By Daniel Fienberg
January 9, 2007

Is Jason Gedrick audience poison, the high prince of showkillers, or is he just an yearning artist in quest of a hit?

Gedrick and his Kings of South Beach co-star Donnie Wahlberg (himself the veteran of The CW's instantly cancelled Runaway) gave the question some thought at the Television Critics Association press tour panel for their upcoming A&E telefilm.

"You know... actors can only control what they can control," says Wahlberg. "And that's really, hopefully, to have a few choices and make the right ones and to show up and do the work. And you know, for -- you could easily take the perception that Jason Gedrick has sort of been like a George Clooney and his ER hasn't come in yet. He's done a lot of pilots and a lot of quality stuff, but..."

Gedrick, who appeared with Wahlberg in NBC's cancelled-too-soon drama Boomtown, interjects, "Would you repeat that, please?"

"Well, a better-looking George Clooney," Wahlberg corrects quickly.
"Sorry. But to me, I look at it as this kid is a veteran."

Wahlberg's right. The pre-ER Clooney would have killed for a resume that included lamented gems like Murder One, EZ Streets and Falcone.

The former New Kid on the Block is generally savvy when it comes to the peculiarities of fame.

"You know, Paris Hilton is a huge star, probably bigger than both  of us, and what does she do? You can't control what people gravitate to and what they don't. We can only control the work that we do and try to give it the best that we can."

Seconds later, Sonny Grosso, one of the producers on Kings of South Beach puts everything in perspective, noting, "Although we all really enjoyed Paris Hilton's film, didn't we?"

Originally appeared at: Zap2It.com