There’s been a lot of press coverage on Tricia and Burn Notice of late — and there’s more. The Chicago Tribune recently sat down with Tricia to discuss her involvement in Burn Notice as well as the 4th and final season of Battlestar Galactica. Although there’s been a lot of press coverage on all this throughout the year, this interview is a touch more insightful and interesting than the average article; I’d have a look if I were you.

Here are some news tidbits on the aforementioned series, as revealed by the Chicago Tribune interview:

• Filming of Battlestar Galactica will in all likelihood wrap up this month, either on Jul 7, 10 or 12 (exact date varies with source), after which Tricia will return to Miami to shoot more Season 2 material for Burn Notice until October ‘08. While she keeps all Battlestar Galactica series’ finale secrets to herself, Tricia promises Red Eye Chicago the concluding episode will answer a lot questions.

• Tricia will appear as Carla in the first two episodes of Burn Notice, after which Carla again returns in the series’ mid-season finale, episode 9. Carla will also be featured in some of the post-hiatus episodes, but which these episodes are is yet to be revealed.

• Tricia confirms she has signed on to do Fox’s Inseparable pilot, for which filming takes place in August ‘08.

Press Links:

• Helfer of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ puts the sizzle in ‘Burn Notice’ (Chicago Tribune)
• Helfer on ‘Battlestar’ finale: It’s awesome (Red Eye Chicago)

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recently revealed their 10 semi-finalists for the award for Best Drama Series — and, unfortunately (and rather bafflingly, to me), Battlestar Galactica is not among them. Here are the Top 10 candidates for the award, courtesy of E!Online:

Boston Legal, Damages, Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Grey’s Anatomy, House, Lost, Mad Men, The Tudors, The Wire.

Personally, I can’t say I agree with even half of these choices (and certainly not over Battlestar Galactica), but oh well…

Another quiet day in terms of Tricia news. However, Entertainment Weekly has a really great preview of the upcoming second season of USA Network’s spy series Burn Notice, in which Tricia will have a recurring role as the mysterious Carla. The article is particularly useful for those who are not yet familiar with the show, and those who need no introduction to the series might want to skip to the Tricia-part of the interview, which includes interview excerpts as well as a more detailed description of Carla and her position in the story. From EW.com:

That doesn’t mean Nix doesn’t feel pressure to keep Burn Notice red-hot, and to that end the series will introduce a new character this season: a mysterious spy played by Tricia Helfer, best known as Battlestar Galactica’s slithery Cylon Number Six. ”I had coffee with her yesterday; it was ridiculously exciting,” says Nix with a laugh. ”She plays Carla, the public face of the folks that burned Michael. It was made clear at the end of last season that Michael is being recruited into something, that people have plans for him, and she’s the one who delivers those plans. And it puts him in this interesting relationship, which is, in order to find out more about who burned him, he has to play along to find out what they’re doing, and get some leverage with Carla, to get off the blacklist. It’s a fun tension — he has to play nice, but not too nice.”

As for the 34-year-old Helfer, as much as she loves Battlestar, she also appreciates working in a more earthly environment. ”I’m still finishing up work on Battlestar Galactica,” she says, ”and any offers I’ve been getting for jobs after that have been, as you can imagine, very sci-fi, and I don’t want to get pigeonholed in that genre, as well as knowing that I’ll probably never get sci-fi material as good as Battlestar. I’m a fan of Burn Notice, and I also know I’ll probably never get offered a role in a thriller that’s as smart and funny as this.”

Sounds like my kind of series! Don’t forget to tune into the season premiere on July 10 at 10/9c. We here at Tricia Helfer Fan will of course be sure to do our best to cover it. Stay tuned!

The winners of the 34th Annual Saturn Awards have been announced, and unfortunately Battlestar Galactica is not among them. The series was nominated for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series, Best Presentation on Television (for Battlestar Galactica: Razor) and Best Actor in a Television Series (for Edward James Olmos). The awards, however, went to Dexter, Family Guy: Blue Harvest and Matthew Fox (Lost) respectively.

Don’t forget to vote Tricia and Battlestar Galactica to victory at the 2008 SyFy Genre Awards! Voting is ongoing at the SyFy Portal — you can vote once a day per email address until July 25, 2008. Battlestar Galactica recently hauled in an impressive 11 nominations, including a Best Supporting Actress nom for Tricia. Go vote now!

There’s been a lot going on with Tricia of late, hasn’t there? There’s more; here’s today’s last, Burn Notice-oriented update.

Maureen Ryan of The Chicago Tribune recently sat down with Burn Notice creator Matt Nix to discuss the series second season, and naturally, Tricia’s involvement came up in the discussion. According to the article, Tricia will appear in multiple episodes of the season, including 2.01 and 2.02. From ChicagoTribune.com:

This season, Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer has a recurring role as Carla, a representative of the person or people who “burned” Michael. She’s in the first two episodes of Season 2 and her character will return just before the mid-season finale arrives (USA is airing nine episodes of Burn Notice this summer). Helfer will also appear in some of the seven Season 2 episodes that will air in 2009.

Maureen Ryan: Not to change subjects, but how did you become aware of Tricia Helfer [who plays Michael’s mysterious “handler,” Carla, this season]?

Matt Nix: We were all aware of her from Battlestar and we adored her from Battlestar. We were racking our brains trying to figure out who would be Carla, and co-executive producer Alfredo Barrios saw in the Hollywood Reporter that she’d just signed a deal with Fox, and he ran in and said, “She’s perfect!” And I was like, “Yes, that’s it!” But she had just signed a deal with another network. I thought it would never work, but then it did [in part because Burn Notice is made by Fox’s TV studio].

She just kind of got the show immediately and she has that kind of attitude, she talks the right way, and everyone was just immediately comfortable. And we’re just fans of other shows, it’s not an accident we’ve got a Battlestar person [the show also had Battlestar's Lucy Lawless as a guest last season] and we’ve cast a few people from Dexter on our show.

Furthermore, for those interested in the series, TV Squad recently visited the series’ production on set in Miami. The article doesn’t contain anything Tricia-specific that we haven’t heard before, but you might want to have a look nonetheless.

Finally, in other news, voting for the 2008 SyFy Genre Awards has begun at SyFyPortal.com. You have 30 days to vote Tricia and Battlestar Galactica to victory. Vote now!

Sci Fi Channel’s critically acclaimed drama series Battlestar Galactica has earned an astonishing 11 nominations at this year’s Syfy Genre Awards! What’s more, Tricia is among those nominated, as she is up for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Cylon Number Six in the series! How awesome is that? Here are the categories the series is nominated in, from SyFyPortal.com:

• Best Actor (Television): Edward James Olmos
• Best Actress (Television): Mary McDonnell
• Best Episode (Television): Episode 4.01 “He That Believeth In Me”
• Best Episode (Television): Episode 4.06 “Faith”
• Best Guest Star (Television): Michelle Forbes, for BSG: Razor
• Best Series (Television)
• Best Supporting Actor (Television): Aaron Douglas
• Best Supporting Actor (Television): James Callis
• Best Supporting Actor (Television): Michael Hogan
• Best Supporting Actress (Television): Katee Sackhoff
• Best Supporting Actress (Television): Tricia Helfer

Whoa! Congratulations to the entire Battlestar Galactica team for the well deserved noms! For more on the competition the series is facing in the various categories, visit SyFyPortal.com.

Voting begins June 25 (that’s tomorrow!) at SyFyPortal.com. Readers can vote once per day for 30 days between June 25 and July 25, and winners will be announced during SyFy Portal’s 10th anniversary celebration ca. August 13. Don’t forget to vote for Tricia!

Galactica Sitrep reports Battlestar Galactica will be present at this year’s San Diego Comic Con in July. From Galactica Sitrep:

This morning Seat42F started to reveal a bunch of panel days and times. After a full day of source-prodding, the Watch With Kristin grrls have a whole bunch more, including stuff we care about here at Sitrep. Although they take pains to point out this is all “totally unofficial, unauthorized and subject to change (especially if there is an actors’ strike),” this is what they’ve announced:

Saturday, July 26
2:15–3:15 p.m.: Battlestar Galactica panel

Please note, however, that all 4-day and Saturday tickets have been sold out (rather unsurprisingly), so if you’re out late, you’re also out of luck.

Well, I’ve finally been able to catch up with the latest episodes of Battlestar Galactica — only to find the series has moved into mid-season hiatus, with the remaining episodes not airing until 2009 at the earliest. Oh well. Can’t win ‘em all, eh?

Nevertheless, we are once again back on track with Season 4 of the series, with the latest episode, 4.10 “Revelations”, having aired on June 13 on Sci Fi. Since I wasn’t able to deliver any recaps of episodes 4.05-4.10 (due to other, offline commitments, my apologies), I have written up Number Six-oriented recaps of episodes 4.06-4.10 (Tricia did not appear in episode 4.05). More under the cut.

Episode 4.06 “Faith” Number Six recap: Leading the remaining rebel Cylons surviving the surprise attack of Cavil et al., Natalie agrees to a shaky armistice with the humans as she allows Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, still following her vision, and the rest of the Demetrius-based group to see the Hybrid of the damaged basestar in exchange for help with the Cylons’ malfunctioning FTL-drive. While on the basestar, an emotionally troubled and resurrected Six recognizes Jean Barolay as the Caprica resistance group member who killed her and watched her die, and attacks Jean, in turn killing her. With Samuel T. Anders holding Six at gunpoint, Six recalls the horrors of dying to a deeply touched Natalie, who eventually pulls the trigger on Anders’ behalf, though probably not so much for relieving the flammable situation as for mercy on Six, evidently unable to overcome her experiences. Natalie then listens as the Hybrid delivers her cryptic message to Kara, and realizes with the others that unboxing the model Three is essential in their joint search for the Final Five Cylons and Earth.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick heads-up to all that Tricia and Battlestar Galactica co-star Katee Sackhoff recently talked to IGN.com about the series coming to a close and their projects post-Galactica. The article shouldn’t contain any major spoilers, so everyone should be all good here. Check it out at IGN.com!