CelebWatch: Stardate 10.23.08

The Watch is back! We have an October roundup of celebrity news, including Auberjonois back at Boston Legal, Visitor losing more than her head for the Friday the 13th remake, a book deal for Pegg, Chris Pine’s Trek poster auction, and much more! Plus, we have two hilarious videos, one with Michael Dorn berating John Cleese and another with Bob Picardo as a ladies man. Check it out below!

Auberjonois returning to ‘Boston’
Rene Auberjonois (Odo) will be returning to Boston Legal – and thus reuniting with William Shatner (he who was Kirk) – for the show’s fifth and final season, already in progress. According to his official site, Auberjonois will reprise his role as Paul Lewiston, the former managing partner of law firm Crane, Poole & Schmidt, in the episode airing November 3rd, tentatively titled “Mad Cows.” Auberjonois was with the series when it first began, first as a recurring guest actor and later as an extremely underused regular. He was booted from the show after the third season and his character was replaced by Carl Sack, played by John Larroquette (Maltz in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). Auberjonois made one appearance in the show’s fourth season (with a beard!) and now we will see him one last time before Boston Legal goes to syndication heaven after this season’s 13th episode.

Mulgrew at Brand:NEW festival & Big Apple Con + ‘Equus’ opening
Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) will take part in Hartford Stage’s Brand:NEW festival in November. According to Playbill, Mulgrew will perform in a play called Art Appreciation as part of a fundraiser on November 10th. Then on November 14th from 2 to 6pm, Mulgrew will be appearing at the Big Apple Con in NYC. In the meantime, BroadwayWorld has pics of Mulgrew from her performance on the opening night of the Broadway play Equus and from her appearance at More Magazine’s Reinvention Convention. We’ve posted a few below; you can find the rest here and here. There’s also video footage of the play (and Mulgrew’s performance) at Broadway World, MyFox NY, and Broadway.com.

Kate on opening night

Pine auctions signed Star Trek poster for charity
Would you like to get an extremely rare signed poster from the Star Trek…signed by none other than the new Kirk? Well you can, if you win the auction going on right now at EBay, with benefits going to Habitat for Humanity. HFH tells TrekMovie "Chris is an ongoing supporter of Hollywood for Habitat for Humanity. He has built a house with us, recently attended our Building a Greater Los Angeles Gala, as well as donated this poster to the auction to help us raise funds, and show his support for our programs…we are very grateful for his ongoing support." The opening bid is $99 and the auction ends October 30th, so bid NOW.

You know you want it

Trinneer and Wheaton are ‘Criminal Minds’
Enterprise regular Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) and The Next Generation‘s Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) were both seen on the CBS series Criminal Minds in the last few weeks. Trinneer was seen in the October 8th episode, entitled “Minimal Loss,” in which DS9 guest star Colby French (Ensign Weldon, “When It Rains…”) also appeared. Wheaton was seen on last night’s episode, entitled “Paradise.” If you missed either of them (or both), you can watch them now at CBS.com. Also, Wheaton has started writing about his experience on Criminal Minds on his blog, which is definitely worth checking out… so do so! Speaking of Wil, everybody’s favorite geek received a mention in Forbes’ recent article on celebrity nerds.

Lookin scruffy Wil

Abrams on Conan
Star Trek director JJ Abrams appeared on the Conan O’Brien show last week and he and Conan talked about planes in Lost and Fringe, theme music and sound for his shows, his love of Twilight Zone and Night Stalker, and more. Conan also did a comedy bit showing his monologue shot in the shaky cam ‘Cloverfield’ style.

CLICK TO WATCH Abrams on Conan

Stewart bringing sexy back
Make it so, indeed! It appears Patrick Stewart is still a hit with the ladies. The women over at wowOwow.com – a site for women on the web – has named the sexiest men over 50, and Stewart made the list. You can check out the complete list at PR Newsire; if you want to view them as a photo slide show (kinky!), head over to wowOwow.com. In the same vein, Stewart and his hairline (or lack thereof) were honored in an article called “4 Bald Celebrities Who Still Look Awfully Good” over at Best Syndication. Lastly, Stewart and his Jean-Luc Picard persona made it into Wired’s 10 Favorite Actors from Geeky Movies. Yippee.

Visitor cut from ‘Friday the 13th?’
Earlier this year, actress Nana Vistor (DS9’s Kira Nerys) landed the role of Pamela Voorhees, the mother of psycho-killer Jason Voorhees, in the remake/reboot of Friday the 13th. Visitor shot her scenes and it was strongly hinted that her character would end up with her head cut off. Now, though, it appears her whole character has been cut. According to Shock Till You Drop, Visitor was nowhere to be seen in the cut of the film that was test-screened for audiences in LA; her character was cut out entirely, although she is referenced. However, we must remember this was a test screening and the film is not set for release until February 13th, so there is always a chance that Visitor’s scenes could be restored. Let’s hope so, anyway.

Pegg signs seven-figure book deal
British publishing company Hodder & Stoughton has secured a three-book deal with none other than actor Simon Pegg (Scotty in 2009’s Star Trek). The company will pay Pegg an undisclosed seven-figure cast amount to write a book for them annually over the next three years. The first of these publications will be an as-yet-untitled memoir tracing Pegg’s career from his stand-up comedy days to his role on Star Trek. For more information on the deal and the other two books Pegg will write, see The Book Seller.

Bana gets re-‘Armored’
When Eric Bana signed up to ply the villainous Nero in the new Star Trek, he passed up a role in Armored, an American remake of the Franch heist film Le Convoyeur. Now that Trek is finished, though, Bana is again in negotiations to star in the Armored project for a reported $7.5 million paycheck, according to Variety. Bana’s participation in the movie is dependant on scheduling: the film is slated to start shooting on April 1st, but Bana is committed to promoting Star Trek, which of course opens May 8th. Bana is currently shooting the comic drama Funny People for director Judd Apatow.

A whole lotta Abraham
Star Trek: Insurrection star F. Murray Abraham (Ru’Afo) has had a lot going on lately. On September 29th, as reported by TheaterMania, he participated in a performance of Ben Johnson’s The Silent Woman along with fellow Star Trek alumni Dakin Matthews (Adm. Patterson, VOY: "Relativity") and Carolyn Seymour (various TNGs, Mrs. Templeton on VOY). On that very same day, it was announced that he would be top-lining an all-star cast (including veteran Trek actor John Schuck) in Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, which is set to begin performances in New York City sometime this month (this according to a press release picked up by BroadwayWorld). On October 16th, he presented a DGA Award to his Amadeus director Milos Forman, as reported on Market Watch. And lastly, this past weekend, he read passages for a musical concert called “Don Quijote de la Mancha: Romances y Músicas” (see KansasCity.com for more on that and an interview with Abraham).

Meaney leading ‘The Race’ + spotted shopping
The great Colm Meaney (Chief O’Brien) is currently shooting an Irish film called The Race in Belfast. Production began on October 15th and will continue for another four weeks. For more information on the film, see the report at The Irish Film Television Network. While gearing up for production on this film, though, Meaney was spotted shopping for over an hour at the new Victoria Square retail outlet in Belfast by the Belfast Telegraph (see image below or click the link). In the meantime, it seems Meaney

gets confused for actor Brendan Gleeson a lot, and he’s tired of it, as reported by Independent.ie.

Meaney in N. Ireland

TrekBits

• The Hollywood Reporter has a piece on William Shatner (da original Kirk, yo!) which includes a brief interview and a detailing of the Shatman’s career. You can read that here.
• SFX Magazine has posted some highlights from its interview with Zachary Quinto (the new Spock), as well as some “bonus quotes” not included in the published interview; check them out here.
• Robert Picardo (The Doctor) answered fan questions regarding both Stargate and Star Trek for Joseph Mallozzi’s weblog; you can read the Q&A here.
• LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) participated in “Operation Voter Registration,” a live two-hour radio broadcast airing this Sunday (Oct. 5) from 6 to 8pm EST. (EURweb)
• TrekNews.de has a video interview with Armin Shimerman, which you can check out here (it’s in English). Also be sure to check out Shimerman’s latest Fine Print column.
• John de Lancie (Q) discussed his staged radio version remake of War of the Worlds in a recent interview with GO Brookyln. (The Brooklyn Paper)
• Tim Russ (Tuvok) attended the Tri-City Comic Con in Pasco, Washington, on October 11th. He also gave an interview to the Tri-City Herald discussing his acting and music, which you can read here.
• The Space Review has an interview with longtime Trek scenic artist Mike Okuda in which he describes (among other things) how he began working on Trek and his experience with the franchise. You can read that here.
• Speaking of Okuda, the release date for The Informant, the dark comedy/thriller featuring graphic design work by Okuda and starring Scott Bakula (Capt. Jonathan Archer), has been pushed back from March 27th to September 11th. Damn.
• Anton Yelchin (the new Chekov) made Heeb Magazine’s Heeb100 list for film/TV; you can see Yelchin’s profile here.
• Ron Perlman (Shinzon’s Viceroy in Nemesis) has joined Nicolas Cage in the supernatural thriller Season of the Witch. (Shock Till You Drop)
• Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan) and Donna Murphy (Anij) took part in a musical tribute at an awards benefit at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on October 6th. (Playbill)
• Gary Lockwood reflected on his role as Gary Mitchell in Trek pilot #2, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” in the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine. (TrekWeb
• Actress Alfre Woodard (Lily Sloan in First Contact) explains how she juggles family, politics, movies, and a new TV series (NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy) in an interview with The National Ledger
• Christopher Plummer (General Chang) will discuss his life’s work and sign copies of his memoir, In Spite of Myself, at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble in New York on Nov. 21 at 7:30 PM. (Playbill)
• TNG/VOY guest actor Jeff McCarthy portrayed lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago for a week while actor Tom Wopat was on vacation. (Playbill)
• Christopher Lloyd (Kruge) is selling his home in Montecito, California, for $3.6 million. (The Los Angeles Times)
• New Scientist gave Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) “the bronze” as “most gratuitously scantily-clad female character”. Jeri Ryan is an actress, not a character, but that’s beside the point. (New Scientist)

Video of the Week… er, Month… #1 – Dorn w/Python
The Institute for Backup Trauma – a satirical viral site hosted by real-life server data protection service LiveVault – has a hilarious video starring John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) which makes fun of IT people and their experience with “tape-based backup”. How does this relate to Star Trek? Well, it just so happens to feature a wonderful appearance by none other than Michael Dorn (a.k.a. Worf) as Cleese’s former boss. You can check out the video here; oh, and remember, don’t click the third button!

Video of the Month #2
In our next video, Robert Picardo (The Doctor) plays a suave gigolo named Alphonso who dispenses sex advice in a segment called “Ask Alphonso.” Check it out at Acme Brand Comedy… but you might not want to be at work when you do.

The Trek Continues: Trek Birthdays
A lot of Trek alumni have had birthdays over the last month, so there’s no way I can name all of them, or even most of them. Some of the more notable Trek vets who have celebrated birthdays since September 25th are: Scott Bakula (Capt. Jonathan Archer), 54; Avery Brooks (Ben Sisko), 60; Stephen Collins (Will Decker), 61; Michael Giacchino (Star Trek 2009 composer), 41; Thomas Kopache (many characters), 63; Christopher Lloyd (Kruge), 70; Natalia Nogulich (Adm. Nechayev), 58; Duncan Regehr (Shakaar), 56; and William Windom (Commodore Matt Decker), 85. Some Trek folk celebrating their birthdays in the coming week are F. Murray Abraham (Ru’Afo), who turns 69; William Campbell (Treland & Koloth), 82; Robert Picardo (The Doctor), 55; Winona Ryder (Amanda Grayson in Trek ’09), 37; David Ogden Stiers (Timicin), 66; and John Winston (Lt. Kyle on TOS), 81. To everyone listed here, and everyone who’s not, TrekMovie.com wishes you all a very happy birthday!

In Memoriam: Oliver Crawford
Emmy Award-nominated writer Oliver Crawford, 91, died in Los Angeles on September 24th, as reported by The Mercury News. Crawford contributed to three episodes of the original Star Trek series: he wrote the story and co-wrote the teleplay for the first season episode “The Galileo Seven,” wrote the teleplay for “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” and co-wrote the story for “The Cloud Minders.” Crawford is remembered for being blacklisted very early in his career and then being one of the very few writers to rebound their careers after the blacklist. In addition to Trek, Crawford wrote for such shows as The Outer Limits, The Fugitive, and Ben Casey. For more information on Crawford, see his profiles at Memory Alpha and IMDb.