Emmy-award nominee Jane Kaczmarek played the hilarious and harried wife and mother Lois on FOX’s Malcolm in the Middle. As the mother of three and wife to actor Bradley Whitford (NBC’s The West Wing), her real life often bears a resemblance to the one she played on TV. As a mother, she takes a no-nonsense approach to parenting, especially when it comes to money. Having founded Clothes Off Our Back, a charity dedicated to auctioning off celebrity awards show clothing to raise money for children’s charities, she tries to instil values in her children regarding finances and giving back to those who are in need. Jane, who recently worked with Visa’s PracticalMoneySkills.com, took a moment out of her busy schedule to share her thoughts on kids and finance with iParenting.
iP: How do you get your kids involved in work that you do for others?
JK: We have a big thing with birthday presents. I can’t stand all this stuff hanging around our house. It makes me crazy – all this stuff that piles up. So I started something in the kids’ invitation for their birthday parties saying that it is a family tradition, in lieu of birthday presents, please bring a check for the following charity – any amount would be very welcome. I think people always want to bring something to a birthday party and they don’t know what your kid has and what they need, so we collect money at birthday parties. This year we went back to the Children’s Defense Fund, which is an advocacy group for children here in American run by Marian Wright Edelman. We have done it for Smile Train, which is another favorite of mine. Smile Train does cleft palette repairs for children in the developing world. You know, $250 pays for an operation for a child and it changes their life. They go from pretty much being an outcast and beggar to being able to go to school and have a job. And $250 is pretty easy to raise at a kids’ birthday party because people bring a check for $20, which is easily what they would spend on a present.
Strange Son is the powerful tale of two mothers from opposite sides of the world who, united by their fierce determination to help their severely autistic sons, have challenged everything we thought we knew about autism.
You can hear clips of Jane reading the book below and can buy it here.
Clip 1
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Clip 2
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Jane also helped to launch the book and did a public reading in Pasadena, this is what the author Portia Iversen had to say on her blog.
I just wanted to share some photos from my recent book event at Vroman’s in Pasadena. It was a wonderful evening and my dear and loyal friend Jane Kaczmarek did an amazing reading from the book. I was deeply moved by her touching performance – but not at all surprised because I’d already heard Jane reading Strange Son for the audio book. Many friends and family members attended the book signing and afterward Jane and I caught up over a drink at a not-so-secret Pasadena haunt, the Hamburger Hamlet.
Jane Kaczmarek purchased two snuggly no-static cuddly cats from Bla Bla ($32.95) and a Pooki Doll ($25.95) to keep kids Frances, 10, George, 7 1/2, and Mary Louisa, 4 1/2, company.
Cranston is remembered as Hal, harried father of a rowdy boy brood on the Fox sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle.” He and his actress wife, Dearden, have traveled East from their San Fernando Valley home to perform in Neil Simon’s “Chapter Two,” beginning Thursday in West Long Branch.
The Cranstons view the venture as a working vacation.
“But,” says Dearden, “I think it’s going to be more vacation than work. We’re going to be there a month; our run is just two weeks. We’ve rented a house three blocks from the beach.”
Are there any particular Jersey Shore sights the Cranstons are looking forward to?
“We’re clueless,” says Dearden with a laugh. “This is all new to us. We’ve never had an Eastern summer experience.”
Although, Cranston says he had visited the Shore during his New York years, in the ’80s.
“It was usually day trips,” the actor says, “but I always thought this is a great area, and I’d like to spend more time here.
“What’s funny is — because I have such a workaholic mentality — I think if we weren’t working, I would never have booked a place on the Jersey Shore for one full month. I’d come for a week, maybe. So this has really given us an opportunity to virtually live here for the month of July and see what it’s like.
“We walk down to the boardwalk, get our exercise in. We’re having a great time visiting all the restaurants in the area. It’s really neat.”
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For seven weeks cast and crew of The Art of Travel filmed the adventure of a lifetime, hoping that audiences would enjoy taking a journey with a character like Conner, a high school graduate who finds himself, through his own doing, on a year long trip through Central and South America. Conner Layne makes his first destination Nicaragua, and much like Conner’s first days in the city of Managua, the cast and crew encountered culture shock.Anyone who travels knows the drill – anything can happen anywhere. You can get robbed in Atlanta almost easier then getting robbed in Managua, Nicaragua. But it is those first few days in a new place – whether it’s New York or Bogota – that you feel vulnerable.
Webisode 3, “Ladrones”, is a cool look into the first few days of shooting inside an amazing country where extreme beauty and poverty somehow coexist.
Also more recently he along with his racing team mate Tom Sutherland where interviewed by Norris McDonald in a TheStar.com Auto Racing Podcast. A must hear.
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What can I say? They have just about everything wrong, Frankie is the complete opposite the a ‘cliche former child star’
T-shirt is just a t-shirt! 2 small tattoos on the inside of his arm, hideous? erm..no. His head isn’t shaved its just cut a little short and little facial hair - so what?
As for the comments on the TMZ post – the ZERO tattoo stands for his zero tolerance’s on drugs and alcohol and he isn’t trying to be a movie/TV star he’s excelling in pro racing!
Frankie Muniz, the actor famous for his turn as the title character in TV’s Malcolm in the Middle, had his left wrist tattooed not long after he began his career as a professional race-car driver last year. The ink is an image of twin checkered flags surrounded by ornate script that reads, “Please Keep Me Very Safe.” As life-defining scribblings of would-be champions go, it’s not exactly “Live Fast or Die.” But then, Muniz, 21, isn’t your average speed freak. He’s the rare former child actor who’s never checked into rehab, let alone ingested a drop of alcohol. (And he’s got another tattoo, of the word “ZERO,” that signifies what he calls his “zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol.”)
He’s also the rare aspiring racer who is attempting to overcome a seemingly insurmountable disadvantage in experience. While most of his rivals in the Champ Car Atlantic Series – a minor-league loop that will take the track in the lead-up to tomorrow’s Toronto Grand Prix – spent their childhoods zooming around in various motorized racing machines, Muniz charted a less obvious course.
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Here is an interview with Jane Kaczmarek (Lois) from iParenting.com where she discuses kids and finance.
Great interview with 
A revealing interview with ![Buy Malcolm in the Middle - Soundtrack [CD]](http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/images/mitmcd.gif "Buy Malcolm in the Middle - Soundtrack [CD]")
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