CelebWatch: Singing Sulu, President Cromwell, Spoiled Visitor, and Concerned Bana March 28, 2008
by Charles Trotter , Filed under: CelebWatch , trackback
This week, the Watch brings you news on George Takei’s singing lessons, James Cromwell getting presidential, Visitor’s role on Battlestar, Wheatong geeking out on gaming, Eric Bana’s concerns regarding his image, TV appearances for Scott Bakula and Ethan Phillips, a birthday wish for Marina Sirtis, and more!
Sulu Sings (Oh, my… ears!)
Last week, we reported that George Takei (TOS’s Hikaru Sulu) would try his hand at country singing on the CBS reality series Secret Talents of the Stars. Now in a new Trek-themed promo from CBS you can see and (oh my) hear it yourself…if you dare.
It’s madness, Jim, but not as we know it.
Visitor’s BSG Visit + New Movie Screenings
[BSG spoilers] We already know Nana Visitor (DS9’s Kira Nerys) has a recurring role in the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica, but io9 has some more info regarding her character. It appears her character, Emily, will be a patient in the same cancer-treatment room as President Roslin (played by Mary McDonnell). Before the two ultimately form a bond, but not before Emily annoys Roslin by religiously listening to all of Baltar’s radio broadcasts. In the meantime, Visitor’s new horror movie Babysitter Wanted will be screened at the Horrorfest in Denver, Colorado, which takes place April 18-20. The festival will run in conjunction with the STARFEST Sci-Fi Convention, which will be honoring Visitor while celebrating DS9’s 15th anniversary. Babysitter Wanted will then be screened Germany’s 12th Annual “Weekend of Fear” film festival on May 2nd and 3rd. (Business Wire)
Cover Boy Bana Concerned About His Profile
Eric Bana graces the cover of the March issue of GQ Magazine which includes an in-depth feature and photos (also available) of Star Trek’s latest bad guy. Bana doesn’t talk Trek, but gives insight into why he has referred to his Nero role as ‘a cameo.’ Apparently the experience working on The Hulk left a bad taste in his mouth for high profile projects and he has become more cautious about roles and his profile in general, telling GQ:
I have been in some high-profile films, but I think I’ve been pretty careful about what my level of involvement is in them. I find the notion so daunting that a movie is actually all about you. I don’t think it’s healthy.
Bana: ‘it’s not all about me’
Wheaton’s WIRED for gaming
Wil Wheaton (TNG’s Wesley Crusher) knows his games (as this video of his keynote at last year’s PAX gaming conference can attest). This week the writer of "Just a Geek" talked to WIRED game blog about his thoughts on the gaming industry, including when he thinks games will be as accepted as films and TV:
Until the barrier to entry is significantly altered, and the growing caricature of gamers as either foul-mouthed teens or psychotic misanthropes is stopped — which is unlikely, because opportunistic politicians have seized on it as the latest version of the Satanic Panic — I doubt videogames will reach the level of popularity and ubiquity that movies currently enjoy.
Cromwell gets presidential
James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane, etc.) has been cast as former President George Herbert Walker Bush in Oliver Stone’s W, a biographical drama (in the same sense that JFK and Nixon were biographies) focusing on current President George W. Bush and his rise to power. The film should start production in April and is expected to be ready for release by the November elections and should definitely be out by the time Bush leaves the White House in January. (Variety)
Cromwell from Cochrane to ‘41′
Ullman Loves Archer
Scott Bakula (ENT’s Jonathan Archer) will be starring with Tracey Ullman on the latter’s new sketch comedy series, State of the Union, which will run for five episodes on Showtime beginning this Sunday night. In the series, Bakula plays Chris Fulbright, the co-worker and lover of an investment banker … one of the many characters to be played by Ullman. See Variety for a review of the first episode.
B’Elanna Up for Hugo
Roxann Dawson (VOY’s B’Elanna Torres) is among those nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Well, more accurately, the first season of Heroes is up for the award but Dawson, as one of the season’s directors, is included in the nomination list. Dawson directed the fifteenth “chapter” of the season, entitled “Run!” We’ll find out if she wins or not on August 9th; see The Hugo Awards.org for more.
Dawson directs Masi Oka on how to eat lunch
Neelix Doesn’t Want Your Sex
Ethan Phillips (VOY’s Neelix) guest-starred in tonight’s episode of Eli Stone. Phillips plays the principal of a school who expels a student for playing George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex” during an abstinence education assembly. Also guest starring in the episode are Bill Smitrovich (Webb in DS9’s “Past Tense”) and David Burke (Steven Price in VOY’s “Someone to Watch Over Me”). The episode aired tonight at 10/9c on ABC; that means you missed it. Oh, well; see WAPT.com for more information on the episode.
TrekBits
- Nicole de Boer’s (DS9’s Ezri Dax) old Canadian TV show 9B has been picked up by British Columbian broadcaster VisionTV and will begin re-airing on March 31st. (Broadcaster Magazine)
- Malcolm McDowell (Generations‘ Tolian Soran) will be the guest speaker for the 17th Annual Florida Film Festival at Regal Cinemas Winter Park Village 20 on April 2nd. (eMediaWire)
- Tony Todd (Kurn, etc.) has will be at Fangoria’s East Coast Weekend of Horrors convention, to be held June 20-22 in Secaucus, New Jersey. (Fangoria)
- The new book honoring I Am Legend and TOS: “The Enemy Within” writer Richard Metheson, entitled He Is Legend, will be available February 2009 and is available for pre-order from Gauntlet Press.
- Tyler Perry (Head of Starfleet Academy in 2009’s Star Trek) won’t talk Trek but he did talk about everything else over at Urban Network.
Happy Birthday, Marina!
Yesterday, we celebrated the birthday of Leonard Nimoy; this Saturday will be the 53rd (!) birthday of Marina Sirtis, who is of course best known for playing Counselor Deanna Troi. So, from all of us on the TrekMovie.com staff, happy birthday, Marina!
Sirtis at last month’s Farpoint con
Here are other Trek luminaries celebrating birthdays this week:
- Phillip R. Allen (Capt. Esteban, Star Trek III) is 69
- Melvin Caesar Belli (Steve O’Connel, TOS: “And the Children Shall Lead”) and Paul Eiding (Loquel, TNG: “Liaisons”) will be 51 on the 28th
- Anthony De Longis (VOY’s Culluh) is 58.
- Jon De Vries (Wilson/Victor Granger, TNG: “Up the Long Ladder”) is 61.
- Lisa Lord (Alijon Prime nurse, DS9: “Nor the Battle to the Strong”) is 44
- Sarah Marshall (Janet Wallace, TOS: “The Deadly Year”) is 75
- Tony Papenfuss (Yeln, DS9: “Second Skin”) is 58
- Michael Reisz (William Tefler, VOY: “Good Shepherd”) is 40
- Richard Sarstedt (veteran Trek stand-in) is 66
- Norman Snow (Torin, TNG: “Rightful Heir”) will be 58 on the 29th
- Jon Steuer (Alexander Rozhenko, TNG: “Reunion”) is 24
- Brenda Strong (Rashella, TNG: “When the Bough Breaks”) is 48
- Jesús Salvador Treviño (DS9/VOY director) is 62)
- Lark Voorhies (Leanne, DS9: “Life Support”) is 34
- Dell Yount (Tilikia; B’Rat Ud) will be 48 on the 28th.
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Comments»
First?
George Takei singing….heh. That’s new.
btw Sirtis looks awful at this picture.
Looks like Botox is her best friend.
Good gravy I never thought i would be checking out a 53 year old. BUt good gravy…
…BREAKING NEWS… BREAKING NEWS…
George Takei has been chosen to perfom the Title Song for the next Star Trek
Movie.
Hmm… the rumors about germans and their lack of humor appear sadly to be true…
Oh George Takei, you attention-starved individual…
no, Mark ist just an exception…. so don’t blame us Germans will you…
Hey! You try looking hot at the age of 53!! (hehe) That is after all well into grandma years for her. At least we can still look at her in TNG episodes walking around in that skin tight uniform!!
Hey, is this the thread about Takei singing the title song for IX about Germans and their lack of humor?
Heh. Surprisingly good likeness with Cromwell & Bush.
What’s the name of that song George is singing? Is it on itunes?
George needs to do a duet with that American Idol guy William Hung…hope I got that right! Any hoo the guy that slaughtered that song and went on to record a few others. That would be great!
I wanna see Sulu and Shatner sing a duet. Perhaps “I’ve Got You Babe”, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” or the Spice Girls’ “2 Become 1″.
#2 - I agree. Marina is looking more and more plastic with each passing year. Somewhere around First Contact she was really good looking (not as campy in those awful outfits in TNG that made her chest look small and her bottom look huge), but in the last 10 years I have grown more and more suspicious. Does anyone know what sort of work she has had done? I’ve often wondered…
OH MY!
#13—How about “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” (David Allen Coe)?
Is it me or does Marina Sirtis get hotter every year?
Also, LOL at Will Wheaton. He’s concerned that gamers suffer from a “growing caricature of gamers as either foul-mouthed teens or psychotic misanthropes”. You’d have thought Will got frozen in 1971 and just now got thawed out. Dungeons and Dragons has been around since the late 70’s, so this stereotype is not new. Watch the South Park episode of “Make Love, Not Warcraft”, and you’ll see what I mean. Sorry, Will, the geek will not inherit the Earth.
Takei singing??????
This site really does have it all!!!!!!!!!
Shields! SHIELDS!! And Yarnell! Whatever it takes, but stop that noise.
Kidding, George. Have fun.
#3, someday (I hope) you’re going to be 53 yourself. Or are you planning to become celibate?
So James Cromwell continues his streak of appearing in movies as people he doesn’t resemble at all … Zefram Cochrane, Prince Philip, now GHW Bush. :-)
Good thing he’s such a good actor!
Scott B. out.
3 Yeah, I like it. And I checked out a 53 yr old once.
Happy birthday Marina! You’re still as beautiful as ever.
#14 Capttravis — No, I don’t, nor should anybody really care. What Ms. Sirtis (or anybody, for that matter) does or doesn’t do to her own body is no concern of our’s.
#17 Decker’s Stubble — The geek already inherit the earth. ;)
#2…. yeah looks like shes been overdoing the collagen lips aswell… any british guys reminded of lesley ash at all? Google and compare!
Still was well shocked to learn shes 53… not bad lookin for her years.
Rozanne’s looking good for 50 too!
Love Marina.
Reading “(TOS’s Hikaru Sulu)” after Takei’s name, on a Trek site no less, makes my head explode. It’s a bit early (if ever) to be assuming newbies are tuning in and don’t know who Takei is.
(Kicking at Takei as he hangs over a volcanic river.)
“I… have had…. enough… of YOU!”
“Oh, Myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”
(Sizzle.)
#13, 16
C’mon, it’s one of those publicity stunts which have developed a life of their own - that’s why I suggest “You’ve got to hide your love away” by the immortal Beatles or “I‘m the great pretender“ (do let them stick to the original Platters version). And as encore for Mr. Poopey face: “Sign your name (across my heart)”.
It is scary how much James Cromwell looks like Bush. Met him once, he’s a legend!
#28—LOL!
11. star trackie - March 28, 2008
“What’s the name of that song George is singing? Is it on itunes?”
Does anyone know the lyrics?
Was our beloved site scooped yet again?????? Wake up guys!!! Screenrant says a second trailer is coming with Indy in May showing further construction oft the Enterprise
Malcolm McDowell at the Winter Park Regal? Hmmmmm. That’s where I see all my advance screenings. The only Film Festival guest I knew about was Jennifer Tilly.
#21 ’tis OK… they cast Ernest Borgnine in “The James Cromwell Story”…
Bana’s approach ta films is fascinating… humility or laziness? : )
Ya know, Marina do look better recently than when on TNG… who else in Trek looks better now than then? Surely tha Kilngons…
George is MC’ing a sci-fi concert with our symphony orchestra early next year. Maybe he’ll step out front and belt out a few numbers.
just a note…stone’s jfk is not a biography. it’s the story of jim garrison’s investigation into the assassination of jfk. W is more like his Nixon film.
#36—Still, that wasn’t the point of that reference, IMO.
I think what the author is trying to say is that it probably takes a similar level of dranatic license to that of those other Oliver Stone films. In other words, rational human beings should not take his production of “W” too seriously. Oliver Stone is not particularly credible with his “biographical” and “historical” work.
You may as well watch Pearl Harbor for a history lesson!!! IMO, as a man who has a degree in history and can hardly sit still through crap like what Stone puts out, his work is not any more credible than that.
As for Nixon, I will admit that Hopkins pulled off Nixon quite admirably, as would be expected from an actor of his character, but as a filmmaker, Oliver Stone should stick to strict fiction.
dranatic? I meant dramatic.
Character? I meant caliber. Sorry. A lot of typos today.
#37 Mr. Poopey face(formerly known as Closettrekker) — Exactly. :) I’m glad someone got that, lol!
A VERY Happy Birthday to Ms. Sirtis. I personally think she looks great…and not “just “for her age”. So what if she has or hasn’t any work done. Guys my age realize that “50 is the new 40″. lol I picture her doing “tequila shooters” next to an old Worlitzer to celebrate…ahhhhh, wish I could be there. lol
I think that Marina was HOTT in the later movies (First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis), hotter than she was in the series. Something about her in a uniform, with her curly hair down just really got me. Now, she is still pretty, but I liked her looks better then… Anywho…
#21 - If you are referring to the Zephram we see in TOS, he was a lot “younger” then (age wise he was older, but the being had regenerated him), so we don’t exactly know how he looked when he was older, and therefore can’t actually pass judgement on that ;) Unless he appears somewhere in an episode that I *gasp* haven’t seen… There are a few :(
2009 Grammy Awards . . .
In the Category of Best Comedic Song, the winner is . . .
William Shatner and George Takei sing “Go-Go Power Rangers.”
(sorry that one didn’t deserve a decloak-recloak)
Msnbc is reporting Tom Cruise is in the new Trek movie.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23831305/
#43
You might want to read that article on MSNBC…it CLEARLY states that he is not in the movie…and thank goodness for that. Although, seeing Cruise as a red shirt getting vaporized to enter the afterlife with L. Ron Hubbard does have a certain appeal.
Yeah,…I just read the headline. The headline shouldn’t state something emphatically that isn’t necessarily true.
Uh…why is George Takei wearing a Final fantasy 8 SEED Uniform?
Marina can photograph really well- or very badly.
In person though, last summer, she looked better than she has in years.
Now Nana photographs well no matter WHAT the lighting conditions are. It’s amazing.
But I’m… biased. Heh, heh…
#37-i don’t care if it wasn’t the point of reference…i was just clarifying that jfk was not a biographical film about john f. kennedy. no matter what you feel about stone’s films, both jfk and nixon…plus the upcoming w, as a matter of fact jfk is not a biography on jfk. as i said…it was just a note. that’s it…i’m a student and teacher of history (i’ve only lived since ‘78…so i haven’t lived thru as much as you i guess, but i have studied it throughly) and all i was doing was clarifying and could care less about the point of reference. yes stone uses a lot of dramatic license on nixon which is biographical, but jfk has nothing to do with jfk’s life, but the assassination.
all i was doing was clarifying. jfk and nixon are two different films which just happen to do with u.s. presidents.
Decloaking . . .
MSNBC is such a credible source . . NOT!
Under Tom’s photo it says he is a fan of “Doctor Spock” . . . how pathetic. Then they go on to talk about all the hubub about casting a film which has already Wrapped!!!! MSNBC — on top (underneath) the ball again!
Recloaking. }:-[
#49
Please tell me they didn’t call it “Star Track.” Please? With whipped cream and a cherry? ;-D
Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|
& He sings too?? Wow!
#48—-I think you mistook my reply as argumentative. I understood your post the first time, and was not disputing your point. I was simply elaborating on the author’s jab at Oliver Stone’s work on so-called “historical” and “biographical” films. Take it easy, Kevin…
Nice singing video there, heh, heh
;)
I would have wanted Cromwell in Spielberg’s Lincoln movie just because it seems wrong to not have an American in the role. I love Liam Neeson and I know he’ll be great, but it feels like we’re outsourcing the portrayal of one of the greatest Americans! Anthony Hopkins gave a great, empathic performance in Nixon but his presence was surreal enough to be distracting.
Did anyone else notice the giant 47 on the cover of that magazine?
In other Takei news, I believe he’s going to be sitting in on the Howard Stern Show all week next week (03/31-04/03).
#52…thanks…wasn’t sure…taking it easy now.
mr. poopey face…naked gun 2 1/2? nice.
Happy Birthday Marina Sirtis!! So grateful for Marina’s portrayal of Counselor Troi.
Nana Visitor in BG? Excellent!!! She’s a very talented actress.
Unfortunately, somewhere someone is going to launch a rumour that at the end of BG the Galactica and its fleet “jump” to Earth in the 24th Century..and Nana Visitor’s character will actually turn out to be Colonel Kira and..well, you know the rest.