It’s a Hairy Situation – Majandra mention

Thanks to Brad for sending this in!

From the Philidelphia Inquirer:

Her locks fell, ratings fell, but nobody on ‘Felicity’ is forlorn

CULVER CITY, Calif. � It’s a hairy situation.

Keri Russell’s glorious locks lie on the cutting room floor, and Felicity’s
ratings are lower than the geology grades of a freshman footballer.

“We like to take chances, and we need to take chances, whether they’re
successful or not,” show creator and executive producer J.J. Abrams told a
gaggle of TV critics sitting outside the make-believe New York City
coffeeshop where Felicity earns her bread.

“I’m glad Felicity cut her hair,” said Abrams. “Did it pay off because the
ratings are huge? No.

“This show could wind up being incredibly predictable. We can’t and won’t be
like that.”

They sure won’t. On Jan. 23, Felicity plans a black-and-white episode, in
homage to The Twilight Zone. “It’s a risky thing,” said Abrams, who phoned
one of Twilight’s original directors, Lamont Johnson, to ask him to helm the
shoot.

“‘I haven’t done anything since 1959,’ ” Abrams says Johnson told him. “But
it was OK. It was an opportunity to work with one of the old guys whom I’ve
admired for so long.”

Most of the young cast was unfamiliar with Zone. Abrams sent them tapes.

Russell seemed a little skeptical about the episode but, as she proved with
her radical haircut, she’s a trouper. The chop was Abrams’ idea, and it came
this summer after she sent him a joke picture without her signature curls,
figuring it would freak him out.

She forgot he was big on risk.

“Keri is beautiful enough to carry off being bald,” said Abrams. “This
forces us to evaluate who the character is.”

Russell says she likes the new do:

“It’s good to move in and out of your comfort zone, and getting my hair cut
moved me out. It’s liberating.”

But there is a limit to the liberation.

“It is getting longer,” she said.

Space patrol. The critics were on a Monday bus tour that took them to three
TV studios for interviews with casts and creators of four WB shows. In the
afternoon, they found themselves in the Crashdown Cafe. It’s one of the
central sets of the WB’s spooky and adorable Roswell, which airs Wednesdays
at 9.

The show, about teenagers who really are alien, trades on reports that
spacemen landed in Roswell, N.M., in 1947. The cafe offers the Sigourney
Weaver Kick Alien Burger ($3), Spaced Out Soup ($1.50 a cup), and
Unidentified French Flying Objects ($2).

Majandra Delfino, who plays the somewhat spacey waitress Maria in the show,
didn’t need a lot of prep work to get into her role.

“It’s really obvious to me that there are aliens around,” she told the
scribes, gathered in Southern California for their semiannual full-body
immersion in the TV publicity machine.

“Each planet, each dimension, is full of interesting stuff,” she said,
echoing the views of “all her friends” back in Miami.

“They’re not really hippies, but they’re pretty spiritual, into Zen, really
crazy. They can’t believe I’m on a WB show.”

I mean, it’s, like, so suburban � talk about the Twilight Zone.

But Roswell does have its advantages, and not just the cool alien and
supernatural stuff. It’s also well-stocked with the WB’s standard stable of
hot boys.

Delfino says she’s trying to move her character into deeper territory, away
from the straight role of wacky sidekick. But she also knows what’s really
important.

“I never ask the writers for anything except kissing. Just kissing. Lots of
kissing.”

After her success as Tina on the unsuccessful Tony Danza Show in 1997,
Delfino, 18, says, “I was offered every sitcom that came along.”

But when she read the scripts: “No way.”

“I’m just a kid. I just graduated high school. I’m still living with my
parents. It’s not like I have to do anything.”

Too stuffy for Buffy? Even though many critics consider Buffy the Vampire
Slayer one of the best shows on television, creator Joss Whedon has a heck
of a time getting respect from the folks who run the awards shows.

Do you think it’s the title?

“I never thought this show would be so highly regarded,” he said, “even if
nobody gives us awards.

“It’s got a sophomoric title that wears its silliness on its sleeve, and I’m
grateful for the respect that we’ve got.

“The awards are what they are. Do I covet them?

“Yes.”

Some hearts may be broken by the following Buffy news. Seth Green, who plays
the soulful Oz, will be coming back, but only for guest shots.

“Seth got a movie,” said Whedon. “We let him go do it.”

Whedon spoke to critics on the cramped set that is part of the lead
character’s apartment in the Buffy spinoff, Angel. It gives David Boreanaz
and Charisma Carpenter their own show, but also takes them away from all
their buds across town.

Carpenter still keeps up, though, especially with Allyson Hannigan, who
plays Buffy’s friend, Willow.

“Is she fun?” Carpenter asked rhetorically. “Allyson is a walking party.”