Emmanuelle Chriqui's Next Act

Emmanuelle Chriqui came on to promote A Love Like This, the film she produced and starred in with Hayes MacArthur, and the interview rolled into Entourage memories, a first pitch at Dodger Stadium, and Call of Duty trivia nobody saw coming.

The film shot in 12 days in Malibu, at the tail end of the SAG strike. Pre-fires. Chriqui described it as a love letter to Malibu and a bubble moment, the world going sideways while they filmed a dramatic love story about two high school sweethearts meeting in Malibu for what is supposed to be their last weekend together.

Jeffrey Rugged wrote the script. John Asher directed. Chriqui came on as star and producer. Hayes MacArthur was her first call for the male lead because they had worked together on Super Troopers 2 and she needed someone she felt safe getting raw and vulnerable with on screen.

Rich pulled out the old bit about Mike DelTufo offering Chriqui a helicopter ride to Catalina on a previous appearance. She said she was going to suggest it to her boyfriend now.

On Entourage athletes, she listed the big moments. LeBron James came on the show. Chriqui got him to record a video saying mazel tov for her nephew's bar mitzvah. Aunt of the lifetime.

Then came the reveal almost nobody knew. Chriqui voiced the numbers lady in Call of Duty. She and Kobe Bryant, also in the video game, met through the project. Kobe told her to come to a Lakers game anytime. She sat courtside as his guest.

Adam Sandler stories were the warm heart of the conversation. Chriqui called him the prince of all princes. Serious about the shot, never joking at the expense of the movie, human and relaxed and non-movie-star. Rich backed her up with his own Sandler memory from ESPN days, walking around Yankee Stadium with him at a World Series. Elvis in the building. People asking Sandler to leave voicemails on their friends' answering machines. Record outgoing messages. Take photos with actual cameras. Sandler said yes to every single one.

The running bit was her first pitch at Dodger Stadium, June 2008, Cubs at Dodgers. She threw a strike. Rich asked if she would pass in a real Major League Baseball game. She said yes. He pulled up the photo. Nolan Ryan, he said, holding a straight face.

She is as famous online as someone who threw a solid first pitch, which is to say, not famous at all. That is how you know it went well.