So it turns out actor Jerry O’Connell does read blogs. After we posted this Tuesday, he got in touch with us, and after much arm-twisting, we convinced the guy who was in Stand by Me and who is currently married to Rebecca Romijn to submit to an interview with us. Among the topics covered: dealing with guys hitting on his wife, setting an alarm to hit the fantasy football waiver wire, horse racing, fencing (he was like, really good at it), writing screenplays, and hanging out with Tom Brady.

Q: We met you at the Derby a few years ago, and you raved about being a horse racing fan. What’s that all about? And who’s your pick for the Preakness this weekend? If you don’t want to give that away, at least handicap the race for us.

I have never been, but I hear Preakness Weekend is one of the most fun sporting events of the year. If you are in the D.C, Baltimore (What up TBL/The Wire Fans) area, you should go. Drinks and betting everywhere. I love the horses. My Father always went. As a kid, he told me it was illegal to bring children to the track. When I was 16, I went to the Meadowlands with my friend and we hit a Trifecta (three horses, 1st, 2nd, 3rd). We bet $2 and won $200. I was hooked. I also noticed a lot of children running around. I confronted my Father when I got home (I was just taller than him and it gave me bravado). He told me he lied to stop me from bothering him and his friends. He took me the next weekend and many, many after that.

Horse Handicapping brought my Father and I together on levels I did not know existed. He is my best friend. I call him for marital, career and general advice. This all because of horse handicapping.

I do not come from money. My family does not own horses, nor will we ever. But we love to spend hours pouring over the Daily Racing Form and picking our horses. Like Fantasy Football, you too can own a piece of a horse. I am going to bet on Big Brown this weekend. He won the Kentucky Derby easily and looks to have a shot at the Triple Crown. But Big Brown is going to be the favorite and I am a handicapper. Even money is not good enough for me.

For the readers of TBL, I have studied the Daily Racing Form and am going to bet an exacta box. This means I am picking the top two horses. I am going to go with Big Brown (#7) and Behindatthebar (#5) in an exacta Box. If you are betting, make sure you say BOX, because this means they can come in 5,7 or 7,5. I have lost too many bets with just straight exactas to know better. The 7 horse, Behindatthebar, ran a very fast race out here in Los Angeles on April 3rd. [UPDATE: As a commenter pointed out, Behindatthebar has pulled out of the Derby, and O'Connell says he's going with his Dad's horse: Giant Moon. But same deal - exacta boxed with Big Brown and Giants Moon.] Big Brown is a monster, but I think Behindatthebar can run with him. My Father likes Giant Moon (#11) because he has run well in expensive races. I tend to listen to him because he is right more than me.

Q: If you spend Sundays in the fall in front of the TV for 13 hours - like you said on Stern - you have to be a strong fantasy football player. Ever won a league? What’s your draft strategy like?

I am a huge Fantasy Fan. Not of baseball or basketball, although I am sure they are fun. Judging by my enthusiasm and time spent deciding whether I should drop Michael Bennett (RB) for Samkon Gado (RB) … if I played in any other fantasy leagues, I would never get anything done in my life. I believe fantasy has changed the sport for the better. Dramatically. I have a good friend who loves him some NFL and believes that fantasy sports are ruining TEAM fan bases. I disagree. I think it is making competitive men follow ALL teams and ALL players in the League. And you get to feel like a GM and disagree with Team Brass! What is better than that? I picked up Derek Anderson last season on waiver and found myself ordering ‘Believeland’ sweatshirts online. I am from New York City (Jersey City originally) and find myself rooting for the Browns. The Browns! That is what fantasy is all about and that is good for the NFL.

As far as draft strategies, I used to be a fan of the autodraft. I had 2nd pick last year and got Larry Johnson. That is not going to happen this year. I picked up Earnest Graham (on waiver) last year and he went nutso. But this year is going to be different for me - I am sick of wondering if Fred Taylor is going to start over Maurice Jones-Drew. I am going to go with solid point-performers in the first few rounds. LaDainian if I are lucky enough, and then Brady. I like Derek Anderson handcuffed with Quinn, too. After that … Moss. Braylon. Hester (even earlier if you get return yards!). Boss. Yes Kevin Boss. Don’t worry about your second RB … somebody will pop up week 1 or 2. Just stay up until midnight after week one, which is difficult on the West Coast. I have to set an alarm, much to my wife’s dismay.

Q: You’ve obviously dated some pretty well-known women, but what’s the reaction from friends and family when you bring home a former SI cover model? Who gets noticed more in public when you two are out together, and how do you handle all the attention she gets?

When Rebecca met my parents, it changed my relationship with my Father. He could not stop staring at Rebecca. We have not spoken about it but I think my Father realized I was cooler than him. Now that we are married, guys tend to not hit on my wife, but when we were dating, it happened all the time. In Los Angeles, there is a hierarchy at events and parties and stuff that is pretty lame. I would find that the dudes who were higher on the totem pole would box me out for a shot at the title. What can you do? I would just let it go and see where the chips would fall. I love Rebecca and I have to assume the feelings are mutual. She married me so I am doing something right.

The one adjustment I had to make in my married life was sports viewing. Good sporting events tend to happen on Saturdays and Sundays. We are home and off work. Those days are also when your wife most likely wants to do social things. Not being able to sit around and watch all the college games and then the NFL games has been an adjustment. I watch a lot of games on DVR and go to your site for the rest.

Q: You grew up in New York and actually took part in an obscure sport: Fencing. Why fencing? Obviously you were serious about it if you fenced at NYU. And did anyone ever talk trash to you using Stand by Me references?

Fencing was a big part of my collegiate experience. I was an NCAA athlete for three years and know what those guys and girls go through. First off, drugs are out all through college. I don’t know about other athletes, but the random NCAA pee pee tests scared the crap out of me. If I was at a party and somebody would light up, I would move.

Fencing has a lot of history at NYU and it was the only Division I sport at the school. That made us feel a lot cooler than all the other programs. We competed at Notre Dame (beatable), Penn State (always tough), St. John’s (beatable, but I liked their swagger), Duke (most beautiful campus), UNC (a la Vitale: “Competed in the Dean Dome Baby!”) and Temple (sorry Bill Cosby, real beatable).

Those years were so much fun for me. Training as a team, traveling as a team, bonding as a team. In my best year, I nationally ranked 17th individually.

A lot of the guys and girls I trained with went on to the Olympics and still compete. I like seeing their names come Olympics time, but can’t help but feel a little envy. What am I gonna do? I can’t make it home for dinner these days, let alone train full-time for a sport. And I play video games, which suck away ALL my free time. Tough habit to crack, those video games.

Q: Tomkats, Body Shots, Can’t Hardly Wait, The New Guy … lots of teen angst flicks on your resume. Which one was your favorite? And did any of them measure up to your role as Cush in Jerry Maguire?

As an actor, I came into the business at a great time. There were a lot of TV shows and films being made. Nowadays, times are a little hard on the Boulevard. TV ratings are hurting (I blame you TBL/Blogosphere! Joke).

I graduated NYU with … get ready TBL … Damon Lindelof of LOST fame. He moved out with another buddy of ours but I did not want to come out until I had some scratch. I needed some after four years of private University tuition. I had not acted in anything legit since ‘Stand by Me’ and started the TV Commercial Circuit in NYC my junior year of college. And I was good. I booked about 10 national commercials in a year. Money. I auditioned for ‘Sliders’ (FOX ‘95 to ‘99) in NY and got it. Don’t ask me how. I got a big-time agent and parts just sort of happened after that. Lucky. But that was after a lot of crappy commercials and even more crappy auditions. People ask me how to break in to the business and all I can say is patience.

I did a bunch of Teen Movies in the late ’90’s, early 00’s because that’s what was out there. When I see them on STARZ at 2AM, I cringe but what can I do? At the time they were what was being made for a guy like me.

Playing ‘Frank Cushman’ in Jerry Maguire was a dream come true. There was a brief period after that film where people thought I was really a QB.

Q: We have to ask about blogs … how did you get into them? Is that how you consume most of your news?

I moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1996. I read a Major Paper from the New York area, everyday. I had it delivered to my front door. Tipped the delivery guy forty bucks every holiday. Read it front to back, everyday.

Ironically enough, around the same time I got into TBL, Drudge, Kissing Suzy Kolber, Cousins of Ron Mexico, Perez, Nikki Finke, I noticed my daily, major New York papers were stacking up. I was about a month behind. One Saturday I looked at the pile and realized I had not CRACKED one of the papers in a month. It was over.

Note: Subscription departments do not like to help you cancel subscriptions to their periodicals. Give yourself a good hour for the hold time you will have to endure.

Q: The mock Tom Cruise skit, which was a runaway hit on the web … you ever hear from him or his people?

I got mention a friend of mine, Jerry Minor. Some of the readers may remember him from Louie’s Neighbor in ‘Lucky Louie,’ on HBO last year. He is H-Y-S-T-E-R-I-C-A-L. We were looking to parody something on the net. That video came out and we went ahead.

We never thought it would be as popular as it was. Now I am a little scared because that dude could squash me. But it was still pretty funny. NOTE: We never singled out any one person by name, nor any specific group by name. If that makes it any better. Sorry Tom! I am so sorry! Please let me keep working!

Q: You mentioned that you met Patriots QB Tom Brady, and even though you’re a die-hard Giants fan, you couldn’t find a reason to dislike the guy. Is he the coolest athlete you’ve met? Ever run into an athlete who wasn’t cool?

I have met and hung out with the guy twice. First off, you cannot pay for a drink when you are with him. He will not allow it. Cool. Secondly, he is hands down the nicest guy. As a Giants/Jets fan, I did not want it to be that way, but it is. He does not have to be as nice as he is either. He just is. I am a fan.

Q: You wrote the screenplay for First Daughter, sold it, and then it became a movie (starring Katie Holmes). Since everyone we know who is a writer has a screenplay in the works, try to be honest - how much of a disadvantage do the little guys have in trying to make that happen? And how grueling of a process was it from the time the script got sold to the day the movie premiered?

I went to NYU Film (’95). It was a year after ‘Goodfellas’ came out, so me and another friend of mine in high school were dead set on NYU Film. I am always writing something. The film biz is kind of in the pooper right now so I am writing more TV/skit stuff. The Internet is a great place for the everyman to get seen and heard. Write a funny parody. Write a funny sketch. If it is timely and you get hits, the powers will come calling. It is all about how many eyes watch and there are a lot of eyes on the Internet right now.

Read Syd Field’s book on Screen Writing. It is a great map if you have an idea.

Q: You surf. How are you not terrified of sharks? Did you not hear about that guy in San Diego? Have you seen this video?

I used to surf quire a bit. My Folks had a place in Montauk, Long Island while I was growing up and there is great surf out there. When I first moved to Los Angeles I would go out two, three days a week. I don’t know what happened, but when I go out now, some kid who looks like a Jonas Brother tells me to take a hike, and that it is his beach. It gets tired and I took up golf. Which I suck at.