Check out these very nice pictures of Diora Baird from the June 2009 issue of FHM Magazine.
I don’t really have anything other than the pictures to post about Diora, she looks hot so I wanted to share them with you – nothing wrong with that is there?
If you plan on seeing the new Star Trek movie then look out for Diora Baird in it as she is playing “Orion Slave Girl” and she is also going to be in a new film called Pornstar, which is describes as “set against the backdrop of our current booming porn industry, Pornstar is an unflinching exploration into America’s obsession with sex, fame, and money, and what cost people are willing to pay for these things, and the lies we tell ourselves to make it through the day.”
Star Trek costars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto go eyebrow crazy in the latest cover of Entertainment Weekly.
In this issue, the mag talks about director J.J. Abrahms launching Spock (Quinto) and Kirk (Pine) back into space and the surprising secrets of next summer’s blockbuster.
Star Trek: The Movie opens in theaters nationwide on May 8, 2009 and costars Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, Winona Ryder, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban and John Cho.
Ivan Dixon, best known for his role as Sergeant James Kinchloe on “Hogan’s Heroes,” died Sunday.
Actor Ivan Dixon, who brought the problems and promise of contemporary blacks to life in the film “Nothing But a Man” and portrayed the levelheaded POW Kinchloe in TV’s “Hogan’s Heroes,” has died. He was 76. Dixon died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte after a hemorrhage, said his daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon of Charlotte. He had suffered complications from kidney failure, she said.
Dixon, who also directed scores of television shows, began his acting career in the late 1950s. He appeared on Broadway in William Saroyan’s 1957 “The Cave Dwellers” and in playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking 1959 drama of black life, “A Raisin in the Sun.” In the latter, he played a Nigerian student visiting the United States, a role he repeated in the film version. While not a hit, the 1964 “Nothing But a Man,” in which Dixon co-starred with Abbey Lincoln, also drew praise as a rare, early effort to bring the lives of black Americans to the big screen. Other film credits included “Something of Value,” “A Patch of Blue” and the cult favorite “Car Wash.”
“As an actor, you had to be careful,” said Sidney Poitier, star of “Patch of Blue” and a longtime friend. “He was quite likely to walk off with the scene.”
In 1967, Dixon starred in a CBS Playhouse drama, “The Final War of Olly Winter,” about a veteran of World War II and Korea who decided that Vietnam would be his final war. The role brought Dixon an Emmy nomination for best single performance by an actor.
He was probably best known for the role of Staff Sgt. James Kinchloe on “Hogan’s Heroes,” the hit 1960s sitcom set in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. The technically adept Kinchloe was in charge of electronic communications and could mimic German officers on the radio or phone.
Dixon was active in efforts to get better parts for blacks in movies and television, telling The New York Times in 1967: “Sponsors haven’t wanted anything negative connected with their products. We must convince them that the Negro is not negative.” “Heretofore, people have thought that, to use a Negro, the story must pit black against white. Maybe we’re getting to the problems of human beings who happen to be black.”
While Dixon was most proud of roles such as those in “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Nothing But a Man,” he had no problem about being recognized for Kinchloe, his daughter said. “It was a pivotal role as well, because there were not as many blacks in TV series at that time,” Nomathande Dixon said. “He did have some personal issues with that role, but it also launched him into directing.”
Dixon also directed numerous episodes of TV shows, including “The Waltons,” “The Rockford Files,” “Magnum, P.I.” and “In the Heat of the Night.”
I didn’t know about his directorial career and had forgotten he was in “Car Wash,” which I saw more than 30 years ago. His role as Kinchloe, though, was quite memorable. Interestingly, he was the only original cast member to leave the show before it ended its run.
I saw “Hogan’s Heroes” in reruns in the early 1970s, by which point it didn’t seem particularly unusual that a black NCO would be among the prisoners, so it never occurred to me that the role was groundbreaking. The same was true of Nichelle Nichols’ part in “Star Trek.”
Comedian Whoopie Goldberg will be taking over Rosie O’Donnell’s slot on “The View,” Star’s Jessica Schimmel reports.
“As far as everyone at ABC is concerned, she has the job,” a network insider confirms to Star. “They have been meeting with Kathy Griffin, Rosanne Barr, Ricki Lake and Gayle King.” While Kathy was a strong contender, Whoopi has won everyone over.”
“Everyone is acting like Whoopi already has the gig,” the show insider adds.
“Whoopi has a radio show, she lives in NYC and she is an institution. She also is liberal and outspoken but not crazy like Rosie was. She will be a perfect fit as far as the ladies on The View are concerned.” Nothing has been officially announced,” says the insider. “But it is 99 percent Whoopi at this point. They will have a few guest hosts throughout the summer but the executives and producers at The View are set on Ms. Goldberg to start in the fall.”
ABC executives are so excited about signing Whoopi that they even offered her what they refused to give Rosie – a year-to-year deal. “When Rosie finds out, she’ll be furious!” tattles another source.
Goldberg, 51, is more than qualified. She’s hosted the Oscars four times and holds a Grammy, Emmy, Oscar and Tony Award. And even Rosie O’Donnell has written on her official blog (www.rosie.com) that she would like Whoopi to take over her role. Goldberg has appeared in over 150 movies and is currently the host of Wake Up With Whoopi, which premiered in 2006.
I was never a big fan of Goldberg during her days as a vulgar standup but I warmed up to her during her acting carer, notably her recurring role as Guinan on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Certainly, she’s an improvement over O’Donnell.
If all goes as planned Saturday, the cremated remains of the actor who portrayed “Scotty” aboard Star Trek’s starship Enterprise will sail into suborbital space aboard a rocket launched from the southern New Mexico desert.
Freaky, but I guess an honorable send off, considering who he is.
Actor James Doohan’s remains, along with those of Apollo 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper and about 200 others, are aboard the second private rocket scheduled to be launched at Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in Upham, N.M.
UP Aerospace Inc. of Farmington, Conn., launched the first rocket from the desert site in September. But that Spaceloft XL rocket crashed into the rugged desert after spiraling out of control about nine seconds after liftoff.
Company officials blamed the failure on a faulty fin design. A Spaceloft SL-2 rocket, with a fourth fin added for stability, will carry the cremains, which were loaded into the rocket last month.
Family members paid $495 to place a few grams of their relatives’ ashes on the rocket. Celestis, a Texas company, contracted with UP to send the cremated remains into space.
Charles Chafer, chief executive of Celestis, said last month that a CD with more than 11,000 condolences and fan notes was placed on the rocket with Doohan’s cremains.
Doohan died in July 2005, at age 85. The remains of Gene Roddenberry, who created “Star Trek,” were sent into space in 1997.
Saturday’s launch from the fledgling spaceport _ currently a 100-foot by 25-foot concrete slab in a patch of desert more than 50 miles north of Las Cruces _ continues to keep the New Mexico project ahead of its nearest competitor in the West Texas desert.
Star Trek: The Next Generation producer Robert Justman says that Patrick Stewart almost didn’t get the role of Jean Luc Picard.
“Gene and I were searching for the proper captain and we hadn’t found him.” Justman recalled to BBC Online “We knew it was a man and we knew he was French and he was very hairy. Hopefully he was a handsome leading man, French, in fact.”
“We saw some rather good actors. But time was passing and we were getting close to when we had to start filming. We couldn’t find that magical person. My wife and I were taking a course at UCLA on humour. In the arts. Tonight’s lecture was to be a reading by two people – one was Patrick Stewart. He came out with the lady and they were – proceeded to do some Shakespeare. And he read his first line and I went crazy. I turned to my wife I said I think I’ve found our new captain.”
“We met at Gene Roddenberry’s house, Patrick pulled up in his rental car and we spent about 45 minutes together, talking. We watched Patrick drive away in his rental car to go to the airport and Gene closed the door, turned around, faced me and said, and I quote, ‘I won’t have him.’”
“He wouldn’t have him and he wouldn’t tell me why. But I know why. I knew why. I knew that he had conceived of a Frenchman. And, you know, who was masculine, virile, and had a lot of hair. And Patrick didn’t fit that at all. Patrick was not so handsome, he was distinctive, and he was quite bald. Quite bald.”
“I was hot to trot. I was very, very enthused about Patrick playing the role. And I kept after Gene and Gene kept fighting me off until one day we had a new producer come on the scene, and that was Rick [Berman]. Rick saw Patrick’s film and fell in love with him. As did our casting director. So the three of us were allied in the fight to get Patrick as the captain. And Gene was allied in his own fight not to have him at all. So finally I realised that the more I pushed, the more he dug his heels in.”
“I made an announcement, one day, in a meeting when the subject was brought up and I said I don’t want to hear the name Patrick Stewart ever again. It’s over with Patrick Stewart, forget him. I did that on purpose to make Gene think that I’d given up. “And every time anyone mentioned Patrick Stewart’s name to me, I would explode and say ‘I don’t want to hear that. Don’t tell me Patrick Stewart any more’. Finally our last possible candidate came to audition for us. And the guy, whoever he was, read for us and talked with us and he left the room, the door closed and we were all silent. There was not a sound to be heard. And finally Gene Roddenberry heaved a big sigh. He said ‘All right, I’ll go with Patrick’”
Sam at Farpoint Media remarks, “Fans of the series and franchise are forever greatful to Gene’s staff for believing in Patrick and for Gene to be man enough to put the project first over his own tunneled view of the character, because Star Trek without Patrick Stewart would be like dry cereal without milk — bland, tasteless and boring.” But, superb as Stewart was, it’s quite likely another actor could have made the role work. The character would certainly have evolved differently, however, with a different personality in the red uniform
The folks at EntertainmentWikia have named the “Ten Biggest Nerds in TV History.” The winners:
1: Professor Frink (The Simpsons)
2: Samuel “Screech” Powers (Saved by the Bell)
3: The Lone Gunmen (The X-Files)
4: The Whole Cast of Head of the Class
5: Gilligan (Gilligan’s Island)
6: Marshall Flinkman (Alias)
7: Steve Urkel (Family Matters)
8: Paul Pfeiffer (The Wonder Years)
9: Wesley Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
10: Gil Grissom (CSI)
Click the link for detailed explanations and a list of some honorable mentions.
“Star Trek” star George Takei, who recently came out as gay, made this video for Jimmy Kimmel commenting on former NBA star Tim Hardaway’s anti-gay comments:
This has been going around for awhile, apparently, as my co-bloggers Alex Knapp and Chris Lawrence both had it on their personal sites some time back and Steven Taylor picked it up, too. Still, it’s pretty funny.
William Shatner tells IGN’s Eric Goldman that he and Leonard Nimoy may reprise their roles as Kirk and Spock in “Star Trek: Legacy,” the 11th Trek film, directed by JJ Abrams.
IGN: JJ Abrams is working on the new Star Trek film, which is reportedly about a young Kirk and Spock. How do you feel about possibly watching someone else play that character?
Shatner: Well, it’s going to happen. It’s not so much the character. You know, it’s that old adage about, “Get me a young Shatner.” I’m at the “Get me a young Shatner” moment.
IGN: Have you spoken to JJ Abrams about the project?
Shatner: Actually, I did, and they’re working very hard on a story. They seem to be going in the direction of putting in [Leonard] Nimoy and myself. But in order to do that, it’s a difficult story to write. So they’re in the midst of wrestling with all of that.
IGN: So they’re looking to put the two of you in, in a framing device, or in some way?
Shatner: I’m not sure what they’re going to do. But in order to entice Leonard and myself into the movie, it has to be meaningful in some way, so I don’t know what they’re gonna do.
So long as it’s some sort of cameo role rather than a “bring Kirk back from the dead” thing, it could be fun. Part of Trek’s fun is its long (by television/movie/pop culture standards, anyway) history. Kirk and Spock are iconic characters and it’s always good to see them.
Cue the iconic theme music: Forty years ago, on September 8, 1966, “Star Trek” lifted off into TV and cultural history. Over the subsequent decades, the sci-fi adventure series has amassed millions of fans and emerged as a relentless entertainment empire.
Stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy sat down recently with the Associated Press and recalled “The Man Trap,” the episode that would kick off the show’s three-year prime-time run. “The first show that was on the air was a show with a creature that was a salt sucker,” recalled Nimoy. “It was somebody inside a weird-looking suit and it attacked humans because it needed the copper or the salt out of your body to survive or something like that.” “That was the first one?” asked Shatner. “Yes, that was the first one on the air,” Nimoy answered. “And it was because NBC decided that this series would be most successful if we had sort of a monster of the week to sell. What’s the monster this week? And so they put a monster show on the air the first episode, and I think it was a terrible mistake, because it was really not what we were about.”
To mark the anniversary, classic-TV network TV Land on Friday (8 p.m. EDT) will showcase four episodes from the original “Star Trek” series, including the premiere and the historic episode featuring TV’s first interracial kiss. “Star Trek” episodes will begin airing regularly on the channel on November 17. Episodes will also be available online at TVLand.com.
The biplay between Shatner and Nimoy in the rest of the article is fairly amusing. The show’s special effects and fealty to science are laughable by today’s Sci-Fi standards but, then, the original Trek’s magic was the interaction of the characters, not the great plots or encounters with “monsters.” The repartee between the ensemble cast, especially Shatner’s Captain Kirk, Nimoy’s Mr. (Commander) Spock, and the late DeForest Kelley’s Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy was unsurpassed.
The spin-offs, especially “Next Generation” and “Deep Space 9,” had bigger budgets, were much better science fiction and had more interesting plots, but they never quite had the chemistry of the original.
The next Star Trek movie is under development, reports Robert Hyde from ComicCon.
As more and more revelations come out of this years Comic-Con here’s some news that we all wanted to know was true as the rumours have been flying around for ages, Star Trek XI will be with us in 2008 and here’s the poster to prove it.
JJ Abrams who has had a hit this year with the Tom Cruise vehicle Mission:Impossible III is on board as producer and writer, although it’s not been revealed yet if he will direct or allow someone else that honour. Recent internet rumblings have suggested that he will write a story that goes back to Kirk and Spocks academy days, but these have been denied in the past.
Whatever happens is good to see that Paramount have handed the series over to some capable hands, and that they are not going to rush release a film to the market next year, a 2008 release date means that a lot of thought can go into the production and hopefully bring the flagging series back to a place where it sat in the 80’s and 90’s.
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan look 20 years younger in the opening sequence of X-Men 3, thanks to some new movie magic.
What a pair those dashing young mutants Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart make in “X-Men: The Last Stand.” The two 60-something actors had 20 years shaved off their features for the opening sequence in the comic-book franchise’s latest flick, the filmmakers using digital technology to match current features to those in old photos. In the scene, McKellen, 67, and Stewart, 65, look like fair approximations of themselves in their mid-40s, a time when McKellen was busy doing Shakespeare on the British stage and Stewart had just taken over the starship Enterprise on TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
“It’s as brilliantly done as airbrushing in a magazine. You cannot tell the difference,” McKellen said. “You can grow hair, you can shrink eyebrows, you can change cheekbones, you can magnify bosoms, shrink waists. You can do anything you want. It looks like a younger person. Patrick looks sensational.”
[...]
The opening sequence of “X-Men: The Last Stand” features Xavier and Lehnsherr 20 years earlier, still allies as they make first contact with super-mutant Jean Grey as a teenager, who grows into a powerful telepath played by Famke Janssen.
Wrinkles and sagging jowls have been magically wiped clean from Stewart and McKellen’s faces. “I’m scared for Hollywood, because A-list movie stars are going to be putting that in their contract. `I want 10 years taken off me.’ This technology is unbelievable,” said “X-Men: The Last Stand” director Brett Ratner. “It’s like painting the lines out of your face. Why do people have to have plastic surgery, anymore? Just be in a movie and look flawless and perfect.”
Stewart said he and McKellen had fun with the process even before the digital effects were applied, toying around with their carriage and body language to re-create the bearing of men 20 years younger. The technology could come in handy if plans for “X-Men” prequels ever materialize, Stewart said. “Ian was saying the other day there has been talk of a prequel with a younger Magneto and Xavier,” Stewart said. “Well, here we are, Ian and I. Wheel us out and spend the money on the technology.”
That’s be rather expensive. Still, it’s amazing what they can do these days.
Actor James Doohan’s remains, along with those of Apollo 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper and about 200 others, are aboard the second private rocket scheduled to be launched at Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in Upham, N.M. 
