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.

Lucky magazine is all about shopping, and Lucy Hale hit their event in New York City earlier this week to pick up some swag.  She was with her new BFF and costar, Ashley Newbrough, from Lucy’s new show How to Survive the Filthy Rich.

Other celebrities who were swagging the same day as Lucy included Eliza Dushku, star of Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse, Molly Shannon, Bonnie Sommerville, Law & Order’s Jill Hennessey and Kathryn Erbe, and a host of others.  The day before Rainn Wilson from The Office was there, along with the cast from Gossip Girl, Brooke Shields, Connie Britton from Friday Night Lights, Daniel Dae Kim from Lost, Alison Sweeney from Days of Our Lives, Zachary Levi from Chuck, and various folks from 30 Rock.

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.

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.

Will Yun Lee, who played Jae on Bionic Woman, recently hit the red carpet for the JC Penney Asian Excellence Awards at UCLA.  Will was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his work on the show, but he lost to Rex Lee of Entourage.  His companion for the evening was an unidentified blonde, and he wore his hair longer and shaggier than usual.

Other celebrities in attendance included Lindsay Price of Cashmere Mafia and Beverly Hills 90210, Steven Segal, Cheryl Burke and Karina Smirnoff from Dancing with the Stars, Bai Ling, Tia Carrer, Daisy Fuentes, Olympic Gold medalist and Dancing contestant Kristi Yamaguchi, Quentin Tarantino, and many others.

Will attended the 2007 Asian Excellence Awards as well, which were hosted by Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica and Daniel Dae Kim from Lost.

A new Battlestar Galactica clip was put up on Hulu this weekend, a video blog entry from David Eick and the crew of BSG related to David’s energies on Bionic Woman.  It is very interesting viewing, considering what we know happened after this video was made.

The clip was obviously shot during the heady, optimistic months of last Spring when Bionic Woman was NBC’s most anticipated pilot and the show the marketing folks said had the best chance of being a hit.  It features David referring to BSG as “Bionic Galactica” and members of the BSG crew talking about his absence on their set like petulant teenagers … and the message is clear, everyone expected Bionic Woman to take off faster than a screaming Cylon raider.

There’s Grace Park, who plays Boomer and Sharon “Athena” Agathorn, talking about how David was “disowned” by his BSG family.  There’s Jen Halley, who plays Seelix, talking about how she wants to raid Bionic Woman’s craft services area.  There’s Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Helo, and Allesendro Juliani, who plays Geata, talking about how the show feels David’s absence.  And Michael Hogan appears without his Tigh eye patch to give a crusty blessing … assuming David will cast him in his new show.

But that was a year ago, and as we all know how the big hit did not happen.  The early detractors were right, Bionic Woman had major problems and the more the folks behind the scenes tried to fix them the worse the show became.  The show was hurt by many factors, not the least of which being the cocky lust for a hit that is seen so clearly in this Hulu clip.  It’s just another sad reminder of the bionic potential of this show, and how it was frittered away.

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.

The models of Deal or No Deal channeled their inner Bionic Women, performing their own version of Michelle Ryan and Katee Sackhoff’s famous rainy rooftop fight scene.  In a remarkable show of concentration, the models never slipped in their heels and never dropped the signature Deal or No Deal numbered cases.

The dialogue from the clip is word for word the dialogue from the Bionic Woman premiere, starting from Katee’s “Stop, Time Out” and going through the moment where Michelle completes the fight still standing.  While the models slap fight instead of hard punch, and they keep both feet on the ground instead of flying through the air on harnesses, it is still an entertaining spoof of the show.

It’s also a reminder of what the show could have been, as everything related to Bionic Woman tends to be.  Even with all of its flaws, the pilot still presented interested characters and a fascinating premise in the form of the frenemy relationship between Jaime Sommers and Sarah Corvus.

The two of them had the potential to embody the phrase “What does not kill you makes you stronger,” while the show could have explored some of the more intriguing and disturbing questions of our time.  The role of government subcontractors with blanket powers, the mystery of what is more powerful in the potential war between metaphysics or physics, the ongoing culture wars over what makes a “perfect woman” … Bionic Woman could have explored these questions, and many more.

But as I wrote the other day, that is what killed the show.  EVERYBODY saw the potential of Bionic Woman, but they all had a different idea of what the show should do to live up to their unique views and expectations.  And a show that tries to please everyone, like a person that tries to please everyone, is doomed to failure and will never please very many people at all.

The modern Jaime Sommers will not be back … not for a while anyway.  For all of her potential, for all of her strength, she could not survive the tough challenges of the modern television industry.

Much like in the show, what got the modern Jaime into the most trouble was listening to too many people.  The new Jaime did not know who she was, and was more than willing to listen to people tell her who she needed to be … for all her defiant slouching in the tunnels of the Burket Group, the modern Jaime was absorbing everyone’s expectations for what kind of Bionic Woman she should become. 

And that turned out to be the disease that finally killed the modern Bionic Woman, that desperate need to change to please everybody.  Because everybody thought they knew what she needed to do to succeed. 

As a result the modern Bionic Woman was a constantly changing mess.  People were always opening her up, rearranging her bionic parts, removing characters, adding plotlines, and then removing them again just as quickly.  If the machine is nothing without the woman, then the Woman needed some spine and some structure … but just like no one at the Berkut Group thought to give Jaime a good cell phone, no one recognized the obvious until it was too late to save her modern life. 

From the very first reviews of the pilot to things still being written today, the majority of people who saw the show thought they could make Bionic Woman better, faster, stronger than what they were seeing on screen.  

From NBC Entertainment President Ben Silverman to fans of the original series, from actual bionic scientists to television bloggers … pretty much every person who saw the show had the same thought as Bionic Woman scholar Herbie J. Pilato:   “David Eick needs to call me.”

“I mean, I know what went wrong,” Bionic star Katee Sackhoff said in a recent interview.  “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 … that’s just how it goes.”

By trying to please everyone, the Bionic Woman ended up pleasing no one at all.  By allowing everyone to mess with her, she gave away everything she was and became nothing.

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.