I am very excited to be volunteering for Season Two of the ATX Television Festival here in Austin this weekend! Just like last year, this festival
will bring together actors, writers, directors, producers, music
supervisors, studio executives and fans to talk about the past, present
and future of television.There will be screenings, panels, parties and live music with some of the industry's leading professionals.
Tomorrow's opening night screening and party is presented by Netflix and will feature a few of the new Arrested Development episodes followed by a Q&A with the cast. Other screenings going on throughout the weekend at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz and the State Theater are Scandal, The Riches, Hart of Dixie and The Vampire Diaries, as well as the new season premieres of Falling Skies, Hell on Wheels, Perception and Sullivan & Son. We are also excited to be premiering AMC's new Summer drama Low Winter Sun and Fox's new Fall comedy Enlisted. But that's not all! On top of that awesomeness, there will also be cast reunions for My So-Called Life, Party of Five, Boy Meets World and American Dreams!
This year's panels include Veronica Mars: a TV show...no wait, a movie!, Directing in a Writer's World, Structure of a Sitcom and the Rise of the Anti-Sitcom, Creating the Sound of a Show and Casting Deconstructed. Michael Jacobs will also reflect on his career, which includes shows like My Two Dads, Dinosaurs, Boy Meets World and the new Disney show, Girl Meets World. Panels and screenings are being moderated by Meg Masters from TVLine, Robyn Ross from TV Guide, Ben Blacker from Nerdist, Jarett Wieselman from ET online, Laura Prudom from The Huffington Post, Ryan McGee from the AV Club and a few others.
So, I've already told you how I found my favorite actor, Ryan Gosling. Now it's time to talk about my favorite actress, Kristen Bell.
I had seen her in the one episode of American Dreams that she did in 2003, but had no idea who she was at the time.
Then, about three and half years ago, I was visiting some high school friends in New York City. They had started watching this new show called Veronica Mars on UPN and said it was awesome. It was the middle of the second season and they had the first season on DVD. I watched the first episode, really liked it and by the end of the weekend, had watched the first four episodes and could not wait to watch the rest of the season.
I came home from NYC and literally drove all over town looking for the DVDs. None of my local rental places had it and neither did the two Border's or the Barnes and Noble near my apartment. Defeated, I went home and ordered it online. When I got it in the mail, I watched the entire season within a matter of days...and then proceeded to watch the whole thing at least two more times.
UPN was in the middle of airing the second season and at first I was not going to watch it because I had no idea what was going on. Then I found the website marsinvestigations.net and it gave awesome episode summaries. It also had character descriptions (even for the obscure people who were only in one episode), a time line of events, quotes from every episode, cultural references, mystery speculation and much much more. This is probably the best fan site I've ever seen, and I was soon brought up to speed on what was happening in season two.
Unfortunately, even though it was a brilliant show with an amazing cast (I heart Sheriff Lamb), it was canceled after the third season due to lack of viewers. There is a very slight possibility that they will make a movie, but it's not looking too good at the moment. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though that Warner Bros will do the right thing (wink wink, nudge nudge).
The creator of Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas, has a new show called Party Down, which she has guest starred on, and is about a group of aspiring actors who move to L.A. and end up working as waiters. Sadly, I don't get Showtime and have not yet seen it. Although, I have heard very good things about it, and plan to watch it when it comes out on DVD. I mean, how can you go wrong when the main cast includes Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, Jane Lynch, Adam Scott and Lizzy Caplan?! Most people (at least my friends) are probably going, "Who are those people?" But if you check them out on imdb.com you should recognize at least a few of them...because they're awesome.
But I digress....
After becoming hooked on Veronica Mars, I watched her in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical which is an awesomely hilarious adaptation of a 1920's anti-marijuana propaganda film. It also starred Neve Campbell and her brother, Christian, as well as, Steven Weber, Alan Cummings and Ana Gasteyer. This actually came out during the first season of Veronica Mars but I don't think it was ever in theaters...or at least only in limited release.
She was hilarious in Forgetting Sarah Marshall which was written by and starred Jason Segel as well as Mila Kunis and Russell Brand. And, of course, every fan boy needs to see Fanboys :o) She's also the voice of Gossip Girl, which I love, and was on Heroes for a short while. I was already watching Heroes when she joined the cast, however, I was starting to lose interest and actually stopped watching before she left the show.
I've also seen Fifty Pills and Pulse and then the few things I have not seen are in my Netflix queue...of course :o)
The next couple movies she has coming out are:
Astro Boy - an animated film about a young robot (voiced by Freddie Highmore) created by a scientist in the image of the son he has lost.
Serious Moonlight - written by Adrienne Shelley (who wrote Waitress) and directed by Cheryl Hines. It's about an attorney who duct tapes her cheating husband to the toilet just before their home is invaded by burglars. It also stars Justin Long and Meg Ryan and should be out at the end of the year.
Couples Retreat - written by Vince Vaugn and Jon Favreau. A comedy about four couples who go on vacation together and, while one couple is there to work on their marriage, the other three don't realize that the resort's therapy sessions are not optional. It stars Vaugn and Favreau along with Jason Bateman, Malin Akerman and Kristin Davis.
When In Rome - She plays a talented real estate agent who is unlucky in love. She travels to Rome to visit her sister and steals some coins from a supposed "fountain of love" and is consequently pursued by a band of wannabe lovers, including Josh Duhamel (not too shabby if you ask me).
When Veronica Mars ended her career totally took off. Which made me a little sad only because I feel like if people had been paying better attention, they would have discovered her earlier and VM would still be on. But I am glad that people are noticing her now because she's an amazing actress and, though I don't know her personally, I really do believe she deserves all the attention and success.
Now if only Kristen Bell and Ryan Gosling would do a movie together... xoxo c ps. i started using the "xoxo" to sign all of my emails thanks to Gossip Girl
