BEAN BAGGED & PSYCHED OUT

On the season opener for 'Psych', Gina Gershon played a boozy, pill-popping ex-singing star named Emiline Saffron who now was a judge on a musical talent show called 'American Duos'.

I don't think she was based on anybody in the real world......

At one point, she had come out of her stupor, waking up in the interrogation room at the police station and in need of a fix from her handbag. When Detective Lassiter walked into "the Box" in his ill-fitting brown suit, Emiline took one look at him and exclaimed:

"Mr. Bean, thank God it's you! I really need my bag!"

I don't often laugh out loud while watching TV anymore. This was one of those times.

But of course, it also presents us with a Toobworld Zonk. For the audience watching at home, it was a joke reference to the cult character developed by Rowan Atkinson. Mr. Bean has gone from a series of sketch/sitcom episodes to having his second movie soon to premiere in theaters. But within Toobworld, Mr. Bean and Emiline Saffron should be sharing the same reality. His overly-complicated attempts to lead a simple life in England shouldn't have ever had any crossover with the jet-setting, hard-partying lifestyle that Emiline must lead in La-La Land.

To find the connection, we probably have to step outside the usual boundaries for Toobworld and cross over into the "Cineverse".

Toobworld has strayed into the world of movies in the past and laid claim to certain films as being part of the TV Universe. The 'Star Trek' franchise, the 1966 version (only) of 'Batman', 'Maverick', 'Buck Rogers In The 25th Century', the original 'McHale's Navy' movies.... But NOT the remake of 'McHale's Navy' with Tom Arnold, even with the participation of Ernest Borgnine, nor the remakes of 'Doctor Who', 'Bilko', 'The Addams Family', 'Leave It To Beaver', and especially not the aberrations of 'The Wild, Wild West' and 'Mission: Impossible'!

"Bean" from 1997 (Hard to believe it's been ten years!) would qualify as being accepted into the TV Universe because there is nothing in the movie that contradicts what was established in the TV series. And so it provides us with the best opportunity for Mr. Bean's path to cross with that of Emiline Saffron.

The best chance would be at the celebration in the Grierson Gallery for the return of "Whistler's Mother" back to America. Celebrities and other notables would have been invited for their ability to attract the attention of the press, and the resultant publicity - even from a scandal-plagued boozy bimbo like Emiline - could only help bring attention to the art gallery.

So as Mr. Bean was on hand at the Grierson Gallery, supposedly as an art expert overseeing the installation of "Whistler's Mother", it's quite possible that he made the acquaintance of Emiline Saffron. We just never got a chance to see it happen within the movie itself.

What surprised me more was that she would have remembered the encounter!

BCnU!
Toby OB