Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff in Big Bang Theory: Internet hit

Katie Sackhoff suds it up with Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg)

The super-hot Katee Sackhoff , star of the remade and cult-level popular Battlestar Galactica Sci-fi series (and who also has a very cool blog), is steaming up the Internet after appearing on the CBS show The Big Bang Theory - which, truth be told, I saw for the first time on the United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Chicago - and burned up the episode with this steamy (for that show) scene in a bath tub:



I still believe one reason Bionic Woman didn't last beyond the first half of season one in 2007 was the lack of focus on, and eventual jettisoning of, Katee Sackhoff's character "Sarah Corvus". Sarah Corvus was an excellent, if off-kilter, sidekick to Michelle Ryan's "Jamie Sommers" in the show. That's one series I'd love to write for, but I digress; it's gone.

Here's Katee talking about her character in Bionic Woman:



Battlestar Galactica's season's coming to an end as well as Katee's five-year long role as the mythical "Starbuck". Her blog has an excellent video Q and A where she answers fans questions about her Battlestar Galactica work:



On January 10th, 2010, Katee will return to weekly television with her regular appearance on 24, playing a character named "Dana Walsh".

For an excellent deconstruction of Battlestar Galactica, read SF Chronicle Television Columnist Tim Goodman's March 22, 2009 take here.

Marc Shaiman is Music Director for 82nd Academy Awards

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reports that Marc Shaiman was named Music Director for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.

Marc Shaiman

Marc Shaiman is a five-time Oscar nominated composer nominated three times for Original Score on The American President (1995), The First Wives Club (1996) and Patch Adams (1998), and for Original Song: A Wink and a Smile from “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) and for the hilarious Blame Canada from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999).

This is Robin Williams performing “Blame Canada”:



And the same song as it was presented in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut:



Ok. I just had to get that out of the way before one of you asked for the videos!


Marc Shaiman is also an an Emmy winner with a wicked sense of humor. He won for co-writing Billy Crystal's "Oscar Medley" for the 64th Annual Academy Awards in 1992. More recently, he was the composer for The Bucket List (2008)

In 2007 he was honored at the ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ) Awards:




With Marc Shaiman creating music for Oscar hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the 82nd Academy Awards promises to be a classic event.

Whoopi Goldberg on The View says "African-American Berry". What's that?

Whoopi Goldberg

I just watched the talk show "The View" which is a guilty pleasure of mine and a great way to get the pop culture news pulse of the day, when I heard show host and comedian Whoopi Goldberg say to Joy Behar, "Your African-American Berry is OK." Or words to that effect.

A bit of backstory.

Earlier in the show one could hear what sounded like a cell phone saving a voice mail message - the kind of sound a Blackberry generally makes. Then as the show was ending, the sound came on again. This time Whoopi Goldberg was on the spot: she said "Did someone break wind!" Then she looked at Behar and asked if that was her. Behar said it was her cell phone and Goldberg responded, saying "I'm glad your African-American Berry is OK."

OK. For the record, I'm not complaining about this so much as I just find it strange, so I looked up the term.

The only listing I found was in something called "The Urban Dictionary" where it refers to "President Obama's Blackberry" and says that's the politically correct definition of a Blackberry cellphone.

Well, that's stupid and not politically correct.

The Blackberry has been around for years but just because we have an African American President who uses one - for the first time in POTUS history - someone has to give a racially-based name to the device. Why?

It's another way of American society essentially marginalizing blacks - and yes, blacks like Whoopi Goldberg are doing this. It says "Ok, now that someone Black's using a Blackberry we have to somehow give another name or designation for the cellphone."

OK. When I started writing this blog post, I was curious; but now at the end I'm just plain mad. I will be happy to see the day when African Americans like Whoopi Goldberg don't feel so out of mainstream American society that they have to "color" life in the way they do.

As far as I'm concerned it's a Blackberry and it has nothing to do with my skin color, and yes, I use one.

Geez!

Jimmy Clausen punched; Notre Dame QB in bar fight

According to ESPN, Notre Dame Quarterback Jimmy Clausen was "sucker-punched" by an angry, sociopathic so-called fan Sunday morning in South Bend, Indiana.

But that's not the right report; it's not what happened at all.  Clausen was not "sucker-punched."

The South Bend Tribune reports that the place where it all took place was a bar and restaurant called "C.J.'s Pub", and that Clausen had left initially without incident, but his female friend left her purse in the establishment, and as she went to get it at 2 AM with Clausen, she was pushed by a man outside the bar.

Then words were exchanged between Clausen and the man. The QB pushed him away placing his hand to the man's neck; the man punched Clausen in the eye and the two started to wrestle on the ground before the fight was broken up.  

(Reads like the man may have been a jealous ex-boyfriend of Clausen's female friend or something.) 

Police were called to the place, and reportedly in part because of the Clausen fight but also because other "skirmishes" were going on.

What kind of place is "C.J.'s Pub"? The Golden Domers must go there to fight after a home loss. As of this writing, Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis has no comment (but the press conference is later this week; just wait.)

As of presstime Clausen will play against the Stanford Cardinal this Saturday. However, if Clausen cannot go, the job would fall to fifth-year senior Evan Sharpley, who has not thrown a pass yet this season.

Clausen brings a 156.45 passer rating to Stanford Saturday; he's thrown for 3,382 yards and 23 touchdowns and four interceptions.

Monday Night Football Titans v. Texans tied in 4th quarter

The NFL's  Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans are tied in 4th quarter at Reliant Stadium in Houston and in a game that's burning up the Internet. 

With 5:14 to go, it's 17 to 17 and possibly headed to overtime, this game's not without its great plays, players and dirty play.   

Houston's star wide receiver Andre Johnson had over 100 receiving yards. Texans Quarterback Vince Young was effective both running and passing (he ran completely around Texans Rookie Linebacker  Brandon Cushing) as was Texans Quarterback Matt Schaub.

It's one of those game where just when you think one team's going to score and pull away, they don't.  The clock's running down; now under 3 minutes. 

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Titans 20, Texans 17 with :47 seconds left.

UPDATE: Titans win as Houston Texans missed a 42-yard field goal with six-seconds left.

Pixar's “Partly Cloudy" heads international list of 10 animated shorts for Oscar

On Friday, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 10 films were named to advance in the voting process for the "Animated Short Films" category for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards to be held March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center and televised on ABC (in case you weren't used to going to ABC to see The Oscars every year).

It's an international list with movies representing production companies from Australia, France, America, Canada, and other countries.

Emeryville, California-based Pixar's “Partly Cloudy" is the American entry and is considered by some to be the front runner for the awards but only because its the most high-profile entry. Frankly, this awards category has been almost impossible to predict in the past, so anything could happen.

That said, here's the list of competitor films:

“The Cat Piano,” Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation)
“French Roast,” Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films)
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty,” Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films)
“The Kinematograph,” Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image)
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte),” Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon)
“Logorama,” Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit)
“A Matter of Loaf and Death,” Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.)
“Partly Cloudy,” Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
“Runaway,” Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
“Variete,” Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions)

The next step is for the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee to select five nominees from the 10 titles on the short list above. The Academy reports that the movies will be screened for members in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in January of 2010. (No specific date was given as of this writing.)

For more information, visit Oscars.org

AMA Music Awards: Taylor Swift tops Michael Jackson; Adam Lambert, Lady Gaga go off

The American Music Awards gave talented singer Taylor Swift another massive round of fan voted awards to take home this year, as the country pop star took home honors for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist, Favorite Country Album (for Fearless), Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist, and Favorite Country Female Artist.

This is Taylor Swift winning for Female Pop/Rock Artist:



But what was shocking was that Taylor Swift beat the otherwordly legend that is the late Michael Jackson for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist. But even with that Michael Jackson took home awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album (for Number Ones), Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Album.

But the news of Swift beating Jackson caused controversy on Twitter, with a large number of tweets of protest like this one:

FeeshaD I can't believe Taylor Swift beat out Lady Gaga & MJ @ the AMA's! People have gotten so lame. less than a minute ago from mobile web

But then there are a lot of repeated tweets in anticipation of the 2010 Grammy Awards, like this one:

_Julia13 just voted "TAYLOR SWIFT" on "WHO WILL MOST LIKELY WIN A GRAMMY 2010????" vote too ➔ http://bit.ly/6MER36 3 minutes ago from POLLpigeon

Regardless of the tweet, it's clear that 20-year old Taylor Swift is having a year that one could only dream about. And all Swift had to do was sing, oh, and surround herself with the right publicist. But for some, creating nutty moments at the AMA gave their publicity hacks easy work: Adam Lambert and Lady GaGa.

Adam Lambert decided he was going to let is loins get the best of him and do some sexually provacative things during his singing number that really he could have done it without. I'm not going to give those actions video airplay.

Lady GaGa's bottle breaking spell during her number was less controversial but still questionable - and the piano was on fire, too!

It's as if the show producers decided to conspire with the performers to create as many Internet-viral-producing moments as possible just to keep us talking about the AMAs long after the show is over.

That strategy is very much like what I believe was done for the halftime show at Super Bowl 38 in Houston, when Justin Timberlake took off Janet Jackson's bra. It proved the impact of the Super Bowl on American culture because it was the pop event conversation for all the rest of 2004 and just at the time when the NFL was renegotiating its television contract.

To me, that was no accident, just as the AMA events of Sunday night were no accident. Both actions were created for the media and both actions worked to generate buzz. Look for more of this approach in the future and perhaps at The Grammys.