Bionic Woman

Michelle Ryan hit the red carpet again for the Britain’s Best Awards in London, wearing a stunning black dress and perfect locks. Her real accessory, however, was her lips which were painted in a stunning pale red color that was perfect for her features.  It is no wonder that the press was in awe of her, mentioning her among the most prominent celebrities in attendance thanks to her amazing look and little black dress.

Michelle was photographed with Atonement sensation James McAvoy, who has been the toast of Britain this year.  Michelle was also photographed with Mischa Barton of The O.C., but not with an Audi - the latter is unusual as Michelle has been photographed more with Audis than with celebrities at red carpet events in 2008.

The event was a very glam affair with guests that included the British Prime Minister, Jude Law, Victoria Beckham, war heroes, London mayor Boris Johnson, architect Lord Norman Foster, and a wide variety of Britain’s glitterati.

Michelle Ryan looked amazing in a skin-tight purple dress at the world premiere of the Sex and the City movie in London earlier this week. 

As always, the British press went mad for Michelle, and several UK newspapers featured her in photographs instead of Sarah Jessica Parker and the other stars of the film.  She won kudos from the British fashion watchers for the way the dress highlighted her famous curves.

The premiere was held at Leicester Square, a popular place to root a red carpet in London.  Other stars in attendance included film stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrell, Vivienne Westwood, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon, as well as Davina McCall, Kim Stewart, Kelly Rowland, Kirsty Gallacher, Mario Cantone, Martine McCutcheon, Alex Curran, and The Sugarbabes.

A post on the NBC.com message boards reports that a scam artist is taking advantage of fans’ sorrow over Bionic Woman’s cancellation to scam money by pretending to be Michelle Ryan’s agent.

The man contacts fans through message boards and e-mail and claims Michelle has a bank account that she would like them to contribute to, which she will then use to donate to the charity of her choice.  The scam is obviously fake, and hopefully no unwitting fans fell for this ploy, especially since the man is asking for contributions of two thousand dollars and up.

As the poster reported:

“This a Man is a fake..michelle’s agent is a Woman (i think) and i ask this guy why is the account in his name shouldn’t it be in michelle’s name or the charity the she is supporting?..I didn’t hear back from him after that..so be warned..”

The poster later reported she had alerted Michelle’s real agent of the scam, and her legal team was looking into the issue.  Let’s hope the fan also included the accompanying electronic data, and some e-detectives are in the process of tracking down this tacky trickster.

It’s been a rough week for Michelle, as fans hopes for a Bionic rebirth were further dashed by David Eick’s openness about the show’s impending official cancellation. 

On the bright side, Bionic Woman continued to be a ratings sensation in her home country of the United Kingdom.  After setting records for ITV2 during its premiere, Bionic Woman continued to do well on the channel during its second week.  Also, the news of Heather Mills’ dramatic final divorce hearing, where she dumped water on the attorney of former husband Paul McCartney, gave the British tabloids another beauty to bash for awhile.

Michelle Ryan is grabbing headlines in the United Kingdom with some sexy photos she shot to promote the British premiere of Bionic Woman, which starts Tuesday across the pond.  To see the shots some newspapers have labeled “bionic bosoms” click here.

Bionic Woman is still alive and kicking, despite what you may hear from the press.  Everything I have heard is that the fate of the show is still undetermined, and that seems to be reinforced by NBC which has continued to feature the show on its web site, and communicate hope to its fans.  Word is the show will be “returning soon” or at least still has a chance to come back on the air in the fall — hopefully with a new and sturdier vision.

Of course, not everyone is a fan.  Lee Majors has a problem with the modern version of Bionic Woman, and Roco at Bionic Blog has a problem with that.  Roco lashes out at Lee’s criticisms in the show and states that Michelle Ryan could take the alter ego of The Six Million Dollar Man in a fight.  Roco may be right.

Miguel Ferrer is getting good reviews for his voice performance in the new animated movie Justice League: The New Frontier.  Miguel plays the Martian whose arrival on Earth is the catalyst for many of the events in the movie, which also stars the voices of Lucy Lawless, Kyra Sedgwick, Neil Patrick Harris, Kyle McLachlan, David Boreanaz, and Jeremy Sisto.  If you have seen the DVD let us know what you think.

One lucky fan got to get face to face with Michelle Ryan when she was on the red carpet in London for the Brit Awards.  Check out the quick clip of a harried Michelle saying “hi” below.

Michelle Ryan presented the award for Best International Album at the Brit Awards at Earls Court in London this week.  The evening was hosted by The Osborne Family and featured great performances by pop stars like Mika.

The winner of Michelle’s category were The Foo Fighters, who beat out fellow nominees Arcade Fire, The Eagles, Kings of Leon, and Kylie Minogue. 

And as always Michelle had people talking, as she remains a tabloid staple and a source of fascination for people in the United Kingdom.  The BBC’s backstage blogger noted that Michelle is one of the most beautiful women he has ever seen up close.  Her outfit won kudos from fashionistas, who loved her simple and short black Gucci dress.

Click here to watch a quick interview with Michelle on the red carpet for the second time this month, where she advises people to leave plenty of time to get ready (she waited till the last minute and had to do her nails in the car) and reveals that her favorite karaoke song is Dusty Springfield’s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.”

Michelle Ryan has been doing a lot of press in the United Kingdom, promoting the BBC premiere of Bionic Woman and enjoying being back in London.

In an interview with The Guardian, Michelle admitted it was had being compared to icon Lindsay Wagner but the experience made her learn to separate herself from the criticisms of the press. 

Michelle has publicly admitted that the harsh treatment of the British press has made her depressed in the past, so it is wonderful that she has grown stronger and more resilient through her experiences with Bionic Woman.  In the interview she says she had not been enjoying her life for many years before she did the show, but making Bionic Woman made her commit to enjoying herself.

Michelle also had lunch with a reporter from the London Telegraph last week, where she talked about her transformation into Jaime Sommers and her hopes for the future. 

Michelle has some great quotes about balancing the rigorous demands of the fitness regime mandated by the show with her penchant for indulging, and the article talks about how the swimmers shoulders that made her slump on East Enders made her a good match for the athletic demands of being the Bionic Woman.

The interview also contained a great quote about Michelle from James Nesbitt of Jeckell:

“Michelle’s an ambitious girl, but not in a desperate way,” Nesbitt says. “She thinks that this isn’t just her job, it’s her vocation, and she will do as much as she can. She’s very experienced and very technical. But equally she doesn’t take it too seriously - we had a very good laugh making Jekyll.”

In other interviews, Michelle talked about missing London when she was living in Vancouver.  Apparently she particularly missed department store Marks & Spencer, giving the chain tons of free publicity — perhaps they should sign her up as a spokesperson.

Bionic Woman star Michelle Ryan hit the red carpet in London last night for the annual Elle Style Awards, a celebration of beauty and fashion that accompanied London’s Fashion Week.

Michelle looked lovely in a plum dress with a plunging v-neckline and crinkled skirt by Balenciaga.  She wore her hair down and chose a black purse and open toed shoes for the event.

The Elle Style Awards have been labeled the “fashion Oscars” of the United Kingdom, and were held last night at the Westway Studios in London.  Other celebrities in attendance included Kiera Knightley, Kate Hudson, Kylie Minogue, Kelly Brook, Stella McCartney, James McAvoy, Twiggy, Kate Nash, Lilly Allen, Amanda Holden, Naomi Campbell, and many others.  For a list of the night’s winners and more news about Michelle, click here.

To see more photos of Michelle on the red carpet at the event, please click the link below.  It’s been far too long since we have seen Michelle out and about, so hopefully this is a sign that she will be making more appearances in the near future.

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Michelle Ryan looked stunning in plum on the red carpet for the Elle Style Awards in London last night.

The Bionic Woman star made her first red carpet appearance since the show went on hiatus due to the writers’ strike, which ended today.  She talked more about her fitness routine and doing her own stunts for the show, and told the Daily Mail that she had enjoyed being back in London due to the strike:

“I loved filming in Vancouver and the people were really welcoming. But I really missed being at home,” Michelle told the newspaper. “It has been great being back with my family, thanks to the writers strike. So I don’t really mind if it carries on.”

The Daily Mail was extremely harsh in its coverage of Michelle at the event, mislabeling the color of her dress and quoting yet another anonymous source claiming Bionic Woman is over.  Anonymous sources have been consistently wrong when it comes to Bionic Woman, so it is a wonder that any organization would report that as news, but Michelle has a large tabloid following in London where certain circles seem to root for her to fail with an almost Britney Spears-esque fervor. 

The Daily Mail also reported that Bionic Woman’s lack of ratings was all Michelle’s fault and she was not pretty enough or charismatic enough for American audiences.  Anyone who has watched the show knows there were plenty of problems with Bionic Woman, and blaming the lack of ratings on Michelle is inaccurate and unfair.

The Bionic Woman made a surprising move last week, when Jaime Sommers’ alter ego Michelle Ryan allowed herself to be filmed for a segment on Extra, a tabloid television show.  It’s an unpredictable move for Michelle, who has been vocal about her love/hate relationship with the rabid British tabloids and who suffered depression as a result of their obsession with her and her weight.  However she is single and potentially looking for a new job, so why not raise her profile a bit?

The Extra segment aired December 26 in most markets, and is part of the show’s regular feature about single stars called America’s Most Eligible.  Will Yun Lee, who plays her trainer Jae on the show, was featured as one of America’s Most Eligible bachelors earlier this fall.

In her segment, Michelle reveals that she is just as complicated as Jaime when it comes to dating.  She will play very hard to get, but she prefers her love interest to be honest and direct.  She likes a man with confidence, but arrogance is her biggest turn off.  She is old fashioned in that she prefers to be treated like a lady and likes it when the man pays for the first few dates, but she is independent and does her own stunts on the show. 

One thing that is not so complicated is her taste in gifts, as Michelle is clear that the best way to woo her is with the classics ("flowers, chocolates, jewelry"). 

Her surprising choice for the sexiest man alive is a young Clint Eastwood, especially in his Dirty Harry persona, although that is a fictional character and technically not attainable so I am not sure if Dirty Harry qualifies for the title.  Perhaps there is someone out there who embodies his tough guy persona.  Clive Owen, maybe?  They would make a lovely couple, assuming he can master the art of balancing confidence and arrogance and will stick around long enough to win the attention of the fair lady.

Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan returned to London for the holidays and made the most of the trip by plugging BW.  BW is scheduled to air in the U.K. in 2008 and the BBC has begun airing promos for the show and creating quite a buzz.  Ryan is best known in Britain as Zoe Slater from the long running soap opera EastEnders.

Although the fate of BW is not certain because of the poor ratings and WGA strike, Ryan treats the return of BW as a certainty and acknowledges the strike in passing but doesn’t even mention ratings struggle.

She also discusses her love life and the rumor that she and Owen Wilson are dating and blames that rumor on the internet and presumably bloggers.

Various Internet sites are reporting that Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan will be featured on the Extra! television show feature "America’s Most Eligible" on December 26, 2007.

Could it be true, could Michelle Ryan be resorting to tabloid television to enhance her love life?  Or is this just another bad Bionic rumor?

It would be an unlikely move for Michelle, who has spoken about her lack of love for the British tabloids, who covered her mercilessly when she was on prime time soap EastEnders.  In interviews last summer Michelle often spoke of the pressures of being in the press constantly, commenting that she could not enjoy herself at events and parties and also that the constant focus on her weight led her to be depressed, anxious, and exhausted.  Since Michelle has hardly courted the tabloids since she came to the U.S. it is unlikely she would willingly appear on a tabloid show and discuss her love life.

That said, Michelle may be looking for work very soon if Bionic Woman is canceled.  And she is supposedly single these days after breaking off her engagement with a "footballer" and denying the rumors that she was dating Luke Wilson earlier this year.

Some digging revealed that Michelle’s sexy cast mate Will Yun Lee was also featured on this Extra segment, so perhaps he talked her into an appearance?  While the show has featured over 80 Most Eligible Bachelors, the show’s web site only features three Most Eligible Bachelorette:  Jackie Warner from Work Out, Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr, and Playboy model and reality television personality Kim Kardashian.

So will Michelle join their ranks?  Like most Bionic Woman rumors, only time will tell if the information is true.  While I have my doubts myself, I have set up my TiVo to record Extra on the 26th … just in case.

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.

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

Bionic Woman episode 1.08, “Do Not Disturb,” was not the greatest hour ever to air on t.v., but it had some fun moments. 

Like the following scene.

Almost at the very beginning of the episode, when it opens, we find Jaime on assignment tracking a bad guy while Nathan banters with her as she gets shot at and almost run over.

Like I said, fun. 

Enjoy.

According to The Press Association:

The former Walford resident has reportedly been seen on the arm of Wedding Crashers actor Owen Wilson.

A source claimed the movie star has been impressed with her attitude, saying: “Michelle’s one of the few women in Hollywood who looks like herself and hasn’t had loads of work done. She’s refreshingly natural.

“She’s also pretty innocent about how this whole town works, which Owen finds endearing. And then there’s that British sense of humour.”

And according to Now Magazine:

Michelle and Owen have been spotted enjoying dinner at posh Malibu restaurant Nobu.
And Kate Hudson’s ex is thought to be teaching Michelle how to body-board on the city’s beaches.

Really, Owen Wilson?  Don’t get me wrong, Wilson is funny and all, and who doesn’t love homophobic jokes disguised as comedy that’s littered throughout Wedding Crashers but Ryan can do much better than a depressive, suicidal frat boy.

I for one hope this rumor is all fiction and no fact.