News Bullets

• British fans will be able to enjoy CSI: New York from today (Saturday) onwards, as Channel 5 will air the New York pilot "Blink" tonight at 9:05pm.

• ABC is following the example CBS set by rapidly developing new CSI shows to capitalise on the success of the original: it has requested Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry to come up with a spin-off to his wildly popular Sunday drama. More info can be found at the Detroit Free Press.

• Hal Boedeker at the Orlando Sentinel explores the obscenity paradox: on the one hand, segments of the public and the FCC are pushing ever harder for controls on indecent programming, on the other hand, shows like CSI, which "fascinates the public with plots that range from gory to kinky," continue to sit atop the ratings.

• In light of the 30th anniversary of Happy Days, BlogCritic Nancy Gail has posted an update on the whereabouts of the former stars of the series. One of them, Anson Williams (Potsie), apparently went on to direct episodes of the original CSI series.

• Networks are still developing new CSI-like shows for the coming television season: according to the Hollywood Reporter, CBS is working on a drama called American Crime, in which a suburban prosecutor juggles her cases and her mommy duty, while ABC is betting on Evidence, which is described as a "reverse CSI." In this drama series, "hard evidence is presented at the outset of the episode as a means of deconstructing the crime." No, we don't know what that means either.

• Meanwhile, the Futon Critic reports that Fox has given a pilot order for Deviant Behaviour, a drama project from CSI writer and co-executive producer that revolves around a team that tracks serial killers.

• From the we-totally-missed-this department: Broadcasting & Cable reported three weeks ago that CSI: New York has been cleared for weekend syndication in markets representing 75% of the United States. The show's local weekend repeats will start in the Fall of 2008; syndicator King World is hoping they'll do as well as those of the original CSI, which is consistently in the top-10 of most-watched syndie shows. Thanks go out to Elyse's for catching this!

• Canada.com is reporting the death of Canadian actor John Vernon, who starred as a coroner in the 1960s crime series Wojeck, an early precursor to shows such as CSI. Vernon was 72.

• According to Motor Home Magazine, Gary Sinise (Mac Taylor) attended last month's inauguration of President Bush, and while doing so, was able to use the luxurious VIP rooms that had been set up in several donated motor homes, in order to shield both the First Family and attending celebrities from the cold. Thanks again to Elyse's!

• The controversy over the firing and then re-hiring of Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) and George Eads (Nick Stokes) has made Business 2.0's list of the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business of 2005. Elyse's pointed us to this.

• And Eads is quoted in the latest edition of People Magazine as saying that his "secret rock out song" is anything by Pat Benatar. "I had a boyhood crush that I never quite got over. I am an air-guitar professional. Something about Ms. Benatar gets me strumming."

• Robert David Hall (Dr. Al Robbins) recently talked to the Northwest Herald about the car crash 26 years ago that claimed both his legs. Hall also discusses the new Clint Eastwood film One Million Dollar Baby, but as this CSI Files editor hasn't yet seen the film and is thus avoiding spoilers, you'll have to see for yourself what Hall thought of the Oscar-nominated flick.

• More cases of life imitating art: police in Mount Dora, Florida, solved a murder in a way that very closely resembled CSI. "A lot of times when we get called out people tell us about how they saw crimes solved on CSI, a spokesman told the Daily Commercial. "But half the time stuff on CSI is not realistic. This time, with the DNA analysis, it was." Meanwhile, the Air Force Link has a story on how several branches of the army work together to set up dedicated CSI teams when a crime occurs on an air force base, while the Canadian Press writes about investigators using "CSI gimmicks" to solve the case of a missing girl.

• SiniseFans.org will be auctioning off several items signed by Gary Sinise (Mac Taylor) to pay for maintaining their site. The first item is an autographed VHS tape of Of Mice and Men, available here on eBay.

• MargHelgenberger.net has been updated with two clips from the recent episode of Entertainment Tonight in which Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) gave a tour of the sets.

• New screencaps of the third-season CSI episode "The Accused Is Entitled" can be found on Erica's CSI Caps page.

• Playing With Fire has transcripts of the key Grissom/Sara scenes from "Nesting Dolls."

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