Archive for August, 2008

Hayden Panettiere will turn 19 this week but she already seems so mature beyond her years. I found her to be anything but a typical TV star when we spoke recently about the new season of “Heroes” and about her activism.

She went to Japan last year to expose the slaughter of dolphins and whales by fishermen there. A warrant for her arrest was issued after she and a convoy of U.S. and Australian activists paddled out on surfboards to demonstrate.

Hayden said she has no regrets.

“I’m a Leo,” she explained. “I’m feisty and opinionated, God knows.”

But couldn’t she have just written a check or held some kind of fundraiser to help out?

“I’m a hands-on kinda gal, not much of a sit-back-and-watch (person),” Hayden said. “I like to be involved in everything. I was the same way when I was in school. I enjoy adrenaline, I enjoy having an opinion and standing up for something that I believe in. Putting myself sometimes in the line of danger.”

So was she scared during that dramatic protest in Japan?

“No. No! It rocks my world (laughs).”

These days, there’s not as much time for activism since Hayden and the rest of the cast of NBC’s “Heroes” are busy shooting episodes of the show’s third season. A ratings and critical sensation during its first year, the show suffered a bit of a sophomore slump and lost some buzz and some viewers.

But when the show returns to the air with new episodes on Sept. 22, things are supposedly back on track.

“It is the same action, high-energy, adventure and cliff-hangers that it was in the first season,” Hayden promised.

“A lot of the core characters are working together and crossing paths again so it’s so much fun for us to film. It’s incredible. It’s just coming out wonderfully and I think the audience will be very excited.”

Hayden is also happy with the direction of her character, Claire, a high-school cheerleader who has a regenerative ability. She is among the show’s core characters who are ordinary people who discover that they have superhuman abilities. They then must navigate the difficulties and responsibilities that come with that discovery.

“We bounce back and forth a little bit from present to future, and my future character is very different from my present character. So it’s very cool to have the ability to stretch my wings a little bit.”

Despite her youth, Hayden is a very experienced actress who started on the ABC soap “One Life to Live” at just 4 1/2 years old.

After several years, she segued over to the CBS soap “The Guiding Light.” Her character, Lizzie Spaulding, did not have an easy life as she battled leukemia, got kidnapped, and also shot and killed her mother’s abuser.

But it is “Heroes” that is responsible for her ascent to major stardom and with that has come intense media scrutiny over her reported romance with co-star Milo Ventimiglia and, most recently, an incident involving her parents that resulted in her father’s being arrested on suspicion of felony spousal abuse against her mother.

A spokesman for Alan and Lesley Panettiere told the TV show “Extra” that the incident “was all a big misunderstanding.”

“They love each other very much and want everyone to know that the matter was completely blown out of proportion,” the spokesman said.

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The father of starlet Hayden Panettiere is out on $50,000 bail after that incident in L.A. in the wee hours of Monday morning.

Alan Panettiere, known as Skip, has been charged with felony domestic violence after allegedly whacking Lesley Panettiere, Hayden’s mom, in the face with a closed fist three times at their home. He spent about 10 hours in the slammer until somebody rustled up the bail money.

The alleged blow was allegedly struck during an alleged argument after an evening at some benefit dinner or other, of which Hayden was the hostess. The website www.tmz.com, which usually gets these things right, says a lot of alcohol was involved, on both sides. Alan is a retired N.Y. City fireman.

Scarlett Johansson tells Hello! mag that she’s in no hurry to marry her fiancé Ryan Reynolds. She likes being “young and engaged” and says “we’re just enjoying our time. We’re just recently - very recently - engaged. So… we’re just taking it easy. And no big plan yet. I mean, I’m 23. There’s no reason to rush into it. Everything feels very natural and relaxed.”

Hmm. If I were Ryan I wouldn’t like the sound of that.

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It’s all over between Julia Stiles - you loved her in the Jason Bourne movies - and artist Jonathan Kramer, after two years. She’s 27.

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Remember Lisa Snowdon? British model? Went out with George Clooney for a while? They broke up five years ago, though she’s seen him on and off since.

Well, now she’s a judge on Britain’s Next Top Model, and she told The Sun tabloid that men she meets are still intimidated - not by her good looks but by her ex.

She is “starting to think I may never have sex again,” she told the paper. “I just don’t get asked out anymore. Men seem to look at me and think, ‘She went out with George Clooney, what chance have I got?’ ” She’s 36.

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Oh, shut up: Shia LaBeouf was walking around L.A. the other day, his hand all bandaged up, in company with Isabel Lucas, his Transformers-sequel co-star who was with him when he rolled his pickup the other night.

They looked pretty much like a happy couple. But recently he told World Entertainment News Network that at 22, rich, famous and handsome, he’s “enjoying myself. But I’m not great with women, dude. I’m not a closer. I can chat all night long, but I’m not the guy who goes, ‘Okay, back to my room.’ I’ve never been that way.”

That sound you hear is half the single 35-year-old women in America, and some of the married ones, trying to find out this guy’s phone number.

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Quote of the day: Alison Carroll, who’s been working as a golf-club receptionist, has been signed to be Lara Croft, sort of. She’ll be the spokesbabe for the Tomb Raider video games.

“I’m single and having fun,” she said at her press conference. “I’m not looking for a long-term relationship as most men can’t keep up with me. But playing Lara Croft, the sexiest game heroine there is, should get me a few more dates!”

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The father of “Heroes” star Hayden Panettiere was arrested early Monday on suspicion of hitting his wife, authorities said.

Alan Panettiere was arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in West Hollywood and detained on suspicion of spousal assault, sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said. He was later released after posting $50,000 bail.

Whitmore declined to name the woman that Panettiere is accused of hitting, but said she reported to deputies that he struck the woman three times with an open hand.

Whitmore said detectives would not release a mug shot of Panettiere.

Los Angeles court records do not indicate any prior charges for the 49-year-old father of Hayden Panettiere, who plays Claire Bennett on NBC’s hit show, “Heroes.”

A phone message left with Hayden Panettiere’s publicist was not returned Monday.

And thousands of Heroes fans around the world say “well, duh.”

Heroes creator Tim Kring admits that there might be a little bit too much going on in the show’s universe. At a NATPE LATV Festival panel discussion, Kring says that there might be so much content going online — and so many employees working on the online content — that it sort of takes away from the experience of the show and the storyline, especially if you have a creative team working online that really isn’t close to the team that works on the TV show. Sounds like he’s referring (strongly) to the much-maligned second season of the show.

He also thinks that all of the product placement and corporate sponsorship that the show has doesn’t help either.

I actually agree with this, to a certain extent. I like to see the creative people just do a show (or a movie or whatever) and I try not to get involved in these odd online offshoots that spring up. In a way it muddies the storyline and just gets either confusing or just gets to be too much of that world.

I’d rather watch Heroes on TV and stick with that part of the Heroes world, than go online and watch some minor plot with secondary characters (or even further down on the character chain, including new characters). I feel the same way about
Lost; a lot of the extra stuff is really interesting, but in a way I don’t want to be bothered with it. Of course, it’s a different world, and a lot of fans really love this stuff.