‘Lost’ & Found: Matthew Fox, Watch Out! (October 17, 2006)

by Bryant Huddleston

Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway might wanna watch their back. For the last two years they’ve clearly been the show studs. They’ve been the ones with all the magazine covers. Shows like “Access” care about them–we look for them on the red carpets and if we miss them, frankly it’s a disappointment. Well that’s about to change.

Enter Rodrigo Santoro–you might remember the sexy Brazilian starring opposite Laura Linney in “Love Actually” and Nicole Kidman’s rooftop love in her Chanel #5 commercial. But this week millions will meet Rodrigo for the first time when he begins heating up the island.

My colleague Shaun Robinson and I met Rodrigo last week when we shot them on a horseback riding adventure. He showed up wearing jeans and a shirt, and an NYPD cap.

Normally you’d wear boots when hopping on a horse but not this seasoned rider. “I don’t have the proper ride shoes, should be wearing boots or something because I’m traveling…so its either this or flip flops.” Shaun and Rodrigo gallop up the Hollywood Hills. The view is priceless-watch my piece next week on “Access.”

The avid surfer is loving Hawaii. Shaun asked him if he had watched “Lost” in Brazil. He had seen a few episodes but quickly got caught up.“When I got the job they sent me the two seasons, season one and two, and I watched every one. It was nice ‘cause usually you have to wait ‘til next week and I had it all…like a long feature film.”

Now regarding his mysterious entrance into the show, Rodrigo admitted he got in trouble by ABC when he told “Good Morning America” that he is a survivor from the tail section of the plane. So he was extremely cagey about revealing too much. He did add, “What I can say, it’s a short scene and um…it’s not an obvious way to introduce a character. That’s all I can say.”

But my source from the show told me last night, as it turns out, his introduction isn?t so memorable. They ended up short for time and he?s barely in Wednesday’s episode. There is no real introduction. That’s too bad but I have faith the fourth episode will change all that.

The six-foot-three actor is surprisingly serious but with a sultry charm. He’s won the equivalent of 8 Academy Awards in Brazil. Oh, and don’t call him the Brazilian Tom Cruise. That’s how “Lost” producers pitched him to me in August. He’s played it all including a transvestite. Tom Cruise he ain’t.

Now a day after our shoot my photographer brings something to my desk. Low and behold it’s Rodrigo’s NYPD cap. I thought to myself “Do I wear it?” or “Put it up on eBay?” or hold it hostage with a ransom note that reads “I want to go to the “LOST” set or the cap get’s it!” I’ll hold out for the set visit.

The show has finished it’s first six episodes that will end with a heck of a cliffhanger on November 8th but they continue to shoot. So Rodrigo, after you return from seeing your girlfriend in Brazil, Shaun and I would love to come visit you at the North Shore.

But we’ll leave the horses in the hills.

See you soon!

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