Shotglass Cast News

Dominic Monaghan: 'I'd Go Back To 'Lost' In a Heartbeat'

2009-01-16T03:17:00.000-08:00

Not many actors could go from playing a sing-songy hobbit in the fantastical "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to playing a sing-songy heroin addict in the fantastic "Lost," but Dominic Monaghan has never been comfortable with being boxed in.

For his next act, the 32-year-old is starring in the low-budget/high-concept 18th century-set thriller "I Sell The Dead," premiering tomorrow at Slamdance. In the film, Dominic plays Arthur Blake, a graverobber who spent years chasing creatures that refused to accept their place amongst the dead.

The hilarious, scary, stunning -- and in Dom's own words, "tickling" -- film is just the latest project for the actor who will soon be starring in "Wolverine" and promises that Charlie will be retuning to "Lost" if he has his way!

PopWrap: What first attracted you to "I Sell The Dead?"
Dominic Monaghan: I get involved with projects based on three parameters -- the script, the actors involved and the director. Now I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where I read quite a lot of scripts and I felt that this was one of the strongest I've read, in terms of voice, in ages.

PW: The dark humor of it?
Dominic: You don't get to read many scripts with the kind of Celtic black humor that Glenn [McQuaid] had written into it. It has a very British feel to it, in the sense that when bad things happen people tend to laugh at them and be sarcastic and have fun with it. I think that's quite unique.

PW: I was amazed, based on the European look of the finished film, that you filmed in New York.
Dominic: We did a lot of work in New Jersey, too, over Christmas. Bitterly cold. One of the coldest shoots I've ever done. It was pretty grim to be honest, but it all worked to be honest because we're supposed to be poor, unable to afford good clothes and we don't have enough food to eat and we can't light a fire.

PW: It was like mother nature made you a method actor.
Dominic: Exactly. I think they made the film, which cost less than $1 million, look like a $2 or $3 million film. I was very impressed, but I don't get involved with films based on their budgets -- if it has a fantastic script and $50,000, we'll find a way to make it work. I had so much fun on this shoot, shivering in a little dressing room with Larry Fessenden and taking little nips of Jameson's whiskey from a hip flask to keep us warm at night. That was the charming part of the film, and I wouldn't have changed it for anything.

PW: You went straight from filming your last episode of "Lost" to shooting this film, that must have been quite a culture shock.
Dominic: It was quite cathartic for me, too, because when I let go of a character who was sympathetic and endearing as Charlie was, I grieved that passing. So it was nice to immediately jump into work and not have time to feel too sentimental about it.

PW: Plus, your character Arthur couldn't be more different from Charlie
Dominic: Yes, Arthur is quite proactive in his actions, and quite a strong character -- obviously not physically, but he stands up for himself. And it was nice to literally put on a new costume.

PW: Glenn not only wanted you for this role, but he postponed shooting for two weeks until you became available; that's got to feel quite nice.
Dominic: It's a place I've been trying to get to in my career since I started. If a director is holding up production because of the value of your cooperation, it just makes you work harder and harder. It's hugely complimentary.

PW: Did playing a graverobber bring to mind any of the terrible jobs you had prior to acting?
Dominic: When I was at college, I worked in a department store called Brit Home Stores, which is a pretty lackluster department store, selling clothes for middle-aged women. My job was to walk the floor and find anything that was damaged, take it to the store room and log it. Quite a lot of menial labor and I was treated in that regard, so that wasn't the greatest job I ever had. But I've been quite lucky with jobs and I try to approach any job with as much positivity as possible because then you get a positive thing out of a negative situation.

PW: Since I'm sure you can't get out of any interview without the subject of "Lost" coming up, I won't mess with tradition -- any chance Charlie will pop up in the final two seasons?
Dominic: The way I answer that question now is to say that unfortunately it's not up to me, it's up to Damon [Lindeloff]. I've been such a fan of Charlie -- the way he entered the show, the way he exited the show, the way he came back in season 4. They've treated him with a great amount of respect and tenderness. If it was up to me, I would revisit that character a dozen times if they gave him the same sensitivity they've given over the years. Obviously it's down to the writers, but I would go back in a heartbeat.

PW: Are you just as curious as the fans as to where the show is headed?
Dominic: I am. I've known Damon long enough now to understand how intelligent he is as a writer and how respectful he is of the project he's crafted, so I'm just excited to see what's going on in his brain. I don't have any doubts he'll finish it off with a huge shebang. But I'm like everyone else, a huge fan of the show and I want to see who's going to survive and what the ultimate cliffhanger is going to be.

PW: You are also a part of the upcoming "Wolverine" movie; how did that come about?
Dominic: One of my favorite films of the past 5 years is "The Fountain" -- it's just a work of a brilliant mind. So I've managed to sit down with [director] Darren Aronofsky over the years and tell him how much I enjoyed the project. I've done the same with Rachel Weisz. Hugh Jackman was the one person missing from that equation. So, I'd become friends with a guy at Fox who happened to call me one Thursday saying there was a part for me in the "Wolverine" movie and to call him on Friday after I'd read the script. So I called him Friday morning saying I loved the part and he called me back at 1 p.m. asking if I could be on a plane at 4 p.m.

PW: Just like that!
Dominic: Yep. I flew to Sydney, was there for about nine days of filming. I'm actually going back to do another 10 days in Vancouver at the end of January. It's a very exciting project. I'm a big fan of Hugh and I think the film will be a great thing to sit back in the cinema and strap on your seat belt and watch this huge beast of a movie explode.

PW: Are the 10 days reshoots or adding in new scenes?
Dominic: We're doing a bit of both, more than anything else, it's an additional scene which I would get shot in the head if I told you anything about. But my character features in a huge set piece with Hugh and Liev [Schreiber]. I think the best thing I can tell you is that it's a flashback scene.

PW: Between reshoots and going to Slamdance, it sounds like 2009 is going to be quite busy for you.
Dominic: I've got a hectic schedule, but I wouldn't have my life any other way. I'm really excited to see the audiences reaction to "I Sell The Dead," and to spend some time with the boys again.

PW: Will tomorrow's premiere be the first time you've seen the film with an audience?
Dominic: It will. My friend and I watched it the other day and my mom and dad have seen it. I think the best reaction I've heard is that people are tickled by it. It's a very cheeky film with endearing characters and it has a really unique voice that you haven't heard before.

Source: Popwrap

LOST - HOLLOWAY SLOWED DOWN AFTER TEENAGE CAR CRASH

2009-01-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

LOST bad boy JOSH HOLLOWAY won't be joining his castmates caught speeding in Hawaii - he drives too slow.
Former show regulars Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros and longtime star Daniel Dae Kim have all been charged with speeding offences on the island, but a bad car crash in his teens has left Holloway driving like an old lady.
He explains, "When I was 17 I fell asleep at the wheel one morning. The car was destroyed going end over end, and all I got was a cut on the back of my neck from hitting the roof multiple times.
"Since then I've slowed down a lot, so people cut me off because I'm kind of a cruiser."

Source: contactmusic

Jorge Garcia Interview

2009-01-14T02:25:00.000-08:00

Not much, predictably, has been revealed about the fifth (and penultimate) season of the cult ABC drama Lost, but one thing is certain: Jorge Garcia will still be amusing audiences as the laid-back Hugo “Hurley” Reyes. The 35-year-old actor, whose demeanor matches his character’s, has provided much of the notoriously convoluted series’s humor as a man who has been plagued by bad luck ever since winning $114 million in the lottery. We recently spoke to Garcia as he shopped for bread and eggs in Hawaii, where the show is filmed.

Time Out New York: Dude.
Jorge Garcia: [Laughs] Yeah.

TONY: Is Hurley required to say that at least ten times per episode?
Jorge Garcia: Oh yeah. Anytime I have a line, they need to put dude somewhere.

TONY: Did you use that word a lot before you took the role?
Jorge Garcia: I did say “dude” before but not as much as Hurley does. At first I was trying to say “dude” less than I normally do, just to keep some separation. But I really don’t care anymore. Now if it’s an appropriate moment, you know, I’ll just let the dude fly.

TONY: So, how does the series end?
Jorge Garcia: Good question. I don’t know. But I think at some point there’s gonna be a big, giant fight for the island. Probably gonna be pretty awesome.

TONY: Sounds like you’re genuinely into the show. Are you as big of a Lost nerd as all the other Lost nerds?
Jorge Garcia: I’m pretty close. I mean, I don’t spend too much time on the Internet trying to figure things out anymore. I let them write the show and whatever gets revealed, I enjoy it. But I do download podcasts about the show, because they tell me what the fans are talking about in a nutshell.

TONY: What’s your weirdest fan experience so far?
Jorge Garcia: I came to L.A. a few years ago, and I went to this late-night taco stand called Benito’s, like, around midnight. And there was a guy there. Later, as I’m picking up my food—’cause you had to wait around and stuff—that same guy showed up. After he’d already left. He had run home and printed a picture of me from the computer. And then he asked me to sign it. To actually go through all that effort!

TONY: It must never cease to surprise you how incredibly rabid some fans are.
Jorge Garcia: Yeah, it never does. A lot of times when I’m shooting the show, I have them in the back of my mind. Sometimes I go, “Wait a minute. We gotta fix this continuity-wise, or else they’re going to be posting on the Internet about this, I know it.” But every now and then there’s some things you’ve just got to be like, “Well, it’s a TV show.”

TONY: Like when?
Jorge Garcia: Like when we were building our campsites. There were a lot of tarps. And so, yeah, there’s apparently a shipment of tarps on the plane. There are boxes of them that we now have access to. [Laughs]

TONY: I wish it had been a shipment of doubloons, because doubloons is one of my favorite words.
Jorge Garcia: You a big fan of the pirate movies?

TONY: Well, only if they employ the word doubloons.
Jorge Garcia: I hear you.

TONY: Or pantaloons.
Jorge Garcia: That’s harder to work in, I think. Because (a) you never seem to be wearing pantaloons, and (b) that’d be something you’d only bring up if you’re making fun of someone’s short pants, like, “Those are borderline pantaloons, I believe.”

Absolutely. Bigger show shot in Hawaii: Lost or Magnum, P.I.?
Jorge Garcia: It depends on how you measure it, I’m going to say.

TONY: In the geek factor, obviously, Lost wins. But not so in the mustache factor.
Jorge Garcia: Yeah, I bet. I actually have a Magnum, P.I. T-shirt that I like to wear around the pool. There’s no picture of him on it, though. It’s just, like, the car.

TONY: Cheech Marin plays Hurley’s dad on the show, which can only mean that Tommy Chong is going to have a meaty role this season, right?
Jorge Garcia: I don’t know. [Laughs]

TONY: Can we please start that rumor?
Jorge Garcia: Sure. Chong is in negotiations.

Source: timeout

Josh Holloway: Break-In Still Gives Me Nightmares

2009-01-14T02:21:00.000-08:00

He plays the unflappable Sawyer on Lost, but Josh Holloway says he is still rattled by a brutal 2005 home invasion, which he vows will "never" be repeated.

"Having a gun held to our heads when we're naked in our bedroom at four in the morning is never going to happen to my wife and me again," the actor tells Playboy in its February issue, on stands Jan. 16. "I took the FBI training course. I have home protection."

While at their Hawaii Kai home in 2005, Holloway and his wife Yessica were rousted from bed at gunpoint by a man who took cash and credit cards and then drove off in Holloway's Mercedes-Benz, which police found abandoned a short time later. Last June, Ruben Royce was sentenced to between 13 and 30 years in prison for his three-week crime spree.

"It still gets me," says Holloway. "The guy was a crackhead who had hit 22 people in two and a half weeks. He took an 80-year-old couple and duct-taped them up. He also attempted to murder another guy. I had a nightmare about it last night."

Still, there are dangers to increased home security, says Holloway, who announced last month that he and Yessica are expecting their first child later this year. "Of course, there's also the statistic that owning a gun increases your chances of being shot by 300 percent."

Holloway, who returns for Lost's fifth season on Jan. 21, also sounded off about another brush with Hawaiian law: his 2006 speeding ticket. "It's an island, very easily patrolled, and we are the only big celebrities who stay there all the time," Holloway says of filming Lost in Oahu. "I was going around 50 in a 35 zone, and that's embarrassing. I should have been going faster."

Source: people.com

LOST - LOST CREATORS RAVE ABOUT FOX

2009-01-14T02:19:00.000-08:00

LOST creators CARLTON CUSE and DAMON LINDELOF have given the show's star MATTHEW FOX the greatest references as he gets set to wrap up the desert island drama - they're convinced he'll be an Oscar nominee within four years.
Both feel sure the Vantage Point star will turn his back on TV and concentrate on making challenging movies.
Cuse says, "He has that cocktail of dangerous and charming. He has a leading man's good looks, and heroic qualities as an actor."
And Lindelof tells Details magazine, "He has the potential to be a leading man, but I think he's interested in those quirky transformative roles.
"Three, four years from now I can see him getting a Supporting Actor nomination... He wants acting to be hard, to be torture. He does not want to ski the bunny slope."

Source: contactmusic

Matthew Fox: Lost's End Will Be a "Relief"

2009-01-14T02:16:00.000-08:00

As Lost nears the start of its fifth and penultimate season, Matthew Fox is greeting it with a mix of reverence — and a readiness to leave island life behind, literally and figuratively.

"Personally, it's a relief," he told Details, as he reflected on the ABC drama's nearing conclusion. "I owe this show a great amount, and I think it's exceptionally good...[but] I am looking forward to the freedom that comes with not working on one project professionally." Lost's fifth season kicks off Jan. 21 on ABC (8 pm/ET).

Fox, who plays Dr. Jack Shepard, opened up about what he envisions in his Lost-free future — both personally and professionally — starting with his plans to move from Hawaii to the mainland when the show ends. "My major motivation is to be closer to family," he said. "My brother is there, my mother is there. We're hoping to break ground [for a house] in March, and it will be completed right around the time we're finishing the last season of Lost in March 2010."

The actor's new home will plant him far from the spotlight in rural Oregon, but close enough to Portland and Seattle to find city life easily with his wife and two children. "I really miss that kind of wide-open space," he explained, "and there's a big part of me that wants the kids to live in that mountain air."

While Fox envisions a secluded home life, he's also candid about what he wants in his very public working life. "I don't have control over what will come my way, but if the opportunities I get excited by keep coming, I'm going to continue working in this business." Lost co-executive producer Damon Lindelof was more specific: "[Fox] has the potential to be a leading man, but I think he's interested in those quirky transformative roles," he said. "Three, four years from now I can see him getting a Supporting Actor nomination."

Yet, Lost isn't over just yet, and Jack still has some serious challenges to face. "When it's all said and done, you'll be able to look at the six seasons of Lost and see a pretty amazing character arc," Fox said. "Jack has been evolving, and not necessarily into a good place. We started the show with him being this hero who had no concept of what that required, sort of trying to live up to the expectations...and then finding the way to redeem himself."

Where Jack's arc will ultimately end, however, will likely remain a mystery until the series' final moments. "This show started with a plane crash on an island in the South Pacific, and it's going to have a very global and epic ending."

Source: tvguide

Mr. Enigma: Michael Emerson of ‘Lost’

2009-01-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

In 2001, he won an Emmy for playing the perversely charismatic serial killer William Hinks on The Practice. Apparently, perverse charisma is Michael Emerson’s calling; he’s since earned two Emmy nominations playing the prevaricating and perversely charismatic cult leader Benjamin Linus on Lost—a character that was never intended to be full-time, but, as viewers have come to learn, there’s no denying Ben Linus. Emerson talked with Michael Alan Connelly about the new season.

What’s changed for Ben in Season 5?
He now operates in the other world, off the island. He is less secure and less well fortified, so he has fewer resources. The stakes of his activities may be higher because of the desperation factor, and the quality of having to improvise. He’ll carry on what seems to be his calling or his life’s work or his war, whatever it is—I’m not sure exactly what it .is

That makes two of us. Do you feel the show loses any power now that the characters are off the island?
I think we had a smaller definition of the island than the writers meant. When the island disappeared, everywhere became the island. They’re playing around with the island as some kind of portrait of a thing, but not the thing itself. Wherever we go, it goes also. [Laughs.] Boy, that’s kind of a squirrelly answer. Maybe this is a better overarching image for the season: There’s a great push to reunite—to try to put things and partnerships back together that have fallen apart.

The Others stole away to a place called the Temple. Will we be seeing more of them and learning about the Temple?
Yes and yes. I think we’re going to find them to be less malevolent as time goes by.

If you could get the writers to answer one burning question, what’s at the top of your list?
I’d ask the same big question everyone has: What’s the real deal? Where are we really?

Ben is often reading or quoting authors. Do you take the time to read the books he does?
There are no accidents in the world of props on Lost—the books are carefully chosen. This season, there’s a scene where I’m reading Ulysses by James Joyce. It’s on my winter reading list.

You came to the show late. Did you fit right in?
Not really. It’s a tight-knit cast. The show has generations of actors—I think I’m the third generation, which is Ian Cusick, Elizabeth Mitchell, and me. We hang out a bit; ours is a more shared experience, not being one of the original lovable Lost-aways. I’ve had a solitary time in Hawaii [where the show is shot], which is consistent with my character.

What TV shows do you watch?
Battlestar Galactica, which, like Lost, balances science fiction, adventure, and metaphysics in a good way. And I was thrilled by Deadwood. I love shows where language isn’t just a medium of communication. Deadwood’s was more brutal than any I’ve heard on TV, but it was also more lyric.

Source: nymag.com

Smokey unleashed

2009-01-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

Finally, we get the scoop on our beloved Smokey

Smoke Monster....

Unleashed!

Visual effects Supervisor Mitch Suskin reveals to The Official Lost Magazine, the challenges of bringing Smokey out to play in series four's episode The Shape of Things to Come.

The Shape of Things to Come really gave the audience its first long look at the smoke monster and what it's truly capable of doing. What were your marching orders in terms of how to portray it?

Well, for this episode the producers were pretty upfront from the beginning that Smokey, as we call it, was going to be in your face and we’d be seeing him. We had the cover of night, which we've never really done before. So we were more concerned, not about how much we were going to see him, but how we were going to make him visible – a blackish, smoke monster in the dark, in the forest, is tricky to see.

How much creative leeway did you have on establishing the details of Smokey's big entrance?

Jack Bender was fairly precise about what he wanted out of this. We scouted locations at several times and we talked about where Smokey might be entering from and what he might be doing. The script was clear on what was supposed to happen in the scene and it was clear that you had to see things. Sometimes we all have rough ideas and it's an evolving process. In this case with the script, what Mr. Bender requested and what he got, we had a strong idea of what to do but how to get there was hard. I mean its just smoke!

What was the most challenging shot?

The one shot that was most subject to interpretation was the shot where Smokey first appeared over the trees. We didn’t know what direction he was going to come from or how much interaction there was going to be, so that evolved over time. It just so happens the way it was shot there was a hole in the trees that made a nice place for him to coil into the shot.

It's a very menacing entrance, so did that evolve or was that clear from the start?

We tried a couple of different ways for him to enter but it wasn't clear if he was supposed to be pouring through or looking around, more cat-like. Then it was very clear from Damon and Carlton that they wanted it to come in like a rollercoaster or a freight train. They wanted it to be forceful and somewhat frightening. We had to spend a lot of time trying to get the smoke to look like something other than smoke in the sense of it moving and how it was lit. A lot of that was just trial and error. That shot, as far as performance, gave us the most to play with and the other shots were a lot of shots of him in the forest.

How were the forest shots different to create?

We were trying to strike a balance between how much we wanted to see him and how much we didn't want to see him and which was going to be scarier. A lot of those shots we were shooting in the forest at night with nothing out there, so there were lots of branches and leaves and we were trying to figure out how to put Smokey in the background. In this case, we didn't use digital trees. We used real trees from the forest. We spent a lot of time trying to come up with ways to separate the leaves and the branches from the background so we didn't have to paint mattes for every single leaf so we could put the shot together. The compositor came up with some mercifully clever techniques that allowed us to put Smokey way in the background. The digital tools we are using are getting better and better and we did do a little bit of rotoscoping [where animators trace over live-action movement frame-by-frame] to separate them, but there was more compositing magic to separate the trees and the branches. It's all about trying to define the foreground and putting Smokey in the background.

Source: sky1.com

'Lost' Star Donates to Toy Drive

2009-01-10T02:18:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is the perfect time to help out the less-fortunate, and Lost's Daniel Dae Kim knows just how important that is. Along with his wife, the Korea-born actor aided the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots Hawaii Program with their donations.

With the shortfall in much needed toys for children, the Marines have been wishing for a bit more generosity until the last minutes before Christmas. They're hoping many others follow Daniel Dae Kim's example. A few days ago, he and his wife donated 500 toys for the Toys for Tots campaign at Kahala Mall.

The Marine Forces Pacific spokesman, Chuck Little, said that the need for toys has been met for every age group except for two. There haven't been enough contributions for boys and girls ages 8 to 10, as well as boys and girl 11 years and older.

“We're about 1,600 toys shy of being able to meet the need,” Little explained. “We're really concerned about making sure that everyone that requested donations gets something this year.”

Chuck Little continued to say that a collection point for the Marines, managed by the Salvation Army, will remain open until noon today. With just a few hours before Christmas, they're setting it up on the Costco side of Dole Cannery.

Little also shared a few words regarding the involvement of the Lost actor. “To say that (contribution) is overwhelming is a gross understatement,” he said. “That will go a long way toward helping meet the remaining need this year.”

Just this year, the Toys for Tots program collected about 30,000 toys. Thanks to Daniel Dae Kim and his wife, needy kids will benefit from their charity work. If these busy actors can do something as selfless as that, maybe us normal folks can find opportunities for that too. Besides, Lost won't be returning until January. This has to be a better use of our time, rather than watching reruns during the break.

Daniel Dae Kim has been known to appear in recurring roles on several sci-fi and fantasy shows. He has been seen on Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Angel, and Charmed, as well as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Shield, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue and even ER. And even if his character doesn't speak enough English on Lost, Daniel Dae Kim sure knows the language of the Christmas season.

Source: buddytv

Jorge Garcia Glad That Show Isn't 'Lost' On Fans

2009-01-10T02:16:00.000-08:00

Comedian and actor Jorge Garcia is indebted to his fans, and is keen to appreciate the variety the audiences come in. He's even pleased that Lost is a big hit among the music crowd, especially members of the bands Metallica and Anthrax.

Though the series is returning on January 21 with a clip special to boot, the actors know how rabid the viewers still are. It's just a little surprising how rock stars and soul singers can also get a little weak-kneed when it comes to seeing their favorite actors.

“One of the biggest things for me was when we were at the Golden Globes,” Jorge Garcia admitted. “Seal came up to me, Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim and asked to get a picture with us. Holy cow! That's awesome.”

It seems as though anyone from the realms of heavy metal to R&B can be fanboy or a fangirl, especially with shows like Lost on television these days. Garcia, who plays the character Hurley Reyes on the series, went on to explain why he thinks the acclaimed ABC series is a hit with musicians.

“Because we're a very good DVD kind of show, I've run into a lot of musicians who are fans because they watch it on their tour buses and things like that,” the actor exclaimed.

Well then, they have a lot to look forward to. With ABC releasing Lost's fifth season in less than a month's time, there's no doubt the network will be plagued by fans once more. Sources reveal that the program will air uninterrupted, with a three-hour premiere consisting of a clip show and two new back-to-back episodes.

“This season, I think, is going to run straight through,” Garcia said. “Last season, they skipped a week before the finale and had a clip show, so we might do that. But for the most part, it should run straight through.”

Source: buddytv

Jin Returns, kind of, well maybe, ish

2009-01-10T02:14:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - "Lost," ABC's show about the islands of misfits, will return soon for its fifth season and many fans are wondering about the whereabouts of Daniel Dae Kim, better known as Jin. When seen on last year's season finale of "Lost," it looked as if Jin was blown to pieces.

Celebrity News Service is just as anxious to see if Jin survived the explosion. Was all that screaming -- and darn good acting by the way -- of his TV wife Sun for naught? Sun is played by Yunjin Kim.

Word in Hawaii, where the show is filmed, is that Jin will reappear in the February 11 episode. Since it is "Lost," however, we won't know for certain if he is alive, dead, in a flashback, a figment of our imagination or possibly reincarnated. In a recent interview Daniel Dae said fans hoping for a Jin-Sun reunion shouldn't hold their breath. Remember when Sun went to Jin's grave with the baby and Hurley? It seems that is the only place she will see Jin for a while.

In real life, Daniel Dae is busy getting ready to star as the King of Siam in Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I." He will make his theatrical singing debut in London at the Royal Albert Hall for two weeks in June.

Source: allheadlinenews

Jorge Garcia talks LOST...again

2009-01-10T02:11:00.000-08:00

The final finale of "Lost" isn't expected 'til 2010, but already things are heating up on ABC's one-of-a-kind series, which begins airing its fifth season Jan. 21 with a three-hour premiere. Jorge Garcia -- aka Hurley -- reports that the cast did a lot of guessing about the mysteries surrounding their characters and their strange island surroundings "during Season 1, but after that it slowed down. Last season, when they announced there was going to be an ending, we started guessing again. There's definitely a sense of pacing that is going toward something on the show. We're excited, like Season 1."

According to him, "The stories are crazy this year. This one definitely takes it to another level." As for himself, the challenge in playing his lottery-winning, formerly institutionalized character remains "to try and make Hurley's craziness come from a real place. That has been a big challenge for me as an actor, along with some of the physical stuff. You have no idea how hard it is to march with purpose in sand in tennis shoes when you have to do it over and over again."

Source: National Ledger

Josh Holloway to be a dad

2009-01-10T02:01:00.000-08:00

Josh Holloway, Lost’s Sawyer is expecting his first child with wife Yessica reports TV Guide’s senior editor Will Keck exclusively in his column,What the Keck?!

Josh Holloway, who is currently on location in Hawaii
filming Season 5 of the hit show, confirmed that he and Yessica will be welcoming a little Sawyer or Sawyerette in 2009.

Source: thebosh

Naveen Andrews's Custody Case Weirder than 'Lost' Episode

2009-01-10T01:59:00.000-08:00

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In a story almost as twisted and confusing as an episode of "Lost," actor Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayiid on the show, has been granted custody of his son--under circumstances that involve talk of poison and witchcraft. This actually sounds better than an episode of "Lost"...witchcraft always trumps polar bears.

Andrews was granted custody after the mother of his child broke the arrangements of their custody agreement by taking their son Naveen Joshua out of Los Angeles County, and by preventing Andrews from seeing his son. A courtroom battle went down, during which Elana Eustache, the mother of the child, made all sorts of allegations, including that Andrews had tried to poison their son and that Andrews's longtime girlfriend Barbara Hershey should be kept away from the little boy because she practiced witchcraft.

What the eff?

Not surprisingly, it was requested during the hearing that Eustache undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Naveen Joshua had been brought to court with his mother, but left with his obviously saner father. Andrews was granted permission to bring the boy to Hawaii where the new season of "Lost" is currently in production. Neither Andrews nor Hershey seem to have struck the court as particularly poisonous, or witchlike, as both were granted permission to care for the boy.

Andrews and Hershey split briefly in 2005 and Andrews later admitted to fathering a child with Eustache during that time. After reuniting with Hershey and learning about his son, Andrews released a statement saying that he had "every intention of assuming appropriate responsibility" for the child and "acting "with all integrity." Which may or may not involve boiling rabbits in black cauldrons while his girlfriend wears a pointy hat and rides a broom. Only time will tell.

We wish little Naveen lots of days of happiness in the Hawaiian sun. Also, if he's able to pick up any secrets that solve some of the greater "Lost" mysteries under the guise of just hanging out on the beach and building sandcastles with Evangeline Lilly, we would appreciate him leaking them to us promptly.

Source: actressarchives.com

Comments from Terry O'Quinn

2008-10-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Lyly for finding these small comments from Terry regarding Season 5. Nothing very spoilery but with over 3 months to wait for our first Season 5 episode every little helps.

Q) HEY TERRY!!! so i was watching the season fanally for season 4 and i about wet myself when i saw you in the coffin. whats gonna happen next
A) You will be suitably frustrated and amazed. Enjoy season 5.

Q) how is the season 5 filming going so far ? are you enjoying this season more than the others as the story continues to progress?do you think Locke fans will be happy with what John Locke has been doing to date on the island(or off it !)
A) Season 5 is progressing well.........and I think Locke fans will be...............stunned.

Source: DarkUFO

Lost's Dominic Monaghan Cast in Sci-Fi Film 'Fortuna'

2008-10-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

Dominic Monaghan had a nice, long run on Lost. His portrayal of Charlie, the heroin-addicted former rock star, was nuanced and integral to the overall Lost mythology, and most fans were very sad to see him go. For an actor, leaving a well-paying consistent job on a popular television show can be difficult, especially for someone like Monaghan, who doesn't possess movie star looks and who will most likely have to spend his career working smaller roles. Dominic has just been cast in a new science fiction film set in the year 2100 called Fortuna. The film takes place in a bleak and depressing future, where climate change and a struggling economy has created a vast chasm between the wealthy and everyone else.

Fortuna is about a game that the wealthy have concocted to give the impoverished hope in the depressing times they live in. In the game Fortuna, one thousand desperate contestants vie to win a spot amongst the wealthy. However, there is more to the game than the participants would like to believe – none of the contestants are ever seen from again, which puts the elite class's goal of reducing poverty by 30% over the next 50 years in a much different light. Dominic Monaghan and Freddie Rodriguez (Six Feet Under) play contestants who enter into the game, despite their skepticism. Barthelemy Grossmann, who wrote the script and will direct, also will portray a contestant. Shooting begins November 10 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

While Dominic Monaghan is mostly known for his work on Lost and in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think he'll have a nice filmography twenty years from now. In Lost, he showed off impressive acting range, and he has an interesting look, which will always allow him to find good work. If he plays his cards right, Monaghan could be one of our generation's most beloved character actors for years to come.

Source: buddytv.com

'Chuck' Finds 'Lost' Boy Monaghan

2008-10-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

In what marks his first major TV gig since Lost, Dominic Monaghan has signed on to guest-star on NBC's Chuck as -- stop me if this sounds familiar -- a free-spirited British rock star targeted for death by a shadowy group of evildoers. And the similarities to his Lost alter ego Charlie don't end there. Well, actually, yes, they do. "This is a very, very different kind of character," insists executive producer Josh Schwartz of Monaghan's metalhead, who makes an in-store appearance at Buy More and ends up getting entangled in one of Chuck's spy games. "He's a lunatic in the best sense of the word. And there's no heroin [addiction]." Monaghan's participation is only half the Feb. 2 episode's sell: It also will air partly in 3-D, piggybacking on NBC's 3-D Super Bowl stunt. (The network will broadcast the big game the night before.) Aside from the cool factor of seeing himself in 3-D, what drew Monaghan to the role? Did he have any hesitation about channeling someone who, at least on paper, so closely resembles Charlie? And might his tube return be the precursor to another Lost comeback? Hmmm….Sounds like the set-up to an exclusive Q&A with Dominic Monaghan. Scratch that. It is the set-up to an exclusive Q&A with Dominic Monaghan.

AUSIELLO: Welcome back to TV. Why now and why Chuck?
DOMINIC MONAGHAN: I wanted to work with Josh Schwartz. I've been wanting to be in business with him for a long time. My agent got me more and more interested in his work and his background and his sensibilities and we've been looking for a way to [connect] for a while now. He's my age, he's smart and cool and, obviously, extremely invested in the industry. He's a comic book fan, he's a movie fan, he's a big fan of TV and gives it a lot of respect. It's the same reason I wanted to work on Lost. I walked into a meeting with Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams and really considered those two people to be the real future of television.

Your Chuck character, Tyler Martin, sounds strangely familiar…
He is an English rock star, so obviously there are similarities [to Charlie]. But this is a comedic role. Charlie was not incredibly comedic on purpose. I think Charlie had funny moments, but Charlie was quite tortured and into meth. The guy that I play on Chuck is just an out-and-out lunatic. If you were to look up "definitive rock star" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of him. But there was definitely a little trepidation. I never want to play the same thing twice.

What persuaded you to do it?
After meeting Josh Schwartz and reading the script, I realized that Charlie could never be this person. Charlie would not be a fan of Tyler. Charlie got into rock and roll for the music and to try and help himself in a therapeutic way. And I think Tyler got into rock and roll because he realizes that that's the easiest way to get free flights around the world. He's like Charlie in a hallucinogenic dream. He's like what Charlie would be in his most brilliant moment, but Tyler is like that all the time. So I thought it might be something that would tickle people to see.

When are you returning to Lost?
That's more of a question for Damon Lindelof. I don't really have a huge amount of control over that. I had a great time on the show, and I think Charlie is a character that is definitely missed. I know a lot of people on the show -- myself included -- get asked a lot of questions about when he's coming back. The general public seems to think he's on his way back at some point. But that's something for Damon to answer. All I can really say is if it was the right thing, of course I'd go back.

Do you still watch the show?
I watch it here and there. It's not as simple for me to watch it as it used to be, because, obviously, being on the show, I felt it was needed for me to watch it just to stay in that zone. Obviously, it's not as essential for me to watch it. But of course I know what's going on.

Source: ausiellofiles.ew.com

Evangeline Lilly Regrets Stripping Off For Mens' Magazines

2008-10-22T23:06:00.000-07:00

Evangeline Lilly regrets her past as a lads' mag pin-up.

The Lost star, 29, insists she only stripped for the pictures because she was told to.

She explains, "I was inexperienced back then and quite trusting so I had to learn how to deal with that.

"There's some ugly burned bridges in the past because I put my trust in people and they just didn't follow through.

"I ended up in Maxim magazine and things like that and I would never in a million years be caught dead in those magazines. So I'm now with the right people and they understand me."

Source: showbizspy.com

Evi stays away from beaches.

2008-10-12T03:08:00.000-07:00

EVANGELINE Lilly refuses to set foot on a beach.

The Canadian beauty -- who played a sexy castaway on hit show Lost -- has come to hate being seen as a bikini babe and the attention that comes with it -- she's had to give up her love of the sun, sea and surf.

Lilly explains, "I've had to change my whole life,

"For the last two years in Hawaii I won't be caught dead on the beach. I can't go because I'm tired of seeing myself in a bikini on the cover of a tabloid magazine and being that woman.

"I'm not that woman. If I was that woman then great I'd go down to the beach every day and would wear the cutest bikini anyone has ever seen. But in order to kind of represent myself in the public eye, I've stopped going to the beach."

Source: www.showbizspy.com

LOST - LILLY'S LOST AUDITION WAS A 'PSYCHOLOGICAL EXERCISE'

2008-10-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

LOST star EVANGELINE LILLY stumbled into acting while she was "doing a psychological exercise" by going to auditions.
The 29-year-old simply wanted to challenge her fears of acting up in front of the harshest critics when she discovered she had a talent for the craft.
She explains, "I had no intention for it to connect to a job. So when I got a job, I had to sit down and go, 'Do I want to be an actor?'"
Lilly reveals the job she landed was her role as Kate Austen on Lost.
Before her acting took off, the pretty star dreamed of becoming a flight attendant.
She adds, "I wanted to see the world, and I didn't have money. I was living on tea and peanut butter... so I went and I did the flight attendant training."
But her high-flying dreams didn't last long: "I did the job for one month and I quit."

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Lost Gives Michelle Rodriguez Another Shot

2008-08-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

ook who has found herself back on Lost. Michelle Rodriguez, who famously and hastily was written off of the ABC serial not long after she was pinched in Hawaii on DUI charges, will resurface in the new season's second episode, sources confirm for TVGuide.com.

Lest you truly believe in the unbelievable, though, it should be noted that M-Rod's Ana Lucia will appear only in the one episode, possibly as part of a Hurley-centric flashback (as EW's Ausiello speculates).

Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros (who played Libby to her Ana Lucia) were arrested in Oahu on Dec. 1, 2006, on suspicion of driving their respective cars under the influence of alcohol in Oahu. Though both of their Lost characters were dispatched later in the TV season, show producers maintained that Ana Lucia was always a short-term role.

Watros' Libby cameo'd this past season, as an apparition to Michael. -- Matt Mitovich

Source: kren.com

Lost: Where Does Desmond Fit In? (Spoiler-ish)

2008-08-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

As season 5 of Lost approaches (who am I kidding, we're still months away from the season 5 premiere), there are questions to be pondered. Because TV is a business, and actors sign contracts, not everything about Lost can be kept a secret. We know, for a fact now, that Henry Ian Cusick will return for season 5 as Desmond Hume. The last time we saw Desmond he was reunited (finally!) with his true love Penelope Widmore. The way season 4 ended makes the return of Desmond a mystery. There is no easy return for the man, no slam dunk opening. Where, then, will he fit in? At this point, we can only guess.

This topic may appear to be a tad bit random, considering how many moons we are from our next new Lost episode. However, the impetus for the discussion came from TV Guide, who have just released a tiny spoiler. According to Matt Mittovich, a source from the Lost set is saying that Cusick is indeed a cast member on season 5. There is an important distinction between a recurring guest spot and a regular role. If Cusick is indeed in the credits as a regular character, that means Desmond will likely be brought back into the fold sooner rather than later. This could possibly give us some insight into how the season 5 story will go.

Since all one can do is speculate, I'm going to go to town: Desmond will help the Oceanic 6 return to the island. It doesn't make a lot of sense for Desmond to show up in the island's story line, back with Sawyer and Locke and Juliet. I'm guessing that he will be brought back into the fold by Jack and Locke, possibly with some help from Sayid. Desmond and Penny probably retired to somewhere in Europe, which is where Sayid has been executing people for Ben.

Now, why would Desmond help the Oceanic 6, especially given Ben's possible desire to kill Penny? I can't answer that, but Ben, being the genius that he is, could find a way. As far as I know, Ben hasn't told anyone about his intentions for Penny. Perhaps he can kill two birds with one stone, maybe kidnapping Penny and leveraging that into forcing Desmond to captain the Oceanic 6's trip back to the island.

However Desmond returns, I imagine it won't be on happy terms. There's no way he leaves the mainland and Penny if things remain peachy keen in his life. Penny will have to disappear, or he'll have to be given some sort of ugly ultimatum. No matter how Desmond returns to the Lost story, it will almost certainly involve Penny, Charles Widmore and Ben.

What do you think? How will Desmond return to Lost?

Source: buddytv.com

Clues To Lost Season Five: Who's Back, Who's Dead And What Does It Mean?

2008-08-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

Although season five of Lost is still a little over four months away, the online speculation and clue-wrangling has already started. The latest piece of evidence: an interview with Francoise Chau, who plays the notorious one armed man, Dr. Candle. We decided to round up all the theories and leaked messages over the last few weeks, and combine them to try and make sense of the show's penultimate season. Spoilers ahead.

First and Foremost, What's The Status Of All The Characters:

On The Disappeared Island:
Juliet, Charlotte, Locke, Miles and Sawyer

Off The Island:
Walt, Ben, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Desmond, Hurley and Sun

Don't Know If They Are Alive Or Dead:
Locke (as well, because he's dead in the future), Claire, Michael, Daniel and Jin

There Will Be No More Flash Forwards and Flash Backs

At Comic Con and in many other interviews both Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have stated that there won't be any flash forwards or flashbacks. Instead, there'll be an unspecified new format, reminiscent of the episode "Ji Yeon." This season will tie all the strings together.

Updated:
Sorry the Charlie info was a bad tip on my part, I got that mis-information in a jumbled rumor. The correct spoiler rumor is from Dark UFO (many apologies in the world of spoilers some times rumors run wild). This is still unverified rumor but it was Daniel Dae Kim spotted on the island of Hawaii NOT Charlie.

Jin May Be Back:

As opposed to the false tip I followed it looks like Jin has been allegedly spotted on the island of Hawaii NOT Charlie. Daniel Dae Kim was spied by Dark UFO spies and they believe that he's filming and will be in many important moments in the future season. Sorry about the confusion.

Which Carlton Cuse Confirms to IF Magazine:

“The people that are off the island, the island seems to be drawing them back and Ben [Michael Emerson] makes it clear they need to go back to the island,” says Cuse. “So hopefully that’s a lot of what you’ll see of in Season 5 — the journey of how those six return to the island.”

Dr. Candle, Tells Us Nothing But Gives Us Hope For Some Answers:

In an interview with lostspoilers.org, Francois Chau, the famous Dr. Candle from all of the Dharma how-to videos, explains that he knows a bunch, but isn't saying anything. He knows who the crying baby is in the video shown at Comic-Con, for instance. But he does give us hope of further time travel and island moving explanations. Chau explains that we've only seen little bits of the many Orchid videos he filmed, and we should be learning a lot more. Also some of the orientation flicks will have other Losties cameoing. (I assume old Dharma friends.)

Welcome Newbies:

More bad characters mean more meddling and evil-doing. Huzzah! We are desperate for a new batch of baddies. Truth be told, I growing tired of the slow-burn of storylines about Jack's dad. I welcome Ilanna and Caesar. They both sound dangerous and well equipped at killing characters off. But my guess is, they'll probably turn out to be good guys, since this information was leaked so early. Also these two new characters (as well as the free-for-all final episode) seems to throw off the theory that there needs to be a certain number of people on the island, or bad things happen. Or maybe that's why Locke ends up dead: because the Oceanic Six left.

Will This Be The Year Jack Grows A Pair?:

The name of the first episode of season five has been revealed as "Because You Left." Which makes me crazy happy, because maybe for the first time Jack will sack up and get some self awareness and cojones. Sure, can be the take-charge leader guy, but usually his decisions are clouded with insecurity and arrogance. He's got to learn to sit and think, and then take the big step. I hope that calling out Jack hard core, and blaming him for everything that went wrong, will knock some sense into him. That doesn't mean I think the various messes are all his fault, but I don't mind him getting blamed for it all. It may just shake him the right way.

What's With All The Bad Apples On That Boat?:

The one thing I'm most excited about are both producers promised that they would be further explaining the role of everyone on the freighter. I'm dying to know more about Miles and the crazy Hawaiian shirt pilot." Please give me more ghost hunters and lost parents of angry red-heads. But if they kill off Daniel, I'll quit you, Lost.

Source: io9.com

Josh Holloway Gets Some Tail

2008-08-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

Sawyer would definitely have something snide to say about this.

Lost star Josh Holloway has been spending his summer off the Island shooting the movie Stay Cool in L.A. with Winona Ryder and Hilary Duff.

Yes, we think the tats, albeit fake, are pretty cool. But this 'do! WTF? It's as if Tommy Lee hooked up with Pebbles Flintstone and this is what popped out. Yeah, we know it's probably for the flick, but still.

So what do you all think about Holloway's hair? Is it the start of a new trend...or simply a lost cause?

Source: uk.eonline.com

It Isn't A Coincidence That Sawyer Stars With A Hobbit

2008-08-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - When we last saw actor Josh Holloway, who plays the wise-cracking, name-calling Sawyer on ABC's "Lost," he was swimming ashore onto the island after jumping out of a helicopter to help save his friends. Never mind that when he jumped out of the helicopter he had on a shirt and then when he swam ashore he was shirtless - just consider it a perk of watching "Lost."

Celebrity News Service has it on good authority the Sawyer will spend the first two episodes of "Lost's" fifth season without his shirt. Once again, consider that a benefit if you are addicted to the show.

Holloway reported that he spent his hiatus from the tropical island filming a movie called "Stay Cool." In the flick, he plays a tattoo artist named Wino and said it was a great change from playing Sawyer. The film also stars Winona Ryder, Jon Cryer, Sean Astin and Hilary Duff.

CNS was excited to hear that Holloway appeared in the movie with Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in the movie "The Lord of the Rings." Our own Dominic Monaghan (yes, that would be "Lost's Charlie Pace) played Merry In "The Lord of the Rings" so a definite connection has been spotted.

And while that may seem like a coincidence to most people, "Lost" fans know there is no such thing as a coincidence on the island -- or even off of it. That's like saying it was a coincidence that Hurley won the lottery with the same numbers that appear on the island.

So to sum it up: Sawyer's shirt has disappeared, the island has disappeared, Charlie is dead but has re-appeared and then disappeared, and now Astin and Monaghan (both former Hobbits) have starred with Holloway. Are you Lost? Don't worry, the island will figure it out.

Source: allheadlinenews.com

Fox Brokers Lucrative New 'Lost' Deal

2008-08-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

Actor Matthew Fox has reached a new pay deal with TV bosses, taking his "Lost" salary to $225,000 per episode.

The star's wage negotiations were first highlighted earlier this week, when Fox and his co-star Evangeline Lilly were rumored to be seeking a $70,000 pay rise to keep them on the hit drama.

But Fox has now signed a lucrative new contract with ABC Studios executives, putting him in the same pay bracket as the main stars of another successful ABC series, "Desperate Housewives."

The rest of the "Lost" cast are still reportedly trying to broker new wage deals, but representatives for ABC Studios and Fox have refused to comment.

Source: sfgate.com

Success on ‘Lost’ brings bit of chaos

2008-07-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Michael Emerson's life remained relatively quiet after he earned an Emmy nomination last year for his enthralling interpretation of Benjamin Linus on "Lost." But Emerson's popularity is soaring after a stellar season and yet another best supporting actor nomination yesterday.

"Last year there wasn't any hubbub about it; there was no media," he said from New York. "This year it was a three-ring circus at my house. At one point this morning I had two competing television crews in my humble living room. TV Guide was packing up and 'Access Hollywood' was setting up, and I had the Associated Press on the phone. And I had to be in a cab at noon if I was going to get to the airport safely. It was a bit zany."

Source: starbulletin.com

Lost: How a Certain TV Mega-Hunk Stole My Identity

2008-07-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

When you look like actor Josh Holloway (tall, blond, chiseled face, perfect biceps, and cut-up abs) and you’re considered to be the hot guy in the TV series Lost, life can be pretty sweet. But when you’re Josh Holloway (scrawny, brown, puffy hair, glasses)—also an actor—you’ve apparently got a lot of explaining to do. Holloway does just that with Lost: How a Certain TV Mega-Hunk Stole My Identity, a show in which he discusses the hardships of being him. Holloway did consider changing his name to Josh Joshoway, but then he’d lose out on all the perks: more auditions, reservations at fancy restaurants, and actually having dates (although it quickly turns into a “Who are you again?” situation). “I think there’s more than enough room in this world for the two of us to peacefully co-exist,” he says. “And I really hope, one day, he and I can go to coffee and talk about that.” DNA totally messed with the wrong man.

Source: www.villagevoice.com

Lost's Holloway to play Ryder's ex

2008-07-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

'Lost' star Josh Holloway has been cast opposite Winona Ryder, Chevy Chase, Hilary Duff, Sean Astin, Mark Polish and Jon Cryer in a new comedy called 'Stay Cool'.

The Hollywood Reporter says the film tells the story of a successful author (Polish) who has to face up to his unrequited high school love (Ryder) when he returns home to give a speech at a graduation ceremony.

Holloway will play a former high school jock and Ryder's ex-boyfriend.

The "knowing your age comedy" will begin shooting in California this month with Polish's twin brother Michael directing.

Source: www.rte.ie

Evangeline Lilly " I'm like a man - you know, 'I can do anything'

2008-07-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

"The only reason I was going for auditions when I won the role of Kate in Lost was an exercise in self-exploration," she said. "But I'm like a man - you know, 'I can do anything.'

"At 14 I thought I might one day be an actress. But by 18 I wanted to be a missionary. Acting as a career was just a blip on the radar."

The 28-year-old also confessed that her Lost co-stars were unhappy that she had landed a role on the hit show with relatively little acting experience, Digital Spy reports

She explained: "They were furious. You could see it written all over their faces. They were thinking, 'I've done all this work to get to this place and here you are with nothing to draw on, standing at the same place as me.'"

Source: thebosh.com

Evangeline Lilly's 'Lost' skin

2008-07-17T10:17:00.000-07:00

Evangeline Lilly says starring in 'Lost' ruined her skin. The 29-year-old actress " who plays Kate Austen in the hit US TV show " admits she started surfing in the rough sea to cope with stress of filming, but the salty water soon took its toll on her complexion.

She said: "Last season of the show I surfed constantly, which was cathartic for me, but the sun and salt water wreaked havoc with my skin so, for the first time in my life, I had skin problems. I ended up wearing a full face of pink pure zinc to protect it. I looked ridiculous with this bright pink face but I just wanted to surf!"

Evangeline has also revealed the secret to her slim figure " indoor aerobics. She added to Britain's InStyle magazine: "I dance around my living room to cheesy 80s aerobics music until I'm sweating really hard! "I also walk a lot.

Walking is a very underestimated exercise in North America. It's all run hard, lift weights and push your body, but walking is wonderful for elongating the body and posture."

Source: www.chinadaily.com.cn

Lost's Fox May Play Reformed Assassin

2008-07-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Money talks in Hollywood.

By Sunday, Wanted, a movie adapted from a graphic novel about cold-blooded assassins, had raked in $51 million during its opening weekend. On Monday, Lost star Matthew Fox was talking to Warner Bros. about starring in Billy Smoke, a movie based on ... a graphic novel about cold-blooded assassins.

Fox is seriously considering the project, which is adapted from the Oni Press comic about a hit man who decides to rid the world of his own kind after he realizes the error of his ways, Variety reports.

It's easy to picture Fox, who played the brooding Racer X in Speed-Racer earlier this summer, grimacing his way through the role.

Written by B. Clay Moore and illustrated by Eric Kim, Billy Smoke will not be published until next year, but movie execs got a sneak peek and evidently envisioned Fox as the lead.

Source: blog.wired.com

Lost Wins 4 Saturn Awards

2008-06-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

ABC's “Lost” steered the island toward four trophies at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror’s 34th annual Saturn Awards.

Winning for network television series, actor Matthew Fox, supporting actor Michael Emerson and supporting actress Elizabeth Mitchell, “Lost” returned to form at the Saturn Awards after losing out in several categories to NBC’s “Heroes” and Showtime’s “Dexter” last year.

TV Guide interview with Lost's Libby

2008-06-22T00:15:00.000-07:00

There was a quiet spell following her dramatic exit from Lost, but Cynthia Watros' workload has gone from 0 to 60 in recent months. Tonight at 10 pm/ET, she stars opposite Eric Roberts in the second installment of NBC's Fear Itself anthology series, and later this summer, she'll surface on TBS' The Bill Engvall Show. TVGuide.com invited Watros to preview her new gigs as well as ponder future spooky appearances by Lost's Libby.

TVGuide.com: You've been keeping busy lately!
Cynthia Watros: A little bit, yeah!

TVGuide.com: On the one hand, you're serving up some horror. On the other, you're doing comedy. Do you like striking that balance?
Watros: I like to juggle both ends. It's always fun to make people laugh, and then make them afraid or cry at the same time.

TVGuide.com: In Fear Itself's "Spooked," you play a woman who hires Eric Roberts' P.I. to snoop on a philandering husband. But these things are never that simple, are they?
Watros: [Laughs] No, they're not. By the end you're like, "What?!" You thought it was one thing, but then it's another. It's interesting how the story changes on you. I love playing characters that have secrets.

TVGuide.com: You really turn on the waterworks in Fear Itself. How do you manage that? Some trick from your Emmy-winning soap opera days...?
Watros: I wish there was a trick! I have to be honest, and I know it's going to sound corny, but whatever I'm going through as the character, it's never been difficult for me to immerse myself in that. Then the feelings come out naturally. I wish I had some trick — like thinking about a pet that has passed away — but no, it's just feeling the character.

TVGuide.com: How was Eric Roberts to work with? Do you, like I do, still have haunting memories of him in Star 80?
Watros: That's right! He's lovely. There's a difficult scene toward the end, where I spit on him, but he was a trouper. I said, "I think it'd be a good if we did something really dramatic, like having my character spit on you." He was for it.

TVGuide.com: You don't spit on Bill Engvall at all, do you?
Watros: Not on camera. [Laughs] He's so down to earth and real.... He made me feel completely at home. And Nancy Travis (Susan) is lovely — an authentic, beautiful person. I like her a lot.

TVGuide.com: You play Susan's carefree gal pal. Do you thus rub Bill the wrong way?
Watros: I do. I play this free spirit who travels the world and thinks the [Pearson] kids' education should come from traveling to exotic places instead of sitting in a school room.

TVGuide.com: Are you around for just a set number of episode?
Watros: I did three in a row, but I have a feeling she'll pop up now and again.

TVGuide.com: So you don't get killed off.
Watros: No. [Laughs] Not on this show!

TVGuide.com: As a Lost fan, I must say that I was expecting more from Libby's appearance in Michael's return episode.
Watros: Yeah, you never know what you're going to get into [with that show]. But it's always fun, whether it's a little bit or a lot.

TVGuide.com: Do you feel the producers have left the door open for you to return again?
Watros: I know I get a lot of people coming up to me asking, "What was Libby's deal? Why was she in a mental institution? What was her relationship with Hurley about?" I don't know if [the writers] want to answer those questions or not, but people want to know.

TVGuide.com: It seemed like they were steering Libby and Hurley toward a sweet little something. People would have liked seeing some love enter the big guy's life.
Watros: Yeah.... We all need love!

TVGuide.com: What do you miss about your Lost run?
Watros: You always miss the people you work with — the cast and crew. And living in Hawaii is of course an amazing and beautiful experience.

TVGuide.com: So maybe you will pop up again one day?
Watros: You never know. You never know!

Source: DarkUFO

Cynthia Watros

2008-06-22T00:13:00.000-07:00

Libby is back! And she's not in Santa Rosa Mental Hospital this time, but rather on NBC's new anthology series Fear, Itself.

I sat down with the lovely Cynthia Watros (Lost's dearly departed Libby) to discuss her special episode, which airs tonight. (Set your TiVo!) I've seen it, and can tell you that Cynthia gives a stunningly freaktastic performance as a woman who hires a private detective (Eric Roberts) to investigate her husband's wandering eye...But it all turns out to be so much more.

In Monday's Watch With Kristin Show, I'll share with you Cynthia's take on the latest happenings on Lost and whether she'll return, but for now, click in for some Fear-ful chatter...

For those who haven't yet checked it out, what is Fear, Itself?
It's a 13-show anthology series on NBC. My episode is directed by Brad Anderson, and Eric Roberts is in this episode. This episode is about what these people are about at the beginning and then, as the show progresses, you realize they're not exactly what they seem to be. And there is an interesting relationship with the house.

The title is interesting.
Yes, the fear surrounds all of these episodes. It is about what people have inside them that can ultimately come out, if they're insecure or if they're put in a position where they're tested. And this episode is definitely one of those cases.

What made you want to do it? Were you a fan of anthology series? Did you watch The Twilight Zone? Or do you just like freaking people out?
It's really interesting as an actor to play someone who's really mysterious and you don't quite know what's up with this person until the end. It's definitely fun to play more psychotic, people who are not at all like you, and you feel like you're really acting, you're really putting yourself out there.

And I did grow up a big sci-fi person, and I watched Star Trek and all those things. I tend to gravitate toward that genre.

What was it like doing those scenes with Eric Roberts? They're fairly intense.
They are! It was the first time that I had met Eric, and he was lovely—wonderful actor. So it's hard to say, "Hey, Eric, I'm Cynthia, and I'll be spitting on you in this scene. I hope that's OK." But he is a trouper, a true actor, and I promised that I wouldn't do anything too embarrassing to him. So he was great. It's lovely to work with someone who's free and open and willing to do whatever the partner wants to do.

What was the casting like?
It first starts with reading the script and if you feel sort of connected to the script then you agree to go into the audition, and after you audition if they feel like you're right for the part, they tell you what's going on with the show itself. I was really attracted to the caliber of the directors and actors they had for this series and working with Eric, and I've wanted to work with him for some time, so I felt really lucky.

Source: DarkUFO

Losties on The big Screen

2008-06-22T00:06:00.000-07:00

With the Lost season 4 finale come and gone, what's a TV fan to do during the long summer and fall months while waiting for Lost's return in 2009? Why, head to a cool air-conditioned theater and watch the Lost cast take on big movie roles, of course.

Already this summer Jack (Matthew Fox) ditched the beach and took a break from fretting over the island's insistence that he return so that he could play Racer X in Speed Racer. Before that he could be seen in the twisty turvy thriller, Vantage Point. But Lost's grizzled doctor isn't only one who is taking the leap from small screen to big.

Though Claire is currently kicking it in Jacob's cabin, actress Emilie de Ravin has been busy on film sets. Coming up for her this August is a role in The Perfect Game, a film set in 1957 that tells the true story of a rag-tag group of kids from Monterrey, Mexico who shock the world by playing a string of perfect little league baseball games, the only perfect game ever pitched in the Championship. Emilie de Ravin will be playing a character named Frankie, though the extent of her role is not currently well known.

Kate (Evangeline Lilly) meanwhile will be seen in the film Afterwards. Romain Duris stars as a New York lawyer who divorces his longtime love and is then granted the ability to know when people are going to die. As to how Evangeline Lilly's character will be involved in the film we don't yet know, but we do know the film will also feature John Malkovich as a doctor / mysterious mystical messenger, and who doesn't want to see that?

Sayid will take a break from assassinating Ben's foes when Naveen Andrews takes on a new role in the film Animals. Starring alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Marc Blucas, Naveen Andrews will play an animalistic man who is part of a subculture that Blucas's character is drawn into by the alluring Nicki Aycox (Supernatural). Touted as a humorous, sexy thriller, this flick will be one to watch out for later this year.

Coming in July is Felon, featuring a very much not exploded Michael (Harold Perrineau). Also starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff, Felon is a drama about a man convicted of killing an intruder who must cope with life in the violent penal system.

Benjamin Linus's off-island world tour continues when Michael Emerson takes on a role in Ready? OK! A comedy about a single mom trying to deal with her son's feminine interests, this film seems destined to fit in the Little Miss Sunshine mold. Expect a lighter Michael Emerson here than the captivating creep he plays on Lost.

Former Lost actors are also keeping busy. Lost's Boone (Ian Somerhalder) will soon be making appearances in The Lost Samaritan, about a man who is targeted by assassins after he stops to help someone in need, and The Tournament, about a group of assassins drawn together in a giant battle royale. Meanwhile his TV sister Maggie Grace will play former spy Liam Neeson's kidnaped daughter in Taken.

With these movies and more on the way next year as the talented Lost cast takes on new roles, we'll all have plenty to watch to keep us distracted during the long wait before Lost season 5 begins airing in 2009. At least, that's what we here at BuddyTV keep trying to tell ourselves.

Source: BuddyTV

Cynthia Watros Interview

2008-06-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

Source: DarkUFO

Jorge Garcia talks LOST

2008-06-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

s Hurley really unbalanced, or is the Island messing with him?
Unbalanced? I don't know. I have no idea what exactly is going with the "I see dead people" stuff. There's so much in playing that Hurley, and the craziness is the trickiest part. I've gone to directors and asked, "How is it that I get to the point to where I decide that blowing up the food is the best possible way to resolve this issue?" And all they can really say to me is, "Well, you've been in a mental institution." "Great, that helps a lot." But I just decide to believe that if [Hurley] feels that this is how this has to go, this is how it goes for him and just commit to it."

How long do you think it will take the Oceanic Six to get back to the Island?
I think that's what a lot of season five is going to be about, and hopefully we can do it in a season.

What will it take to convince Hurley to go back to the Island?
I don't know yet. There's this thing where Sayid comes to get Hurley [from Santa Rosa], and I'm curious what type of buddy adventures they might be going on.

Do you have a theory about how the show is going to end?
I feel like there's going to be a fight for the Island. There are at least two competing powers who can lay claim to that Island, and I feel like there is going to be some kind of fight for it at the end.

Have you been subject to the normal Hollywood pressure to lose weight, or have they said they like you the way you are and that's your character?
It hasn't come up. Well, it's come up with the audience apparently because that was a big question—why isn't Hurley losing weight? I was like, wow, with all the questions you're going to ask about the show, why are you focused on this? No one's asking why aren't the women getting hairy armpits?

How has the series changed your life?
There's nothing like it. When I got off the plane here, someone took my picture as I walked to baggage claim, as I got my luggage, as I walked out of the airport, as I got into the car, and even [as I was] in the car, he shot pictures through the window. That's a little much maybe. Every doorway I walk through? That's a little much. I get that they are filling a demand, and if the public didn't want that kind of stuff, there wouldn't be a business for it. That's just part of it.

Source: eonline.com

Interview with Naveen Andrews!

2008-06-21T00:25:00.000-07:00

As you may know, Naveen has been fairly elusive with the press in recent years; however, the man we know and love (and drool over) as Lost's Sayid Jarrah graciously took some time at the Monte Carlo TV Fest to chat about that itty-bitty island on which he’s been kicking ass for four seasons strong.

Keep reading to get the goods!

What do you think of the fact that the show has an end date?
Relief, really. I think it was the only way to keep the quality up—the quality we had from the first season—and hopefully that's been borne out by the fourth season.

What theory do you have about how the show will end?
I just hope that whatever it is, all these things that they've thrown out—all these nuggets from the polar bear to infinity—that they put it together into some cohesive whole that makes sense and is satisfying for the audience.

Where do you go in two years when the series ends?
Wherever the good work is, whether it's film or TV. Wherever the good writing is.

Sayid showed off some pretty insane fight moves in the season finale, while battling Keamy. Has he always had those skills or has he been practicing?
I presume he was always able to, coming from the military and being in the Republican Guard, which I believe was an elite force.

How have you prepared for a character who seems quiet and peaceful on the surface but has a deep, dark side as a former torturer?
There's obviously a certain amount of academic research you can do with history—somebody from the military and their faith, the country they're from. But with TV, especially with a show of this nature, you have to be open and prepared for anything they might throw at you. It could mean a complete 180 in terms of what drives your character, and if you've prepared to the extent where it becomes rigid, it's not going to be useful, is it?

Which character would you like to have been if you weren't Sayid?
I always thought it would be Locke. I always liked that character, but I'm too...maybe I need to shave my head and just age a bit more.

Steve Jones, the former Sex Pistol, guided you to your first AA meeting. How did you get to know him?
I met him at a dinner party in L.A., and I was shocked to meet somebody who had been in that band who was not completely drugged out. I found that really intriguing, and it made me think, "If he's done it, then maybe I've got a chance."

Source: eonline.com

"I only have to keep track of John Locke..."

2008-06-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

During the Festival Großes Fernsehen, actor Terry O'Quinn came to Cologne in order to promote the German premiere of „Lost“'s fourth season on new premium cabler FOX Channel. Christian Junklewitz and Dominik Ahrens spoke with him for Serienjunkies. Right at the start of the interview, a very calm and kind O'Quinn cleared the rumour (spread, e.g., on wikipedia) that he has ever been a bodyguard: „If I was gonna start some kind of rumor, it would be one that I wouldn't have to back up...“

How do you keep up with everything that is going on on «Lost»? There are so many places on the island, so many time frames. How do you cope?
I only have to keep track of John Locke. I only have to know what he knows. In fact, the more difficult challenge is not paying attention to the things I am not supposed to know. John Locke doesn't have to keep track of everything, because he only knows what he knows.

But you have to keep track where on the time line all these things are supposed to happen to John Locke?
Yes, but in Locke's case, so far, he has only had the past and the present. As far as I know. Nobody has told me anything else. Both of those things are very clear to me and they are very clear to him. So, it's really not a challenge to me. It's more complicated for the fans of „Lost“.

How far in advance do you know what is going to happen to John? And I mean this more in terms of character development rather than plot development.
I don't know far at all. We are about to start shooting season five in the States, and I don't know how that begins. At the beginning of season four, we may have gotten the script two weeks before we began to shoot. By the end of the season, we got the script the day before we started to shoot. So, we don't know far in advance. The writers are very secretive, even with us. I would prefer they didn't tell me things I don't need to know because these are viewers' secrets I have to protect. I don't want them. It's not necessary.

So, the writers don't even tell you: We want to take John in this or that direction? You only get your screenplay, and that's it?
That's pretty much it. What I learned is this: Don't ask. Because they can't tell you. If I had a cast of twenty-some people I wouldn't tell any of them anything, ANYTHING.

There is a rumor that your colleague Matthew Fox is the only cast member who knows what the solution of the mystery in „Lost will be? Is that true?“

I have no idea. I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks he does. If he came and told me „I know what's gonna happen“, I would say „Ok, what?“, and then he would say „Well, I can't tell you“, and I'd say „Well, I don't believe you.“

(laughter)

Source: serienjunkies.de

Armed Robber sent to prison!!

2008-06-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

The armed robber who held Lost star Josh Holloway and his wife hostage at their home in Hawaii has been handed a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

Judge Karl Sakamoto said Ruben Royce, 23, had been responsible for "a tidal wave of crime".

Royce broke into the actor's home in October 2005, threatened him and his wife and stole their wallets and car.

He has also admitted carrying out three other robberies. Holloway, 38, plays castaway Sawyer in the hit US drama.

Royce pleaded guilty to multiple charges including kidnapping, first-degree robbery, burglary and car theft in February.

His defence lawyer claimed he did not know Holloway was a television star until after the robbery.

Source: BBC News

Evi and Dom to MARRY?????

2008-06-21T00:15:00.000-07:00

Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan are reportedly set to marry. The actors - who split briefly earlier this year - are said to be planning a quiet ceremony in Hawaii, as a tribute to 'Lost', the hit US TV show on which they met.

A source said: "Evangeline and Dominic have been spending a lot of time together during the show's hiatus and are very excited about the future. "Evangeline accepted Dom's proposal while they were away together and they both agree Hawaii is the perfect place for the wedding - both as a location and for sentimental reasons." However, the pair are in no rush to tie the knot, and are happy living as an engaged couple for the time being.

The source added: "The wedding might be next year or maybe the year after that. It's another 'Lost' mystery!" Evangeline stars as Kate Austen in the TV show, which follows a group of plane crash survivors as they attempt to find a way off a mysterious island. Dominic co-starred as Charlie Pace until he was killed off at the end of season three.

Source: chinadaily.com

Q & A With Naveen Andrews

2008-06-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

"Who's going to read through your dreary blurb right to the end? No-one," wrote one rude treasured reader in response to the last post. "They want to get to the good stuff." Well, let's not keep anyone waiting any longer, shall we? Here's Naveen Andrews from Lost.

What did you make of the season finale?
"I was really pleased with it, because it's the closest we've come to season one in terms of the standard of excellence. They needed to get it back on track and they have."

You were quite critical of season three, weren't you?
"So was everyone else, as far as I know. I'm not alone in that. It's difficult not to feel proprietorial towards the work. When you feel a drop in quality, it would be dishonest to yourself if you didn't acknowledge that."

What do you think the problems were?
"The writing. We all know what the executive producers, Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse], were going through because they had this burden of an endless show. I don't think it's what Damon wanted in the first place. He always used to say to me 'Wouldn't it be great if we were a bit like the Sex Pistols and did just one season of great television and then bang, that's it?' Sort of smash and grab. Obviously you can't do that on primetime network TV but he wanted a limit to the show. He managed to do a deal where he was able to achieve that. Now that we have an ending to aim towards, I think it's inevitable the quality will get better."

What would have been your ideal number of seasons?
"Ideally, five, for me. Five or six. Actually it does work out to five because we've got shorter seasons now."

What have you learned from doing Lost? You seem to have found it a bit of a burden...
"That's an interesting word we keep returning to. 'The burden of writing'..."

'The burden of Lost.'
"Come on, it's not a f**king burden. You're being paid, obviously - I don't ever remember being paid in England, even though the quality was there with things like The Buddha of Suburbia. I don't think it's a burden being paid, but it's a real discipline to play the same character over years rather than months or weeks. It requires a certain amount of stamina."

There are two seasons to go but each has fewer episodes. What does that mean for you, production-wise?
"It's a shame because we've been f**ked by the strike. We have an impending one and we had the one with the writers, which came right in the middle of the season and meant we had a few months off and had to go back to work. It f**ked up our hiatus. The whole thing was like 'oh, you just have to do six months in Hawaii instead of ten, then you can have the other six months to do films.' Well it didn't work out that way, did it? It looks like it won't work out again."

What did you make of the flash-forwards this season?
"I thought it was a bonus, for me personally. It's a challenge to be able to play a character in the present and then zoom ahead to a point when they may have undergone great changes. I felt in season four, Sayid was spiritually dead [in the future], and something awful happened to his soul. To be able to play that and then go back to the island, where he's still quite active in life, was good."

How much are you told about the character, doing these future scenes?
"Absolutely f**k all."

Then how do you prepa..
"Christ only knows. I was talking to Jorge [Garcia, Hurley] about that yesterday. I was saying 'I got my script a week and a half before we shot' and he said 'I got mine three days before we shot it'."

So you get no guidance on how Future Sayid is feeling?
"Absolutely not. I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but at this point, the writers feel they can trust us with whatever we're going to do with it."

As a viewer of the show, which I assume you are...
"No, I'm not. I only saw the pilot. But anyway, go ahead."

...which of the many twists do you want to find out the answer to?
"The foot with the f**king toe missing. What was that and is it going to come back? Is there going to be two feet next time, with a geezer on top as the rest of the body?"

What do you make of Harold Perrineau's comments last week suggesting that race played a part in his exit?
"I was very pleased to see Harold back and very disappointed that it didn't continue. But I can't comment until I've read what he said - or if I'm honest, until I've spoken to Harold and heard what he says he f**king said!"

When we last spoke you said you knew how the show would end, "geographically" speaking.
"Yeah, the island. I still presume it's going to be the island. I think season five's going to be Matthew [Fox, Jack] rounding up us lot to go back to the island, or whoever he can get to go back - maybe some people don't, because they can't be f**king bothered - and they go back and then there's this big kind of conflagration on the island. Will good triumph over evil? I don't know. It's just a rough idea."

So you know nothing solid about the future seasons, then?
"It's been like this from day one. They've never told us anything."

Do you want to know?
"At first, yeah. It's like your spiritual development. You're like three steps forward, five steps back. You'd think after four years you'd be used to being kept in the dark but every now and then you do get frustrated and think 'come on, for f**k's sake, tell us something!'"

Once Lost is done, would you do a network series again?
"To be honest with you, I think you've got to go where the good writing is, whether it's film or TV. There's a lot of crap films around at the moment. So to answer the question, wherever the good writing is."

Would you be open to the possibility of doing a spinoff of Lost?
"I can't believe they would do that. If they did it would be hilarious. Maybe it could be Locke... and Ben... and a baby! You know what I mean? Come on!"

So that's a 'no' then.
"I just don't think it'll ever happen. It's a preposterous question. If it happens then Damon should be shot!"

Lost returns in February 2009.

Harold Perrineau Dishes on his Lost Exit (Again)

2008-06-01T02:06:00.000-07:00

Lost's breathtaking finale will no doubt have fans feverishly dissecting its innumerable puzzles until the show returns in early 2009. (Read our recap and weigh in with your thoughts!) Locke (aka Jeremy Bentham) is in the coffin?! What "very bad things" happened after the Oceanic 6 left the island?? How in Jacob's name is Ben gonna help all of them — plus Locke! — get back there??? And exactly where did the former Others ringleader and that wacky frozen device move the island to?

But at least one major character's fate was definitively sealed with the close of Season 4 when Michael (Harold Perrineau), the suicidal castaway — and father to "real big" mystery boy Walt — perished aboard the fiery freighter. "Michael had an incredibly heroic, noble death," says executive producer Damon Lindelof. "He sacrificed his own life to redeem himself for past mistakes and to help the Oceanic 6 get off the island." Sound familiar? It was this time last year that we were mourning the loss of the similarly selfless Charlie. Though Michael got a little something special that the ex-junkie rock star did not: a surprise send-off from Christian Shephard.

Shortly after he wrapped filming, an emotional Perrineau — who made a much-hyped return to the series in March after leaving in Season 2 — called to chat about his explosive second exit, the mad dash home to be with pregnant wife Brittany and why he feels the lack of a Michael-Walt reunion was "not cool."

TV Guide: Did you know Michael was being killed off when you returned?
Harold Perrineau: I had no idea. It's like, what the hell? I came back for that?

TV Guide: You're laughing as you say that, but you don't sound particularly pleased.
Perrineau: I'm disappointed, mostly because I wanted Michael and Walt to have a happy ending. I was hoping Michael would get it together and actually want to be a father to his kid and try to figure out a way to get back [home]. But this is [the producers'] story. If I were writing it, I would write it differently.

TV Guide:: So when did you get the news?
Perrineau: [Lindelof and fellow executive producer Carlton Cuse] called before the finale scripts were out. They said they weren't going to continue with Michael.

TV Guide:: And what did you say to that?
Perrineau: At this point, I've been on the island, off the island, back on the island — so I just went, "Oh, ok." [Laughs] This is their show and they know what they can or cannot write. I thought it was disappointing and a waste to come back, only to get beat up a few times and then killed. I felt like it was sort of pandering to some fans who wanted to see Michael punished because he betrayed people.

TV Guide: Are you referring to when he shot and killed Ana Lucia and Libby in Season 2?
Perrineau: Exactly. I honestly feel like Michael's death served a really weird bloodlust for the fans.

TV Guide: Were you disappointed Michael and Walt didn't reconnect before your character died?
Perrineau: Listen, if I'm being really candid, there are all these questions about how they respond to black people on the show. Sayid gets to meet Nadia again, and Desmond and Penny hook up again, but a little black boy and his father hooking up, that wasn't interesting? Instead, Walt just winds up being another fatherless child. It plays into a really big, weird stereotype and, being a black person myself, that wasn't so interesting. [Responds Cuse: "We pride ourselves on having a very racially diverse cast. It's painful when any actor's storyline ends on the show. Harold is a fantastic actor whose presence added enormously to Lost."]

TV Guide: Take me back to your last day of shooting.
Perrineau: My last day was kind of hectic. [Production] was trying to get me out because, at the time, my wife was a centimeter dilated.

TV Guide: Was she in labor at the hospital when you got back to L.A.?
Perrineau: No, I got home and then for another week, the baby would not come! We were like, "Seriously, dude, I was in Hawaii rushing like a madman!” I was talking to the baby, my wife was walking around, practically hiking, but the baby just would not come out! [Laughs] So we went to the hospital a week later and induced. A beautiful little girl came on May 7. Wynter Aria — I thought it was a nice name. It's poetic, and she's a little poetry in our life.

TV Guide: Let's talk highlights. Surely, you had some positive experiences on Lost.
Perrineau: Doing the job in Hawaii was cool. Getting to meet and work with [co-creator] JJ Abrams was very cool. The day we found out the show [premiered] so well [in 2004] was an amazing day. We were all so hopeful and excited. The first season was one of my best years as a working actor. Not to say there weren't tough times, but I loved the first season. And that one of my best friends, Dan [Dae Kim, who plays Jin], and I got to do pretty much the whole finale together.

TV Guide: Dead characters have a way of returning to the show. Would you be open to that?
Perrineau: I'd love to go back and work with people I really like working with, but I would have to know what was happening [story-wise] before I showed up again. Because this [last] storyline, I full-on feel, "No, that's not cool.'"

TV Guide: What's next for you?
Perrineau: This movie I did with Stephen Dorff called Felon is probably coming out at the end of the summer. And I'm in talks for a couple different films.

TV Guide: Any final thoughts?
Perrineau: Just that I hope the show continues to thrill people. I'm sorry to have to go, but I'll see you in another incarnation. I'll re-create myself because that's what I do. That part of leaving is pretty cool.

Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

Ten Things You Never Knew About Josh Holloway

2008-06-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

As conniving con artist James "Sawyer" Ford on Lost, avoiding The Others, wrestling with boars and scrapping over a girl is all in a day's work for Josh Holloway. And not before time - the actor was stranded in a wilderness of failed pilots and little-seen indie films for eight years before landing his big break at the age of 36. But is the island's hellraiser actually a bit of a softie in real life? As we buckle up for what promises to be a bloody fourth season finale on Sunday, we find out more about Lost's resident bad boy.

1. Josh and his four siblings grew up with their parents in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains, where they lived in a trailer equipped with "eight dogs, two horses, cats, a cow, and a chicken".

2. What did little Josh want to be when he grew up? Erm... everything. He says: "I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to be a secret agent. I wanted to be a fireman and a doctor..." We're sure a TV star wouldn't be too far down the list.

3. Josh's first job was shovelling chicken carcasses.

4. Josh worked as a male model before turning to acting and admits to taking part in some pretty odd photoshoots in his day. He recalls: "[I worked on] a pyjama campaign. The pyjamas had different animal prints and our hair was styled to look like the animal. I ended up with a cow print hairdo with little horns. It only appeared in Europe, luckily, so my friends didn’t see it."

5. Josh made his TV debut as 'Good Looking Guy' in Buffy spinoff Angel in 1999. Unfortunately his vampire character was dispatched by the hero in the opening minutes of the very first episode.

6. Josh has a soft spot for actress Jessica Alba, but is not averse to more veteran stars. He confesses: "I've fantasised about Barbra Streisand and I saw Sophia Loren at a restaurant a couple of years ago and I thought, ‘Wow, I’d still go there'."

7. Josh admits that there's a bit of Sawyer's dark side in him - just a bit, mind. "There's definitely an intense anger that I have inside, and I don't know where it came from," he says. "I've had it all my life. My mom was always like, 'You're going to end up in jail with that temper!' Now I use that to help me."

8. Josh met his Indonesian wife Yessica at a bar when he hit on her friend. "Right when I stuck my foot in my mouth and said something stupid I got tapped on my shoulder and there behind me was this beautiful little package with a martini in her hand," he remembers. "She looked me up and down and said: 'Give me your number before you leave.'" The couple were married in 2004.

9. Josh was working on a new TV show called My Roommate's A Big Fat Slut (yes, really!) when Yessica called to report that a fax about a new series called Lost had arrived. He auditioned the next day and the rest is history.

10. He may be happily married, but that doesn't stop Josh thinking about the opposite sex. He tells us: "If I were single, I’d have one girl doing my laundry, one shaving me, one bringing me a cocktail and another one coming out of my tent all hungover." Form an orderly queue, ladies!

Source: digitalspy.co.uk

'LOST' star plans Oregon escape

2008-06-01T01:34:00.000-07:00

'Lost' star Matthew Fox has started making plans for life after the TV hit - he has bought land in Oregon.

The actor, who plays Dr Jack Shephard on the desert island drama, admits he has had enough of paradise on Hawaii, where 'Lost' is shot, and he can't wait to become an outdoorsman.

He says: "We're moving to Oregon. I want to be closer to my brothers and their children. We really want our kids to have tight first-cousin relationships.

Source: breakingnews.iol.ie

The 'Lost' star, who moved his family to the Pacific island because the hit US TV show is filmed there, is planning to move almost 3,000 miles to Oregon to be closer to his brothers once the series finishes.

He said: "I've been living in Hawaii for almost four years now, so it's not really paradise any more, man. Throwing snowballs on a mountain top is now paradise.

"We're moving to Oregon. I want to be closer to my brothers and their children. We really want our kids to have tight first-cousin relationships. I want to enjoy fishing, hiking, skiing, mountains and fresh air."

In the show, Fox - who has two children, 10-year-old daughter Kyle and son Byron, seven, with his Italian wife Margherita Ronchi - plays Dr. Jack Shephard, an airplane crash survivor trying to find a way off the mysterious island he and his fellow survivors are trapped on.

Fox admits living in Hawaii does have its advantages as he is able to maintain his private lifestyle. He added: "Hawaii has also been beneficial in that I really don't like the whole paparazzi thing in my daily life. There are not a lot of paparazzi who want to do the 2,500-mile trek into the south Pacific for a shot of me walking on the beach."

Source: javno.com

De Ravin has ‘Lost’ feeling about her character on island drama

2008-05-29T01:47:00.000-07:00

One would think that starring in “Lost” would give an actor an advantage in knowing what the heck is going on.

But Emilie de Ravin, who plays Claire on the baffling drama, had the same questions as many fans did this season when an episode revealed that, in the future, Kate (Evangeline Lilly) is raising Claire’s son Aaron.

“I guess I just sort of wondered where Claire’s at,” de Ravin said. “Is she still on the island? Did she die? What happened to her?”

The Australia native said viewers won’t find out in Thursday night’s two-hour season finale

“No, you don’t know what happens to Claire,” she said. “That’s not one of the things that comes to a conclusion. The finale has more questions than answers. I have to be tight-lipped about the finale. What can I ever say? It’s big. There’s a lot going on. It’s sort of interesting what you see in the future.”

When viewers last saw Claire, she had been separated from Aaron and was calmly sitting in Jacob’s cabin. What was that about?

“She is not evil, but there is something going on that I don’t know about. I kind of stopped asking too many questions a long time ago. You are not going to know everything. There are always things you are going to find out.”

She promises that viewers will see Claire in the season-ender.

“Claire sort of pops up in an unexpected place,” she said cryptically.

The actress, who can be seen in the upcoming movie “Public Enemies” opposite Johnny Depp, said she has stopped worrying about whether she will be written off the series like so many of her former co-stars.

“I’ve been around this long, so that’s a good thing,” she said. “I connect with Claire being sort of a strong, driven character who goes through a lot. She has sort of come through with such a graceful way about her. She’s very strong and very focused on getting off the island.”

But de Ravin still struggles to adjust to the cast changes, especially the departure of Dominic Monaghan, who played Claire’s love interest Charlie.

“It really has made it difficult. You get used to working with someone and it’s sad. But it’s interesting emotions to work with. Dealing with death and something like that has a big impact on your character. It’s interesting having that in the back of your mind.”

Source: news.bostonherald.com

The 15 best moments of Lost's fourth season (so far)

2008-05-28T01:52:00.000-07:00

The 15 best moments of Lost's fourth season (so far)
With the big finale coming, Daniel gathers up the most treasured moments of series 4...

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy

Goddammit, I can’t believe it’s nearly over already – oh Darlton, you giveth, then you taketh away. In preparation for this week’s second and third parts to season finale “There’s No Place Like Home”, I decided it’s high time to browse back over what may have been the best season of Lost thus far… and prepare ourselves for the traditional two-hour blow-out of Mystery Freakin’ Island manna the episode promises to deliver. (The Orchid, anyone?) If you guys disagree over these being the best moments of the season – I’m notoriously picky when it comes to neat little character stuff, in all honesty – or agree with me, feel free to fire off in the comments section below. Namaste!

WARNING: IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP AND READ AHEAD, FACE THE WRATH OF SPOILAGE. WRATH!!

15. “You heard me.” (Matthew Abaddon, from “The Beginning of the End”)

When Lance Reddick first appeared in Lost, I found it hard to break myself away from his Cedric Daniels character on The Wire – matter of fact, I had to stop myself from squealing “Daniels!” when he showed up on screen. Yet through rewatching the episodes for the recaps, I enjoyed watching one of my favourite TV actors sink into a completely different role, making the mysterious Abaddon his own. Who is the man? Where do his allegiances lie? How has Reddick’s trademark million mile stare turned into something completely terrifying? (Example: when he asks Hurley if the non-O6 survivors are still alive. Creepy.)

14. “ Manhattan , huh?” (Tom, from “Meet Kevin Johnson”)

True story: I was watching “Through The Looking Glass” for what must have been the twelfth time with a bunch of friends last year, when it came to Sawyer’s killing of Tom a.k.a. Mr Friendly. The gunshot goes out and one of my friends yells, “No! Gainey!” Let’s admit it, in the end we really did like M.C. Gainey’s Tom, even though he was one of the baddies. (But then again, Lost makes you continually question what terms such as “good” and “bad” really mean. Does evil really exist in the show’s universe? That’s another question for another time, though.) That’s why it was such a joy to see Tom back on the show, pressurising Michael to head back to the island, dropping the bomb that the island won’t let certain people die, getting it together with a tall young thing in his penthouse suite and basically lording it over the entire episode in a short period of time. If there’s any casting directors out there wanting to make Gainey the next sitcom hero or the new Danny Huston (who, IMO, he shares a grizzled resemblance to), either would be lovely.

13. “I dunno Miles… how stupid are ya?” (Jack, from “Confirmed Dead”)

The tables turn on freighter folk Miles and Daniel in a second here – Miles has threatened Jack and Kate to take him to Naomi’s body with the help of a trusty handgun, when suddenly, at the site of death, Jack warns him that Juliet and Sayid are amongst the surrounding greenery with guns in their hands and them in their targets. A very Other-esque move, I noticed, but one that Miles, stupidly enough, did not take heed to. It’s a pretty Indiana Jones moment for Jack with him barely suppressing a smirk under his anger the freighter folk may not be all they say they are. Wink for the camera, Foxy.

12. “I made… dinner.” (Jin, from “Ji Yeon”)

It’s a given rule that whenever ridiculously underused Jin starts speaking pidgin English to his ridiculously gorgeous wife Sun, my little emo heart breaks and I stumble wildly on the verge of tears. (Past examples are to be found in “Through The Looking Glass” and, taking the grand prize, “The Whole Truth”. Le sob.) This was no different, as he accepted Sun’s past infidelity as punishment for his past sins, vowing to stay with her no matter what. The cincher: Yunjin Kim’s tearful, voice-breaking line-reading of “I swear the baby is yours”, swiftly followed by Jin promising she will never lose him. Thanks to the flash-forward/flashback twist, now with added heart-shattering poignancy!

11. “What do you mean - instead of his wife?” (Ben, from “The Other Woman”)

The Goodwin Affair, as it shall be capitalised from here on in, was a controversial storyline amongst fans (despite being explicitly referred to in “One of Us”) and probably helped this Juliet-centric episode to be considered the weak point of the season. That’s arguable. In my opinion, the tragic romantic melodrama of Juliet’s flashbacks held some pretty meaty character stuff, most of which exploded on-screen in the final flashback. Over Goodwin’s Ana-Lucia’d corpse, Ben finally, chillingly loses his cool, throwing a tantrum over the heartbroken fertility doctor not returning his advances: “After everything I did to get you here… after everything I’ve done to keep you here, how can you possibly not understand you’re mine?!” Go on and call it his “quite frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” moment.

10. “They need you, Hugo. You know they need you!” (Charlie, from “The Beginning of the End”)

As anybody who watches Lost knows, death is not the end. (Look at Mikhail. Dude died, like, twelve times in season three.) So when Charlie drowned in the Looking Glass at the end of season three, after all the angst had peeled off, we were left to wonder if we’d ever see the Driveshafter ever again. Lo and behold, THERE HE IS TALKING TO HURLEY IN THE FUTURE. He’s cut his hair, bought some new clothes and seems to have driven to the Santa Rosa Mental Institute in a newish car to see his friend, which is odd, because he’s most definitely dead. “I am dead,” he reassured Hurley, “but I’m also here.” I’m sticking to my theory that Hurley, like a lesser Miles, can see the dead, hence why Charlie seems to come back to him, passing out warnings from beyond the grave and such (see “Somewhere Nice Back Home”). But theorising aside, this scene allows both emotional release (Hurley asking Charlie if he knew he was going to die in the Looking Glass) and the beginning of some very puzzling questions. “They” need him? There’s folk left on the island?

9. An awkward silence. Some crumpling. (Hurley and Ben, from “Cabin Fever”)

Some people probably hate this scene. I think it’s hilarious. Here we have a BIG reveal within Jacob’s shack that Christian Shephard is his spokesperson, Claire is there and completely untroubled when it comes to Aaron’s whereabouts, and John is finally grabbing hold of his destiny. Then we have a scene (consisting of one long take and entirely free of dialogue) in which Hurley, to offset the awkwardness of being left along with uber-Other Ben, takes out an Apollo bar from his backpack. Ben looks at it like he’s never seen a chocolate bar in his life, and suddenly Hurley notices, and reluctantly extends a very chocotastic olive branch. They sit and chew. I have a theory about this scene: the Whispers are being controlled by Ben’s supposed telepathic abilities (see “The Other Woman”) and it’s just a test to see if Hurley can be turned around. Maybe Hurley believes the dude just deserves a chocolate, what with his home attacked and daughter slain. Maybe this is the most important scene in Lost mythology ever and we just didn’t notice. Maybe. But at the same time, preferably not.

8. “I’m so glad that you’re here.” (Kate, from “Something Nice Back Home”)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s been great, but this season has also been a pretty depressing experience. The Oceanic Six get off the island, but a lot of bad stuff went down between them; the other castaways may or may not be alive, seemingly stuck in Craphole Island purgatory; Michael returns to face his demons only to be ostracised and hated even more; to top it off, nobody’s seen Vincent for a while. So the scene where Jack reads Alice in Wonderland to Aaron is here on this list because it’s one of the very few flash-forward scenes this season that doesn’t carry great amounts of emotional baggage behind it. (Ignoring the potentially tragic Aaron subtext, as well as the rest of the episode’s flash forwards…) It carries a great poignancy as we know there’s a good chance we may never see these characters this happy ever again – when Kate shares how grateful she is Jack’s with her and Aaron, it’s a necessary ray of sunshine in a dark hour of television. Oh, and they make out and more than likely frak afterwards, which never hurts matters.

7. “We are in shock, Jack.” (Sun, from “There’s No Place Like Home, Part One”)

I was unable to analyse this episode for a recap last week due to the episode unwilling to play a second time for me, so indulge me here. The unease between the Oceanic Six in the plane’s hanger is something you can tell gets worse over time, but let’s not focus on the sadness of all that. My focus has to go towards the incredibly touching reunion scene in Hawaii of the Oceanic Six with their families. Sun heads straight for her mother yet sent reeling from Jin’s death (?), shuts her father out completely; Hurley, always the most familial of men, rolls into the arms of his parents (probably the most underrated characters on the show); Jack smiles at his not-glimpsed-since-season-one mother, Margot, before embracing her; Sayid looks around uneasily before being introduced to Hurley’s family (so sweet!); Kate, holding on to Aaron for dear life, looks lost already with no-one to comfort her. I’ve always been a fan of the group reunions in Lost (see “One of Us”, for example) but this one is something else – exhilaration (did you ever think one of these scenes was possible a mere season ago?) mixed with understated poignancy over everything unspoken that went down in… well, this week’s season finale.

6. “Enjoy your breakfast.” (Locke, from “Eggtown”)

Played by Ken Leung with a sly intensity, Miles made his mark as probably the best of the new characters this season, and in “Eggtown” he really got to let loose, stealing practically every scene he’s in, even with a grenade in his mouth, which is what happens here. Unfairly overlooked in my recap at the time, the scene is a number of things: it’s a horrifying example of Locke flying totally off the handle, but it’s somehow hilarious. It’s detestable that somebody could go to such measures, but with Terry O’Quinn, you believe that, yes, rules broken do deserve punishments – but to what extent can might make right? It’s a troubling, daring scene – it’s also utterly ridiculous, to be honest – but what makes it an instant classic Lost moment is Miles’ bulging, terrified eyes and mumbled screeching. One problem, though: how the hell did they get the grenade out of the guy’s mouth without it blowing up?

5. “Now tell me John, which of these things belong to you?” (Richard, from “Cabin Fever”)

Not only did “Cabin Fever” allow for the return of fan-favourite Other Richard Alpert, but it showed us that he’s known John a lot longer than any of us previously thought. In possibly the season’s most cryptic scene, he appeared at Locke’s house some time in the late 50s and, posing as a teacher at a school for “extremely special” children, put a young John to a test. Because I was away when I was hoping to cover this episode, I didn’t get the chance to theorise, but here’s some quick stuff: baseball mitt (life outside of the island); Book of Laws (gospel of Jacob); sand (the ashes that previously surrounded Jacob’s cabin); a compass (marked 305 to the island?); a knife (hunting rather than science - John’s chosen path compared to his destiny); Mystery Tales comic book to do with a “Hidden Land” (telekinesis, a la Walt). Put to this the scribble of what looks like the smoke monster smiting somebody and, well… we have this odd, delicious scene to analyse relentlessly over the hiatus. (Kudos to the young actor playing Locke, he really makes the scene what it is with his big ol’ eyes.)

4. “It’s a rocket!” (Daniel, from “The Economist”)

AKA the moment the show finally shows us real world time isn’t really the same as island time. This, if you need reminding, is a bombshell. Even if Lapidus doesn’t pay much mind to Daniel and his experiment, it’s still damn important. Also, you have to love Daniel’s almost childish glee when the rocket finally reaches the beacon.

3. “She’s a pawn, nothing more. She means nothing to me.” (Ben, from “The Shape of Things to Come”)

Entertainment Weekly columnist Jeff Jensen (or “Doc Jensen” as he’s more widely known to us, his students) has compared this scene to the “bastard in a basket” scene near the end of There Will Be Blood, which is a pretty fair comparison to make. Ben, no longer in control, fights to use his regular manipulative abilities on Keamy to save Alex’s life. “She’s not my daughter,” he says, throwing away one of the things closest to him and going headfirst into the abyss, with spectacular results. The execution of Alex is, by far, the most upsetting thing to happen in the show’s history yet is also one of its biggest triumphs. A triumph of acting, direction, lighting, scoring… and it’s capped off by director Jack Bender panning the camera across to show a shocked and stunned Ben, the perfect touch. Ooft.

2. “I love you, Penny. I’ve always loved you… I’m so sorry. I love you.” (Desmond, from “The Constant”)

When Desmond finally – finally! – makes contact with his true love Penny in the all-round-amazing-shoulda-been-nominated-for-a-Hugo-Award-episode “The Constant”, it’s enough to make grown men cry. There’s so much I could say, but really, it’s just worth it to watch the scene again instead:

1. “I know who you are, boy, what you are. I know that everything you have, you took from me.” (Charles Widmore, from “The Shape of Things to Come”)

For a long, long time, Charles Widmore has stood as an important name in the massive Lost mythology – Widmore Industries comes under the Hanso Foundation umbrella, which founded the Dharma Initiative etc etc etc – but never quite as important as in this scene: on one hand a massive download of series arcana, on the other a scene allowing two superb actors to bite their teeth into some excellent conflict-fuelling dialogue. As Ben breaks into his hotel suite to lay the death of Alex at his feet, we learn their relationship spans a number of years. Were they friends at any point? Was one mentor to the other? (I guess Widmore was Yoda to Ben’s Luke.) The scene raises a lot – A LOT – of questions but amongst them all, seemingly sets the stage and the stakes for the big endgame come 2010: Widmore vs. Linus. “I suppose the hunt is on,” Widmore says. Indeed.

Well, if you disagree, want to say what you think is better, or think I’ve got it mostly spot on, then leave a comment below. Until the finale recaps next week, namaste!

Source: denofgeek.com

LOST - HOLLOWAY STOLE HIS DAD'S UNDERWEAR FOR SEXY ENCOUNTERS

2008-05-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

LOST hunk JOSH HOLLOWAY used to steal his father's underwear whenever he was on a hot date - because his dad had the most amazing "banana hammocks".
The actor admits his father's pants gave him an air of confidence when he started dating as a teenager.
Holloway recalls, "When I thought I might have an interesting date, I would sneak into my father's room and poach his underwear because he was like Mr Speedo pattern - he had, like, paisleys and some leopard skins (designs) and they were all, like, banana hammocks - really nice.
"For some reason I thought that might be sexy."
But he accepts his penchant for his father's underwear must have confused his mother: "She would suddenly see this underwear that dad hadn't been sporting show up in (my) laundry.

Source: www.contactmusic.com

LOST - EVANGELINE LILLY: 'I'M A MISER'

2008-05-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

LOST star EVANGELINE LILLY only moved from a mouldy Hawaiian hovel after it made her ill - because she was too cheap to relocate.
The actress purchased a new home last year (07), after her previous house on the islands - where she shoots Lost - burned down.
But the new pad was similarly cursed; it was riddled with a fungus that started to affect her health.
And Lilly only moved out when she started to fear for her wellbeing.
She says, "I bought a house last summer and I ended up finding out that it was completely mould-infested, and I was being poisoned by the mould and was therefore very ill for the first four months of the (Lost) shooting season.
"But I didn't find out for four months and I didn't move from the house, even though I knew something was wrong and I was probably not well, because I'm just really cheap and if I have to pay a mortgage and rent, I'm not a happy person.
"Eventually my illness overrided (sic) my thriftiness. I really wasn't well. The pipes were contaminated. It was a cheap house."
Lilly adds her thriftiness isn't isolated to real-estate. She adds, "For the first three years of being on Lost I refused to valet, because I didn't want to tip."

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Lost star Matthew Fox reveals his wife thinks he's sexy in leather

2008-05-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

The hunky Lost star, 41, on his heart-throb status, life on the island, getting saucy in leather, being rubbish at romance, and why he has a very big secret to keep.

You are often on ‘Sexiest man alive’ lists. How does that feel?

Matthew Fox: It feels like it’s happening to someone else. I mean I just go to work and I’m doing the thing I love to do.

Are the tattoos (chinese symbols, among other things) on your arms real, or are they make-up?

MF: No, these are all mine. I’ve had them for a while, but they usually cover them up for the show.

You live and work in Hawaii – how lucky are you?

MF: I’ve never really been a beach paradise kinda guy. I’m more of a mountain person, so it’s been amazing and we’re enjoying it. It’s been a welcome change for us to get the kids away from the bigger city. They’re in a really good school and they’re making great friends, but it’s not a place I’d want to live in for the rest of my life. I just need bigger horizons, mountains, and I really miss four seasons of weather.

So what’s happening on Lost?

MF: We’re going to catch up with the flash forwards this year and then it’s going to be really interesting to see how time is structured in season five. But we will have closed on two points – the finale of last year where you had that juxtaposition of Jack on the island feeling like he’d finally accomplished a rescue, and this future where he’s desperate and at the pit of despair and he feels like he has to go back. We will eventually be back in the present.

Apparently, you’re the only actor on Lost who knows how the series will end. Is it tough keeping it a secret from your cast mates?

MF: Yes, it’s true. They understand I can’t talk about it, but sometimes they’ll ask hoping I’ll just blurt it out. Besides, having a secret is fun.

How do you pass the time on set?

MF: I play chess against the computer a lot. When I’m shooting in Hawaii, there’s a coffee shop not far from me and I have friends there now, who I’ve made over the game of chess. I go there a couple of mornings a week and we’ll play chess. It’s the greatest game.

You’re currently in the new flick Speed Racer. Were you a fan of the original cartoon as a kid?

MF: No. I never saw it. I grew up in a household where we didn’t really watch television. So the first step was watching a bunch of the episodes and getting a feel for what made that series so cultish and beloved in the 1960s.

Do you feel sexy wearing Racer X’s leather suit?

MF: Yeah. It’s pretty sexy. I think my wife thought so! The minute the mask dropped over my face people would change around me. It’s amazing because they can’t see your eyes and you can really manipulate that. You can mess with them in a big way.

Do you still have it?

MF: No, that would be really funny wouldn’t it? If I was wearing that around my house on the weekends.

What did your kids Kyle, 11 and Byron, six, think of your costume?

MF: They thought it was cool. They were sitting on the set, which was huge and I’ll never forget their faces when I walked in wearing the full gear. They both turned and did this double-take and went: ‘Daddy?’ So I’m like, ‘Yeah it’s me, don’t worry, it’s just me.’ When I walked on set to do a scene, my little boy turned to my wife, and said: ‘I want to be Racer X for Halloween next year.’

Have they seen your action figure?

MF: Yes, my sons might have been the first little boys to have a Racer X action figure. I’m cool in their eyes right now which is a pretty great feeling.

How does someone who grew up not watchingTV become such a big TV actor?

MF: My parents weren’t really anti-television. They were just pro-books. That’s the sort of thing my wife and I are trying to do with our kids too. We let them watch a little TV, and we certainly encourage movies. Movies are my favourite thing in the world. Nothing is more exciting than sitting in a cinema, waiting for the lights to dim to watch a movie I can’t wait to see. The kids can watch some shows like the ones on Disney, but I also think it’s really important for them to develop their own imaginations to entertain themselves.

Why do you think you’ve been so successful?

MF: I think luck and timing are, without question, a big part of my success in this business. But I would also say I don’t think there are too many actors in Hollywood who have done three pilots which have all aired on TV, with two of them continuing for six years. There’s a phrase that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. So I’m going to take some of the credit for it.

Are your kids aware their daddy is a big star?

MF: I don’t know what a big star means. I guess people at school make a little bit of a thing about it, but I don’t think they’re really that conscious of it.

Would you like to have more kids?

MF: Every now and then I think about having another one, and then my wife says, ‘Absolutely not’.

Are you a romantic guy?

MF: On a romantic scale of 1 to 10, I’m probably like a 3. I’m not mushy about all of that stuff.

Some of your cast mates in Lost have got in trouble for speeding. Were you ever a speeder?

MF: Yeah, I enjoy driving fast. I’ve just been lucky not to have been caught. That’s the running joke – if you get pulled over by the cops, you get killed off in the show.

Do you ever get road rage?

MF: No. I’ve always really enjoyed driving. I grew up in Wyoming where the roads are really open. There’s not a lot of traffic. There are speed limits, but there’s not a lot of enforcement of those speed limits. It’s always been that sense of freedom which I enjoy.

How are you going to spend your summer?

MF: Well, for me, it’s been two years pretty much nonstop work with no vacation. So, I’m going to spend a lot of time with the kids and my other immediate family members and friends – just people I really love. Basically, I’m going to spend a lot of time doing nothing, just hanging out.

MATTHEW’S REALITY CHECK

Have you ever said ‘Don’t you know who I am?’

No, I don’t believe I have. I don’t want people to know who I am.

When was the last time you ate a Big Mac?

I’m not big on fast food. I eat quite healthy, so probably never.

How much does a pint of milk cost?

Well, I must be a movie star because I have no idea!

What car do you drive?

I just have a little Acura that I zip around the island on.

Do you recycle?

Yes and no. Someone else actually does all of that for me.

Speed Racer is in cinemas now.

Source: www.sundaymirror.co.uk

LOST - FOX KEEPS LOST SECRET

2008-05-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

LOST star MATTHEW FOX has been sworn to secrecy about the hit show's plot - as he's the only castmember who knows how the series will end.
The actor, who plays Dr. Jack Shephard in the show, admits his fellow stars hope he'll tell them what happens in the final episodes, which are set to be aired on TV in 2010.
But Fox insists he will never reveal the plot - because he enjoys keeping his special secret.
He says, "Yes, it's true. They understand I can't talk about it, but sometimes they'll ask, just hoping I'll blurt it out.
"Besides, having a secret is fun."

Source: www.contactmusic.com

Lost's big question: why is this man so scary?

2008-05-13T02:12:00.000-07:00

As the long-running plane-crash drama returns to the small screen, its sinister star, Michael Emerson, tells Michael Deacon he's as surprised by the plot twists as viewers are

In 2004, an American study suggested that watching a lot of television could reduce a child's attention span. Parents, help is at hand. Sit your offspring in front of Sky One at 9pm tomorrow. Because if there's a television drama that actually increases the attention span, it's Lost.

Michael Emerson
'I think it's the imaginations of viewers that make Ben scary', says Michael Emerson

The American thriller serial about plane-crash survivors stranded on a remote tropical island is about to reach its 80th episode. And still its mysteries are multiplying, getting ever more complex and strange. At first, viewers were asking, "Why did the plane crash? How will the survivors get home?" Now they're asking, "Who or what is the invisible and presumably malevolent spirit that lives in the hut in the jungle and answers (occasionally) to the name of Jacob?"

Keeping up with this tangle of riddles, exciting though it is, requires stamina. Happily for its producers, millions have it. In the US, Lost is watched by about 13 million people per episode; here, it's more than a million, which isn't bad for a programme available only on digital.

Tomorrow, the second half of season four begins. (The split was caused by the American television writers' strike.) Faithful viewers will tune in because they yearn for answers. But they'll also tune in for something else: television's scariest villain.

Michael Emerson plays Ben Linus. So scary is Ben that, when fans bump into Emerson in the street, they're scared of him, too.
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"People are guarded with me," says Emerson, who was nominated for an Emmy last year for his work on Lost; he won one in 2001 for his guest role in a legal drama called The Practice, in which he played a serial killer. "They tend to be not too chummy, and they don't invade my physical space much. 'Hello, Mr Emerson,' they say. And when they shake hands, they hold themselves at a slight distance. I think they're afraid I'm going to whip something out on them. What that might be, I don't know…"

Ben leads a ruthless gang called The Others, who lived on the island before the plane crashed; at present he's a captive of Locke (played by Terry Quinn), the most enigmatic of the plane-crash survivors. Yet even as a captive Ben seems threatening. Impressive, given his build: he's short, scrawny, rat-like. He looks as if he lost his eyebrows in a small explosion. He talks quietly, in a menacingly measured drawl… with lots of pauses and emphases… which make him sound as if he knows… everything.

Remarkably, Ben was originally written as a minor character. Emerson was hired to appear for only a few episodes, in season two. But so skin-tinglingly sinister was he during those episodes that the producers had a rethink and turned Ben into perhaps Lost's most important character.

"I think it's the imaginations of viewers that make Ben scary," says Emerson (who isn't at all scary himself; polite, precise and elegantly suited, he comes across like a nicer version of Frasier's Niles Crane).

"He's not an imposing figure, not an overwhelming personality - he runs in neutral gear a lot. We fear the things we don't know or can't figure out, so maybe he falls into that category." We'll be seeing plenty of this seemingly unknowable creature in the new episodes. Particularly in a setting new to Lost: London. Previously, all Lost's scenes have been shot on Hawaii or mainland America.

The reasons for shooting in London, I'm afraid, will remain unclear until we see the new episodes; the most Emerson will say is that "I don't know if it's a quality of light [the producers] are looking for, or maybe the weather…" But then, it's almost always impossible to squeeze upcoming storylines out of Lost's stars.

For one thing, they don't know much more about what's going to happen next than we do. Emerson says he's only one script ahead of the viewers, and that sometimes an actor will open the latest script and find that their character is dead. That's it; the first they know of it. Indeed, so secretive are Lost's producers that they don't even let their cleaners have keys to their office in Los Angeles. When the cleaners come in, the producers stand by watchfully to ensure that there's no sneaking a peek at their scripts.

There are critics, though, who no longer want to know what secrets those scripts contain. Their attention spans have been stretched further than they can bear. Too many mysteries, they grumble; not enough answers. And they're not prepared to wait until 2010 - when Lost will conclude - to find out what it all means.

Emerson says he sympathises, a little. "It has always been thus on Lost - more questions than answers. But if they're worried that it's a great tease, then I guess most yarns are a tease - Homer is a tease, Dickens is a tease. Hang on in there. There must be something pleasant about the journey along the way, and I think Lost offers some of those pleasures - at the same time as it strings us along. I don't think [the producers] are any more guilty of that now than they were three years ago."

(One of Lost's teases-in-chief, executive producer Damon Lindelof, promises that, by the end of the final season, all the plot's loose ends will be tied up. Hope we can trust him on that.)

Emerson is unsure how long he himself could survive on a remote island: "Are we talking hours or minutes?" He doesn't have many Boy Scout skills; in the Iowa town where he grew up, "the Boy Scouts were juvenile delinquents, so I didn't last long. I think there was such bad misbehaviour that the troop was broken up." Also, being in the Hawaiian jungle at night unnerves him; while filming there a few weeks ago, he was startled mid-scene by a rush of wild pigs, "large and crazy and semi-dangerous-looking".

Still, he's steeling himself. Only two more years of sudden pig attacks - and other, grander mysteries - to go.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Island life

2008-05-11T01:58:00.000-07:00

MICHAEL is back, but what has he been up to all this time?

"I wish I could tell you," actor Harold Perrineau says.

The question has nagged viewers of the show Lost, which follows the lives of passengers stranded on a mysterious island after their plane crashes. The tormented single father played by Perrineau sailed away with his son at the end of the second season and did not return at any point during the third.

Although he is listed as a cast member in the present fourth season, Perrineau did not appear until four episodes ago, when Michael was introduced as a deck-swabbing crewman named Kevin Johnson on a strange freighter that has been drifting off the coast and apparently giving those aboard a deadly case of cabin fever.

The subsequent episode revealed what happened after Perrineau's character shockingly gunned down fellow passengers Ana-Lucia and Libby in order to release seemingly evil Ben and retrieve his son Walt from captivity.

"I hope people see Michael's return and think, 'oh, this is gonna be good'," Perrineau says over lunch. "I hope they think this ride is good. We busted our butts doing (the Michael-centric episode). It felt like we were making a movie because there's so much stuff that happens."

Getting the rest of the Michael-related Lost questions out of the way: will his son also return to the show? And was he the man in the coffin during that jaw-dropping flashfoward at the end of season three? According to Perrineau, the answers are maybe and he has no idea.

"Oh, I thought for sure it was Michael in the coffin," he says. "But I still don't know."

Perrineau says the show's writers have kept him just as clueless as the audience. He has not read any scripts for the six episodes that were planned after the writers' strike in the US. However, that does not mean viewers should expect to see less of Michael after his return. Perrineau is scheduled to report to the set in Hawaii after this interview.

"I know I'll be there until the end of the season," he says. "I have no idea if it goes beyond that or not."

The 44-year-old actor from New York tenses up when he talks about the third season. Perrineau is the only one of the 14 original Lost cast members who did not appear in a third-season flashback, mindbending vision or otherwise. He says he "wasn't so happy" about the creative decision to leave Michael and Walt off the island and focus on others.

"I was hurt, really hurt," says Perrineau. "I told myself I had to watch the show, so I at least knew what was going on in case I was brought back, but then I was like, why? I never knew what was going on before. Why should I start trying to figure it out now?"

Instead of waiting by the phone to hear if his character would return to the series, Perrineau moved on to other projects, including a part in the film 28 Weeks Later and a role in the TV pilot Demons. When Demons didn't get picked up, that made room in Perrineau's schedule to get Lost again.

"I started with Lost, so I really want to see Michael until the end," says Perrineau. "I don't know what that means. I guess I won't know what that means until the end. I just know I didn't want Michael and Walt to get on that boat and that be it. That didn't seem so cool."

Perrineau believes Lost masterminds Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof really do have a plan for Michael, and he thinks it may finally come together now that he has returned to the fray. Of all the questions Perrineau has about his character, the one thing he is most interested to know is surprisingly simple.

"It seems like all the other characters on the island have dealt with redemption, in some form or another," Perrineau says. "But not Michael. He's only ever contended with being a father. The thing I want to know is: Why was Michael put on the island in the first place?"

Now that Perrineau's back, maybe he will get his answer.

Source: The Australian

Lost's Emilie de Ravin Talks About Baby Aaron and Where Claire Might Appear Next...

2008-05-11T01:50:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you noticed, but this season on Lost, Kate totally stole baby Aaron and killed Claire and buried her under a rock!!!

Or something.

Maybe.

The mysteries of Lost are not easily solved, and certainly not easily guessed, but thankfully, the lovely Emilie de Ravin just phoned up and was kind enough to share a few of her insights into Claire's situation. (Yay for clues!)

Click in for Emilie's thoughts and a few teases about what's up with ghost dad, that misplaced infant and her character's big new storyline...

Let's go back to the beginning of the season. I think there was supposed to be a ring and a letter that Charlie left for Claire and Aaron. Did Claire ever get those?
I know! I don't know whatever happened with that, right? Oh God, now you're testing my memory.

Maybe the baby has the ring?
[Laughs.] Yes, the baby is wearing it around his wrist. Or maybe it's a toe ring.

Around "Eggtown," some people asked why Claire didn't seem to be more upset about Charlie. How did you feel about that?
I think she had her time to grieve, and I think she's just got so much going on that she has to survive, basically, and put that behind her as much as she can.

From what I've read, you've always been very, very gracious about the fact that as an actress you have to carry this baby around in almost every scene you do. Have you ever thought, "If only I didn't have that darn kid, I could have so many more adventures!"
It definitely holds Claire back as far as she's not going to be running around with a gun trying to kill people or trying to save people—because she has this child and she has to protect him—but that makes it interesting in another way for me.

Do you think that might change now?
Yeah, if Claire and Aaron are separated, I think for sure.

Interesting. Let's talk about your dear deadbeat dad, who showed up in "Something Nice Back Home." Claire had only met him once, and she presumably doesn't know that she shares a dad with Jack.
No, neither of them know on the Island.

What do you think he said to her when he showed up at the fire? Will we find that out?
He said he wants to show her something.

And we have four more hours of the season left to see. Could we assume you share a few more scenes with your dear old dad?
Possibly.

Do you think he has the same agenda for both his children?
I don't know. It seems he has different agendas, but who knows, he seems to be a very mysterious man.

He seems to be a dirty rotten scoundrel, but that's why we love him so much. Is there anything you can tease to about what happens to Claire in the next four hours of Lost?
You might see Claire in an unexpected environment. There were a couple of scenes that were really cool, actually. Just because they're so different. And maybe not really the Claire you know.

Hmmm...And we've heard you might have new and exciting storyline, which I would guess has to do with your dear daddy.
Yes.

Do you think that storyline twist will continue through seasons five and six, or is it primarily through the end of season four?
I can't see it not continuing, but I guess who knows. They can always come back to things or break the map, you know.

Is it true your contract is being renegotiated so you'll be either be on the show a little more or a little less next season?
No, I haven't heard anything about that.

In terms of what the finale showed you about the characters that are not the Oceanic Six, including Claire, did the answers turn out to be what you expected or something a little different?
It's never what I expected. Rarely do I read a script and I'm like, "Yeah, that's what I thought would happen." But no, there's a lot going on in the finale, a lot.

Do we get Matthew Abbadon's "Are they alive?" question answered?
It's somewhat answered, but somewhat not.

Dammit!
Yes, it's all very cryptic.

Is it ever!

Source: E!Online

Jorge Garcia Reveals Show Secret

2008-05-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - One of the best things about the hit ABC show "Lost" is that it always keeps you guessing. It leaves fans wondering if something a character says has a hidden meaning and most episodes leave fans buzzing with theories that are hashed out over and over on the Internet.

So it is always fun to find out that sometimes "Lost" fans are running round in circles over nothing, like a dog chasing its tail. One of those occasions would be the episode where Hurley, played by Jorge Garcia, ends up in a mental institution after he sees dead Charlie.

While in the mental institution, we see Hurley working on a water color painting. While fan sites buzzed after seeing the picture, the simple truth is Garcia painted the picture himself. He told TV Guide that he not only painted the picture himself, but he got to decide what would be in the painting. Garcia painted an Eskimo fishing outside an igloo.

"I was like, 'I hope people think this means something,'" he said. "I hoped people might think it had something to do with the guys [in the Season 2 finale] speaking Portuguese in the snow."

Good one Garcia, you got us.

Source: allheadlinenews

'Lost's' Dr. Juliet Burke shares the scoop

2008-05-11T01:42:00.000-07:00

HONOLULU, Hawaii -- 'Lost' fans know her as Dr. Juliet Burke. But no one -- not even the 'Lost' castaways -- really know her. She's as mysterious as the island itself, but we got some answers out of Lost's Juliet.

The moment I met Elizabeth Mitchell, I knew one thing for certain. The 37-year-old actor and mother is nothing like the character she plays on the ABC's mega hit.

"This is your office (beach)," I remind Mitchell as we walk out on the balcony of an oceanfront suite at the luxurious Kahala Hotel and Resort in Honolulu. It's where members of the cast are shooting the Season 4 DVD. "This is my office, can you imagine?" asked Mitchell. No, Elizabeth! I really can't!

Even more confounding? What to think of her character, the gentle but cold Juliet.

"I think what we've seen over season 4, we'll continue to see a kind of more confused and messier Juliet," said Mitchell.

Juliet is a femme fatale with shifty loyalty.

"My husband read this thing on the Internet in huge capital letters, 'I HATE HER! Of course, I mean the character not the actress,' " confessed Mitchell. "I'm the one people hate, it's fascinating to me 'cause I've always been a fairly benign presence."

Benign no more. Mitchell admitted what makes Juliet so appealing is that no one knows what she's capable of and that she has to be a bit 'insane.'

"Obviously she'd do anything," said Mitchell. Anything to get off the island.

Like what? We'll have to wait on that. But Mitchell does offer a prediction for this season's finale: "I've been told two scenes, I don't know, probably someone is going to die, but I don't know who."

Lost bloggers think it's John Locke. "Oh, oh, it's amazing what can happen," laughed Mitchell. If you're a Lost fan and a little lost - the wait is over. The creators promise all the island's secrets will be revealed by 2010. But we want answers now.

Those flash forwards - do we believe them?

"I don't know, good question, I really don't know," insisted Mitchell. Hmmm. But she thinks she may be in the know with regard to the "Oceanic 6."

"I don't think everybody NOT on the 'Oceanic 6' is dead," she said. "Especially because Josh Holloway, the most popular 'Lost' character; I have a hard time believing they're going to kill him off and not show him again." And she also doubts baby Aaron counts towards the Oceanic total.

But would anyone mind if Benjamin Linus doesn't make it?

"Oh Ben, Ben," said an exasperated Mitchell. "She looked up to him, he took her out of a not-so-great-life. She was the prized possession, he knows everything about her, how enticing would that be?" said Mitchell, "That's why it's even worse, the betrayal is the ultimate and then he's so creepy!" In the same breath she paid homage to his acting gift. "He's brilliant."

Is Ben part of the "Oceanic 6"? Mitchell says no. She insists Ben can't be because he wasn't on the plane. Besides, if she gets her way, it's possible he won't get off the island (unless we're to believe those flash-forwards.): "I would very much like a huge fight with Ben where we both end up bruised and blooded soul and body."

That's Mitchell's theory - not the creators'.

More scoop? "She does love Jack...Juliet loves this man, she's not playing any games about it," admitted Mitchell. "I'd like to see something passionate happen with Jack."

Yeah, why would Jack want Kate, when he can have the vulnerable and viscous Juliet? Because, "I personally think Sawyer and Kate have this insane chemistry," Mitchell said.

And then there's that recent kiss between the two doctors.

"The kiss was fun," she said.

Mitchell praises all the cast, but singled out Matthew Fox who plays Dr. Jack Shepard.

"He's a wonderful actor, a really giving actor," she said.

She told me playing Juliet is a "role of a lifetime".

"She's my favorite, my favorite I've ever played, she's massively fun for me," said Mitchell. "She captivated me, everything they wrote captivated me. It has nothing to do with my performance, had I read it in a book I would have been captivated."

Playing Juliet may be the role of a lifetime, but, Mitchell's big break may have come when she played Angelina Jolie's lover in 'Gia', a made-for-TV movie in 1998.

Fans may remember her character on 'ER', but the star was really born in Dallas, Texas the day she took the stage in 'Alice Thru the Looking Glass.' She was just 7 years old.

"I was like 'Hey Mom, I got the part!' and she was like,' Oh, Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum? What are you doing?' I was like, 'I'm Alice!' And she was like 'Alice! What???' "

We won't even count how many lines she had to memorize.

"The first time you get a laugh on stage or you have a moment where you're with the audience, that's where it's truly a gift," insisted Mitchell.

But no gift trumps the role of motherhood - being CJ's mom. Her sweet, 2 1/2-year-old son ended our interview. I met him as he traded Dad's arms for Mom's hip all the while waving a prized stick he found on the beach.

As I quickly found out, he's all boy and very territorial about his mother. Thanks CJ for letting me meet your parents!

Elizabeth and husband Chris, an acting teacher are -- well -- Chris is the real Dr. Jack Shepard in her life.

"Chris and I are very much in love," said Mitchell. She gives him a squeeze and a kiss before we settle in for our chat.

The family lives on Oahu while shooting 'Lost', then retreats to their home in Seattle. The couple used to live in L.A., but wanted a more family-friendly place to raise their son. Seattle was an easy choice.

"I really fell in love with it from the sky for the most part, looking down I was like, 'What an incredibly gorgeous place,' " she said.

"It fits both of us so perfectly, 'cause we're such huge readers, we love music and art," Mitchell added. "All the things Seattle is rich with, we love."

When in Seattle, Mitchell told me she's a nerd. She loves to stay at home, garden, watch movies and read. And yes, she's a 'Lost' fan.

I asked her what she thinks makes the show so special. She knew instantly: "Oh, I have to say it's the writing." Mitchell thinks the writers are as good at story arc as they are at keeping secrets.

That, says Mitchell, is one of the secrets to 'Lost's success -- it's like life, we don't know what's going to happen.

"If we did, we'd be disappointed," said Mitchell.

Source: komotv.com

Michael Emerson discusses Ben's latest moves!

2008-04-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

From Kristen at E!
Death, Dear Ones and the Monster: Michael Emerson Talks Lost

In case you weren't paying attention last night, Michael Emerson, our beloved Benry, turned in an astonishing performance that was earning Emmy buzz before it even aired, and as far as I'm concerned, no one has ever done better work humanizing a supervillain.

I just rang up Michael to get his take on Lost's big game, Ben's current state of mind after the brutal death of [sobbing drowns out spoiler], and, oh yeah, his brilliant explanation of the monster's mechanics. Click in for the goods.

FAMILY AND UPPING THE ANTE

What's going on internally for Ben in that minute after Alex has been shot dead?
Well, Ben is in a state of shock. Ben doesn't usually...Ben plays a game where a variety of outcomes are to be expected, but nothing outside the table of contents. In this case, something happened. Ben took what he thought was a safe risk, and it turned out to be a terrible risk. Someone else didn't play fair, so it's about as big a shock as Ben as ever had in his life.

Jumping to the end of episode then, Charles Widmore says, I didn't kill your daughter, you did. How much does Ben feel culpable in her death?
Ben is a guy who doesn't take things lightly, and I think he has a long memory. When Charles Widmore says that it's Ben's fault—that's a kind of sophistry on his part. He's suggesting that everything Ben has ever done has led up to this moment, the idea that who we are makes us guilty across the board. But Ben's not having that explanation.

I think Ben knows that his daughter died for a very particular reason, and that Charles Widmore is the guilty one. Whatever is going on between Ben and Charles Widmore, the ante just got raised about tenfold.

In the next episode there's a scene where it looks like Sawyer might get the chance to kill Keamy, who killed Alex. Is that the kind of thing that Ben would want to do personally, or is Ben more of a big-picture thinker, just gunning for Charles?
I think Ben is in a state of bloody-mindedness right now. I think he would like to personally pull the trigger on everyone connected. And we'll see whether he has that opportunity.

Interesting. Do you expect to see Danielle and Alex again, hopefully, in one capacity or another? And what has it been like working with Tania Raymonde and Mira Furlan?
I love both these actresses, and it feels like when a dear coworker moves on to somewhere, you feel sad and lonesome...and you realize how much you've personally got invested in these fictional relationships. You know how nobody is ever fully dead on Lost, so...I don't expect that we've seen the last of them. But maybe we've seen the last of them in their fleshly state.

So Danielle doesn't pop up in the next episode with just a minor flesh wound and come after Ben or anything?
I don't—I don't think that's gonna happen...

Speaking of Danielle, I was hoping she would eventually get to kill Ben.
[Laughs.] What a strange wish on your part.

THE LADY JULIET

Well, I say this with the utmost respect and love for the character, but Ben's an unkillable cockroach, and yet you would have to imagine someone eventually gets him. Juliet, perhaps?
Well, Juliet is certainly a dangerous character. I think more dangerous than we know at this point, and certainly there are issues between Juliet and Ben that have yet to be resolved. But you know, Ben's...his whole existence may end up being redeemed by the gravity and necessity of his mission.

Speaking of Juliet, that whole "You're mine!" opened so many more questions of what does he want from her. And then...I'm pretty sure Elizabeth Mitchell is like a foot taller than you, does that ever come into play when you guys are shooting scenes together?
[Laughs.] Yes, I have to say, that was not one of Ben's prettier moments, there at the place where Goodwin met his demise.

You know, when Ben gets outside his comfort zone, like many men who are geniuses or men of sophistication, there is some part of him, to compensate, that has been undeveloped. I think Ben is maybe socially or emotionally somewhat underdeveloped.

So sometimes, when he's stressed, he behaves like a teenager. Sort of. To me. So he says things bitterly...I think he possibly regrets them later, but he does behave impulsively sometimes. For this character who is supposed to be so calculated and such a chess player, he really does behave impulsively upon occasion.

Does he want to marry Juliet so she can have a million of his babies?
I don't think he even has a clear picture what he wants. That he wants is all he knows. She is a prize in his mind. Who knows what his sex life is, or ever would be? But somehow he's decided that she is to be his.

MYTHS AND MONSTERS

Do you almost feel like after that conversation with Charles we suddenly learned that Ben is the hero of the show, even though we didn't know he existed for the first season or two?
It feels like some kind of shift along those lines is happening, doesn't it? Because each season, it's like the lens of the show steps back a notch and shows the playing field of the show to be a larger one that we had thought at first.

I think this battle between Charles Widmore and Benjamin Linus, whatever it is, whatever the stakes are, whatever the game is, I think that's now big. That's a big, important thing.

And I think, I don't know if it's just from familiarity or instinct, but I think we like Ben Linus better than we like Charles Widmore. I think Charles Widmore is a more wicked man.

Partly just because Charles is really mean to Desmond, whereas Ben has always been very courtly and gentlemanly. He'll beat you to death, but he'll say thank you when he's done or something.
Yes. [Laughs.] That's right. Manners count, don't they? Come on!

OK I have some fan questions, if you don't mind. Harry asks: "Is Ben the monster's boss? Is Ben able to just take the monster out of his cage?" What's your sense of that whole thing?
Ben is privy to the secret mechanics of everything on the Island, so yes, he can sic the smoke monster—smoke's not the right word, but he can sic that thing on someone. But we don't yet know the recipe or the formula for how that's done, and we don't know what it costs. There seem to be a lot of forces on the Island, but nothing is for free. A toll is paid every time the machinery works. Everything is bargained.

Tom asks, "Did you have any sense that between the time Ben disappeared into the tunnel, and came back sooty later, that he was essentially in a time bubble where he worked out that Sayid would help him take down Charles Widmore, or do you think that was genuinely in the future?"
I had it in my head that those things were genuinely in the future. But the passage of time is being perceived differently by different people. I thought that period of time when he went down the tunnel to enable the smoke monster and emerged sooty, I thought that was just enough time for him to take care of that, physically, by himself.

I think it all has something to do with metallic dust. I think the smoke monster is connected to that ring of powder that surrounds Jacob's cabin. They've established that there are supermagnetic forces are at work on the Island, so what better medium for those forces to work through than through fine filings of metal?

Would you like join the Lost fandom? Because you would be really good at it.
We who work on the show—we're all Losties, too! We're all theorizing and trying to put the pieces together. It must tickle the writers to see us trying to work these things out!

OK, last question. Mark from Dundee, Scotland: "Where do you think Ben stands on a scale of one to 10 where one is Hurley, totally good; five is Locke, good but willing to do bad things to achieve his ends; and 10 is Charles Widmore, evil?"
I think Ben is not bound by your scale.

God love you, sir. Want more of Michael Emerson's answers and personal brand of awesome? Check out the Lost Redux and tune in to the spoiler chat on Monday and we'll get you the hookup! Meanwhile, I want and expect you all to testify toward Michael's Emmy in the comments below. Go.

Speed Racer PREMIERE in Los Angeles...

2008-04-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday April 26th....Los Angeles....Matthew Fox at the SPEED RACER PREMIERE!

OHHHHHH....I can't wait! Just glad to see FOXY pop back over here to the mainland for a few days! LOVE YA MATTHEW!

~NIKI

When characters die on this show...They aren't REALLY 'LOST'

2008-04-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

In the closing moments of the last new ''Lost'' episode in March, it appeared that Rousseau (Mira Furlan) was cut down by an unseen enemy along with her daughter's boyfriend. For fans of the Frenchwoman, a character whose past has barely been explored, it was a disappointing shock. Maybe she was shot with a dart and not a bullet?

''They were shot with bullets,'' confirmed Damon Lindelof, a ''Lost'' executive producer, who refused to divulge the fates of the shooting victims.

''The good thing about 'Lost' is that being dead can lead to more work,'' said executive producer Carlton Cuse. ''It can improve your standing in the cast by getting killed. If, in fact, Rousseau proves to be dead, it doesn't have much bearing in terms of whether you'll see more of her story. We think the backstory of Rousseau and her science team is interesting and we'd love to tell that story at some point.''

After its fourth-season run was interrupted by the writers strike, ABC's mystery-filled hit returns with a run of new episodes starting at 9 tonight on WLS-Channel 7, leading up to its two-hour finale on May 29.

Talking to reporters last week, Cuse and Lindelof were coy about the show's future, refusing to comment on reports that ''Lost'' had been taping in London and that another lead character will be killed off.

''If we tease there will be a death, like when Shannon died, then everyone chases it down and spoils it,'' Cuse said. ''If we say everyone is safe, it would ruin the dramatic impact of the finale. We're excited about what's happening. There are some large and seismic events that will happen to the castaways between now and the end of the season.''

Other tidbits:

• "There are some compelling events involving Claire (Emilie de Ravin) between now and the season finale,'' Cuse said.

• The smoke monster will be featured tonight. "This episode is very dark, and very grim," executive producer J.J. Abrams told the Sun-Times earlier this week.

This year's season finale will be less smoke-and-mirrors than last year's flash-forward head trip, Lindelof said.

''Lost'' will conclude in 2010, and Lindelof said producers have already envisioned the series' closing moments.

''The last scene has been determined,'' he said. ''There would have to be some major shift in both our mindsets to back off of that.''

Source: suntimes.com

Finding FOX

2008-04-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

Lead roles in top US dramas Lost and Party of Five have made Matthew Fox one of the most recognisable faces on international television.

He talks to Seven's film editor Cole Smithey about his latest big screen roles in the seminal thriller Vantage Point and The Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer
Practically anyone with a television is aware of Matthew Fox from the hugely successful series Lost, where he plays the plane crash survivor Jack Shepherd who shares a remote island with 47 other survivors. Commenting on the show's international success, Fox is quoted as saying that "it's sort of a show about the human species, not a show about anybody from any particular country or any nationality or any religious background".

Matthew Fox established himself as a television fixture on the series Party of Five before Lost began in 2004. Since that time, the charismatic young actor has bridged the gap between television and feature films, starring in Smokin' Aces and We Are Marshall. With performances in this year's Vantage Point and upcoming Speed Racer, Fox is making deeper forays outside of the small screen and is poised for leading feature film roles in the not so distant future.

In his latest film Vantage Point, Matthew Fox plays a secret service agent protecting a U.S. president during a trip to Spain. The director Pete Travis has turned debut screenwriter Barry Levy's Rashomon-inspired script into a dizzyingly complex puzzle that sits comfortably next to such great political thrillers as In the Line of Fire (1992). Fox's character Kent Taylor provides gripping surprises as aspects of his double life are exposed, and an intriguing plot about an assassination attempt against the president unfolds.

I met with Matthew at Sony's Madison Avenue headquarters in Manhattan, where he appeared wearing a motorcycle jacket and a look of satisfied exhaustion.

CS: What have you been up to lately?

MF: I've been to nine countries in the past 18 days. I've been to Japan, Australia, Korea, France, Spain, Russia, the UK, Germany and now New York in support of this film.

CS: Your character is probably the most multi-dimensional in the movie. You got to have your cake and eat it too.

MF: It was a fun role for me. Obviously, I disagree with his methods. For me, it's really always the project as a whole, the potential of the script and the director, and the director's take on the script. This amazing cast came together. I love Pete Travis, loved what he'd done before, and thought that the way he talked about the movie and what he wanted to do with it had all those elements. I like to believe that I'm the type of actor who will serve the story in whatever way I'm asked to serve it, once that sort of package feels like something I want to be involved in. And in this one it was Kent Taylor.

CS: I understand you did some training to play a secret service agent.

MF: Dennis [Quaid] got to do more training than I did. I was doing another film directly before, Vantage Point. I had less than a 24-hour turnaround on the films and I had to fly from Atlanta to Mexico City. It was a really intense summer for me. I was shooting six days a week to get all the work done on both films in the Lost hiatus. For me it was really just trying to gather, as quickly as possible from the consultants that we had on the film, the logistics of how these things would be choreographed, the positional reference of everyone around the President at all times, where weapons were carried, how communications were conducted - really outward mechanics types of questions. Most of the relationship between Dennis and I, and hopefully building a history, or a sensed history between these two guys was something that Dennis, Pete and I worked on quite a bit.

CS: It seemed like a physically demanding role.

MF: It was a pretty physical thing, but I enjoy that. Anytime I have an opportunity to be physical in a role that requires thatâ€¦you're kind of viscerally activated. It takes away the thought process, which is fun.

CS: The car chase sequences you're in seem dangerous. How much of that was your driving?

MF: I would love to take credit for doing that car chase, but my actual driving in that was pretty limited. Most of my appearance in the car sequence was done on a green screen with a couple of guys rocking the car, with Pete sitting in front of the windshield going, "You're turning left, he's behind you!", "He's coming up on you quickly!". It was an incredibly frustrating experience. It was the only point in the entire making of the movie that I got into it with Pete. I was frustrated, and I was like, "This is not going to work". And he said, "Trust me, it's going to work". Now everybody says it's the best car chase, and they love it. So I saw Pete after not seeing him for a long time, gave him a big hug and said, "You were right, it did work out. I was doubting you, and it worked out".

CS: How did your impression of Dennis Quaid compare with the experience of working with him?

MF: I always just imagined Dennis as a really solid individual. He certainly proved to be that. I really enjoyed meeting him and enjoyed working on the project. This task was a really rewarding thing for me, to be in that company, and to just get an opportunity to be in a film with so many people that I had watched for so long and whose work I respected, and also get to know them as people a bit. It was pretty surreal. When you're in the work and you're coming at the day from the perspective of the character and you're sort of only seeing the other actors as in their characters, you're kind of defining relationships all the time, so you don't really think twice about it. But then there are those moments where you've got a couple hours of downtime and you're sitting around shooting the shit, and those were the moments where I was like, "Wow, this is pretty great that I'm in this film with this group of people".

CS: How do you feel about your upcoming Wachowski Brothers' movie Speed Racer?

MF: I'm very, very excited about the movie. I've seen certain sections of the film. It's pretty amazing, and my little boy asks me every single day when the movie's coming out. He cannot wait.

CS: Have you seen your action figure that the toy company made?

MF: Yes, I saw it. It's actually my second. There's a Jack Shepherd one for Lost as well. I'm just very excited for the experience of making it with the Wachowskis, and with the entire cast; it was amazing. It was an amazing summer.

CS: What did you enjoy about making a CGI-intensive movie?

MF: Everything about it. It was like doing it for the first time in a lot of respects. The whole process that they're doing is very different, the way that the images are layered in and the way things are shot, even. Most of the time you'd end up doing a scene and then the actors would be removed from it so you were doing it by yourself. Just the experience of discovering what this world is that they're building, and trying to find a way into that world as this masked vigilante, was really fun.

CS: Would you carry on with the franchise if it develops?

MF: I would hope to do two more. I would love to do more of that world and work with everyone involved with that project. I'm very excited by the prospect of that, but it's going to be one at a time obviously.

CS: Don't the studios typically ask you to sign on for franchise sequels when you're cast for the first one?

MF: Yes they do, and I didn't think twice about it.

CS: You've made a seemingly easy transition between television and film. How do you approach your work?

MF: I've always approached the business as a marathon, not a sprint. I think you've got to take your time and make sure you are making choices that are smart for you. Choices are very important. I've been doing it for about 17 years, and I've just always felt that I'd have more opportunities later in my life when I'd gotten some life under my belt. I've just taken my time and waited for the right opportunities.

CS: How much do you enjoy doing Lost?

MF: I really feel like Lost, and what I'm getting an opportunity to do on the show, is pretty complex and it's evolving as well. My character started as an idea of what everybody wanted him to be - this heroic guy - but he's actually really flawed and the island is stripping away this deep compassion in him and bringing out a much darker side. So there's an evolution happening in the character that's always been important to [scriptwriter] Damon Lindelof, and myself actually.

CS: The show takes liberties with past, present, and future. How long has Jack been on the island?

MF: From the time the plane crashed to Jack in the future is about a year and a half. Jack would have been on the island now for about 120 days.

CS: Would you ever consider directing a movie?

MF: Maybe. I directed an episode of Party of Five towards the very end of the show and it was a great experience, but I think if I were to ever take that on it would have to be something that I felt so personally strong about that I really felt like I was the one to tell it. Maybe that will happen. I think it'd be really exciting if it did, but it hasn't yet.

Source: www.sevenglobal.org

Foxy!!! On The Move

2008-04-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

Matthew Fox is the middle brother of three and was raised in Wyoming, where his parents owned a horse and cattle ranch. He graduated from Columbia University and contemplated becoming a stockbroker before beginning his acting career. He is best known for his role in the TV series Lost and stars in the upcoming film Speed Racer. He is married with two children and lives in Hawaii

Matthew Fox is best known for his role as Dr Jack Shepherd in the television series Lost. Like George Clooney, that other star who began life as a doctor in a television soap and went on to become an Alister, he is progressively making the transition from the small screen to the silver screen.

The film that Fox hopes will enable him to do this is Speed Racer, a live-action version of the 1960s Japanese cartoon. The film promises to be one of the summer’s most action-packed blockbusters, featuring a car that would put James Bond’s gadget-laden Aston Martin to shame. The Mach 5, a sports car cum submarine, boasts blades that are deployed from the front bumper to scythe away obstacles, a bulletproof cabin, a remote-controlled droid and a giant jack that enables it to jump short distances at speed.

Fox plays Racer X opposite Emile Hirsch, who plays Speed, and relished the chance to get behind the wheel. “I’ve been a car nut for as long as I can remember,” he says. “One of the first things I wanted to be as a boy was a race-car driver, and I look at my own little boy, who’s only seven, and he’s already into it too, so I jumped at this film.”

The only problem is that Fox didn’t get to spend too long at the wheel of the Mach 5: most of the action uses computer-generated imagery (CGI), meaning that much of the time Fox was kitted out in his black leather costume acting on his own in front of a green screen, upon which the CGI images would later be added.

“My character is wrapped in leather and in disguise; doing fight sequences in that was incredibly difficult and I got very dehydrated. It was tough but really rewarding. A lot was CGI but I still had to do my own stunts, and that meant six weeks of hard training.”

In real life he drives an Acura TSX, a saloon based on the Honda Accord. He claims it is sporty, but you get the feeling he has bought it more for its practicality (he has a wife and two children) than seat-of-the-pants driving credentials. Not that he wants anyone to think he isn’t a petrolhead: “I enjoy racing and have always loved to drive fast, and cars in general. I recently got a chance to ride a Porsche on the Willow Springs racetrack outside Los Angeles with a professional driver from the Porsche Le Mans team. It was an absolute blast.

“I’ve done a few projects where I’ve taken Sixties vintage cars and modernised them into hot rods. Not me personally, but conceptualising it and then having someone else do all the work. Right now I’m working on a 1950 Mercury Coupe, which is going to be really cool.”

Fox says he unfortunately couldn’t take advantage of Germany’s unrestricted autobahns while filming Speed Racer there: “I really wanted to drive like a lunatic,” he says. “But when I began looking into renting something, Warner Bros didn’t really want me going out and driving 150mph on the autobahn.” Should his most recent project catapult Fox into Hollywood’s Alist, it won’t be the first time he has managed to reinvent himself. One of three sons, he grew up on a Wyoming ranch where his father, a retired geologist who had worked for Getty Oil, raised longhorn cattle and horses, and grew barley for Coors beer.

After graduating with a degree in economics from Columbia University – whose alumni include Barack Obama and Theodore and Franklin D Roosevelt – he considered a career as a stockbroker on Wall Street. Today he describes the experience as being surrounded by “go-getting wannabe Gordon Gekkos”. So he left and took modelling work at first, then roles in television commercials, before landing a part in the TV series Party of Five, which ran for six years during the 1990s.

His big break was being cast as one of the leads in Lost. The series has gained cult status, not to mention a thousand websites all trying to make sense of the contorted plot. It has been running for so long that Fox and his family have moved to Hawaii, where it is shot. It sounds idyllic, but Fox says the novelty has long since worn off.

“I’ve been living in Hawaii for almost four years now, so it’s not really paradise any more, man. Throwing snowballs on a mountain top is now paradise. It’s been a good place for us, and for a while I was excited to get out of Los Angeles, but we won’t be staying after Lost is done.

“Being in Hawaii has also been beneficial in that I really don’t like the whole paparazzi thing in my daily life, or photographs of my kids and that type of thing. It does happen but it’s very rare. I think if I was living in Los Angeles it’d be more difficult for me. There’s not a lot of paparazzi who want to do the 2,500-mile trek into the south Pacific for a shot of me walking on the beach.

“Working on Speed Racer in Germany I was barely recognised at all. The Germans really don’t give a shit, man! They might notice you, but they’re gonna pretend like they don’t, which is cool. I like that.”

But even Germany may not be isolated enough for him. His brothers and their young children live in Oregon, and he says that he and his wife, Margherita Ronchi, an Italian model who was his college sweetheart, are discussing joining them. “We’ve been talking about moving to Oregon for a while, so whenever things get tough, I just keep Oregon in my sights. I enjoy fishing, hiking and skiing, and the mountains and fresh air and all these things are available pretty easily in Oregon without having to drive a long distance.

“I’m really excited to figure all that out, but it’s still a couple of years away, so I’m just enjoying life right now.”

My stuff...

On my CD player
Radiohead’s In Rainbows and Shotter’s Nation by Babyshambles. I know that guy [Pete Doherty] has had a rough go of it, but I’ll tell you what: it’s a killer record

On my DVD player
I just watched A Clockwork Orange. I had never seen it before. I’m going back and grabbing some movies I should have seen but haven’t

In my parking space
An Acura TSX, left. It’s a nice sporty little sedan

I will never throw away
My iPod. I don’t go anywhere without it. The first thing I do every morning is put on my music

Source:www.timesonline.co.uk

DARLTON discusses LOST SCIENCE with POPULAR MECHANICS

2008-04-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

After a five-week hiatus induced by the Hollywood writer's strike, Lost finally returns this week with a new episode, "The Shape of Things to Come." Show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who both produce and write episodes of the ABC drama, are self-professed geeks who haven't promised sci-fi entirely based in real-life science, but they still want to get it right—or at least right enough that the show's rabid fans will believe it. The duo took a break from editing Lost's three-hour season finale script to take us behind the scenes in the writer's room, talk physics and drop exclusive hints about what we can expect from the show's future. —Erin McCarthy

We fact-check the science and technology behind Lost every week and most of the time you guys get it right. How much time do you spend researching each episode, and where do you do your research? Do you have a panel of experts on speed dial?

Carlton Cuse: We do not have a panel of experts on speed dial, although we do have Greg Nations, who is our script coordinator, who is someone we will turn to who will track down specific facts. The internet is also a beautiful and wonderful thing, and we have our own areas of expertise. Damon is a real comic book geek and I'm a little bit more of a science geek. I took a couple of years of high school physics and my dad was an engineer. I think even though I maybe don't possess a deep science knowledge, I do feel like my brain kind of works a little bit in the way of, you know, does this seem like it makes sense or not, and then Damon and I will go and find an expert or some factual stuff to try to support what it is that we want to do narratively.
Damon Lindelof: We have an awesome production team in Hawaii, so if we send down a script that says "Faraday has equations scribbled all over the chalkboard behind him," that falls upon them and Jeremy Davies, the actor who plays Faraday—who is very method and has been reading a lot about physics and trying to understand it—[to execute] what it says on the script page.

How important is it for you to get the science right?

CC: The science needs to be right enough that we kind of create a sense of believability to the story telling.
DL: We function on Jurassic Park rules, which are, if you can convince me that a mosquito can bite a dinosaur and then get preserved in amber, and that the DNA will not degrade over all that period of time, then you can show me a cloned dinosaur and I won't call it a science-fiction movie. And, you know, we try to do the same thing on the show. If something highly unlikely occurs, we try to offer up some grounding in the actual physical world that we understand in an effort to explain it—except in the case of things that don't potentially have a scientific explanation, which is where the show begins to go into its own territory.
CC: But we're always trying to skirt that line between the two possible explanations, the scientific one or a mythical and magical one, and we are purposefully ambiguous about which one might be correct. Obviously, certain things fall into the science category and certain things fall more into the mystical category, and that just sort of depends on what story we're telling that week.

There's a lot of fan talk that any non-rational or fictional or magical explanation of the island's happenings is a completely unacceptable cop-out. So far, there are plausible scientific explanations for everything that's happening, so people have accepted what's going on. Does being called out by viewers (or the press) worry you?

DL: Well, first off, I would challenge that assertion, and say, how does Yemi walking out of the jungle, the deceased brother of Eko, have a scientific explanation? I guess you would argue that he doesn't walk out of the jungle, that this is all sort of happening in Eko's head, that it's a hallucination. Would that be the case, is that...

No, what I was thinking was the stuff that has been explained so far has a scientific explanation, whereas the other stuff, we're waiting, we don't really know.

DL: Right.
CC: I think the question kind of strikes right at the core of the central theme of the show, which is the notion of faith versus empiricism. Jack represents the empiricist camp, and Locke represents the faith camp, and, you know, who is right? Well, the show hasn't fully answered that question yet.
DL: Hopefully it won't feel like it's a cop out when the show does answer that question, because we never promised a show that was based entirely and grounded in science. It's nice that it's able to do that, but we reserve the right to go in the direction that the uber-plan directs us.

Desmond first time traveled in the third season, but it's not until season four that we see the scientific explanation for it. So this is a chicken-or-the-egg type question: Did you learn about the science first, then work it into the show? Or do you think of a plot element and then research different scientific theories that back it up?

DL: This is where, while Carlton has a much more practical background in science and engineering, I have a long and storied history in every single time travel story that's ever been written, and draw upon that to fundamentally provide our stories with what we want to do. In this case, we said the way that we want to do time travel on Lost is consciousness based, as opposed to somebody gets in a DeLorean or a HG Wells-like apparatus and zaps themself back in time where they can interact with an earlier version of themself. It's more interesting if your brain basically drops into your body at different points in your life, which is more consistent with the sort of Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse 5, paradigm, and also helps insulate you from paradox. So we decided to do that with Desmond. He felt like the logical person to do it with. We find an emotional core for the story—in his case, it's his desire to be reunited with Penny—so we tell time travel stories that sort of focus on the romantic element, which is why we think Peggy Sue in Back to the Future and Somewhere in Time all work. They're science-fiction stories, but they have an emotional core. And we go from there. And then we do the research.
CC: But the two aren't really separable, that's the thing. It's like, when we're actually talking about a story, and we're constructing elements, you know, we're always talking about the plausibility of any given beat. I think the danger that always exists on this kind of show is that the audience has to buy what you're doing. We use all sorts of different things to inspire our storytelling, but you're constantly weighing any sort of story beat against that criteria—will the audience believe it, will they buy it, particularly when we do something as out there as consciousness traveling. So we try to find a way to make it seem plausible, and yet, at the same time, clearly it's a real flight of fantasy kind of story.
DL: And the coolest thing about consciousness time travel is, you know, you're sort of a slave to your memory. So if Desmond travels back in time and he remembers that a certain team beat another team in a football game, and then something different happens, we're hinting at the idea that the future has changed, when in fact he just remembered it wrong, which is kinda cool for us.

What's the vibe like in the writer's room when you're putting together these really scientific and technical episodes? Is there a lot of back and forth, or is it ironed out ahead of time?

CC: The writer's room is a very lively place where every story point is debated and kicked around. We break the stories in their totality in the writer's room down to really the very very kind of minute details of scenes, so, you know, you're kind of harnessing the brain power of eight people in there, and that mind hive is very helpful in problem solving. And different people know more about various subjects, so, you know, one of our favorite pastimes in the room is we play this game...ah, what's the actual title...? It's Geek versus Jock.
DL: We have one writer, Brian K. Vaughn, who writes comic books, and then another writer, Adam Horowitz, who's like a die-hard sports fan.
CC: Yankees fan. He used to sell hot dogs at Yankees Stadium.
DL: We'll ask Vaughn an easy sports question, like how many innings are there in a baseball game...
CC: Or what is the color of the Carolina Panthers or what sport do the Carolina Panthers play...
DL: And then we'll ask Horowitz to name two of the Avengers. And they will face off, and it's fun to watch them, you know, try to answer questions outside of their specific area of expertise.

And what's the prize if they get it right?

DL: Bragging rights, and they avoid the scorn of the rest of the room. In fact, there's a lot of betting...once the questions are asked, all the other writers basically bet whether or not that person will get it right, so it's just, it's a face saving technique.

Is there a scientific explanation for the smoke monster?

CC: We can't answer that question without answering the question of what is the smoke monster or without giving too much away. So we have to pass on that one.
DL: We have ruled out that the smoke monster has a basis in nanotechnology, though, which is the most popular scientific explanation for the smoke monster.

When are we going to find out what the smoke monster is?

CC: Before the end of the show. That's one of the big questions, along with what is this island, and those are kinds of questions that get answered in the end run of episodes when the show is drawing to a conclusion in 2010. They're not, they're sort of foundational questions and I think those questions are the ones that we're building towards answers for.

What sort of science and techy stuff can we look forward to proving or debunking when the show comes back?

DL: We basically did an Orchid Darma orientation film for the Orchid for Comic Con last year, which is available online, I'm sure, and was set up for where we were going in our season finale. Our characters are in fact going to discover the Orchid and see a bit more of that film. There will be plenty to sort of fact check and debunk on that axis.
CC: We can say that we've been very interested in these physicists who have been building this particle accelerator in the Alps, and there's been a lot of debate and concern about what's going to happen when they start smashing these particles into each other. People who are following that will probably enjoy some of the stuff that we're doing in the upcoming run of episodes.

Obviously this piece is about the science behind Lost, but I wouldn't be a good fan if I didn't ask you to give me some scoop on what's going to the rest of the season.

CC: It just seems really appropriate that we tell Popular Mechanics that there's going to be a really juicy kiss coming up in the finale and that there's going to be a lot more on the Sawyer-Kate-Jack romantic triangle. I mean, that's the scoop that should really be in Popular Mechanics.
DL: Here's the scoop for Popular Mechanics: According to the rules of our show, a communication between sat phones is not affected by temporal distortion, but if you were to send a radio broadcast and/or a telegraph message, it would be affected by temporal distortion. That's the scoop for Popular Mechanics and Popular Mechanics only, and it will make a lot more sense after you've seen the first episode back.

Speaking of satellite phones, one of the tech things that didn't stand up was your satellite phone, and you guys got a lot of flack in the press for that. Why did you decide to go with that particular idea?

CC: I think one of the things that struck us is that [when] watch an old Julia Roberts movie and she's walking around New York holding a cell phone to her head that's the size of a toaster, we didn't really want to put ourselves in a position where we were literally married to everything that exists technologically. We decided that our satellite phone would be a very modern, high-tech version of it, and created one that we thought was cool.
DL: We have technical experts down in Hawaii on the production end, and I think that the thinking at the time was, that although these sat phones were built in 2004, that the people who had them had access to the latest technology. So it's sort of like when you travel to Japan, their cell phones are two years ahead of our cell phones. You can walk up to a vending machine with your cell phone and scan a barcode and it'll spit a bag of chips and a coke out at you. The technology existed to build a phone like that in 2004, they just weren't readily available in any American market.

How do you keep track of all the complicated plot angles? You've got characters in flashbacks and flashforwards and everyone's interconnected in some way...how do you even begin to keep track of that?

CC: I don't think that Damon or me would win a Lost trivia contest, but we obviously know the general details of everything and we keep that in our brains. But Greg Nations keeps the sort of elaborate series of bibles and timelines and charts the number of days of stories and, you know, he's sort of the keeper of the wisdom of Lost. So whenever there's a question about continuity or where an event takes place in relation to another event, Greg can plot it in the overall kind of schema of the show. So he is an invaluable resource and he is the guy who makes sure that everything makes sense or at least makes as much sense as we can make it make sense.
DL: You know, the chronology of the show has become very intricate, especially since we just started doing flash forwards. Before it was which happened first: Sawyer met Jack's dad in a bar in Australia, or, Walt and Michael get on Oceanic 815? Now that we're in the future, and we're telling future stories out of order, so last year's finale you got bearded, pill-popping Jack screaming at Kate "We've gotta go back!" And this year you're seeing Jack in other people's flash forwards obviously before that series of events took place, so...he's testifying at Kate's trial, or he's visiting Hurley at the mental institution and we need to sort of plot out when in time are those events happening in relation to each other. It's not an easy job.

One of the things that the fans really love is assigning meaning to things that they see in the show, and sometimes they assign meaning to things that have no meaning. So do you ever place a scientific name or an Easter Egg that's a joke or meant to confuse people?

CC: I think it's more a question of how much meaning do things have. I mean, sometimes names, like Minkowsky, that's meaningful. Sometimes we name characters and they're named after somebody's friend but it also turns out that they're a famous person. So, you know, without kind of detailing which are which, we have a spectrum of meanings that we assign to things, and it's just sort of circumstantial or narratively we get to a place where somebody has to be named something that's really important for the story, but it really does vary...
DL: If you look at the freighter folk, Charlotte Staples Lewis is named after C.S. Lewis. Miles Strom is named after a pun because his name sounds like maelstrom, you know, when you pronounce it very quickly, and...
CC: Oh, Faraday is obviously a famous scientist...
DL: Yeah, and Frank Lapidus is a name that Eddie Kitsis, Adam Horowitz's writing partner, actually, and one of our other writer/producers, has just been saying for years, "There's gotta be a character on the show named Frank Lapidus."
CC: And he has a buddy whose name is Lapidus.
DL: So if there's anyone out there going, oh, you know...
CC: Working on the Lapidus anagram...
DL: That would be somebody finding something we did not intend.

Does it amaze you the lengths that people go to to research the show?

CC: It does, in fact. And it's kind of flattering and it kind of boggles our minds, actually. We actually really just set out to make a show that we thought was kind of cool and entertaining, and we never imagined that people would get wrapped up in the intricacies of it to the degree that they have. I think Lost was really a pioneer in the use of the kind of connection between a television show and the internet, and the internet really gave fans an opportunity to create a community around the show. That was something that wasn't really planned, it just sort of grew up in the wake of the show.

FRIENDSHIP is the KEY..DARLTON SPEAKS!

2008-04-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

From CTV.ca

Producers and long-time best friends Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse say their relationship is the key to their success on "Lost."

"We can count on one hand the number of times we disagreed about anything," Lindelof tells CTV.ca.

Cuse and Lindelof have been scrambling to finish writing and shooting the final six episodes of the show's fourth season, with two crews shooting round-the-clock to wrap the show up in time.

"The show is a hugely demanding beast, particularly coming back after the strike," says Cuse.

"Fortunately we are very good friends and we get along great and I think we have a collaboration in which the total is greater than the sum of the parts."

"Lost" returns from a four-week break on Thursday April 24, with a new episode at 10 p.m.

The show picks up right where it left off, with the survivors trying to figure out who the mysterious freighter crew are and how some of them are going to get off the island.

Lindelof and Cuse are well known to "Lost" fans, from cracking jokes on-camera during "Lost" recap specials, their weekly irreverent podcast and countless interviews where the duo tries their best to avoid giving anything away.

"We spend the majority of our time in each other's company, but over the course of the day, we will divide and conquer on occasions when the fire is burning bright," says Lindelof.

"It requires tremendous shorthand to do the job that we do."

The pair first met when Cuse was working on his series "Nash Bridges" and had hired Lindelof as a writer. The pair quickly became close friends.

Following "Nash Bridges," Lindelof went on to find success with "Crossing Jordan" and later struck a deal for "Lost" alongside J.J. Abrams.

Abrams is originally responsible for coming up with the idea of "Lost," and alongside Lindelof, developed the characters and the plot.

When "Lost" was picked up for development, Cuse was brought on board to co-run the show alongside Lindelof, and the rest is "Lost" history. The show has gone on to earn multiple Emmy, Golden Globe, Producers Guild and Writers Guild awards.

"I think that it's very special for me to work with Damon and I feel like the joy and the collaboration is a big part of what makes doing the show fun," says Cuse.

Emilie de Ravin discusses her OTHER projects...

2008-04-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

From TV GUIDE.com

TVGuide.com: So, tell me not to worry about Claire.
De Ravin: To worry or not to worry.... What can I say? Oh, you know my lips have to be sealed, unfortunately.

TVGuide.com: Her pregnancy was positioned to be so significant to Lost's mythology, I always assumed she would be around for the long haul.
De Ravin: They're doing a lot of interesting things with my character, so I guess we will have to wait and see. [Chuckles]

TVGuide.com: Do you have any private, top-secret insight into why Baby Aaron is with Kate in the flash-forwards?
De Ravin: No! I'm very intrigued to find out why, though. That’s one of the big questions I have right now. I always have at least one big question — and I never get answers until I get the script!

TVGuide.com: Was it hard saying goodbye to Dominic Monaghan (Charlie)?
De Ravin: It was hard in many ways. We had gotten so close working together. It was very sad, very emotional.

TVGuide.com: You must have thought that at some point they'd get to dive into their oft-stalled romance....
De Ravin: Yeah, but it got cut short, didn’t it?

TVGuide.com: So, turning to your Tribeca Film Festival premiere, Ball Don't Lie: How does a pretty young thing like Emilie De Ravin fit into a teen boy's coming-of-age story set in the world of street basketball?
De Ravin: [Laughs] I'm actually in the flashbacks, playing the boy's (newcomer Grayson Boucher) mother. There are a lot of flashbacks, a lot of back-and-forth. She's a bipolar prostitute, so she's got a lot going on.

TVGuide.com: But is she the bipolar prostitute with a heart of gold ?
De Ravin: With a heart of gold! She's a very sweet girl, but she's on the wrong side of the tracks.

TVGuide.com: This film features quite the ABC all-star team. Harold Perrineau (Lost), Richardo Chavira (Desperate Housewives), James Pickens Jr. (Grey's Anatomy)....
De Ravin: I know!

TVGuide.com: Was that coincidence, or did you all know someone who was putting this project together?
De Ravin: No, it was complete coincidence. It was funny when I heard that Harold was doing it because I never saw him on Lost. We had no work together.

TVGuide.com: Do you have any other films in the works?
De Ravin: I worked on a movie last summer called The Perfect Game, which is a children's baseball movie based on a true story and set in the '30s.

TVGuide.com: How did you like the 1930s' sort of wardrobe?
De Ravin: Oh, it's amazing. My character's wardrobe and speech is based on Katharine Hepburn, so it was a lot of fun researching that.

TVGuide.com: I look at movies like Brick... you playing a bipolar prostitute.... Do you have any aspiration to be the romantic-comedy darling?
De Ravin: Oh, I'd like to do that as well. I'm just trying to explore everything. It's fun to mix it up as much as you can. I don't want to get pigeonholed in any one genre. I like to extend myself as much as I can and challenge myself.

TVGuide.com: A romantic comedy would probably be a day at the beach after the likes of chasing zombies with a pick axe.
De Ravin: [Laughs] Exactly! It's a little bit different

YUNJIN KIM discusses SEASON 4 of LOST!

2008-04-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

From TV GUIDE.com

TVGuide.com: Was it any special thrill, if only because of the job security, to learn you were among the Oceanic Six?
Yunjin Kim: Initially I thought it would mean job security, but it doesn’t really look that way. It doesn't really mean anything. If you're not one of the Oceanic Six, that doesn’t mean you're going to be killed off the show.

TVGuide.com: When you were reading the script for "Ji Yeon," were you led to believe that Jin was on his way to see Sun?
Kim: Yes and no. The Year of the Dragon was a pretty significant sign that we weren’t talking about in 2005. I got a sense we were in two different time zones.

TVGuide.com: Were you touched to see that Sun and Hurley are still friends?
Kim: I thought that of all the characters, Hurley would be the one coming to see the baby. The question is, why was he so glad none of the other Oceanic Six members would be there? While we were shooting it, we discussed how far Jorge [Garcia] should go with that. Should he be really glad no one else was coming, or half glad...? We did a couple of different variations, and they made it very ambiguous.

TVGuide.com: From where you sit, is the energy on the set at all different this season? Does the show feel tighter, more exciting?
Kim: Because of the huge [strike] break, we were all happy to come back to work and find all the crew members returning with us. I was afraid to walk in and find a new crew. But yeah, I agree that the episodes have been great. [Sun and Jin's] episode had the right combination of the story going forward with Sayid and Desmond on the freighter, and also dealing with the A-story. And, of course, the huge surprise at the end raised so many questions. That’s what Lost is all about.

TVGuide.com: What is Sun's involvement in this week's new episode?
Kim: Well, usually when you do your "own" episode, you take it easy for the next one or two. But the story continues: Are we actually going to leave the island? Right now we’re going crazy trying to shoot three episodes all at once. [Laughs] We have three different units working, we're working every single day.... I think the finale is going to be amazing. I'm a huge fan of the show, and as soon as I get a script, I plow through it to see what happens next. People will be very amazed by how we end this season and set up the next one.

TVGuide.com: What has been your favorite episode of this season?
Kim: I really loved our episode, but I also loved Desmond's. With the love story between Desmond and Penelope and those last few seconds on the phone, as they were trying to get their words out, and the music.... It was so emotional and so satisfying. You really are rooting for those two to get back together. I hope people will do the same at the end of the season finale for Sun and Jin! People could have the same reaction.

TVGuide.com: Do you know anything about the "Frozen Donkey Wheel," aka the finale's big twist?
Kim: Hmm. They’ve omitted, I think, two scenes from the finale, which was not even a script, it was a book it was so thick! It's amazing. We go out with another huge "What?!" reaction at the end.

TVGuide.com: You're one of TV Guide's Sexiest Stars [to be detailed in the May 5 issue]. How does that honor rank compared to being on Maxim's Hot 100 and a Stuff pinup calendar?
Kim: Now all my dreams have come true. [Laughs] I was very flattered. I feel like we have a very good-looking cast, so we'll each take our turn.

TVGuide.com: It must feel good to be called "sexy" when you spend every episode covered in grit or sand or are in a lot of the same clothes week after week.
Kim: Right! I guess they find dirty sexy nowadays! [Laughs]

Get to know...REBECCA MADER (CHARLOTTE)

2008-04-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

For Rebecca Mader, Los Angeles is a long way from her native England. Since her arrival, her acting career has taken off, but she still has one troubling dilemma... she just can't seem to find a good cup of tea in the U.S. The British-born actress says even though she buys tea bags from English grocery stores in Santa Monica, they fail to whet her taste buds. "There's something about not being able to make a proper cup of tea outside of England," Mader playfully muses. "We all sort of whine about it, but I've come to realize the water and the milk are what change it. The first thing I do when I get off the plane at Heathrow and get to my sister and mum is [demand a proper cup of tea]."

Mader's inability to satiate her tea cravings seems a small price to pay for the success she's experiencing stateside. A newbie on Lost this season, Mader has quickly developed a following among the show's loyal supporters and often finds herself being recognized in public, which she describes as "really weird" and "really funny." "I got spotted this morning in Staples buying some office supplies," she says in amusement.

On Lost, Mader plays Charlotte Lewis, a member of a rescue team who has landed on the island with a set of ulterior motives. Mader says portraying a character shrouded in mystery fascinates her. "In a way, it's actually quite liberating, and it's really freeing. I get to create my character along with the writers."

Although this is Mader's first season on Lost, years of hard work underlie her current stint in the spotlight. At age 18, she began her career as a model in the hopes that it would lead her to becoming an actress. "I started modeling first, because I couldn't afford to go to drama school," she explains. "I thought I'd do it for a year or two, save up some money and then go to university. But it takes so long to get established in the fashion world. One year became two [and two] years became three. Then, I was making money. I thought that maybe I was supposed to do that for a while and then it would take me to America and I could get into the business in America."

While Mader points out that there are more differences than similarities between modeling and acting, she credits some of her modeling jobs for helping her develop an appreciation for quality storytelling. "In certain photo shoots, it's just not about standing there and trying to look pretty in a dress. A good editorial photo shoot usually has an art director, and there's a story that you're telling. Even though it's about fashion, there's still an artistic element to it. Those were really the only shoots I enjoyed. I wanted to be an actress, so those were the times when I got to shine and have a good time at work."

Once Mader moved to the U.S., she was finally able to parlay her modeling experience into acting. "In this country, as a model, to be able to do TV commercials, you have to be with a TV agency. I went in and started working with them and said, 'I can act.'... It was sort of an easy backdoor transition."

With several acting projects now gracing her resume, Mader drew the attention of the Lost staff when she auditioned for Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. "They did not have me in mind, so I had to explain to them that it was a good idea that it should be me," she says.

"She told us she had read 'The Secret' and was thusly willing herself into the role," Lindelof lightheartedly recalls of Mader's audition. "Carlton and I were powerless against the cosmic hand of positive thinking."

Mader's optimistic outlook may be one of her most endearing qualities, but her real "secret" is that she has that rare blend of charisma and talent that translates to compelling on-screen performances. Whether in England or the U.S., that is one combination that always leads to success.

TV SHOW HOST (and LOST fan) JIMMY KIMMEL Interrogates DARLTON!

2008-04-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

On a Monday morning earlier this month, the late-night talk-show host arrived on the Disney Studio lot in Burbank tasked with a mission: Grill Lost's executive producers, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, about their massively dissected drama, which returns April 24 to round out its critically hailed fourth season. (We were lucky enough to tag along!) Kimmel, a diehard fan since the pilot, has frequently championed the series on Jimmy Kimmel Live! — interviewing cast members, trekking to Hawaii for a set visit and coining a catchphrase for Hurley ("Hey, ladies, it's Hurley time!"). He's even given the world "Lost: The Musical," a parody skit featuring a Riverdancing polar bear. (And you thought you were obsessed.)

As Kimmel greeted Lindelof and Cuse — there were initially few signs of the funnyman who recently fired up YouTube with his A-list viral video "I'm F--king Ben Affleck" (a retaliation to girlfriend Sarah Silverman's "I'm F--king Matt Damon"). He not only arrived 10 minutes early with a writer from his show in tow, but also came armed with a two-inch-thick stack of research, which he'd diligently printed out the night before after roasting Simon Cowell at Idol Gives Back. As Cuse would later note, Kimmel had "the laser-sharp focus of Mike Wallace."

After a tour of the writers' room — which, sadly, had been stripped of any visible top-secret scribblings –– the producers settled onto a sofa in Cuse's sunlit office and noshed on a breakfast of fruit and pastries. Kimmel, meanwhile, took a seat across from them and painstakingly laid out his research on a table in front of him. "Don't be alarmed," he said, "but I want answers." — Shawna Malcom

Kimmel: The island heals some people and doesn't heal others. For instance, Ben needed an operation from Jack to beat cancer, but it seems like Sawyer gets injured every sixth episode and by the next, he's fine. Is that just a TV thing?

Carlton Cuse: Wow. [Laughs] Where are the softball questions, Jimmy? What about the warm-up?
Damon Lindelof: The short answer is, it's not arbitrary. Yes, there is a certain degree of compressing story. The idea that everything you've seen has really happened in 110 days of real time feels fantastical, but that's the convention of the show. However, who gets sick and how fast they heal is something we talk about. In the second episode back [airing May 1], that becomes a major issue in the story. One character gets sick and another who has had experience being healed voices exactly that question: Is there any rhyme or reason to it?
Cuse: The healing is related to the degree to which you are in communion with the island at any given moment. Perhaps Ben getting sick and needing surgery had to do with the fact that he had fallen out of favor, that his connection with the island was maybe not what it had been in the past.

Kimmel: How do cast members find out they're getting killed off?

Cuse: We call them ahead of the publishing of the script. So whenever we actually call a cast member, they're always panicked. Even if it's like, "No, we're just calling to say you were great in this episode."

Kimmel: Did you call Mr. Friendly beforehand to tell him he was gay?

Lindelof: [Laughs] No

Kimmel: Do all the show's writers know Lost's overarching secret, if there is one?

Lindelof: They all know what the island is and what the history of the island is. But if Carlton and I were kidnapped, and the kidnappers said, "We will not release them until you divulge the last episode of Lost," I don't know if the writers would be able to provide that.

Kimmel: I see. So you don't trust your writers. [Laughs] But you do actually know the final specific scene?

Lindelof: We absolutely, 100 percent know what the last scene of the show is and could put [the pages] in a safe deposit box. But there is an asterisk next to that, which is that we're slaves to fluctuations in reality. If one of the actors in that scene decided to stop being in Lost…
Cuse: Or, perchance, got a DUI, the entire ending of the show could change. Basically, the show is in the hands of Hawaii law enforcement. [Laughs]

Kimmel: People come up to you all the time with theories. Has anyone come close to cracking the code?

Cuse: I think there are two assumptions that people make that are incorrect. One is that the whole answer to Lost reduces down to a sentence. It's not like searching for Einstein's Unified Field Theory. And the second is that you have enough information to "crack the code." The flash-forwards completely changed your notion of the show. So how could you do some accurate theorizing before you even knew those existed?

Kimmel: Has anyone made a really lucky guess?

Lindelof: In certain areas. Last season, when we showed what happened when Desmond turned the key in the hatch and he went on this little jaunt back in England, people started saying, "Maybe the electromagnetism on the island is related to space and time." But that's just one road on the map that is ultimately gonna be the entire show. The longer it goes on, the harder it is to construct a theory that basically answers everything you've seen so far.
Cuse: Even though we get asked a lot of questions about the mythology, Jimmy, we're really trying to write a character show. We spend about 80-90 percent of our time talking about how the characters are lost in their own lives as people. The mythology is kind of the frosting on the cake.

Kimmel: Do you have one jerk on staff whose job it is to come up with all of Sawyer's nicknames?

Cuse: I wouldn't call him a jerk. [Laughs] I'd call him one of our most valued writers, and his name is Eddy Kitsis.
Lindelof: And Adam [Horowitz], too. They both come up with a whole cavalcade of them.

Kimmel: What happened to the smoke monster? High winds?
Cuse: We'll see the smoke monster in the April 24 episode.

Kimmel: [Laughs] Do people find clues that surprise you guys?

Lindelof: In the pilot, there's a still frame of Walt, and behind him, burnt into the fuselage wreckage, is what looks like a Dharma symbol. We'd talked about the idea that there had been a group of hippies on the island, but the phrase "The Dharma Initiative" or the design for the logo didn't come along until much later. But it's there and it's not Photoshopped. Suddenly, you understand how hundreds of people can show up and see…
Cuse: The Virgin Mary in a piece of toast. It's a mystery that's even greater than our understanding.
Lindelof: We would love in moments like that to go, "Yes. We knew we'd be introducing the idea of the Dharma Initiative in the second season premiere and we wanted people to go back to the pilot and see that the symbol had been burned into the fuselage." But if we had known, we wouldn't have done it in such an oblique way. Sawyer would've went [adopts Southern twang], "Hey, what's this?" We want people to see our Easter eggs.

Kimmel: Something I noticed early on is that many of the characters have issues with their lousy fathers.

Cuse: Is this the part where we have to cry?

Kimmel: Jack obviously. Locke. Sun's father is a killer. Kate killed hers.

Cuse: You'd be better off just listing the people who have healthy relationships with their fathers.

Kimmel: Is that a coincidence?

Cuse: No. We're sort of working out our own psychological traumas in front of 15 million people.
Lindelof: Look, there's a certain aspect of the hero's journey, whether it's Luke Skywalker or Hercules or Harry Potter, where they're either orphans or have incredibly dysfunctional relationships with their fathers. They haven't been told what to do. They have to find a mentor character outside of their own family. The show's called Lostand we always imagined it from the beginning as a show about characters trying to be better people and evolve past their own petty insecurities and problems. And if you're gonna do flashbacks, some of them are gonna be about stuff that was put on them by their parents.

Kimmel: Is the person in the coffin someone who's not from the island?

Lindelof: [To Cuse] Tread lightly.
Cuse: You will know who's in the coffin before the season is over, and it will not be like, "Who's that person?"
Lindelof: The only people you can rule out, based on what you saw in last year's finale, are Kate and Jack.

Kimmel: And the baby, just based on the size.

Cuse: Yeah, it's too big a coffin for a baby.

Darlton Interview!

2008-04-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

From A.V club

Neither Damon Lindelof nor Carlton Cuse came up with the idea for ABC's cult favorite Lost, and they'd never met before the network and producer J.J. Abrams paired them as, respectively, Lost's head writer and show-runner. But while any number of people have had a hand in shaping Lost—from Abrams to ABC to the show's signature director, Jack Bender—when fans want to complain about a dangling plotline or an implausible scientific explanation for what's going on with that crazy island, they hold Lindelof and Cuse responsible. The duo have embraced that role, by hosting podcasts, appearing together at Comic-Con, and doing whatever they can to answer curious viewers' questions, without revealing too much. On the heels of a strong end to season three of Lost and an even stronger start to season four (give or take a couple of episodes), Lindelof and Cuse spoke with The A.V. Club about plotting the final third of this season (which begins airing Thursday, April 24), writing a geek-friendly series in the Blog Age, and whether fans misunderstand what kind of show Lost is.

(Two notes. When this interview was conducted, Lindelof and Cuse were in the middle of writing a two-part, two-hour finale. Since then, it's been expanded to a two-part, three-hour finale. Also, this interview contains numerous spoilers, though only for episodes of the show that have already aired.)

The A.V. Club: Are you done writing the finale yet?

Carlton Cuse: We were literally just talking about our weekend logistics, because we have been holed up in our office here, working very late every night. It's like writing an equivalent to a feature film in two weeks.

AVC: It'll be two hours long?

Damon Lindelof: It's going to air in two separate hours this year, because Grey's Anatomy has a two-hour finale that airs on May 22. They run from 8-10 p.m., and then the second hour of our finale will run from 10-11 p.m. So Hour One will air the week before. They're going to air it like they aired the original pilot, which was shot as a two-hour, then split up into two parts.

AVC: Which means you also have to think about how to end the first hour too, right? So it's on a cliffhanger?

DL: We do that with our two-hour finales anyway. We hope that hour one ends with some degree of momentum going out, because, believe it or not, ratings-wise, our two-hour finales always pick up viewers every half hour. We have to design hour two like you're just coming into the show anyway.

CC: To as much a degree as anyone can ever just drop into Lost.

AVC: Before you even started writing the finale, did you already know what was going to happen? Would you have known, say, three years ago?

CC: We don't have a detailed map, but we knew, for instance, that this year we'd be going from Denver to Kansas City.

DL: But our car broke down for a hundred days, and then we had to get there twice as fast. [Laughs.]

CC: [Laughs.] Yeah, we'd planned a lot more driving on the rural byways, then we ended up having to get on the interstate. The episodes after the writers' strike have been a real push, because we were going to do eight hours, and now we're doing five.

DL: Basically, the entire writing team sat in a room between Valentine's Day and the middle of March, and over a five-week period, we broke down all five hours of the show that we're going to produce. Then one entity would peel off and start writing as the rest of the room pressed forward. So we finished breaking down both hours of the finale just about a week ago, and everybody is taking a scene here and a scene there. Carlton and I have spent, as he said, 'til 1 or 2 in the morning every night this week whipping hour one into shape, and now we're proceeding with hour two.

AVC: Do you write in L.A.?

DL: Yes, we do.

CC: We're on the Disney lot, where we do all the stories, script work, casting, and post-production for the show. The filming itself is done on the island of O'ahu, but everything else is done here in Burbank.

AVC: So right now, they're filming in Hawaii without you?

CC: Oh, yeah. Several crews simultaneously, in fact.

DL: They'll be shooting through the first week of May.

AVC: You mentioned having to change the road map. In a recent interview, you both said you felt like the strike-enforced break was good in some ways, because it gave you a chance to reflect on what you'd already completed, and think about what you needed to do. What do you think has really worked well in the season so far, and what maybe not so well?

CC: Well, I think the thing that Damon and I were most concerned about was whether the flash-forwards would play. Had there not been a strike, by the time the show started airing, we would've been writing the finale, so we would've already been positively committed to the idea of flash-forwards, without any viewer feedback. So I think the thing that was most gratifying for us was that the strike allowed us to see how some of these episodes were playing before we started writing the remaining five. That the flash-forwards did seem to engage the audience was something we were very pleased and relieved about.

DL: And we were nervous. We loved the ideas of the flash-forwards in terms of liberating the show from what it was, and pointing us in a new direction. But whereas the flashbacks before had been an emotional storytelling technique—like, "Here's how Sawyer became a con man, here's the time that Jack ratted out his father, here's when Kate held up a bank"—on a story level, they weren't that complicated. They were sort of the one thing the audience could grasp onto, no matter what sort of wackiness was happening on the island. The flash-forwards are the exact opposite of that. When you see Sayid in the future killing people for Ben, that's all story. Or when you see Hurley being approached by Matthew Abaddon, that's all story. So the show actually becomes vastly more complicated. And also in terms of the time frame of the show… The audience had to figure out that they saw a flash-forward at the end of season three, when Jack was bearded and popping pills and yelling at Kate that they have to go back. But the Jack that you see at the beginning of season four hasn't come to that point yet. The narrative wheel of these things is tricky, and we were sitting in the editing room going, like, "Oh, shit! We made a terrible mistake here."

AVC: Do you pay a significant amount of attention to fan response and critical response? Does it affect how you proceed?

CC: Well, you know, we do, but in sort of a filtered manner. We don't really get on the boards and read all those comments. It just feels like people who are writing on the boards tend to be more focused on the mythology, and for us, we're making a character show. The thing that we spend the most time on are the character dynamics of a given episode, and what we're learning about these people. The mythology is sort of the frosting on the cake. But that's what everybody talks about, and what we're asked most about.

DL: And we find that the boards can be really toxic. Nobody goes on the boards to say: "Wow! That was awesome!" Traditionally, they go on the boards to nitpick and say, "Oh, I don't understand how Michael could have gotten off the island, gotten back to New York, parked Walt, then got indoctrinated by Friendly all in a month." Well, I don't understand how [on 24] there was a coup in the Oval Office, Jack's daughter got abducted, and there was a nuclear attack in Van Nuys, and it's not even lunchtime yet. But it's television. The reality of it is, if you go on the boards and people are saying, "I saw that coming," or "This is lame," or "I can't believe they're doing this again…" Having been one of those people myself, I know better, and try to avoid it. [Laughs.]

But there is a groundswell of what we hear about the show. When we were in season three after the break last year, it was a much different vibe than it is right now, in terms of how the audience responded to those episodes. If people are loving the show, Carlton and I will be walking around on the Disney lot, and some guy will literally pull over in his little fire-marshal truck and go, "I'm loving the show this year! What's the monster?" That won't happen if people aren't digging the show. So we do get a sense of what the fans are thinking and feeling. And what the critics are saying, because it's in the paper. The day after a really good episode airs, we'll get a lot of e-mails from people we know. After the "The Constant" aired, I don't think Carlton and I had ever gotten more e-mails. You just get a sense of, "Wow, that episode really landed with the fans."

AVC: Can the intense interest of the fan community interfere with how the show is enjoyed? For example, between the set reports and the message-board conversations, the fans had pretty much predicted that Harold Perrineau's character, Michael, was going to be Ben's "man on the boat," and when that turned out to be the case, a lot of them were disappointed that there wasn't some crazy twist.

DL: Well, we would argue that we brought back Harold in front of 4,000 of our most intense fans at the San Diego Comic-Con, and basically said, "He's coming back to the show." So the fan community had a huge hint. And then they saw his name in the opening credits, in the episode where Ben says, "I have a man on the boat." We're not complaining that people saw it coming. We wanted you to know that it was coming! So why are you bitching about the fact that it wasn't as surprising as you thought it would be? The fans would like us to pull the wool over their eyes every time, and I would basically say, "What would've happened if we hadn't brought Harold out at Comic-Con?" What would've happened is that people would've seen him in Hawaii, people would've found out that he closed a deal to come back to the show, and then we would've had no control over how they found out. And there'd be the same result.

CC: I also think that it's rewarding for the audience to not always be frustrated and behind. We have certain mysteries on the show that we hope the audience figures out on their own, and can have the satisfaction of saying "Aha! I knew that! I knew that the guy on the boat was going to be Michael!" But there are other times when we have real surprises, like Michael shooting Libby and Ana-Lucia, where we go to great pains to make sure that nobody sees it coming, so you're genuinely surprised. We intentionally mix up the degree of difficulty in solving the puzzle.

AVC: You mentioned the road map you generally have for each season. How detailed is the map for the rest of the series?

CC: The most liberating and significant event that's happened for us was getting an end date for the show, negotiated with the studio and the network. Before that, Damon and I didn't know if the mythology we'd created was supposed to sustain us over two seasons or six seasons, so it was very hard for us to do any sort of planning. But once we agreed upon a number of episodes before we were going to end the show, then we were able to start a situation where we could sketch out the rest. Once we finish writing the finale, we'll have a mini-camp on season five. We have a mini-camp every year, but because we're getting close enough to the end, the mini-camp on season five will also involve a lot of discussion about what's going to go on in season six.

AVC: Do you both already know what's going to go on?

DL: Do we know the absolute end of the show? Yeah. We've had that in mind for quite some time. But can we hand you a script for the last episode of the show right now? No, because there are market fluctuations that we are unaware of at this point. Certain characters that you want to write more for sort of wear out their welcome sooner rather than later. New characters are introduced, and pop in unexpected ways. The essential nature of that last episode is more specifically about what the last three or four scenes are, and us working toward those has always remained pretty constant.

AVC: At some point, is Lost going to have to shift from flashing forward and flashing back and having mysteries and character moments, and instead become a straightforward action-adventure, in order to get to that big finish?

CC: In terms of abandoning mysteries, no. Fundamentally, Lost is a mystery show, so I think that would be stripping the franchise of sort of its essential nature. In terms of how we'll tell the story, that's something very much in flux. This year, the degree of difficulty went up, as Damon was alluding to before. Before, we were putting the tiles of the mosaic in the present and in the past. Now, we're putting tiles in the present, the past, and the future. But what you consider the present, the past, and future is dependent on where your point of view is. The only rule that we have about that is that we're not bound to any rules. We will basically tell the remaining stories in the way we think is most compelling from a narrative perspective.

AVC: Is it right to think of Lost as one big narrative, like a novel, or should it be thought of as episodic?

DL: You know, both. Ultimately, the legacy value of the show will function more as a novel. On your bookshelf there will be a DVD set, or maybe on your hard drive, you'll be able to click on any episode you want to watch at any time. That's the way people read books. Fundamentally, you can digest what will be all 122 hours of the show over the course of a marathon viewing session in one week. Or, you can watch one every couple nights, or however you want. Ultimately, that's the way the show is going to live on. The way you're watching the show now is incredibly unique. You know there's going to be a season finale on May 22, and then you'll have to wait all the way until the end of January 2009 to see the next episode, whereas three or four years from now, people who are experiencing the show for the first time will basically only have to wait a day or an hour or a minute before they decide to slide in the next DVD. It's like Harry Potter. Now, all seven books exist, but when we were reading them, we waited up to two and a half years between books. We're writing the show to stay in the zeitgeist as it's airing. We have to write finales that are compelling enough to bring the audience back for the next season. But at the same time, the superstructure of "every season is a book" is the way we've always talked about it, and every episode is a chapter in that book. That feels like the most apt metaphor.

AVC: Going back to your comment about "market fluctuations" and how they affect character arcs, are Fisher Stevens and Zoe Bell going to be returning?

CC: You know, I think we'll duck that question.

AVC: How about this: Were the "tailies," particularly Eko, Libby, and Ana-Lucia, always going to be funeral-home fodder, or did you have other plans when you first introduced them?

DL: Our deal with Michele Rodriguez was always for a season-long arc. And then when we came to the moment when Michael was going to kill her, we also thought that if we killed Libby, it would be a one-two punch. Because Ana-Lucia is a character that a lot of the audience had mixed feelings about, but Libby is a character that nearly everybody loved. So to make Michael's act as heinous as possible, Libby ended up dead. Eko… there were deal complications with the actor going into that season, and though we did have plans for that character that would have extended well beyond season three of the show, as a result of the practical considerations of producing a show, it just didn't pan out.

AVC: So with a show as well-planned as yours, what do you do in that case? Do you move pieces of Eko's story to somebody else, or do they die along with him?

CC: Television shows aren't made in a vacuum. They're made in the real world, and the real world is complicated by the fact that you are coordinating your creative plans with hundreds of other people. In the case of Adewale [Akinnuoye-Agbaje, the actor who played Mr. Eko], he wanted to go back to London. People go to Hawaii, and either they love it or they get island fever, and Adewale was sort of in the latter camp. He just wasn't happy being in Hawaii, so we had to accommodate that. We made adjustments. You can sort of dictate to a certain degree what you want the show to be, but you have to listen just as hard to what the show is telling you it wants to be. Certain actors we write for and they pop, like Michael Emerson, and we find ourselves doing a lot more with him than we originally planned. Other ones like Mr. Eko, we had bigger plans for, but, just on a practical level, they didn't mesh with that actor's desires.

DL: We've got time for one more question, by the way.

AVC: How about a two-parter? a) During your partnership, have you ever have any major disagreements about the direction you want to take the show in? And b) Are there any story decisions that you now regret?

CC: Do you want to take A or B?

DL: I feel like we've talked about B ad nauseum, so I'll take B. As obnoxious as this sounds, we really regret nothing. Though we acknowledge that we've made significant mistakes, the reality is that the intent behind all those mistakes was the right intent. You take something like Nikki and Paolo, or spending nine episodes with our characters trapped in cages—at the time we made those decisions, our heart was in the right place. For Nikki and Paolo, we kept hearing fans saying, "What's going on with the other 30 people on the island? Why don't they go on any adventures?" And we were like, "That's a good and legitimate gripe, and let's see if we can figure out a way to get some of those guys into the show." And fundamentally, it just didn't work, but we don't regret having made the decision, or else fans would still be griping about [the background players]. Plus, it was a question we had ourselves.

As for the people in the cages, it's been pointed out to us recently that when we were writing that arc, basically we were trying to negotiate for an ending to the show. We ourselves as storytellers felt like we were trapped in cages. And the story could not progress until it was progressing toward something. Which is why the second half of season three really felt like we were answering questions, moving forward, introducing Cooper, having Locke and Sawyer acknowledge their mutual connection to the guy, and so on. All of those things were about us being able to move forward, as opposed to finding new ways to stay in place. We don't regret having written that storyline, with everybody trapped in the cages. It was an issue of necessity. You have to make mistakes in order to get it right.

CC: You know, I think for us, we're always going to try to push the envelope with the show, and when you try to push the envelope and fly close to the sound barrier, that plane is going to shatter, and sometimes it's going to break apart. And sometimes it's going to blow on through, and it's going to be exciting when it goes supersonic. We're always going to keep trying that, and sometimes, we're going to miss. But I think if we didn't do that, then people would really get upset.

As for your first question, the kind of beautiful thing about the show is how well we do collaborate. We see eye to eye on virtually everything. Occasionally, when we do see differently, it really just comes down to who feels the most passionate. We've always agreed that if one or the other feels more passionately about something, then the other one will yield. But you would be surprised how infrequently that happens.

DL: And Carlton and I aren't writing this show in a vacuum. There are six or seven other incredibly talented individuals that we spend many, many hours with in a room. The fact is that nobody can get territorial about any one idea, because it fundamentally always becomes a hive mind, and the best idea always wins. Carlton has always said, and I think he's right, that we're just trying to write a show that is cool for us. And the reason that we all work so well together is, we all think the same things are cool. We've never gotten to a point where somebody pitches something, and they think it's really cool, and everybody else goes, "Oh, that's not cool." We all sort of get onboard and rally around it.

Fans won't let FOXY forget his party days

2008-04-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES -- Before the Oceanic Six, there was a Party of Five.

It's something Matthew Fox gets reminded of "a surprising amount" by fans of that mid-1990s drama, in which he portrayed the eldest sibling of five orphans.

"What's cool about it to me is that they want to let me know they've been fans of mine for a long time -- 'I'm not one of the new fans, from the movies or Lost. I believed in you from the very, very early stages.' "

Still, he acknowledges the series, which co-starred Scott Wolf, Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt, was "not necessarily something I would watch ... According to what I like tonally, it was a little soft. And I was playing a character who was pretty soft, and, in some respect, the version of a man that a woman would tell you that they want."

Following Party of Five's cancellation, Fox spent "two years where I wanted to let everyone forget about it."

He eventually headlined the darker but short-lived supernatural series Haunted.

"It was really satisfying because it was what I wanted to do. But I was also a little stunned how fickle the business was because while it got a good response from critics, commercially it was a failure and the industry was a fickle bitch to me.

"So I thought, 'That's interesting, how quickly that goes.' So from there I went on looking for the next thing which was Lost."

Source: www.edmontonsun.com

Kristin with Yunjin Kim and Rebbeca Mader

2008-04-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

Next insatallments of Kristin's LOST week festivities. AGAIN MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

The 'Dirt' on LOST

2008-04-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

Working on a hit television show sounds glamorous. Until you actually do it. On this day in a jungle in Heeia, on Oahu's Windward side, slate-colored skies threaten rain. On the set -- a brief yet bumpy off-road drive from base camp, where trailers and a rudimentary buffet are stationed -- the crew erects two canopies. But humans don't warrant shelter. Cameras and monitors do. A communal can of bug spray and canvas chairs provide the only respite from mud, wild foliage and aggressive insects.

In those chairs sit actors Michael Emerson, Terry O'Quinn and Jorge Garcia, dutifully subjecting themselves to makeup artists who proceed to worsen their appearance. An artist dips a brush into a painter's palette to add more purple blotches under Emerson's eyes. Another tends to O'Quinn's scar. Garcia tilts his head to accommodate a hair specialist who fiddles with his long locks. Next up? Faux dirt on arms and neck.

It's all part of the much-anticipated return of "Lost" on Thursday, which signals the beginning of what the crew calls "Season 4.5." The episode features Michael Emerson (Ben Linus) in a pivotal role involving strenuous work (horses! fighting!) that launches the furious ride to the May 29 finale.

Michael Emerson, shows that 'Lost' life is not so glamorous.
The writers strike interrupted what began as a stellar year, with the first eight episodes landing solidly in Nielsen's Top 10. Everyone returned to work last month, and a mighty scramble to finish five of the eight remaining episodes ensued (subsequent seasons will compensate with extra episodes). Everything must be completed before the hiatus begins next month. So multiple units shoot scenes from several episodes in various locations simultaneously, not necessarily in chronological order, leaving the actors moderately confused about continuity and their characters' state of mind at any given moment.

During the alfresco makeup session, Emerson consults director Paul Edwards about Ben. The word "sociopath" floats in the air. One moment Ben is charging about, shouting orders. The next he mopes and whines. "I'm just curious about the change of character," says Emerson. Next to him, Terry O'Quinn plants a yellow straw hat on his head between scenes, strums his ukulele and sings in a soft, melodic voice, letting his large hunting knife dangle at his side.

After a brief lunch break at 4 p.m., the night session begins. Along the way, there's a campfire to monitor, and someone with arms the size of a cyclist's thighs must move rocks. Nearby, a crew member practices his steady cam shots by running alongside anyone who appears in his path. Another tinkers with a fake shotgun.

The actors don't sit for long before it's time to do it all again. Repetitive performances must stay fresh. Several rehearsals take place before any film is shot. Each scene finishes with directions to the camera operators about extreme close-ups and angles, as well as discussion among the actors about the mood or timing of lines and movements. Before the director shouts "Action!" trucks, vans, cranes and dozens of people must fall silent. And they do this again and again, reminding any observer just how many hours of work necessitate every 30 seconds of compelling television drama.

MATTHEW MEN'S HEALTH VIDEO AND ARTICLE

2008-04-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

Well...To continue what I was saying before...YES, I DID go out and buy THE MAY 2008 issue of Men's Health Magazine with FOXY on the cover! Great article inside on how they got him on a racetrack to drive some PORCHES! He did good for an ametuer race driver! If you would like to see more and read the article check out the site

http:///www.menshealth.com/matthewfox

OH and some of you know my baby is my 1953 CHEVY....I LOVE historic cars...WELL....MATTHEW says he has some guys customizing a 1950 MERCURY for him! That is MY OTHER FAVORITE CAR! They look GREAT when they are CHOPPED!!!! I wish I had one myself! LUCKY BASTARD!

ENJOY!

NIKI (I AM JACK'S YETI BEARD)

LOST week. May contain spoilers!!!!

2008-04-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Kristin from E!online has visited the Hawaii and will be bring us an interview with a different cast member everyday of LOST week!! Todays video features Daniel Dae Kim AKA Jin Kwon. PLEASE NOTE IT MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Foxy plans to leave L.A.

2008-04-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

If Matthew Fox looked a bit bushed at the "Speed Racer" junket this week, no wonder.

He hopped a red-eye from Hawaii, after a late-night "Lost" shoot, to participate in the press promo this week.

Here's what the exhausted star had to say about living in Hawaii, leaving L.A. and what the heck "Lost" is all about.

DR: Is it nice shooting "Lost" in Hawaii and being removed from all the L.A. craziness?

MF: Absolutely. I think if I was shooting the show in L.A., I think it would be a lot harder. I’ve always sort of felt that if I ever reached a point where I had paparazzi following me around or posted outside my house, it would be time for me to leave. I’m trying to do the thing that I love to do and be a part of it and provide for my family and do it in a way that's not jumping into their lives. And I think we're doing a pretty good job right now. Every now and then something happens where my kids are photographed, which is just weird and upsetting to me, especially if I’m not there, you know?

DR: What will happen after "Lost?" Will you move back to L.A.?

MF: I won’t be back in L.A. After Hawaii, we're going to be moving onto a different place. We still have our house in Los Angeles but we will eventually sell it. I don’t have anything against L.A. It’s got a lot of great things to offer. We just felt like we kind of wanted to be out of there by the time our daughter gets to high school. And she’s 11, so we're not very far away.

DR: Do you have a theory about "Lost?"

MF: I do. But I don’t really talk about it. You know, my theory is definitely colored by things that I do know. You know. I know a bit so my theory is not just…

DR: Are you told everything?

MF: Not everything. There is knowing how you get from point A to point B and then there’s knowing all the exact details of how you get there. I don’t know everything but I know a little bit.

DR: Do you see yourself working on "Lost" for much longer?

MF: Unless Jack Shepard dies, which is possible. But you know, the show, we have two more seasons. After we're done with this year, we will have like 32, 33 episodes to do, I guess and it's going to be really good fast, a lot of momentum. The show has really been moving this year and I think that’s been exciting for the audience as well.

DR: Any new films coming up?

MF: I’m going to take a break this summer. I’ve been working nonstop. I’ve done four films and "Lost" over the past two years. I did two films in the previous hiatus. All summer it was with "Speed Racer" and back and forth and I really haven’t stopped. So I’m taking a breather.

Matthew Fox on COVER of Men's Health Magazine.

2008-04-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hey guys...Matthew Fox is on the cover of the May 2008 issue of Men's Health Magazine...Inside you can see pics of him racing cars in preparation for his role as RACER X for the upcoming SPEED RACER movie...(May 9th PEOPLE!!!)

So go NOW and pick this up! Because of the ABOVE PIC...I think I just may run up to the store now in my pjs and get it!!! :)

Michael Emerson finds his dark niche on LOST

2008-04-20T01:45:00.000-07:00

'All my actor life I've thought of myself as a comic actor," says Michael Emerson, "and I've ended up playing such dark roles. I don't know how that happened."

Whatever the answer, Emerson has the knack for screen villainy. After coming to a grisly end as Zep Hindle in the first installment of the "Saw" horror franchise, he joined the cast of the castaway drama "Lost," which returns to ABC (Ch. 7) on Thursday at 10 p.m.

Originally contracted for only a handful of episodes, two years later his character, Ben Linus, is the show's most mysterious bad guy. And he's still filming in Hawaii.

"It's grim work," he laughs on the phone from Honolulu. "I used to think it was hard work when I was in the hatch day after day after day, but now I see the beauty of that. At least you're in an air-conditioned building. I have been out in the jungle more than I ever dreamt. And those are hard scenes. When there are a bunch of us trooping around in the jungle, that is a long, hot, buggy day."

Ben's character arc is no picnic. He got to the island before most of the other characters, giving him time to off his abusive dad and assume leadership of the group known as "The Others." Since the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, he has suffered spinal surgery, kidnapping and a crossbow shot to the shoulder.

He started season four as a prisoner of the faction of crash survivors led by John Locke (Terry O'Quinn). Before the pause in the season caused by the writers' strike, fans learned in a flash-forward that Ben makes it off the island and - somehow - recruits Sayid (Naveen Andrews) to work for him as an assassin.

In terms of story details, however, the rate of reveal has been slow. When the show resumes this week, Emerson promises that things get kicking.

"It's going to knock you out when you see that next episode," he says. "It's so full of developments and movement, I can't tell you."

Even his future in professional killing comes into play, he says, with the fates of the "Oceanic Six" - those characters who make it off the island - getting plenty of attention in the season's final episodes.

For Emerson, Ben's future fits his character. "Ben is a man who must sometimes be angry because he's never going to have the quiet happiness of family and home," he says.

"He's always going to be some kind of global warrior. He doesn't get to have the girl."

Fans will remember, however, Ben's foray into romance with Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell). His wooing tactics included a home-cooked dinner for two, and possibly - maybe - sending her lover, Goodwin (Brett Cullen), on a death mission.

"Whether Ben is capable of a conventional feeling of love I'm not certain about," says Emerson. "It's clear that his feelings for Juliet sort of morphed over into a kind of not-very-pretty possessiveness. Now, I'm not saying Ben sent Goodwin out to die as an act of vengeance, but clearly he's not that unhappy to have Goodwin gone."

Emerson, like all of the actors on the show, discovers his character as he goes. When pressed as to how much he knows about the future of "Lost," he insists he's only about three scripts ahead of the audience.

"I only know up to and including the episode we're shooting," he says.

Rather than presenting a challenge, he says, the experience is freeing. "All I have to do is show up and play the scene at hand, and play it as simply and, in my case, as ambiguously as I can. I leave all that sort of larger-picture thinking to the writers and the audience."

In fact, Emerson says, he's not the encyclopedia of "Lost" facts that one might expect, especially when it comes to the plot lines of his fellow islanders.

"It sounds crazy, but even though I've read the script, I still sometimes don't get what just happened," says Emerson. "I may have a brain defect of some sort because I will just miss obvious things and have to have them explained to me by relatives and children."

When he's finally allowed to come home, his sights are set on New York theater, where he got his break playing the title role in Moises Kaufman's play "The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde."

"I'm so jealous of all the theater that is going on," he says. "It seems to be a really good season in New York - lots of exciting plays - and I think, 'That's where I'm supposed to be!'"

But for now, says Emerson, Ben is giving his acting chops a thorough workout. "The same thing I love doing in the theater, which is to play scenes that crackle, I get to do on 'Lost,'" he says. "As TV roles go, this is a really good one.

Josh to appear on the Jimmy Kimmel Show

2008-04-19T05:15:00.000-07:00

Josh Holloway is to appear on the Jimmy Kimmel show, Great news for all of you who have the opportunity to see it

Episode: 2008/05/15
Network: (ABC) ABC Television
Date: Friday - May 16, 2008
Time: 12:05/11:05c AM
Duration: 1:00

about: Jimmy Kimmel Live: 2008/05/15
Actor Josh Holloway; musical guest Clay Aiken (panel guest and performance)

Touchy Subject for Michelle Rodriguez

2008-04-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Former LOST star blasts gay rumors.

Former star of the hit tv show 'Lost', Michelle Rodriguez, has blasted the media over ongoing speculation about her sexuality, revealing in an interview that she's fed up with the constant questions and that it's "nobody's business".

Rodriguez confronts the issue in Latina magazine, saying, "What the majority of [people] want to know is what I'm doing with my vagina, and I think that that's sick."

"What do you care who I'm dating? I can tell when somebody just wants to know about sex. And it makes me sick."

The actress, who is set to reprise her role of Letty in the fourth installment of movie franchise, 'The Fast and the Furious', blames people's misperceptions of her on the fact that she is a "tomboy... I'm pretty much a tough ass."

As for the journalists and gossip bloggers that continue to question her sexuality, Rodriguez says, "I picture them turning into pigs, slime coming out the side of their mouth, and I picture them jerking off. I don't answer those questions. I just keep it to myself and it's nobody's business. If I wanna f*ck a girl, a boy, a dog – that's my business. That's why there's bathroom doors."

Foxy Matt

2008-04-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

Matt Fox is Hottie of the month for WOMEN'S HEALTH

Every week we fall more blindly in love with him on ABC's insanely popular series Lost, in which the 41-year-old plays Jack Shephard, leader of a group of clueless plane-crash survivors stranded on a spooky island. Up next he'll star in a live-action adaptation of the animated 1960s Japanese series Speed Racer. Fox plays Racer X, the enigmatic rival-turned-partner to Emile Hirsch's title character. The entire flick, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers (the duo behind The Matrix), was filmed in front of a giant green-screen; that means that the visual effects remain mostly secret--even to Fox. Though this busy father of two seems to enjoy keeping us in the dark, we got him to shed some light on a few of life's other mysteries, like sex, skinny-dipping, and toilet seats.

We Asked...

What's one thing women need to know about men?
That pretty much everything we do revolves around women--even if it's just being near them. If you look at men's roles for the last thousand years, the desire is fundamental. We want to take care of, provide for, and be of service to…women.

Have you ever done anything that's as good as or better than sex?
No. That's really the pinnacle of our existence! People use that saying a lot--"Oh, this ice cream is orgasmic!" There are a lot of things in life that give you enjoyment, but sex is by far the best.

How can a woman tell when a man is head-over-heels in love with her?
She'll know when he starts putting the toilet seat down.

What we uncovered about Fox's...

1. Beer-and-bull-filled childhood His mom and dad raised cattle and horses and grew barley for Coors on a Wyoming ranch.

2. Aversion to shrinking nads He didn't learn to swim until he was 21 because the water in his hometown lake was too cold.

3. Desire to make some money and run He went to Columbia University, where he studied economics and played on the football team.

4. Refusal to join the ranks He was headed for Wall Street but switched to modeling instead.

5. Smelly secret Before he quit smoking in 2007, he hid the bad habit from his two kids.

6. Inability to reference The Brady Bunch He didn't have a TV in his house because his parents wouldn't allow one.

7. Kinky hobbies He enjoys skinny-dipping because he's "comfortable in the nude."

Michael Emerson

2008-04-19T03:26:00.000-07:00

Short snippet from Hawaii Today magazine

We ran into Michael Emerson, who plays Benjamin Linus on ABC’s hit TV series “Lost,” listening to jazz in Honolulu’s Chinatown district the other night.

Nice guy—which makes you realize what an incredible actor he is. When he plays Linus—the series’ complicated is-he-or-isn’t-he-a-villain—he somehow manages to be both seriously sinister and as equable as a Jack Johnson CD. Often at the same time. Always brilliantly.

In the cover feature of our current issue, we give you the low down on the “15 Things We Love About Hawaii” right now. One of these, just happens to be Emerson—the only actor to make the list.

Among the other objects of our affection? The only ukulele we’d pay four figures to strum. The Hawaii-published book that’s on our nightstand right now. The Big Island clothing designer with the fashion sense we’re digging most. The classic surfboard we’d hit the waves with right now if we weren’t at work (and knew how to surf). And more.

Emerson’s work on “Lost”—which is filmed entirely on Oahu—is one of our favorite things about every episode. It’s our good fortune that he feels similarly about our Islands, and talked to us about it.

Here’s an excerpt:

There is no “Lost” without Oahu, says Emerson. … He admits that Oahu’s beauty captivates him. No matter where he is after a long day of work shooting in the jungle, he stops every evening to watch the sun drop beneath the horizon.

Well, we did say it was just an excerpt.

You’ll find the full text of our Emerson write-up and the 14 other things we love about Hawaii in the May/June 2008 issue of HAWAII Magazine, on newsstands now.

Change is coming to LOST

2008-04-19T03:15:00.000-07:00

Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof give some hints of what to expect for the season finale

When "Lost" showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse finished the first draft of the season finale script, it was 80 pages long -- about 25 pages more than a typical teleplay for the show. And thus a two-hour season finale was born.

"We had an eight-hour story planned [for the second half of the season] that got condensed to five initially as a result of the strike," Lindelof told reporters on a conference call Thursday (April 17). "Trying to cram all that story in -- around the finale, the rubber hit the road, and we realized that it all felt very rushed and we were shortchanging the emotional moments, the character moments.

"So we read the 80-page first draft ... and we said, 'There's no way we're going to be able to cut this down to a 55-page script. Why don't we expand it to 100?'"

The "Lost" finale, titled "There's No Place Like Home," will actually be a three-part story, beginning with the May 15 episode and concluding with a two-hour event on Thursday, May 29 (the show is off on May 22 to make room for the finale of "Grey's Anatomy"). Lindelof and Cuse strongly suggested that the finale will reveal how the Oceanic 6 come to leave the island and the ramifications it has for those characters and those left behind.

"All I can say is, Sawyer isn't one of the Oceanic 6 and Jack and Kate are," Lindelof says, referring to the ongoing love triangle between Josh Holloway's, Evangeline Lilly's and Matthew Fox's characters. "It will obviously be a huge focus in the final three hours of the show that comprise the finale in terms of how that series of events transpires, and ultimately what happens to Sawyer."

Among the things that may not be revealed by season's end, however, are the backstories of the "freighter folk," the new characters introduced at the top of the season. "Because the season got shortened, one thing we didn't get to do as much as we planned was tell the story of the freighter folk," he says. "Some of that will be deferred to next season."

The two showrunners are also hoping to, as Lindelof puts it, leave viewers asking "What the hell are they gonna do?" with the finale, hinting at another possible change in the narrative structure of the show.

"There might come a time in the show where the word 'flash' becomes irrelevant," Lindelof says. "If you stop and think about what we've done this year, there's the story on the island which we perceive to be the present, then there's the story of the Oceanic 6, which is happening off the island in the future.

"But if you were to switch perspectives and were off the island, focusing on the Oceanic 6 trying to get back, that would be the present, and what happened back on the island would be either a parallel present, a possible future a possible past, who knows. When you hear the 'whoosh' noise, the question becomes, Where does it take you?"

FOXY talks about upcoming episodes

2008-04-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES—It would be hard to find someone in Hollywood as grounded as Matthew Fox. However, you wouldn’t know that by watching him on Lost, where he plays the “messed up” Dr. Jack Shephard.

In a room at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, he says that while his character has had issues in past episodes, things will get worse before they get better in episodes that follow him into the future.

“Jack is a frickin’ mess in the future so that has not been pleasant to revisit,” he says. “It’s never fun to put yourself in a place where you are messed up and desperate. He has gotten to rock bottom but I understand why we are taking him there. There is a period when he gets back [from the island] where he has built a construct of denial that he can maintain. Then things start to intrude on that bubble and he can no longer maintain the lie that he was telling himself, and things start falling apart. There will be a turn in there where he begins to build toward redemption, so I think taking him to the pit of despair will make that more rewarding.”

Ironically, Fox, who came to Lost with a resume that included several years on another hit series, Party of Five, was never allowed to watch TV when he was growing up. His parents owned a ranch in Wyoming, and he says they made sure that he spent most of his time reading or working on the farm. He says that he is happy that he gets to live and work in Hawaii while making Lost because his two children have learned to value the outdoors and seldom watch himself or anyone else on TV.

“It is very important that they develop their own imaginations and use them,” he says. “That helped me a lot, and being in Hawaii is great because they spend a lot of time outside. My daughter is 10 and discovered surfing, and she has already found some big waves to ride.”

His seven-year-old son and his daughter will be able to watch his latest project, Speed Racer, which hits theatres May 9. He says he liked the character, Racer X, a flawed hero who tries to bring race-car sponsors to justice. And he says that although he is based on a cartoon figure, there are similarities to Jack Shephard.

“I don’t buy into the notion of pure heroes. I think that is sort of an antiquated idea. For me it is more exciting to play guys like X and Jack who are very human, like we all are, and flawed in many ways but in very difficult circumstances do very heroic things and find some redemption in that. I think that is very interesting and challenging and relatable to me.”

Josh Holloway visits TURKEY for Magnum Ice Cream

2008-04-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

The popular adventure series "Lost," which continues to set TV ratings records, is a phenomenon. One of the series' most popular stars, Josh Holloway, who plays the character Sawyer on the program, will come to Turkey to be photographed for advertisements for the Magnum ice cream brand.

Many celebrities have taken part in Magnum advertisements, including Elizabeth Hurley and Eva Longoria. Holloway will be the first male celebrity Magnum signed to a contract. The photo shoot will take place in April.

Holloway was among People magazine's list of the “50 Most Beautiful People” and was named one of the sexiest men by OK! Magazine. He is one of the most admired actors in the cast of the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning program.

The actress who will accompany Holloway has yet to be announced. Can Ulkay, the director of Atlantik Film, will direct the advertisement, which will be prepared by Pars McCann Erickson. Algida's marketing director, Şükrü Dinçer, said the company hopes the new campaign will broaden Magnum's image. “It was important that the new face of Magnum display extraordinary passion, at this point we decided to take a different step and work with a male star,” said Dinçer. The company said they chose Holloway because besides his success with his role in Lost, he has the characteristics suited to the Magnum world: He likes women and living an adventurous life.

Henry Ian Cusick interview from the WASHINGTON POST

2008-04-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

"He's a survivor, and he just tries to do his best"

As Desmond, Henry Ian Cusick Finds His Way on 'Lost'

WASHINGTON POST
Sunday, April 13, 2008; Page M03

When actor Henry Ian Cusick first joined TV's "Lost," he expected to stay for three episodes. But his character, Desmond Hume -- who sometimes toggles through time and calls his fellow stranded islanders "brotha" with an endearing Scottish brogue -- struck a chord with viewers, and in 2005 the producers made him a regular.

With new episodes set to begin April 24, Cusick, 40, called from his home in Hawaii -- where "Lost" is shot and where he now lives with his wife, Annie, and their three sons -- to flash-forward into his character's future and reveal whether our Brotha Man might (no!) die.

-- interview by Jen Chaney

Viewers really respond to your character. What makes Desmond so likable?

He's a bit of an Everyman. He's not particularly special, and I think people can identify with that. He can't fix the helicopter, he can't fix computers, he's not a doctor. . . . He's a survivor, and he just tries to do his best.

There is a lot of concern about "Lost" spoilers. Do you have to sign a confidentiality agreement every time you get a new script?

I've never signed anything, but there is an unwritten rule that you just don't talk about it. Part of being on "Lost" is the enjoyment of your audience getting things. I want them to be surprised. I don't want to spoil it for them.

I hear you don't have a TV. Why?

When we lived in England, the kids would come home from school and sit down in front of the TV until dinnertime and it used to drive me bananas. When we got to Hawaii, I said, "That's it. We're not having a TV." I thought, we live by the sea. There's so much to do here, we don't need a TV. The only thing I miss is the news and soccer, but I can get that online.

The "Lost" writers are not afraid to kill off characters. Do you worry Desmond could die?

I'd like to stay, but I'm not scared of [him dying]. People who have died have gotten great story lines. Dying is not a bad thing because on "Lost," even if you do die, you may well come back.

Flash-forward into Henry Ian Cusick's future. What will you do after "Lost" ends?

We talk about it, my family and I, because we don't know whether we would leave Hawaii. We usually have just gone with the flow and gone where the work was, but now my kids are getting to a certain age where schooling is important and we want to settle down now. It's difficult. That's always the case for actors like me who don't know what the next gig is. We just go with the flow.

More Questions and Answers With Henry Ian Cusick

Here are a few more of the secrets shared during a recent phone interview with Henry Ian Cusick, the man who plays Desmond on TV's "Lost" and the winner of washingtonpost.com's Lost" Madness contest. Note to "Lost" freaks: He drops a couple of hints about the rest of this season, so pay close attention.

When you received the script for the episode "The Constant," did you fully understand all the time travel stuff, or did you have to read it a few times?

I didn't find it difficult to comprehend or follow. My initial reaction was, how do I play that? I think anyone being in one time all of a sudden and then in another time, and not knowing who people are, that would put you in a mental ward. It would put me in a mental ward. So it was a fine line [for Desmond] to go bananas and not go bananas That was the challenge: To make it believable and not go over the top.

In the recent episodes of "Lost," Desmond and Michael came into contact with each other. Was this the first time they met?

That's an interesting question. Have they or haven't they? In my mind, when Desmond came back to the island and Michael was still on the island, Desmond was pretty drunk and out of it. Whether they met or not is ambiguous but if they had met, Desmond was too out of it [to remember]. Sayid has probably filled him in on what happened.

I know you don't like spoilers, but can you say anything about what we can expect for Desmond in the upcoming new episodes?

Desmond stays on the freighter. And you'll see more shenanigans on the freighter.

Will we see Penny again this season?

That I honestly don't know.

What do you think will ultimately happen to Desmond?

Since he's not one of the Oceanic Six., my thinking is he's on the island. I am guessing there are some survivors and if they have the Oceanic Six that wants to go back, I am guessing some people are alive on the island and maybe Desmond is part of it. Or maybe not. Does he find Penny? I don't know.

Do you think Desmond will die on the show?

I am guessing he does die.

Why do you say that?

I just have a feeling.

END.

NOOOOO!!!! DESSIE WE LOVE U AT THE SHOTGLASS!!!!

The Lost Report

2008-04-12T06:46:00.000-07:00

Interview with many cast members and rumours of what is to come on the island. Possibility of mild spoilers!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

There are few entertainment columns I read as religiously as Jeff Jensen's "Lost" column on Entertainment Weekly's website. This weeks column has some killer info and poses some very interesting questions. Here it is:

Life on the Oahu set of "Lost" isn't always a day at the beach. On this sweltering March afternoon, for example, ABC's cult hit about castaways on a time-warped tropical isle has chosen to shoot in...a rock quarry. Amount of fun currently being had: Zero.

The horses are jumpy from machine-gun fire. Executive producer Jack Bender is directing with an ice pack to his face after walking into a crane. And Michael Emerson -- a.k.a. Benjamin Linus, the show's villainous über-Other -- is broiled, thanks to his curious wardrobe requirement: a woolly winter parka.

''Definitely a no-glamour zone,'' says Emerson during a brief respite from shooting Lost's first episode since the writers' strike interrupted production last November. ''I thought we would ease into things. Instead, I get this all-Ben extravaganza: combat, riding horses, foreign languages. And piano playing! All waaaay outside my comfort zone. How can you work two weeks and feel like you need a vacation already?''

Some sympathy for Lost's biggest devil? Not a polar bear's chance in Tunisia. Besides, there's crucial work to be done. You'll start seeing it on April 24, when Lost returns with the first of five fresh episodes that will wrap up its buzzy, strike-abbreviated fourth season. EW spent three days on the set of the drama, and judging from the looks of things -- like the corpse that washes up on the sandy shores of Camp Jack and the raging gunfight that will decimate Camp Locke -- the first episode back, ominously titled ''The Shape of Things to Come,'' will launch the endgame with downright apocalyptic thunder. The ensuing four installments will answer some of the season's biggest questions: How did the much-vaunted Oceanic 6 leave the Island? What happened to those left behind? Why is Sayid (Naveen Andrews) killing people for Ben in the future? And who's rotting inside that darn coffin? ''It's big and epic,'' promises Matthew Fox (Jack). ''Our first eight episodes, by design, were all set up for these episodes to come. That we're doing just five instead of eight means they're even more packed with plot. It's payoff time.'' More momentously, the finale -- whose Big Twist is code-named ''Frozen Donkey Wheel'' -- will set the stage for another series reinvention. Citing the seventh Harry Potter book, in which J.K. Rowling broke her usual year-at-Hogwarts template, executive producer Damon Lindelof says, ''We're taking the same approach. You think the show is, 'Okay, they're on the Island, and then -- whoosh -- you're in the past or the future.' By the end of season 4, I think the audience is going to go, 'How can the show continue to be that?' And they are absolutely right.''

Camp Locke is actually Camp Erdman in real life, a YMCA facility on Oahu's North Shore. On this rain-splashed afternoon, a couple dozen day campers sit on the grass, waiting to watch Lost blow up one of their cabins. As the explosives get rigged, the man who plays con-artist bad boy Sawyer, Josh Holloway, gamely takes questions. One boy shares how his mother, a big Lost fan, talks about the show so incessantly that he has to cover his ears and beg her to stop. The kids laugh, and so does Holloway, but the camp counselor is embarrassed. ''Now, remember,'' she scolds. ''Respectful questions.''

The stars of Lost have heard worse, especially last year when they were put in the awkward position of answering harsh criticism about how Lost had lost its way. ''When you came out here last season, I remember I didn't talk to you,'' Andrews tells an EW writer, ''because if all you have to say is something negative, why talk at all?'' Asked where he thought season 3 went wrong, Andrews smiles. ''Well, I wasn't in it much, so that's flaw number one, without sounding ridiculously arrogant,'' laughs the actor, whose Sayid was truly underutilized. ''A lot of us didn't know which way the show was going, and I'm not sure the writers did, either. They seemed to be meandering in the dark. But it's good now. We're on track.''

So how did they find the light? By negotiating the death of Lost itself. Last May, the show's guiding hands, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, reached a deal with ABC to end the series in 2010 after three 16-episode seasons; as a result, Lost's storytellers have been able to bring structure and focus to their saga. It began with last year's bravura finale, which brought the promise of rescue and introduced ''flash-forward'' storytelling into the mix. Fox -- who was the only actor besides Evangeline Lilly (Kate) privy to the episode's it's-not-a-flashback twist -- recalls barely being able to keep the secret from the rest of the cast. ''I knew it would take Lost to the next level,'' he says.

Season 4 has gone even further with new twists, new characters, and a new forward-moving, future-revealing mythology. Front and center are the Oceanic 6, a privileged clutch of castaways -- Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun (Yunjin Kim), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and baby Aaron -- who have somehow, someway escaped the Island. ''I think this flash-forward business is a stroke of genius,'' says Emerson. ''I think everybody here feels that we are now a more mature show, that we are now a show for grown-ups, because we're going to see that like in life, there may not be happy endings for many of us on this Island.''

At the very least, Lost has become a show no longer dogged by skepticism that its producers lack a master plan. ''The question of 'Do you guys know where you're going?' kind of evaporated,'' says Cuse. ''People are no longer fearful that they're going to be led like lemmings to a cliff edge and plunge off.'' Nobody is more thrilled than the cast; across the board, their enthusiasm -- and, in some cases, relief -- is palpable. ''Now, the story carries everything and we're just players in it, which I like,'' says Holloway. ''The writers can be concise. I like that, too.'' Adds Fox: ''Our writers have always said we needed an end in order to start ripping. Now, we're ripping.''

This isn't to say that season 4 has been perfect. After hitting a high-water mark with ''The Constant,'' a deftly plotted, unabashedly romantic time-travel yarn that ended with Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) finally making contact with soul mate Penelope Widmore (Sonya Walger), Lost slowed the pace and muffed some plays. A trick ending -- She's in the future! He's in the past! -- to an otherwise powerful episode featuring Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun alienated some perplexed fans. And the hyped-up return of castaway traitor Michael (Harold Perrineau) defied continuity logic and generally failed to meet expectations. Still, these are minor concerns compared with past infractions such as a guest turn by Bai Ling and last year's awkward introductions of -- we hesitate to even bring up their names -- Nikki and Paulo.

Ironically, season 4's overall strength and sophistication may have renewed Lost's creative mojo, but it has also sealed the show's rep as an intimidating weekly TV commitment. Viewership has steadily declined throughout the season, from 17.8 million for the season 4 premiere to 13.4 for episode 8. When the show returns April 24, it will air after Grey's Anatomy, at 10 p.m., and while it may get some draft from the hospital hit, it's a less-than-McDreamy hour for a series that demands maximum alertness. But ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson says that even though he'd ''love to see the show grow...the reality is that the numbers are pretty good.'' And he's as excited as anyone about the new direction. ''Lost has established itself as one of the great shows of all time. I'm proud that by agreeing to end the show, we have freed them up to do what they want to do.''

And what they'll be doing is kicking things off with a meaty sweep of story. In addition to being a flash-forward adventure for globe-trotting Ben, in which his war with British billionaire Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) over control of the Island will intensify, episode 9 revisits a long-simmering subplot: Sayid's romance with Iraqi love Nadia (Andrea Gabriel). According to Lindelof, a new dimension of Smokey the monster's mercurial nature will also be revealed, per the Lost rule that ''you learn something new about the monster whenever it appears.'' And Cuse says a major story line will begin for Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Aaron's Aussie mommy, who lost boyfriend Charlie in last year's finale: ''Mysterious things are happening to Claire that set up the next few episodes -- and the next few years, too.''

''The Shape of Things to Come'' will be followed by a flash-forward installment for Jack. ''We're starting to close the loop on the end of last season,'' says Fox. ''Jack in the future is a man marked by weakness, but the Jack of the present is strong. You're going to understand how he made that transition.'' The last three episodes include only one flashback, which the producers say will be a mythically significant outing for...someone. The rumor: Locke (Terry O'Quinn). Fans will also see a new Dharma station called the Orchid -- all three levels of it -- that might shed more light on the Island's time-warping properties. Peripheral faves like Penelope, ageless Other Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), and off-Island mystery man Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick) will pop up. But due to the strike, two breakout freighter newbies -- frazzled physicist Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) and ghost-whispering hustler Miles Straume (Ken Leung) -- won't be getting their spotlights until next year. The May 22 finale will complicate the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle by featuring ''a spectacular kiss'' and elaborate on Jack's flash-forward ambition to journey back to the Island. ''This year's finale will sum up exactly how difficult it may be to accomplish that,'' says Lindelof, who adds this cryptic response to speculation that flash-forwards will vanish once Island present meets off-Island future: ''There could easily be a time when the word flash becomes irrelevant.''

While fans wait to see what form Lost's future takes, the cast waits to see whether they'll be part of it: Peril abounds for the castaways in the next five episodes. During EW's stay on the set, Garcia prepared for an encounter with Smokey, and Holloway was spritzed with fake sweat and a touch of blood in advance of a raging gunfight. After fishing that mystery corpse from the surf, Daniel Dae Kim addressed a reporter's question about Jin's uncertain flash-forward fate (he seemingly died in the March 13 episode) with a mock-frantic cry: ''I don't know!'' As it was at the start, Lost is once more the show where anything can happen. Drying out in the sun after scurrying away from a big wave that washed out the scene, Yunjin Kim sits in the tall grass of the beach and sums it up: ''It feels like season 1. And I love it.''

Source: www.ew.com

Dom and Evie together again??

2008-04-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

I am saddened to have to report this article, but I suppose we have to keep everyone up to date (even if it breaks my heart)

Former "Lost" co-stars Dominic Monaghan and Evangeline Lilly have rekindled their relationship, according to reports.

The pair split late last year after Monaghan's character, Charlie, was killed off on "Lost," and the British actor left the show's Hawaii location.

But Monaghan and Lilly were spotted together at the opening of Monaghan's recent photography exhibition in Los Angeles, and sources claim they are a couple again.

A friend tells Star magazine, "She remained in Hawaii for the show, and he moved back to L.A. so the distance took its toll.

"They decided to take a break, but it was really hard on them both." After staying touch, things are now back on track, the source claims: "They never stopped loving each other."

Source: www.sfgate.com

The RACER X Obsession CONTINUES...

2008-03-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

Well, you guys know I'm getting more and more obsessed with Matthew Fox as RACER X in the new SPEED RACER movie( in theaters May 9th!)...Well....I was surfing the web and found THIS!!!!

See More Mattel Various at IGN.com

PLEASE....GOD help me if I EVER get this in my house! A LIFE-SIZED Matthew Fox....In Black Leather! If ANYONE can find more info on how I can get my hands...*ahem*...on this ----Please email me!

dharmaholics@gmail.com

Now I must take a cold shower...
NIKI

Mr. Friendly...DOES HORROR???!!

2008-03-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

Catch M.C. Gainey in the new film "UNEARTHED" now on DVD. This is one of HORRORFEST's 8 Films to Die For! Our beloved "TOM" plays a cattle rancher...

Here's a description of the film...
When an unexplained trucking accident knocks out phone lines in the town of Pueblo, New Mexico and blocks the only route out of town, an investigation into the cause of the crash reveals an otherworldly creature that could pose a threat to the entire human race. Awakening from her usual hangover to investigate a herd of cattle that has been mutilated almost beyond recognition, Pueblo Sheriff Annie is summoned to the scene of a mysterious semi accident. Though the only clue as to the identity to the driver is a severed limb, Sheriff Annie does discover a bizarre, crab-like leg stuck in the grill of the scorched tanker. Meanwhile, on another stretch of the same highway, vacationing sisters Ally and Caya stop to pick up a ruggedly handsome ranch hand named Charlie whose car has stalled out miles away from a gas station or repair shop. Upon arriving at the only gas station in Pueblo, the trio is greeted by Nodin and her grandfather and informed that not only are the pumps dry, but that the only route out of town is blocked by the accident as well. Also trapped at the station is traveling salesman Frank, who specializes in synthetic urine. As night draws near Sheriff Annie arrives at the gas station to share her strange find with botany specialist Nodin, who can find no earthly explanation for the unidentified appendage. Later, when Ally decides to pitch in by taking out the trash, she is savagely mauled by a vicious creature that has just torn the patrons of a local bar limb from limb. As the night drags on and the bloodbath continues, the frightened group discovers that their only hope for survival may the very same Native American girl responsible to unleashing the relentless beast in the first place.

Matt Fox talks about his kids

2008-03-25T01:16:00.000-07:00

Matthew_fox_07Matthew Fox will showcase his acting talent in the new film Speed Racer and his son Byron, 6, can't wait.

He asks me every single day when the movie’s coming out. He’s seen the trailer of the movie. He’s very excited.

In preparing for the release of the new film, the 41-year-old Lost star had to model for his new Racer X action figure. And while his family was excited about it, Matthew tries to keep the fame of his career separate from his family.

We’re raising our kids in Hawaii. For me and for my wife, it’s important that we keep those two worlds as separate as possible. I do the work, I go on a movie set somewhere, and there’s a short period of time where I’m sort of in the spotlight promoting the film. My kids are never really aware that that’s going on in any way.

Matthew and his wife Margherita are also parents to daughter Kyle, 9.

Source: OK magazine

Hurley is cusred, Jorge is lucky

2008-03-22T01:42:00.000-07:00

JORGE Garcia, who plays rotund Hurley in Lost, figures he's one of the luckiest guys in show business, and is still counting his blessings.
Before finding fame on the island adventure series shot in Hawaii, Garcia was battling away as a stand-up comedian and bit-part actor.

This is not to say Garcia's getting too comfortable. He's well aware Lost producers, known for creating unexpected plot twists, could boot him from the show at any minute.

There's no question, however, that writing Hurley out of the show would be fraught with peril because he ranks as one of its most popular characters.

Garcia smiles when asked how important he sees Hurley to Lost's success.

"Well, you gotta look at the story," he says.

"And if the best story to tell involves Hurley dying, well . . .

"Listen, I want Hurley to be there until the end, but you want the show to be the best it can be. And we have a very high standard that we're living up to.

"I was watching Dom (Dominic Monaghan, who played Charlie) handle his destiny (on-screen death). And he was feeling it was the best death we've had and the most meaningful . . . sacrificing for the best of everybody. He had a very noble attitude about it. So I would take his lead.

"Then again, maybe I'd say (to producers), ‘But the audience loves me so much'."

The cast's sense of isolation, spending so much time filming in Hawaii, ensures there's grief when a regular character is sacrificed.

"It's tough because they move away for one thing. It's not like, you know, you drive 20 minutes and you can go visit them on any afternoon," Garcia says.

"They're a plane ride away."

But Garcia hastens to add that his life is not too shabby.

When he's not at work, he loves heading to his beach house to play with his dog.

Asked if he, like Monaghan, has fallen in love with surfing since arriving in Hawaii, the generously proportioned Garcia says: ‘‘Not yet. I'm working on it. I'm getting another board that's longer and wider and will float me better to, you know, have more success.''

His size raises some questions about how Garcia handles the physical workload on Lost.

Garcia says he relies heavily on breaks in production to catch his breath.

"Whenever they (crew) have to move the camera, it gives you about a half-hour to hang out and chill. But sometimes you need to ask for it (rest), you know," he says.

"I remember I did an episode where I was running up the longest escalator I'd ever seen in my life at the Honolulu Convention Centre. And I'm running up with suitcases bobbing through people and I have to make it to the top.

"You do one take and they want you to go down and re-set and I'm already covered with sweat and panting and I'm like, ‘Hold on, the next take is not coming quite so soon'.

"Sometimes you gotta tell them you need time."

Jorge Garcia is confident Lost can maintain its following, despite signs even its hard-core fans have been frustrated by meandering plotlines.

"I think a lot of fans have issues with the start of the last season, but I thought the season came to a really phenomenal ending,'' Garcia says. ‘‘And now that writers know the time they have left to tell the full Lost story, we've had very solid scripts. It's exciting. It's like the scripts we get now are on the level of excitement we had in season one."

Garcia has given up trying to work out why Hurley and his fellow crash survivors are on the island. "I gave up coming up with theories. I enjoy reading theories people come up with, but I now leave that to the fans."

Source: www.news.com.au

Micheal is BACK. Harold talks about his return.

2008-03-22T01:36:00.000-07:00

Harold Perrineau is back on the island — and ready to talk about why he left.

"It only goes about five feet deep," Harold Perrineau says, nodding in the direction of the swimming pool in his backyard. "If I stand in it, part of me's still above water."

From the hint of relief in his voice, you'd think a shallow pool was a major selling point when Perrineau bought the unassuming Los Angeles home more than a year ago. You wouldn't be entirely wrong.

As the T-shirt- and jeans-clad actor, 44, settles onto a sofa in the family room, he admits he's not a big water guy. He doesn't swim and he's prone to seasickness. So it's not hard to imagine Perrineau's anxiety when he found out his hotly anticipated return to Lost (Thursdays at 9 pm/ET, ABC) would take place on a ship in the vast Pacific. "My first day it was like, jump in a speedboat, drive 20 minutes out in the rain, step on the freighter," Perrineau says with a laugh. "I was sick all day."

Nausea aside, the actor is relieved to once again be part of the Lost crew. His character, Michael, hadn't been seen or heard from since motoring off the island in the Others' boat with son Walt at the end of Season 2, leaving fans to wonder what the holy smoke monster had happened to them. "It was time to come back," Perrineau says. "Even if Michael was going to die, I [wanted] him to finish, as opposed to just disappearing."

When the character finally resurfaced, pushing a mop aboard the mystery freighter in the March 13 episode, he was very much alive — if very much pretending to be someone else. The March 20 episode finds Sayid (Naveen Andrews) demanding to know why his former comrade is posing as deckhand Kevin Johnson, a question answered by a series of darkly revelatory flashbacks that involve Michael at home in Manhattan post-island, the music of Mama Cass and a pivotal Friendly encounter. (Walt pops up only briefly, and four dead characters reappear.) Executive producer Carlton Cuse teases, "It's safe to say Michael's return to the outside world did not work out in any way he hoped or planned."

Perrineau's off-screen Lost journey has been nearly as dramatic. By the time Michael — desperate to get his son back from the Others — shot and killed Ana Lucia and Libby near the end of Season 2, Perrineau wasn't hiding his displeasure with the evolution of his character. "Michael's been such a decent guy," he told TV Guide at the time. "To suddenly be the executioner, I don't know how happy I am about that." Still, when he ultimately left, Perrineau says now, "I was a little bummed out. I'd put my heart and soul into the show."

From the start, Cuse and fellow exec producer Damon Lindelof insisted Michael would eventually return. "He was always coming back on the freighter," Lindelof says. "It was just a matter of [when] we were gonna reveal the freighter." The initial plan was the third-season finale, but Perrineau chose to sign on to the CBS pilot Demons instead.

Reports at the time blamed the lack of a Lost deal on Perrineau's outrageous salary demands, something the actor — who starred in the horror flick 28 Weeks Later and wrote and recorded a song called "Stay Strong" in support of the U.S. troops in Iraq last year — denies. "They were not throwing money at me," he says. Instead, he claims he didn't want to again uproot wife Brittany and daughter Aurora, 13, to Hawaii, where the ABC drama shoots. (Demons shot in L.A.) "I was actually making less money on Demons [than Lost]," Perrineau says. "I just needed some stability for my family."

When Demons didn't make CBS' fall '07 lineup, Perrineau was once again available and, this time, the Lost deal came together quickly. Regardless of what came before, "I'm really happy to be back," he says. "It's been like going home to family."

His immediate family, meanwhile, will stay in L.A. while Perrineau returns to Hawaii to shoot the rest of Season 4. His wife is pregnant with the couple's second child and due in less than two months. "We're gonna have a little girl," he says quietly, "and I'm looking forward to meeting her."

To make sure he doesn't miss the blessed event, he's got a plan: "When I have downtime from the show, [I'll] get on a plane. Fly back and forth to make sure the baby hasn't come. It's gonna be crazy."

But at least there won't be any boats.

Source: seattlepi.nwsource.com

Here's a LOOK at the NEW RACER X POSTER!

2008-03-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

Who is that masked man? It's MATTHEW FOX as RACER X in the new Speed Racer movie coming to theaters MAY 9!

Words cannot express the feeling I get looking at him in this outfit...---NIKI

FOXY is RACER X...In Theaters May 9!

2008-03-18T01:56:00.001-07:00

Hey fellow Dharmaholics! Those of you that know me also know my *ahem* fondness for one certain Doctor on LOST...And you probably also know that everytime I see a Speed Racer trailer I drool with the views I get of Matthew Fox in that Racer X costume! I CANNOT wait to see this movie! IT IS SO COLORFUL! Check out the trailer here at the OFFICIAL SITE!

http://speedracerthemovie.warnerbros.com/

ENJOY! I just want to get Matt alone with that outfit on!!!!

SINCERELY,
NIKI

Here's a great interview with Henry Ian Cusick-- Our BELOVED Des!

2008-03-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

(from the HenryIanCusick Group at Yahoo)

Stupid Questions To Ask A Brit:

Q: Do you drink tea?
A: Only when I've run out of everything else

Q: if yes, what kind do you drink most?
A: The one in the cupboard

Q: Do you drink hot tea?
A: It starts off hot, finishes cold

Q: if yes, do you take it black or with milk &/or sugar
A: milk and sugar

Q: or the American way (with lemon)?
A: If I'm ill, with whiskey *(That's our SHOTGLASS MEMBER!!!-niki)

Q: Coke or Pepsi?
A: Pepsi

Q: Diet or Regular?
A: Regular

Q: Ever been to Culloden?
A: Culloden Castle...

Q: Ever traversed the Chunnel?
A: Yes

Q: Ever visited Stonehenge?
A: No

Q: The French...nice or not?
A: Nice, especially Parisian waiters

Q: What's your favourite pub food?
A: Salt and vinegar crisps

Q: Ever had haggis?
A: Yes, mmmm!

Q: What is the difference between a crumpet and an English muffin?
A: Crumpet's tastier...

Q: Do you watch Dr. Who?
A: No

Q: if yes, which Doctor is (was) your favourite?

Q: Who is funnier, Benny Hill or Rowan Atkinson?
A: Shouldn't that be 'who WAS funnier?'

Q: What is the best British comedy ever made,Blackadder or Fawlty Towers?
A: Between these two, Blackadder

Q: Is Monty Python the best thing to ever come out of the UK?
A: Maybe 30 years ago

Q: Do you laugh while watching Ab Fab?
A: Never

Q: Who had the best music in the 60's, UK or USA?
A: UK

Q: 70's?
A: UK

Q: 80's?
A: UK

Q: Do females play footie in the UK?
A: Yes

Q: Can you name one?
A: Isabelle...she's playing outside with my son

Evie New Face of COOL WATER for Women

2008-03-18T01:22:00.000-07:00

Coty Prestige has signed Evangeline Lilly, the actress who plays Kate Austen on "Lost," to front its Cool Water Woman scent worldwide, except in the U.S.

The first print ads and TV spot featuring the actress for the scent, launched in 1996, will break in July.
Last year, Coty signed fellow "Lost" star Josh Holloway to be the face of the Cool Water men's scents.

It's the first time the Canadian actress has fronted a fragrance. Cool Water Woman "definitely represents the juxtaposition between purity and sensuality, and there's that sort of fresh newness," said Lilly. "On top of it, there's strength that's underneath it all, that is where sensuality comes from — versus just pure sexiness."

DOM HUNTING FOR WORLD'S LARGEST SPIDER!!!

2008-03-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

Actor Dominic Monaghan is planning an expedition into the African jungle in a bid to find the world's largest spider.

The Lord Of The Rings star, who has a huge collection of reptiles and insects, is desperate to try and locate the Hercules Baboon Spider, which was last spotted in Nigeria in the early 1900s.

If Monaghan succeeds in locating the arachnid, he'll end up with a place in the Guinness Book Of Records.

He says, "I'm going there, hopefully with a crew of people, to catch the largest spider on the planet. It's called the Hercules Baboon Spider.

"There's one specimen of it in the Natural History Museum in London. It's about 14 or 15 inches. There's only one - they found it in the early 1900s in Nigeria... A biologist found that spider, put it in alcohol and that's it, that's all they have...

"This thing is way bigger than a dinner plate, and way bigger than anything else that's out there right now. We don't know how poisonous the spider is, we don't know whether is jumps... It's all unchartered territory.

"If we find it, we'll be in the Guiness Book Of Records".

DOM's Happy Accidents EXHIBIT

2008-03-16T00:53:00.000-07:00

On a previous post we told you about Dom's recent photo exhibit in L.A. Here's the link so you can check out his work! If you would like to purchase a print 20% of the proceeds will go to the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.

HERE's THE LINK!

http://www.hamiltonselway.com/events.html

ENJOY!
I like "White America"..."Oceanic Flight2"...
"Self Portrait:Charlie"...and "Stegasaurus" (cuz I love cameleons).
I wonder who's ass that is in the "She Knows" piece? hmmmmmm

TERRY O'QUINN Visits Illinois...

2008-03-13T01:03:00.000-07:00

March 4, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Actor Terry O’Quinn is in an elite circle. Not just because millions of people tune in each week to see him on the hit ABC television series LOST, but because he can call himself that rare honor – a working actor.

“Work. Work when you can, any way you can,” said O’Quinn, sharing his insights on the acting profession to a room full of theatre students at Illinois Wesleyan University on Tuesday. The actor addressed three classes and an open forum Monday and Tuesday before returning to Hawaii to resume filming of the television show.

O’Quinn is the older brother of Illinois Wesleyan’s Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts Thomas Quinn, and offered to speak to his brother’s theatre classes during a visit. “His wife’s family lives on the East Coast (NEAR MY TOWN!--NIKI), so he’s flying back and forth all the time,” said Quinn. “The trick was just getting him to land.”

Sitting in a circle with nearly two dozen students in the E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre, O’Quinn fielded questions and gave honest answers about everything from entering the acting profession, to working for television verses theatre, and being recognized.

“You know you are getting more famous when people say your name or even your character, ‘Are you Terry O’Quinn?’ or ‘Are you John Locke?’” said O’Quinn, who had to change his name because another actor already has his name, Terrance Quinn, registered with Actors Equity. “I used to get people coming up to me and saying, ‘You look familiar. Do you shop at Wal Mart?’” For O’Quinn, the recognition is not the reward of acting. “Really, I think of fame as distracting, it’s something you have to get around,” he said.

Every actor looks at working on a hit show with a wary eye, said O’Quinn. “I’ve been acting for more than 30 years and this has never happened to me. And it will not happen again, I can almost guarantee it,” he said, though he joked he and fellow LOST actor Michael Emerson, who plays Ben Linus – the nemesis of O’Quinn’s character – could always spin off a show. “We could be detectives and solve really creepy crimes,” he said, alluding to the suggested supernatural elements of LOST.

A theatre actor for more than a decade before he started taking roles in television and film, O’Quinn said he loves the intimacy and immediacy of the stage. “Working in television can be fun, but theatre is so colorful and alive, with the audience reacting right there,” he said. “In theatre, you have one shot to get it right, that performance, that night.”

Stage actors can make great transitions to working in front of the camera because they understand that immediacy, said O’Quinn. “In television, hundreds of people set up a shot, you are pulled in and the director says go. Then, of course, you do the scene eight different times for camera angles. The benefit of stage training is that you are ready to go each time. There are a few actors who might think that film means you are more free to make mistakes, but mistakes just waste the time of hundreds of people.”

O’Quinn advised students to go into acting with full dedication. “Acting has to be your only alternative. You can’t go into it and have a fall-back profession waiting. If you only try halfway, you are going to fail,” he said, noting auditions have to be the same way. “If you are jumping from one building to the next, do not slow down before you jump. Jump. Jump hard.”

Along with dedication, actors also need to be practical, according to O’Quinn. “We talk about making it, but what is that? Getting the cover of TV Guide?” he said. “Most actors judge success on whether or not they can make a living.” He told students to take acting jobs as often as they could. “Make sure you are working, then you can talk about aesthetics and the dynamics of a scene. You have to eat if you are going to get to rehearsal.”

O’Quinn considers himself lucky, getting breaks in an industry that can be brutal. The best thing an actor can do is to be ready for those breaks, he said. “You have to be persistent and keep acting. Then you will have those muscles ready for when the door opens for you.” O’Quinn also advised students it was all right to have fun, but to stay healthy. “These are our tools – our bodies, our minds, our brains. If you abuse those too much, you can lose out when the time comes for your break.”

Along with keeping in shape, maintaining a professional demeanor is key to success for an actor, said O’Quinn. “Over the years, I’ve seen actors approach characters from different ways. They may say, ‘My character doesn’t like your character, so I can’t like you.’ Or they might remain in character all day. Now that doesn’t work for me, but you have to respect what someone needs to make it work,” said O’ Quinn, who noted he always takes on supporting roles as being just that – a way to support the cast. “My role in the TV show Alias was that of a guy who gave the audience information,” O’Quinn said of his part as Assistant CIA Director Kendall. “My aim was to be prepared, to go in and give the other actors a feeling of confidence. That gains you respect and you’re considered a professional.” Alias was produced by J.J. Abrams, who asked O’Quinn to join his upcoming show LOST without an audition. “There is a saying that Emmys and Oscars don’t get you jobs. It’s what you do to get the awards that gets you the next job, ” said O’Quinn.

Unlike the many fans of LOST, O’Quinn says he doesn’t have any theories about the ongoing mysteries of the show. “I don’t know what will happen, and I try not to guess because it may color what I do with the character,” said O’Quinn. “There’s a great freedom in not knowing what will happen. My character John Locke doesn’t know, and neither do I.”