Celebrity crush: Pauley Perrette

Photographers are encouraged to contact me at
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This one's sort of a request; I'm not a regular NCIS viewer, but I've always enjoyed this actress' comedic skills there as a quirky Goth, and of course there's the whole Cote de Pablo thing.

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Name: Pauley Perrette (images | YouTube channel | Twitter)
Hometown: New Orleans, La., according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Pauley is best known for her work on shows whose titles are acronyms: She's been with NCIS since the beginning, indeed even earlier than that, appearing in the JAG episodes that served as a backdoor pilot for the series. She's guest-starred on NCIS: Los Angeles as well, playing the same character. And before that, she appeared on an episode of CSI (but not as the same character).

That's kept her busy for the last almost 10 years, though her résumé extends back to an ABC Afternoon Special in 1994 and includes a number of indie films (including Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous and My First Mister with Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks), the big-studio horror film The Ring, and an appearance in a Metallica video.

Beyond that, she's a published writer, though her Wikipedia entry is sparse on details, and has served in a variety of behind-the-scenes roles (directing, production, voice work) as well.
Humble Beginnings: As I said: An ABC Afternoon Special starts her list of screen credits. She's appeared on Dawson's Creek and 24, Tea Leoni's sitcom The Naked Truth and Kim Delaney's legal drama Philly, Stephen Bochco's legal drama Murder One and The Drew Carey Show, and even the Jennifer Love Hewitt-fronted Party of Five spinoff The Time of Your Life.
Not the Courteney Cox Factor: Pauley's a singer as well as an actress, though her work so far has turned up on TV (NCIS) or film (Legally Blonde) soundtracks.

... Breathe. Breathe, dammit.  (Talking
to myself here.) At right is Cote de Pablo,
her NCIS co-star, of course.

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: She brings the funny on a consistent basis on NCIS but is also -- from what I've seen -- the heart and soul of the investigation team in many ways. And she's able to pull off the Goth look as an adult woman -- one past her 20s -- without looking utterly ridiculous.
Film and TV-movie credits: The Girl from Mars (post-production) (Amazon | iTunes) * Satan Hates You (Amazon | iTunes) * The Singularity Is Near (2010 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * To Comfort You (2009 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Potheads: The Movie (Amazon | iTunes) * A Moment of Grace (2004 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Cut and Run (2004 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Ash Tuesday (Amazon | iTunes) * Hungry Hearts (2002) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Ring (Amazon | iTunes) * Red Skies (2002 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * My First Mister (Amazon | iTunes) * Almost Famous (Amazon | iTunes) * Malicious Intent (Amazon | iTunes) * Hoofboy (1998 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Hand on the Pump (1998 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Price of Kissing (Amazon | iTunes)

Photo by Adam Bouska for the NOH8 campaign,
which works for LGBT equality. Prints of her three shots
for sale at the link above, profits to the cause.

TV and Web Series Credits: NCIS, season 9 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * FCU: Fact Checkers Unit (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS: Los Angeles, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * NCIS, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * JAG, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * CSI, season 3: "Lady Heather's Box" (Amazon | iTunes) * Haunted: "Fidelity" (Amazon | iTunes) * 24, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * Special Unit 2, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Dawson's Creek, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Philly: "Light My Fire" (Amazon | iTunes) * Dead Last: "Death Is in the Air" (Amazon | iTunes) * Time of Your Life (Amazon | iTunes) * Veronica's Closet, season 2: "Veronica's Little Ruse" (Amazon | iTunes) * Jesse, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Drew Carey Show, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Naked Truth, season 3: "The Seer and the Sucker" (Amazon | iTunes) * That's Life (Amazon | iTunes) * Frasier, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Early Edition, season 1: "Mob Wife" (Amazon | iTunes) * Murder One, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Moloney: Pilot (Amazon | iTunes) * ABC Afternoon Specials, season 23: "Magical Make-Over" (Amazon | iTunes)

As a blonde on Time of Your Life, looking
a bit like fellow crush Brea Grant.

Music Videos: "The Unnamed Feeling" by Metallica (iTunes)
Written Work: Pills, Chills, Thrills and Heartache: Adventures in the First Person (short story "Cheers...") (Amazon)
Voice Work: Brother Bear (Amazon | iTunes) * Batman Beyond, season 1: "Golem" (Amazon | iTunes) * Blade Runner (1997 video game)
Music: "Fear" (with Stop Making Friends), NCIS soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes) * "Can't Get Me Down" (with Lo-Ball), Legally Blonde soundtrack (Amazon | iTunes) * "Fire in Your Eyes" (with B. Taylor) (Amazon | iTunes)
Directing and Production Credits: Citizen Lane (2010 documentary) (director, executive producer, narrator) (Amazon | iTunes) * The American Shame (2001) (associate producer) (Amazon | iTunes)

Celebrity crush: Jessica Capshaw

Photographers are always encouraged to e-mail me at
mentalnomadshow -at- gmail -dot- com with picture credit information.

Today's entry features an actress who might, along with a couple of others already on this list, get me to eventually catch up on Grey's Anatomy yet again after falling behind a couple of seasons once again.

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: Jessica Capshaw (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Columbia, Mo., according to her Wikipedia profile. She is the daughter of actress Kate Capshaw and her ex-husband, Robert Capshaw; her mother was a teacher at the time she was born. After her mother's transition to acting and her second marriage, she became stepdaughter of director and media mogul Steven Spielberg.
Best Known For: Jessica's longest-running acting role has come on Grey's Anatomy as pediatric surgeon Dr. Arizona Robbins, who at the end of last season married orthopedic surgeon Dr. Callie Torres, played by fellow crush Sara Ramirez. Before scrubbing in there, she had a regular role as an attorney on David E. Kelley's The Practice, also on ABC, in its final episodes. In between, she guest-starred in a couple of episodes of Bones on Fox as the ex-girlfriend of David Boreanaz's FBI agent character and the mother of his son.

Film work includes the horror movie Valentine, which co-starred her (at least initial) Grey's co-stars Katherine Heigl and (fellow crush) Chyler Leigh.
Humble Beginnings: After completing an English degree at Brown University, Jessica headed to London to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

ER brought her to her first TV appearance in 1999, and she made her film debut in 1997's The Locusts, which starred her mom. There are several TV-movies and unsold pilots on the résumé as well; only things that I'm pretty sure aired or screened at some point, or might in the future, are listed below.

Obligatory Edgy Stuff: Like many other Hollywood folks, Jessica has appeared in the nude in Allure magazine. (And it was, in a word, glorious.)
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Jessica's a beautiful woman with a lot of charm who can also be funny or steel-spined resolute as the script calls for it. There are a lot of reasons to feel guilty about liking Grey's Anatomy -- and I still haven't watched last year's season or this current one -- but Jessica's acting is certainly not one of them. She stands tall (well, she stands 5'5"-ish) alongside Chandra Wilson (well, who stands short -- you get my point) as a great actress who manages to consistently rise above the sometimes dubious material.

TV and Web Series Credits: Grey's Anatomy, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * Grey's Anatomy, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * Grey's Anatomy, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Grey's Anatomy, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Head Case, season 2: "Tying the... Not" (Amazon | iTunes) * The L Word, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Into the West (2005 mini-series) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * Odd Man Out (1999) (Amazon | iTunes) * ER, season 5: "Rites of Spring" (Amazon | iTunes)
Film and TV-movie Credits: One Angry Juror (2010 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Blind Trust (2007 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Groomsmen (Amazon | iTunes) * View from the Top (Amazon | iTunes) * Minority Report (Amazon | iTunes) * The Mesmerist (Amazon | iTunes) * Valentine (2001) (Amazon | iTunes) * Killing Cinderella (Amazon | iTunes) * The Love Letter (1999) (Amazon | iTunes) * Something About Sex (1999) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Locusts (Amazon | iTunes)

Celebrity crush: Michaela Conlin

Photographers are always encouraged to contact me at
mentalnomadshow -at- gmail -dot- com with picture credit info.

Today's crush is probably the part of Bones I miss most since I quit watching.

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: Michaela Conlin (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: Allentown, Pa., according to her Wikipedia profile. She's of half-Irish, half-Chinese ancestry, according to Wikipedia.
Best Known For: Michaela's biggest role to date is playing forensic artist Angela Montenegro, best friend to Emily Deschanel's quirky Dr. Temperance Brennan on the crime drama Bones, based on a series of novels by real-life forensic pathologist Kathy Reichs. (Angelo is also, oddly enough, the daughter of real-life ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, portrayed on the show as the scariest dad alive.) Film work includes the legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer and a bit role in the comedy Enchanted, which starred fellow crush Amy Adams.

On a Halloween episode of
Bones with Emily Deschanel.

Humble Beginnings: High school theatrical performances included The Crucible and Bye Bye Birdie. Shortly after her arrival in New York, she was chosen to be one of the subjects of The It Factor, a cable documentary about young actors trying to break into show business.

Early TV roles include the obligatory Law & Order appearance and a couple of short-lived dramas: The MDs with William Fichtner and Scotsman John Hannah and The DA as an aide to Steven Weber's character. Other film work includes Love, the Hard Way with Adrien Brody and Open Window with The Mentalist's Robin Tunney.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Besides her obvious physical beauty, Michaela has a good sense of comedic timing and has shown herself to be a versatile player on Bones. As I said above: She's one of the people whose work I most miss since I stopped watching the show.

Film and TV-movie Credits: The Lincoln Lawyer (Amazon | iTunes) * Enchanted (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Open Window (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * Garmento (Amazon | iTunes) * Pipe Dream (2002) (Amazon | iTunes) * Love, the Hard Way (2001) (Amazon | iTunes)
Production Credit: Sparrows Dance (post-production, executive producer) (Amazon | iTunes)

TV and Web Series Credits: Bones, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones: Cast & Creators Live at the Paley Center (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes) * Bones, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * The DA (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * JAG, season 9: "Posse Comitatus" (Amazon | iTunes) * MDs (2002) (Amazon | iTunes) * The It Factor (Amazon | iTunes) * The Division, season 2: "Illusions" (Amazon | iTunes) * Law & Order, season 11: "Swept Away - A Very Special Episode" (Amazon | iTunes)

Celebrity crush: Marla Sokoloff

Photographers are always encouraged to contact me at
mentalnomadshow -at- gmail -dot- com with picture credit information.

Here's an actress I always felt deserved a little higher profile than she got from her long stint on The Practice, though music, marriage, and motherhood (coming in 2012!) have entered the picture, so I think she's doing OK.

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: Marla Sokoloff (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: San Francisco, Calif., according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Marla's longest acting engagement came on The Practice, which she joined in its third season and remained with for the rest of the series, more or less. Since that show's conclusion, she has recurred on Desperate Housewives in one season and had guest roles in numerous other shows, as well as the occasional short-lived comedy (Big Day and Modern Men in 2006) and mini-series (Meteor and Maneater, both a bit more recent).

On the big screen, she appeared with Jennifer Garner in the cinematic masterpiece Dude, Where's My Car? (No, seriously -- not about it being a masterpiece, but about Marla and Jennifer Garner appearing in it. They played the girlfriends of the two geniuses played by Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott.) Sugar & Spice paired her with American Beauty's Mena Suvari and fellow crush Melissa George as cheerleaders on a crime spree. And she's released an album of her original music.

Stand-alone TV appearances include a guest turn on Friends as Joey's pregnant younger sister, the 2001 horror anthologies Night Visions and Strange Frequency, and a more serious-than-her-norm turn on Burn Notice as a young woman out to avenge her father's murder. The TV-movie Date with Darkness (about the arrest and trial of a Max Factor cosmetics heir on multiple rape charges) saw her appear alongside Sarah Carter as one of Andrew Luster's victims and was better than your average Lifetime movie.

And you thought I was lying about Jennifer Garner
being in Dude, Where's My Car? Here's proof.

Humble Beginnings: Marla started her TV and film career in her teens. Among the items I'm not listing for sale below because she was under 18 -- and because they're not already linked for sale in any other celebrity crush's profile -- are appearances on Full House (1993-1995) and Party of Five (1995-96) and in the movies The Baby-Sitters Club, So I Married an Axe Murderer, and True Crime.

(She was a little bit shy of 18 when she joined The Practice as the firm's receptionist, but she turned 18 before the season ended, so I've included the entire third season on a technicality.)
Not the Courteney Cox Factor: Until 2003, Marla was rhythm guitarist and singer for a Los Angeles band called Smittin. (And really, who wouldn't be smitten with her to the point of forgetting how to spell that emotional state?) Grateful, her first solo album, was released in 2006.
Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: "Adorable" was the word that came to mind from her work as Lucy on The Practice, and her appearances in Dude, Where's My Car? and the comedy Big Day didn't do much to dislodge it. So her appearance on Burn Notice -- which can sometimes skew darker than most of USA Network's offerings -- was a revelation.

She's also just an all-around gorgeous woman. I hope to see her return to working after she and her husband welcome the new addition, and it would be awesome if she ended up doing another album sometime.
Voice Work and Music: Bionicle: The Legend Reborn (2009 animated film) (Amazon | iTunes) * Grateful (2006 album) (Amazon | iTunes)

Film and TV-movie Credits: Scents and Sensibility (post-production) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Chateau Meroux (Amazon | iTunes) * Gift of the Magi (2010 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Flower Girl (2009 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Play the Game (2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * Christmas in Boston (2005 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Crazylove (Amazon | iTunes) * The Drive (2005 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Tollbooth (Amazon | iTunes) * Love on the Side (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * Freshman Orientation (Amazon | iTunes) * A Date with Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster (2003 TV-movie) (Amazon | iTunes) * Prairie Dogs (2001 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * Sugar & Spice (2001) (Amazon | iTunes) * Dude, Where's My Car? (Amazon | iTunes) * Whatever It Takes (2000) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Climb (1999) (Amazon | iTunes)

Marla (right) in the Lifetime mini-series Maneater with, from left,
Judy Greer, mini-series lead Sarah Chalke, and Noureen DeWulf.

TV and Web Series Credits: CSI: New York, season 7: "Party Down" (Amazon | iTunes) * Drop Dead Diva, season 1: "Crazy" (Amazon | iTunes) * Maneater (2009 mini-series) (Amazon | iTunes) * Meteor (2009 mini-series) (Amazon | iTunes) * Burn Notice, season 2: "Seek and Destroy" (Amazon | iTunes) * Big Day (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * Modern Men (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * Desperate Housewives, season 1 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 8 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 7 (Amazon | iTunes) * Friends, season 8: "The One with Monica's Boots" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 6 (Amazon | iTunes) * Strange Frequency (2001): "More Than a Feeling" (Amazon | iTunes) * Night Visions (2001): "My So-Called Life and Death" (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 5 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Practice, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes)

Sarah Carter: "Bad Looks Good on You (live)"

Here's a concert clip of Sarah Carter -- who became a celebrity crush of mine via her acting and then revealed herself to be a skilled crafter of dark and twisted songs -- on guitar and vocals with Kestrin Pantera on cello. Carter is also one-half of the band Sanguindrake, whose debut album should be out soon.

Shameless commerce:
Before Three by Sarah Carter (Amazon | iTunes)
"Brand New Truth" single by Sanguindrake (Amazon | iTunes)
"My Reflection (explicit)" single by Sanguindrake (Amazon | iTunes)
"Say I Don't Know" single by Sanguindrake (Amazon | iTunes)
Falling Skies, season 1, co-starring Sarah Carter (Amazon | iTunes)
Shark, season 1, co-starring Sarah Carter (Amazon | iTunes)
Shark, season 2 (Amazon | iTunes)