Howard ColeThey auditioned to be the Doublemint Twins. They played ball with Sam Malone in a Cheers episode. And today they are the women of Dodger Fan Weekly, a weekly episodic web series created by fans for fans — or, make that, by female fans with an emphasis on the female fan.
They are Adele Baughn Wilson and Anadel Baughn Barbour; actresses, identical twins born 10 minutes apart, and big-time Dodger fans.
How big-time?
They attended their first game at 5 or 6, grew up listening to baseball on the radio, and learned a few things from Bugs Bunny — like “Kill the ump!” and “I seen better eyes on a puh-tay-tuh!” At 15, they waited in line to meet Steve Garvey and left with autographed pictures. Later, they'd delay social engagements by refusing to get out of the car before a final out call, with dates and family members being forced to wait.
Adele has seen the Dodgers at Chicago's Wrigley Field; Anadel hit the road to catch them in San Francisco this season. With their husbands, the twins share season tickets behind home plate in the Loge section, where the families of the team sit. That means high-fiving Lou Punto, Reggie Hairston, Priscilla Ethier, Ricky Nolasco's dad, etc.
Between them, by season's end either in person or on the tube, Adele and Anadel will have seen all 162 games on L.A.'s 2013 schedule. They can spell out the team's 25-man roster and name the September minor league call-ups, but as Anadel says, “As we get into the postseason, who knows?!” Exactly.
Dodger Fan Weekly's YouTube debut corresponded fittingly with the team's Opening Day, April 1, 2013; a glorious 1-0 shutout courtesy of Clayton Kershaw, who, with an eighth inning home run, also supplied the offense. And while the Dodgers had to hit bottom with a 30-42 record on June 21 before rebounding, the Baughn twins have been winning with DFW each Sunday, for the full 25 weeks of baseball's season to date. Look for a special playoff preview for week 26 this weekend.
Fun stuff in the form of weekly segments includes “Baseball Fashion,” “Stadium Grub,” “Tweet Talkin'” and “What Would Vinny Say?”
Actresses with stage, commercial (Oreo, Kraft Mac & Cheese, United Health) and television series work, as well as day jobs (Adele works at Streetlights, a nonprofit that trains at-risk youth for jobs in entertainment; Anadel is pursuing a degree in Clinical Psychology), the girls would love to land a Dodgers-related hosting gig, should opportunities arise in 2014.
Our Q&A begins with their thoughts about the possibilities for next season:
Anadel: For quite a while Adele and I have believed, and have been told by others, that we could be ambassadors for female sports fans, and that it could be a real asset for the Dodgers. With the impending launch of a Dodgers Channel or Network on Time Warner Cable, we know that they will be looking for content beyond classic games, history, and the very-normal programming of “insider baseball” talk.
Adele: Dodger Fan Weekly brings a fan's perspective. More specifically, it brings a female fan's perspective, which can be seen with segments like “Who's Hot and Who's Hottie,” “Simple Stats” and “Baseball Fashion.”
Anadel: Both of us watch various sports shows and sports networks — mostly to get Dodgers baseball and Kings hockey news — which have former-athlete-female hosts [like] ESPN, or female-broadcasters, [as on] MLB Quick Pitch and the NHL Channel. Then there's the typical depiction of the “female fan” in the image of the “Fox Sports Girls,” a beautiful bevy of ethnically diverse women used to promote the network, which is clearly not aiming for a female fan base.
Adele: We are bona fide L.A. Dodgers fans. As fans, we know there is NOT a lot of programming for the female fan. Our enjoyment of baseball, and we hope of the Dodgers, can be shared with many potential female fans who will follow the team — and the sport — once there is a bit of programming that appeals to them.
Can you tell me about your experience with the Doublemint Twins audition, and that whole thing?
Anadel: There were six or seven callbacks. Each callback was fun, and it got down to two sets of twins; shapely redheads, tall brunettes. They chose, as we were told, the “less shapely” twins.
Adele: If Mad Men had been around, we probably would have gotten the job!
Did you really chew Doublemint gum? Do you now, or are you more the Juicy Fruit types?
Adele: I definitely chewed Doublemint gum back then. I don't chew gum as often as I used to.
Anadel: I still like mint gums, not fruity gums, but there are so many different kinds and brands around these days that I try different ones. No real loyalty to a gum right now for me!
Adele: We were not Doublemint Twins, but we became the “Double Play Twins” for a year on a traveling softball team called the Hollywood Cover Girls. … The team traveled around the Western U.S. and we played games against local radio and TV stations at Minor League Baseball games. We were like the Harlem Globetrotters; we'd play three straight-up innings, then hijinks would ensue. The team would do promos and talk shows in each town. It was fun.
What was it like being identical twins? Did you ever switch places?
Adele: I'll start with the second part. No, we never switched places.
Anadel: We never ever switched places with guys because we actually have always had different tastes in guys and men, although we had to like each other's mates or forget it!
Adele: One time we had an audition for a TV show. For the final callback I could not get there on time, so Anadel read and got the part for both of us!
Anadel: Being an identical twin is mostly great. We're very close, we laugh a lot, appreciate a lot of the same things, and we like each other. We had a latchkey childhood, so it was good to have each other as we grew up. There are a few downsides. Sometimes it felt like we were always being compared to one another. … Also, as twins you always have to share your birthday, and often we had to share one gift between us.”
Cheers “Crash of the Titans”; Credit: YouTube
Adele: Twins can also fight for individuality in that people tend to lump us together into one entity. Even friends do that sometimes. Professionally, as far as TV and film, both of us have missed out on opportunities to work individually because of being thought of as one set of twins instead of two individual actors.
Anadel: As twins, there was also a good-twin, bad-twin element, as in I always got in more trouble than Adele did. Adele settled down in her 30s and l did not until 40!
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