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Megan Hilty joins Tom Bergeron and Michael Chiklis in wishing America a happy Fourth
The union has 49 other states, but Massachusetts will make a particularly strong showing this Fourth of July.
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Bergeron confirms the occasion, the guests and the setting all contributed to “the carrot on the stick that I couldn’t resist … and particularly this year, an election year. All eyes are turned to Washington even more than usual, and it’s a great time for a birthday party.”
“To have her as the guest is thrilling,” Chiklis says, “and my children are completely crazed about it. Both my 18-year-old and my 13-year-old were screaming when I told them; they were jumping up and down. Jennifer crosses all demographics, because I think my wife and I are equally excited about it.”
“I was told I was the first actual Bostonian to ever host the show,” Chiklis reports. “I was kind of stunned to hear that, but I’m even more excited that they’ve asked me back. You put your best foot forward in these kinds of things and hope that people respond to what you’ve done, and this is sort of an affirmation that they did like it last year.” Chiklis actually was invited back before CBS picked up “Vegas” for next season, and he reasons, “Then it just became all in the family.”
Back on PBS, Hilty will be another first-timer on “A Capitol Fourth.” She’s pleased to be leading off the event by getting back to her “Wicked” and “9 to 5: The Musical” stage roots in rendering an appropriately patriotic medley.
“They’re songs we all know and love,” says Hilty, whose fame has grown sizably since the start of the year for her role on NBC’s “Smash” as calculating Broadway wannabe Ivy. “I’m very aware that [an all-American event] doesn’t get much bigger than this, and I’m just very excited about it. I love D.C., and maybe this time when I go back, I can hit up some of the museums. I haven’t had the time to do that in a while.”
“As soon as I saw the pilot script, it just seemed too good to be true,” she recalls, “just because it was a TV show about my life and my world, essentially. I keep saying it’s like 16 dreams coming true at one time. It’s everything I could ever want in one job.”
Photo/Video credit: PBS
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