OfficeTally

St. Louis Magazine features an in-depth interview with Phyllis Smith:

Phyllis Lapin-Vance could just as easily be that woman from accounting who shares a cube wall with you and wears old-lady perfume and God-awful Christmas sweaters and spends hours on the phone, planning special trips to Orlando for herself and her husband. And Phyllis Smith seemed like she could be that same person, but now we’re not so sure. The line between Phyllis Smith and Phyllis Lapin-Vance is pretty fuzzy to begin with, and honestly, with all this jumping back and forth between the two, we’re starting to confuse ourselves.

Link: Hello My Name is Phyllis

Tipster: Kim

A little lighting birdie told us in the chat room last night that yesterday was Phyllis Smith’s birthday, so

We hope you had a fantastic day, Phyllis!

Here is a radio interview with Phyllis from back in February of this year. Get that birthday girl a TV!

Tipster: DestroyPhone

MTV.com has an interesting story about the role of improv comedy in current film and TV show hits.

The story includes quotes from The Office’s Steve Carell, Leslie David Baker, and Phyllis Smith, as well as a video clip of Jenna Fischer “improvising” with her Blades of Glory co-stars.

I have to agree with what Phyllis says — during the pivotal Jan/Michael scene in “Women’s Appreciation,” where she’s in his office listening to his “break up” voicemail, Steve and Melora improvised brilliantly.

From my set visit notes:

One time Jan growls, another time she starts to cry, and another time, she accidentally gets tangled up in some phone cord or something, and exits Michael’s office in a flustered huff.

On another take, Jan actually throws an orange (or an orange ball, I couldn’t tell which) at Michael. We asked Steve later if he knew that Melora was going to throw something at him. He said, “she got that look in her eyes, so I knew something was coming.”

Link: Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen, Others Reveal Magic Behind Improv Comedy

Backstage.com has a wonderful interview with Phyllis Smith:

In 2004 the company was testing the series regulars for The Office when Smith heard Kwapis say he wanted her to read one of the characters. “I didn’t really think anything about it; I just thought I was being a reader,” she recalls. “I was just hoping I did a good job for the actors.” Over the next few days, Smith heard from other actors in the running that Kwapis wanted her in the show.

“Then when we took people to network, we were walking down the stairs at NBC, and Ken turned to [current NBC co-chairman, then head of production company Reveille] Ben Silverman and said, ‘I want Phyllis in the show. I have a whole backstory for her,’ ” she recalls. “But I’ve been in this business long enough to know that until it’s in writing, I shouldn’t get my hopes up.”

Link: ‘Office’ Space (you’ll need to scroll down the page a bit)

• Blogs: Jenna | Angela 1 | Angela 2
• News: The Office director Ken Kwapis has signed on to direct the film, He’s Just Not That Into You.
• Article: a follow-up on last week’s report about Rashida Jones and her new show The Rules for Starting Over.
• Article: Phyllis Smith talks about office pranks.
• Article: The Dwight Stuff article and photo.
• Article: the Prism Durosport (from The Injury) continues to break new ground with the first ever virtual media player. (Read old DuroSport coverage here and here.)
• Photos: GMMR’s got photos of John Krasinski shooting his latest film, Leatherheads.
• Graphics: the Devil’s Butthole movie poster. Stunning!
• Graphics: here’s your own Dunder Mifflin letterhead, courtesy of The TV Addict.
• Auction: check out these “Dwight for President” buttons at eBay.
• Video: if you missed them this week, check out late night appearances by B.J. on Conan and Jenna on Leno. Both are awesome! And read more about the Cadbury controversy over at, where else, Wikipedia. Size does matter.
• New fansite: quotes galore for every episode and webisode, over at OfficeQuotes.us.
• Live appearance: as Angela mentioned in her latest blog, she will appear on Late Night with David Letterman this coming Friday, April 13th!

Tipsters: Kelley, Nick

Check out this video montage of E!’s Kristin Veitch talking with some of the Office cast at Paley Fest. (And did Angela reveal a little spoiler there?)

Link: Office Gone Wild!

Tipster: GMMR

STLtoday has a sweet little descriptive tour of Dunder Mifflin, courtesy of Phyllis Lapin, bride-to-be:

Because she’s in on her day off, Phyllis sees what was supposed to be a surprise. The conference room is decorated for her bridal shower. Wedding bells hang from the ceiling, and letters spell out “Congratulations, Phyllis.”

“They used all my favorite colors,” she says of the pastel decorating scheme, including pink spoons. “You can see Angela’s touch here. Everything’s very straight.”

Link: Phyllis-as-the-bride guides us on a tour of her ‘Office’

When you want to take a break from football today, check these items out:

• Blogs: updates this week from Bealsebub 1 and 2, John the props guy, Kevin, and Kate. Oh, and Bob Vance’s blog has a few photos from Phyllis’ Wedding.
• Article: MeeVee interviews Melora Hardin.
• Article: This lucky teen scored an Office set visit and an internship!
• Article: American Jewish Life Magazine interviews Rashida Jones.
• Article: Any OT readers from (or near) Boiling Springs, South Carolina? Maybe you’ll see John Krasinski there!
• Article: Jenna Fischer will act and sing in her next film project, Walk Hard.
• Giveaway: Win a Dwight Bobblehead courtesy of MeeVee!
• Auction: two more auction items from David Denman.
• Audio: MeeVee has some funny Golden Globes audio clips.
• Video: Jenna Fischer stars in the video Nonhuman Resources (2004). Jenna can’t help but be adorable, even as a witch!
• Video: Check out a nerdy John Krasinski in the film trailer for Smiley Face.

Tipsters: Melody, Nick, Jennifer, Amy, Megzy