It's been a few days since my last TCA Diary, so I've got a lot to get through. In the interests of brevity (and so that you don't also feel like you've been trapped at this press conference as long as I have!) I'm only going to give you the highlights. They are: Lucy Liu, Lauren Lee Smith, Elizabeth Reaser, Toni Collette.

Although Cashmere Mafia has bitten the dust, Lucy Liu hasn't entirely gotten the shaft. "I got a call from Steve McPherson [ABC's entertainment president] saying that Cashmere Mafia was most likely not going to come back and that he still wanted to work with me and keep me in the family," she said. "And I told him that I was a huge fan of Dirty Sexy Money."

Liu then sat down with Dirty Sexy Money's producers and brainstormed about her character, who was created to fit in with some of the story lines the producers had been discussing. She'll be playing Nola Lyons, described in ABC's press materials as "whip-smart, overachieving and very fashionable." When asked whether her character will be romantically paired with anyone, Liu answered: "I hope so. I think I'll be romantically paired maybe with all — everyone that's up here, including the women."

Lucy Liu

Photo credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

We always appreciate a shout-out, Lucy.

In other news, former soup chef Lauren Lee Smith has traded in her apron for a microscope (and various other scientific instruments) as the newest crime scene investigator on CSI. CBS' president of entertainment, Nina Tassler, said that "this new character is also going to give to the other supporting characters and Marg [Helgenberger] an opportunity to sort of show parts of their character, show parts of their personality, that the audiences perhaps haven't seen ever before or at least in a while." … continue reading

Come this fall, you’ll be seeing fairies everywhere (and not the gay kind). Walt Disney Pictures officially announced the October 28th release of Tinker Bell, the first in a four-part feature-length DVD series all about Peter Pan’s tiny sidekick and her fairy friends. The voice cast stars some or our favorites, including America Ferrera, Anjelica Huston, Lucy Liu, Raven-Symoné and Kristin Chenoweth.

All the Disney hype is centered on the fact that this is the first time the audience will get to hear Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) speak. But I’m more interested in the character of Fawn, who is voiced by none other than Ugly Betty herself. (She’s the one next to Tink in the picture below, wearing the pants and the “sensible” shoes. You can see where this is going, right?)

Even better than her more butch appearance and demeanor is the way she’s described in an early press release: “This rascally tomboy is full of mischief and mirth — she loves to tweak Iridessa [Raven-Symoné] just to see her glow. Fawn is always ready to play and the more rough-and-tumble the game, the better.” She loves to “tweak” her, huh? Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Sorry, I dyke-gress.

Don’t get too excited about the possibility of a Fawn/Iridessa pairing just yet, though. If pop-cult history is any indication, Fawn is just another in a long line of what I like to call the “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” tomboy. Everything about this thinly veiled lesbian character — her clothes, behavior, interests (usually playing sports) — screams “butch,” but the writers always fall short of outing her. Instead, they slap on the non-threatening “tomboy” label and either set her up in an awkward boy-crush or strip her of her sexuality all together. And this play-both-sides-of-the-fence formula seems to work magic: Lesbians adopt the tomboy as one of their own — hey, it’s not like we have that many openly gay characters to relate to — and the general viewing public also embraces her, since she’s never revealed to be anything more than a bit on the boyish side. It’s a win-win situation for the producers. But we, of course, have to settle for lesbian subtext and watered-down versions of ourselves yet again. … continue reading

The holidays are supposed to be about love, joy and forgiveness. The holidays are supposed to bring us together. They remind us to give to those who are less fortunate. We are supposed to set aside our family feuds, our petty disagreements, our bitterness at perceived wrongs. (Heck, we should do that all year long.)

Revenge is not a part of the holiday season. No matter: Every season is the right time to watch a good tale of revenge on the screen. Revenge tales allow us to live vicariously through the fictional heroes who exact their righteous revenge in ways we never could.

So what are the best revenge movies of all time? EW.com has compiled a list. As you might expect, this list is primarily populated with testosterone-fueled action epics like The Godfather, Gladiator, Death Wish and Payback. But the girls do get in on the action, sometimes in surprising ways.

Let's start with the most obvious films. First, and most recent, we have Jodie Foster. Yes, The Brave One made the list. Such a shame for me to be forced into posting yet another shot of the lovely Ms. Foster. … continue reading

I have a really long to-do list in a notebook somewhere. I call it my things-to-do-before-I-croak list. It includes stuff like places I want to see, books I want to read and things I'd like to accomplish. Thanks to AfterEllen.com, I can sort of cross off one of those items. No. 67: Get published. Sure, the Internet wasn't what I had in mind when I added that particular item to my list, but it counts in my world.

Another thing on my to-do list is attend the Sundance Film Festival. If I could manage to squeeze in the time off and barter my way to Utah, I'd make 2008 the year to get that one crossed off the list. The complete list of films screening at next year's festival was released over the course of the past couple of weeks. Not only do some of the films sound intriguing, but the list of who's in those films should make the red carpet a true treat. In last week's Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. we told you about one reason to head for the Utah mountains, a reason named Saffron Burrows. Here are a few more reasons to make the trek.

One of the people I would expect to see strutting about town is Lena Headey. Not only would I love to drool over her in person, but I'd also like to see the movie she's in that's screening at Park City at Midnight. It's called The Broken and tells the tale of a woman who sees herself drive by in her own car while on a busy London street. She follows the mystery double into "a living nightmare." Lena Headey in what sounds like an eerie psychological thriller? Count me in. … continue reading

Brooke Shields attended the Rockefeller Center tree lighting ceremony to promote NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, which will premiere Thursday, February 7, in ER’s slot (after ER runs out of original episodes).

Along with Shields, the series stars Kim Raver and Lindsay Price as three high-powered executives in New York City. It’s based on a bestselling book by Candace Bushnell about a jungle full of lipstick-wearing animals. Or something like that.

While we’re generally happy to see series that feature strong female roles, Lipstick’s review by our resident TV critics, Lori and Sarah, was not exactly stellar. OK, they hated it. Hop over and view the preview, then join me in saying “eww.” … continue reading

Annie Leibovitz is possibly the best, and certainly the most famous, celebrity photographer around. And whether she is shooting for editorial or commercial use, I always pay attention to her gorgeous images. So when the Gap rolled out its new fall “Classics Redefined” campaign, I took a peek. And, once again, wow.

The array of famous (and somewhat less famous) faces posing in sweater vests, wide-leg trousers, French-cuff shirts and the like are actors Selma Blair, Lucy Liu, Regina King, Liev Schreiber, Forest Whitaker and Ken Watanabe; musicians John Mayer and Puffy AmiYumi; comedian Sarah Silverman; director Davis Guggenheim; designer Marcel Wanders and dancer-choreographer Twyla Tharp. (See them all here.) … continue reading

This is a live blog from the bi-annual Television Critics Association conference. See previous TCA posts here.

It's time for the highlight of the conference, for me at least: the panel for Cashmere Mafia, the only new show next season with a prominent lesbian character, played by Bonnie Somerville (pictured below on the far left).

The cast — Lucy Liu, Miranda Otto, Frances O'Connor, and Bonnie Somerville — is joined on stage by writer Kevin Wade, executive producer Darren Star, and some exec named Jeff (didn't catch his last name).

All four of the women look great, although Lucy's wearing a bright pink number that's the same color as a prom dress I wore in high school, with some kind of red mock scarf thingie.

The Q&A kicks off with a topic that will prove to be a popular one at the session: Sex and the City, and how it relates to this show. Darren Star insists, "I wasn't thinking of Sex and the City when I sold this idea." He says he initially got the idea for Cashmere Mafia when Gail Katz talked about women she went to business school with at Yale.

A reporter comments that he was disappointed there was only one scene in which someone was actually wearing cashmere. Bonnie jokingly asks the reporter to marry her (because he knows what cashmere is), but he says he has to go pick up his wife at the airport. Bonnie quips back, "That's okay. My character would probably like that." Five minutes in and already with the lesbian jokes? A good sign! … continue reading

Rise: Blood Hunter starts today (limited release). I just watched the trailer, and I can't say it looks good, exactly, but it does look fabulously trashy. If you like Lucy Liu, Carla Gugino, vampires and strobey, pretentious editing, you'll be happy as a blood-hunting clam. Or something like that.

In this photo, the hunt for blood is clearly over: … continue reading

Network TV used to have an unwritten rule that there could only be one Asian American woman, if that, in a leading (or even prominent recurring) role on TV at a time. Or in a few-year span.

In the '90s it was Margaret Cho on All American Girl, followed by Ming-Na on ER, and Lucy Liu on Ally McBeal. Then at the turn of the century, it was Keiko Agena on Gilmore Girls, and Kristin Kreuk on Smallville, plus a few others sprinkled in now and then.

But a few years ago, something happened — more specifically, Lost and Grey's Anatomy happened, or maybe common sense just finally kicked in — and we began to get three or four Asian American women in regular roles on network TV shows. Then last season, it was five.

And the networks discovered something odd: people of color tuned in, and the white people didn't stop watching. In fact, ratings even went up on some of the shows. (Gee, maybe this whole diversity thing isn't such a bad idea, after all!)

Now, going into the 2007-08 season, we're looking at a record seven shows with prominent female Asian American leading or supporting roles on primetime network TV (eight if The CW renews Smallville).

That's almost double the number of even a few years ago. Yes, it's still a pathetically small number, and there's still no Asian American equivalent to shows like Everybody Hates Chris or the upcoming Latino family drama Cane. But at least it's trending in the right direction — and it's six more than the number of lesbians we're going to get next season!

But on to the new roles.

First, Lucy Liu makes her triumphant return to television in Cashmere Mafia (ABC), a drama about career women in New York that we blogged about yesterday. Here's her official Cashmere headshot: … continue reading

Now that ABC has officially picked up Cashmere Mafia — a drama series about four successful 30-something friends climbing the ladder in their respective careers, starring Lucy Liu, Miranda Otto, Frances O'Connor and Bonnie Somerville — we're finally going to get at least one lesbian/bi character on network TV next season. And I have the lowdown for you!

First, a disclaimer: this info is based on the initial casting calls for the pilot. Pilots often undergo re-writes, re-shoots and other changes along the way to airing on your television set, so it's very likely that some details will change — names, dialogue, plot points. Whole story lines can be dropped, even, although usually only the minor ones, unless the pilot is completely re-done. It's not very likely that the lesbian/bi character would suddenly become straight, for example. But Lucy Liu's character Dylan was originally described in the casting sides as having "blonde good looks." Obviously, that didn't happen.

So what follows is just how the pilot started out — where it ended up, we'll have to wait to find out. But it will at least give you an idea of the basic characters involved, the sensibility of the show and what kind of tone the writers are aiming for.

Now, on to the details!

Caitlin (Bonnie Somerville) is a cosmetics industry VP in her late 30s described in the initial scripts as "a Boston Irish working girl transformed into a saucily attractive Jil Sander suit." This is what she looks like:

In the pilot, Caitlin finds herself inexplicably attracted to a woman she hires named Alicia, who is described as "37, British, with a striking physical beauty made all the more appealing by a disarmingly scattered, un-self-conscious air. Men want to be with her, women want to be like her." (No word yet on who has been cast in this role.) … continue reading