‘Deadwood’ actor mum on lunch with 4 costars
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- September
- 4
“Deadwood” actor W. Earl Brown (Dan Dority) just informed me that he couldn’t really inform me about a lunch he was supposed to have last week with costars Ian McShane (Al Swearengen) and Sean Bridgers (Johnny Burns).
On Aug. 20, Brown told readers of his MySpace blog about the pending lunch date: “If we concoct a new take on things, I’ll be sure to let you know. We best open a can of peaches…”
Well, the lid on the peaches might be open, but out of respect for his fellow diners, Dority’s keeping his shut for the most part. And I can’t say that I blame him, given all the attention his previous blog posts have drawn.
I messaged him today to see if anything fun, interesting or profound resulted from this get-together. He replied a few hours later:
“It ended up being a larger affair than (initially) planned with five cast members in attendance,” Brown wrote. “One of the first things spoken at the table was ‘Earl, don’t put any of this online…’ My lil blog caused a stir. My only hope is that the end result is a positive one. Only time will tell.”
Upon discovering this reply, I wrote back immediately. Since Brown has been a solid and reliable “Deadwood” source for me, I decided not to press him about the nature of the conversation. Instead, I hoped to find out who attended this power lunch.
“My imaginary version of that lunch … sounds something like your old Sirius satellite radio show,” I wrote. “I won’t press you on what was discussed at that lunch, but could you tell me which five cast members were there?”
Brown replied within minutes. “They asked me not to,” he wrote. “So, I’d best not.”
I am basing this only on my previous research and instinct, but if I had to guess who was there for lunch, I’m guessing it would be Brown, McShane, Bridgers, John Hawkes (Sol Star) and Jim Beaver (Ellsworth). Brown’s band, Sacred Cowboys, often performs with Hawkes’ band, King Straggler; and Beaver is one of Brown’s top MySpace friends. Both were frequent guests on Brown’s Sirius radio show, which ran concurrently with Season 3 of “Deadwood.”
In the latter of these two MySpace messages, Brown continued: “If you listened to those radio shows, you get an idea of what it was like hanging around that crew. Those shows were taped two days after we found out we were cancelled, so (a) big black cloud was hanging over all of us at the time.”
Now that he mentions it, there definitely was a reverential, eulogistic tone to the Sirius show. Granted, the radio show was generally upbeat and always fun to listen to. But in retrospect, listeners might have sensed something askew.
I swear I exchange more MySpace e-mails with Brown than I do with the rest of my MySpace friends. Is this a reflection of my journalistic tenacity? My “Deadwood” superfandom? A lack of legitimate friends? I’m guessing it’s some combination thereof.
(Photo of Brown via MySpace.)
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 8:14 pm by Chris Serico.
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‘Tweren’t me. I was in Vancouver shooting “Supernatural.”
Ellsworth in the house!