Maggie Grace Is Not A Tech Girl

Maggie Grace in her latest movie, "Taken"

Many entertainment personalities are using online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to connect with their fans. That said, actress Maggie Grace prefers to keep her communication less high-tech.

“I don’t have any of these sites at the moment, and if there’s somebody on there under my name talking about sketchy stuff, its not me!” she jokes. “I know these technologies are a big part of a lot of my friends lives. I don’t want to malign it all, I’m just slow to catch on.”

Maggie’s iPod Playlist

Actress Maggie Grace tells me that Brett Dennen, Blonde Redhead, The Black Keys, Fleet Foxes, Deb Talan & Ray LaMontagne are just a few of the artists playing on her iPod.

What else satisfies Grace’s eclectic music palate? “Lovely old Tango my friend burned me in Argentina,” she says. “Alfred de Angelis, Nelly Omar and Maria Grana.”

Lindelof Reveals Lost Season 5 Details

If you’re like me, Wednesday, Jan. 21 cannot come soon enough. That’s when the much-anticipated season premiere of Lost airs on ABC. Last week, I had the chance to ask Executive Producer Damon Lindelof to define the central theme of the show’s fifth season. He promised that Lost will continue its tradition of audience engagement by leveraging the intersection of character and mythology.

“Season five’s defining focus is hopefully a marriage between mythology and character,” Lindelof told me. “Obviously, we’re moving into our end game, so there’s a lot of story to tell and a lot of mysteries to start unraveling, but it’s our hope that the center of the show remains our people.”

Photo Credit: ABC/CRAIG SJODIN

The Ravens Lose…Let’s Hope Stacy Keibler Wins

 

SAMURAI GIRL - Stacy Keibler as "Karen" in "Samurai Girl." (ABC FAMILY/EIKE SCHROTER)

Last summer, I interviewed Stacy Keibler for an article at The Trades. The former Ravens cheerleader pledged her fandom for Baltimore’s football franchise and told me she’s a season ticket holder. The boys in purple surely gave her a lot to cheer about this season, but the AFC Championship showdown belonged to the black and gold. I have to admire Stacy’s loyalty, even though my own allegiances lie with the steel city.

 

While she and I won’t be rooting for the same football team any time soon, I hope she enjoys continued success in front of the camera in 2009. She possesses the type of charisma and class that plays well in almost any genre. Last year, she appeared in ABC Family’s Samurai Girl. The Baltimore Sun reports she’ll now have a role in another ABC series titled In the Motherhood. The series should air sometime this spring.

  

On the Red Carpet with Will Smith

On Thursday, Nov. 20, Will Smith visited Cleveland to premiere his new movie, “Seven Pounds.” View my full report from the red carpet below.

Please periodically check out my You Tube channel.  I’ll be adding more video reports, which will also appear on this blog.

Check out my article about Smith’s visit to Cleveland at The Trades.

Bond’s Torment – Scribe Robert Wade Talks “Quantum”

The talented writing duo of Robert Wade and Neal Purvis has become a staple of the Bond franchise. After penning “Casino Royale,” perhaps the best Bond movie in recent memory, they have high expectations to fulfill with Bond’s latest adventure.

With “Quantum of Solace” making its U.S. release today, I had a chance to ask Wade about the storytelling approach employed in this new release. He stressed that “Quantum of Solace” is a continuation of “Casino Royale” especially in terms of exploring Bond’s raw emotional state.

“There was no way [Bond] could just emerge from ‘Casino Royale’ and be smooth and unruffled off the bat in the next picture,” Wade commented. “Also, the concept of the next film being ‘part 2’ of ‘Casino’ was implicit early on in our development of ‘Casino Royale’ – both continuing Bond’s emotional journey, and learning more of the enemies ranged against him behind the scenes in ‘Casino Royale’.” 

Lizzy Caplan – A Bad Robot?

J.J. Abrams (left) and Lizzy Caplan (right) ©Paramount Pictures

I recently spoke with actress Lizzy Caplan about her upcoming role in HBO’s True Blood.

Being that Caplan is a self-professed and outspoken fan of Lost, I asked her if she would be interested in joining the show or guest starring on it at some point.

“That’s one that’s impossible to turn down,” she said of the ABC phenomenon. “Lost is one of the most innovative shows out right now.”

Cloverfield Actress Lizzy Caplan Talks New Media

Lizzy Caplan is probably best known for her role in “Cloverfield,” which documented a group of people on the run from a monster in New York City through the lens of a handheld camera. When I spoke with her for an interview at The Trades, she credited the enormous popularity of the film partly to the way in which it appeals to the “You Tube generation” (a term which she admittedly hates). “It’s a very current film,” she said. “It’s drawing on all the stuff we deal with now.”

Caplan added, “Everybody has a camera, and it’s this generational thing where everybody thinks that their videos are worth showing to the public. A lot of times, there’s a million terrible You Tube videos that are pointless.”

More importantly, Caplan expressed her opinion that “Cloverfield” reflects the capacity of citizen journalism. “I think [the movie] struck a chord with people, because if there were to be some huge, terrible disaster – whether it be a real disaster or a monster attacking the city – there would be some excellent footage. We’re prepared to document anything that happens.”