TVSquad

Comic-Con is coming up, and the lucky people who get to go are going to see a lot of very cool things. Included in that list of things is this Benjamin Linus bobble head doll from Bif Bang Pow! It shows Ben will his arm in a sling and bruises all over his face. It's a limited edition and it costs $17.

If you squint, it could pass for Keanu Reeves.

[via The Daily What]

Is there a bigger star in the world right this moment than Michael Phelps? He's poised to break Mark Spitz's record seven gold medals in one Olympics. He's already the most honored Olympic champion of all times, having won more gold medals than some entire countries.

Jeremy Schaap was singing his praises on ESPN this morning. Michael Phelps is tall, fit, good looking and has the makings of humongous success. Can't you just see him as a TV star?

As Rich pointed out, being an Olympic champion can sometimes be a launching pad for a career on TV. For most, the fit isn't exactly right, but I think that that was the fault of the producers back then, not the Olympians.

Therefore, I'm going to help Michael and those TV bigwigs with a few ideas. Here's four existing shows that should be writing scripts for Michael Phelps right away, and one remake that's right up his alley.

As I awaited the Lost panel to start in Hall H Saturday morning, I felt bad for the multitudes of people who were still standing in line outside the convention center, behind the convention center and all the way down the road behind the Marriott hotel. If you were a fan of Lost, but not of Heroes, you simply had to sit in line and then sit through the Heroes panel in order to see Lost; there was no way around it.

The Lost panel was quite a change from Heroes, as rather than the entire cast appearing on stage, only Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse made up the panel. Later, though, a "surprise guest" came out: Matthew Fox. However, nearly everything discussed came from Lindelof and Cuse.

We talked about the presence of a Lost viral-esque booth appearing at Comic-Con this year, and during preview night it was already in full force. They had a sign-up sheet for taking an "eligibility test", where I believe you went into that booth there in the picture to the right, answered some questions and then got a special "code" to apply on their website. Apparently we'll learn more during the Lost panel on Saturday.

Meanwhile, I was able to snap a video of what was running on the monitor above in that picture. The sound isn't so important, so enjoy.

The economy got you down, bucko? No prospects for any future employment? Are you just sitting there in your underwear, picking large handfuls of lint out of your bellybutton, while you wait for the phone to ring for the 'Next Big Thing' in your life journey?

Well, turn that frown upside-down, my friend! Hop a plane, train or automobile to San Diego between July 24th and 27th and make your way to your destiny, courtesy of the Dharma Initiative. Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of Dharma, will be at ComicCon during that time to seek out volunteers to contribute to a brand new research project. According to Octagon, the new project will play a vital role in the Initiative's objectives. What those objectives are really shouldn't matter to you. All that should matter is that there are a number of unpaid positions available.

So, tough guy, submit your email address to Octagon and they should be responding to you shortly about their positions. And, if someone should happen to mention the Oceanic Six during your interview, just ignore them. They will be taken care of as quickly and quietly as possible.

ABC and Lost extend their viral publicity campaign for the show with this "anti"-Hanso Foundation site that appeared about a week ago: HansoExposed.com. As show marketers continue to turn the internet into one big Easter egg hunt, I suspect the real reason for these Hanso and Dharma related sites is an effort to head off complaints next season about repeats -- they evidently intend to keep us Lost fans so preoccupied every moment of our waking lives that we don't have time for eating and sleeping, let alone actually watching the show.

This site is meant to be a campaign by a few intrepid souls attempting to get the word out on evil projects under development by Hanso. Its design is all dark and shadowy. There are blueprints, mentions of a dossier on Enzo Valenzetti, testimonials, pictures of airline tickets, all meant to add up to yet another incomplete picture of another incomprehensible mystery. After trying to make heads or tails of it without giving up any personal information, I finally surrendered my email address and got an account, permanently branding myself a sucker in the eyes of Buena Vista.

(Ryan reports from ComicCon that he's got some video to accompany this post soon. We'll update when that becomes available.)

This is actually pretty cool regardless of whether or not it turns out to be legit. Supposedly this video is another "lost" portion of the Hanso Foundation instructional film strips that we've seen on Lost. Check it out - there's no narration, which bugs me; just some ominous music accompanies it. I will say though, it does look like the real ones we've seen on the show.

A few things that seem off though? Why does the DHARMA logo change for each of the company's divisions? If that makes no sense, watch it and you'll see what I mean. And who's the bearded guy that looks like Paul Giamatti at the end of it? Plus, why couldn't we understand what founder Alvar Hanso was saying? It's almost as if his voice was muffled on purpose. Then there's the date. It was "copyrighted" 1981... did the other videos from the show have a copyright date? I couldn't remember.

If you need more of this check out the "actual" Hanso website for the original video, but what does everyone think of this "new" video? Is it for real and somehow got leaked or did someone with a video camera just get bored last weekend?