the biggest impression. "They make me
grateful every day," he says.
Fred
Medill, 15, as heard just about everything while interviewing stars.
"Once I Intervied an actress, and she belched!" he says. "I just
laughed and went on with the interview." That easygoing nature has made
the popular host of FredTV.Net -- a Web site of video clips, film
reviews, and celebrity interviews -- the latest Hollywood player.
For
over two years Fred has schmoozed with hundreds of stars like movie
actor Jim Carrey and Malcolm in the Middle's Frankie Muniz.
"I
butter them up," Fred says. "I say, 'You look great tonight' or 'I
loved your performance.'" While his dad films, Fred asks the celebs
questions about their lives. Then he posts edited clips on his Web site.
Fred
has become a celebrity himself and uses his popularity to help sick
kids meet their favorite stars. Soon Fred's fans may be seeing him on
his own TV talk show. "I used to be starstruck," Fred says. "Now I
realize celebrities are regular people just like you and me."
While
most teenagers spend their extracurricular hours playing sports or
working on the school paper, 15-year-old Fred Medill chats with such
superstars as Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington and Cameron Diaz for his
two-year-old Web site. Since launching FredTV.net in March 1999, the
self-assured Los Angeles native has become a red-carpet fixture at
movie premieres and awards shows. So why do the stars stop for Medill?
"I'm
the only young guy on the line," he says, adding, "and I have charm."
That might be an understatement: Jim Carrey told Medill, "Man, you are
going to take over the world, dude." Big names usually don't impress
the Milken High School freshman, but an April 2000 interview with Bill
Clinton still has him reeling, "I was actually talking to the leader of
the free world," he says. "I still can't believe it." GO TO FREDTV.NET!
Meet
Fred Medill, teen journalist to the stars. The sandy-haired high school
freshman is the creator and star of "Fred TV" FredTV.net, a unique Web
site based in his bedroom that combines movie trailers, analysis and
streaming video of his exclusive celebrity interviews.
Since launching the site in 1999 to help raise money for the Starlight
Foundation, Fred has been a fixture on red carpets all over Hollywood,
pitching questions to such A-list stars as Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks and
even President Bill Clinton.
"We
go out (to premieres) an average of one to two nights a week," Medill
explains. "The premiere usually only takes about an hour and then I go
home to do homework."
Medill spends about an hour
preparing for each event, and another two hours editing the video
footage at home on his Macintosh G4 computer.
Much
of Medill's audience is made up of hospitalized children, who view his
broadcasts via the Internet on special mobile computers called PC Pals.
According to his dad, Beverly Hills attorney Cary Medill, the show is
available in about 600 hospitals in the United States and Canada.
But
that may be just the beginning for the 14-year-old media maven. So far
this year, the young Medill has already appeared in the Los Angeles
Times and USA Today, and interview requests have begun to roll in from
as far away as Japan.
"I'm absolutely amazed at
the power of the press," says Medill, who recently invited a camera
crew from NBC's "Today" to look on as he schmoozed with stars Jennifer
Lopez and Matthew McConaughey at the Los Angeles premiere of "The
Wedding Planner." In March, the ABC News magazine "20/20" will
accompany Medill and his dad - who also serves as cameraman - to the
73rd Annual Academy Awards.
Medill is even being
courted by television entertainment magazines "Extra" and
"Entertainment Tonight." "Extra" executive producer Lisa
Gregorisch-Dempsey confirms, "You will see him on the air at 'Extra,'
but in what capacity we don't know yet because no deal has been made."
Meanwhile,
Medill is also in discussions with Disney and other networks about
creating a show of his own. But he is not letting that get in the way
of his commitment to Fred TV, which began, oddly enough, at his Bar
Mitzvah.
"I was always interested in news," he
recalls. "So, we put together a little concept video for the guests
with the help of my dad's connections."
On the
tape, Medill snagged congratulations and mock interviews from George
Foreman, Jay Leno and Neil Sedaka and quotes from talk show host Larry
King (both of whom he met by introducing himself at Beverly Hills'
Nate'n Al's restaurant).
In a matter of months,
Medill has become a red-carpet regular with valuable industry
connections. "He's very professional and he does a good interview,"
says Dennis Higgins, senior VP publicity at Columbia Pictures. "The
stars like talking to him because he conducts himself well, and it's
kind of refreshing to have (questions) from a younger persona's point
of view."
Although the audience for Fred TV
remains small by most standards, his careful preparation and attention
to detail has won the support of PR veterans such as Alan Nicrob,
senior publicist at Rogers and Cowan.
"It's rare
that a client won't be stopped by the level of intelligence of his
questions," says Nicrob, who represents Fred's favorite movie star,
Denzel Washington.
At the 1999 premiere of "The
Hurricane" (for which Washington received an Oscar nomination last
year), Fred caught the actor off guard when he asked: "Knowing
Hurricane's character and the story as well as you do, what do you
think of the U.S. justice system?"
"Fred, listen.
The time this took place, 1966, was a very volatile time," Washington
attempted to explain before turning to other nearby journalists and
suggesting, "You could all learn something from Fred!"
"He's
a pretty big, Oscar-winning actor, and he just talks to me like I'm one
of his friends," Medill says, adding that he rarely gets starstruck
anymore. "I have learned that celebrities are just like you and me.
They are talented, but they're just people."
Medill
will make his own acting debut this spring with a cameo appearance in
the upcoming movie "The New Guy," and as an extra on Kevin Kline's next
feature, "Life as a House." For now, Hollywood's youngest reporter has
no plans to trade in his microphone for acting lessons anytime soon.
"I
would like to do a little (acting) here and there," he says. "But
journalism is my main thing. That's what I am good at and that's what I
want to stick with."
BEVERLY
HILLS, Calif. Fred Medill is 14. He plays tennis after school, listens
to music in his room, and dreams of being a reporter when he grows up.
Funny thing. Thanks to the Internet, his dream has already come true.
Fred operates FredTV.net, a Web site based in his bedroom.
And
with his cameraman (his dad, Cary), he stands on the red carpet every
week, talking to celebs at Hollywood movie premieres. Unlike most
teens, who settle for tacking photos of stars to their walls, Fred can
list an impressive number of interviews in the past two months
including Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, Helen Hunt, Tom Hanks, Robin
Williams and Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you want to look at the entire
year, add Jim Carrey, Denzel Washington, Cameron Diaz and President
Clinton.
"The stars go right to him," says Mindy
Burbano, an entertainment reporter for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles. "He's
had better spots than me sometimes. People love him because he's a kid."
A
high school freshman at a prestigious private school, Fred is the
oldest son of two attorneys, Cary and Marlene Medill. He doesn't talk
much about his outside life to his classmates "because I'm not the kind
who brags."
Despite playing the role of the
aggressive reporter, Fred seems generally shy and quiet. Interviewed at
home before the recent premiere of Costner's Thirteen Days, he was
working on a JFK-themed question, since Days takes place during the
Kennedy administration, and Costner also was in JFK.
Fred,
who asked if Costner ever wanted to play JFK (Costner said he would,
"but I thought in this instance it probably wasn't right"), says he
spends many afternoons trying to come up with interesting queries. "I
try to report from a different angle," he says. "I'm a kid, but I ask
adult questions."
When Fred's dad, well-connected
socially and politically, arranged a talk with President Clinton on the
runway at Los Angeles Airport, Fred asked: "Do you think the new
generation of youth is more apathetic than during your time?" Clinton
said no: "The youth of America care a lot about this country."
To Hanks, at the premiere of Cast Away, he asked, "Who voted you off the island?" Hanks laughed.
He
got the idea for FredTV in 1999, after he ran into talk show host Larry
King at a deli and mustered enough nerve to ask him to do a cameo for
his bar mitzvah video. King invited him to the CNN studio and did a
routine with him, saying, "The kid's trying to steal my show." Fred
approached other celebs for a few video moments, including Jay Leno at
a Tonight Show taping and singer Neil Sedaka, who happened to be
vacationing at the same hotel in Hawaii.
A movie
producer at the bar mitzvah loved the video so much that he invited
Fred to stand on the red carpet for his film, Arlington Road, which
stars Jeff Bridges. The highlight of the night: a hug from Michelle
Pfeiffer's actress sister, Dee Dee, who "thought I was cool."
The
producer, Peter Samuelson, also happens to be chairman of the Starlight
Foundation, the charity that grants wishes to seriously ill children.
He talked to Fred's dad, a Starlight supporter, about having Fred do
interviews that would be shown to the kids.
Thus
was born FredTV, which posts the interviews and sells DVDs, with all
revenue going to the Starlight Foundation. The interviews are being
shown at a Chicago hospital now and may go national. In the meantime,
Fred brings Starlight kids to premieres to see films and have their
pictures taken with stars.
"Teachers used to
complain that Fred wouldn't participate in the class discussion," says
Cary Medill. "Then we saw him walking up to these celebrities and being
really aggressive. He's got a gift. He's not afraid of anyone. He talks
to them as if he's known them all his life. So we're helping him pursue
it."
Fred's Web site may lack professional polish
and be light on content, but that doesn't bother movie publicists, who
give him prime positions in line.
"The stars stop
to talk to him," says Gina Soliz, a senior publicist for New Line
Cinema. "They find it endearing and not as threatening to talk to a
kid."
Fred hopes to have his own show doing
celebrity interviews and he may not have to wait long. After the Los
Angeles Times did a story about him, he was chosen for a tiny role in
the upcoming independent film The New Guy, playing an awestruck kid who
approaches Motley Crue's Tommy Lee. Now he has meetings set up with
Nickelodeon and Disney to discuss his concept of a talk show run by a
kid.
His grown-up colleagues are rooting for his
success. "He hasn't even finished high school (and he's) out there on
the red carpet where even professionals have a hard time navigating,"
says Access Hollywood's Pat O'Brien, a FredTV fan. "He does great. His
questions are good, and he doesn't have an agenda."
Fred
knows it might not be as easy to make it in Hollywood as an adult:
"People get a kick out of seeing a kid doing an adult's job. But I'm
getting older and the novelty is wearing off. So I better enjoy it
while I can."
Their Year That Was
For
a moment, the Bubbleman, a female boxer, a recovering alcoholic and
others shone in our pages. Here are updates on their remarkable lives.
Whether you thought of it as the first year of the third millennium or
the last year of the second millennium, 2000 was a rich time for
purveyors of feature stories. Today, Southern California Living
publishes postscripts to the tales of some we've profiled in the
previous 12 months. Together, the stories give a glimpse of the
startling range of life that has been chronicled in these pages.
Two
weeks after an article described the adventures of celebrity journalist
Fred Medill ("Our Night on the Town With Fred," Dec. 13), the Beverly
Hills 14-year-old is suddenly hot.
Fred, the star
of FredTV, a Web site (http://www.fredtv.net) that features his
interviews with movie and sports stars, says agents, producers,
journalists from around the world and even journalism teachers have
been calling to arrange meetings and offer work. "They called the
school. They called my grandma. They were calling all over the place," says Fred, who created the enterprise with his father to benefit a
children's foundation.
The movie people wanted him
to start immediately. He has already finished filming bit parts in two
movies: "The New Guy" and "Life as a House," starring Kevin Kline.
"Two
news crews came over on Tuesday," he said late last week. "British
television is doing something on me tomorrow. German television wanted
to do something. Korean television wanted to do something."
After
the new year, he said he'll be finalizing arrangements to appear on
"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," and "20/20." He hasn't gotten back to
the journalism professor from Cal State Long Beach, he says, because
"there's been so much going on."
Even with two years' experience, Fred is impressed with the power of the press. "It's amazing what it does," he says.
A
stranger saw the FredTV license plate on his father's car and
approached him to say, "Great article about your son in the paper."
Fred's high school principal asked to see him in his office. "Why don't
you share your personal life with the rest of the school?" he asked.
Now
on winter break, Fred is taking it all in stride while his parents,
both lawyers, do the hardball negotiating for his future appearances.
Fred
realizes media attention can be fickle. "As soon as the press comes up,
it can die down," he says. Whatever the future holds, he says, "it's
been a lot of fun."
Fred Medill has little time for a softball.
"What
do you mean?" says the Beverly Hills 14-year-old when asked to name his
favorite movie star. "The nicest to me? The best interview? The one I
admire most?"
Fred, the star of FredTV, a Web site (at http://www.fredtv.net) that mixes his video clips, movie reviews and
philanthropy, is trying to knot his tie as he fields questions in his
studio, a converted playroom on the second floor of his parents' home.
It's Thursday, a school night, and he's about to rush out for the
premiere of the movie "Cast Away."
Behind
him, on shelves above $20,000 worth of computers, monitors and editing
equipment, there are about 200 tapes of his interviews. Jim Carrey.
Annette Bening. Kobe Bryant. The boys from 'N Sync. There is also a
prized photo taken last April, an orangish, blurry image of President
Clinton leaning down to answer one of Fred's questions.
Hollywood
may be accustomed to child stars, and even a child journalist or two,
but as far as anyone knows, it has never produced anyone quite like
Fred Medill--child journalist to the stars.
The
past two years, the Milken High School freshman has been cultivating
A-list movie and sports celebrities, mostly plying the red carpet--the
media gauntlet run by stars seeking publicity as they arrive for an
event. By now, he's as familiar to stars and publicists as any reporter
from E! or Extra. "We've seen him grow up," says one publicist who says
she's not allowed to be identified in the press. "Now he's this
chiseled and handsome young man. His voice is changing. He's just an
old pro now."
FredTV was originally created by
Fred and his father, Cary Medill, to provide entertainment to
hospitalized children on mobile computers known as PC Pals. Now Fred
has managers who have held meetings with Disney and other networks to
explore a wider television audience.
But even if
stars and their publicists aren't sure what FredTV will do for them,
they are drawn to him. Pat Kingsley, the notoriously prickly publicist
for Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and other elite stars, says she nonetheless
steers her clients in Fred's direction at movie premieres. "He does his
homework. He's prepared and asks short, concise questions," she says.
"At the least, they get an interesting couple of minutes. "
Veteran
reporters say they reap benefits just from standing next to Fred at
premieres. "He gets everybody," says Willie Boudevin, a cameraman for
Univision.
Video producer Cyril Gastambide, who
taped some of Fred's early interviews, says there's something about
Fred's presence that makes stars think something big is going to happen
to them. With his fresh face, raspy voice and whisper of a smirk, he
can charm celebrities from Ron Howard to Snoop Dog into supporting him
with a promo: "Fred TV. The best TV around."
Fred
pops a promotional tape for FredTV into one of the monitors in his
studio. In clip after clip, he elicits double takes and laughs from
celebrities. Speaking into the microphone adorned with the FredTV logo,
Cameron Diaz turns the tables on him during an interview and asks how
he copes with success. He replies, "I have poise. I have a good
appearance. I have a way with women."
In another scene, Fred lounges in the pool on an inflatable chaise and says to the camera, "Cameron Diaz. She digs me."
Actually,
though he'll never forget the hug he received from Michelle Pfeiffer's
sister, Fred's favorite star, it turns out, is Denzel Washington. In an
interview at the premiere of "The Hurricane," in which Washington plays
the wrongly imprisoned heavyweight champion Rubin "Hurricane" Carter,
Fred's question obviously surprises the actor. "Knowing Hurricane's
character and the story as well as you do," Fred says, "what do you
think of the U.S. justice system?" Washington blinks, laughs, then
explains, "Fred, listen! The time this took place, 1966, was a very
volatile time. . . . It was a very different time from now. . . ."
Washington tells Fred, "Heck of a question," and calls to the other
reporters, "You could learn something from Fred."
Tonight,
Fred hopes to snag "Cast Away" star Tom Hanks. He's researched the star
and the movie on the Internet and has compiled a list of questions
including, "How do you react to the perception that you're the most
decent guy in Hollywood?" Fred also plans to ask a question for a
fellow online journalist who couldn't get into the premiere: "Who voted
you off the island?" Fred says, "Maybe it will get a laugh."
It's
nearly 6 p.m., past time to go, and his father, driver and cameraman,
Cary Medill, hustles him along: "OK, Fred. Show time."
Under
a clear, moonlit sky, the Toyota Land Cruiser with FredTV license
plates rattles downhill past the mansions along Benedict Canyon heading
for Westwood, only a few miles away. Christmas lights illuminate the
dark and winding route, which becomes brighter and festooned with "Cast
Away" posters as it nears Wilshire Boulevard. Fred's father flips on
the light inside the Cruiser so Fred can see the list of questions that
he's trying to memorize. Looking up and down to his paper doesn't look
professional on camera, Fred says.
The firstborn
of two Beverly Hills lawyers, Cary and Marlene Medill, Fred clearly
hasn't been hampered by growing up in the world's epicenter of
entertainment with doting and relaxed parents. Cary and Marlene are
both native Angelenos and civil litigators, with separate, solo
practices. Cary, 54, is the son of the late Joey Medill, a
Chicago-based lightweight boxer once ranked third in the world. In Los
Angeles, Cary has had several high-profile cases, including that of
Clarence Chance and Benny Powell, who in 1993 won $7 million after 17
years of false imprisonment for the murder of a Los Angeles County
sheriff's deputy.
The Medills, self-described
"movie freaks," have few restrictions on their three sons. There are no
blocks on the Internet or the TV, no rules about R-rated movies or
bedtime. Fred often stays up to watch Jay Leno at 11:30 p.m.
Cary
says his son is mature enough to handle R-rated material. Besides, he
says, "if he's going to be doing reviews, he has to see adult movies."
When
he's not out interviewing, however, his mother says, "he's very
immature in many ways." His father says, "He's still a 14-year-old,
however you slice it."
At school, Fred "doesn't
come off as a major extrovert," says his journalism teacher Emily
Brewer. He's sweet, humble, assertive and polite, she says. "The thing
he has going for him is that he's so dedicated."
He likes tennis and takes lessons on the courts in his backyard. He goes to Laker games. He listens to music with his friends.
Even
as a baby, Cary says, they knew Fred was a little different. "When
other kids were watching cartoons, he was watching '60 Minutes' and
'Dateline.' " Where Cary takes his other children, Bobby, 13, and
David, 11, to sports events, he bonds with Fred over movie premieres,
he says.
FredTV, a mutual project between father
and son, grew from Fred's March 1999 bar mitzvah party at the Beverly
Hills hotel, where he showed guests a humorous homemade video featuring
himself as a disadvantaged reporter who claws his way to the top. The
video includes mock interviews with talk show hosts Michael Jackson and
Larry King--both of whom Fred met by introducing himself in Nate 'n
Al's restaurant in Beverly Hills. ("That kid," King says, "is going to
be a major star.")
After that, he snagged, and
videotaped, basketball stars and other celebrities he saw at hotels
during the family's biannual vacations on Maui. One tape shows Fred
singing "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" with Neil Sedaka. Last year, a
producer friend let them into the press line for the premiere of
"Arlington Road." "Dad said, 'You're going to interview Jeff Bridges,'
" Fred says. "I said, 'No way.' " But he wound up with a videotape of
Bridges expounding on his character, "Dude," in "The Big Lebowski. "
"I didn't think it would get to that point, and it did," says Fred. "So I guess it can go anywhere from there."
Cary
hopes FredTV will eventually make money, either by selling ads on the
Web site or by selling it to a major network, but any profits, he says,
will benefit the Starlight Children's Foundation, an international
nonprofit philanthropy dedicated to improving the quality of life for
seriously ill children. The goal is to provide entertainment for
children in hospitals to distract them from their pain and loneliness,
says Cary, a board member of the California chapter.
Through
the Starlight Foundation, the Medills also bring seriously ill
youngsters to Hollywood premieres, where they see the movie and talk to
celebrities.
Although the father downplays his
role in FredTV, he's clearly a prime mover, from setting up the
interviews to buying equipment and bringing in friends and paid
consultants to improve the professional quality of their product. When
anyone calls the number for FredTV, a phone rings in Medill's law
office. It was Cary who obtained the interview with President Clinton
when he came to Los Angeles for a fund-raiser this year. The White
House press office was accommodating, he says, partly because they were
familiar with the Starlight charity, and partly because "it's an
election year."
Medill insists he's not a pushy
stage dad and would drop FredTV the minute it becomes more work than
fun for his son. On the other hand, some, like the video producer
Gastambide, who sold footage of Fred to a major European television
network, believe he's not pushy enough. Anyone with an unusual talent
needs to work harder to maintain it, Gastambide says. "He's bright.
He's quick. He has a huge potential for the next two years. In three
years, he will be like everybody else."
Fred knows
his youth is a novelty, but says he dreams of one day having a TV show
of his own. He researches his own questions and edits his own tapes, he
says. If his father didn't participate, he says, he'd still pursue his
extracurricular reporting. "But I can't do it alone," he says. "I'm
only 14."
When Fred and Cary arrive in Westwood,
fans are already gathering around the intersection of Weyburn and
Broxton avenues, roped off and covered with a fresh red carpet, running
from theater to theater and glistening under a row of bright lights.
Cary and Fred stop off at California Pizza Kitchen to meet up with a
Starlight family from Colton in San Bernardino County with two
seriously ill teenagers. The family has never been to Westwood.
Fred
takes his place among 30 journalists allowed admittance and lined up in
order of importance to the publicists. (Unable to secure a spot on the
red carpet, The Times was told, "Just say you're with FredTV.") In his
thin suit, Fred shivers in the cold, midway between "Entertainment
Tonight" and TV journalists from Spain and Brazil, as the limousines
pull up.
He warms up with the movie's producer and
director as they pass down the line. A young actress from "Meet the
Parents" whose name he can't remember is approaching. Fred hasn't
prepared any questions for her, so he repeats what he has just
overheard. "You're doing a movie with John Travolta, right?" Teri Polo
looks at him, impressed. "Indeed I am. Where'd you hear that?" she
wiggles her eyebrows at her companion.
Cheering
erupts from the crowd. Reporters yell, "Helen!" Helen Hunt stops for
Fred, who holds out the microphone. "With the recent success of the
'Survivor' TV show and with this potential blockbuster, do you think we
will be seeing more 'Gilligan's Island'-type shows?"
Hunt
narrows her eyes. "Have you seen this movie yet? It's not a 'Gilligan's
Island'-type movie.' " He moves on quickly. "Can you tell me about your
part in it?" As she talks, the other reporters move their mikes in.
When
Hanks comes by (to shouts from paparazzi of "Get him!") Fred fares no
better. The most decent guy in Hollywood? "I have no response to that,"
he says. "I am what I am." Who voted him off the island? "Wilson, the
soccer ball," he quips without a smile.
However, Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, return moments later to talk and be photographed with the Starlight family.
All things considered, Fred says, it turned out just about the way he expected.
Back
home in his studio by 8:30 p.m., tie and loafers shed, Fred is fielding
questions from his mom as she and Fred's brother Bobby review the tape
with Fred and Cary. Did the Starlight kids have a good time? she wants
to know. Who else was there? "I got Bob Zemeckis," he tells his mother.
"Good job," she says, giving him a hug and a kiss.
Then
Fred tells his folks he can't edit right now. He's hungry. Besides, he
just remembered he has to write an essay on Jewish law for tomorrow's
class.
FRED ON THE TODAY SHOW:
FRED ON THE TONIGHT SHOW:
FRED ON THE OTHER HALF:
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