Lone Star: Channeling George Clooney

Josh Lucas

 This is weird: I decided to give the new Fox series Lone Star a shot, mainly because I didn’t see anything too appealing up against it, and recorded it along with the NBC show Chase. Well, we, my wife and I, weren’t far into the first episode of Lone Star when an actor pops up who strikes me as familiar. “Hey,” I said, “isn’t that the guy who played Reese Witherspoon’s husband in Sweet Home Alabama?” My wife said she didn’t know. Well, from another angle, it was obvious that this was not Josh Lucas, the guy I had been thinking of.

Cole Hauser

 Next, we watch Chase. As soon as character Jimmy Godfrey appears on the screen, I say to my wife, “Well, I’ll be damned! There he is. That’s the guy who played her husband. Can you beat that? I thought he was in the other show and, now, he turns up in this one.” “That’s weird!” she agreed. Of course, as it turns out actor Cole Hauser was not the guy who played Reese’s husband, either. But, like I said, it’s weird. In my defense, Looking at their pictures, it looks like their noses are similar.


Putting aside indications of my diminished mental capacity, we gave the two shows mixed reviews. Before it was cancelled we had already made up our minds not to watch Lone Star again. It just wasn’t offering the kind of story I could get into on a long term basis. The only thing mildly interesting, aside the obligatory hot girlfriend, was James Wolk’s Clooneyesque facial contrivances. What the hell, if you have aspirations of being a heartthrob, who better to mimic.

It’s sort of ironic that the show is being replaced by Season 3 of Lie To Me, another show that me and my honey removed from our potential watch-list after seeing the first episode. Go figure.

Sorry Reese, I Just Didn’t Get It

For the longest time, I wondered why Reese Witherspoon seemed to be distancing herself from what, for me, was one of my favorite movies, Freeway (1996). Sure, she played a somewhat earthy Vanessa Lutz, but she did it sooo well. Really, oscar performance in Walk The Line aside, I believe this was some of her best work.

Then, today, I saw the sprightly mother-of-two bound onto the stage of the Ellen show, looking much more like her Legally Blonde character Elle Woods and I finally got it – this is who Reese Witherspoon wants to be. And that is definitely her prerogative. As a responsible mother, America’s Sweetheart has the right to deny the existence of Freeway, at least until her little ones are old enough to understand.

For my part, when asked, from now on, I’ll list, as my favorite Reese Witherspoon movies, Legally Blonde and Sweet Home Alabama. Freeway? Nope, sorry, never heard of it. In fact, if you come across a copy of it, Reese and I would consider it a personal favor if you would just throw it into the fire. Thanks.