Watching Heroes

Since NBC elected to release their 65 week schedule in April, the traditional “upfronts” were scrapped and instead NBC/U threw a party, the NBC/Universal Experience. Attending were ad buyers, reporters and stars from all of NBC/U’s shows. In addition to all the partying, NBC made a few key announcements, most notably that Jimmy Fallon will be taking over for Conan O’Brien when he leaves Late Night to take over the Tonight Show. NBC entertainment chief Ben Silverman also confirmed that Nissan will continue to sponsor Heroes.

There were lots of familiar faces from Heroes making an appearance at the festivities. Take a look:

Ali Larter (Niki/Jessica)

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Masi Oka, Sendhil Ramamurthy and James Kyson Lee are all nominees for the Asian Excellence Awards. If you’re not familiar with the Asian Excellence Awards, they are relatively new, debuting in 2006. They were created to celebrate outstanding achievements of Asians and Asian Americans in film, television, music and other performing arts.

Masi and Sendhil are both nominated in the “Outstanding Television Actor” category. Their fellow nominees are Naveen Andrews and Daniel Dae Kim of LOST and B.D. Wong of Law & Order, SVU.

James is a nominee in the “Supporting Television Actor” category. His competition includes Rex Lee of Entourage, Will Yun Lee from Bionic Woman, Ken Leung of LOST, Kal Penn of House M.D. and James Saito from Eli Stone. (more…)

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a picture post, so let’s catch up with a few of the events the stars of Heroes have been spotted at over the last month.

Ali Larter attended the Inaugural Avant-Garde Gala hosted by W Magazine & LACMA at LACMA BCAM on March 8 in Los Angeles. She showed off her new engagement ring to photographers.

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Hayden Panettiere arrives at the celebration of her new Candie’s marketing campaign party at Hyde Lounge on February 21 in West Hollywood, California.

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WonderCon in San Francisco will have several Heroes-related guests. The convention, which takes place February 22-24, will feature Kristen Bell (Elle), who will be promoting her new movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall; Thomas Dekker (Zach) promoting his new series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; and Tim Sale, the artist responsible for the paintings featured in the show.  For more info, visit the Comic-Con International website and click on WonderCon.

Ali Larter (Niki/Jessica) can be seen on the cover of Shape magazine’s March 2008 issue.  In an interview inside the mag, Ali explains how she keeps her heroic figure.

James Kyson Lee (Ando) will be making an appearance for Australian fans at the SupaNova Pop Culture Expo. The Expo travels to 4 different cities and it appears James is scheduled to be at all 4. The first occurs March 28-30 in Melbourne. Check their website for all the details. (more…)

James Kyson Lee, who plays Hiro’s friend and sidekick, Ando, will join American Idol Taylor Hicks, former Dallas Cowboy Deion Sanders, Friday Night Lights’ Zach Gilford, The Wire’s Seth Gilliam and others as part of the McDonald’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday, February 15. The game will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Tip off is set for 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Unfortunately, the game is sold out. The good news, though, is that it will air on ESPN and ESPN HD and will be simulcast on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobil TV.

The 5′10″ actor lists basketball as one of his hobbies in his IMDB bio. I guess we’ll see if all that practice will pay off in the big game.

You might not be able to catch your favorite Heroes stars on the small screen right now, but over the next few months there are several movies coming out that will help fill that void.

Coming up on February 8, Milo Ventimiglia (Peter) stars in Pathology. He plays Ted Gray, a med student who finds himself caught up in a deadly game to see who can commit the perfect murder. Alyssa Milano stars as his girlfriend. Here’s a peek at the trailer:

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Some of your favorite Heroes actors have their own “official” MySpace pages. Most of them are updated regularly and they are a great way to keep up with what is going on with them during the strike. This may not be all of them, but these are the ones that appear to be official:

Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) - www.myspace.com/greggrunberg
Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet) - www.myspace.com/haydenpanettiere
James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi) - www.myspace.com/jameskysonlee
Kristen Bell (Elle Bishop) - www.myspace.com/officialkristenbell
Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian) - www.myspace.com/jimmyjeanlouis
Dania Ramirez (Maya Herrera) - www.myspace.com/daniaramirez

I have a few more that I am trying to verify as official and, if I am able to do so, I will update this post.

Don’t forget about the Official NBC Heroes page - www.myspace.com/nbcheroes. If you haven’t added our page to your friends yet, you can do that too. Find us at www.myspace.com/watchingheroes.

Heroes ratings for Monday were down again. They lost another 500,000 viewers from last week bringing in only about 9.8 million and earning a 4.9/11. I suspect this will creep up with the buzz about this week’s show and the promise of the “Four Months Later” episode. It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for, after all. I don’t have to tell you who won the night, do I? I’ll give you a hint - in involves dancing.  

My favorite Hero, Greg Grunberg, did an interview with Buddy TV this week. Greg talked about how the writers strike is affecting production, Parkman’s newly expanded powers, and his relationship with his TV dad, Alan Blumenfeld (Did you know Alan played Greg’s dad on Felicity, too?).

James Kyson Lee, who plays Ando, will be making an appearance at Pacific Media Expo (PMX) this Sunday, Nov. 11. Lee will greet fans with a “rare, intimate two-hour panel and autograph session.” For more information, you can visit PMX’s website: http://www.pacificmediaexpo.com./ (Thanks to Heroes-TV!)

If you want to be spoiled about who may be dying sometime in the next few episodes, Use Your Ability has a very revealing photo posted. (Don’t click if you don’t want to know!)

Greg Beeman reveals some interesting things about Isaac’s paintings and how they create them in his blog this week and has fantastic photos of cast and crew, as always.

The latest chapter of the graphic novel is called “Quarantine.” It tells the story of Howard LeMay of Homeland Security, who I suspect may be the DHS officer who interviewed Peter in Monday’s episode. I can’t find anything to verify that this was Mark Harelik’s character’s name in that eppy though.

I haven’t seen a sneak peek of next week’s episode yet but I suspect it may surface later today. I’ll share it with you as soon as it’s available.

Our friends at TVGuide.com have contacted us to let us know that new Heroes collectible covers are coming soon. The set of 4 covers will hit newstands on November 8 and will feature the artwork of 4 different comic book artists. The covers will be available seperately or in a bundle pack. You will also be able to order these online.

TVGuide.com has promised to give us an exclusive sneak peek later this week, so check back with us!

TVGuide.com also has a new interview with James Kyson Lee. He talks about the changes in Ando for season 2, what we can expect for his character, Star Trek and George Takei, and his upcoming non-Heroes Projects. In case you haven’t heard, James is Korean and didn’t speak Japanese. He talks a little about that and the feedback he has received.

*The Heroes spinoff will apparently not be called Heroes: Origins. The Chicago Tribute is reporting that a representative for the network said that a title for the new series has not yet been chosen. In the same article there is a nice interview with Kristen Bell.

*Speaking of Kristen, it seems to be her week. She has interviews in the Tribune as mentioned above and in People Magazine. She was also named “TV Babe of the Day” by IGN today.

*And if that’s not enough Kristen Bell for you, she talked to OK Magazine and told them that Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia are NOT dating. She says they are just “great friends.”

*Ali Larter made Entertainment Weekly’s list of the top Butt-Kicking Babes. She comes in at #22 for her role as Niki/Jessica Sanders on Heroes. The site her skills as “a reservoir of strength and ruthlessness.” That and her lap dancing skills…

*Set your TiVo’s because the Heroes are making the talk show rounds. Here’s a schedule for the next few weeks (check your local listings for times):

10/19 - Greg Grunberg on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
10/22 - Adrian Pasdar on Live with Regis and Kelly
10/25 - Ali Larter on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (this is a repeat of her 9/19 appearance)
10/26 - Greg Grunberg on Ellen
10/29 - Zachary Quinto on The View
11/2 - Zachary Quinto on Jimmy Kimmel Live

*And finally - here is a five-minute preview for the next episode, “Fight or Flight.” More Parkman! Yay! (thanks to Heroes-Revealed.com)

I have quite a few tidbits of Heroes news for you today including 5 scenes from episode 2.2 “Lizards.”

*Watching Heroes now has a MySpace page. Come visit us and add us to your friends!

*The LAist has a great interview with Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) in which Greg discusses his relationship with the cast, the Heroes World Tour, his character, the Band from TV and much more. He also reveals Adrian Pasdar’s YouTube handle (buckshotwon) where you can find some great behind-the-scenes videos of the cast.

*If you missed the season premiere, don’t fret. NBC will be repeating it on Saturday (that’s tomorrow!) at 9pm eastern. Under a new Neilsen rule, the ratings for Saturday’s rebroadcast will figure in with the original ratings. NBC is the first to take advantage of the new calculation, and it has some of the other networks up in arms.

*Actor James Kyson Lee (Ando) is debunking the “Hayden loves Milo” rumors. James told People magazine that the rumor was absolutely not true. (Has he seen those photos and videos?)

*And finally, YouTube user EzraSmall has given us another 5 scene preview, this time for the 2nd episode, “Lizards.” Check it out!

I told you earlier - the Heroes are everywhere. I have even more evidence to support my previous statement.

Masi Oka, everyone’s favorite Hiro, made an appearance on the Ellen show last Thursday. He talked about his Emmy date, Kristen Bell. Ellen asked if they were dating and if he had a crush on Kristen, but Masi wouldn’t dish. He said everyone has a crush on Kristen and they are great friends. He also talked about his 2000 Honda and why he’s still driving it and Ellen featured him in a “Men of Heroes” segment. Masi was charming and funny, as usual. Click to watch the video:

Ali Larter is featured in the October issue of Cosmopolitan. She looks fabulous on the cover. Inside the magazine, Ali talks about being a “Jersey Girl”, her boyfriend, Hayes MacArthur, her approach to diet and exercise and much more. Ali is also starring in the #1 movie in the country, Resident Evil: Extinction.

Prime Time Pulse chatted with 7 cast members and has posted the interviews in a “Heroes Week” series. They started last Tuesday with Nick D’Agosto who will play Claire’s love interest, West, this season. They also talked with David Anders (Takezo Kensei), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Dania Ramirez (Maya), Noah Gray-Cabey (Micah), and co-executive producer Jeph Loeb. The interview series wraps up tomorrow, and I believe they’ll be talking with Zachary Quinto (Sylar).

Finally, Hayden Panettiere will make an appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly on Monday. The show is syndicated, so check your local listings for time.

Watching Heroes, NBC Heroes, Masi Oka, Kristen Bell, Ellen, Ali Larter, Cosmopolitan, PrimeTime Pulse, Nick D’Agosto, David Anders, James Kyson Lee, Dania Ramirez, Noah Gray-Cabey, Jeph Loeb, Zachary Quinto, Hayden Panettiere, Interviews

A Pre-Emmy Cast Party was held last night at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. It was sponsored by Perry Ellis and Vanity Fair. All of our cast favorites were there, including a few we thought were “dead.” Could this mean there’s a chance they aren’t as dead as we thought they were? Eh, probably not. They all look like they’re having a blast though, dead or not.

First, we have the Lovely Ladies of Heroes. On the left, Kristen Bell (Elle) and Hayden Panettiere (Claire) and on the right, Ali Larter (Niki/Jessica).

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Take a look at these fantastic Heroes Season 2 publicity stills of the cast. (These may be a little spoilery so only click if you dare.) (more…)