Paget Brewster

Start to Finish

• Oct 18, 2007 08:56 PM ET
• by Nic Wegener

This week, there's a real buzz on the set and it has nothing to do with the upcoming episode or last week's ratings. This weekend members of our cast and crew are getting their Lance Armstrong on. Saturday is the 2007 Start to Finish MS Bike Tour. Twenty-three members of the Criminal Minds staff are getting up early and biking up the California coast to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. They've been looking forward to this for a long time.Last year 12 of our crew members pedaled, and this year the number has doubled. The 12 riders from last year did not take very much time off before getting back to training and are taking it very seriously. The newcomers all have a varied range of experience and ability but have been riding every weekend. Every Monday tales of training mishaps and misadventures make their way to set.However, the most important part of this ride has nothing to do with the performance of the cyclists. It's all to benefit NMSS. So in addition to those r... read more

The Criminal Minds Diet, and Other Observations

• Oct 10, 2007 01:35 AM ET
• by Nic Wegener

Whenever I bring guests to set, there is always one thing that amazes them more than anything else: the food. Scratch that. Two things. First, they comment on how the ladies of the show are even more striking in person... then they comment on the food. There's lots of food on set. Every day, there are two meals prepared by catering. For breakfast, our caterer Hannah makes made-to-order plates from the catering truck as well as an omelet bar, some sort of hot entrée, and an assortment of rolls, cereals, etc;. Even while the crew eats breakfast, they are already working toward the lunch that will be served seven hours later. Lunch is cafeteria-style with different meat options, a fish, sides, pastas and salad bars. In addition, two "snacks" are served. There is one between breakfast and lunch, and one five hours after lunch (the crew works very long days on set). The crew works 14 hour days — and sometimes much more. It's necessary to keep them fueled. I however work at a d... read more

Why Paget Brewster Simply Had to Join Criminal Minds

• Dec 20, 2006 03:00 AM ET
• by Deborah Starr Seibel

Paget Brewster, Criminal Minds

As Gideon's squad of serial crime fighters adds sexy Paget Brewster to their ranks, TV Guide debriefs the former Mrs. Huff on what exactly her Criminal Minds (Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET) mission entails. (Psst... it apparently involves "fancy footwork" with the boss.) TV Guide: What convinced you to sign up for Criminal Minds?Paget Brewster: I was in New Orleans shooting a movie, and I called my agent and said, "I've been doing my laundry in hotel bathtubs for three months, and I'm lonely. I haven't seen my family or friends. I want to be on a TV show — I want to be home at five." He called a week later and said, "Would you meet with Criminal Minds?" TV Guide: So it must have gone well.B read more

Rob Lowe Reflects on His West Wing Past, a Perfect Present and His Brothers Sisters Future

• Dec 18, 2006 03:00 AM ET
• by Matt Webb Mitovich

Rob Lowe, A Perfect Day

You can't keep a good man down, let alone a fine actor. Rob Lowe, who famously exited The West Wing during its prime, and then ultimately went on to pass up filling McDreamy's scrubs, is at the fore again, amping up ABC's Brothers & Sisters as a senator who has taken a shine to Calista Flockhart's Kitty. What's more, the former Brat Packer stars with Paget Brewster in TNT's A Perfect Day (premiering Monday at 8 pm/ET), a holiday movie in which Robert Harlan, read more

I enjoyed Lola Glaudini on ...

• Dec 4, 2006 03:00 AM ET
• by Matt Roush

Question: I enjoyed Lola Glaudini on Criminal Minds. She did an excellent job! Why is she no longer a member of the cast? Answer: After weeks of ducking this often-asked question, because I had yet to see an official explanation anywhere, here's a detail from an upcoming TV Guide story (on newsstands this week) on new cast member Paget Brewster: "They were looking to bring in a female agent who was unknown to the unit. Ed [Bernero, the show's executive producer] said, 'We've grown complacent as writers with who these people are, and we need to shake it up.'" Characters get written out of shows all the time, especially on shows like this and especially when producers want to make changes from season to season. If there's more to the actress's departure than a creative desire to shake things up, I'm not aware of it. As I've said before, at least with Elle's character, they gave her plenty of dramatic context for leaving the team. It's not like she just disappeared without an explanation ... read more

Wednesday Night Shuffle

• Nov 8, 2006 09:58 PM ET
• by Matt Roush

I’m hoping the approximately 23 zillion people who’ve written in to ask me about the fate of The King of Queens, which has been on hiatus all season, will be satisfied by CBS’s announcement earlier today (I would have responded here sooner, but I got kind of distracted watching all the zany activity out of Washington, D.C.). Here’s the deal: The ninth season of the Kevin James comedy will begin on Wednesdays as soon as sweeps is over, with back-to-back episodes on Dec. 6 and 13, plus original episodes the next two Wednesdays. (What Queens will be paired with those weeks, and past the new year, is yet to be determined.)The arrival of Queens coincides with the departure until February of CBS’s unexpected new success, Jericho, which is going to take a breather after its Nov. 29 episode, in the tradition of Lost and Prison Break (which airs its own fall finale Nov. 27) to avoid the inevitable ratings drop from repeats. Jericho will return on Valentine’s Day... read more

Lola Glaudini is leaving ...

• Oct 27, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Roush

Question: Lola Glaudini is leaving Criminal Minds (I think Oct. 25 was her last episode) and taking her character, Elle Greenaway, with her. Do you know why? Is it her choice or the show's, and who will be her replacement, if anyone? I really enjoy Criminal Minds, my third favorite crime drama behind Without a Trace and Law & Order: SVU, and I am afraid that the show will suffer without her. The cast, as they are now, click, and someone new could affect the dynamic. If you ask me, the one who should get the boot is A.J. Cook, who plays J.J. Why exactly is she a cast regular? She doesn't do anything a random recurring character couldn't do. At least they made Garcia a regular and got something right. Answer: I can't say if the actress was involved in the decision to write the character off the show, but from what I can tell, at least the story line gave her solid dramatic reasons for departing, which is more than many such characters get. On the other plus side, one of my favorite TV ... read more

Criminal Minds Increases Its Profilers

• Sep 29, 2006 02:22 PM ET
• by Matt Mitovich

Paget Brewster, last seen on the small screen playing beleaguered wife to Hank Azaria's shaky shrink on Showtime's Huff, has joined the cast of CBS' Criminal Minds as a series regular, playing a new profiler on the elite FBI team headed up by Mandy Patinkin. Quick, someone check to see if she has six fingers on her right hand. read more

Has Mrs. Huff Had Enough?

• Apr 21, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Webb Mitovich

Paget Brewster, Huff

On Showtime's Huff (Sundays at 10 pm/ET), Paget Brewster plays the forlorn and fed-up wife of Hank Azaria's sad-sack psychiatrist. Could she be playing someone more different from the hottie Friends' Chandler stole from Joey? TVGuide.com spoke to the actress about her Huffing and puffing, read more

Beyond Therapy
Family psychodrama awash in self-pity

• Mar 29, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Roush

As Huff’s second season opens, the title shrink (Hank Azaria) is lost in thought, not paying attention to his droning patient. Kind of how I felt watching this whiny, discordant and unfocused drama (Sundays at 10 pm/ET on Showtime), which whipsaws wildly and mostly unsuccessfully between raunchy dark comedy and existential family tragedy.

I kept watching my DVD time display, waiting (like the doctor) for each hour to be up. I got through seven of 13 new episodes before bailing, around the time Huff’s blabby conscience, which takes the form of a “Homeless Hungarian,” tells him to “wake up and smell the unspoken need.”

What I’m smelling is Showtime’s desperate need to launch a breakout drama that could attract the buzz of an FX or an HBO. Huff isn’t it. read more