Benjamin McKenzie Archives

OFFICER BEN

Former O.C. star Benjamin McKenzie shares a laugh with a costar while filming a new television pilot, LAPD, on Monday along Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif.

In the ensemble cop drama, which follows a group of officers in Los Angeles, Ben, 30, plays a reserved rookie cop.

LAPD is expected to air midseason on NBC and will most likely replace ER (series finale airs February 2009).

Lately, Ben, who spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, has been campaigning for Barack Obama.

20+ pictures inside of LAPD cop Benjamin McKenzie… More Here! »

Ben McKenzie makes a rare public appearance and attends the season two premiere of AMC’s hit series Mad Men at the Egyptian theater on Monday in Los Angeles.

The former O.C. actor, who turns 30 in September, is set to star in a film version of Dalton Trumbo’s 1938 novel Johnny Got His Gun.

In the film, Ben plays the narrator and title character, Joe Bonham, The novel mainly consists of his reminiscences of childhood and his current struggle to remain sane and, finally, to communicate.

No release date has been set for this movie yet. More Here! »

Benjamin McKenzie grabs lunch with a friend on Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles on Friday.

You can catch Ben, 29, starring opposite Al Pacino in his next project 88 Minutes, out April 18th.

But if you can’t wait until April, good news! McKenzie will make an appearance in the follow-up remix video of the Barack Obama “Yes, We Can” Song by Black Eyed Peas’ Will.I.Am.

Also set to appear in the video are Jessica Alba, Ryan Phillippe, Macy Gray, Black Eyed Peas’ Tabu and Beyoncé (if her schedule clears up). Expect to see the video released on the Internets soon!

Former O.C. star Benjamin McKenzie steps out with a new girl on Saturday night at the new Hollywood hot spot Parc to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

The pair were spotted entering the nightclub holding hands.

Ben and his new female friend joined pal Adam Brody and couple Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz inside to sing “Happy Birthday” to the guest of honor.

Here are some curious questions:

1) Whose birthday was it?

2) What’s going on in the other pictures below?

Miss-I-Held-Ben’s-Hand looks seriously distressed when paparazzi were snapping pictures of Ben and another woman. She even tugged at Ben and called for attention when paparazzi were near…

UPDATE :: The more “exotic-looking” girl Ben was seen with is Paul Wesley’s girlfriend. They were spotted holding hands together.

Wesley, aka Paul Wasilewski, played Donnie in season 1 of The O.C.. Donnie was a server at The Crab Shack alongside Ryan (McKenzie).

We’ve been hearing this for many months now (perhaps longer) but word on the street is that Fox has “officially” pulled the plug on The O.C. in its fourth (and final) season. Big surprise because just yesterday, the pilot pickup season kicked off and a spy dramedy from The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz was given the green light by NBC. Josh, 30, will be delivering a high-concept action dramedy about spies (in the vein of Grosse Pointe Blank) called Chuck.

Josh will also be executive producing The Gossip Girl, which is supposedly going to be picked up by the CW. He’s going to be a busy guy, that Josh. But without The O.C. on his plate. At this point, we can only wish for great acting gigs for the cast. All of them.

Other pictures include The O.C. star Benjamin McKenzie arriving at LAX airport with friends on New Years Day.

UPDATE 1 :: It’s official! FOX just sent out a press release. The O.C. will air its season finale on Feb. 22, so that’s 8 new episodes to go with new episodes starting tomorrow. Read the full text after the jump!

UPDATE 2 :: Josh drops some spoilers about the series finale to TV Guide: “There will be a pregnancy. There will be a most unexpected new love triangle. There will be some new animals that need saving. There will be some hallucinatory dreams. And there’s going to be a fight for the love of a certain woman. And there’s going to be some surprises for the Cohen family, and some really big decisions for everybody to make. The finale is going to deliver real closure to these characters. It’s going to be the finale we had always planned to do.”

More Here! »

Young (and hot!) Hollywood showed up in droves last night for “Red is for Emmy” party for Invisible Children at the King King nightclub in Hollywood. The OC’s Benjamin McKenzie (I know you need to know that he wears Calvin Klein underwear) presided as host of the party for the media-based non-profit, Invisible Children which premiered the third installment for a bracelet campaign - “Emmy: The Story of an Orphan.” Who else was on the guest list? The OC’s Adam Brody and Autumn Reeser, Veronica Mars‘ Kristen Bell, Ryan Hansen, and Jason Dohring, Lost’s Ian Somerhalder, and Desperate Housewives‘ Josh Henderson. Ryan is too cool for school and Ian needs a haircut… stat!

The O.C.’s Benjamin McKenzie arrived at the grand opening party of An Original Penguin store on Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood last night. Did everybody enjoy his shirtless cage fighting scenes during last night’s season premiere? HEHEHE. More pictures in the gallery…

More Here! »

Woohoo! New stills from the premiere of The OC! Above is the cute and lovable Summer (Rachel Bilson) pictured in her dorm room at Brown University. Upper inset: Summer and environmentalist Che (Chris Pratt) try to raise social awareness on campus. Lower inset: Summer visits Ryan (Ben McKenzie) at a bar. Larger picture of Ryan releasing his anger in the boxing ring in the gallery!

The first couple of episodes of season four arrived at my doorstep this morning. Feel free to leave comments (or email) asking questions and I’ll try my best to answer them for you. The OC season four premiere episode, “The Avengers,” airs Thursday, Nov. 2 @ 9PM ET/PT on FOX.