They used it in Toxic, Prey, and Identity too. It would have gotten a lot more use if they'd gone with Dooms as bartender. Can't say I'm disappointed they changed their mind on that front but I bet in hindsight they wish they had kept Oliver's apartment intact. I wonder if Dooms as bartender came from the Goughlar. Maybe if they had stayed for season eight we'd have seen a lot more of that set.

CityLife, they're trying to tell us something. 'Smallville Season 8: Lightswitch Extravaganza.'

They're so ICONIC! they walked off the set? :-P

Odd, I must have forgotten those scenes. Honestly, I don't like the picture featuring the set; it just makes me wanna go get drunk, just look at all that alcohol.



This makes perfect sense. :)



LOL

This quote is from Meab originally posted the Spoiler thread.

This is precisely why I don't trust Season 9. I need a flat out statement from the show that it will end Chlark despite of whatever Tomfoolery they promise. This can be done with Chlois, the "True One" bracelet, Clark flying with Chloe in his arms, or a Chlark wedding at the FoS followed by Chlark sex. If I have to wait until series finale airs to watch my end, I can do just that. I can’t stand anymore bullshit stall out of Clark.

At this point, I think the most I can hope for is the reappearance of the bracelet. I think flight would be happening if this were the series finale, but--we know it's not.

I'd like to cast my vote for Chlark sex, please:-).

Seriously, there is no doubt in my mind that even if we get Chlark at the DP next year, there will be stalling. Lori or Cat if they can afford another actress, or Clark fooling around with Tess if not. These guys do not have a clue how to write romance without some irrelevant roadblocks thrown in. Nevertheless, if we can have a clear indication at the beginning of the season that the Chlark partnership will be front and center, I'll watch.

I'd love to see that bracelet come up again. It's odd to me that with all the self-conscious continuity they've had this season, that hasn't been mentioned or shown at all. I suspect they're saving it for near the end of the season.

I disagree that another actress is needed, all that's needed would be Chloe's resistance in being "Clark's rebound" The first half of the season could be Clark pursuing Chloe, while she's not sure if it's true.

Look at Clois this year, what was keeping them from getting together even before the Clana arc? Nothing.

Oh, I agree. I don't WANT to see them bring in yet another character to do a Jimmy Olsen on the Chlark relationship; we've had more than enough of that. I just think these writers have a hard time writing a conflict without tossing extra characters into the mix. It's true that there was nothing standing between Clark and EDLo, but then, the emotion was really all just on her side, which is part of what made that arc rather uninspired and less than gripping, IMHO.

I wasn't saying you want to see it, just I disagree with the notion that to stall Chlark another actress is needed.

In all honesty the only character who can be a legit roadblock for Chlark would be Lana, to come back de-kryptonite, just as Chloe is beginning to let her walls down wrt Clark.

But there is only one thing I ask for Season 9, it's for it not to be as dark as the show has been lately.

Actually, I'd love to see Lana return K-free if Chlark is the plan and have a proper, voluntary end to Clana, one that's all Clark's doing. That truly would be sweet.

I agree. After the massive screwup that was the Lana arc, I'd love to see him actually decide he doesn't love her any more. That's really the only way to fix it at this point, IMHO.

Good luck with that.

My only worry about that type of arc is how they have Clark as the hestitant 'anything for you if you're happy'!Clark BDA. That like during the first Jimmy scene he'd back off the minute Chloe gives him the brush off not trusting his sincerity about loving her as a romantic partner past just friends. Like others have said they do not know how to extend out, atleast for 3-4 episodes Clark slowly ramping up his efforts at winning Chloe over and showing his devotion. Lana does need to return sans the krypto suit or something going wrong with it killing her and when she's normal again trying to put the moves on Clark, he says she's not what he needs or wants anymore. Chloe has awlays been and he's been blind and a fool....okay that's my fanfic dream.

New promo pix for Hex are up on KSite.

I absolutely love Chloe alone on the balcony Just waiting for her hero!

But this one, I just love Chlark

Him caressing her cheek, Clark with what appears to be the precursor to the Superman Hair Curl

But Chloe is still wearing the damn ring!

I can't imagine TW giving ED a more "loving look" than that. It makes me wonder if Chloe IS playing Chlois at some points during the episode. But if she were Chlois, she wouldn't be wearing her ring, would she?

That's just some amazingly hot eyesex.

I can't tell where that Chlark photo takes somewhere in the DP or at the Isis foundation given what they are wearing? But the look they are giving each other in that single snapshot just reaffirms AM and TW have some pretty fucking amazing chemistry

I think this takes place at the end, when Chloe turns back to her old self.

I wonder if Chloe and Jimmy gets a divorce/annulment papers in this episode, and that's Jimmy's "Birthday present" for her.

Hey, Chloe's gift in this pic is from Clark.

Well really, wouldn't that be a present for me? :P

I can't say I see anything "loving" about that look at all, frankly, but YMMV.

And man, Erica looks amazing in her pic, and I don't even think she's all that hot to begin with.

Her pic is sort of funny.

Her assignment seems to be Military related, her father is a General in the army, I sense a conflict of interest already.

But she's with a bunch of soldiers who'll qualify as veterans once the war ends...

Ok, I assume that picture of Lois in the back of the truck with the soilders is her off on assignment getting a call from a Chloe that has just discovered she's wearing a LoisSuit. (Ha, Lois may actually be embedded in a rack.) I'm going to guess that Chloe confirms that Lois is fine and out of contact for a few days so that Chloe knows how long she has to reverse the spell.

Then there is the second picture of Lois, the one where she is hugging Jimmy. That's probably Chloe in the LSuit. I wonder if Jimmy has just been awol or something rather than not invited to the party.

Call me crazy but the lighting and shadowf the truck is making ED's face look creepily smooth puffy almost Lanaish and her nose almost looks slightly snipped? Maybe she gained weight? Slightly because her face tho botoxed was more angular and defined, had cheekbones which were attractive and mature adult female than the cupiedollish look her make up or whatever she's sporting.

Tho I don't ship that way, looks wise the Chlollie was sort of cute sexy if he wasn't a blackmailing murderous creep.

MANnn! They have purposely smoothed out Ollie's bulging codpiece. It was always a nice acoutrimont. Oh but nice BDSM with Ollie chained up restrained and leather and Zatanna sort of soft Dom dressed.

Please don't link directly to an image file. Several websites (like KSite) disallow it so you just end up sending people to error pages, and if they don't disallow it, you just end up using up their bandwidth. Either link to the HTML page it's on or just give the number in your post so people know which pic you're talking about.

Zatanna is really hot. I wouldn't mind if she stuck around for more than one episode.

Jimmy's holding papers... please be divorce papers! Although they're in the Ace of Clubs, so it's probably a job application, haha.

The Chlark image pwns my soul. She looks so teeny and the way his hand is on her face! oh hearts hearts hearts! And he's totally got a Superman curl going on. ::melts::

I'm a little confused as to where the numbers might come from.

(this is the correct thread for the question I believe?)

I got the numbers from one of my personal previous contract and then from The Contract Summary Theatrical Motion Pictures and Television.

Thank you. "The Contract Summary Theatrical Motion Pictures and Television" -is easily google-able, but I haven't read through yet, I admit.

LOL I don't blame you, its information overload. So essentially I took some numbers from there and then kind of looked at my former contract and came out with and estimation based on what AM gets paid. The numbers may vary a bit but it would still be between $500,000-$700,000 to opt out. Thats the great thing about being under a union to protect you. Although if people sign a contract now like TW they run risks because we always run the risk of striking since SAG and the producers haven't come up with a deal.

I'm not so sure this is the case. In S4 wasn't Erica a guest the entire year? I thought they weren't sure they'd keep her until after the first four episodes. If she got a standard 5 year contract (which I understand was used for several others) in S5, then she has one more year left and under contract for S9. Now I've heard this math before from Craig at K-site too, I don't want to claim this as an original notion. IF this was the case, then she still has her usual 13 episode contract for S9 with pre-negotiated price per episode options for more (I assume there's some inflation clause). So, if they want ED for more, then they would know exactly how much they need. Perhaps we are hearing nothing because this is a non-issue for them and it truly is ONLY Sam Witwer who is not signed on.

AA, from the post I was referencing, has experience with SAG contracts and computed how much it cost to actually break Allison's contract with the show. Presuming she gets at least the SAG minimum amount they'd have to pay her nearly three-quarters of a million dollars (out of an annual budget of only about $22 million) to buy out her contract for season nine.

Three-quarters of a million dollars and they get NOTHING in return for it. That's more money than they paid ED this season and is probably close to what they paid CF and SW combined... in exchange for NOTHING.

That's why the people behind Stargate moved Sam Carter to Atlantis for a season after SG-1 ended; the actress was still contracted for another season that they would have had to pay her for even though the show was over and so they decided to instead use her on Atlantis where they'd at least get something for the money they'd have to spend.

The fact that Allison Mack is contracted for a full-time position through the end of season nine is a non-trivial factor. It's one thing to cut a part-timer's contract a season early for story reasons (part-timers earn less and appear in fewer episodes), but to write out a full-time lead before their contract is up is just not good business sense.


One of ED's interviews earlier in the season confirmed that she is NOT signed past the end of season eight. Whether or not she was a 'guest' or an uncredited part-timer for s4 is irrelevant because by her own words, her contract is up this year.

IIRC correctly she was originally to appear in a 4 series guest stint but then was offered a contract to finish out Season 4 and beyond. So her 5 year deal started around her 5th appearance.

Just based on the photos that is some fantastic casting for Zatanna. That's pretty much exactly what I imagined her looking like.

Say whatever else you want about Smallville (and God knows we all do!), but their casting is generally fantastic.

I've heard this too and it makes sense. However, Like Chris stated, Erica said she "would do another year if they asked her." (paraphrased). And now we have Matt telling us not to even ask. If she were still under contract, why wouldn't he just say, "She's still under contract" like Allison Mack? I don't buy the excuse that it will spoil the big deaths, because clearly, it doesn't matter if it's known that an actor is under contract, from the general opinion that it will be Chloe.

Last time I checked Allison Mack was billed as female lead. The fact that the person being quoted as an "expert" seems to regard ED as the female leads speaks volumes about their credibility.


I'm going to presume the person being quoted meant to say Welling, Kreuk , and Rosenbaum if this is even true at all (frankly, it seems to fly in the face of everything I know about SAG contract rules) because the alternative is... well, words fail me.

Durance has NEVER been more than part time and the notion that she's regarded as being at the same stature as Welling and Rosenbaum while Kreuk and Mack were not just strikes me as incorrect. If ED were REALLY that highly regarded I think she'd ALREADY be at 22 episodes a season and we wouldn't even be having a conversation about AM's contract because it would not have been renewed at the end of last season.

Between the assertions the CW is going to fold, that TW has NOT actually been resigned (even though he has), s9 is NOT actually a lock (even though it is), and that Only Welling and Durance have true, locked-in contracts (in apparent defiance of SAG contract rules) makes me think that the "source" of these "facts" is of questionable authenticity to say the least.

Chris, as I understand it, AM does not officially have leading lady status even though she's in all 22-episodes and has been on SV the longest after TW. Someone else may be able to speak more to this.

His statements (Steve's) seems contradictory because he claims that studio don't sign mulit-year deals with supporting cast members which implys Allison and yet doesn't apply to Erica who's pretty much the definition of the supporting cast member because she's been at 12-13 episodes for four years while Allison has been at 20-22 episodes for 8 years and pretty much moved away from supporting cast member one could say around S4.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't it PS3 that renegotiated with Allison? I'm pretty sure Al/Miles had already announced they were headed out the door before those negotiations started.

That would be correct. AM came back because PS3 wanted her back, and wanted her back badly enough that they made concessions to some, if not all, of her negotiators' demands. Given that, like MR did before he walked, AM had a fair bit of leverage going in and opted to play hardball (which was why her contract was still in dispute when the upfronts rolled around), I highly doubt she'd settle for something as grossly unfair as an "option" for a second season that gives her no finacial protection should they opt to cut her loose early when the industry standard for multi-year deals seems to be a buyout provision if one side or the other wants to end the deal early.

There's a reason Tom, Allison, and the rest of the cast are members of the SAG and protection from unfair contracts is one of the primary reasons.

I would agree on most counts, surprisingly.

off course, I have to add that Maxima was a hot mess. That kid from Subterranean was AWFUL. And Aquaman still remains blech! to me (possible bias as I couldn't stand that guy when he was on Idol). There are probably more (not to mention ED, as always, at least for me). But they don't always do a bad job. Zatanna looks good so far. In one photo, she looks like an evil Bree Van de Camp (my personal favorite housewife), so I dig her so far. I just hope she doesn't have some kind of annoying voice. All squeaky or valley or strange and off-putting loudness (see ED).

Yup that is definitely why we pay or dues every 6 months too. LOL The union provides us with protection against producers whims.

Ok thanks. I was reading a few "TBTP obviously don't care about Allison" posts and I was scratching my head a little because I was pretty sure that it was PS3 that worked down to the wire to get her back. I'm under no illusions that they might like her as much Al/Miles did (I personally suspect Chloe was their dark horse favorite despite the pimping they always gave Clana) but they've been working with her quite a long time. Of course they could have just wanted to save as many viewers as they could /shrug.

Although if that was their logic I don't see how that makes any more sense to kill her in the finale this year. Smallville isn't immune to midseason cancellation if the ratings really tank. I'm starting to see the "It's the last season so the producers don't have to care about ratings" posts as well and I honestly don't think that's really the case until sweeps is over next year. Even then it's not unprecedented for shows to have their last arc's cut short by 2 or 3 episodes even IF they make it past sweeps of their "final" year because of precipitous ratings drops.

Anyway, short version is that I can see Chloe dying in the finale. We've talked about wrapping character arcs up before offing them extensively and it's certainly possible that the reason they reduced Erica's episode count and have chosen to make the last 3 episodes focus on Chloe is that they are doing just that...wrapping her up. Still the other part of me says that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense not to wait until at least sweeps of next year before they off her if that's the plan. That way they wouldn't take such a hit financially (if it's true she gets comped for non-appearances) as well as minimize any ratings impact from losing another of the original characters.

It looks more like they are wrapping up the doomsday arc up, not Chloe's character up. Considering Chloe hasn't done anything to progress her character at all this season, she still needs a persona wrap up.

Lois on the other hand, what's left for her to do?

I dont think what they are doing to her clasifies as wraping the focus is IMO a consequence of her leading lady status and intertwining her storylines with the major players the villain and the hero they did the same with Lana for the last 7 seasons because that is the way this show operates the leads are always part of each other arcs, YMMV of course.



Indeed she is pretty much at the end of her journey what is supposed to do now...there is a reason she is not really doing anything on the last episodes you know...they don't know what to do with her as usual and God's know they are not preparing her for taking Chloe's place as Clark's partner so is more likely her number is the one up, IMO.

Taken to the spec with spoilers page.

Back to the Hex promo pics: Chloe looks so sad in most of the pics from her birthday party it is heartbreaking.:-(

What a horrible year she's had. And to think that PS3 will continue to crap on her till the end of the season and then just kill her off ... That would be monstrous, IMO. So, that said, I hope they won't, because I want to see some good things come her way at last, damn it!

I thinks she looks great, too. Let's just hope she can act as good as she looks. :)



I like the one where she's out on the balcony and looks like she's waiting on someone to fly back to her.



This made me laugh so hard, so thanks for that :)



That's a great point.

Would AM and her people go back and forth with PS3/The Network/The Studio/WhateverPTB in negotiations if she was only given a deal where she got one more year and "maybe" one more? I think they'd fight for something more concrete, myself.

I still think trusting BP on AM's contract is still valid because he, specifically, mentions that AM is signed and that they hope for Tom, which, we know is true that they didn't have him signed on until just recently.

OG: Are Tom Welling and Allison Mack already signed on for a Season Nine?
BP: Allison is. And we are very hopeful for Tom.



I think they do, too.

ED, herself, said (back in September) that she had not yet been signed for S9.

"Season Nine? Regarding rumors that Smallville might continue for another year after this one, Erica said if they ask her to be on it again, "I'd totally be in. Who wouldn't work with Tom Welling for another season?"

Unless things have changed in 5/6 months, I'm going on the facts that AM is signed on for S9, but ED is not (unless, they've been, secretly, making a deal and we haven't heard a peep about it).

Following your link a little further I found it very interesting that the next person BP mentioned as being pivotal to have on board was Justin (given that they put him into the prestigious final spot in the opening credits this makes sense). He later states that he believes AA is signed as are, he believes, "most of the cast."

Note the differing levels of definitiveness there. Allison IS signed for season nine is the very first thing he answers, before even getting to the hope to land Tom. He was very clear and certain on that. Then he segues unprompted from discussing Tom into discussing how great it is to have Justin on the team.

After that he has to be prompted about Aaron and PB is not 100% sure on that one (he is reasonbly sure, but it sounds like it's something he'd have to go look up to know for sure) and then he cuts off the discussion on who's signed and important by adding his belief that most of the rest are signed.

Now, it may have just been the sequence of Omar's questions, but I found the fact that BP did NOT mention the status of ED's contract specifically to be rather telling both in terms of concealing the status of ED's contract (despite her position in the credits he dumped her in with newcomers CF and SW and only said most of those three had been signed... while addressing AM, TW, JH, and even AA specifically) and secondly, in terms of how critical they regard the characters to the story they're telling... you've got Allison, Tom, and oooh Justin in one category... Aaron and the rest of the cast in a lesser category.

Given that Peterson is one of the producers who will be sticking around I find his prioritizing in that interview to extremely reassuring.

Can anyone tell me how many episodes SW is sign on for this season?

Twelve; the same as all the other supporting actors.

Thank you. I don't hang out here often so I really had no idea.