Northeast Times

When you wish
upon the stars

Kids Stuff
By William Feldman

Welcome to Kids Stuff. Today’s column is the first in a few covering The Disney Channel Games 2007 and personal interviews with your favorite Disney Channel actors and actresses from these Disney shows: The Cheetah Girls; Johnny Kapahala; The Suite Life of Zack & Cody; Hannah Montana; Cory in the House; and The High School Musical 2.

The Disney Channel Games 2007 — DC Games for short — is an important event that has kids’ and tweens’ favorite Disney Channel actors and actresses from around the entire world competing in games and eight sport activities at The Ballpark of Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex located in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
The wonderful idea is that Disney stars’ hard achievements are benefiting four great children’s charities: Make-A-Wish, Starlight Starbright, UNICEF and various Boys & Girls Clubs. So to me, the bottom line is everyone wins knowing they helped another child.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation since 1980 has been giving joy to children with life-threatening medical conditions. I read that its president, David Williams, declares a child’s wish in the U.S. every 41 minutes.
Starlight Starbright helps seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation through entertainment, education and family activities.
They touch the lives of a sick child and family all along their journey through a serious illness, from the time of diagnosis all the way through, in the hospital and at home and UNICEF.
After all, just like one of Disney’s melodies, It’s a small world after all, when you think of all age kids and fun, you think of Disney — well, at least I do. If Disney’s Channel Games helps one child and their family and puts one smile on their face, they are a success.
The games reminded me a little bit of the Battle of the Network Stars, with a Grammy Award and Olympic flare. Like the Olympics, this event had an opening and closing ceremony, which was very audience-friendly. They had the DC talent stars carrying flags from all the different countries.
Also, audience members were able to carry team colored flags and cheer for their favorite team color. I almost forgot, they even had two commentators, Phill Lewis and Brian Stepanek. The stage had balloon columns decorating it, with all the team colors.
Now the glamorous Grammy Award flare came from the red carpet event; however, because of the sport theme, the carpet was green. Nevertheless, it was just as exciting to have a spot on a green carpet to interview the DC talent stars as they walked down it. This event is now in its second year and I imagine it will have many more.
The stars are divided into four teams: red, yellow, blue and green. From April 24 to 27 the DC stars competed in some fun games: Extreme Rock-Paper-Scissors, Double Obstacle Course, the Dunk Booth, Hamster Bowling Super soccer, Simon Says and Extreme Egg Toss. These DC Games were interactive through an online poll at Disney Channel.com, where the viewers voted to see which stars were going to compete in Arm Wrestling, Dance Dunk Tank or Rock-Climbing relay games.
If you missed seeing this in person or even voting via the online poll, do not worry. The games will be televised throughout the summer starting with the opening ceremonies on Friday, June 15, on your Disney cable station.
Well, I know you probably want to know who exactly participated in these games. OK, here it is: Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus; High School Musical 2 stars Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman, Emily Osment, Mitchel Musso, Jason Earles and Moises Arias; Cory in the House stars Kyle Massey, Jason Dolley, Madison Pettis and Maiara Walsh; The Suite Life of Zack & Cody stars Dylan Sprouse, Cole Sprouse, Brenda Song, Ashley Tisdale, Phill Lewis and Brian Stepanek; The Cheetah Girls — Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams; Johnny Kapahala: Back On Board stars Brandon Baker and Jake T. Austin; and Life with Derek stars Michael Seater and Ashley Leggart. Also, there were stars from Disney Channels around the world, including Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K. and Japan.
I will start with my interviews with Miley Cyrus of Hannah Montana. Miley portrays Miley Stewart, a high school student who has a double identity.
Being a Batman fanatic myself, I will compare her to Batman.
She is a student by day and a pop singer by night. Miley was born Nov. 23, 1992, in Nashville, Tenn. She is not shy about acting or singing, since her dad is Billy Ray.
Miley was competing on the green team. The special skill she brought to her team is her flexibility, she explained. How does she view Dylan as a captain of the green team?
"He is so serious about it, man. He is getting competitive about it. He said, ‘do it for the team,’" she answered with a smile.
She got her first chance to act by having a recurring role on a series called Doc. Miley is featured on the Hannah Montana soundtrack, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200. How does she come up with her lyrics, and what is her inspiration?
"I wrote every song on my album for my friends and family. They are all personal," she remarked.
With working with people who love laughter, I wanted to know if she feels her dad is the funniest person on the set.
Miley laughed, "He is the funniest person on the set. I find his jokes hysterical. I love my dad so much."
She continued, "Dancing with the Stars has been awesome, because I have had the chance to spend so much time with them. I learned how to dance. I taught him some moves, but now he is getting better than me."
Does she have any ideas for the single?
"It probably is going to be a song called See You Again. It is about how you are freaking out before you are going to talk to a guy and you can’t wait until you can see him again to tell him how you feel."
Yes, this has happened to Miley and for a full explanation you have to listen to the song, when released. Personal side: Her favorite foods are fruit and granola bars at parties. There is family time between the success of her and her father.
"We try to make sure that we split up the family time. When at work it is business and when at home it is family time. We try not to bring work home," she commented.
Next interview was Dylan Sprouse, twin brother of Cole Sprouse. Both are the stars on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, which is about twin brothers Zack and Cody, who have learned how to deal with living life in a hotel and making it their playground.
Before I get e-mails asking if I can tell them apart, the answer is yes. Dylan was born Aug. 4, 1992, in Arezzo, Italy. He does not have any friends or family there and he doesn’t remember his Italian either. However, Dylan did comment that I really did my research. Dylan joked, "The best thing about being a twin, you always have someone to play or hang with. However, there is always someone there to tease you."
Anyway, Dylan was captain of the green team.
"I am actually not very competitive. Some people on my team are very competitive. I am also the youngest person on the team," he said.
What was it like to work with Dana Carvey of Master of Disguise and Adam Sandler of Big Daddy?
"At that time, I did not know what was going on, so it was not that hard to keep a straight face," he said. "Now, it would be ridiculous. I crack up on anything."
He also worked with Johnny Depp. When the question came up about dating, he responded, "I haven’t dated for a while. The last person I dated was Miley a while ago. But we are still good friends."
Next week: Part 2. You just have to stay tuned.