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Wil Wheaton playing for EFF
Quintin Stone (and every other Slashdot reader on the planet) writes: "Wil Wheaton is among the many Star Trek actors on tonight's Weakest Link, except that the charity he's playing for is the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Though so far he's been doing well." CD: I don't want to give away the ending, many people have yet to see the show.
Way to go Wil, you deserve success !
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
It's not offtopic, it's a damn good quetion. When Roxann (Engineer B'Elanna Torres from Voyager) was voted off, she put on a bit of a hissy fit in the "exit interview". She especially singled out Wil Wheaton for "hitting on her" when he knew her husband would be watching.
"Prejudice is wrong; you should hate everyone the same."
If the EFF worked with corporations to offer payroll deductions like the United Way does, I'd be happy to donate a portion of my salary to the EFF. It really was a pleasant surprise to see Wil ("that's one L!") playing for that charity.
Dr. Evil should get out and date more.. how about Anne Robinson.
The contestants acquited themselves well, but Q took a powder early on.
Denise was obviously the crowds favorite and had the entire soundstage bidding her a rousing farewell... even Anne!
Bill was Bill, with a little Kirk thrown in.
Armin was a great sport.
Bob Picardo was a genius, WoW some of the questions he answered floored me.
Levar pulled some of the most amazing answers out of thin air and even wow'ed Bob.
Wil though was a true geek and seemed a team leader, doing verbal duets with Anne til the end.. of course we all know who got the last word..
I'd say Wil was more a brash younger captain serving as the instigator of the Clash, while cooler more intellectual minds eventually had to finish the game. How Weslean.. ~~
The dynamics and interplay, of which there was surprisingly a good lot, seemed truly like a missing Trek episode.. some years down the road I wonder if it will turn up in an Anthology of Trek stories.. the one where real characters from the Trek Universe get mixed up with actors in a Game show Universe.
Wil really seems to be over his "I am Not Spock" phase and resumed being a human being with a wicked alter-ego.. imagine a twisted Wesley with revenge on his mind, true brillance, and a good dialogue coach.. Eee Gads..
But throwing in his chances with the EFF, you just gotta admire him for that.
Roxane? what of Roxane?
Could it be some evil entity of denial that body hops from person to person shortly after a Trek series is over? Is it Roxane's turn to play "I am Not Banal Balanna, the Klingon"
No, bonehead, it's irony that he speaks up for the EFF in a medium which many parts of are sympathetic to or owned by the backers of the DMCA. It's pretty gutsy of Wil to do this. Typically those who take political stands against what the heads want have a tough row to hoe. Edward Asner's career clearly took a backseat during and after his stint as president of the Screen Actors Guild, particularly with some of the efforts he backed, including better compensation for actors on shows in syndicated reruns, since cable was growing and dipping heavily into the old vaults.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
That's why the truly intelligent player misses a few questions here and there on purpose. It's clearly an advantage to be the second or third strongest player going into the second to last round, so if you're really that good then you'll fix it that way. Of course, when it's celebrities playing for charity the strategy is completely different.
While most celebrities compete for whose charity supports children that are suffering more, it is refreshing to see one person support an organization with a philosophical agenda that he identifies with. I'm sure most celebrities' publicists would have reccommended that they avoid charities like the EFF because their opposition to draconian surveillance technologies stands in stark contrast to the prevailing public opinion.
/. who support the EFF: how do you respond to their opposition of content control/digital rights management? If so, how would you respond to your colleagues who claim that it will impair their ability to support themselves as artists?
One question for Wil or any aspiring entertainers on
I recall that Wil was booed at a Star Trek convention many years ago and vowed never never to speak at such a convention again. However, his commitment to civil liberties and his young age/ability to relate to an audience of college students would make him an ideal guest for the college lecture circuit. I know of at least one organization on my campus that would be willing to sponsor a guest like Wil and I'm certain that similar organizations at other Universities would also be accomodating. The money may not be as good as an Star Trek convention, but he would certainly receive a better reception than he did at the Star Trek convention and he would have the opportunity to use his celebrity to advance his ideology.
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Well, slashdot posted the info 13 minutes after the show ended here (8pm). Searching tvguide.com and tv.yahoo.com shows that particular episode as not airing again.
Anyone have any idea if it will air again or maybe someone who captured it to mpeg or something?
I really wanted to see it.
Geoffeg
Here are his comments copied:
Aw, Crap
I did this interview with Entertainment Weekly Online, to support the Star Trek Weakest Link...I know, it was risky, considering how brilliantly objective and reasoned their last story about me was...but I was assured by NBC, and by the guy who did the interview, that it was a different medium (Website vs. Print) and it would be okay....
So here's the article...which is fine, except for "Crusher Crushed"...c'mon, how many times have we heard that?
Anyway, here's the deal: I'm really scared about how this is going to come off. I'm not allowed to talk about the outcome of the show, so I'll walk a very slim line here, while I try to explain some stuff.
I made a choice, when I went to play the show. I decided that I'd really play with Anne Robinson, and really go head to head with her, and never back down. Even though that's not really my style, I thought it would be fun, and it was...but I'm really nervous, because, at the end of the show, one of the producers came up to me and said, "You're really arrogant, aren't you?"
I was stunned. Ask anyone...I'm lots of things, but I'm not arrogant. But I played it snotty with her, because I was playing with her at her own game, you know? So I begged them to please be thoughtful when they edit the show, because if they make me out to be a huge dick, it could REALLY hurt my career. All of a sudden, the guy who you used to love from TV and Movies has grown up, and he's grown up to be a huge dick.
Perfect. Can I take your order? How about a nice Iced Tea to start, sir?
But here's the thing that I'm really, really upset about: Roxann Dawson, who I don't know at all, was, apparently very offended by something I said on the show. Here's the quote from EW:
So, I feel just terrible. I don't know her, at all, and she seemed very nice to me, and I am really upset that she felt like I was rude to her, and that I was coming on to her, because nothing could be further from the truth.
I doubt it, but if Roxanne reads this, I want her to know that I meant absolutely no disrespect, at all. I am truly, truly sorry for that.
I just feel awful, and I've put in calls to my Star Trek friends, so I can phone her myself, and apologize to her.
*sigh*
Round 1: $17,000 banked
Strongest: Crosby - Weakest: DeLancie
Votes: Dawson 2 (Wheaton, Shatner), DeLancie 2 (Burton, Crosby), Shatner 2 (Picardo, Shimerman), Wheaton 1 (Dawson), Picardo 1 (DeLancie)
Crosby elects to remove DeLancie
Round 2: $13,500 banked (total $30,500)
Strongest: Picardo - Weakest: Shatner
Votes: Shatner 3 (Burton, Picardo, Shimerman), Crosby 2 (Wheaton, Shatner), Wheaton 1 (Dawson), Dawson 1 (Crosby)
Shatner removed
If the above is correct, before he (Shatner) got voted off, Wil and William Shatner voted for the same people. In the first round they voted for Roxann Dawson, and in the second round, they both voted for Denise Crosby. OK, Wil, what's the story? :-)
If all you have are silver bullets, everything looks like a werewolf.
If anything impressed me on that show, it was that Armin Shimerman really came off as a class act.
To be honest, I'd never really thought about the human inside that all that makeup before, and somehow I assumed if there were a person he'd be about 4 feet tall.
But he was a real live person. And he managed to be funny, modest, engaging, and do a fair job with the questions too. Really put everyone else to shame. This was my first time watching the show... between Shatner's hamming, Roxann's childish tantrum, and Wheaton's ill-conceived schtick, I was starting to figure that all these actor people are idiots when nobody's around to make sure they stick to a script (okay, no complaints about the two finalists, they seemed sharp and decent too - but Levar, "600"??).
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
And that wink she does at the end of the show to hint to the audience "it's all in good fun" is just creepy.
The Star Trek one is the first episode I have bothered to sit through since the first time I saw it. I would watch it more, because it is a fun concept for a game show, except she annoys the hell out of me.
I think that the dramatic tention that the show's format seems to be trying to cultivate would be much higher if the host was very calm and sympathetic. If I were producing the show, I would offer the job to Peter Faulk (of "Columbo" fame).
To each his own, I guess.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Here's something to bear in mind. Anyone who hasn't been following Wil's career would take him at face value too, and not realise that he was playing an (ill advised) part. We know better, but the vast majority of the audience won't.
So let's not be too hasty to judge Roxann. Wil and Roxann were basically doing live improv, and that's a pain to do with someone you don't know. I'd rather assume that they got their wires crossed and both escalated their jerkwad/bitch roles without realising that one of them needed to defuse it by turning it into a joke.
That said... just in case it wasn't an act on her part... hey, girl, you ain't all that. Wil's a lot finer than you. :-)
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Just FYI-
The three of us left knew that I was going to be voted off...I totally tanked in that round. So I was going to vote for Levar, but Anne was grilling us between each round, and I thought I could have more fun with her, talking about how Levar is my friend, and I didn't know Robert at all...thought maybe I could get in some comments about how we TNG actors have to stick together, or something...but they didn't air any of that exchange.
Yes, voting off someone who you KNEW was the strongest would be insanely stupid...but we all knew that my vote wouldn't count for anything, since I was doomed, anyway.