Hollywood loves the Internet

Actors are just like the rest of us when it comes to using the Internet. They research, look up hobbies, and find music. Last week in the Index, we heard from several about what they’ve been Googling lately. This week, we conclude with more actors’ thoughts on how they use the Web.

CBS invited me to their Television City studios in Hollywood in September to record podcasts for CBS.com with a majority of the cast from their TV shows

The following are a few excerpts from our conversations:

Jon Cryer [Alan Harper, Two and a Half Men] — I’m an insane Googler. I’m also a writer, so that is just revolutionizing the whole stealing things off the Internet. It’s been a boon to the plagiarism industry. And I don’t have an iPod because I’m on Napster.com and the iPods won’t play copy protected Windows media files, which my entire music library is now.

Michael Weatherly [Tony DiNozzo, NCIS] — We do have Wi-fi at the studio, but you have to hunt for it. I’m a Google person. I have a song that I was trying to find and it took me two and a half months of Googling everything. I was like “1987 songs,” and then I remembered Todd Rundgren produced it so I searched “produced by Todd Rundgren” and I got a list of all the songs — but he’s produced about a billion songs! And then finally I woke up in the middle of the night and came running into work and I had the lyric and I Googled it and there it was — Bourgeois Tagg “I Don’t Mind At All.”

Pauley Perrette [Abby Sciuto, NCIS] — Michael’s also an iMovie junkie.

Michael: I do like to make my little home videos.

Pauley: He does make videos of pretty much anything.

Michael: I have a nine-year-old son and we have a lot of fun with that.

Pauley: We’re both iTunes junkies. If you couldn’t tell, we’re both Mac.

Eric Close [Martin Fitzgerald, Without a Trace] — Sometimes if I want to research something on a character, I go online and type in code words. I’m not very good on the computer. My wife makes fun of me often because I’m not that great. I go to her and ask how do I attach this to that? She said to me the other day that she’s signing me up for a class to learn how to work the Mac. I check out all kinds different things. I check out sports, the weather, we’ll shop online.

Ty Burrell [Oliver Barnes, Out of Practice] — I’m on the Internet a lot, at least twice a day. I download tunes from iTunes a lot.

Chris Gorham [Ben Barnes, Out of Practice] — Really? You far surpassed me. I check my e-mail and, um [laughs] check my other e-mail. Then I go back to my other e-mail to see if I got anything.

Antonio Sabato, Jr. [Dante Damiano, The Bold and the Beautiful] — Last I was on the Internet for a really good reason, to donate money to RedCross.org. The process is very easy, it’s a wonderful thing to do, the more money the better. For fun, eBay’s great. I used to sell, but it’s a little complicated and you just have to be on with your buyers, you got to be legit, the got a return — you just have to be on it all the time. So if you don’t have that much time, you can buy. My son has a laptop and, with that, he usually goes to the WB.com for cartoons or Lego.com or even eBay if you want to get toys.

Charles Dutton [J.T. Baylock, Threshold] — I breed draft horses, Clydesdales and Shires, Percheron and Belgians and Gypsy Vanner horses. When I do get on the Web, I’m searching for Gypsy horse breeders. I’ll get on the computer and it’s like all day long I’m talking to one person in Ireland, one person in Great Britain [about horses].

To hear Dana Greenlee’s full audio interviews with thirty-five actors from CBS series, visit http://www.CBS.com/Netcast