Jul 17 2008
My not-so-secret Hollywood crush!
Everyone has Hollywood crushes. In fact, I would like for you to leave me comments and tell me what yours are. Unless it is Brad Pitt; then I don’t want to know.
Torri Higginson is a talented and beautiful actress, who played, among other things, Dr. Weir, the civilian commander on Stargate Atlantis.
This used to be my favorite show. I told everyone, “Stargate Atlantis is my favorite show.” But, as usual, the boneheads in Hollywood totally ruined it. But that’s not important right now; let’s talk about Torri.
From the first time I saw her on Atlantis, I was hooked. She was smart, sensitive, and attractive — not one of those over-glamorized barbie doll types, but a tough yet feminine leader. I noticed after a few episodes of the show they started putting more make up on her character to accent her pretty eyes. Good call, director. I nursed my little actress crush for two seasons, and then I got to meet her at a sci-fi convention.
Some other actors from Atlantis were supposed to be at DragonCon, but they canceled so they brought Torri in at the last minute. It was her first convention. She was sitting next to Rachel Luttrell who plays Teyla. When I came up to the table there was no line; I was lucky. I told her I had a crush on Dr. Weir. She looked right at me with her pretty eyes and took my hand, she said, “Well, you can just stay right here!” I got a picture autograph from her and told her about my Hollywood aspirations. She wished me luck on my film project I was working on. I got to spend a little time with Torri and Rachel at the convention since it was their first. I kind of became a convention tour guide. Here is a good story from the convention:
They were finishing their “shift” signing autographs and wanted to go to the art room. I showed them the way. When they got there, the security person said, “I’m sorry the art room is closed. Even if you got down on your knees and begged I couldn’t let you in.” I looked right at him and said, “Don’t you know who these ladies are? They are the actresses from Stargate Atlantis!” He got embarrassed and then got on his radio. Then he opened the door for us — and I waltzed in too like I belonged. Eventually they kicked me out; but, hey, I got to spend some more time with Torri.
I occasionally get a message from her on Myspace since we met. I am always happy to hear from her. They took her character from Atlantis, I don’t watch it anymore.
How to Kill a Great TV Show
Stargate SG-1 was ending, the show that Atlantis spun off from. Some Hollywood moron decided that they should take some characters from SG-1 and put them on Atlantis to pull audience from one to the other. Since Atlantis’ cast was pretty full, they had to get rid of characters to do this. They killed the extremely popular Scottish doctor, Carson, and then replaced Torri with someone from SG-1. Then they got stupid and crazy; they created a wimpy doctor role and put Jewel Staite in it. Don’t get me wrong, I think Jewel is awesome in Firefly, but the character stinks and it seems an obvious ploy to draw Firefly fans to the series. Plus they have the doctor from Star Trek: Voyager on the show too. If you watched SG-1 you know it was basically a refugee camp for actors from other canceled Sci-fi series. Anyway, enough about that. The show is ruined for me now.
More about Torri
Torri really loves her dog, which appears in at least one episode of the show. She also has a favorite charity here in LA called Food on Foot , which if you are in the area, I recommend you volunteer a day for. She is great — if any of my screenplays get picked up out here, I will definitely contact her agent to offer her a role.
Picture of the Day
I have come up with a way to make Stargate Atlantis awesome: cast me as John Sheppard’s wise-cracking annoying younger brother.
You see, Colonel Shepherd (played by Joe Flanigan) has the “Ancient” gene, so it would make sense that his brother does too, so they bring him to Atlantis to operate the Ancient technology.
Torri Higginson links
Here’s lot’s more about Torri!
