Whoa, check out that photo.  Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?  Starts with a 'J' and ends with 'cob?'  Sure to get the rumor mill a' churnin'.

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse tell EW.com that Jeff Fahey â?? a cult-pop fave most famous for The Lawnmower Man and most recently seen in Grindhouse â?? has been added to the show, joining previously announced newcomers Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan), Lance Reddick (The Wire), Ken Leung (The Sopranos), and British actress Rebecca Mader (The Devil Wears Prada, Love Monkey).

Link: ''Lost'' scoop: Fifth new cast member revealed! | Lost | EW.com Exclusive | TV | Entertainment Weekly

Technorati Tags: LOST, cast, characters, facts, jeff fahey, news

Rebecca Mader as "Charlotte" and Saving Private Ryan alum Jeremy Davies as "Russell."  Will it never end!

Rebecca's commitment is for less than a full season.  in fact, it looks like she will be in for roughly half of season 4, which is only 8 episodes if you remember Darlton's special arrangement.  This could mean that Charlotte is not as much of a regular as was originally though, or Mader isn't playing Charlotte, which would be a pity.  Quite frankly, I can see Mader playing the sweet, sexy chick with the sinister snap a lot more convincingly than Kristin Bell, no matter how much of a Veronica Mars fan I am.

Also hopping onboard is Saving Private Ryan star Jeremy Davies.  Don't know much about Davies split personality abilities, but he is good actor.  There is no intel pegging him as Russel, specifically, but come on.  Why not?

Link: Lost Spoiler! Meet Charlotte and Russell!

Technorati Tags: LOST, cast, rumors, characters, jeremy davies, rebecca mader, charlotte, russell

So it looks like Leung is not "Russell" after all... OK.

Oh, and "The Thin Man" (Arthur) will be Lance Reddick, of "The Wire" and "Oz."

Yet, another Lost casting scoop has made its way onto the internet.  This time it concerns a mysterious Tall and Thin man that was described in a recent casting notice for ABC's hit drama.  In addition to who will be playing this mysterious character, a new twist has arisen concerning some Lost casting news that was broken earlier this week.  Read on, but be aware of minor spoilers.

TV Guide's Michael Ausiello has reported that the role of Arthur, a tall, thin, and ominous corporate recruiter will be played by The Wire alum Lance Reddick.  Besides starring on The Wire, Reddick also appeared on Oz with returning Lost regular Harold Perrineau.

W00t! More news!

Link: 'Lost' Casts 'The Wire' Star

Technorati Tags: LOST, casting news, characters, cast, arthur, russell, ken leung, lance reddick

The role of the quirky mathematician "Russell" seems to be filled!  Here's the scoop from BuddyTV.  I don't think I'll even speculate as to where this character fits in yet.  But it is nice to get a bit of news here and there....  And I don't think this is too spoilerish.  A character name and a vague description does not a spoiler make.  It's possible that he's not slated for "Russell" at all, which would make this even less spoilery.

TV Guide is reporting that a former The Sopranos guest star is joining the regular cast of Lost.  Scoopmaster Michael Ausiello broke the news exclusively today of both the identity of the actor as well as the part he will likely play.  His nationality makes room for some very interesting speculation as well.  Since this is the first news to prove true outside of vague character descriptions and the sad let down last week from Kristin Bell, you can definitely consider the information to be somewhere near spoilerish in nature. You are warned.

Link: 'Lost' Drafts Memorable 'Sopranos' Guest Star

Technorati Tags: LOST, casting, characters, russell, Ken Leung

Heh, this is kinda funny, if true.  Apparently Jorge Garcia started himself a blog, and was promptly shutdown by his LOST keepers.  Wow.  Although you really should have seen it coming!

From the last day's entry:

Never mind.

DUDE!

Link: Jorge Garciaâ??s Blog

Technorati Tags: jorge garcia, hurley, LOST, blog, shut down

I dunno what they're putting in the water over there at EW, but the Doc has returned with a few nuggets on recent rumors, and a sort-of theory about the "Orchid" station.  But really, WTF?

And when it came time to tackle that promised July post, said brain curled into a fetal position and drooled large puddles of puddle puddle on the puddle-warped puddle puddle and WHAT IN THE NAME OF MIKHAIL BAKUNIN DID I JUST WRITE? See, I'm still not right in the head. Or maybe I just need more coffee. Yes, more coffee. Back in two minutes.

I mean, yeah I miss LOST already as much as anyone, but, (again) WTF?

Link: ''Lost'': Doc Jensen shoots down three rumors | Lost | Doc Jensen | TV | Entertainment Weekly | 1

EW interviews the returning Harold Perrineau, aka Michael Dawson.  Not a whole lot of interesting info as it relates to the show, but there is a little snippet on his comic-con comments on who's in the coffin...  I won't quote that here, it could be a little spoilerish.

Did you know since you left that you would come back?

The idea was [Michael] was coming back, because he didn't die. [He and his son] jumped on a boat. So the question was always how and/or when he'd come back.

Link: ''Lost'': Harold Perrineau on coming back | Harold Perrineau | The Q&A | TV | Entertainment Weekly | 1

Glad to finally be getting some news on the show, I thought for a while there we were going to be completely in the dark until February!!

Details on two new recurring Lost characters have leaked out onto the internet sending news starved fans into a tizzy of speculation. The first real news about what sort of people may possibly be on the approaching freighter, or a different group of people are together, are outlined, but Lost fans would do well to remember that last year Lost's clever creative staff used bogus character information to send fans in the wrong direction.

I wonder if one of these is the "Minkowski" character Jack was speaking to on the sat-phone? Given the "mathematician" rumor it seems possible....

Link: New Characters Heading for 'Lost'

Technorati Tags: LOST, casting, rumors, season four 4

Having a background in physics, when this new Orchid Station Video came out, I knew I'd heard the term before.  Sure enough, the "Casimir effect" is a real electromagnetic phenomenon.

The short version, in an example, would be two conductive (but still uncharged!) metal plates places close together in the absence of an electric field.  The Casimir effect produces a small increase in the "vacuum energy" between the two plates.  In reality the effect is so small as to be difficult to measure.  It wasn't actually measured until 2001.

The part, though that might relate to the show is that theoretically, from a quantum mechanics point of view, the Casimir effect could be used to stabilize a worm hole (from the Wikipedia article, with references.)

And, also from the Wikipedia article, (and this is the part I originally thought it might be relevant to), it holds a similar analogy to the Hawking effect at the event horizon of a black hole, where the vacuum energy sometimes results in particle pair production, and the spitting out of matter from a black hole.

So, what the hell could this possibly have to do with LOST or this new orientation film.  Well, lets start with the rabbits, and a bit of artistic license.

If the vacuum energy is increased in the region of the Casimir effect (the island) and you put them at the edge of a black hole (The Swan station? also the island...) the rabbit could split off into a rabbit and (cue spooky music) an anti-rabbit!  (hey I said there was some artistic license involved...run with it.)  So when Hollowax starts freaking out about not letting the rabbits near each other, he's trying to prevent the two from annihilating each other in the classic matter/anti-matter reaction....

OK.  So maybe the analogy gets taken a bit far in that the rabbit gets duplicated.  But what else could get duplicated?  People?  People nearing the edge of a black hole? Just as its energy is built up tremendously in some strange cataclysmic event?

See where I'm going with this?

What if (a big what if) Michael and Walt did make it off the island.  And they didn't.  All at the same time.

What if (another big what if) Naomi was actually telling the truth about the other plane where everyone died?  If the plane was in a region of increased energy (remember?) it could have been split into two, where one crashed on the island and the other into the Marianas trench.

And, I suppose this provides an further explanation for the Swan station.  It's was the mechanism by which the "natural Casimir effect" was kept in check, black hole or no black hole.

But what of the "White Rabbit" station?  Just a coincidence its named that, given the experimental animal of choice?  Is it far enough out to sea that it could be on the "edge" of this energy field, and could have a similar effect?  Does this mean we haven't really seen the end of Charlie?  What's up with Ben's affinity for the number 8 rabbit?

Hopefully some of this will be explained, if we ever actually see "The Orchid" on the show.  But who knows?

(And I can't wait to get a translation of this little gem the Tail Section got their hands on.  If its not just a hoax.)

I'll also try to pull those brief flashes of what looks like frames from the "Karl Film" that were cut into "The Orchid" film....

Technorati Tags: LOST.The Orchid, Casimir Effect, Dr. Edgar Hollowax, quantum mechanics, black holes,