During the panel for ABC’s “Lost” at the TCA Press Tour a few weeks ago, executive producer Carlton Cuse said that the true mystery of the series is, “Is Nestor Carbonell wearing make-up?”
Those familiar with the man who plays Richard Alpert, advisor to the inscrutable Benjamin Linus, have pondered this question for quite some time, and millions more wondered about it after seeing Carbonell playing the Mayor of Gotham City in “The Dark Knight,” but Cuse’s fellow “Lost” producer, Damon Lindelof, swore to an audience of TV critics that Carbonell is not guilty on all charges.
“When we first saw dailies of Nestor, we were, like, ‘Someone’s gotta talk to him about the eyeliner situation,’” Lindelof said. “And he does not wear any mascara, no eyeliner, nothing. He is completely 100 percent sans makeup. That’s the God’s honest truth.”
And, yet, there are those who still refuse to believe it.
Therefore, when I was given the opportunity to talk with Carbonell in connection with the DVD release of “Killer Movie” (he has a small but hilarious part as a Hollywood agent), I figured that this was the perfect opportunity to get confirmation straight from the horse’s mouth. Word of the TCA tour had clearly gotten back to Carbonell, however, since the mere mention of the event led him to start laughing (“My brother told me about it,” he explained), and the laughter increased dramatically, however, when I told him that the changing of my status to indicate my impending interview with him had immediately resulted in one of my friends – okay, it was Mekeisha Madden Toby, who writes for The Detroit News’ TV blog – replying, “OOOH! Ask him if he uses eyeliner!”
So I asked him.
