July 26, 2003

Premiere Date for 'Tru Calling'
According to The Futon Critic, 'Tru Calling' will premiere on October 30.

Eliza Feature in The Advocate
Many thanks to josh and spider kelly: Eliza is featured in the current issue of The Advocate. Readers of the magazine ranked her at the top of their "Sexiest Young Actor" poll.

Eliza in Entertainment Weekly
Many thanks to 'SicPsychopath': Eliza is included in the "One Week in Hollywood" feature of the August 1 issue of Entertainment Weekly. The picture was taken before Eliza's appearance at the TCA press tour. 'SicPsychopath''s scan can be found here.

The caption under the photograph reads:

Eliza Dushku Puts On a Good Face; 09:30 AM

Eliza Dushku (former Buffy vampire slayer) gets the brush-off from her trusted makeup artist, Matthew Van Leeuwen, before shilling her new Fox drama, Tru Calling, to a gauntlet of tired television critics at the biannual TCA press tour. "I was up really early," says Dushku. "We had a dinner with my attorney and manager at Mr Chow last night, and my new golden retriever, [appropriately named] Max Factor, was asking to be let out of the house at six this morning. So Matthew came over and drank tea with me. Matthew worked with J. Lo for years. I love him. He looks at me like I'm his canvas and he's Picasso."

From the description of the feature:

One Week in Hollywood; JULY 11-18, 2003

In any given week in Hollywood, a new star is born--and an old one burns out. A potential Oscar-winning script is sold (or chucked in the trash), a TV series is given the green light (or put on hiatus), a hot new band is signed (or dropped), an opening weekend makes a movie producer's career (or has him mentally refinancing his home), and a thousand other mostly unseen moments unfold under this city's famous sun-kissed skies (and lung-choking smog).

In this issue, we've tried to capture the moments of just one of those weeks--July 11 through 18--with pictures and words that give you an inside peek at the entertainment industry at work. Some of the moments caught in these pages are big (producer Jerry Bruckheimer checking the opening grosses for Pirates of the Caribbean), some are small (a casting call for Everwood), and some are just moments we've been curious about (what really goes on in the Simpsons writers' room).

Each moment, though, is important in its own way (even plucking Jaime Pressly's eyebrows). Because for all its buzz and glory, Hollywood is a town that often turns on the briefest twinkling of time. The people in these pages are working 24/7, whether on set, at home, or on the town. And for good reason: It takes just a flash, after all, for fame and fortune to catch fire--and even less for them to flicker out forever.

TCA Summer Party Pics
Zap2It has posted a photo gallery of Fox's 2003 TCA Summer Party. I've also added 3 new pics of the party to the gallery.

New Eliza Article
Cox News Service has posted an Eliza article where she cleared up some rumours about the Faith spinoff, as well as talking about 'Tru Calling' and her scenes with D.B. Woodside in 'Buffy'.

Cox News Service
by Kevin D. Thompson
'Buffy' Star Called to a Higher Billing

Eliza Dushku wants to set the record straight.

Despite all the Internet rumors, she insists there were never any concrete plans to do a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff starring Faith.

"It was never something where they came and said, 'We want you to do this show,' and I said, 'No, I don't want to do it,"' Dushku says of her butt-kicking, wisecracking TV alter ego. "I don't think ("Buffy" creator) Joss (Whedon) was ready to dive in and write another show. And I wanted to do something where I was standing on my own two feet."

Dushku is doing that in "Tru Calling," a new Fox drama in which she plays a morgue attendant who can relive a day after dead bodies ask her for help.

Think "The Sixth Sense" meets "Early Edition."

Dushku admits it was time to put Faith to rest.

"I started the character of Faith five years ago, and the character kind of traveled with me as I grew up and was me in a lot of ways," says the 22-year-old actress. "I loved the show, and that character's been good to me, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that we could have made an interesting (spinoff), but I think you have to go down the road less traveled."

Obviously going from being part of an ensemble to headlining your own show adds more pressure.

"I'm terrified, but I'm excited," Dushku says. "I play characters who take risks, and I think of myself as someone who takes risks. You've got to be gutsy. What have you got to lose?"

Dushku says she'll miss the show - especially her scenes with D.B. Woodside, Sunnydale High's suave Principal Wood.

"He's such a good-looking baby," she says, laughing hard. "He was charming, he was smooth ... his voice, ooooh, don't even get me started."

So, in her mind, did Faith and Wood ride off into the sunset together in the series finale?

"We did in MY fantasy," she says.

Comic Con Reports
The San Diego Tribune and Spoiled Rotten (for the really spoiler averse, there may be some spoilers at SR) have both posted reports of the 'Tru Calling' session at Comic Con.

Also added 3 pics of Eliza at Comic Con to the gallery.

More Articles from TCA Press Tour
Both the NY Daily News and the Beacon Journal posted articles about the Television Critics Association press tour.

WireImage Pics from Comic Con and TCA Party
WireImage has posted a few pics of Eliza from the San Diego Comic Con. They've also posted a whole bunch of Eliza pics from the Fox Summer TCA Splash Party.

Buffy Panel at Comic Con
Following Eliza's comments from the Television Critics Association press tour, Joss Whedon at the San Diego Comic Con also asserted that he wants to do a Faith spinoff should Eliza become available. There's a report on the Buffy/Angel panel at Comic Book Resources.

Dushku finds her 'Tru Calling' on Fox
The Boston Herald also posted an article from the TCA press tour.

The Boston Herald
by Dave Mason
Dushku finds her 'Tru Calling' on Fox

HOLLYWOOD - Boston native Eliza Dushku will be back on TV this fall as another hero, this time facing her toughest battle: going up against NBC's unbeatable "Friends."

But Dushku seems ready for the challenge.

Best known as Faith, the rogue slayer from UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Dushku stars as Tru Davies in the fall Fox drama "Tru Calling," about a woman with the power to relive a day and save people.

Her character knows all the bad things that happen in a day and tries to prevent them when she gets her second chance, which is triggered when someone asks for help.

The supernatural series will air at 8 p.m. Thursday nights on WFXT (Ch. 25). Dushku said that with "Friends," TV's highest-rated comedy, entering its final season, now's the time to tackle that time slot.

"(Tru) is strong but not psychotic. Faith was a little over the top," she said yesterday at a Television Critics Association press conference.

"As a 22-year-old, you feel like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulder. And when you're really carrying the weight, it's overwhelming," Dushku said about the challenges Tru faces.

"Tru Calling" also stars Shawn Reaves as Harrison, Tru's brother, who gets in trouble with his gambling; Jessica Collins as Meredith, Tru's older sister; A.J. Cook as Lindsay, Tru's lighthearted friend; and Zach Galifianakis as Davis, her co-worker in the morgue.

The drama's pilot episode begins by showing Tru and her siblings at the funeral of their mother, killed in cold blood. Years later, as a medical student working in a morgue, Tru thinks she hears a corpse speak to her, asking for help. Tru finds herself reliving the day and doing everything she can to prevent a murder.

Tru's power poses questions about responsibility and temptation that will be worked out in the course of the stories, executive producer-creator Jon Harmon Feldman and fellow executive producer Dawn Parouse said. The producers and Dushku said Tru will face saving the lives of bad people as well as the good.

"Does she play God and decide who lives and who dies?" Dushku said.

Dushku has made a career of playing strong women. Her movies have varied from "Bring It On" to "City By the Sea" (with Robert De Niro) and her current film, "Wrong Turn."

"I have a fine line between acting and my real life," Dushku said. "My mother is the strongest, smartest woman I know. She's so beautiful. She's a feminist, liberal woman.

"She's smokin'," she said, sounding like Faith for a moment.

"She was a full-time professor," Dushku, 22, said. "My parents divorced when I was young, and my mother raised me with help from her closest woman friends. She raised me to support my fellow sisters."

And in that spirit, Dushku liked how series creator Joss Whedon wrapped up "Buffy." Dushku appeared as Faith in the final episodes.

"I was wondering how Joss would do it," Dushku said about the finale, in which Buffy shared her slayer strength with potential slayers, hundreds of women around the world. "I thought it was beautiful.

"Joss and I discussed the (Faith) spinoff as an idea, and I want to work with him again, whether it's a spinoff or a film," Dushku said. "I love his writing. He's the man."

Despite her busy film and TV career, Dushku, who lives in Los Angeles, makes time to visit her native city.

"I go back to Boston every opportunity I can get," Dushku said. "I love Martha's Vineyard, the Cape, the snow."

Dushku: Faith No More
Zap2it has posted an article about Eliza from the TCA Press Tour.

By Daniel Fienberg
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - In late February, as the demise of UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" began to loom, the show's passionate fandom speculated eagerly over the possibility of a spin-off starring Eliza Dushku as one-time rogue slayer Faith. Those hopes were stymied when Dushku signed on to star in the FOX pilot "Tru Calling," opting for a new beginning, rather than reliving a past role.

"I started the character of Faith five years ago and the character kind of traveled with me as I grew up and was me in a lot of ways," Dushku tells reporters at the TV Critics Association press tour. "And I love that show and that character's been good to me and I love the people involved and there wasn't a doubt in my mind we could have made an interesting show, but I think that you kind of go down the road less traveled sometimes."

Dushku's choice of divergent paths led her to the role of Tru Davies, a recent college graduate coming to terms with a great, if somewhat perplexing power. Working a medical internship in the city morgue, Davies discovers that the
corpses are talking to her. As if that isn't bad enough, she then has to relive the entire day to save the life of the body on the slab, prevent a murder.

Equal parts "Run, Lola, Run," "Groundhog Day" and "Early Edition," "Tru Calling" finds Dushku again playing a young woman chosen by unseen forces to save lives. Once again, Dushku's character faces her newfound skills with incredulity and once again, the character is driven by unresolved psychological issues (this time from dealing with her mother's murder). "She's strong, but she's not psychotic," Dushku says, comparing the characters. "I mean, let's be real, Faith was a little over-the-top sometimes, you know."

"A lot of the characters that I've played have been given this opportunity to do something where it's overwhelming and there's enough to worry about as a 22-year-old or as a teenager in your normal life without all the drama and
chaos and this whole fantasy aspect," she continues.

For Tru, the dilemmas of ordinary life include a high-strung sister with a drug problem (played by Jessica Collins) and a brother who can't seem to stay out of trouble (Shawn Reaves). Saving lives and trying to keep your family together doesn't leave much time for dating or work, but Tru's biggest challenge may be protecting herself from a gang of starving, scruffy castaways and a certain sextet of buddies from Manhattan.

FOX has scheduled "Tru Calling" for 8:00 p.m., opposite the battling behemoths of "Survivor" and the final season of "Friends."

"We have a young star in a young show and what we like to believe is a really fresh concept," says the show's creator Jon Harmon Feldman. "We really think that there's an available audience of teens out there who have loved Eliza on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' and in her movies and will come and find us."

"I think that there is room for the show on that night," Dushku adds confidently. "So, I am not intimidated. Thank you very much."

Eliza Pics from the TCA Summer Press Tour
Yahoo! has posted three pictures of Eliza, along with AJ Cook and Jessica Collins, at the Fox presentation for the Television Critics Association Summer press tour. I've added them to the gallery.

The Futon Critic has already posted a few snippets from the tour. Interesting to note the comments from Fox about "The O.C." which will follow "Tru Calling" on Thursdays.

Eliza Photo in 'People' Magazine
The July 28 issue of People magazine has a picture of Eliza in the Star Tracks section.

The caption accompanying the photo reads:

MIAMI, JULY 12 Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Eliza Dushku was in cruise control while jet-skiing with her pal, stylist Roman Diaz. The actress stars in FOX's new drama Tru Calling, premiering this fall.

A scan has been added in the gallery. Courtesy of HyPz on the Fanhost message boards.

'The Face' Magazine
Eliza is featured in the August edition of the UK magazine, The Face.

The Face Magazine
by Jane Bussman
True Faith

As a child star, Eliza Dushku used to eat cake with Arnie and make Robert de Niro blush. Now, after her spell as a renegade vampire slayer in 'Buffy' - not to mention being attacked by sex-crazed hillbilly mutants in 'Wrong Turn' - she's become the camp queen of Hollywood horror.

Nothing fazes Eliza Dushku. "I spent a week tied to the bed with chicken wire, this disgusting leather gag in my mouth. With this guy breathing over me and snickering, holding a knife to my throat..." Not a date with John Leslie, but the really ugly part of her horror movie 'Wrong Turn', when some heinously deformed hillbillies finish decapitating her fellow campers and move on to attempt some hot run action with Eliza herself.

"...And God bless them, but when they're in those big prosthetic suits all day, they stink to high heaven." Eliza has a rare insight into what a backwoods mutant smells like: "really bad BO!"

At just 22 years old, Eliza has clocked up over a decade playing the fiery alternative to apple-pie American youth. "I tripped and fell into this business as a child," she says, referring to the day she went to an audition with a brother, slipped and broke her nose - impressing a talent agent enough with her tantrum to get signed.

Whenever a movie called for a girl who didn't twiddle her pig-tails and whimper, Eliza was booked. She stood up to heavy-weights like De Niro ('This Boy's Life' and 'City by the Sea') and Schwarzenegger ('True Lies').

Rather than losing it on crack sandwiches like many child stars, Eliza has matured into more complex bitch parts. At 17, she became a role model for non-blondes as Buffy the Vampire Slayer's nemesis, Faith. She was so intriguingly evil in the part that she was hired for Buffy's spinoff, 'Angel'. Eliza now has her own supernatural thriller series in production, 'Tru Calling', a sort of 'Minority Report' meets 'Run Lola Run' - minus the scientologists and sweaty Germans.

Before she turned 20, Eliza had played a bad-tempered goth cheerleader in the excellent teen movie 'Bring It On', and starred alongside Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in Kevin Smith's cult comedy franchise 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back'. Which brought her to the hillbilly cannibals of 'Wrong Turn', a take on Wes Craven's Seventies horror classic, 'The Hills Have Eyes', with Eliza wielding axes as pussier co-stars are turned into dead meat.

I meet Eliza in the crumbly elegance of Sunset Boulevard's Chateau Marmont hotel. Eliza bounces in wearing a wifebeater and no make-up, looking a lot younger in real life. She's not remotely bitchy or hard-edged, but the biggest surprise is her voice, which seems to belong to a heavyweight boxer. Listening to her talk in guy slang, it's clear why she has done so well in an industry of fragile actresses. Eliza might look like a vamp, but secretly she's a bit of a geezer.

She laughs, a big dirty man's laugh. With 'Wrong Turn' beating X-Men 2's per-screen average across the US on its opening weekend, Eliza is on her way to the top and revelling in the daftness of fame, US style. She's just done 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien', America's last remaining truly funny chat show.

"Fifteen seconds before I went on the producer ran up and said, 'We've planted Jim Carrey's phone in your seat, would you be OK with Jim running out to answer the phone?' Hell, yeah! Jim's trying to explain the String Theory (of quantum physics) and his phone rings and it's Stephen Hawking going 'Hello Jim, I understand that you're trying to explain to the people of the world the String Theory...' Unbelievable."

Eliza's also kept her sense of humour about the flipside of celebrity. "I got a letter from prison - with a picture of this big guy with a thick moustache and a can of Bud Light. He wrote, 'We only get black-and-white TVs so could you send me a colour photo of you wearing little-to-no clothing...' he didn't understand why people were going to look at him like he was a bad guy for the rest of his life."

Although that man can only live in hope, there's good news for those on the outside with designs on Dushku: Eliza isn't seeing anyone at the moment.

"This is one of the first times in my life that I've been single. I've dated guys since I was 16. Because I was a tomboy I've always loved hanging out with guys, to have that companionship. Doing films, it was nice to have someone from outside who understood you and would come visit and was romantic." She tails off, then quickly says, "But I was a good girl! It wasn't like I was getting nasty from a young age!" She twiddles the fluorescent rubber bands on her wrist that read PURE and FAITH, a gift from her brother.

So what kind of men does Eliza live? Tall? Short? Uncircumcised?

"I like guys with a sense of humour." Any celebrity crushes?

"Something about George Clooney is just super-hot, he's pretty easy on the eyes. But at the same time I don't think I would date me some Clooney. I think the age difference is too hot to handle..."

Eliza won't stay single for long. She's such easy-going company. She doesn't clockwatch like most of LA, and goofing off in the sun takes priority over being seen at the right places.

"I got to Venice Beach with my brother. You see the craziest people there. This guy wanted me to sit on his back while he walked across broken glass, then they have a 300-man drum session and 50 people Hula Hooping..." That's hula hooping for peach. Ah, California.

Eliza was pretty much raised as a boy. She was born unexpectedly when her mother was 40, the fourth child after three boys. ("She thought she was a boy!" her brother Nate, a 26-year-old actor and yoga instructor, tells me later. "She did everything, down to getting a whiffle haircut when all three of us did - a buzz cut at the barber.")

Eliza's Albanian dad skipped out when she was a baby and her mother, a single-minded Danish politics professor, raised Eliza to be tough and sensible. Rather than spending her child star years in the Viper Room with Tori "Hammerhead" Spelling, Eliza went to comprehensive school in Boston. "I'd come back from shooting 'True Lies' with Schwarzenegger and they were like, 'oh, are those movie star jeans?' Even the teachers would get on it. I'd have the same excuses as the other kids, and the teacher would be, 'You think you're a big star so you don't have to do your homework.'"

Being a child star did have its plus side, though. "It was pretty cool to a 12 year old to be driven to Planet Hollywood for lunch by Arnold Schwarzenegger with your friend in his Hummer," says Eliza. "My friend was completely speechless for the entire meal," she says. "Then when dessert came, he said to her, 'This chocolate cake smells like lemon. That's weird,' and when she went to smell it he stuffed it in her face. She was completely mortified abd started crying, and he was like, 'Eliza, I'm so sorry, I was just trying to break the ice!' I think he broke her face."

Eliza's tough-girl performances certainly owe something to her early real-life experiences. "You get this hard-as-nails, no one can bring you down exterior and it worked really well for Faith (in 'Buffy') and even better for Missy in 'Bring It On'." The fluffy chearleading in 'Bring It On' proved to be much more of a challenge for Eliza than it was for her co-actresses. "It was inbred in them by their moms and their moms' moms. I was climbing trees and playing in the dirt making mud pies in hand-me-down clothes. All I wanted to wear was soccer cleats (football boots). So on set they had to have special 'Eliza is Challenged' days." You wouldn't know that from her frankly spectacular athlectics, but she won't have it: "Through the power of editing they made me look all right."

Even meeting Robert De Niro couldn't faze the young Eliza.

"He's really shy. So I used to bust him a little bit, try to ruffle him up and he'd turn beet red. He comes in with a bit of a hard-up hairdo, you call him out..." she says.

You heard right. As a little girl, Eliza teased Travis Bickle. The secretly shy Taxi Driver... De Niro played a violent father to Eliza and the young Leonardo DiCaprio on 'This Boy's Life.'

"It was clear to everyone around that Leo was so good, he really had something. Half De Niro's size, half his age but really holding his own." Eliza and DiCaprio got into trouble on set. "You can't ride bikes because an accident could hold up production, but Leo and I had a bike he used to whip around and sure enough one day he fell on his face and skinned his whole chin open. I think he shut down shooting. He's like, "Sorry!" Then he gave them the finger and run off."

We meet one of her three brothers, Nate, at the ultra-West-Coast-spiritual Urth Caffe in West Hollywood, among adverts for Clown School and healers talking crap about the undead. Nate has Eliza's big eyes and easy going air and teaches yoga locally.

"I was in Geri Halliwell's yoga video," he confesses. He got the job after he and Eliza climbed into someone's front garden to take polaroids of Nate doing poses and sent them to Geri's people. Geri does her own stunts, apparently. "Yes, she was good. Before the video, they told me 'you need to be really prepared because it's a major star and we won't tell you who it is,' but she was very nice."

Nate moved from Boston to LA for some of his own acting work, and secretly to support his sister.

"It's a blessing, I was so lonely and everyone in my family knew but I wouldn't admit it," she says. "Me and my brothers really like each other - they always looked on me as their responsibility."

"When she did 'True Lies' I came and stayed with her in Oakwood apartments where all the child actors live," Nate says. Oakwood is Hollywood's secret Munchkinland. "Everyone was there, Leo DiCaprio - all these kids you see now, we used to hang out in the Jacuzzi at Oakwood. You'd see them on (US TV Series) 'Growing Pains' or 'Family Ties'," Eliza remembers. Nate says, "it's a big community, you don't have to leave - there's a little convenience store and activities. The pool scene is all kids from the industry."

Eliza says the way to success is to stand up for yourself, "even if someone calls you a bitch". Nate tells me that since Eliza was 12, she and her talent rep had this game where they call each other a bitch like "what's up, bitch?"

"I'd go into a meeting and someone would be really obnoxious and I would always stand up for myself - say, 'You know what, fuck off!' Then she'd say, 'go bitch!" says Eliza. "I used to go into meetings when I was 14 and older producers would say, wow, aren't you jailbait? And I'd go to my mom, 'what's jailbait?' On one movie the entire crew's nickname for me was jailbait," she laughs. I ask her if she ever met any serious perverts as a child star.

Nate interjects. "What about that time - " but Eliza gives him a look. "I can't really remember," he concludes, saving his sister from the memory of some major player who probably suggested something unimaginably horrible to the young Eliza.

He's just as protective when I ask him to spill the beans on Eliza's love life. "We all live and learn, we all live and learn," she says. "Our mom never taught us to be extremely careful or traditional..." she pauses. "That sounds, er..." They both giggle.

"This woman at my hair salon said she's speed-dating tonight," Eliza says. "You join online then you all meet in a hall, pay ten dollars and talk. They have four-minute, eight-minute or twenty-minute speed dates. Then you go hom and if you like that person you send them an email. The thing is if they don't reply you never feel dumped... I think we'll all go on speed dates tonight!" And with that, Eliza leads Nate off to hang out together, the pleasantly surprising Dark Forces of young Hollywood.

Scans are available in the gallery. Courtesy of the SMGfan Forum.

Eliza at San Diego Comic Con
This was all info from the old site: according to the Comic Con website, Eliza will be attending Sunday, July 20 to present a screening of the 'Tru Calling' pilot.

From the website:

And on Sunday, we have a special event. Eliza Dushku joins us at Comic-Con to present the first-ever screening of the pilot for her new Fox TV series, Tru Calling! This event takes place in Ballroom 20 from 12:30-2:00 p.m.

More info can be found under Registrations on how to attend.

The Comic Con website has been updated with the final schedule. For Sunday:

12:30–2:00

Eliza Dushku: Tru Calling— 20th Century Fox Television presents an exclusive sneak preview of the studio's new shows, including a special panel session with the cast and producers of Tru Calling. The event will start with a 15 minute showing of trailers for two new shows: Still Life from executive producer Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Wonderfalls from executive producers Todd Holland (Girls Club, Malcolm in the Middle) and Bryan Fuller (Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Six Nine). Following the trailers, guests will view the pilot episode of Tru Calling and then be joined by the cast and producers for a Q&A session including Jon Feldman, executive producer (American Dreams, Dawson's Creek, Roswell), Dawn Parouse, executive producer (Fear, Septuplets), Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wrong Turn, Bring it On), Shawn Reaves (Auto Focus), Jessica Collins (American Dreams, Off Centre), AJ Cook (Final Destination 2, Wishmaster, Virgin Suicides) and Zach Galifianakis (Late World with Zach). Room 20

For those who went, we'll be happy to post any reports that you'll send in.

Site Status
Update on what's happening with all the sites at the moment...

The main site had to be taken down because there was some problem in the PHPNuke script that was using all the server resources. I'm looking at a few different options: to see if I can fix the code, install another CMS (initially, I wanted to wait until the IBF product came out because I could port all the users from the Invision message board) or return to static html pages. I'm trying to get the site back up this week.

For the moment, I'm redirecting everything to the News Channel. Sorry for all the broken links - there's a few things that I wanted to fix/remove/add on this site as well, but that's being pushed down the to-do list.

Also, initially I thought that the problem with the main site, was with one particular module I installed, so I was added a separate gallery subdomain as a work-around. (And it turned out that it wasn't.) I may leave it and work it into the new site. All the latest photos can be found at gallery.eliza-dushku.com