Paleyfest 08 – “An Evening With Friday Night Lights”

My second night at Paleyfest. Tonight brought the cast and creative team of Friday Night Lights. When the show debuted in October of ‘06, I watched but couldn’t help but think, “How exactly are they going to make this work?” Went through season one and was very pleased. They definitely made it work. When season two rolled around, I sort of fell off. I guess it was because I was busy on my personal crusade to save Veronica Mars. I brought along my cousin, Mario, who is by far the bigger FNL fan. I cannot tell you the amount of times he’d scream out, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” just to annoy me. I knew that I was going to be coming so I got caught up. Loved it.

I was working off the assumption that they would be playing another clip montage for the show. The Paley people led me to believe that all of the programs would be doing clips. In all fairness, that’s probably what heard. At any rate, it was great to see “Leave No One Behind,” or 2.14 according to Jason Katims. It was cool because I had only seen this episode once in my barrage to get caught up. I really got a lot more out of it. The performance were excellent. That Zach Gilford shower scene alone. Fantastic. This would be referenced later…

The cast and creative team were introduced by Michael Ausiello. This was great because I go back and forth between Ask Ausiello and Watch With Kristin for all my TV gossip. First up was Adrianne Palicki.

I really wanted to meet her. Honestly, I’ve thought she was great in South Beach. Yes. South Beach. She was followed by Zach Gilford, Aimee Teegarden, Minka Kelly, Scott Porter, and Connie Britton. No Kyle Chandler, though Connie relayed a message from Vancouver that he really wanted to be there.

I loved how Ausiello wasn’t pulling punches when he asked about the “elephant in the room,” particularly the murder and how a lot of people really didn’t like that arc. It was interesting to hear Adrianne say, “Um, he raped me” or something to that effect. Of course there was a lot of questions about getting renewed and the rumored move to DirecTV. Quickly enough, the questions veered back toward the sunny. There were two priceless moments. The first was a question from one of Ausiello’s readers asking Scott Porter to do some moves from Music and Lyrics. I strongly suspect that was really Ausiello’s question, but Scott graced us with the motorcycle thrust and topped it off with a booty shake. Moment deux was Zach talking about how there are sometimes non-actors on the show which has been a conscious decision on the part of the producers. He shared an very amusing anecdote about the strip club scene and how he awkwardly asked one of the ladies, “So.. what do you do?” only to find out that she has an MFA! There were other great moments like Scott “flexing” to the point where his mic fell off, Aimee constantly giggling about who knows what, and Minka looking on with strange piqued interest as they talked about a love scene. I’d get more in detail, but I wasn’t taking notes. I really should be taking notes. I’m sure that my new friend Carol at givememyremote.com will be more detailed.

The panel eventually wrapped. I made my way toward Adrianne. I didn’t want a repeat of swept away Yvonne from last night’s Chuck panel. As it turns out, the “secret service” had Adrianne earmarked as Eagle 1. She was rushed off before I could meet her. I learned from last night and was able to snap a few pics:

I was able to meet Aimee. Thank you so much to Rene (I apologize if I spelled that incorrectly) with Paley for pulling me on stage, and Mike “The Good Secret Service Agent” for letting that all happen. I’ve got to say, I HEART AIMEE. She’s such a sweetheart and so cute if I might say.

It was a great time. I really have my fingers crossed that the show is saved.

I’m the pied piper, yo.

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Umm… where the heck have you been?

Ok, ok… One of the things that I said when I started this blog was that I was going to write very regularly – daily when possible. Obviously, I haven’t written anything since 2/7. There are tons of things swimming around in my head, feverishly, as if these thoughts and ideas were about to drown. I’ll get all of that out soon. For now, I’m going to do a bit of an update on me. What exactly has been going on? What could possibly keep you away from the blog? Hopefully the regular readership comes back to get filled in. Here goes:

1. There was a little strike that sort of shut down the town.
~ Much was made about the repercussions that the writer’s strike had on the industry. Astronomical numbers of lost income and revenue were being thrown around. Brilliant minds weren’t near their pens and papers, Macs, or anything which might get the creative juices flowing. These minds were marching in formation in front of all of the big studios. Actors joined in as well. It was a mess. Funny thing was that I saw so many people coming to the movies. Guess there isn’t much else to do when you aren’t at work. I was involved with an event with Entertainment Weekly. They put on a showcase of all the Best Picture nominees. Part of the showcase was a panel discussion with three of the four women who were nominated for an Screenplay Oscar. Diablo Cody, Tamara Jenkins, and Nancy Oliver were in attendance. I’d met Diablo before at the Hollywood Awards which sort of kick started the awards frenzy for her. I asked her what she has been doing since the strike. She exclaimed, “It’s good that I’ve been going all over the place promoting ‘Juno’ otherwise I’d be doing JACK.” Well a I like to think that my blog is a bit entertainment industry driven – TV, Movies, etc. No new eps meant no new recaps to be done by me on fancast.com or anywhere for that matter. Not an excuse, but one of my muses was SHUT DOWN. Speaking of muses, I ran into Kristen Bell. She was having dinner with Ryan Hansen and his wife and Dax. We talked about how we haven’t seen one another in what seemed to be forever. Talked about “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and how excited I was about it. She then introduced me to Dax. Now, I don’t know what I was expecting, but he was quite sedate, for lack of a better word. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen some of his movies. He’s sort of loud and crazy. Cool guy nonetheless.

2. Sort of started a new job.
~ Yup, I’m out of the day to day operations at ArcLight. I guess it’s been a long time coming, but I’m now part of the 9-5 cube farm brigade. I won’t BORE YOU with the details, but I’m still involved with the programming at ArcLight which will always hold a special place for me. Did I mention the 9-5 thing? If you know anything about me, you know that I’m practically a vampire. I’m a total nocturnal being. A lot of the great thinking and writing I’ve created has been done when everyone else is fast asleep. My fangs totally got shaved down.

3. Went to Vegas for the “21″ premiere and other ShoWest festivities.
~ I was totally looking forward to the film. So much so, that I planned on going to Vegas when I was invited (thanks AE, Wendy and Vinele!). It ended up being a 24 hour (literally) stay. Now, the movie looked GREAT, but I was also very excited to see it after being acquainted with Kate Bosworth. She really is great. Everytime I’ve talked to her and James it just reminds me that they’re just quality people. Movie totally delivered. Went over to the after party at Planet Hollywood and was blown away by the expansive space. Sony really did a great job! At any rate, I was coming away from one of the outside bars and I saw Kate. She said “Hi, Francis!” and gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek. It was sort of surreal. Went into the VIP area and she introduced me to her friends and her dad who took this picture of us:

It really was a great night. The next day after breakfast (I love eggs bendedict) with the boys and Vinele, went over to the Universal presentation. All of their product looks really strong, but I was really impressed with the scene they showed for “Wanted.” Jolie, Freeman, and McAvoy. Enough awesome just with them. The footage they showed of this graphic novel cum assassin movie was just FANTASTIC. Definitely go check it out. Oh, and though I’ve gushed enough about KB, go watch “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.

4. Paley Festival
~ I’m going to three programs this year: “Chuck,” “Friday Night Lights,” and “Gossip Girl” (DUH!). I am, to this very day, saddened that I won’t be going to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reunion. It is by far my favorite show EVER. I suppose I’ll live. I absolutely loved tonight’s panel for “Chuck.” Damon Lindelof moderated. Yup, King Lost, himself and his best Lipton impression. Zach Levi and Joshua Gomez are hilarious! They’re also gamers. The whole “Call of Duty” exchange was priceless, mostly due to an audience member trying to get them to give up their XBox Live Gamer Tags. Captain Awesome is awesome, nay, fantastic. Whedonites out in full force cheering like mad for Adam Baldwin. The one gripe I have is how quickly they ushered out Yvonne Strahovski. If you remember from my guest blog post for fancast (Don’t remember? Click HERE), I listed her as one of the Top 5 ladies of TV. Well deserved for sure. She was a bit quiet during the panel. It’s sort of hard to get a word in when you’ve got Zach and Joshua constantly chiming in, I suppose. At any rate, I was trying to talk to her afterwards and perhaps snap a quick pic. Instead she was ushered away by someone who seemed like he was trying out for a Secret Service job. Boo. Great panel nonetheless.  Almost forgot another classic moment.  Yvonne saying “I get lots of pudding.”  I’ll report out on the “Gossip Girl” panel on Saturday evening.

Well, that’s the last month plus in a nutshell. I’ll be on regularly again from now on. I’ve got tons of stuff coming up soon including the aforementioned Paley Festival, the “Leatherheads” premiere, and a media event for the ABC Family show “Greek.” Now go tell all your friends to come and get caught up on the blog and get ready for more!

TICKETWEB SUCKS!

Today, the Paley Festival went on sale to Museum of TV and Radio members.  They decided to go with their retarded, unreliable ticket vendor ticketweb.com.  I was prepared today to TRY and purchase tickets for what I thought were MUST attend events – Buffy The Vampire Slayer Reunion and An Evening with Gossip Girl.  If you know anything about me, you know I think that Buffy is the show of all shows and my absolute fave.  I went to a huge party when the final episode aired at the Hollywood Athletic Club (as it was called then) with a bunch of other Whedonites.  Good time.  If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you also know that Gossip Girl is my show right now, despite the lack of new eps due to the writer’s strike.

I got on early, went through all the hoops and stupid ticketweb locks up!  I was on the ticket purchase screen for both freakin’ events.  An hour later and tons of refreshing and such, I was only able to get tickets to one of the events – Gossip Girl.  It pains me to no end not being able to go to the Buffy event.  It’s huge!  SMG(or P) even signed on to be there.  Alas, I won’t be going because I’m not paying 10-20X face value for a ticket on ebay, which I’m sure tickets are available now.  SIGH.  Anyone reading this want to throw me a bone and bring me or get me a ticket, let me know.  :)

Yo, Joe!

Went to the premiere of “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.” I have to say that I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the movie, but it delivered. It’s one of the funnier movies I’ve seen in a while, and I’m happy to report that Martin Lawrence is back in form.

At the premiere I was able to catch up with Rachel Nichols. I loved, loved, loved her in the final season of “Alias.” When I met her about a year and a half ago, I was so happy to find that she was a fantastic person. She’s super nice and just all around fun. I know what you’re saying, “Everyone you’ve written about is ’super nice’ and all that.” Well, that’s true. See, I only write about the great ones I’ve meet in a town full of the vapid and self-important. I mean, why write about the others, unless you’re trying to make a point about a certain cheerleader? :)

Through catching up, I asked Rachel about her upcoming project, “G.I. Joe.” There was quite a stir when she landed the role of Shana “Scarlett” O’ Hara. Questions abounded about whether she would be able to pull off the kicks and physicality associated with the role? Apparently, these disbelievers didn’t see Rachel on “Alias.” She can pull it off, and then some. Rachel said that there’s nothing much to say about the project since they are still in pre-production. She did say that she’s been working out like mad and that they are slated to begin principal photography at the end of February. They are shooting mostly here in the LA area (one would think at studio sound stages), but also in Prague. I can only imagine what sort of story line would bring them to Prague. She’s already donned the trademark red tresses as seen here:

Ok, I’m biased, but I couldn’t stop laughing when she told my friend, “I’m actually a blonde. Don’t hold it against me.” Perhaps it was the gin and tonic. Perhaps it was ’cause I was a bit giddy since I hadn’t seen her in a while. Anyhow, look for G.I. Joe for a Summer 2009 release. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Cheerleader diva.

I’ve been sitting on this story for various reasons… One, I wanted to make sure that there wouldn’t be drama associated with it. Two, the tragic news of Heath Ledger’s passing really was at the forefront. Didn’t seem right to post around that time. Here we go though:

ArcLight Cinemas is definitely different. It isn’t just a movie theatre, it’s an experience. Surely there will be pundits out there, but it really is. One of the things that sets ArcLight apart is the “no late seating” policy detailed here: About ArcLight. Ok, now that the stage is set… There was a celebrity who came in earlier this week. I won’t divulge her name, but you may remember something about saving the cheerleader and saving the world. She came to watch a movie. She was with her mom and a friend. So far so good. Said cheerleader seems to like the limelight as she was at the snack bar for an extended period of time. During this time she was approached by what were obviously fans. Again, all normal so I went about my business.

Eventually I get a call asking me to come meet one of the managers. Let’s call her, X. X knew that the cheerleader was in. She was actually the one who pointed her out to me ’cause she knew I’d get a kick out of it. X goes on to tell me that the cheerleader went off and that she wasn’t very happy about it. That wasn’t what was said, but you get the gist of it. X goes on to explain that the cheerleader had a friend come in 1/2 hour after the movie started and expected that this friend was going to be let in. Here’s where the “no late seating” policy comes into play. The cheerleader’s friend was DENIED. Cheerleader comes out after being summoned I’m sure (another ArcLight no-no ’cause unless the cheerleader has psychic abilities, she was using her phone in the auditorium). X explains why the friend can’t come in. Cheerleader is getting heated because she just doesn’t agree and doesn’t understand. Eventually the cheerleader goes so far as to drop F bombs! She said something to the effect of “F**K the policy” while flipping two birds in the general direction of X. Unacceptable! Shame on you, cheerleader. Shame on you.

Cheerleader mommy was not present for this exchange. I’m sure if she was, she would have told the cheerleader to calm down. I mean, she’s a pretty big celebrity. You don’t want someone to, I don’t know, write a blog about you being a bitchy diva. That’s never good press (ok, this blog isn’t the Times or Entertainment Weekly or even perezhilton.com, but people are going to see this). Eventually the cheerleader fetches the mom, gets a refund, and leaves.

I have to say that I really was a big fan of the cheerleader. She’s super cute, she’s on one of my favorite shows, and she (until this point) seemed super cool. It’s a bit of a let down to be honest. At any rate, let this be a cautionary tale to all of you in the LA area. If you come to ArcLight (Hollywood or Sherman Oaks), don’t be surprised when you come late for your movie that you are turned away. The cheerleader’s a big deal in this town and she was shot down in a blaze of glory. Don’t think it’ll be different for you. I know that sounds a bit negative, but this policy and other things are what set ArcLight apart and really make it different. If you think that it’s just an overpriced ticket and there is no difference, ask any one of our over 160,000 fiercely loyal members. :)

R.I.P Heath Ledger

Tragic.  Full story here: Heath Ledger found dead in NYC apartment

Sarah Connor Chronicles Recap.

Wrote up the latest episode of “Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles” for fancast.com.  Click away and read all about it!

Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles

Oscar Nominations!

The nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards were announced early this morning (5:30 AM PST). I’m sure the coffee pots in this town were getting worked this morning. Of special note (if you’ve been a regular visitor here) is “Juno” picking up four nominations including what everyone thought was the obvious: Best Actress nomination for Ellen Page and Best Original Screenplay for Diablo Cody. What was surprising (even for me) was it being nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for Jason Reitman! Go “JUNO!” The rest of the nominations can be found here: Oscars.org

Let’s hope they can figure out a way for the show to go on!

Random iPhone photo.

The MLK Holiday really didn’t pan out for us at work, so I got a bit bored and took this.  Enjoy.  It’s totally untouched by the way.  :)