Brothers & Sisters

A few items on the B&S cast members, from round and about.

There’s a cute interview with Rachel Griffiths popping up in many online publications, which portrays her as being pretty down-home and down-to-earth, more interested in playing with her kids than in going on star trips (that’s her with her son, above). Of her castmates, she says “They definitely are becoming my brothers and sisters. We get on like a house on fire.”

If you can stand this much adorableness, the Celebrity Baby Blog has a photo of Rob Lowe and his sons swimming with dolphins. Awwwww.

Apparently someone still likes Joe Whedon. TV Guide’s jeer of John Pyper-Ferguson’s performance got a jeer back in this week’s issue from a fan, Julie Staedler of West Allis, Wisc., who wrote: “He’s astonished his fans with his versatile performances for years, starting with his scene-stealing turn in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. To see him on a show as good as Brothers & Sisters is a thrill. I got goose bumps during his confrontation with Rachel Griffiths as his wife. I’d throw myself at him in a heartbeat!”

Still holding a candle for the Dave Annable-Kate Walsh romance? Blow it out. She’s engaged, to someone else. Wow, the speed of romance in Hollywood just kind of boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

Dave and his TV brother, Balthazar Getty, were on The View last week. Read a recap from the blog Watching the View.

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Rachel Griffiths, Rob Lowe, Dave Annable, Balthazar Getty, John Pyper-Ferguson

“Obviously, I can make babies,” the Brothers & Sisters star tells USA Today, and he has three kids and one more on the way to prove it. A little uncomfortable with Tommy’s brotherly-sperm-donation storyline? “I was like, ‘Whoa, we’re taking away his masculinity a little bit,’ ” Getty says in the interview, which also covers his wealthy and sometimes weird lifestyle as a member of the Getty clan.

He’s family with his Walker co-stars, too, inviting Dave Annable and Matthew Rhys to his grandfather’s country home in England, and having playdates for his children with the kids of Rachel Griffiths and Calista Flockhart. In other show-biz news, his best friend and son’s godfather is Eric Dane from Grey’s Anatomy, McSteamy himself. A few more quotes from the interview:

On raising the next generation of Gettys: “The kids obviously know they have some privilege in their life and are able to do lots of neat things. But painting markers on their face is their idea of art.”

On big families: “I don’t think it’s easy growing up in any family — whether it’s the Gettys or the Walkers. There are always heavy dynamics in big families.”

On upcoming B&S storylines: “There is trouble brewing. I usually sit in those feelings all day. And after an emotional day like that, you’re happy when it’s done and you can come back to a loving home.”

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Balthazar Getty, Tommy Walker, USA Today

TV Guide has a nice interview with Sarah Jane Morris, who plays the seldom seen and even more seldom heard Julia Walker, wife of Tommy. As befits a character who doesn’t talk very much, the interview is fairly short, but Morris does offer these spoiler-y tidbits:

On paternity: “When you see my character [in the April episodes], I’m going to be a lot bigger. I’ll be getting into the last trimester so I’ll start looking really pregnant. I can say that Tommy is going to get serious about the paternity of the babies. He wants to know who the real father is — [sperm-donor brothers] Kevin or Justin.”

On crazy plotlines: “There’s definitely a sense that the show is an ‘escape’ for people, that it’s not always totally grounded. I’m pregnant, my husband’s sterile, and I don’t know who the father is — the gay brother or the brother who is a druggie and going to war. What?!”

On guest stars: “David Paymer (Mr. Saturday Night) is playing Chad Barry’s (Jason Lewis) manager on April 8. He’s a slick Hollywood guy who has a meeting with Kevin about his relationship with Chad. He’s also directing the episode.”

On Rob Lowe: “I don’t know [if he'll return for season 2]. If he does stay on, I can’t imagine what’s going to happen with the whole presidency thing. But I would love to see him more involved with the family. They’ve only touched on that so far, but I think it would be fun.”

On Rebecca: “She has no idea, but she is going to find out that she has more family, and that definitely causes some problems with her mother. Things will start to unravel from there!”

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Julia, Tommy, Sarah Jane Morris

For those just joining Brothers & Sisters because you’re Rob Lowe fans, or live in Australia, or are finally willing to believe the show’s not as bad as it was made out to be and may be sticking around for a while, here’s a brief guide to who all those brothers and sisters are. Use the episode suggestions to catch up on key episodes in ABC’s Full Episode Player.

Name: Nora Walker
Age: Turned 60 in episode 13, “Something Ida This Way Comes.”
Occupation: Meddlesome mother; worked briefly at family company after husband’s death, but quit after her son Tommy didn’t appreciate “Bring Your Pet to Work Day” or her rules about callers to the company needing to be polite.
Spouse: William, who died in the series’ first episode, leaving his family to painfully find out about his embezzlement from the family company and his longtime affair with Holly Harper, with whom he has a yet-unseen child, Rebecca.
Children: Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin, Justin
Siblings: Saul
Likes: Liberal causes, cooking, manipulating her offspring
Dislikes: Conservatives, Holly, Kitty’s boyfriends; had tense times with Kitty, who she blamed for pushing Justin to go to war after 9/11, but they’ve mostly made up. Also has mother issues of her own.
Key Episode: In episode 3, “Affairs of State,” she revealed that she wasn’t as in the dark about William’s indiscretions as everybody thought, “innocently” inviting the woman who was her husband’s mistress to a party and then coolly outing her at the dinner table.

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Last night’s was a birthday episode of Brothers & Sisters, and today is the birthday of a Brothers & Sisters cast member: Balthazar Getty, who plays Tommy and turns 32 today. A great-grandson of billionaire industrialist J. Paul Getty, Balthazar had extended roles in such TV series as Charmed, Pasadena and Alias before taking on the complex, challenging, and textured role of Tommy Walker. Um, what’s that? The role of Tommy hasn’t been all that complex, challenging, and textured? He really hasn’t had much to do? Maybe the plot points spelled out by B&S creator Jon Robin Baitz in a recent blog entry, which include Tommy starting his own business and he and his wife, Julia, dealing with her complicated pregnancy is some sort of birthday gift. At any rate, here are three facts about Balthazar Getty gleaned from his IMDB profile; feel free to entertain friends and family members with them during the endless dating service commercials in future weeks’ episodes: 1) The fingers on his right hand have the letters “BZAR” tattooed on them; 2) his childhood nickname was “Little Buddha”; and 3) he has a son is named Cassius.

She’s back! Tommy’s oft-unseen, seldom-speaking wife is in the ABC.com previews for next week’s episode, after being totally absent from the last two outings. And apparently the morning sickness is over, because the briefly passing scenes show her and Tommy making out in the shower and on the bed, plus a scene with Tommy saying, “I’m ready baby, wherever whatever, you name it,” in response to which, Julia actually has a line: “Wow!” Will she get to say more than one word this time? Tune in Sunday, 10 p.m., for the answer.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Hanukkah began at sunset today, and whether you celebrate that holiday or Christmas or, like Nora, worship the ACLU, good luck keeping a dry eye while watching this very sweet scene from last Sunday’s episode in which Saul rescues Paige from all the Hanukkah overkill and shares a candle-lighting moment with her while reminding the assembled Walkers of what they’ve lost and what they still have to be thankful for. If you’re unmoved by such things, here’s another reason to watch this clip: Can you find Tommy’s nonverbal wife, Julia, anywhere among the assembled family? Already the actress hardly gets any lines, and now she’s left out of touching family scenes, too? Surely the couple’s infertility struggle and subsequent impregnation with brotherly sperm was among the family’s milestones in their very unusual year, and yet there is no mention of it, and no shot of the beaming mother-to-be. A little odd, isn’t it? Yet my heart is too warm to care.