It's a boy!

Congrats to Jared and Gen! Jared announced the big news last night on Twitter. We know that's going to be one beautiful baby and we can't wait to see a picture.

The Power of Fandom

So a few days ago, @jarpad announced on Twitter that he and Genevieve will be having a baby. Apparently some people wanted to send gifts, and he asked for donations to St. Jude Children's Hospital instead. Someone started an official fundraiser, and in 12 hours, they'd raised $3,700 for cancer research.

Part of me thinks that's incredible. Sometimes entertainment seems so frivolous, and our focus on celebrity ridiculous. And then it's turned into something so beneficial and powerful. The ease with which a group can be incited to do good is astounding.

Part of me wonders why we need to be incited. Why do we leap into action just because some tall, good-looking, good-natured guy asks us to? Why is his request more worthy than the little entreaty cards we get in the mail every other day? Is it just because we want him to think well of us?

I hope that's not it. I hope it's more that there is so much need in this world, and we're bombarded with requests and get jaded because it seems so impossible. The focus by someone we admire makes it easy.

In reality, it's probably a combination of the two, and that's okay. The children being helped by that money don't care why it was given, after all.

~~~~~~~~~
If you'd like to participate in this specific fundraiser, click here. They are just shy of $8,000 toward the goal of $20,000.

The French Mistake

Let me just say I'm glad I got a funny episode. It's been awhile since I had so many laugh-out-loud moments during a Supernatural episode.

I'm not sure about the name of the episode. Is it a reference to the movie The French Connection? I've never seen that, so I have no idea. Or I could have just missed something.

We open with the Then recap, which shows Ruby, Meg, some other stuff I can't remember, and Castiel talking to the boys about the civil war in Heaven. Then in the Now we see Sam and Dean at Bobby's, who has run out for some alcohol (aka Hunter's Helper). Then, poof, Balthazar strolls in and starts looking for supplies for a spell, talking about The Godfather (which I also have not seen, don't like gangster movies) and how Don Corleone is now being played by Raphael. Ol' Raphie evidently has put out a hit list for anyone who ever helped Castiel, including Balthazar and, you guessed, Sam and Dean. Next thing you know, Balthazar gives them a key which leads to the weapons of Heaven and sends them crashing through the window. When they come out on the other side, they're in an alternate universe where they are actors in a show called Supernatural. Their names? Jensen Ackles and Jarad Padalecki. :)

Dean: "Why would anyone want to watch our lives?"
Sam: "According to the interview, not that many people do."

When they are able to leave the set, they're confused about what the heck is going on.

Sam: "I'm something called a Jared Padalecki."
Dean: "So what, you're Polish now?"

That's when Dean sees what he thinks is the Impala and thinks his baby made it through. But as he walks forward, he notices several Impalas, in various states of repair or disrepair.

Dean: "I feel sick. I'm gonna be sick. I wanna go home. I feel like this whole place is bad touching me."

Then they see Castiel and head for him. You know what's coming, right? For a moment, Misha plays it well, like he's really Castiel, but then the boys realize he's just another actor. The look and tone in Dean's voice when he finds out the actor's name was hilarious.

"Misha?" Hee hee.

Misha: "I'm totally going to Tweet this one." And more funny, in the alternate universe, Misha's followers aren't minions, they're the MishAmigos! LOL!

Next, Sam and Dean find Jensen's trailer and go inside where they find a remote-controlled helicopter and a nice built-in fish tank. Dean finds a copy of Supernatural magazine and has to make fun of Sam's/Jared's expression on the cover.

Dean: "That's Blue Steel, Sam."

Even better, Sam gets on a laptop and finds a clip of when Jensen was on Days of Our Lives.

Sam: "You were on a soap opera."

Another classic look of disbelief and disgust on Dean's face. :)

As Cliff drives them to Jared's place, Dean sees the sign for Vancouver and says to Sam: "Dude, we're not even in America." When they arrive at Jared's place, it's rather swank and they see a tanning bed.

Sam: "What am I, Dracula?"
Dean: "George Hamilton Dracula."

That might have been the part that made me laugh the most.

Then Ruby/Genevieve comes in, and Dean calls her Ruby. She looks exasperated as she tells him, yeah, that never gets old. Then Dean sees Jared and Genevieve's wedding photo. I love when this show makes fun of itself and is self-aware. She, like the people on the show's set, are surprised that Jared and Jensen are talking because, evidently, they don't like each other much in this alternate world.

More hilarity ensues when Sam and Dean go back to the set, thinking they can use Balthazar's spell to get themselves back to their universe, only to be forced to try to act out a scene for the show. OMG, the horribleness of it. Dean's too-intense look, and Sam looking "anywhere but the camera." Dude, I'm laughing now just typing this.

Virgil, Raphael's angel hitman, makes it to the Jared/Jensen universe and tries to take out the boys. But his angel powers don't work here, in what Dean calls the "mojo free zone." They try to take out the angel, but the rest of the show's crew thinks they're high and beating an extra to death. In the melee, Virgil takes the key and flees. He carjacks Misha and kills him in an alley. After hearing the news from Genevieve, the guys head to the scene and talk to the homeless man who witnessed the murder.

Homeless man: "The scary man stabbed the attractive crying man." LOL! Misha was a bit of a wienie in this universe. :)

Virgil, now armed with many guns, shoots "Eric Kripke" and a lot of members of the crew on his way back to the set where Raphael is supposed to pull him and the key back through the portal to the other universe. But Sam and Dean take him out and they are pulled through instead. Raphael, now a woman, is closing in on Sam and Dean when Balthazar shows up and says Sam and Dean were just decoys and the key a fake to give Raphael time to get rid of the weapons of Heaven. Then Castiel shows up, now in possession of said weapons. And I had a squee moment when they did the lightning and the shadows of outspread wings thing that they did the first time we ever met Cas. I love that effect, makes him look particularly badass. Raphael skedaddles, and Dean is predictably not happy about the whole decoys-without-his-knowledge thing Balthazar and Castiel had going. To which Castiel reminds boy the Winchester boys that he'd do it again because he'll do whatever is necessary to make sure Raphael does not win the war.

When they're left alone again...

Dean: "We're broke again."
Sam: "At least we're talking."

What did you think of the episode? While there's still a bigger story going on, I've enjoyed the past couple of episodes that felt a bit more like throwbacks to earlier seasons, the ones that made me fall in love with the show in the first place.

Supernatural News

It's official folks. The next time you see Jared Padalecki when Supernatural returns with new episodes, you'll be watching a married man. He and Genevieve Cortese have tied the knot.

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2010/02/28/jared-padalecki-wedding-pictures-genevieve-cortese/

Now that shows are beginning to return after the close of the Olympics, this article gives some deets on return dates and teases about what's coming up, including a blurb about Supernatural.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/arts/television/01season.html

Bummer. Jensen is evidently out as a possible new Captain America.

http://huntersaddict.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/jensen-wont-be-captain-america/

Want to read some spoilers for the upcoming 100th episode of Supernatural on April 15? Click this link.

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/supernatural/supernatural-more-scoop-on-the-34862.aspx

And if you're in need of a good chuckle, here's a fan vid that Supernatural Sister MJ found and shared with us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Vhi1ghjiI

Supernatural News for the Second-to-Last Week of Hiatus

Thanks to MJ for feeding me so many links this week! :) She's responsible for, like, three-quarters of this post!

Including this BREAKING NEWS! Okay, it broke Saturday. Ausiello at EW.com has a post quoting Dawn Ostroff as saying Kripke is warming to a sixth season. She certainly sounds in favor of it, and as some "experts" have pointed out, their slate and track record are hurting bad, so they'll want Supernatural back. "Success" at the CW is crash-and-burn anywhere else, and thank goodness for that! (The day after Ausiello posted, The TV Addict posted a short interview with Dawn Ostroff.)

Check out The People's Choice Awards, in which Supernatural won Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show!

Next, we have to post The Second Biggest News: Jared is definitely engaged to Genevieve.

More awards. And end-of-year accolades, and here and here and here.

Spoilers here. I didn't look. :)

There's a Mr. Twitter contest going on. When I compiled this, Misha Collins was at #3, Jim Beaver at #5, Rob Benedict(?) (Chuck) at #7, Chad Lindberg (Ash) at #10, and Colin Ford(?) (Young!Sam) at #11. (Note: (?) means these are not verified accounts, and I personally have seen or heard nothing that confirms they are the actual actor instead of fan imposters. Misha and Jim I'm pretty certain are accurate, but I wouldn't, like, bet my life on it or anything. :) ) ETA: I've been contacted by someone who knows Chad who says this is his actual Twitter account, and additional research bears it out. :)

I got an e-mail about a podcast Todd Stashwick did. I haven't listened yet, and it sounds like he only briefly mentions Supernatural, but if you're interested: (links to iTunes) or (links to pause.com).

And finally, Support Supernatural is launching its 2010 campaign. This site has a dual purpose: raising awareness of the show, and raising money for charity. In 2009 they were approached to support A Dog's Life Rescue, a pet (get it?) charity of Jared Padalecki's, and they raised around $17,000 for them. Their goal in 2010 is $30,000, and Creation Entertainment has joined in to help them. Which means you can win some really cool sh**. :) Check it out!

SPN Alum on the Screen Pt. I

The show keeps our boys too hard at work for much else, but the extended cast has been busy, busy, busy. This isn’t everyone or everything, by far, but I thought I’d give you a sneak peak at some upcoming projects from SPN alum. Thanks, mostly, to the prodigious Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I’ll be doing this in two parts.

Ruby might be dead, but look for Genevieve Cortese in December’s American Empire. An indie “film noir, dark comedy of errors” with one heckuva hot cast.

Our beloved Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John Winchester) continues to be one sizzling star with at least six things on the slate.

First up is July’s All Good Things. This mystery has Jeffrey playing a detective trying to unravel a missing person’s case that could doom the heir to a NY real estate dynasty.

Come August, we’ll see him playing the lover of a closeted gay man who inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert of 1969 in Ang Lee’s awesome looking, Taking Woodstock.

Then in September, Jeffrey does this thing we wish he’d quit doing--he dies--which acts as the catalyst for his best friend (John Cusack) to return to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor.

And, OMG, in 2010, he’s playing a stalker landlord with an obsession for his new tenant, Hilary Swank, in Invasion of Privacy. (Wicked Jeffrey is just so yummy.)

Also in 2010, Jeffrey’s turn as a “twisted, sado-masochistic henchman” in a yet-to-be-titled Beatle Boyin project.

And, finally, his first 2011 project is another graphic novel adaptation in which he’ll play a CIA black ops agent who’s out to get those responsible for attempting to assassinate his team in The Losers.

Katie Cassidy (former Ruby) has yet to bite the dust on Harper’s Island, but even if she never makes it to her wedding day she’s got a bright future ahead of her.

First, or maybe never, is the super secret Chris Carter project she filmed. Fencewalker was written, financed and directed by the X-Files scribe who says it’s a "coming-of-age semiautobiographical character piece with no supernatural elements." Hmm. Clear as mud, eh? Recently Katie called the script “amazing” and said it was a challenging, emotional role for her and she thought the film would be out at the end of the year. Let’s hope so!

This fall she’ll return to blonde and the CW when she stars as Ella Flynn, a bi-sexual publicist whose tongue is as sharp as her stilettos in the Melrose Place redux.

And since slasher remakes are all the rage, as Jared and Jensen proved this summer, watch for Katie in next year’s A Nightmare on Elm Street where she’s sure to fall victim to Freddy Kruger’s grisly glove.

Finally, keep your eye out for Samantha Smith (Mary Winchester) in next month’s blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen where she’ll reprise her role as Sarah Lennox. (That’s the wife of hot Army Captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel), in case you didn’t remember).

So, which of these grabs your interest? ‘Til next time….