‘White Collar’s’ Tiffani Thiessen: Baby-Centric and Loving It

While the “White Collar” team is busy creating episodes of their sophisticated crime dramedy, off-camera their set is becoming something of a romper room. At least, that’s the feeling one gets listening to Tiffani Thiessen, whose six-month-old daughter, Harper, is the latest addition to the tiny visitor contingent.

“There are a lot of people on our show who have kids. She’s definitely the newest one. I think they love having her energy around the set. It’s fun. I think we’re going to have a little playroom/nursery when we go back into production,” says the actress, who plays the smart wife of an FBI man (Tim DeKay) on the popular series that also stars Matt Bomer as a reformed, debonair thief. They’ll resume work in March for the show’s third season. “White Collar” returns to the USA Network schedule with part two of Season 2 on Jan. 18.

It wasn’t easy going back to work six-and-a-half weeks after giving birth, Thiessen admits. “I missed everyone, but I was not real excited about going back. It was definitely challenging. You’re kind of like a walking zombie, tired all the time. I’m nursing, so my mom would come to the set and take care of her while I was working. The show has been amazing. They gave me time whenever I had to nurse her. I’m really blessed to have had so much understanding and a lot of great help. I have to give credit where it’s due — I couldn’t have done it without help from my mom and my husband (actor Brady Smith).”

Right now, Thiessen’s attention is on Harper’s first Christmas and “all the things you’ve got to do — the cheesy photos with Santa, the Christmas tree,” she notes happily. The Smiths will spend “half our Christmas in California with my family, and half in Texas with his,” she adds.

There’s also Thiessen’s new entrepreneurial sideline: Petit Nest, the baby furnishings line, including, she says, “cribs, dressers, chairs, gliders, decorative art and things like bedding and linens.”

“When I was designing my own nursery … I realized there was not a lot out there that appealed to (my) tastes,” she says.

All of which might lead one to think the one-time “Saved by the Bell” and “Beverly Hills, 90210″ cutie has a baby-centric mindset these days. And that’s just fine with her. “She’s the light of my life,” she says of Harper. “I fall in love with her more every day.”

FAMILY TRADITIONS: Speaking of families and holidays, Andy Garcia reports it will be a big family gathering this Christmas for him and his kin. “We take our holidays very seriously. We have 30 people over for Thanksgiving every year, and celebrate Christmas with our extended family members. We have four kids,” reminds the actor, whose grown daughters, Dominik and Daniella, have already followed him into the acting realm.

Indeed, acting is quite the family affair in the Garcia clan. Speaking of 19-year-old college student Alessandra and 8-year-old son Andres, he notes, “In school, they always take story theater and that kind of thing. They’re exposed to the theater. I think that being comfortable performing in front of people is very good for their self-esteem. My oldest daughters did that from a very early age. Now they’re obviously colleagues. We’ve done two movies together,” he says, referring to his “City Island” and “The Lost City.”

He adds, “As a proud father, it’s always good to look across the dining room table and see your child there is happy and being fulfilled.”

Thousands of zombies walk Fremont streets

CALIFORNIA: Thousands of undead (zombies) walked the streets of Fremont in a bid to set a new Guinness World Record.

According to organizers, 4,233 red, white and bloody zombies participated in the event.

They shuffled, ambled and sometimes lunged at unsuspecting spectators. They chased zombie hunters who rationalized their attacks on them by saying, “The undead aren’t people.” They threatened to eat the living, although some chose to go vegan or organic in their dining preferences. They came caked in (fake) blood, several stages of decomposition and excelling in creativity. A lot of people have been watching a lot of zombie movies, because they were all kinds of convincing.

There were several varieties of Zombies: Stormtrooper Staked by Lightsaber, Star Trek (always the red shirts!), Horror Movie Perfect, World Cup fan/Vuvuzela (stop blowing that damn horn!), Baby, Prom, Village People, Killed by Golfball, Goth, Family, Office Worker, Bride, Brain Eating, Hobo Couple, etc.

Man Wins Lottery Leaves Wife

Man Wins Lottery Leaves Wife, A South Florida woman whose husband won the lottery and then left her was set to be evicted from her home Tuesday evening.

But Local 10’s camera was rolling when Donna Campbell received an early Christmas present.

Campbell was given until Tuesday to pack up and leave the Miramar home she once shared with her husband, Arnim Ramdass.

“I have asked myself over and over what I did to deserve this, to deserve this ending,” Campbell said.

Ramdass and several other airline mechanics won $19 million in a June 2007 lottery jackpot. Instead of sharing the wealth, Campbell said her husband did not tell her about his win and eventually left her.

A previous lawsuit Campbell filed was dropped. Ramdass stopped paying the mortgage, and their home went into foreclosure.

While they are still legally married, Campbell said Ramdass has vanished.

“I have no idea where he is,” Campbell said.

In fact, the only reminder of the man with whom she once shared this home were wedding pictures on the dining room table. As far as the rest of her belongings, she was prepared to have to let them go.

“I could part with anything in the house. It doesn’t matter. But the Christmas stuff means a whole lot to me,” she told Local 10’s Jen Herrera.

Campbell spent Tuesday packing up pictures and clothing. She said she would leave behind furniture and other large items, as she had no place to go and can’t afford to store them.

But when the folks at Allied Van Lines moving company saw Campbell’s story on Local 10, they offered to move her belongings and store them at their facility for free.

“That would be wonderful. Thank you very much. You made my Christmas,” Campbell told the man on the other end of the phone when she heard the news.

Campbell wants to divorce Ramdass, file suit for her half of the money and serve him with papers, but her husband is nowhere to be found.

“I intend to find him. I will keep trying until I get him,” Campbell said.

In the meantime, she plans on moving in with her sister while her attorney continues to look for her husband to serve him divorce papers.

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Man Wins Lottery Leaves Wife was first posted on December 16, 2009 at 10:14 pm.