Gag Me With A Remote Control

Digital gross-outs come to network TV, leaving little to the imagination, winces Time's Jeff Alexander...

On a recent episode of The Walking Dead (Sundays, AMC), our luckless cast of survivors endeavors to remove a “walker” intact from a well, to prevent the undead plague it carries from contaminating the water. On the lip of the well, the zombie splits wide open. And filmed in loving, slow-motion close-up.

But it’s okay because it’s on cable, right? Well, this season on Fringe (Fridays, Fox), the paranormal FBI unit has been tangling with synthesized humans that have translucent skin. From certain angles, it’s possible to see their bones and muscles flexing beneath the artificial epidermis. And this is just the latest example of going for the gross-out from a show that regularly explores new and bizarre forms of soft tissue damage, after which Dr. Walter Bishop noisily autopsies the victim during his snack time.


In other words, there no longer seems to be much difference in what we’re seeing on the networks, which supposedly have Standards and Practices departments and are governed by FCC regulations and what you see on cable. There used to be an argument that nothing anyone could actually put on-screen can be as disturbing as what you see inside your head when they hide it. It’s like the old W.W. Jacobs story “The Monkey’s Paw,” where the thing at the door vanishes a split second before it’s revealed. Scarier that way, supposedly.

But that claim no longer applies. Thanks to new digital technology, these days we can watch Jack Bauer recover a memory card from a live suspect’s stomach on 24 (Fox, again) or see how Dead‘s Darryl ransacks a walker’s gut for signs of fresh human remains and decide for ourselves which of the two scenes is the most upsetting to watch. It’s a photo finish if you ask me.

So to those who still say that screen magic can’t compare to the mind’s eye when it comes to horrifying images, I doubt many of us could have imagined, quite so clearly as AMC’s Breaking Bad showed us not long ago, exactly what it looks like when a man steps out of a bombed-out room with one side of his head blown away. Network TV probably can go farther than it has, and probably will, but it probably shouldn’t. Cable, especially premium cable, has barriers to access that broadcast doesn’t, the overcoming of which implies some consent on the part of the viewer. The networks may feel pressured to keep up, but amping up the blood and gore isn’t a front where they can win. Just ask anyone who quit watching CSI when a rat crawled out of a corpse’s mouth.
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Kelly Gets Hairy And Dirty

More casting news for True Blood where Kelly Overton has reportedly signed up for the upcoming fifth season, which begins shooting next month. Deadline reports that Massachusettes-born Overton will appear in six episodes of the HBO vampire drama as a 'dirty but beautiful' werewolf named Rikki, who is desperate to discover what became of her pack's leader. The role includes series regular options for future seasons.

The 33-year-old actress, whose genre work includes DreamWork’s The Ring Two, famously played bare-foot babe Christie Monteiro in the Anchor Bay Tekken movie; which garnered her a million teenage boy stalkers who’ve all "played her". She joins a growing cast of guest stars that includes Italian actress Valentina Cervi (Jane Eyre) as seductive vampire Salome and Lucy Griffiths (Robin Hood) as beautiful double-agent Nora.

Overton guest-starred on In Plain Sight this past spring and has appeared on numerous procedurals such as CSI: NY, Cold Case, Criminal Minds and Numb3rs.

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American Horror Story S01

The official candy-and-costumes holiday may be over, but Halloween is a daily happening for Alexandra Breckenridge. The 29-year-old actress puts on a sexy maid's outfit and shoots come-hither-looks — usually to Dylan McDermott— on the scaretastic FX drama American Horror Story as the younger version of the ghostly redheaded servant, Moira. Only certain characters see Breckenridge's Moira, though, like McDermott's philandering psychologist Ben Harmon. Everybody else views her as an older lady, as played by Frances Conroy (who is exactly twice as old as Breckenridge).

Moira is one of many interesting ghosts that haunt the "murder house" occupied by Ben and his pregnant wife Vivien (Connie Britton), from a teenage school-shooter to Ben's baby-carrying mistress to a pair of gay party planners — not to mention the mystery masked man in the rubber suit that might have impregnated Vivien and whom Breckenridge lovingly refers to as "the Rubber Man." Audiences have been introduced to all these weirdos amid lots of blood, gore and other frightful tropes of the genre. "That's the thing: By the time you get to Halloween after working on a show like this, you're like, 'Oh yeah. Ghosts and goblins and costumes.' You're nonplussed about the whole thing," Breckenridge told USA Today.


In a recent episode, the Harmons amped up their efforts to sell the house ASAP, and young Moira seduces a prospective buyer. Usually, Ben is the target of her sexy indulgences, and it's McDermott's goofiness that Breckenridge appreciates most when filming those scenes. "It's so needed," she says. "Some of these sexy-type scenes we have to do, they get so intense. If you can't have a sense of humor about it, what are you doing?" The Connecticut native concedes those sequences are particularly difficult because, "I am such a dork," she says, laughing. "I've never acted like that in my life. I don't think many people have. I just thought, 'What do I think a man would find sexy?' I tried to do that. It seems to be working OK. I mean, I haven't gotten Dylan in bed yet on the show, but you know."

She didn't go to her male friends for advice. In fact, most of her pals, both men and women, were "extremely confused" when they first saw her on the show. "Half of them came to me and said, 'Wow, you're actually really sexy on the show!' And I said, 'Thank you?' And they said, 'No, I see you as being such a dork. I was surprised,'" Breckenridge says. Exactly how dorky is she? "I'm refurbishing a dollhouse right now," she says. "I had a friend come over and tell me, 'Don't ever show a potential boyfriend this because they will run in the opposite direction,'" says the actress, who also is a fan of the original Star Trek series and other vintage science fiction. "I think I'm the only girl I know who watches the old Planet of the Apes. Pretty dorky."

Breckenridge, who often does voices for the Fox animated series Family Guy and appeared in True Blood, still harbors a fantasy of one day being a jazz singer. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the chops she used to have due to lack of practice, and she's also not crazy about singing for people. "It depends on how close of a friend they are," she says with a laugh. "If I can dork out in front of them, it's fine." (For the record, she's not that tight with McDermott yet. "We've been in some pretty compromising situations so I feel rather close to him at this point, but I still wouldn't sing in front of him.")

Those friends of hers often hit her up for American Horror Story secrets, and Breckenridge is taunting them about the identity of the Rubber Man, which she recently found out. (She says everybody will know within a few weeks.) The show was renewed for a second season, which Breckenridge took as potentially good news for her, since character death seems to go hand in hand with increased job security. "You have no idea what could happen: Somebody could die at any second, but the good thing is if they die, then they're probably sticking around for a while," Breckenridge says. "If you don't die on American Horror Story, you're probably not coming back."

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The Goddess Of Immortal Hysteria

The dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, - a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning...

Every season on "True Blood," a new villain seems to head to Bon Temps and set their sights on Sookie Stackhouse and her friends. While details about upcoming events remain scarce, we may now know who the villain will be this year... or rather, the villainess. Emerging reports reveal there's a new vampire in town and based on the description for the new character she certainly sounds like she has the potential to start a whole lot of trouble when the HBO show resumes for Season 5 next year.

TVLine is reporting that 35-year-old Italian beauty Valentina Cervi has signed on for the role of Salome, an ancient vampire who is described as "a world class seductress and fiercely intelligent." The report also notes that Salome is quite insane and that she is very powerful, although she sometimes hides her powers when it suits her to do so. It's unknown if the vampire Salome is the same Salome that appeared in the Bible as the femme fatale daughter of Herodias, the New Testament characterization of dangerous female seductiveness thanks to her chronicled role in the death of John the Baptist. But if Salome is as ancient as the report claims, a connection certainly seems likely.


The casting called for "dark haired with dark features, exotic looking, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and /or African" and Cervi certainly fits the bill. The Italian actress is primarily known for her starring role in the film "Artemisia" and the recent English-spoken detective miniseries, "Zen," which was filmed in Rome and also starred Rufus Sewell. Cervi is also credited for a French film called R.I.F, and has appeared in "War and Peace," "Miracle at St. Anna" and an upcoming adaptation of "Jane Eyre." Next stop, Bon Temps Louisiana: Where the only thing that flows more than the blood is the drama!

Other recent True Blood casting news include: Dale Dickey as Marcus' mother; and Lucy Griffths as a progeny of Godric's.
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Facing Your Fears

Evan Rachel Wood approaches her roles with a Method-like intensity. To play Veda in Mildred Pierce, which she calls the hardest role she has ever done, she had to convince audiences she was a top soprano singer. "Before we even began filming, we had two months of preparation for mimicking piano, which I can still do in the air," she wiggles her fingers to illustrate her point. "I had to learn to lip-synch opera in three different languages. I almost wish I had really been singing because that would have been easier than having to nail down somebody's every breath and move." She says that she didn't listen to anything but opera the entire time she was working on Mildred Pierce. "I even played the songs in my sleep so that it was subconsciously just engrained."

The young actress was also faced with one of her first nude scenes. This caused no end of prurient speculation about 'merkins' in the US press. These are the wigs used to simulate female pubic hair. Wood reportedly had to use one in the name of authenticity because women in the 1930s didn't bikini-wax. "I feel like I've avoided that as long as possible," Wood reflects on the scene for the Independent. "No matter what, everybody has got fears and insecurities. For me, when I am really afraid of something, I have to do it. I have to face that fear... and now I am so happy that I did it!"


Her terror at the nude scene was mitigated (at least to an extent) by the presence of her co-star, the redoubtable Kate Winslet. "Kate was the main person who really put everything in perspective for me..." Wood adds that the scene wasn't titillating in the slightest. "It's not a sexy moment at all. It is one of the most unsettling, disturbing uses of nudity I've seen on TV in quite some time... I am not in a hurry to do it again. It was not as if it's some quick shot. It's one long shot, slowly walking past the camera. There is no hiding anything. It was terrifying, but afterwards Kate and I had a drink and Kate said, 'Here's to your first full-frontal!'."

Wood mimics Winslet's accent, making her sound strangely like Joyce Grenfell. It's an impersonation she first aired on Chelsea Lately recently when reminiscing about her time working with the English actress. "Kate's done everything," Evan stated, before revealing she didn't want to 'look bad' to Kate by not doing the nude scene. "She basically dares you! She's like, 'I've done it all, all right. I mean I've peed on camera and then had to make out with Harvey Keitel.' And I was like, 'Wow. Yeah, that trumps my whole nude scene. So, I'm going to have to do this.'" Kate did reward Evan for doing it though, making her tea during the scene and then afterwards she poured the vodka tonics.

So what did her own mum make of her turn in Mildred Pierce as the daughter from hell? "She loved it... the performance, not the character." Wood watched Mildred Pierce alongside her parents and was "proud" that they didn't flinch, even when Veda was at her most mischievous and destructive... and naked.
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Boss S01E04

There's a strong possibility someone at Starz lost their job over last night's episode of Boss, which featured only fleeting nudity, two relatively tasteful sex scenes, and not even a single quasi-Shakespearean soliloquy. Even without the grandiloquent monologues, we did get Meredith’s symbolism-drenched aside about pharaohs, handmaidens and Egyptian burial customs as a metaphor to warn Kitty that she knows she’s doing the dirty with Zajac.

Talking of which, the pair broke new ground in their ongoing 'Public Fuckfest' opus, this time opting for sex in a semi-private space. Maybe it's what the preview meant when it hinted Zajac’s campaign would 'land him in uncharted territory'. Still, Emma picked up the slack in that department this week with some adroit car rutting. Maybe Boss really does have a smutty-sex quota to fill? muses AV Club's Meredith Blake. I'm just pleased they're finding useful ways for Hannah Ware to serve the show because her acting skills have met with near universal opprobrium.


Television Series: Boss (S01E03- Slip)
Release Date: November 2011
Actress: Kathleen Robertson & Hannah Ware
Video Clip Credit: Zorg

Kathleen Robertson










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House Of Bare-Assed Lies

"I know you just checked out my ass..."

Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell are set to take a bite out of corporate America — and are showing off their behinds in the process — in the just-released trailer for the new Showtime comedy House of Lies (Jan. 8).

Written by Matthew Carnahan based on the book by Martin Kihn, the project centers on Marty (Cheadle), a self-loathing highly successful management consultant from a top-tier firm who is never above using any means necessary to get his clients the information they want. Former Veronica Mars star Bell will play Jeannie Van Der Hooven, a razor-sharp, Ivy-League graduate who works at Marty’s firm. The new comedy series also features Parks and Recreation scene stealer Ben Schwartz (aka Jean-Ralphio), Dawn Oliveri as Marti’s ex-wife, Glynn Turman as Marty’s psychoanalyst father and Donis Leonard Jr. as his young son. Jessika Borsiczky is executive producing the pilot, which will be directed by Stephen Hopkins.

The series promises to show you an uncensored side of the cutthroat corporate world, with guys who don't play by the rules, even pulling stats “from my ass” as Cheadle’s character reveals, and sticking it to “the 1 percent.” And sometimes, that involves getting slapped around a little. As our narrator sums up: “They’re the 1 percent sticking it to the 1 percent.” Check it out, as I'm 99 percent sure you won’t mind seeing Kristen Bell in a state of undress.



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The Slap S01E06

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Braquo S01E02

Interestingly, episode 2 of Braquo was called “Crossing the Yellow Line”; which would seem to suggest the kidnap, blackmail, theft, drug-taking, assault and general criminality that this bunch were indulging in last week was still marginally on the right side of it. It turns out that the real transgression comes when you “accidentally” (in the sense that one of them deliberately pulled the trigger while the man was kneeling, tied up and screaming in front of him) kill the guy you’ve kidnapped and then have to cover it up, fake some alibies, lie to the authorities, and subsequently frame someone else for the act instead. It's at moments like these that the show walks its own line between the genuinely menacing and the utterly ridiculous, as evinced by the incredibly silly, drug-drenched, shoot-out scene at this week's end.

Obviously, all these developments are super-bad for their careers and chances of avoiding prison/death, but it actually wasn’t bad for the show itself thinks Unpopcult's CJ Cregg. During the course of all this covering, faking, lying, and, er, framing, we got to know a little more about these cops and their “issues” – arguably the major ingredient missing from episode 1. So Vic Mackey/Grant Mitchell look-alike Walter gambles to try and finance his sick wife’s care, token girl Roxane is, um, brainy, womanising cokehead Theo is, well, womanising cokehead Theo is just a prat and Mr Moustache Eddy has an on-off relationship (of sorts) with a hooker called Sara; as played by the charming Lilou Fogli. If for some reason you are still wavering in your desire to stick around for future episodes, then the promise of further appearances from this Marseille-born beauty might be all the incentive you need.


Television Series: Braquo (S01E02- La Ligne Jaune)
Release Date: October 2009
Actress: Lilou Fogli
Video Clip Credit: Celebvids










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Boardwalk Empire S02E07

"I’ll just sew up my dress and go..."

Gretchen Mol caught another case of 'Thug Love' on "Boardwalk Empire" last night. There was a time when Paz de la Huerta was the foxiest femme fatale around, but the real badass babe of Atlantic City is Gretchen "Hasn't Aged A Day Since 25" Mol. She clearly has a thing for gangsters, and the gangsters evidently feel the same about her. I'm not saying Lucy Danziger is completely out of the running— she did make a surprise visit to Nucky this week, and we bet she still has a few tricks up her sleeve— but Gillian exercises a strange control over the men she sleeps with, even using her nurturing, motherly powers at times. Maybe things didn't work out with the Commodore, but that wasn't her fault, it was a stroke! Anyway, on a week when the sub-theme was seemingly cougar-boy love, what we learned from one particularly vigorous assignation is Gretchen clearly needs to be sleeping with gangsters her own age or preferably younger. Although I'm afraid this is only going to make things even creepier between Jimmy and mom, when he finds out.


What follows is essentially a redux of the scene last night where Lucky is a speedster and Gillian has pheromone manipulation...

A year ago, Gillian put her mouth on his, and for a few weeks he was gone.

It was like something pulled loose - not like he was used to, for all he let go in sex. It was different - like he needed her, where she could hold him still for more than a moment and kiss him, and all he tasted for days but for cigarettes was strawberries. She smelled like heat and something carnal under all the sweet scent and clean soap and it made him want to swallow her whole.

And of course, he realized too late (with a face full of scalding coffee he barely evaded even with his speed) that she’d used him, and with something not like his own gifts - hers, you could only see if you knew where to look.

(Like the way her hair glows red-gold in lights it shouldn’t and she looks at you all pink lips and bright eyes and doesn’t have to say a word for you to want her—)

So when she raps on his door in a tight floral dress, all tilted head and smiles and she smells just the same, all want me, want me, want me, he tells her-

“Fuck off.”

Her smile only falters for a second.

“Now, Charles. I don’t think you want that, really.”

Her hand reaches up to touch his cheek and the contact bolts through him like fire - but he bats her away.

“Fuckin’ quit it. I’m done with your shit.”

But she steps through the door anyway - too late to catch him around his waist like she wants to, because he’s across the room scrounging for cigarettes to block out the warm smell of strawberries and skin.

“Charles?”

She comes close, doe-eyed and seeming for a moment doubtful, and he’s all smoke and burning ember when he turns back.

“The fuck do you want? I’m on your kid’s side already, you don’t gotta spy on me for shit.”

She smiles again, like she’s glowing, reaching up to touch his arm - and yet he’s behind her, circling, letting the tension in his chest vibrate through the floor so she’s the one shaking.

“I’m not here for business, baby.” she tells him, twirling an orange curl lightly and watching him over her shoulder. And, quieter - “I missed you.”

He snorts. “You don’t even fuckin’ know me.”

And she catches him around his waist, so when he does try to move her heels skid on the floor - and her mouth close to his ear, from behind, want me want me want me.

“I didn’t say I missed you like that, dear.”

But his gun is at his hip and he will not do this again.

He spins her so she faces the mirror - her back to his chest and she’s wide eyed enough he knows she barely even felt them move.

“The fuck you miss me for, then?”

He says it knowing already, how she shivers when he puts hands on her hips - because he chooses to and nothing else, so out of range of her hands and mouth.

She watches him in the glass and says,

“I think you know what I want.”

He skates his hands up - slow enough for her to feel it, but once he hits her neckine he just finds a strap and tears.

I only know what I want.

“You think you’re fuckin’ cute with this crap?”

He pushes up against her back, digging nails into her exposed breast until she pushes back against him, moaning.

“Nn— cruelty is - ah - unbecoming on you, dear.”

He shoves her against the counter - drags his tongue up her spine, tastes the cloying sweet on his tongue and growls.

“You’re full a’ shit.”

She tries to turn - kiss him, press deceptive fingers into his mouth - but he pins her, hissing close in her ear.

“I’m gonna tan your hide so fuckin’ hard you ain’t gonna sit for days.”

And she doesn’t have time to respond, because he’s shoved the torn remains of her dress up around her waist and hits her.

“Ahh!” She’s all wide eyes and hands pushed to the mirror, legs shaking. “Charlie—”

And she’s pink skinned and shaking by the time he’s done - and he does let her turn, then, dripping damp down the insides of her open thighs and smiling.

“I really did miss you, Charles.”

He pushes her down - hand on her throat when she tries to kiss him, so he’s still just tasting tobacco and his own bitten tongue. Not yet.

“I can fuckin’ see that.”

A finger inside her that he throws the roll of his shoulder through - a pulse and speed of movement that makes her shake and claw at his back, keening.

“Oh fuck—baby—-”

He does let her take his mouth - once he pushes inside her, damp thighs hitched around his waist. He tastes fruit, milk, the wet heat of her cunt and breaks off snarling.

“You ever do a fella without doin’ that?”

He makes sure she’s trembling when he asks - in his hands and around his cock, his watch rattling against his wrist as he plants hands on either side of her. She whines, biting him in rough return before telling him, sharp and loud -

“Did you ever fuck a girl with - ahh- ah- without doing— this, Charlie?”

She manages to dig nails into his backside and hiss in his ear (saying with words instead of the heat she leaves in his throat), “fuck me baby, come on, come on come on oh God yes—” and breaking apart with a scream as he buries inside her.

She winds her way around him after they both come - a tangled mess of limbs and drawn loose strawberry hair, and she smells more like his tobacco and sweat than the warm sweetness she’s left under his tongue.

“You oughta go.” He huffs into her chest, though in straightening up he still carries her with him, not mindful of all the raw skin his handprints have left behind or the vicious red lines she’s left along his back.

“I know, dear.”

She straddles him on the bed - both of them too spent and sore to go again yet, but they will if she chooses to stay. She just knits fingers into his curls, making him growl low and smack at her thighs til she moves so he can grab for a smoke again.

She does manage though, to fill his mouth with her tongue before he lights it - and all he tastes is honey, miss me, baby?

And he does.


Television Series: Boardwalk Empire (S02E07- Peg Of Old)
Release Date: November 2011
Actress: Gretchen Mol
Video Clip Credit: Zorg & DeepAtSea










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Hung S03E06

"Look at my tits... does that help?"

The skies are particularly friendly tonight, my friends... or that’s how they start out for Ray, anyway, as he enters the Mile High Club with Sharon, a stewardess for Marathon Airlines. Having him hop a flight to Chicago for a trick is a pretty long way to go to set up the episode’s premise (“At any moment, any place, it could all come crashing down”), but the dialogue in the scene was great and Candice Coke's breasts are 'even better than the Real Thing', so I’m hard pressed to complain a heck of a lot. Besides, "those seatbelts are not going to help you. Nothing out there can help you. If we go down, we go down. You might as well fuck me" stands proud as one of the great expressions of foreplay through deductive reasoning to be found anywhere on a Sunday night cable drama. I think, therefore I am; I’m Ray, Fly Me.


Television Series: Hung (S03E06- Money On The Floor)
Release Date: November 2011
Actress: Candice Coke
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea










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Jamie Clayton Kisses And Tells

Thomas Jane's character Ray Drecker has serviced a number of ladies on HBO's controversial series Hung, but his latest client has a secret past. Actress Jamie Clayton made her scripted primetime debut Sunday night as Kyla, a young woman who procures main character Ray Drecker's "services" as a date for her high school reunion. It was the first of a trailblazing two episode arc on the HBO show because the actress who plays the strawberry blonde with the raspy voice shares more than striking features with her character: They're both women who happen to be transgender.

The show notoriously explores a Detroit man resorting to prostitution to make ends meet and it continues to push the envelope with the introduction of Kyla. Clayton, who has also previously appeared on Vh1's TRANSform Me, says that she hopes to be judged for her work and not her past and she's auditioning for different types of roles. Speaking to The Insider, she talks about the audition process and bursting into tears after hearing she had the part, as well as how welcoming the entire cast and crew of the show was. "I honestly started crying when my manager called me the night [he told me that] I got the part," Clayton said. "I started bursting into tears and I called my mom to tell her." While her mother was thrilled, Clayton was more ecstatic for nabbing the role; not because she gets to make out with series star Thomas Jane (though she did find it to be an "absolute pleasure"), but for the fact that the thespian gets to exhibit her acting chops in front of a larger audience and not just be looked at as a transgender actress. "I want to act," Clayton said. "I want to do movies and television shows. I want to audition for all different kinds of parts, not just transgender roles. Hopefully, once people see the show, they will believe in me."


Janet Mock also interviewed Clayton for a piece on People.com, in which she spoke more about her character's storyline, and how her relationship with Thomas Jane's character evolves. "Obviously this storyline is different for Hung," Clayton admits. "The writers really just trumped all of the things that I knew were going to bother people [about Kyla]." After some initial tension, Clayton says Ray's character sees Kyla for who she really is, and says "I really hope that people walk away from the episodes with exactly what Ray walks away with: knowing that Kyla is a beautiful girl who deserves to be treated like everybody else."

Clayton, 33, is a former makeup artist, who first made a splash in 2008 when the New York Observer proclaimed the San Diego native the "Second Most Beautiful Girl in New York" in what she calls a "kitschy" profile. "I'll never forget the day the article came out. My whole life just completely changed," she reflects of making the decision to be "visible to the public" as a transgender woman and in effect say, "I'm here, I'm this girl. I'm totally like everybody else."

And that sense of normalcy is what initially attracted Clayton to Kyla, which is her first acting role. "I love that she's just a regular girl, and I love that she wanted Ray to know [she's transgender]," the actress says. "With Kyla coming into Ray's life he has a big lesson, and I think it shows people we're constantly growing, and if we open ourselves up to new experiences we become better people." But how did she feel about her leading man Jane – and their steamy makeout scenes? "He was an absolute gentlemen from the minute that I met him. I was just completely mesmerized by him," she says. "He was very patient with me and he was so, so good."

Though she won’t divulge personal details, Clayton goes into more depth about her past and her career in an interview with The Advocate. Obviously it’s really rare for trans actresses to actually get cast on TV of any kind, especially non-reality, and usually when there’s a trans character, non-trans actresses get cast for those roles. So how did she get involved with Hung? "They actually found me through an article that was written about an acting studio that I attend," she recalls. "There was a big article in the New York Times, and writers were reading this and when it came time for them to start auditioning people for the role, they contacted my agent and I submitted an audition and before I knew it I was in LA fitting wardrobe and on set filming."

There is, of course, a savvy feminist undercurrent to Hung (hearing Jane Adams’ madam character Tanya explain that porn is bad because of the male gaze is one of TV’s finest moments) but the show is not trying to be overly PC with Clayton's episodes. When asked if she thought some of the language used on the show is there to help show an evolution on the part of some of the characters, there is an adamant response. "Definitely, I think that as much as the storyline is about as much as watching Kyla’s story evolve it’s also about Ray," she insists. "It’s about watching him evolve. So I think that the language that’s included, they’re very real reactions. These are characters in Detroit … I think the writers just wanted to stay true to the characters and true to the storylines, and I think its great because I think that by the end of the episodes you see Ray comes around and embraces Kyla 100."
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Boss S01E03

Could Boss be one of the very rare examples of a television show where gratuitous nudity actually detracts from the overall quality of the programme? I'm going to say that the very suggestion is ridiculous, but then again, I'm not a respected US television critic...

As you probably know by now, no episode of Boss would be complete without Kathleen Robertson baring some portion of her flesh. It's become an inevitability: just as the sun rises in the east, so too will Kathleen Robertson bare her nipples on Boss, laments AV Club's Meredith Blake. This week's spontaneous combustion into a Skinemax movie shall be called Public Fuckfest 3: Doggy Style In The Conference Room. For Blake, it was something of a relief that the requisite sex scene arrived early in last night's show and, all things being considered, it was relatively tame.


In other good news, she argues, there are clues emerging which suggest that Kitty is an actual human being, rather than a bespectacled sex robot. At the commercial shoot, Zajac asks Kitty to meet up with him later— most likely for some sex on home plate at Wrigley Field — but she turns him down. Why doesn’t she meet up with him? Zajac’s wife seems nice, and he propositions Kitty while his kids are frolicking a few feet away, which is icky, so perhaps Kitty’s feeling guilty?

The more likely possibility is that Kitty doesn’t want any messy complications messing with her hot sex life. She’d prefer to keep her relationship with Zajac strictly professional, i.e. limited to perfunctory intercourse in public places. Later in the episode, Kitty meets with Alderman Solomou to tell him that Kane won’t support his re-election bid. Dejected, she takes a strange dude home (or, more likely, to the bathroom stall) after sizing up his package. It’s safe to say Kitty has some issues: she’s sexually impulsive, a little self-destructive. She’s still a bit of a cliché—the ball-busting professional woman who can handle anonymous sex but not emotional attachment— but, muses Blake, that’s better than being a cartoon character.

Some commenters have jokingly suggested that there’s a 'nipple quota' on Starz, and it's beginning to look light this might actually be the case. Since Kitty was only partially nude this week, Boss made up for that nipple shortage elsewhere. In the least gratuitous scene, Emma and Darius share a post-coital conversation about the drugs she needs to procure illegally in order to keep the clinic open (Sounds like a great cost-saving measure to me! What could possibly go wrong?). Far more gratuitous were the two prostitutes fondling each other while Kane delivered a completely ridiculous monologue. Then, when Mayor Rutledge’s nurse stripped down to the buff and seduced Kane pretty much out of nowhere, the whole thing lapsed into ridiculous prurient male-fantasy land. Oh look, snarks Blake, it’s a sweet, nurturing, and curvaceous nurse who’s also totally hot for paunchy middle-aged guys. If the point of the endless flesh parade is to show us the mayor has a lot of empty, unfulfilling sexual encounters, we got the message the last 5 times he had an empty, unfulfilling sexual encounter. The nips are not only gratuitous, they’re also a distraction from what should be the show’s main purpose: storytelling.

Over at Hitfix, Alan Sepinwall is in agreement that the show "is very interesting when it's not trying to be impressive." In terms of pure story he thinks there's a lot of meat here: Tom's position and condition, and the performance by Kelsey Grammer; the gubernatorial campaign and the slow peeling of the kinky onion that is Ben Zajac; Sam Miller's investigation into whatever is going on with both the mayor and the O'Hare dig; the chilly condition of the Kane marriage; etc. It runs into trouble, he thinks, when it starts trying to serve you all that tasty meat with an overly elaborate presentation: with the monologues and eyeball close-ups and soft-core sex fantasy scenes that play like a Lewy Body Penthouse Forum hallucination.

Sometimes, all those pieces complement each other, as with Tom's brief aphasia during the meeting with Mac Cullen, and the way he then overcompensated by getting so ugly and vicious with Mac that no one would even remember that he was going on about breads and circuses. Other times, suggests Seppinwall, it has the whiff of desperation, like it's not enough for Boss to be recognized as good if it's not also acknowledged to be Important. It should just learn to trust the material a little more.


Television Series: Boss (S01E03- Listen)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Kathleen Robertson, Hannah Ware & Jennifer Mudge
Video Clip Credit: Zorg & Jabby

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Saxa Warrior Princess

Gladiator-lovers unite! Starz has announced today that Spartacus: Vengeance will be hitting US screens on Friday, January 27 at 10 PM. The series continues the storyline begun on Spartacus: Blood And Sand, which debuted in January 2010; picking up just a few weeks after the gladiators of the house of Batiatus killed their master and went on the run, sending Capua into uproar. With the rebellion raging and striking fear into the heart of the Roman Republic, Gaius Claudius Glaber and his Roman troops are sent to crush the growing band of freed slaves that Spartacus leads before it can inflict further damage. Spartacus is presented the choice of satisfying his personal need for vengeance against the man that condemned his wife to slavery and eventual death or making the larger sacrifices necessary to keep his budding army from breaking apart. The Starz promotional campaign promises the new show will "contain all of the blood-soaked action, exotic sexuality, and villainy and heroism that has come to distinguish the series, when the tale of Spartacus resumes in epic fashion."

The first series was a huge ratings hit but was put on hold when star Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with cancer and couldn’t continue. During the hiatus, Starz shot and aired the prequel Spartacus: Gods Of The Arena. All three installments were from the same creative team: Rob Tapert, Steven S. DeKnight, Sam Raimi and Joshua Donen. Whitfiield died on September 11, with Liam McIntyre stepping into the sandals of Spartacus with his full blessing. Returning cast members for the new series include Lucy Lawless as Lucretia, the wife of the slain Batiatus, Manu Bennett as Crixus, Peter Mensah and Nick Tarabay. Dustin Clare will also reprise his role as Gannicus from "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena."


One new face will be Ellen Hollman, who plays a "beautiful, vicious, intelligent, and fiercely passionate" female warrior called Saxa. She is described as a force to be reckoned with, on the battlefield or in the bedroom. It’s a hefty role for the actress best known for a side role in Skateland. She has never had a recurring role on a television series before but has credits consisting mainly of guest spots on series, including In Plain Sight, Rules of Engagement and Medium.
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The Slap S01E05

"Waves of fury and righteousness intoxicated her..."

It's already episode five of The Slap, and many have been a little dazed at the way it so uncomfortably confronts us with the fractures of an uneasily assimilated multicultural society. The series is edgy and urgent, Christos Tsiolkas's dense novel cleverly elided into television-sized grabs, and it's just as upsetting as his hefty book, only easier to digest and not so annoying, insists The Australian's Graeme Blundell. In many ways TV, less verbose than the novel as a form, sharpens the focus of his lacerating cultural gaze, fleshing out the personal, as some fine scripting reinforces Tsiolkas's pitiless dissection of suburban Australian living.

Many critics thought the soapie structure of the novel reduced its ambitions but it works on TV, all of the characters convincing when played by such interesting actors bringing their own idiosyncrasies and personal weight to them. The novel's precise and witty symmetry lends itself to episodic TV and we easily accept the separate narratives of those present following the slapping of a four-year-old boy by a man who isn't his father. Tsiolkas's slightly rough, journalistic prose makes for better dialogue than more considered literary writing, too. You can tell the actors love this script.


It bristles with tension and, as with the novel, provocatively pushes boundaries and questions lazy assumptions about race, sexuality, neighbourliness, masculinity and the unlovely spaces of contemporary families. Last night it was Rosie's story, her chance to explain her almost pathologically cloying attitude towards Hugo, the petulant, pampered boy who was slapped and with whom she is obsessed. She receives the notification of the court case, and waves of fury and righteous indignation intoxicate the litigious mother. Circumstances are subsequently examined with forensic detail, throwing even the most righteously held opinion about child-smacking into doubt.

The compelling performances of The Slap positively breathe with authenticity and rarely has subtle nuance and high emotion been so perfectly realised than by Melissa George as Rosie braves an emotionally and morally costly journey to and from the courtroom on her increasingly lonely crusade. Under the direction of Robert Connolly (Balibo), her face captures the anguish of a person whose rock-hard principles begin to crack under the harsh light of aggressive inquisition, not only from Harry's lawyer but also her fraying social set and her conscience.

In an interview conducted by ABC TV's blog, George compares the channel to the birthplace of The Wire, The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm: "It was great just being able to be Aussie and tell a great Australian story. I have a slight American accent, but that was gone after a week! I didn’t come home just to do TV. I came home and did ABC, and to me that’s like Australia’s version of HBO. The ABC takes risks and they’re creative. It’s not about money, but about the craft and the work. That’s when I take a job." The actress stated she felt 'very protective' of her character from the earliest days of filming. "She’s just amazing and I love her," said George. "After the slap scene, when things got absolutely ballistic, I really felt very much in her shoes and started to understand what I would do if I were in her situation. A lot of people will respond to Rosie quite strongly.

When asked would she would say to those who don’t take her side, she replied: "What’s beautiful about The Slap is that each episode presents a different perspective on Rosie – the animal one , the sexual one, the maternal one, the warrior woman and so on. You also see her from everyone else’s eyes. For instance, in Episode 3, when Alex’s character Harry comes to apologise for slapping Hugo, Rosie’s behaviour may not be the way she actually is behaving but the way he sees her behave. Either way, you’ll make your decision and I hope you see another level to her. Everyone’s going to watch Rosie in their own way, but I do think you’ll feel for her at the end of the court scene. Rosie just wants justice for her child. She doesn’t want money out of it. She wants Hugo to know that what happened to him was wrong and what they did to him should never happen again. That’s all she wanted."

So back to that HBO comparison, where we suspect we already know the answer to the question of what was the most challenging part of the role... "Mainly the fact that there was nudity, as well as the breastfeeding," she admits. "There was also a lot of emotion in Rosie’s character. She’s very intense. Sometimes I’d come home and feel like she was taking her toll! But I’m doing these scenes that, as an actress, you don’t get to do a lot. I felt very European for some reason. I felt a lot like when you see Penelope Cruz doing a Spanish film – everything just fits. It sounds strange but with Penelope, there’s an expression in her performance in Spanish movies that’s not in her American movies. It’s great because you don’t have to worry about your accent. That’s the great thing about working on The Slap, though - every actor had to do something they wouldn’t necessarily want to do. We were all faced with these little challenges."

Indeed. In last night's epidode, George's 'little challenge' featured more nipple tweaking nudity than strictly necessary as the weirdness between Rosie, her four-year-old son, and her husband continued to swell in all the wrong places... Or so you might gather from the clip.



Television Series: The Slap (S01E05)
Release Date: November 2011
Actress: Melissa George
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea










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Borgia S01E07

"Such a scene has never existed in the history of film before," says director Oliver Hirschbiegel proudly. He is referring to a scene in the opening episode of medieval epic "Borgia" which shows, in lurid detail, the terminally ill Pope being suckled by a nurse. "There is a painting by a pupil of Michelangelo, depicting the scene of an old man being suckled by a nurse; that was normal then," Hirschbiegel told Bild. It was that image that partly informed the controversial scene and also inspired him to use real breast milk for good measure. "I did not cheat," he revealed. "I insisted that a true nursing mother suckles the Pope because otherwise you would see the difference. The chest looks completely different than a normal one. In addition, there is still something out. It is difficult to model."

The scene was filmed in Prague and finding a suitable Czech woman who was both willing and able to perform the act was certainly no easy task. "It took 25 minutes longer than scheduled to complete the shot since the woman was a bit nervous. She also had her little three-month-old son who was awake and wanted to share the goodness." The woman was not an actress, but performed her specialised part exceptionally well. "During the shoot, I whispered to Udo Kier, 'Bless you, bless you!' It all seemed so real."


Kier confirmed to Bild that the chest and breast milk were real. "I do not remember how it tasted, because there was so little," he said. "But it did not even matter as long as the footage was good." A dedicated actor, he insists he had no problem performing the act. "The production team already inquired about the woman and did the neccessary health checks." Moreover, he insists, drinking breast milk in such circumstances in the Middle Ages was not unusual. "They gave it to the old, sick men, so they came back to power. Breast milk is an innocent, pure meal!" he smiled. "So for me, the scene was not difficult. The woman, however, was very glad when it was finished."


Television Series: Borgia (S01E07- Maneuvers)
Release Date: November 2011
Actress: Isolda Dychauk, Amber Rose Revah & Eliška Křenková
Video Clip Credit: DeepAtSea

Isolda Dychauk










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New Vamp In Town

It wouldn't be "True Blood" without a slew of new supernaturals to keep tabs on but the wait is finally over for fans anxiously wanting to meet a “sibling” of Eric Northman when the HBO drama returns next summer. Creator Alan Ball and his team of scribes recently put out a casting call for someone to play Nora, a beautiful and intelligent 25-to-35 something who plays a double agent within the Vampire Authority. She is "intelligent, intimidating, cool under pressure and a very good liar." The story also notes that she loves Eric "deeply," but is dedicated to a "higher purpose." What’s even better than that? She’s got a big history with Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) because she’s a progeny of Godric.

It has been revealed the character will be played by Lucy Griffiths, the British actress probably best known for starring in the BBC’s Robin Hood as Maid Marian. Curiously, she will follow in the footsteps of Lara Pulver, True Blood' s Claudine Crane, who starred as Isabella in the same show. 25-year-old Griffiths has appeared in several other UK TV series, including "Sea of Souls," "Sugar Rush," "Collision" and "Lewis." She first grabbed the attention of U.S. TV scouts last year when she was signed by CBS in a talent deal. That resulted in her being cast as the lead in the CW zombie pilot "Awakening," which did not go beyond the pilot episode last May. According to Entertainment Weekly the role of Nora is a series regular part that may involve a little nudity. Welcome to HBO, Lucy, hope you're ok with lots of twisty fangbangs!


Meanwhile, Co-Executive Producer Raelle Tucker told the same source that they plan to include a “very significant, strong, mysterious woman at the center of one of our main stories next year … a very familiar and compelling character. It may be someone you’ve heard of before.” Especially if you’ve read the Bible: The True Blood team have also put out the call for someone to play Salome, as in THE Salome, daughter of Herodias, from the good book. She’s a powerful ancient vampire (hmm, don’t remember that part from the New Testament) and a world-class seductress who’s also a little mad. So she’ll fit right into Bon Temps where Ball has lots of mayhem in store for Season 5. Denis O’Hare will reprise his role of Russell Edgington, the vampire King of Mississippi. Remember, Russell wasn’t exactly killed off at the end of season 3 — he was just buried alive.

Filming on season five of HBO's vampire drama kicks off the week after Thanksgiving and is slated to debut in the summer of 2012.
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Braquo S01E01

UK viewers of the excellent Engrenages (AKA Spiral) may already have some idea of what to expect from another French cop show, but while this brutally compelling drama shares a number of common elements with its more legalistic frère, Braquo ignores the inquisitorial part of the judicial system and focuses on the police themselves – specifically a team the SDPJ from Hauts-de-Seine in the western suburbs of Paris who all have more in common with Gilou Escoffier than they do with Maigret. Over this first hour we're confronted by rape, cocaine abuse, suicide, armed robbery, kidnapping and that's just the police. Midsomer Murders this ain’t, writes On The Box's Joe Mellor.

Maybe Cameron was right; we shouldn’t join the single currency and create closer ties with Europe because they’re savages. It makes Taggart look like a particularly dour episode of The Bill, where PC Reg Hollis returns a stolen wheelchair to disabled child. To be honest, if anything, the criminals seemed more law abiding. The crack team of officers in this programme have “gone native” in their quest to catch the bad guys.


There’s Commander Eddy Caplan (very sullen, with a Corey Hart-like affection for his sunglasses), Lieutenant Roxanne Delgado (sullen and lank-haired, with a partner twice her age), Captain Walter Morlighem (sullen and bald, with a tranked-up wife) and Captain Theo Vachewski (a sullen, handsome, coke-snorting, leather-clad reincarnation of Jim Morrison risen from Père Lachaise). At one point he crawls out of bed, snorts some cocaine then says to his missus “I’m going to get a croissant” and chips off to commit some crime. It occurred to me that must be the French version of “off to see a man about a dog.” Finally, there’s also Commander Max Rossi, their squad leader, but he’s in trouble – merde profonde; the kind of bother which Tom Barnaby never got into.

This first episode opens with him interrogating a suspected murderer and rapist in a style that certainly wouldn’t meet with the approval of the Geneva Convention. ‘I’d like to see a glimmer of regret in your eyes,’ Max laments to the stripped, cuffed and sneering suspect, ‘but all I see is shit.’ Then he jams a pen in the suspect’s eye and – allegedly – shoves a steel ruler up his rectum. Internal Affairs (led by Roland Vogel, a dead ringer for a mid-30s Draco Malfoy suffering from acute constipation) are soon all over him like an outbreak of scrofula and have him locked up for police brutality and sexual deviancy.

Elsewhere, Eddy and Walter have donned balaclavas – the Braquo team wear masks as often as they do their badges, it seems – to visit a lawyer enjoying a relaxing spot of S&M. Having photographed him being whipped (‘Hit me harder, damn it!’) and extracted the location of a gangster, Serge Lemoine, they return to the cop shop: a huge warehouse in which their office (prophetically signposted ‘Danger of Death’) contains a well-stocked bar.

Inspector Morse would have loved it, but his brand of policing – i.e. in accordance with the law – wouldn’t really fit in here. ‘You’ve not been cops for a long time,’ Max’s wife tells Eddy. ‘You’ve been hiding behind your badge, trying to make sense of it all, but you’re worthless.’ In truth, that one time they actually tried to do some police work Lemoine is still released because they arrested him too late at night, which in France seems to be illegal – even when they try to do the right thing, they break the law. I could see that as a Daily Mail headline “Frogs release immigrant murderer because he was TIRED.”

Anyway half way through Max shoots himself in the face in a classic case of an eye for an eye. He wasn’t concerned about the fact he blinded a suspect but was worried his mates might call him a “pansy”. Perhaps the French haven’t dealt with gay rights. But maybe he topped himself because he knew his Kevin Spacey impression wasn’t as good as Eddie’s, I guess we will never know. The principal strands of this first series (it originally aired in France in 2009) are the team’s attempts to clear the name of their squad leader and bring Lemoine to justice, using as much hostility, intimidation and swearing as possible.

In short, Braquo is so terrifyingly thrilling in it’s flashes of violence that you’ll come away feeling almost guilty. Good news then, that the second series (currently in production) is being helmed by Jacques Audiard, who gave us some of the most squirm- inducing violence of recent years in A Prophet. Not that glamourising violence is cool (much), but it needs to be said that these guys make it look good. Admittedly, the bad hair and beards sported by most of the detectives makes them look like the kind of men whose corned beef aroma would overpower you on the bus. This is cops as rock stars, and it’s a lot of fun, even if does lead to an obvious downside; namely, it can get a bit too macho from time to time. No, that’s not always a bad thing, but when a cop being questioned by internal affairs asks his interrogator if locking up colleagues ‘makes you screw your wife better?’, only to be answered ‘No. I screw your wife better’, you’re getting too close to giggling for comfort.

Still, it’s in this gritty use of language, unflinching approach to violence and laissez-faire attitude to drug use and nudity (I counted three set of breasts and two bare men’s bums so Vive La France!) as much as its Who-put-the-film-stock-through-the-wash? visual style (the gloomy greyness of the scenes in the present contrast sharply with a the blurrily vibrant colours of a flashback to happier days within the SDPJ) that the similarities with Engrenages are apparent; but although these austere police anti-procedurals share a great deal in common (including a compulsiveness to see more – it’s almost as though Canal+ dramas contain a kind of cathode ray tube crack) there are enough different in focus and emphasis for them to sit happily – or rather, despondently – side-by-side.

Certainly, fans of Laure Berthaud – and of cop shows from all over the world – will find a great deal to enjoy. What you need to take away is this: Braquo is foreign, violent, cool and tough as a three day old baguette. Consume now.



Television Series: Braquo (S01E01- Max)
Release Date: October 2011
Actress: Sylvie Paupardin, Sophie Chamoux & Karole Rocher
Video Clip Credit: Celebvids


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