Bionic Woman

According to TV Guide and to several sites, Katee Sackhoff was virtually a lock for a steady role on the mega-hit show CSI … until the producers changed their mind at the last minute.  What happened?  The official word was that Katee was just not right for the role, but one has to wonder if Bionic Woman tanked her chances.

Katee won rave reviews for her portrayal of Sarah Corvus, Jaime’s bionic nemesis on Bionic Woman.  But many people felt she overpowered her costars and stole the scenes simply by using her natural charisma. 

It is possible that her potential CSI costars worried she would overpower them on the procedural drama, especially since she has a proven ability to make even the most technical dialogue worth watching on Battlestar Galactica? 

There is a vast difference between Galactica and BW, of course, especially since the cast of BSG includes Academy Award nominees Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell.  Nothing against Will Yun Lee or Michelle Ryan, but EJO and MM are simply in a class of their own.  And nothing against William Peterson and Marg Helgenberger, but Katee’s charisma beats the pants off Jorja Fox any day.

We have no doubt that someone will soon realize the brilliance that is Katee, and cast her in something worthy of her talents.  In the meantime Katee-Sackhoff.org is reporting that she will be back on Jimmy Kimmel at the end of May.  If you are in the area and would like to try to get tickets, click here.

Entertainment Weekly has an four-page feature on blonde action heroine and former bionic babe Katee Sackhoff in this week’s issue, where the star talks about her roles on Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica as well as her plans for the future.

Among the more interesting revelations for Bionic Woman fans was Katee’s frustration about how watered down Sarah Corvus became as the show got more and more attention.

“She was sooooo much crazier than what ended up on the air,” said the actress.  “She kept being pulled back.  That’s the norm for network television, as far as I am concerned.”

It’s another insider comment about the stunted potential of what could have been a great show, and one that is especially intriguing considering the Sarah Corvus scenes that made it on the air were pretty crazy.  The Sarah we saw was needy, violent, homicidal, caring, self-destructive, palpably alive and yet slipping into psychosis while dying. 

What Sarah Corvus could have been, or would have been, if Sackhoff had been allowed to truly unleash her man-eating and scene-chewing glory will be a mystery for the ages.  As will the question of who she was with in the pilot, and what would have become of her complicated relationship with the elder Anthros played by Mark Sheppard.

The article also contained high praise for Katee from Bionic and Battlestar executive producer David Eick:  “You’ll see I tend to cast Katee in everything I possibly can … She’s a very special find.  Those actors who can combine the qualities of strength and vulnerability - they usually call those people movie stars.”

The magazine interview featured some gorgeous pictures of Katee looking fiercely lovely with flowing blonde extensions.  There are also videos of Katee from the shoot on the magazine’s web site for those who are interested.

Executive Producer David Eick broke ranks with NBC Universal last week, telling the press that Bionic Woman really is over even as the network has stood by its claim that no official decision has been made about the future of the series.

“I just felt that the process was so frustrating, and the conditions under which we were making that show never really came to fruition in such a way that I felt like we could make the show well. The actress [Michelle Ryan] we found was wonderful. Some of the writing was good.

“We just didn’t ever bring it all together like we did with Battlestar,” he continued. “At a certain point, when it becomes that frustrating, I think you’re better off to say, ‘Let’s try again another time,’ and let it go.”

SciFi Wire got the scoop at last week’s SciFi Channel upfronts, where Eick was promoting Battlestar Galactica and the upcoming prequel series Caprica. 

The Toronto Star had some additional commentary from show star Katee Sackhoff, who played Jaime Sommers’ frenemy Sarah Corvus:

“It’s no one’s fault,” Sackhoff told the paper. “The hype was so big before the show came out, and they were so scared that it would fail, that everyone had an opinion. There were too many cooks in the kitchen, and they didn’t know what they were cooking.

“I mean, I know what went wrong. Had they given me the show, I could have figured it out. I could have told them exactly what to do. But then everyone would have put their hands in, and the same thing would have happened. You can’t blame anyone. That’s just how it goes.”

Katee Sackhoff channeled her Kara “Starbuck” Thrace persona last night on The Late Show with David Letterman.  This is a photo of Katee outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, where she and nine other Battlestar Galactica cast members shot a BSG-themed Top Ten List. 

The next night Katee partied at the SciFi Channel upfronts party, promoting the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica and enjoying what may be the show’s last upfront party.  Check out the photo below.

Will Yun Lee’s short film The Seed will be showing tomorrow evening at the Boston Underground Film Festival.  For more information on this endeavor, and to watch the preview for the film, check out the previous post.

While the British press continues to be hostile towards Michelle Ryan, some bloggers in her home country have echoed the feeling in the States that Bionic Woman still has tremendous potential for success.  Take this post excerpt, for example:

“Bionic Woman 2007 has the potential to be an engrossing, action-packed romp – and having a political subtext really shouldn’t be an obstacle to that. Let’s just hope the big suits in the States reckon there is life in the show. With a few nips and tucks, it could be amazing.”

Speaking of “could be amazing,” this blog post inspired me to think about what Bionic Woman would have been like on another (less meddling) network.  NBC proved it could make scifi exciting again when Heroes took television by mutant storm in 2006, proved it could make anything boring in 2007 … I wonder what the network will do in 2008?

Katee Sackhoff looked stunning on the red carpet last week, wearing a fabulous green silk dress to the Los Angeles premiere of Over Her Dead Body.  She added oversized gold earrings and a chic gold purse to complete the look.

It’s been awhile since we have seen Katee on the red carpet, as filming both Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica in Vancouver keeps the actress busy and away from the bright lights of the premiere circuit.  Katee has a packed schedule between her two shows, and she also makes appearances at conventions and does promotions for her other projects. 

Over Her Dead Body stars Desperate Housewives Eva Longoria Parker as a woman who is killed on the day of her wedding and proceeds to haunt her new husband from the afterlife.  The film has gotten mediocre reviews, mostly because Eva’s character is apparently pretty mean. 

“Unlike Patrick Swayze in Ghost, Kate isn’t focused on gazing adoringly at her beloved or trying to ease his transition into life without her,” says Mary Pols of the Mercury News.  “This meanie is there to make sure he’s never happy again.”  The San Francisco Chronicle also slammed the film, saying everything from the acting to the plot was horrible and Eva was so orange from spray tanning that she looked like an Oompa Loompa.  Yikes!

Even if the movie got bad reviews, party looked like a lot of fun.  Eva’s sister housewives Felicity Huffman, Nicolette Sheridan and Brenda Strong also attended the party.  Geek fan favorites Zachary Levi and Sarah Lancaster from Chuck were also at the party, along with Cashmere Mafia’s Bonnie Sommerville, and Mario Lopez, Michael Bolton, and Christina Applegate.  Jason Biggs and Lake Bell, who also have roles in the movie, were at the party as well.

To see more pictures of Katee at the event, click the button to go to the jump.

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We are consciously trying to avoid reporting on this week’s premature headlines announcing that Bionic Woman has been canceled, since so many people have been prematurely announcing that for weeks now. Roco has the scoop on the most recent rumors over at bionic-blog if you are interested. The show started off so strong, as the Entertainment Weekly photo here demonstrates, and now Jaime is everybody’s favorite whipping girl. What is it about this show that makes people gleefully long for the day that it goes off the air??

Isaiah Washington stole the show when he picketed with his former castmates from Grey’s Anatomy earlier this week. You may remember that Isaiah left a storm of controversy in his wake on the Grey’s set, which a controversial point of publicity for Bionic Woman this season. Ryan, ever the IW fan, gives his thoughts on this below.

There was some talk about Katee Sackhoff getting a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Sarah Corvus on Bionic Woman, but when the nominations came out earlier this week she was not on the list.

Lucy Hale, who plays Becca Sommers on Bionic Woman, was among the young stars who recently attended the DVD premiere of High School Musical 2.

NBC issued over $10 million in refunds to advertisers upset with the low ratings the channel is getting as a result of show hiatus issues and the writers’ strike.

And last but not least, if you are missing Michelle Ryan during the writers’ strike, you may want to check out these new Michelle Ryan desktops which are available for download.

Katee Sackhoff recently gave an interview where she defended the potential of Bionic Woman, explaining it will be a great show once it gets sturdier and "loses the freshman fifteen."  Unfortunately Katee also fell for the thing where the interviewer makes fun of her geek fans, which seems a bit like going to the dance with the geek and then ditching him when the cute crush finally starts to pay attention. 

Katee even went along with a joke where a crew member asks her to his "World of Warcraft potluck dinner" and she asks for security.  Geeks are easy targets and you can’t fault folks for going for what works, but it would be nice to see Katee defend her scifi fans as she attempts to ride their love to a post-Battlestar Galactica career.

Poor Katee has had a rough month with her fans, thanks to a careless report from a recent BSG convention that started rumors she was bad mouthing the show.

There is a petition up to save Bionic Woman. So far it has gained over 250 signatures, most of which are followed by positive comments about the show and its potential, so if you are fan click through and sign up!

Hopes that Bionic Woman will pick up viewers during the strike with reruns seem to be slimmer now that NBC has announced that they will be running Law & Order on Wednesdays instead. This does not bode well.

If you missed the stir last week, many media outlets reported that Michelle Ryan was dating Owen Wilson. Her publicist denied the two had ever met, much less enjoyed romantic dinners and body surfing together, but the stories continued for several days.

Check out this list of reasons fans love Katee Sackhoff, which was designed to help lift her spirits after the recent rumor controversy. Someone who knows Katee is involved in the project and promises to make sure she sees it, so if you are a Katee fan you should post as well.

In other Katee news, she was mentioned in Monday’s Variety as one of the breakthrough performers of the year along with such critical darlings as Pushing Daisies‘ morbid pie man Lee Pace and Ray Wise, who plays the hysterical Devil on Reaper. The article hinted Katee has a chance to earn a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Sarah Corvus on Bionic Woman, which should cheer her up at least as much as the above-mentioned list.

Molly Price, who plays Ruth Truewell on Bionic Woman, will turn 42 on December 15th. Happy Birthday, Molly!

Bionic Woman, Katee Sackhoff, Michelle Ryan, Molly Price, Lee Pace, Ray Wise, Golden Globe, NBC, Writers Strike, WGA, Owen Wilson

Katee Sackhoff is kinda pissed, and she has good reason to be.  If you missed the drama, a fan posted some untrue things that Katee supposedly said a a recent convention and it sparked rumors that she was leaving the show because she hates Michelle Ryan.  Some sites even took the story further, reporting that Katee fired for her onset "antics." 

The only problem was, it wasn’t true.  Other fans who heard Katee’s comments at the convention quickly organized to combat the rumors, and one person even posted a transcript of Katee’s comments which apparently never mentioned Ryan at all.

Katee finally cleared up the rumors today, telling TV Guide that she has no intentions of leaving Bionic Woman:

"I have no plans to leave Bionic Woman, and Michelle Ryan is doing a great job. There’s not one ounce of bad blood between us.  It’s sad, because you want to connect with the fans, and then they throw it in your face in a negative light."

Hopefully Katee recognizes the all stemmed from one fan, and many other fans jumped to her defense.  As for the fan who started it all, there have been several posts on her blog in the past week but she does not mention the error or apologize for all of the trouble.  Whether she posted someplace else I don’t know, but the closest thing to an apology on her blog is a comment about how she was at the convention without an assistant and was serving as blogger and photographer and only intended her comments to be "descriptive."  Too bad her "description" contained inaccurate statements masquerading as facts. 

While Ryan and I were eating turkey last week, the rest of the Internet was buzzing with speculation that Katee Sackhoff may be leaving Bionic Woman.  Roco has the links here if you want to read the sources, but essentially folks are saying that Katee is either not happy with the show, fighting with Michelle Ryan in real life as well as on screen, or both … and as a result Katee is taking Sarah Corvus and her bionic toys and going home.

There are a lot of good, logical reasons why Sarah Corvus could be off the show including budget cuts, new show runners who don’t like the dueling bionic women concept, yet another character change for Jaime Sommers, or even the producers wanting Michelle Ryan to gain more fan momentum before they bring back Katee and her charismatic Sarah Corvus. 

But it seems illogical that Katee would just up and leave a prime time show that has gotten her a ton of good press … even though the reviews for Bionic Woman have been spotty at best, Katee has gotten raves from fans and industry insiders who have praised her dark and dangerous portrayal of Sarah Corvus.  Even if she has had troubles with Michelle Ryan, which may or may not be true, she would also be a fool to piss off prolific producer David Eick who will probably cast her in another production once Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica are over.  Not to mention that talking bad about your coworkers to fans is just bad form.

Long time Katee fans know that Katee’s spunk can sometimes translate badly in interviews.  She is known for her unpredictable interview style, which fans and journalists love but probably gives her publicist nightmares (for example, she made comments at a Battlestar Galactica panel this summer that made it pretty clear she is familiar with the after effects of smoking pot … it was funny at the time, but not exactly what most television shows what their actresses talking about in front of the media). 

In this case the comments were not in an interview but in a fan Q&A at a convention, so we don’t have a lot of public information about what really happened.  There is a good chance that this rumor whirlwind could be caused by odd comments from Katee that were then taken out of context.  She is a polarizing presence for Battlestar Galactica fans, and some folks have implied that the fan who wrote the blog that started the rumors is simply trying to spin her comments as negatively as possible. 

As with all things Bionic Woman, we don’t have a ton of information and so only time will tell.  Supposedly Katee has a meeting with the producers coming up which will determine her role on the show going forward, but with the writer’s strike making everything unpredictable we may not know the fate of Katee, Sarah Corvus, or Bionic Woman for a very long time.

It’s the Thanksgiving Day weekend in the United States and customarily this means getting together with family and friends and often flipping through photo albums and reminiscing about the past.  I thought in that tradition that I would post some random photos of the Bionic Woman cast snapped at the various events celebrities often finds themselves.  Enjoy!

Kevin Rankin poses for a House of Petals portrait at the AMA Sanctuary Lounge at House of Peals on November 16, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.

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Katee Sackhoff is making the media rounds this month, talking Battlestar Galactica and of course Bionic Woman.  Sackhoff plays “frenemy” Sarah Corvus on BW and she is obviously having a rockin’ good time.  Here are some highlights from an interview she gave TV Tattler.

Hey Katee. Are you still at work today, or is the writers’ strike giving you some downtime?
I haven’t been affected at all, yet. I’m working regularly.

Are you working on both shows right now?
No, I’m only working on ‘Battlestar’ at the moment, and just waitin’ for ‘Bionic Woman’ to write me in again.

On to your other kick-butt character this season, has it been fun playing more of a bad girl on ‘Bionic Woman’?
Yeah, you know, I keep saying that. It was a welcome change, because I’m so used to playing the whiny, sniveling, reluctant hero. (Starbuck) may be tough, but she cries the entire time. So I was definitely ready to go play a character who isn’t as emotional.

We love Katee here at WatchingBionicWoman and WatchingBSG and can’t wait to see her in the upcoming final season of Battlestar Galactica and in Bionic Woman.

The Los Angeles Times suggests the Bionic Woman writers use their time on the picket lines to rethink some of the more annoying aspects of the show, and come back with more action and less Becca.

Berkut Group prez and actor Miguel Ferrar was all over the gossip blogs this weekend, after his cousin George Clooney mentioned him in an upcoming W magazine interview.  George revealed that Miguel was the man who taught him about prostitutes, but the story is not quite as scandalous as it sounds.  Apparently the two were driving around L.A. in a Porsche shortly after young George came to town … "We pulled up at the stoplight, and all of these girls came over, and they were like, ‘Hey, do you want to party?’ I looked at Miguel and I said, ‘Chicks love me, man! I’m on fire here!’"  Miguel is also the source of a recent OK! magazine story reiterating Clooney’s vow to never marry again. 

Someone else to add to the list of people who think that casting Isaiah Washington was a mistake:  Steve McPherson, the head of ABC, was recently quoted in the New York Times as saying network exec Ben Silverman was “clueless or stupid” in the way he negotiated to bring IW to BW.

A lot of bloggers have been laughing about the iPhone scene in The List, as it seems guest star Callum Keith Rennie was holding the phone upside down for at least half of the scene where he is threatening to kill Tom while negotiating the price of his life with Jaime.  Some of them wonder if the error was on purpose, given NBC’s well-documented dispute with Apple.

Michelle Ryan has gotten some press recently for expressing a desire to break into movies, which she may be able to do sooner rather than later depending on what happens with the strike.

I love Katee Sackhoff as the evil Sarah Corvus.  From the moment I watched her in the un-aired pilot, I knew she was going to make watching BW fun.  Just like her stellar performance as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, Sackhoff breaths new life into every scene when guest starring on BW.  Especially her fight scenes.  Unfortunately, contractual obligations prevent her from being in every episode, but I will take what I can get. 

Andrew Williams of Metro UK caught up with busy actress recently and in addition to explaining the spelling of her name, how she started out in Hollywood, and starring in BSG, she discusses Bionic Woman.

Here are some highlights:

You’re filming Bionic Woman and Battlestar Galactica at the same time. Are you worn out?
I am and I’ve got a cold. Both are filmed in Vancouver so there’s a little bit of running between the sets. They wanted to make me a regular character in Bionic Woman but you can’t be contracted to two shows at the same time. I appear in half the episodes. I’m the villain. It’s quite fun. I do a lot of scheming and a lot of trying to kill the Bionic Woman [played by Michelle Ryan].

Has Michelle become particularly ‘bionic’ since she left EastEnders?
She’s doing really well. She’s at the gym training every day. She worked her butt off to get into the physical condition that she’s in now. They won’t pay for me to go to the gym. I’ve got to do it on my own. I did weights for the first year of Battlestar but I got bored, so I just run now. They usually teach me the fight routines on the set of Bionic Woman. Because of the stuff I’ve done on Battlestar, it’s usually pretty easy to pick up.

You can read the entire interview after the link.

For some more fun, watch Katee learn to surf.

The beautiful Bionic Woman herself, Michelle Ryan, recently landed on the cover of TV Guide.  The staff at TV Guide were kind smart enough to film the photo shoot with Ryan and the rest of the cast and make it available for us all to watch.  It includes interviews with Michelle Ryan, Katee Sackhoff and several cast members.  Most telling is a clip of actor Chris Bowers, a.k.a., the supposedly deceased fiance Will Anthros.  There has been much speculation that Will really isn’t dead and I think including Bowers in the photo shoot lends credence to the theory.

The most fun is Katee Sackhoff talking about her love for the outdoors and her ability to gut her of fish.

Enjoy.