Our Night on the Town With Fred

Fred Medill has little time for a softball.

“What do you mean?” says the Beverly Hills 14-year-old when asked to name his favorite movie star. “The nicest to me? The best interview? The one I admire most?”

Fred, the star of FredTV, a Web site (at https://www.fredtv.net) that mixes his video clips, movie reviews and philanthropy, is trying to knot his tie as he fields questions in his studio, a converted playroom on the second floor of his parents’ home. It’s Thursday, a school night, and he’s about to rush out for the premiere of the movie “Cast Away.”

Behind him, on shelves above $20,000 worth of computers, monitors and editing equipment, there are about 200 tapes of his interviews. Jim Carrey. Annette Bening. Kobe Bryant. The boys from ‘N Sync. There is also a prized photo taken last April, an orangish, blurry image of President Clinton leaning down to answer one of Fred’s questions.

Hollywood may be accustomed to child stars, and even a child journalist or two, but as far as anyone knows, it has never produced anyone quite like Fred Medill--child journalist to the stars.

The past two years, the Milken High School freshman has been cultivating A-list movie and sports celebrities, mostly plying the red carpet--the media gauntlet run by stars seeking publicity as they arrive for an event. By now, he’s as familiar to stars and publicists as any reporter from E! or Extra. “We’ve seen him grow up,” says one publicist who says she’s not allowed to be identified in the press. “Now he’s this chiseled and handsome young man. His voice is changing. He’s just an old pro now.”

FredTV was originally created by Fred and his father, Cary Medill, to provide entertainment to hospitalized children on mobile computers known as PC Pals. Now Fred has managers who have held meetings with Disney and other networks to explore a wider television audience.

But even if stars and their publicists aren’t sure what FredTV will do for them, they are drawn to him. Pat Kingsley, the notoriously prickly publicist for Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and other elite stars, says she nonetheless steers her clients in Fred’s direction at movie premieres. “He does his

homework. He’s prepared and asks short, concise questions,” she says. “At the least, they get an interesting couple of minutes.”

Veteran reporters say they reap benefits just from standing next to Fred at premieres. “He gets everybody,” says Willie Boudevin, a cameraman for Univision.

Video producer Cyril Gastambide, who taped some of Fred’s early interviews, says there’s something about Fred’s presence that makes stars think something big is going to happen to them. With his fresh face, raspy voice and whisper of a smirk, he can charm celebrities from Ron Howard to Snoop Dog into supporting him with a promo: “Fred TV. The best TV around.”

Fred pops a promotional tape for FredTV into one of the monitors in his studio. In clip after clip, he elicits double takes and laughs from celebrities. Speaking into the microphone adorned with the FredTV logo, Cameron Diaz turns the tables on him during an interview and asks how he copes with success. He replies, “I have poise. I have a good appearance. I have a way with women.”

In another scene, Fred lounges in the pool on an inflatable chaise and says to the camera, “Cameron Diaz. She digs me.”

Actually, though he’ll never forget the hug he received from Michelle Pfeiffer’s sister, Fred’s favorite star, it turns out, is Denzel Washington. In an interview at the premiere of “The Hurricane,” in which Washington plays the wrongly imprisoned heavyweight champion Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, Fred’s question obviously surprises the actor. “Knowing Hurricane’s character and the story as well as you do,” Fred says, “what do you think of the U.S. justice system?” Washington blinks, laughs, then explains, “Fred, listen! The time this took place, 1966, was a very volatile time. . . . It was a very different time from now. . . .” Washington tells Fred, “Heck of a question,” and calls to the other reporters, “You could learn something from Fred.”

Tonight, Fred hopes to snag “Cast Away” star Tom Hanks. He’s researched the star and the movie on the Internet and has compiled a list of questions including, “How do you react to the perception that you’re the most decent guy in Hollywood?” Fred also plans to ask a question for a fellow online journalist who couldn’t get into the premiere: “Who voted you off the island?” Fred says, “Maybe it will get a laugh.”

It’s nearly 6 p.m., past time to go, and his father, driver and cameraman, Cary Medill, hustles him along: “OK, Fred. Show time.”

*

Under a clear, moonlit sky, the Toyota Land Cruiser with FredTV license plates rattles downhill past the mansions along Benedict Canyon heading for Westwood, only a few miles away. Christmas lights illuminate the dark and winding route, which becomes brighter and festooned with “Cast Away” posters as it nears Wilshire Boulevard. Fred’s father flips on the light inside the Cruiser so Fred can see the list of questions that he’s trying to memorize. Looking up and down to his paper doesn’t look professional on camera, Fred says.

The firstborn of two Beverly Hills lawyers, Cary and Marlene Medill, Fred clearly hasn’t been hampered by growing up in the world’s epicenter of entertainment with doting and relaxed parents. Cary and Marlene are both native Angelenos and civil litigators, with separate, solo practices. Cary, 54, is the son of the late Joey Medill, a Chicago-based lightweight boxer once ranked third in the world. In Los Angeles, Cary has had several high-profile cases, including that of Clarence Chance and Benny Powell, who in 1993 won $7 million after 17 years of false imprisonment for the murder of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

The Medills, self-described “movie freaks,” have few restrictions on their three sons. There are no blocks on the Internet or the TV, no rules about R-rated movies or bedtime. Fred often stays up to watch Jay Leno at 11:30 p.m.

Cary says his son is mature enough to handle R-rated material. Besides, he says, “if he’s going to be doing reviews, he has to see adult movies.”

When he’s not out interviewing, however, his mother says, “he’s very immature in many ways.” His father says, “He’s still a 14-year-old, however you slice it.”

At school, Fred “doesn’t come off as a major extrovert,” says his journalism teacher Emily Brewer. He’s sweet, humble, assertive and polite, she says. “The thing he has going for him is that he’s so dedicated.”

He likes tennis and takes lessons on the courts in his backyard. He goes to Laker games. He listens to music with his friends.

Even as a baby, Cary says, they knew Fred was a little different. “When other kids were watching cartoons, he was watching ’60 Minutes’ and ‘Dateline.’ ” Where Cary takes his other children, Bobby, 13, and David, 11, to sports events, he bonds with Fred over movie premieres, he says.

FredTV, a mutual project between father and son, grew from Fred’s March 1999 bar mitzvah party at the Beverly Hills hotel, where he showed guests a humorous homemade video featuring himself as a disadvantaged reporter who claws his way to the top. The video includes mock interviews with talk show hosts Michael Jackson and Larry King--both of whom Fred met by introducing himself in Nate ‘n Al’s restaurant in Beverly Hills. (“That kid,” King says, “is going to be a major star.”)

After that, he snagged, and videotaped, basketball stars and other celebrities he saw at hotels during the family’s biannual vacations on Maui. One tape shows Fred singing “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” with Neil Sedaka. Last year, a producer friend let them into the press line for the premiere of “Arlington Road.” “Dad said, ‘You’re going to interview Jeff Bridges,’ ” Fred says. “I said, ‘No way.’ ” But he wound up with a videotape of Bridges expounding on his character, “Dude,” in “The Big Lebowski.”

“I didn’t think it would get to that point, and it did,” says Fred. “So I guess it can go anywhere from there.”

Cary hopes FredTV will eventually make money, either by selling ads on the Web site or by selling it to a major network, but any profits, he says, will benefit the Starlight Children’s Foundation, an international nonprofit philanthropy dedicated to improving the quality of life for seriously ill children. The goal is to provide entertainment for children in hospitals to distract them from their pain and loneliness, says Cary, a board member of the California chapter.

Through the Starlight Foundation, the Medills also bring seriously ill youngsters to Hollywood premieres, where they see the movie and talk to celebrities.

Although the father downplays his role in FredTV, he’s clearly a prime mover, from setting up the interviews to buying equipment and bringing in friends and paid consultants to improve the professional quality of their product. When anyone calls the number for FredTV, a phone rings in Medill’s law office. It was Cary who obtained the interview with President Clinton when he came to Los Angeles for a fund-raiser this year. The White House press office was accommodating, he says, partly because they were familiar with the Starlight charity, and partly because “it’s an election year.”

Medill insists he’s not a pushy stage dad and would drop FredTV the minute it becomes more work than fun for his son. On the other hand, some, like the video producer Gastambide, who sold footage of Fred to a major European television network, believe he’s not pushy enough. Anyone with an unusual talent needs to work harder to maintain it, Gastambide says. “He’s bright. He’s quick. He has a huge potential for the next two years. In three years, he will be like everybody else.”

Fred knows his youth is a novelty, but says he dreams of one day having a TV show of his own. He researches his own questions and edits his own tapes, he says. If his father didn’t participate, he says, he’d still pursue his extracurricular reporting. “But I can’t do it alone,” he says. “I’m only 14.”

*

When Fred and Cary arrive in Westwood, fans are already gathering around the intersection of Weyburn and Broxton avenues, roped off and covered with a fresh red carpet, running from theater to theater and glistening under a row of bright lights. Cary and Fred stop off at California Pizza Kitchen to meet up with a Starlight family from Colton in San Bernardino County with two seriously ill teenagers. The family has never been to Westwood.

Fred takes his place among 30 journalists allowed admittance and lined up in order of importance to the publicists. (Unable to secure a spot on the red carpet, The Times was told, “Just say you’re with FredTV.”) In his thin suit, Fred shivers in the cold, midway between “Entertainment Tonight” and TV journalists from Spain and Brazil, as the limousines pull up.

He warms up with the movie’s producer and director as they pass down the line. A young actress from “Meet the Parents” whose name he can’t remember is approaching. Fred hasn’t prepared any questions for her, so he repeats what he has just overheard. “You’re doing a movie with John Travolta, right?” Teri Polo looks at him, impressed. “Indeed I am. Where’d you hear that?” she wiggles her eyebrows at her companion.

Cheering erupts from the crowd. Reporters yell, “Helen!” Helen Hunt stops for Fred, who holds out the microphone. “With the recent success of the ‘Survivor’ TV show and with this potential blockbuster, do you think we will be seeing more ‘Gilligan’s Island’-type shows?”

Hunt narrows her eyes. “Have you seen this movie yet? It’s not a ‘Gilligan’s Island’-type movie.’ ” He moves on quickly. “Can you tell me about your part in it?” As she talks, the other reporters move their mikes in.

When Hanks comes by (to shouts from paparazzi of “Get him!”) Fred fares no better. The most decent guy in Hollywood? “I have no response to that,” he says. “I am what I am.” Who voted him off the island? “Wilson, the soccer ball,” he quips without a smile.

However, Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, return moments later to talk and be photographed with the Starlight family.

All things considered, Fred says, it turned out just about the way he expected.

*

Back home in his studio by 8:30 p.m., tie and loafers shed, Fred is fielding questions from his mom as she and Fred’s brother Bobby review the tape with Fred and Cary. Did the Starlight kids have a good time? she wants to know. Who else was there? “I got Bob Zemeckis,” he tells his mother. “Good job,” she says, giving him a hug and a kiss.

Then Fred tells his folks he can’t edit right now. He’s hungry. Besides, he just remembered he has to write an essay on Jewish law for tomorrow’s class.