The Lowdown on: Denise Richards
Sh*gging her best friend’s husband, a messy divorce and raunchy roles: what is Denise Richards all about?
Does anyone take Denise Richards seriously these days? It seems that every week there’s another story splashed across PerezHilton.com (who absolutely detests her) about her latest publicity stunt or the most recent machination in her divorce from Michael Sheen. But there has to be more to her than that, right?
‘The only girl on the baseball team…’
Denise was born in 1971 in small-town Illinois. Her mother owned a coffee shop and her father was a telephone engineer. Denise didn’t embrace her feminine side until later in life. As a kid she was a tomboy who shunned girly stuff, preferring sporty pursuits like baseball.
Model and actress
Denise decided to capitalise on her good looks by becoming a model. This led to her being cast in a string of low-budget films and shows during the 1990s like Saved By The Bell. In 1997 she got her big break starring in Starship Troopers, followed by cult hit Wild Things in 1998.
World’s worst Bond girl…
Denise must have thought all her Christmases had come at once when she was cast as – ahem – Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough in 1999. She felt that her character possessed great depth of character and was “brainy and athletic”. The viewing public wasn’t so sure. She was criticized for the skimpy tank top and shorts combo that Christmas wore throughout most of the film, and lost credibility as quickly as Bond loses bullets during a particularly vigorous shoot-out. Unfortunately for Denise, she was voted worst Bond girl of all time by Entertainment Weekly in 2008. Harsh – but fair?
Sex symbol
Most of the time in Hollywood the pretty girls don’t get the gritty roles that would allow them to prove their acting mettle. This was exactly what happened to Denise. In the early 2000s her film work consisted solely of roles which highlighted her sex symbol status, like Valentine, Undercover Brother and Scary Movie 3. She posed naked for Playboy in 2004 and was voted among the world’s sexiest women in various lads’ mags.
Love troubles
In recent years it’s been Denise’s rocky personal life that has kept her in the headlines. Her split with Charlie Sheen (with whom she has two young daughters) is a favourite topic on gossip websites. She married Sheen in 2002 after meeting on the set of Scary Movie 3. The pair had two daughters together before Denise filed for divorce in 2005. It all got a bit messy when she took a restraining order out on him for his alleged death threats against her. She claimed that he was obsessed with prostitutes, addicted to gambling and drugs, and had a penchant for porn. This smear campaign didn’t endear Denise to her public…
My best friend’s husband
Nor did her affair with Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, which began soon after Sambora split from Denise’s best friend Heather Locklear. Word of advice for the future – best not to choose your close friend’s ex-hubby as your rebound fling… Suffice to say, Denise and Heather are no longer on speaking terms.
Airing her dirty laundry…
Violence
Despite relying on the paparazzi for her continuing slice of limelight, Denise directed her temper at a pair of snappers who dared to take her photo while she as filming in Canada. She flung their laptops over a balcony. One hit an 80-year-old wheelchair-bound woman, and the other hit a 91-year-old. Oops…
Reality bites
The saga of the Richards-Sheen divorce rumbled on when Denise signed up for her own reality show on E! called Denise Richards: It’s Complicated. She wanted to include her and Sheen’s two daughters, Sam and Lola, but Michael wasn’t too happy. He called her “greedy, vain and exploitative”, but his case against her wasn’t successful and the show went ahead featuring the girls.
Despite something of a renaissance after never quite making the A-list for her movies, Denise isn’t exactly Miss Popular in Celebville. But these days all publicity is good publicity, so we’re sure she’s perfectly happy with what she has. What’s life without a bit of scandal anyway?
by Susie Gordon
Review: Burn Up is a Brilliant New Drama
It’s been a while since we’ve seen a truly good Brit drama, let’s be honest. Bonekickers was pitifully wooden with a plot so lacking in tension it made your granddad’s date night look like a scene from an Oliver Stone movie.
So when I sat down to watch the Beebs new drama Burn Up I wasn’t expecting much.
But boy oh boy, do you have a treat in store. This is an audacious, bold drama with a truly current conflict at its core. It is also riddled with a tension that means you are hooked within seconds.
Tom McConnell (Rupert Penry Jones- Spooks) is young and smart. He’s a family man with the cocky ambition of someone midway through conquering the world. Having just been appointed as Chairman of Arrow Oil he is not far off that dream.
However the moral waters quickly become murky as Arrow Oil become the focus of environmental protestors and political power plays. Ethics and friendship unravel as Tom is drawn into the battle between global warming and greed.
There are some hard truths in this drama and it manages to balance the political, moral and environmental dilemmas with disarming ease. Through the eyes of the powerful and the powerless, it leads us into the heart of a high stake conflict and Simon Beaufoy, famous for penning The Full Monty, does not shirk from either side of the argument.
In one scene, Tom is with his best friend and Oil goon Mack (Bradely Whitford- The West Wing) when they bump into Phillip (Marc Warren- The Hustle), an aide to Britain’s Prime Minister. As they fall into talking about Iraq Philip says: “ Beats me why you didn’t just plant some weapons of mass destruction” Mack jokes “If I told you we did and we can’t find em, would you believe me?” Phillip considers a moment then responds: “Yeah. That is horrifically plausible”.
That, at heart is what makes this such a deeply impressive drama. It is one of the few that truly looks face to face with the monster that is global warming in all its complex implications and the story it tells is, in the words of Phillip, horrifically plausible.
So, my review? Burn Up is brilliant and unmissable. Tune your TV, turn off your phone and make sure you watch it Wednesday 23rd at 9pm on BBC2.
By McGee Noble
Pick of the Week: Monday 21st July
Monday 21st July - Sunday 27th July
DISPATCHES: THE JAB THAT CAN STOP CANCER
Channel 4 Monday 21st July 8pm Alert Me!
In the next few weeks every girl aged 12 to 13 in Britain will be offered a vaccination to help protect her against cervical cancer. It’s the first time a jab has been developed that can prevent a cancer. The vaccine works by stopping women contracting the virus that causes cervical cancer. But while some hail it as a medical breakthrough, it has provoked controversy. Journalist Jane Moore, who has two daughters, sets out to find answers to the questions every parent will ask before deciding whether to allow their daughters to have the vaccination. Will it work? Is it necessary? And is it safe? The Jab That Can Stop Cancer sets out some of the key facts about the sexually-transmitted virus that causes the cancer and examines how the Government arrived at its decision to give it to all girls. And as this new vaccine is the most expensive the NHS has ever bought, Jane Moore investigates whether the new mass inoculation is value for money.
THE WIRE
FX Monday 21st July 10pm
The fifth and final season of this excellent police drama begins on Monday on FX. Mayor Carcetti struggles to keep his pre-election promises, and is forced to choose between education and law and order. Meanwhile, McNulty keeps Marlo under surveillance. Morale is low in the force and Detective Jimmy McNulty returns to the homicide department.
ZOOLANDER
Film 4 Tuesday 22nd July 2008 9pm Alert Me!
Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) is the world’s top model. Then Hansel (Owen Wilson) arrives. The new face du jour wins Male Model of the Year and usurps the throne, while Zoolander’s world implodes when his friends are killed, and the media start a feeding frenzy. Avant-garde designer Mugatu (Will Ferrer) steps in to play saviour, offering Derek a chance to model his new ‘derelicte’ range of couture inspired by the homeless. But Mugatu has another agenda: to assassinate the Malaysian PM, whose child labour laws threaten his business. Zoolander is brainwashed to carry out the deed, but the plan hasn’t figured on interfering reporter Matilda Jeffries (Christine Taylor) and some unexpected allies…Stiller’s previous efforts as director - Reality Bites and The Cable Guy - were brave and trenchant. Zoolander ’s satire is blunt and broad-brush, but develops the idiot-made-good persona which has seen Stiller in perpetual employment. As were his family: wife Christine Taylor gets a major role, while mother, sister and brother-in-law get a scene each. Even the pet labrador gets a turn. But it’s veteran comic Jerry Stiller (Ben’s father) that walks away with the movie as Derek’s agent, Maury, dressed as mutton and spouting Catskill-friendly shtick.
BURN UP
BBC 2 Wednesday 23rd July 9pm Alert Me!
Rupert Penry-Jones, Marc Warren, Bradley Whitford and Neve Campbell star in this new, two-part, provocative drama set in the real-life context of climate change, written by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty).
Burn Up is an emotionally powerful story of love, commitment and divided loyalty – a thriller in which the stakes couldn’t be higher. Oil company executives, environmental activists and politicians collide in the battle between economic success and ecological responsibility.
As the drama begins, a team of geologists is murdered in the Saudi desert. One of the team – Masud – survives, and sets in motion a chain of events which will pit friend against friend and country against country.
Sir Mark Foxbay, CEO of Arrow Oil, resigns abruptly and is succeeded by his son-in-law, Tom McConnell, a choice approved by Arrow’s pro-oil lobbyist and Tom’s best friend, Mack. Within days, Tom is handed a writ by Mika – a climate-change activist who alleges Arrow Oil has rendered her Inuit homeland uninhabitable.
To stem bad publicity, Tom and Mack plan to raise the profile of Arrow’s head of renewables, Holly Dernay. But positive PR becomes redundant when, after her writ is thrown out, Mika sacrifices herself in an act which has a devastating impact on Tom, who begins to question his convictions, something hastened by his growing closeness to Holly.
BENICASSIM
ITV 2 Friday 25th July 11:15PM Alert Me!
Benicassim festival, or Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, is Europe’s largest outdoor rock festival and is held in Benicassim, near Valencia in Spain in the height of summer. ITV2 has exclusive access to this year’s festival, which can be seen in this one hour programme.
Topping the bill on this year’s main stage are Irish rock band My Bloody Valentine, Brit Award-winning pop sensation Mika, dynamic duo Gnarls Barkley, American rock band The Raconteurs, Pete Doherty’s Babyshambles and guitar hero Jose Gonzalez.
Brit bands The Courteeners, The Rumblestrips, and The Ting Tings have burst on to the music scene in the past year and will be performing at this year’s festival.
Performances in the dance tent include Hot Chip, Justice, Booka Shade and Calvin Harris.
Review: Joss Whedon’s Sing Along Blog
“One week only! An internet miniseries event!” Reads a line from Joss Whedon’s master plan for Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.
The man behind cult hit shows Buffy, Angel and Firefly has a significant cult following. ‘Cult’ in the sense that the fans are hugely, wildly, passionate about his shows as opposed to ‘cult’: a small niche audience. Justifiably, too.
I first came across Joss Whedon’s work in Buffy. The idea hadn’t appealed to me at first. It seemed kind of, well, stupid. Blonde cheerleader saves teens from vampires. Also, I’d seen the 1992 film, and if you’ve seen it you’ll understand the hesitation.
Only, it turns out Whedon is a little bit of a genius. A genre genius, if you will. He blended elements of satire, comedy, drama and horror and packaged them up into this strange, absorbing and somehow mythically cool show about a vampire slayer.
He followed this up with the spin off Angel, which was also pretty good, if a bit bumpy. Where Josh Whedon really earned my respect though was with Firefly. This sci-fi show, as he put it, is a ‘western in space’. Er, what? Not exactly two genres you expect to go together. Yet it makes a weird kind of sense- space is so massive, maybe the frontiers would be like the Old West- wild and unpoliced.
This is a man who has made episodes in which his main characters are turned into puppets (Angel), in which they don’t speak at all for the entire episode (Buffy), that have turned into musicals (also Buffy). He’s killed off much loved characters, twisted stories and challenged genres and all in a consistently hilarious, dramatic and generally intriguing way.
That’s why I was very interested when I heard of this ‘internet miniseries event’ Dr Horrible. Joss has been noticeably absent the last little while, working on his new show The Dollhouse. However, he’s taken a break to make three 13 minute episodes of a web TV show.
Dr Horrible tells us the story of a loveable, slightly inept, super-villain. And it is a musical. I was a bit worried about this, not being a huge fan of musicals. It stars Neil Patrick Harris who you may remember as Doogie from Doogie Howser. It also stars Nathan Fillion from Firefly and Felicia Day who did a turn in Buffy. She has that fragile, geekly quality that Whedon loves so much and makes her endlessly endearing.
The mini-series event has indeed been an event. Where most web series’ have struggled to find main stream audiences it is perhaps no surprise that Joss Whedon has managed to completely detonate the potential of the medium. When the first episode went online on Tuesday, audiences went nuts. Hulu, the very cool player which is used to screen the show, did not work overseas. People trying to download it from iTunes were impeded by numbers. By Wednesday, the site had crashed completely, and the makers had to urgently find more bandwidth to cover the requests.
You can see why. The thirteen minute first episode is funny, endearing and unique. Neil Patrick Harris is a loveably villainous super villain. The songs are hilarious and strangely catchy and the story hooks you straight in. It appeals to more than just net geeks, it is a love story with a comic twist.
We can only hope this leads to more great web TV.
To watch Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, go to the site here.
By McGee Noble
Inside the mind of an ad-maker
Interview with Jon Williams, Chief Creative Officer of Grey London
In this week’s feature Susan Allen takes a peek behind the advertising mask to investigate what it takes to make a great ad, hold our attention and get us buying into their ideas…
Ads are annoying right?
When I say ‘adverts’ do you think annoying? There they are, interrupting our episode of Hollyoaks and boring us to death with yet another detergent we just can’t see the uniqueness of.
But then again
But then again, there’s the Guiness ad (or every Guiness ad) and that Britvic Brains one. What about the Frijj ads? The 50’s horror spoof. Actually, these are quite entertaining, I kind of look forward to seeing them. This is impressive, because these days, more than ever, consumers are savvy enough that we won’t pay heed to something that isn’t worth our attention.
In a way, the product of this is a growing culture of innovative advertising that uses more creative ways and media to capture an audience. A good campaign will make you want to pay attention, even though you know you are being pitched a product. That’s no easy task with such a media aware audience.
I decided to investigate the curious world of the advertising agency and unravel the inner workings behind a good campaign. How are advertising bods transforming their ads in order to persuade us to part with our cash?
I approached Jon Williams who is Chief Creative Officer of Grey London advertising agency and the man behind the recent multimedia Frijj milkshake campaign that’s caught our eye by using five ads (watch one of the virals below), a website and much more, for an insider’s view.
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“Frijj itself has always been a slightly quirky brand. You only have to look at the packaging to know that it has its own personality and I think this complements this. The super-saturated feel from that sort of genre works splendidly.”
This is all well and good, but we’re still talking brand here. I want more than this from the man behind the creative campaign. Where’s the essence of it? It’s when I bring up the tension between the eerie website with the manic little girl and the brightly coloured films that he seems to reveal himself. “She’s scary isn’t she?”, he says instantly more animated, as I ask him if this was a deliberate decision.
“I think it’s the kind of thing that all Art Directors push. They’ll try and create a visual tension… The whole spooky girl in an attic…and when she fiddles around with it, it actually affects real life. This is a great pastiche in itself and it’s a strong tableau that binds the story together.”
Ha, now we’re talking. There’s a bit of Beetlejuice and Shining in there, isn’t there?
“Yeah, there’s a bit of that in there. It borrows quite alot from quite a lot - there’s loads of movie in-jokes in there.”
The campaign certainly has great scope for such jokes. I am particularly intrigued by the fact that on the site users can watch five different virals. This might be seen to border on the excessive but Jon thinks not. “You need a depth of content” he argues, “to strike the right balance between an experience that’s too thin and therefore inherently unrewarding and one that’s so lavish that it’s over-facing.”
What does this actually mean? It means that they’ve got to have just enough content that it’s going to hold our attention when we give it to them. As always it comes down to the same thing - we demand to be entertained.
I get the feeling from him that even with the product talk a great deal of passion has gone into the project. “It’s bang up to date. It feels fresh and is a rather splendid piece. I’m exceptionally proud of what’s been done… It’s when you know you’re onto a good idea it’s when everyone goes that extra mile and it’s evidenced in what’s been produced.”
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How have Frijj approached this? They have created a YouTube channel to which users can upload their own horror film clips. If they are good enough they will appear in the Frijj Film Festival, a series of free viewings in cinemas across London this summer. This an impressive feature. It makes me want to make my own version of ‘Psycho’ with strawberry milkshake for blood! This kind of online community involvement also particularly appeals to Jon.
“It’s kind of a weird subversion. Everyone’s talking about stuff coming away from slickly-made and becoming user gen., a bit rough and ready and online. We thought it would be a nice way of looking at it to enable them to go back up the value chain to cinema, which is the home of great entertainment.”
Certainly, the internet is being used increasingly in advertising. The virals themselves are not even being screened on TV, which Jon sees as “no disadvantage whatsoever”. Using frank business terms he comments on the “accountable” nature of internet advertising as a viable opportunity for advertisers in a time when the country is preparing to tighten its belt.
More than this, he’s keen to get across the faster, more engaging relationship that web offers to its users, its “value exchange.” In full-swing board room mode, he gives the example of a user online.
“If you’ve got something to offer me for my valuable time - either a bit of functionality or entertainment, a dalliance from daily life, it’s got to be worth my exchange of time.”
It’s a brutal but accurate summation. My time IS valuable, and I don’t like to waste it on something that’s not enjoyable – and advertisers know that. When utilised properly the internet encourages spending time interacting with a ‘brand’ in a way we never would with television and it is the users who will ultimately make a profit for the advertiser. Yet Jon cautiously sees the internet as just PART of the future. “The business is changing and we’ve got to move with it.”
And are Grey London moving with this change?
“This one definitely has the New Grey stamp on it. We are constantly looking for ways to innovate and ways to talk to people in more engaging ways an¬¬d that will become more and more relevant. This is a brilliant front of the first wave of new work that’s coming through.”
As I bring the conversation to a close I ask what he hopes to achieve. The two-pronged answer of an advertising exec., whose position, it has become clear throughout this interview, necessitates both a passion for the essence of his work and also a no-nonsense money-head, comes back at me,
“I would like people to enjoy spending time with Frijj and go and buy some in the process!”
So, what does it take to make a great ad? Lifting the advertising mask has revealed that it takes a complex drive of innovation and profit to capture our increasingly high-maintenance imagination. Looks like we’re being encouraged to truly interact with the idea of that carrot dangling in front of us before we decide to jump for it. ■
Check out OTB’s review of one of the ads, “Yell, You’re in Hell” and go see the online campaign for yourself showing the rest of the virals not shown in this article at www.fourrigdesmustbedestroyed.com.
By Susan Allen
Stop Complaining!
Nothing gets my goat quite like TV complaints. You know the sort. Mealy-mouthed letters and emails from ‘Offended of Orpington’ about how outraged they are about some advert with a little bit of raunch, or a soap plotline involving something not quite suburban enough for their tastes.
Most recently there was the furore surrounding Heinz’s rather anodyne advert for deli spreads. The ad shows a male New York deli worker kissing a man to whom he has just served a baguette. It was a mere peck on the lips. Not an orgiastic snog. Not a lascivious lip-lock reminiscent of the last days of Sodom and Gomorrah. And yet people rang up in droves to condemn Heinz for their evil and dastardly promotion of homosexuality. “It’s a travesty!” they cried. “How will we explain this to our children?” Easy. You simply say “Some men love women. Some men love men. End of.” But that’s beside the point. More irksome is the fact that most complainers overlooked the main concept behind the advert. The male deli worker was supposed to be an incarnation of the customer’s wife. Heinz was trying to say that with their tasty new spreads, even a run-of-the-mill housewife will be transformed into a wisecracking Brooklyn deli owner. Simple enough, you might think. Apparently not, for the hundreds who complained.
Another case that annoyed me was the Chris Morris/Brasseye scandal in 2001. This is a prime example of utter idiocy at play. In case you didn’t see it or have forgotten the comic brilliance, the show was a mockumentary about paedophilia. Various celebrities including Gary Lineker and Philippa Forrester lent their support to a fictional anti-paedo campaign called ‘Nonce Sense’, while Richard Blackwood discussed the ‘fact’ that some perverts send ‘noxious gases’ through computer keyboards to subdue children. All pretty far fetched stuff, but the celebrities didn’t twig.
When the show aired there was pandemonium. Around 2000 people complained, and even politicians leapt onto the bandwagon of outrage. One pontificated that the show was “unspeakably sick”, and another claimed to be “dismayed” by it. But the thing is (and you’ll love this) neither of them had seen it. That’s right. They hadn’t even SEEN it.
And do you know what is even more ridiculous? The mind-boggling hypocrisy of the press. After Brasseye aired, the Daily Star (that well-known bastion of editorial supremacy) printed an article condemning Morris right beside a piece about Charlotte Church (then just 15 years old) and her developing mammaries with the headline “She’s a big girl now”… Note to editor – make sure you’re not encouraging your readership to lech over an underage girl at the same time as decrying someone who is ostensibly doing the same. (But Chris Morris wasn’t, that’s the point! It was a joke! Argh, I give up.)
The thing that bugs me most is that it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The majority of people are smart enough to realise that two men kissing on screen isn’t going to rouse the devil from his lair, and that a bit of clever, controversial humour is a credit to our country rather than a scourge.
So if you’re one of the stuffy complaining types, make sure you get your facts straight before you issue forth with your vitriol. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have opinions. But take a step back and you may discover that you’ve missed the point completely.
by Susie Gordon
Preview: Best of the Fests - Lovebox
Jez Slater, our resident music expert and guide, gives you the lowdown on one of the coolest festivals to grace our summer and screens… Lovebox.
An unusually bright and clear weekend last year found me in the lush surrounding of London’s Victoria Park, moseying down to one of the newer highlights of the ever expanding festival season for my first experience of the good will, good time vehicle that is Lovebox. Lacking the rampant commercialism and predictable lineups that have come to define some of London’s lesser weekenders, I was chuffed to find an inclusive, eclectic vibe that swept me on into a memorable couple of days that has now become firmly locked into my summer schedule and, in this sucker’s opinion, should yours. This weekend thankfully sees the return of the ever expanding Groove Armada curated spectacular, as it once again takes crams in an impressively diverse mix of artists over 8 stages.
Starting out as a club night at the dawn of the millennium the event quickly metamorphosed into a one day event on Clapham common before the weight of its popularity propelled it on to its current sprawling heady heights. Maybe its partly because of the way The Armada (as we know them) have embraced multimedia in promoting the fest. Their site invites you into the experience- says: ‘take off your shoes, show us your photos and see a video of last year or two.’
The downlow- biggest film set at a fest- gets set up
With the simple yet fantastically difficult to pull off remit of mixing classic artists with innovative and eclectic new sounds, Tom and Andy’s success feels well deserved. This year’s lineup is once again testament to their skills in providing unexpected treasures in the midst of solid gold. This time around, the shindiggery features enough genre spanning wonderment to keep the most discerning music fan entranced. The likes of the always fantastical Flaming Lips, the energetic message that is Manu Chao et al and of course the Armada themselves will punctuate the main stage. But you don’t have to look too far for the more than worthy alternatives of Liam Finn, The Young Knives and The Go Team plus countless others. Chuck in some yoga workshops, a flying circus and a fun fair and you have a weekend of scant compare. If you’re not one of the lucky golden ticket holders you can still pick up full weekend and Sunday passes for a truly reasonable £65 and £35.50 respectively. Way cheaper than what the scalpers are flogging them for elsewhere.
I’ll see you there. I’m going this weekend and we’ll give you the full account next week on www.onthebox.com.
Oh and have a look at the site and buy tix here
Frijj – “Yell, You’re in Hell”
Arrrrggggghhhh!! This is the new campaign from Dairy Crest’s flavoured milk drink brand, Frijj! Parodying the 1950s horror movie genre, the milkshake, renowned for its unique thickness, is here transformed into a sluggish Blob-like monster that leaves its screaming victims, who are anticipating an imminent attack, rather hoarse.
The advert is part of a transmedia campaign developed by Grey London which, as well as press, posters, outdoor and on-pack promotions involves a number of viral adverts that centre on the fictional, idyllic 1950s model town of Four Ridges leading consumers back to a website with all the virals and a chance to upload their own related videos. Via the website they meet Martha, the evil Shining-esque child who is hatching her wicked scheme against the town to let loose an inexorable torrent of Frijj which will engulf everything in its path – pretty slowly, of course.
This is a catchy idea with great ‘50s milkshake-coloured visuals contrasting well with the darker overall theme of evil Martha and the Frijj of doom! Look out for the others to come…
To find out more, watch the other adverts and even upload your own horror spoof, go to www.fourridgesmustbedestroyed.com.
The Lowdown on: Michael C. Hall
Serial killers, a gay mortician and the lowdown on one of the U.S’s top telly actors: Meet Michael C. Hall
You may have come across him in the breathtakingly good Six Feet Under, a series which arguably changed the face of US television drama. Set in a family run funeral home, its constant morbid intimacy made death both an unrelenting presence and flippantly mundane. The constant ethical and dramatic challenges that the characters faced made it evocative and at times darkly comic in such a way that had not been captured so well in a TV drama before. Playing the role of the closeted homosexual mortician was Michael C Hall. By the end of the show Hall had been multiply nominated for Emmy’s for his role. Not a bad start considering that prior to the show his start was as an off Broadway actor with no television experience.
“My father’s death was a real marker…”
Michael C Hall was born in 1971 in Raleight, North Carolina and trained as an actor at the NYU Master of Fine Arts. He was an only child as his sister died in infancy and his father died of cancer when he was 11, leaving his mother to bring him up alone. In an interview with The Advocate in 2004 he said: “At that age, 11, my father’s death was a real marker. Certainly, for a young boy, there’s no good age, but I think I was on the cusp of a time in my life where I was starting to reach puberty, to relate to my father—or as a result, I was becoming more like him. To have him… Something gets frozen. As you revisit it for the rest of your life, it’s sort of this slow but hopefully sure crawling-out of that frozen moment.”
Leading the dance in Cabaret
After leaving NYU he starred off broadway in plays like Macbeth and Cymbeline at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and in Timon of Athens and Henry V at the New York Public Theater. It was through the theatre that he met director Sam Mendes and when Mendes did his feted revival of the dark, erotically charged ‘Cabaret’ he cast Hall in the role of the emcee after Alan Cumming. It was this that eventually led to his audition for the role of David in Six Feet Under.
Hall puts on his dancing shoes as David in SixFeet Under
Getting cast in Six Feet Under
Mendes and Six Feet Under creator and showrunner Alan Ball worked together on the film American Beauty and when Ball was looking to cast David, Mendes suggested Hall. At this point in time it was actually actor Peter Krause, who ended up playing Nate Fisher, was originally cast to play David Fisher. The producers struggled to cast the role of Nate and eventually decided to cast Krause in the role and Hall as David. This reversal ended in an award winning acting partnership that was the cornerstone of the impressive ensemble cast.
In an interview Hall said that “Everything I opened up for Cabaret,” Hall says, “I slammed shut for David.” The wariness of the character, his meticulous nature and deeply closeted homosexuality made him engrossing to watch, played with a precision and dark self loathing by Hall.
He took a few feature film roles between- both a far cry from David, a messy action thriller in which he played a bit role ‘paycheck’ and TV movie Bereft. However it was his role as a serial killer with a heart of gold and murder that has brought him back to serious character acting for television.
A promo for season 2 turns fountains around the world blood red
Playing a Serial Killer
Based on the novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, it was adapted for television by Emmy award winning screenwriter James Manos Jr. You probably haven’t heard of him but knowing that he is an Emmy award screenwriter whose previous work includes the Sopranos gives you a sense of the quality of the adaptation. The challenging character of Dexter, who both charmed and horrified audiences, was an absorbing character and in the deft hands of Manos, the pilot was brilliantly morbid and creepily addictive watching.
Michael C. Hall talks about playing Dexter
Julie Benz, who plays Dexter’s brittle, damaged girlfriend talked about working with him in an interview “When we did the pilot, I was very nervous… I was beginning to work with my favourite actor. I had to do a lot of relaxation to be on set with Michael… I was such a huge fan of his and just couldn’t believe I was cast to play opposite him. I was really waiting for someone to come up to me and say it’s all a joke,”
Another fan is author of the books Jeff Lindsay. When asked about how he feels about the show’s adaptation he replied: “Ninety-nine times out of a hundred television will take your book and throw away what’s good and turn it into what they want, which is crappy television. Not here. Michael C. Hall is absolutely bloody marvellous.” It is a testament to Hall’s skill as an actor that when Lindsay first heard of the casting he thought that he wasn’t right for the part at all, “but then the first time I saw him on the set I was blown away.”
Privately, Hall married actress Amy Spanger in 2002 but they divorced in 2006 and Hall is now rumoured to be dating his co-star Jennifer Carpenter, who plays his sister Debra Morgan on Dexter.
Watch the Season 2 promo
With Season 2 of Dexter just stared on FX last week, now is a great time to tune into this series and see what all the fuss is about. Catch season 2 episode 2 tonight, Tuesday, on FX at 10pm.
Pick of the Week: Monday 14th July
Mon. 14th July - Sunday 20th July
THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE MUSLIM WORLD
Channel 4 Monday 14th July 7:50pm Alert Me!
Week-long series presenting Islam as it is lived and practised. The guides are six pilgrims from different parts of the world - including a young Spanish pizza chef, a newspaper boy from Jerusalem, and a PR professional from Pakistan. They all have a dream, to visit Mecca for pilgrimage. The Seven Wonders of the Muslim World tells their stories in six, intimate ten-minute portraits exploring their lives and the way they worship - from Djenne in Mali to Lahore, Pakistan, and Tehran to Istanbul. Contrasting lives, in diverse settings, yet with a single common thread: Islam - the fastest-growing faith, which dominates the lives of 1.3 billion followers. Their stories reveal how modern Muslims live and the programme explores some of the most stunning examples of Islamic architecture on the planet.
SHARIAH TV
Channel 4 Tuesday 15th July 12:05am Alert Me!
Returning for a fifth series, but at an unfortunate hour, Shariah TV travels to New York to see what Britain can learn from post 9/11 America’s relationship with its Muslim community. Broadcaster and journalist Tazeen Ahmad brings together young Muslims to quiz scholars and Imams from across the USA and find out what their duty is towards the country so many of their fellow Muslims across the world see as their enemy. James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, and Reza Aslan, seen by many young American Muslims as ‘The Golden Boy of Islam’, are among the panellists as they face questions on living in the shadow of 9/11, the role of Muslim women in the land of the Civil Rights movement and how Muslims relate to other faiths in ‘God’s Own Country’.
PRIVATE PRACTICE
Living TV Tuesday 15th July 10:00pm Alert Me!
Private Practice follows Grey’s Anatomy’s neo-natal surgeon Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh,) as she moves from Seattle to Santa Monica, California, and starts over. After a failed attempt at marriage reconciliation with estranged husband Derek ‘McDreamy’ Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), and a knock back from a promotion in Seattle Grace Hospital, Addison accepts a position at the Oceanside Wellness Center in this brand new series. Joining her new colleagues, Addison discovers that the entire staff have their own life issues. The sexy alternative medicine doc who has one-night stands; the gynaecologist who doesn’t know a thing about women; and the therapist who doubts she’s doing any good at all.
HARLEY STREET
ITV 1 Thursday 17th July 9:00pm Alert Me!
This new ITV drama follows Dr Robert Fielding (Paul Nicholls) and Dr Martha Elliot (Suranne Jones) along with Dr Ekkow Obiang (Shaun Parkes) as they a modern GP practice, 195 Harley Street.
While all three doctors are absolutely dedicated to their GP work at 195 they do have other interests. Robert divides his time between the practice and the white knuckle thrills of a London A&E where he does locum Registrar shifts for his friend, Dr Ross Jarvis (Tom Ellis). Martha is a psychologist who juggles the demands of her busy career alongside being a single mum to her twelve year old daughter, Tess (Rosie Day). Ekkow is a renowned plastic surgeon, and a mastermind in his field.
BBC PROMS 2008: First Night of the Proms Live
BBC 2 Friday 18th July 8pm
Introduced by Charles Hazlewood and Suzy Klein, live from London’s Royal Albert Hall, the first Prom features Finnish soprano Karita Mattila singing Strauss’s Four Last Songs; pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing Beethoven’s Rondo in B flat major; Nicholas Daniel performing Mozart’s Oboe Concerto; and organist Wayne Marshall launching proceedings on the Royal Albert Hall’s historic organ with Strauss’s Festliches Präludium. The concert ends with Scriabin’s powerful Poem of Ecstasy.
For the first time, the BBC Two Proms are presented from a specially built studio within the Royal Albert Hall building, where Charles and Suzy are joined by guests and artists to discuss the concert, signalling the start of new-look Saturday night BBC Two broadcasts throughout the season (starting on 26 July). The studio will have a large screen showing preparations within the auditorium, as well as specially pre-recorded films and live down-the-line interviews with artists backstage.
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