In Greenroom Confidential, reporters and editors atย TODAY.comย share a look at what actors, authors, performers and more guests told us behind the scenes at TODAY.
April 28 marked the start of Broadway Week at TODAY, and stars performed on the plaza all week long, including the casts of โSmash,โ โBoop! The Musical,โ “Maybe Happy Ending” and โDeath Becomes Her.โ
And that was only the beginning. Plenty of celebs came through TODAY’s Orange Room on their way to Studio 1A, including Dennis Quaid, Christie Brinkley, Geena Davis, Maury Povich, Nicole Scherzinger and oh-so-many others. Discover some of the best moments right here.
Christie Brinkley opens up about her 9-year marriage to Billy Joel
Having graced the covers of more than 500 magazines, Christie Brinkley reflects on her longtime career and 11-year relationship with music legend Billy Joel in her new memoir, “Uptown Girl.”
The supermodel told TODAY.com that Joel asked her to take part in his upcoming documentary, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes,” telling her to say what she needed to say: “He said, ‘No holds barred. You can talk freely.'”
Joel also gave Brinkley the green light to include the ups and downs of their marriage, including his struggle with addiction.
“I applaud him for all of that. It takes a lot of courage and self-knowledge,” she told TODAY.com.
Brinkley also addressed whether or not the pair remain friends, confirming that they, in fact, are and that when it comes to love and relationships, keeping “good people close is a beautiful thing.”
“I think true love lasts forever,” she said. “It can change shapes, but always hold a special place in your heart.”
The stars of ‘Smash’ talk starring in a musical about the making of a musical
To kick off TODAY’s Broadway Week, the cast of “Smash” performed live on the plaza. The musical stars Robyn Hurder as Ivy Lynn, a renowned Broadway actress tackling the role of a lifetime in Marilyn Monroe, and Caroline Bowman as Ivy’s longtime friend and understudy, Karen Cartwright. The songs and characters come from NBC’s 2012 drama of the same name, but the 2025 musical takes on a more comedic tone.
The final product is a meta look at Broadway, with “Smash” serving as a musical about the process of making a musical, called “Bombshell.”
Hurder told TODAY.com that “every single day” there would be moments of feeling like rehearsing “Smash” was holding up a mirror to reality.
“There would be moments where we’re looking at each other and we’re just literally like, ‘Are we doing the show as Nigel and Tracy (characters in “Smash”), or are we doing it as Brooks (Ashmanskas) and Krysta (Rodriguez)?'” Hurder said. “I mean, we always will have these moments all throughout the rehearsal process that were like, ‘Wow, we’ve never been so meta before.'”
Bowman said sometimes the lines between reality and project blurred, adding the finished musical was a “heightened” version of what goes on behind the scenes of Broadway.
“I felt like the writers, too, kind of were really listening to conversations that we were having, because then suddenly, like lines would show up in the script and we’d be like, ‘Oh my gosh. That was said in rehearsal yesterday,'” Bowman said.
Maury Povich reveals the secret behind his longtime marriage to Connie Chung
Legendary daytime talk show host Maury Povich dropped by Studio 1A to talk about his latest project: “On Par,” a podcast where the 86-year-old talks about his experiences, opinions and reminiscences about his eponymous talk show.
According to Povich, unlike his long-running television show, in which he primarily focused on other people’s stories, the new podcast features, well, him.
“Now, when somebody says something that I can relate to in my own life, I can be able to express it,” he told TODAY.com.
The host said that when “Maury” ended in 2022, he thought he was ready to hang up his media career.
“I always thought that after the talk show was over, that would be it, because the guy I admired the most was Johnny Carson. So, when he left, he never appeared on TV again. And I wanted to kind of be that way. It was over. I loved it. It was time to wrap it up,” he said.
So, what prompted his return?
“I just felt that I had a few things left to give,” he said. “And my wife kind of convinced me to do this and so that’s why I’m doing it.”
Speaking of which, we wondered what the secret sauce is behind his 41-year marriage to journalist Connie Chung.
“You have to give each other a long leash and I think you can’t hover,” he said. “Don’t be a helicopter spouse.”
Henry Golding talks working with Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron
Henry Golding, star of “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Nine Perfect Strangers,” sat down with the 3rd hour of TODAY to chat about “Another Simple Favor,” the sequel to his 2018 movie, “A Simple Favor,” and working with co-stars Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick.
In the greenroom, Golding also reflected on working with leading ladies Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron. Golding and Kidman will appear together in โNine Perfect Strangersโ Season 2, and Golding and Theron will share the screen in the upcoming movie, โThe Old Guard 2.โ
“Every actor I work with, I take a little bit of that process. It’s weird, you have to be a sponge, especially early on in your career, until you find your voice. And I’ve been finding my voice through the years,” he told TODAY.com.
“But to watch how (Kidman and Theron) go about making their choices and the differences that they do take between take, it’s really inspiring,” he said.
More than that, Golding said it affords him the opportunity to “shadow” the best of best and see firsthand how it’s done.
“There’s not many jobs where you actually get to sort of see the process for acting like working with Oscar-winning actresses and actors,” he said. “That is that chance.”
Geena Davis on how being tall inspired her new book
Geena Davis has a long list of accomplishments to her name. Now the Oscar-winner can add “children’s book author” to the rundown.
Her newly-released book, “The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page,” which she wrote and illustrated, tells the story of Sheila, a young girl who sprouts up over summer break and finds herself so tall, she can’t even squeeze into the pages of the book.
Similar to Davis’ own experience of being taller than most of her classmates, the “Thelma and Louise” actor told TODAY.com that the message she hopes to send with her latest project is that it shouldn’t be necessary to conform in order to fit in โ literally.
“What the character in the book learns is that you don’t have to squish yourself โ the world will grow as you do and that you’ll find, it’s amazing,” Davis said.
Dennis Quaid reveals what he considers the ‘best of my movies’
Dennis Quaid sat down with Craig Melvin to talk about his role as a cowboy-turned-rancher in his latest film “Broke,” a Western starring Wyatt Russell and Mary McDonnell.
But that’s not the only project the “Parent Trap” actor has in the works. The 71-year-old also stars in “Sovereign,” a true-crime drama about a father and son on the lam after their anti-government activities provoke a stand-off with police.
What do all these projects have in common?
“Our brand is really Americana, underdogs, American values, somewhat faith adjacent,” Quaid told TODAY.com of his most recent work.
“That’s really what I consider maybe the best of my movies,” he explains, saying that films like “Broke” and “Sovereign” speak to audiences and American values, even if the story is sometimes “twisted.”
TODAY.com couldn’t let the veteran actor leave before asking about Peaches, Quaid’s popular English Bulldog, who often joins him in Studio 1A but was notably missing this week.
“She’s already been up here with me three weeks doing a movie in Jersey City and she said, ‘No, I’m not going back to the city. I want to rest. Too tired. Too tired for the city,'” he said.
Nicole Scherzinger reflects on her Tony nomination
Moments after earning her first Tony nomination for her work in “Sunset Boulevard,” Nicole Scherzinger stopped by TODAY to celebrate the moment and surprise her former “Masked Singer” co-host, and forever friend, Ken Jeong.
โIโm overjoyed with gratitude. My heart is completely full,โ the former Pussycat Dolls singer told TODAY.com shortly after nominations came out.
Scherzinger said the first call she received was from a high school friend who knew of her dreams of Broadway.
โOne of my best friends from high school was the first person to call me, and he said, โBabe. I canโt believe it. This is what we dreamed of,โโ Scherzinger said.
Connie Britton shares what she learned from hosting ‘The Motherhood’
Connie Britton stopped by TODAY Friday, May 2, just days ahead of the premiere of her upcoming unscripted Hallmark series, “The Motherhood.” The show aims to help mothers make sustainable changes in their lives, with the ultimate goal of creating a network of support.
She said that hosting the project showed her “we need to understand as parents that we’re not alone and that we can look to each other and understand that we’re going through a lot of the same experiences.”
“When I became a mom, I also moved to a town where I didn’t have any support system,” Britton, who adopted her now teenage son in 2011, told TODAY.com. “The biggest learning that I then was recognizing I could convey in the show was about creating a sense of a support system.”
In addition to Britton, โThe Motherhoodโ features parenting coach Destini Ann, style and self love expert Taryn Hicks and DIY and home specialist Angela Rose.
“My biggest goal is to create a community for everybody,” Britton said. “On the show, there are people whose lives are changed because we are able to create a workspace for them … But every single thing on the show that we’re going to see is meant to be sustainable.”
Plus, we asked the โ9-1-1โ alum for her reaction to the show’s latest shocking development: the onscreen death of character Bobby Nash, played by Peter Krause. In Season 1 of the show, Britton played 911 dispatcher Abby Clark, opposite Krause as a Los Angeles firefighter captain and Angela Bassett as Athena Grant, a police sergeant.
“Oh, I hadn’t seen that,” Britton said. “Oh no, oh gosh, that’s so terrible for you to break that to me. Oh, R.I.P. Bobby.”
Mother-daughter duo Angourie and Kate Rice on the hardest part of writing a ‘Pride and Prejudice’ retelling
Angourie Rice, star of “Mean Girls,” “The Last Thing He Told Me” and “Honor Society,” appeared on TODAY May 2 alongside her mom, Kate Rice, to discuss their latest roles: co-authors. The pair teamed up to write a young adult romance novel, “Stuck Up and Stupid,” set to publish May 6. The book follows a young girl whose relaxing summer plans are interrupted by a posse of celebrities, led by a Hollywood star.
The book is a modern adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice.” Angourie Rice said her mom used to read the classic to her and her sister as a child. “She read it out loud. She did all the voices. So when I read it, I still hear your voice sometimes, and your characters,” Angourie Rice told TODAY.com while sitting beside Kate Rice.
When it came to adapting the Jane Austen classic, the mother and daughter agree the biggest challenge was Lydia’s elopement.
“That does not mean the same thing now anymore,” Kate Rice said.
“The fact that she’s ruined because she’s potentially not a virgin anymore โ we didn’t want to do that, and so we found a solution that we think updates it and gives the characters more dignity and more chance to grow as well,” Angourie Rice added. “We really wanted the female characters to have the opportunity to explore more in the way that Jane Austen wouldn’t have had the freedom to do.”
‘Death Becomes Her’ stars re-create viral TikTok audios from their Tony-nominated show
The cast of “Death Becomes Her” performed on the plaza May 2. Michelle Williams brought the drama with her rendition of “If You Want Perfection,” while Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard and Christopher Sieber performed “Tell Me, Ernest.”
After, Hilty and Simard put their own spin on two trending sounds from the show that have gone viral over on TikTok.
