"THE WILD" (Sept. 12): Kiefer Sutherland supplies the voice of a lion who leaves a zoo to go to Africa in pursuit of his son in this animated Disney fantasy. (G)

Fifth Annual Clothes Off Our Back Emmy(R) Is Live

Clothing and Accessories Worn By Winners, Nominees and Attendees at the Award Show Is Now Up for Bid to Benefit Children's Charities

Additional Items From the Teen Choice Awards, Television Shows as Well as Special Auctions for Natalie Portman, Mariska Hargitay and the Television

Academy and BAFTA/LA Are All Live Auction Runs Through the Evening of September 15, 2006

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The Clothes Off Our Back Foundation is proud to kick-off the fall with their fifth annual Emmy(R) auction. Clothing and accessories by top designers, worn by celebrities attending the Creative and Primetime Emmys(R), are currently up for bid to benefit children's charities including the emergency relief efforts in Darfur (specifically U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Save the Children and Friends of the World Food Program) as well as Children's Defense Fund and Cure Autism Now.

This marks a special auction for Clothes Off Our Back as items from the Teen Choice Awards and your favorite television shows are also up for bid. In addition, Clothes Off Our Back is hosting auctions for our friends in the entertainment community in their effort to raise money for their special causes.

The auction features items from Natalie Portman and her friends to raise money and awareness for The Milo Gladstein Foundation for Bloom's Syndrome.

Emmy(R) winner Mariska Hargitay ("Law & Order: SVU") has donated a number of gowns and outfits from her closet to benefit her charity, the Joyful Heart Foundation and Clothes Off Our Back is offering celebrity decorated teapots and travel certificates to benefit BAFTA/LA Scholarship Fund and the Television Academy Foundation.

"Having raised over $1 million for children's charities in the past five years, Clothes Off Our Back is happy to assist our celebrity friends by helping them raise money for causes close to their hearts," said Jane Kaczmarek, star of "Malcolm In The Middle" and the upcoming series "Help Me, Help You" and founder of the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation. "We have found that there is an audience for high quality designer fashion as well as celebrity memorabilia and it is our pleasure to auction the items and give people the opportunity to donate money to worthy children's charities."

Emmy(R) Items Up For Bid Include: - "24" Items

Gregory Itzin ("24") -- Taryn Rose signed shoes

Jean Smart ("24") -- Nicole Miller gown

Kiefer Sutherland ("24") -- Signed Motorola cell phone

Natalie Portman and Friend's Items Up For Bid for The Milo Gladstein Foundation for Bloom's Syndrome Include: - "24 Items

Elisa Cuthbert -- Signed "24" DVD, Seasons 1-4

The online charity auction is currently live and will run through the evening of Friday, September 15 at http://www.clothesoffourback.org. Clothes Off Our Back is the source for charity auctions that showcase today's hottest celebrity award show attire. Please continue to check http://www.clothesoffourback.org for updates on events and participants.

Stay tuned for an auction featuring Jane Kaczmarek's Emmy gift bag and dresses as seen on "Deal or No Deal."

About Clothes Off Our Back(R):

The Clothes Off Our Back Foundation(R) is a 501c3 organization that hosts charity auctions showcasing today's hottest celebrity attire. Items are put up for bid to the public with proceeds going to benefit children's charities. Clothes Off Our Back was founded by actors and philanthropists Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm In The Middle," "Help Me, Help You") and Bradley Whitford ("The West Wing," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip") whose efforts, along with their celebrity and designer friends have helped improve the lives of children across the globe. Additional information can be found at http://www.clothesoffourback.org.

SOURCE: Clothes Off Our Back Foundation

Sign Here: Celeb-Autographed Gallardo Sells for $500,000
Inside Line
September 5, 2006

AUBURN, Ind. — A rare "Celebrity" Lamborghini Gallardo was sold on Tuesday at the Kruse International auction to auto collector John O'Quinn for a record $500,000.

The sale benefits the Child Safety Network, a charitable trust dedicated to preventing child abuse, abduction and injury.

The vehicle was signed by Kiefer Sutherland, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Deborah Messing, Will Ferrell and others.

The yellow Gallardo is equipped with a 500-horsepower V10 engine with a top speed of 192 mph. It goes from zero to 62 mph in 4.2 seconds.

"While Lamborghini is an Italian carmaker that focuses on a very unique population of car owners, we care about the safety of all families and children," said Pietro Frigerio of Lamborghini. "We are very happy to lend a hand to CSN for this important cause."

What this means to you: A Lambo and a good cause — what could be a more compelling combination?

Emmys give '24' boxed sets a boost
By Greg Hernandez
Los Angeles Daily News
September 5, 2006

Following Emmy Award wins for Best Drama Series and Best Actor (Kiefer Sutherland), 24 has suddenly become a hot item on DVD with past seasons enjoying a surge in sales since the recent award telecast.

As of last week, various boxed sets of the show had soared up the sales charts on Amazon.com.

In addition to 24, also riding the Emmy wave on DVD was Best Comedy Series winner The Office as well as Elizabeth I, the HBO movie that won nine Emmys.

''Any time you get that kind of viewership, whether it's the Academy Awards or the Emmys . . . it has to resonate into the packaged-goods market because people become more aware of it,'' said Ralph Tribbey, editor of the DVD Release Report, an industry newsletter. ``It's amazing how something like that can all of a sudden get things moving again. It's good for business.''

Getting more popular each year, 24 is drawing fans to its earlier episodes. Season three of the show soared from 168 to 66 on the Amazon.com sales chart, a 154 percent jump. Season four climbed to 45th place from 111th place after a 114 percent increase in sales. Even season two saw an 88 percent bump to No. 80 from No. 151.

Before the Aug. 27 awards show, much of America hadn't heard HBO's Elizabeth I, until it won outstanding movie and acting honors for Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons.

''The most dramatic jump was Elizabeth I, which had been out of the top 200 for a while but . . . was back in the 30s,'' said Doug Thomas, managing editor of Amazon.com's DVD store.

The season two collection of The Office was at No. 18 last week while season one was No. 25 on a bestseller list dominated by television titles.

24's Logan, Audrey back on the clock
By Michael Ausiello
The Ausiello Report - TV Guide
Issue September 11 - 17, 2006

Apparently 24 finds it even harder to keep a bad man down than a good one. Gregory Itzin whispers that disgraced President Logan will show up again around midday this season. "It looks like it'll be (Episode) 9 or 10," he says. "The story tells itself for those guys. They know they want me back, and it will organically happen." But how? "Logan has information that (Jack and Co.) need," the actor teases, "which is why they come after him." Meanwhile, another 24 mainstay is waiting in the wings. Kim Raver (Audrey) will juggle a 24 arc with her full-time gig on ABC's new drama The Nine. "Kiefer (Sutherland) and I and the producers are talking about it to find the key moment." Can't they run into each other at Target like normal exes?

Marisol Nichols joins cast of Fox's '24'
United Press International
September 1, 2006

LOS ANGELES, CA, United States (UPI) -- Marisol Nichols is joining the cast of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning U.S. TV hit '24.'

Nichols will play Natalie in the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit, the boss of Chloe, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, and right arm to Bill, played by James Morrison.

Produced by Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox TV, the show stars Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, a federal agent assigned to preventing terror attacks.

Nichols has appeared in 'Cold Case,' 'In Justice' and 'Blind Justice' and the feature 'Big Momma`s House 2,' The Hollywood Reporter said.

She recently completed the comedy film, 'Delta Farce.'

Kim Raver Interview - Night at the Museum, 24 Movie, The Nine Series
From: Fred Topel
About.com

And 24 the Movie

You may be used to seeing Kim Raver keeping her cool under extreme stress on 24. You'll see her do more of that in her new series The Nine, but what might be surprising is watching her be funny. She’s got a role in the upcoming holiday comedy Night at the Museum, and we’ve got the scoop:

What is your role in Night at the Museum?

"It’s really funny, one of the funniest projects I’ve ever worked on. Ben Stiller is really a delight.o I play the ex-wife of Ben Stiller and Paul Rudd plays my fiancé. Literally [I was] doing a scene with them while simultaneously I was shooting 24 and [The Nine], so it was like this heavy, emotional and then to go to New York and just... Basically we couldn’t stop laughing."

Do you also get to be funny?

"Yes. I mean, Ben is the funny and Paul Rudd is the funny, I’m more of the straight woman - but there’s definitely a wacky side to me."

Was that a nice break in between doing 24 and The Nine?

"It was so great for me to go back to New York where I’m from and have that great release. I have never laughed so hard in my entire life with Ben Stiller and Paul Rudd. It was great and in a way, sometimes the more I work, the more it just - it’s like being in great shape. It’s easier to run a marathon when you’ve trained and you’re in shape, as opposed to just kind of getting up and deciding that you’re going to run."

Will you make it into the 24 movie?

"They’re doing the film this summer. The perfect scenario is keep Audrey alive throughout this season. I’m committed to The Nine and happily, and on hiatus join 24 and do the film with them."

Do you think a 24 movie is a good idea without the real time aspect?

"I think the Jack Bauer concept and the 24 concept and Kiefer Sutherland along with the writers, it’s just an unusual and remarkably well-written, well-acted show that I think as a film, it’s just getting more of a great thing. I think it’s a great thing and I think it being a little different is important. And I think it’s a very smart move because it’s a different medium, so they’ve got to adjust it a little bit. I really see, especially after season five, it’s really reached out to an even larger audience this last season. So a movie would just expand that even more. I think, of course I’m biased, but I think it’s a great experience for people."

In The Nine, Kim Raver plays one of a group of survivors of a hostage crisis. As she and the other eight people struggle to resume their normal lives, we will see flashbacks every episode to the crisis, revealing more and more what is really going on within each character. Raver sports a new look, from long brown hair in the flashbacks to a short crop in the main storyline, both different than the composed executive blonde of 24.

Did you change your approach from a thriller to straight drama?

"I think it’s really character driven and I think, in a way, 24 is as well. I think that’s what’s so compelling about 24 is that yes, there are explosions and it is a thriller, but I think that what draws you to 24 is that it’s about the characters and about the relationships, and it’s about what happens in that day and how it affects them. That’s very similar to The Nine. It’s about the characters, who they are. So I used that experience, I used my theater experience because that’s really, really telling a story when you’re doing theater. So there’s actually a similarity."

Do you have an affinity for these intense thriller/dramas?

"I don't know. It’s kind of what you’re playing in the moment. Then people go, ‘Oh, well, she can play that.’ It would be great to see people see the comedy and be like, ‘Oh yeah, Kim’s good at comedy.’ So I think people feel safe who are hiring you when they know, they’ve seen that that’s something that you can do. I enjoy it, I love it, I love playing complex, multi-layered roles and I get to act with people like Kiefer Sutherland and this cast from The Nine. But it also was great to go and work with Ben Stiller [in Night at the Museum]."

Could you do both shows?

"Ideally, I love working on The Nine, I love this character. I’m in it fully. Do I love working with Kiefer Sutherland and Jon Cassar? Yes, and I hope that continues as long as it’s still there, as well as in other things."

Have you ever been the victim of a crime?

"Well, this is the extreme of the extreme, but I definitely... I’m born, raised New Yorker and I was in New York and very close to the Twin Towers. So yes, 9/11, I mean, I was making peanut butter sandwiches for I think infants the night of, [and I was] along the West Side Highway handing out water and food to the paramedics and firefighters that were going down the West Side Highway. I have a truck and I piled in 10 or 12 nurses and doctors and took them down to Ground Zero. I’m reluctant to talk about that because it’s just such an enormous example of it, but yes."

Did you form bonds with people from that event?

"Yes. More so in the extent, the people I worked with, like the advisors who were police chiefs and fire chiefs and paramedics, and talking to them afterwards and going through that with them. But the people that I met that night, because I wasn’t in the Twin Towers... I think that would be very different. This was more of me being on the outside and helping. So the bonds were definitely created, which, I think because of the event with certain people, and certain family and certain friends who we had to get through it together."

Is that your hair in the show?

"That’s a wig. This blonde is leftover from 24. We’re working out now how we’re going to, because I go in the flashbacks long, and now it’s short, so there’s a lot of wigs that we have to deal with."

What’s your favorite wig?

"I love them all. That’s what’s kind of great now, to completely change it up. When I put on that long, long, brown wig, it just makes you feel different. You move different, and so that was great, to immediately have that thing for Kathryn."

Did you cut your real hair to accommodate the wig or for your own style?

"I think it was a combination of I knew I was going to go into a long-haired look and hopefully for a while, if this show goes as long as we all hope, and after being on 24 where literally you cannot change - I couldn’t even pierce my ears. You can’t change a hair. So I wrapped 24 and I wrapped this and I just went to...I have this amazing hair stylist, Laurent, and I said, ‘Go for it. Cut it.’ It was just this great liberating moment where it was sort of what we were talking about, where I was doing something just for my own style."

Kiefer Sutherland among celebs supporting Ontario organ donation campaign
Canadian Press
August 29, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Canadian celebrities including Emmy-winning 24 star Kiefer Sutherland and nice-guy actor Tom Cavanagh are lending their names and faces to an Ontario organ donation campaign.

The Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) announced Tuesday the launch of their Celebrity Awareness Campaign, which urges people to discuss their wishes on organ donation with their families.

Opera star Measha Brueggergosman is among the celebrities helping out, and says it's vitally important for people to talk to their families.

"I wanted to be a part of this campaign because people are dying. There's no reason for it. Not when you can have a conversation and save someone's life," she said in a statement.

Other celebrities lending support to the program include comedian Colin Mochrie, Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar and actor Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall and News Radio.

"If adding my face and name gets more people talking about this important topic then it's a success," said Foley.

The campaign will also feature well-known media figures including Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry, CityLine host Marilyn Denis and CBC radio's Andy Barrie.

The Celebrity Awareness Campaign will launch this fall, with posters appearing in doctors offices and hospitals, as well as on driver licence renewal forms and in newspaper supplements.

Clock is always running for Emmy-winning `24' director
By Maria Elena Fernandez
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
August 30, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- Jon Cassar was sitting in his director's chair on the Oval Office set of "24" during a typically hectic day. Cassar was filming the first two hours of the Fox drama's sixth season, and there was an awful lot he had to live up to.

The first two hours of "24," which Fox airs in one night, have become a January event for the show's rabid fans. He earned his first Emmy on Sunday night for directing last season's first episode, deemed by critics and fans as among the more memorable dramatic hours of the entire TV season. In its first 12 minutes, two main characters were killed, including the beloved former U.S. President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), and a third was critically injured, forcing Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) out of hiding in the Mojave Desert. It started with a bang and never relented, and now Cassar must find a way to outdo himself.

Can he? Probably not, he thinks. Part of the problem is that he cannot even remember how he carried out the mission last year. "Every year, those first two hours feel like I'm doing a movie," he says. "What I remember is that it was very difficult, and as usual there was a lot of agenda in it. But right now, I am so knee-deep in getting this show ready that I cannot remember details.

"Look, every year people have said to us the same exact thing: `There's no way you can do it again.' And you know what? Most of the time we agree with them. I think it's very hard to beat killing off main characters that were with us for four or five years and to kill them off within the first act. To try to top that, I don't think so. But you're not going to be bored."

ESTABLISHING SEASON'S GROOVE

On this particular afternoon in Chatsworth, Calif., Cassar is establishing the show's White House story, which has always been integral to the spy thriller set in the Counter Terrorist Unit in Los Angeles. The writers, it seems, have come up with a doozy: Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside), the deceased former president's brother who was with him when he was assassinated, has become the leader of the free world. How this goes down, nobody is telling. But here he is, the first time viewers see him in the Oval Office, and in typical "24" fashion, things are not good.

America is already under some form of terrorist attack when the season opens, and Jack, who was last seen literally on a slow boat to China, has been behind bars there for 20 months. So the new president is ticked. Cassar coaches the actor on the gradations of anger -- "Be angry at the situation, not the people" -- and when Woodside, Peter MacNicol, who has joined the cast as a presidential special advisor, and Jayne Atkinson, who plays Karen Hayes, a Homeland Security official, perform the scene again, it is gripping.

"It's always a little harder from my point of view being the first director on this show because it's really like doing a pilot where you're establishing all the characters and how their relationships are going to interact," Cassar said. "We start off with virtually a new cast every year. So once you get the first two down, then there's a groove, but the first two are the hardest."

Stephen Hopkins ("The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" and "Lost in Space") directed the series pilot and set its style and tone. Shot entirely for "human height," that is with no shots from up above or down below, "24" moves fast only when its actors are running to give the audience the feeling of being inside the scene with them. "Our camera angles are always real, and what happens is that you don't realize it but you're a voyeur," Cassar said. "That's why we are behind things a lot or through things. There's nobody there but the audience; that's the audience point of view."

During the first season, Cassar, who had worked with executive producers Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran in Canada on the TV series "La Femme Nikita," was hired to direct two episodes. Then Hopkins left to continue his feature film career, and Surnow hired Cassar, a virtual unknown in Hollywood, to become the show's director-producer.

Cassar, 48, was born in Malta and raised in Canada, where he was a film buff and studied photography before moving on to his film and television career as a camera operator. His first U.S. directing gig was on "Baywatch Nights" in 1995, but he remained based in Canada until he moved to Los Angeles with his wife and younger son four years ago. (Cassar also has a 24-year-old son.)

DIRECTOR'S JOB CHANGES

The idea of directing a television series full time does not appeal to many directors because the work becomes repetitive and the commitment is long-term. But series such as "The Sopranos" and "24" have changed the face of television, enticing more feature actors, producers and directors to work in the medium. Sometimes they even decide to stay. Cassar said he approached the offer as a "one-year" experiment but quickly realized that "24's" serialized, high-action, real-time format meant boredom was not likely to set in.

"Most television directors do a couple of episodes and then you go somewhere else because there's no challenge in doing the same thing over and over and over again," Cassar said. "But on this show, you're really doing, like, a big miniseries. You never to get push the easy button."

As the years pass, it becomes more challenging to keep Jack Bauer's long days fresh. Executive producer Howard Gordon and Cassar said they considered quitting after last season, which proved to be "24's" biggest yet: The series received 12 Emmy nominations, more than any other show, including nods for Sutherland as best actor and Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart, for their supporting roles as the president and first lady. The audience grew 14 percent.

"Television is in its heyday," Cassar said. "These last few years, if you look at the quality of television, it's spectacular. I've had two feature directors, whose films I grew up watching, come in and sit next to me to see how I do what I do. To me, right now, this is the best place to be."

DOING 'THE IMPOSSIBLE'

Gordon says Cassar is a miracle worker. "I don't know entirely how Jon and Michael Glick, who is our line producer, do what they do. ... More often than not, they figure out how to do the impossible."

Like when one of last year's scripts called for a 747 to land on California Highway 118.

"Production is twofold: One, there is a budget. But the other thing we have to do is we have to give the writers what they want," Cassar said. "You want them to stay open. You don't want them writing for budget because if they do that, then we're in the Counter Terrorist Unit for 60 minutes, and that's not exciting."

So Cassar reads a script and gathers his team -- Glick, director-producer Brad Turner and production designer Joseph Hodges -- and they come up with a plan for, say, landing a 747 on Highway 118 without an actual airplane or a highway at their disposal.

First up was building a cockpit so the audience can share Jack's point of view from inside it; then came three CGI shots of airplane wheels and, lastly, concrete barriers and a stripe next to an airplane on a tarmac posing as a jet on a highway. With all those elements in place, the illusion was fashioned.

"This show is obviously not entirely credible, but it has to be credible in its spirit," Gordon said. "If Jon says he can't sell it, I know something's wrong. Jon really spares us. He is a great touchstone as an audience member and as a fan. He's the conductor, in many ways."

Kal Penn joins 24
By Colin Mahan
TV.com
August 21, 2006

Kumar actor heads from White Castle to CTU this January.

Kal Penn, best known as Kumar from the 2004 surprise hit comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, has signed on for a recurring role in season six of Fox's 24. Penn will play a member of an Islamic group who may be part of a terrorist plot.

Penn is currently appearing on the big screen in the film Superman Returns. He is lined up to reprise his comedic roles as Kumar in Harold and Kumar Go to Amsterdam and as Taj in Van Wilder 2: Rise of the Taj. He has just completed filming the Mira Nair historical drama The Namesake.

Penn's previous TV credits include appearances on ER, NYPD Blue, and The Agency.

24 returns to Fox in January. The Kiefer Sutherland action series is entering its sixth season after enjoying series-high ratings for season five. A film is in the works, as well, to be shot between seasons six and seven.

Kiefer Sutherland claims 'Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria is just like cartoon character Mighty Mouse.
PR Inside
August 21, 2006

The '24' actor stars alongside the diminutive actress in new film 'The Sentinel', and he admits he was blown away by her energy levels on set.

He said: "Eva has more energy than anyone I've ever met. She's like Mighty Mouse! She has a positive energy about her that's infectious.

"I hope that Eva and I will be friends for a very, very long time." In the film, which also stars Michael Douglas, Eva plays a gun-toting US Secret Service agent.

Michael recently revealed that Eva was the best shot out of all the actors on set.

He said at the time: "The FBI, Secret Service, and state police all said that she probably shot better than 90 per cent of the police officers in the country."

LMR note: Jim Carrey, Pamela Anderson and Keanu Reeves before Kiefer? Noooo way. I think Jack Bauer's response would be....."Damn It!" ;)

Jim Carrey passes Pam Anderson on Canadian Business magazine's power list
Canadian Press
August 15, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Actor Jim Carrey has passed Pamela Anderson to take the top spot on Canadian Business magazine's second annual Celebrity Power List.

The magazine used four criteria - estimated salary, press clippings, number hits on Google.com and TV mentions - to rank 15 Canadians who have demonstrated clout in the entertainment industry over the last year.

According to the magazine, Carrey's improved web scores and a bump in the TV category put him ahead of Anderson. Carrey, who was born in Newmarket, Ont., is the highest-paid Canadian actor in Hollywood.

Anderson, a native of Ladysmith, B.C., slipped to No. 2 on the list after her sitcom Stacked was cancelled.

Rounding out the top five were Toronto natives Keanu Reeves and Kiefer Sutherland and Montreal-born actor William Shatner. Sutherland moved up three spots from No. 7 in 2005 while Reeves and Shatner stayed the same.

There were a couple new additions. Rocker Avril Lavigne of Napanee, Ont., debuted at No. 7 while Ottawa-raised actor Brendan Fraser came in at No. 10.

The complete list:

1. Jim Carrey
2. Pamela Anderson
3. Keanu Reeves
4. Kiefer Sutherland
5. William Shatner
6. Mike Myers
7. Avril Lavigne
8. Rachel McAdams
9. Matthew Perry
10. Brendan Fraser
11. Hayden Christensen
12. Eric McCormack
13. Sandra Oh
14. Ryan Reynolds
15. Evangeline Lilly

Fox, 20th to Sell Movies, Shows Via Web
By Mike Shields
mediaweek.com
August 14, 2006

Fox Interactive Media and partner studio Twentieth Century Fox have announced a new joint initiative that will see the two companies sell both current movies and TV shows to consumers directly through Fox's network of Web properties, including MySpace and IGN.

While the scope of the deal is still to be determined, the companies say they will sell full length movies for $19.99 each and episodes of TV shows for $1.99. The TV shows will come from News Corp's stable of programming outlets, including Fox hits like 24 and Prison Break, along with yet to be named shows from FX, Fuel TV and Speed. Several shows will be available within 24 hours of broadcast.

The program will launch in October on IGN's direct2drive.com, which currently sells video games, while eventually migrating to MySpace. Back in May, Fox began peddling episodes of the Kiefer Sutherland-starring 24 on MySpace through a promotion with Burger King, and both Prison Break and 24 are available to purchase via iTunes.

But rather than relying soley on iTunes, Fox appears to be focusing on directly selling its own content going forward, while making it available on whatever devices consumers wish to consume it on. In what the companies say is an industry first, all shows and movies purchased through Fox Interacive Media sites will be transferable to any Windows Media-based portable device.

“Our drive to deliver Twentieth Century Fox content via the most powerful online platforms is advanced substantially by this agreement,” said Peter Levinsohn, president, Digital Media, Fox Entertainment Group. “Offering Fox content in conjunction with FIM properties enables viewers to access the best movies and TV shows from multiple platforms in the Fox family.”

Fox movies to be sold on My Space, Direct2Drive
Los Angeles Business from bizjournals
August 14, 2006

Twentieth Century Fox will sell its movies on Web sites owned by its parent company News Corp. starting in October, according to Monday reports.

Fox Interactive Media will sell movies and shows, including "X-Men: The Last Stand" and television shows like "24" on the Direct2Drive Web site owned by Fox's IGN Entertainment by October. The programs will be available on the same day as their DVD release.

Soon after Direct2Drive starts selling Fox programming, the programs will be available for purchase from News Corp.'s popular MySpace.com.

Movies will sell for about $20 and shows will be available for $1.99. They will be playable on portable entertainment devices with Microsoft Corp.'s copy protection system. Twentieth Century Fox currently sells its films through download services like CinemaNow and Movielink.

Fox Interactive Media and Twentieth Century Fox, both based in Los Angeles, are subsidiaries of New York's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS).

Bullz-Eye.com Ranks Television's Best

Bullz-Eye.com, an online magazine for men, released the third edition of its TV Power Rankings, a list of the 20 best shows currently on television, with Kiefer Sutherland’s “24” earning top honors yet again.

Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) August 12, 2006 -- Bullz-Eye.com, an online magazine for men, released the third edition of its TV Power Rankings, a list of the 20 best shows currently on television, with Kiefer Sutherland’s “24” earning top honors yet again. While this marks the third time the Fox hit has claimed the #1 spot, HBO dominated Bullz-Eye’s Summer 2006 edition, with three shows landing in the top 10, including “Entourage” and “The Sopranos,” and a total of six shows cracking the list. “Rescue Me,” “Lost” and “My Name is Earl” were some of the programs that jumped in the rankings since Bullz-Eye’s last edition, while “South Park” and “Family Guy” fell and the canceled “Arrested Development” dropped from the list completely.

Bullz-Eye.com’s Entertainment Channel boasts comprehensive movie, TV, CD and DVD sections, which are updated weekly with reviews of the hottest new releases and staff favorites. Bullz-Eye.com also has interviewed various music, movie and television personalities, including Everclear frontman Art Alexakis, "Reno 911!" cast member Carlos Alazraqui (Deputy James Garcia), stand-up comedian Lewis Black, and “Snakes on a Plane” director David Ellis.

About Bullz-Eye.com:

With movie and music reviews, sports commentary, men’s fitness columns, humor content, gadget reviews, and blogs covering a wide range of topics, Bullz-Eye.com has become one of the premier entertainment sites for men between the ages of 18-34. Of course, there’s plenty of eye candy as well, with a new Featured Model layout every month along with weekly shoots of their beautiful Girls Next Door.

Launched in 2000, Bullz-Eye.com averages 58 million page views per month, with 4.3 million unique visitors monthly. Bullz-Eye.com is owned and operated by Bullz-Eye.com, LLC, a subsidiary of Black Mountain Publishing, LLC. Black Mountain also publishes several entertainment and sports blogs, including PremiumHollywood.com, EatSleepDrinkMusic.com, ScoresReport.com and ClevelandScores.com.

Kiefer Sutherland photographed by Brian Bowen Smith in Los Angeles on July 21, 2006

24’s FINEST Hours
By David Hochman
TV Guide - August 14-20, 2006

Season 5 rocked our world (and Emmy’s). Now, Kiefer Sutherland puts Jack Bauer on the couch – and reveals what’s next for TV’s most pulse-pounding show.

Kiefer Sutherland can’t pinpoint the exact moment Jack Bauer became a living, breathing creature, but he thinks it happened sometime around Day 4.

“Before that, people would come up and say, ‘I love this movie you did’ or I love your work,’ but suddenly I was getting, ‘I love Jack Bauer,’” he says during an interview in Hollywood.

Dressed in expensive-looking jeans and a white T-shirt, Sutherland looks happier and better rested than the counter terrorism agent he plays on 24, but then again, who doesn’t? It probably helps that his show, coming off its most successful ratings season yet, is up for 12 Emmys, the most nominations for any TV series (the ceremony airs August 27, 2006 on NBC). Sutherland landed his fifth straight nomination for lead actor in a drama, a feat he insists he’s only partly responsible for. “Sometimes it’s like I have nothing to do with Jack Bauer anymore,” he says with a most un-Bauer like grin. “It’s almost like I’ve become a conduit or his brother or something.”

After five sleepless seasons spent averting Armageddon, Jack Bauer has secured his place in the pantheon of TV characters whose influence extends beyond prime time. In a post-9/11 age, Jack is a new archetype of American fearlessness, an unwavering force for unsettled times, a guy you want to be (or be with) when the Homeland Security level turns blood red. As 24 executive producer Howard Gordon says, without irony, “Jack suffers to save the rest of us, and that makes him a hero to all mankind.” Or as Sutherland puts it, “When The New York Times starts talking about what Jack Bauer would do, you know you’re in very weird territory.”

Fresh from his first script meeting for the sixth season, which premieres on Fox in January, Sutherland, 39, kicks up his snakeskin cowboy boots and lights up a cigarette before tackling a mission even CTU might shy away from – figuring out what makes Jack tick.

The analysis begins with a confession: “I’m terrified to get back into Jack Bauer’s world again. I could never do what he does, not even close,” Sutherland says. “Sometimes I think, “Thank God I’m not the one running around trying to save the world.’” And yet, Sutherland says he has grown “increasingly connected to Jack” emotionally, even as nearly every other character on 24 has betrayed him, drifted away or died.

Day 5 in particular separated Jack from the corps of humanity. Beginning the season under an alias as a oil rig day laborer outside L.A., Jack would soon say adios to three of the four people who knew he was alive, including former president David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) and perhaps his most loyal CTU ally, Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard). As 24 director Jon Cassar says, “Last season was a process of slowly eliminating everyone close to Jack.” Jokes Sutherland, “The actors realized they shouldn’t stand too close to me for a long period of time because it would mean they’re probably going to get it.”

Jack also wound up killing his mentor, Christopher Henderson (Peter Weller), after Henderson went renegade. Then, with another international crisis seemingly over, Jack had a passionate reunion – lingering kiss and all – with super-devoted Department of Defense liaison Audrey Raines (Kim Raver), only to disappear at day’s end into Chinese custody.

“Where does that leave 24? “We’ll start with Jack next season at the lowest point anybody’s ever seen him,” Sutherland says, explaining that Day 6 opens two months into his Chinese incarceration. “Jack has always dealt with situations where other people’s lives are in danger. Now it’s all about saving his own butt, and there’s a lot of ‘I don’t care about me. Do what you will’”

Sometimes it shocks Sutherland how grim and isolated Jack’s existence has become. “We watched a retrospective clip around the time of the 100th episode and there was a scene from one of the first 24 episodes that showed a lightness in Jack’s eyes, his voice, that you just don’t see now,” he says. Back then, “Jack still had hope for a life, not just for catching the bad guys. As an actor and as a fan of Jack’s, you have to believe – despite the terror and the evil that men do – that he can have his family and love and his life back one day. That’s the real push and pull in the context of this character for me.”

Nowhere is that push and pull better illustrated than in Jack’s tortured relationship with Audrey. “Jack’s burning desire to be with her is counter-balanced by the reality that he’s about to go away again,” Sutherland says. So in their big kissing scene at the end of last season, Sutherland played it two steps forward, one giant leap back. As he puts it, “For Jack, it was, ‘I want you, I want you…no-o-o.’” Then there was Jack’s Day 5 battle with Henderson, another emotional seesaw. “Jack has this incredible respect for their history together but it was combined with absolute hatred for what Henderson was doing,” he says. “Jack was on the fence psychologically every scene they had together.”

All of which results in a multi-layer character that never loses his freshness for Sutherland, who was initially skeptical about committing to series television after years as a film actor. “I found something in Jack that pushes me to be a better actor, maybe even a better person,” he says. “I’m embarrassed to think I once said I wouldn’t want to play the same character for five years.”

Kiefer Sutherland photographed by Brian Bowen Smith

THE POWER OF BEING JACK BAUER hits Sutherland in the unlikeliest places. He was skiing once in British Columbia when a stranger on his chairlift saw past Sutherland’s goggles, hat and scarf.

“The guy whispers to me, ‘I know who you are.’” Sutherland says, “and I don’t ever tell anybody this, but I’m in counter terrorism, too. And one day you’re going to have to call my mother, who always asks, ‘Why can’t you work as fast as Jack Bauer and get home for the holidays?’” Sutherland took it as a “really polite way of saying, ‘I love your show but you have no idea what it’s like to do this for a living.’”

Sutherland keeps the pin the man gave him as a reminder that Jack is, above all, a flawed hero, a character as much in search of himself as he is on a quest to keep the world safe. Although some have argued that Jack is a Machiavellian personality willing to do anything – deceive, cheat, even murder – to achieve his objectives, it’s those moments of unthinkable action that Sutherland says showcase Jack’s superior set of values.

Take the situation in Season 2 when Jack ordered his own daughter to murder the psycho father of the kid she was nannying as a lesson in self-defense. Or the following season when Jack killed one of his CTU higher-ups to stop the spread of a deadly virus. Or, near the end of Day 4, when Jack let his then-girlfriend Audrey’s estranged husband die in order to save a witness who had vital information about an imminent terrorist strike. Sutherland sites those as among his favorite Jack Bauer moments because they “cut to the heart of his convictions, of sacrificing ten to save a hundred” while also defining Jack as a character riddled with questions about his decisions. “Jack will never reconcile with the things he has done, the mistakes he has made, the cruelty he has had to impose,” Sutherland says, really thinking about it. “But what’s so cool is the way he keeps going.”

Occasionally, Sutherland imagines himself meeting up with Bauer somewhere, and he doesn’t exactly relish the idea. “I think if Jack took a vacation, he’s immediately have that sort of meltdown we see Martin Sheen having at the start of ‘Apocalypse Now.’ The only thing that keeps Jack from being a total sociopath is that he doesn’t stop.”

What Sutherland would like to see is a slow return to the lightness Jack exhibited in that first season. As an actor, he says, he has to believe that Jack will eventually “stop running, stop working so hard and maybe even find love.”

Whoa! Jack Bauer settling down? What would that look like? Jack and Audrey can’t seem to keep things going. And while his CTU pal Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) seemingly has the hots for Jack, they just aren’t compatible. “If it weren’t for her incredible loyalty, not to mention truly gifted computer skills, Jack wouldn’t give her the time of day,” Sutherland says.

So what kind of woman would be right for Jack Bauer?

Sutherland lets out a long stream of cigarette smoke and smiles.

“A really fast one,” he says. “Whoever Jack ends up with, she’ll have to be a really quick runner.”

Milo Returns To 24
CinemaBlend.com
August 9, 2006

Tvguide.com recently reported that Eric Balfour will be returning to the cast of ‘24’ for season 6. Longtime fans of the show will remember Balfour from season 1 as Milo Pressman, one of the tech geeks. He was only in the show for a couple of hours and spent the bulk of that time standing in for Jamey (who was found to be a mole) and helping Jack locate his wife.

Milo was basically a much more laid back version of Chloe. He’s the kind of guy who snacks while working and has a sort of stoner-savant attitude. While there’s been no official word on what role Milo will play in the sixth season of ‘24’, one could speculate that he’ll fill the role of Edgar as Chloe’s right hand man. After all, what good is Chloe without someone to boss around and talk down to? (that’s why we love her, right?!). As Milo never had an official exit from ‘24’ (he just sort of disappeared) its likely that since season 1, he’s been working at other government agencies doing what he does best - hacking and cracking (codes).

‘Buffy’ fans will remember Balfour as Xander’s friend Jesse in the pilot episode. Jesse didn’t make it past the pilot of ‘Buffy’ though. He succumbed to the common Sunnydale disease (vampendusteditus). ‘Six Feet Under’ fans might remember Balfour in his role as Gabriel, the footfetish-having boyfriend in the earlier seasons of the show. He's also played a number of minor roles in TV and films over the years.