Afternoon Snacks: NPH on leaving Doogie behind; Paula Abdul as Ellen; Del Potro a hometown hero

Sorry you missed having Breakfast w/Greg but I was having breakfast with my visiting friend James and am a little behind on my blogging! Instead of breakfast, I offer you some Afternoon Snacks!

I am so NOT sick of reading interviews with Neil Patrick Harris about hosting the Emmys Sunday night. He talked to Time Magazine’s Joel Stein.

Here is the first part:

America is the land of second acts, but still, a gay former child actor who loves magic isn’t supposed to return as an icon of cool masculinity. Yet at 36, Neil Patrick Harris, who played a genius teenage doctor on Doogie Howser, M.D., has used rat-pack swagger to climb the hosting rope in record time, from emceeing the TV Land awards in April to the Tonys in June to the Emmys on Sept. 20. He’s up for his own Emmy this year for his role as an over-the-top straight guy in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. And he has parodied this image of suit-wearing cockiness by playing a hypermasculine version of himself in the Harold & Kumar movies. If Frank Sinatra had wanted a gay singing-and-dancing magician to party with–and no doubt he would have–Harris would have gotten the nod.

The role of Doogie might have seemed an impossible one to recover from, but Harris’ secret is that he is neither embarrassed by nor unduly proud of his past. “It’s a strange thing to shed, and it’s a strange thing to own,” he says of the role over sushi. “Because it’s not you while you’re doing it, and it’s certainly not you after you do it. You’re just an actor some casting director hired for the gig. But you have to own it.” He has owned it, playing a clueless doctor in an Old Spice ad (“As a former make-believe doctor, there’s one product I can recommend …”) and delivering a version of the Doogie theme song when he hosted Saturday Night Live. He has affection for Doogie, but he doesn’t need to hang out with him, nor does he need to kick his ass.

Paula Abdul had her most high-profile post-American Idol gig yet as she hosted VH1’s Divas Live event last night. This video is a really cute moment and scored her a lot of points in my book: Paula dressed like her Idol replacement Ellen DeGeneres and danced through the audience a la Ellen and when she was finished, wished Ellen “all love” and luck and said to give her a call if she had any problems with Simon.

THE CHAMP: US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro was given a hero’s welcome in his hometown of Tandil, a city of  120,000 in Buenos Aires province.

His feat of defeating five-time defending champion Roger Federer in a five-set final is one of greatest upsets of the post 1968 open era.  He became the first Argentinian player to win the US Open or any of tennis’ majors since Guillermo Vilas beat Jimmy Connors in the 1977 final.

Federer is my favorite player but this is a wonderful story and Del Potro’s victory was thoroughly earned and deserved. It will be interesting to see if he’ll be a regular contender for the big titles in the year’s to come. More photos of Del Potro’s homecoming at Kennethinthe212.

Happy Friday everyone!!!