Could you tell us about your charity?
Food On Foot's this amazing, small grassroots charity run by one guy. It--it, uh, provides foot and job opportunities for the homeless in and around the Los Angeles/Hollywood area, and so for a show like this, money goes a really long way.
Do you think you are going to win?
It's a v--you know--with this--with Celebrity Jeopardy!, it--the questions are a little bit dumbed down, so it's less about how much you know and more about how much you can get into the vibe of the--of the button. It's all about the karmic vibe of the button.
How did you prepare for the show?
I didn't drink as much as I usually do last night. I went through like a fifth, and a bottle and a half of Goldschläger. So I feel a little sharper than usual.
...
Was the buzzer on your side?
Buzzer? Was helpful, yeah. I was--I was relatively lucky early on, and then, Double Jeopardy!, boy, there were some doozy categories. COLONIES? [Pulls at collar, makes Bert Lahr strangling/gurgling noise] Oughghgh. But, uh, there was LONDON STAGE, which I knew pretty well. I had just been in London, so I knew a lot of those answers. So I ran down that category fast, and that allowed me to take a breath, uh, for the ones I didn't know. Uh, what I realized is that you shouldn't guess. 'Cause that is a big swing, financially. If you guess wrong, and someone guesses right, that's a huge money swing, so I just kept quiet for a while.
How does it feel to win Celebrity Jeopardy! again?
I'm just happy for Food On Foot. They're a great organization. I was super in--involved and excited that they were going to win $25,000--that's a lot of money for them, so to double that? Fifty grand is big. So I'm happy for them.
Were you more or less nervous this time?
I feel it's much easier to be a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy! in this studio than at Radio City Music Hall. Because here, there's maybe 75, 120 people--there, there's 7,000. So, guessing wrong at--at the Double Jeopardy!, or... that was really embarrassing. But here, here it was... [chuckles]
Was there a point when you knew the game was "in the bag"?
No, I was worried that I was going to lose the whole time. Beatles is not my thing. I've seen the Cirque du Soleil show, y'know? I've heard some of the songs sung at karaoke and whatnot, but BEATLES SONGS?--I'm thinking, "Oh, gosh, I know three, maybe?" "Let It Be"--I kept thinking, it's--something's gonna be "Let It Be", because it's--the screen's not big, so it wasn't gonna be "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". I wouldn't have been able to write all that. And then, the--and then... so I did some math to figure out if--y'know, if--if we all... if... I tried to figure out mathwise. Anyway, Rebecca didn't know either. [Crosses fingers] So I won. By default. |
"He's received critical acclaim on Broadway and on TV, and his services as an emcee were much in demand in 2009, hosting the Tony Awards as well as the Primetime Emmys. Please welcome the star of How I Met Your Mother..."
Playing on behalf of Food On Foot.
Equally successful on stage and screen, Neil Patrick Harris continues to demonstrate his creative versatility. He can currently be seen as the womanizing Barney Stinson in the fifth season of the hit CBS comedy series How I Met Your Mother, a role which has garnered him two consecutive Golden Globe nominations and three consecutive Emmy Award nominations. Harris' Barney is best known for his hilarious catchphrases, penchant for suits, and foolproof ways of picking up women. Named one of the "2008 Entertainers of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly, Harris served as host of the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards and the 63rd Annual Tony Awards.
Harris gained notoriety on the small screen as the much-adored title character in Doogie Howser, M.D., a role which also garnered him a Golden Globe nomination. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the television comedy-drama, which ran for four seasons, told the story of a brilliant young doctor who faced the problems of being a normal teenager. Harris' additional television credits include the NBC comedy series Stark Raving Mad, opposite Tony Shalhoub, the CBS mini-series Joan of Arc with Leelee Sobieski and Peter O'Toole, Showtime's The Man in the Attic, the classic TNT telefilm Cold Sassy Tree opposite Faye Dunaway, My Antonia with Jason Robards and Eva Marie Saint, The Wedding Dress with Tyne Daly, and CBS's top-rated telefilm of 2005, The Christmas Blessing. He's also made notable guest appearances on such shows as Will & Grace, Ed, and Boomtown.
As a result of the 2007-08 Writer's Guild of America strike, Neil starred as the aspiring supervillain and lovelorn title character in Joss Whedon's Emmy Award-winning web-based musical miniseries, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. The web series debuted atop the iTunes television charts and has gone on to produce a subsequently successful soundtrack. The musical sensation co-stars Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Furthering his appeal with the online community, Neil was also one of the leading cast members of the all-star web-based hit, Prop 8: The Musical, co-starring alongside Jack Black, John C. Reilly and Allison Janney.
A veteran of the theater, Harris has starred in three Broadway productions, including the dual roles of The Balladeer/Lee Harvey Oswald in the Tony Award-winning musical Assassins. He also played Anne Heche's unexpected suitor in the Pulitzer Prize-winning production of Proof, and the exuberant emcee in Cabaret at Studio 54. His additional theatre credits include roles in the Geffen Playhouse production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, The Paris Letter at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, tick, tick…BOOM! at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, the Los Angeles production of Rent, Romeo & Juliet at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, and the concert production of Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center in New York.
In July 2007, Harris utilized his Broadway expertise behind the velvet curtain during his theatrical directing debut of the original comedic script, I Am Grock, at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. Furthermore, Harris mixed his love of magic and theatre in directing The Expert at the Card Table at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Harris rounds out his accomplishments on stage and television with an equal measure of success on the silver screen. Harris recently completed production on two upcoming feature films – The Best and the Brightest, a comedy, co-starring Amy Sedaris, about a young couple entering the competitive world of New York City's elite private schools and the lengths they must go to in order to gain admittance for their five year-old daughter, and Beastly, a modern-day retelling of the "Beauty and the Beast" tale where a teen is transformed into a hideous monster in order to find true love. The film is based on the novel by Alex Finn, and co-stars Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, and Mary-Kate Olsen.
Neil reprised his role as "Neil Patrick Harris" in New Line Cinema's comedy film, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the sequel to 2004's sleeper hit Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Harris's feature film debut was a starring role opposite Whoopi Goldberg in the coming-of-age drama, Clara's Heart, for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination. Additionally, Harris has appeared in Universal's hit urban comedy Undercover Brother with Eddie Griffin, Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, The Next Best Thing with Madonna and Rupert Everett, and The Proposition with Madeline Stowe and Kenneth Branagh, among many others.
The multi-talented Harris also enjoys a busy schedule in the world of voice-overs, most recently voicing the character of Steve the Monkey in the Sony Pictures Animation and Columbia Pictures box office sensation, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, based on the beloved children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett. Harris can also be heard voicing one of the characters in Warner Bros. Pictures upcoming live-action/animatronic sequel, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, which is expected to land in theatres in July 2010.
In addition to his voice-over work in numerous animated series and features, including the CBS holiday special, Yes, Virginia, the recent musical episode of Batman: The Brave & The Bold as The Music Meister, Justice League: The New Frontier as Barry Allen/The Flash, and the top-rated MTV series, Spider-Man, voicing both the title character and his alter ego Peter Parker. Harris can be heard opposite Will Arnett in the D3 Productions video game Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. His voice work also includes creating character voices for numerous books on tape, including Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary, Slake's Limbo, Ribsy, Lump of Coal, A Very Marley Christmas and the award-winning children's book, Henry Huggins.
Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Harris currently resides in Los Angeles. |
