Did the article give the impression that any of the listed possibilities was actually being considered for the role? This was lazy wool-gathering on someone's part
Well, to be fair, articles about potential casting are pretty common these days (several appear every month in the print issues of both TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly). But my problem with this particular instance isn't that the actors included may or may not ever be considered for Barnabas...
I think some of the people are being a little unfair about the article - it's not meant to be a serious journalistic overview of the casting process, but just a bit of fun kicking about possibilities.
...My problem is that it gives an impression that a new WB DS is already a done deal. But unless we're being kept in the dark (no pun intended
) because DC and John Welles want, for whatever reason, to play things really close to the vest (which seems unlikely - especially given the level of coverage just the mere possibilty of a new series has already gotten in the trades), that wouldn't appear to be the case at this point in time.
Fluff is fine and can certainly have its place. But at the same time, just because a piece is fluff, it doesn't necessarily follow that the need to state/check facts or present an accurate picture goes out the window. From the get go, this fluff piece takes as its premise that a deal for a new WB DS is complete. And quite frankly it's not really fair to set up DS fans who, unlike us, may not be clued in to things like SG Update or other direct links to DCP to otherwise know any better, and who are quite possibly only getting their info from TV Guide, so they're extremely likely to assume that if TV Guide is saying it, well then, it must be true that there really IS a deal completed already. :- But the simple fact of the matter is that for the sake of accuracy it would have been so easy for this TV Guide reporter to have written something along the lines of "Like a vampire that simply refuses to die, the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows ...
could be raised from the grave yet again" or "
might be" rather than give the seemingly erroneous impression of an already done deal as he has by instead writing "Like a vampire that simply refuses to die, the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows ...
is being raised from the grave yet again."
That's my only point - and I don't think it's an unfair one...