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Actor Nathan Lane (pictured, via) and his life partner Devlin Elliott will team up as writers for a picture book series. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers will release the first installment, Naughty Mabel, in Fall 2015.

According to the press release, the story follows “a fabulous French bulldog based on Lane and Elliott’s very own naughty (but adorable) pup. Mabel is the queen of the Hamptons and has a penchant for getting her perfectly pedicured paws into trouble.”

Publisher Justin Chanda negotiated the deal with Brenda Bowen of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates (representing Lane and Elliott) and Abigail Samoun of Red Fox Literary (representing Krall). Chanda will edit the manuscripts. Animator Dan Krall has been brought on to create the illustrations.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Dan Krall is genius. I mean, he created a book about lollipops! What kid doesn’t love lollipops?!

And there’s something for us adults, too. Capers! Ya know, the salty little fellas that go with lox and a nice schmear (that’s NY-talk for cream cheese). Delish (more NY-talk). I can’t decide which I like more. And thankfully I don’t have to, because both get equal billing in THE GREAT LOLLIPOP CAPER…which releases today!

In the book, Caper’s a sourpuss. He wants kids to love him as much as they love Lollipop. Caper goes on a great caper to elevate his kid appeal, only to ungracefully fall far from grace. But don’t worry, he cleans up his act. And everyone else cleans their plates.

As you can imagine, Dan is super busy, what with the book release and working on “Chowder” and all. He’s tied up, so he sent Lollipop and Caper over to have a chat with me.

Caper, you’re beloved by adults and chicken piccatas everywhere, so why did you feel the need to convert kids into fans?

Well…no offense to adults, but they’re kind of boring. They’re not gonna see this, are they? I mean they’re fine in their way, sitting quietly in a candlelit restaurant, sipping wine, enjoying me on pasta while having a quiet, serious conversation… “Oh, does this have capers on it? Why, I believe it does…” Blah, blah, blah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s better than just hanging out in my jar all day. But come on, when I see the party Lollipop is having with children? Running around screaming, carnivals, theme parks, birthday parties…I mean, they go nuts for him, so who doesn’t want to get in on that?

Lollipop, you’re such a sweet guy. You wanted to help Caper even though he tried to wiggle in on your likable, lickable territory. Why so generous?

I’m a sweet and tangy lollipop and children love me. [smiles vacantly]

Um, yeah. And to think you spend your day having your brain sucked out. Never woulda known.

So let’s come back to you, Caper. I’m amazed you passed yourself off as a pea to sneak into the lollipop factory. I didn’t know capers were such masters of disguise. What other impressions do you do?

Thanks for noticing that, you know it’s one of my several talents and one of the many reasons everybody would love me if they just got to know me a little better. I have a very wide repertoire of personas I can inhabit—Bogart, Mitchum, McGruff the Crime Dog, The Neighborhood Watch guy, pretty much anybody I set my mind to that’s wearing a trench coat and fedora. I can also do a pretty mean fava bean.

So I suppose after all this, you’re content with being a Caper. Lollipop, are you happy being candy?

I’m really happy being just about anything as long as it’s sweet, and nice, and pleasant, and lovely and…. [drifts off into a vacant stare] Oh…and I always kind of wanted to be a forest ranger. [smiles]

Well, fellas, it’s obvious that Dan captured your personalities perfectly for this book. So let’s show our blog readers by having a little giveaway.

Please leave a comment to enter, letting us know if you prefer Lollipops or Capers.

A winner will be randomly selected in about a week! Good luck!

And be sure to check out THE GREAT LOLLIPOP CAPER by Dan Krall, available today!

OMG! I’m having a fangirl moment. Somebody fan me and feed me chocolate. (No, not YOU. Get Ryan Gosling.) Because not only is the brilliantly prolific author Tammi Sauer here, but she brought along the stars of her newest picture book, OH NUTS!

Thankfully I have Billy Bush helping me out (who will do as a Ryan Gosling substitute in a pinch). Billy’s qualified to interview Miss Universe contestants, so he will no doubt pose the tough questions to our guests Cutesy, Blinky and Bob. He caught them on last night’s Emmy’s Red Carpet.

Take it away, Billy.

Billy: Wow, so great to see you Cutesy, Blinky and Bob, stars of OH NUTS! Thanks for stopping to talk. You look fabulous. Tell us, who are you wearing?

Cutesy: Carolina Herrerra’s “Forest Dwellers” collection.

Blinky: Um, obviously Bob. Will someone please peel him off my back?

Bob: Wait, I was supposed to get DRESSED?

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Billy: So you guys reached the pinnacle of popularity but then retreated from the limelight. What caused you to give up show business? Was the pressure just too much?

Blinky: Well, dude, we realized we had to be true to our inner chipmunk, you know?

Cutesy: Plus, all those flashing lights kind of wrecked my mascara.

Bob: Huh?

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Billy: But your fans really want you to get back into the game. We heard that Alvin and his crew rejected an offer to star in “The Hunger Games IV: Acorn Atrocity”. Will you be lobbying for those roles now?

Cutesy: Our agent definitely wants us to consider it.

Blinky: Like whoa. It would be an awesome opportunity to showcase my six-pack.

Bob: I like noodles.

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Billy: Do you think you’d like to branch out into other forms of entertainment? You know, become a triple-threat with a triple-threat?

Cutesy: We’ll always stick together, but we each have something special to give the world. Soon I’ll be launching my very own line of accessories called Chic Chipmunk.

Blinky: ABC wants me to be the next Bachelor.

Bob: I’m going to…wait…I forget.

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Billy: How would you like to be remembered and immortalized by your fans?

Cutesy: We just want everyone to remember that chipmunks are people, too.

Blinky: I’d really like a street named after me.

Bob: I’d really like a nap. And a taco.

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Billy: Oh wow, here comes Brangelina…so…SCRAM!

Cutesy: You know, we have a nickname, too. It’s “Blutesy”.

Blinky: I like it!

Bob: Hey, where’s the “Bob” in that?

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Well, thanks Billy Bush, Cutesy, Blinky and Bob for the interview. And thanks for leaving behind an autographed copy of OH NUTS!

One lucky US resident will win it, just leave a comment to be entered! A winner will be randomly selected one week from today. Good luck!

And don’t forget to check out the rest of Tammi Sauer’s books. I mean, there must be a million of them now.

I never thought I’d be posting about Scooby Doo ever again, much less be enthusiastic about it – but I happened to catch a few episodes of Warner Animation’s new Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated on my flight back from a quick trip to New York last month and became fascinated with them. My mind was saying “hate this”, “turn the channel”… but my eyes and ears were sorta digging it. I’d totally ignored this show for over a year – and now I found myself liking it. A lot.

I’d always been partial to A Pup Named Scooby Doo, but there’s something odd – and cool – about this latest take on the series. First off, there’s now a story arc for the entire show, Scooby apparently has more “dialogue”, Jonny Quest and Yogi Bear make cameos, Harlan Ellison (!!) plays himself (see clip below), Shaggy gets a crewcut (and it takes several episodes to grow back!), the characters poke fun at their personalities, yet stay true to the original series — and dammit, it’s fun! Heck, it even looks a hell of a lot better than any of the previous “takes”. So I contacted producer Tony Cervone and asked him to give me the scoob… err, scoop on this show. Here’s what Tony had to say (edited for space):

“We started with the premise that they really are “meddling kids”; teenagers going to high school, doing things they shouldn’t be doing. The show is a reboot universe, we borrowed things from the entire history of Scooby-Doo. The characters elude to things in the past, from Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, they meet characters they met in the direct-to-DVDs, references to things in the live action movies, Vincent Van Ghoul from The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo is in it. We pick and choose what to include.

“There is a 52-episode story arc, and in Season 2 (currently airing) every episode counts to tell the larger story. The characters are now more like normal teenagers – they hook up on occasion and break apart. We started the series with Shaggy and Velma paired off, but then Scooby found out and there was a weird romantic triangle. Yeah, Shaggy broke it off with Velma because he didn’t want to upset his best friend too much.

“We learn who the original “Mystery Incorporated” were. They were a high school club from decades past. They come back as adults (voiced by Lewis Black, Vivica A. Fox, Tia Carrera, Udo Kier and Tim Matheson) and they’re not what the gang thought they were. It’s deep and it’s dense and it only gets deeper, denser and stranger from here on in. Dan Krall art directed the first season and set the style for the show, Steve Nicodemus has followed up on the second 26 episodes. It’s so great – I don’t even know how they let us make it.”

The show airs every weekday at 2pm EST/11am PST on Cartoon Network, right after the classic Looney Tunes, and it’s worth a look. Cervone tells me that next Thursday’s episode (Heart of Evil) contains a new, “Dark Knight” take on Dynomutt and The Blue Falcon. Those who hate Scooby-Doo will never watch this (and I totally understand) – but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s been following it. What’s your take? C’mon Scoobie fans, back me up on this.