Buffy #6 & Angel: Afte the Fall Preview

Brian K. Vaughan's 4 issue Faith arc begins next Wednesday. It finds Faith assigned to the infamous Cleveland Hellmouth. She's looking to ditch, but hasn't been able to secure a fake passport. Giles offers her a generous "early retirement package" if she will take on a delicate wetwork operation. The target: a rogue slayer. (Ironic, huh?)

BTW, IDW--which holds the license for Angel comics--is prepping Angel: After the Fall, the "cannonical follow-up to the TV series." Whedon isn't as involved in this as he in the Buffy project, but hopefully it will still be worthwhile. (And where else are you gonna get your Illyria fix?)

Writer Brian Lynch:

Angel and his friends took a stand because he thought it was the right thing to do. They fought the good fight even though they were probably going to lose, even though they were facing insurmountable odds. But that's the thing about insurmountable odds...surmounting them can be quite a bitch. The series begins to tackle the fall-out of Angel's stand, and what it cost everyone near, around, and close to him.

P.S., my guess for how they resolve the "it's not a cliffhanger" cliffhanger is: Angel, Spike and Illyria all survive--but Gunn gets vamped and becomes the big bad. (J Richards has actually said that's what they were planning to do with his character in Season 6 if the series hadn't got the chop.)

Senator Craig: Still Diggin'

Well, he's still diggin'.

Senator Craig says he is not now, nor has he ever been, a pole smoker. Despite this, he admits he told no one that he had been arrested -- not his staff, not his friends, not his family, not his lawyer... No one. He went through the whole process from arrest through plea bargain through sentencing in utter secrecy.

And there's more:

In his petition to enter a guilty plea, Craig acknowledged that he "engaged in (physical) conduct which I knew or should have known tended to arouse alarm or resentment."

He also was required to stipulate in the statement that he would [b]"make no claim that I am innocent of the charge to which I am entering a plea of guilty,"[/b] the document said.

Which, of course, is precisely what he is now doing.

I wonder... does that potentially invalidate the plea agreement? In any case, he's probably doubled the half-life of this scandal... and the result (his resignation) will remain the same.

Closet-Case Idaho Senator Craig (R) Arrested

for lewd conduct... in (wait for it) a public men's room.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.

Craig was outed by gay blogger Mike Rogers last year. The Senator, his staff, supporters, and oh yeah, his wife Suzanne, have all denied the arch-homophobe is, in fact, a great big ol' fag.

Anyway, here's the kicker: his spokesman called the arrest a case of "he said/he said." MWA-HA-HA!! *Love* it.

Roll Call broke the story minutes ago, but the link isn't working for me. Here's a link to Real Clear Politics at Time Magazine.

Update: Joe has some great details, including the arresting officer's narrative.

Update2: This is what the Roll Call website just spat back at me (so to speak):

This server is temporarily experiencing a heavy load and is unable to service your request.

Hm. Nope. Too easy.

Update 3: Holy crap... Watch this:

Amy Winehouse Beats The Crap Out of Hubby

Britain's highly respected Daily Mail published these photos yesterday after Blake reportedly walked in on Amy (at Claridges, where they've been staying since quitting a 20,000 pound-per-week rehab... again... last week).

She was about to get high--with drugs she scored on the street in front of witnesses... off a hooker, no less.

A fight erupted and--Well. She basically beat the shit out of him. Heh.

I know this is not my usual fare, but I love Winehouse's music, and--I mean, c'mon, admit it... Sometimes you just can't help loving the British tabs for being even more toxic than the celebutards they stalk.

Ang Lee's Lust, Caution Gets NC-17

The MPAA has slapped Ang Lee's follow-up to Brokeback Mountain, the Mandarin language Lust, Caution, with an NC-17 rating for "several scenes of male-female sexuality." Oh, the horrors!

Admirably, Focus Features--a subsidiary of Universal--has decided to release it as-is. (Though maybe that's in Lee's contract.)

Here's the trailer:



"Lust, Caution" premieres at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, and opens exclusively in NYC 9/28 (presumably at the Angelika or Sunshine, but I couldn't find that info).

Good Puppies

...If only Vick was actually in it...








Update: Add Jamie Foxx to the list of black celebrities coming out to defend Michael Vick (hereafter "the piece of excrement").

“It’s a cultural thing, I think,” Jamie said.

Horseshit.

“Most brothers didn’t know that, you know. I used to see dogs fighting in the neighborhood all the time. I didn’t know that was Fed time.

Right, 'cause what matters is not whether something is cruel and inhuman... or even illegal... but if it might end you up in Federal prison. Gotcha.

So, Mike probably just didn’t read his handbook on what not to do as a black star.”

Plays the race card -- Check. 'cause if Brett Favre did this, no one would care. Right.

“I know that cruelty to animals is bad, but ..."

That one stands on its own.

"... sometimes people shoot people and kill people and don’t get time,” Jamie continued.

Yeah, if they do it *accidentally*, and if there's no negligence involved, that might sometimes be the result. 'course, there is no such thing as accidental torture, or accidental execution. But, hey, they're only dogs, right?

“I think in this situation, he really didn’t know the extent of it, so I always give him the benefit of the doubt.”

And finally, we come to the rationalization. What's unspoken, IMO, in all this is the whole "he's a big hero to me *so* he couldn't possibly have done these things" fallacy. Um--Yeah. He could, and he did--In fact, he's fucking admitted it.

Prison's too good for him.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Is anyone else freaking out about this as much as I am?

Jorge Garcia Blog

Lost co-star Jorge Garcia (Hurley) has joined our noble ranks (bloggers, not gays... though, really, what's the difference?)

Check it out here.

Casting: James McAvoy as Scotty? Bell to Heroes

The UK Daily Mirror is reporting a long-standing rumor that James McAvoy (best known to genre audiences as the son of Maud'dib in Sci-Fi Channel's Children of Dune mini) has been cast as Montgomery Scott in JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot. As much as I loved Jimmy Doohan--RIP--it'd be nice to have an actual Scotsman in the part.

If true--Paramount has not yet confirmed--McAvoy would be the third actor confirmed for the cast (the first two being Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy, both as Spock).

In other casting news, Kristen Bell--who in the last couple of weeks was thisclose to taking a season-long recurring part on Lost--decided instead to take a short-term recurring gig on Heroes. Apparently, she wasn't too keen on moving to Hawaii.

Update: McAvoy's people are denying this report, but apparently no one is denying that 19 year old TV vet Anton Yelchin has been cast as Chekov... Yelchin was born in St. Petersburg, but has been acting in American TV since he was 9. Still, no confirmation from Paramount, but the source (Zachary Quinto) is fairly reliable.

Dark Knight Spoilers?

They have the ring of truth...

John from Cincinatti Cancelled

The Hollywood Reporter says HBO has declined to order a second season of David Milch's surfing apocalypse drama... which, off the top of my head, is the first time HBO has failed to give a second run to one of its hourlong dramas. (Can anyone think of another example?)

Anyway, Milch is currently in the process of developing several new projects for HBO. No word on those Deadwood movies, but my hunch is that they're a pipe dream.

HBO Picks-Up Alan Ball's "True Blood"

Nice!

Alan Ball is back in HBO's court, as the pay cabler has officially picked up the vampire series "True Blood."
Ball, who created the hit "Six Feet Under" for HBO, will exec produce and act as showrunner for "True Blood," which is based on Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" novel series.

Net is still ironing out an episodic order and airdate, but the show is expected to go into production this fall. Ball, who wrote and directed the pilot, has already penned several more episodes.

Set in small-town Louisiana, series follows the world of vampires, who are able to co-exist with humans by drinking a Japanese-manufactured synthetic blood. The show contains a dose of humor alongside the horror.

The books, and perhaps more importantly, the world of the books are ideally suited for exploration in a TV series. The invention of this synthetic blood ("True Blood"--The Vamps want to be lied to by advertisers as much as anyone) allows the highly organized vampire civilization to to come out of the closet. Appealing allegory there, which Harris explosres vigorously (and I'm sure Ball will, too). Werewolves, witches, fairies and other magical beings are waiting in the wings to see whether mankind wipes vampires out--or accepts them.

Protagonist Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid with a telepathic "curse," gets drawn into this world when a vampire--Bill Compton, who was killed in the civil war and reborn shortly thereafter--moves in next door, having decided to return to his familial home for ... a variety of reasons, which are revealed in the fullness of time.

Charlaine Harris clearly counts Buffy as something of an inspiration--and she acknowledges this in one of the early books when she has Sookie pop some Buffy tapes in the VCR to occupy a vampire with amnesia (who goes nuts over them--as people do). But, despite similarities, Southern Vampire is never, IMO, derivative of Buffy. (I would've turned on it instantly if I ever thought it was.) That said, there's also some inspiration from Anne Rice: New Orleans becomes a thriving necropolis -- the center of the vampire world -- as it was, secretly, before the innovation of True Blood. Only now it is choked with human tourists -- which is highly encouraged by the vamps, who want to make money as much as anyone, living or dead.

(Incidentally, the latest book in the series incorporates Hurricane Katrina.)

Of course, this show would be worth checking out solely for the fact that it's Alan Ball. (IMO, Six Feet Under was one of the finest TV series in the history of the medium.)

Anyway, production is set to ramp up this fall. Premiere date hasn't yet been set, but it's a good bet True Blood will bow next summer. Anna Paquin stars.

Source: Variety

Cherry Grove

To My Beloved Tens of Readers:

I'll be heading out to my share on Fire Island in the next day or so and won't be back until 8/14. Woo!! (And hoo!!)

Not sure whether I'll be bringing my laptop, as there's no broadband at the house (which situation I hope to remedy next summer... along with that whole "no a/c" thing).

So there may be an update or two over the next 10 days, or there may not, but regular posting will resume on Tuesday, 8/14.

Toodles!

Weeds Season 3 Premiere

Thanks to my buddy Chris for this link to the season 3 premiere of Weeds, which premieres Monday, August 13th on Showtime. (Password is MONDAYS.)

The ep was fantastic. It moved last season's hair-pulling set of cliffhangers forward to another, more personal -- and, if anything, more apocalyptic -- cliffhanger, in the process crossing a line (with Celia) that I didn't think they'd cross.

Poor Nancy. When your kid getting arrested is the least of your worries, you know you're having a bad day.

BTW, can also check out the pilot to David Duchovny and Jake Kasdan's new series, Californication, at the link above. Haven't watched it yet, but given the pedigree and subject matter, I'm hoping it's good.

Cloverfield is Furious

More info has emerged regarding this JJ Abrams-produced monster movie everyone's been buzzing about since a teaser trailer appeared in front of Transformers.

Heretofore known by the codename Cloverfield (which I kinda like), the film now has a proper name:


Aint-It-Cool-News also reports that the production set up last night at Orchard & Stanton on Manhattan's Lower East Side (about 6 blocks from my apt), where it is shooting, appropriately enough, under the name "Cheese." :-) (Do the link for pics.)