Oceanic 815

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:01:53 GMT

I know I'm supposed to be on hiatus right now, but I just received this email and thought I'd pass the news along:

NEWS: LOST star Jorge Garcia to appear at convention in Florida

My name is Katie and I work for Majic Productions, LLC. We host the Florida eXtravaganza (FX for short) in Orlando on January 27-29, 2006. We would like to let you know that Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley on the show, has been confirmed as a guest for our event. He is scheduled to appear to meet fans and sign autographs all 3 days of the event.

If possible, please announce this on your website. If you have any questions, please let me know. Our website is www.fxshow.com and tickets for the event are currently available at pre-sale prices.

Thank you very much for your time!

Katie Jarvinen
Assistant to Mr. Herz
Majic Productions, LLC

Thu, 20 Oct 2005 15:07:04 GMT

I'm putting this journal on a short hiatus because it's midterms week and I haven't got much time for anything else. I expect to be back by next week. Sorry for the inconvenience, I know I just got back from another hiautus, but life happens. :(

Just a reminder: don't forget that we're getting reruns for the next TWO weeks. The next new episode, 2x06 Abandoned, will air November 9 at its regular time.

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 13:39:40 GMT

• New season 2 spoilers at Ask Ausiello

Suspect Who Robbed 'Lost' Actor Arrested?
Posted: October 18,2005 09:50 PM
Alan Lu

Honolulu police arrested a man who they said resembles the prime suspect in a brazen early morning robbery of "Lost" actor Josh Holloway.

The crime happened last week inside Holloway's Hawaii Kai home around 4 a.m.

Wednesday, police arrested Ruben Royce who they described as a "possible suspect" along with another man on Keanu Street in the Kaimuki-Palolo area.

"At about ten o'clock this morning, officers stopped a two-door, white vehicle at 7th Avenue and Keanu Street," said Honolulu Police Department spokesman, Captain Frank Fujii.

Authorities said 20-year old Brandon Perreira and 20 year old Ruben Royce were inside the Honda.

Police said Perreira then tried to drive away but was stopped by police.

"At which time they (officers) ordered the two occupants out of the car. The occupants refused to comply. The officers then deployed less lethal force to affect arrest on both gentlemen."

Police fired wooden bullets at the suspects.

Nearby Aliiolani Elementary School went into lockdown.

Perreira was arrested for reckless driving.

Royce was arrested for burglary and auto theft.

It's unclear if officers were staking out Royce and suspected he might have robbed Holloway.

Authorities said they had reason to believe he was a threat to the public.

"Because we had information that the occupant was wanted for burglary charge. A different burglary charge. Felony assault. Was possibly armed with a firearm. And because of his past history of violence we had reason to believe that he presented a danger to the community."

Natalie Champa saw the bust from her home.

"A couple of different guys that were kind of resisting the police officers and they looked sort of bloody and they were screaming."

Champa didn't realize who police were arresting. She does now.

"Well, I guess if it's someone that they were after and if it's a just thing then I'm glad that they found them."

Both men were injured during the arrest. They were treated at a hospital and then taken into custody.

As of this report neither man had been charged.

Police were trying to get a warrant to search the car.

Lost's Yunjin Kim
The Korean superstar – who grew up in Staten Island! – dishes on the show and more
Wednesday Oct 19, 2005 6:00am EST
By Monica Rizzo

In South Korea, Yunjin Kim is as famous as Julia Roberts, but thanks to ABC's Lost, Americans are finally getting to know this Pretty Woman. And Kim, who was raised in New York and got her bachelor's degree at Boston University, is getting a taste of Hollywood-style celebrity. "I come into the airport now and there's always like 20 people waiting with photographs for me to sign," she says. While on the Lost set in Hawaii, Kim, 31, who plays the dutiful yet secretive wife Sun, talked with PEOPLE about being single in real life, playing golf – badly – and her surprising wild streak.

You grew up in New York City, but went all the way to Korea to become a star?
Funny, huh? I grew up on Staten Island. I was doing theater in New York. I met this producer who cast me in a Korean miniseries. That miniseries did really well – and it was all in Korean.

I hear you are the Julia Roberts of Korea.
Oh, I don't know about that, but I like the comparison! (After the miniseries) I did my first feature film, Shiri, in 1999. I played a North Korean spy who falls in love with her enemy. It was very popular all over Asia. (South Korea) was the only country where its own movie beat the record of Titanic.

What was it like coming back to the U.S.?
You have to treat Hollywood like it's your boyfriend – he's there all the time. I took mini-trips over and met directors.

Ironic, isn't it, that you come back to America and you have to keep acting in Korean?
Yes, it is. But you know, the role didn't exist before I met with J.J. (Abrams, Lost's creator). He thought it would be interesting to have a Korean couple on the plane, but only after we met. So that's really flattering.

Your character, Sun, and her husband, Jin, are so serious, but you and actor Daniel Dae Kim are so –
Silly? Yes. We were at this photo shoot one time and I lifted up my skirt and Evie (Evangeline Lilly) was like, "Yunjin, what are you doing? That's not you!" She just didn't expect me to do that.

How is island life treating you?
It's luxurious. I've been learning how to golf. Daniel's wife, Mia, and I took lessons together. I think I need more lessons. I played 18 holes yesterday and it was about my tenth try before I hit the ball! I also bought a condo and I'm spending my days off shopping for furniture.

How has the Asian community reacted to the show?
I know that in Koreatown in L.A., things practically shut down when the show is on because people want to tune in to see these two Koreans go at each other. I heard that people dressed up as Sun and Jin for Halloween last year, too.

What can we expect from Sun in season two?
I don't think they (the writers) even know. They really do keep the actors in the dark.

So you don't know who's next to be killed off?
That's the hardest thing about doing this show, having that dark cloud floating around all of us. When Boone (Ian Somerhalder) died, that was really hard.

You're one of the few single cast members on the show. You must get a lot of guys hitting on you.
No! People are very cautious about coming up to you, like you must be very busy or you must have tons of guys surrounding you. I would really like to make it official that it's not true! Please! God, do I have to make the first move? Maybe.

Success Finds Maggie
By William Keck, USA TODAY

OAHU, Hawaii — What does it feel like to have the No. 1 movie in America and to be in the cast of TV's most talked-about show?

This week, only Lost star Maggie Grace can answer that question. With Grace's fright flick, The Fog, taking in $12.2 million, she topped veteran movie actresses Kirsten Dunst (Elizabethtown, $11 million) and Keira Knightley (Domino, $4.7 million) at the box office. And with an average of 23 million viewers a week, Lost is this season's No. 3 series, behind only CSI on CBS and ABC's Desperate Housewives.

After tonight's episode (9 ET/PT), ABC's Lost goes on a two-week hiatus with reruns, but then Grace, 22, will get the spotlight when new episodes resume Nov. 9. In that show, her character, Shannon Rutherford, flashes back to the death of her father, Donald, who appeared in a season premiere hospital scene with Matthew Fox's Dr. Jack.

"Maggie has had the difficult task of playing the (mean character), which has sometimes been at the cost of the audience's sympathy," Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse says. "But her popularity is on a major upswing. We're going to see the event that made her the kind of person she is. I think the audience will find a new level of sympathy for her."

At the end of tonight's episode, ABC will tease that another series regular will "be lost forever" on the Nov. 9 installment. Last season, Grace's co-star and friend Ian Somerhalder, who played her stepbrother, Boone, got the ax. "It was tough; Ian was really happy here," Grace says over lunch in Oahu, where Lost shoots. "He had hired a Realtor and found out (about his character's death) the day before he was supposed to look" for a house.

Grace welcomed back Somerhalder when he returned in early fall to shoot scenes for Shannon's flashback.

Boone could reappear with Shannon in other characters' flashbacks, as this season explores the survivors' pre-plane-crash connections. "Not everybody is interconnected," Cuse says. "But there are certain ways in which these people have been in each other's lives."

Grace's island stay has lasted long enough for her to purchase a home not far from Honolulu. She plans to live there for as long as her Lost run continues. "I love it here," she says, "but it's not a place you can really pursue acting."

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 04:48:02 GMT

• Super-Giganter Lost Spoilage - Major season 2 spoiler. Please keep in mind that not everyone is going to read this, so try not to discuss it in the comments! (And yes, I am one of those people who hasn't read it.)

• AOL's preview clips for tomorrow's ep, ...And Found, are now up here. If you have any problems with the viewer on the site, kidsrlikedogs was kind enough to grab the vids and I've uploaded them here. (Please right-click save) They're in WMV format. If anyone is willing to convert them, I'll be glad to host those as well.

• Also, I'm sure many of you have seen this by now, as have I, but since a lot of people have been sending it to me, I might as well post it here. Check out this hilarious video set to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. It's all season 1 stuff, so don't worry about any s2 spoilers.

That's all for now. I've been extremely busy with school these past few days, so I'll try to catch up with everything as soon as I can!

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 04:16:09 GMT

According to Bryan Burk, executive producer, we can expect a soundtrack soon! (Let's just hope they follow through, yeah?) From the Fuselage:

Re: A Giacchino score soundtrack for S1 LOST...
Burky says: "Just finished having a meeting regarding soundtracks --- hopefully we’ll have a score CD out in the next 6 months…"

Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:08:01 GMT

• Next week's new episode has been rescheduled, reruns for next two weeks.

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 23:58:27 GMT

• Trailer Park - Interview with Harold Perrineau - SPOILERS

Maggie Grace breaks the mold of cookie-cutter blonde actress with her lust for literature.
Issue Date: October 16, 2005
By Josh Gajewski

Sitting in the rear garden of a Hollywood teahouse, Maggie Grace is looking very, well, "Hollywood." She's long-legged, hazel-eyed and blond-haired, and she has ordered an iced tonic to go with a plate of carrot and celery sticks, as if trying to improve an already dynamite figure. All that's missing from this picture is a pair of J. Lo shades and a Chihuahua in a designer handbag.

"I blend in pretty well," Grace muses, as she picks at the carrot sticks. "Being 21 and blonde in L.A. is like, well, you might as well match me with grass. We're all the same here."

Not quite. This particular starlet, who broke away from the pack last year as rich girl Shannon on ABC's megahit "Lost," isn't exactly the L.A. Everyblonde. To the contrary, a near two-hour conversation reveals that she always carries a book (a purse peek uncovers F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night"), she tested out of high school at 16, and she's up at 6 a.m. most days simply to enjoy the stillness of the morning -- a steamy cup of tea in one hand and, yes, a good book in the other.

More so than acting, it seems, Grace is a lover of stories. As a kid in Worthington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, she spent recesses reading John Steinbeck and Jane Austen rather than swinging from monkey bars with classmates. She says her parents called her a 60-year-old trapped in a little kid's body, and when asked why she veered toward acting as an adult, her response is suitably bookish: "There's something so beautiful and exciting about really good writing."

Her love of a good story translated into a passion for bringing fictional characters to life. A community theater type since she was 5, Grace moved to Los Angeles at 16 to pursue a film and television career. At 20, she landed her life-altering part on "Lost," and, in February, nabbed her first starring big-screen role in "The Fog," a remake of a 1980 horror flick about revenge-seeking ghosts who engulf a small town with a supernatural, deadly fog. The film, opening this weekend, also stars "Smallville's" Tom Welling.

"The character is very different from the one I play on 'Lost,'" Grace says of her "Fog" role, which Jamie Lee Curtis plays in the original. "She has a nice strength to her."

What "Lost" and "The Fog" do have in common, Grace argues, is good writing. The movie, she explains, is a "morality tale wrapped in a horror film, [which] really grabbed me." And as for "Lost's" success? "It's a show where the story is the star; we [the actors] are not. We are all constantly expendable."

Enter Ian Somerhalder, who played Grace's stepbrother, Boone, before being famously killed off in the first season. Now, Grace's character is rumored to be the next to go. When that idea is raised, though, Grace just rolls her eyes and says, "Every character is the next one to go. ... [Shannon] still has a long way to climb up."

Another big rumor surrounding Grace is that she and Somerhalder have been involved in an off-screen romance. Any truth? "No," she says with a laugh. "I'm 21 and single." (Somerhalder's take? "I would only be so lucky.")

Of course, one gets the feeling that if Grace were dating someone, she wouldn't be the one to tell you. In person, she comes off as shy and speaks with the soft voice of someone who doesn't want to draw attention or reveal too much. "She is very quiet," concedes "Fog" director Rupert Wainwright. "In rehearsals, I was a bit worried for a while [because] she was just sort of sitting there and not getting that involved. But as soon as we began filming, she threw herself into it."

On this day, she's admittedly eager to get back to playing Shannon, because filming "Lost" means spending nine months working in Hawaii. "It's a superior lifestyle, and you appreciate it even more when you come here [to L.A.] for the weekend," she says. "It's just a lot slower and everything has more meaning. I'm entirely a better person there."

But for now, it's back to the streets of Hollywood. Grace leaves the teahouse and walks away along the sidewalk, a pink purse slung over her shoulder and Fitzgerald safely tucked away, soon to be reopened.

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:48:40 GMT

Lost Fan Steals Evangeline Lilly's Knickers
10/14/05

Lost beauty Evangeline Lilly knew she had hit the big time when a young fan stole her knickers off the washing line at her Hawaiian home.

The 26-year-old Canadian who plays Kate Austen on the show was amazed when a close friend recounted how she saw an adolescent snatching the underwear from her back garden.

She says, "I had a friend staying who heard a knock at the door while she was in the shower.

"By the time she got to the door, she saw a 12-year-old boy stealing my knickers off the washing line.

"I never got them back!"

Police, ‘Lost’ actor mum on robbery
By Leila Fujimori

Actor Josh Holloway, who plays con man "Sawyer" on the ABC-TV series "Lost," declined to give interviews yesterday after reports that he and his wife were robbed at gunpoint in their Hawaii Kai home early Wednesday morning.

But the 36-year-old actor, whose tough-guy character sometimes brandishes a handgun, issued a written statement, saying: "My family and I are fine and appreciate everyone's concerns and good thoughts. We are very grateful for the help of the Honolulu Police Department and the support of the local community."

The Honolulu Police Department held a news conference yesterday after being barraged with media calls, including national entertainment media, about the robbery. Police held back some details provided earlier in a brief report of the incident before the victims' identities became public.

They did say, however, that the man who robbed the Holloways wore a mask.

Holloway and his 28-year-old wife were asleep when the suspect entered their Hawaii Kai house at 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Police had said initially the suspect demanded money and left with the cash, but not before taking the keys to the Holloways' Mercedes-Benz. The suspect drove off in the car and abandoned it nearby.

Yesterday, however, police did not say whether any cash was stolen, nor would they confirm reports the couple's credit cards had been taken.

The suspect was described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, wearing a dark shirt, dark pants and a dark baseball cap and displayed a black handgun.

Police Capt. Frank Fujii would not reveal too much information because it could jeopardize the investigation, adding that police "treat every case equally."

Fujii emphasized home-invasion style robberies are "very, very rare occurrences" in Honolulu, which he called "the safest major city in the United States."

He asked the media "just be real decent people" and not hound the Holloways.

"They've been traumatized as it is," he said.

'Lost' actors get real dose of intrigue
By Peter Boylan and Michael Tsai
Posted on: Friday, October 14, 2005

HAWAI'I KAI — Two stars of ABC's "Lost" may soon be borrowing from the TV show's script and become more secretive with their personal lives since a home invasion and a possible stalking incident.

Josh Holloway, who plays Sawyer on the show, and his wife were robbed at gunpoint Wednesday after a masked man broke into their Hawai'i Kai home at 4 a.m., police said. The man made off with cash, credit cards and Holloway's Mercedes-Benz, which was later recovered.

Police spokesman Capt. Frank Fujii declined to discuss other details of the case yesterday, citing an ongoing investigation.

"My family and I are fine and appreciate everyone's concerns and good thoughts," Holloway said through a spokeswoman yesterday. "We are very grateful for the help of the Honolulu Police Department and the support of the local community."

Later Wednesday, Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael in "Lost," was followed for 20 minutes by two men while he drove to fellow cast member Daniel Dae Kim's house, according to Perrineau's wife, Brittany. She told The Advertiser that the men followed the actor while he tried to evade them by taking a series of random turns.

When he couldn't shake them, he pulled over, called Kim and told him to stay inside. The car then made a quick U-turn and sped away, Brittany Perrineau said. The actor did not report the incident to police.

"We're less on guard in Hawai'i, but I think that's the way it should be," Brittany Perrineau said. "There may be a false sense of security because there isn't the hustle and bustle of New York or L.A.

"Hawai'i is a lovely place to let your kids run around and leave your door unlocked, but definitely this has been a wake-up call. ... Maybe we need to be more private than we've been."

Maggie Grace, who plays Shannon on "Lost," said it was a "scary thing" for Holloway to be robbed in his own house. Speaking on the TV show "The View," Grace said that "everybody's OK," but that she feels bad because Holloway and his wife had just finished their first house and now their sense of safety has been "shattered."

Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said police were unaware of the Perrineau incident, but encouraged all cast members and local residents who observe suspicious behavior to make a report.

The Holloway home robbery has sparked international media attention. By 6 p.m. yesterday, the story appeared on more than 228 media Web sites from India to Boston, a Google News search showed.

Honolulu police fielded several calls from national news media yesterday, including The National Enquirer, Fujii said.

Hisano Nishikawa, a University of Hawai'i student who lives two doors down from Holloway in Hawai'i Kai, said the incident left her very nervous.

"That's scary," she said while standing at the edge of her driveway. "(The street) is very quiet and very safe. Nothing happens here."

The home invasion was the second to be reported on O'ahu in less than a week.

The other incident occurred early Friday at a Puowaina Drive apartment in the Punchbowl area.

In that case, a 56-year-old man told police two men entered his apartment at about 2 a.m. and one of them pointed a gun at him while the other awakened a woman, 54, and demanded to know where the safe was.

Police said there is no safe in the apartment and it appeared the robbers may have gone to the wrong apartment. The intruders tied up the couple, searched the apartment for about 15 minutes and took some items.

"I feel terrified," said Jessie Kishimoto, who lives on Puowaina Drive. "I just moved from Kalihi and it was pretty bad over there but this neighborhood seems pretty mellow. But I'm terrified for the people."

Thayne Aubrey, a 21-year-old college student who lives in a Puowaina Drive apartment, said the invasion has him thinking about buying a gun.

"That's pretty jacked up," he said. "There is really nothing you can do about that."

Fujii said that while the home invasions are alarming, they are rare in Honolulu.

"It is uncommon for it to occur," he said. "This close in proximity, it is even more uncommon. Crimes like this just don't occur here. Honolulu continues to be the safest city in the U.S."

Home invasions are classified as armed robbery — a Class A felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:45:24 GMT

• Ask Maggie Grace a question
• Sawyer Robbed at Gunpoint by the Others. Crazy French Woman, Monster and Black People Among Top Suspects

"Lost" Star Holloway Robbed
by Sarah Hall
Oct 13, 2005, 12:30 PM PT

Forget the Others--Lost star Josh Holloway has real-life problems to worry about.

The actor and his wife were robbed at gunpoint in their Hawaii home early Wednesday morning, television station KHON reported.

Holloway, 36, and his wife, Yessica, 28, were awakened around 4 a.m. by a robber who pointed a handgun at them and demanded their money and credit cards.

After the twosome handed over their cash, the robber took Holloway's keys and drove away in his Mercedes-Benz. Police later found the car abandoned in the area.

Police said there was no indication that the suspect recognized Holloway as tough-talking Sawyer from ABC's Lost. (We're guessing they're right, seeing as he didn't demand any answers about what the hell is happening on that island.)

The suspect was described as about five-feet, eight-inches tall with a thin build, wearing a black T-shirt, black and gray baseball hat and carrying a black handgun.

Holloway's costar, Maggie Grace (Shannon) appeared on The View Thursday and called the robbery "a scary thing."

She said that the couple were "okay" but that their sense of safety had been "shattered."

Despite the setback of the robbery, Holloway can feel secure in the success of his show.

Some 21.7 million viewers tuned for Wednesday's episode of Lost, according to final figures from ABC, making it the most watched show of the night.

Now fans who (gasp!) miss an episode of the show, or an episode of the Alphabet net's other monster hit, Desperate Housewives, have another option, besides calling all their friends to see if anyone happened to TiVo it.

On Wednesday, Apple Computer announced that in addition to rolling out a spanking-new video iPod, it was making episodes of Lost and Housewives available for download through iTunes Music Store for $1.99 the day after they air. The store will also sell other Disney-ABC content, as well as music videos and movie shorts.

'Lost' Star Releases Statement on Robbery

HONOLULU (AP) - "Lost" co-star Josh Holloway is speaking out about a robbery at his Hawaii Kai home.

In a statement released to the media, Holloway says -- quote -- "My family and I are fine and appreciate everyone's concerns and good thoughts.

We are very grateful for the help of the Honolulu police department and the support of the local community."

Police say Holloway and his wife were robbed at gunpoint early yesterday morning.

The suspect flew with cash and credit cards and drove off in Holloway's Mercedes-Benz, which was found abandoned a short time later.

Robbery of 'Lost' star receiving a lot of attention
Andrew Pereira

The armed robbery of the "Lost" actor is also getting a lot of attention from the media.

Hawaii tourism officials are monitoring any negative publicity that may result from the incident.

The saying "goes there's no such thing as bad press."

But it's an expression Hawaii tourism officials don't believe.

The armed robbery of "Lost" actor Josh Holloway and his wife is generating as much press as the hit TV show itself.

Holloway's co-star Maggie Grace talked about the incident on Thursday on ABC's "The View."

Hawaii tourism officials say they're concerned about the negative publicity Holloway's experience may generate, and will monitor the situation closely.

But in Waikiki, surf instructor Kira Lee doesn't believe the bad press surrounding the armed robbery of the "Lost" star will have much of an effect on people's opinion of paradise.

"People love it. They come here with this idea in their head and I think we actually exceed that idea. We go above and beyond their dreams here," says Lee.

A recent state survey shows tourists still rate Hawaii as an excellent or above average destination.

"People from the mainland can maybe learn about how to be with other people from experiences in Hawaii," says Bill Olson, tourist.

So, in the end, the experience of Josh Holloway will probably be a blip on the tourism radar--good thing for Lee and the rest of those who depend on the state's number one industry.

"I think people come here just knowing they're going to have a blast," says Lee.

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 02:43:11 GMT

• New video promo for 2x05: ...And Found

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 22:37:10 GMT

• Download Maggie Grace on The View (Oct 13 05)

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 18:12:12 GMT

:DDD

Network shows face up to pledge on color coding
By Gail Pennington
POST-DISPATCH TELEVISION CRITIC
10/12/2005

Six years after the NAACP blasted the broadcast networks' fall schedule as "lily white," prime time isn't exactly rainbow hued. But it's certainly more colorful.

"Lost" continues to build a perfectly diverse community - white, black, Korean, Iraqi, with new African-American and Hispanic characters added this season - on its ominous tropical island. The "Desperate Housewives" cul-de-sac now has black residents as well as the original Latino couple.

Fall's hot new sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris," is about a black family, with just one white regular. Japanese-American actress Sandra Oh, who plays a doctor on "Grey's Anatomy," was nominated for an Emmy, as was Naveen Andrews of "Lost," who is of Indian descent.

In 1999, the year of the NAACP's outcry, no new series on the Big Four broadcast networks featured a person of color in a lead role. Since signing a 2000 pledge to do better, the networks are trying, appointing executives to monitor diversity, setting up mentoring programs for writers and holding acting showcases for various minority groups.

Advocacy groups agree that progress has been made, although they're not yet satisfied.

Full "report cards" on the fall season are expected from groups including National Hispanic Media Coalition early next year. But GLAAD - the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation - issued a report last month breaking down this fall's 710 series regulars by race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.

On the six broadcast networks, the GLAAD survey found 100 African-Americans, 43 Latinos and 19 Asian/Pacific Islanders. Sixteen characters are gay, lesbian or bisexual. At least three-quarters of series regulars are white, the survey found; 403 are male and 307 are female.

Whatever the numbers say, Latinos are particularly prominent in prime time this fall. Eddie Cibrian, of Cuban descent, gets first billing on "Invasion." On "The West Wing," a Mexican-American congressman played by Jimmy Smits, whose father is Puerto Rican, is running for president. And with tonight's debut of "Freddie," a second sitcom (after "George Lopez," in its fourth season) will revolve around a Latino family. One character, playing Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Puerto Rican grandmother, will speak only in Spanish, with English subtitles.

Freddie Prinze Jr., who stars in "Freddie," is also the show's executive producer and counts himself as TV's third Latino EP, after Desi Arnaz ("I Love Lucy" and the Desilu studio) and George Lopez.

When Prinze's father, comic Freddie Prinze, got his own sitcom in 1974, he was Puerto Rican playing Mexican-American. "Chico and the Man," launched in 1974, is probably best remembered today for its tragic end, as Prinze took his own life in 1977.

Prinze Jr. wasn't quite a year old when his father died, and he grew up in New Mexico with his mother and her Italian family. But he spent summers and vacation breaks in Puerto Rico with his paternal grandmother, on whom he says he patterned the Spanish-speaking grandmother in "Freddie." "When you speak to God, you speak in Spanish," he quotes her as saying.

But when he broke into acting, Prinze - whose looks could be described as ethnically neutral - found that "the only roles I could get offered as a Puerto Rican were a gangbanger or a drug dealer," he told TV critics this summer in introducing "Freddie."

"When I had an opportunity to . . . do things my way," he cast himself as a Chicago chef whose big, noisy and all-female Puerto Rican family moves in after a tragedy. Jacqueline Obradors of "NYPD Blue" (her parents are Argentinean) plays his sister; Chloe Suazo (she's half Honduran) is his niece; and Jenny Gago ("Mi Familia"), born in Peru and raised in the Bronx, is the Spanish-speaking grandmother.

Prinze counts Lopez, who campaigned relentlessly to get Freddie Sr. a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as a father figure and mentor.

"George just said to stick with what the original idea of the show is and believe in myself," Prinze says, admiring Lopez's own show as "a truthful representation of a family, not just a Latin family but a family, which to me is what America has always been about."

"Freddie" is more successful, at least early on, for what it wants to do than for how it accomplishes Prinze's goals. But there's something else interesting about the show beyond the mild laughs - it's available dubbed in Spanish, along with "George Lopez," "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."

ABC is also offering Spanish subtitles on its other programming, hoping to lure more of the 41 million U.S. Hispanics, almost half of whom watch primarily Spanish-language television.

An early glitch in the system, though, resulted in a little more diversity than some viewers wanted. In California, some cable customers inadvertently got "Desperate Housewives" in Spanish.

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 16:01:46 GMT

What 'Lost' clues can you find? - Send in your clues to USA Today. The best clues will be published in USA TODAY each Monday, so stay tuned.

Food Fight!

On ''Lost,'' Hurley has to choose what to do with the provisions in the Hatch; meanwhile, the raft survivors learn the identity of their captors by Scott Brown

Greetings, Los Losties. New guy here. Whitney filled in last week, now it's all me. Next week, who knows? Maybe you'll get Stephen King. No, you won't get Stephen King. Imagine EW as the Titanic: King is up on the promenade deck, near the three functioning lifeboats (which he doesn't need, because he's got his own personal pontoon made of woven $1,000,000 bills). You and me? We're down in steerage, son. So pull up a crate, and let's play that perky Irish jig known as ''The Gut-Level, Impromptu Lost React.''

I'll begin with a potentially controversial statement: I dig these Hurley episodes. Perhaps I'm influenced by my co-watcher, Liz, who adored huggy Hugo the first time she laid eyes on him. (Meet Liz, by the way: She'll be our copilot. She's cool — fried us up some excellent catfish filets tonight.) But durnit, I like Hugo Reyes, our chicken-stealing, number-hating Pagliaccio. And not because he's ''the heart of the show.''

Admittedly, Hurley's eps are not the best of the best. His origin story last season was an attempt to shift the show's increasingly somber mode into some sort of Pynchonian slapstick, and it wasn't 100 percent successful. And yes, this latest installment revived one of the least compelling Lost fallbacks, namely, the climactic I'm Okay You're Okay music video.

But Hurley is a great character, and for reasons beyond the obvious. Making the jester the curse bearer is a stroke of genius, as far as I'm concerned — one more way this show reinvents the television ensemble and fends off ordinariness. And as for the goofier flourishes — the wacky mechanics of the supposed ''curse,'' the digs about his persistent girth — Jorge Garcia earns them, baby. He takes a conceptually solid but potentially pat retroactive-continuity twist (i.e., that Hurley held off on collecting his lottery winnings because he wasn't really sure he wanted his life changed) and sells it as a quiet slacker tragedy (with some help from DJ Qualls, as his ride-along pal).

This is also one of those social-contract episodes (Have and Have Not, Distribution of Resources, Sword of Damocles stuff). Hurley is in charge of the Dharma larder, and Jack has charged him with inventorying — and withholding — all the goodies Desmond's been subsisting on between workouts in his Now Totally Disclosed Location. Naturally, some people aren't happy with that, and by ''some people,'' I mean Charlie, and by Charlie, I mean a character we're all getting increasingly impatient with: Baby daddy or no baby daddy, he's sounding more and more like a simple punk. Give me peanut butter! Tell me the truth! Pipe down, Li'l Liam Gallagher. Break out some of that Holy Virgin, why don't you? We all know it's coming.

But back to the social contract. As soon as the food dilemma came up, Liz declared, ''Oh, he should just give everyone a share and let them do what they want with it.'' Sounds like a cozy little bit of communism, right? Wrong!

''Liz,'' I said, ''you realize this makes you a conservative.'' Liz does not consider herself a conservative, and I thought I saw her move her hand threateningly towards her fork. I quickly clarified: We're talking the platonic ideal of a fiscal conservative, not the Tom DeLay reality. We're talking someone who believes in returning a surplus to ''the people,'' to spend as they wish. This gives everyone the opportunity to choose whether to be a pennywise ant or a profligate grasshopper. But this kills the collective's long-term social security — what if times get tough? Agriculture fails? (Sun's plants don't look capable of supporting the whole community just yet.) Boar futures dwindle? The bamboo housing bubble bursts? What then? Whoops! Somebody ate all the Apollo bars, and we're screwed!

Liz sulked a bit and said, ''I just think it'd be nice if everybody got a treat.''

''Well,'' I replied, ''that sounds very liberal.''

To which Liz replied, ''Give me a cookie.''

My point exactly.

Anyway, dense stuff, eh? And it does slow things down a bit. (Just in time, too — with all the Dharma developments, we may actually be in danger of learning too much about the mechanics of this island, which we're now being led to believe is a big psych experiment gone awry.) This doesn't mean the barreling mythology train has come to a halt, though we have been cut back to a strict diet of crumbs: We learned that the Supposed Others are the Actual Tail People, breakaways from the back end of Oceanic 815. We learned that Rose's husband, Bernard, is not only alive but ubiquitous character actor Sam Anderson. We had it confirmed that there are multiple Dharma stations on the island (though none so plush as the Swan).

And then there are the Easter eggs. The tail section had 23 survivors (jot that down, numberheads). Rose hums every song she hears — and some she doesn't. Did she get inside Hurley's head to hear Slim Smith's 1973 reggae ditty ''My Conversation''? Do these psychic tendencies explain her conviction that her husband is alive? Speaking of psychic visions: That's Walt's face on the side of the milk carton in Hurley's dream. Now, Hurley doesn't know that Walt is missing; he has no idea what happened to the raft. Does his subconscious know something he doesn't? And what's Sun doing without her wedding ring on? (Of course, she's got it back on in the next cut — kind of a glaring continuity error for a show that prides itself on the details.)

And then there's the matter of Randy. Y'all remember Randy, right? Locke's jackass coworker at the box company? Well, that's Randy running Mr. Cluck. Yup. Same dude, same character name, same actor (Billy Ray Gallion). Liz went back through her homemade VHS — VHS! — tapes of season 1, and she confirms it: same dude, same name, different hair. Now we know Mr. Cluck was hit by a meteorite after Hurley collected his winnings. And we know Hurley came to acquire a box company with said winnings. Connection? Of course there is, dummkopf! It's Lost!

What do you think? How do Hurley's backstories stack up against the others? Did they make the right decision about the food? And did this episode give enough clues?

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 14:00:36 GMT

Episode description of 2x06 Abandoned, from TV Guide, courtesy of SpoilerFix.

A wounded Sawyer might not survive a trek through the jungle with Michael, Jin and the tail-section survivors; Locke's interest in Claire gets to Charlie; and Shannon is again haunted by visions of Walt.

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 13:56:59 GMT

• The Latest Happenings on Mystery Island

Actor robbed at Hawaii Kai home
Posted: October 12, 2005 06:39 PM
Andrew Pereira

Hawaii Kai is known as one of Oahu's safer neighborhoods, but on Wednesday night people on a quiet street are on edge after an armed robbery.

And the victim turns out to be a familiar face.

It happened to Josh Holloway, an actor in the TV series "Lost," which of course is filmed in Hawaii.

In the past year Josh Holloway has become a household name as millions of fans tune into the hit TV show "Lost."

But early Wednesday morning at his Hawaii Kai home, the actor got the kind of attention no one wants when he became a victim of crime.

In "Lost" Josh Holloway plays a character who has used a gun to get what he wants. Early Wednesday morning it was a real gun that was pointed at the actor and his wife. Holloway's agent says the experience has left the couple shaken.

After rousting Holloway and his wife out of bed, the man left with cash and credit cards.

The thief also drove away in the actor's Mercedes.

The car was recovered a short time later, but the thief is still on the loose.

Neighbors of the quiet neighborhood say they're stunned by the boldness of the crime.

"It was gunpoint, that's not what anyone wants to hear," says Dan Mahnke, neighbor.

"I'm pretty shocked that it's at gunpoint because normally they just break in, take stuff, and leave right away, but boy this kind of scary," says Clyde Ching, neighbor.

According to FBI statistics, Holloway's home is located in an area that saw 107 robberies in 2004, the most in Hawaii Kai.

Investigators say the robbery suspect is five feet, eight inches tall with a slim build.

He was wearing a black or gray baseball cap, and a black or gray shirt, and armed with a black handgun.

Holloway's agent says the actor is trying to shake-off the real-life terror of staring down the barrel of a gun.

According to neighbors Holloway is fairly new to the area, buying his home less than a year ago.

Deal has some ABC affiliates feeling uneasy
Posted 10/12/2005 10:15 PM Updated 10/13/2005 1:06 AM
By David Lieberman and Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Less than two weeks after replacing Michael Eisner as Disney's CEO, Bob Iger began to put his stamp on the company Wednesday with a potentially precedent-setting deal that impressed several company analysts — but created anxiety among some of his key allies, his ABC network's affiliates.

Iger sent several signals by agreeing to sell current episodes of some of his company's biggest TV hits on Apple's iTunes Music Store — and added an intriguing strategy to television's fast-changing business models. (Related item: Apple releases video iPod)

"It's an unbelievable opportunity for consumers to stay or get connected to their favorite program," Iger said at a news conference.

The companies gave no financial details. Offered on iTunes for $1.99 are ad-free episodes of ABC's Desperate Housewives, Lost and Night Stalker and Disney Channel's That's So Raven and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody for download to computers and Apple's new video iPod. Not just past-season fare is for sale: Current episodes of the ABC hits will be on sale the day after they air.

That earned a cool response from some of ABC's affiliates — who weren't told in advance that Disney would offer its most popular shows online. "We have a lot of questions," said Young Broadcasting President Deb McDermott, a former head of the ABC Affiliates Board. "We want to be sure it doesn't affect over-the-air viewing," including reruns.

She added that Disney's willingness to distribute shows the day after they air "surprised me."

Affiliates might have good reason to worry.

"Of course it will erode ratings," said Dene Callas of media buyer MediaCom. "It's going to devalue the original" broadcasts as viewers use iTunes.

Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney argued that the deal could make the broadcasts more popular. "This is for people who are devotees of Lost and Desperate Housewives and missed a couple episodes," she said. It may also bring in "kids who have heard about Raven and never experienced it."

The deal came as cable companies have been trying — mostly unsuccessfully — to get broadcast networks to offer shows such as the ABC hits on their video-on-demand services. Comcast said in a statement: "Networks are beginning to realize that the traditional television model is shifting dramatically, and consumers want to watch what they want, whenever they want."

The thing that might have struck Wall Street analysts most about the agreement is that Iger and Jobs made any deal.

"Steve Jobs called Bob Iger last spring with an idea," leading to the distribution agreement, Sweeney said.

That's key, because Jobs had locked horns with Eisner, endangering Disney's movie distribution deal with Jobs' other company, Pixar, the producer of computer animation hits Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

In this new era of détente, "We think Disney will be the partner" for Pixar, Jefferies & Co. analyst Robert Routh wrote in a report after the announcement.

He expects Disney and Pixar to soon announce joint plans for projects to follow Cars, the last film in their current deal which expires on its release next summer.

Pondering the secrets behind ABC’s smash-hit serial
A Telegraph Column By Jennifer O'Callaghan
Published: Thursday, October 13, 2005

According to the boppin’ composers of “Schoolhouse Rock,” three is the magic number.

But I’ve got a bulletin for you: Three is yesterday’s news.

If you are a fan of ABC’s “Lost,” you know the real magic number is 108. That is the sum of the other, only slightly less magical numbers four, eight, 15, 16, 23 and 42, which keep appearing in various combinations throughout the show and only sometimes observed by the characters themselves.

How do I know this?

It’s reported on blogs and message boards all over the Internet by ever-vigilant and obsessive fans who tape or TiVo each episode to watch again, frame by frame, taking notes.

I am in danger of becoming one of those people.

OK. I admit it. I am one of those people.

If you haven’t been watching “Lost,” you may be wondering what all the hubbub is about, where your friends go every Wednesday night and whether it’s time to put down the manifesto, abandon that shack in the woods and rejoin civilization.

Like most of America, creator J.J. Abrams had me from the series premiere last year, when the good Dr. Jack Sheppard opened his eyes to find himself no longer on Oceanic Flight 815 (eight and 15!) from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles, but instead on a beautiful tropical island populated by an off-kilter French woman named Rousseau, pirates and polar bears. Oh my!

As you can probably guess, it is not very easy to encapsulate the topsy-turvy world of “Lost.” Over the course of its maiden season, we learned the sage-like Locke actually worked as a peon in a box company back home, and although he is now fully mobile, boarded the fated flight unable to walk. We know that slick, fast-talking Sawyer has been on a lifelong hunt for the con man who destroyed his childhood, leaving his father to kill his mother and then commit suicide. We know the fetching, freckled Kate was a prisoner of a federal marshal who survived a few episodes. We learned single dad Michael doesn’t really know his young son Walt, who may or may not have supernatural powers. We know Sun may be the most brilliant student of English as a second language ever, learning idioms and medical terms in secret before crashing on the island with her husband, the flinty-eyed Jin, whose cheekbones could cut through bamboo. We know that spoiled Shannon and her blue-eyed stepbrother, Boone, had an unusually close and just a wee bit naughty relationship. We know that Hurley, the king of the one-liners, won the lottery with those ill-fated numbers, which also appear on the hatch in which the newly introduced Desmond has been dwelling for the last three years and change. We know that Boone died trying to break into said hatch. And we know inside said hatch, Desmond must repeatedly type those potentially cursed numbers into a 1980s-style computer, or the world will suffer another Ashton Kutcher series on MTV.

Or something worse. We don’t know yet. It hasn’t happened yet. But we’re all breathless with anticipation.

I have simply never been so engrossed in a TV show.

I find myself running to message boards the minute the closing credits roll each week, looking for new theories, missed moments, odd pairings of those cursed numbers. I wrack my brain to remember what philosophy John Locke espoused and how that compares with Rousseau’s.

I draw diagrams to account for every character with a father issue. (Jack and his dad had a very rocky relationship. Locke’s father scammed a kidney out of him. The Korean couple, Jin and Sun, both had daddy issues. Hers was a killer. He had not spoken to his in years before boarding Flight 815.)

I try to connect the characters that go by or have gone by other names. Through the beauty of flashbacks, we’ve discovered Hurley’s name is really Hugo, Kate has gone by a number of aliases and Sawyer took the name of the man who destroyed his family.

But I keep coming back to the numbers.

Are they chess moves? Bible verses? Abrams’ fourth-grade locker combination? I must know.

The closest I can come to an answer is that, like the rest of my life, “Lost” revolves around the Yankees. Those numbers all correspond with former Yankee greats: No. 4 was Lou Gehrig, No. 8 was Yogi Berra, No. 15 was Thurman Munson, No. 16 was Whitey Ford, No. 23 was Don Mattingly and No. 42 was Jackie Robinson.

If that’s not enough to convince you, the number of stitches on an official major-league baseball is 108.

But my final piece of evidence is found in the episode in which bratty Shannon’s brother Boone met his end. As Boone died, pregnant survivor Claire gave birth to Aaron.

Aaron plus Boone equals Aaron Boone, the Yankee third baseman whose homerun off Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield brought an end to the tense 2003 American League Championship Series, marking the Bronx Bombers’ last World Series appearance.

Remember that? You Red Sox fans won the whole enchilada last year, so I don’t want to hear any grousing about this year’s playoff showing.

I can only hope the mysteries of “Lost” are solved in fewer than 86 years.

--

HOST YOUR OWN ‘LOST’ PARTY
Go ahead. Give in to your obsession. Celebrate it. Here are some tips to help you stage a perfect “Lost” gathering.

GET LOST IN THE MUSIC As your guests arrive, play a little of Mama Cass Elliott’s “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” the tune of choice for the hatch-dwelling Desmond featured in the first two episodes of this season; Joe Purdy’s “Wash Away,” featured in the closing scene of last season's Episode 3, “Tabula Rasa”; or Damien Rice’s “Delicate” off the “O” album, from last season’s Episode 17, “ . . . In Translation.” Feel free to create your own “Lost”-themed mix, however. We suggest “Island in the Sun” by Weezer and, in honor of Lostzilla, perhaps a little “Walk the Dinosaur” by Was (Not Was).

ENTERTAIN THE ABRAMS WAY Before each episode begins, stage a contest to see which of your guests can repair a broken transceiver like Sayid. Keep the room heavily stocked with backgammon and Risk boards in a tip of the cap to Locke's obsessions, and set up a putting green in the bathroom in honor of Hurley’s golf course. For a really wild night, drink a shot for each time Sawyer calls someone by a nickname and each time Hurley says, “Dude.”

FEED THE MASSES Strive to eat like the stranded survivors. How about a little wild boar, some Apollo chocolate bars and maybe some of that sea urchin the Korean-speaking Jin gave to Hurley? Mmmm. Tasty.

DRESS THE PART Don’t worry. Looking like a “Lost” character does not require losing a lot of weight or growing hair in unsightly places. Males should let that 5 o’clock shadow grow in a bit. Females need only to sweat into their cleavage and smear a streak or two of dirt on their cheeks.

SET THE MOOD. You can start with the black-and-white motif that peppers each episode. Add a few random polar bears, some charred bodies of drug smugglers and then truck on out to your local five-and-dime store for a big ol' piece of fuselage. That ought to do it. Toss uninvited guests into the spinning propellers, a la the nameless pureed guy in the series premiere.

Do you and your friends watch “Lost” together each week? Contact Jen O’Callaghan at 594-6403 or ocallaghanj@telegraph-nh.com.

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 03:10:35 GMT

• Aaaand the download for the Canadian promo for 2x05: ...And Found

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 02:52:22 GMT

• Download the promo for 2x05: ...And Found

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:45:40 GMT

• Clips of Naveen Andrews on The View and Ellen; and Maggie Grace on Jimmy Kimmel

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 22:45:29 GMT

• Five new promo pics for 2x06 Abandoned
• Dharma Initiative Countdown Clock (first item under October 11) - just another reason why I LOVE this fandom. (ETA: ~~I'm having problems getting it to run. If anyone is successful, let me know?~~ I got it working! Nevermind.)

And just in case you missed it (I know it's ALL OVER my flist), you can now watch Lost on the new iPod.

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:27:36 GMT

Ask Ausiello - Wed Oct 12 2005

Question: Can you give me a hint as to which character is going to bite the dust next on Lost? — S

Ausiello: (SPOILER ALERT) It's not Hurley. Or Claire.

Question: Word is that a male cast member on Lost has asked to be written off the show. Any clues to who it is? — Erika

Ausiello: There was a rumor going around that Malcolm David Kelley (Walt) had asked to be let go because he was feeling homesick in Hawaii, but turns out that's only half true. Yes, he was missing his family and friends back in Los Angeles, but, no, he didn't ask to be let out of his contract. However, as you probably have figured out by his absence from the cast photo — not to mention all but one scene this season — we will be seeing less of Malcolm/Walt. According to sources, producers decided to reduce his appearances amid concern that the 13-year-old's growth spurt was compromising the show's timeline. But contrary to buzz, "limit" does not mean "pink-slip" or "recast." As executive producer Damon Lindelof recently told my colleague Shawna Malcom, "Malcolm is Walt." At least this season.

Question: Is Ian Somerhalder going to be appearing in Shannon's upcoming flashback episode on Lost? — Chandler

Ausiello: Yes, Ian/Boone returns for that very occasion on Oct. 26.

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:22:30 GMT

According to Lost-Media... episode 2x08 is titled "Old Habits" and will focus on Charlie.

However, keep in mind that no source is cited and this is UNCONFIRMED at the moment. Just thought I'd throw it out there in case it turns out to be true.

On another note, here's an interesing find courtesy of AICN (spoilers in the article):

Okay... by now you've seen this:
http://www.thehansofoundation.org/

Now, just for fun, add an "s" so it looks like this:
https://www.thehansofoundation.org/

Freaked out yet?

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:01:06 GMT

An ocean of new mysteries on ‘Lost’
What's the Dharma Initiative? And are the others really the Others?
By Jon Bonné
MSNBC
Updated: 9:41 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers, obsessive detail and random speculation. Don't read on if you want to be surprised, or if you want to get any work done today.]

We thought the new season of “Lost” might answer a few lingering questions. Instead, it opened several dozen new cans of worms.

Since we only scraped the surface in our weekly recaps, now seemed like a good time to review all the other little tidbits we've been gathering in our endless string of Thursday-morning e-mails across the newsroom. (Don't tell our bosses.)

Here's hoping we'll get a few insights this week. Doubtful, but you never know.

(1) Inside the hatch. The hatch turns out to be the back door to research station No. 3 ("The Swan"), or so we learned in the orientation film Locke and Jack watched in last week's episode.

But the film posed a ton of new questions. We finally understand the mysterious logo seen on nearly everything in the hatch, which represents the Dharma Initiative, a privately funded "large scale communo-research compound," says the film's narrator, Dr. Marvin Candle — created by University of Michigan doctoral candidates Gerald and Karen DeGroot in 1970. (We're guessing on spellings.)

As for the logo, it's clearly derived from the "ba gua" octagon used in feng shui: the eight elements arranged in the same manner, with the yin-yang replaced by a stylized swan drawing.

And it's on everything, including the '80s-era Apple II computer used to reset the 108-minute countdown that freaks out Desmond and Locke, and even on the food Kate found in the storeroom. (The food appears to play big in this week's Hurley-themed episode. And what of the "Apollo" candy bars Kate grabbed?) The logo was pretty clearly on the shark (or whatever it was) that menaced Sawyer and Michael on the raft in the Sept. 28 episode.

But what about the "quarantine" marking on the door? Locke tried to convince Desmond it was placed there simply to keep him from leaving, but it's clearly got Desmond scared (though not scared enough to avoid running into the jungle). And what of the medicine Desmond injected himself with, the vials with that had the mystery numbers (4-8-15-16-23-42) on them?

The mural painted on the station wall also has us mystified, too. But we're in enormous debt to the impressive (if geeky) work of several astute fans who've created maps of the Swan station's layout and posted them online. (You can find a couple here and here.)

2) Light that Candle. We remain as puzzled as Jack by Marvin Candle's instructions to enter the numbers "into the microcomputer processor," especially because the film then skips directly to Candle saying "induction into the program." It skips again in the midst of Candle's big warning: "Do not attempt to use the computer ... [spliced edit] ... for anything."

"Lost" creator J.J. Abrams is having a good chuckle right now. And we got a big tip-off from E! Online, which got co-creator Damon Lindelof to tell everyone to "check out Marvin Candle's left hand. Weird, huh?" We did, and found that Candle's left arm and hand never moves throughout the entire orientation film. In fact it looks a bit fake, like a bad prosthetic. Or it could be one of those "Twin Peaks" things — "I am the arm" and such — though we sorta hope not.

(E! also hints a female character will be killed off soon. Just saying.)

3) Whither Dharma? The DeGroots are curiously described as ""following in the footsteps" of B.F. Skinner, the father of psychological operant conditioning. That led many viewers to speculate, with good reason, that the entire Swan setup — the computer and countdown, the "quarantine," the whole shebang — is one big psychology experiment. Jack clearly thinks so, though it didn't stop him from pressing "execute" as the clock ticked down.

But what does this have to do with Dharma's real purpose? We've been told about Dharma's research topics — from meteorology to zoology (polar bears!) — but the film skips again from Candle saying something about "utopian social ... " to him describing Hanso. Arrgh!

One clue: Candle mentioning that the Swan station was established to examine "unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the island." He mentions the "incident" that prompted a need to keep pushing the button every 108 minutes. Last season, Sayid was puzzled by huge magnetic anomalies on the compass he got from Locke, a first hint about the magnetic weirdness that, some viewers think, caused flight 815 to go off-course and crash. What's with the electromagnetic thing? And we're dying to know about the alleged "incident."
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We're also still trying to lay out a timeline. Why are research teams kept in the station for 540 days? What happened to the station prior to three years ago, when Desmond was taken there by the mysterious Kelvin?

If Dharma was founded in 1970, the orientation film was made in 1980, and "Lost" is unfolding more or less present-day, then this whole story stretches back 35 years. Maybe that's why Desmond kept playing Mama Cass Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" on that vintage record player: It was recorded in 1969.

4) The Hanso Foundation. The film's reference to Danish industrialist Alvar Hanso passed quickly, but like many of you, we found our way over to the semi-secret Web site at thehansofoundation.org, where a hidden link to the Dharma Initiative can be found off the "Active Projects" page.

The Dharma link goes to a page that purportedly loads up a Flash video, but as of Tuesday afternoon, we couldn't get it to load. If you've been able to view it, let us know.

After the Ethan Rom thing there's been much speculation about which anagrams might be formed by Hanso's name, but we're more partial to the theories tracing the name back to Sanskrit, no huge surprise since Dharma is a central principle of Hindu (and Buddhist) teachings. Both Marvin Candle and the Hanso Web site use the Sanskrit greeting "namaste."

Also curious is Hanso's background, a mix of warmongering (as a high-tech weapons maker) and philanthropy. Safe bet that this dichotomy will resonate as we continue to figure out the island's history.

For that matter, consider the foundation's other projects. No big surprise on the Electromagnetic Research Initiative. But Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute (yes, J.E.D.I.) sounds creepy, and we're mystified by the Accelerated Remote Viewing Training Facility.

Another fun theory is that Hanso could be Locke's real father, which would explain all this talk of Locke's destiny being down the hatch. Gael also thinks Hanso looks a bit like Leslie Nielsen.

5) Which Others? Ana-Lucia's arrival last week was more mysterious than revealing. She's apparently aligned with the group of other islanders who captured Jin, Michael and Sawyer, but this other group is as puzzled by their captives as our three intrepid rafters are by their captors.

The yet-unnamed mystery Island Man (played by "Oz's" Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) asks Ana-Lucia, "Who are they?" We know Ana-Lucia sat at the rear of flight 815 in seat 42F (for what it's worth: flight's last row is 42, mystery sequence's final number is 42) but are the captors other survivors from the tail of the place? We assume they are.

If so, are they the Others that Rousseau mentioned last season? Or are there other Others yet to appear? Some folks even think Ana-Lucia was one of the Others before she got on the flight, and her meeting Jack in the Sydney airport bar wasn't a coincidence. Could be.
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Meantime, many viewers swore they saw Jin speaking English in the next-episode preview. (He's only spoken Korean thus far, though wife Sun secretly spoke English.) We thought we'd get a hint from a hidden script page found on Oceanicflight815.com, but we're still not sure whether Jin really can speak English, or whether we're hearing Jim through the ears of another character who can understand Korean. For that matter, was that really Jin in the trailer?

6) Other odds and ends.

• What's up with Desmond, his stuffed rabbit and the copy of Flann O'Brien's "The Third Policeman", both of which he took when he bailed from the station? For much of the past week, this site featured a very Owsla-y image of a rabbit, along with cryptic messages hidden in Morse code. A hidden Web hunt for "Lost" clues, or a dead end? Speaking of books, the orientation film was hidden behind Henry James' "Turn of the Screw." Are we meant to draw a link between two spooky plots? And don't even get us started about Narvik.
• In the season premiere, Shannon went looking for Walt's dog Vincent and instead found Walt. Walt mumbled something incomprehensible, which many people played backwards and interpreted as either "Press the button, no button's bad," or "[Don't] press the button, the button's bad." Button being "Execute," presumably. What's with the "Twin Peaks" thing again?
• In the season opener, two patients came into Jack's ER. He made a choice to save wife-to-be Sara. The other patient, Adam Rutherford, shares a last name with Shannon. Coincidence? We think not.
• Oh, and we're still trying to parse the Swedish-registered Dharma Industries Web site. It keeps flashing "Invalid IP" when we try and get inside, though the flashing numbers go higher than 256, the upper limit for Internet Protocol numbers. (Yes, we're geeks too.) On a similar Dharma Initiative site, you can find a copy of the orientation film. Official Web spinoffs or unofficial tributes?

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:42:56 GMT

Earlier I posted a link to scans from the new issue of TV Guide (American). Just wanted to give you guys a heads up on what the cover looks like for anyone looking to buy it:

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 04:37:51 GMT

SEASON 2 POSTER

(click HERE for a larger version)

I don't know when this poster was released, but I just discovered it yesterday and it turned out to be new to a lot of other people as well, so I figured I'd spread the word.

A few places that are selling it:

• Movie Market £9.99
• MovieGoods $19.99
• MoviePoster.com $16.00

If anyone knows of any other sites that have it, drop a line?

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 00:50:31 GMT

Sorry, I don't have time for a larger update today, but two quick things worth noting:

• Clips from tomorrow's episode, 2x04 Everybody Hates Hugo
• Scans from this week's TV Guide - SPOILERS within (Including information on Desmond)