Wed Feb 22, 2012
People

Ben Mulroney: red-carpet resident

This Sunday on CTV, he will host his 10th annual Oscar red-carpet extravaganza. We caught up with the political scion and longtime celeb-interviewer to ask about awkward run-ins with famous people, the magic of Angelina Jolie and how exactly he gets that tan.

Okay, be honest—how long is it going to take you to get ready for Oscar night?

I go to the gym the morning of. I get a really good sleep. We used to stay up cramming…

You mean like, “Quick, name all the birthplaces of the Jolie-Pitt children”?

Well, my executive producer would say, “So and so has just arrived—what’s your first question?” At this point we’ve sort of developed a shorthand, and most of the time you can see the star coming down the carpet, so you do have a couple of seconds to figure it out. So we don’t stay up cramming anymore. It’s just shower, hair, shave—that’s about 20 minutes. I keep the hair shorter now, so it’s faster.

Wait, no blow dry?

I always use a blow dryer—I don’t ever want to leave the house with wet hair.

And who will you be wearing?

Zegna sent me a very nice tux. It’s a very traditional, classic look with the bowtie and larger lapels.

You’ve been doing the Oscar red carpet for 10 years. In all that time, which celebs stick out as favourites?

Oprah Winfrey sticks out. She showed up when we’d just gone into a three-and-a-half minute commercial break. That is a long time to make small talk with the biggest celebrity in the world, and my producer is in my ear saying, “Do not let her go!” She could tell I was panicking and she just tightened her grip around my hand and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”

What about when you’re sort of spinning your wheels interviewing a C-lister and all of a sudden you hear, “Brad Pitt’s ready right this second”?

Well, hopefully he can wait for me to wrap up with a final question, but sometimes that’s not the case. Then you have to cut the person off and wish them a great night. When that happens, it’s awful, but I think people understand that there’s a pecking order.

How does covering Oscar night compare to covering TIFF?

There’s no carpet in the world that compares to the Oscars. TIFF is different because we’re on our own turf. We do work with the festival year-round, so we’re rewarded with great positioning.

You’re kind of the cock of the walk then. Did you get a chance to interview Brangelina at last year’s festival?

I got Angelina on the carpet for a short period of time.

And is she really all that?

If you’re somebody who thinks she’s nothing special, just meet her. I swear, even if you’d never seen a movie or a magazine before, if you walked by her on the street you would know that she’s somebody special.

I’ve heard that she hates Ryan Seacrest.

Yeah, apparently something awkward happened on a carpet. I think it started a few years ago at the Golden Globes, and then last time she was at the Oscars she refused to talk to him. She came to talk to me, though.

Take that, Seacrest! Do you ever feel icky about some of the stuff you cover, given that there is so much “real news” going on in the world?

There are parts of your job that you like better than others. I don’t want to interview Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan. I’ve expressed that to my producers and there are plenty of reporters who want to do those interviews. I follow the mainstream news and current events as much as anyone else. I’ve always thought of eTalk as an important show. Prior to this, there was no show that covered Canadian accomplishment in entertainment. And the majority of our show is still Canadian content. What’s the point of all of these tax credits and the CRTC if there is no one there to deliver the end result?

Did you notice that someone created a fake Ben Mulroney Twitter feed a while back? That person talked a lot about tanning.

First of all, this is mostly makeup. It’s just one of those things. And look, how many people in Canadian television are a known quantity? If somebody said “Ben Mulroney” and the response was, “Who?”, that would be more worrying.

You and your wife have twin sons. Do they watch you on TV?

They recognize me on TV, but they don’t really understand how I’m there and in the house.

I read that you don’t plan to stay in the celebrity news game forever. So what’s next?

I’d like to segue into current events eventually.

So should Strombo be worried? Ben-bo?

I’d like to do something like that, but in the mornings. I think people are more receptive at the start of the day.

Any plans to follow in the family tradition of politics?

Hell no! I put my foot in my mouth more than Justin Trudeau.

Will your parents watch you on Oscar night?

Oh, yeah. My parents are in Florida and they have a Bell satellite dish so they can watch me on TV. They’re reversing the digital brain drain.