JB Smoove will be the first to tell you that 2015 is destined to be “The Year of the Smoove.”
The comedian kicks off Season 3 of “Four Courses with JB Smoove” Monday on MSG (9 pm.), will perform March 28 at the all-star “Garden of Laughs” benefit — “We’re finding a way to brighten the lives of children facing a lot of obstacles,” he says — and plans to razz Larry David when his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” co-star opens on Broadway.
He’s got a busy schedule — and he’s happy to talk about it.
“‘Four Courses’ is only one piece of the puzzle in ‘The Season of Smoove,’” he says. “People love to pull a chair up to the TV and get as close as possible to the conversation and the food and we want to make sure it’s a warm atmosphere — kind of like watching the Yule Log at holiday time.”
On “Four Courses,” Smoove breaks bread with a group of celeb pals as they schmooze about New York-centric topics and whatever else comes up. (This season was filmed at Hudson Malone restaurant with guests including Russell Simmons, David Krumholtz, Rick DiPietro and Plaxico Burress.)
“I have to eat the most meals and … I’ve tried everything on the menu,” he says. “I really have to watch my waistline. When I’m talking to people [on ‘Four Courses’] it’s like a workout — I keep concentrating and retracting my belly muscles so the food digests faster.”
I asked Smoove, who plays Leon Black on “Curb,” if he plans on seeing David when he opens on Broadway with “Fish in the Dark.” “I’m going to see his show in March, sit my a– right in the front row where he can see me and I’m gonna give Larry that ‘Leon look,’ ” he says. “He’s probably gonna smirk but he can’t help but smirk a little.
“I want to support him but I also want to throw his a– off a little bit.”
Sharon on ‘Osbournes’
I asked “The Talk” co-host Sharon Osbourne if the show’s special late-night “After Dark” edition, which aired all this week (12:30 a.m./Ch. 2), felt any different, contextually, from its concurrent daytime version.
“CBS is a really nice family network and it’s not down and dirty like me,” she said. “So, no, I haven’t found it any different [at night]. We do try to be as open as we can, and I get it — that’s why this network is nuber one — but we don’t want to offend anyone, which is what I do often.”
The late-night edition of “The Talk” (Osbourne, Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Aisha Tyler and Sheryl Underwood) is one of the timeslot fillers CBS is using until James Corden starts as “The Late Late Show” host in March.
Osbourne says VH1’s reboot of “The Osbournes” begins filming this spring — 10 years after the original show ended its original run on MTV.
“It’s going to be more documentary-style, so it’s a whole different take,” she said. “It’s more of a ‘Let’s catch up and see how the family has evolved.’ We’ve all changed as people. Ozzy came up with the idea after being two years sober and said, ‘I wish I was sober when we did it the show the first time.’
“It’s just a handful of episodes to see how we’ve evolved as people over 12 years, so it’s not like we’re doing the same show again,” she said. “We’re not going to act crazy.”
Last, but not least …
Discovery’s “Fat N’ Furious: Rolling Thunder” will return for a second season Jan. 26 (10 p.m.) … Mindy Kaling on ex-boyfriend and “Office” co-star BJ Novak in the February issue of Good Housekeeping: “I’m definitely not in the friends-with-my-exes camp. But BJ has the stamp for life as a friend. My mom loved him.” It’s on newsstands Jan. 20 … Jamie Colby hosts the new reality show “Strange Inheritance,” premiering Jan. 26 (9 p.m.) on Fox Business Network. It examines “unconventional” inheritances.
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