Nice Boy of the Week: Joe Manganiello

Please join us in congratulating our newest Nice Boy, Joe Manganiello. If you are a fan of the popular CW series One Tree Hill, you know him as “Owen Morello”, the barkeep on the show. Most recently, however, and to the delight of millions of True Blood fans, Joe has been cast as the sexy and much loved “Alcide Herveaux”.

 

Joe hales from Pittsburgh, PA, where he graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1995, lettering in football, volleyball and basketball. It doesn’t look to me as though he lost any of that muscle tone.

 

Besides One Tree Hill, Joe has appeared in numerous television shows, including How I Met Your Mother, Medium, CSI: Miami, ER, ‘Til Death, Scrubs, Las Vegas and Close To Home. He also appeared in Spiderman as Flash Thompson.

 

Joe has been the stunt man on CSI: NY, One Tree Hill, ER, Close To Home and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and adds writer and producer to his list of credits for Out of Courage 2: Out for Vengeance.

 

Joe is probably as excited about playing Alcide on True Blood as the fans are to see him in that role. When talking with EW’s Ausiello about his reaction to finding out he got the part, Joe says, “I’m not afraid to admit that I started crying. I was just so excited. It’s a dream come true.” Joe prepared for Alcide, physically with what he calls the ’Werewolf Workout’. “Every day right now is all about the Werewolf Workout. It consists of Krav Maga, which is an Israeli fighting technique, and Cross Fit, which is kind of a gnarly crazy high-intensity workout. And I’m doing a little bit of weights in between.”

 

Bring on Alcide! Joe’s sweet smile and personality are more than enough to win him a spot on the Nice Boys hall of fame.

(Quotes from EW: The Ausiello Files.)

Top 10 TV Surprises of 2009

Have you noticed how the end of the year warrants umpteen lists of the best this and worst that and most whatever? I’m a list-maker by nature, as the other Nice Girls can attest, so this way of recapping a year is one I can get behind. Besides, far be it from me to shirk tradition! Herewith, the 10 most surprising things in television this year, at least to me.

10. Renew Chuck fan campaign gets national coverage. I was never concerned that Chuck wouldn’t be back for a third season, but in the interest of fandom, I joined our sister site ChuckTV.net in organizing the fan campaign for renewal last spring. We hoped it would draw some notice from fellow bloggers and Chuck fans, and of course NBC, but the day CNN called about doing a segment we were giddy with shock.

Leverage kept summer interesting

9. Summer TV didn’t suck. The networks have been talking about a year-round schedule for several years now, but it’s cable stepping up to fill in the gap during the summer months. This year my time-honored tradition of catching up on broadcast television when it was too hot to go outside was scuttled just to keep up with all the quality shows airing for the first time. The Closer, Psych, Royal Pains, True Blood, Merlin, Leverage…it’s almost enough to make a Nice Girl go crazy from excellent storytelling.

8. Peter is the one holding Kate captive on White Collar. Or is he? In the final moments of the White Collar fall finale, it appeared that Peter was the one who had been holding Kate hostage this whole time, presumably to control Neal. But is all what it appears? Creator Jeff Eastin Tweeted a couple of interesting statements late Friday: “Don’t assume anything you see is what it seems” and “Clue: it was set up from the beginning. How does Peter find Neal in the pilot?” So while my initial reaction was, “WHAT?!?” and an immediate rewind to watch that scene again, even before reading Jeff’s Tweets, I started following the trail of breadcrumbs from the beginning and realized that, no, all is NOT what it seems. (By the way, if you need a refresher on what happened in the pilot, Jeff Tweeted a link to the script.)

7. Justin Suarez isn’t gay. In the November 13 episode of Ugly Betty, teenage Justin walks the gauntlet at his high school where he’s the target for bullies and teasing. Advice from Marc helps him get in with the “mean girls”, but the jocks still attempt to humiliate him at homecoming (which was on a Sunday? what?) by naming him Homecoming Queen. Justin turns the tables by giving the honor to mom Hilda, then later stuns everyone by saying it doesn’t really matter what the bullies say because he isn’t gay. “So, he’s not,” says Marc. Maybe Justin’s still figuring himself out, but I gotta admit, even on a show where scheming and shockers are an art form, I did not see that coming.

6. Glee. I know, I’ve mentioned many times that I’m not a fan of musicals and yet I love this show. Surprising in and of itself, but even more surprising is how it’s been embraced by the general viewing audience, and kept up the standard it set in the first episode. From Mr. Shu breaking out into rap to Finn believing Quinn’s impregnation tale to Tina’s revelation that she doesn’t stutter to Sue Sylvester’s soft side to the usually brilliant musical numbers, this is a show that constantly surprises me.

5. Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne share a half-brother. By the time this BBC show killed Marian at the end of season 2, it had veered so far from Robin Hood lore that I didn’t know what to expect from season 3. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to watch season 3, but the lure of a brooding Richard Armitage was too strong to resist. The shenanigans continued for most of the season – robbing the rich to give to the poor, clashing with the Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin and Guy continuing their feud – until the fourth to last episode of the series when we finally got some backstory on said feud. It sure took them long enough, but what a bombshell to drop: not only were Guy’s mother and Robin’s father lovers, they had a son. The baby was sent away and subsequently became a criminal, ending up in jail and about to be hanged before Robin and Guy came to his rescue. With Robin and Guy both killed in the series finale, we were conveniently left with the promise that Archer, along with the rest of the Merry Men, would continue Robin Hood’s crusade.

4. Vampire Diaries. I’m not a fan of that other teen vampire series, and when I saw the preview for this show at Comic Con, I came down with the giggles. BethAnne convinced me to give it a shot, though, and wouldn’t you know, the pilot hooked me. Sure, it’s full of teen angst and melodrama, but it’s compelling and entertaining. Despite first impressions at Comic Con, it won a season pass on my DVR.

3. The ending of Every. Single. Episode. of True Blood. Seriously, is Alan Ball trying to give us mass heart attacks?

Dollhouse returned on FOX

2. James Franco guest stars on General Hospital. I don’t watch the soaps. I’ll confess that the acting and production quality generally leave me cold. Yes, I’m a bit of a snob there and yes, I realize that there are plenty of primetime shows with crappy acting, but at least the production quality is better. Anyway. When Golden Globe-winning film star James Franco was announced as joining General Hospital for a lengthy guest role, my jaw hit the floor. The more I’ve read about him, though, the more impressed I am with him and his career choices. Kudos to James for doing what he wants for his career, whether it’s optioning books to produce as films or attending soap opera acting bootcamp.

1. Dollhouse gets a second season. We know now that its second will be its last, but even Joss Whedon was shocked when Fox gave the greenlight for more episodes after dismal season one ratings. I’d say that announcement hit 5.0 on the Richter scale.

What were your biggest TV surprises this year?

“True Blood” Vampire is “The Mentalist’s” New Boss

Virgil Minelli retired as CBI boss, leaving an opening that The Mentalist showrunners filled with the lovely and very talented Aunjanue Ellis. Most recently known by Nice Girls as the dangerously nasty Diane, the vampire that wanted to chew on Sookie Stackhouse in the first season of HBO’s mega-hit series, True Blood.

Ellis joins the cast in a pivotal episode of The Mentalist some time in April. I’m excited to see what kind of changes this will bring in department relations. I’m most interested to see how Lisbon and Jayne will interact to her.

It should be a great season!

SPOILERS: Vampire Diaries, Glee, Fringe, True Blood

SHUT UP! Shut up, shut up, shut up! I’m so blown away by The Vampire Diaries, and the last two episodes shocked my socks off, but this news has me hanging on by my already chewed fingernails.

What’s coming up on Vampire Diaries? — Monique
MICKEY: Witches and vampires aren’t the only supernatural creatures in Mystic Falls. It won’t be right away, but a major male character will reveal himself to be a werewolf. And don’t think having read the books will help you figure this one out. In fact, the werewolf in question won’t even know he’s a werewolf, initially at least. (TV Guide – Mega Buzz)

Who do you think it could be? My guess is Jeremy. I don’t know why, exactly, but maybe I’ll like him better as a werewolf. Right now, I just want to slap him.

In other spoiler news from TV Guide, Glee’s Rachel and Finn are a no-go; we get more on Fringe’s Broyles as we see him in the alternate universe; and the burning question about True Blood’s Terry and Arlene is answered.

Having a Blast; NiceGirls Style

This past week I had the chance to attend two unique and fun events very much in line with the ‘celebration’ of Halloween. On Wednesday, I attended the Paley Center for Media’s look Inside the Writers’ Room of the fan favorite HBO series True Blood. You can see my full write-up on the panel itself at both True-Blood.net and SciFiTVZone.com sometime this week.

As a regular viewer of the show – and I have to preface this with the fact that I’m not a fan of the show (per se) even though it is a cult favorite and a good guilty pleasure series – it was interesting to learn the inner workings of the talented writers on this series.

The audience was appreciative of Executive Producer Alan Ball and his staffs’ work and the careful details they provided for Season 3. While they were rather elusive on specifics, it was fascinating to learn their process and get a behind-the-scenes look at how True Blood is put together.

On Friday night, I attended the Second Annual Halloween Charity Screening of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog as well as the screening of the entire second season of the internet series The Guild, starring Felicia Day which was coordinated by the folks behind Whedonopolis.

Felicia Day made a special appearance at the event and while we all would have loved for Nathan Fillion or Joss Whedon to have been in attendance, it was nice to know they are hard at work on their respective shows, Castle and Dollhouse.

Much like my write-up for the True Blood event, you can read my full article about the charity screenings via SciFiTVZone.com, also, sometime this week.

Next week I will be going to another event at the Paley Center for Media: this time a retrospective on the WB hit series Dawson’s Creek with expected appearances by James Van Der Beek, Meredith Monroe, Busy Phillips as well as Creator/Executive Producer Kevin Williamson.

Next Saturday I was supposed to attend an in-store appearance at Barnes & Noble by the cast of the new FOX musicomedy Glee. But, I recently learned wristbands were to be given out at 9 AM this morning; and given the fact that my friends and I (who were going to make the Glee appearance a group event) all have to go to our day jobs, so the Glee event won’t happen after all: much to our chagrin and disappointment.

Lastly, a few weeks from now Creation Entertainment will be holding their annual Firefly and Serenity convention, featuring guest appearances by Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk, Mark Sheppard and Yan and Rafael Feldman. This event is always fun and entertaining; and I’m sure this year will be no different.

Such is the life of a NiceGirl in California and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Who Was That Last Night?: Romy & Michele Edition

Remember Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion? It’s one of my favorite no-brainer movies. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen it. To this day I cannot hear “Time After Time” without picturing the dance sequence and busting out laughing. Kind of inconvenient considering it often plays at my local grocery store. But I digress. The A Group from Romy & Michele have been popping up on television recently, providing us with another theme for this week’s “Who was that?” feature.

Julia Campbell
In Romy & Michele: She was Christie Masters, the leader of the A Group who married Romy’s high school crush, Billy Masterson. At the reunion, Romy learns that marriage to Billy may not be as rosy as it seemed 10 years ago.
Recently: She played Nina Hodge in the October 15 episode of The Mentalist, “Red Menace”. Her character is the wife of a murdered lawyer who tried to make the best of her husband’s job defending a biker gang.

Elaine Hendrix
In Romy & Michele: She played Lisa Luder, the A Group member who went on to become an editor at Vogue and appreciated the space-vixen dresses Romy & Michele broke out at the end of the movie.
Recently: She played Melissa Talbot in the October 19 episode of Castle, “When the Bough Breaks”. Her character is the wife of a doctor who is implicated in the murder of a woman who worked in their apartment building. Watch the episode on Hulu.

Kristin Bauer
In Romy & Michele: She was Kelly, the third member of the A Group at the reunion who got pregnant because Christie Masters-Masterson did.
Recently: She plays vampiress Pam in the hit HBO series True Blood. Season 2 just wrapped with season 3 set to return in June 2010. Kristin will also be appearing in an upcoming episode of Private Practice.

Vincent Vintresca
In Romy & Michele: He was Billy Masterson, Romy’s high school crush and most popular guy in school. He and Christie Masters played a cruel trick on Romy at senior prom, but she got revenge on him at the reunion.
Recently: He appeared as Nolan in a season 1 episode of Dollhouse, “Needs”, and recurs as that character in the October 23 episode, “Belonging”. Nolan is the man who captured Sierra and forced her to become an Active.

NGTV Guide: Saturday, October 17

Thieves and vampires – it’s all about the rogues tonight!

Robin Hood – BBC America 9/8c
“Do You Love Me?” – Prince John arrives in Nottingham. Publicly, he is here to meet his loyal subjects, but privately he wants to put an end to the Sheriff and Gisborne’s way of running things. The Prince feels there’s only room for one side-kick, but who will it be? In the dead of night he asks Gisborne to kill the Sheriff and, soon after, he summons the Sheriff and tells him to kill the treacherous Gisborne. The two men finally face each other in an epic duel.  Tuck informs Robin that the Prince has been touring England, buying the loyalty of nobles to help him seize King Richard’s throne. Robin decides to steal the Prince’s gold to stop him and recruits the Locksley villagers to help the outlaws ambush the Prince’s retinue as they travel through the forest.

True Blood – HBO2 10/9c
“First Taste” – Bill returns Sookie’s favor by rescuing her from the Rattrays’ revenge, healing the wounded waitress with his own blood and leaving her with temporarily heightened senses. After being invited into Gran’s (Lois Smith) house for a “get-to-know-you” gathering with Jason and her family, Bill joins Sookie for a nocturnal sojourn. They end up at Bill’s dilapidated antebellum estate, where he fights off his primal vampire urges for the acquiescent Sookie. Later, Sookie’s desires get the better of her as she returns to Bill’s – and is greeted by a gaggle of his bloodthirsty vampire friends. (HBO2 is rerunning season 1 of True Blood; perfect for those who found the show in season 2 or those who want to relive the magic.)

I Could Never Be This Cool, Or How You Tube Makes Me Feel Inadequate

Every now and then I get sucked into You Tube and stand (OK, sit) in awe of the creativity on display there. Yeah, a lot of the amateur stuff is junk, but some of it is genius. And I’m going to share a few vids with you today because I just used all of my brain power writing up today’s call with Eliza Dushku. Take what you can get, people.

Students at the University of Quebec at Montreal shot an awesome video set to “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas. It’s creative and fun, but most impressively, it’s done in one take.

Someone with a wacky sense of humor decided to create a sitcom out of True Blood, specifically Arlene and Terry’s storyline, complete with canned laughtrack. Disturbing and awesome at the same time.

Not technically a unique creative endeavor, but seriously, baby dancing to “Single Ladies”? Solid gold.

And finally, because I go back and watch this at least once a week, my favorite dance mob video of all time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed wasting time with me and You Tube today. Feel free to post links to your favorite You Tube videos so I can continue to shirk my duties.

Devils with Pretty Faces

As I was watching last week’s premiere of The Vampire Diaries, I got to thinking about all the good looking men that are on television today playing villains. I felt that a convenient list might be a good idea to serve as a reminder that although they make us a tad warm under the collar, they are playing really bad guys.

Ian Somerhalder – “Damon” on The Vampire Diaries: our Nice Boy of the week is not so nice on the show. He’s clearly devious and sinister and just up to no good. Difficult as this may be, we’ll have to keep an eye on this one.

Alexander Skarsgard – “Eric Northman” on True Blood: this one is not so clearly a bad boy. However, he is conniving, sneaky and enjoys when a good pair of pumps is ruined while doing a job that he delegated. In our world, that is cruelty in the extreme. it would be wise not to turn one’s back to him.

Paul Gross – “Darryl” on Eastwick: or “Devil” when you really get to know him. He’s the really dangerous kind, because he covers his evilness with layers of charm, cool and drop dead gorgeous. You’s want to meet him in a dark alley, but you’d be sorry.

Eric Dane – “Dr. Mark ‘McSteamy’ Sloan” on Grey’s Anatomy: let’s call him what he is; a man-slut. Sure, he’ll make you fall for him like U.S. dollar, but he’ll do a tap dance on your heart and walk off without a care in the world. Pure evil.

Zachary Quinto – “Sylar” on Heroes: he’s evil, cold-hearted and twisted, and has serious parental issues. And give him a sharp metal object? Well, don’t get me started.

Matthew Bomer – “Neal Caffrey” on White Collar: sure, he’s just a thief, but stealing is still bad, right? Even if his crystal blue eyes can turn a woman to slush in a New York minute, hold on to your jewelry, ladies.

There are more, I’m sure, and by the end of the fall television season, I’m sure even more pretty bad boys will surface. Until then, who is not on this list but most definitely should be?

Here Comes the ‘True Blood’ Bride

No, not Maryann, I’m talking about Sookie. Was anyone expecting that proposal at the end of last night’s True Blood season finale? It was very romantic. Bill and Sookie had just come through yet another life-threatening situation. Bon Temps was back to relative normalcy, at least for a few hours. Bill took Sookie out on a proper date for dinner and dancing at a lovely French bistro where she polished off a delicious meal and got to wear a lovely new dress purchased by her attentive boyfriend. Then he popped the question. If this were a chick flick, she’d squeal a “yes” and we’d fade to black, mission accomplished, proving the following to be true:

see more Funny Graphs

And that’s what was bugging me as I watched the proposal. Season 1 took place over the course of roughly six weeks. Season 2 took place over eight days. Meaning Sookie has known Bill for less than two months. Bill is also her first real boyfriend. Now, I’m not doubting that they’re in love; they may even be soulmates. But really? Our heroine, the one who is becoming stronger and more independent as she deals with the various trials that cross her path, is expected to jump at the chance to marry the first man who asks her? Fortunately, Sookie injected some reality into the proceedings by having a mini-breakdown. The stress of the past few days coupled with her very real concerns about marrying an immortal while she continues to age threw Sookie into a state of confusion and indecision, sending her running to the powder room for a chance to collect her thoughts. Yes, in the end she saw past the confusion to what her heart desired and decided to accept Bill’s proposal. But that moment of indecision, the fact that she didn’t immediately say yes, made me like her more. When a show deals with such fantastic situations as True Blood, it’s moments like this that keep it from becoming completely over the top.

Too bad Bill was kidnapped before Sookie could give him her answer. But then, it wouldn’t be True Blood if reality wasn’t yanked away just as it was achieved.

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