Bionic Woman

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.

When he is not heading up the Berkut Group on Bionic Woman, Miguel Ferrer sometimes plays in a band called The Jenerators.  Miguel plays percussion and drums as well as sings some vocals for the Southern California rock group, which has three albums out to date. 

You can hear samples of the band’s work and purchase their albums at www.indieclectic.com.  The group’s most recent effort, Pony Up, features a cover of “Knockin on Heaven’s Door” with Miguel on lead vocals.  The song can be purchased for 99 cents or the whole album for $6.99.

The eclectic group includes another scifi favorite:  Bill Mumy from Lost in Space and Babylon 5.  Bill played Will Robinson on the former series (as in “Danger Will Robinson!”) and Lennier on Babylon 5.  He was also part of Barnes & Barnes, the group that recorded the famous novelty song (and Dr. Demento staple) “Fish Heads” and is an established singer and songwriter who has supplied tunes to a wide range of musical acts including rock band America.

Other members of The Jenerators include Tom Hebenstreit, David Jolliffe, Chris Ross, and Gary Stockdale.  Stockdale is known to Hollywood insiders for his musical direction at awards shows and his composition skills, which include his long-running partnership with magicians Penn & Teller.

It’s no surprise that Miguel would have musical talent, as his mother was Hollywood legend and musical star Rosemary Clooney.  If you saw White Christmas on cable this holiday season, then you saw Miguel’s mother singing love struck duets with Bing Crosby.

Miguel Ferrer recently voiced his support for the writer’s strike to the National Ledger, saying that the writers are doing the right thing trying to pin down the producers on earnings from new media.

“The producers said a few years ago, ‘Just trust us to do the right thing,’ and it didn’t work,” he says. “Things are changing so dramatically. Working on a one-hour network drama, I feel like I’m in the last days of vaudeville.”

Miguel also said that he was happy with the development of his character, shadowy and secretive Berkut Group head Jonas Bledsoe. Like many of the actors on the show he has been vocal about his belief that the show is getting better, even though it took awhile to find its voice.

Let’s hope that Miguel and the rest of us get to see more of Jonas and future Bionic Woman episodes. If you are interested in saving Bionic Woman so we can finally see it live up to its potential, check out the petition to save the show. Special thanks to Tony for keeping us updated on the petition progress … as of yesterday there were almost 600 signatures in support of the show.

This photograph could easily have been taken last week, as Miguel Ferrar and Dana Delaney both find themselves on prime time television shows in 2007 and thus could plausibly be asked to be celebrity presenters at an awards show.  Miguel plays secretive Berkut Group head Jonas Bledsoe on Bionic Woman, while Dana plays the just-as-secretive and even more vicious Katherine Mayfair on Desperate Housewives. Instead, this photograph was taken in 2004 as Miguel and Dana met at the podium as presenters at the Environmental Media Awards gala.

The Environmental Media Awards were first given out in 1991, and they honor personalities, productions, musicians and musical tours that convey environmental messages in creative ways.  Miguel and Dana were presenting the award for Documentary Short to viral marketing phenomenon The Meatrix, which won that category in 2004.

This year’s Environmental Media Awards were shown on E! television on November 7.  Among the winners were Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award and Al Gore who was honored for his Outstanding Achievement.  Happy Feet beat Fast Food Nation to win the Feature Film category, while Scrubs won the Turner Award for the episode "My Mirror Image." The Turner Award was created to honor prime time television shows that deal with issues of population growth and responsibility.

NUMB3RS won the Television Episodic Drama category for "Waste Not" while My Name is Earl won the comedy category for "Robbed a Stoner Blind."  Other nominees in the television categories included Law & Order: SVU, Boston Legal, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and The Simpsons.

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.

Katee Sackhoff’s amazing hair at the TV Guide Party last Sunday won her kudos from Hairstylewatch.com.

In Vancouver? Bionic Woman is filming street scenes this week, according to The Vancouverite.

A Colorado television station has an interview with the woman who played the toddler that was rescued by Max, the Bionic Dog, in the clip from the original series we posted on Tuesday. Like us, she was struck by the 1970s idea of leaving a toddler in a car alone and a German Shepherd in a car with the windows rolled up … with all of our modern safety obsessions, Max’s rescue task on the new series would have to be more complicated to be as impressive as it was thirty years ago.

In related news, at least one cast member has threatened to leave the show if they bring back the Bionic Dog. Miguel Ferrar, who plays shadowy Jonas Bledsoe on the show, recently told The West Australian that he would see the addition of a bionic pup as a blow to the credibility of the modern version of the show. As it is, he expects the show to be one of the best science fiction shows ever made. We like your optimism Miguel!

Bionic Woman, Vancouver, Max, Bionic Dog, German Shepherd, Colorado, Katee Sackhoff, Miguel Ferrar