Maxwell Smart

AC: You've been called a cross between Martha Stewart and Donna Reed. How would you describe yourself?

BM: I'd put a dash of Doris Day in there, and just a touch of Auntie Mame.

AC: Tell us three must have items for the modern woman.

BM: That's a good question. I would say false eyelashes.... a fall.... and this season you absolutely have to have a pair of wedgies or espadrilles.

AC: Name a cleaning supply or kitchen utensil you can't live without.

BM: Lighter fluid. It's a wonderful cleaning agent. It takes the skid marks off the floor. If you have stickers to get off something, it takes that right off. It does all sorts of wonderful things.

AC: Frozen dinner, or home cooked meal?

BM: Oh, home cooked meal.

AC: So I take it that you don't endorse the microwave oven?

BM: I tell you what I do endorse. I endorse easy solutions that taste homemade.

AC: Recall a favorite celebrity encounter:

BM: We had Helen Gurley Brown on the show, and she was just a pip. She was wonderful. I just loved working with her. She was the original editor of Cosmo, and she was coming out to promote the second release of her book "Sex and the Single Girl."

AC: What's currently on your turntable?

BM: I tell you, my favorite music is production music from the 1960's and 70's. Production music is a genre that was designed to be used for television shows and record labels release it as a sort of wonderful, campy kitsch music and it really is wonderful for setting a mood at a party.... It becomes this new sort of music that is unexpected and really marvelous for use at parties.

AC: "Brini Maxwell, The Movie" .... who would play you?

BM: Oh, well I'd want to play me, of course.

AC: You have five minutes to pack for a trip to Texas... what do you bring?

BM: I'd say a light shift. In fact, I am just planning my wardrobe for the event as we speak, so I am looking at brightly colored lightweight shift

AC: So we can look forward to seeing you in a lightweight shift tomorrow night?

BM: You can.

Brini Maxwell, a self professed "child prodigy of domestic science" and host of her own show on the Style network will emcee the Pride Fest Block Party, Saturday, June 4, 9pm-1am, Fourth at Guadalupe.