charlie.mason

Angel Delivers a Devil of a Time

While Emmy's snub of Buffy the Vampire Slayer brings most critics' blood to a boil, the fact that those same reviewers often overlook the supernatural series' sublime spinoff, Angel, makes the rest of us reach for our stakes. Since its 1999 premiere, Angel has solidified into an hour of quality television that rivals  and this past season arguably even outshone  its sire. In fact, if the final WB episode of Buffy (before its fall transfer to UPN) is an "instant classic"  and, frankly, it is  then the four-episode fairy tale with which Angel rounded out the year is at least a mini-masterpiece. So, who does a blood-sucking crimefighter have to bite around here to get some respect? Executive producer David Greenwalt doesn't know. "We could do an all-nude episode," he sighs to TV Guide Online, "and we'd still

Tue, Aug 14, 2001

NYPD Gets Red-Hot and Blue

NYPD Blue has long had one of the more racially diverse ensembles on television. But the ABC police drama isn't content to rest on its laurels  and, with the way that its revolving door of cast members keeps swinging, it couldn't do so for long, anyway. So, this season, the squad room will be growing by one when a badge is issued to an additional member of a minority group. "We wanted to have another female," co-creator/executive producer Steven Bochco tells TV Guide Online. "She'll be a Puerto Rican detective." Word is, the character will be partnered with Charlotte Ross's Det. McDowell. Lest the powers that be resort to staking out Charo's home to cast the plum part, we've compiled a list of unusual suspects that we think it would be criminal to overlook.  Charlie Mason with Michael Ausiello

Mon, Aug 13, 2001

Death Becomes Mrs. Landingham

Choose life? Poppycock! According to Kathryn Joosten, dying well is the best revenge. After The West Wing put down President Bartlet's no-nonsense secretary Mrs. Landingham in May, the actress's popularity jumped up  way up! "Hasn't that been wonderful!" she exclaims to TV Guide Online. "I've received condolence cards and a lot of letters, mostly from people writing to say, 'Why?' and 'Now what happens?' and 'I don't like it.' "As a matter of fact," she continues, "there was a group in Washington, D.C., that posted a condolence ad in a magazine there." Since Joosten's West Wing counterpart was laid to rest, her raised profile has given her career a considerable boost to boot. She isn't getting more auditions, exactly, but those that she is getting are going increasingly well. "When I get in the door, it's like, 'Oh, yeah,'" she says, evincing a tone of recognition.

Wed, Aug 8, 2001

Pig Boy Squeals!

In his 26-year career, Curtis Armstrong has played all kinds of characters. But, as he was raised to pop-culture prominence by his portrayals of oddballs and outcasts  most notably, Booger in 1984's B-movie classic, Revenge of the Nerds  he wasn't the least bit insulted when the Sci Fi Channel offered him the role of Pig Boy, a half-human/half-Porky tabloid staffer on the wacky new series The Chronicle. "Absolutely, this is the logical career progression for me," the classically trained graduate of Michigan's Academy of Dramatic Arts tells TV Guide Online. "What can I say? I'd certainly auditioned for more disgusting parts. "The great thing about Pig Boy," he continues, "is that I don't have to play [his porcine side] at all. It doesn't manifest itself  I'm not snorting or whirling around in mud. And I think he only squeals in

Mon, Aug 6, 2001

Sitcom Star Disappears!

Master thespians of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Edward Norton's caliber often are said to disappear into their roles. But the feat that Just Shoot Me co-star Enrico Colantoni achieves in TNT's upcoming James Dean biopic (airing Sunday at 8 pm/ET) is, for some reason, trumpeted a bit less frequently. "I played Elia Kazan with a wig and a fake nose," he tells TV Guide Online. "Elia Kazan has a big ol' honker." Of course, the actor means no disrespect to Dean's East of Eden director. In fact, during production, he often consulted with his director, an expert on his real-life character. "

Wed, Aug 1, 2001

Waters's World

John Waters, the renegade director of such gross-out classics as Pink Flamingos and Mondo Trasho, has his say in an episode of the Sundance Channel's Conversations in World Cinema series airing tonight at 8:30 pm/ET and Saturday at 4:30 pm/ET. But before then, one of his favorite leading ladies  sorry, not the late Divine  wants to speak her peace about the outrageous auteur. "[The atmosphere on John's sets] was like reform school," Cry-Baby and Serial Mom veteran Traci Elizabeth Lords tells TV Guide Online, laughing. "I adore John. He definitely sees the world off to the left... or off to the right... or just off." All kidding aside, the former blue-movie starlet holds in the highest esteem the colorful character who gave her her big break in legitimate pictures. "I respect John so much," she says. "He grew up wanting to be a filmmaker so badly that he went out and got a little eig

Fri, Jul 27, 2001

Ed Co-Star: Winsome, Loses Some

During Emmy season, many an actor experiences the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. However, perhaps only up-and-comer Justin Long  Ed's adorably awkward Everyteen, Warren Cheswick  went through both emotions in a single morning. "My dad called and woke me," he tells TV Guide Online. "He was like, 'I wanted to be the first to tell you [that you're up for best supporting actor]!' At first, I didn't even know what he was talking about. Then I realized the nominations were announced that day. "My dad's a philosopher," he adds, "and he's usually pretty stoic. But he was being so boisterous that I knew it was for real... or at least he thought it was." Alas, it turned out that, like the rest of the endearing Ed ensemble, Long had been snubbed. "My dad's friend had read the story about 'If TV Guide Online could pick the Emmy nominees...'" relates the s

Thu, Jul 26, 2001

West Wing Quandary: Help Wanted

In real life, White House staffers serve at the pleasure of the president. But on The West Wing, cabinet members and coffee makers alike serve at the pleasure of a far more fickle world power: the NBC drama's opinionated audience. So, while the soaring post-mortem popularity of President Bartlett's no-nonsense receptionist, Mrs. Landingham, may enable actress Kathryn Joosten to continue to haunt the Oval Office, the prez still is going to need a warm body to field his calls. The question is: Who? "I don't know yet, but somebody will," series creator Aaron Sorkin promises TV Guide Online. "I just haven't thought of who the character is, so obviously I haven't thought of who the actor or actress is." For her part, the politically correct Joosten has some very specific ideas about what type of person should sit behind the desk of the dearly departed. "I told the powers that be that I thought that it should b

Wed, Jul 25, 2001

Hedwig Hottie Shuns the Spotlight

Say a little prayer for Michael Pitt. The baby-faced 20-year-old gives a killer performance in Kids director Larry Clark's new drama, Bully (in theaters now), and rocks as the opportunistic love interest of the transsexual title character in John Cameron Mitchell's raucous musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (opening Friday). But while his name becomes known in more households daily, all he wants is to be... anonymous. "I'm more interested in doing good work than in being famous," the New Jersey native tells TV Guide Online. "The little touch of fame that I have had has been, for the most part, inconvenient. Being a fly on the wa

Fri, Jul 20, 2001

Hedwig Creator: A Star Is Torn

The almost-famous title character of the mind-blowing glam-rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch would probably see the film's opening Friday as her chance, at last, to bask in the spotlight that she has always deserved. But for actor-singer-writer-director John Cameron Mitchell, the occasion presents an altogether different, but no less fervently desired, opportunity: to leave behind his alter ego's glitter make-up and go-go boots, and fade into the background. The El Paso, Tex., native spent nearly a decade Off-Broadway and beyond developing the role of the East German boy whose life is cut to bits by an endless parade of calamities  paramount among them, the bungled sex-change operation that gives his... er, her band its name. So when the time came to adapt the stage show for

Thu, Jul 19, 2001

The Skinny on Melissa's New Love

Puckering up to Jennifer Aniston in girlfriend Melissa Etheridge's new "I Want to Be in Love" music video, former Popular tart Tammy Lynn Michaels looks every inch the lean, mean kissing machine. But despite her timeless, hourglass figure, the voluptuous vixen once was told that she was becoming not a big star, but rather a large one. "When I first booked Popular, I was very sick with a stomach condition, and I was underweight," she tells TV Guide Online. "After I started taking medication, I was able to put weight back on, and someone that I worked with said that I had a weight problem and had to make it a priority to lose weight. "This person proceeded to tell me how unattractive my upper arms were... and my hips... and my thighs," she continues. "It killed me. I was so shocked and hurt, and I was really scared, because I don't want to be a skeleton. I don't find that attractive on me

Wed, Jul 18, 2001

X-Files Heavy Lightens Up

Having played the sinister Cigarette-Smoking Man on The X-Files for seven years, William B. Davis seemed like a natural to guest star on The Outer Limits as a scientist with ethics so dubious that he doesn't think twice about experimenting on a survivor of a nuclear holocaust. Nonetheless, one teensy problem did arise from the veteran villain's casting in the "Worlds Within" episode (airing tomorrow night at 10 pm/ET on the Sci Fi Channel): The way that he approached the character, his ethics seemed  believe it or not  a little too dubious. "I was seeing him as being committed to resolving the scientific possibilities," the actor explains to TV Guide Online, "and if lives have to collapse in the process, then lives have to collapse. "But," he adds, "they kind of held me back a little on that. They wanted me to be upset that we were losing out [on the research opportunities in the end], but

Thu, Jun 28, 2001

Sex Symbol: Who, Me?

After going out with both Julie Bowen and Lesley Boone on Ed, and moving in with Cynthia Nixon on Sex and the City  in a single TV year  David Eigenberg deserves to be a front-runner for People magazine's next "Sexiest Man Alive" cover. But he has in mind a slightly different headline: "Most Shocked Guy Ever." "It's very funny  for years, I never played the boyfriend," the Long Island native tells TV Guide Online, chuckling. "I don't particularly see myself as all that handsome. What you see is what you get." Of course, Eigenberg's humility is as big a part of his appeal as his boyish grin  and, no doubt, one reason that, while Sex usually discards its male co-stars quicker than its female characters go through condoms, he keeps getting asked back as Miranda's ex, Steve. In fact, he makes his first appearance of th

Fri, Jun 22, 2001

Buffy Vamp: Will Act for Beer

The USA Network movie Beer Money (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET) probably won't do for Mercedes McNab what, say, American Beauty did for Mena Suvari. But the comedy about a trio of burnouts who exploit an extraterrestrial to earn the title dough still might expose the Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star to a few new fans. "It's Tom Green-type humor," she tells TV Guide Online somewhat apologetically. "Fourteen-year-old boys who like gross-out humor will think it's hysterical. That's definitely the target audience. "I don't find that kind of humor funny," she adds. Still, it was worth McNab's while to make Beer Money. For starters, she got to hang with leading men Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Nick Von Esmarch. "I definitely got voted into the guy group," she recalls fondly. "We played Sega in their trailers all day." Plus, the m

Tue, Jun 19, 2001

Sitcom Star's Jurassic Lark

If you reported for work and found extraterrestrial velociraptors in place of colleagues, you'd probably start listening for narration by Rod Serling. However, when

Fri, Jun 15, 2001

Father's Day, Sopranos Style

Since in his movies he has tried to murder youngsters ranging from Edward Furlong to Josh Hartnett, Robert Patrick probably would be the last person anyone would expect to receive a Father's Day card. Yet the silver-screen heavy's paternal instincts come shining through off-duty, according to John C. Hensley, his son in a memorable second-season story arc on The Sopranos. "When I found out I was going to be on that show, I felt like a little kid who had been called out in the hall to fight a bully," he relates to TV Guide Online. "But Robert  whether he saw how terrified I was or without even knowing it  turned all my anxiety into excitement by basically being cool." In fact, The X-Files leading man  and real-life dad of two  offered his baby-faced colleague the best piece of advice that he ever expects to receive. After a day of

Fri, Jun 15, 2001

Angel Gets a Blonde Transfusion?

As much as Mercedes McNab relishes playing Harmony, the undead dingbat of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and sister show Angel, she still dreads reading her scripts. "Every time I get one," she tells TV Guide Online, "all I do is skim to the end to find out if I die. It's really scary." Luckily, the actress notes, as hare-brained as the blonde blood-sucker can be, she has managed to hit upon a fool-proof survival tactic. "The theme of every episode seems to be, 'Make Harmony as big an idiot as possible, then have her run away with her tail between her legs.'" All kidding aside, McNab probably needn't fret quite so much over her alter ego's life expectancy: She clearly has made a fan of series creator Joss Whedon, who originally read her for the part of Buffy. "I don't think [Harmony's expanded role] is cosmic payback [because Sarah Michelle Gellar got cast]," she insist

Wed, May 30, 2001

Sci-Fi Sexpot's Slipped Disc

If Traci Elizabeth Lords wasn't such a hottie, she probably would've recorded a half-dozen albums by now. But dang it, her ready-for-its-close-up pout  not to mention her underrated acting ability  keep getting her cast on TV series (like First Wave, the Sci Fi Channel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers-meets-The Fugitive hybrid) and in movies (among them, the upcoming Blade sequel). As a result, fans of her scorching 1995 techno platter, 1,000 Fires, just keep waiting for her to get back into the groove. "I was six tracks into a new record when I signed to do First Wave," the sometime songwriter tells TV Guide Online, "and now that I'm [done taping for the season], I'm like, 'I don't feel like that anymore.' So basically, it's all screwed up. I have to start all over." While the prospect of scrapping a half-finished disc would start many a vocalist shrieking in panic, this admirer of acts as diverse as Ricky Ma

Tue, May 29, 2001

Sci-Fi Sexpot's Slipped Disc

Mon, May 28, 2001

Friends Baby: Who's Your Daddy?

Not since Dallas nearly knocked off J.R. Ewing in 1980 has a cliffhanger sparked as widespread a guessing game as the one that has erupted in the wake of this season's Friends finale. The $64,000 question: Who impregnated Rachel (Jennifer Aniston)? A recent TV Guide Online poll revealed that most viewers thought that the single gal's ex-husband Ross ought to stock up on cigars. But he is far from the only fellow who might ace a paternity test. In fact, next season the mom-to-be could conceivably find herself reading Dr. Spock with any of these potential fathers. Ross (David Schwimmer): Since their breakup, Rachel and her old flame have repeatedly reheated their romance  heck, they even got hitched during a lost weekend in Vegas. Plus, just because the one booty call they scheduled on-screen was aborted doesn't mean that there couldn't ha

Tue, May 22, 2001

Second Chance for Popular Pair?

Although the WB is expelling Popular after tonight's broadcast (at 9 pm/ET), two of the high school dramedy's classmates deserve to graduate with honors to a spinoff  and we aren't talking about teacher's pets Leslie Bibb and Carly Pope, either. As varsity vipers Nicole Julian and Mary Cherry, Tammy Lynn Michaels and Leslie Grossman dressed like silver screen golden girls and spat insults that would make Anne Robinson cry. So imagine what would happen if the social-climbing California girls were set loose in Manhattan... "God almighty, the laughter would never end!" Michaels tells TV Guide Online. "Grossman and I would take that town by storm! Nicole and Mary Cherry would do stuff like fake working at Barney's because they wouldn't hire us. And Nicole would probably make a play for the mayor and try to get in the news." Unfortunately, a sitcom spotlighting the campiest co-stars since Be

Fri, May 18, 2001

X-Villain: Where There's Smoke...

On The X-Files, fluke worms grow to be Rock-sized, sharks walk on two legs, and UFOs take off more regularly than airline flights. In other words, anything can happen. So, although his character, the nefarious Cigarette-Smoking Man, took what appeared to be a fatal fall in last year's finale, William B. Davis believes that viewers might not have seen the last of him. "[My fate] was left deliberately ambiguous," the actor tells TV Guide Online. "At the end of the season, they really didn't know if the series would be continuing. Once they found that it was, they didn't want to engage the new character [Doggett] in the old stories... so they've gone in a different direction. "I don't know what their thoughts are now on those loose ends," he adds, "including me at the bottom of the stairs!" Whether at last the villain really was served his just desserts, his portrayer doesn't see a little thing like his passing

Mon, May 14, 2001