A special Sunday Shatnerific Edition of CelebWatch. After a long period on the bubble, ABC has cut a deal to give Shatner’s Boston Legal another season. More on that and how it relates to Colm Meaney’s new show Life on Mars below. Plus new excerpts from Shat’s new autobiography “Up ‘Till Now” have just been released. UPDATE: Added full schedule for Shatner media tour
Pocket Books has a lot of Summer Trek reading for you lined up with five books coming out between June and August. TrekMovie.com has a full rundown on these, including some exclusive covers. Plus William Shatner’s new autobiography comes out in a week and we have info on his upcoming book signings and promo appearances.
Just before this Passover week began, a new Shatner CD called “Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts” hit the stores. The recording is from a live performance of Shatner, accompanied by The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, dramatically reading the story of the Hebrew Exodus both from the Haggadah (text used on Passover) and the bible.
The live chat with William Shatner last Friday was rife with tech issues, but it is now available online (and totally audible). The whole vid (below) is about 40 minutes long. Due to the various tangents, he ended up taking only eight questions, none of which were related to Star Trek. The most interesting part was regarding Shatner’s beliefs on ET and his claim to have inside info.
AOL Movies has a new interview with William Shatner covering the new Boston Legal episodes (where he reveals Denny Crane will be running for president) his upcoming autobiography (which he says will have you “laughing out loud”) and of course Trek. Shat talks about how he feels about not being in the new JJ Abrams Star Trek film, but how he hopes the movie will give new life to his Trek novels.
5PM Pacific (8 PM Eastern):Chat live with William Shatner (along with his daughter Lisabeth) today on Live Video. The room is open now. 10 PM (9 Central): Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica kicks off its 4th and final season. More info at SciFi.
George Takei appeared on Conan O’Brien last night and immediately Conan asked George about his ‘hate’ for William Shatner and how he got a chance to roast bill on Comedy Central. Takei talked about how Shatner never got his name right and how he thought Bill’s acting “sucked.” The original Sulu also talked about the Stern show, dubbing Godzilla, and appearing on a new talent show…check out video below.
The twice postponed Live chat with William Shatner has now been set for this Friday. Bill (and his daughter) will be taking fan questions at LiveVideo.com April 4th at 5PM (Pacific). Instructions on participating below. Plus we have some recent ‘ShatnerVisions’ videoblogs about Boston Legal season 5, his new autobio and Shat discussing some of his favorite things.
It has already been reported that members of the new Star Trek crew have had a chance to meet their predecessors (Quinto and Nimoy, Saldana and Nichols, Yelchin and Koenig, plus Pegg has met James Doohan’s son, Chris). Now, finally, William Shatner reveals on a new ShatnerVision video that he has met the new Kirk, Chris Pine (and Quinto as well).
Today is William Shatner’s 77th birthday. The original Captain Kirk is still going strong both acting as well as with all his other myriad of activities (as pitchman, writer, philanthropist, entrepreneur, etc.). He is an endless source of inspiration and entertainment and so we thought we would honor him with a list of the 77 reasons why we think he is awesome.
A couple of weeks ago we reported that William Shatner will taking his ‘Shatnvervision’ live with an online chat with fans, but it was postponed. Now The Shat’s team have set a firm date of Monday March 31 at 3:00PM Pacific. The chat will be on LiveVideo.com (for more info check out this announcement). In the mean time Bill has been taking fan questions the old fashioned way via his regular Shatnervision Blog, some recent answers below.
Four years ago this month, the Museum of Television & Radio held a ‘Tribute to William Shatner’ at their annual Paley Festival. Video for this 2004 event is now online at Fancast, where you can see The Shat on subjects ranging from meeting Spencer Tracy to the death of Kirk. Plus in videos for a separate MTR event for Boston Legal, Shatner declares which role is bigger: Kirk or Crane…see below
Late last month we reported that William Shatner had signed a multi-project deal with Big Screen Entertainment. The first project for that deal is the already announced "Gonzo Ballet" documentary centering on the Milwaukee Ballet’s performance based on Shatner’s Album "Has Been." TrekMovie.com now has the exclusive scoop on the second project, a new comedy feature film to be produced, directed (and possibly starring) William Shatner.
Today, William Shatner boldly went where he’d never been before, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shatner was featured as one of Oprah’s ‘TV icons’ series. The show also included Happy Days’ Fonzie, Henry Winkler and soap opera singing sensation Rick Springfield (who was also Zac on the original Battlestar Galactica). No big news (besides seeing Shatner using a cane) and no questions about the new movie, but was still interesting to see Shatner in this environment.
William Shatner is the gift that keeps on giving. A new ShatnerVision video shot at the opening of Star Trek The Tour (from a month ago) shows the original Captain Kirk answering that perennial question “are you in the new Star Trek movie?” He is very positive about not being in the film, but also very positive about the film itself. He then goes into a discussion of how Star Trek is like a frog…really..see it below.
Star Trek, Rescue 911, TekWar, and TJ Hooker are all shows where William Shatner was not able to break through the 100 episode barrier. Hopes were that he would finally do it with a fifth season of Boston Legal, but that is now in some doubt. Yesterday ABC announced pick-ups for their fall line-up and Shatner’s current series was not on the list. However, ABC will be bringing back Trek-related series Lost , Samantha, Who? and Pushing Daisies.
The current issue (which came out last Friday) of The National Enquirer has a story titled WILLIAM SHATNER SURGERY TURNS INTO LIFE-OR-DEATH DRAMA which would be pretty big news if it were true. The story states that Mr. Shatner suffered heart complications during hip surgery. After being sent tips to the story, TrekMovie.com checked in at Shatner HQ and was told that Bill was fine, that he has had no surgeries and the whole thing was made up.
William Shatner continues his quest to become king of the Internet with the addition of a couple of new online projects. Firstly a site called VideoJug announced today a new set of interactive videos of The Shat discussing his “candid and personal views on life, Star Trek and the entertainment business.” And if you want to get more personal, LiveAutographs.com is offering the opportunity to get a personalized video of Shatner signing memorabilia.
Star Trek producer/director JJ Abrams called in for an interview with the Howard Stern Show and being that it was Howard Stern, questions ranged from “is your wife hot?” to “did you bang Jennifer Garner?” to “how much money do you make?” to “is Tom Cruise nuts?” But he also took some serious questions about the writers strike, people getting sick watching Cloverfield and, of course, Star Trek (and Shatner). See below for some select quotes and the full audio interview. [UPDATE: Abrams also called in to Opie and Anthony Show…details and audio below]
This week details and a cover have been released on a new autobiography from William Shatner, the first Captain James T. Kirk. The book titled "Up Till Now: The Autobiography" (co-authored by David Fisher) promises to be the definite Shatner-ography and will be available in May on both a hardcover and audio CD (presumably narrated by the man himself). Details and large cover image below.
Details Magazine has a new interesting interview with William Shatner where he talks about living out of his car after his run on Star Trek The Original Series, dealing with the death of his wife and (of course) what he thinks of JJ Abrams new moive (and his lack of involvement). Plus in a new video Bill talks about what keeps him going and what is next for the Shat.
Last week William Shatner participated in a live webchat on PalTalk.com. The first question he was given was actually chosen from the talkback in the TrekMovie.com talkback article announcing the event. Below is the answer to that question and a couple of other Trek related clips.
Over the last few months there have been a lot of stories regarding whether William Shatner will or will not be in the new Star Trek movie. Periodically a report crops up that claims to have the definitive answer one way or another. The latest is a new report at Moviehole claiming ‘final confirmation’ from co-writer and executive producer Roberto Orci that Shatner will not be in the film. However, it appears they have jumped the gun.
Today the nominees for the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced as usual there are a few Trek connections. Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series for his role on Boston Legal. If he wins it will be his second Golden Globe. In addition, Star Trek Voyager writer/producer Bryan Fuller’s Pushing Daisies was nominated for Best Comedy or Musical TV Series. Fuller created Pushing Daisies and is executive producer; this is his first Globe nomination.
TrekMovie.com had a brief moment to chat with William Shatner on the green carpet at the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival on Sunday, where Shatner received a lifetime achievement award. Shat talked to TrekMovie about his new talk show ‘Raw Nerve’ and about talking to Nimoy now that he is in town to shoot Star Trek. The video below also shows a couple of questions from another reporter (with thanks) about TOS-R and Trek references on Boston Legal.
This Thursday (Dec. 13) William Shatner will be appearing on Hollywood Now, a live video Internet chat show from PalTalk.com. During the show Shatner will be taking questions from those who are logged via the PalTalk software. The half hour show begins at 1 pm Eastern, but you will be able to join the ‘room’ around 3 hours before hand and ‘raise your hand’ to be put into the queue. TrekMovie.com has arranged with PalTalk to have the first question come from from a TrekMovie.com community member (details below).
On Sunday night William Shatner was presented a lifetime achievement award at the Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival in Los Angeles. The award was presented by none other than Malcolm McDowell (Generations: Soran) and Patrick Stewart (TNG: Picard). Shatner was also presented with a special gift from representatives from the Oneida Indian Nation. See below for the entire 21 minute video.
Bill’s latest Shatnervision talks about the Jules Verne Lifetime Achievement Award he will get this weekend, presented by Patrick Stewart.
On Thursday the annual Jules Verne Film Festival kicks off in Los Angeles and Star Trek is very much a part of this year’s event. Presiding will be Captain Picard himself, Patrick Stewart, who is the festival’s “President of the Jury.” Malcolm McDowell, William Shatner and other Trek celebrities will also be showing up. Details below