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Monday, March 27, 2006

Actor and Site Updates!

Blog and Site update!

Quick and short this week!

~~
Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia - OT) Makes a cameo appearance in one of Sean Lennon's new animated shorts which accompany each song on his new album Friendly Fire.

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Rick Baker (Figrin D'an (Cantina Band member - Kloo Horn)/Hem Dazon - Cantina Patron - ANH) Baker is an interviewee in the documentary called The Sci-Fi Boys. This DVD documentary, released March 28th, is available only at Best Buy stores and online.
Here's a bit about it from Fangoria online.

~~
Rebecca Jackson Mendoza (Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan - ROTS) In spite of the mixed reviews the Lord of the Rings Musical is receiving, there seems to be a consensus that Ms. Jackson Mendoza is doing a great job as Galadriel, especially when she belts out the song Wonder.
The musical opened on March 23 in Toronto, Canada.

~~
David Fennoy (Toy Dampner in Star Wars: Episode I - Racer; Lando Calrissian/Dunari in Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance) Will be speaking at the Entertainment Career Seminar at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York on April 20, 2006 from 6:30 - 10:30.

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John Lithgow (voice of Yoda in the ESB and ROTJ radio dramas and the audio books) is participating in a new program provided through Amazon.com which allows readers to communicate directly with authors. Over 1000 authors have signed up for the new program called Amazon Connect.

~~
Peter MacNeill (Jord Dusat in The Pirates and the Prince / Treasures of the Hidden Planet in Droids) stars in CBC Television's Yours, Al. The first episode will air on Thursday April 13 @ 8pm on CBC's Opening Night.

~~
The following Star Wars alum were involved with Superman Returns:
Lisa Shaunessy (A senator - ROTS) she's an accommodation coordinator/assistant to the producer
Hamish Roxburgh (A Naboo Guard - ROTS) worked as an additional third assistant director.
Nash Edgerton (stunt double for Ewan McGregor in AOTC/ROTS) did stuntwork.

~~
Updates to existing actors in the STAR WARS ACTORS DATABASE
Ed Begley, Jr. (update - TV)
David Fennoy (update - TV)
Dave Bowers (Mas Amedda AOTC/ROTS) - Wattographs is holding a private signing for Dave Bowers until April 7, 2006. You can have personal items signed or get one of the photographs of him as Mas Amedda signed. Deadline for items received is April 7! CLICK HERE!

~~Newly added actors:None this week!
~~Actor ConnectionsSTAR WARS ACTOR CONNECTIONS
None this week!

~~
ReferencesMain Page

Radio References
Archaeology

TV K-R
Robot Chicken (expanded #4)

COMICS/COMIC STRIPS
Shortpacked (thanks to John at Obroa-Skai.com!)

~~
LMangue's Art
New work - Firefly/Serenity!
Bottom of the page - Serenity itself will be added soon.

Enjoy!
Leah

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Truly Wonderful, The Mind of a Child Is

A short personal note this morning.

Today we purchased Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to watch this evening. My son, three, and I went to see this when it was first released in theaters in mid-November, at his request, just before his third birthday. We only saw it once.

Tonight as we were watching the film we come to the part of the film where the cup participants must face the third, strike that (thanks all), the SECOND challenge which happens at the lake. Before they get started with the task my son keeps saying, "Harry going to get Hermione in the water". Which Harry starts to do.

This surprised both my husband and I that our son remembered this part of the film from only seeing it once, over 4½ months ago.To some of you this may not seem one bit impressive or surprising but how many of us remember our lives before we were three or four? I recall bits and pieces of moments but nothing substantive.

It's true that a child has more focus on things in his little world because the weight of life has not begun to enter the thought processes but I must have assumed their minds move quickly on to the next thing (as often they do), short term memory overriding longer term by a hair.

So nice to be wrong! Neat for me as a parent.

LM

50 comments digested to 1

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

New Sketches!

New Art!
Hello there!
A few new small sketchesFirefly/Serenity
Mal
Zoe
Wash
Jayne
Kaylee
Inara
Simon
River
Book

And, so it's not totally unrelated to our beloved Star Wars here's a preliminary sketch of the....
Rancor!

More to come.
Leah

18 comments digested to 1

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

It's All Perfectly Clear

I like to shuffle through the Discovery Channel's website every couple of days. I came across an interesting little article about lasers being tuned, so to speak, to work in a way that makes the solid object it's pointed at "appear" (pun intended) to be invisible enabling the user to see beyond the solid object.

They believe that in the future they won't have to "tune" the lasers in order to do this.

Read the short article.

Pretty cool but a bit scary.
LM

5 comments digested to 1

Monday, March 20, 2006

Actor and Site Updates!

Blog and Site update!

A lot of work for me (art) this week so I'm keeping very busy.
This "busy"-ness has cut down on adding too many actors to the SWAD. I have over 70 actors to add, from a prearranged list, to the database with many, many more coming.

~~
Oliver Ford Davies (Senator Sio Bibble - PT) Until March 25, 2006 Davies will be starring in The Linden Tree at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, UK.
The Linden Tree is set in 1947 during one of Britain's most awful winters. Davies plays History Professor Robert Linden of Barmanley University, and the play revolves around his character and his family. His strength and passion for life and history are contrasted by his wife's (and his family's) unhappiness and his student's indifference to history.

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Keisha Castle Hughes (Queen Apilana - ROTS) will star as the Virgin Mary in new Line Cinema's Nativity. Filming starts in Italy sometime in May and the film is set for release in the first week of December.

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James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader) - The play dates for the one-man show, Thurgood, were announced this week. Westport Playhouse, Westport Connecticut. April 30 - May 14. Tickets go on sale to the public starting on April 19, 2006.

Thurgood is a one-man show about Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall who rose from a child in the backstreets of Baltimore to the Supreme Court of the US.

Jones also spoke at the O'hara Exhibit Hall in Dallas, TX this week about his memoir Voices and Silences.

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Clint Bajakian (voice work for over 20 SW related video games and 4 Indiana Jones video games) Bajakian, the Senior Music Supervisor at Sony Computer Entertainment America is speaking today, March 20, and tomorrow, March 21, 2006 at the Game Developer's Conference at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA.

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John Lithgow (voice of Yoda in the ESB and ROTJ radio dramas and the audio books) is set to host VOD Kids Series (20 part series) called John Lithgow's Paloozaville. The series will air in June (2006) on select Mag Rack - on demand video magazine- channels.

Lithgow will also star in Twenty Good Years - a TV comedy about two fifty-something year old men who decided to make the most of their lives after reaching epiphanies. NBC comedy pilot Fall 2006.

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Kevin Michael Richardson (voiced K'Kruhk in Clone Wars and voices for several Star Wars video games) will be voicing a character or more in an as yet untitled ABC comedy pilot. More as it becomes available.

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James Horan (voice work in KOTOR II: Sith Lords) stars and directs the stage play No Second Trumpet.

For more information on this stage production click HERE.

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Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala Skywalker - PT) was a stand-in (guest) professor for the Terrorism & Counter-terrorism course at Columbia University on March 7, 2006.

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Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian - ESB/ROTJ) His film Constellation is finally getting ready for release this summer. The film is about a black family in Huntsville AL who are coming to terms with a past interracial affair in the family. No specific release date has been set. More info as it becomes available.

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Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn - TPM) is narrating Eugene O'Neill: A Documentary Film on March 19, 2006 for PBS.

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Christopher Lee (Count Dooku - AOTC/ROTS) Has worked as a soloist on a very recently released CD called The Lord of the Rings: Complete Songs and Poems. From the packaging:
"This 4 CD-Box contains the world's first complete musical interpretation of all the poems in J.R.R. Tolkiens' masterpiece 'The Lord of the Rings' set to music by Casper Reiff and Peter Hall. 14 soloists, among these the world-famous actor Christopher Lee, and more than 150 professional musicians, have taken part in this ambitious project, which took ten year to complete.
The songs help one relive The Lord of the Rings in an entirely new way as they range from happy and funny Hobbit songs in the beginning of the book, to evocative and dramatic highlights towards the end"
Artwork by Her Majesty Queen Margarethe II of Denmark.

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Kevin Pollak (provided voice characterizations in the Ewoks TV series) is joining the cast of an untitled Carol Mendelsohn (CSI writer) produced drama for CBS. The show stars Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Serenity) and is based upon a book about a powerful Washington DC law firm and the lawyers who are at moral odds against their not-so-moral managing partner.

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Kenny Baker (R2D2)

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Updates to existing actors in the STAR WARS ACTORS DATABASE
Dave Bowers (Mas Amedda AOTC/ROTS) - Wattographs is holding a private signing for Dave Bowers until April 7, 2006. You can have personal items signed or get one of the photographs of him as Mas Amedda signed. Deadline for items received is April 7, 2006! CLICK HERE!

Correction to SWAD:
Michael Eager is now correct as Malcolm Eager.
Paul Bannon (update - Miscellany)
Stephen Buchanon (Film: Star Wars ANH)
Keisha Castle-Hughes (update - Film)
Oliver Ford Davies (update - Theatre and various pics)
Harrison Ford (update - various pics added)
Jaime Glover (update - Radio: 1994)
Mark Hamill (update - Online)
James Horan (update - Film; Theatre; Theatre Director; Theatre Producer)
Christopher Lee (update - Film: Ten Little Indians~1965; CDs)
Kevin Pollack (update - TV)
Hamish Roxburgh (update - Assistant Director)
Tom Sanderson (update - TPM credit)
Kiran Shaw (update - TV)
Kari Wahlgren (update - bio pic and new site link) (Thanks to Rollence!)

GEORGE LUCAS Mr. Lucas will be inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle on June 17, 2006 for his work in Film, Television and Media. - Congratulations!

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Newly added actors:
Stacy Cheregotis (Stacy Mollema)
Justin Dix
Peter House
Grant McCune

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Actor Connections - STAR WARS ACTOR CONNECTIONS
None this week :o

~~
References:

FILMS D- F
Dogma #3 Indy ref! (Thanks to DarthCharlie32!)

FILMS K-Q
Monsters, Inc. (trailer) (Thanks to Angel Songco!)

TV D-F
Drawn Together #10 (Thanks to John at Obroa-Skai and Curtis Shaw!)

COMICS/COMIC STRIPS
Under Marie Meier (Indy reference)

~~
LMangue's Art
New Site!
New work!
Boga at the top of the page

Enjoy!
Leah

Friday, March 17, 2006

Éire go brách!

There are certainly more Irish born Star Wars actors in our beloved saga than I mention here but I will focus on these four:
Adrian Dunbar, Fionnula Flanagan, Bronagh Gallagher, Liam Neeson.

~~
Adrian Dunbar (unused Bail Antilles - TPM) was born on August 1, 1958 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Enniskillen is the County Town of Fermanagh, located in the very center of the County and is set on a natural island which separates the Upper and Lower parts of Lough Erne (the river Erne). This is part of the North East section of Ireland, the UK part of Ulster.

Dunbar was the eldest of seven children born to a construction foreman and his very first job was in an Abattoir (pork slaughterhouse) but he was also playing in a band in the evenings. His first gig, when he was all of sixteen, was playing a Fender Jazz Bass guitar for Elvis impersonator Frank Chisholm on the road with Frank's Elvis show. He attended St Josephs College for Catholics in Enniskillen.

Acting came by accident when he took a job as a lighting assistant at a local theatre. One of the actors in the production he was working on took ill and Dunbar replaced him for the performance. He decided to take up acting and headed for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (this is also where other Star Wars alum studied acting: Peter Cushing, Carrie Fisher, Stephen Hoye, Ewan McGregor and Dominic West) which is located in London, England. Dunbar graduated in 1983.

He is married to Australian actress Anna Nygh and they have one child, a daughter named Madaleine.

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Fionnula Flanagan (Catherine Towani in The Ewok Adventures: Caravan of Courage) was born on December 10, 1941 in Dublin, Ireland. Dublin just below the Eastern most portion of Northern Ireland and it is the country's biggest metropolis.

Flanagan studied at Scoil Mhuire Marlborough Street, then Sandymount High School and then to Scoil Caitriona, Dominican College in her native Ireland but she also studied languages at the Universite de Fribourg in Switzerland. Her language studies landed her work as a translator in Italy.

Her training in drama took place at Dublin's prestigious Abbey Theatre, but by 1968 Flanagan decided to move to the US to pursue theatre work in New York City.

Since then she has become very well-known in the US and is a multi-award winning actress. She's received awards for her work from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films; a DramaLogue Award (Theatre); an Emmy; a Golden Satellite; LA Drama Critics Circle (Theatre) and a SF Critics' Award. She's been nominated for a SAG, a Tony (Theatre) and several other awards.

Flanagan splits her living time between her native Ireland and Los Angeles with her husband, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist, Garrett O'Conner, since 1972.

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Bronagh Gallagher (Radiant VII Cruiser Captain Karol in TPM) was born in 1972 in Londonderry (Derry), in Northern Ireland. Londonderry, locally known as Derry (officially as Londonderry City), is located in to the north west of the eastern most part of Northern Ireland at the Foyle River.

Gallagher's introduction to performing came as a child while listening to the music, soul, country and blues, her parents played. She and her brother would dance while the music played. Her love for performing continued in school where she was involved with the school choir and the drama productions at Nazareth House Primary and ST. Mary's College in Creggan. It was these schools that nurtured her love for the performing arts and became catalysts for heading into professional acting. She joined the Oakgrove Theatre Company in Derry while going to school.

It was the film The Commitments which offered Gallagher her first true break, the popularity of this independent film was astounding and since then she's worked as an actress and a singer, first with Andy White - she played drums and vocals, then on her own touring. She still sings and has put out an album, Precious Soul, that has won wide acclaim. The idea for the album when she took a holiday to the US and traveled with her good friends across the country in a motor home.

Gallagher lives in her native Ireland.

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Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn - TPM) For this I send you directly to his page in the SWAD. He is one of the most famous Irish actors in recent history.


Go raibh maith agat (Thank you) agus
Sláinte! (Cheers!)
Leah

4 comments digested to 1

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Mark Hamill - Monkey Talk

Mark Hamill was a guest star on today's episode of Monkey Talk by Paul Dini (writer for Ewoks, Droids, Batman and many other series). Monkey Talk is an online series (only up to episode 1 after a pilot) which is rather silly but fun.

Click HERE to see the video (about 13 mins)

Enjoy!
Leah

11 comments digested to 1

New Art!

Hey!

I have a new piece out, the finished product of the sketch I showed you last week.

Here's the initial sketch again.

Here's the finished product ...first one at the top!

The scanner only scans 8" x 10" and this piece is 9" x 12" so the very edges are missing from this scanned image.

Hope you enjoy one of my absolute favorite creatures in the Star Wars saga.
Leah

16 comments digested to 1

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton

Hello!

Jane from Australia's FILMINK magazine dropped me a line to let me know that the upcoming issue of FILMINK magazine has two feature articles about Star Wars related actors. Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton. The issue hits the stands tomorrow in Australia and New Zealand and is also available for purchase online to international fans by mail or by contacting Dina at dina@filmink.com.au.

Here's the cover!

Thanks!
Leah

2 comments digested to 1

Monday, March 13, 2006

Lucas - Sci-Fi Hall of Fame

date posted: Mar 13, 2006 6:26 PM updated: Mar 13, 2006 6:28 PM edit
Lucas - Sci-Fi Hall of Fame
On June 17, 2006 The Flanneled One will be inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle for Film, Television and Media.
The three other inductees are:
Frank Herbert - for Literature
Frank Kelly Freas "Dean of Science Fiction Artists" - for Art
Anne McCaffrey - in the Open category
Neil Gaiman has the honor of inducting these four highly deserving individuals.

Tickets for the ceremony will go on sale starting March 30 for members and April 5 for the public. You can learn more HERE.

LM

8 comments digested to 1

Actor and Site Updates!

date posted: Mar 13, 2006 1:47 PM edit

Blog and Site update!

~~
Clancy Brown (voice of Montross in Star Wars Bounty Hunter) has just started filming The Guardian. Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher also star.
The Guardian centers around two men, one a hardened swim instructor for the "A" School (Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers) who lost his crew during a crash, the other a young swim champion who's being trained for the CGRS and vies for the top spot as the best of the best. Clancy Brown plays the Coast Guard Commander.
The film is from Disney and is due to be released in September 2006.

Also:
Clancy Brown and Chopper Bernet (Commander Kirby in SW Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire) starred in a film that made the independent film circuit at festivals in 2003 but never had a wide release.

The Making of Daniel Boone is a comedy about how certain films get made and it's based on some of the writer/directors own experiences working on films over the years. Allan Kenton (Brown) is a writer and a Daniel Boone historian. He's convinced to work as a consultant on a biopic about Daniel Boone which the producer insists is true to detail and fact. Kenton learns it's anything but fact filled and is sure that the film will ruin his reputation as a Boone scholar. Chopper Bernet plays an actor playing Daniel Boone.

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Mark Capri (Warrant Officer M'Kae in ESB) stars as Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure at the Temple of Music and Art for the Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson, AZ). I'm told that Capri does very well in the role as Holmes and the production is true to the writing style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure continues until March 25, 2006.

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Harrison Ford (Han Solo - OT) - Narrates Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story Check out the story of Mardy Murie HERE. Finally available on DVD this year.

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Peter Michael Goetz (General Madine in the ROTJ Radio Drama) is starring as Pollonius in Hamlet presented at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN until May 7, 2006.

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David Alan Grier (provided the voice for Bo Shek and other characters for the ROTJ Radio Drama) will be featured in the new animated series from Keenan Ivory, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, called Thugaboo. The series will premier on Nickelodeon later this year.

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James Earl Jones (voice of Darth Vader) Narrates, lends his voice to, Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy a documentary about the Cherokee Indians and the "Indian Removal" that took place by President Andrew Jackson's orders. Wes Studi leads us through the documentary in Cherokee.
The brutal Indian Removal forced Indians (in particular the Cherokee) to travel west into Oklahoma, the journey took 18 months and nearly one quarter of those Cherokee died from starvation, exposure and exhaustion.

Just released on DVD on March 1, 2006.

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Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine in OT/PT) - is set to star as William Cecil the 1st Baron of Burghley (called Lord Burghley) in an HBO produced mini-series called Elizabeth I. Helen Mirren plays Queen Elizabeth I. Burghley was Elizabeth's administrator as Secretary of State then as Lord Treasurer. He was one of several men whom Elizabeth solidly trusted.

The four hour series starts in April on HBO.

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Jack Thompson (Cliegg Lars - PT) - added several pics to his page and a more detailed biography.

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Updates to existing actors in the STAR WARS ACTORS DATABASE
Peter Blais (update - various pics)
Denny Delk (update - various pics)
Time Winters (update - various pics; Film; TV; Theatre)
Chopper Bernet (update - Film 2003)
Guy Boyd (update - Theatre; various pics)
Clancy Brown (update - bio and character pics; Film; Theatre; various pics)
Diahann Carroll (update - Live Performances)
Peter Michael Goetz (update - Theatre; various pics)
Jack Thompson (update - Bio; bio and character pics; various film pics; Miscellany)
Mark Capri (update - Theatre)
Brian Blessed (update - Radio)
Jenny Cresswell (update - bio info) (Thanks to Jason Griffiths!)
Denny Delk (update - Film: ESB) (Thanks to Jason Griffiths!)
Jarion Monroe (update - Theatre)
Peter Serafinowicz (update - screenshotsHassani Shapi (update - pics; Film; TV; Theatre (all); Theatre Director (all))

~~Newly added actors:
None this week!

~~Actor Connections
STAR WARS ACTOR CONNECTIONS
Film
Gambling (Film)
The Making of Daniel Boone
Theatre
Sex and Longing
TV
Second NatureHenry VIII

~~References
Main Page
COMICS/COMIC STRIPS
Foxtrot 2006 (Thanks to John at Obroa-Skai!)

MUSIC
Tribe of Ben (Thanks to Cheech from IndieIndex.com!)

THEATRE
Lady Robots (Thanks to Naomi! Sorry it was late in posting!)


~~LMangue's Art
New Site!

Enjoy!
Leah

2 comments digested to 1

Friday, March 10, 2006

Peter Serafinowicz Does Hollywood

This just in...
Peter Serafinowicz (voice of Darth Maul) has produced, and his brother James directed, a short film parody of the Oscar statuette. Peter also has a couple of parts in the film. Some may recognize Sarah Alexander (Susan Walker from Coupling) as Al Pacino's arm candy.
Take a look!

Enjoy it!
Leah

10 comments digested to 1

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

New Sketches!

Hello all.

I'm a little late in getting new work to you but I do have some sketches to show you.

I just started a new art blog, with a scant three entries, but more entries will arrive soon.

The first entry you'll see, after a nearly non-existent scroll, is the one I wanted to share with you tonight. It's the first time I've shared a pre-color sketch for an in-progress work. HERE

There may be one or two people out there that might recognize the bottom "painting", it is of Old St. Mary's church which is in Nicasio, not far from THE Ranch.

What makes little churches like that so special is they are contrasted against a mostly nature background setting. You could almost believe that you've gone back in time a step or two.

I've also gathered selected pieces of my artwork into one convenient location. Here's the site. More work is coming, mostly sketches at this point since I'm in the heart of it all right now, but I've managed to get some SE stuff out of my hands.

Some of my favorite SW sketches:

Merumeru

Another one of Luke, had you in mind JediPug

Boga, that beautiful creature again!

TarkinTo see the whole lot go HERE

The two sketches at the bottom ...of Jack Sparrow are two completely different cards...and are also 2.5" x 3.5" PSCs.Side note:I was not able to watch Saturday Night Live this past Saturday (March 5, 2006).

Have I heard correctly that Ms. Portman did a parody rap on her lifestyle?

Hope you like!

Leah

5 comments digested to 1

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Keira Knightley's Special Talent

For those of you who may not have seen the Ellen DeGeneres Show with guest Keira Knightley then here's a little (poor quality) clip where she shows off her hidden musical talent.

LM

3 comments digested to 1

Monday, March 06, 2006

Actor and Site Update!

Blog and Site update!Yep, another week has passed and here we are again.

~~
Joel Edgerton (Owen Lard - PT) will have a small but interesting role in Joe Carnahan's upcoming film Smokin' Aces. It stars Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia, Jeremy Piven, Don Cheadle and several others including a gal I went to high school with, Clare Carey (Coach).It's about a guy, Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) a magician turned mobster, who turns state evidence against the mob and those who want to kill him for doing so. Edgerton didn't go into any detail on his character.The film will be released sometime this year.

~~
Harry 'Aitch' Fielder (Death Star Trooper Grenwick in ANH; ROTJ) - Aitch wrote me a couple of weeks ago to tell me about a load of new screenshots that were up at his site. I've added a few of them to his page.

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Sir Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi - OT) - I added many pics to his page and a couple of other details here and there.

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Tom Kenny (Biggs in SW Rogue Squadron II & III) will voice Leon in Squirrel Boy, a new series on the Cartoon Network. They will start the show with 13 episodes which will air in July of this year (2006). Kenny will also voice a character in the new series Class of 3000. Other Star Wars alum in this series' cast are: Jennifer Hale, Phil LaMarr and Jeff Glen Bennett.

~~
Peter MacNeill (Jord Dusat in Droids) who was in A History of Violence last year will star in The Marsh on the big screen, a story of a young children's writer who has to solve a mystery in a horror setting. To be released later this year.MacNeill is also set to play General Anderson in a new mini-series called Above and Beyond which centers around the Atlantic Ferry Operation of World War II. The North Atlantic Ferry Operation of World War II was arranged to allow US built aircraft to be flown from Montreal, Quebec to Prestwick, Scotland for the war. Release is scheduled for November 2006.

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Michael Pennington (Moff Jerjerrod - ROTJ ...I DID IT!! lol) will star in the Best of Friends on stage. Pennington plays Sir Sydney Cockerell, curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. And, as I wrote HERE......The Best of Friends centers on the friendships of Co*ckerell, George Bernard Shaw (Roy Dotrice) and Dame Laurentia McLachlan (Patricia Routledge), a benedictine nun, Abbess of Stanbrook Abbey and writer. The play, adapted by Hugh Whitemore, interweaves the letters and essays of the three good friends into an interesting and entertaining piece of theatre.The play runs through March. and I believe into May, at the Hampstead Theatre, Swiss Cottage, London.

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John Ratzenberger (Major Bren Derlin - ESB) is in a new TV commercial for WellPatch.

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Peter Serafinowicz (voice of Darth Maul in TPM) directed a short four-minute feature about the Oscar. See the brief HERE.

~~
Updates to existing actors in the STAR WARS ACTORS DATABASE
Dee Bradley Baker (update - Film; TV; Video Games)
Michael Bell (update - Video Games)
Jeff Glen Bennett (update - Video Games)
Steven Jay Blum (update - TV)
Corey Burton (update - Film; TV; Video Games)
Andrew Chaikin (update - bio pic)
John Considine (update - Film; TV; Miscellany; various pics)
Oliver Ford Davies (update - Radio)
David Fennoy (update - Film; TV)
Harry Fielder (update - various pics) (Thanks to Trevor, Alan and Aitch himself!)
Joel Edgerton (update - Film)
Lisa Fuson (update - bio...barely)
Michael Gough (update - Video Games)
Sir Alec Guinness (update - pics and some miscellaneous stuff here and there)
Jennifer Hale (update - Video Games: Onimusha 3 and Product Number 03) (Thanks to Daisuke!)
James Horan (update - Live Appearances)Martin Jarvis (update - Radio)
Jack Klaff (update - Radio)
Peter MacNeill (update - Film; TV)
Jason Marsden (update - Video Games)
Daran Norris (update -Video Games) (Thanks to DarthCharlie32!)
Rob Paulsen (update - Video Games)
Kevin Pollack (update - Film)
Peter Serafinowicz (update - Film Director)
Sandy Thompson (update - character pic)
John Ratzenberger (update - Commercials)

~~
Newly added actors:
Wally Wingert

~~
Actor Connections
STAR WARS ACTOR CONNECTIONS
Film The Disappearance of Kevin Johnson (Film)
Return to Never Land (Film)
Return to the Secret Garden (Film)
TVBen 10 (TV)
Boon (TV)
The Buzz on Maggie (TV)
Loonatics Unleashed (TV)
Danny Phantom (TV)
Doctor Who - Face of Evil (TV)
Video GamesDoom³ (Video Games)
Onimusha 3 (Video Games)
Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams (Video Games)
Audio Plays and Theatre
The Voysey Inheritance (Audio Books/Plays; Theatre)
A Woman of No Importance (Audio Books/Plays; Theatre)
Radio
A Woman of No Importance (Radio)

~~
ReferencesMain Page
COMICS/COMIC STRIPS
Popcorn Picnic
TV K-R Robot Chicken #7 (Thanks to John at Obroa-Skai!) slight corrections made in episode numbers, etc. (Thanks John!)
TV2 Distraction #2 (Thanks to John at Obroa-Skai!)

~~
LMangue's Art
Twi'lek Self Portrait
Sio BibbleWilliam Hootkins (for charity)

Enjoy!
Leah

Oscar Brief...

I don't know why I'm writing this but I'm up and I gave it a second of thought and nobody else to tell (all asleep). Work is going well but I am a little on the tired side. Just a scant couple of weeks until the show.

In my site update blog of February 6. I mentioned that Keira Knightley had been nominated for an Oscar. It's too bad she didn't win but I did peg Witherspoon to win for her role as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.

Nice that Philip Seymore Hoffman and Gorgeous George Clooney won.

The tone here is super mellow...I may be one of the few people here who enjoys watching the Oscars and doesn't give a flip who wins or loses since it has nothing to do with me personally and I have no vested interest otherwise. That's not to say that I don't have my little pet wishes, favorites or that I'm not a little disappointed when a film I loved didn't make it to the nominated list. But, I just don't see why people are angry about who/what was nominated or up-in-arms about some silly political statement someone has made in one of the films or in a personal speech or how awful someone looked or how they didn't deserve to win because they can't act.

I think every one of the people nominated deserves the honor. A lot of people who deserved the honor didn't make it but they've been honored in other ways.

I was reading somewhere a week or so ago, from a Star Wars related actor (can't recall which one at this moment) who is a member of the academy and votes every year, mentioning that it's difficult for most of the members because they are sent nearly 90 movies to screen. You do the math. Paid critics can't get through that many movies in that short period of time so how could any working actor do it?

Even when I retired from "normal" work in 2000 and spent a year off I couldn't have fit in 90 movies over the year...I suppose technically I could have but yeesh! that's a ton of films.

I'm sure I'd do just what they did, pick the films they'd heard of, watch the ones I had time for (if I hadn't seen them already in the theater) and vote on those few...then wait for the outcome like everyone else. Then I'd move on to the next thing forget about who won or lost and do it all over again the next year. hehe Yippee, free movies!!

If I had the opportunity to be nominated and the chance to actually win one of those statuettes I'm sure I'd have no problem with some people who thought whatever I did was cool enough to honor with even a few votes. Who wouldn't want a pat on the back? But, hey I'm happy when my three year old son congratulates me for a job well done by saying, "good boy, mama!" (I say, 'good boy' to him a lot so he returns the same in kind.)

Like I said before I'm probably one of the few who likes the pomp and parading and I like to see people win, I think it's pretty neat and I am happy for them.

Like many things in the world people make much ado about nothing, just as I have here this bleary morning.

Yours...sleepily,
Leah

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Saturday, March 04, 2006

The Common Thread

Recently, while looking up information on playwright George Bernard Shaw and Museum Curator Sir Sidney Cockerell I came across a neat bit of connective thread between these men, T. E. Lawrence and our own Sir Alec Guinness.

Most of you may know that Guinness played Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia (the film that was somewhat fact-based on T. E. Lawrence, who was Lawrence of Arabia) and that Peter O'Toole played Lawrence himself.

But did you know that an Arabian dressing robe purchased, somewhere in the Middle-East, by Cockerell was given to T.E. Lawrence, then left to Shaw after Lawrence's death in 1935, Shaw used it for a while then sent it back to Cockerell who later gave it to Guinness? Yep.

Here's the bit I found.

Shaw was a good friend to Cockerell and both had been friends of T. E. Lawrence before his death. Shaw, a playwright and a casting director of sorts (he wrote parts with certain actors in mind), once noted to someone ('round about 1940) he'd written a letter to, "take a look at a young actor named Alec Guinness." Shaw no doubt had seen a few of the plays Guinness was involved with at the time (the Old Vic in London for sure) and was obviously excited by the young, talented actor. This may have been the stepping stone to the friendship between Shaw, Cockerell and Guinness.

Cockerell (Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell), a curator/director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge and printer, had corresponded with Guinness for years. One letter written in reply to Guinness's conversion to Catholicism shows Cockerell a little baffled at the religious turn in his friend. He wrote: "But how can you believe in a creative all-good, all-wise God, knowing that you have an appendix, which is a totally useless organ and can prove dangerous?" (from Blessings in Disguise) The friendship, of course, was unshaken by the change in faith and may have become closer after the conversion which came several years after Shaw's death.

I'm sure the intersecting lives of the four men mentioned above is how Guinness came upon the robe in the end. It's interesting to think that Lawrence would never know that the robe would at some point be in the hands of a man who played a role in the telling of his own story.

On a related note: A play called The Best of Friends centered on the friendships of Cockerell, Shaw and Dame Laurentia McLachlan, a benedictine nun, Abbess of Stanbrook Abbey and writer. The play, adapted by Hugh Whitemore, interweaves the letters and essays of the three good friends into an interesting and entertaining piece of theatre.

This year Michael Pennington (Moff Jerjerrod - ROTJ) plays Sir Sydney Cockerell in that very same play. The play runs through March. and I believe into May, at the Hampstead Theatre, Swiss Cottage, London.

How funny that I'd stumble across such information by looking for something else. What a treasured thing reading is. hehe

Leah

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