Kathryn Morris UK

Kathryn @ Toyota Race Training – March 2007

The start of a new season raises thoughts of the prospects it brings. All the changes to come. So many possibilities. The sights, the sounds (or lack of), the smells. The ugly noses!

What?!? Spring? No, I meant the 2014 season of Formula One that kicked-off in Melbourne, Australia, the weekend before last. It’s a new era for the sport with massive technical changes signalling a move towards more advanced power-trains to increase the relevance to road cars. And ugly noses.

Naturally when considering the opening of a new fight for the F1 World Championship (and very much NOT the ugly noses) one’s mind turns to Kathryn. No? Just me then?

Seven years go (that’s 2007 for those thinking about taking their socks off at this point) Kathryn was invited to take part in a Pro/Celebrity Race which features at the Long Beach Grand Prix each April. The event is backed by Toyota and is run to raise money for the Racing For Kids charity which supports children’s hospitals in the area.

March 17th was where those taking part that year met for initial training in handling a car on a race track. With Kathryn were tennis legend Martina Navratilova, X-Games star Dave Mirra, actor/singer Joshua Morrow (The Young And The Restless), ‘model’ Kendra Wilkinson, actress Kelly Hu (Arrow), actress Aisha Tyler (Friends), radio personality Robin Quivers (The Howard Stern Show), film director George Lucas (Star Wars), and actress Emily Procter (CSI: Miami).

The training was done at the Willow Springs International Raceway in California using the same Toyota Scion tC cars that were used in the race. The Scion range is only sold in North America, though in some cases the cars are available elsewhere in the world under different names. The front engined, front wheel drive Scion tC was the model used for the Pro/Celeb races from 2006 to 2012 and has been replaced by the FR-S (aka the more racey rear wheel drive Toyota 86/GT86/FT86). If you want to you can follow in Kathryn’s wheel tracks without even leaving your sofa as the Willow Springs circuit features in the PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 6. The Scion tC doesn’t. George Lucas has a history with the track. No, it wasn’t used for the podrace in SW: Episode 1, it is where he made one of his first films: 1:42.08. Also, the British TV show Top Gear filmed a segment there in 2013 which saw the presenters chased by aeroplanes. Silly boys.

The 2014 Long Beach Grand Prix is due to take place on Sunday the 13th of April. This year the likes of Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Corbin Bleu (High School Musical), Lilly Rush’s half-brother on Cold Case Brett Davern, and Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) are getting behind wheel for charity.

Sartorial elegance was not the order of the day but Kathryn still looked adorable as further shown in 12 new photos from the training day. We also have 2 small videos. One is brief interviews with some of the guest drivers. The other is just general footage from the day, which doesn’t noticeably feature Kathryn until the very end. They’ve all been added to the existing set in the KM UK Gallery.

C.U. At C.I.F.F.?

A quick reminder of the upcoming screenings of The Coin at the Cleveland International Film Festival, as reported last month.

Starting tomorrow (Thursday, 20th March) the short film by director/writer/producer Fabien Martorell will be shown four times in the early days of the event. Each time it will be shown alongside other short films. 2:15pm on Thursday and 5:10pm on Friday sees the ‘Shorts Program 4’ screenings. Saturday and Sunday, 14:30 and 09:20 repectively, it switches to the ‘Hollywood Shorts Program’.

An interesting sounding short called Dog Food starring Amanda Seyfried (Mama Mia!) is one the seven films in the ‘The Hollywood Shorts Program’. Putting the two descriptions “a butcher loses his dog” and “a self-employed butcher gets an interesting dinner invitation” together with the title and, well, you can draw your own conclusions…

In Cleveland this week and weekend? Going to CIFF? Let us know if get to see The Coin. Details of the CIFF can be found on the official website.

Minority Report – Sunday on BBC1

I don’t need to be a future seeing ‘Pre-Cog’ named Agatha to see something lovely in the future for UK TV viewers this coming weekend. Or do I….? No, I just need to be a TV guide reading Pre-Bed person in England

This coming Sunday night (16th March) BBC One gives us it’s annual airing of the Tom Cruise-led sci-fi action movie Minority Report. Last shown by ‘Auntie’ in May 2013, it starts a little late for those of us with jobs to go to in the morning and even later if you live north of the border in Scotland. Is this why you want independence, so you can schedule Kathryn Morris movies when you want?

Statuesque (because he’s at least as big as some statues such as the Oscars) Tom is John Anderton, a cop in a future with a set of three people (the ‘Pre-Cogs’) blessed with an ability to see visions of crimes yet to happen. It’s the job of John and co. to stop those crimes before they happen. They obviously altered the laws in this crime-free utopia to make incarcerating innocent people (they’ve been stopped from committing the crime after all) OK with everyone. They couldn’t possibly allow such things to happen in the present…

Kathryn stars as Lara, the estranged wife of John. That’s her above with the short brown hair. The reason for their separation, the loss of their young son to a child snatcher, is what drove John to take this job. John needs help after being framed for murder by the very system he’s working for. He turns to his ex.

First released in 2002, Minority Report pre-dates Kathryn’s work on Paycheck and Cold Case by a year. Co-starring Max von Sydow (The Exorcist), Samantha Morton (In America) and Colin Farrell (In Bruges), it became a hugely successful film around the world with box-office takings of over $300m. KM UK has a comprehensive set of HD screencaps and promo image above in the Gallery already.

Sunday, BBC One at 23:25 in England and Wales. Delayed by local sports coverage the Scots will have to wait another 55 minutes. Full details on the BBC website here.

Kathryn @ Alliance For Children’s Rights Awards – March 2008

On this day in history in the year of [insert preferred deity reference or leave blank] 2008…

The date was the 10th of March. It was a Monday that year as well.

The Alliance For Children’s Rights held their annual dinner and awards event.

Kathryn was there.

She over did the lipstick. I’m aware that there is supposed to be some symbolism involved in the wearing of lipstick (which we won’t go into any further here) but if there is any truth to it in this case a doctor should be sought. Apply some cream to the effected area or something. They match the shoes though and otherwise Kathryn does look great in her black & white dress and Wonder Woman bracelet. But, with only one of them she’ll only be stopping traffic, not bullets.

The Alliance For Children’s Rights is a charity that aims to help children in need, especially those in foster care. You can find out more about the organisation on their website here. This year’s event is due to happen in a month’s time on April 7th.

8 variously-sized new photos of Kathryn at the Awards are now in the KM UK Gallery.