The Bloated Penguin

Okay, so Cassie Campbell isn’t really almost famous considering she is one Canada’s greatest hockey heroes of all time, but for those of you who have been watching the Olympic coverage of late and are not familiar with the educated female voice of hockey, here’s some background info.

Cassie Campbell is basically Canada’s broadcasting darling. No, she doesn’t cover the weather in a one-piece pantsuit, no she doesn’t anchor a local news show and no she doesn’t waste her time with ridiculous human interest stories about places and people that nobody should care about – Cassie Campbell is a bruisingly (is that a word? doubt it…) swift, trash talking, hockey great with a keen eye for spotting the details of one of the fastest games on the planet. Although she’s been getting a ton of international coverage because of those games out in Vancouver, her full time gig is actually as one of CBC’s color analysts on Hockey Night In Canada. With respect to Jim Hughson, she’s really the best voice CBC has behind a mic every Saturday.

But Cassie’s time in front of the camera wasn’t always behind a mic, in fact she shot up to hockey stardom on an international scale as she gathered 21 national hockey medals in her career (World Championships, Olympics, ect). She currently sits 8th in all time scoring for Canada’s national Woman’s Hockey program.

Enough about the hockey career though right? Since leaving the game Cassie has been heavily involved in charity work and motivational speaking to go along with her full time stint on Hockey Night in Canada. She’s one of the spokespersons for Scotia Bank, you may have seen her on a Pepsi or Gatorade commercial of late and if you’ve ever seen a montage of Canada competing in national hockey tournaments, you’ll probably recognize her as the one wearing the flag. The Brampton Ontario native currently lives in Alberta with her husband, but you can see her most Saturdays on CBC.

Welcome to Wednesday. Grab your coffee, sit your ass down at your desk and pretend it’s Friday…. Okay, now that reality has set in, so can that mid week depression. Need a little pick-me-up? Check out Jasika Nicole. Who? I’m not surprised you ask. Jasika Nicole plays Astrid Farnsworth on the hit FOX show Fringe. If you follow the Bloated Penguin then you’ll already know my devotion to this show.

Anyways, back to Jasika, or Astrid. Even though Fringe carries tons of over-arching themes and a web of different stories throughout, one of the big reasons I watch is the comedic timing between John Noble’s character Walter Bishop and Astrid. In Fringe, one of the great mysteries is trying to guess whether or not this is going to be the week where Walter actually remembers Astrid’s name. On more than one occasion he’s referred to her as Astro, Astrix, or Astroid.

Jasika Nicole grew up in the Alabama and after graduating from Catwaba College with degrees in theater dance, voice and studio art she started to get national exposure with commercial work. After a few successful runs of advertising McDonalds, Home Depot and the NYC Lotto she landed a couple of guest spots on Law and Order: Criminal Intent. I’m assuming the casting director that works with JJ Abrams saw one of these episodes or possibly caught Jasika on stage during a performance of Believe In Me – A Bigfoot Musical and decided to give her a shot at auditioning for Astrid Farnsworth. The rest is gravy.

So where can we expect to see Jasika Nicole this year? She’ll be playing a small role in the new rom-com She’s Out Of My League opposite Jay Baruchel as well as finishing up the second season of Fringe. Keep your eyes peeled for more interesting news from Jasika and if you’re interested, you can check out her personal site (yeah, I guess I kind of stalked her….).

You can buy some of her art, check out more of her past performances and sign her guest book….

Anyone out there watch Better Off Ted? I’ve been following this show for a while now and with the second season well in, I’ve started to notice the timing and skill of Andrea Anders. Anders plays Linda Zwordling, the product testing, hilarious female voice of the show. Better Off Ted actually began as an introduction to Linda’s company Veridian Dynamics so we get to see stories unfold around her as she gets to know her coworkers and working environment. Although product testing isn’t a new concept, bringing this aspect to the small screen on a weekly basis is quite new. As a person who works in a creative environment (albeit not anywhere near the scientific level of those working at VD – wait… VD? I just got that), I really enjoy watching a show about this type of workplace.

Here’s a promo video for Veridian Dynamics – if this doesn’t make you want to work there, nothing will.

But Linda is more than just the product tester at VD, she basically represents where the moral compass will point each week. Episodes have focused on her rebelling against working for a conglomerate, branching out to her creative writing side and even her personal relationship with protagonist Ted. But where did Andrea Anders get her start, and how did she end up on Better Off Ted?

A quick look on this magical box we call a computer and the answers weren’t difficult to find. Anders got a break about 10 years ago making guest spots on shows like Law and Order. She then moved to the stage where she studied under Mary Louise Parker on the Broadway play Proof. A couple of years later Anders got a big break when she landed a recurring on HBO’s Oz as Donna Degenhart. Although Oz wasn’t a hugely popular show at the time, someone over at NBC recognized her talent and cast her in the flop we all know as Joey… Okay, maybe playing lawyer Alex Garrett wasn’t the best of choices, but I can understand why she’d want to take the chance. At the very least is prepared her for Better Off Ted, which in my mind, is one of the better single camera comedies on network TV right now.

I’m not having any luck figuring out where we’ll see Andrea Anders next but whenever and wherever we see her, I’m sure we’ll notice.

Ah yes, it’s that time of the week/month/and even day I guess when I decide to share a little bit of info on a not-so-well-known (yet) female star. Okay, in the past I haven’t really profiled “stars” but I like to think I can spot talent when I see it. In the last few months I’ve profiled people like Deborah Ann Woll, Naya Rivera and recently Courtney Ford. Today’s profile focuses on Dichen Lachman. According to the phonetics department over at Wikipedia (alright they probably don’t have a phonetics department, but I’ve got this imaginative picture of Wikipedia being a bunch of elves that patrol the Internet… different post for later) Dichan’s name is pronounced:

Deechen

The 27 year old actress currently starring as Sierra on the now defunct Joss Whedon show Dollhouse actually comes from Australia. Sort of. Here’s where things get interesting. Dichen’s mother is Tibetan and her father is Australian but she was born in Japan. When she was young she picked up and moved from Nepal to Australia where she got the performance bug. After high school Dichen did a bit of the college thing (we all have that bug at some point or another) but soon picked up and left for Syndey to pursue acting for the screen.

It was in Sydney where she landed her huge break. Dichen played Katya Kinski on one of Australia’s longest running soap operas Neighbors. Her stint on daytime Australian TV also landed her a small role on a terrible North American movie called Aquamarine. I’m sure at this point in her career, Dichen would rather not remember her role in the film that starred one-hit-wonder Jo Jo.

But in 2009 Dichen landed her first big North American role as Sierra on Dollhouse. Sierra is one of the Dolls that the show focuses on along with Eliza Dushku’s Echo. Because of the nature of the show, Dichen has played Sierra as everything from an ass-kicking FBI agent to a screaming pop music fan and she pulls them all off surprisingly well. But like all Joss Whedon shows, Dollhouse is in the process of being canceled. I don’t think this has anything to do with Dichen’s performance. In fact, I have a feeling if there were a few more episodes that focused on her specifically, the show might have gutted it out for another season.

In any case, Dichen Lachman is a face to watch – oh, and I forgot to mention that she’s got this super exotic Aussie accent.

It’s that time again folks. That time where I get to explain the subtle hotness of a character in a TV show that probably gets glazed over by most. I’ve done it for Jessica from True Blood and Santana from Glee, and now? Christine Hill from this season of Dexter.

Who? Well if you’ve been following this season you’ll recognize Christine as the pint-sized Miami reporter also posing as Quinn’s latest fling. But recently we’ve learned that Christine actually plays a much more important role in this season’s arc as she has been identified as Trinity’s daughter.

Okay, enough spoilers about the show and onto the actress that plays Christine, Courtney Ford. Unfortunately Courtney Ford was known to most simply as Brandon Routh’s wife. You know, the strapping young man who dawned the Superman suit for Brian Singer a few years ago. I guess being married to Superman basically makes you Superman’s wife and no longer and actress. According to an unreliable source by the name of Wikipedia, Courtney Ford was contemplating leaving show-biz when she landed the role on Dexter.

Are we glad she did. The spunky little actress plays Christine Hill at first as an aggressive career woman who will stop at nothing to get to her story. This includes sleeping with a cop, infiltrating the Miami PD and asking all of the difficult questions in difficult times. Originally her performance was great simply based on the fact that she made everyone but Quinn feel really uncomfortable all of the time.

But now that it has been revealed that Christine is in fact part of the bigger mystery as she is genetically linked to Trinitiy, she has switched from agressive go-getter to vulnerable daughter. The one episode after the big reveal I thought was great in terms of showing a completely different side to things. Dexter is a show that mainly focuses on the antagonist and what they have done to a victim, hardly ever do we get to see their families and how their behavior effects them. All that is changed now thanks to the performance of Courtney Ford (okay, maybe she doesn’t deserve all of the credit, but she does add a nice element to the show).

Who knows where we might see her next, and who knows if we’ll even see her again after Dexter. All I know is that I’m thankful she’s here now.

Alright so as you can probably tell, I’m not one for the traditional leading ladies. I’m a bigger fan of the supporting cast that makes small, yet memorable appearances in movies and TV. That’s why I think I can justify my intrigue with Naya Rivera from Glee. Who Dat? Well you know the cheerleaders that never seem to change out of their uniforms? There’s the main girl (can’t remember her name but I remember her from Heroes when she played a well, cheerleader) and then there’s the girl that’s always with her, Santana Lopez. Santana is played by Naya Rivera and makes maybe one or two appearances per episode. You’ll remember her as the girl that breaks up with Puck because he;s got bad credit and also as the girl who breaks down and cries when the cheer-leading coach breaks the news that the Cheerios will no longer be getting massages….

Played perfectly by Rivera, the character of Santana adds to an already talented squad of Glee cast mates. You might remember her from a one-off guest appearance on CSI: Miami (man I think everyone has been on that show) and a recurring role as Donna on the Bernie Mac Show. Anyways, now that you know, I’m sure you’ll start to notice even more. She drops little gems of lines into each episode and gives Glee that tiny step above other cheesy high school coming of age comedies.

Growing up with the Ghostbusters we all had our favorites. I for one will always be partial to Peter Venkman played by Bill Murray, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Winston played by Ernie Hudson. I’m sure a lot people grew up knowing the names of Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd and Harold Raimis, but what about the only Ghostbuster of color Ernie Hudson? Well, I did a little research on our friend Winston and just heard some pretty interesting news. Ernie Hudson is being brought aboard the cast of Heroes to play a detective. No doubt he’ll be on the trail of super powered peeps like Claire and Hiro. Anyways, here are some shows and flicks Hudson has been in since Ghostbusters II (BTW he’ll also be in GB III)

Warden Leo Glynn in OZ

FBI Assistant Harold McDonald in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous

Colonel James Gallant in ER

Detective Ridley in Desperate Housewives

David Barron in Bones

Sifu Norris in Dragon Ball Evolution

Quite the career from the Ghostbuster most of us forgot. Sure his career doesn’t look like Murray’s but he’s been in some reputable things and come Ghostbusters III, deserves a much bigger part.

As stated many times before, I’m a big True Blood fan. There’s something about watching an HBO show with amazingly good looking people that basically do nothing but fight and have sex all the time. Mix in some supernatural and you’ve got a hit – or in this case Alan Ball’s True Blood. At the conclusion of last season we saw Bill Compton “make” another vampire as a punishment for killing one of his own. Although he never got to choose the victim, I’m glad the other vampires went with Jessica Hamby. As season two rolls along we’re getting to know Jessica more and more and with it is coming a bit of a Hollywood crush on actress Deborah Ann Woll.

Woll hasn’t done a lot in terms of mainstream acting (she’s been on CSI and ER before but really who hasn’t?) but she’s definitely got the chops to take on a bigger part in the future. The 24-year old from New York has done some stage work but nothing big enough to land her a Tony or anything.

True Blood is an obvious hit and I see Woll making a huge name for herself playing the young protege of Bill Compton. So far this year we’ve seen her return to her parents house, get back at her abusive father and find her first human boyfriend in Hoyt. I say, bring on more Jessica. She’s probably not a widely known fan favorite right now – especially with characters like Lafayette, Sookie, Bill and Erik running around, but I think this is going to be a big year for Jessica and a sort of coming-out for Deborah Ann Woll. She plays the teenage, fish out of water, vampire with a developing conscience character extremely well. She’s also pretty much gorgeous.