Celebrity crush: Sarah Thompson

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Today's entry focuses on an actress whom I didn't realize had been quite so prolific ... and allowed me to connect some dots to roles that I'd forgotten about entirely or had never put together with her.

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Name: Sarah Thompson (images -- not all of which will be her, as there's a musician with the same name | official Facebook fan site | Twitter)
Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif., according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: It depends. For many, it might be her recurring role in the final season of the horror drama Angel as Eve, a liaison to the nefarious partners at the Los Angeles demonic law firm of Wolfram and Hart. Others might remember her as sexually precocious and manipulative high school student Dana Poole on David E. Kelley's Boston Legal. She appeared in the well-received HBO original movie Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon, and has even traveled abroad for a couple of film roles (to South Africa for sports drama Hansie, to India for the crime drama Raajneeti -- with dialogue mostly in Hindi).

With Mercedes McNab -- another Angel alumna --
in The Pink Conpiracy.

She also featured heavily in the final season of the family drama 7th Heaven as the fiancee of one of the sons in the large church family at the center of the series. She's been in a several indie movies as well, including the pretty good Broken Windows with fellow crush Larisa Oleynik. There are a few horror and crime film scattered on her film résumé along with the required police procedural (Without a Trace) and medical drama (House) appearances.

And some might just know her from Cruel Intentions 2, the direct-to-video sequel that happened when Fox scrapped its planned Manchester Prep TV series and producers combined existing footage with new (nude) scenes to make a movie. (I won't judge you.) That film also featured fellow crushes Amy Adams and Keri Lynn Pratt; presumably some or all had signed up for the scrapped TV series.

Sarah has been a very busy woman.
Humble Beginnings: Her film debut came in Ang Lee's 1997 feel-bad hit The Ice Storm, released a week or so after she turned 18. (I have no idea how big a role she played in it -- Christina Ricci's major part and the small part by Katie Holmes are the only young female roles I remember in it, but I've included it anyway.)

Sarah joins an increasing number of celebrity crushes who appeared on Sam Trammell's short-lived drama Going to California around 2001. She also had a part in the pilots of Madigan Men and Strangers with Candy, recurred on the brilliant but short-lived Rod Lurie FBI drama Line of Fire, and reunited with Angel co-star Mercedes McNab (the daffy vampire Harmony) for a dark comedy called The Pink Conspiracy about a guy who discovers all the women in his life are part of a plot to drive him insane.

Shades of Jennifer Garner.

Maybe the Courteney Cox Factor: Her IMDB profile notes that she was in a 2002 video by Pete Munday, who has four albums for sale at iTunes ... but no videos for sale there. On the flip side, she sang in an episode of 7th Heaven that, by virtue of it mentioning Gershwin in its title, may well have been a musical. (If it was, they didn't release a soundtrack album that I can find.)
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: It seems Ye Olde Podcaster is not entirely immune to the charms of The Bad Girl. Sarah has played the role to perfection on Angel and Boston Public, and her character in Broken Windows definitely had some of those same tendencies. She shares a certain "girl you wish lived next door" look with fellow crushes Missy Peregrym, Amy Jo Johnson, and Rose Byrne, to name just a couple. (Heck, even Jennifer Garner.) 

On Angel, and now you regret
laughing at my Rose Byrne
comparison, I imagine.

Film and TV-movie Credits: A Nanny for Christmas (2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * Raajneeti (2010 -- Hindi with English subtitles) (Amazon | iTunes) * Taking Chance (2009 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Brooklyn's Finest (2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * A Christmas Proposal (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Saravia (2008 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * Hansie (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Broken Windows (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Babysitter Wanted (Amazon | iTunes) * Break (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Dear Me: A Blogger's Tale (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Brutal (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Pink Conspiracy (Amazon | iTunes) * L.A. Twister (Amazon | iTunes) * Malibu's Most Wanted (Amazon | iTunes) * Cruel Intentions 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * A Wake in Providence (1999) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Ice Storm (Amazon | iTunes)

TV and Web Series Credits: House, season 5: "Last Resort" (Amazon | iTunes) * Without a Trace, season 5: "Crash and Burn" (Amazon | iTunes) * 7th Heaven, season 10 (Amazon | iTunes) * 7th Heaven, season 9 (Amazon | iTunes) * Angel, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Line of Fire (2003) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Division, season 3: "Body Double" (Amazon | iTunes) * Touched by an Angel, season 9: "Two Sides to Every Angel" (Amazon | iTunes) * Boston Public, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Going to California: "Rules of the Rod" (Amazon | iTunes) * Boston Public, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * FreakyLinks: "Subject: Three Thirteen" (Amazon | iTunes) * Madigan Men: Pilot (Amazon | iTunes) * Strangers with Candy: "Old Habits - New Beginnings (pilot)" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Sopranos, season 1: "College" (Amazon | iTunes) * Soul Man, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes)