SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

Berkeley’s Nessa Nemir wrote to say that fellow “Pirate Master” Cheryl Kosewicz. was found dead Friday in Sparks, near Reno. It was an apparent suicide just days after the series was canceled by CBS.

The 35-year-old Cheryl was a deputy district attorney who was cut from the show on the June 21 episode.

“Her boyfriend had killed himself a couple months after we got back from the Carribbean,” Nessa writes. “Her funeral will be held in Reno on Tuesday (today)… Everyone is shocked and devastated…. I haven’t seen anything about it in the news yet… Thought you might want to know.”

Press tour ended on July 26 and after working for almost three weeks straight without a break, I’ll be taking a few days off.
Enjoy reading some of the posts here and I’ll be back with fresh stuff on Wednesday, Aug. 1.
Thanks for reading,
Susan

Honest, it was just a question about “Lost” and suddenly, the wrath of ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson and “Lost” creator Damon Lindelof is upon me.

All the online people were all twittering about some big announcements that were going to be made at Comic Con on Thursday during the “Lost” session.

STEPHEN MCPHERSON, trying to act like he wanted to be at press tour

Since I was committed to sticking it out for the final days of press tour with ABC bringing up the tail end, it seemed only natural that Steve should share what was going to be announced. Otherwise, why were we even hanging out here?

So it went like this:

Me, all being polite and stuff: “Mr. McPherson, on your left. Can I go back to
a “Lost” question? There’s been talk that there are major announcements that they are going to be announcing at Comic-Con tomorrow. Would you like to tell us today
what that might be? ”

STEPHEN McPHERSON, getting snarky right off the bat: “Yeah. Let me give those
announcements now. Of course I don’t. ”

Me trying to sweet talk him: “Oh, come on.”

STEPHEN McPHERSON, just tweaking me now: “They do have some announcements that they are going to be making that I think everyone will be pretty excited about.”

Me, again playing fair: “Well, can you tell us?”

STEPHEN McPHERSON, getting defensive: “No.”

Me, starting to get snippy: “Do you want us to go to Comic-Con tomorrow instead of the sessions? ”

STEPHEN McPHERSON, getting real sarcastic: “Let’s go now. Do you want to go? ”

Me, who didn’t get a budget for a rental car: “Sure.”

STEPHEN McPHERSON, really getting testy now: “You and me, we’ll just go on a little
road trip down to Comic-Con.”

Me, who is hoping we might bond and stop by In and Out Burger on the way down: “Okay.”

Later, other reporters at the press conference jumped into the fray.

Rick Kushman of the Sacramento Bee told Steve Mc. “I don’t think my editor is going to be very happy when she reads on a blog later this afternoon that Steve McPherson promised that the biggest news regarding one of the highest-rated shows in the network would be coming at a fan convention the next day.”

Later, a publicist skittered across the stage and whispered to McPherson that Lindelof had given his permission to give out the biggest news: Harold Perrineau is returning to the show.

Now, really Steve, was it all that hard?

To add to the problem, it has been reported that Damon was upset that we found out before the fans. But, really, it was less than 24 hours before he made the announcement, so the fans at the convention thought they were getting it first and the newspapers thought they were getting it first.

It was a win-win, right Damon?
Damon?

Just about a week after Berkeley’s Rebecca Romijn (“Ugly Betty’’) and Jerry O’Connell (“Carpoolers’’), the two were chatting with critics about their respective TV series.

“Carpoolers’’ is on the ABC fall schedule.

THE HAPPY COUPLE

“I love the Bay Area. I’m addicted to Zach’s pizza, I only drink Peet’s coffee in the morning, and I’m now officially a member of the Raider Nation,’’ says Jerry, still giddy about his recent nuptials. “My in-laws live in the Bay Area, so we go up there a lot. We just visited my sister-in-law, who lives in Richmond. And I’m still trying to eat at Chez Panisse, which they said was booked until October when I called for a reservation. I drive a Prius and get angry if people don’t recycle. The little lady has got me living the Bay Area lifestyle.’’

Later, when asked to confirm his conversion to Green, the impossibly beautiful Rebecca laughed.

“Yeah, he’s driving MY Prius,’’ Romijn says. “Hey, at least he’s driving a Prius. My mom bought us a purified water system for our wedding president and Jerry decided to put solar panels in. I didn’t turn Jerry Green, but I think I might have started the fire under his butt. ’’

Rebecca says they haven’t stopped enjoying their life since they’ve been together.

“We took our honeymoon in June before the wedding and I highly recommend it,’’ says Rebecca. “I got married relaxed and with a tan.’’

Fans of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip’’ know that creator Aaron Sorkin tapped into real Hollywood people for the drama and exploited his own stormy relationship with Kristen Chenoweth thought the characters of Matt and Harriet.

KRISTIN CHENOWETH on the TCA panel for “Pushing Daisies.” (ABC/CRAIG SJODIN)

Like Matt and Harriet, Aaron and Kristen have had their share of spats, including a huge blow-up over Christian Kristen appearing on the “700 Club.” That formed the basis of the break-up between Matt and Harriet on “Studio 60.”

Kristen turned up at the ABC party Thursday night wearing a pretty white dress and a large diamond cross. She says she got more upset about things Aaron wrote about her on the show that were fictional, like her stand on stem cell research, than the things that were true.

“Did you watch the season finale?” asks Kristen about the episode in which Matt and Harriet get engaged. “We were broken up at the time.”

The affable star was eager to talk about her relationship with Aaron.

“We are together,’’ Kristen says, adding with a little punch, “This week.’’

Earlier that day when she was shooting her new series “Pushing Daisies,’’ Aaron popped over to the studio and ran around toilet papering her car.

“He says it’s a good luck tradition, but I don’t know,’’ says the chipper Chenoweth. “He’s really great. This week.’’

Last night, things got a little rowdy in the room across the hall from me. I thought it was a bunch of TV critics celebrating the near-end of the TCA press tour.

MATT DALLAS

Instead, it was Matt Dallas and a group of fun-loving friends. He’s a guy who is enjoying life.

But that cute Matt Dallas never thought he’d become a boy toy for women of all ages.

After all, he’s just an actor playing a guy with no belly button who discovers he is part of a scientific experiment trying to find his way in the world on ABC Family’s series “Kyle XY.”

Then, he’s walking down the street and some women think they can just take advantage of the poor boy.

“I’ve had some pretty interesting people come up to me,” Matt says. “I had that girl stick her tongue in my ear. I had a lady at a bar in New York come up and just stick her hand underneath my shirt, touch my belly-button, whisper in my ear, “I
touched it.” ”

So how does he feel about all this attention?

“Okay. I was kind of in shock,” he says.

Charlie Sheen used to be known as the tabloid headling king for his antics involving Hollywood madams, drugs and overall chaotic life.

But now, he reminds us, he’s just a guy doing a TV show who has some nice kids and is happily engaged. And Sheen’s more than eager to let the Lindsay Lohans and Britney Spears take that searing spotlight.

“There’s several people recently at least in the last year that have snatched that torch from me,” Sheen says with his dry wit delivery. “I just stay home and let it happen basically, but I feel for them.”

Any advice?

“I mean, it’s not that complicated to hire a car or just to carry some extra cab fare at some point,” he says.

Hot breaking news: We can confirm that Zachary Quinto will be a regular character this year on “Heroes,” although he’ll be taking some time off to play Spock in the upcoming “Star Trek’’ movie.

OK, so there’s no real official word, but it’s almost a done deal.

Moving on.

A few days earlier at the Television Critics Awards, I made the mistake of asking Zachary, who plays the evil Sylar, if he was really a cockroach _ the insect seen crawling out of the gutter after Sylar was supposedly killed

“I am not a cockroach,’’ he says in a low snarl. “It was a metaphor for evolution.’’

ZACHARY QUINTO AS SYLAR – NBC Photo: Mitchell Haaseth

Sylar, we can safely say, has not been killed. Although I’m a little afraid Zachary may be out to get me.

“Lost” producer Damon Lindelof will be making a major announcement at ComicCon tomorrow in San Diego.

At the end of last season’s “Lost,” we discovered that everything we’ve been watching up until this point was all in the past.

We were tipped to this early when we saw an episode with Jack watching the 2004 World Series game won by the Boston Red Sox that Ben, the leader of the Others, showed him during his during his confinement.

While we’d love to know if this season will be told in flashback or flash forward, ABC says the announcement is that Harold Perrineau, who played dad Michael Dawson, will be returning this season which starts in early 2008.

UPDATE: At ComicCon, Harold told fans that he thinks he’s the one in the coffin shown in the season ender.

Will we ever discover if Berkeley’s Nessa Nemir takes all the treasure on the CBS reality show “Pirate Master”?

Nessa unveils the Royal Pardon at the last airing of “Pirate Master.” Photo: Tommy Baynard/Mark Burnett Prod.

The Mark Burnett summer reality series has been ordered to walk the plank and won’t even get a Thursday send-off. Instead, anyone interested in seeing the final five episodes will have to go the CBS web site beginning tomorrow, according to USA Today.

At least there Nemir’s family might actually see the show. During an interview with her sister before the show air, it was revealed that the family doesn’t even own a television set.