Celebrityscraps

A few weeks ago a random series of events led me to four year veteran online TV channel ‘Coin-Op.TV‘, and I’m glad that I found it as it’s filled a hole in my sphere of online entertainment.

The show goes out live every Thursday from L.A. and a few other glam locations, and has a hybridized personal/professional feel. One which I find uncommon among today’s wannabe web-tv channels…. and Coin-Op.TV is far from wannabe….!

I’d place a bet that Coin-Op.TV will continue to be forging the mould by example on the best and brightest way to broadcast a television show via the web.

Good job Rob, Hailey and the rest!!!

So every week I visit the official site of the TV series ‘the Unit’ to view the week’s installment.

Last week’s ep was a ‘to be continued’ so I’ve been patient for a week. I check if it’s online today…..nope….. ok, so I check if it was actually aired yesterday…….nope….. so I check with epguides.com and low and behold it doesn’t list any more episodes……. W-T-F!!!

Give me the next episode of the Unit damn you! … and none of this Xmas break nonsense please!

If you think that any TV you want to watch should be available at the touch of a button, then you’re of the same school of thinking that I am!

I don’t want wave after wave of adverts slammed in the middle of my programs, and to be honest would pay double the subscription to have them removed.

This is why today people choose Netflix, Tivo, and Hulu.

It’s interesting that the broadcasters in the US are one step ahead of Europe in many ways. The BBC have their on demand service… but most shows often choose to host their episodes on their websites, making them only available to viewers in the US!

If I go to the trouble of using a US proxy to channel my connection I can view episodes of Supernatural and Battlestar Galactica. I shouldn’t have to do this though….Why is this service unavailable through standard web connections in the UK?

The shows are on UK terrestrial TV and we all pay a TV license, so we should be able to watch them online without painful workarounds!

HULU is the ultimate in viewing and I really wish that a mainstream service like this was available in the UK!

Apologies for the late posting of this… my week has been frantic.

My exploits at the MCM ranged a bit further than chin-wagging with the boys and girls from Heroes. I also got a chance to check out the Q&A for a new series called Demons and chat with Michael Hogan (Colonal Tigh) from Battlestar Galactica (article coming soon).

Demons is a contemporary spin on the legacy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, set above and beneath the streets of modern-day London. Philip Glenister stars in the new six-part drama series, and plays Rupert Galvin, a larger-than-life American with a tragic past and a zero-tolerance policy to the rabble of mythical “half-life” entities that exist all around us.

Galvin enters into the life of his teenage god-son, Luke (Christian Cooke – Echo Beach, Robin Hood), whose father died in mysterious circumstances 15 years before, little does Luke know what will be thrust upon him. There are supernatural forces at work and it is Luke’s destiny, as the last descendent of the Van Helsing line, to smite the half-lives that stalk our streets.

The Q&A was interesting but didn’t really tell me any more than I already knew from the wikipedia articles. I did gather though that we will be seeing a few “proper” vampires in the show and the writers “might” (which is producer-talk for WILL) be putting Dracula in the show but not in the first series.

One thing that does echo as similar is the “teenager with an elder guide having a destiny thrust upon them” theme….. sound familiar…. Yes that’s cos they did the EXACT same thing in Buffy the Vampire Slayer!!!

Whilst the concept may not be entirely new, the fomula is one that is prooven to work… so based on that I’m going to reserve judgement until I’ve seen a few episodes.

Also: I have a signed pic of the production crew and cast of Demons which will be going out on Celebrityscraps Xmas givaway!

Continuing my chronicles at the MCM Expo we’ve already heard what Greg Grunberg had to say, the next member of the Heroes cast I got to quiz at the Expo was Brea Grant.

For those of you who have just been released from 6 months of solitary; Brea is one of the new cast members in Heroes, she plays a thief called Daphne who is a girl who can run very VERY fast.

So the first time I heard the name Brea Grant was in an announcement of the new additions to the Heroes cast many moons ago. Then as the hype for the new season ramped up I started searching the new additions and to my surprise found that Brea is one of the few actors who is fully immersed in online culture. She’s on Facebook, Blogs, Webcasts, and regularly uses Twitter.

This heavy use of social media and level of transparency has made Brea one of the new favourites of the Heroes cast and she’s established a huge fan-base through the many different channels she’s using to promote herself and Heroes. You can tell her fans deeply appreciate the personal touch she brings to them too.

A big shout must also go out to Laura Roeder as well as she is the person responsible for keeping the online world of Brea running as it should.

Anyway… so my first questions to Brea went out to her in the group Q&A.

First she talked a bit about her character:

Brea: “From the moment I walked in they (the Writers) had a very brilliant idea for the character pretty much mapped out for at least the first four or so episodes to see what was going to happen. That’s been amazing just going in…. the writers are geniuses and they are always there for me to talk to them and ask questions like ‘why would Daphne do this?’. My character was pretty much shaped before I even set foot on the set”

Greg jumps in and adds:

Greg: “You usually don’t get an idea of what’s coming until you get the script, but they called me up and said will you come read on some of these final auditions… and so I did. So they did a scene where where we first meet and we (Greg and Brea) had a scene together. It was great to do that cos when we auditioned i was like ‘please…PLEASE…She’s fantastic!’ *point at Brea*”

I then got to ask a 2nd question:

Patrick: “Out of all the Heroes cast you use blogs and online technology quite heavily. Do you find this important to relate to your fans?”

Brea’: “I think it’s important to be able to use my blog to let people know what’s going on. It’s great to be able to get questions from people all over the world and be able to respond. I also think it adds a personal touch and that’s important.”

Patrick: “The people reading your blog seem to think so. I also noticed that you’re a regular user of twitter and that you recently got Greg (Grunberg) involved”

Brea: “Yea… there’s a funny story behind that.. we were stuck at the airport and I set Greg up on Twitter but forgot to disable the email you get when people add you on it.”

*Greg jumps into the conversation*

Greg: “So my email’s got like 1000 emails in it by the time I get off the plane. Which I only discover when I turn on my phone! …and just to make matters worse when I was coming out they asked If I wanted to upgrade my data package and I was like ,…Naaah I’ll be fine… what am I gonna download on my phone while I’m there…” *makes a painful face*

Brea: “I felt bad about that”

I didn’t get any more questions over to Brea in the Q&A session but managed to speak to her just before she was being made shiny and glam by the make-up girls. As it was an informal chat I went with an different line of question:

Patrick: “So Brea.. are you missing your dog?”

*see Brea’s Twitter for cute dog pics*

Brea: “I am… she’s being looked after by a friend at the moment.. although I’m a bit worried… last time I came back and she’d been in a fight with a raccoon.”

Patrick: “Really!? A raccoon?”

Brea: “Yeah she had a bite on her. It’s wasn’t nice”

That was about all I got to ask Brea at the Expo. I did have a bit of a chat with her and Greg at the autograph table later but nothing noteworthy although I must admit I did see something funny transpire. One guy was taking pics of Brea at the autograph table for ages… even the people getting autographs were telling him to stop… so Brea gets out her camera and takes a pic of him… raised a few laughs although you had to be there.

Anyway… Brea Grant the Speedster Semi-Villain (not made up my mind yet) from Heroes.

She’s was lovely to meet, and you should check her blog out at http://www.Breagrant.com

I’m sitting in the corner of a small room located in the press office of the Excel centre in London waiting for the some of the cast of Heroes to arrive for a Q&A session. Looking at the line of chairs up against the wall I can’t help but draw a contrast between what I’m seeing and the classic ‘firing squad’ image… then I relalise that I’m playing the role of the marksman…. too late to back out now… they are arriving….

Greg Grunberg rolls into the room followed by Brea Grant, David H Lawrence, Ken Lally and Andre Royo. Within seconds Greg has already destroyed a camera stand. A grin creeps across my face as I realise this is not going to be the standard rigid press affair I choose to tolerate.

After the rest of the group has asked their questions and the press Q&A starts to wrap up I decide now is my time to corner ‘Grunny’ for a decent chat.

My first question was obviously… “Do you think you’re death in the film Hollow Man could have been better?”

Greg rolls into this one with ease:

“Man so much more could have been done with that film. The guy goes invisible and what’s the first thing he does?… goes and feels up a bunch of women, then goes crazy and kills people. So much more could have been done with that film. When he’s driving and scares the kids in the other car *Greg imitates the scene*, that’s the type of stuff that we should have been doing!…. and I’d have loved to be in the sequel too… but … oh… wait…. that’s right I’m dead!”

Suddenly my chat with Greg is cut short by one of the events personnel whisking him off to the main press office. I follow and after some ninja like sneakery I’m back to talking to Greg in the press office while the events staff work out how to get him out of there without getting mobbed by 30,000 fans.

So next we get chatting about his celebrity band. For any of you who don’t know Greg’s band is called “Band from TV” and all of the members are actors from various TV Shows.

The band’s members are Greg Grunberg (Drums), James Denton (Guitar), Jesse Spencer (Violin), Bonnie Sommerville (Vocals), Bob Guiney (Vocals), Teri Hatcher (vocals), Adrian Pasdar (Guitar) and Hugh Laurie (Keyboards).

I ask Greg if he’s planning to do any gigs in the UK, he replies: “Man we really wanna get that happening. Hugh was saying he wants to do a few performances in the UK… we’re working on it.”

At this point I committed to plugging the band on this blog (again) so as a man of my word - ALL OF YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT BAND FROM TV’S ALBUM “HOGGIN ALL THE COVERS“. IT’S FOR CHARITY SO IF YOU DON’T BUY IT I’LL BE POSTING YOUR NAMES TO GREG AND YOU WILL BE ‘ON HIS LIST‘.

Ok so now that I’ve plugged the band we can get back to the interview/chat. So we’re talking about the band and Brea comes down to get herself made up by the lovely make-up girls (who had been up since 4am - unlucky girls). Our conversation then goes a bit like this:

Patrick: “Hey man you should get Brea in on the band action”
Greg: “yeah I just found out she’s a drummer… she plays drums!”
Patrick: “You’re a drummer!”
Greg: “You know it’d be great to get her in for a song… like she comes on and sits on the drums and I sing a song that’d be huge”
Patrick: “Yeah or you could be on the drums and get her on the Bongos or something”
Greg: “Definatly!.. watch this space”

So there you have it.. now all Greg has to do is get Brea to agree… but I doubt that’ll be hard for him.

We then move on to the subject of mind reading… I ask him where he got the inspiration for the unique look on his face when he’s reading minds on Heroes. His response “Yea… cos if someone came up to you and did it *makes the face* you’d be like - what are you looking at?”

He then proceeds to fill me in on a few Heroes season 3 spoilers which I’m not gonna publish. Sorry peeps!

We then briefly move on to the subject of Twitter. Greg has gone Twitter mad since he was introduced to it last thursday and he loves the fact he can keep all his fans up to date with all his movements. Check Greg’s Twitter: HERE

So that’s it. Greg Grunberg at the MCM Expo and what a nice guy he is too! Again.. buy “Band from TV’s album!” It’s for charity!

COMING SOON: What Brea Grant has to say on Blogging, Auditions and raccoon attacks.

I’m recovering from my grueling weekend of madness. On Saturday I covered the MCM Expo (UK’s version of ComicCon) and caught up with Greg Grunberg and Brea Grant from ‘Heroes‘, Michael Hogan from ‘Battlestar Galactica‘, and also spoke to the cast and production staff for ‘Primeval‘ and new series ‘Demons’. The event was huge and even caught the attention of the police who turned up in force when they noticed the huge queue of 30,000 attendees snaking it’s way round the Excel centre in London.

On Sunday I rambled over to Wembley Stadium to check out the NFL International match between the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers…. and it was a cracker!

Keep a keen eye out as I’ll be posting my adventures at both throughout the week.

Brea’s Twitter cottoned me on to Greg Grunberg from Heroes/Alias/Felicity joining Twitter last night while stuck at the airport.

This was a read that made me chuckle but also piped me into something that hasn’t reached my UK based ears.

Our good man “Grunny” frontlines a celebrity cover band called “Band from TV”. The group donates all it’s profits to charity and so is a great cause.

I’m ordering a copy of their DVD as we speak so will let you know whether Grunny’s drumming is up to scratch!

So please go and buy a copy as it’s for charity!

oh P.S. Grunny… you now owe Brea a pint.

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Well the next series of Lost is not coming out til 2009… but ABC have been kind enough to release the first promo footage of the upcoming series.

DocArzt & Friends’ Lost Blog have got the first trailer of the new season (spoiler alert), and it looks to be a good one.

More coming on this as I get it.

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Yesterday evening I got wind of and announcement that a powerful new villain named Alastair will be introduced as a fickle Nemesis to trouble the Winchester brothers on Supernatural.

Mark Rolston has been tapped to play Alastair, “one of the top demons in Hell” on Supernatural.
The actor has appeared in Aliens, The Shawshank Redemption, Cold Case and Profiler, to name a few and will begin appearing on the series November 13th.

The article by Michael Ausiello (Entertainment Weekly) says the character is described as a “calm and composed demon with a placid smile that belies his simmering sadism and evil.”
I guess we’ll see if this new demon lives up to the previous bad-ass of Meg, Yellow Eyes and Lilith??!?!!

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