Wingfield curse strikes again
UPDATED 8 October 2000 — Okay, it's an exaggeration,
but I'm beginning to wonder if Peter is the kiss of death to a series...
Say it isn't so!
From the Hollywood Reporter (back in August):
'Swords' in a legal duel; injunction sought
TORONTO — Lawyers for a Los Angeles TV writer have filed
an application for a preliminary injunction to block the fall
premiere of Paramount Television's "Queen of Swords" .... TV writer
Linda Lukens has asked the Los Angeles Superior Court to block
the TV series from airing in September unless she is given a "created
by" credit. [Lukens' lawyer] said the upcoming Fireworks series
originated from a script and treatment, also titled "Queen of
Swords," written by Lukens.
The folks at Highlander Fan Central contacted the series' producers
right away and were assured that filming is continuing in Spain
and the producers don't forsee any delay to the premiere of the
series the week of October 2.
The lawsuit isn't going well... From Reuters (8 October 2000) by
Steve Gorman:
Judge sides with writer in 'Queen of Swords' duel
LOS ANGELES — An aspiring screenwriter has won the first
round of a legal duel over the new TV show "Queen of Swords,"
which she says was hijacked into syndication by Paramount Pictures
two decades after she first sold the idea to ABC.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Thursday ordered a halt to
further broadcasts of the hourlong action drama, about a swashbuckling
masked heroine, unless writer Linda Lukens receives a screen credit
as the creator of the show....
The writer claims both she and the executive producer for the
series [David Abramowitz] were represented by the same literary
agency, the Broder/Kurland Agency, which also is named in the
lawsuit....
Besides having the same title, both Lukens' work and the Paramount-syndicated
TV show involve an avenging, masked aristocrat who, inspired by
the unjust death of her father, fights evil with the help and
guidance of a gypsy mystic, according to the lawsuit. Her work
is set in colonial New France; the series in Spanish colonial
California.
A later blurb in the Hollywood Reporter said, "A studio
representative said the injunction would be stayed by Paramount's
appeal of the ruling, and production and distribution of episodes
will not be disrupted." Neverless, a few fans have reported
that the show was pulled in their area.
Bringing up baby
29 August 2000 — Peter has released the first "official"
picture of Edan! He doesn't have dad's nose... yet...
Peter's wife Carolyn gave birth to Edan Stewart Wingfield on 18
February 2000.
Separated at birth???
18 July 2000 — At Legacy con, Peter mentioned that
his current favorite books are the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
Is it me or is there a strange resemblence happening here? (Left:
the ubiquitous Harry Potter. Right: Peter in Medics.)
You oughta be in heels
UPDATED 31 July 2000 — News from Highlander DownUnder...
Peter made an uncredited appearance in The Damned Deal, a
documentary about drag queens by Elizabeth Gracen. He plays Dr.
Pat Haig, a transvestite psychiatrist in a fictional framing device
used to tie the different interviews together.
Peter had to cancel his appearance at the con (the usual professional
commitments) but he did send a video message for the con attendees
and introduced baby Edan on camera.
Now you too can get the video and see Peter's version of Tootsie!
(It's frightening how much he looks like Dustin Hoffman too...)
The cost is US $30 plus $5 for postage and packaging. Make checks
out to "HLDU" and send them c/o Jody Anderson, 3042 Weld
County Rd 28, Longmont, CO 80504, USA. Send an e-mail to sonja@hldu.org
confirming you sent an order so they know to expect it.
Pen pals
UPDATED 5 June 2000 — Though at Chronicles 99 Peter
claimed that he hadn't written anything for the long-awaited Highlander
anthology, Gillian Horvath eventually got him to contribute
a short story titled "A Time of Innocence." At Legacy
2000, Peter said his contribution is based on an idea he had (how
vague, Peter) and he has no plans to embark on a writing career.
In fact, writing the story brought back memories of essay writing
for school — and the remark he most often got on his essays
was "appears to have been written in haste"!
Titled An Evening at Joe's: Stories from the Cast and Crew of
Highlander, the anthology will be published in September by
the Boulevard imprint of Berkley/Ace.
Who did you say I was?
28 March 2000 — Peter is filming a TV movie called
The Man Who Used To Be Me, directed by Jeff Woolnough, who
also directed Peter's episode of The Outer Limits. An excerpt
from the Hollywood Reporter gives more details:
William Devane and Rob Estes are getting ready to play the lead
character in "The Man Who Used to Be Me," a Fox Family Channel
original movie, sources said Thursday. The telefilm tells the
story of a father, played by Devane, who gets murdered. He then
travels back in time to find out who killed him. He sees his entire
past and witnesses the series of events that led to his murder.
Estes is in negotiations to play the younger Devane, whom Devane
meets in the past.
Peter's character will apparently be similar to Dwight Borden (Dwight???),
his Outer Limits character, so once again Peter's playing
a man of questionable morals...
Spaced out
13 March 2000 — "The Beholder" episode of
Outer Limits aired on February 25 on Showtime. TV Guide's
synopsis: "A blind man regains his sight, discovering he can
see an alien woman who is invisible to others." Peter's character
is apparently a slimeball (again).
18 October 1999 — Peter will be appearing in an episode
of The Outer Limits as the front man for a pharmaceutical
company. The company cures a man's blindness, but the drug's side-effect
is that the man is now able to see all of the aliens who walk invisibly
among us. (Gee, this was the plot of an X-Files episode last
year.) The episode is set to start filming October 28 for about
two weeks.
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