Benjamin Bratt Battles The Andromeda Strain

Photo from A&E

Benjamin Bratt, who Law & Order fans know as Detective Rey Curtis from Law & Order, will have a starring role in a miniseries remake of Michael Crichton’s 1971 movie thriller, The Andromeda Strain. (The original is one of my favorite thrillers/sci-fi flicks.)

The miniseries will air on A&E, over two nights, premiering on Memorial Day, May 26.

Below is an article from Wired.com on the series. The link to A&E’s web site for The Andromeda Strain can be found here.

Ridley Scott Produces Andromeda Strain

Tony and Ridley Scott are presenting a TV version of The Andromeda Strain. Their miniseries, based on Michael Crichton's deadly virus classic, airs on A&E over two nights beginning May 26.

Crichton's sci-fi best-seller came out back in 1969, spawning a 1971 movie adaptation and dozens of cheesy 'Run-for-your-lives-the-infection-is-spreading!' thrillers. If anybody can breathe new life into this now familiar premise it would be the Scott brothers.

Ridley of course directed Blade Runner and Tony ranks as one of Hollywood's top fiery-explosion action stylists (Top Gun, Enemy of the State). To handle the day-to-day directing, they brought on Mikael Salomon, who served as cinematographer on The Abyss and Arachnophobia, later directing the made-for-TV earthquake movie Aftershock.

Question is, can the cast pull it off? The good guys trying to squash a deadly bacterial outbreak in Utah are portayed by Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order, Miss Congeniality), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) Rick Schroder (24, NYPD Blue), Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), Christa Miller (Scrubs, The Drew Carey Show) and Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Streets).


Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.

Vincent D’Onofrio Speaks at Nashville Film Festival

Here’s a short video with Vincent D’Onofrio (Law & Order Criminal Intent) speaking at the Nashville Film Festival in April of this year. He discussed working with legendary directors Stanley Kubrick and Robert Altman.

This video should open in a separate pop-up window when you select "click to play." You can also access the video at this link.

Enjoy!




Click to play




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S. Epatha Merkerson Gets Tony Nomination

Merkerson and her Golden Globe

Today, S. Epatha Merkerson – who Law & Order fans know as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on Law & Order - was nominated for a Tony Award for best performance by a lead actress in a play. This recognizes her performance in the play “Come Back Little Sheba.”

You can read some of the reviews of her performance on my blog, here.

The Tony Awards will be presented on June 15, at 8:00 PM on CBS, and Whoopi Goldberg will host the show.

Congratulations Epatha and we're all hoping you take home the award!

Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.

Dennis Farina In Law Trouble of His Own

The LA Times is reporting that Dennis Farina, who played Detective Joe Fontana on Law & Order, was booked on weapons charges. Here’s the story:

Former 'Law and Order' actor Dennis Farina booked on weapons charge

The actor, who tried to board a flight at LAX with a handgun, tells police he forgot it was in his briefcase.

By Jean-Paul Renaud, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 12, 2008
Former "Law and Order" actor Dennis Farina has been arrested and booked on a felony charge after screeners at Los Angeles International Airport found a loaded handgun in a briefcase he tried to take on board a flight to Chicago.

Police said the 64-year-old actor, a former Chicago police officer, told them he forgot that he had placed the .22-caliber gun in the case.

Farina was originally arrested Sunday morning on a misdemeanor charge of attempting to take a weapon onto a plane, said airport Police Sgt. Jim Holcomb. After officers learned the gun was not registered, the charge was increased to a felony, Holcomb said.

"He was apologetic and very cooperative, and he said he understood what was going to happen," Holcomb said.

Farina was booked into a Van Nuys jail. His bail has been set at $25,000.

Holcomb said Farina told investigators he put the gun in the case before driving to Los Angeles from Arizona for the United Airlines flight to Chicago.

The veteran actor has starred in several films, including "Get Shorty" and "Saving Private Ryan." He served 19 years with the Chicago Police Department.

Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.

Chris Noth “Cutting” and Running to Vegas?

Apparently Chris Noth is thinking of moving his restaurant/club “The Cutting Room” from New York City to Las Vegas. Here’s the story from PR Inside:

Big's Club No Longer Cutting It
Due to a recent falling out with his landlord regarding the removal of scaffolding outside his New York nightclub, The Cutting Room, Chris Noth is looking to relocate to the desert oasis. In addition to scaffolding issues, the Sex and the City star believes it's time for a change.

Mr. Big wants to be Mr. Las Vegas.

Due to a recent falling out with his landlord regarding the removal of scaffolding outside his New York nightclub, The Cutting Room, Chris Noth is looking to relocate to the desert oasis. In addition to scaffolding issues, the Sex and the City star believes it's time for a change.

"When I started out in 1998, I was one of many partners, who we had to buy out because they were thieves and rogues-Now my partner Steve Walter and I need to get out of that location and we're having a hard time trying to find investors to move up to a much nicer, bigger place. We need an investor out there and I want to take the club to Vegas. I think a Cutting Room would be great in Vegas. I just haven't really had the time to go out there and schmooze people and try to get them to invest millions of dollars."

Any takers?


If you want to check out this place, here’s the link to The Cutting Room.

Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.

Criminal Intent’s D’Onofrio: Not Going Anywhere

The National Ledger has a short article about Vincent D’Onofrio and his contract renewal with Law & Order Criminal Intent. Here it is:

Will Vincent D'Onofrio Leave "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"?

By Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith
May 8, 2008

Vincent D'Onofrio's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" contract is coming up for renewal, but producer Dick Wolf need have no concern that the actor will be leaving his role as the series' Det. Robert Goren. "I have no plans to go anywhere," says the actor whose "Criminal Intent" role was made more manageable in 2004 -- after he was hospitalized with exhaustion.

Will Vincent D'Onofrio Leave "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"?

"I'm working 13-hour days," he says, "a breeze compared to the 15-16 hours a day I used to put in." He only hopes there's a show to return to. This is "Criminal Intent's" seventh season, "which is a long run for a dramatic series," the actor points out. "This year is kind of funky, because of the recent writers' strike and the threatening actors' strike," he says

"The world of TV is very fickle," he points out, "and particularly now, you don't know what's going on -- when we'll wrap for the season and when or if we'll resume. It's all kind of messed up."

He's hoping he'll have time between "Criminal Intent" seasons to accept a big-screen assignment -- and notes he's meeting with a couple of directors, "Trying to figure something out for summer," in the event he has the summer free.

He'd also like a do a stint on stage and points out, "There are a lot of good parts for guys my age -- and I used to do plenty of plays between seasons of the series and movie work, but now things are pretty much up in the air, and I've had to come to grips with that. I figure I'll have plenty of time for such work -- eventually."

When there's no "Criminal Intent" to come home to.


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Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.

Michael Moriarty Pens A Rant

Michael Moriarty in his L&O Days

Law & Order fans remember Michael Moriarty as EADA Ben Stone. Did you know he is running for President of the United States this year for the Realists Party? Not only did I not know that, but I never heard of the Realist Party either.

Below is a piece written by Michael and published by the web site Enterstageright.com. If someone can tell me what Michael’s writings mean, I would appreciate it. I’ve read it 3 times and I still don’t get it. I would also think it won’t help him much in his bid for the Presidency. After all, Fred Dalton Thompson never made it through the primaries, and at least Fred was comprehensible.

We are all Barack Obamas now!

“We are all Barack Obamas now!
By Michael Moriarty
web posted May 5, 2008

If even the Slavic republicanism of present day Russia, Ukraine and Georgia is against the wishes of the neo-Soviet leader, Vladimir Putin, what will the traditional republicanism of the United States do when trapped in the fist-clenching and patronizing Putin-like federalism of a woman who would make a "village" out of what once was the greatest republic in the world?

America as a bee-hive?!

Yup.

President Hillary as a queen bee?!

Yup again.

All Americans as insects and her men as drones?!

Not possible?

I don't think so, either … but that doesn't mean Queen Hillary is not going to try.

"You can run, Barack," says Sen. Clinton these days, "but you can't hide!"

Hmmm …

Nor can the rest of us hide.

Hillary will be President!

Sen. Clinton is the culminating star of a very disturbing book by Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism , the last chapter of which is relevantly titled "We Are All Fascists Now". Mr. Goldberg traces fascism from its unannounced birth in the French Revolution through the Woodrow Wilson "Progressive" Presidency into Wilson's fellow Progressive, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal, and America's war with Europe's version of the same, totalitarian mindset within Mussolini and Hitler. Thence, of course, Liberal Fascism flowers into the still unending war between the hard-line Left of Communism and the seemingly soft-line and maternal version of the same Left, the Liberal Fascism of Hillary Clinton. It is quite a trip … and quite a book!

The Protestant Reformation, I believe, has a great deal to do with facilitating fascism, or, as I have come to understand, "the politics of meaning", politics as religion itself. However, I can hardly fault Mr. Goldberg for any sin of omission. He had enough on his plate with what I believe is the undeniable evidence that the finger-pointing Left, not the Right, is the real Progressive Beast of American Fascism. However, I believe America's version of totalitarianism is no longer "liberal fascism" because the Progressive ingredients that have inspired the Clintons' bottomless lust for power are self-evidently neither liberal in Mr. Goldberg's classic definition of the word nor static. It is, more accurately, Progressive Fascism, the very kind that even Eleanor Roosevelt found revolting. If you don't believe me, see her remarks regarding her husband's Progressive Vice-President, Henry Wallace.

Barack Obama's ongoing collision with Rev. Wright is proof-positive that America's own collision with its home-grown brand of fascism has been inevitable. The African-American Left sabotaged its own sanest candidate, Barack Obama, and Rev. Wright's damnation of America soon translated into his deliberate destruction of his own parishioner's chances at the Presidency.

The Biblical allusions in this year's Democratic primaries are record-breaking. Governor Richardson of New Mexico is now Bill Clinton's "Judas" … and, as far as I can tell, Rev. Wright is the African-American version of Obama's "jealous Pharisee". Wright's recent "testaments" over the past weekend on the Bill Moyer's show, at the NAACP and before the Washington Press Club ended any chance Obama had of defeating Hillary at the convention. Wright is "crucifying" Obama's campaign.

I believe that Hillary's husband Bill so understood the psychology of the African-American community that his comparison of Obama to Jesse Jackson was intended to inspire all the would-be Jesse Jacksons of the African-American community, such as Rev. Wright, to stand up and put Obama in his place!

"Uppity Obama!!"

After all, as Rev. Wright said, Obama was just one parishioner within his church of thousands!!

Perhaps Rev. Wright unwittingly did the exceptionally gifted Obama a favor. It might have saved the Illinois Senator's life. Once out of the Presidential race, he is out of the way of the Clintons … and it is a very dangerous thing to ever stand in the way of the Clintons for too long.

We are now, all of us, Barack Obamas.

Why?

Because most of America will eventually and inevitably stand in the way of the Clinton Global Initiative to run a totalitarian, world empire.

So let's just get out of Hillary's way. The long leash she will demand as President … and get … will eventually be wrapped around her own neck and around the Progressive certainty of her supporters. Not before, however, we end up in a world war, one begun by Hillary to try avoiding the civil war she will most certainly provoke at home.

The issue of legalized abortion, or Roe v. Wade, as I've said before, will rise up to enflame Americans in the same way that slavery did … only in this instance, President Jefferson Davis of the Southern Confederacy will be portrayed by President Hillary Clinton of the by-then, entirely Progressive United States. Not being the America that I have ever known, now with legalized abortion, the United States is a third millennium version of the Southern Confederacy.

Insofar as the United States I know holds that all men are created equal, not gestated as possible candidates for abortion … the Clinton rebellion is a federalist's "progress" that utterly detaches itself from not only the republican checks and balances of the Constitution but our inalienable rights under the Declaration of Independence.

Then American history … or Fate … or, yes, God … will inspire a Republican "David" to rise up and defeat the Federalist/Progressive fascism of a female Goliath named President Hillary Clinton.

Where am I in all these Biblical allusions?

Hmmm … possibly Michael of Daniel 12:1, he who comes to "stand up for thy children".

Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Moriarty is also running for President of the United States in 2008 as a candidate for the Realists Party. To find out more about Moriarty's presidential campaign, contact rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. “

Check out my blog home page for the latest information, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.

Sam Waterston Fans – Mark Your Calendars

Sam in a previous Hamlet incarnation

Is it my imagination, or is Sam Waterston the only Law & Order star who seems to be doing anything significant lately? The ever busy and seemingly ubiquitous Sam will be starring in the Delacorte Theatre’s staging of Hamlet (should we call it “Samlet”?) in late May through the end of June.

Sam will also be speaking for The Fordham Law School’s Forum on Law, Culture & Society in November 2008 at the Time Warner screening room in New York City. Details are sparse at this time, but it appears that many of the Forum's events seem to be free. Stay tuned.

Here are the details on both:

Waterston and Ambrose Replace Easton and Rabe in Central Park Hamlet

by Broadway.com Staff

The Public Theater has completed casting for its upcoming production of Hamlet, which will begin previews May 27 and open June 17 at the Delacorte Theater as the opener for Shakespeare in the Park's 2008 season, with closing set for June 29. Oskar Eustis will direct.
Sam Waterston, who played Hamlet in the Public Theater's last Central Park mounting of the show 33 years ago, will play Polonius, replacing the previously announced Richard Easton. Lauren Ambrose, who played Juliet at the Delacorte in last season's Romeo and Juliet, will be Ophelia, replacing the previously announced Lily Rabe. Both Easton and Rabe have become unavailable due to scheduling conflicts, according to the Public.

Waterston and Ambrose will join Michael Stuhlbarg as Hamlet, Andre Braugher as Claudius, Kevin Carroll as Horatio, Margaret Colin as Gertrude, David Harbour as Laertes, Hoon Lee as Rosencrantz, Piter Marek as Bernardo and Fortinbras, Greg McFadden as Guildenstern, Julio Monge as Osric and Francisco, Paul O'Brien as Voltemand and Priest, Gilbert Owuor as Marcellus, Jay O. Sanders as Ghost and Player King, Miriam Silverman as Player Queen, and Christopher Bonewitz, Matt Carlson and Stephen James King in the ensemble.

Waterston was nominated for a Tony in 1994 for his performance in the revival of Abe Lincoln in Illinois.. Additional Broadway credits include A Walk in the Woods, Benefactors, Lunch Hour and A Doll's House. Off-Broadway performances include Much Ado About Nothing, Love Letter, Three Sisters and Chez Nous, as well as Measure for Measure and Much Ado About Nothing at The Delecorte Theatre. Waterson is best known as Jack McCoy on the TV series Law and Order and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award in 1985 for the film The Killing Fields.

Ambrose has appeared on Broadway in the 2006 revival of Awake and Sing!. Off-Broadway credits include Soulful Scream of a Chosen Son and Romeo and Juliet at the Delacorte. She is best known for her Emmy Award nominated performance on the HBO ensemble drama Six Feet Under. Additional credits include Law & Order and Party of Five, as well as the films In and Out, Can't Hardly Wait and Pyscho Beach Party.

Hamlet will feature scenic design by David Korins; costume design by Ann Hould-Ward; lighting design by Michael Chybowski; and sound design by Acme Sound Partners. Hamlet will feature scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Ann Hould-Ward, lighting design by Michael Chybowski and sound design by Acme Sound Partners




Atticus Finch in the Flesh: A Conversation with Law & Order’s Sam Waterson

When: November 19th, 2008, 8 P.M.

Where: The Time Warner Screening Room

The Forum welcomes legendary television and film actor Sam Waterson in a wide-ranging conversation about his iconic portrayal of New York District Attorney, Jack McCoy, in Law & Order, as well as his leading role in the critically-acclaimed TV series, I’ll Fly Away, and the award-winning film, The Killing Fields. No actor outside of Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch has portrayed lawyers as convincingly and compellingly as Sam Waterson. He has even played the role of Abraham Lincoln on stage. Join the Forum for a spectacular evening of conversation and clips with one of America’s finest and most distinguished actors.


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Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.

Sam Waterston Participates In Environmental Lecture

Sam and his man-bag

Photo from New York Social Diary (more at site, link below)

Law & Order's Sam Waterston is a busy man. The New York Social Diary reports:

"Last Thursday noontime, the American Museum of Natural History held its 18th annual Spring Environmental Lecture and Luncheon at the museum. This year’s subject focused on Global Climate Change.

Lynn Sherr, correspondent for ABC News 20/20 moderated, as she does every year. Panelists were Dr. Jeremy Jackson, William E. and Mary B. Ritter Professor of Oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who is featured in Leonardo DiCaprio’s new documentary, The 11th Hour; Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University; and Sam Waterston, actor and member of the board of Oceana.

On paper this looks like an interesting lecture/discussion. In reality it’s a wake-up call for a civilization, its leaders and its inhabitants who are sound asleep blithely unaware of the tsunami that will take out that civilization.

Perhaps it’s because many of us think tomorrow will never come anyway.

Nevertheless, the American Museum of Natural History is to be commended for consistently sounding the alarming and assisting us in understanding what awaits us.

The event’s chairmen were: Suzanne Cochran, Veronique Pittman, Mary C. Solomon, and Constance Spahn. All proceeds from the event support the Museum’s scientific research and educational initiatives, including important work in biodiversity conservation.” "

Head to the New York Social Diary Web Site for more pictures of Sam at this event.


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Also, see my companion Law & Order site, All Things Law & Order.