HARRY’S HUB CONNECTIONS
Attention: Harry Connick Jr., people, has been in the building. The Taj Boston, to be exact.
“I think I have a special connection with Boston,” Connick told the Track over plates of fruit and steaming cups of coffee at the hotel yesterday. He’s here to meet with members of the local NBC station and to shoot promos in the Public Garden for his daytime talk show, “Harry.”
“My dad used to take me here to visit his friends when I was a kid — around 8 or 10 years old,” he said.
In addition to his childhood trips with his father, former New Orleans District Attorney Harry Connick Sr., the musician, actor and TV host said he spends summers hopping over to the Cape with his wife — former Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre — and their three daughters.
“I duck in and out when I can have a little vacation time,” he said.
In June, Connick will also be stopping by Camp Harbor View, a summer camp started by former ad man Jack Connors for youth living in underserved communities throughout the city. But when Connick is on the Massachusetts mainland, you can typically find him with his longtime manager, Ann Marie Wilkins.
“I’m usually only here for a day or two,” he said. “So if I have time to go out, I go wherever Ann Marie brings me.”
Wilkins has been quietly managing Connick’s career from her place in Cambridge since he was about 18.
Since then, the New Orleans native has not only breathed new life into big-band music, he’s also made a name for himself on big and small screens.
Connick has starred opposite Sigourney Weaver in the 1995 film “Copycat” as a serial killer. Meanwhile, many “Will & Grace” fans out there may recognize him as Grace’s hunky doctor husband, Leo.
Even more people, particularly reality TV junkies, have come to know Connick as a judge from “American Idol,” which wrapped up its final season last year.
Now with his own daytime talk show, which has been signed on for another year, the modern-day Renaissance man has seemed to find a balance that is uniquely, well, Harry. The show blends laid-back interviews with quirky specialty segments and live music written by Connick.
“For me, the key is to be true to who I am,” he said. “Why chase different philosophies when people respond best to you as yourself?”
And for those of you who have ever wondered: Yes, his eyes are really that piercing blue in person.