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♥♥♥ TAR14: Mel & Michael White - Father & Son

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puddin:
Mike White On Doing 'The Amazing Race': 'I Felt Like Jason Bourne And His Old Gay Dad'
Posted by Kyle Buchanan at 6:20 AM on February 13, 2009
Curious

So where did the idea to do the show come from?

I'm a not-so-closeted reality TV fan, a traitor to my own. I think I've watched probably every Survivor and Amazing Race—I'm a weird reality fanatic, I guess. During the strike I was watching my usual shows because I couldn't work, and at some point I was like, "What the crap! I should just go on The Amazing Race." I actually just made a video, I didn't try to pull any strings, I just made a video with somebody besides my dad and sent it in.

Who?

I was gonna go with this screenwriter that I met on Freaks & Geeks, this guy Jon Kasdan. Our little sorta reducible idea was "neurotic screenwriters who never leave the house." And it turned out that he really was too neurotic to leave the house. We got to the semifinals of the prior season, Season 13, and he had sort of a meltdown at the Hilton at LAX and was like, "I can't do this!"

So how did your dad get involved?

We had gotten pretty far along and you know, it's a relationship show and they want to show the most interesting relationships, so they encouraged me to go with someone in my family [father Mel White, the founder of the gay rights group Soulforce].

You know, it's an interesting trajectory: so many reality stars want to make it in Hollywood, and you're sort of doing the reverse. Were you concerned about becoming known for reality instead of writing, directing, acting?

[laughs] Honestly, I just can't give a flip about that. For me, the show's about to start airing, and it really is less about that than being able to go do it. Like, the idea of just travelling and partying and having this crazy experience was reason to do it, and let the chips fall where they may. I think I started off by thinking, "How can I be in the race but not of the race?" but after about ten minutes, I was just like, "I've gotta be of the race to do this right."

So how was the idea of doing it different than actually doing it?

It was actually way more fun doing it. You're in a circus! You're running through airports with a camera crew and there's like, dwarves and giant Amazonian women's basketball players and everyone's in matching outfits and it's so fun. You know, when you're in LA, you're always like, "Maybe there's something more fun going on somewhere else," but for that period of time where you're on the race, there's definitely nowhere else you'd rather be than there.

So when you're on that starting line with Phil, and the race is about to begin, what should we know was going through your head?

The whole time, I was just like, I wanna get to LAX! [The race starts in Los Angeles.] I didn't think we had many advantages past the point of getting to the airport. I didn't want to be in the back of the train—I was like, "All the times I've dropped friends off at LAX needs to come into play now!" But you'll see, it doesn't exactly end up the way that I expected.

Have you seen the first episode yet?

I haven't seen any of them. I've seen the promos.

How do you think you'll be portrayed? Like, what elements of your story do you think are the ones they're highlighting?

Honestly, I did read a review of the first episode, and the reviewer said I'm perpetually grinning. [laughs] If that's all they have me as, the "laughing fool," then that's fine with me. That's how I was on the race. For the first 24 hours, I literally could not stop smiling. I felt like Jason Bourne and his old gay dad, driving this Mercedes to the airport trying to outrun these musclebound mofos. It was literally the time of my life.

Did any of the other contestants recognise you?

A couple, not many. I mean, I'm the king of "you look vaguely familiar." I think some people scratched their heads. It didn't necessarily endear me to anyone, like they were trying to suck up to me because I'm from Hollywood or whatever.

Had you done anything to prepare for it beforehand? Like, a lot of map reading?

We did have enough time for my dad to go insane with the idea of matching outfits. His long-dormant dream of walking around in matching outfits finally came to the fore! They encourage you to wear a colour scheme just to identify the teams, and ours was royal blue. So my dad was like, "Oh, we've got to get matching outfits!" and I was like, "Dad, we don't have to wear, like, the exact same clothes. Wearing things with a similar colour is enough." And he got so frustrated! And so he went into my closet and saw the stuff that I had pulled out for the race, and went out and bought the exact same clothes! And so I was like, "I guess I'm gonna be that guy, wearing the same thing as his gay dad on national TV."

What was the industry reaction when it was announced that you were on the show?

I think there's two separate people. Half of the people are like, "That is the coolest thing you could ever do," and they're jealous, and half of the people are like, "Why the hell would you ever want to do that?" Especially some of the more Hollywood A-lister types, they're like, "Did you have to fly economy?" [laughs]

You say in the CBS bio that you wanted to pattern yourself after former contestants Charla and Mirna. Mike, I don't know if you know this, but Mirna is crazy!

Well, yeah! But what I like about them is that they had no discernible advantages at all, no physical advantage, no intellectual advantage, and yet they just had the will to succeed. I wanted to channel them. A little crazy doesn't hurt in the circumstances they throw you into.

Have you met them?

No, I want to!

I'm sure you will now that you're all on the reality alumni circuit.

I'll go do a college speaking tour with them. [laughs]

http://www.defamer.com.au/2009/02/mike_white_on_doing_the_amazing_race_i_felt_like_jason_bourne_and_his_old_gay_dad-2.html

puddin:
Grace Under Pressure
Worlds away from writing speeches for Jerry Falwell, out Soulforce founder and reformed evangelical Mel White joins forces with screenwriter son Mike (School of Rock) for The Amazing Race.
By Dan Avery
Mel White has never been one to run from a challenge. A former speechwriter for evangelicals like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, White came out of the closet in the early '80s and wrote a best-selling autobiography, Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America. Countering the homophobic rhetoric of his former employers, he also founded the gay social-justice organization Soulforce, which sponsors Equality Rides to Christian campuses to spark peaceful dialogue. He then became an ordained minister in the gay-affirming Metropolitan Community Church. In 2002, White and partner Gary Nixon even leased a home across the street from Falwell’s Lynchburg, Va. church just to keep the legendary holy roller in check.

Starting this week, though, White will be running -- traversing nine countries across 40,000 miles on the new season of CBS’ The Amazing Race. Joining him on this grand adventure is his award-winning screenwriter son Mike (Chuck & Buck, School of Rock), who is openly bisexual.

“Mike’s a massive fan of the show,” says White, 68. “He auditioned on his own and was accepted, but the person he signed up with bailed at the last minute. I was the backup plan.”

Among the far-flung countries the show’s contestants visit in its 14th season are India, China, Russia, Switzerland and, for the first time, Romania.

“I’ve traveled a lot more than most people, but there’s nothing that can really prepare you for this show,” White explained. “You’re racing the clock -- the whole thing is such a rush.”

Deciphering clues and overcoming challenges designed to test their endurance, intelligence, and cunning, the team that crosses the finish line first walks away with a cool million dollars.

Just before the show’s February 15 premiere, we spoke with the veteran activist to find out what it was like running the race of a lifetime and why gays still need to stand their ground against the Christian right.

Advocate.com: Were you familiar with The Amazing Race before you entered?
Mel White: Not so much -- Sunday isn’t a good TV night for a clergyman. Mike showed me a lot of old episodes, though, and I really got into it.

Did the producers know who you were when you signed on?
I don’t think so, or at least it never came up during our conversations. I don’t think they did any research into my activism. They wanted me as Mike’s dad, which was fine with me -- I was delighted to be billed as “the gay father.” It gave me a chance to talk about not just being gay, but being a gay parent, without the perceived stigma of being an activist. Of course, I wore my Soulforce hat everywhere, hoping it’d spark some interest.

Did either you or Mike get recognized during filming?
I don’t see myself as a celebrity, but people recognize Mike all over. Back home, he has paparazzi shooting and asking him questions. When we were going through India, this woman leaned over to us on a bus and said to him, “I like your movie.” I’m a dad, so of course I got a puff of pride. I mean, I don’t see him as an actor or screenwriter, I just see him as my kid. When I see him on the screen, I don’t see the character, I see Mike. Which was really uncomfortable when I saw Chuck & Buck. [Laughs] I was so taken aback.

How did your husband feel about your leaving for almost a month to traipse around the world?
Gary’s been in the limelight with me for a while, so he was just as happy to relax at home. And happy for me to spend time with Mike. I’m on the road a lot, so I don't know that he even missed me! [Laughs] People ask us how we made it 27 years? And he says, “'Cause Mel’s gone a lot!”

The season was filmed last fall. Did you feel like you were missing out on the election?
That was the hardest part -- being away from the election and all the reporting that went along with it. We’d see headlines as we raced by, but we had no laptops, no iPods. Being without the Internet and a Blackberry for 35 days is wonderful, once the shock wears off. But I love CNN. I let if flow over me like water. And I like to watch FOX to get angry and get my juices flowing. They took the phones and TVs out of our rooms! At first I thought they were too rigid, but I realized the focus really has to be on the show for the duration.

Sometimes traveling together can ruin an otherwise healthy relationship. Were you worried about that happening with you and Mike?
Well, Mike set down the rules for me pretty early on. One: We’re doing it for fun and if we’re not having fun, lets not do it. And two: We’re trying to win, but we’re not gonna get aggro about it. Sometimes he’d have to remind me not to be so aggro, like when the cab driver drove us around in circles. But we ended up having such fun, which was my main goal. The producers asked, “Will this lovefest never end?”

Was Mike well-behaved on family trips as a child?
He didn’t like to travel too much because it took him away from what he liked to do, which was make movies. He was always so preoccupied with it; we got him a camera when he was 8.

What quality do you think made you a good candidate for the show?
I really like people -- sometimes to my detriment -- which helps when you don’t have a common language. And I’m good at winning people’s favor, which is something we learn as activists. Being focused is a gift. There’s a moment where there was real risk, and the whole race was at stake. I sat down and did my meditation. Also, a lot of the other competitors had never been out of the country, or even out of their state. Even things like Customs threw them. Mike and I both have been traveling around the world our whole lives. Rushing through airports is second nature.

Any handicaps or bad habits?
I’m terrible with directions. I can’t walk out of a hotel room without going the wrong way. Can’t find my way out of a wet paper bag. Thank God, Mike is so good with that. We’d hop in a Mercedes and go off wherever. But Mike’s a vegan, which made it almost impossible to find places he could get food. So he didn’t eat for much of the race. Me, I was ready for any challenge -- eat whatever food, jump off whatever cliff.

Did you guys train for the show ahead of time?
We exercised. Both Mike and I do yoga, and I do meditation. We’re spiritually fit. And I naturally have a lot of energy: I was two or three times older than some of the other contestants, but I love to move fast -- I loved the energy drain.

How were your fellow competitors -- any Bible-thumpers or homophobes?
If so, they didn’t push it in our faces. We were definitely in competition, but we got along with the other racers. I even counseled some of them. From what I could tell, our sexuality was a non-issue.

The show sends you guys to some pretty remote areas. Were you worried about getting bashed or ending up somewhere with a terrible human rights record?
We were running so fast the issue didn’t really come up. I guess maybe I should’ve thought about some of the countries we visited, but I had to take what they threw at me. You can’t be an activist in a race like this; there’s just no time. But everywhere we went the people were fantastic. If a nation had a nasty policy, we didn’t feel it from the people. And the show has incredible security. If we were ever in real danger they would’ve gotten us out of there. You couldn’t see them but you knew they were there.

But at the same time, you’re very much on your own.
Short of your life being at risk, the producers wouldn’t get involved. And they were right there, ten feet away from you. You know, The Amazing Race has some 2,000 people working to put the season together. When I saw how much preparation went into it, and how seamless it was, I was in awe.

If only we'd had that kind of team working against Prop 8.
Boy, ain’t that the truth. I haven’t had a secretary in 15 years -- Soulforce has no money and no staff. I was on a White Party cruise recently with 37 gay men. I thought, “How many of these guys give to HRC or any other group?” If the gay community could organize like [The Amazing Race], we’d change the world. But no, we don’t think it’s worth it.

You’re obviously an expert on the fundamentalist movement. With the Obama election, and holy rollers like Falwell leaving the stage, are the evangelicals less of a threat now?
I wouldn’t say that. The megachurch pastors like Rick Warren are just as bad as Falwell was. They’re worse, in fact, because they’re so… slick. They couch their message carefully, and say they want gays to come to their church. With Falwell and those guys, you knew where you stood. I think today fundamentalism is like a rattlesnake that’s lost its rattle: There’s no warning.

Did Obama betray the gays by choosing Warren for the inauguration, or was the issue blown out of proportion?
When they put Warren on, we assaulted Obama with letters. He represents homophobia in its worst form. When we heard Bishop Robinson was chosen, we started shifting our approach. I have to live with Rick Warren and allow him to be as free and expressive as I am. But I can protest like hell. I won’t hold a grudge, but Ill remind him when he goes astray.

What’s scarier -- running through a third world country with no money or going on an Equality Ride to Liberty University?
To be surrounded by fundamentalists is much scarier than being surrounded by pygmy warriors or whomever. The fundamentalists are so blind, so dogmatic. I have to have police guards at universities. I had 40 Baptist clergy marching into a classroom demanding they must be heard. They just lose their cool completely.

The Amazing Race 14 premieres on February 15 at 8 p.m. on CBS. For more details, visit CBS.com.


http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid72866.asp

puddin:
 

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http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-white14-2009feb14,0,2659399.story

From the Los Angeles Times
Mike White's dream is reality on 'The Amazing Race'
The writer and actor got hooked on the show during the writers strike. Being paired with his dad made it even better.
By Chris Lee > > >

February 14, 2009

CBS' Emmy-winning reality show, "The Amazing Race," has seen its share of eclectic contestants come and go over the series' 13 seasons: beauty pageant winners and bickering married couples, jock siblings and even little people. But this winter's installment marks the first time that "Race" has included a "Hollywood star" in its contestant ranks -- even if that famous face hardly counts as a household name. ¶ Enter Mike White, the actor-screenwriter-producer-director who's best known for writing hit comedies, including "Nacho Libre" and "School of Rock" (in which he also plays a supporting role). White, a former producing partner of Jack Black, calls himself a "scholar" of CBS' multiple-Emmy-winning reality show and a self-professed "weird reality fanatic" who began his quest to become an "Amazing Race" contestant during the Hollywood writers strike in late 2007. ¶ "I couldn't write. I'd been watching for so long, I was just like, 'I want to go on the show!' " White recalled. "I made a tape with a friend and sent it in. It wasn't like I tried to pull rank. We just sent in an audition and they called."

In fact, White, a Pasadena native who earned his stripes as a writer for Judd Apatow's late, great 1999-2000 television series, "Freaks and Geeks," places his burning ambition to be on "The Amazing Race" right up there with his abiding goals in life. "It's definitely on the bucket list," White said over a plate of roasted vegetables at the Brentwood Country Mart earlier this week. "Do 'The Amazing Race,' do a few movies, die happy."

But that doesn't quite explain how the whippet-thin Hollywood hotshot -- whose boyish physical presence and unblinking demeanor can't help but bring to mind the slightly demented naif-stalker he portrayed in 2000's oddball dramedy "Chuck & Buck" -- wound up on the physically arduous, globe-spanning obstacle course/time trial, which kicks off its 14th season at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Before White could take his place at the starting line, he had to persuade producers to cast him despite his professional pedigree; unlike so much programming on VH1, "The Amazing Race" had largely resisted anything resembling "celebreality" stunt casting until White came along (one exception being the casting of "Survivor" alumni Rob and Amber in Season 7). Then, White's original partner, filmmaker Jon Kasdan (who wrote 2007's "In the Land of Women"), dropped out during semifinal callbacks. And in a turn of events that surprised White as much as anyone, the show's casting director helped choose Kasdan's replacement: White's father, Mel White, a 69-year-old documentary filmmaker, author and leader in the gay evangelical Christian movement -- one of the oldest contestants to appear on the show. "I thought I'd collapse," Mel said of his expectations at the outset. "I thought when Michael said go, I'd fall down dead."

As well, Mike White had to overcome his own professional misgivings. "You feel a little weird as a writer of scripted television for many years to say you're a fan of reality TV. You feel like a traitor. But I am a total fan. There are life lessons that can be derived from reality television. It was a . . . blast."

It's hard not to harbor certain suspicions about Mike White's motivations -- namely, that his appearance on "Race" is some kind of Andy Kaufman-esque gag -- especially if you are at all familiar with White's view-askew comedy. Plumbing the aesthetic of discomfort for laughs as well as pathos, White's well-meaning but often dim-witted characters tend to find their bliss only after coming through the fire of ritual humiliation (see: Jack Black as a doofus music teacher in "School of Rock" or Molly Shannon as a misguided animal rights zealot in White's directorial debut, "Year of the Dog").

But to hear him tell it with wide-eyed sincerity, White didn't do the show for greater fame. He wanted to go on in large part to shake himself from complacency. "No matter what your job is, to be kicked out of that bubble is a healthy thing. You're asked to do things you'd never do. And the whole time it's slightly embarrassing, slightly humiliating. You get over yourself."

When Kasdan suffered what White jokingly refers to as a "nervous breakdown" during a battery of psychological tests administered by show producers, White had already won the admiration of Lynne Spillman, casting director for "The Amazing Race." She gauged him as someone who "was doing it purely for the love of the show and not for any kudos or fame."

After the two became chummy, White invited Spillman to a party at his house, where she met the openly bisexual filmmaker's friends and family members with an eye toward casting a replacement. Which is when she met Mel White, a prize-winning documentary producer and bestselling writer who ghost-wrote the autobiographies of such religious firebrands as Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. After undergoing three decades of "anti-gay" therapy in conjunction with the church, however, White came out of the closet in 1994 with his autobiography, "Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America."

"He was fascinating: opinionated, complex, sarcastic," Spillman said. "I didn't realize he was Mike's father at first. I tried to be cool, but I was so excited. Mike said, 'You gotta be kidding! He's the only person I'm not funny around.' "

Added Mike White: "To be perfectly honest, I'm competitive. I wanted to win. As much as my dad is spry for someone who's almost 70, he is still 20 years older than the next-oldest person on the show."

Nonetheless, both were persuaded that the experience would be positive and provide for plenty of father-son bonding that occasional lunches and cross-country visits can't approximate. Still, boundaries had to be established upfront. "Right at the beginning, he told me, 'Dad, don't go aggro on me.' I had to look it up. What's 'aggro'?" recalled Mel White from his home in Virginia. "I thought it was agriculture. But it's aggro-vated. He knows I'm a gay Christian activist. I'm aggravated half the time!"

Asked if he learned anything surprising about his son while traveling together under the battlefield conditions of reality television, Mel White grew suddenly emotional. "I couldn't pay for what 'The Amazing Race' did for me, to have this time with my son," he said.

Shooting wrapped in late November, after the racers hit five continents, 15 countries and traveled 30,000 miles. But so far, neither White has seen any footage from the show outside of a quietly hilarious CBS promo :// www.melwhite.org/blog/& ;feature=player_embedded"> www.melwhite.org/blog/& ;feature=player_embedded clip in which father and son are introduced simply as "writers" and shown pecking away at side-by-side laptops, doing tandem yoga and tooling around on Segway PTs. Mike White admits he stage-managed the commercial to temper people's expectations. But it seems like he also couldn't resist imposing some small measure of his comedic worldview on the show.

"They always have people doing this sporty stuff like volleyball," he said. "What would be the laziest thing we could do for our promo? Let's just ride on Segways in our neighborhood! I was thinking, 'Let's just do the goofiest stuff possible.' "

chris.lee@latimes.com

puddin:
I just found Mel's website!
http://www.melwhite.org/

puddin:
Good Luck Mike & Mel and Happy RACE DAY!  :jam:  :wohoo:

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