Hugh Laurie on Lisa Edelstein’s ‘House’ Departure: It “came out of left field”

With the Fox hit medical series House gearing up for another season this coming October, actor Hugh Laurie has decided to share his well wishes, but unexpected surprise over losing his fellow co-star actress Lisa Edelstein, who played his long time enemy/love interest Dr. Lisa Cuddy for years.

“[Lisa's departure] came out of left field in my world, too.  I don’t know who was privy to what at what time, but it was a great shock to me and everyone obviously misses her very greatly. Not only was she a great asset to the show as a performer, but we also just miss her company, because she is an absolute hoot to have around. She has been snapped up by another show and damn right, they’d be nuts not to. I hope she is having a great time, and I am sure she is.”

The actress, who decided to leave the series for a stint in The Good Wife as well the Children’s Hospital, will be missed by loyal viewers this fall, but the show must go on, and with that said it looks like House show runners have been preparing one new and explosive season with a little surgery of their own.  The long time series has not only been tinkering with the premise of the show’s new year, but its character line-up as well.    Read more

Hugh Laurie is now television’s highest paid actor

With production on Charlie Sheen’s series “Two and a Half Men” indefinitely suspended, word has come out that “House” star Hugh Laurie is now recognized as television’s highest paid actor.

CBS chose to halt production on “Two and Half Men“ after a series of outbursts from Sheen and concern over the actor’s personal well being. Reports say Sheen was making $1.25 million per episode, while Laurie earns around $400,000 per episode or $9 million a year for his work on “House”.

Stars Share The Job That Landed Them Their SAG Card

Getting your SAG card. That’s the goal all actors are striving towards (if they don’t have it already). Here, some of today’s hottest stars reveal the story behind the job that landed them that honor.

“I got my SAG card doing the first ever commercial for Dasani bottled water. I thought I only got the part because of my red hair but then the commercial was shot in black and white and I realized I got the part because I could sell the s— out of overpriced bottled water.” — Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family

“Fran Van Hartesveldt, a commercial agent in town, explained to me that to get a SAG card, I needed a job and to get a job, I needed a SAG card. He had pity on me and gave me one line in a show called The Great Gildersleeve. Years later, when I got my own show, I hired Fran as one of my writers.” — Betty White

“I got my SAG card with one line in the movie, The Doors. I was very sassy with [director] Oliver Stone in my audition, so he offered me the job on the spot. In every take I kept making the line a little longer until Oliver yelled at me.”  — Lisa Edelstein, House

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Interview: Amber Tamblyn

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:31 — 12.1MB)

Amber Tamblyn, from Joan of Arcadia and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants but did you know that  her first job was on the soap, General Hospital?

At the age of 12, when I was busy reading comic books, she was appearing on the classic daytime drama as ‘Emily Quartermain.’ She was on the show for six years before turning to guest spots  on shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Two years later, she was starring in her own show, the much-loved show, Joan of Arcadia.

She’s currently in Danny Boyle’s excellent new film, 127 Hours and starting tonight, she joins House for a multi-episode arc as ‘Martha Masters’, a brilliant but inexperienced medical student.

I talked to her on a media conference call where she talked about House, the atmosphere on set and whether she thinks she’s matured as an actress.

For the full interview, click onto the audio link above or download from iTunes.

What type of medical research did you have to do for the role?

Amber Tamblyn: I didn’t do any medical research.  I did episode-by-episode research.  So, if something was involving smallpox, then I would look that up.  If there was a specific word I didn’t know, which is about 90% of the words, I would look up that and see what it meant.

As far as the on-set training when you’re trying to do something like draw blood and IV’s, they have a woman there who’s incredible who was a nurse for many, many years and then retired to come be on the show and help us learn how to do anything that we’re doing on that episode.  So, if we’re giving someone a trach, if we’re taking blood, if we’re— Anything that we do, she teaches us and shows us how to do it and makes sure it’s the right way.  That’s the training.  There was no reading anything beforehand.

How are you with that stuff?  Are you squeamish around blood?

Amber: No, not at all.  I’m not squeamish at all.  It’s fun.  It’s a lot of fun.  It’s very fast-paced.  You get very good at doing it.  Then, you feel like, “Man, if one of my friends, if something happened to them, I might be able to actually help,” which is dumb and not a smart thing to think but I do think that way.  I feel, in an emergency, I could probably give CPR now.

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House & Heroes!

MONDAY Cory Blevins House Co-Star as State Trooper 8pm on FOX April 13th

MONDAY William Charlton HEROES 9pm on NBC April 13th

Kal Penn's exit interview

I’ve only watched House a couple times so I’m not really up on all the story lines but from what I’ve heard and read, Kal Penn‘s suicide on the show was a complete shocker.

And when I heard that he wasn’t written out but asked to be written out in order to work for the Obama administration? I was the one who was shocked.

How many times have you heard of a successful actor quitting a show to do public service?

From EW:

Will you actually be working in the White House?
PENN: This particular office is in the executive building. The White House has two buildings: the actual White House and an old Navy building called the Old Executive Office.

Are you there as long as Obama’s in office?
PENN: A lot of that stuff is up in the air. This is a relatively recent development.

Safe to say you’re taking a huge pay cut?
PENN: Oh, yeah. There’s not a lot of financial reward in these jobs. But, obviously, the opportunity to serve in a capacity like this is an incredible honor.

How long has this been in the works?
PENN: I’ve been thinking about [moving into politics] for a while. I love what I do as an actor. I couldn’t love it more. But probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service. I went to a performing arts high school, but I still took a bunch of those dorky political science classes. It’s probably because of the value system my grandparents instilled in me. They marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and that was always in the back of my head. So the past couple of years I thought about it a little more. And in ’06 I started this international studies program at Stanford, where they actually let you do most of the course work online. So it was something I could do while I was acting. And I thought this might be the right time to go off and do something else. The ultimate irony, of course, is that I love being on House. There’s not a smarter group of people that I’ve been surrounded by in television. So I thought about it for a very long time before I went and talked to David and Katie.

What was that conversation like?
PENN: We had a very long discussion. And I remember David saying, “Are you telling me that you’re unhappy with the show and that you want to leave so you can go off and do a different show?” And I was like, “Not at all. I’m actually saying the exact opposite, which is I’m having an incredible time, but there’s something aching in me to do something completely different and take a break from the acting thing for a while.” And with their blessing, we were able to work it out.

Are you retiring from acting?
PENN: Not necessarily. Who’s to say where any path leads? I still have a passion for it. But for the time being, I won’t be acting.

How did you react when you found out how they were writing Kutner out?
PENN: One of the things I love about our show is you never know what’s going to happen. So that news struck me in the same way we hope it strikes the audience: there was a little bit of anger and some depression. You really go through those emotions, especially when somebody dies in that fashion. Ultimately, it was a really interesting choice for them to make. We don’t really know why he did it, unless it’s resolved in the episodes after [I left], which, of course, I’m not privy to anymore. At least in [last night's] episode, we don’t really know why he did it. There’s no note. There’s no explanation. And as a testament to David and Katie, that’s a huge risk. ‘Cause it is going to make people upset, and it is going to piss off some of the audience. And, ultimately, in my opinion, that’s what art really is — when you can conjure up those kinds of emotions. And it’s rare nowadays to be able to do that on network television, but they managed to.

Were you disappointed that you didn’t get to shoot the requisite good-bye scenes with your co-stars?
PENN: From my selfish perspective, you want one last scene with Hugh, you want one awesome bantering scene with Peter, you want something where you and Olivia [Wilde] are doing a diagnostic together. But I had known a couple weeks beforehand [that Kutner would just abruptly commit suicide], so I was conscious in previous episodes of, ‘Okay, this is probably the last time I’m going to get to do a scene with Peter, and this is the last time I’m going to be on screen with Robert.’ And, of course, we’re all still really close friends, so I’ve seen them a ton of times since I stopped shooting.

What were your emotions like on your last day?
PENN: It’s always emotional when something incredible comes to an end. The feeling would have been very different if I was not enjoying myself, and if I didn’t love the job. But because I loved the job and the character and the people I’m working with, I think bittersweet is the probably the best way to describe it. The contrast of knowing that I want to move on and do something completely different, with the incredibly violent and incredibly depressing thing that happens to my character… I think bittersweet is the only way to describe it.

Curb Your Enthusiasm and House!

Paul Webster booked Curb Your Enthusiasm

Scott Dawson booked House

Castle, Medium, Gary Unmarried, House & More!

Matt Riedy booked Castle	Benton Jennings booked the web series Safety Geeks: S.V.I.	Casey Williams booked Medium	Amy Crofoot booked Gary Unmarried & My Boys
Tavis Danz booked a co-star on NCIS	Lorene Noh booked a co-star on House	Larry Guli booked another episode in his recurring role on General Hospital

House, The Mentalist, Old Christine & Earl

MONDAY Janet Haley House FOX Feb. 16th @ 8pm	TUESDAY Jolie Jenkins The Mentalist CBS Feb. 17th @ 9pm	WEDNESDAY Robert Radlach New Adventures of Old Christine CBS Feb. 18th @ 8pm
THURSDAY Perry Smith My Name Is Earl NBC Feb. 19th @ 8pm

NCIS, House and Criminal Minds

TUESDAY Peter Gannon NCIS Bartender Nov. 25th CBS @ 8pm

TUESDAY Alex Sol House Role – Larry Nov. 25th FOX @ 8pm

WEDNESDAY Spencer Hill Criminal Minds Co-Star Nov. 26th CBS @ 9pm

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