Ask American Profile 9/20/2009

SpongeBob Squarepants, Tommy James, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Deborah Norville, Sugarland

Q What can you tell me about the voice behind the zany SpongeBob Squarepants?
—Fred Daniels, Hillsboro, Ore.

That would be Tom Kenny, 47, who says that SpongeBob creator Steve Hillenburg had a very clear idea of what his lead cartoon character should sound like. "He and I worked together on finding the voice and laugh," says Kenny, who finds several similarities between himself and SpongeBob. "We're both high-energy people who love our jobs, and we often irritate the people around us without knowing why." To celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the Nickelodeon series, SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes will be released Sept. 22 in a 14-disc box set of the first five seasons.


Q What can you tell me about 1960s singer Tommy James?
—Wallace Sherry, Indiana, Pa.

James, 62, lives in New Jersey and performs about 25 concerts a year. He is preparing for the release of his autobiography Me, The Mob and The Music, which reveals the '60s ties of Roulette Records to the Genovese crime family. "I wanted to do it for a long time, but was, frankly, uncomfortable talking about all of it," says the man behind such hits as "Crimson and Clover," "Hanky Panky," "Mony Mony" and "I Think We're Alone Now." He adds that there is a movie in the works with director Martin Scorsese, for which James has reunited with three original members of his band, the Shondells, to record soundtrack music.


Q Of the legendary cast of comedians in the 1963 film It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, who is still living?
—Paul Fyrberg, Limington, Maine

Survivors of that mad, mad, mad, mad movie include Arnold Stang, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Peter Falk and Jerry Lewis. Among the departed are such funny, funny, funny, funny guys as Milton Berle, Joe E. Brown, Jimmy Durante, Phil Silvers, Buddy Hackett, Buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Terry-Thomas, Sterling Holloway, Jim Backus, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Leo Gorcey, Norman Fell, Jesse White, the Three Stooges and Doodles Weaver.


Q Can you share what's new with Inside Edition host Deborah Norville?
—Carol Robertson, Pensacola, Fla.

Norville, 51, a native of Dalton, Ga., and her husband have three children. She recently launched New Way RA, an online talk show at newwayra.com, to help raise awareness about rheumatoid arthritis, the disease that contributed to her mother's death at age 20. She also is the author of a new book, The Power of Respect, about the importance of respect in our everyday lives as well as in society in general.


Q I'm a huge fan of the country duo Sugarland. Did either of the members perform with other bands previously?
—Tabatha Fulmer, Gulf Shores, Ala.

Sugarland's lead singer, Jennifer Nettles, performed in college with a cleverly named group called Soul Miner's Daughter. Kristian Bush was at one time a member of a folk-rock duo, Billy Pilgrim, which took its name from the lead character in the Kurt Vonnegut novel Slaughterhouse-Five. Together in Sugarland since 2003, the tuneful twosome recently released their fourth CD, Live on the Inside, available exclusively at Walmart. For a chance to see Sugarland on tour, meet them and get a complete wardrobe from Riders Jeans, enter the "Girls Night Out" sweepstakes.

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