What are you doing here?!!!! www.zachbraff.com is now open for business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dearest Fans,
Get ready for the launch of my new site: Zachbraff.com   Sorry I haven't posted here in awhile, but we've been working hard on launching our new home. Just give me a couple more days to work out some kinks; the robots are doing their best.

The site will launch with an exclusive super-secret teaser for my new film, "The Last Kiss".

p.s. Joshua Radin got signed to Columbia Records and I'm directing his video at the end of the month...  :)

Peace and love,
ZB

Dearest F.O.G.S. (Friends of Garden State), and F.O.Z.B.'s (Friends of Zach Braff),

How are you?

*Note if you're a F.O.P.W.E.B.T.H.O.O.B.W.A.S. (Friend of People Who Enjoy Blowing the Heads Off of Birds With a Shotgun), you're probably in the wrong place... but heck stick around, there's something for everyone on this site.

It's been a long time since we spoke, so I thought I'd post on this overcast day in Los Angeles. I wanna start off by plugging the COOLEST album there is right now. Since many of you liked the Garden State soundtrack and are often asking me for new music and what I'm listening to, I'm gonna give you the hottest tip there is. His name is Joshua Radin. He just released his first full album on itunes and you can check it out HERE. He's not even signed to a label yet and it's already jumped to #1 on the itunes folk chart. We've had a bunch of his music on Scrubs and I'm telling you if there were a stock market where you could invest in future sensations, I'd put all my money in Radin Futures. (That and Pudding Pops, because I think they're due for a comeback.) I am very honored to call him my friend and I hope when he blows up, he'll still remember the little people and continue to let me crush him in backgammon and ping pong.

I'm in LA now finishing the 5th season of Scrubs. We wrap on April 15th and I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do this summer. I'm leaning towards directing a film. I've gotten the rights to a foreign film that I'm adapting. I can't get too specific because I'm still working on the deal. But if that comes through, I could very well be directing my second film this summer. As far as the 6th season of Scrubs? Who knows. It's all up in the air right now. But we're having a lot of fun doing this season. Those of you who watch know we've gotten a little crazier; a little more surreal; a little more stoner-friendly. I personally enjoy that kind of humor.

My dog has a cough. If you've never seen a dog with a cough, I recommend trying to find one. It's hilarious. I'm trying not to laugh in his face, but it's so cute/ridiculous to hear him cough that it makes me smile every time. He's on medicine. I think it's his allergies; he's allergic to more things than Millhouse and Paul from the "Wonder Years" combined. At last count I think he was allergic to air, water, lawn grass and food. He's a big nerd, but I love him.

If you live in LA and want a good laugh, check out the local ABC nightly news. There's an anchor named "Michelle Tuzee" pronounced "two-zie". Now where I'm from, a two-zie is a bowel movement. AKA a number two, a load, dropping the kids off at the pool, opening bombay doors, etc. So every time this woman says, "Good evening, I'm Michele Two-zie," I crack up. Now I know I'm thirty and I probably shouldn't be laughing at that, but I think it may be one of the funniest things I've ever heard. *** Bonus: If you have TIVO, you can pause her after she says, "Good evening, I'm Michelle..." Then you say out loud to a friend or loved one, " I need to drop a..." then unpause and she'll say "Two-zie". I'm telling you, it's a great way to end a hard day."

We're working hard on zachbraff.com. It's gonna be really cool. We're gonna have short films festivals, short story contests, still-photo contests. It's gonna be better than "O" magazine. Incidentally, they asked me to be the first non-Oprah cover of "O" magazine and I said no. I just didn't think it would be fair to all those hard core James Frey-hating Oprah fans to have to go a month without being able to look at her face while they're dropping a Michelle Two-zie.

Check out the trailer for, "Thank you For Smoking". It looks really good. I cruise quicktime for movie trailers and that looks like one of the coolest ones.

Rumor Patrol:

I am not engaged. But I am dating a very lovely lady. (read rags for fun if you must, but please don't believe what you read)
I am not part tiger. (one photographer got a shot of my tail and things got blown out of proportion.)
I do love Life Cereal. (this one's true. Man it's good; either flavor.)
I am going to be Vesper Lind (the new Bond love interest). After the success of certain films this year, they have decided to "shake things up" this time around. And so Bond will be gay. I play Vesper Lind, a German spy who loves trip-hop and raves. I assassinate my victims by forcing them to drink the fluid inside of glow-sticks. James and I meet when our hands accidentally touch during a "Licensed to Kill" seminar in Dusseldorf. We were both reaching for an "Ain't Misbehavin" CD that kills an enemy after he/she listens to the Act One curtain closer. Not very effective as a means of assassination since the target would have to make it through some really mediocre numbers in the first act, and like I said, it only works on "he/she's" which aren't very common in the spy business outside of Thailand. Can't say much more it's all very hush-hush...

That's it for now.
Peace and love my friends. Be good to one another and try not to shoot each other in the face.

ZB

Hey everybody! Just a quick post to remind you all to check out the 100th episode of  "Scrubs" tonight on NBC at 9:00pm Eastern and Pacific. I directed it and I think it came out pretty cool. You can still watch American Idol (if you must), just switch over at 9 to NBC. Lemme know what you think.

Longer post coming soon. I swear.
Oh and check out the movie, "The Girl in the Cafe". It's very good.

Peace,
ZB

I'm working on a big juicy video post to make up for my long time absence. Please forgive me! I don't deserve such loyal fans, but I hope you'll all stick around cause things are about to get really fun. I'm not gonna drop too much, but www.zachbraff.com is truly under construction.

peace, love and because I owe you all so badly; check out this song: "Broke Window" by Gary Jules

ZB

Dear friends,

Sorry I've been MIA for so long. This is just a quick post to say I'm still here and I'm gonna post a long message soon, but I've just been stupid, silly busy finishing "The Last Kiss" and moving to Manhattan to start up "Fast Track" right away. As I can barely keep my eyes open, I'm not gonna say to much other than this:

1) Those of you who have been having some sort of verbal battle on the comments section of this blog. Please stop. That is not what this site is about and it is certainly not what I am about. There are an infinite number of places to be mean and unkind on the internet, please don't do that here. Talk about ANYTHING you like, write poetry, tell me about your day, ask me anything, you can even yell at me for not posting and write "you probably don't even read this, but...", just don't argue about meaningless shit here. The fact that the people on this blog are so cool and friendly is the reason I've kept doing it.

2) Check out Lori McKenna, "Beautiful Man" on iTunes. It will make you feel warm and fuzzy and sad and happy and lonesome all at the same time. (Now that's quality art!)

3) Smile; Bobby and Whitney do.

love,
zb

Zach

You know you're bored out of your mind when you're watching Rob and Amber get married!

Filming a movie in a foreign city can be hard sometimes when you quickly run out of things to do. On GS, I was in Jersey and NYC and I know my way around those places. But there's not too much going on on a Tuesday night in Montreal. Those of you who live here, please feel free to go nuts telling me all the things I should do. Please leave out carriage rides, drum circles, the biodome, the casino and Cirque du Soleil. I've done them all.

Not really, but I had this twisted nightmare once where I was dating a really bitchy Clydesdale who played drums in wedding band; anyhoo one night (high on laced feed) she lost all my savings in a heated round of Bacarat, so we had to live in the Winter quadrant of a biodome. You wanna hear a horse complain- stick'em in an artificial winter in a Canadian biodome. "My hooves, my hooves!" "Shut-up, you whore! You're the one who smoked bad feed." Sorry - Anyhoo, we lived on ice and learned to Juggle and manipulate our bodies to Enya. ---

So anyway... that's why I feel like I've done them all.

There's a New Chicken Little trailer up. Check it out.

Please vote for me and Natalie for the MTV Movie Awards HERE.

I'll post soon. Probably next week during "Rob and Amber Get Divorced."

Peace, love, and a toothy smile.

ZB

Zach

As we say in Montreal, "Bon Jour"!

First off, the answer to a very popular question: Yes, I am the voice of the Cottonelle puppy. I did it for free because I love toilet paper so much, I wanted to spread the word about how amazing Cottonelle is on your twosie region (no I didn't do it for free, but I must admit, it is a damn fine product). My twosie region never chafes.

My kissing skills have been nominated for an award. As though it weren't enough of a gift to kiss Natalie Portman, our kiss on the crane has been nominated for "Best Kiss" by the MTV Movie Awards. I also got nominated for breakout male actor and Natalie was nominated for Best Actress. It's up to you, the fans. So please VOTE here so we can bring home the golden popcorn.

Life in Montreal is very fun. It really is a beautiful city and the people are very friendly. I just got back from a very tasty lunch of crepes and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. I know the ice cream is from Vermont, but it's close by. The movie is going well, I haven't filmed too much yet, but I start working pretty non-stop on Monday. 

I'm going to NYC for the Scrubs DVD launch party this weekend. I'm also trying to score tickets to Saturday Night Live since I just found out Will Ferrell is hosting, That guy is so funny. I just look at him and I start laughing.

I've become addicted to Halo on xbox. We have crazy amounts of downtime up here, so we've been having late night Halo tournaments and Topspin (the tennis game) battles as well. But it seems whoever's Sampras wins - conspiracy.

My buddy Cary Brothers is opening up for Aqualung all over the country, so if they come to a city near you, go check them out. I've never heard Aqualung, but I do love me some Cary Brothers.

Go check out the movie "Crash". I really enjoyed it.  Also, it was time for Federof to go on American Idol. Not that I watch that crap (I totally do). But that guy can't sing. Cute blonde country singing girl all the way!

Rumor has it Arrested Development will be picked up for 2 seasons. This is a good rumor.

Did anyone see the cartoon on Saturday Night Live where doctors gave Michael Jackson special glasses so every girl he meets looks like Emmanuel Lewis? That was so wrong and HI-larious. Track it down.

Okay, I'm rambling cause I'm crazy, silly high on caffeine right now.

More to come:
xoxo
ZBizzle

Zach

Dearest Friends,

Hello there. Today is a big day; my last day at home before I leave for Canada for two months. Scrubs has wrapped for the season, I had a couple of weeks off, and now it's time to start "The Last Kiss".  Those of you who are truly interested can rent the Italian film, ">"L'ultimo Baccio".  That's the film ours is adapted from.  Paul Haggis, who wrote "Million Dollar Baby" did the adaptation and I tweaked the dialogue a little bit.  I'm really excited about this movie.

I met with Kevin Smith yesterday at his house to discuss "Fletch" and/or other projects.  He's such a cool guy. He cooked me lunch!  It was really awesome to sit down with someone who's had so much success and still acts like a regular guy from Jersey. I jokingly told him I wanted to make "Garden State" action figures. (Because he's got figures from every one of his movies.) He told me he'd put me in touch with the guy who does his. So who knows, I think it would be pretty cool to have a Sam action figure...

The Gavin video is finally done. You can see it on aol exclusively right now, but it's gonna premiere on TRL next week. So please VOTE for it, so people actually get a chance to see all the hard work that went into it. It stars Gavin, Jamie King and Donald Faison.

Also, the amazing Web Guys who created this site were nominated for a Webby Award for their design. Please VOTE for them to win because they did such an amazing job. (They were the ones who told me what a blog was!)  I'm gonna enlist their help to move this blog over to my own site soon.  I own www.zachbraff.com and pretty soon I'm going to launch some cool ass thang over there.

I got to speak to my alma mater, Northwestern this past week.  It was really surreal to go back and speak to all these students and have them actually interested in what I had to say.

Best birthday present: a drum set.
Freakiest present from a fan: a sweater for my dog with his name sewn into it.
Best show on tv: Project Greenlight on Bravo
Funniest thing I've ever seen: CLICK HERE
Song of the DAY:  "Crystal Village"  by Pete Yorn

Take a deep breath and realize how completely insane it is that you're alive.

Peace and love,
ZB

Yes it's true. I got Punk'd bad. I've been meaning to write about it for sometime, but I wasn't allowed to talk about it until it aired. It was a very disturbing sight to see my brand new car covered in graffiti. I'm pretty sure I'd do the exact same thing again. For those of you that don't understand, maybe it's a Jersey thing or something. I don't have too many alpha male qualities (I went to theater camp for God's sake) but growing up in Jersey, me and my buddies always loved cars. Hurting a nice one is sacrilegious. All I can think about now is plotting my revenge on Donald Faison. It consumes me. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night just to jot down good ideas. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

In other news, I'm once again directing Gavin DeGraw's video for the song "Chariot". If you don't know it, check it out. I think he's a real talent and someone who's gonna be around for a long time. We're shooting next tuesday in LA and it's gonna be really cool. The whole video is one long continuos shot as Gavin and a girl navigate through this crazy set that's constantly changing. It's my first time doing a real video. I did one for the Scrubs theme song, but it wasn't a real video with an actual budget.

Getting ready to shoot "Last Kiss" in Montreal this spring. I hear that it's an amazing city and I'm looking forward to spending sometime outside of LA. The script is really good and we're starting to fill out the rest of the cast. Michael Weston, who played Kenny the Cop in Garden State, got one of the male leads in the movie.

I think the Arrested Development I did airs on 4/10. That show is so friggin funny! I don't know if any of you saw this weeks, but I laughed out loud a lot. Enjoy it now, because who knows how long that amazing show will be around for.

As far as the Fletch rumors, that was news to me. I'm a huge Fletch fan and a huge Kevin Smith fan, so maybe when the time comes he'll really want me and I'l be available to do it. We're winding down at Scrubs. Only 3 more episodes to shoot for the season.

I'm exhausted. Sorry if I'm not that funny tonight, I just got home from work and I felt like I was long overdue to post. But I must go to sleep now.
Also remember, anyone saying they're me anywhere else on the web (myspace, friendster, chat rooms, message boards) is not me. This is the only place I write.
Thank you guys so much for continuing to respond to my posts.

Awesome song of the week: Lori McKenna -- "Stealing Kisses" Also check out her cover of Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees".

Peace and Love,
ZB

Hello friends!

Since we last spoke I won a Grammy and an Independent Spirit award. Yes it's true, I am now "Grammy award winning actor Zach Braff." Pretty funny, huh? The spirit awards were very cool. I got to see so many actors and directors I look up to. This is all very new to me, so I'm very star struck by people like Robin Williams. (Who told me he was a big fan of the movie.) I tried sleeping next to the trophy, but it has sharp edges and the eagle's talons began to chafe my belly.

The big news this week is that I directed tomorrow night's episode of Scrubs. (It airs Tuesday night on NBC at 9:00 pm pacific.) Please check it out; I'm really proud of how it turned out. Heather Graham is back and the episode's got music by my two favorite new musicians and friends, Cary Brothers and Joshua Radin.

Thanks to you all for getting the word out on the charity auction; Nat's wardrobe went for over $3000 and the gas nozzle went for over $1000. It all goes straight to tsunami relief, so it was a great cause.

Dynamite song: "Waiting on an Angel" Ben Harper
Dynamite joke: Why was Piglet looking in the toilet? He was looking for Pooh.
Dynamite explosive: Dynamite.
Dynamite strategy for tic tac toe: x,x,x

Peace and Love,

Zachary Braff D.D.S.

Dear Friends of Garden State:

I have donated one of Natalie's main costumes from the movie along with the "Red Gas Nozzle" that my character finds in the gas tank of his car to a charity auction on ebay.  The charity benefits the victims of the Tsunami through UNICEF.  I realize the auction is a bit steep for many of you, but if you know anyone who can afford to contribute to this important cause, please let them know about it.

You can find the auction by clicking on this link HERE, or by going to ebay and entering the keywords "Tsunami Benefit Peapod".

As we say in New Jersey,  "Thank You"

xoxo
ZB

Okay, I'm here.
Things have been quite crazy for me lately. Here is what I'm doing:
Shooting Scrubs every day. (I'm directing my second episode next week.)
Recasting "The Last Kiss". This is the film I'm going to act in this spring. As some of you may know, Rachel McAdams was going to play the female lead, but she was unable to work out her schedule, so the part is now going to be played by Jacinda Barrett. (An amazing actress.)
Doing voices for "Chicken Little" the new Disney movie coming out in November.
Writing "Andrew Henry's Meadow". This is an adaptation of a children's book that my brother Adam and I are writing for Twentieth Century Fox.
Working on "Arrested Development". I'm going to be shooting a small part on my second favorite TV comedy on Monday.
Planning a music video for Gavin DeGraw that I'm no longer going to be directing cause I didn't agree with the label about what the video should be about.
Reading your comments. Just when I thought this blog was slowly fading away, the DVD brought it back to life tenfold.

Anyhow, that's why I'm unable to comment as often as I used to. Those of you who write sassy remarks about how I've abandoned you, please understand that I'm doing the best I can to keep on top of everything. Also, as this blog was established to be an online journal for me to share with you all what it was like to release my first film and go on the road promoting it, it's only natural that I will have less and less to say. But since so many of you remain interested (thank-you) I'll keep posting when I can. I imagine eventually I'll have to move this to my own site since Fox will probably soon evict us from their web space.

So, first of all- thank you all from all over the world for all the wonderful things you've been posting about GS, Scrubs, yourselves etc. I feel so lucky to be able to have this direct line of communication with my fans. I love it when you guys share personal stories from your own lives. So many of you ask me about writing, just skim through the comments and you'll see thousands of stories to write about. All I did was sit down and write about what I was feeling in my own life. What bothers you, what makes you laugh, what do you obsess about, what makes your stomach turn, what do you lust over? - just sit down and write about those things. That's what's universally interesting; those are the kinds of movies I like to go see: regular people in real life situations, dealing with emotions and worries I can relate to. Also, think about starting very simply; don't overwhelm yourself trying to think about the whole movie; write a scene between two people, then write what happens after that, then what happens after that. Don't get boggled down worrying about outlines and rules, just tell a bunch of stories that happen to the same group of people. And try (for lack of a better expression) keeping it real. There's a saying I really like to think about when I'm writing: "Don't do that, they do that in movies." Anytime I find myself writing something that feels nowhere close to reality, I try to stop and reign it back to what's true for me. Blah, blah, blah. I just wanted to offer up a couple of thoughts since so many have you have asked about it.

But take it for what it's worth. This is coming from a guy who got rejected from USC, UCLA and got C's in screenwriting at Northwestern.

I'm going to play poker at Donald Faison's place tonight. I lose everytime, but it is still a lot of fun. I try and learn how to be better by watching celebrity poker showdown, but it has yet to improve my game. It's really fun to have a regular game on saturday night, because saturday nights in LA aren't any fun. As in most cities I have ever lived in, the weekday nights are way more fun to go out then the weekend nights.

Okay: Amazing film to see: Maria Full of Grace.
Amazing Song to play obsessively: "Narrow Escape" by Ray LaMontagne
Insanely funny thing to watch on the net: Viral Videos on www.ifilm.com

Check out Keane on SNL tonight. (Great Band)
And please don't forget to check out my two best buddies web sites. The future of great music: www.joshuaradin.com and www.carybrothers.com

Smile, take a deep breath, it all starts going by really quickly after 28,
ZB

I'm still here!!!!!!
I promise I have not abandoned all of you.

Work is very crazy right now. I have next week off and I promise I'll write a nice big post.

I am so tired right now that I am lying down and dictating this post to the burglar I found holding my computer when I arrived home. We made a deal that if he typed for me, he could keep my China.  And I don't mean dishware; he's a very simple man and I've managed to convince him that I have the power to hand over the Republic of China. I must say however, he's a dynamite typist; I'll bet he'll put my laptop to great use.

Thank you all for all your Garden State love. I'm slowly making my way through the over 3000 posts!!! I realize it's been a month since I posted and I have so much to tell all of you, but just wait a couple more days.

It was exactly one year ago that Garden State premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. So much has happened thanks to amazing fans like you all.

Peace, love and a pillow.

ZB