CelebWatch: Stardate 5.9.08

This week’s Watch covers news on four of the Star Trek captains and makes you ask the questions: Will William Shatner be back as Denny Crane? Will Patrick Stewart be nominated for a Tony Award? Does Avery Brooks exaggerate? And what happened to Kate Mulgrew’s family emergency? Plus, we have news on the two Koenigs, Crosby, Auberjonois, Cho on SARS, and more!

Save Boston Legal!
Boston Legal, the ABC series starring William Shatner (he who was
Kirk) as Denny Crane, topped USA Today’s 11th annual Save Our Show poll. The show begins airing the last two episodes of its fourth season next Wednesday and it is currently up in the air as to whether or not the show would be back for a fifth season. In other Shatner/Boston Legal, the Shat-man made an appearance at ION Television’s presentation at the New York Public Library tonight where the network unveiled their fall 2008 program schedule, which includes reruns of Boston Legal. (Variety)


The Shat (with ION Chairman/CEO Brandon Burgess)

Oh, and one more piece of Shat news: the box art for the TekWar DVD set has been updated to show Shatner and his fellow cast members on the front. (TV Shows on DVD)

Stewart eligible for a Tony + Whoopi to host
Life must be great for Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) right now – he’s starring in a hit Broadway play (that being Macbeth, duh!) and he’s winning all sorts of awards and nominations for his performance. One trophy he might be adding to his collection is a Tony Award. Playbill reports that Stewart is eligible for a Tony Award nomination in the Leading Actor category for Macbeth. One would think given all the accolades Stewart has been receiving that a Tony nomination would be a sure thing, but the Tonys rarely give props to Shakespeare. Here’s hoping that changes; the final nominees will be announced May 13th. In the meantime, Stewart’s TNG co-star Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan) announced on The View today that she will be hosting the Tony Awards ceremony on June 15th. On, by the way, Stewart attended the Actors’ Fund 2008 Gala on May 5th (see image below) and he’ll also be co-chairing the Drama League Awards on May 16th (where he’s also nominated).


Stewart (and guest) at Actors’ Fund 2008 Gala, May 5, 2008 in NYC

Avery Brooks… exaggerates?
Avery Brooks (Benjamin Sisko) hosted a jazz concert at the Rose Hall on Broadway, and this is what The New York Sun had to say about it:

Apart from the guitarists, much of the flavor of the evening was supplied by the host, Avery Brooks, who narrated in stentorian tones that were equal parts Henry V, Jesse Jackson, and Commander Sisko (of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” in case you don’t want to admit that you know that). Mr. Brooks’s increasingly exaggerated but still welcome voice-overs lent the evening the quality of a Ken Burns documentary re-enacted in person.

Exaggerated? Who are they calling exaggerated?! It was real, I tell you…REALLLL!

Mulgrew sees ‘Top Girls’ + convention appearances
Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) was spotted at the Broadway opening night of Top Girls at the Baltimore Theatre on May 7th. Apparently whatever “dire family emergency” that caused her to withdraw from a play has been resolved. (By the way, Enterprise guest actor Keith Carradine was also there. Just thought ya’ll would like to know that.)


Kate Mulgrew attending the “Top Girls” Broadway opening night: no more family emergency?

In other Kate news, Voyager‘s former captain will be heading to both LA’s Creation Convention and Atlanta’s Dragon*Con in August, according to her official site.

Takei talks Trek’s influence on change
George Takei (Sulu) tells CinemaSpy that Star Trek part of the reason we may soon have a female or a black president.

I think Star Trek has played a part in the broadening of people’s thinking. Who would have thought that a woman and an African-American [would be] the two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination? It’s an amazing phenomenon and I think it’s a real commentary about the dynamism of the American democratic process. I am a supporter of Hillary Clinton but whoever gets the nomination, I can easily support that candidate. On issues, essentially they are very similar. I think it’s the slight nuanced differences and the fact that one’s a woman and one’s an African-American man that is bringing support for one candidate or the other … I am absolutely delighted.

One Koenig going to TrekFest; another to be sentenced
Walter Koenig (Chekov) will be a guest at this year’s Trek Fest in Riverside, Iowa (supposed future birthplace of James T. Kirk), which will be held on June 27th & 28th. He will also act as Grand Marshall for the town’s parade and will be judging a costume contest and signing autographs. PRWeb) In the meantime, Walter’s son, actor/editor/activist Andrew Koenig (who appeared on DS9), was found guilty on Tuesday for disrupting a public event and will be sentenced Friday (May 9th). If you remember, Koenig protested China at the Rose Parade a while back; apparently that’s against some law or other, so don’t do it. Koenig faces a fine up to $100. Wow, those judges mean business. (Pasadena Weekly)


Andrew Koenig takes a stand

Nichols heading to ECBACC
Nichelle Nichols will be this year’s Guest of Honor at the 7th Annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia on May 17th, according to ComicSpace. Nichols will also receive the event’s Pioneer Award. In more Nichols news, the latest Star Trek: Of Gods and Men newsletter announced that Nichelle will personally appear at screenings of her film Lady Magdalene’s at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills this September; check out the link for exact dates and need-to-know stuff like that.

Crosby on the stage & on Mad Men
Actress Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar & Sela) participated in a staged reading of Mothers and Others on Autism at Barnsdale Gallery Theatre on May 3rd, as did DS9 guest star Vanessa Williams and VOY guest star Scott Lawrence. (TheaterMania). Also, Crosby is heading to New York next week for a workshop production of the play Epitaph for John Dylan, according to a message left on her official website. The play will run June 2-15 at the 45th Street Theater in NYC, and the aim is to bring the play to Off-Broadway. In addition, Crosby has a recurring role as “Gertie” on the AMC series Mad Men, which
starts its second season this July, so be on the lookout for that.

Rene’s in rehearsals + taking a cruise with Neelix
Rene Auberjonois (Odo) has begun rehearsals for his performance as The Imaginary Invalid, which is scheduled to run from June 10th through July 27th at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC. In addition, Rene and his friend (and Star Trek: Voyager star) Ethan Phillips (Neelix) will be the main guests on CruiseTrek 2008: The Blue Danube, which happens this November. This is all according to Rene’s Page, so if it’s wrong, blame them, not us. :)

Nemesis scribe getting Bioshocked
Variety is reporting that Star Trek Nemesis writer John Logan has been tapped to pen the screenplay for a feature film adaptation of the popular video game, Bioshock. Gore Verbinski, the director of all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, will be directing the film. Cool, yes?

John Cho…the asian guy
Old news, but new Sulu actor John Cho (and his Harold & Kumar co-star Kal Penn) were on Leno about, oh, three weeks ago where he talked about Star Trek. when Leno (who obviously doesn’t read TrekMovie.com) asked what role Cho plays, Cho clues him in…

TrekBits

  • LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge)’s film, Reach for Me, was screened at The Landmark in Los Angeles on May 5th. (MarketWire)
  • Brent Spiner (Data)’s CD, Dreamland, is now available on Amazon.
  • Alexander Siddig (Dr. Julian Bashir) joins an already impressive guest list for Creaton’s 2008 Convention; he is tentatively scheduled to appear on August 9th. (SidCity)
  • Ethan Phillips (Neelix) can be seen in the film The Babysitters, which opens in NYC on May 9th. See the official site for more info.
  • Clifton Collins, Jr. (Ayel in 2009’s Star Trek) will be starring in an episode of the upcoming anthology series Fear Itself. (Chicago Tribune)
  • Alfre Woodard (Lily Sloan in Star Trek: First Contact) talks about life in Hollywood in an interview with Boston University.
  • TNG cameo-maker Bebe Neuwirth will make her cabaret debut at Feinstein’s nightclub in New York in late May in a show called “Stories with Piano.” (Broadway World)
  • Kirstie Alley (the first Saavik) has joined the cast of David O. Russell’s romantic comedy Nailed. I wonder if Russell will flip out on Alley like he did Lily Tomlin… (Reuters)
  • There’s an interview with Leonard Mlodinow, co-writer of TNG’s “The Drumhead,” at The Wall Street Journal blog.
  • There’s an interview with Marina Sirtis’ Star Trek Generations stunt double, Rosine Hatem, over at Boston.com.
  • As if you needed another reason to watch Battlestar Galactica, Nana Visitor (DS9’s Kira Nerys) makes her debut on the show in this week’s episode. Don’t miss it!

Happy birthday, Marc & Salome
Among the trek celebrities who celebrated their birthdays this week are recurring DS9 actors Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat) and Salome Jens (Female Changeling). Alaimo turned 66 on May 5th; Jens turned 73 on May 8th. TrekMovie.com wishes them a happy birthday, along with all the others celebrating this week…

  • Tom Bergeron (53) – Dancing with the Stars host cameoed in two episodes of ENT
  • Theodore Bikel (84) – played Worf’s adoptive father, Sergei Rozhenko, in TNG’s “Family”
  • Richard Cox (60) – played Kyril Finn in TNG’s “The High Ground”
  • John Fleck (57) – played many characters, most notably Silik on Enterprise
  • Gregg Henry (56) – appeared in Star Trek: Insurrection and ENT’s “Dawn”
  • Marva Hicks (33) – played Tuvok’s wife, T’Pel, in two episodes of VOY
  • Leslie Hope (43) – played Kira Meru (Kira Nerys’ mom) in DS9’s “Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”
  • Jon Rashad Kamal (73) – Cmdr. Sonak in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Jordan Lund (51) – appeared on TNG, DS9 & ENT
  • Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (36) – Seven of Nine smelled what the Rock was cooking in VOY’s “Tsunkatse”
  • Don Marshall (72) – played Lt. Boma in TOS episode “The Galileo Seven”
  • John Neville (83) – cameoed as Sir Isaac Newton in TNG’s “Descent”
  • John Rhys-Davies (64) – before he was Gimli he was Leonardo da Vinci in two episodes of VOY
  • Brian Tochi (49) – appeared in TOS’ “And the Children Shall Lead” and TNG’s “Night Terrors”

 

 

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great a pic of kate as the lst thing i see before i sleep.
coiuld you not have made it the shat.

sorry, I’m not speaken the language well
what does maken the asian people vanish???

Jay Leno displaying his usual level of intellect there.

2. Odradek:

That is silly humor. John Cho says he plays Sulu, “the” Asian guy.

Jay jokes that, as “the# Asian guy, he must be the only one left in the world in Star Trek’s time. Cho remarks that a bad case of Bird Flu (SARS) wiped them all out (that’s a joke, too).

Not really funny at all.

Maybe Jay knew who Sulu was. Maybe he was thinking that in this multicultural day and age, an actor is no longer limited by his ethnicity.

Or not.

Hat:

Then his colleague opines that the billion or so of his race were seemingly wiped out as well.

Not.

Kate Mulgrew is ageless. (and beautiful). I still can’t believe she’s the same woman who starred in “Mrs. Colombo” when I was a kid.

#7.

Mrs. Columbo was proven to be a fraud of course. By Columbo himself, when he said some crazy woman was pretending to be his wife and solve mysterys.

I feel badly for Bill, but I can’t say I’d be that upset to see BL go. The show has fallen into a repetitive and rather unamusing pattern. I’ve said it before, but sadly David E Kelley just doesn’t know how to develop a character after a certain point. This happened with Ally McBeal, it happened with The Practice and here we are again. He’s a great show starter, but he seems to lose focus quickly.

“William Shatner (he who was Kirk)”

Oh, please. And The Shat looks great.

AJ — they can’t all be gems. (And those jokes certainly weren’t.)

Here’s hoping that ABC will pony up the money for another year of Boston Legal. With BL contracts being renegotiated, ABC would have to pay more. I’m hopeful for another year of the fine Denny Crane/Alan Shore interplay – comedic yet tragic, hopeful yet disheartening, blatant yet subtle.

Good to see Richard “Boner” Stabone in good form. Last we heard, he went off to the Marines and Kirk Cameron went The Way of The Master™.

Me don’t understand the protesting China thing, or protesting anything for that matter. My public displays are more along the lines of “will work for food”. That’s just me though.

I reckon old Boner can protest whatever he wants.

BEST!!

=h=

Leno didn’t know what role Cho would play in Star Trek?! Isn’t that kind of his homework, to know things like that about the actors he is interviewing, especially when the actor is set to play a part in a huge upcoming movie?

I stopped watching Boston Legal because it became too much of an ultra-liberal show for me. At least in the beginning, it was somewhat balanced.

I mean, I know David E. Kelley is a liberal, and he’s gonna throw his left wing views into the show, and thats fine. But it just became too much, you know? He just went really overboard with it. And Denny Crane, who started out as a humorous right-wing fanatic became a complete buffoon.

For Shatner’s sake, though, I hope the show continues.

By the way, what’s with the “he WAS Kirk..” thing?!???

Shatner IS Kirk!!!!!!!

wow! Guys, I hope you all realize that things like the Tonight show are rehersed beforehand. That kind of back and forth is not spontaneous, its all planded out for the most part. mabye little things adlibed in, but the main questions and answers are pretty much planned out. Of course Leno knows who he is playing, but part of the format is that revalation of information.

Jay was joking around. He’s a trekkie. He knows who’s who. :P

Kate Mulgrew:

Beauty, elegance, and class all the way.

#19 – Second, third, and fourth that.

Look at the picture of Kate Mulgrew, and then look at the picture of William Shatner.

Note the eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheeks, smile, and chin.

For greater effect, in place of the picture of William Shatner, think of a younger Shatner.

#10, 16
RE: …he who was Kirk…

It’s an OLD Charles T. joke, and it has become a bit repppetttitivvve by now…;)

BTW, our Charles is absolutely right about BL. :)

4. AJ

of course “SARS”, now I understand
thank you for clearing this up

great to see kate looking so happy, sad that so many fans who where disapointed she had to cancell the play. hope people who booked flights where able to get refunds

Boston Legal has been and remains one of the most consistantly entertaining and intellgent shows on the air. Here’s hoping it comes back for another season.

#8. Ty Webb

“Mrs. Columbo was proven to be a fraud of course. By Columbo himself, when he said some crazy woman was pretending to be his wife and solve mysterys.”

Which episode of “Columbo” was that in? (Who was the guest villain?)

kg