{"id":2114799,"date":"2025-10-25T11:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T11:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2114799"},"modified":"2025-10-25T11:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T11:38:09","slug":"kc-reporter-michael-mackie-recalls-wild-celeb-encounters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/kc-reporter-michael-mackie-recalls-wild-celeb-encounters\/","title":{"rendered":"KC reporter Michael Mackie recalls wild celeb encounters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kansas City celebrity interviewer, Michael Mackie, center, has written a book about what it\u2019s been like to interview and meet stars, including Donny and Marie Osmond, seen here.<\/p>\n

Courtesy Michael Mackie<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Less than a year into working as an entertainment reporter, Michael Mackie says he set the gold standard for worst celebrity interviews when he survived an excruciating chat with Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones, who is known for being prickly with the press.<\/p>\n

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Mackie was determined to be his bestie.<\/p>\n

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Bring a tissue<\/i>, a fellow movie critic jokingly warned. He\u2019ll probably make you cry.<\/i><\/p>\n

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\u201cSome would say he\u2019s a man of few words. I know this from experience, as my interview with him ranks as the worst<\/i> four minutes of my life,\u201d Mackie writes in his recently released memoir, \u201cYou Have 4 Minutes, My Life as an Unlikely Celebrity Interviewer.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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Right up front, Mackie wanted The Star to know this about his book: \u201cI need you to know not one word of it was from AI. It was all Michael Mackie, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The \u201cfour minutes\u201d in the title refers to the brief window of TV time he typically had with each celeb. By his count he\u2019s interviewed about 1,000 celebrities over the last 30-or-so years. That includes Hollywood\u2019s marquee Jennifers.<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Aniston. Jennifer Lopez. Jennifer Garner. Jennifer Connelly.<\/p>\n

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The Des Moines, Iowa native is the former co-host of the TV morning show, \u201cKansas City Live,\u201d a freelance writer for several local publications and a favorite guest on KMBZ \u201cDana & Parks\u201d who ups the antics every time he joins the popular radio duo.<\/p>\n

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Mackie\u2019s new memoir. <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Mackie sat down with Jones in 2000 to talk about the actor\u2019s military legal drama, \u201cThe Rules of Engagement.\u201d Jones was seated and half-asleep at 8 a.m. the morning Mackie walked into the room.<\/p>\n

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While the crew took care of technical difficulties, Mackie told Jones that his father mistakenly thought he was interviewing M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce drummer Tommy Lee. Encouraged to see Jones sorta respond, Mackie kept babbling on and on and on about his dad, unaware that everyone else in the room was cringing.<\/p>\n

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They saw the Tommy train barreling toward him.<\/p>\n

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By the time the interview began, Mackie wrote, \u201cJones had reached, I found out later, a quiet fury of contempt … (he) said maybe a total of two dozen words during the interview \u2014 more if you count \u2018uh-huh\u2019 as two words.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cLook at your face,\u201d Mackie\u2019s assignment editor told him as they watched the interview later. \u201cI\u2019m actually watching a human being implode on camera. You know we can\u2019t use this, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jones aside, traveling the country on press junkets watching movies (free concessions!), interviewing actors, earning eight Emmys of his own, eating breakfast with his childhood crush Lindsay Wagner, TV\u2019s Wonder Woman, and once having Jimmy Fallon compliment his J. Crew ensemble has been a pinch-me-is-this-real life.<\/p>\n

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The pay for this \u201csweet gig talking to celebrities\u201d?<\/p>\n

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Meh.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe only thing that pays less than being an entertainment reporter is being a travel writer and I have done both,\u201d said Mackie. \u201cI have lived a very glamorous life and I\u2019m poorer than a church mouse, straight up.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve gotten to talk to 11 Academy Award winners. I\u2019ve gotten to travel the world and write about it and monetarily I have nothing to show for it. But, life is to be lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Americans have not lost their appetite for celebrity news, but stars don\u2019t share like they used to, Mackie said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCelebrities are a lot more guarded because if they say or do the wrong thing they have to worry about getting canceled and that\u2019s a giant threat,\u201d he said. \u201cSo a lot of times they\u2019re more guarded. So while I don\u2019t ask softball questions, I will never go in for the jugular anymore like I used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Over the years he developed a rule about interviewing celebs that belied his self-described \u201cirreverent twit\u201d reputation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThree words, do your homework and three more, do your research. Because the best interviews are ones when you have some sort of inside-baseball or insight on the celebrity … I don\u2019t want to ask a celebrity the same drivel that they\u2019ve been asked 300,000 times because they\u2019ll just stare at you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHere\u2019s an example. If and when \u2014 no, not if, when<\/i> \u2014 I interview Dolly Parton, I\u2019m going to ask her about her love of Velveeta cheese because that isn\u2019t well-documented.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut I know for a fact that she\u2019s obsessed with Velveeta and has it in her frig and I want to know about her love of Velveeta. And that\u2019s a stupid, dumb, mindless question. But damn it, it\u2019s going to be a memorable one that readers will appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A young Mackie with a young Jimmy Fallon. Courtesy Michael Mackie<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Mackie, two of his eight Emmys, and \u201cUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidt\u201d star Ellie Kemper, a Missouri native. Courtesy Michael Mackie<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Mackie with TV\u2019s \u201cIncredible Hulk\u201d Lou Ferrigno. Courtesy Michael Mackie<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Sarah McLachlan, please call<\/h2>\n

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The New Theatre & Restaurant in Overland Park, where shows run for weeks at a time, has provided an endless supply of actors to chat with. During his time on the morning show, he saw New Theatre regulars Cindy Williams of \u201cLaverne & Shirley\u201d and Barbara Eden of \u201cI Dream of Jeannie\u201d more than his own family, he jokes in the book.<\/p>\n

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He called them Cindi and Babs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe only interview I bombed outright, and I wish I could have a do-over, is Sarah McLachlan who I interviewed back in 1997 and had such a complete boy crush that I flubbed the entire interview because I was starstruck,\u201d he said. \u201cNo part of that interview was airable.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd after that I realized I cannot, even if I\u2019m a fan, I cannot be starstruck. I have a job to do. And that has been the case ever since and I have never flubbed an interview since then.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHowever, that being said, Sarah, if you\u2019re reading this and I know that you probably are, please give me a do-over. Please. I beg of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As bad as that might have been, it was way more enjoyable than spending time with that Chris Kattan guy from \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d Mackie interviewed him once when Kattan came to Kansas City to perform stand-up.<\/p>\n

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Kattan, Mackie writes, was a \u201cridiculous mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd when I say mess, I mean sweaty mess. He was a sweaty, babbling, incoherent, glazed-over mess. For God\u2019s sake, he chomped away on an apple during our interview … he gnawed down on it like a spastic horse,\u201d he writes. \u201cA sweaty, babbling, incoherent, glazed-over, spastic horse,\u201d Mackie writes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt the very end I think I said something to the effect of \u2018Chris, thanks for almost being here today,\u2019\u201d Mackie told the Star. \u201cLike he had no business doing that interview with me. And I\u2019m shocked the level at which publicists and agents let their stars sit down for an interview when they have imbibed or should not be speaking about anything, or even vertical for that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Another example: the late Anna Nicole Smith, former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star who was 26 when she married her 89-year-old billionaire husband.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI remember interviewing Anna Nicole Smith when she had absolutely no business whatsoever being interviewed. She was clearly, allegedly, out of her gourd, and I was so annoyed because she wasn\u2019t answering my questions,\u201d Mackie said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd you can go and watch this on YouTube. I got so annoyed that I did a pop quiz. And I was like, \u2018Anna, quick, how many people were in the Jackson 5? When was the war of 1812?\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was asking her the stupidest questions and she didn\u2019t even get those right. So bad. I do not know why they let her do that … it made for good TV on my end, but it didn\u2019t look good for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Cindy Wilson of The B-52s, Mackie\u2019s musical obsession, wrote the foreword for his book. Courtesy Michael Mackie<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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With comedian Craig Robinson. Courtesy Michael Mackie<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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If you can\u2019t tell by now, Mackie spills a lot of tea in the book … heck, the entire teapot.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis book will likely be passed around from generation to generation, which ensures my good name will be bandied about for years to come,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt will also be the basis for countless, meritless lawsuits where celebs deny something they said or did. (They did. I have receipts!)\u201d<\/p>\n

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He also shares what was happening in his private life, including the shocking stroke that left him with something in common with none other than Brad Pitt.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHaving my brain explode at age 40 was not on my bingo card,\u201d Mackie writes.<\/p>\n

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Post-stroke, he can\u2019t recognize faces, a rare neurological condition known as prosopagnosia, or face blindness. Two percent of the population is said to have it, now including Mackie and the \u201cF1\u201d actor.<\/p>\n

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Pitt has said though he\u2019s never been diagnosed, he thinks that\u2019s why he has trouble recognizing people<\/a> and leads people to think he\u2019s aloof.<\/p>\n

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People also might not know that on the day COVID-19 shut down the world in March 2020 Mackie was on a cruise ship, floating in the ocean with a bunch of \u201880s stars and their fans. \u201cI think there were only four cruise ships on the water in the world and I was on one of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s still in awe that the cruise line managed to complete the trip. Bands canceled \u201cbut they somehow filled every single slot,\u201d he said. \u201cTaylor Dane was never going to headline and then one night it was \u201cladies and gentlemen, Taylor Dane.\u2019 And I was like, what? \u2018Ladies and gentlemen, Kool & The Gang.\u2019 What?\u201d<\/p>\n

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An image etched forever in his brain: Patty Smyth flat on her back on the stage holding a mic over her head and singing because she got seasick in the middle of her set.<\/p>\n

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Mackie and the \u201cBionic Woman\u201d herself, Lindsay Wagner. Courtesy Michael Mackie<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Clearly Mackie has enough stories for a sequel. Maybe more Marie Osmond stories?<\/p>\n

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Early in his career he met brother-and-sister Donny and Marie Osmond as they toured TV stations promoting their daytime talk show. It was popular in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

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Mackie\u2019s boss at KMBC assigned him to be their \u201cyes man\u201d for the day, which was a lot of glad-handing and Marie re-adjusting her bangs, he recalls.<\/p>\n

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Donny and Marie were exhausted by the end of the day when they still had promos to shoot. Marie glowed under the extra key light she asked to have focused just on her. But she kept slumping in her chair. Badly. Enough to be distracting. Enough to look like a balloon deflating, Mackie describes.<\/p>\n

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Since he was their wrangler, it fell to him to fix it.<\/p>\n

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So across the crowded TV studio, Mackie yelled: \u201cMarie! Perky! Boobies! Up!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not sure what sort of rift I created in the time-space continuum, but I definitely caused a tear in the fabric of the universe. Gasps were audible, but not from Donny or Marie,\u201d Mackie writes.<\/p>\n

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Later, his bewildered boss asked: \u201cWhat the (bleep) did Michael say to Marie Osmond?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Lopez was not a diva<\/h2>\n

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Since we had more time than four minutes to talk with Mackie we asked him to play a celeb-themed round of celebrity \u201cwho would you rather.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Star: Who would you want to spend Thanksgiving with?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cFor sure I would want Oprah to invite me to Thanksgiving dinner because I\u2019m going to need some pointers \u2026 she is as far as I\u2019m concerned the best interviewer in the history of interviewers. Forget Diane Sawyer. Forget Barbara Walters. It\u2019s all Oprah all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Who would your hire as a stylist?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh god, that\u2019s a good question. Probably J-Lo. She\u2019s one who totally surprised me. I expected full-tilt diva and I got Jenny from the Block. Used to have a little, now she\u2019s got a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Who do you want to cook dinner for you?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh, that\u2019s easy. That\u2019s Jasper. Duh. Chef Jasper Mirable has single-handedly kept me from reaching my goal weight for a decade.\u201d (In the book he shares Mirable\u2019s recipe for Shrimp De Jonghe.)<\/p>\n

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Who would you call in an emergency? (He created a sliding scale of friends he would call for various levels of emergencies.)<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cProbably because she\u2019s so no-nonsense and doesn\u2019t take anyone\u2019s guff, probably Patti Lupone because I just feel like Patti Lupone gets (bleep) done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Who would you want as your bestie?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cHonestly, I love Bridget Everett. I think the sun rises and sets on her, and the fact that she had a show that was set in Kansas endeared me to her even more. I just think she is always the life of the party. She\u2019s my people. And she legit is because she\u2019s from Kansas. Also, Bridget Everett gave my book five out of five (bleeps).\u201d<\/p>\n

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Who would you borrow money from? Who would loan you money?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh for sure Jennifer Aniston. You know she\u2019s worth about a half a billion dollars. She\u2019s not going to miss it. And she\u2019s delightful. I feel like I could get, you know, just $100,000 here and $100,000 there and she\u2019d be cool with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Who would you ask to write a song about you?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cOh well, Sarah McLachlan because I need that redo, for sure. Plus, I\u2019m sure puppies would somehow be involved and people love puppies.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Who would you want to cuddle with and watch a movie with on the sofa?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cWho do I have a man crush on? Who\u2019s that Australian chef who\u2019s in the middle of the book? I can\u2019t think of his name. Because you know he has that Australian accent and that chiseled jawline and he\u2019d cook you a mean meal.\u201d (It was Curtis Stone, who made Mackie\u2019s knees buckle when they met.)<\/p>\n

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Who would you ask to write your eulogy?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cOoh, That would be, yikes, why do I feel Jane Fonda would take a crack at it? I\u2019ve interviewed her twice. I feel like Jane Fonda would give it just the right amount of sparkle, the right amount of sass and attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lisa Gutierrez<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lisa Gutierrez has been a reporter for The Kansas City Star since 2000. She learned journalism at the University of Kansas, her alma mater. She writes about pop culture, local celebrities, trends and life in the metro through its people. Oh, and dogs. You can reach her at lgutierrez@kcstar.com or follow her on Twitter – @LisaGinKC.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas City celebrity interviewer, Michael Mackie, center, has written a book about what it\u2019s been like to interview and meet stars, including Donny and Marie Osmond, seen here. Courtesy Michael Mackie Less than a year into working as an entertainment reporter, Michael Mackie says he set the gold standard for worst celebrity interviews when he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2114800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[344976,310650,371854,400808],"class_list":["post-2114799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-celebrity-interviews","tag-kansas-city","tag-memoir","tag-michael-mackie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/KC-reporter-Michael-Mackie-recalls-wild-celeb-encounters.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2114799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2114801,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114799\/revisions\/2114801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2114800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2114799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2114799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2114799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}