2006 News Archives
- on December 31st, 2006
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December 24th 2006
THE WPAP would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year, we hope you all have a safe holiday season. We would also like to thank all our visitors for their continued support, emails and kind comments regarding the site, we really do appreciate it, and we will continue to do our best in 2007.
Several articles have been added to The Gallery from TV Guide, The Independent and The Kurier (thanks to Ingrid for the scan and translation)) along with a few new CSI promos.
We now have some fan reviews from a Dublin Carol online, we’ll be adding more shortly.
For those in the UK, the channel “FIVE US” will be showing a documentary regarding CSI on December 29th at 9pm, for those of you not in the UK, we’ll try and get a clip up ASAP 🙂
Also for those in the UK, the first part of the CSI Season 6 box set is scheduled to be released end of February 2007.
December 19th 2006
First things first, The WPAP would like to send a special thank you to Billy, we honestly can’t thank you enough 🙂
Secondly, thanks to N. for keeping an eye on things and keeping us up to date whilst we were away and for those of you we got to meet in Providence, it was an absolute pleasure 🙂
That said, on with the updates!
Loco Motives screen caps are now in The Gallery, click on last uploads to view. We’ll be adding a few articles and other bits and pieces over the new few days as well.
All official Dublin Carol Reviews found on the net can now be found here, so far there are 8, check back often as this is continually being updated. We’ll be adding to our fan reviewsshortly. Remember if you want to be included, please drop us an email.
A fantastic radio interview Billy regarding the play can be found on here-now.org includes extracts from the play.
Lastly, A Dublin Carol has made it to Austria. The Kurier has an interview with Billy onlinehere, but thank you once again to the lovely N. for the English translation, which you canfind here.
December 7th 2006
Theatermania has a review up of Dublin Carol, the official opening night was Wednesday. More will appear over the next few days.
The WPAP is in Providence next week, so updates with Loco Motives screencaps and further reviews will be delayed for a few days, but if we get a chance we’ll update here or at ouryahoo group.
December 1st 2006
The first preview of A Dublin Carol was last night, we’ll add reviews as and when they come in. The Trinity Rep has now also put some production photos online. To view these click here. All Photos Copyright T Charles Erickson
November 29th 2006
We have now added the video clip from the interview mentioned below. The picture sticks in a couple of places, but it corrects itself.
Have just realized I haven’t put this up already, but it’s People’s Choice Awards time again. You can vote for CSI for Best Drama here. The awards will air January 9th 2007.
November 28th 2006
A Dublin Carol is now completely sold out.
The kind folks at The Trinity Rep have forwarded a great interview with Billy regarding the play. Screencaps are also in The Gallery. Thank you so much for sharing with us 🙂 We’ve having a bit of trouble with the clip at the moment, but will have it up online as soon as we can.
Also the Boston Globe interview below had some fantastic photos of Billy in rehearsals.
You can view the rest of these c/o Velocityofsound at Best Kept Secret until we receive a copy of the paper. Thank you 🙂
November 26th 2006
We have received many, many emails over the past few weeks asking if Billy has re-signed for Season 8. Unfortunately, we have been asked not to comment on this at this time. We apologise.
Living Legend screencaps are now in The Gallery.
One of the first “tech” rehearsals for A Dublin Carol is scheduled for today.
The Boston Globe has an article up in regards to Billy’s return to theatre. The Providence Journal also has a great interview with Billy.
When William Petersen, star of CBS’ C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation series, got a call from his old friend Curt Columbus asking him to drop everything and come to Providence, Petersen knew he had to.
“I went to CBS and told them I just had to do it,” said Petersen, during a break before rehearsal for Dublin Carol, the other Christmas tale gracing Trinity stages this holiday season. The show opens Thursday.
“I didn’t know he had taken over Trinity. I’m proud of him. I said, ‘God, I’d love to do this for him.’ “
For the next five weeks, Petersen, who on television plays crime scene investigator Dr. Gil Grissom, will be playing alcoholic funeral parlor worker John Plunkett in Conor McPherson’s tale of Christmas redemption.
Tackling Dublin Carol has been a big change for someone who has not been on stage in eight years.
Petersen, dressed in jeans and a football T-shirt, took time out the other day to talk about his work at Trinity, how challenging it has been.
In television, Petersen said, you learn things in snippets. For Dublin Carol, he has had to walk around with an 80-page script in his head. It’s using a “completely different muscle,” he said.
Petersen said he’s been a little freaked out by the experience, and feels like he’s starting all over again, like a 20-year-old doing his first Equity play.
The show’s director, Amy Morton, from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, told him that stage work is like riding a bike. You never forget how.
Said Petersen, 53, “It’s more like dragging a boulder up the Matterhorn.
“It’s tougher than I thought it would be,” he said of his return to the stage. Although he did seem to be slowly getting used to it.
Studying mosquitoes
Because of holiday breaks and the short run of Dublin Carol, Petersen will only miss a couple of episodes of CSI, which airs Thursday nights. The script writers have sent him on sabbatical to study mosquito life at Walden Pond.
Peterson said he had hoped to bring along a camera crew to shoot footage of Walden and of him lecturing students at Brown, as though he were leading a biology class. But the demands of CSI are such that that was impossible, he said.
“We’re so crammed for the show,” he said. “It eats up the whole day,” leaving no time for excursions to Providence.
Petersen has known Columbus, Trinity’s new artistic director, for about two decades, ever since Columbus crashed at a Chicago apartment Petersen lent to a nephew. A friend of Columbus’ at Yale knew the nephew and hooked them up.
Petersen was out on the West Coast shooting a film at the time. He returned to find this “theater nerd” someone one who was “smart, a nice guy.”
Petersen introduced him to the Remains Theater Ensemble, where Columbus became an intern and got his start.
By then, Petersen had a solid foothold in the Chicago theater scene, largely from playing Jack Abbott in Adrian Hall’s adaptation of In the Belly of the Beast.
“I was 30 at the time and wondering if I should be an actor, a director or just quit,” said Petersen. “And this was it. Belly had a profound impact.”
Belly led to more stage work and then film, to a small part in Thief, and To Live and Die in L.A. and Manhunter (the prequel to Silence of the Lambs, later remade as Red Dragon.).
Petersen wanted so much to rid himself of Manhunter’s Will Graham that he shaved his beard and dyed his hair blonde.
20 million fans
Petersen joined CSI seven years and 152 episodes ago, which means he has not done theater since. That’s why this stint at Trinity is so important to him, to see if he still has the chops.
“There are a lot of guys who grew up in theater and went on to movies and never went back to the stage,” he said. “Part of doing TV was to get myself in a place where I could do stage.
“So I thought I better start doing it and not get caught in the corporate money grab that is Hollywood.”
In fact, Petersen was talking about the time he will leave CSI. He has one more year on his contract, and as the star and a producer has made enough to coast for quite a while. But he wants to leave when the time is right: right for the show, for his co-workers and the more than 20 million fans.
“A job like this in Hollywood comes along once in a lifetime,” he said. “I don’t want it to sound like sour grapes. It’s really about managing your soul. That’s what it’s about in Hollywood.”
Bury them naked
In CSI, Petersen plays the head of a crime lab that solves murders by piecing together the most minute bits of forensic evidence. The show has become increasingly graphic to the point of being grisly. But none of this gets to Petersen, who is just as cool off-set as he is on.
He said he’ll go out for lunch while shooting a scene of a corpse and forget the actor is still alive.
“Mostly I feel bad for actors playing dead people. We put bugs on them and bury them naked in the sand.”
Once CSI is behind him, Petersen sees himself back in Chicago, where he got his start.
Petersen grew up in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, and dropped out of high school to live with a brother in Idaho. He was caught up in the tumult of the late 1960s, the Vietnam War, Kent State and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Petersen went on to finish high school in Idaho and to enter Idaho State University. He had hoped to play football, but his grades from high school were so spotty, he needed courses to pull up his average. He signed up for theater, and quickly took to the stage.
He spent his second year of college in Spain, taking part in a Hamlet held in a small church in Basque country. Petersen got married to his first wife that year and had their first child, Maite, a daughter born the day the Vietnam War ended. Maite, who is now in her early 30s, teaches preschool and has a 3-year-old daughter.
Petersen, who got married three years ago to his longtime girlfriend, came back to Chicago, kicked around for a while and started his own company, Remains. He also worked at Steppenwolf, where Columbus would later become associate director.
A fairly dark play
For his first foray back onto the stage, Petersen has picked a fairly dark play. He called Dublin Carol a “little Christmas ditty about alcoholism, death and divorce.”
In it, he plays an alcoholic who has been given a job in a funeral home. It is Christmas Eve and the owner is in the hospital when Petersen’s estranged daughter (Rachael Warren) shows up to say that his character’s ex-wife is in the hospital dying of cancer. She wants him to visit her.
Petersen said McPherson does not spell out the ending, but there is a redemptive ring to the show.
“I have never read anything associated with Christmas of this ilk,” he said.
Dublin Carol opens in previews Thursday and runs through Jan. 7 at Trinity Rep, 201 Washington St., Providence. Tickets are $20 to $60. Call (401) 351-4242 or visitwww.trinityrep.com.
“There are a lot of guys who grew up in theater and went on to movies and never went back to the stage.
Part of doing TV was to get myself in a place where I could do stage.”
November 19th 2006
Firstly, GO BEARS! 🙂
Billy (albeit very briefly) and Co were on the Early Show again Thursday morning. To read the interview and view the video click here .
Happenstance screencaps are in The Gallery, along with screenscaps from the Extras section of the new CSI Season 6 DVD which was released this week.
Finally, we’ve put up a translation to the Austrian TV Guide Mag also in The Gallery.
November 11th 2006
Billy was on The Early Show briefly yesterday morning talking about the “mini crime scenes” on CSI, screencaps and a clip are available.
Post Mortem screencaps are also now in The Gallery.
We have added an article to The Gallery c/o Chromy at YTDAW (thanks) from an Austrian mag, we’ll be adding a translation for everyone shortly.
We’ve added a Miscellaneous Section to the site. We have moved our Fan Meets to this section and have also created a section for Fan Reviews for anyone wanting to share their experiences of seeing A Dublin Carol with us, we would love to hear from you.
Our Links section has been updated with a few great sites.
Finally, the first rehearsal for A Dublin Carol was yesterday 🙂 and as above, if anyone is looking for tickets for New Year’s Eve, please contact us and we’ll forward you on to one of our visitors who has some spare.
November 5th 2006
Burnout screencaps and 4 new promos are now up in The Gallery.
November 1st 2006
Billy and the rest of the CSI cast attended an event held by The Museum of Television & Radio on Monday night honoring Leslie Moonves and Jerry Bruckheimer. We have photos from the event at The Gallery, and will be adding more over the next few days.
Finally, as you can see from our note above, the petition to make the request to Inside the Actors Studio is now closed, we would like to thank everyone for signing and we’ll starting sending the petition off to the relevant people. Thank you once again to everyone who took the time to sign.
Tickets for A Dublin Carol are selling out fast, with only a few tickets left on those days that aren’t sold out completely, so if you haven’t got your ticket, you better do so fast.
The Trinity Rep has also kindly asked us to remind people that the “no picture taking” rule during the performance will be strictly enforced by house management (and yes, even camera phones.) Please do not get yourselves thrown out of the building!
As performances are starting at the end of the month, we would love to hear from you if you are attending the play, tell us what you thought of it, we’ll be creating a “fan review” section, so please share your thoughts and experiences with us 🙂
October 30th 2006
Have added several things to The Gallery, 2 new CSI promos from Season 3 (Abra Cadaver), 5 new CSI Promos from the upcoming episode Burnout, an article from TV Guide and finally, some scans from the new book, Ultimate CSI Guide which you can purchase here in the USor here in the UK (free shipping) and of course Amazon.co.uk.
2nd update – Just added the latest TV Guide article and thank you to IDM for the banner at The Gallery 😉
October 22nd 2006
The Chicago Sun Times reported Billy and Gina were seen eating at Pier 5736, a popular seafood restaurant in Chicago. He was having the “catfish” 🙂
Double Cross screencaps are now in The Gallery. There is no new episode next week, a repeat of Dog Eat Dog.
October 18th 2006
A few articles online regarding the Victory Gardens Gala can be found online. Relic of Chicago’s Bloody Past Gets A Modern Rewrite, A Victory for Biograph and finally Famed Biograph Theater Set To Re-Open This Weekend.
Also wanted to thank everyone for sharing their stories from the weekend of meeting Billy, thank you to you all 🙂
Some more theatre news, Billy is due to start rehearsals for A Dublin Carol the second week of November.
For those who will be attending the Play, after every performance the Trinity Rep are providing 20 minute “talkback” sessions for people to come together and discuss the play. The actors WILL NOT be in attendence, but it will give some the opportunity to meet fellow fans.
As we receive many emails daily sometimes it takes us a while to respond, so for ease we have created a FAQ page to hopefully help you find the answer quicker. Some of you who have emailed us recently and not heard back may find the answer you are looking for here, and even if you haven’t you might be curious anyway 🙂
The Inside the Actor’s Studio Petition (mentioned at the top of the newspage) will finish at the end of October, so if you haven’t signed it yet, please do 🙂
October 15th 2006
Billy was in attendance at the Victory Gardens Gala last night, he was Honorary Chair for the event. To view the invitation, view this pdf.
Added several things to The Gallery this week, two photos from 1986 in NY c/o B . (thanks), a photo from Channel 5 advertising, magazine articles from TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly and Fannysmackin caps. Click on Last Uploads to view.
Lastly, thank you once again to Idreamedmusic for a wonderful WPAP logo 😉
October 7th 2006
Billy was on ET this past Thursday, we have now have the clip available.
There was also an online interview at etonline.com
CSI : Chainsaw Massacre
Things get gorier and grittier than normal for the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” team on tonight’s episode, as they take on a case where two neighbors whose encounter with a chainsaw ends badly! Our KEVIN FRAZIER is on the set to get the horrifically entertaining details!
“Yeah, we’re staring into the garage of blood and carnage,” star WILLIAM PETERSEN says.
But the actor says that’s what keeps the millions of viewers coming back. “Every week we go into a new thing and it’s always weird and it’s always horrible, and it always makes for pretty interesting television,” he says.
Co-star JORJA FOX says that after seven seasons on the show, she still can’t get a grip on the bloody sets and props.
“I always think, ‘I’m used to this,'” she confesses. “I read the script and I knew it was going to be bad. We had lunch, it was my first scene, and I walked into the lab and it was covered in blood over all the personal items. It was horrible. It’s terrible!”
Meanwhile, Grissom (Petersen) leads a group of college students on a tour of the CSI headquarters and the dead “speak” while the gang investigates, each narrating their own case. DAVID EIGENBERG of “Sex and the City” fame stars in the thrilling episode as a deceased victim’s husband.
To watch the online interview please visit this link
Toe Tags screenscaps are now in The Gallery.
October 6th 2006
Several updates to The Gallery , 6 more CSI Season 7 promos, a small article in this weeks TV Guide and finally a photo added to this year’s Emmy Album of Billy and Dennis Haysbert.
October 4th 2006
We have created an “exclusive” album at The Gallery today and added 14 wonderful and rare theatre photographs of Billy c/o the very talented and generous Ms Lisa Ebright, who has had the opportunity to photograph Billy on stage in several productions over the years and kindly shared some of her photos with The WPAP. Thank you so much Lisa! We hope to be adding more of these fantastic photos in the near future, so watch this space.
October 1st 2006
We now have confirmation that full credit for the French TV Guide article goes to “Sam Spider” for scanning, thank you.
We have also added a clip of last Thursday’s Entertainment Tonight, which you can find here.
September 30th 2006
First off, a big thank you to Idreamedmusic for creating our new display image on our main page. A new logo is also being worked on. Thank you very much 🙂
Billy was on the Early Show Friday morning. A small article and video is available online. click here to watch the interview
Billy was also on Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, we will have screencaps and a clip up shortly.
Built to Kill Pt 2 screencaps will be in The Gallery in a couple of hours.
An article has been sent to us by many from the French TV Guide, unfortunately I don’t know the original source of who scanned it, so please feel free to drop us an email and we’ll give you full credit.
Roughly translated it says, whilst Billy and Gina were on a romantic break away to Paris, they ate at Matire Pierre, stayed at George V Hotel (Four Seasons), and after 130 episodes, Billy would like to “recover a little freedom”.
We’ve been asked if we plan on putting any more photos from their Paris trip in The Gallery, at this time we have decided not to for various reasons, apologies.
We have also been inundated with emails asking if Billy has re-signed for Season 8, unfortunately we don’t have time to respond to everyone, so will put up our answer here.
Despite what many “entertainment websites” are stating, and unless anything has happened this week, Billy has not re-signed for Season 8 at the moment, this does not mean he will not, as there are various factors that will determine whether he stays or not. This is all the information we have right now, but as soon as we hear anything, we’ll keep everyone updated. Either way, CBS will more than likely make an announcement.
September 23rd 2006
Screencaps and a clip are available for Friday’s Early Show segment.
We’ve also added an article to The Gallery from Time Magazine, February 1986 entitledSecond City, but First Love – Chicago’s vital theater scene brings back its proven stars.
September 22nd 2006
We’ve added a clip of Wednesday’s ET and screencaps are in The Gallery.
Screencaps from Built to Kill Part 1 will be at The Gallery shortly.
Billy and co were also on The Early Show again today, we’ll have a clip and caps up soon.
We’ve also added a new Album in the Gallery. Any online interviews we come across that are worth keeping, we’ll PDF them and store them there. The two recent online interviews from TV Guide and the Chicago Tribune have been added.
Several articles online (all pretty much saying the same thing) over the past couple of days about Billy leaving CSI to return to theatre.
We have received some news regarding the Victory Gardens Theatre move to the Biograph Theatre in Chicago and the Gala, Billy is due to attend (he’s been an Associate Artist with Victory Gardens since 1998). If anyone is interested in attending or donating, the information is as follows (sounds like a great evening!)
The Biograph Opening Gala Celebration: “As Time Goes By”
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Join the friends and supporters of Victory Gardens Theater as we gather under the stars to celebrate the Grande Re-Opening of the Biograph in high style. A week of community activities will culminate on Saturday, October 14th with an elegant evening designed to pay homage to the 1920s heyday of the Biograph Theater, while toasting the exciting future of Victory Gardens.
Touch up your flapper bob, hop in your Model T and cruise over to the joint to raise a glass of giggle water in honor of Victory Gardens!
4:00 p.m.
Gala Performance of Denmark by Playwrights Ensemble member Charles Smith
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
2433 North Lincoln Avenue
7:00 p.m.
Cocktails, Dinner and Dancing
Jonquil Park
Corner of Lincoln, Wrightwood and Sheffield Avenues
Theatrical Black Tie
(1920s or other creative attire encouraged)
Tickets for this once-in-a-lifetime celebration are available at $500 (performance and dinner) or $350 (dinner only). Sponsor level tickets are available for $1,000. A portion of each ticket purchase is a tax-deductible (and much appreciated!) contribution to Victory Gardens Theater.
For more information or your official invitation to this event, please contact Kate Oczkowski, Director of Events and Individual Giving, at 773.549.5788 ext. 2140 or koczkowski@victorygardens.org.
September 20th 2006
Another little update, we’ve added the Early Show clip which you can find here , screencaps to follow today as well.
The Chicago Tribune has a great in-depth interview with Billy (including some great photos) (thanks Wendy 😉
Bound for home: Chicago’s William Petersen looks beyond ‘CSI’ to a return to the stage
We will also be adding to The Gallery shortly the lastest TV Guide, with Billy on the cover.
CBS.com has today’s Early Show article and video clip online ‘CSI’ Investigates Las Vegas – Hit Show Takes On A Cirque De Soleil Murder
Finally, I’m sure you won’t forget, the new season of CSI starts tomorrow on CBS 😉
September 19th 2006
The Gallery is back up and running (we hope), we’ve added two new photos from the Michael Douglas and Friends Golf event in 2005. You may notice an extra watermark on them, from now on any of our exclusive photos will have this extra watermark, that doesn’t mean all photos will have them, just a choice few. We hope you can appreciate our reasons for doing this.
More updates over the next couple of days.
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We are updating the Gallery at the moment, so anyone trying to view the page will get an error message, hope to have it sorted ASAP.
September 13th 2006
We’ve added three Season 7 promos from the episode Built to Kill Pt 2 to The Gallery
September 12th 2006
We’ve added a couple of things to The Gallery over the past few days, two photos c/o Channel 5, and an article from next weeks TV Guide.
Broadway World has an interview with Artistic Director for The Trinity Rep, Curt Colombus. It mentions Billy briefly.
RR: You are pulling a marquee name [William Petersen ] for A Dublin Carol. It is quite a coup for you in your first season.
CC: I am not unaware and I am not going to sit here and pretend that I didn’t think about that, but the great gift is that Billy Petersen and Amy Morton, who is directing, were boyfriend and girlfriend when I moved to Chicago. I fell in love with them both so hard, when I was 21. They were the people that I wanted to be when I grew up. It turns out, I grew up, and I am able to say to these people that I revere and respect like you can’t imagine, “Do you want to come work at my theater?” And they said, “Yes.” That’s the gift…Of course; I will keep trying to bring people in to generate interest. They will be people with whom my actors should be working. [I hope] the combination of these actors and those actors will create something special and new.
RR: I have to think it is also exciting to be 41 with the people you were 21 with; you don’t always get to do that.
CC: I know, I know. That is what I am trying to make sure everyone understands. This is the hugest gift that I actually get to say “thank you” to the folks who made it possible for me to still be in this business…. that I have this opportunity. I am thrilled.
Click the link to read the full article, An Interview with Trinity Rep’s Curt Colombus
September 6th 2006
Huge upload to the Gallery today, we’ve caught up on our CSI Promos from Season 4-6 c/o CBS Press, we’ll try and keep on top of them this season. Most of these have been posted on various sites already, but there may be a few in there you haven’t seen, so take a peek 🙂
Our General Billy Gallery 2 has been cleared up a bit with most photos moved into their correct folders.
Our Paparazzi section has also been updated more photos from Children’s Alliance Event 2004, PCA’s 2006 and finally the event in Hancock Park in 2005.
Because we’ve added alot we suggest you click on LAST UPLOADS to see the new additions.
Would like to send a thank you to the Mods at blacktie-affair for giving The WPAP their own thread on their messageboard 😉
Finally, The WPAP has some spare tickets for A Dublin Carol on December 14th (evening show). If any of our visitors are interested, email us and will give you full details.
September 4th 2006
We’ve finally added some Season 7 promos to The Gallery, please note these are med-res, hi-res ones are out there, and we’d be happy to point anyone in the direction of them 😉
September 3rd 2006
CBS has released another promo at youtube.com, this one is great, I’ve already found myself singing it 🙂
September 1st 2006
We have received an update from our good friends at The Trinity Rep . They are holding an Auction next week at their Stage Door Soiree event.
Visit the set of the hit series CSI
Go behind the scenes of the hottest show on television, spending a day on the set with the cast and crew of the original CSI. Star William Petersen will welcome you to spend a day watching how the show gets made in intimate detail. Wearing headsets in special seats behind the director, you will be engaged in every aspect of filming scenes for an episode of CSI. Your trip to Los Angeles will be rounded out by a visit to the nationally acclaimed Mark Taper Forum Theater.
- round trip airfare for 2 from Providence to Los Angeles, compliments of Southwest Airlines.
- a private tour of the show’s soundstage and special directors chairs behind the camera
- lunch on the set with the cast and crew
- 2 tickets to the Taper’s production at the time.
**Note: Due to the shooting schedule of CSI, arrangements will not be available months in advance and will be at the discretion of CBS Studios. Please check with an auction representative for details.
Click here for further information regarding the event and auction. Please note you have to be attendence to bid.
If any of our visitors plan on going, would love to hear from you 😉
August 31st 2006
CBS has aired a promo on youtube.com of John Mayer’s single Waiting on the World to Change, with clips from the CSI Season 7 opener, Built to Kill, which airs on CBS 21st September.
Click here to view the video. Thanks to everyone who sent us the link, much appreciated.
August 30th 2006
We have added a clip and screencaps from Monday’s ET.
We’ll probably be adding to our Gallery over the next few days as pix become available.
August 28th 2006
We have now added a clip and screencaps from last nights Emmys.
Billy presented at the Emmy’s last night and we have added several photos to our Gallery.
We also have a couple of Season 7 photos c/o Butterflied777, who saw this billboard on Sunset Blvd in LA, THANKS 🙂
August 20th 2006
Updated to say, phew you guys and gals are going to keep me busy haha, I have to approve all signatures with comments, if they don’t show up straight away, they will eventually, I promise 🙂
The ladies of The WPAP and several others have been chatting recently how great it would be for Billy to appear on Bravo’s – Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton.
With the amount of experience Billy has in theatre, film and television we want to put a request in to the show for them to invite him on because we think it would be very interesting and enjoyable for all those involved. We thought the best way forward with this was to get his fans to sign their names on an “online petition” to submit to the channel showing just how popular it would be. With that, we’ve created a petition online for everyone to start signing 🙂
Online Petition for Inside the Actor’s Studio Request – William Petersen
We’ve also been adding a few of our older articles into The Gallery , more to follow soon.
August 18th 2006
We have added a couple of photos of Billy from his early theatre days in The Gallery.
CBS have been airing a promo for the new season and here is a screencap from it 😉 We think it’s new because he looks like he’s wearing his Gris vest, and he didn’t get that until Season 4 😉 We hope to have the clip up tomorrow 😉 OK LIED, here it is 🙂
August 13th 2006
A Dublin Carol tickets are officially on sale TODAY. Follow the link to book your tickets online or alternatively phone the box office on 401 351 4253.
Trinity Rep also has some information regarding the play and the cast and crew up at their website.
We have added a couple of things to The Gallery, a great drawing which Theresa Luceykindly shared with us, thank you very much 🙂 Also a recent promo in Entertainment Weekly magazine for Season 7.
August 11th 2006
Billy has been announced as one of the presenters as this year’s Emmy Awards, which are taking place at the Shine Auditorium, August 27th. It will be shown on NBC.
August 7th 2006
The Las Vegas Review Journal reports the following about the upcoming location shoot to Vegas.
Cirque du “CSI”: Starting Sunday, the MGM Grand theater that “Ka” calls home hosts “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
The first day’s shoot will concentrate on the Cirque du Soleil production’s battlefield segment — in which the stage tilts vertically.
“CSI” regulars William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger and George Eads are expected in town Aug. 14-16 for additional location work at the MGM Grand, notes producer Louis Milito.
August 6th 2006
Photos have been added of Billy and Gina (from March) of the Cast of CSI Cooking Class took with Jill Prescott , thanks to members at YTDAW for posting the link 😉
August 5th 2006
We have added a couple of articles to The Gallery from TV Guide from last month and also uploaded a few photos from the CBS Upfront Party in 2001 which we hadn’t realised we’re in the Gallery.
A couple of articles online ‘CSI’ adds love story as competition nears and the Las Vegas Review Journal has an article up about the upcoming Vegas filming, CSI planning to shoot at KA Theatre
Some more theater news regarding Billy’s upcoming play, A Dublin Carol, as reported earlier Rachael Warren is playing along side Billy (“John”) in the play in the role of “Mary”, the part of the character “Mark” has now been cast to Danny Mefford. For further information check out the Trinity Rep website.
To answer a couple of questions we’ve received this past week…
Regarding the promo shots from the last scene of the finale – we don’t have full size images of the two promo shots just yet. CBS Promos cost in the region of $100+ each and unfortunately The WPAP does not have an endless supply of money to purchase everything, we would like to, but we don’t want to upset our Bank Manager 🙂 we will try and do our best though 🙂
Also received plenty of emails regarding Billy and his beard. From what we understand Billy will be clean shaven at the start of new season and as soon as any photos become available, we’ll put them up for everyone. I know there are many out there who are upset by that (and several who are happy it’s gone) but ya never know, he may grow it back in the future 🙂
July 23rd 2006
Sorry for the lack of updates past couple of weeks, I was away on vacation, so a bit behind on everything, so will be catching up with updates and the many emails we received over the next few days.
To answer a question we get a lot and to save time replying to everyone individually, we cannot supply signed autographs of Billy, however, if you would like this, we recommend you write to the address on our home page, and we recommend you enclose the photo you would like signed and self addressed stamped envelope to quicken the process up, sometimes it takes a few attempts and can take a while (think of all the fanmail he receives) to come back, but it’s worth the wait 😉
A few online articles, The Chicago Tribune has an article, It’s about time CSI got personal, letting us know how CSI plan to go with the characters of Grissom and Sara for season 7.
“Part of what we were doing with Grissom and Sara being together is, here’s a guy who for the first time in maybe his life is reaching out to another human being,” he noted. “This is a very guarded and private person. It’s even difficult to say what was the interaction with [recurring character] Lady Heather — you could make the argument that it was more academic and intellectual than physical. But here is something that he is doing that is uncharacteristic”.
CSI Gets Personal, a few comments from Jorja Fox about working with Billy 😉 which she answered at the TCA Press Tour last week. Billy was not in attendance.
There’s a million reasons to love it as an actor, to tell the truth. I love working with Billy [Petersen]. Obviously, the first two seasons we worked a lot together. I actually couldn’t stand him for the first few months we worked together. And he knows that, so I can tell you that. And I really thought, ‘How am going to make it through this show? I don’t even like this guy.’ And something happened right around December, where we pushed through something. I don’t think he liked me that much either, to be perfectly honest. And all of a sudden we found this rhythm and this place. So it’s really exciting to get to take it on.”
And another article at Eurweb
And last but not least, CBS held a session for television’s highest-rated drama, “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which will go head to head against ABC’s powerhouse series “Grey’s Anatomy” in its switch from 10 p.m. Sundays to 9 p.m. Thursdays next season. Critics were caught off guard when CBS chief Nina Tassler said “CSI” would be an “underdog” when it faces ABC’s popular medical drama.
“We expect to be dinged by ‘Grey’s’ a little bit,” Tassler said, despite “CSI” finishing last season as the No. 1-rated drama on TV with an average of 25.2 million viewers each week – which puts them at about 5 million better than ‘Grey’s’ season average of 19.9 million per week.
“CSI” executive producers Naren Shankar and Carol Mendelsohn said the writers have had “raging debates” about the relationship between Jorja Fox’s character Sara Sidle and her supervisor Gil Grissom, played by William Peterson. In the season-ending cliffhanger, the two were exposed as secret lovers.
“The [writers] room is fairly divided and has been over the seasons,” Mendelsohn said of their pre-Las Vegas relationship when both were in San Francisco. “I happen to think that they were intimate in San Francisco, but not intimate once they got to Las Vegas, at least in the beginning. And since I’m the show runner, you know, I won the debate.”
Shankar chimed in: “There’s a fair amount of debate that goes on any time we do one of these moments between Grissom and Sara. One of our writers, Sara Goldfinger, every time there’s even a hint of any kind of romantic involvement, she puts a big heart around the board. She loves that. There are other people in the room that think we should kind of keep it at a distance. But six seasons into the show, it was a very organic and very – I think a well deserved end to the season for the fans.”
Jorja Fox says of her storyline: “The idea right now going into season seven, if I’m not mistaken, is that Grissom and Sara are the only people, and the beautiful audience, that know this is actually taking place.”
As for Tassler calling “CSI” an underdog against “Grey’s Anatomy” in the fall, Mendelsohn said: “We think that two great shows, two quality shows, can exist in a time period. It’s like two really great football teams. You know, the Washington Redskins want to play the Dallas Cowboys, it’s exciting. …I met [‘Grey’s Anatomy’ creator] Shonda Rhimes the other day for the first time. I love her show. I talk about it on Mondays. Now, I told her, I’ll talk about it on Fridays.”
Some play news, Rachael Warren, a Trinity regular is scheduled to be playing Billy’s character’s daughter in A Dublin Carol.
Finally for this update, fancy “A day on the set of the hit CBS show ‘C.S.I.’ hosted by star William Petersen”?
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Oregon Chapter in conjunction with the 2006 Platt Golf Challenge are auctioning the following items:
A pair of ‘Dugout Seats’ for a Red Sox home game at Fenway Park in 2007
Golf for 4 at Bandon Dunes with transportation by private jet
Four tickets for Seahawks/Rams game at Qwest Field followed by a meet and greet with Grant Wistrom
Golf for 3 at Pumpkin Ridge with Bob Gilder
Walk the Red Carpet at the 2006 Emmy Awards (for 2).
Courtside tickets for 2 for Lakers or Clippers in LA
A trip for 2 to NASCAR race in Phoenix including meet and greet with Dewalt Team driver Matt Kenseth
A day on the set of the hit CBS show ‘C.S.I.’ hosted by star William Petersen
Four 5th row box seats for the Mariners/Red Sox game in Seattle on August 27 including a visit to the field.
Jack Nicklaus commemorative Scottish Bank Notes autographed by the PGA legend.
Hotel, tickets, and a meet for 2 at the Las Vegas Hilton for Barry Manilow.
Front row (side) tickets for the Dixie Chicks at the Rose Garden in Portland
Four great seats to a 2007 Dodgers or Angels game in the LA area, including dinner and hotel.
Two 50 yard line seats at Foxboro, MA for the November 5, 2006 Patriots/Colts game.
Autographed Muhammad Ali Boxing Gloves
Behind the Scenes at ESPN
Ken Griffey Jr Minor League Rookie baseball card
A game used bat autographed by Red Sox Slugger David Ortiz
A Manny Ramirez game used bat
Lineup cards:
- Yankees signed by Joe Torre
- Nationals signed by Frank Robinson
- White Sox signed by Ozzie Guillen
- Red Sox signed by Terry Francona
A 1997 Masters visor autographed by Tiger Woods
Arnold Palmer signed ‘Benson and Hedges’ visor
Jack Nicklaus signed Titleist visor
Masters Champions visor signed by Singh, Mikkelson, Olazabal and Weir
For further information regarding the event please visit Platt.com and to bid for the CSI Visitplease visit this website,auction ends August 16th 2006. As the website states after the online close, this item will be going to a Live Event for further bidding.
July 3rd 2006
We’ve added 4 more photos from the People’s Choice Awards 2006 to The Gallery.
The Texarkana Gazette has an interesting article Hair-raising story: Gray, gray, go away? Or stay?
Many a woman swoons over a gray haired man, commonly known as a silver fox.
Paul Newman, John O’Hurley, Mark Harmon, William Petersen, Barry Bostwick, Alan Alda, Sean Connery, James Brolin, Morgan Freeman, George Clooney and Anderson Cooper are prime celebrity examples gray is all good.
July 1st 2006
We have added several photos to the Gallery over the past week or so, some larger photos of Billy and Gina in Santa Monica back in 2004, and several to the General Billy Gallery.
Variety reports Billy as one of the Emmy Dark Horses
William Petersen
Show: “CSI”
Why: Hard to believe Petersen, on the most watched scripted show on TV, could be considered an underdog, but he’s never been nominated. Even if you’re not a fan of procedurals, it’s tough to dismiss what he brings to the success of the show.
An update on the Trinity Rep Website reports tickets for Billy’s Play – A Dublin Carol will go on sale on 13th August 2006. Tickets via subscriptions and groups are available now.
The Defamer states Billy was spotted “clean shaven” in Peet’s Coffee, in quite an insulting article we thought to all mentioned.
peet’s coffee in larchmont, none other than bug-loving crime scene shamus william l. petersen (grissom on CSI) accompanied by an attractive woman at least 2 decades his junior (and a lot less butch than jorja fox). don’t recall what they ordered, but clean-shaven bill kept his sunglasses on the whole time. his walk was just as bowlegged as it appears on tv, but maybe he had some work done this hiatus (got the number of somebody good from marg helgenberger?), but his notorious neck fat looked noticably reduced. seemed annoyed to be anywhere in public, although i didn’t see anyone approaching him…
Finally, ever wondered what a Billy tattoo would look like, one of our visitors has kindly shared her recent tattoo with us.
June 14th 2006
The WPAP would like to wish Billy and Gina a happy 3rd Anniversary today 😉
We´ve added a few things to The Gallery over the past week, some articles from TV Guide, Billy´s Emmy Ad what is appearing in various entertainment magazines at the moment and an advert in USA TODAY regarding the CSI finale, thanks IDM 😉
June 4th 2006
We´ve added a couple of things to The Gallery over the past week, a photo of Billy from“Fool for Love”, a Sam Shepard play he performed in back in the early 1980´s. Also the article “CSI : A-Z” from CBS´ Watch Magazine, where Billy and the rest of the CSI cast are on the cover of the Spring Issue.
We´ve also added the ET Clip which aired in the US on Thursday, plus we have a fewscreencaps.
May 26th 2006
First off, thank you for all the birthday wishes sent yesterday 😉 very much appreciated.
The Chicago Tribune´s entertainment web blog, The Watcher has an interview up with Carol Mendelsohn, giving a good insight into this season´s finale and the character of Grissom.
You talked about consulting with Billy on that scene. Has there been a desire on his part to show more of who Grissom is, show more of his personal life?
“After the hiatus, you should get in touch with Billy, he will definitely have insights on that. When Naren Shankar, the co-showrunner, and I went to Billy and said we would like to do this, he got so excited. I think it felt natural for him. It felt natural for Grissom to be going to this place. And Billy enjoyed the idea of portraying a mature, adult relationship. It’s not people falling into bed. It’s real life. He was excited, excited down to, he picked the shirt he wore. Billy and Jorja were really excited about it”.
Click here to read the full article.
We´ve added a few more CSI promos to the Gallery, and want to give a special thanks to Kerstin for sharing the Grave Danger and 4×4 promos 🙂 We´re a bit behind on our promos, but we´ll catch up soon, I promise. In the meantime, you can see many CSI promos at Shane´s site – Modern Day Sherlock.
We´ve put a few more of our older articles up from the years 2003-2004, we´re getting there, slowly 😉
Even though CSI may be on haitus, please check back with us over the summer as we have plenty of Billy related things to share with you over the next few months.
Congratulations to you all for reaching 1,000,000 + views at our Gallery in a little over six months 🙂
May 21st 2006
Added some older promos from Seasons 3-5 c/o Scripps Howard to The Gallery . Along with some larger versions of 4 of our older photos to our General Billy Gallery.
Way to Go screencaps are now in The Gallery.
We would like to confirm that tickets for A Dublin Carol are available to Subcription Holders only at the moment. Tickets for everyone else we be available in the Fall, as promised we will keep you updated.
We get many emails daily asking for autographs, and apologies if we haven´t gotten around to emailing everyone back. Unfortunately we cannot supply these for you, but the address on our HOME page is where you can write to Billy. We do suggest that for a quicker response enclose a photo you would like signed and a self stamped addressed envelope. Sometimes it takes more than one attempt and a bit of patience (he receives hundreds of letters so it may take a while to get to yours), but it´ll be worth it in the end 😉
Still haven´t had a chance to get the rest of the Articles online yet, but we promise, we will eventually 🙂
May 19th 2006
Billy was once again on The Early Show this morning discussing last night´s CSI Finale. To view the article and watch the interview visit The Early Show website
Some of our visitors have mentioned they would like to “donate” to us, we have never had the facility before, so have put this up as well. Please don´t feel you have to, but this is there for those that want to as some have asked. All monies donated will be put towards providing our visitors with the best photos and news we can offer 🙂
We will have screencaps of the finale up tomorrow 😉
May 17th 2006
Just to let you all know that some tickets are available through subscriptions with Trinity Rep, if you want these you have to be quick 😉 If anyone is going, let us know, we would love to hear from you 🙂
Also check out Sejla´s Billy site, full of lots of video clips.
May 13th 2006
We have added one photo to the general photo gallery , as well as screencaps from Bang Bang.
May 12th 2006
Look for Billy to be back in theatre over the Christmas period. He´ll be appearing in “A Dublin Carol” from December 1st through to January 7th 2007 at the Trinity Repertory Company, in Providence, RI. Read this article for further information and here at the Trinity Repertory website. Despite what websites say TICKETS ARE NOT AVAILABLE YET, we will post when they are 😉 Thank you to the Trinity Repertory for sharing this info 😉
May 11th 2006
Billy and the rest of the CSI cast were on The Early Show this morning. A clip and an article can be found here
May 9th 2006
Billy is an honorary member of Committee for the 13th annual Uncork A Wish Wine Tasting and Auction, which is raising funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This is taking place Saturday, May 13, 2006 inside Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood beginning at 6:30 p.m., with the live auction slated for 9 p.m. Click here for further information regarding the event.
We´ve also added a few new photos to The Gallery.
Channel 5 in the UK have some interesting CSI Cast interviews up, no Billy unfortunately, but an interesting read just the same.
Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sports websites briefly mentions Billy in this article (you may need to register but it´s free)
William Peterson
Knew his wife Gina, before she was his wife, when she worked as a bartender at a place called Hoghead’s on Fullerton near Greenview. She may not remember me though, since there were a lot of us gawkers who came just to watch her fabulous pouring style. A rumor appeared in a local paper a few years ago that I told William Peterson to stop cheering in the Wrigley press box, but to the best of my recollection, this is not true. Maybe Gina can talk her husband into doing it for old time’s sake. I’ll give this a 60 percent chance.
May 7th 2006
Time of your Death screencaps are up at The Gallery.
Also a small article online regarding a PETA Ad Jorja Fox has done where it´s mentioned that Billy is testing being a vegetarian. Check out the full article here
A new book out entitled Desperate Networks, written by Bill Carter, giving a look into the Television Network Industry mentions Billy a few times.
In 1998, William Petersen was asked to star in the TV series The Magnificent Seven. He said no, but there was a Western he did want to do, a remake of Have Gun, Will Travel. He later back out of that, but Moonves signed him to a deal anyway, and CSI later came along (ABC had turned down the show).
For more information regarding the book, click here to read a small article.
May 5th 2006
The WPAP would like to send their condolences to Billy and his family on the loss of his Mother.
We´ve received a few emails today (and have been told it´s been on many websites) regarding the issue of the online guestbooks available, and how upset people are that fans are signing it, so I thought I would bring this up here.
Even though Billy is in the public eye, his family is not, and even though these Guestbooks are there for all the public to see, they really are there for family and friends. Obviously no harm is intended by people wanting to sign these and offer their condolences to one of their favourite actors, but please be respectful of Billy and his family at this time, they are dealing with enough at the moment without fans upsetting them more, however unintentional it may be.
On a lighter note, Billy was again on the Early Show on Thursday. The CBS website has the details and video clip of the interview here. We will put a clip of it also shortly.
We will have some more updates this weekend 🙂
April 29th 2006
Billy and a few of the other CSI cast members where on the Early Show yesterday morning,screencaps and a video clip are available.
Rashomama screencaps are also up at The Gallery
April 27th 2006
Added a few more Art School Confidential photos to The Gallery .
Check out CBS.com where the producers of CSI have recommended “two killer episodes” for viewers. You can view both Billy and Marg´s great performances from the Bullet Runs Through It two parter at the bottom of the page.
April 25th 2006
Billy and his dog, Bruno are featured in a small article in the latest TV Guide which we have added to The Gallery.
We have also added 3 new photos to SAG 2005 Gallery and and 2 new photos to CSI Promo Gallery.
Our good friend Bugeater has sent us a larger version of the pic below from the Celebrity Waiter Dinner, Thanks 😉 and thank you to all who have sent us things this past week, much appreciated.
April 18th 2006
Look for Billy to be at the 8th Annual Michael Douglas & Friends Golf Tournament, which is being held May 7th at the Trump National Golf Club in LA. The event is to be televised June 10th on NBC. For further information regarding the event, and available tickets, please visit the official website for the event here and at The Auto Channel website.
April 15th 2006
Another online Santa Clarita magazine, The Signal has some more info regarding the Celebrity Waiter Dinner Billy attended, which can be found here.
CTV online has a clip up from the Etalk interview which can found here.
April 14th 2006
Poppin´ Tags screencaps are now at The Gallery
April 12th 2006
Photos from last nights “Art School Confidential” screening in LA have been added to The Gallery.
Also look for Billy and the rest of the CSI cast to be on ETalk, the Canadian entertainment show tomorrow. For further information click here.
There is also a small follow up article regarding the Celebrity Waiter event Billy attended in Santa Clarita last month, at this website
April 8th 2006
Screencaps from Spellbound are now up at The Gallery.
March 29th 2006
The Malta Independent has kindly sent us a copy of the “Elementary, my Dear Grissom”article, which can now be found in The Gallery, thanks Justin 🙂
March 27th 2006
We have added screencaps from A Current Affair, c/o Maria, thanks 🙂
March 26th 2006
Billy (and other members of the cast) were interviewed on the Australian – A Current Affairshow (thanks to members at YTDAW.ORG)
March 23rd 2006
Added a couple of things to The Gallery, publicity photo from Long Gone and a screencap of the main screen for the new CSI Game, 3 Dimensions of Murder.
March 22nd 2006
We have added an article from Fanfares – September 1984 to The Gallery.
March 21st 2006
We have added Cheryl & Rica´s trip to Chicago to our Fan Meets page. Thanks 😉
Screencaps and a video clip of the “March Madness” promo Billy did for CBS have been added. Thanks P 🙂
March 19th 2006
The Malta Independent Online has an article online – “Elementary, my dear Grissom”.
As you can see we´ve had a little change around at the top of the page, we´ve created a“Fan Meets” section. We come across a lot fans who have had the opportunity to meet Billy at times, and we thought it´s always enjoyable for other fans to read about it. So if you want to share you story with us, send us an email 😉 If you haven´t already, check outAnni & Joanne´s set visit in Fan Meets 🙂
We´ve also updated The Alliance for Children´s Rights Benefit, PCA´s 2006, MD Golf 2005and Santa Monica paparazzi albums in The Gallery with 6 new photos.
March 11th 2006
I like to Watch screencaps are now up at The Gallery.
Thank you to misskuaigon & Chegs74 for sending and translating an article from TV Sorrisi e Canzoni , the Italian TV Guide. To view the article click here, and to read the translation click here to view the PDF document 😉
March 8th 2006
Billy was on the cover of the February edition of The Magazine of Santa Clarita, and there is a small article online. Click the photo below to read it.
March 7th 2006
Screencaps and a clip are now available from the “Live with Regis & Kelly” segment.
March 5th 2006
Chicago Tribune Article dated today, click here to read the full interview
OUT LOUD: William Petersen
I need to get back into the theater. I need to get back into Chicago in the theater. And I’m trying to. I’m doing stuff with the Victory Gardens Theater. They’re moving into the Biograph in the fall. I’m helping them raise money and I intend to be in their shows.
Billy news on the web, an article found here has a small interview with him regarding his friend, Corrine Marrinan.
March 4th 2006
Screencaps from “Up in Smoke” and one candid pic have been added to The Gallery.
Billy made an appearance on “Live with Regis & Kelly” Thursday just gone when Regis visited the set of CSI. We will have screencaps and a clip up shortly.
For those of you who have not visited our Yahoo Group yet, we have a lot more photos there and there´s a great bunch of people to talk to, so c´mon, join us 🙂
Lastly, a link to a billy story, which had me grinning from ear to ear, check it out.
February 21st 2006
The WPAP would like to wish Billy a very happy 53rd birthday today.
A video clip from The Early Show dated 31st January 2001 has been added, screencaps from this interview are already up at The Gallery.
Our friend Gittedl has let us know that using the OffbyOne browser she can now view the Gallery. For those of you in Denmark, Germany, etc, we suggust you try this as well 🙂 Hopefully it will help those of you who were having trouble viewing The Gallery 🙂
As I took the Guestbook away, as an alternative I have created The WPAP Yahoo Group for everyone to have chat, hope to see you all in there soon.
February 13th 2006
A clip of billy looking quite the sexy beast has been added of the Entertainment Tonight segment which aired last Thursday. Screencaps will be added later as our host is having a few difficulties right now.
The Chicago Tribune has another article in which Billy was interviewed.
Like many observers, William Petersen, the veteran Chicago stage actor whose lead role in the original “CSI” has won him TV superstardom, cites the trial of O.J. Simpson.
`O.J. hit’
“People were beginning to get interested in forensics, and then O.J. hit for a year, and everybody got swept up in it,” he argues. “The more they watched, they got the feeling these scientists and witnesses were speaking this DNA language they didn’t get, a whole vernacular they didn’t understand. When he was found not guilty, they were confused. And they wanted more information.”
But “the O.J. factor” might well win a not guilty verdict. The “Law & Order” franchise, while not as steeped in forensic detail as the “CSI” trio, nevertheless deals with criminal investigation and justice. “People forget,” notes Dick Wolf, executive producer of the “Law & Order” lineup, “that `Law & Order’ goes back to 1990. We were around a lot earlier than O.J.”
Indeed, as early as 1990, with the arrival of the Kay Scarpetta novels of Patricia Cornwell, set in a Richmond, Va., coroner’s office, forensic fascination found its way into fiction.
The “CSI” forensic emphasis has helped make microscopic, anatomical photography and geeky, scientific lingo omnipresent on TV, part of what Cornwell refers to as a `Star Trekian’ age. But, Petersen, who was a producer and artistic director here as well as an actor, says that, ironically, the first “CSI” came about as something original, unlike any other TV crime show to date. Now widely imitated, it began as one of a kind.
“People at the network wanted nothing to do with a TV show about fingerprint dusters,” Petersen says. “But this kid named Anthony Zuiker, who was running the tram at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, had a friend in CSI-type investigations in Las Vegas, and he came up with this idea.”
Little interest
Petersen had been talking with CBS for some time about a possible series, but every script he was sent seemed cut from the same cookie-cutter mold, formulaic echoes of hits already on TV. “That’s how television works, you find something that hits and you mass produce it,” Petersen says. “I understand that. I just didn’t want to do it myself.”
Instead, as Petersen sees it, “CSI” broke with TV crime in a number of ways. “Zuiker had stumbled onto this `Rashomon’-like idea to show the crime scene from different perspectives. We met with these real CSI guys, and they were kids just out of college, who could literally spend a week studying a car in detail and eventually find only a partial fingerprint. We realized if we could get their excitement of that discovery across, it would be sensational.”
Timing helped. “The culture had just been through this postmodern period of green tea and Buddhism, with everybody asking the big questions,” Petersen believes. “People were lost. These guys had answers. You see a close-up of a broken toenail inside a shoe, and that becomes an important clue. Instead of the big things, it’s about the littlest things. And they become the most important things. It’s a new way of perceiving, and I think that spiritual aspect of the show is why people keep watching.”
`No stakes are higher’
To read the full article click here, “Murder, they wrote : Police TV shows are all the rage, and here’s why” (you may need to register, but it´s free).
February 12th 2006
Screencaps from Pirates of the Third Reich have been added. USA Today posted an interesting article about the ep, “Why not CSI:KINK?”
The Chicago Tribune has an article up which gives a brief interview with Billy.
William Petersen: Life after `CSI’
William Petersen can glimpse his own finish line somewhere on the horizon. Now in his sixth year with the show, he says, “The first three or four, I was dying. It was an excessive amount of stress. We were working nights and days. Nobody slept, and I developed heart problems.
“The show can go on without me, and probably will, but I want to come back to act in Chicago,” he adds. “My wife and I just bought a condo downtown, and I want to do theater.”
One role he’s said to be considering: Macbeth, the most famous evildoer in all crime literature.
With or without him, crime will live on in television.
Click here to read the full article“The Pros and Cons of CSI Spin offs”
Billy made a brief appearance on Entertainment Tonight last Thursday also regarding the episode above, clips and caps up in the next couple of days.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who wrote and sent in kind comments regarding my last update. Apologies if i didn´t get around to responding to everyone, but THANK YOU, it´s greatly appreciated 🙂
February 3rd 2006
Six new photos have been added to the General Billy Gallery as well as screencaps from “Killer”.
I have temporarily taken the guestbook away as some people (obviously not Billy fans) have been taking advantage of it. It´s a guestbook for Billy fans, not for those of you who are trying to sell stuff. I will look into alternatives to see what i can put up in it´s place 🙂
A fan recently had the pleasure of running into Billy at the premiere of “Walk the Line” in LA.
“Over the years I’ve met with many celebrities however being such a fan of the show and the character he’s created, I was a bit excited myself to have the chance to chat with him. Definitely seemed to be gracious unassuming and appreciative and grounded”
To read the rest head on over to the Billy message board at IMDB.com
Several people have emailed over the past couple of months saying they have difficulty accessing certain parts of the Gallery, or the Gallery in general. We´ve found that this is a problem what usually comes from visitors to the site from Germany, The Netherlands, etc. We´ve found out this is an ISP issue and if your current providers have updated software, we recommend you try this as we´ve been told this usually rectifies the problem.
Lastly, we´ve received MANY emails over the past few days regarding the recent TV Guide article (which has also been added to gallery) in respect of next weeks CSI episode with the return of Lady Heather.
Many “GSR” fans have expressed their disappointment and anger at Billy´s comments in this article. We don´t want to go into too much detail as we appreciate many of you may prefer to be “spoiler free”, but we are a website solely devoted to Billy Petersen and some of the emails we´ve received have been very offensive, very uncalled for and just outright rude. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the matter, and we certainly wouldn´t want to take that away from anyone, but in Billy´s defense, give the guy a break he´s just doing his job, and there are really more important things going on in the world to worry about than the return of Lady Heather. It is not my intention to upset anyone, nor is it directed at anyone in particular, but I felt I needed to address this issue because some of the emails received have been quite shocking.
January 29th 2006
Screencaps of Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye are now up at the gallery.
We´ve also added some new photos to the General Billy Gallery
An interesting article about the Season 5 DVDs can be found here at the DVD Times website
I´ve mentioned this site before, but they have some great promo photos so I had to mention it again, check it out 🙂
A new CSI Forum has been set up for UK fans. However, anyone can join 🙂 Thanks Barry 🙂
January 25th 2006
Screencaps of Billy´s appearance on Monday´s ET have been added to the Gallery.
Several new video clips have also been added from the PCAs, GGs, and 3 x ETs.
Apologies, I typed the wrong name for the upcoming CSI episode yesterday, it´s Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye, not Bang Bang LOL Thanks Rosie 🙂
January 24th 2006
Screencaps from the Entertainment Tonight which aired after PCAs are now up at the gallery along with Golden Globe Screencaps.
Several articles from various UK TV Guides regarding Season Six are now online.
ET Online has an article up at their site regarding the upcoming episode Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye which airs in the US this week, to view a clip of Billy´s interview check out the newly updated and great site of gglovebug, grissomsararomance.com
January 22nd 2006
Screencaps of the latest CSI episode – Daddy´s Little Girl are now up at the Gallery, along with screencaps from Entertainment Tonight which aired in November last year, and this year´s PCA Awards. We´ll have the Golden Globe caps up soon, along with some video clips.
January 17th 2006
Paparazzi Pix of last night´s Golden Globe Awards are now in the Gallery.
Season 6 of CSI starts in the UK on 31st January, I for one am looking forward to that. More info can be found at the Channel 5 website.
January 15th 2006
A couple more photos have been added to the Gallery , another one from the 2006 People´s Choice Awards and one from the Michael Douglas & Friends tournament held in 2004.
Screencaps from Billy´s interview on The Early Show on 31st January 2001 have been added.
Billy appears on one of the several Channel 5 (UK) promos for the various US dramas the channel shows. A couple of screencaps below.
January 14th 2006
Apologies for yesterday, some of you had trouble accessing the news page, this has been fixed.
We have added a few new photos to the Hancock Park event billy attended last July in thePaparazzi gallery.
For a few more photos from the People´s Choice Awards and some new CSI promos please visit this site
January 11th 2006
Congratulations to the cast and crew of CSI for winning Best TV Drama at the People´s Choice Awards last night. Photos from the event have been added to the Gallery . Screencaps and video clip will be up at a later date.
January 10th 2006
This official website for the Golden Globes states that Billy will be one of the presenters this year.
HOLLYWOOD, CA, January 9, 2006 – Queen Latifah, William Petersen, Chris Rock and Nicollette Sheridan have been set as presenters at “The 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards” to be telecast live on NBC Monday, January 16 (8 – 11:00 p.m. EST) at The Beverly Hilton. They join previously-announced presenters Jessica Alba, Benjamin Bratt, Mariah Carey, Catherine Deneuve, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Jamie Foxx, Evangeline Lilly, Virginia Madsen, Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, Emmy Rossum, Hilary Swank, Emma Thompson, John Travolta, and Denzel Washington.
The Las Vegas Review Journal reported that the CSI cast (including Billy) were filming in Vegas today. Click here to see the full article
More updates tomorrow
January 8th 2006
You´ve Got Male – More mainstream actors are taking it all off in movies. The article at canada.com briefly mentions Billy´s full frontal in To Live & Die in LA.
Several prime time TV stars have done full-frontal nude scenes, too: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’s William Petersen in To Live and Die in L.A., Peter Gallagher of The O.C. in Summer Lovers, former Alias star Michael Vartan in One Hour Photo, Regenesis star Peter Outerbridge in both Kissed and Paris, France (he showed his butt in Men With Brooms), and Grey Anatomy’s Patrick Dempsey in Some Girls.
Click here to read the full article.
ET had an interview with Billy regarding “Werewolves” last Thursday, to view the clip visitgglovebug´s GSR site 😉
The latest CSI ep “Werewolves” screencaps are now in the gallery, along with screencaps from Billy´s appearance on the Rosie O´Donnell Show back in 2000.
I have decided to move all ARTICLES to the Gallery as well, over the next couple of weeks I will be adding all previous articles, as well as a couple of new ones including an article in Entertainment Weekly from June 1992.
Lastly, it´s been almost a year since Billy and the rest of the CSI cast won their SAG Award for Best Emsemble in a Drama series, and even though they haven´t been nominated this year, Billy´s speech is part of the “Memorable Moments from the Screen Actors Guild Awards” section of this pdf document (page 23) found on the official SAG Awards website.
January 4th 2006
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Our first update of 2006 🙂
We have added 12 new photos from last year´s SAG Awards to the Paparazzi section, copyright to Albert L Ortega, thank you once again, and thanks to C. also
Billy has done another “CBS CARES” promo regarding mentoring, Billy talks about reading to your children. You can view the promo at CBS Cares – Mentoring
We have also added added another CSI promo pic from Season 6 as well as screencaps from the Featurettes on the CSI Season 5 DVD.
Some of you have asked about the rest of the articles section, it will be back online soon, unfortunately there aren´t enough hours in the day, thanks for your patience ;
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