Look who turned 50 today...

Donny Osmond!

I dunno, kinda hard to believe. He still looks terrific and is working as hard as ever. I like Donny for many reasons. First, he has preservered in showbiz even when it was tough for him to be taken seriously post the "Donny & Marie" show. So he took to the stage and did hundreds of performances of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and re-invented himself in the late 80s with his "Soldier of Love" album. Since then, he has continued to tour and to release new albums of various genres from 70s love songs to Broadway tunes. He even hosted a daytime talk show for a few years with Marie as well as a few game shows. But one thing I most admire him for is how candid he was in his memoirs about his crippling panic attacks that threatened to derail his career on stage. He helped a lot of people by going public and sharing the story of his recovery.

I met Donny a few years ago at a DVD Conference in Marina del Rey and he could not have been nicer. I wanted to do an interview with him after an awards ceremony and he jokingly played hard to get: "Daily News? No way." I mentioned that my big sister had bought "One Bad Apple" in the 70s. He shook his head no. Then I mentioned how much I liked "Soldier of Love" and he warmed up a bit. I finally hit paydirt after telling him what a great job he was doing hosting the "Pyramid" game show! Hey, sometimes ya gotta pull out the big guns.

Donny was in the process of putting together the "Donny & Marie" DVD sets and was absolutely involved in every stage of production and told me which skits he was going to include and he seemed as excited as a kid.

I guess in some ways, Donny will always be young at heart.

Happy Birthday!