She plays a computer specialist and sometime-action hero on one of the most successful television shows of all time. She occasionally acts in off-beat films like Punch Drunk Love and Little Miss Sunshine and in indie movies like Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, a 2004 film so dark it barely graced theater marquees before heading to DVD and quasi-cult status. She counts stand-up comedy among her creative outlets. And Mary Lynn Rajskub, a.k.a Chloe on FOX's 24, says she is equally at home in any and all of those seemingly incompatible worlds.

1.Where were you born?
Detroit, Michigan

2.Do you have any siblings?
Two older sisters

3 What did you study in college?
Fine art

4.Do you have any pets?
A cockapoo named Emmy

5. Do you have any nicknames?
No nicknames

6.What is your favorite restaurant?
Baja Fresh and Starbuck's not really-that thai place in pasadena, Soledang

7. What is your favorite TV Show?
24

8. Who is your favorite band/musician?
John Mayer and Jessica Simpson's pictures, Elliot Smith, Freedom of 76 by Ween. Starman by David Bowie

9. If you could live anyplace in the world where would it be?
Embassy Suites in Albuquerque, Culver City, in a hole.

10. Who do you think should be the next President of the United States?
Hillary Clinton

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, here's some pilot and casting news from the major networks:

First of all, the FOX drama pilot NSA Innocent is now Company Man, and has cast Jason Behr in the lead as a man hired by the NSA to spy on his own company. Annie Wersching of General Hospital will play his wife.

Heather Locklear has been cast in the title role for the ABC comedy pilot See Jayne Run, about a tough career woman trying to balance work and motherhood.

Last year, when FOX announced that Joe Buck (right) would add pre-game hosting to his play-by-play duties on the network's NFL broadcasts, the words "one-year experiment" kept popping into my head. I mean, think about how impractical having Buck pull double duty was going to be: every week, FOX NFL Sunday would have to go on the road, broadcasting from the stadium of whatever game Buck and booth partner Troy Aikman were working that week. By the last few weeks of the season, which found the show originating from its Los Angeles home base, you knew that the network was wearying of the constant road trips.

So it comes as no big surprise that, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the network gave Buck the choice to do one or the other next year, but not both. Wisely, Buck chose to stay in the booth. Curt Menefee, who ably took the anchor chair during halftimes, post-game shows, and when Buck was working the baseball playoffs, will be installed as the permanent host.

Last night on American Idol, we all said "Bye Bye Curly." Did curly-haired Chris Sligh deserve to go home so soon? Or was there some vast conspiracy to oust Sligh for his on-air shout-out last week to Vote for the Worst?

At the end of last week's performance, Chris reportedly said, "Hi Dave." David Della Terza is the man behind VFTW, a snarky website he founded in 2004. Dave was thrilled by Sligh's on-air acknowledgement. But the Idol producers were not amused. According to Dave, the producers edited out the "Hi Dave" when the show aired in England.

In his day-after exit interview, former 'American Idol' contestant Chris Sligh revealed he almost dropped out of the competition two weeks ago because of artistic differences.

"I never came into this wanting to win it. I come from an indie / alternative rock kind of background," Sligh told TV reporters during a conference call. "For me, I think winning would hurt what I was really going for."

After the judges criticized his arrangement of the Diana Ross classic "Endless Love," said Sligh: "I went to the guy from 19 [Entertainment] and said, 'If I drop out, can I still go on tour?' And they were like, 'No, you have to get voted out.' So I was like, 'Well, we'll see what happens.'"

I said Chris R. and some of you said Chris S. You were right and I was wrong. I guess "denial" ain't just a river in Egypt. (Sorry, I couldn't help it. I'm a sucker for bad puns) What I mean is that I was hoping Hurley would stick around a little longer, and I've been unwilling to admit his declining performance quality. He still may have done enough to have Hasselhoff shed some tears of joy, though.

The good news is that he's number ten. That means he's been getting at least AFTRA scale for the last two weeks and will get to make some loot on tour. An AI "work for hire" isn't exactly winning the Powerball lottery, but mini-bar debts won't be a problem anymore. I love the mini-bar.

Plus, playing arenas for 10-20,000 screaming fans is any singer's dream. It's the kind of opportunity that makes established indie acts loath and despise American Idols. I can't really blame them either. I'd be mad too if I watched someone do in nine months what I still hadn't achieved after years of work.

That lack of infrastructure eventually catches up to the Idols, though. Overnight celebrities are forgotten just as fast as they're made. Just wait, in a couple weeks time when we're still caught up on "When will what's-his-name finally be voted off the show" and "I wonder who will win the diva three-way throw-down," the guy with the curly hair will slip from our minds.

Though she plays 24's scowling computer whiz Chloe O'Brian -- who has a penchant for Tasering men who approach her in bars while she's working -- actress Mary Lynn Rajskub, in real life, is not a tech geek.

That didn't stop the folks at Geek Monthly from putting 24's fan favorite on its cover.

The Q&A is quite amusing. When Rajskub couldn't really provide answers to the techie-oriented questions (like, "What's your favorite Linux distro?"), they resorted to asking if she knows what a mouse is.

They also asked whether her on-screen character is autistic. Her response? "I've heard about this. Let's just say I'm a genius and leave it at that. And that I can talk to dolphins."

[Via 24headquarters.com.]

(S02E17) It was forced. The tension that Booth and Bones exhibited during the episode didn't seem natural at all. Yes, it was explained that their differences had increased since Sully hopped a yacht down to the warm oceans of the Caribbean, but it just didn't seem convincing to me. Especially when Booth kept saying to Temperance that they should go talk to Seely's shrink about this all. It was like he was stirring the pot just to get Bones to come along with him.

With that being said, there were some real tension-filled moments. The one that stands out for me is during one of the interrogation scenes with Bones, Booth and Father William. Bones being Bones she mentioned something about not worshiping Loki anymore or something like that, and then chuckled. Not only did the Father glare at her, but Booth gave her one of the angriest looks I've seen him give her on this show.

Now, the scenes with our two detectives speaking with Gordon Wyatt made up for that real and imaginary tension. I particularly liked how he spoke to both of them away from their natural habitats -- Booth in the labs of the Jeffersonian Institution and Bones in the interrogation room at the FBI offices. Those scenes helped add a layer of depth onto Bones and Booth that we hadn't noticed before, or hadn't realized until Gordon mentioned it. I point out Temperance in this because Wyatt hit the nail on the head about Bones' frustration that she couldn't capture the essence of Booth's 'sixth sense'

(S06E25) Two important questions will be answered tonight, Ryan says. "Who's going home, and how will Sanjaya wear his hair?"

Blake is safe. LaKisha is safe. Phil IS in the bottom three. Melinda is safe. Chris R rebounds from last week's bottom two and IS safe. Sanjaya (yawn) is safe AGAIN. Haley IS in the bottom three. And Jordin, of course, is safe. Which means, either Chris Sligh or Gina is in the bottom three, but we won't know who until the end of the show.

Fast Forward. Turns out CHRIS SLIGH joins PHIL and HALEY in the bottom three. But Philly is sent back to safety once again.

SLIGH vs. SCARNATO? Who's going home? Randy says it's a tough call. Paula says they both deserve "warmth" from the audience. Simon thinks it's "Bye, Bye Curly."

*If you haven't watched the new episode of 24 yet, don't read any more, unless you want to find out what happened.*

Viewers are getting restless. And they're grumbling. Across the blogosphere. Among TV critics. And the buzz isn't good. People are hoping that things turn around for 24 and their boy Jack Bauer soon. 'Cause the most recent episode . . . well, 'twas disappointing.

Nonetheless, I'll try to be positive (and snarky) as I recap four select moments from this week's episode:

Quote of note: It's a Chloe O'Brian "quote of note" victory. Again. Three weeks in a row. "We all thought she was guilty. This is gonna be awkward," our gal Chloe said as Nadia Yassir prepared to rejoin her CTU colleagues after Yassir was briefly detained for suspected treasonous behavior.

Fans of Standoff, the FOX hostage negotiator drama starring Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt, were worried when it was announced that the show was moving to Fridays. Now here's more to be concerned about: the show isn't returning at all until the summer.

It was supposed to return in April, but FOX has decided the show won't be back until after the network announces its fall schedule in May. I wonder how this will affect their decision, since the show has been on hiatus for a while and they're not going to know what the summer numbers are until, well, the show airs in the summer. They insist the show isn't canceled, but this can't be seen as a "good" sign, that's for sure. It got pretty good numbers when it was on.

For the record, I thought the show was so-so.

Now here's a case of synergy I can get behind: According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 7-Eleven is in talks with the producers of The Simpsons Movie to convert eleven of the company's stores into Kwik-E-Marts in a promotional stunt. The converted stores would sell items that Apu Nahasapeemapetilon might sell in his fictional store, like Krusty-Os, Buzz Cola, and Squishies (lucky for the 7-11 folks that they have a very similar product, huh?). Also the images of Simpsons characters would be placed on other 7-11 products on sale, like their deli sandwiches (with Homer going "mmmm... sandwiches," of course).

It's a pretty interesting idea, if they do it for a limited time, like maybe for two weeks before the movie's July 27 opening and maybe for a week afterwards. Any longer, and those temporary Kwik-E-Mart signs are just going to look kinda sad. And, hopefully, they won't sell the Krusty-Os with the free jagged metal O inside. That's just asking for trouble.

[via Netscape. Thanks to sister site Gadling for the funny composite picture.]

Well, Yippee. Just when I thought we were half way through the season, and my job would be getting slightly easier (Yay for half hour results shows!) the Idol producers decide to see just how much they can push their baby, by adding even more one-hour shows to the schedule.

The producers claim that they are making the switch to one-hour results shows a month earlier than expected because there hasn't even been enough time for the booted singers to perform their farewell songs on air during the crammed 30-minute editions.

Sanjaya has turned American Idol into a hair competition with himself. Many people have used the term mohawk but Sanjaya actually resembled more of a fighting Trojan. If anyone can find a comparable picture to prove this please send my way. Sanjaya cannot get all the attention for looney television moments, so we will move on to other TV's Top 5! moments.

Last night, Tori "I want to be Jessica Simpson" Spelling talked about how she thought she killed her baby after rough sex with her husband Dean McDermott on Tori and Dean: Inn Love. The baby stopped kicking after their antics and this worried the inheritance disabled Spelling. Regardless of how worried she truly was, it stop her from entertaining an encore performance. Where do these reality show actresses come up with this stuff?

Jennifer Aniston, you may have lost Brad and Vince, but you can alway be Dirt-y with Cox...

It's amazing what a great set of songs will do for the show. I use the word "great" loosely since most of the songs sung on Idol were chart-toppers at one point or another. I suppose The Police, The Pretenders and The Cure are more the kind of thing that I'd go pay money to see in concert. So, for me, tonight was a good one. Thanks Gwen for having great taste in music.

Musical taste can't save some, though. Just when I thought what's-his-name was finally going away, once again he's found a way to set office break rooms a buzz with his faux-hawk worthy of the West Village on Halloween night --not that there's anything wrong with it. There's a future in freakiness -- just not in singing. Not for him anyway.