CelebWatch: Stardate 08.22.08

The Watch was busy watching celebs instead of the clock, so it’s a bit late. Anyway, this week we have Shat making a top celebrity spokesmen list, a new play for Avery Brooks, Takei going to Red Alert 3, an injured Wil Wheaton being named a major internet influence, and more. Oh, and sad news: Simon Pegg is not a Bastard. Read below to see what I mean.

Shat named a top celebrity spokesman of all time
William Shatner (he who was Kirk who was then T.J. Hooker who then became The Big Giant Head and who is now Denny Crane and The Priceline Negotiator) has been named one of the top celebrity spokesmen of all time by AOL’s WalletPop, as reported by MarketWatch. And with good reason: the man’s been promoting travel site priceline.com for the past frakin’ ten years! Priceline.com’s Chief Marketing Officer, Brett Keller, had this to say about Shatner making AOL’s list:

We’re pleased to see William Shatner receive this recognition because he truly has become synonymous with the priceline.com brand. Most celebrity relationships wear out over time and are short-lived. It’s a tribute to William Shatner’s acting skills that the priceline.com spots have remained so fresh, entertaining and relevant for a decade.

Brooks becoming a ‘Salesman’
Attention must be paid…it is REEEALLL!!! Avery Brooks (DS9’s Benjamin Sisko) will be taking on the role of New England man Willy Loman in a “radical new interpretation” of Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Death of a Salesman. Playbill reports that Brooks’ production, which is being directed by Justin Emeka, will run at Oberlin College’s Hall Auditorium in Oberlin, Ohio, September 18-21, 2008.

JJ attacks the Clones
JJ Abrams is a huge Star Wars fan and last week he was on hand for the US Premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.


JJ, just promise us ‘Star Trek’ will be better than ‘SW: The Clone Wars’

Our friend Mojo was also at the event and he has a blog post up with lots of photos and some thoughts on the event. We can see the George Lucas was on hand, which means the masters of Star Trek and Star Wars were again in the same room together, did they have another meeting of the minds?

Judge sentences Collins to ‘Extract’
Clifton Collins, Jr. (Ayel in the upcoming Star Trek) is a very busy man as of late. The Emmy and ALMA-nominated actor has seven films awaiting release, including Star Trek. Actually, make that eight: Variety reports that Collins has joined the cast of the film Extract, a comedy directed by Mike Judge (Office Space, Beavis and Butt-Head). Collins will be plays “a factory worker who loses a body part in a freak accident and is now due for a huge settlement.” Hmm… I wonder which body part that could be… Oh, some guy named Ben Affleck is in the movie, too.

Pegg no longer an Inglorious Bastard; ‘Paul’ film gets a director
A few weeks ago, we reported that Simon Pegg (the new Scotty) was in talks to appear in Quentin Tarantino’s war film Inglorious Bastards. Now, Empire Online reports that Pegg had to withdraw from Tarantino’s flick due to scheduling conflicts. Being a fan of both Tarantino and Pegg, I can tell you that this news sucks. However, Empire also reports that Pegg’s upcoming movie Paul now has a director: Greg Mottola, the director of the hilarious 2007 comedy Superbad. For those who don’t remember, Paul is a comedy written by Pegg and his best friend and frequent collaborator, Nick Frost, about a couple of British comic book geeks who travel across America. Pegg and Frost will also star in the flick, their third after Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. It’s sure to be a winner! Despite all this fame and his first of hopefully many ventures into space as Scotty, Pegg remains a very down-to-earth guy, as evidenced in a recent interview with Total Film.

Takei on Red Alert (3, that is)
EA Games has announced that George Takei (the original Sulu) is part of the star-studded cast taking part in the upcoming video game, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. The Command & Conquer games are one of the last game franchises that still use cinematic video cut scenes in their games; Takei will be part of those cut scenes, as will such notable performers as Tim Curry, Kelly Hu, Jenny McCarthy, Jonathan Pryce, and J.K. Simmons. For the full casting announcement, click here. Check out the new trailer below.

Wheaton breaks a rib + third on most public list
A few weeks back, Wil Wheaton suffered a broken rib after taking a plunge while roller skating (or, as Wil put it, eating shit while roller skating). In his blog entry dated August 18th, Wheaton recounts how, after being on medication for the past several days, he finally had a day of relief before aggravating his injury… by sneezing.

I was feeling good. Damn good. I was thinking about maybe even heading down to the park for a gentle swim in the pool . . . and that’s when without warning, I was hit by one of the biggest sneezes I think I’ve ever had in my life. I didn’t have time to grab a pillow, I didn’t have time to splint myself. All I could do was reflexively cover my face with my hand to catch the scream. I felt and heard the pop in my side, down low where my doctor had shown me the break on my xray last week. My back immediately went into a spasm as my body made an effort – just a few seconds too late – to immobilize the affected area.

Ouch! That even made me cringe! As it turns out, Wil’s injury is preventing him from taking a planned road trip to Star Trek: The Experience one last time before it closes. Major bummer. But there is some good news for Wil… he was ranked #3 on the MostPublic Index’s 20 most influential individuals in Los Angeles. What does that mean exactly? How the hell should I know, I just report these things! No, seriously, it means that Wil is the third most influential online personality living in LA. Or something to that effect. In any event, get well soon, Wil!

Picardo talks Atlantis
While at the San Diego Comic Con in July, Robert Picardo (The Doctor) talked with Pop Culture Zoo about his role as Richard Woolsey on Stargate: Atlantis; you can find that story here. He also discussed Woolsey with io9, in which says such delightful things as:

I’m changing. I’m growing. I’m becoming less of a dick. I appreciate the fact that he’s Richard Woolsey and not Dick Woolsey, because that would be hard. To go to work every day and have people calling you “Dick” all the time.

Perry pushes forward with empire expansion
Filmmaker Tyler Perry, who plays the head of Starfleet Academy in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, is broadening his already expansive and highly lucrative empire. The Hollywood Reporter, um, reports that Perry’s Trek cameo is part of his plan to extend his brand “beyond the millions of black fans who are loyal to his faith-and-family oeuvre.” Also part of this expansion is Perry next movie, The Family That Prays, which has both black and white lead actors (including Star Trek: First Contact‘s Alfre Woodard), and a new TV series. Perry also plans to develop the work of other filmmakers under a “Tyler Perry presents” brand and has signed a new three-year deal with Lionsgate… for a lot of cake. Check out the link for the whole story.

Cromwell reuniting with Woodard for ‘Enemy’
James Cromwell (Dr. Zefram Cochrane, etc.) will be reuniting with his Star Trek: First Contact co-star Alfre Woodard (Lily Sloane). According to Entertainment Weekly, Cromwell has joined the cast of NBC’s new drama My Own Worst Enemy, on which Woodard was previously announced as a regular. The star of the series is another Trek alum, Christian Slater, who cameoed as a communications officer in Star Trek VI. Don’t you just love all these Trek connections?


Cromwell and Woodard will be reuniting on ‘My Own Worst Enemy’

Krutonog suing Dog
Boris Lee Krutonog (Lojur in Star Trek VI and VOY’s “Flashback”) is suing bosses of the reality show, Dog The Bounty Hunter, accusing them of holding back his salary and cutting him out of royalties. The problem is that Duane “Dog” Chapman, the star of the show, has claimed that Krutonog was his agent and manager, which Krutonog insists is not true. You canr ead the whole sad story at Showbiz Spy.

Judd’s Democratic appearances
Actress and democrat Ashley Judd will be making a few appearances on behalf of the Democratic party next week. Judd will be part of the honorary board at an invitation only “Black & White Gala” in Los Angeles as part of a fundraiser for presidential candidate Barrack Obama’s campaign. And, according to About.com, Judd will be among those headlining the “Sex, Politics and Cocktails Late Night Dance Party” sponsored by Planned Parenthood on August 25th at The Samba Room. Sounds fun. Oh, by the way, it appears that Judd has yet to pay a parking ticket from 1993.

Dourif back as Chucky for ‘Child’s Play’ remake
While it’s sad news that Hollywood is actually remaking the 1988 horror film Child’s Play, at least they won’t be recasting the role of Charles Lee Ray, the murderer whose soul became trapped in a Chucky doll. According to Ain’t It Cool News, Brad Dourif (VOY’s Lon Suder) will be reprising the role of Charles Lee Ray/Chucky for the Child’s Play remake. Unfortunately, that will probably be the only good thing about the movie. In other Dourif news, the actor has new interviews with ShockTillYouDrop and Den Of Geek in which he discusses his role in the newly-released direct-to-DVD horror flick The Wizard of Gore (in which he stars with DS9/ENT recurring player Jeffrey Combs).

QuickLinks:

  • iFMagazine has an exclusive interview with Jolene Blalock (T’Pol) discussing her role in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder; you can read it here.
  • Brent Spiner (Data) will be signing copies of his CD Dreamland at J&R Music in Manhattan on August 27th, starting at 12:30pm. (The Real Brent Spiner)
  • Speaking of Spiner, he and Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) are among the guests at this year’s Fan Expo in Toronto, which starts today and runs through Sunday. NewsWire)
  • Last week, The Film Society of Lincoln Center screened the documentary Never Apologize, hosted and narrated by Malcolm McDowell (Dr. Tolian Soran, a.k.a. he who killed Kirk). (New York Press
  • F. Murray Abraham (Ahdar Ru’Afo) will star in a reading of Ben Johnson’s The Silent Woman at the Thatre at St. Clemen’s on September 29th. (TheaterMania)
  • Michael Welch (Artim) has joined the cast of the Blank Theatre Company’s production of Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which is scheduled to start running September 18th. (Playbill)
  • Tony Todd (Kurn, adult Jake Sisko) will be a guest star on the new internet series Coma. (Variety)
  • David Warner (Gul Madred, Chancellor Gorkon, St. John Talbot) is playing Earl Mountbatten in a one-off and as yet unnamed drama for BBC 4 about the former Admiral of the Fleet’s unlikely friendship with the late Dame Barbara Cartland. (Telegraph)
  • Catherine Hicks (Dr. Gillian Taylor) and Don Stark (Ashrock, Nicky the Nose) are part of the cast of the indie flick My Name Is Jerry. (JCOnline)
  • Lee Meriwether (Losira) was the guest of honor at this year’s Howell Melon Festival Parade in Howell, Michigan. (WHMI 93.5FM)
  • Part 2 of a fan interview with Vaughn Armstrong (Adm. Forrest, etc.) is up at at TrekNews.de; you can catch the first part here.
  • Alexander Siddig (Dr. Julian Bashir)’s official site has undergone a major change, which includes some nifty new images of a suave Sid looking kind of like Robert Downey, Jr. Visit Sid’s site at sidcity.net.


Lookin’ good, Sid.

The Trek Continues…
Celebrating his 28th birthday in just five days is Chris Pine, the actor who plays James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek. Another actor appearing in that film (adding to his past three appearances on Trek) is William Morgan Sheppard, who turns 76 on August 24th. Turning 34 that same day is the apparently-retired Jennifer Lien, who played Kes on Star Trek: Voyager. To these fine people and everyone not listed here, TrekMovie.com wishes you all a very happy birthday!

UPDATE: Shocking Mugatu public drunkenness news
This just in, TMZ has spotted the Mugatu in an embarrassing public drunkenness scandal. Click image below for the shocking video. (thanks to Garth for the tip)


How far have the mighty fallen

 

 

 

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Gotta love that Mugatu!

When I saw Welch in SG-1 (as young O’Neill), I always thought of Artim.

Hum.. Interesting! Happy Birthday Chris!

well fifth now lol..go the Mugatu !!

1. Die Waffen – legt an! *bass riff*
Red Alert 3 for the win!!

2. Siddig looks awesome!

3. there is no 3.

4. looking forward to “Paul”

Brent’s here in Toronto, signing as we speak, 30 bucks a pop.

Perhaps Shat-man will play the Energizer Bunny in the big screen version of that pitch-man’s biopic. I’ll bet ol’ Shat will keep goin’ and goin’ long after that rabbit kicks the bucket! Holy cow! A Priceline commercial came on Comedy Central just now!! I’m NOT kiddin’! “Don’t you just lo-o-ove to negotiate?” Sure, but never with Klingons!

I hereby shriek like that of a small girl for the upcoming Red Alert 3.

MUGATU YOU CRAZY S.O.B. !!!

Apparently-retired Jennifer Lien? Is that a slam or real?

Mugatu is facing an HWI — Hairy While Intoxicated.

Wil appears to be becoming more of a dramarama every day. Why isn’t he working? Hell, if they can let Opie, Will Robinson, and Indy Jr. grow up on film, then the kid from Stand By Me should get the chance, too.

Thanks for the round-up, Charles.

Just curious, but why is it necessary to preface every article about Mr. Shatner with something like “he who WAS Kirk … “?

This particular article went even further by referring to Mr. Shater as “he who was Kirk who was then T.J. Hooker who then became The Big Giant Head and who is now Denny Crane and The Priceline Negotiator) ” ….

Why doesn’t every reference to George Takei include “he who WAS Sulu” or every article about Nichelle Nichols include “she who WAS Uhura”, etc.?

I sense a bit of Anti-Shatner (who was and always shall be Kirk) at this site.

Regards.

some people are so sensitive. that is just chuck’s style. I tend to refer to Shatner as ‘the original Kirk’ or just ‘THE SHAT’. This site has done more to promote shatner than any other site, besides his coverage in the regular ‘celeb watch’ columns (where we cover him every week), he has a whole other category all to himself.
https://trekmovie.com/category/tos/shatner/

lighten up

David Warner is Mountbatten? He played a purple-bloodied and now a blue-bloodied. Arrrrr! Go Royal Navy!

Hawk is Willy Loman? Have a smile and a shoeshine and a Smith&Wesson. Go depressin’ American drama!

Lee Meriwether at a melon festival? Please, no ripe jokes, mates. Go sexually-related vegetation!

Hmmmm… I can’t recall much o’ last week… but I got this here bill fur an albino monkey costume…

Arrrrrrr…

a drunk Mugatu, but not a horny one ;)

How can you re-imagine “Death of a Salesman”? Even if you modernize it, it’s just about how corporations use up people and cast them aside. Race doesn’t matter.

Heck, you could produce it in China and they’d relate.

Charles,
You said:
“…A few weeks ago, we reported that Simon Pegg (the new Scotty) was in talks to appear in Quentin Tarantino’s war film Inglorious Bastards. Now, Empire Online reports that Pegg had to withdraw from Tarantino’s flick due to scheduling conflicts. Being a fan of both Tarantino and Pegg, I can tell you that this news sucks.”

I agree! Pegg is becoming on of my favorite actors [ comedic or otherwise ] and QT has been a fave for years…
a shame, it would have been glorious…

#15
– So, in the strictest sense, Bill Shatner *was* Kirk and Chris Pine *is* Kirk. That’s not a slam against Shatner, that’s just fact: he is no longer playing the role, so he is no longer Kirk. He *was Kirk. Okay? Okay. :) –

Charles, in the strictest sense you may be right, but there are actors who are associated with their characters up to the point where the connection remains although the actor does not portray that character anymore. I think this holds true for all main TOS actors. So, in the ST sense, in an emotional sense, in a sense where imagination becomes alive, the Shat will never be the person who *was* Kirk, he will always *be* Kirk.

As for Pine, I think we should wait for his performance before we say he *is* Kirk. How about: Pine (he who will be allowed to play Kirk)…;)

As for “sensitiveness”, noted and understood. From now on, us oh-so-sensitives will try to ignore your articles, posts, and comments on everything ST, particularly Shatner, until we’ve hardened ourselves against your provocation up to the moment when most of us will almost have forgotten your name – Charles Trotter (he who used to write for trek movie.com?). Okay? Okay. :)

I was wondering where that furry white ape had gotten to. Although it appears as if he has pawned off his horn for drug money. I knew this day would come…

Horn is still there but his doctor took him off Cialis because of his heart condition.

Can’t get enough MUGATU!

“12. Anthony Pascale – August 22, 2008
some people are so sensitive. that is just chuck’s style. I tend to refer to Shatner as ‘the original Kirk’ or just ‘THE SHAT’. This site has done more to promote shatner than any other site, besides his coverage in the regular ‘celeb watch’ columns (where we cover him every week), he has a whole other category all to himself.
https://trekmovie.com/category/tos/shatner/

lighten up”

I have to give AP props here. If it wasn’t for this site, I wouldn’t have known about The Shat’s book signing events, which weren’t even promoted on Bill’s official Web site.

So thanks to Trekmovie.com, I finally came face to face with The Legend and now have an authentic souvenir to always remember that exhilarating encounter by.

#12 Anthony:

As a ‘several times a day visitor’ to your site, I’m certainly aware of the amount of coverage given to Mr. Shatner.

I wasn’t being ‘sensitive’, I was just asking a legitimate question (as in “I’m curious ..”) why almost every reference to Mr. Shatner was prefaced with “He who was Kirk” or something similar and why this distinction was not made to other ST actors.

Love this site, so I’ll lighten up if you lighten up. :)

Regards.

Domo origato mr. mugatu…

#15 Charles:

“So, in the strictest sense, Bill Shatner *was* Kirk and Chris Pine *is* Kirk. That’s not a slam against Shatner, that’s just fact: he is no longer playing the role, so he is no longer Kirk. He *was Kirk. Okay? Okay. :)”

Hi Charles. My point was that the WAS reference seemed only directed at Mr. Shatner. None of the other ST actors seems to be referenced as “He/She who was …”. I was just curious why this was the case.

The response I got was that I was being overly “sensitive” for some reason. Okay? Okay. :)

Now, while going back through the archives I did notice some articles where Mr. Shatner was referenced as “the original CPT Kirk”, etc.

To be honest, I don’t generally look at the bylines so it appears that it is just you that was using the “He who was Kirk” line. Such as:

https://trekmovie.com/2008/08/14/celebwatch-stardate-081408/
https://trekmovie.com/2008/07/31/celebwatch-stardate-073108/

So now I understand it is just a quirk of yours to reference one TOS ST actor in the past tense rather than all of them. As I replied to Anthony, I was being “sensitive”, I was just curious why the WAS label only applied to one actor.

Regards,

Lostrod (not Lostrud):)

Siddig looks like a slob.

#27

Ok Charles, you’ve got me there…my love for you is one of the reasons why I keep coming back to this site. Ignoring your articles will only hurt myself…:-D

Continuing on the “who’s doing commercials” front, I recently read in a brewing industry trade publication that Patrick Stewart has signed a (money amount not given but “very large” is probably accurate) contract to be the off-camera announcing voice of English-language TV commercials for Belgium’s Stella Artois beer.