June 2009

In the first episode of Bite Me With Dr. Mike, Dr. Mike Leahy is standing beside an anthill wearing only flip-flops. It’s the sort of thing an unsuspecting tourist might do, and the results can be painful — and, as Leahy proved, unexpected. Soon after receiving multiple bites from fire ants, Leahy found himself barely able to breathe and in a very real medical emergency. It’s one of the many “eek!” moments in a series that enlightens, entertains and makes staycations seem like a really good idea. In each episode, Leahy visits a different slice of paradise and reveals what […]

If you put together all the different cult crowds that are fans of William Sanderson’s work, the number might be big enough to rival that of a bona fide superstar. People probably know him first and foremost as the loquacious leader of backwoods brothers Larry, Darryl and Darryl from Newhart. But he’s also logged time in such landmark projects as Blade Runner, Deadwood, a memorable episode of Lost, and has been one of Hollywood’s most reliable character actors for decades. He’s currently filming the second season of what has already turned into a cult hit, the Southern vampire saga True […]

Some people get the surprise of their lives when they hear of impending fatherhood. Sometimes it’s so much of a surprise, the new daddy eventually finds himself on Maury Povich’s show. But imagine finding out decades later that you have a daughter. This is the predicament John Schneider’s character faces in a new Hallmark Channel original film, Come Dance at My Wedding, premiering June 6. Schneider plays Tanner Gray, a carpenter who receives a letter from a daughter he didn’t know he had — a small-town dance instructor with an imminent wedding, who’s looking to sell the dance studio bequeathed […]

She’s obviously not getting enough sleuthing in during her time onscreen in USA’s Psych. In between seasons of the overtly quirky police investigation series, Maggie Lawson has made a pair of films based on two of Ellen Byerrum’s Crime of Fashion books. Killer Hair (June 21) and Hostile Makeover (June 28) are set to premiere this month on LMN (HD). Lawson stars as Lacey Smithsonian, a Washington, D.C., fashion columnist with a couple of inconvenient problems — dead bodies keep crossing her path, and her acute sense of style tells her that they’ve been murdered. In her view, everything a […]

How does one follow up an act that led to the creation of a classic television character? For Edie Falco, most recently seen in her challenging, Emmy-winning turn as Carmela Soprano, another TV project was just what the doctor — or, in this case, nurse — ordered. “After The Sopranos, I read a whole lot of stuff,” Falco tells me. “I read some interesting movies. Nothing really grabbed me. I kept thinking, ‘Oh, I guess you do movies now.’ And then at some point I realized how much I really did love doing a series. I went back into it […]

In the early ’90s, Christina Moore and I spent two years of our lives under the same roof, but we never spoke until recently. The situation really isn’t as dysfunctional as it might sound — we went to the same school, William Fremd High School in Palatine, Ill. [Go, Vikings!] Since it was a large school and we graduated in different classes, our paths never crossed during that time. After graduation, Moore attended Illinois Wesleyan University, then began an acting career that up until this point has been book-ended by her TV debut in 1996 as “Sexy Anchor” on an […]