Jerry O’ Connell poses with the TV Addict, August 2008
Admittedly, this TV Addict didn’t have the chance to catch Jerry O’Connell in his new series DO NOT DISTURB prior to meeting him at the recent Fall FOX Junket. But that didn’t stop me from peppering him with questions about his own television addictions, his break-out role on MY SECRET IDENTITY and his now infamous Tom Cruise parody video that went viral last year.
Jerry O’Connell congratulating THE WIRE/FRINGE Star Lance Reddick
I couldn’t help but notice that you just snapped a photo with FRINGE Star Lance Reddick [see photo above]
I’m a huge fan of THE WIRE, I’m kind of shaking right now. I only know that guy as Lieutenant Daniels.
It’s pretty cool to see that you’re a fan of TV. It’s always disappointing when you discover that your favorite TV stars don’t actually watch TV.
I love THE WIRE, THE SOPRANOS
And of course UGLY BETTY… [O’Connell’s wife is UGLY BETTY star Rebecca Romijn]
Of course, but right now I’m addicted to a lot of Reality Television. I watch a lot of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. Kat Deeley is a very attractive host and she definitely should host more reality TV stateside.
Do you think she was robbed of an Emmy Nomination?
I think that because SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE is a summer show, it doesn’t get the respect of a show like SURVIVOR or PROJECT RUNWAY.
I’m going to tell you something that you probably don’t hear a lot. I remember you from MY SECRET IDENTITY [see cheesetacular intro on YouTube].
It’s funny, I really only thought that my Mom knew about the show. It was a weird after school special by Scholastic, but The Superficial linked to it when they talked about my wife and I getting pregnant.
You’ve been in the business for a while. Are you grateful that you didn’t grow up under the media scrutiny that young Hollywood currently ‘enjoys?’
I went to College at NYU and like a lot of people who go to College you get drunk, go to bars, make out with strangers, fall down, get into fights. So I’m thankful there were no camera phones and YouTube back then. But I do have to say, I enjoy the internet, I enjoy going to web sites as it’s a really fun way to get information. That said, it does get a little like high school when you have Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez making rival YouTube videos.
WOW, You really are up on what goes on online.
Yeah it gets a little juvenile. But I pretty much get all my information from the web. Sports from The Big Lead, Entertainment news from Perez Hilton and Nikki Finke. I really don’t go to print anymore. Except for the New York Post, because I need to read about the Yankees.
Were you surprised with how huge your Tom Cruise Parody became?
I was. I made it with a guy named Jerry Minor, a very funny comic who wrote and directed it. We did it because there was a writer’s strike, we were bored, had nothing to do and wanted to make a goof on a video that was being sent around to everybody. We thought we’d do it Funny Or Die and a couple of thousand people would hit it and that would be it. Basically we did it for our friends. By the way, we shot it on a bag of peas. Literally, we didn’t have a tripod, all we had was a busted camera and a bag of frozen peas. And it just went viral, which is the fun side of things.
Did you hear from Tom or his people?
No I did not and I do want to say that we didn’t mean for it to be as popular as it was and we apologize if anyone was offended. We also do want to say that we did not mention any one specific group or any one specific person. We were pretty careful about that. But we’re sorry.
Tune in next Wednesday when this TV Addict manages to interview DO NOT DISTURB stars Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Molly Stanton about their work in THE CLASS, TWINS and PASSIONS! 
Fans can catch Jerry O’Connell in a brand new episode of DO NOT DISTURB on FOX tonight at 9:30PM following a brand new ‘TIL DEATH.