Friday, July 31, 2009

Big Brother 11 - HOH Competiton Results & Spoilers - July 31, 2009

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!! If you want to know who won the HOH endurance competition and the results of it, here you go. If you don't want to know, obviously quit reading. LOL. The HOH competition went over three and a half hours. There were prizes given out to each person eliminated. Well, I should say that you had a CHANCE at a prize. Some won things while others didn't get anything. The first several that were out of the HOH were Kevin, Lydia, Ronnie and Natalie. That was within the first hour of the HOH competition. Jordan dropped out after over an hour and a half. That left a final four of Jeff, Russell, Chima, and Michele. Chima dropped out after around two hours and fifteen minutes. Michele dropped out just after two and a half hours. That left a battle between Jeff and Russell for the win. Deals were made and Jeff dropped out just after three and a half hours. Russell wins HOH and has promised safety for both Jeff and Jordan this week and also to nominate Ronnie. It was a brutal competition. What about the prizes? Kevin got $5000. Lydia won a TV. Jordan won the right to name the Have Nots for the week picking Jessie, Natalie, and Kevin.

Big Brother 11 - Thoughts On The Week - July 31, 2009

This week's Big Brother had everything from love triangles, deal making, a banana suit, and of course the back door. Jessie won HOH last week and Ronnie knew that the target was off of him. It was best case scenario for him. The plan was to send Ronnie out this week but Jessie added that Ronnie was solid with him. Ronnie hadn't lied to him so he had no intentions of putting Ronnie up. The target for the week switched to Casey which included Russell and Natalie wanting him up. Casey talked to Natalie in the back yard about how he was worried about Jessie sticking with the plan. All the talk from Casey of course ended up back to Jessie courtesy of Natalie. The Have/Have Not competition saw the Brains ending up being the Have Nots again. America voted for what other food to give the Have Nots for the week with it being cabbage and cocktail weenies. What was funny was Chima going off about the vote winner. All I could think was well, you should have seen the other choices. Nominations took place with Jessie nominating Jordan and Michele. Both were pawns though as Casey remained his target for the week. Jessie continued to work the house trying to get the pressure off of Ronnie. Things in the veto competition got interesting when Michele picked Casey to play. Now, he had a chance at the veto which isn't what Jessie and Natalie wanted. Along with the strategy of the veto competition, you had temptations of prizes along the way. Casey took a margarita party which he hoped would get him in good with the houseguests. I did laugh later at Jessie's DR comments of the margarita party saying "you don't know what you just did, game over". After the competition, the veto players were allowed the option of choosing an envelope which could contain prizes. Jessie's had $2500 in it. Jeff lost 5 veto comp points in his envelope. Casey started to see the letters "B-A-H" in his with him thinking Bahamas trip. Instead it was.......banana suit. Wear a banana suit for one week. Jessie was in the lead with Michele being the last to reveal how she did in the competition. She lost until her envelope revealed that she gained seven points which gave her the win by one point. She swung over and crashed into the mud which was really funny. They later showed it to them on the live show and it gave them a lot of laughs. Michele wins the veto and saves herself for the week. Kevin and Lydia talked about how keeping Casey would be good for them cause he'll be gunning for Ronnie and Jessie if he stays. Lydia went to work telling several in the house that Casey was likely getting backdoored. News got back to Casey and he tried to stop it from happening with talking to Jessie. No can do as Michele is off of the block. Jessie puts Casey up against Jordan. The speech from Jessie got on the nerves of several including Jeff. Casey saw that Ronnie had struck again and was still working his magic in the house. Casey did make a good case to Russell that got him thinking with where he ranked in the Athletes group. It got Casey his only vote to stay as Russell said during the live vote that he promised his word and was keeping it. The vote was 7-1 with Casey being evicted. Casey gave a big speech before the live vote and then called out Jessie on the way out. Jessie said nothing in response but Natalie spoke up in defense. This got us to a couple of big announcements. First, the cliques are no more. Everyone is now playing separate games. Also, America will vote on a new power in the house. The Coup D'etat returns to Big Brother. America will decide who gets it and the winner will have to keep it secret. They can't reveal the power until they use it. If they do, they lose the power. The power is that they can replace one or both nominees in the next two weeks completing overthrowing the HOH. The only way to be safe for sure is to be HOH or hold the veto. The show ended with a brutal HOH endurance challenge going on.

To vote for who you want get the power of Coup D'etat, go to this link:
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/big_brother/interact/americas_vote/

Other happenings on Big Brother this week. Hey Big Brother. Can you please give us something to vote on besides what kind of food that we want to give the Have Nots? It was lame to have that two weeks in a row. However, they did give us a big voting deal on voting for who will get the Coup de'tat power. Hopefully, whoever gets it won't be like Mike Boogie and reveal it messing it up. The reveal of that could be a lot of fun as we've yet to see it hit the house full effect. Ok, the love triangle with Natalie, Jessie, and Lydia is just hilarious to watch. I thought it made for great TV. The whole thing in the backyard on the couch was just unreal with Lydia sitting there with Jessie. When she gets up, Jessie has Natalie take her spot leaving Lydia really annoyed. Then, we have Lydia sneaking into the HOH room and watching Jessie sleep. Don't forget that they also had a blow up between Lydia and Natalie over the beds. That will be fun to keep watching. I liked the segment on the show with Jeff and Jordan's parents talking about how they are getting closer in the house. Fun segment and I liked the girls all talking to Jordan about how she really needs to try and get Jeff. The truth or dare game was pretty funny this week which resulted in Kevin having to cuddle with Jessie for 10 seconds in the HOH bed. Natalie set it up including then waking up Jessie as it was happening. Yeah, Jessie was not amused. The other part of it shown on TV was Ronnie having to give a 20 second hug to Casey. Yeah, he wasn't amused either when he found out. Poor Casey, his week got even worse with the banana suit. He did get a lot of nice banana one liners in there though for jokes.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Comic Con 2009 - Dollhouse Panel Recap - July 29, 2009

Let me just say that I have been a fan of the Whedonverse for a long time now. There were two shows that I was worried about with getting new seasons. One was Chuck and the other was Dollhouse. Thankfully, both were renewed and I was a happy camper!! So, I'm always interested to hear what Joss and crew have to say at Comic-Con. This Q&A was a lot of fun and laughs as always.

A packed house with the Whedonverse as Dollhouse had its Q&A session at Comic-Con. First, Joss Whedon did an introduction and then showed the missing episode which did not air which is "Epitaph One". That was a great thing for the fans in attendance. If you haven't seen it and want to, it is on the season one DVD of Dollhouse that was just released. He joked that it would be shown there for all of the people that hadn't torrented it to death. LOL. He talked of how the reason that they are back doing the show was because of who he was looking at, the fans. They started filming two days ago and mentioned that we would be seeing some old friends this season. Joss and Eliza Dushku took part in all of the Q&A with Fran Kranz and Dichen Lachman joining them toward the end.

Here are some of the highlights of the Q&A.

Question: Will we ever see someone like Victor or Whiskey who has been disabled or disfigured come back and have to deal with their new physical reality?
Joss: "Yes, we will definitely be dealing with that particularly since Whiskey did discover that she is not who she thought she was for all of last season. We'll deal with that in particular. For Victor, Spoiler alert, might get better. "

Question: What led you to cast Alan Tudyk in such a great villainous role?
Joss: "I've met him. (laughs from the crowd) He's an extraordinarily versatile actor and he's a tough Texan, he's got a fiery streak in him which you don't see when he does Wash. Actually, it was another Shakespeare reading and we did Antony and Cleopatra and he did Julius Caesar and he was just really tough and I thought ok, he'll be that guy. "

Question: Which of the characters did you enjoy playing the most in season one?
Eliza: "I am a tomboy as some of you may know. So, I do like when I'm in action. I loved being on the street and loved all the characters in that. Joss loved the doily dress so much. Also, I had a really nice time shooting "Haunted" with Olivia Williams. That last episode was kind of awesomeness as well with Alan as Alpha and (me) as Crystal, the sort of white trash girl."

Joss talked about his writing staff saying: "This is without a doubt the best first year staff that I've ever had. It's a roomful of brains. Just floating brains in jars. (laughs from the crowd) So much of what you've seen and so much of what you've seen today didn't come from me. I really feel like this more than any other show is a real roundtable and it's always open to the next idea and we just pass it around and pass it around. The people that I'm collaborating with I am so grateful for. I get to sit up here and be all fabulous but this is truly a group effort. Every one of them has come up with a contribution that I wish I'd thought of and was grateful not to have to. "

Next question addressed social issues like in Buffy cause season one of Dollhouse seemed like Joss was setting up the world of what things were going to be. Will there be more social justice in season two?
Joss: "Well, as you can see from this lost episode, everything turns out fine (jokingly). Just all fun and games. Yes, we are very interested in dealing with the abuse of power and the various ways that people can do that and what it would bring out in our characters when they are pushed to the edge."

Question: We often see familiar faces in your projects, has it affected your creative process with people that you've worked with to inspire new characters?
Joss: "This is something that I can't stress enough with the way that I talked about the writers room. Being a roundtable and a circle, this is how my creative life exists. It exists because of a community. Everything that I see from them infers everything that I do. The show was created because I said I know Eliza can be sophisticated, funny, sexy, strange, different, and all these things that she's not going to get to play unless I get to play with her. (crowd laughs). Not just the writers but others actors as well. We were at The Guild panel this morning. When I thought of Dr. Horrible, it was Felicia's singing in her Christmas episode that made me want her to play Penny in Dr. Horrible. The idea to have her in this episode came from Sarah Fain. We thought that we needed someone who is absolutely wonderful and reliable and can get it done and she said that there was this red head that could get it done and I thought Yeah!! Oh!! This extends to other mediums as well. We were doing Buffy and on one day, I'm shooting Spike in a flashback and came up with the idea for Tales of the Vampires and Tales of the Slayers. The next day we came up with the idea to do the Shakespeare readings just because of all the different things that we were seeing, James's energy as an actor, Doug Petrie's as a comic book fan, and this year, all bets are off. Last year, we got Eliza and also got Amy and we didn't want to make it seem we were playing favorites but I don't care. (big applause from that comment) For example, I do believe we'll be seeing a few episodes involving Alexis Denisof."
Eliza joked about their history of fight scenes and said that "I could hit him again" .
Joss: "You will take a blade to him at one point. That is all I'm saying".

Question: If you could have been on Firefly, what kind of character would you have liked to play?
Eliza: "Ask him"
Joss: "A missionary."

Question: (This was funny cause he got a question similar last year) You have a habit of killing my favorite characters off of your shows. Are you going to kill my favorite character off?
Joss: "Who is your favorite character?"
Fan: "Maybe I should keep that a secret."
Joss: "I kill people for two reasons. One because it hurts very much and it furthers the story or two because I contractually had to. I do have as much integrity as a storyteller as I can. But there is also the realities of TV when someone is going to disappear, you have to think of something to make them cry when you have to."

Question: When are we getting another musical?
Joss: "Well, all the writers of Dr. Horrible are here today. Sometimes we get together and we talk about just that thing. I can't give you a date or any information at all cause I'm me but it's very much on our minds. We love it far too much to let it go."

Question: Did playing the role of Faith help you prepare for this role?
Eliza: "It's a part of me. That was 10 years ago now. I feel like that everything that I've done has sort of helped me in this role because every character that I've played in my career and in my real life has helped somehow or somewhere in this. Faith inspired me as an actor and it's one of my favorite roles that I've ever done. I feel like she's always sort of in me and helping me."

Question: Will Felicia Day be a regular on Dollhouse?
"We are going to see the character that she plays in the future again this season. Not a regular but she'll be in the house. She is one of those people that I can't seem to get enough of so I'll bring her in wherever I can. "

Some other happenings from the Q&A. Joss talked of the crossover between musicals and Sci-fi with fans of each going to the other and trying something different. He did feel that science fiction and musicals had a weird cross section of people cause they were both a step removed from reality and are both a bit bigger than life. He said that the best feeling is when you get someone to crossover from their fandom into something else. He loved that people crossed over to the Buffy season eight comics that wouldn't normally read comic books cause they were fans of the show. He was questioned about time paradoxes and what to do with the "accident" and played with the idea of time paradoxes but then threw it out. All the memories that the group is having may not be true. He did mention Heroes saying "as long as we don't send anyone to feudal Japan, we're ok, right?" Joss did talk about how Epitaph One was done with expectations that they would be canceled. A lot of it will be seen as memories but the happenings of it will be honored. He hinted at hoping to get a little bit of Summer Glau on the show. He got gasps when he said that he had never seen Lost. He replied back with saying "I'm busy. Ok, I'll watch TV instead of being (it sounded like he said "here for you"). There was a woman in line that got a funny line in referring to South Park and Kenny. Just replace Kenny with Penny and you get the idea. Joss mentioned that they were working with a new DP that is showing a new way of how to film and create a new look for the show.

This is the best thing to close this recap with. Joss and Eliza both talked of how this season is about giving people chances since the fans gave them a chance to have this season. Eliza said that it was because of the fans that we are back and we want to give that back. She also had this to say: "Just because you've been loyal fans doesn't necessarily mean that your going to follow us if it's not good (Joss gave a funny uh oh kind of reaction to that comment). People were (saying) the show found its groove halfway through the year and I feel like we always want to be honest back and go yeah, it's true. I appreciate that honesty. You're involved and we hear from you. You tell us what you want and you respond. You're the best fans that anyone could have".

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Comic-Con 2009 - Chuck Discussion and Q&A - July 28, 2009

Comic-Con 2009 - Day 3 - Chuck Panel DiscussionComic-Con definitely felt like a victory parade for Chuck after the awesome fan campaign that saved the show. Chuck is one of my favorite shows and I can’t possibly recommend it enough!! Chuck opened up HUGE at Comic-Con!! First, there was this Comic-Con trailer which aired.


Then, Jeffster opened it up as they performed Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”. This was awesome!! The rest of the cast walked out during the song and danced. Huge ovation from the crowd as they walked out. I’m sorry but based on everything that I’ve seen, everyone has to follow that entrance from here on out. LOL. The mark has been set for other panels.

Co-creator Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak joined Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Joshua Gomez, Adam Baldwin, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Vik Sahay, Scott Krinsky, Mark Christopher Lawrence. This was a fun, fun Q&A to watch!! So many laughs!!

Here are some of the highlights of the Q&A.

Question: Why that song for Jeffster’s entrance?
Schwartz: “Fat Bottomed Girls seems like a song that really Jeff would gravitate to. He has a shape. And Jeffster has an era where I think they really rock the hardest. “

Question: Who came up with the band in the first place? Whose idea was it?
Schwartz: “One of our writers, Allison Adler.”

Question: How much did any of you actually expect to be back here and be back on the show?
Zachary: “Look at them. We’re here because of you guys (pointing to the crowd). I felt cautiously optimistic, I guess that’s the right term but when you have the best fans in the world who will go and eat multiple Subway sandwiches and start grassroots campaigns and stay with you through thick and thin and believe in you as a cast and crew. You guys are incredible. I love you guys. Thank you so much.”
Schwartz: “You guys have been amazing.” (He named off a bunch of names of people that helped promote and push the show to help get it to return.) “Is Wendy Farrington here?”
(She was there and got their attention in the crowd.)
Zachary: “I met Wendy in the UK. Wendy started the footlong finale campaign that a lot of you guys caught wind of or saw on the internet or whatever. It was basically the best way that a show could get that kind of traction and get out there. It got picked up virally. Wendy was one of those genius fans that said ‘you know what, I think I know what might actually do something beneficial that has some reward. Let’s get everyone who really digs the show to go and patronize one of their main advertisers, Subway, and you did that. You guys picked up on that and you went with us and now we have all of ballroom 20 (pointing at the room). Best fans in the world.”

Question: What can you tell us about season three to hold us over until when the show premieres?
Fedak: “The Chuck story is one of a hero. You know in Superman how he goes to the Fortress of Solitude and he comes out Superman, but we’re telling the story about a hero in pieces. If you think about seasons one and two, he’s figured out now that he has powers. Now, he has these abilities but you don’t just figure that stuff out in a day. It’s going to be exciting for us to get in there and figure out how he learns. Now, he has Sarah and Casey protecting him but also in some ways being sensei’s. There is pieces of that that is going to be really fun for season three. It’s fun for Chuck to take the story of a guy who could be a hero and what’s going to happen next.”

Question: How is Subway going to be put into the show next year?
Schwartz: “To be determined. It is very early. We can tell you that because we had to take some budget retractions or cuts, this year we can only afford for Adam Baldwin to grunt. (laughs)."
Adam: "My inner monolgue when I grunt is the name Joss Whedon." (Big ovation and the cast jokes and gets on him for pushing Whedon instead of them.) "We’re at Comic-Con. I have to throw them a bone. Look at them cheer.”

Question: Anything on the powers that Chuck now has?
Zachary: “The powers which you’ll grow to find out in the new season, he can’t just know kung fu all of the time. Then, his handlers are obsolete and we have to have them cause we need Yvonne and Adam or otherwise there is no Chuck. The writers and creators have structured it in a way that the chuck fu or any other physical powers that I may be able to have, they have a window, they have a bit of a shelf life. There is a glitch in the system. I flash and I have my physical powers but they don’t necessarily last. That is kind of the secret to the chuck fu or whatever else.”
Fedak: “Plus, this new intersect was designed for a guy like Bryce Larkin, super spy.”
Zachary: “What are you trying to say?”
Fedak: “Cold, emotionless but unfortunately they’ve went into Chuck Bartowski. Big emotional guy. Lot of issues.”
Zachary: “That’s true”

Fedak talked about the new Chuck website. The website is at this link at: http://chuckmeout.com Fedak had these comments on the website: “It’s one part: thank you to the fans because you were so instrumental in the show coming back. So, we really wanted to create a hub for all Chuck activities. If there is something going on out in the world or something with the show, we want to be able to tell you about it. Also get some behind the scenes stuff, lot of writers right now but we’re going to get some actors. It’s a great place so, for us, we wanted to be able to communicate with you guys more directly and connecting all the great bloggers and critics who talk about the show. It goes live today. It will be great and we’re very excited.”

We then move on to the fan questions. This gets funny with the joke being that fans would suggest things in their questions, the panel would say great idea, and write it down for future ideas.

Question: Will Chuck have to pay a price for having his temporary abilities? Like he can do kung fu but then can’t walk for half an hour afterwards.
Zachary: says “great idea. That is actually art imitating life right there.”
Schwartz says ”that’s why we’re here today people” as Fedak writes it down.

This little girl asks: Who are you closest to in the cast and who is your best friend?
Gomez starts easing in to secure his spot. LOL
Zachary: “First of all, you may be the most adorable little girl that I’ve ever seen in my entire life. You should be bottled and your parents should bring you around and say ‘oh a little adorable? Here you go’. I feel like everyone in the cast has different connections in every different way but probably Josh and I from day one. He does play my best friend on TV and he’s one of my best buddies in real life and we get to play video games together. He’s a man after my own heart but I love everybody. “

Question: Did Chuck’s dad program him with any other abiltiies such as learning languages or knowing how to shoot?
They immediately start writing things down again saying these are good. “Any language suggestions?” Crowd starts yelling all sorts of suggestions. Funny stuff.

A kid steps up the mic and says: “My name is Orion.”
Zachary: “Your name is Orion? That’s awesome. Are you my father?”
Kid: “I’m not. “
Zachary: “I would hope not cause he is sitting right over there and that would be very odd.”
Kid: “Are there going to be action figures or maybe a video game?”
Fedak writes it down.
Adam: “Yeah, I need another one.” (this got a lot of laughs as he cheered with that comment)
Zachary: In response to Adam’s mention of having a figure, “It hurts a little bit.” Starts to mock Adam “I was on Firefly everyone loves me”. This got a huge applause from the crowd as Adam continued to egg on the cheers. LOL
Adam: “What? I just said four words.”
Zachary: “I hope we get action figures if for no other reason to have one and throw it in his face” (pointing at Adam)
Gomez: “Then, have it beat up the Adam action figure.”
Zachary: (Starts to do an imitation of being up the Jayne action figure on the table) “Yeah, Jayne, look at that Jayne. Not so shiny now are you Jayne?” (pauses and reflects on what his own figure could be.) “And furthermore so I can have a kung fu grip.”

Comic-Con 2009 - Day 3 - Chuck Panel Discussion
Question: Which superhero does Chuck most identify with and which would he like to be most like?
“It is much like a Peter Parker kind of a thing. He gets bit whether he likes it or not. Not by a spider but by email which is on the world wide web. Who would he like to be? I don’t know Deadpool? But apparently Ryan Reynolds gets all the jobs. (laughs).”

Adam was asked on whether he would be branching out to do more romantic stuff. Gomez looked over and said that he couldn’t wait to hear this answer. Adam says: “I just do what they tell me.”
Schwartz: “I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of Ellie and Awesome being on the rocks a bit. Hypothetical. Casey is trimming his bonsai tree in the window. Ellie and Casey’s eyes lock in the courtyard. Then, there’s a moment.”
This got a lot of laughs with a lot of the cast groaning. LOL
Adam: “I would do that. That I would do.”

Question: Loved the 3D episode . Any thought of doing a musical episode with Jeffster?
“Write it down.”
Schwartz: “Now, there will be.”
Zachary: “That may have been your answer right there.”

Yvonne was asked about Sarah talking about her sister and whether Corinna would be coming back?
Yvonne: “Maybe you should write that down. Is Corinna coming back?”
Yes, Corinna will be back.
Schwartz: “And Morgan will try once again.”
Gomez: “And fail once again.”
Schwartz: “Or not.”
This perked up Gomez.

Comic-Con 2009 - Day 3 - Chuck Panel Discussion
Other happenings. Schwartz did leave open the possibility that Chuck could return earlier than had been talked about. That would be great if it works out. The season three poster was shown at Comic-Con which was very cool looking. The Buy More will be a part of the show in the new season. A fan asked about if there were any guest stars to name for the new season. To continue with the pattern, they said to yell out names and they’d write them down. LOL. Somebody mentioned having Casey’s parents on the show. Schwartz and Fedak loved the idea and said “Casey’s mom. Thank you” while adding great idea as they wrote it down. Some fan yelled “Yvonne, you’re hot”. Zachary said “good answer” and then Adam followed with “yeah, from the duh files”. This was a great, great time from top to bottom. The mood was great and they did a lot of joking around. They made sure to thank the fans huge as you can tell for all the work with the campaigns to bring the show back. Anyone that attended this Q&A got a show and a half. If you’re a Chuck fan, you were very happy with this.

Comic Con 2009 - Smallville Panel Recap - July 28, 2009

Smallville’s Comic-Con panel featured Tom Welling’s first Comic-Con appearance. Joining him were Allison Mack, Justin Hartley, Erica Durance, Cassidy Freeman, Callum Blue, and writers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson. Fittingly enough, Jeph Loeb hosted the panel. If you aren’t familiar with Callum Blue, he is the actor set to play Zod. Tom Welling got a huge standing ovation when he walked out on the stage. There were 6,000 people there to watch the panel. Before the panel, the season nine trailer was shown and it featured quite a bit of happenings including us seeing Zod. One thing that got everything buzzing was a shot at the end of it featuring Clark standing on top of a building with a S on his chest. That got the crowd really fired up.

Here are some of the highlights of the Q&A.
Question: What is it like being a producer on the show?
Tom: "I enjoy the production side very much. For the last few years, my interest in what happens before we get to set has increased and this year I get to take a larger part in that." 
Kelly: "We’re excited too. You’ve been a great addition to the producing team. Even though we’re only a few episodes underway."

Question to Erica: What is going on with you and Clark?

Smallville press conference at the San Diego Comic ConErica: "Well, I think you guys are going to be pretty excited this year. All of the things that you’ve been waiting for, you will see a little bit of that. Lois is dealing with being smitten with Superman and also kind of finding Clark irritating which has always been a lot of fun. Giving him a hard time cause somebody has to. I think it will be a great season and be really spicy."

Question: Chloe has a new role. What is like being Watchtower?

Allison: "I love being in control (laughs). It’s awesome and, please, I get to tell these guys what to do all the time."

Question: Talk about Smallville moving to Friday nights.

Kelly: "One thing that we have to say is thank you to the fans because a year ago, I don’t know if anyone knew what the outcome was going to be and if we were going to have a season nine. It’s literally because of everyone in this room and all the fans out there that we’re back this year and we’re gunning for season ten.
"
Brian: "Just to let you know, we do read what you write on the blogs even if it’s really, really mean. (laughing from the audience). What Kelly says is absolutely right. Regardless of whether you agree with certain decisions that we’ve made on the show, you guys are there, thick and thin. Nine seasons. Ten hopefully. The move to Fridays night I look forward to really. X-Files. Battlestar. The best Sci-Fi shows are on Fridays and we’re going to be no different. "

Question: Will we be seeing more of Erica this year of Smallville?

Kelly: "You will be seeing more of Erica this season which we are very happy to announce. She will be in 18 episodes this season."

Question: What inspired you to finally step in and audition and star in Smallville after the talk that you weren't interested initially?

Tom: "At the time when they were bringing people in for auditions, they weren’t letting them see a script. Once they liked what you did in the audition, they let you read the script. Sometimes in Hollywood, when they don’t have a script to show people, it probably means that they don’t have one which isn’t a good thing. So it took a little convincing through the people that were managing me at the time and myself. At first, I thought it was going to be Superman in the cape and tights on television. Once I read the script, I realized that it was completely different than what I thought. It was a great script and great idea and something that I thought hadn’t been done before and had a lot of room to grow. It looks like that was a pretty good assessment looking back nine years."

Question which went to the group: Do you remember what it was like with your audition?

Allison: "They originally wanted somebody who was of different ethnicity than me so when I walked into the room, I was the only white girl. I was like I don’t think I’m right for this part (laughs) something tells me, but they decided to change gears and shift things around so when I went back the second time and was like ‘ok you guys know what I do, really do you need to see me do this again?’ I went in with a little bit of attitude but apparently they liked that for Chloe and it’s carried me for nine years."

Cassidy: "I didn’t see a whole episode. It looked great. I had an idea of who she was going to be though and they shared that with me."
Justin: "I did this pilot with the guys who created the show and were gracious and thought of me. They took pity on me and brought me in. (laughs)"

Erica: "I was just up in Vancouver at the time having a temper tantrum about the industry and being childish. It came out that Lois Lane was going to be a part of the show. I'm from Canada and I was up in Vancouver and I just thought, oh, they'll just go with LA. So, I'm sitting outside the studio waiting to go and I just thought I've got to do it. I went in and I was kind of like Allison with saying 'I'm just so over it' and trying to pretend that I was super cool but I wasn't. Then, I got a call and went down for it and the rest is history. It's been a lot of fun and a quick and fast ride."
Smallville press conference at the San Diego Comic ConCallum: "I had just moved back to London. I didn't actually know that it was Zod that I was auditioning for. It was a character called Mason. I found out when I got to LA to test and it was Zod and I kind of fell apart and forgot all my lines in the test. Not very Zod like I'm sure."

Question: Is Lex really dead?

Brian: "We know from the mythos that Lex is absolutely not dead."

Question: When is he going to really fly without a red kryptonite ring?

Brian: "Tune in on September 25th because we do actually talk about that and address that in the season premiere."

Question: What challenges do you have as far as stalling storylines or moving ahead when it comes time to the end of the show and not knowing if you'll be back for another season?

Kelly: "A lot of that lies in the writers room. Luckily, we have an amazing writing staff. Honestly, everyone's brains are functioning on two levels when we're approaching that last run of the season because the same thing happened last year. We actually had two different episodes for the final episode cause we weren't quite sure at a certain point. The energy is amazing in there and it is all figured out. We just thought about how we would end it if it was this year or if not, there is always more story. That's the beauty of it."

Brian: "The challenge isn't in stalling cause we try to never stall. The challenge is when you're not stalling and you're moving really fast. Where do you go next? What is great about the character of Clark Kent is that the moment that me and Kelly first read the pilot, we were like 'this is brilliant' because it takes a character that we all know and punches him into a place of discovery where you get to really see the struggle that is inside Clark Kent as he's deciding to be Superman. Every year we're wondering if there are more struggles or more issues that come up. We have two more seasons of stories to tell at this point. We're not really worried about stalling."

Question: Seeing more of Green Arrow this season?

Justin: "Yeah, a lot more. We're going to go back a little bit. Last year I got the chance to play him broken down more and then we jumped right out of it. It was over and he had figured out all of his problems and come to some kind of resolution. Then, we find out this year that that isn't quite what happened. He's really, really struggling." 

Brian: "In the first eight episodes, we're really going to see him hit rock bottom and then we'll see what happens."

Question: If Lex isn't gone, is there any chance of Jimmy coming back?
Kelly: "Aaron Ashmore was one of the greatest actors to work with. We loved him. But, the show has always had a history of trying to line up with the mythology so that is what we always try to do and he wasn't the right age as with the mythology. But, it's Smallville and strange days happen. You never know but we love him and we were so happy to be able to work with him."

I think it was Jeph that added: "As we all know from comics, dead is dead."

Question: What personal attributes do you use to build a character?
Smallville press conference at the San Diego Comic ConCassidy: " It's funny that you say that cause people meet me and say you're so bubbly and not evil and angry and killing people. (laughs). And I say well, thank you but you don't really know me. (laughs). The part of her that I actually pull from myself the most is her strength and her inability to really not do what her heart asks her to do even it might mean that it might hurt other people. Not always the most beautiful part of one's self but a passionate part of one's self and I like that about her character and I like it about myself."

Smallville press conference at the San Diego Comic ConQuestion: Since Jimmy is no longer here, do you still get a love interest this season? Still any chance of you and Clark? 

Allison: "I'm thinking that the Clark/Chloe thing might be dead in the water. He's pretty occupied with other women in his life. With Chloe, you're going to be seeing a lot of healing with the loss of Jimmy and dealing with some of the things that happened for her last year. Really stepping into a more powerful position so I'm not sure that she's really going to have much time for a love interest in the first little while but you never know, she's always open to romance."

Question: Any truth to the Metropolis movie rumors?

Brian: "Metropolis is a rumor at this point"

Some other happenings included the first question being the return of Batman. If you remember last year, he made a memorable appearance during the 2008 panel. His question was “when am I going to be on the show?” which got laughs and then he asked and got to have Tom Welling’s name plaque including it autographed. He got the handshake as well and gave the thumbs up. This was very reminiscent of last year with him posing and all. Very funny. This started the "ask for your favorite cast member plaque card" deal. Erica and Allison gave theirs out as well during the Q&A including autographing them. Geoff Johns was brought up on stage who wrote the Legion episode last season. It was announced that he will write an episode this season called Justice Society of America which got a big reaction from the crowd. Lots of requests for Callum to speak in his Zod voice including many wanting him to say "kneel before Zod". One question asked was if there were any plans to release the score of the show on a soundtrack? Brian said that they hadn't really thought of it but would bring it up while giving a ton of credit to the crew that works on that part of the show. Here was a great comedy moment. One woman asked Tom the question of what is the most exciting or interesting thing that has happened on set to you and could you make it kind of long so you'll keep looking at me? That was one of the best questions that I have ever heard. It got a lot of laughs. Tom looked right at her and would say about four words and pause. This was great!! He did say the visual effects of the show were great to watch along with the directing side of it. As far as guest character appearances, announcements were made that Metallo would be on for the first two episodes and maybe more. Also, expect Toyman and Roulette to return. The writers also said that they might be exploring a Green Arrow sidekick idea as they speak. Tom will be directing two episodes. Allison had this to say about Tom as a director: "Tom is a wonderful director. He's one of my favorite directors to work with on the show because he has such a depth of understanding of the show and the characters. He has such a loving way of explaining what he wants and he's so excited. So, I'm thrilled that he is doing two more episodes this year." Allison will be directing again this season too. Kelly closed out the panel saying said that this is the hardest working cast that you have ever seen. They work around the clock and are incredibly passionate and the same with the crew.

Quite a bit of news out of the Smallville panel. Interesting to hear the news of what is to come in season nine and I'm excited about it. The trailer looked really cool. I liked hearing the thoughts of the show moving to Friday nights. It sounds like they are excited about it and I hope that it does do great things for them. I know all of us fans have been nervous about the move by The CW. The Metropolis movie idea was waved off quickly so we'll just have to wait on that to see if anything else happens with it. Really fun panel!!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Comic- Con 2009 - The Big Bang Theory Panel Q&A Recap - July 26, 2009

TV Guide Comic-con PanelThe Big Bang Theory was represented at Comic-Con by Chuck Lorre (show co-creator) Bill Prady (Executive producer and co-creator), Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyar. Fun Q&A session and you can definitely tell how much popular that the show has grown since last year’s lower key Q&A session. Here are some of the highlights of the Q&A.

The cast was asked if they had any kind of history with comics and all growing up. Kaley was specifically asked do you really know as little about all the comic stuff as you convincingly play on TV?
Kaley: “Yes. (laughs).”
Johnny: “I did a lot of sketching as a kid. I was a massive Star Wars fan. Still am.”
Jim: “I did the whole Star Wars thing as a kid and that was as far into this as I got except that I wanted to be a meteorologist for a little while and that was as far into science as I got.”
He was asked pertaining to science if he understands the long monologues that Sheldon has?
Jim: “Only to the degree of why is Sheldon bringing this up in part of the conversation. It doesn’t take long to look at that science stuff and realize that you don’t have the mental capacity to get it. I don’t mean that I’m stupid, I mean that it’s very specialized brains doing all that and it drives home the importance of how special these minds are. Short answer no.”
Back to the history of this growing up question.
Kaley: “No. (laughs). I wasn’t into all of this stuff but I have to say that last year being my first time to be at Comic-Con, you all opened me to a brand new world and I really appreciate it.”
Simon: “For me, it’s a huge stretch to play a nerd. (laughs). Kind of a role of a lifetime actually. I was into Star Wars. I carried around a Luke Skywalker toy that I called my man. Then, I would say that I left my man in the car. So, never leave your man in the car or tears will ensue.”
Kunal: “Yeah, I really liked Star Wars. I had a millennium falcon growing up that was really cool.”

Question: The Big Bang Theory has been renewed for two seasons. How was it hearing that news?
Chuck Lorrie: “The renewal goes back a year ago to here after the writers strike. We were just this show and came here and you guys surrounded us by so much support and love. We went back with a lot of enthusiasm and there was no strike and we got to do a full year. The two year pickup has a feeling of people out there getting what we were doing and cared, so thank you to Comic-Con."
Bill Prady: “We talked about riding a Comic-Con high for a long time last year. I’m a big fan boy, Star Trek fan, and many other things. It’s amazing to be on the other side of that kind of relationship with fans of something that you’re working on. People treat our show, not like a sitcom, but like a sci-fi show or something that has characters that are vested in that way. Just a thank you to you guys.”
Question: Feelings on moving to Mondays at 9:30 (eastern time)?
Chuck: “You guys followed us when they put us on at 8 and that is what kept us alive. We did eight shows before the strike took us out in our first season. When the strike was over, CBS put us on at 8:00 and we thought that might be the end of it. You followed us and kept us alive and that was when we got the two year pickup when we did well at 8.”

Something that you’d like to see your characters do?
Kaley: “Playing more video games. That was so fun and I want to put more Cheetos in my hair. I loved being a mess. That was fun.”
Johnny: “I thought that I’d say as long as I was playing Leonard that I hoped that he gets the girl but I’ve gotten more girls playing this role. I didn’t see that coming.”

Question: Since working on the show, has your perception of the word, nerd, changed?
Johnny: “It’s something that we’ve had to think long and hard about because we’re asked about it so much. A nerd, dork, or dweeb is someone who is especially passionate about a few things in their life and have emerced themselves in whatever they’re passionate in. Therefore, other things such as social graces or dating have kind of fallen by the wayside because they enjoy the tunnel vision that they have over whatever they love.”
Kanal: “We talk about these characters not being nerds or geeks persay but sort of being brilliant people so I think that is the way that we look at them. “

Question for Jim since he has been nominated for an Emmy. What kind of reaction and speech would Sheldon give if he won an Emmy?
Jim: “I don’t know if Sheldon would speak at such a ceremony. I think he would find this nominating stuff to be nonsense that there were even a suggestion that people were on par with him.”
This got a lot of laughs and I have to agree with that answer. LOL.

Some other notes from the Q&A. Someone suggested that they do an episode with Sheldon getting called for jury duty and the mess it would create. The creators said that they had discussed doing that episode a couple of years ago joking that only Sheldon would be able to take down the whole council. Galecki was asked if he could pick another Roseanne cast member to guest star and work with on the show, who it would be? He said it would be impossible to name one cause he loved them all. Several yelled out John Goodman and he said that he would love to work with Goodman again. Nice Dr. Horrible twist into this Q&A with a lot of people yelling “Moist” at Simon. Kaley didn’t know what that was and they explained it with him saying that it isn’t a good idea to yell things like that when there is a girl around that doesn’t understand it. LOL. The cast was asked if this show had changed their lives as far as people walking down the street and noticing them. Parsons said that most of the people that come up to them are really nice and sweet people. He doesn’t find it uncomfortable at all and finds it enjoyable to meet people. Galecki said that this summer ranked very different than last summer as far as people approaching them showing that more people have their eyes on the show now. Helberg said that the fan base is really wide with it being kids and then hearing about 60 year old fathers that are obsessed with the show. Overall, very fun Q&A and a fun cast. Love this show and if you aren’t watching it, you REALLY need to. My favorite current sitcom right now. I laugh at it a LOT.

Comic-Con 2009 - Lost Panel Discussion & Q&A Recap - July 26, 2009

Here comes the first of the Comic-Con panel discussions and Q&A. I love the internet cause I wasn't even there but I can still recap it based on videos that attendees are posting.

LOST Panel At The San Diego Comic Con In CAThe panel for Lost provided a lot of fun while also answering questions…..well, they didn’t really answer many questions. LOL. I’m talking as far as them being secretive. I WANT them to stay secretive cause this is one show that I don’t want to know things about in advance. They did give us some answers to small questions. The panel started with the executive producers of Lost, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. Fittingly, they walked out to Europe’s “The Final Countdown”. They talked of it being their final Comic-Con with the show ending this coming season. They talked of how they are always asked if they have things planned out in advance or make it up as they go along? So, said how they were going to prove it. They had the final pages of Lost on them and said that they were going to lock the pages in a box and take it to an undisclosed location. They would take the box to Jimmy Kimmel Live the night of the finale and open the box then. They would then show the pages and it would be verbatim to what was shown in the finale. This played out throughout the panel discussion. LOST Panel At The San Diego Comic Con In CA
Later, Josh Holloway (Sawyer) was introduced to the crowd. He walks out and asks Lindelof if he knows what he has in his hand. Lindelof points out that it is a taser. He tasers Lindelof and pulls the key off of him to open up the box. Holloway then taunts Cuse asking him if he wants the same thing. Holloway then threatens to taser “your buddy JJ Abrams again” to which Cuse points out that it is actually Lindelof cause Abrams hasn’t worked on the show since season one. This was funny stuff. Holloway grabs Lindelof’s hand and puts it in his glass of water continuing to threaten with the taser. Cuse says ok and gets up. The box is opened and Holloway starts to read the script over. Holloway looks at it funny. Emerson then looks at him and says: “you don’t know how to read do you?” He gets up and grabs the paper with Holloway adding that “I left my glasses on the island.” Emerson then starts to read the paper which contains the scene: “Exterior: Circus tent. Night. The apex of the big top collapses in on itself as the tent burns like a fiery cauldron. As the flames light the night sky we find Sylar and Parkman standing side by side. Parkman’s head hangs in defeat. His eyes peer up at Sylar and says: Parkman, was Mohinder inside? It’s all on you now you know. You’re the last Petrelli.” He reads a bit more and then finishes the joke asking what this is? It was a nice finishing touch to the panel. If you don’t get the joke, it was characters from Heroes and being a Heroes fan as well, I got a nice laugh out of this crossover joke.

Here are some of the highlights of the Lost panel Q&A.
Question: There is talk that season six will have some similarities with season one. What does that entail and what does that mean?
Lindelof: "Obviously, for us, the biggest moment in the show’s life was when we were able to announce the show’s death. As soon as we were able to start working towards an end point, we wanted the show to feel like it was closing a loop in many ways so that the final season would feel a lot like the first season. I think on the surface of it that there’s a good chance that you’ll be seeing many characters that you haven’t seen since the first season again." (big applause from the audience)
Cuse: "I think that there was a certain kind of feel of, you know, they were running around in the jungle, things felt intense and surprising, and for us the emotional kind of discovery that went on as we learned about these characters in the first season and we feel like we have a way that we’re going to be doing that in the final season of the show that we like and hopefully you will to."
Lindelof: "It’s really our goal for you to watch the final season of the show and not know what we’re going to do next. That is one of the feelings from season one too. Hopefully, unpredictability is still in play."

Will season six contain any character flashbacks before 2004?
Cuse: "We are doing something different in season six. Each season of the show is like a book in the series much like the Harry Potter books. They tell the whole story but each book is its own story. Season six is something different. Time travel season is over. The flash forward season is over. We have something different planned so hopefully you will like it but we’re not going to commit to what exactly that is going to be here today."

Here comes some great comedy. Jorge Garcia surprises the crowd and steps up to the Q&A mic:
Producers: “You could have just called our office. You didn’t have to come all the way to Comic-Con to ask a question.”
Garcia: “I did call. You didn’t call me back.”
They are ready for his question.
Garcia: “The commercial that you made me do. Does that mean that what Jack did in the finale actually worked and then the plane never crashed because that would mean that the last five seasons were all wiped away and never happened. We all hope that is not the case cause that would be a real big cheat.”
Cuse: “Jorge, you just have to trust us.”
Lindelof: “We’ve gotten this far. We’re not going to specifically answer but just trust us.”
Garcia: “The last time that I trusted you guys, you said that Nikki and Paulo were going to be awesome.” (This got BIG laughs and I laughed hard at it too. Nice line)
Producers: “Ok, fair enough. This time for real with the trust. Any other questions?”
Garcia: “This is the last season, Everything is going to be answered?”
Lindelof: “Everything that matters will be answered.”
Garcia: “Like season one. Confidence Man. Sayid tortures Sawyer to get Shannon’s inhaler. Right? But Sawyer didn’t have the inhaler. So, what happened to the inhaler? We never found out. Are you going to tell us?”
Michael Emerson then walks up to the mic standing next to Garcia. “For crying out loud, Jorge. What happened to one question per person?”
LOST Panel At The San Diego Comic Con In CA
Garcia: “Michael, just take it easy for a minute. I’ve got a couple of things that I need to ask.”
Emerson: “By all means, we have about a half hour so I guess we can answer all of your inane questions.”
Garcia: “I need this. This is research to play my part.”
Emerson: “Oh, is that what you do? You play a part. I see. Like you transform yourself into a character. Is that it?”
Garcia: “Yeah, pretty much dude.”
Emerson: “I’m sorry. I had forgotten about the vast gulf between you and the character that you play……….dude."
Garcia: “Fine. You want a question go ahead. “
Emerson: “No, you go first and we’ll wait. Why should it be any different than it is on the set?”
Garcia: “All right, Emerson, do you want to dance? Let’s dance. Want to know the real reason why Michael is upset? The truth? The real reason. Michael over here originally wanted to play Hurley but the part was cast.”
Emerson: “Wow. That is soooo crazy. I think that everyone understands that I was offered a guest spot and then I became a series regular. A part that is written especially for me.”
Garcia: “Right, it was written for you as a consolation for you because you didn’t get Hurley”
Emerson: “What a sad fantasy. When would I ever stoop so low as to play a character as broad as Hurley.“
Garcia: “Well, I heard that you were pretty broad during your audition.”
Emerson: “So funny Jorge cause I never auditioned for your part.”
They then argue over whether he did. Hurley calls for the video. A funny video is shown of Emerson auditioning for Hurley which was great comedy.

Back to the fan questions as Garcia and Emerson joined the panel:
Question: When are we going to get our Richard Alpert flashback and is it going to be coincident to the Black Rock?
Lindelof. “That is a very, very, very good question. Next. (laughs).“
Cuse: “You will be seeing a lot of Richard. I think we would be incredilbly remised if we didn’t give you Richard’s backstory before the show ended.”
Lindelof: “As one might infer, Richard’s flashback is failry involved so you might be seeing that in the final season.”

Question: I cried like a sissy when Juliet fell and if there is any guy that tells you differently, they are lying to you, I promise. I need to know if she is ok and if she is not, can you make her ok?
Lindelof: “This all returns to whether or not her detonating the bomb had the desired effect. If it did, then my guess would be that she is ok. If it didn’t work, then prognosis not so great considering the fall. I think that we can say here that Elizabeth Mitchell will be in Lost in the final season.”

Question: Do you know who dropped the food in season two?
Garcia: “It comes from planes.” (laughs from the crowd)
Lindelof: “I think that might be something that we try to deal with in the final season of the show.”

Question: The Dhamra Intiaitive has been a big role since season two. How big of a role will it have in the final season?
Cuse: “Not as big of a role. We feel like we spent last year dealing a lot with the Dharma Intiaitive and we’re kind of moving on to some other stuff this year. You will not be seeing a ton of Dharma stuff this year.”

Some other notes. A yes or no question was asked with it being whether Jacob had appeared as another image besides himself to any of the Lost castaways and the answer was no. The producers did confirm that we would see Daniel Faraday next season but didn’t give us any clues as to how. Lots of people dressed as Hurley asking questions. A prize was given out for saying the secret word which turned out to be Claire. It was a statue of a bird that looked like the one that Claire put the note on and released early in the show’s run. The note was the actual note used in the show. A couple of comedians got up and provided some good comedy. One of them asked about the time paradox of how if the detonation worked then they would never have made it to the island. However, if they never made it to the island, they wouldn’t be there to detonate it in the first place. Then, he paused and started bleeding from the nose. He said “hold on, let me get my constant” and it drank out of a Dharma beer can. I thought that was funny. As it came to close, Cuse thanked everyone at Comic-Con saying that they had premiered the show there for the first time several years ago and it existed because of that. However, there was a nice surprise appearance at the end with Dominic Monaghan being introduced to the crowd. He got a big ovation as expected. The panel closed with the newer version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” song playing. So, there you go. We got a few answers. Just enough to get people talking and speculating.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Comic-Con Preview, BB11, 10 Things I Hate About You Premiere, Real Estate Pros, Grey's Anatomy, & More - July 24, 2009

Lots of happenings coming up at Comic-Con with various favorite shows of mine. Here are some of the lineups that I have seen. Smallville will have their panel on Sunday which will include Tom Welling (making his first Comic-Con appearance), Allison Mack, Erica Durance, Cassidy Freeman, and Justin Hartley. Also included will be Callum Blue who is a new actor on the series and also involved will be show runners Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson. The Whedonverse will be represented all around. Buffy's Once More With Feeling will have a screening. Dr. Horrible will also have a screening which will include Commentary! The Musical as well. Dollhouse will have a Q&A including Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku. Chuck will be represented big with a lot of their cast in attendance on Saturday including Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak (co-creators), Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Ryan McPartlin, Joshua Gomez, Vik Sahay, Sarah Lancaster, Adam Baldwin, Mark Christopher Lawrence, and Scott Krinsky. Lost will have producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse taking questions on Saturday. If you are Heroes fans, check out the Q&A on Saturday which will involve creator Tim Kring along with the cast including Milo Ventimiglia, Masi Oka, Jack Coleman, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, along with several guest stars. They are apparently going to be showing the season four trailer as well. From The Big Bang Theory, executive producers Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady will join cast members including Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyar for a Q&A today. 24 will be represented today as well with show runner Howard Gordon being joined by Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and other new cast members as they give a look at the new season. David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel will join show runner Hart Hanson today for a discussion about the new season of Bones. Several new shows set to debut in the fall will offer screenings of the pilot episodes. Basically, there is a LOT going on and if you're a fan, you're going to have a tough time going to everything you want to see. Pick and choose your favorites and what you want to go to. You will have to make priorities. Prepare to get in long lines. Have I mentioned how much that I would love to go to Comic-Con??!!

The week of Big Brother saw the house getting pitted against one another, coming to realizations, and then calling Ronnie out. It was a tough week in the Big Brother house for HOH, Ronnie. As the show ended last week, Ronnie was crowned the new HOH. However, the question loomed on who flipped their vote sending Braden out of the house. Casey had it figured out immediately that Ronnie was the one that flipped his vote. Laura also figured it out thinking that it was Ronnie while Russell came to the realization that Ronnie was running that whole house. Ronnie put the blame on Michele for it saying that he thought she flipped the vote. Ronnie did confess to the Athletes that he was the vote that flipped. Laura went to the group who were all trying to figure out who the one vote was and revealed her story on it being Ronnie. The group called out Ronnie who denied the vote and then called out Casey getting attention on him. The luxury competition took place which was hosted by Dan, the winner of Big Brother 10. Yeah, the look on Jessie's face was priceless cause Dan was instrumental in getting Jessie out of the BB10 house. The prize was a screening of the movie, The Ugly Truth. One guy and one girl would get to go to it. So, it was the guys only taking on the guys and the girls only taking on the girls. Casey won for the guys. There was a three way tie among the girls with Michele, Natalie, and Chima. The tie breaker was won by Chima. So, it would be Casey and Chima going to see the movie. Yeah, neither was really happy with the other winning. A twist was thrown in as they got to choose which of the cliques would be the "have nots" for the week. Casey wanted the Athletes but Chima wanted Popular. Casey offered for them to do paper, rock, scissors to decide but Chima was NOT having that at ALL. LOL. She then pointed out to Casey that she was aligned with the HOH this week and basically threatened him with the power. So, Casey let her make the decision and the Popular group was named the "have nots" for the week. Who would be nominated? Many went to Ronnie about Russell's behavior in the house. Ronnie discussed backdooring Russell but would need pawns. Jeff and Laura were nominated for eviction. Ronnie's DR stuff revealed that Laura was up cause she was the only one to figure out his flip on the vote while Jeff was a pawn. The house definitely took notice of how hard Ronnie was playing the game. Ronnie went to Jeff and Laura telling them that if all went to plan, everything would flip the other way which was his plan of backdooring Russell. Laura didn't buy anything that Ronnie was saying with her pointing out in the DR that everything he had said to her to that point had been a lie. Russell was still a focus of the house as he went off on Lydia at one point for answering a question that he said wasn't for her. That got Natalie and Jessie talking about whether they should get Russell out. Jessie saw his snapping at people as an asset to them keeping the target off of them while Natalie saw the harm in it cause he could snap on them next. The veto competition was next with the houseguests having to collect coins in a bag. Big Brother would give them a money amount and you'd have to try and collect that many coins in a certain amount of time. Ronnie went out immediately and was way off but many saw that he threw the competition. He admitted to it in the DR while Michele said in her DR that he should at least make it look convincing if he was going to throw it. One twist to the game was that the winner of the round could opt out and take a bag from the side which offered prizes or contained nothing at all. Jeff won both of the first two rounds but was not about to opt out knowing that he had to win the veto. Natalie won the third round and went for a bag which contained a slop pass. The final had Jeff against Russell. Jeff won the veto. The talk continued from Ronnie about backdooring Russell. He went to the group making sure that he had the votes if he did it which he did. Laura promised him anything saying in her DR that she'd lie right back to him about whatever he wanted to hear. Ronnie talked to Jessie who thought backdooring Russell was a bad mistake. So, the veto ceremony takes place. Jeff uses the veto on himself taking himself off of the block. Ronnie nominates........Jordan. Yep, Russell doesn't go up and Jordan does instead against Laura. Ronnie said in his DR that it just wasn't time to get rid of Russell yet. This made Ronnie's week go to even worse when the house started talking to one another about things that Ronnie had said. First, Laura went to Ronnie to try and work a deal to save herself. She mentioned how close that Jordan and Jeff were getting and how they needed to be broken up. Ronnie pulls the group up there to try and get Jordan voted out. They were not having that one. Natalie got annoyed when the talk turned to how Ronnie should have backdoored Russell. She told Jessie about the conversation in the HOH. Natalie talked of something that Ronnie had said. His story was that Laura had said that she had been told by Russell that he could get the votes for her to stay. That wasn't the truth and Laura defended herself on it. Russell decided to call Ronnie out and he is brought down to the backyard for a meeting with the house. He was called out on the lies but didn't say much in return. Ronnie then left and the rest of the house all discussed how they had been pitted against each other with these lies. Russell also called out Ronnie again inside the house. After this all happened, Ronnie didn't leave the HOH hardly at all. A clip was shown of him being called to the diary room. Russell heard this from the backyard and waited on him. Ronnie turned on the spy screen to see where everyone was before he walked down. As he went to the diary room, Russell was in his ear the whole way. This would happen when he was getting food or whatever. Jessie and Natalie later felt bad for Ronnie saying that this wasn't fair to Ronnie just having to lock himself in the HOH room for fear of Russell. Ronnie broke down in the HOH over what was occurring making him miss having his wife around. This gets us to the live vote. The vote wasn't surprising. 8-1 vote sending Laura from the Big Brother house. The one vote against Jordan was from Natalie who did it just to "spice the house up some". Next was the HOH competition. Jeff and Jessie tied and had to go to a tiebreaker with Jessie winning. His second HOH win.

Ok, my thoughts on the week of Big Brother. Ronnie is playing the game hard. I've been thinking that since week one. One of my thoughts was on wondering if he was playing too hard this early. It had been working out for him till everyone started talking to one another. He should have taken Russell out this week. Laura did have him figured out and that would have hurt his game but the backlash has been a bigger hurt with Ronnie's status in the house. Ronnie talked of how he is starting to gain sympathy from the house with how he has been treated and there was a definite sign of it from Jessie and Natalie.

Other happenings in the Big Brother house. Casey and Chima got to go on their reward which was a screening of the movie, The Ugly Truth. That was complete with all kinds of nice junk food. How funny was Jordan and Jeff talking about telling time by quarters of the clock?

TVGuide.com has posted a story about Jennie Garth returning to 90210 for season two. There has been talk about the new people in charge wanting to go away from the original cast members. I think that is a mistake to just focus on the new characters. I don’t see why you can’t keep doing both. You can place most of the main focus on the new characters but don’t take away the returning cast members cause then you can draw an audience curious about what is going on there too. It is kind of interesting that they are wanting to go away from the original cast members while Melrose Place is lining up all sorts of returning cast members to at least make an appearance or become a series regular.
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Jennie-Garth-90210-1008327.aspx

Katherine Heigl will be returning to Grey’s Anatomy next season. She talked this week on Live With Regis and Kelly about the fact that she will return but also added that she had no clue what would happen with her character. She said that the writers were very particular about not letting the actors know what will be happening. Katherine joked that the actors will walk into the room and the writers will take everything off the board so they can’t see it. However, she said that the writers had been more open this year telling the cast to talk to them if they wanted to know more info on where the characters would be going for the season.

The Real Estate Pros returned with new episodes on Tuesday night on TLC. The first episode followed the story of what many are dealing with and that is foreclosures. Trademark Properties started working on their plan to step in and be the first to get in the game in the recovery effort. It also focused on John Davis looking at getting his dream going and starting a restaurant. The cliffhanger at the end was Richard having to talk to him about needing him at Trademark versus John following his dream. Great to have the Trademark crew back on TV.

Movie box office numbers from last weekend. 1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - $77. 8 million. 2. Ice Age - $17.5 million. 3. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen - $13.6 million. 4. Bruno - $8.3 million. 5. The Proposal - $8.2 million. 6. The Hangover - $8.1 million. 7. Public Enemies - $7.7 million. 8. Up - $3.1 million. 9. My Sister's Keeper - $2.8 million. 10. I Love You, Beth Cooper - $2.7 million.

Kristin over at E Online reported news this week of John Schneider joining a CW show. Check the link to see which one that it will be and no, it isn't Smallville: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b135040_find_out_how_smallvilles_pa_kent.html

I checked out the first episode of 10 Things I Hate About You which recently premiered on ABC Family. Yes, this is a remake of the movie from 1999. I should point out that this movie is one of my all time favorites so my curiosity perked up when I heard that they were turning it into a TV series. You just never know about these remakes. Overall, I enjoyed the pilot episode. I thought it stayed mostly true to the movie. They do basically start the story over though and ignore the happenings of the movie. New cast but Larry Miller who played the dad of the Stratford sisters does return to reprise his role. Fitting that the episode begins with him lecturing his daughters on the way to school about how boys just make girls pregnant. The Stratfords have just moved into the school. All is normal. Kat isn’t making friends with the most popular girl in school named Chastity which is also the daughter of the superintendent so even the school is afraid to punish her. It doesn’t take long for us to see Kat in the school office after she had an encounter with Chastity’s bumper on her car. Bianca is working on trying to get herself into the popular crowd staying glued to Chasity. Then, we have Kat running into Verona and they have their usual angst filled meetings. The sisters are getting lectured still by their dad about boys. Cameron returns in the series and falls in love with Bianca in the hallway at school. His trying to get her attention does stay true to the movie. Nice touch having the episode end with a different version of “I Want You To Want Me” which was a throwback to the movie. Like I said, I thought the premiere was all right. I’d like to keep watching it to see what they do with the series. If you’re a fan of the movie, check out the series and see what you think.

Here are my five current favorite songs that I am liking lately.
Gloriana: The Way it Goes
Jordin Sparks: Battlefield
Katy Perry : Waking Up In Vegas.
Linkin Park: New Divide (yeah, from the Transformers soundtrack)
Lady Antebellum: Run To You

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, July 28. Battlestar Galactica (Season 4.5) (Complete Series), Charles In Charge (Season Five), Dollhouse (Season One), The Donna Reed Show (Season Two), The Judy Garland Show (Volume One), Knight Rider (Season One - The NEW Knight Rider series, not the 80's series), Life On Mars (Series One).

You Tube Video Of The Week: Video Games Awesome! talks Wii Punch-Out. Fun to watch these guys. They really remind me of me and my friends playing video games growing up. Growing up? Who am I kidding? This reminds me of me and my friends from just a few years ago. LOL. Good times. Fun video.


Twitter Update Of The Week: @Regis_and_Kelly "I'm telling you, the internet is just a phase"- Regis Philbin

That is it for this week. I’ll be back with plenty more Comic-Con coming up. Really looking forward to getting the news from there. Have a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Big Brother 11 - Week One Thoughts - July 21, 2009

Well, this first week in the Big Brother house has been……well…..normal. LOL. I had yet to get to watch the live feeds or really even read the recaps cause it has been a very busy week. I plan on jumping into the live feeds this week and following what is happening. So, I can only comment with what I have seen on the episodes. I know that often the editing and how it played out live on the feeds can appear very different at times. I’ve watched MANY things happen on the live feeds and then see the edited clips of it on TV leaving me thinking, that wasn’t how that went down at all. LOL. So, keep in mind that my thoughts and recaps are based just off of what has happened on TV. However, I have been doing some reading in the last few days and it does seem like things were shown differently based on the argument between Braden, Lydia, and Kevin. Based on everything that I’ve read, the episode really left off some things in that argument. Like I said, I haven’t kept up with the feeds so when I watched the episode, I was thinking why is Lydia stirring this up so much? Lots of name calling occurred which got it to that level.

Week one saw Jessie return to the Big Brother house and his reign as HOH began. Some were happy to see him while others were not. Ronnie went into action immediately trying to work an alliance between the Brains and the Athletes. Ronnie promised them safety next week if they were given safety this week. He went and talked to Chima about possibly forming this alliance which she was all for happening. They went to Jessie and then Ronnie was asked to be a pawn. He didn’t want to be and put it on Michele to be the pawn of the group. It should be noted that Michele was the only one of the Brains group not in the room at the time. The food competition has changed a bit this season. Not only is it food related but also effects living conditions. So, the challenge is now called the have and have nots competition. If you lose, you’re on slop but also your living conditions including sleeping are terrible. The groups competed with the Offbeat finishing first followed by the Popular group. That meant that the Brains were the have nots this week due to the Athletes having HOH power and not having to compete. Chima immediately melted down over it and the revelation of what have not included was shown. The beds were metal to lay on which looked extremely uncomfortable!! Lydia worked on Jessie hoping to avoid nomination this week. It didn’t work however as Jessie nominated her and Chima for eviction. Chima is the pawn but you know how things go on Big Brother with being a pawn. Lydia took it hard saying that it felt like high school again with her first appearance being used as a strike against her. She was consoled by a lot of people while being told that she was safe. Chima overheard this feeling badly that no one was consoling her despite being nominated as well. Jeff was one of the people in the room consoling Lydia with him starting to sway away from the Athletes. The veto competition takes place and the plan was to get letters and form the biggest word that you could. The person that had the biggest word at the end of the time allowed would win the veto. Jeff misspelled “continuosly” and that would come back at him later. The winner of the veto was Russell for spelling “shotgun”. The Athletes thought that Jeff threw the veto competition and Russell made his plan to embarrass Jeff in front of everyone. Jeff was also spending a lot of time with Jordan which may have stirred Russell’s mood even more. He went into a verbal tirade on Jeff about misspelling the word. Jeff took it really non caring with a reaction of sorry, I’m not a good speller. Jeff looked stunned that Russell was blasting over this whole thing wondering what the big deal was. It was way over the top is how it appeared on TV. Now, like I said, I don’t know what it looked like on the live feeds. Natalie got involved as well saying that Jeff didn’t hang out with them anymore and how he had isolated himself. Jeff pointed out that they didn’t even tell him what the nominations were going to be. Russell stirred things up even more when he told Lydia that Natalie was the one that wanted her nominated. Later, Natalie walked in on Jessie and Lydia in the HOH room. Lydia called her out on Russell’s claims. They basically talked it out and worked it out. Braden’s name was brought up by Lydia and the Athletes talked of targeting him. Russell told Ronnie about the idea of getting rid of Braden. He immediately went and told Jordan and Jeff about it who weren’t happy about this news. They in turn went and told Braden about it. Russell knew quickly that this news had got to Braden based on how Braden’s body language had changed. He knew that Ronnie could have been the only one to tell about it. Russell called Ronnie out about it and he denied it. That put a target on Ronnie leaving us to wonder what would happen with the veto. The plan stayed in place. Russell used the veto on Lydia. Jessie nominated Braden in his place. Braden talked to Russell who got him all fired up focusing on Lydia being the one to bring up his name. Braden questioned Lydia in the backyard as Kevin was also there. The conversation got heated and he called her several names. Now, when I was watching this all play out, I was thinking what is up with Lydia? She is really fired up way too over the top. I just thought is this really all necessary? Kevin got brought into it as well when he stepped in for Lydia. Jeff tried to break it up. After reading the feed stuff, I see that Lydia wasn’t reacting just to that. She was angered over some other things that Braden said that wasn’t on the show. Now it makes sense why she was so mad. Lydia went into the house and had it out with Jordan. Why Jordan? Lydia was mad about Jordan crying at the nomination of Braden but mad at the fact that Jordan didn’t cry for her being nominated when they are supposed to be friends. Jordan defended herself screaming that Braden was her teammate and that she was sad that he went up on the block. Kevin got involved as well and then so did Jeff. They were mad at Jeff for not defending Lydia and Kevin more in the backyard to which he said that he did stand up and pondering what else he could have done? Jeff, Jordan, and their group all pondered why Lydia worked so hard to get off the block and make deals when she had the votes to stay. They were very unhappy over the turn of events. They looked to form some alliances and save Braden as they were unhappy with how the Athletes were running the house. Jordan talks to Laura and they look to bring in Ronnie, Michele, and Casey to get the votes for Braden to stay. Jeff would be on their side too. Casey turned into the swing vote as everyone was on board. The live vote takes place but first was Chima’s last minute speech to stay. Most of her speech was cut out by CBS with Julie Chen saying how that was one of the more memorable speeches that they had over the years. The vote was a tie!! Yeah, that wasn’t the plan that had been set up. The votes to evict Braden were: Russell, Natalie, Kevin, Lydia, and Ronnie. Votes to evict Chima were: Jeff, Jordan, Laura, Michele, Casey. Yep, Ronnie flipped!! That left the decision up to the HOH. Jessie evicted Braden. That gets us to the HOH competition. It came down to Ronnie and Michele with Ronnie winning. Interesting week for him to win with so much attention on the vote that went wrong. He has been working both sides hard so he’s going to make someone mad with things this week.

Some random notes from the week. It was funny cause as the first few episodes played out, I thought this is a calmer group this year. Then came episode three. LOL. Yeah, the editing did appear to make things seem different with how conversations and reactions were to things. After reading things on the feeds, things make a lot more sense. Wow, the HOH room looked really good. A waterfall??!! Natalie and Jessie arguing over who won and lost the chess game was entertaining. Natalie’s comment of “who lost last season and who won to get you in the house this season” was a good one.

I’ll be back on my normal Big Brother schedule this week with recapping it.

Big Brother Over The Top - Week One Thoughts

I hope many of you have floated over to Big Brother Over The Top like I have.  Tonight, we will be one week into this game and this new plat...