I can't remember if Jen posted this here yet, but wanted to add a link to the New OC Social Club, I'm really having a cool time with it so far, it has some neat video clips, sounds like a promising idea.
On The Valley, Colin Hanks' character's last name is "Needleman." Evidently, this was originally the last name for Seth, Kirsten and Sandy until it was decided to change it to "Cohen." Probably a good change. ____________________
Two more pics of Samaire as Penny in the "Penny and Me" video by Hanson
____________________
April issue of CosmoGirl
Beauty Patrol: Makeup Bag: Twin Faces: pic of Micha ____________________
Tune into ET on VH1 this weekend because they usually include some previews of the next episode and quite possibly even more news on our fave OC people ____________________
Rachel Bilson is the grandaughter of Bruce Bilson (director of about 75 tv shows) & neice of Julie Bilson Ahlberg (producer) ~~~~~~~~~~ Eric Balfour (Eddie) is currently filming In Her Shoes (2005) that stars Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette & Shirley MacClaine, as Maggie, Rose & Ella respectively, based on the book of the same name by Jennifer Weiner. He will play Grant. (Please read the book before viewing the movie, it's a really great book and if your a Philadelphia-phile, you'll enjoy all the Philly mentions and the sites)
posted by Jen @ 10:30 AM |
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Here's one of my questions of the night: Did you notice that right before the show started they discussed how Marissa and Summer both watch “The Valley” yet when Summer asked Marissa if she knew who Grady and “The Valley” were, she denied knowledge? ____________________
'O.C.' Helps FOX Hold onto Wednesday Title (Zap2It.com)
Fast National ratings for Wednesday, March 24, 2004 "American Idol" and the return of "The O.C." led FOX to a ratings win Wednesday over CBS and NBC on a fairly competitive night.
FOX averaged an 8.4 rating/13 share in primetime to finish a few tenths ahead of CBS, 7.9/13. NBC came in third at 7.1/12, followed by ABC at 5.5/9. The WB's 1.9/3 was good enough for fifth, beating UPN's 1.3/2.
FOX enjoyed a larger margin of victory among adults 18-49, posting a 6.3 rating to CBS' 4.7. NBC averaged 3.6, ABC 3.2, The WB 1.1 and UPN 0.7.
At 8 p.m., "Survivor: All-Stars," 9.7/16, put CBS in a first-place tie with FOX, which aired "That '70s Show" (7.2/12) and the "Idol" results show (12.1/19). Two reruns of "My Wife and Kids" averaged 5.7/9 for ABC. The weekly rerun of "The Apprentice" on NBC, 3.6/6, took fourth, topping "The WB's "Smallville" and UPN's "Star Trek: Enterprise," both of which were in repeats.
NBC led a tightly bunched pack at 9 p.m. with "The West Wing," 7.5/12. CBS was close behind, averaging 7.3/11 with "The King of Queens" (8.3/13) and "The Stones" (6.3/10). "The O.C." returned to FOX after a few weeks off and scored some of its best ratings of the season at 7.2/11. ABC's "Secrets of Extreme Makeover" came in fourth, just three tenths back. A second "Smallville," 1.8/3, kept The WB in fifth. UPN trailed with a second hour of "Enterprise."
"Law & Order," 10.4/18, increased NBC's lead at 10 p.m. A "CSI" repeat averaged 6.8/12 for CBS, while "Kingdom Hospital," 4.0/7, continued its slide on ABC. ____________________
Can't see the animation? Click here ____________________
I've heard about them before... Sarah Drew (second cousins with Ben) was Bianca on the 3/19 episode of Wonderfalls (she was the girl impersonating lead character Jaye) on Fox ____________________
The O.C. LOVE IT! Remember a few weeks back, before all the pre-emptions for the supersized Idol's and whatnot, Marissa was channel-surfing and we heard a TV spot for some show called The Valley? Bless Josh Schwartz and his team for planting the seeds back then for this hilarious tongue-in-cheeky episode that threw our favorite teens in the mix with the cast of said faux-Fox confection. Colin Hanks had Seth down cold! Even Paris Hilton didn't suck (insert your own porn-video joke at will). But this being Orange County, beeyatch, of course we needed some sort of turmoil and with just seconds before the credits rolled, we got it big time. Luke, your secret is out. Tagging Julie Cooper may score you gold in the MILF Olympics, but trust me, the Ex-Boyfriend Hall of Fame will not be calling. I, however, am expecting oodles of calls, thanks to Fox's little spot announcing that we only have five episodes left now. I know more than a few coworkers who will be needing heavy counseling to deal with that bombshell. ____________________
Music News:
Hanson's new video for "Penny & Me" featuring Samaire has aired on VH1 and MTV. If you are a big Hanson fan or big Samaire fan, please vote for "Penny & Me" for TRL. ~~~~~~~~~~ If your located in Philly, please walk along South Street today to catch a glimpse of Rooney. They will be playing at the TLA at 9pm tonight, their tour bus is already stationed in front, so keep your eyes out!
Also, Rooney and Michelle Branch will be starting a college tour together. ____________________
Quiz: What's your "O.C." IQ? Are you a hard-core fan or just a fair-weather watcher? Test your knowledge of the series with our trivia quiz.
Win a Phantom Planet Guitar Win a free copy of Phantom Planet's latest release or the grand prize: an autographed guitar! ____________________
Apple's iTunes has recently updated their celebrity playlist to include songs handpicked by Micha.
posted by Jen @ 7:32 AM |
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
YES! I just learned how to put pics in the baby, so here are three pics of Samaire doing the Hanson video.
posted by Jen @ 11:18 AM |
Put on your reading glasses, get something to drink, sit back, relax and enjoy some O.C. news...
How Josh Schwartz and 'The O.C.' Beat Writer's Block (Tuesday, March 23 04:00 PM) By Daniel Fienberg
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - At FOX's January Press Tour party, Josh Schwartz, the 27-year-old creator of "The O.C." made an embarrassing confession. It's not as embarrassing as Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) admitting his failure as a first-time lover to his Chino-raised friend Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie), but a subject of chagrin nonetheless.
Schwartz, network television's youngest showrunner, was suffering his first bout of writer's block.
Nearly two months later, Schwartz can joke about that moment of near-insecurity. "I got over it," he says simply. "I went to Vegas. I just got out of town."
After that intellectual dry spell and a temporary narrative hiccup involving a borderline psychotic named Oliver Trask, "The O.C.," like its youthful creator, has experienced a creative second wind in the later stages of its extra-long 27-episode first season. Learning the job on the run, Schwartz and his staff of writers ("Everything goes through my computer at some point," he says of the collaborative process) have had to make major character adjustments as the season progressed.
Viewers who haven't visited Schwartz's semi-fictionalized Newport Beach universe since the show's August premiere would have some difficulties recognizing the young characters (except for the fact that the actors who play them have seen their faces plastered on magazine covers, billboards and web sites).
Summer (Rachel Bilson) has developed from a sarcastic ice queen into a sympathetic romantic lead and the show's second most reliable source of one-liners. Luke (Chris Carmack) has gone from stereotypical, short-tempered jock to surprisingly endearing and bumbling doofus (some of the transitions haven't been quite so organic). And Ryan has gone from mumbling, monosyllabic, brawl-starting bad boy to, well, mumbling, monosyllabic, brawl-starting bad boy, but at least he sometimes makes jokes about his limitations.
"We always knew we wanted to -- especially with Luke and Summer -- really dimensionalize those characters," Schwartz says. "We always wanted to immediately go and start to show these other sides of those two. Seth, as I got to see what Brody did really well, I wanted to start writing towards that and making the character a little bit more extroverted."
The process of making comic readin', Shins-lovin', Captain Oats-ownin' social reject Seth into one of the show's heroes ran into a roadblock when, thanks to Brody, Seth actually became too cool and too popular. The show's Valentine's Day episode, which featured that awkward first sexual encounter, began the process of regeekifying Seth, a devolution which continued an episode later with a peculiar (and romantic) declaration of love.
"He stands on a giant coffee cart and announces to the world that he's a huge geek," Schwartz says of the "Some Kind of Wonderful"-inspired episode "The Telenovela." "That's letting him reconnect with that side of his character and retapping back into the mythology of that character as being this misfit, loner, outsider who never fit in."
It's unlikely that Schwartz is going to allow Seth to regress too far, as it's clear that the creator views the character as something of a proxy for himself, as well as a source of inspiration for introverted fans everywhere.
"I think the lesson with Seth is that you stand up there on that coffee cart, you declare who you truly are and you might just get Summer, as opposed to standing in the background and just naming your boat after her and never trying to talk to her," he says.
Just as those awkward Seths-in-training might feel as if the show is speaking directly to them, the show's burgeoning Internet fan base has noticed that many of their comments, concerns and jokes have worked their way onto the show. In past episodes, the metatextuality has included gags about McKenzie's resemblance to Russell Crowe, the show's occasional over-reliance on fistfights and the fact that Peter Gallagher's eyebrows often become entirely new characters. More than a few web sites have become convinced that they're Schwartz's one-stop shop for cyber-buzz.
"I can't reveal the sources because then they know and it just throws everything out of whack," he notes, before half-joking "I'm out there. I'm trolling in cyberspace. I'm highly sensitive to the criticisms of the general public and I'm here to please."
An example of the show at its most self-referential comes this Wednesday when "The O.C." returns after several weeks of "American Idol"-based hiatus. Titled "The L.A.," Wednesday night's (March 24) episode finds Summer and Marissa hobnobbing with the stars of their favorite primetime soap "The Valley," including Colin Hanks who plays an actor named Grady Bridges who plays Jake Needleman, the Seth Cohen of "The Valley."
"Seth is, of course, jealous that he's going to lose Summer to the real-life TV Seth Cohen," is Schwartz's circular logic.
Another group that's watching is FOX's Standards and Practices department. "The O.C." has faced a bit of a crush because the Post-Janet Jackson Era began at the same time as several of the show's characters were engulfing on sexual relationships.
The most notorious cut came in Summer's Stephanie Savage-penned come-on line "You don't even have to do anything. You can just lie there like a buffet, and I can serve myself," which was ultimately delivered to Seth sans buffet reference. The Valentine's episode also featured a pair of advisory warnings.
The network also had reservations about the May-September relationship between high school guy Luke and attractive, scheming mom Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke).
"We had to throw in a line there at the last minute saying Luke was 18, even though we don't believe he is actually 18," Schwartz confesses. "It was the only way they'd let us get away with it and I'd much rather do the storyline. The idea is that he stayed back a year."
With storylines flowing from his word processor once again, Schwartz is looking forward to ending the season with a bang, but hopefully not too much of a bang.
"We're building to a cliffhanger, but it's not going to be a cliffhanger like the Tijuana episode," he promises." Oliver will not show up and take Marissa hostage and put her in the trunk of his car and drive off with her. I think it's going to be more of an emotional cliffhanger." ~~~~~~~~~~
Zap2It.com's TV Best Bets The O.C. 9:00 PM - FOX Paris Hilton (who just can't be on TV enough!) and Colin Hanks ("Roswell," "Orange County," son of Tom) guest star on tonight's "O.C." Hanks plays the star of a very "O.C."-like show-within-the-show called "The Valley," and Summer (Rachel Bilson) is thrilled to meet him. Seth (Adam Brody), not so much. Later, Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) tries to keep a secret from Marissa (Mischa Barton). ____________________
LA Times Article
TELEVISION He's 'O.C.'s' fresh breeze Infusing it with sly wit and detail, creator Josh Schwartz has raised the Fox drama above its prime-time soap trappings. By John Horn, Times Staff Writer
For one of the very few times in her media-saturated life, Paris Hilton is turning down a chance to appear on television.
What might be great news for the rest of the country proves mildly distressing to Josh Schwartz, the creator, producer and principal writer of Fox's exceedingly popular new drama series, "The O.C." Schwartz had written a small part in this Wednesday's episode for the all-pervading party girl, but Hilton's representatives are balking at his offer, telling Schwartz over the telephone that Hilton isn't interested in a self-parodying spoof.
"Paris Hilton won't play herself on TV," Schwartz says after he gets off the phone in "The O.C.'s" Manhattan Beach production offices. "Who does she want to play? Lady Macbeth?"
In the scheme of grinding out a weekly show tracking the affairs of stunning Orange County teens and their parents, the Hilton holdup is but a minor inconvenience. Many producers would forget it, cook up a different casting idea and move on. But Schwartz has written the part specifically for Hilton and repeats aloud the dialogue he has scripted on her behalf: "Orange County?" Hilton is to say after meeting the show's character Seth Cohen. "Ew."
It may seem a reach to describe a prime-time soap opera as having a vision, but "The O.C." has won over audiences and critics alike thanks to Schwartz's deceptively complex design, a scheme that demands tiny cameos like Hilton's be cast exactly right. Although the show employs a staff of as many as six writers, Schwartz will write, co-write or ghost-write about 21 of the show's 27 episodes this debut season, a level of involvement typically reserved for series supermen like Aaron Sorkin ("The West Wing") and David E. Kelley ("Ally McBeal").
"The O.C." certainly overflows with scandal, wealth and sex, yet underneath all the prerequisites of its genre lurks dialogue so witty and references so obscure that the Writers Guild of America recently nominated Schwartz's pilot script for one of its annual screenwriting awards.
Over the course of a few days with the 27-year-old Schwartz, it becomes apparent that "The O.C." is distinguished by its relentless determination to balance soap-opera trash with pop-culture smarts. In the very same afternoon that Schwartz considers the means by which one more of his characters might try to kill himself and how to invent yet another love triangle, he also is correcting an actor's pronunciation of Azerbaijan and fighting with Fox to save a joke about the People's Choice Awards being rigged. As for Paris Hilton: Schwartz won't give up until he somehow changes her mind.
Giggles on the set
"The O.C." is primarily focused on the lives of four teenagers in Newport Beach, but during filming one recent day on a Manhattan Beach soundstage, it's actually three of the show's grown-ups who are behaving like adolescents. Production is already hours behind schedule, and director David Barrett is trying to stage a simple scene in the kitchen of the show's central family, the Cohens.
As soon as the cameras roll, stars Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan and Tate Donovan burst into hopeless giggles, take after take after take. Schwartz, watching from behind a bank of monitors, eventually loses his patience. "Go over there and kick some butt," he quietly says to Barrett, who quickly regains order. Schwartz then prepares for a meeting with senior executives at Fox up at the studio lot, where there's much less tension in the air.
Launched last August, "The O.C." is currently television's second-highest-rated new drama, behind "Las Vegas," attracting an average weekly audience of 9.3 million. The show is also a launching pad for alternative rock bands, with the first in a planned series of "O.C." soundtrack albums arriving March 30.
Part of the show's popularity can be traced to its surprisingly strong appeal to men, who typically avoid shows of this kind. Shows of this kind, though, don't typically have Schwartz's wry point of view.
At the show's center stand wisecracking high school student Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and his parents, real estate developer Kirsten (Rowan) and selfless lawyer Sandy (Gallagher). In the first episode, Sandy takes pity on a misguided joyrider from Chino, Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), inviting him to move into the Cohens' pool house. Ryan and Seth become friends, and then burn considerable hormones trying to hook up with local girls Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) and Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson).
As in similar shows before it, everyone is beautiful and most all are rich; some of the adult actors are too young to have teen children, and a few of the young actors are too old to play teens. In any given episode, Seth or Ryan might get into a fight, try to thwart a gun-wielding classmate, accidentally burn down a house, or get into another fight. Other characters overdose, get tossed in jail or relapse as strippers. There are as many romantic missteps and love triangles as there are alcohol-loaded parties and spectacular sunsets.
Yet for all his adherence to the conventions of the serial, Schwartz isn't necessarily shackled by them. The show has veered away from the dramatic pyrotechnics of its first episodes, and is now more comfortable with heartfelt banter. Where you once had a quick look at "O.C." teens in a hot tub, now you have a glimpse of them struggling to express their emotions. "As much dramatic and bad stuff befalls some of our characters, I think there is an underlying optimism to the show," Schwartz says. "There's a core of this loving family, and that's the anchor that allows you to do some of the more outrageous things."
Rather than concoct "Dynasty"-like backstabbing plots, the primary parents in "The O.C." typically have meaningful conversations with their partners and their children. What might be a platitude in another show can be fodder for a glib comeback here.
Sandy: Since the minute you were born I knew I would never take another easy breath without knowing that you were safe.
Seth: So … I'm like asthma?
The show is simultaneously campy and droll, a leap not only for the genre but for a network whose lineup has included "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiancé."
"When I was in high school, all the other kids were watching 'Beverly Hills 90210,' " says Schwartz, who grew up in Providence, R.I., and moved to Los Angeles as a film school undergraduate. "I was watching 'Seinfeld.' "
A show's quick evolution
Affixed to Schwartz's office walls are two posters. One is covered with photographs of everything Orange County, from surfers to South Coast Plaza. The other features reproductions of movie posters such as "American Beauty," "Election" and "Rushmore." Schwartz took the collages into his first pitch meeting, and while they reveal his influences, they don't illustrate how quickly his show has changed in less than a year.
In the pilot episode, Seth was a video game-playing geek, Summer a heartless despot and Marissa's then-boyfriend, Luke Ward (Chris Carmack), a homophobic bully. Now Seth is among the coolest guys in prime time, Summer is his generally adoring girlfriend and Luke, whose dad has since come out of the closet, strums a guitar and offers love advice to the forlorn.
"That's one of the amazing things about a television series," says Schwartz, who in 1997 as a USC junior sold a movie script to Sony for nearly $1 million. The movie, about a post-high school romance, has not yet been made. "You have a chance to really evolve characters, grow with them, and knock them down a peg and have their lives turned upside-down."
Which is exactly what Schwartz and his "O.C." writers are doing in a production office conference room. People who create soaps alternate from construction to demolition: They build up relationships, only to tear them down. And Seth and Summer are about to get bulldozed.
Schwartz has decided he wants to split the couple apart one more time, and is thinking about doing it before the show's hiatus begins in May. But there's a catch: The show's audience, like its writing staff, is partial to both characters. So how can Seth and Summer break it off without somebody's being to blame?
"We can't make Seth unlikable," co-executive producer Allan Heinberg says.
"We could go down the 'Friends' road, where one of them has an affair," Schwartz says.
Executive producer Bob DeLaurentis and story editor J.J. Philbin don't seem to like the idea. There's a few seconds of silence, and then Schwartz suggests a potential solution: Perhaps a third party drives the couple apart. Maybe Summer's self-medicated stepmother? More silence. The show also is introducing Marissa's trashy aunt around the same time.
"The problem is we have two terrifying women," Schwartz admits. "And they cancel each other out." He then wonders aloud if perhaps the disruptive force could be Summer's dad.
"He's very good-looking and popular and rich," Schwartz says, getting more excited about the idea.
"Maybe her father could dismantle Seth at the dinner table?" Heinberg says.
"That's good," Schwartz says, adding that he knows a "friend" (clearly himself) who once realized a relationship was doomed the first time he met his girlfriend's family.
"People ask me, 'Do you write your own life into the show?' " Schwartz says a few minutes later, down on the "The O.C.'s" soundstage. "And I say, 'Of course. What else would I write about?' "
Soon after Schwartz sold his movie script to Sony, he made a series of deals for television series pilots and dropped out of college. ABC bought his boarding school drama "Brookfield," and the WB purchased "Wall to Wall Records," a drama about the music business. Both shows were filmed, but neither was broadcast. Schwartz also sold "Alphabet City," a drama about a New York tabloid, to Fox, but it was never produced. While all of these shows focused on subjects close to Schwartz, "The O.C." is perhaps the most autobiographical.
The Cohens are loosely based on his parents (except Schwartz's mom can cook, he notes), and Seth shares much of Schwartz's wit and erudition. "The Seth and Sandy relationship is very similar to the relationship I have with my dad," Schwartz says. "It's very loving, but we very rarely are overt with our emotions. Instead, we give each other a lot of [grief]."
He also gives his cast a lot of leeway. "Josh is confident enough of his point of view that he does not feel jeopardized by my comments and observations," Gallagher says. In a recent episode, Schwartz wanted Gallagher's Sandy to ground Ryan. Gallagher, a father, said it would never happen. So Schwartz rewrote the scene into something more believable. "Josh creates an environment on this set where really good things can happen," Gallagher says.
The show also gives Schwartz a chance to embellish his own personal history. In a previous episode, Seth brought a humidifier on a Palm Springs road trip. "I used to get bloody noses from dry air, so there was a period in high school where I used to carry a humidifier with me," Schwartz says. "But now I get to write it so the guy with the humidifier has two girls fighting over him."
The Paris connection
"We closed Paris Hilton!" Kristen Campo, Schwartz's assistant, says as she ducks her head into the writers' room.
It took a week, but Schwartz was able to accommodate Hilton's several requests. She won't play herself (she's now an American literature graduate student focusing on Thomas Pynchon and magical realism), her character could return (she gives Seth her phone number), and she gets to kiss one of the boys (which was cut from the show).
Schwartz hasn't won every "O.C." tussle. He wasn't initially willing to make 27 episodes this season and worries the volume may have compromised some of the series' story lines. He wants to film more than three days on location for every episode, but Fox won't pay for it. And Schwartz struggles sometimes to maintain the show's cheeky humor.
In the wake of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl incident, Fox has asked Schwartz to tone the show down, insisting that Marissa and Ryan not have sex this season. Off-limits too is some double-entendre dialogue that once sailed past Fox's censors. "It's kind of scary what's going on now," Schwartz says.
Supervising producer Stephanie Savage wrote one scene in which Summer, trying to come on to Seth, promised him: "You don't even have to do anything. You can just lie there like a buffet, and I can serve myself." When the episode was broadcast, all Summer was allowed to say was: "You don't even have to do anything." Fox also nixed Summer's first orgasm — she will have to wait until next season, or beyond.
Just as his characters have matured in the first season, Schwartz himself has developed quickly.
"I wasn't concerned about his age," Gail Berman, president of entertainment for the Fox Broadcasting Co., says about hiring Schwartz to helm the series. "I was concerned about the fact that he hadn't run a show before.
"You need somebody who can appreciate the scope of the job, be able to have a creative vision, and still keep the trains running on time. It's a left-brain and a right-brain job. It's not often that people can do it well. But Josh does it very well," Berman says.
Says Schwartz: "I've never had a real job like this before, where I had to go to an office every day. I was always just kind of writing. This year for me is really about getting a real job, and becoming an adult." ____________________
SPANKING NEW VIDEO on MTV “Shaking” by Rooney Singing Luke not included ____________________
YM May Issue
Rachel Bilson for The Candie's Foundation Educating America's youth about the devastating consequences of teen pregnancy. May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month
5 Things You Should Know About...Chris Carmack by Patty Adams (not to be confused with April's Teen People's Star Scenes: 5 Questions with Chris Carmack) Check out #5 to see what Chris and Luke have in common (hint hint: And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson...) ~~~~~~~~~~
Elle Magazine with Micha on the cover, full layout of fashion and a long interview of her includes this tidbit I didn't hear about: There was a rumor about Micha and Alex Greenwald being an item (can't say it's true or not). If you look in your March issue of YM, you will see a spot called 15 Minutes with...Phantom Planet's Alex Greenwald. And we all know that Phantom Planet sings the theme song "California".
If you read E! Online or watch E! News Live, you'll also hear rumors of her canoodling with a billionaire that last year was in the papers for hitting Ryan Seacrest of American Idol, etc fame.
The O.C. (FOX) Ann asks " Rumors are flying that a major character leaves The O.C. - any idea who it will be?" If you read Kristin's column at E!Online, you'll see that the leaving of another character has been confirmed by the cast. The name of said cast member leaving hasn't been confirmed and by major, I expect it means "regulars". I personally think it'll be Luke.
Gaby asks "On The O.C., is it true that someone's going to get pregnant?" I've heard the rumor too but I have no confirmation. My belief is that Julie will be pregnant with Luke's but she'll claim it's Caleb's... which could explain why he proposes to her in an upcoming episode. But that's pure speculation on my part. I've also heard rumors of Summer or Kirsten being pregnant. ____________________
Samaire Armstrong, (Ex-Anna Stern) will be on Last Call With Carson Daly on March 24. Same night as the new episode! ~~~~~~~ Benjamin Mckenzie sat before a Scotch on the rocks and a plate of chicken satay waiting for friends at the Coffee Shop, a popular diner in Union Square. Forty-five minutes later, unable to wait any longer, he downed his Scotch and started on the skewers. He was famished, and nervous.
It was the evening before Mr. McKenzie was to appear on the David Letterman show. "He's big into the awkward pauses, and that sort of freaks me out," he said.
Get to know a little more about Ben, read the full article! ~~~~~~ Not only is Mischa Barton on the cover of 3 magizines this month, but she's also starring in a new movie, Octane, which is to be relesed in late 2004.
Mischa is on the cover of Elle, Cosmo, and los angeles (sic).
In Octane, Nat (Mischa) is drawn into a cult and must be saved by her mother, Senga (Madeleine Stowe).
Way to go Mischa!!!!! ~~~~~~ The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson is on the cover of the new spring 2004 issue of Teen Magazine! In it she spills the dirt of the "romance rumors" between her and Adam, even the rumors about Ben and Mischa, she also talks about who she think has more "game" - Adam or Ben?
"Adam (Brody, who plays Seth) and I are just good friends. There's chemistry [between us], but it's not necessarily romantic chemistry. We're good friends and people like to read into that." ____________________
Surf's Up for FOX's 'North Shore' (Monday, March 22 10:23 AM) LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - FOX has ordered 13 episodes of the drama series "The North Shore." Disappointingly, the series, from 20th Century Fox TV, has no connection to the 1987 surf classic, which starred Matt Adler, Gregory Harrison and Nia Peeples (or with The WB's reality series "Boarding House: North Shore").
Chris Brancato, Bert Salke, Kevin Falls and Peter Elkoff have signed on to executive produce the series, which is an "Upstairs, Downstairs" look at a Hawaiian luxury hotel, its guests and its staff. Formerly titled "Oahu," the drama stars Kristoffer Polaha ("America's Prince"), Rob Estes ("Melrose Place") and Navi Rawat ("The O.C.").
"It's a very commercial idea with some very compelling characters at the center of it," Craig Erwich, executive vp at FOX, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The pick-up for "North Shore" is FOX's second early scheduling move in less than a week. The network, which vowed to begin year-round scheduling last summer, snagged 13 episodes of the comedy "Method & Red" last week.
FOX has promised the premieres of several new series this summer, a strategy which helped turn "The O.C." into a demographic hit last year, but which failed to draw audiences to "Keen Eddie." ~~~~~~ Lavin Takes a Seat at 'The O.C.'s' Table (Monday, March 22 03:10 PM) LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Linda Lavin is headed to "The O.C." to celebrate Passover.
The actress, best known for playing the title character on the CBS sitcom "Alice," will guest-star on the FOX drama Wednesday, March 31, playing Sandy Cohen's (Peter Gallagher) mother, Sophie.
When Sandy finds out that his mother is planning a visit, the Cohens revamp their Passover plans. Meanwhile, Summer (Rachel Bilson) takes steps of her own to ensure she makes a favorable impression on Seth's (Adam Brody) Nana.
Lavin earned an Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe awards for playing waitress and single mom Alice Hyatt on "Alice," which ran from 1976-85. The stage veteran also won a Tony award in 1987 for her role in "Broadway Bound" and has been nominated several other times.
Recently Lavin has guest-starred on "The Sopranos" and "Law & Order: SVU," and she was a regular on the short-lived NBC series "Conrad Bloom" in 1998. She also starred in "Hollywood Arms," an autobiographical play co-written by Carol Burnett, in which she played Burnett's grandmother. ____________________
Here's an email I received from the senior associate editor of Seventeen magazine:
Hey Mischa Barton fans!
In the May issue of Seventeen magazine; on newsstands April 6; Mischa takes a break from The O.C. to chat with Merle Ginsberg about her newfound success. Read all about why she skipped the Grammys, what's really up with her and Benjamin McKenzie, and how she worked her way from "weird-looking kid" to one of Hollywood's hottest young stars!
Please post this information on your site for Mischa's fans, along with this thumbnail of our cover (I'll be a bit before I learn how to add pictures to this thing) and this link to Seventeen.com
From darcy: Do you have anything on Friends? It looks like that Joey premise I told you about could be true. Paulo Costanzo (Road Trip) has been cast as Matt LeBlanc's nephew. He's supposed to be the NBC version of Seth Cohen, with a little Italian flava. I hear he's going to start this great, new holiday called "Chris-Mangia!"
From serviver73: I heard Samaire Armstrong has been cast in a pilot. I guess she won't be returning to The O.C. anytime soon. No, she won't.
From toliver63: With Samaire and Milo, Gramercy Park sounds promising. Definitely. Also, with JJ Abrams and Matthew Fox, Lost--I'm all about that.
From 12chachacha: I read an interview with Mischa Barton in Elle, and she sounded like a total bee-yotch. Have you ever met her? Yes, and she's a doll. Honestly.
From kim_reed02: Any word on who's leaving The O.C.? Adult or teenager? The only thing I know is that it's a "loved" character.
From seba_88: Is it one of the four main ones--Ryan, Marissa, Seth, Summer? No, it's not.
From beate: More O.C.! Please! Seth's "nana" comes to town for Passover dinner, and he tries to make sure she doesn't meet Summer (assuming Nana won't approve of her), but Summer sets out to prove him wrong. Also, Marissa finds out about Mommy and Luke, and she's a complete mess over it. ____________________
Yesterday, the New York Times ran a great article about Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C..
It has been quite a year for Mr. Schwartz. Almost overnight, the 27-year-old has gone from obscure screenwriter to the youngest person in network history to create and produce his own one-hour series. The show, broadcast on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central), is the season's highest-ranked new drama in the coveted 12-17 and 18-34 age brackets. Since it went on the air last August, Mr. Schwartz's script for the pilot has been nominated for a Writer's Guild Award, and he was signed to a multimillion-dollar deal by Warner Brothers to keep him producing "The O.C." and developing new shows.
Read the full article. ~~~~~~ The Baron (code name on The Pool House site) also just told me that they'll be using different songs from the CD for the Official Site intro song for the next few weeks as a sampler. ____________________
The Futon Critic
GRAMERCY PARK (ABC) - Max Martini ("Level Nine") is the latest to join the already large ensemble cast of the drama pilot, about three nannies (Samaire Armstrong, Izabella Miko and Camille Guaty) and the families they work for in a luxury high rise. Paul Blackthorne, Elizabeth Mitchell, Milo Ventimiglia, Travis Schuldt and Megan Dodds also star in the project, which comes from Warner Bros. Television and the Tannenbaum Co.
THE MOUNTAIN (WB) - Shaun Cassidy has come aboard the drama pilot as an executive producer/showrunner. He'll join current executive producers, McG, Stephanie Savage ("The O.C.") and David Barrett ("Jake 2.0") on the project, a drama about a 25-year-old (Oliver Hudson) who inherits his family's mountain resort when his grandfather dies. Barbara Hershey and Anson Mount also star in the project, which is set up at Warner Bros. Television and Wonderland Sound & Vision. ~~~~~~
CHICAGO (thefutoncritic.com) -- Just a few days after making "Method & Red" its first comedy series order of the 2004-05 season, FOX has made its first drama series pick-up: "The North Shore."
The series, previously known as "Oahu" and "The Big Island," is a one-hour serial drama that takes place at a luxury hotel in Oahu, Hawaii where the international elite stay and revolves around the hotel's twentysomething employees and how they handle relationships among themselves and with the wealthy hotel guests. Rob Estes ("Melrose Place"), Kristoffer Polaha ("Tru Calling"), Rachel Shelley ("Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India"), Nikki Deloach ("Walker, Texas Ranger"), Navi Rawat ("The O.C."), Corey Sevier ("Black Sash"), Jason Momoa ("Baywatch") and Michael Ontkean ("Twin Peaks") all star in the 20th Century Fox Television project, which has a 13-episode commitment (including the pilot). Momoa and Ontkean have only recently been revealed as cast members.
Estes plays Vincent Boyd, a managing partner of said hotel, while Shelley is set as the hotel manager with Rawat as the hotel's concierge. Polaha plays a hotel executive and a former lover of Shelley's character. The other actors' roles have yet to be specified.
Peter Elkoff ("Mr. Beautiful") created the series, which will be executive produced by Chris Brancato and Bert Salke ("Boomtown"). Brancato and Salke will take over for Kevin Falls ("The West Wing") as showrunners of the series as Falls was only signed on for the pilot. The pair's involvement includes a blind put pilot commitment from the network for next season. The duo is no stranger to the 50th state, as they were behind "The Break," a failed Hawaii-based cop drama starring Dylan Bruno at FOX last season.
Industry insiders say FOX was so impressed with the pilot, which was directed by Peyton Reed ("Bring It On"), they gave the order after seeing only a brief 15-minute presentation of the project. "It felt like a show that delivers on good characters and relationships, along with a huge dose of wish fulfillment," FOX executive VP Craig Erwich told Daily Variety. Like "The O.C." last season, it's possible "North Shore" could launch this summer however FOX has yet to commit to a premiere date.
I can't remember if Jen posted this here yet, but wanted to add a link to the New OC Social Club, I'm really having a cool time with it so far, it has some neat video clips, sounds like a promising idea. 
The O.C. (FOX)
Samaire Armstrong, (Ex-Anna Stern) will be on Last Call With Carson Daly on March 24. Same night as the new episode!