calista flockhart

Not every woman can look like Salma Hayek, but every woman can smell like her. Just in time for the holidays, InsideBayArea.com has released a list of the fragrances favored by television's leading ladies. Not everyone understands the appeal of expensive perfume, and nobody wants to be around someone doused in it. Perfume is an indulgence when you're penny pinching, but I've got to admit that it's one of my own weaknesses.

As you might expect, the perfumes on the list are ridiculously pricey, but at least, no one is wearing Britney's Curious for Women. I personally can't afford any of these scents - even in the 1 oz. bottle - but I can certainly "test" them at Sephora. Here are some list highlights: The Gilmore Girls' Lauren Graham wears Fracas by Robert Piguet; Men in Trees' Anne Heche wears Amaze by IsaDora; Ugly Betty's Salma Hayek wears Narciso Rodriguez's For Her; Big Day's Marla Sokoloff wears Trish McEvoy's #9; and Brothers & Sisters' Calista Flockhart wears be by becker.eshaya.

Rob Lowe likes playing politicians, doesn't he? Well, at the very least, he like playing politically based roles. Maybe those roles give him a chance to jut his chin two or three times per episode, but I can't be sure.

Anyway, the reason why I ask is because Variety reports that Lowe has been signed to play a "John McCain-type Republican" senator (Do Hollywood scribes write any other type of Republicans?) in at least six episodes of the ABC show Brothers & Sisters. His character will be running for reelection while going through a contentious divorce, and will start dating Calista Flockhart's character Kitty when he goes on her talk show.

Jon Robin Baitz, the show's executive producer, wrote the role with Lowe in mind, and tells Variety that he hopes Lowe will stay full time after his six episode stint is over.

Related:
Trouble on the set of Brothers & Sisters
Brothers & Sisters gets full season order

Interesting piece in Slate today, on all of the TV shows on ABC that writer Troy Patterson calls a "nauseating lineup of yuppie dramas."

Which shows is he talking about? You can probably guess: Men In Trees, Brothers & Sisters, What About Brian, and Six Degrees. I think that Patterson's whole viewpoint can be summed up with this paragraph:

These shows share a view of the human mind modeled on Dr. Phil's and an aesthetic sense shamelessly cribbed from a Pottery Barn catalog. When you watch them, you're mostly watching people feel bad over beverages. Despite it's pseudo-literary ambitions, the genre's got a certain soap-operatic streak, and the soap's an orange-lavender bath wash.

Ouch.

(S01E01) I had an early look at this one a couple weeks ago, and finally premiere day is here. The Brothers & Sisters writers face a tough problem with the launch of the show. There is just so much information to convey to give the viewer an idea of who all of these people are. It leads to what sometimes feels like a rushed episode.

This also means that most of the happenings around the family in this episode are set-ups for future arcs that will involve the characters. Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) and Tommy (Balthazar Getty) discovering the financial shenanigans of Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin), Justin's (Dave Annable) hangups from his past, and Kitty's (Calista Flockhart) relationship with her mother (Sally Field) are all clearly things that we will be looking at closer as the show moves along. For me though, the highlight of this episode was the confrontation between Kitty and her mother.

With the doctors from Grey's Anatomy packing up their little black bags and moving to Thursday, ABC had a spot to fill on the Sunday schedule. Starting September 24th, the post Desperate Housewives slot will be the new home of Brothers & Sisters. I've just watched a rough cut of the episode "Patriarchy", let me tell you a little bit about it.

Of course, the big news with the show is that it marks the return of Calista Flockhart to series television. In a departure from her Ally McBeal character she plays Kitty Walker, a 39 year-old right-wing conservative radio host in New York. This episode finds her heading home to Los Angeles to interview for a job on a political talk show, and to see the family.

The Walker family is made up of a pretty impressive list of actors, including Tom Skerrit, Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Balthazar Getty, and Ron Rifkin. "Patriarchy" walks a fine line between telling the story and introducing all of these characters. As we meet each of them, little bits of the overall story are revealed, setting up events for future episodes.

The preview for this weeks Blade teased a kiss between Krista (Jill Wagner) and Chase (Jessica Gower). In celebration of that possibility, I thought now would be a good time to touch on other girl-girl kisses in our television history. Sometimes they are to make a statement. Sometimes they are a ploy to grab ratings. And every once in a while, it's just a natural part of the story. Here are the five that come to mind first for me.

Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Sharon (Mariel Hemingway) - Roseanne
This was an important moment in television. At the time, there was no L-Word, and two girls kissing was still a very controversial thing. Roseanne has her faults, to be sure, but standing up to the network to get this episode on the air is something to be proud of.

Ally (Calista Flockhart) and Ling (Lucy Liu) - Ally McBeal
This one strikes me as somewhat the opposite of the Roseanne kiss. There was much less statement, and much more ratings grabbing sensationalism in this lip-lock. In that regard, it worked very well. Of course, the gang over at Ally McBeal had plenty of practice. Along with Ling, Ally also kissed Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Elaine (Jane Krokowski). But if I have to pick one, it's Ling every time. And yes, I was an Ally McBeal fan.

Oh, puh-lease. The Parent Television Council, a group that has a stick up its collective ass, has made a formal complaint to the FCC about last week's Emmy telecast. It wasn't the plane crash skit that ignited their anger, it was a comment by winner Helen Mirren as she accepted her Emmy for Best Actress in HBO's Elizabeth I. You may recall, Helen worried about taking a tumble on her way up to the stage. She mentioned falling "tits over ass", a common British phrase. Calista Flockhart later presented with Mirren and said the phrase again in playful banter. NBC did air the show on a delay but chose not to censor the comment. The PTC released this statement, "It is utterly irresponsible and atrocious for NBC to air this vulgar language during the safe harbor time when millions of children were in the viewing audience." The FCC is reportedly trying to decifer its own rules to determine whether the offense is worthy of a fine.

(S01E12) Very few writers can somehow lampoon both Independence Day and Ally McBeal in the same episode and somehow make it look like it makes sense. I mean, take a look at Family Guy; it rockets from one pop-culture reference to the next without much of a thought to context or its relatability to the actual plot of the episode. The writers of Futurama, however, seem to take such a juxtaposition and smoothly incorporate it into the plot of the show. It could be the fact that the show takes place in the future, where you can create something like Monument Beach and make it sound plausible. But it might just be damn good writing (or at least, writing that's not done by manatees).

There are just some shows that get in creative troubles from day one; look at what happened last year with Commander in Chief. Well, it looks like another ABC show is having some problems right out of the gate. Marti Noxon, the executive producer and show runner for Brothers & Sisters, a new show starring Calista Flockhart, has left the show, reportedly over conflicts with the show's creator. The show, which is set to air Sundays at 10, is reported to still be in production, though a new show runner hasn't been named.

Remember, a couple of casting changes have already been announced for this show, including the casting of Sally Field as the mother of those brothers and sisters in the title. She replaced Betty Buckley, who played the role in the pilot.

Not a good sign for a show in such a high profile slot, is it?

You can get a really good idea of ABC's fall schedule right here, where Yahoo! has posted clips from 12 of ABC's new shows for the fall. Clips include Brothers & Sisters (Calista Flockhart), Day Break (Taye Diggs), Men in Trees (Anne Heche), The Nine (Scott Wolf), Six Degrees (created by J.J. Abrams), Traveler, Betty the Ugly, Big Day, Help Me Help You (Ted Danson), In Case of Emergency, Let's Rob..., and Notes from the Underbelly.

Some early thoughts after the jump:

Now that pilot season is wrapping up, it's casting season in L.A., where mega-stars or yet-to-be-discovered actors sign on to all sorts of new shows in hopes that the networks will pick them up for the fall line-up. There are a lot of big names this time around. Check it out:

• Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) will star in the ABC drama pilot Brothers & Sisters, a soap-style drama about adult siblings.
• Heather Locklear is in negotiations for a leading role in the ABC comedy pilot, Women of a Certain Age. Locklear would play a recently widowed woman who starts a new life with her two best friends.
• Ron Livingston (Sex and the City, Office Space) is one of two leads in a FOX drama called Primary, which is about a male and a female hostage negotiator who balance their love lives with their jobs.
• Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos) has agreed to star in CBS' Waterfront, as the charismatic and "ethically-challenged" mayor of Providence, R.I.
• Steven Culp, previously known as Rex Van De Kamp on Desperate Housewives, will appear in the ABC drama, Traveler, about three Yale graduate students who become a national security risk when one of them frames the other two for an art museum bombing.
• Swoosie Kurtz will take on a supporting role in the CBS comedy, Play Nice, which stars Timm Sharp and Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect) as a brother and sister who run a toy company.
• Jonah Lotan, who has been playing Spenser Wolff this season on 24, will take on a role on the FOX thriller, Beyond, which is about the space race.

[Via The Hollywood Reporter]