Battlestar Galactica

Memorial Day Weekend is the official start of summer, and for the second year in a row we are celebrating with the Battlestar Galactica Swimsuit Edition of WatchingBSG.  Last year’s edition was one of my first posts after I took over this blog, and given the amount of traffic I still get from that picture of Jamie Bamber in the towel it is only appropriate that we do it again in Summer 2008.

There were plenty of images to choose from this year, because scifi stars and skin magazines have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship for decades.  Long before Jane Fonda put on her famous bikini for Barbarella, the women of pop culture’s more geeky fascinations have been willing to bring in new fans by plying old poses.  And by old, I mean the “oldest profession” … but that does not mean we don’t like to look anyway.

As with last year’s swimsuit editions, volume one and volume two, not all of these outfits are technically swimwear … but given the skin and the sex appeal involved I am pretty sure you won’t mind too terribly much.  If you are offended, or if you love it, please do not hesitate to post below.

This year’s edition features Battlestar Galactica Cylons Grace Park, Lucy Lawless, Michael Trucco, and Tricia Helfer … and fleet pilots/Cylon speculation favorites Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, and Tahmoh Penikett.  We also have Gaius Baltar follower and religious cult member Keegan Connor Tracy, in all of her bikini glory.

Not a Cylon-style dream vision, but a new role that involves viewing things from behind the camera … instead of in front of it, where the two actors usually find themselves when it comes to Battlestar Galactica.

In the next year there will also be ten new BSG mini-webisodes, and they will be directed by Jamie Bamber (Lee “Apollo” Adama) and James Callis (Gaius Baltar).  Each actor will direct five episodes each, and it is not yet clear if they will share the same plot line of if the webisodes will be dealing with separate times and characters.

Jamie talked about the project a wee bit when he was a guest on the ShaunOMac show Friday night, but for the most part details on this are TBD. 

By the way, I was a guest on Shaun’s show last night and we had some interesting discussions with callers about the way the season is developing … and that infamous Last Supper photo.  You can listen to recordings of both shows on BlogTalkRadio.com.

This looks more fun than a cabinet meeting … while Lee Adama tends to stick to the more serious side of governmental affairs, Jamie Bamber found himself at the champagne-soaked launch of BritWeek 2008 at the British Consul General’s official residence in Los Angeles.

BritWeek celebrates the numerous connections between the Great Britain and the City of Angels, and features numerous parties, screenings, events and educational opportunities.  This year’s celebrations included a Duran Duran concert, a comedy festival, and a celebrity soccer match hosted by the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.

Other celebrities who joined Jamie at the invitation-only launch included John Cleese, Dame Judi Dench, Eric Idle, Juliet Mills of Passions, Lucy Davis of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and the BBC version of The Office, fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, and Michael Keaton among others.  The photograph above shows Jamie with actor Tony Curran of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and a woman identified as Maingu Yen.

Katee Sackhoff reveals to Televisionary that she thinks Starbuck’s soul mate is a Cylon:  “If there was anyone she’d be happy with, it’d probably be Leoben,” she admits. “Anders is too weak for her emotionally. Lee’s too much of a boy scout; he makes her feel guilty for her anger and her faults just by being who he is. If there’s ever any person she can let her guard down with, and be happy with, probably Leoben.”  Check out more great revelations from Starbuck in the site’s great Katee interview.

Speaking of great interviews, if you have not read the interview with Jamie Bamber over on TVAddict.com yet then you are missing a treat.  Jamie talks about how the relationship between Apollo and Starbuck is “incestuous” and reveals his dark hope for Battlestar Galactica’s pop culture legacy:  “On a psychological level, I hope [Lee] sort of finds self-knowledge and on a show level, I just hope we really scare the hell out of the world. I think, really scare the audience and the wider public to realizing how destructive our progress is. This idea that we have of growth and economic growth and technological progress is not the path to be taken, it’s the path to destruction, and I hope Ron delivers that.”

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an interesting description of the final four Cylons that compares them to a famous candy item:  “Not only had Starbuck supposedly found the mythical planet that the ragtag remnants of the human race had been on a death-march across the universe to find, but — unknown to anyone — four of her colleagues turned out to be the genetic equivalent of a peanut-butter cup: heroic human on the outside, shady alien cylon on the inside.”

Tahmoh Penikett talked about how excited he is to be part of Joss Whedon’s new show, Dollhouse.  In other Dollhouse news, Tahmoh’s nemesis on the show will be Olivia Williams — the actress who is best known for playing Bruce Willis’ hauntingly beautiful wife in The Sixth Sense.

And last but not least, TiFaux offers this humorous and helpful guide to identifying TV nerds in the era of the nerd fetish.  It’s a helpful guide for those who are still baffled that we live in a decade where books like Vicki Lewis Thompson’s Talk Nerdy to Me are romance novel best sellers.

Just in case you have not seen it yet, here is a clip of the Top Ten List from last week’s Late Show With David Letterman entitled “Top Ten Reasons to Watch The New Season of Battlestar Galactica.”

Each number on the list was recited by a member of the BSG cast, appearing in their character’s costume, which added to the fun.  The actors and actresses on the list were, in order of appearance, Aaron Douglas, Lucy Lawless, James Callis, Grace Park, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff, Mary McDonnell, and Edward James Olmos.

If you don’t have the time or the technology to watch the clip, a text version of the List is below … it was a lot of fun, even if the audience did not seem to truly “get it.”

Number Ten, Chief Tyrol:  “In the dramatic season opening episode, we save fifteen percent by switching our insurance to Geico.”

Number Nine, D’Anna Biers:  “You’ll find out who’s in the hatch, and who gets off the island - crap, wrong show.”  In my opinion Lucy did a pretty good job with this one, which was awkward to read … and she did not even blink when Dave mispronounced her name “Diana.”

Number Eight, Dr. Baltar:  “My character creates his own line of Honey Roasted Space Nuts.”

Number Seven, Lt. Sharon Valleri:  “What else are you going to do, read a book?”

Number Six, Number Six:  “There’s a good chance you get to see me naked.”

Number Five, Col. Saul Tigh:  “There’s a good chance you’ll see me naked.”  Be sure to watch Tricia crack up behind him during the deadpan delivery.

Number Four, Captain Lee Adama:  “New FTL drives will allow the colonial fleet to better adjust to gravitational variations and achieve maximum superluminal travel to outrun the pursuing Cylon basestar - I don’t know what the hell I am talking about.”

Number Three, Starbuck:  “We engaged in a life and death battle against evil robots … you know, same $&#@ as last year.”

Number Two, President Laura Roslin:  “I take on the most challenging task of my political career - doing a lame top ten list on a third rate talk show.”

Number One, Admiral William Adama:  “Watch me lead us into war against the Cylons, without an exit strategy.”

As promised, here are some more photos of various Battlestar Galactica stars at the SciFi Channel Upfront party that was held last week in New York.

Edward James Olmos, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer, James Callis, Grace Park, David Eick, Aaron Douglas, Michael Hogan and many others were on site for the festivities, which were held at the MorganLibrary on March 18, 2008.

Jamie Bamber wore yet another dashing suit, and Mary McDonnell once again proved she looks gorgeous in gold.  Aaron Douglas channeled his inner hipster with a striped on striped ensemble, and Grace Park looked great in a sapphire dress.

While both Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff wore the traditional little black dress, both actresses stood out with their choices of accessories.  Katee has a known preference for solid colors, but she broke out of the mold a bit by wearing gold shoes below her black skirt. Tricia was typically statuesque, wearing accessories that emphasized her body rather than her clothes.

Other SciFi Channel stars in attendance included Stargate’s Amanda Tapping, Eureka’s Salli Richardson, Jordan Hinson, and Erica Cerra (who is also known for her multi-episode role as Maya on BSG), and many others.  Network president Bonnie Hamer was also at the event.

The big news from last week’s upfront was the announcement that Ms. Hamer had finally agreed to Caprica, the prequel series that is described as “Dallas in Space.”  Watch this blog for more information on that new show in the weeks and months to come.

The luck of the Irish spilled over a couple of days, as we are lucky enough to get to see these fun photos outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York where the cast of Battlestar Galactica taped a Top Ten list for the Late Show With David Letterman. 

Today we bring you a few more pictures of the cast in New York, both before and after their appearances on the show.  The picture at the left shows BSG stars Grace Park, Katee Sackhoff, and Tricia Helfer after their appearance on the show. 

Tricia had initially arrived in full Six gear, wearing the white wig and red dress, and Grace entered the building in her fleet uniform.  Katee appears to have arrived in civilian clothing, much like Jamie Bamber who wore a dashing suit.

While you can’t see it in the photo to the left, Katee has a giant animal print bag on her arm that is even larger than Tricia’s chic black bag in this photo.  If anyone knows who makes the bag please let me know, as I have already had a couple people ask.

Also if anyone was at the taping, I would love to know the story behind the photo of Nicki Clyne, who plays Cally Tyrol.  It looks like she is doing a curtsy, but perhaps this is some sort of sobriety test parody?  Either way, the photo begs for some context!

There are more photos of the various Battlestar Galactica stars in before and after garb below, and of course be sure to check out yesterday’s post for more images.

(more…)

Check out these adorable pictures of the cast of Battlestar Galactica as they enter the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York to tape the Top Ten List for tomorrow night’s Late Show with David Letterman tribute. The list will be BSG-themed, with each cast member reading one of the lists’ famous one-line jokes.

The photo above shows BSG stars Michael Hogan (Col. Saul Tigh), Jamie Bamber (Lee “Apollo” Adama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar), and Aaron Douglas (The Chief) outside the famed theater. We also see a grinning Grace Park (Sharon “Athena” Agathorn) entering the theater in her BSG uniform, while Jamie Bamber is wearing a suit - a contrast that is consistent with the fourth season promotional photos (as well as some of the early spoilers).

Some of the pictures showed Aaron Douglas and Michael Hogan in uniform as well, while Edward James Olmos (Admiral Bill Adama) wore a Battlestar Galactica pullover and many of the other stars wore street clothes. Whether those photos were taken before or after the show was filmed, however, is not always clear.

Below is a collection of photos from outside the theater, including a great photo of Edward James Olmos & Michael Hogan, and a shot of Katee Sackhoff (Kara “Starbuck” Thrace) carrying a ginormous zebra striped bag over her shoulder while signing autographs for fans. Tricia Helfer arrived in full Six regalia, including her famous white wig and killer red dress.

There is also a cuddly photo of Aaron Douglas with Nicki Cline, who plays his wife Cally. Nicki was not among the cast members listed by the SciFi Channel as appearing on the Late Show, so it is not clear if she was there to cheer on the cast or if she is making a surprise appearance.

In an interesting coincidence, Rainn Wilson from The Office was also on the scene at the same time as the BSG cast. Could the list contain a “Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica” reference?

Generous Jamie Bamber is loaning his handsome face to another good cause this week, as he joins a plethora of television stars in their efforts to support breast cancer research.

Pop culture fan and breast cancer research enthusiast Lisa Spodak has been collecting autographs on Avon Breast Cancer bears for several years now, and periodically puts them up for auction on Ebay. Many of Battlestar Galactica’s stars have participated in the past, but Jamie seems to be the only BSG cast member in this round of bear auctions.

As of this post Jamie’s bear was up to $15.50, but hopefully his donation will help raise more money before the auction expires on March 21 (a week from Friday).

Other stars with autographed bears up for auction include James Marsters, David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Eric Millegan, Ron Glass, Morena Baccarin, Kristen Bell, Hayden Panettiere, Kristin Chenoweth, Sara Ramirez, Jennifer Garner, Angela Lansbury, America Ferrera, David Schwimmer, Kim Cattrall, Kevin Christiana, Jack Mackenroth, Tom Cavanagh, John De Lancie, Michael McKean, Pierce Brosnan, Annette O’Toole, David Hyde Pierce, and Kathy Griffin.

Jamie Bamber, who plays Lee "Apollo" Adama on Battlestar Galactica, hit the red carpet tonight for the 14th Annual BAFTA Awards Season Tea Party at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  The event was smaller than usual due to the scaled down Golden Globes ceremony the next day, but the early word is that it was a lot of fun.  For more pictures of Jaime from the event, click the "more" button below.

Other stars at the Beverly Hills Hotel today included Atonement’s James McAvoy, Pushing Daisies’ Anna Friel, The West Wing’s Allison Janney, Brad Bird who wrote and directed The Incredibles for Pixar, Lauren Holly, CSI’s Marg Helgenberger, Lucy Davis from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and the British version of The Office, Elijah Kelly from Hairspray, Jurnee Smollett, and Laurel Holloman from The L Word and Angel.

BAFTA, or the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, traditionally holds a tea party to kick off awards season on Golden Globes weekend.  While much of the festivities related to tomorrow’s Golden Globes have been canceled along with the telecast, this is one event that partied on.

BAFTA is outside the realm of the writer’s strike, which means it may be one of the few entities to temporarily gain from the dispute between the producers and the writers.  With the cancellation of the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards in flux, Los Angeles is sorely in need of some glitz and the annual BAFTA awards may provide the town with a relatively uncontroversial excuse to put on a tuxedo and party.

"It’ll either be a room with no American talent, or one filled with it. But the British awards will almost certainly go ahead," one insider recently assured The Telegraph, a British newspaper, about the upcoming BAFTA awards.  Either way, we hope Jaime is on the guest list.

(more…)

Battlestar Galactica was featured in a Jeopardy! question this week, according to Battlestar Blog. The answer was Lorne Greene and Edward James Olmos, and the question was Who is Commander Adama. According to reports, the contestant incorrectly answered Captain Adama. I probably would have answered Admiral Adama, and that would have been wrong too.

Entertainment Weekly starts off its list of memorable moments on television this year with a nod to the death of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace.

Katee Sackhoff in knee breaches? May your fever dreams come true! And by the way, I completely agree … Mary McDonnell should have a Revlon contract.

If you are planning on buying the anniversary DVD of Blade Runner, be sure to check out the special features as Edward James Olmos reportedly makes a quip about Cylons.

Ever wondered what would happen if Giaus Baltar teamed up with Chloe from Smallville? Actually, that is not a bad idea … given Chloe’s superior sleuthing skills, we would know the identity of the fifth Cylon within the hour! But since that is not going to happen, content yourself with viewing this photograph which shows their two faces morphing into this disturbingly stubbled image.

Speaking of James Callis, his period romance Victoria & Albert gets high praise and was recently released as part of a lush box set. If you like corsets, be sure to check it out. If you don’t like corsets but love Callis, his performance as a faded pop star in Bridget Jones’ Diary is still a classic.

And last but not least, Jamie Bamber and his towel is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only is this famous photo helping support the writers’ strike, but I noticed today that I get a lot of visitors who are searching for pictures of Tom Welling (the fellow who plays Clark Kent on Smallville), but get distracted and wander over to watchingbsg.com based on this post from last summer. Thanks Jamie!

First of all, a HUGE congratulations to our friends at Galactica SitRep who are featured in this week’s Entertainment Weekly as the best Battlestar Galactica fan site.  This is a well deserved honor for a great blog, and if you have not visited Galactica SitRep before then you are missing out!

New photos of Jamie Bamber, who plays Lee "Apollo" Adama on Battlestar Galactica, have appeared on the Internet this week courtesy of YouTube videos posted by Factory.  The portrait version is linked above, and be sure to check out the stills of a handgun toting Jamie in a "Wild Bunch" style photo shoot as well.

Calling all Aaron Douglas fans to The Chief’s Deck, where there is a vote going on to finally pick a name for Aaron’s legion of female fans.  "Jamie Bamber fans are known as the Bamber Bunnies. Mark Sheppard fans are the Romo Kitties. Tahmoh Penikett fans are Helo Hunnies. And now we need a name for fans of Aaron Douglas."  The early favorite seems to be Aaron’s Angels, which I personally think is pretty cute.  And whether you are a Bamber Bunny or an Aaron’s Angel, be sure to cast your vote on watchingbsg for your favorite fellow in our ongoing poll.

The ongoing discussion about the feminist credibility of Battlestar Galactica continues on this blog, and if that is one of your passions (or you simply like thinking about the academic side of BSG) then don’t miss the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in March.

Katee Sackhoff gives an extremely funny answer to a fan who asked her how Starbuck will feel when she discovers that her husband is a Cylon.  Katee admirably stays PG as she jokes that Cylon males may have hidden talents that come with being part machine  … "and it looks like Trucco?  I think she’s fine with it." 

In related Sackhoff news, AfterEllen.com recently listed Katee as one of the female geeks they love.  Unfortunately the list came out the same week as yet another Katee interview that shows her laughing along with the interviewer’s jokes about her fans.  She 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-BSG career.

Pretend to be a reporter on Caprica before the Cylon attack and you can win some nifty prizes, including a large banner signed by Katee Sackhoff (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace), Jamie Bamber (Lee "Apollo" Adama), Kate Vernon (the infamous Ellen Tigh), and Tahmoh Penikett (Karl "Helo" Agathorn).  The deadline is the day after Christmas, and you can read the rules here.

Someone fracked up the Razor DVD packaging … as at least one fan has noted, Jamie Bamber’s name got left off the cast list for the DVD packaging.  Perhaps they can make it up to him by trying to win his towel.

Jamie Bamber, who plays Lee “Apollo” Adama on Battlestar Galactica, took his family with him as he hit the red carpet for the premiere of the new Disney movie Enchanted.

Jamie’s four adorable dates were dressed as princesses for the Hollywood premiere. Other stars in attendance included Patrick Dempsey, Amy Adams, America Ferrera, Teri Hatcher, Carrie Underwood, Helen Mirren, Taye Diggs, and Helio Castroneves and his Dancing with the Stars partner Julianne Hough. Many of the stars from ABC hits such as Grey’s Anatomy and Dancing with the Stars were in attendance, which is not surprising since Disney is ABC’s parent company.

Jamie recently revealed he was not fond of the mystical aspects of Battlestar, so hopefully he found the magic and mysticism of Enchanted’s modern fairy tale more appealing. The movie received good reviews and has been number one at the box office in North America for the past two weeks.

Jamie Bamber’s female fans often refer to themselves as the Bamber Bunnies, and they are putting their passion to good use by publicizing efforts to raise money to send the studios pencils as a gesture of support for the writers who are currently on strike. Jamie is supporting their efforts by giving a worn towel to the two fans who buy the most pencils in his name, a genius idea inspired by Jamie’s famous Battlestar Galactica towel scene. Jamie will sign each towel as well, and a third towel will be raffled off to a fan who supports the pencil purchasing effort. Kudos to Jamie and to the BSG cast for this creative and way to seduce fans into participating in the pencil efforts.

Fans who want to add their pencils to the pile can visit pencils2mediamoguls.com to make a donation and see daily updates on the campaign. Fans are encouraged to donate to the site rather than send pencils themselves, as Hollywood learned from ShaunoMac’s Save Jericho Campaign that items are more effective when they arrive in bulk. By buying pencils, fans show their support and they will also be entered into a raffle to receive prizes such as phone call from a BSG star or from other celebrities such as Michael Rosenbaum who plays Lex Luthor on Smallville. BSG cast members Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Mary McDonnell, Michael Trucco, and Jamie Bamber have all agreed to make phone calls to raffle winners as well.

Ron Moore decided to trump that by offering the chance to attend a hockey game with Aaron Douglas, who plays Battlestar Galactica’s beloved Chief Tyrol (and who is reported to be hysterically funny in person). The winning fan will get to go to a Canadian hockey game with the Chief and an unnamed friend, who may or may not be another BSG cast or crew member. Great job, BSG folks, on finding creative ways to get fans involved in the process and inspired to support this cause!