The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio
The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2011 08:45 PM PDT Oliver Platt treats cancer with humour on The Big C. FOR much of last season on Showtime's The Big C, Oliver Platt played a husband with no clue his wife had been diagnosed with life-threatening cancer. It was hard playing those scenes "in the dark," he says. "You had to really focus and forget that you knew." But how? "Well, you just do it. It's your job. You pretend." Platt is pretty good at that. But as his dark though ultimately life-affirming comedy returns for a second season soon, Paul is fully informed about the grave condition of his mate, Cathy (played by series star Laura Linney). And while the needy, freewheeling nature Paul displayed before was a burden on Cathy (she even threw him out of the house for a time when the show began), now he's trying to grow up and support her in her fight against this illness. As a dutiful husband, he even scores some marijuana from his bygone dealer to help ease Cathy's discomfort. "I cannot believe that the guy I used to call 20 years ago still has the same pager number," Paul crows. "And that I remembered that it was listed under 'Bicycle Parts' in my address book." Soon, he and Cathy are home, lighting up and getting baked. For nearly a quarter-century, the 51-year-old Platt has flourished as a character actor who brings a lovable roguery, and insight as well, to his roles. Moon-faced and bulky at 1.9m, his performances range from the shrewd White House counsel challenging President Bartlet on The West Wing to Manhattan rapscallion Nathan Detroit in the 2009 Broadway revival of Guys And Dolls; from the druggy, kinky lawyer in the TV series Huff to Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in the miniseries The Bronx Is Burning. Currently, he's appearing as The Man in Black, a CIA team leader, in the sci-fi hit X-Men: First Class. Platt cites his distinctly non-leading-man looks as an asset. "What I was told early on was that, as an actor, I had a uniqueness: there wasn't anybody who looked like me, for better or worse, and we don't need to get into THAT any further, thank you," he says, chuckling. The son of a career diplomat, he grew up in Washington and throughout the Far East as the family was frequently re-stationed. His interest in drama was a response to often being on the move. "I was always a new kid in school and I figured out this was a way to plug in: I'd try out for a play and then I would have a group of friends," he says. But it was more than a coping device. "I also loved doing it." Bitten by the bug, he majored in drama at Boston's Tufts University, then spent several years in the local theater scene before embarking for the big time in New York. He landed his feature film debut in the 1988 hit comedy Married To The Mob. The career he has enjoyed since then has been busy and eclectic. "I'm drawn to stuff that I haven't done before," he says. "But at the same time, when you take a job, especially a high-profile job, you want to have a sense that you're not going to completely wipe out. So you try and balance things." As an example of how things can go askew, he mentions Guys And Dolls. "I should have had more respect for the material," he says. "I thought: 'I did this in high school. This is going to be great!' And it was a very humbling experience. It was really, really hard." (The Associated Press' late drama critic, Michael Kuchwara, called Platt's depiction of Nathan "cautious rather than comic".) "But I got deeply attached to that experience," Platt says, "and loved it, in ways that I could never have anticipated." Platt married in 1992, and he and wife Camilla have three kids ages 16, 14 and 12. "I don't take it for granted that I'll be offered work," he says. "There's a sense of gratitude that I'm able to support my family doing this." They live in Greenwich Village, near the breakfast spot where Platt has joined a reporter one recent morning. Chained outside is his bike, which is a no-frills affair, oversized with a 70-cm frame and sporting a plastic dairy-crate basket lashed to the front wheel. After the interview, Platt will pedal off to do chores. Through the years, he's been able to balance his personal life and career, never venturing too far from home for too long (The Big C is shot within commuting distance in Connecticut). "Family life to me is incredibly important and fulfilling, and it keeps the noise of show biz in perspective for me," he says, adding: "My wife is very grounded, unimpressed by the superficial trappings of showbiz. "When I was younger, I had to do a bit of disentangling myself from the acting world. When I got on stage, it became a little too important for me. I needed to turn acting back into a job, instead of a survival mechanism." But don't get the idea that Platt considers acting just a job. In his mind, it's a process of discovery for all concerned. "The camera is such an incredibly accurate instrument that it sees way beyond what you're trying to project," he says, "and if you're lucky enough to keep acting, the audience is going to develop a sense of you that you aren't even aware of." That's all part of the plan. "What I do is far – far! – from the most important thing in the world," he says. "But it's important to me, and I've never had any doubt that I was doing what I was meant to do." – AP ■ Catch Oliver Platt in The Big C on Diva Universal (Astro Ch 702) on Saturdays at 4pm (two episodes back-to-back). Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2011 05:31 PM PDT TV-land bids farewell to one interesting human lie detector. GOODBYE, Dr Cal Lightman. It was great fun watching you watch other people, squinting your eyes as you scrutinise every little micro-expression on their faces, trying to catch if they are lying or not. You may not have been the most lovable character on TV, but were certainly one of its most interesting. Lie To Me screens its third and final season in Malaysia this month. The show was cancelled last month, and the crime procedural genre is all the poorer for it. British actor Tim Roth's portrayal of human lie detector Cal Lightman (based on real life psychologist Dr Paul Ekman, an expert on body language and facial expressions) is often compared to that other obnoxious character in an American TV show played by a British actor. However, while everyone seems to love Hugh Laurie's House (though not as much these days), Dr Cal Lightman was a much harder character to love. The combination of Roth's sometimes incomprehensible English accent and the infuriatingly arrogant way he swaggers around all the time could be a little off-putting to a viewer more used to TV characters being cuddly, funny or heroic. However, the fact that Roth managed to make us keep watching for three seasons despite his character being pretty much the meanest, most selfish, and unscrupulous "crime fighter" currently on TV, is testament of the character's appeal. It's just as well he and his team at the Lightman group – which comprises psychologist Dr Gillian Foster (Kelli Williams), assistant Eli Loker (Brendan Hines) and "natural" lie detector Ria Torres (Monica Raymund) – handle cases that all the teams at CSI wouldn't touch with a 20m pair of tweezers. The cases in the third season are especially varied, ranging from investigating an explosion at a mine, to helping a rich woman investigate her boyfriend, and even getting involved in a, er ... teenage beauty pageant. One of the best parts of the show is the way Lightman approaches each case. His methods range from the unorthodox (preventing a man from robbing a bank by helping the gang of robbers to plan and set up the heist) to the completely mental. In the case of the latter, he literally checks himself into a mental hospital in one episode, just to help a client. You don't see Horatio Caine doing that, do you? Unfortunately, the show's downfall may have been due to the man who was responsible for its (admittedly limited) success in the first place. As the third season went on, it sometimes felt as if Roth was getting more and more disinterested with the character with each passing episode. His accent grew more and more incomprehensible, and some of the scenes with his employees just didn't have the usual spark or chemistry in them. Meanwhile, the supporting cast tried their best, but besides Dr Foster, Williams' strong-willed psychiatrist, the others just weren't compelling enough to come out of Lightman's shadow. On the other hand, there were relationships within the show that showed a great deal of promise, if only they had more time to develop them further. Lightman's bond with his daughter Emily (Hayley McFarland) was growing stronger with every episode while his relationship with Foster was starting to get intriguing. Unfortunately, we will never get to see those relationships develop further. It is also a pity that the final season of the show only had 13 episodes, and ended without a bang or even a proper send-off for TV's most interesting (and only) human lie detector, which was the least that he deserved. Admit it: he may not have been your favourite character on TV, but after Lie To Me airs its final episode, you're going to miss Cal Lightman, too. Don't lie. ■ Lie To Me's finale comes on tonight on Fox (Astro Ch 710) at 8.55pm. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 28 Jun 2011 01:10 AM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters): Meet Hugh Hefner's new girlfriend, almost the same as the old one. Two weeks after the Playboy founder was dumped by Miss December 2009 just before their wedding, Hefner said on Monday that he was now dating Miss November 2010. The 85-year-old magazine mogul moved on to Shera Bechard after Crystal Harris had second thoughts about becoming the third Mrs. Hugh Hefner. Bechard, a 27-year-old French-Canadian model and fledgling actress, moved into the Playboy Mansion in April. In addition to being the magazine's centerfold last November, she will also be Miss November 2011, Hefner said on Twitter. The Roy Orbison and Seinfeld fan likes men "who are open to exploring their sexuality with me" and "make me laugh so hard I hyperventilate," according to her profile in last year's issue. Harris, 25, is on the cover of the current issue, billed as "Mrs. Crystal Hefner." It went to press before the break-up, but Hefner was able to rush out "runaway bride" stickers to affix to newsstand copies. Harris said she got jitters about living a tightly regimented life among dozens of attractive young women at the Playboy mansion, and left Hefner days before their scheduled June 18 wedding. Initially heartbroken, Hefner has taken a more philosophical stance, saying last weekend that "staying single is probably for the best." Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan