Window shopping has never been so charitable!

If you happen to be doing some holiday shopping in New York City or San Francisco, take a look at the store windows you pass — some may be filled with a high-tech way for mama to do some charitable giving without ever opening her wallet. Ebay just unveiled Give-a-Toy Store interactive storefronts that allow shoppers to use their smartphones to scan QR-coded price tags to make an immediate donation to Toys For Tots.

Debra Messing, mom of 7-year-old Roman, and the upcoming star of Smash was on hand to kick off the new endeavor and spoke with me about her favorite holiday traditions.

LilSugar: With the holiday season upon us, how did you come to work with eBay on this project?
Debra Messing: The holiday season is a time when people are more inclined to give, and I just thought that eBay’s initiative was so brilliant. They have this window with virtual gift tags with toys, and there are different donation amounts — there’s $5, $10, $20 — you just scan your [smartphone] over the window, you’re on the sidewalk, and instantly you’re donating to Toys For Tots and 100 percent of the money goes to Toys For Tots. Being able to make things really quick and easy and meaningful is important.

LS: What family holiday traditions are you most looking forward to this year?
DM: We just moved back to New York but have always had family here. We love to go skating at Wolman rink, and go see plays — musicals specifically. Waiting for the snow to come. Looking forward to putting on the snowsuit and stomping through Central Park.

LS: So much of the holiday focus is on kids. What’s on your wish list this year?
DM: For me, there is no better present than a massage. Flowers are beautiful, but they die. Champagne is fun, but it’s gone — very quickly. As a mom we’re on 24/7, and if we’re working moms, which most of us are, we’re exhausted, and sleep deprived, and we don’t take care of ourselves. We feel guilty if we take too much time for ourselves. It feels like an extravagance, but it really is a necessity for moms to take an hour to shut down, rejuvenate, and have someone to rub out the kinks from carrying the baby on your hip too much or whatever you’re doing. My son’s now at a place where he likes to jump on my body to wake me up at 6 in the morning, so I’ve literally got bruises all over my body.

Keep reading to see how Messing answered our famous Four Lil Questions about motherhood!

LS: You know you’re a mother when ____?
DM: You know you’re a mother when you: hear a baby cry and you instantly turn around looking for the baby even when you have a 7-year-old child.

LS: Why didn’t anybody tell me _____ about motherhood?
DM: I wish somebody told me the truth about motherhood!

LS: What’s the best trick your parent taught you?
DM: That singing Broadway musicals are a really great distraction from temper tantrums.

LS: Helicopter mom or free-range parenting?
DM: I think that I am built to be a helicopter mom, but I try every day to be free range!

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Debra Messing’s Will & Grace co-star Sean Hayes have expressed his love for Debra and her comeback ‘Smash‘ in an interview with nymag.com

Which will be around the time we get to see Debra Messing in Smash — both of you back on the air again.
I love Smash. I e-mailed Debra, “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen you do” — and she’s done some amazing things. She’s so talented. And if one of my other shows happen, we’d both be back on the air full-time. That would be wild.

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She may create a Marilyn Monroe stage musical in the NBC drama “Smash,” but Debra Messing insists she wanted to be Broadway’s Fanny Brice as a child.

NBC’s Smash co-lead Debra Messing may be acting in a Marilyn Monroe-themed musical production for the Steven Speilberg drama, but the TV actor insists as a child she wanted to be Broadway’s Fanny Brice.

“My prototype growing up was Barbra Streisand,” the Will and Grace star told a press conference in Toronto for CTV’s Upfront Presentation.

“That’s how I saw myself more at the time, I wanted to be Funny Girl, literally on Broadway and in the real world,” she added.

Messing said she didn’t know much about Monroe and her legendary mystique before playing Julia, the good-hearted lyricist, in the NBC musical pilot.

“She (Monroe) didn’t inspire me when I was young because I would have been delusional to think I looked anything like her, or that I could some day become a sex symbol in a similar way,” she recalled.

But the complicated life of Monroe soon consumed Messing as she and fellow actor Christian Borle play a successful song-writing duo that must tackle their personal troubles before turning to create a hit Broadway musical based on the life of the American icon.

“There’s something addictive about the mystique of Marilyn Monroe.  She’s really fascinating and complicated, and I think a perfect subject of a musical,” Messing said.

“I think she will always and forever be a source of fascination,” the Smash co-star added.

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Debra Messing is heading to a primetime network musical television series — and it won’t be on “Glee.”

On Monday, NBC confirmed it had picked up the musical drama “Smash,” starring the former “Will & Grace” star for the 2011-2012 television season, and Debra told Access Hollywood her new show has a unique edge.

“It’s different than ‘Glee’… because it’s a drama and it’s naturalistic, so you really do see the behind the scenes,” Debra told Access on Monday at the NBC Upfronts in New York City. “I doesn’t have a style to it in the same way.”

The series is set to look at life behind Broadway, focusing on the creation of a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, the network confirmed in a release.

It stars Debra as Julia, who is hired to write the music in the production, “9 To 5: The Musical” actress Megan Hilty as the rival to “American Idol’s” Katharine McPhee, and Oscar winner Angelica Huston as the show’s producer, Eileen.

“I love it because it’s not cops or forensics. Finally, it’s something fun and beautiful,” Angelica said of the series, which also stars British actor Jack Davenport, most recently of the ill-fated “Flash Forward,” as a director.

“Everyone has a background story,” Angelica further explained of “Smash.” “The sort of overlay is Broadway… I’m the producer, I don’t sing actually. I watch everyone else sing.”

Katharine said she was thrilled to join the celebrated cast and to be able to, at the same time, continue her love of music.

“I’m so excited. I’m so honored to be with this amazing talent,” she said. “It’s literally a dream come true to be able to sing, and act and be able to dance to… I’m living my dream.”

For Debra, “Smash” reunites the actress with her old “Will & Grace” network, NBC, and since the news about her new show’s pick up was announced, she’s been in a bubble.

“The last 24 hours have been pretty fabulous, because I’m seeing old friends,” she said. “It’s exciting and it feels good, but it feels completely different because this is a drama and it’s an ensemble and it’s just a different feeling and Steven Spielberg came up with the idea so that makes me kind of giddy.”

“Smash” is a production of Universal Media Studios and Spielberg’s DreamWorks’, but Angelica said it won’t have the famous director’s penchant for special effects.

“I don’t think we need special effects,” she laughed. “We’ve got some great acting… it’s a very human drama.”

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