HBO biker series to star Donal Logue
Everybody wants Donal Logue. Just one month after NBC added him to the cast of NBC’s Life, as Charlie’s new boss, now comes news that HBO has booked Donal Logue as a biker in 1%. The new pilot casts Donal as a character named Misfit, a Silicon Valley member who’s sent to Carefree, Arizona, to get one of the toughest biker clubs in the west in line. Also joining Logue in the show are W. Earl Brown (Deadwood), Timm Sharp (Undeclared), Lucy Punch (hilarious in The Class as Holly Ellenbogen), Marisa Ryan (New York Undercover) and Sonny Barger. Barger is an actual biker and has been enlisted to no doubt add realism to the project.
The concept of one percenters, by the way, refers to the conceit that 99% of all motorcycle clubs are into riding their bikes and not looking for trouble. The other one-percent are, presumably, itching for a fight. Some clubs, however, rejected the clean-cut image and adopted the “one-percenter” moniker, even going so far as to create a diamond shaped 1% patch to wear on their vests as a badge of honor.
Since this pilot is called 1%, we can expect some conflict to say the least. And since HBO did once bring us Oz, could 1% be as raw as that show? We wonder, especially with Michael Tolkin as one of the executive producers. Tolkin has always been a provocative writer, including The Rapture, Changing Lanes and The Player, on his resume. Guymon Casady and Alexander Hertzberg with co-executive produce.
Interesting and entertaining are two things Donal Logue almost always brings to his roles. On TV, he starred in The Knights of Prosperity, an ABC sitcom that deserved a better fate than it received, as well as the underrated Grounded for Life, which ran for five years. I’ve always liked Donal Logue, so I’ll be curious enough to check out 1%. Ever since I saw him in The Tao of Steve, doing the same kind of schtick that Seth Rogan has done in Knocked Up (only better), I’ve been a Donal Logue fan.
[via PopCandy]
Heather Matarazzo Biography
In 1996, Heather Matarazzo delivered one of the year’s most striking film performances as the plain, bespectacled junior high student Dawn Weiner in “Welcome to the Dollhouse”. Only eleven years old when the film was shot, the Long Island native offered a compelling and touching performance of a misunderstood middle child, battered by the taunts of classmates (who call her ‘Weinerdog’) and the particular attentions of one boy (Brendon Sexton III) who demonstrates his affection with threats of rape. Despite subject matter that was at times painful to watch, the young actress never flagged, holding the audience’s sympathies even while displaying sibling rivalry. Like indie stalwart Lili Taylor, Matarazzo was willing to downplay her own unusual looks for the sake of the character.
The precocious youngster began her acting career at the tender of seven and later played an abused child in an NYU student film, Helen Keller in a stage production of “The Miracle Worker” and a recurring role on the Nickelodeon series “The Adventures of Pete and Pete”. Following her acclaimed debut, Matarazzo accepted a recurring role on the short-lived ABC sitcom “Townies” (1996) as Jenna Elfman’s younger sister and took supporting roles in two flicks that starred “Dollhouse”’s Brendan Sexton, “Arresting Gena” (1997) and “Hurricane Streets” (1998). She offered a strong turn as a witness testifying in a murder trial in scenes with Keanu Reeves in “The Devil’s Advocate” (1997) and registered in the brief role as the younger sister of the ambitious Shane O’Shea (Ryan Phillippe) in “54″ (1998). Matarazzo was also among the ensemble of the female-driven “Strike!/The Hairy Bird” (1998), a coming-of-age tale set at an all-girls school in the early 1960s. Her performance as a bulimic won her praise, but the film itself was the subject of some controversy: its producers were unhappy with Miramax’s decision to open it only in Seattle and sought other distribution. Those problems, however, had little effect on the young actress’ career as she lent her quirky, unselfconscious charms to “Cherry” and “Getting to Know You” (both 1999), adapted from the short stories of Joyce Carol Oates.
After a brief stint on television as Eric Close’s daughter on the short-lived but critically admired drama “Now and Again” (1999), Matarazzo enjoyed supporting roles in “Blue Moon” (2000), “Scream 3″ (2000) and “Company Man” (2000) before landing another high-profile role as Anne Hathaway’s Plain Jane buddy Lilly in the popular Cinderella story “The Princess Diaries” (2001), a role she reprised for the 2004 sequel. After a small but well-acted role in the dim-witted comedy “Sorority Boys” (2002) as one of the ugly duckling sisters in a sorority where college cads are disguised as women, Matarazzo again took on a merry nerd role in the religious satire “Saved!” (2004) as a desperately sociall-climbing Christian school student.
- Born:
on 11/10/1982 in Long Island, New York - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Mother: Camille Matarazzo.
Education
- BOCES Cultural Arts Center
Milestones
- 1989 Began acting at age seven
- 1993 Played Helen Keller in a regional production of “The Miracle Worker” (date approximate)
- 1996 Had recurring role on the ABC sitcom “Townies”
- 1996 Made auspicious film debut in the role of the unhappy and geeky Dawn Weiner in “Welcome to the Dollhouse”, directed by Todd Solondz; also first of three films with Brendan Sexton III
- 1997 Played a witness testifying at a murder trial in “The Devil’s Advocate”
- 1997 Took on supporting turns in “Arresting Gena” and “Hurricane Streets” (released theatrically in 1998); both films featured Brendan Sexton III
- 1998 Portrayed the younger sister of Ryan Phillippe’s Shane O’Shea in “54″
- 1999 Had regular role in the CBS drama series “Now and Again”
- 2001 Co-starred in the stage play “Servicemen”
- 2001 Has supporting role in “The Princess Diaries”
- 2001 Reteamed with Todd Solondz on “Storytelling”
- 2002 Starred in the comedy “Sorority Boys”
- 2004 Co-starred with Jena Malone and Mandy Moore in “Saved,” a story about a girl attending a Baptist high school who becomes pregnant and finds herself ostracized by all of her former friends
- Appeared in episodes of the Nickelodeon series “The Adventures of Pete and Pete”; played Natasha
- Played abused child in NYU student film
- Raised in East Norwich, New York
Constance Marie Biography
Constance Marie (b. Constance Marie López on September 9, 1965 in East Los Angeles, California) is an American actress of Mexican descent.
Marie started her career as a dancer on David Bowie’s The Glass Spider Tour. She later began an acting career and won the role of Nikki Alvarez on the now defunct 1989 NBC soap opera, Santa Barbara. Marie later made her feature film debut alongside Jennifer Lopez in the 1997 biopic, Selena. Her other film credits include Tortilla Soup in which she played a divorced mother. She has guest starred on many television shows such as FOX’s Ally McBeal.
Currently, she plays Angie Lopez on the ABC sitcom, The George Lopez Show. From 2002 until 2004, Marie played Nina Gonzales on the critically-acclaimed PBS mini-series, American Family: Journey of Dreams.
She’s been in a relationship with yoga instructor Kent Katich since the mid-90s.
Felicity Huffman Biography
Often lauded for her stage work, Felicity Huffman won a new round of fans as the smart, competent producer Dana Whitaker on the ABC series “Sports Night” (1998-2000). Although born in Westchester County, New York, she was raised in Colorado. Returning east to attend NYU, Huffman joined the Atlantic Theater Company, co-founded by David Mamet and William H Macy. Mamet offered the actress her first screen role, a bit part in “Things Change” (1988), and she was also tapped as Madonna’s understudy and successor in Mamet’s Broadway play “Speed-the-Plow” (also 1988).
Over the course of the next ten years, Huffman alternated between acclaimed stage roles (most often with the Atlantic Theater Company) and TV roles. She made her small screen debut as a series regular portraying the government security officer who aids an elderly man who seems to be growing younger in “Stephen King’s ‘Golden Years’” (CBS, 1991). Guest roles on series like “Law & Order” and “The X-Files” followed. Huffman was tapped to play Edward Asner’s daughter in the ABC sitcom “Thunder Alley” but was replaced after the pilot. She bounced back from that disappointment with a stage success in Mamet’s “The Cryptogram” (1995) and in a supporting turn in the playwright’s film “The Spanish Prisoner” (1998) before landing “Sports Night,” the Aaron Sorkin-penned sit-com that made her a well-known name.
Her real-life husband Macy, whom she married in 1997, joined the series in its second season, sparking an on-screen partnership that would endure through many projects: they also co-starred in the cable telepic “A Case of Murder” (1999), a comedy-mystery Macy adapted from the Donald Westlake novel; they both appeared in director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” (1999); she had an uncredited turn in Macy’s award-winning TNT telepic “Door To Door,” which he also co-wrote; they reunited in the Showtime mini-series “Out of Order” (2003); and co-starred in the legal potboiler telepic “Reversible Errors” (2004).
After “Sports Night” and away from Macy, Huffman also kept busy solo on the small screen with parts in the telepics “The Heart Department” (2001), “Snap Decision” (2001) and, most impressively, in director John Frankenheimer’s acclaimed HBO drama “The Path to War” (2002), playing First Lady “Lady Bird†Johnson. She also scored a pair of high-profile recurring roles, playing Julia Wilcox, Frasier Crane’s caustic co-worker and eventual love interest on the hit sit-com “Frasier” from 2003-2004, and Charlotte Ellis in the legal drama “The D.A.” After a stint on the big screen as Kate Hudson’s late older sister in the comedy “Raising Helen” (2004), Huffman returned to series drama in the offbeat serial drama “Desperate Housewives” (ABC, 2004 - ), playing Lynette Scavo, a former corporate ladder-climber turned stay-at-home mom who struggles with her insecurities when she can’t control her wild children and gets little support from her husband. The show’s mega-popularity provided Huffman’s career with fresh energy–she scored an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the series’ debut season, as well as a 2006 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series–though she continued to remain the most private and low-profile of her co-stars.
Later that same year Huffman had an astonishing turn on the big screen in the indie “Transamerica” (2005) playing a pre-operative transsexual who, on the brink of her transforming surgery, discovered that in her youth she had fathered a son, who contacts her as a troubled teen hustler on the run. Despite the gender-bending premise, the film followed a traditional road movie dynamic, and Huffman won widespread praise for her nearly unrecognizable, fully formed performance. All the attention she received resulted in a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, which almost guaranteed the actress a nomination from the Academy Awards. And she was indeed one of the nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role when they were announced the morning of January 31, 2006.
- Born:
on 12/09/1962 in Westchester County, New York - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Brother: Moore Huffman. older
- Daughter: Georgia Grace Macy. born March 14, 2002; father is William H. Macy
- Daughter: Sophia Macy. born on August 1, 2000
- Mother: Grace Huffman.
Significant Others
- Husband: William H Macy. met through mutual association with the Atlantic Theater Company; married on September 6, 1997
Education
- New York University, New York City, theatre
- Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, England
- American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York City
- Circle in the Square Professional Theatre School, New York City
Milestones
- 1988 Film acting debut in bit part in “Things Changes”, directed by David Mamet
- 1988 Understudied and eventually replaced Madonna in Mamet’s Broadway play “Speed-the-Plow”
- 1990 Had featured role in “Reversal of Fortune”
- 1991 TV series debut as government security chief Terry Spann in “Stephen King’s ‘Golden Years’” (CBS)
- 1992 TV-movie acting debut in the USA Network’s “Quicksand: No Escape”
- 1993 Received strong notices for her lead performance as a woman converting to Judaism who recalls childhood sexual abuse in the Old Globe (San Diego) production of “Out of Purgatory”
- 1994 Appeared in the pilot episode of the ABC sitcom “Thunder Alley” as Ed Asner’s daughter; replaced in the series by Diane Venora
- 1995 Acted onstage in Mamet’s “The Cryptogram”
- 1995 Directed by Mamet in the Atlantic Theater Company production of J.B. Priestley’s “Dangerous Corner”
- 1996 Was featured in the Showtime series “Bedtime”
- 1997 Directed by future husband William H Macy in “The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite” at the Atlantic Theater Company
- 1998 Portrayed TV producer Dana Whitaker in the ABC series “Sports Night”
- 1998 Co-starred in “The Spanish Prisoner”, written and directed by Mamet
- 1999 Acted opposite husband William H Macy (who also co-wrote the teleplay) in the TNT original “A Slight Case of Murder”
- 1999 Played small role in “Magnolia” as a TV game show coordinator; husband had more substantial role in the film
- 2001 Cast opposite Tony Shalhoub in the CBS pilot “Heart Department”
- 2001 Portrayed a photographer who is charged with child pornography when she takes pictures of her friend’s children in the Lifetime movie “Snap Decision”
- 2002 Portrayed Lady Bird Johnson in the made for TV movie “Path to War”
- 2003 Guest starred as Frasier’s Love interest on the NBC comedy “Frasier”
- 2003 Starred opposite Eric Stoltz in the Showtime series “Out of Order”
- 2004 Cast as Lynette Scavo, the ex-career woman and mother of four unmanageable kids in the ABC drama “Desperate Housewives”; received Golden Globe (2004, 2005) and SAG (2006) nominations for Best Actress in a Comedy Series
- 2004 Starred in the CBS miniseries opposite her real life husband William H. Macy in Scott Turow’s crime thriller “Reversible Errors,” which also stars Tom Selleck and Monica Potter
- 2005 Played a transsexual woman who discovers that she fathered a child in her former life as a man in the indie drama “Transamerica”; earned Oscar and SAG nominations for Best Actress
- Became a member of the Atlantic Theater Company, co-founded by David Mamet and William H Macy
- Raised in Colorado
- Will co-star with Lindsay Lohan and Jane Fonda in “Georgia Rule”