Katey Sagal was the heartbeat of the popular '80s sitcom "Married... With Children" for 11 years.

Playing the big-haired, smart-mouth matriarch Peg Bundy, it was her first lead TV role.

"I read the script, I thought, 'Oh this is perfect for me because this is so outside the box,'" Sagal said. "We hadn't seen anything so outrageous on television before... and I really thought, 'Oh this won't last very long.'"

But the show became a cult hit that lasted 11 seasons. Sagal said Peg was originally written to be "very slovenly," but she added her own flair.

"My take on her and that relationship between her and [husband character] Al Bundy was that there had to be something hot between the two of them to sustain this marriage for so many years," Sagal said. "So I just went into my audition all dolled up."

The big hair was actually a wig, which Sagal said is now safely stored behind a big plexiglass box "in a safe place."

"People are always like, 'Do you wear it?' And I'm like, 'No,'" she said, laughing.

There is so much more to Sagal than the mouthy Peg Bundy, as she revealed in her new memoir, "Grace Notes."

For one, she has a beautiful singing voice, which she will showcase in ABC's 30th anniversary musical remake of the movie, "Dirty Dancing."

"I play Vivian," Sagal said. "In the original movie, you saw her... the lonesome sexy divorcee. I sing and dance and seduce the young guy in the movie."

And there was that time when she was a teenager and the band KISS came to town. Sagal says she started an affair with the band's frontman Gene Simmons.

"There was just this band of boys sitting at the table and I was their waitress and I sang them a song and, one thing led to another and I started this romance with Gene," Sagal said, laughing. "It was so long ago."

Sagal said her first love was music, and said she traveled all over the world singing back-up for Bette Midler and Bob Dylan, who ended up firing her.

"He fired all the singers," Sagal said of Dylan. "I was so intimidated by him that I knew I was singing the wrong parts, but I didnt say anything."

As her music career struggled, Sagal began looking at other options.

"I met a casting director that I will never forget said to me, You will never work in television," she said. "This was in the days of 'Dallas and Dynasty.' Everybody looked extremely glamorous... I didnt look that way. I was a musician, I was in bands. I wore a lot of black make up, a lot of black clothes."

"Years later when my struggling music career was just not going full steam ahead I said yes to being in a rock musical," she added. "From there my now manager discovered me."

A little arm-twisting later, she auditioned for and landed a role on the TV show, "Mary," with Mary Tyler Moore, then came "Married... With Children."

For 11 years, she and Ed O'Neill, who played Al Bundy, lit up the small screen with their chemistry.

"We loved each other, Id say instantly," she said. "Hes such an everyman down to earth guy, and hes such a guy guy."

Sagal's parents were also in show biz. Her mother was a screenwriter and her father was a director, but both died when Sagal was young.

My mother had been ill for a good part of my life," she said. "It wasnt quite as big a shock as my father who I had literally spoken to the day before."

Sagal's father was killed in a helicopter accident on a television set.

"One of the reasons I wanted to say some of this in the book is that my way of dealing with things in the moment was to very much check out, was to kind of anesthetize myself, numb myself," she said. "It wasnt until I changed my lifestyle that I felt the full effect."

Sagal said she had been hooked on diet pills, prescribed by a doctor, since her teenage years. Coupled with booze, marijuana, a little cocaine and acid, she said it all became a problem.

"I had a drug and alcohol problem that lasted through my 20s," she said. "I had a tendency to sort of run with a crowd that had the same kind of problems that I did, or bigger ones."

It was a chance meeting on a TV set that helped her turn her life around.

"I met a person on a job who was sober. And she talked to me about it," she said. "Suddenly out of nowhere popped up a lot of people who were living clean and sober. And I didnt know about that. "

Sagal said she has been clean now for 30 years, but she still says she takes it "one day at a time."

"What I've learned is I can do anything for 24 hours," she said.

Sagal is still acting and still making music. Her more recent projects have been starring in TV's "The Bastard Executioner" and "Sons of Anarchy," both written and directed by her husband, Kurt Sutter.

Even though there have been a lot of TV comebacks and reunions, Sagal said she doesn't see that happening with "Married... With Children."

This summer, she is touring Southern California with the band The Reluctant Apostles.

And now she also has "author" on her resume.

"I had written pieces... just writing about my life with the intention to give it to my children at some point," Sagal said. "Im not super comfortable. Im pretty private actually. Apparently not anymore."

Read more from the original source:
Katey Sagal talks explosive new memoir, past drug addiction and how she met and dated KISS's Gene Simmons - ABC News

By Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images.

Chris Pratt is on a diet. He's been here before, having posted the gym-selfie-seen-round-the-world when he first bulked up for Guardians of the Galaxy, and since then kept up that buff bod for the sequel and, now, Jurassic World 2. All his food comes in individualized packages, which is public knowledge because he keeps posting about it in a series called #WHATSMYSNACK on Instagram. (Along with #jurassic2, just in case we forget that he's doing this all for a very specific, well-paid purpose). The diet itself, however, doesnt appear to be paying him. Theres no #ad in the caption. Yet.

As a super-buff movie star who started as a shaggy comedian, Pratt has spent the last week pulling back the veil of celebrity diets in a way only hea man with a sense of humor and only a fraction of the pressure to be slim that women experiencecan do. His snacks are gingerly labeled snack, for clarity in good times but especially for clarity under the duress of a diet-addled mind. In the Instagram videos, he gets progressively more unhinged, obsessing over crumbs and even sharing a moment of weakness when he cant help but devour an olive oil pistachio cake intended for the next day. He sweats. His under-eye circles are deep and dark. Hes unable to keep his cool around a Fuji apple. These are all familiar tropes of dieting, played for laughs by the once-chubby Andy Dwyer.

And then comes the flood. The body-shamers descend, calling the actor too thin. He posts a not today, haters type of Instagram, except the photo is of a literal skeleton from a Tyrannosaurus rex head. Well, just because I am a male doesn't mean I'm impervious to your whispers. Body shaming hurts, Pratt wrote in the caption. So to prove my security in the way I look I'm posting a current selfie of me at what I consider a very healthy weight. 500lbs. Zero percent body fat. Totally JK guys. This is a T Rex skull. Nailed you so bad. Omg.

WHATSMYSNACK is effectively a brand building effort that helps hone his Hey, Chris Pratt here anchorman persona on his preferred platforms, Snapchat and Instagram. The series was likely born out of those film experiences, as Pratt tries to get out ahead of all the diet questionsor the actors adept understanding that people and fans are fascinated by actors and actress bulking up or slimming down. He cant repeat the gym selfie that made the Internet double-take with Chris Pratt has a muscle; what? incredulity, and this method is more authentic to his goofy-guy brand anyway.

As much as hes being tongue-in-cheek and owning it, Pratt is part of the familiar cycle no one can really avoid. A celebrity goes on a diet or flaunts his or her body in some way; shamers come through; celebrity says he or she is proud and gets to appear more human and also mentally strong. Its not a great cycle, maybe, but it is a familiar one. Pratt doesn't have the power to change it, but in making fun of it, he makes it a bit more tolerable. (Even if hes still hungry.)

Continued here:
Chris Pratt Spent a Week Parodying Celebrity Diets (While Dieting) - Vanity Fair

The chicken Parmesan at Patsys is one of his favorites. Photo: Noah Fecks

You definitely know Tony Danza from his acting career he famously starred in Taxi and Whos the Boss? but if you spend time in New Yorks Little Italy, youve also likely seen him at Alleva, the cheese shop he co-owns. A perk of the job, of course, is that he gets to name a sandwich after himself and eat it all the time (along with the chicken Parmesan and broccoli rabe). Plus, Alleva provided him with the necessary fuel for another job this week, singing and dancing at 54 Below. Read all about it in this weeks Grub Street Diet.

Thursday, March 16I enjoyed the morning with my coffee and practiced on my ukulele. Every day, I have a big glass of Metamucil and then I work out. Its my meditation, and I need a good sweat in the morning to feel right. Usually, I do interval training with weights and cardio to get my heart rate way up. I lie to the stationary bike and enter my age as 50, so it pushes me. [Editors note: Hes 65!]. Had half of a sandwich, a banana, and a couple of breadsticks with the rest of last nights tea. I make a big cup. The breadsticks are addictive, but I control it with the banana.

I did an AOL Build interview and, in the car, some radio for the Philly talent show Im hosting at Northeast High School. I owe the school such a debt of gratitude from the year I was there. Then down to Alleva. Got the driver, Graham, a Tony Danza, made by the sandwich artist Joe Marone. A Tony Danza is thinly sliced roast beef, Swiss cheese, hot peppers, lettuce, and spicy mustard on a dug-out Italian roll. I love the cold cuts, but you dont want to eat too much of that processed meat. Got myself one, too, plus some more soup, chicken Parm, and broccoli rabe. I have shows Friday and Saturday and need to stock up, as I wont be back until Sunday. Everything, lately, is from my store. I used to cook! Got home and had half of the sandwich with some chips and a salad of iceberg lettuce, garlic, onions, and cucumbers.

I came to own Alleva because my former boxing manager, Cha Cha, is from the neighborhood, and he was clocking that store because its on the best corner in Little Italy. He said to me, I think we can buy this store. This guys got no more kids! He kept asking, and finally the guy said yes. So a few of us bought the store. I was just the silent partner. And then my friend got sick and unfortunately passed away, and I decided to see what I could do with it. Now, I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility, not just to him, but to keep a 125-year-old store alive. I want to try to turn it into a heritage brand. Its hard to believe its one of the oldest things in America. So I became the big cheese.

Danny DeVito, my pal, made his Broadway debut in The Price. He was great! Didnt go to the after-party, I have to work tomorrow night at 54 Below. I had the other half of the sandwich with some tortilla chips and a glass of red wine. Made my green tea, lemon, and honey, and turned in.

Friday, March 17Normal morning. Coffee, Metamucil. Workout and newspaper. Banana and three breadsticks. Tap class at 12:30.

Picked up an iced coffee after my walk to 54th Street. Stopped in to see my acting teacher, and then went down to Nola to tap dance for an hour with the great Patty Lochery. Walked home and had a bowl of lentil soup, and the eggplant Parm on a piece of toasted Italian bread. Put a beer in the freezer before I ate, and it was really cold with my sandwich.

At 4 p.m., I went to a sound check at 54, again on 54th Street. Walking back and forth is harder today because of the mounds of snow and St. Pattys Day. Lots of people out in green. Quick sound check and back to my place. Bowl of soup and the other half of the sandwich. Youve got to always have a sandwich in your refrigerator. Im telling you.

Did my show. It went well. Sang and danced pretty well. Michael Feinstein and Marilu Henner were there. Afterward, Marilu and I went to Patsys on 56th Street, and I had vodka on the rocks with a twist of lemon, and a glass of red wine with a half-order of chicken Parm. I guess I like that. Finished with some great grappa. Home, tea, and bed.

Saturday, March 18I woke up and my voice felt weird, and I got nervous for the show tonight. But as usual, after my workout, I felt better. Its amazing what vigorous exercise will do. I started the day with coffee and my usual Metamucil, banana, and breadsticks. I was glad to have the food I grabbed from Alleva, and I continued to live on it. I went to the market and got some potatoes, onions, broccoli, and garlic for a side dish with the chicken Parm. I worked on an opening for the show and killed the afternoon.

The weather was bad, so I grabbed a cab to the club and went on at 8 p.m. I had a really good show. I know because I had so much fun doing it. The chef at the club made a recipe for shrimp scampi from my cookbook, Dont Fill Up on the Antipasto. My father would be proud. He did most of the cooking when I was young, and taught me how to cook.

After the show, the kitchen sent me a great grilled-chicken sandwich with avocado, tomato, and lettuce. Lynn Bound, the chef at Feinsteins 54 Below, can really cook. The food there is so good that it puts pressure on the entertainment. I was jazzed after the show and hung out at the club, and had a few vodkas on the rocks, twist of lemon. Got home late, made tea, and felt good.

Sunday, March 19Paid the price for last night and woke up with a serious hangover. Once I got moving again, my workout saved me. I had a date to meet my daughter at 1:30 p.m. in Little Italy. Shes a yoga instructor and had a class to teach earlier. I had coffee, and then my usual banana and breadsticks, before I left my apartment. Took the B train to Grand Street and walked to Alleva. Beautiful day.

My daughter met me, and we went to La Mela on Mulberry Street. We love the baked clams, and had two orders with bread and Pinot Grigio. Then we both had a big bowl of pasta e fagioli. Finished with a double espresso and went back to the store. My daughter got some stuff for home, and I grabbed some, too.

Later, watching some news show, I cut up some fresh carrots, celery, broccoli, and potatoes, and defrosted a container of turkey soup that I had in the freezer. I added the vegetables and it was really good. Ate it all. Two bowls with a bunch of breadsticks. Thank goodness for the freezer. Tea, an apple, and some chocolate.

Monday, March 20Spent the day preparing for Northeast High Schools talent show getting the prizes and beginning to write the show. I got the list of acts, and its going to be a long show. I cant wait. Im also trying to cast a play Ive written. I had it in my head. I took a one-day playwriting course from eight in the morning to six at night and got it out. Therell be a reading for directors and investors on April 26 at the CAA offices in the Chrysler Building. Im excited about hearing the play out loud. I have three of the seven parts cast. Good actors. I also called some old friends, uncles, and aunts, and said hello and checked on them.

I took my tuxedos and shirts to the cleaners so that they will be ready for the shows next weekend. After a workout, I had my Metamucil and a banana with some breadsticks. Never got down to the store, but had a bowl of lentil soup, half of a medium container of cabbage in garlic and oil, and the last of the eggplant and chicken Parm. I wish I could be more accurate, but ayy yo, give me a break.

Tuesday, March 21I had a radio tour to support the talent show in Philadelphia four interviews with Philly morning-radio shows. Ive done them all before, as this is the sixth annual Teachers vs. Students talent show at Northeast High School, and they are nice enough to put me on to publicize the show. I had my second cup of coffee during the interviews; and then when I finished, I did the banana-breadstick thing.

I had a photo shoot at Patsys restaurant on 56th and Eighth for this story at 1 p.m., and I got there about 15 minutes before the photographer. Sal, who owns the joint, again made a plate of chicken Parm for the shoot, and I took it with me after we got the shot.

I took the B train to Grand Street and got to the store about 1:30. Another beautiful day to sit in front of the store and watch the world go by. I had some chicken oreganata and a combo of cabbage, chickpeas, onions, and anything else our chef, Danny Paolucci, could find. So good! I got some breadsticks and some fresh breaded, deep-fried chicken cutlets. I will freeze them. The verdict is in: I eat a lot of chicken.

Got home with the food and made potatoes, onions, and broccoli in garlic and oil. Lots of bread, and after the vodka, I got to the red wine. Two Tates double-chocolate cookies and green tea, lemon, and honey.

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Read the original post:
Tony Danza Eats Breadsticks Before Tap Dancing - Grub Street

As I write this, I am about to leave for Boston to speak at iV, the Ivy League Vegan Conference, at Harvard.Prominent voices will gather there and collectively, one anticipates, make the case for veganism.

The timing is a bit ironic.A paper was just published in the Lancet, describing the lifestyle and health status of the Tsimane.The paper generated considerable excitement, and widespread media attention, because the Tsimane, a population in the Bolivian Amazon described as living a subsistence lifestyle of hunting, gathering, fishing, and farming, were found to have the lowest reported levels of coronary artery disease of any population recorded to date.

The Tsimane, obviously, are not vegans, as the references to both hunting and fishing indicate.On the other hand, they are not hunting for meat in the supermarket, as I pointed out to one correspondent who sent me the study and asked if his penchant for meat was now exonerated.My answer was perhaps, provided it was satisfied by advent of bow and arrow and involved no cellophane.

The Tsimane, in common with our Stone Age ancestors, eat the meat of wild animals and fish they obtain the hard and old-fashioned way.Those animals, in turn, get their food the hard and old-fashioned way, too; they are not fed copiously in captivity.Consequently, their own bodies are lean, and represent the fats they derive from their food sources.The result is that the Tsimane diet has virtually no trans fat, is very low in saturated fat, and is quite low in total fat.The study authors report a diet that is 72% carbohydrate, 14% fat, and 14% protein.

Of course, this diet made up of foods direct from nature is very low in simple starches, and sugars as well.The authors note that the carbohydrate sources in the Tsimane diet are generally complex, and high in fiber- just as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds are.These, of course, are the plant foods all but universally recommended for health promotion.

While the inclusion of meat in the Tsimane diet, conjoined to stunningly low levels of atherosclerosis demonstrated by CT imaging of the coronary arteries, might seem a rebuke to vegan diet advocacy, it is a mild rebuke at most.The nutrient composition of the Tsimane diet is much more akin to high-quality vegan and vegetarian diets than to anything remotely like the meat-heavy diets that prevail in the U.S. and many industrialized countries.

But even a mild rebuke, born of evidence, may deserve respect and certainly warrants reflection.

I have long noted, with all due respect to the ardent vegans among my colleagues, that we lack evidence to prove that any one specific diet is the singular best for human health.This should come as no surprise when you consider what kinds of studies would be needed to generate such evidence: randomized trials of optimized versions of competing diets in large populations over a span of decades with incident disease and mortality the outcome measures.The diet producing the greatest combination of longevity and vitality would be the winner.Such a study has not been done, and dont hold your breath.

What we do know, from a veritable sea of confluent evidence, is the basic theme of the optimal diet for Homo sapiens.Famously described by Michael Pollan as food, not too much, mostly plants, it is just so: a diet of minimally processed, wholesome foods, mostly plants, in any balanced and sensible combination.The Tsimane diet represents such a combination.So do the Blue Zone diets, encompassing traditional Mediterranean, Asian, vegetarian, and omnivorous variants.

Our species is constitutionally omnivorous.That makes it unlikely the kind of meat to which we are natively adapted, the kind of meat the Tsimane consume, would be bad for us as some contend.It does nothing, however, to exonerate the fatty meats of domestic animals and the processed meats that many eat under a Paleo diet halo.

In fact, all it really means is that our species, by virtue of our anatomy and physiology, is endowed with a particularly wide array of dietary choices.

I cant support the argument I sometimes hear from colleagues that a vegan diet is best based on human health considerations alone.In fact, we know that a strictly vegan diet is sure to be deficient in at least one nutrient essential to our species, vitamin B12.Supplementing B12 is easily done, however, and a well-balanced vegan diet is certainly among the contenders for best diet laurels.

There are, however, considerations other than our own health.The meat that feeds modern appetites is overwhelmingly the meat of animals raised not just in captivity, but relatively confined spaces.Often, it is the meat of animals not fed the diet native to, or optimal for, their own species.Animal husbandry may at times involve use of hormones and antibiotics, as we have all heard.And, there can be cruelty in the mix that most of us would find distasteful, if not disgusting, if ever we saw it.There are, therefore, arguments for veganism related to ethics, the decent treatment of our fellow species, and the avoidance of exposure to harmful food contaminants.

There are compelling environmental arguments as well for veganism and approximations of it.The domestic production of meat, and beef in particular, is associated with high environmental impact in every area of importance: water consumption, land allocation, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity.

I can imagine an anti-elitist rebuttal, protesting the high cost of produce- but that argument is specious.For one thing, the relative costs of foods reflect our cultural priorities, not natural law.If beef is inexpensive relative to kale, its because we direct subsidies to make it so, subsidies we could redirect whenever the will is mustered.For another, many of the best foods beans, lentils, whole grains- are already exceptionally economical.And, if so inclined, we could enable the economically disadvantaged to afford better food in ways that would likely reduce health care costs into the bargain, as some are already doing.

This, then, is the message I am taking to the iV conference, as I add my voice to a chorus singing the praises of well practiced veganism.We are omnivores, and we have choices.A good vegan diet is not the only option for health promotion, but it is among the best.When the case is broadened from the health of people to that of the planet, too, the case for veganism is very much fortified.After all, the Tsimane are few; we are many.

Senior Medical Advisor, Verywell.com

See the article here:
Choices, Voices, and Veganism: Diet for the Many - Huffington Post