Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

The Phillies have called up left-hander Antonio Bastardo. Is that one of the great all-time names or what? I may just go ahead and order my Tony Bastard shirt right now.... I was thinking that nothing must typecast an actor worse than playing an albino-looking villain. Imagine my surprise when looking at the IMDB pages for Paul Bettany (he was Silas the albino killer monk in The Da Vinci Code) and Tobin Bell (he was the albino-looking "Nordic man" killer in 1993's The Firm). Both actors haven't suffered in the least for lack of work. Sure Tobin Bell has been pretty much cast as serious men or villains (like Jigsaw in the Saw movie franchise) but he's had plenty of work. Paul Bethany surprised me with the breath of his work. He was the ship surgeon in Master and Commander and he played Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale. Only after reading that did I go "Oh yeah - now I recognize him as Silas." That's the mark of a good actor. I guess getting cast as an albino killer could be good for a guy's acting career....