Celebrity crush: Maggie Lawson (revised)

Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Maggie Lawson (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Born and raised in Louisville, Ky., according to her Wikipedia entry.
Best Known For: Lawson currently co-stars on the USA Network mystery dramedy Psych, playing Det. Juliet O'Hara, who has tolerated the antics of fake psychic Shawn Spencer and his buddy Burton Guster since the second episode. (Shawn and Juliet finally became a couple in season 5; Maggie and actor James Roday, who plays Shawn, have been romantically linked since 2006.)

Juliet goes undercover in the roller derby
circuit in this scene from Psych.

She also played the iconic character Nancy Drew in a 2002 made-for-TV movie that sent the young sleuth to college.
Humble Beginnings: As a teen actress in the 1990s, Lawson made the obligatory appearances on a variety of sitcoms, including Unhappily Ever After, Boy Meets World, Cybill and Home Improvement, and she had a recurring role on the drama Party of Five. She appeared on Smallville in 2002.

Note: Not Alicia Silverstone.

In 2003-2004, she starred on It's All Relative, playing the daughter of a gay couple; the show centered around her relationship with a guy from a more conservative family, and reruns have appeared on the LGBT-focused network Logo within the past few years.
Deja Vu All Over Again: She guest-starred on the Fred Savage sitcom Working, and was a regular cast member on Savage's later show Crumbs -- a sitcom that dared to mine humor in a closeted gay man returning home to work at the failing family business and re-connect with his now-divorced parents after the death of his older sibling. Well, when you put it that way, it makes sense it didn't last a full season. But she made an impression on Ye Olde Podcaster then.

In 2008, she and Roday played a soon-to-be-wed couple in an episode of the NBC summer horror anthology series Fear Itself. (Just some words of advice to my readers: If your priest looks like the Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-Files, elope.)
Obligatory Edgy Stuff: Urm ... she appeared in the direct-to-DVD movie Still Waiting..., the sequel to a film that had some gross-out humor. That's about as edgy a fact as Ye Olde Podcaster could find.

With Rachel Wilson in Winter Break.

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Maggie brings a mixture of rookie detective-turning-seasoned cop, bemused annoyance, sweet though subtle longing, and a healthy dose of denial to her work on Psych. On Crumbs, she was in a minor role as the supportive best friend to Fred Savage's character, but there was an appealing warmth in that role, as well. And she makes a really hot roller derby babe, as shown above.

Also not Maggie Lawson, Miss Virginia Teen USA 1999.

Film and TV-movie credits: A Date With Diana (2010 short) (NSFW Web video) * Gamer (Amazon | iTunes) * Crimes of Fashion: Hostile Makeover (2009 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Crimes of Fashion: Killer Hair (2009 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Still Waiting... (Amazon | iTunes) * Cleaner (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman (Amazon | iTunes) * Love Rules! (Amazon | iTunes) * Winter Break (Amazon | iTunes) * Nancy Drew (2002 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Heart of a Stranger (Amazon | iTunes) * Cheats (Amazon | iTunes) * Model Behavior (2000 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Nice Guys Sleep Alone (Amazon | iTunes) * Pleasantville (Amazon | iTunes)

Perhaps the only photo in which she looks
a bit like Malin Åkerman.

TV and Web series credits: Psych, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Psych, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Kevin Pollak's Talk Show, season 2: "James Roday/Maggie Lawson" (Amazon | iTunes) * Psych, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Psych, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Fear Itself (2008): "In Sickness and in Health" (Amazon | iTunes) * Psych, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Rules of Engagement, season 1: "Jeff's Wooby" (Amazon | iTunes) * Psych, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Crumbs (Amazon | iTunes) * Tru Calling, season 2: "The Last Good Day" (Amazon | iTunes) * It's All Relative (Amazon | iTunes) * Smallville, season 2: "Redux" (Amazon | iTunes) * Inside Schwartz (Amazon | iTunes) * Party of Five, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Family Rules (1999) (Amazon | iTunes) * Felicity, season 1: "Todd Mulcahy, Part 2" (Amazon | iTunes) * Working, season 2: "Romeo and Julie" (Amazon | iTunes)