Favorite Pic of the Day for February 3rd

Above:
Lyle (See more below)

Happy Birthday today February 3rd to:

One of my favorite, and one of the most interesting, guys that I profiled last year was Chris 'Bulldog' Williams. Happy Birthday to Chris who turns 33 today. Check out my previous posts on Chris HERE: & HERE and check out Chris' site MeatPistols HERE:

Check out more Birthdays from February 3rd including Andy Grant, Sybren Jansma, Sergio Blass & Thomas Calabro HERE:

Kudos to The SAG Awards & Ernest Borgnine

The other day I wrote about going through the check counter with my parents as a kid begging to get the Archie Comic digests. When you walk through the check outs today you are assaulted by shots of Lindsay Lohan, Kate Gosslin, Charlie Sheen and the Bachelor (thankfully Paris Hilton seems to now be old news).

How nice it was then on Sundays SAG awards (that I just finally watched yesterday) that they honored Ernest Borgnine. 94 year old Ernest was never a star, but always an actor who has appeared in 167 films and countless tv shows. I was first introduced to Borgnine as a kid watching The Poseidon Adventure (below)on a late night movie. Character actors rarely get their due and it was nice to see this talented actor get his due. I have never seen Marty, the movie he won the Oscar for, but I am on the hunt for it and other of Borgnine's movies.

When you watched the short clip package, Borgnine has worked with all the greats over the past 70 years. His story is far more interesting than any of the current crop of talentless reality personalities who seem to be on each and every magazine cover. Put him on your cover People Magazine and I might actually buy an issue again.

Favorite Clicks of the Week:

Congratulations this week to one of FH Favorites:

-Shrouded-
The work of Brenton Parry-


Friend and Blog Mate Brenton Parry from Aussielicious launched his first solo exhibition this week 'Shrouded'. The exhibit runs February 2nd – 13th and if your in the Sydney area I encourage you to check it out. For the many of us not fortunate enough to be in Australia, you can see more shots and check out more info at Brenton's site HERE: You can also read more about it at Aussielicious HERE:



'My life has been one great journey – a chaotic collection of events. But all along this journey I developed a love for photography, which centres on outer beauty and in particular portraiture photography, which centres on the often more hidden inner beauty. Shrouded has allowed me to bring both together.'
Brenton Parry

Thumbs Down: Ungrateful TV Actors...

Above: Penn Badgley

Not sure what is going on over at Gossip Girl but it seems most of the cast seems to feel free to bad mouth the show or talk about how they want to leave. Between Penn Badgley, Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester, it seems most of the cast is publicly talking about how bad the show is or how they want to leave.

Now I have not watched Gossip Girl since season 1. I did a series of posts on FH about how I loved the show after watching the first season. As quickly as it got my attention however...it lost it. One of the reasons might have been the cast. Talented bunch though they may be, there was also an arrogance about many of them. I could not help but feel when watching the show, that some cast members could not hide feeling they were above the material.


Above: T.R Knight & Katherine Heigl.

Television actors seem to quickly forget what struggles some of their predecessors went through after leaving successful TV shows. Whether they left on their own (Shelley Long,Cheers) or stuck with the show til the end (Kirstie Alley, Cheers), Hollywood is riddled with actors praised with Emmy's one year to being unemployed the next. Most actors on successful shows never find the kind of fame they had once their show has ended. Katherine Heigl and T.R Knight might have felt relief when leaving Grey's Anatomy, but they still had Grey's money in the bank. We will see how they feel a few years from now. Heigl in particular had some powerful story lines as Izzie Stevens. She has not exactly been challenged as an actress in the mediocre movies she has been in since.


Above: David Caruso

The tale of David Caruso should be the blue print for television actors. After receiving critical acclaim and celebrity for season 1 of ABC's NYPD Blue, Caruso -- promptly left the show to seek a movie career. One film Jade made a minor ruffle then pretty much nothing. Caruso quickly beelined it back to TV and has spent almost the past decade playing one of the most boring characters on one of the most successful, yet unwatchable shows on TV,CSI Miami.



Suzanne Somers is another great example of what can happen when you leave a popular TV show. Although Somers is a successful multi millionaire today, her money did not come from acting jobs. Although she did not leave voluntarily, Somers move to get a salary more on par with co-star John Ritter did end her time on Three's Company. Although Somers had a very successful Vegas career there were many dry years before she rebounded with The abdominizer. We don't even need to mention poor Joyce DeWitt...

so....

The cast of Gossip Girl take heed, there are many actors from many shows like Gilligan's Island and literally hundreds of other shows over the past few decades with cast members, briefly popular, never got another decent acting job and many were never heard from again.

Think hard cast of Gossip Girl before you spew sarcastic comments about your show and the quality of the writing. Even if there is validity in your comments, those of us heading out to work each day don't want to hear it. I am sure the cast of Eight Is Enough (below), some of whom had mental break downs, drug issues, alcoholism, unemployment, bankruptcy and even death (Lani O'Grady) would kill to be in your shoes.