Lots of stuff

First, the answers to the NYPD Blue quiz:

1) Det. Martinez was played by Nicholas Turturro, Lt. Fancy was played by James McDaniel, Det. Licalsi was played by Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy), Det. Russell was played by Kim Delaney and, finally, Deputy DA Laura Michaels-Kelly was played by Sherry Stringfield, who left after Season 1 to join the cast of ER.

2) The cast member is Brad Whitford (aka Joshua Lyman). Whitford had gotten wind of the fact that Licalsi's dad was a corrupt cop who took his own life and that his daughter was also corrupt. A somewhat less-than-savory video was used as a blackmail tool to get him to back off.

3) The cast member is David Schwimmer (Ross). He played a character who lived in Laura Michaels' building and was known by the nickname 4B (given to him by David Caruso's John Kelly character). 4B was mugged in the building laundry room and decided, against Kelly's advice, to turn vigilante and start packing a gun. When the mugger came back, 4B pulled his gun, lost it in a struggle and was killed.

4) The two PAA's were Donna Abandando (Gail O'Grady) and John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup)

5) Debra Messing played Donna's younger sister who showed up just long enough to destroy Donna's budding relationship with Detective Medavoy (Gordon Clapp).

6) Melina Kanakaredes played reporter Bonita Alden for 5 episodes in season 2. An old friend of Det. Simone's (Jimmy Smits), the two become more than friends until a story breaks that gets a witness killed. Simone blames Alden for leaking the story and ends the relationship.

7) Oldest-to-newest: James McDaniel as Arthur Fancy (1993-2001), Esai Morales as Tony Rodriguez (2001-2004), John F. O'Donoghue as Sgt. Gibson (2004), Currie Graham as Lt. Thomas Bale (2004-2005) and, as of yesterday, Dennis Franz as Sgt. Andy Sipowicz (2005).

8) Oldest-to-newest again: David Caruso as Det. John Kelly (1993-1994), Jimmy Smits as Det. Bobby Simone (1994-1998), Rick (Not Ricky) Schroeder as Det. Danny Sorenson (1998-2001) and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (of Saved by the Bell) as Det. John Clark (2001-2005).

9) I accept a little bit of error on this one. Benzali made numerous appearances as Defense Attorney James Sinclair on NYPD Blue, first defending mobster Alphonse Giardella and later defending Det. Janice Licalsi. Benzali was so good in the role, he received the lead playing basically the same character on "Murder One". However, the character name on Murder One was Teddy Hoffman. So, my bad. BTW, Murder One is historic for another reason, as it was one of the first primetime non-soaps to carry its major storyline across 24 episodes.

10) Wives: Katie Sipowicz, Sylvia Costas-Sipowicz and Connie McDowell. Kids: Andrew Jr. (by Katie. Died in season 6 in the line of duty.), Theo (by Sylvia), Andy also had a child with Connie, whose name I don't recall. Connie also adopted her nephew, and Andy became the girl's father when he married Connie.

So there you go. Feel smarter?

As far as the Oscars go, I was right on 10 of 18 picks. I blew it on Director and both actress categories as well as some of the smaller awards, but, considering that the only nominated films I have seen this year are The Incredibles, Shark Tale and Shrek 2 (betcha didn't know I have kids), 60% ain't half bad. Shockingly (to me), I got both screenplays right, which I NEVER get.

Idol eliminations tonight. Christine and I agree that Celena and Janay should be the girls going home, but it's WAY too close to call with the guys. Guess we'll find out tonight. I'm also watching 24 tonight so I can hear with my own ears how many times they say "override". Guaranteed I'll work the word into my next conversation with Amy as many times as I can.

Later.