Kotaku Isn't Interesting or Good

Thanks to everyone who wrote in to report that gaming blog Kotaku had run an article on Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. Sadly the posting, "When A Porn Star Appeared In A Video Game About Giant Space Cats," doesn't have much to recommend it. It essentially explains that yes, Wing Commander III is a game that existed and that it did star Ginger Lynn Allen. Here are two 'behind the screens' stories that would have made the piece worthwhile.

During the game's film shoot, Mark Hamill's agent (likely not coincidentally his wife) famously refused to let him perform the 'kiss' scene(s) until Ginger Lynn Allen took an HIV test. Thankfully, the standoff ended on an amusing note. Here's Allen telling that story from a 2000 Aint if Cool News interview:

JOAD: How was your experience getting the gig for WING COMMANDER w/Chris Roberts?

GINGER: Nicole and Joy - the same two casting agents who brought me in to audition for "The Independent" - brought me in to read for "Wing Commander - Heart Of the Tiger". Whether or not they knew of my adult film past or not, I don't know. I do know that when Chris Roberts initially saw me on my first call back, he did not know of my adult career, and cast me on my acting abilities.

Principal filming took place in the Los Angeles area with most of the shoot shot on green screen. My grandmother came to the set one day wearing lime green pants. It was pretty comical to see the top half of my Gram floating across the monitor when she walked out onto the sound stage.

Wing Commander was one of the first, if not the first big productions to combine true interactive with film. The script was near 300 pages long. Each scene was shot in three to five different ways so that depending on the choices you made while playing the game the outcome would take the right direction. Preparation was a nightmare, but the game turned out to be fantastic.

For the most part it was a wonderful project to work on. The only unpleasant part of the shoot took place the day that Mark Hamil and I were scheduled to have our "big kiss". The day started off with Mark's representative requesting that I provide an AIDS test before Mark and I kissed. According to SAG rules and regulations this request was a violation of SAG policies. I wanted to go ahead and provide my most recent test results (I test every six months and have for the past 17 years) and my agent wanted to bring in SAG officials and shut down the production until things were settled. The final decision was that I would gladly provide my test results if Mark were to do the same. I had my test results faxed to the set, but Mark's never came through. I didn't show him mine, and he didn't show me his. We shot, we kissed and that was the end of it.

"Heart Of The Tiger" was the third in the "Wing Commander" series, and was, I believe the most successful. I played Rachel Coriolis, the ships chief mechanic and weapons loadout technician. Rachel for some reason was not brought back for part four. From what I understand many fans of "Heart Of the Tiger" were disappointed that Rachael 's character was not brought back. The director and producer of part 5 "Prophecy" decided it would be a good idea to include her in this episode.

Rumor has it that when the next two episodes are shot I will be in them. But this is Hollywood so God only knows. I'd love to be in them, but I'm not holding my breath.