Patty Hearst = Awesome

SPOILER ALERT! This could be good.

I suppose we should be glad it's not Paris Hilton playing a descendent of the Neptune Grand's founder. But of course the show would never stoop to such a low level of stunt casting. I can't wait for the TwoP threads as the kids there educate one another about who Patty Hearst is.

I do worry when I see stunt casting. It usually suggests desperation and a lack of better ideas, not unlike trying to improve your radio station's ratings by dropping turkeys out of a helicopter.

I agree that stunt casting usually sucks (the Paris Hilton episode makes me squirm), but for some reason the Patty Hearst thing just made me smile. She totally won me over when she played a Donna Reed type 50s housewife in John Water's Cry Baby. I just think she has a great sense of humor about herself.

Also, Will & Grace was all about stunt casting and look how long that piece of crap stayed on the air. If they have to throw in a few celebrity guest appearances to keep VM on the air, I'm all for it! (OK, I say that now, but I'll probably change my tune if they start parading in Blohan, Britney or Asslee Simpson as the weekly Hearst student-in-distress guest star.)

Bold statements and pronouncements

Now that we've established that no one pays any attention to me (see any other typeface colors recently?) , I guess it's safe to make whatever bold statements and pronouncements I feel like. Let's see . . . how about Veronica Mars is not like Buffy.

Hey, I pay attention! Just busy, busy, busy! Anyway, I have a few minutes now to agree with your bold statement. I've never really understood the comparison.

Part the Red Sea

Hey, team, let's see some posting activity. I know we're busy, but if you have time to read I'm sure you can find time to post sometimes. Just a friendly noodge from your red-fonted pal.

Pulse premiere dress

I'm with you, KB, I don't know what to make of this dress either. Obviously, it's better than that last thing we linked to. I think it kind of works and I like how it rules out any necklaces. On the other hand, it's a bit like what some sci-fi costume designer might imagine for the not-too-distant future. And and I can't see it without thinking of the "woman" symbol.

What do you think?

Then, never, now and . . . possibly yet again later

These are back! If the "Always Take Backup" shirts are any guide, they run small.

Something in this reminds me of the advice a multiply-divorced partner in an old law firm once gave to a good friend of mine: "'Married' just means 'temporarily unavailable'."

Dean Begley

I don't have a strong feeling about this casting choice, nor have I ever had much of an opinion about Ed Begley, Jr. I'm glad to see that they are creating a significant role for the dean of Hearst, and I hope there will be other developed "adult" characters there. Michael McKean would have been nice, though for a while I might have had a tendency to think "It's Michael McKean" whenever he appeared on screen, a distraction. I appreciate the marketing value of adding known actors, but I also relish seeing an unknown do a brilliant job, as Duane Daniels did in the role of Van Clemmons.

I do have one question after looking over Begley's career on IMDB. How is it that he portrayed "Dr. Victor Ehrlich" in Homicide: The Movie when the final episode of St. Elsewhere revealed that character and the show's whole universe to be a figment of some kid's imagination?

Newspaper writer does her detective work

Veronica Mars also generates plenty of frisson by playing under the radar of the censors who police free-to-air programs in the US. No rude words, no nudity, no explicit violence, but the double entendres written for these students sound like the scripts written when the Hays Code kept Hollywood on the straight and narrow.

"So it's big, huh?" Veronica says to a new kid, Wallace, in the first episode, talking about his motorbike.

"Legendary," he replies.

"Well, let's see it," she says. "If it's as big as you say, I'll be your girlfriend." - Sydney Morning Herald, August 5, 2006

Or was it the Canberra Times?

Scully: "Having completed the autopsy I checked into the Davey Crockett Motor Court."

Mulder: "The name of it was actually the Sam Houston Motor Lodge."

OMG, I loved that episode so much. "Don't say I never did nothing' for ya' Scully."

The New Guy

I just saw the photo of the "new guy" on VM - Piz. I think I'm already upset about the new season (if only because I'm a huge LoVe fan). If this counts as a spoiler for you, then don't look at this link.

Same warning about the photo here, in which he looks like a goofball. He certainly won't give Logan much trouble in the formalwear department, putting aside the whole pre-tied issue (which I'm so over . . . really). However, it seems to have been established, based on what we've all perhaps read, that [Mild Spoiler Follows] Rob has decided, following TwoP-boards outcry, that Piz will not be a love interest for Veronica--as she sees it, anyway.[End of Spoiler] I'm taking kind of a special attitude toward the details of next season. I wasn't too excited about the "three mysteries" approach (which I refuse to think is a spoiler at this point) or some of the casting and character-naming decisions (although I can't argue that most colleges do have their share of goofballs with weird nicknames). But my special attitude is simply that you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the show on the air. To a point, naturally. The day Veronica goes looking for the Black Lodge and ends up being inhabited by Bob, I'm done. ("I'm sorry, 'see ya' was Option A?") In the meantime I guess I'd offer Rob the same helpful mentoring advice I used to get from a law-firm partner I once worked for: "Don't fuck it up." I do owe old Chris for a few nice turns of phrase.

This one's for you, syp . . .

. . . on MTV's 25th birthday.







Ah, Jessie's Girl. I loved Rick Springfield. I love Logan. Thank you MWR.