TVSquad

Even though 24 isn't actually coming back on the air for another, what is it? Nine years? Ten? (Okay, January '09, but still), there's news coming out about next season. While a very pregnant Mary Lynn Rajskub, who plays Chloe, has already begun filming on Day 7 of the series, Rajskub's impending due date will force her to take a hiatus from Jack Bauer's really long, bad day. So who's going to lie for Jack and help him out with all of his nerd toys? None other than Chloe's sourpuss ex, Morris O'Brian (Carlo Rota).

Morris, who on Day 6 was kidnapped by terrorists, forced to arm a nuclear weapon, slipped up on his sobriety, broke up with Chloe, found out that he was going to be a daddy and got back together with Chloe, will be having some problems of his own come Day 7.

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER AFTER THE JUMP

Even if season 7 of 24 won't air for another 9 months, it doesn't mean we can't get our hopes up when the first official cast picture leaks on the web. Mind you, it may have been out for weeks but today was the first time I saw it thanks to a tip who sent us to SlashFlim.com.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who had never seen this cast picture before which is why I decided to share it with you all and take this opportunity to review what we know, including spoilers, about the seventh season of the FOX drama, including that two-hour prequel that will air this fall.

Spoilers coming up!

*If you haven't yet watched the season finale of 24, go far, far away from this blog post.*

Of all the developments that bugged me during the two-hour 24 season finale, the Chloe O'Brian plot turn was on my list of irksome moments.

In the midst of the end-of-the-day chaos, while Chloe was trying to track down the whereabouts of Jack Bauer's evil papa, she collapsed as her ex-husband Morris rushed to her side. Immediately, the folks who were with me in the TV Squad 24 live chat jokingly suggested that Chloe was pregnant, but I didn't think her ailment would be that obvious.

Normally, Chloe O'Brian is Jack Bauer's go-to gal on 24.

Jack needs to be patched through to someone? No problem. She'll take care of it in a jiffy.

Need the schematics of a nuclear weapon. Right away.

Need her to lie to her superiors so you can conduct a rogue operation to save the world? She's got your back . . . usually.

So what was up with Chloe this past week? After not much pressure from her ex-husband, a frowning Chloe ratted out Jack's clandestine plan -- to give the Chinese a component from one of the Russian suitcase nukes in exchange for Audrey Raines' release -- to CTU boss Bill Buchanan.

She plays a computer specialist and sometime-action hero on one of the most successful television shows of all time. She occasionally acts in off-beat films like Punch Drunk Love and Little Miss Sunshine and in indie movies like Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, a 2004 film so dark it barely graced theater marquees before heading to DVD and quasi-cult status. She counts stand-up comedy among her creative outlets. And Mary Lynn Rajskub, a.k.a Chloe on FOX's 24, says she is equally at home in any and all of those seemingly incompatible worlds.

1.Where were you born?
Detroit, Michigan

2.Do you have any siblings?
Two older sisters

3 What did you study in college?
Fine art

4.Do you have any pets?
A cockapoo named Emmy

5. Do you have any nicknames?
No nicknames

6.What is your favorite restaurant?
Baja Fresh and Starbuck's not really-that thai place in pasadena, Soledang

7. What is your favorite TV Show?
24

8. Who is your favorite band/musician?
John Mayer and Jessica Simpson's pictures, Elliot Smith, Freedom of 76 by Ween. Starman by David Bowie

9. If you could live anyplace in the world where would it be?
Embassy Suites in Albuquerque, Culver City, in a hole.

10. Who do you think should be the next President of the United States?
Hillary Clinton

Though she plays 24's scowling computer whiz Chloe O'Brian -- who has a penchant for Tasering men who approach her in bars while she's working -- actress Mary Lynn Rajskub, in real life, is not a tech geek.

That didn't stop the folks at Geek Monthly from putting 24's fan favorite on its cover.

The Q&A is quite amusing. When Rajskub couldn't really provide answers to the techie-oriented questions (like, "What's your favorite Linux distro?"), they resorted to asking if she knows what a mouse is.

They also asked whether her on-screen character is autistic. Her response? "I've heard about this. Let's just say I'm a genius and leave it at that. And that I can talk to dolphins."

[Via 24headquarters.com.]

(*Warning, spoilers ahead from this week's episode*)

Okay. Enough references to kiwi. And raspberries. And allusions to something that happened "in Denver."

While we wait to learn the fate of former President Charles Logan, here are four more 24 moments from the 13th hour to consider:

Quote of note: "Sorry, I'm feeling ambivalent, I'm gonna go," CTU analyst Chloe O'Brian told Logan after he was bitterly complaining about being left alone in a CTU holding room. He's a disgraced ex-president don't ya know.

Mary Lynn Rajskub -- who plays the enterprising, Taser-wielding CTU analyst Chloe O'Brian on 24 -- was profiled by an Australian newspaper this week as a multi-talented performer whose skills extend way beyond being snarky in the CTU men's room.

Described as an actress who's also a comedian, a performance artist and a "cutting-edge painter," Rajskub told The Sydney Morning Herald that when she's called upon to look as though she's intently thinking while sitting at her CTU terminal or patching Jack Bauer through to someone, "I really just think of my family members, like they're being hurt."

Wonder if she ever thinks of Edgar in that way? Still miss that Edgar.

[Via Comedy Central]

Carlo Rota, the 61-year-old who plays Morris "Drill Bit" O'Brian on 24, recently told the dead-tree version of People Magazine that when he arrived on the CTU set he spoke really fast.

Until an executive producer told him to stop. "It's a fast show, but you still speak like you would normally," Joel Surnow reportedly told Rota.

Rota also told the magazine that he's an enthusiastic chef and that Mary Lynn Rajskub, who portrays his snippy ex-wife Chloe O'Brian, keeps him guessing with her various facial expressions. "You don't know whether she's appreciative of you being there or if she's judging you," Rota told People.

Below is a short film from 1999 called Hands, the story of Derrick "Hands" Wilson, a man whose amazing clapping ability made him one of the most sought after clappers in the music business -- at least until automation made his kind obsolete. The short features Mary Lynn Rajskub of 24 and Mr. Show and Brian Posehn of Mr. Show, Just Shoot Me and the Sarah Silverman Program. My advice to Wilson would have been to head to Nashville and start a new career as a knee slapper for popular country and western groups. Then again, maybe that's considered blasphemous in the world of professional hand clapping. As Wilson says in the movie, a clap is really just a paused prayer. Stir that around in your brain soup for awhile.

Anyway, check out the video, but make sure you watch it until the end, because that's the funniest part of the whole short.

[via CC Insider]

So 24's Chloe O'Brian is hot this season.

She's wearing make-up. And Armani.

And she's getting a lot of attention for her new look, along with her new attitude.

I, for one, liked the slightly rumpled, snarky Chloe, who was always willing to flout authority when necessary and who was a genius at patching people through and cracking coded computer messages while in a constant state of sneer.

The video below is a short film starring Mary Lynn Rajskub and Karen Kilgariff called The Girls Guitar Club. The short was made before the two women appeared on the brilliant and hysterical Mr. Show in the late '90s, and obviously before Rajskub took on the role of Chloe on 24. Also look for appearances by comedian Nick Swardson and the "Naked Trucker" himself, Dave "Gruber" Allen.

Rajskub and Kilgariff play aspiring musicians who are more interested in practicing their songs than actually running their store. If you went to college or ever had to suffer through someone pouring their heart and soul out through an out-of-tune guitar and terrible poetry at the local coffee house, you'll appreciate this film. Actually, I'd like to see these two team up with T-Bones and the Naked Trucker. I'd totally go to that show.

[via CC Insider]

Entertainment Weekly ran an interesting online reader's poll asking, "Who deserves more fame?"

While I'm not sure I'd wish big time, privacy-destroying fame on any of my favorite performers, there are definitely some TV actors out there who are severely underrated.

Who was included on the EW list? Christopher Gorham, Ugly Betty; Allison Mack, Smallville; Sara Rue, Less Than Perfect; Nathan Fillion, Firefly; Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, Supernatural; Wendell Pierce, The Wire; David Hyde Pierce, Fraiser; Matthew Settle and Damian Lewis, Band of Brothers; the cast of Everwood; Clea DuVall and Nick Stahl, Carnivale; Mary Lynn Rajskub and Roger Cross, 24 and Tahmoh Penikett, Battlestar Galactica.

By popular demand? I don't think so. Jack Bauer's daughter, Kim, returns to 24 tonight. First of all, she's going to be surprised to find out that her dad is alive. Then how will she react? Will she want her old job back at CTU? Who knows what storyline awaits Kim this season. She's already been tormented by a cougar and held hostage by a psycho in an underground bunker. I'm guessing she had a baby since Jack "died". Why not?