Criminal Minds

What have our favorite tv profilers been doing during the WGA strike?
Shemar Moore is helping celebrate Black History Month at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. He will make a guest appearance tonight at the Annual Black History Month Culture Show. Carleton University also hosted Angela Davis this month to discuss black history as someone who had participated in it. Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and is a political activist who used to be associated with the Black Panthers. She is infamous for her arrest and trial for the murder of Judge Harold Haley. Eventually she was acquitted. Her arrival on campus brought a lot of controversy. Shemar Moore is a less controversial subject, but his appearance will help bring focus to Black History Month. (Oh, and he was also one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men.)

Joe Mantegna will be a presenter for Sunday night’s Grammy awards. This one is a live show with performers and presenters, unlike the press conference style Golden Globes. Some acts include Beyonce and Tina Turner, Fergie with John Legend, Rihanna, Josh Groban with Andrea Bocelli, Feist, Foo Fighters with John Paul Jones, Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige.

Kirsten Vangsness appears in the movie, In My Sleep. Matthew Gray Gubler also hit the big screen with an updated Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Hopefully, we’ll see them all in new episodes soon!

Tonight, Agent Morgan is in the spotlight as CBS replays “Profiler, Profiled.” He returns to his hometown for a visit only to have a murdered child show up. He becomes the focus of the police investigation, and his BAU team members are working to clear this up. He refuses to talk about his past, which leads them to the conclusion that he’s hididng something. This episode from season two is a good one if you missed it the first time around, and good for giving some background and depth to Shemar Moore’s character. “Profiler, Profiled” on on at nine tonight.

“3rd Life,” guest starring Gina Mantegna, will air on January 9. This has been pushed back a few weeks from its original airdate. This episode is eagerly awaited for two reasons: one, star Joe Mantegna is the father of Gina, who plays the missing teenager. Also, it’s the last of the new Criminal Minds episodes for the foreseable future.

(The picture above is from People Magazine - which named Shemar Moore as one of the sexiest men alive. He came in at a very respectable #10.)

Shemar Moore made People’s list of sexiest men for 2007. He came in at #10!

Shemar Moore is clearly close with his mother, Marilyn, so I thought I’d find out a little more about their relationship. She sounds like a great mother, and her son obviously adores her.

Marilyn was a teacher. After she and Shemar’s father were divorced, they moved to Holland. Shemar’s mother only spoke Dutch to him so he didn’t learn English until he was five or six.

About his race, Shemar says:

The world sees me as a black man, but my mother didn’t raise me as a black man. She didn’t raise me as a white guy. She raised me as Shemar Franklin Moore. She said; don’t worry about being black or being white. Just be you, and go tell your story.

Shemar also biked 100 miles to raise awareness and funds for the National MS Society. His mother, Marilyn, has the disease. He got his Criminal Minds buddies to help him out and plans to do the bike tour again.

Shemar’s mother also made sure her son took his education seriously. While in high school, Shemar was a star pitcher.

I could run, but I was throwing 93 mph coming out of high school. So I got drafted by Baltimore and Boston, so I thought I had a chance to play at Fenway Park. But I got drafted out of high school, and my mother wasn’t having it. She was like, you’re not about to think that you can just play ball, because if you get hurt, you’re going to be out of luck. So you’re going to go to school, and you’re going to get that piece of paper, and then you’re going to do whatever you want to do.

Shemar Moore started his acting career as Malcolm Winters on The Young and the Restless. After graduating from Santa Clara University (where he attended on a baseball scholarship), Shemar moved to New York to pursue his modeling and acting career. He landed a job as a GQ model and then, with no acting experience, became Malcolm Winters on Y&R.. That worked out well - he won a Daytime Emmy in 2000 for outstanding supporting actor in a drama and was nominated for several others.
Moore said in an interview for The Philadelphia Inquirer,

I come from a soap, that’s what I’m most known for, so now I’m changing the conversation people are having about me. Being on Criminal Minds is opening doors that were once shut to me.

Apparently it’s difficult to have a “serious” acting career when you start on a soap opera. Inquirer writer Michael D. Schaffer writes: “Moore…is trying to do something that few actors have done: build a serious acting career on the slippery foundation of soap.”

Shemar is definately as well-known for taking off his shirt as he is for acting. There will be no disrobing on Criminal Minds though. He says:

As soon as I take my shirt off, they’re going to say, ‘He takes his shirt off because that’s the only reason people will watch him.’

Costar Kirsten Vangsness agrees, saying:

When you look at him, you think that’s all there is because there’s so much to look at, but the way he looks is nothing compared to the way he is as a person…I can always do a scene better when he’s there. He’s absolutely connected to you as an actor.

Shemar hopes to use Criminal Minds as a stepping stone for a career in movies. In a Boston Globe story, Moore says:

The soap opera was high school. I graduated. Now I’m in college with ‘Criminal Minds.’ In a couple of years I will graduate from ‘Criminal Minds,’ and hopefully that will be the start of a long, long film career.

Until then, you can see Shemar Moore Wednesday nights at nine on CBS. You can also check out this youtube clip of Shemar as Malcolm Winters on Y&R. I chose this one because in it he’s very reluctantly modeling with his shirt off.

Shemar Moore had some thoughts for TMZ the other night. Shemar is leaving what I assume is a club while the TMZ cameraman follows him. When he finds out it’s TMZ, Shemar gets angry and makes some weird statements about them trying to ruin him. Very weird, but kind of funny. The only way I can see that TMZ tried to “ruin” him was by posting stories of his arrest for DUI.
And this picture taken just days after he was arrested:

For more info on your favorite alcohol-challenged celebrities, check out these sites:
Britney Spears Watch, Lindsay Lohan Watch , Nicole Richie Watch and Paris Hilton Watch.

Tonight’s episode is a rerun of “Legacy,” in which the BAU is called to Kansas City to investigate the disappearances of homeless people. Detective McGee from Kansas City approaches JJ for help because his own superiors do not believe the missing person cases are connected. McGee believes there may be as many as 63 victims. Hotch and JJ go to “unofficially” look into the case, while a prostitute named Maggie is fighting for her life.
Early in the show, Hotch walks into Gideon’s office to find him watching Charlie Chaplin movies - a little comic relief from the horrors of their job.

Fans of both Criminal Minds and the Red Sox got a treat last night when Shemar Moore threw the opening pitch at Fenway Park. Shemar was a high school pitcher - clocking 93 mph fastballs - and was drafted by the Sox and the Orioles. He says his mom vetoed the pro baseball career in favor of a baseball scholarship to Santa Clara University.
A dedicated Sox fan, Shemar says:

I was at the playoff game in 2004, freezing my tail off and jumping up and down on the Green Monster, calling all my friends, ‘Look at me under the Coca Cola sign.’ It was pretty easy since that was the game the Yankees won 19-8 and they were scoring home runs every four pitches! I think I even made ESPN’s highlights that night.

Maybe the Sox will trade in Daisuke Matsuzaka for Shemar. (Reminder: email me your entries for a CM episode idea…the winner will get a book by real-life profiler, John Douglas.)

Boston Red Sox, Shemar Moore, Criminal Minds

It’s not all profiling and flying around the country in a private jet.
The cast of Criminal Minds finds time to bond….

and…

(more…)

AJ Cook talks about how the show will introduce Joe Mantegna’s new character, while at the same time explaining Agent Gideon’s (Mandy Patinkin) departure.

The writers are locked in a room somewhere trying to find out who this new character is and how to bring him on. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes the dynamic on the set and on screen…Last season [Agent Gideon's] girlfriend was killed and he was on the run trying to find the killer, so luckily they had that, to set up his departure…They’ve left us all in the dark here. All I know is we’re looking for him … We’re trying to figure out where he is and hunt the man down. What’s so funny is, it’s kind of art imitating life. In our read-through, we had lines in there that seemed to be pulled out of our lives — ‘Has anyone seen Gideon — or Mandy?’

Cooks said she’d be “shocked” if they killed off Mandy Patinkin’s character.
Shemar Moore expressed anger at Patinkin for leaving the show without any word to his costars, feeling they were “slapped in the face.”

I don’t like that he did this the way he did this. I don’t think it’s right. He left us hanging… no warning, no nothing. We all showed up to work on Day 1, and he didn’t.

Thomas Gibson was also disappointed: “We look at this as a great opportunity to shake things up. This is certainly a disappointment to everyone, but I don’t think it’s a catastrophe.”
AJ recently said of Patinkin:

We have been kind of playing phone tag, but he has gone out of his way to make sure he reached all of us. I think that was the biggest part for us … We just didn’t know what was going on, and we were all worried. Once we got into contact with him and knew he was OK, then it was we just want him to be happy. (National Ledger)

As to Mandy Patinkin’s final appearance on Criminal Minds: He shot one day of scenes that will be stretched out into two episodes. TV Guide reports that he will be in the scene alone because none of the other stars wanted to work with him again after he left without telling them. “What’s more, Minds’ producers were forced to use a special crew to shoot the pariah’s scene because the show’s regular staff refused to be on set with him.”
Apparently, the scene will show Agent Gideon getting into a car and driving away, and which, according to TV Guide, will air on October 3.

(Look for more on AJ Cook tomorrow.)

Just a little update: Shemar Moore, who plays Agent Derek Morgan, on CBS’s Criminal Minds was sentenced to 36 months of probation and community service after he pleaded no contest to charges that he was intoxicated while driving and going over 65 miles per hour on a city street.
Shemar has made the news quite a bit recently with his arrest, as well as the revealing pictures of him taken at a nude beach in Hawaii (yes, those photos are available somewhere online).
Well, at least he gave me something else to write about other than Mandy Patinkin - no, no news there yet.

Shemar Moore shared a little more at a CBS party last night. He again talked about former costar Mandy Patinkin’s abrupt departure. While expressing his admiration and respect for Patinkin, Moore didn’t mind saying that he and the rest of the cast of Criminal Minds were angry.

“We just want the courtesy and the respect that we deserve. We felt like if he had given us that initially this would be much easier to deal with. But he essentially slapped us in the face. That may sound extreme, [but] he simply didn’t show up for work and hasn’t told us why. Collectively, we don’t know what we did wrong, because we always did what we could to make him comfortable. We just don’t know what happened for him to make this decision.” (MediaVillage.com)

Moore also talked about his recent trip to Hawaii and being “caught” naked. He says he was with two “hot chicks” who wanted to go skinnydipping. The beach wasn’t a gay beach, though he has no problem with gay people. “It’s interesting that when you see the pictures you don’t see the two girls, because that’s not interesting. ‘Let’s make him gay and we can sell some papers!’” So he went to a beach. Wow. What a story. And if it were a gay beach…so what? What is our fascination with other people’s sexuality? I don’t think Shemar Moore should have to vehemently deny being gay…that’s just my thought on it.
While at the CBS party, Moore also talked about his recent arrest. “I’m a risk taker. I’m not above the law. I was taking my chances and I got caught.” He said his problem was speeding and that alcohol wasn’t an issue.

Shemar Moore wasn’t shy about speaking out against Mandy Patinkin’s abrupt departure from Criminal Minds. “If you needed to leave the show to kind of feel better about yourself, that’s fine,” Moore, who plays Agent Derek Morgan, said. “You want to be closer to your family, that’s fine. You want to go sing songs and travel, that’s fine. But give us a heads-up. Give us a warning.” While his words sound angry, Moore did offer a possible reason for Patinkin leaving. “The content is tough, but at the end of the day, I’m an actor who learns lines and I say my lines and then I distance myself from it and go back to my life,” Moore said. “(Patinkin) took it a little more personally.” Moore called Patinkin an “emotional guy” and someone you felt “you had to take care of.”
Did the often intense scenes of Criminal Minds cause Mandy Patinkin to leave? The show often describes grisly crimes and monstrous unsubs, but would an actor playing an FBI agent become so involved in the “crimes” (which are realistic but not real) that he can no longer handle it…kind of a post-tramatic stress syndrome for actors? Is he that fragile? His character, Agent Jason Gideon, was also seen as emotional and somewhat unstable. He showed the impact working on these investigations has for the agents involved. Apparently, it has an impact on the actors as well.

I was hoping to find some news about what the actors are up to in their off time from the show, but this wasn’t the kind of news I was hoping for. According to TMZ, Shemar Moore was arrested on Friday due to a suspicion of DUI. It occurred in L.A.

The details of the arrest report stated that officers pulled him over for speeding, and then arrested him after he “displayed signs of alcohol impairment”. He was taken in and booked after taking a breathalyser test.

He was eventually released on $5000 bail. His reps have not made any public statements yet.

I hope everything goes well!

(Arrest report here in PDF format. Photo source TMZ.)