Is that good or bad?

Well, if it's a good movie ... No, it's good because it's nice to have your work come to the screen. But it's also frustrating as a writer because I know that my sensibilities are probably not represented in the final cut of the picture. So that makes you want to make your own movie, like "Made." But then "Made" was so hard. When you're overseeing everything -- from writing the first page of the script to seeing it through its release and the DVD ... I basically worked a year for 20 grand.

I only saw four episodes of "Dinner for Five," but some of the episodes seemed to come off more successfully than others. Is it hard to keep getting a good mix of people?

Well, it's asking a lot of people to sit through dinner for two hours, two-and-a-half hours, and go through makeup before that. And they are nervous, too. It's scary to do press, even though I assure them that I want to make them look good. I want them to feel completely comfortable with everything that hits the screen. If they say something they don't want in there, I cut it out.

Do you prepare topics beforehand?

No, no topics. I give everyone everyone else's résumé just to remind everybody what everyone has done. But there are no cards, no interviews, no pre-interviews, no research. It's the opposite of that. A lot of times on the show, I'll be like, "What was that movie you were on? What was the name of that thing? I saw it on cable." Because that's what a real dinner conversation is. I'm not here to be obsequious, and I'm not here to make people look bad, either. I'm just being one of the five guests. What's interesting, I think, is that we're creating a different dynamic in which to see people that you already know. It's the same reason that people like to see, you know, Heidi Fleiss boxing Paula Jones. They want to see people in a different atmosphere.

There's definitely an increasing interest in the behind-the-scenes lives of famous people.

People like reality. Now they don't have the patience for bad [fiction]. It's hard to get a sitcom off the ground now, because people have seen it all. People want to see "The Osbournes." So, even though the idea is completely different, it still appeals to people's curiosity. Because you're seeing famous people in a very candid way.

Have you ever done an episode where you just thought, "Oh, no"?

Yeah, the best one. The Rod Steiger one [with Sarah Silverman, Ron Livingston and Kevin Pollack], I thought "Oh, no." And that turned out to be one of my favorites. The most fun dinners are not necessarily the most fun to watch. As a matter of fact, the most fun ones tend to be the least interesting. That isn't to say that I want to try and create that. But when I'm eating, I don't know how it's going to turn out. I'm getting better at it, though. I didn't know what the hell I was doing at first. I still don't. But it's sort of like when you're directing a movie. You have half of your brain in the scene, and the other half in the editing room.

The dinner with Marilyn Manson, Andy Dick and Daryl Hannah ...

That was also fucking scary.

Marilyn Manson and Andy Dick kept taking the conversation places Daryl Hannah didn't seem to want to go ... [Throughout the dinner, Manson and Dick mostly kept to subjects like masturbation, porn and an amateur porn movie Manson had made called "Groupie."]

Yeah, but afterward, they all exchanged numbers. And when I worked with her afterward on "The Big Empty," she was like, "We have to go to [Manson's] house and see that movie!" But I was worried for her.

Are you finding yourself doing a lot of damage control?

Sometimes, if people don't get along right off the bat. In one dinner, someone said "fuck you" to somebody else, I won't say who. But they had just met each other. They were both good friends of mine, though. And by the end of the dinner they were exchanging numbers, the best of friends.

Are you a relaxed person, in general, or do you panic sometimes when it's not going well?

I'm relaxed now. I mean, believe me, I get neurotic about things. But now that I'm 35 and have a kid, nothing is as important as what I have going on at home.

Do you learn a lot about people by the way they act in restaurants, what they eat, what they don't eat, how they treat waiters?

Yeah, I mean, it defines people. There are a lot of social and cultural aspects to food, and Hollywood really inherits a lot of that, New York, too. New York was a great place to shoot, because there's such a tradition of meeting at restaurants, and to bond socially. It's a great way to free people up and see a side of them you wouldn't normally see.

Who got the most drunk?

I got pretty drunk during the first one that we shot last year with Peter Berg and Jeanne Tripplehorn. I drank a little more than I should have. And I start sweating when I drink, so it was awful because we don't cut or anything, we just shoot. So, I'm mopping my brow with my napkin, hoping I'm not too much of a mess. And of course, I'm in no position to help facilitate the conversation. Now I stick to wine.

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