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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Ali Larter is set to star with Beyonce Knowles and Idiris Elba in Obsessed. Elba will play an asset manager and Beyonce will star as his wife. Ali stars as a temp office worker who begins stalking him. Beyonce will also executive produce along with her father, Mathew Knowles. Elba next stars in Prom Night with Heroes‘ star Dana Davis.

Heroes alum Eric Roberts (Thompson) was announced as one of the stars for NBC’s 13 episode summer horror series, Fear Itself. The show will include installments from famed horror directors Ronny Yu (Freddy vs. Jason), Brad Anderson (The Machinist), Mary Harron (American Psycho), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Darren Bousman (Saw II, III and IV)  and Ernest Dickerson (who directed the Heroes episode “Collision”). In addition to Roberts, the cast will include Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Shiri Appleby (Roswell), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Cynthia Watros (Lost). (more…)

NBC has been running “The More You Know” public service announcements for over 19 years now. If you’re like me, then you DVR everything you watch and probably fast-forwarded right through the ads featuring the stars of Heroes. I just discovered some of the commercials on the “The More You Know” website.

The latest campaign focused on issues such as pollution, global warming and recycling and featured Heroes stars Noah Gray-Cabey, Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Adrian Pasdar, and Sendhil Ramamurthy.

In addition to the “green” campaign, Heroes stars have helped spread a variety of messages. Ali Larter was featured in an anti-violence spot, Sendhil Ramamurthy did one about drunk driving, Adrian Pasdar’s PSA was about monitoring what your kids watch on TV, Masi Oka encouraged reading, and Greg Grunberg and Noah Gray-Cabey promoted internet safety in their spots. 

You can find out more about the campaign and watch some of the past PSA’s at http://www.themoreyouknow.com/.

The American Red Cross has unveiled its seventh annual National Celebrity Cabinet with fifteen new members including Heroes’ own Masi Oka. Joining Masi as new members are: Patricia Heaton (Back to You, Everybody Loves Raymond), Jennie Garth (What I Like About You, 90210), pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, NFL star Matt Leinart, Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl), NASCAR champ Greg Biffle,  New York Yankee Robinson Cano, Lisa Edelstein (House MD), Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty), Kal Penn (House MD, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle), Sara Ramirez (Grey’s Anatomy), Judy Reyes (Scrubs), Brittany Snow (American Dreams, Hairspray), and best selling author Iyanla Vansant.

In addition, the 2008 National Celebrity Cabinet will include thirty-two alumni: Heidi Klum, Marlee Matlin, Nancy O’Dell, Jane Seymour, Peyton Manning, Jimmie Johnson, Leeza Gibbons, Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans, Patti LaBelle, Julianne Moore, George Foreman, Jackie Chan, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marcia Gay Harden, Elisabeth Rohm, Eli Manning, Jimmy Smits, Daddy Yankee, Chayanne, Aisha Tyler, Pierce Brosnan, Amy Grant, Miley Ray Cyrus, Kristen Bell, Pat Green, actor Dwayne Johnson, Dr. Phil McGraw, Raven Symone, Niki Taylor, Burney Lamar and Bradley Whitford.  Sherry Lansing, former chairman and CEO, Motion Picture Group, Paramount Pictures and former member of the Red Cross Board of Governors, will chair for the sixth time.

As part of the National Celebrity Cabinet, Masi will support the Red Cross by participating in public service advertisements, donating time, money and blood, and coming to the aid of others when disaster strikes.

Kudos to Masi for lending a hand to another great cause!

Heroes may have been snubbed by the more conventional awards this year, but the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films (best known as the Saturn Awards) did not forget about them.

The show has received 5 nominations in 4 categories: Best Network Television Series, Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series (Greg Grunberg and Masi Oka both got nods), Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series (Hayden Panettiere) and Best Television Series on DVD.

Heroes was a big winner last year, taking home awards for Best Network Series as well as acting awards for Masi Oka and Hayden Panettiere. Will this year be as good to them? We’ll have to wait and see. (more…)

It’s Monday. Time to see what the Heroes stars were up to over the weekend! 

Hayden Panettiere was in Berlin this weekend to promote her upcoming film, Fireflies In The Garden. Here she is on the red carpet for the premiere as part of the 58th Berlinale Film Festival at the Berlinale Palast on February 10.

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Heroes stars are keeping busy during the strike. In addition to work on other projects, they are staying hot in the social scene by attending parties and premieres. Here’s a few photos I’ve found from the past couple of weeks:

 Zachary Quinto, Greg Grunberg, Noah-Gray Cabey and Masi Oka attended the premiere of Cloverfield at the Paramount Pictures Lot in Los Angeles on January 16.

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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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NAME: Hiro Nakamura

ALIASES: Jotaro Kujo, Takezo Kensei

AGE: 25

HOMETOWN: Tokyo, Japan

OCCUPATION: Office Worker at Yamagato Industries

ABILITIES: Space-time manipulation

KNOWN RELATIVES: Kaito Nakamura (father - deceased), Ishi Nakamura (mother – deceased), Kimiko Nakamura (sister)

ROMANTIC INTERESTS: Charlie Andrews (deceased), Yaeko the Swordsmith’s Daughter (in the past)

NOTES: Known to travel with Ando Masahashi. Was involved in the theft of Takezo Kensei’s sword from the Linderman archives. Other known associates – Takezo Kensei (aka Adam Monroe) in the past, Peter and Nathan Petrelli, Isaac Mendez

Hiro is played by Masi Oka. “The Company File” is an ongoing series which will become our Character Guide here at Watching Heroes. To see more of “The Company File” profiles, view the Character Guide category. Thanks to Heroes Wiki for assistance with the facts!

Many of the Heroes cast are involved in work for charities. Some of them have favorite causes and even act as spokespersons in some cases. Here is a list of some:

Zachary Quinto has been a spokesperson for the Give Life Foundation. Give Life is an organization that seeks to increase awareness of the shortage of blood and encourages people to donate blood. Kind of ironic for “Sylar” to be encouraging blood donation eh? For more information visit http://www.give-life.org/.

Heroes resident nerd, Masi Oka, recently became an ambassador for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative (appropriately enough). OLPC seeks to offer laptops to developing countries for under $100 each. The project is headed up by MIT Media Lab’s Nicholas Negroponte. More info is available at http://www.laptop.org/.

Noah Gray-Cabey has founded his own organization called Action In Music (A.I.M.). Their purpose is to “educate and inspire young people in America through music, travel, performance and community service, and to help them realize that the future of the world, and of themselves, is in their own hands”. As a child prodigy on the piano, it is the perfect cause for him. If you’d like to find out more about Noah and A.I.M, check out their website at http://www.actioninmusic.com/.

On Monday we’ll look at some of the projects Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter and Hayden Panettiere are working with. If you know of other Heroes cast members who are involved with a cause, drop us an email or comment on this post and we’ll add them to the list as well!

Heroes ratings for Monday night fell to the lowest in the series’ history, earning just a 4.9/11 with about 10.4 million viewers. That’s down about 250,000 viewers from last week. I don’t have to tell you who won the night…it’s the same old mind-boggling story every week, isn’t it? Curse you Dancing with the Stars!  

Kristin at E! Online has some spoilers for us about Elle, Maya, Nathan and Kensei. She also gives us a few hints about who is getting killed and who is doing the killing. I won’t post them here, but if you want to know, check out ‘Watch With Kristin’!

Greg Beeman didn’t post much in his blog this week. He says it’s too crazy at Heroes central. He did, however, post some great photos, as he always does, and he even has some Storyboards posted.

Chapter 57 of the graphic novel is entitled “Team Building” and features H.R.G. and his Russian mentor, Ivan. In it, we see the story of the “liquid man” that Ivan spoke about in Episode 6.

Masi Oka will be serving as ambassador for the One Laptop Per Child non-profit organization. You can read more about their mission at http://www.laptop.org/.

Hayden Panettiere has been in Japan trying to save the Dolphins. Apparently she got into a scary confrontation with some fishermen. Read more about it here.

The premiere issue of Heroes Magazine will be available on November 20. It is billed as “the ultimate guide to exploring one of the biggest shows of 2007!” You can pre-order your copy at NBC/Universal now for $9.99.

And finally, here’s a sneak peek at next week’s episode, “Out of Time” - Looks good!

Spike TV has announced the biggest televised celebration of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and comic books ever under one roof. “SCREAM 2007″ tapes this Friday, October 19, at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. It will premiere on Spike TV on Tuesday, October 23 from 10:00 PM-Midnight, ET/PT.

Heroes is nominated for several awards at “SCREAM 2007.” Here are the categories:

• Best Sci-Fi Show
• The Ultimate Scream
• Sexiest Superhero - Ali Larter as Niki/Jessica & Hayden Panetierre as Claire
• Breakout Performance - Hayden Panetierre as Claire
• Most Vile Villain - Zachary Quinto as Sylar
• Best Superhero - Masi Oka as Hiro and Milo Ventimiglia as Peter

The winners are voted on by fans. The categories include Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Comics. If you haven’t done so, visit SCREAM 2007 to cast your vote. Click on Sci-Fi to find the Heroes categories.

Zachary Quinto, Milo Ventimiglia, Kristen Bell and James Kyson Lee are scheduled to appear at “SCREAM 2007.” You can visit http://www.scream.spiketv.com to get all the details.

My MySpace friend, Greg Grunberg, just alerted me that TV Guide Network will be broadcasting a behind-the-scenes look at the second season of NBC’s Heroes tonight. It will include cast interviews with Greg, Masi Oka, Santiago Cabrera, Ali Larter and Noah Gray-Cabey and more.

Here are the dates and times. It replays several times this week in case you can’t catch it tonight (all times are eastern):

Mon, Oct 8 @ 11:00 PM
Wed, Oct 10 @ 4:00 PM
Thu, Oct 11 @ 3:00 PM
Thu, Oct 11 @ 7:00 PM
Fri, Oct 12 @ 9:00 PM

Watching Heroes, NBC Heroes, TV Guide Network, Heroes: The Return