So late yesterday afternoon, I got an e-mail (with some photographic evidence attached) from our photo editor, Connie Yu, that upon first read, sounded like a heaping plate of crazy. But the more I stare, the more Connie’s theory is making sense to me: ”Doesn’t this actor Leonard Edelstein (pictured, right), who played one of the Russian scientists during last season’s finale of Lost, look like Matthew Fox (left) with a cap and beard?” she asks. (And maybe a prosthetic nose, I might add.)
Anyhow, because I blog, therefore I’m lazy, I tra-la-la’d over to IMDB, typed in the name Leonard Edelstein, and up pops a page for… Len Cordova (a.k.a. Leonard Edelstein, a.k.a. Jake Leonard). Oh sure, dude’s got some credits (including ”playing” ”Hal Greene” in an ”episode” of Lost’s timeslot competitor, Criminal Minds, last season), but would you really put it past Carlton Cuse & Co. to construct a faux IMDB page as a way to distract us from the ultimate Lost-ian mindmelt? (Jack is about to be rescued by… Jack!) What’s more, individual Google image searches for ”Len Cordova,” ”Leonard Edelstein,” and ”Jake Leonard” turn up… nothin’ conclusive. Yeah, sure, our other photo editor, Katy Caldwell, dug around and found some pics of ”Jake Leonard” from a movie called Horrorvision, but as she points out, he has the same facial-hair pattern as Mr. Fox, so perhaps the whole Horrovision thing is a Cuse ruse too. (Have any of you seen that movie?)
So what say you, Lost-ies? Are Connie and I on to something bighere? Or are we just big, misguided fanatics? More importantly, shouldI do some ”reporting” later this morning and phone an actualpublicist? (And have I overdone the whole ironic-quotation-marksthing?) Holla back!
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That is exactly the same person. Awesome find! I’d know that face in a blizzard he’s the hottest man on tv. Mathew will you Marry me? (well in Massachusetts or Canada anyway).
Certainly looks like Matthew Fox. Interesting, since in their last Lost Podcast of the season, Cuse & Co. specifically said that Fox did NOT play the Russian. Hmmm. I smell a Cuse-sized rat! Part of the Lost ARG (Alternate Reality Game)?
And where were you all months ago when the finale aired?!? This topic has been discussed to death already back then. if EW had paid any attention to its own Lost message boards, Michael Slezak would have known that. This is not an “Awesome find!” and Michael Slezak and Connie Yu can in no way be called “fanatics” by themselves or anyone else if this item is just coming to their attention. Maybe if you spent a little more time watching the show or discussing it afterward, you wouldn’t be wasting the time of actual fanatics. Thank you very much!
Although I wouldn’t put anything past the producers, don’t think that two actors above are one in the same. This same issue was discussed at length around the time of last season’s finale, and the producers were asked specifically about this question. They denied that Matthew Fox was playing a dual role. Again, they could be lying, but they did deny it a few months ago.
Never knew russians used to speak portuguese…
I said that right after the episode aired.. we paused it and I definitely thought it was Matthew Fox… I’m surprised this wasn’t a bigger topic then.. but thanks for the acknowledgement finally.
Do you mean the guys in the end who call Penelope??? They are brazilian, with perfect sao paulo accents…Unless I missed the Russian bit in the finale… the guys playing chess are 100% brazilian…
Photoshop?
I hate to say it, but this is old. Like, last May old. This has been discussed to death since June. It’s cute you thought you were first to notice though!
Yeah, love you guys but Kristin from E Online has been talking about this since the season finale.
As for the comment that the producers denied it was Matthew, that has no bearing on if it is or not. Towards the end of the first seasons, the producers were interviewed in TV guide, after Boone’s acccident, about cast changes. They discussed other survivors coming into prominence and how they were particularly going to beef up the story line around the science teacher guy (don’t recall his name) and we saw what happened to him shortly thereafter. I won’t trust a thing they say from now on. I have to see it to believe it. Don’t know about this pic though… It could be him, but we’ll just have to wait to find out.
just to clear things out: I´m from Brazil, born in Sao Paulo, and those two guys who call penelope don´t have an 0,001% of a “perfect sao paulo accent”. Sorry Mel, but those two are Portuguese. The big question here is whether the new guy Paulo (Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro) will play a part as a Portuguese or a Brazilian guy.
If Jack is the “Bad Twin”, then this show will officially jump the Dharma-branded shark.
(That being said, the promo with Jack flooded with water is insanely cool. An underwater hatch? Is that what the giant cable Sayid found during Season 1 powers?)
This is the first I’ve heard of this theory, biut the dudes look alot alike.
The two scientists at the end are not Portuguese. While they may not have a Sao Paulo accent, it is Brazillian nonetheless. Yes, there is a difference.
Unless they used a prosthetic earlobe as well, the second pic is not Matthew Fox.
One of the reasons normal people get turned off cult shows like Lost and The X Files is obsessive fans deadset on proving that their even bigger fans than the next guy. Who cares. If it’s been discussed on other sites or if Michael Slezak isn’t as big a Lost fan as you are, so what?. I enjoy Lost as much the next person but I didn’t waste my summer talking about it on the message boards. I’m sure for many people on the EW web site this came as news. Give it a rest.
I hadn’t thought that Fox played both roles. I do wonder, though, if Cuse and the Gang cast someone intentionally who looks a lot like Jack. We’ve already seen that Jack’s dad gets around a bit, after all…
Jesus Christ, EW. Why don’t you just drop the “Entertainment” and rename your mag and website “ABC’s LOST Weekly???”
I don’t think it’s Matthew Fox. The nose and ears are different, and the Brazilian scientists’s eyes look darker. He also appears to have a slightly more round chin than Matthew Fox. Could definitely be someone intended to look a lot like Jack, though.
There’s no way that’s the same guy. Look at the nose. Jack’s is straigter, and the other guy’s is more rounded.
I thought those guys were speaking Portuguese, what’s this business about Russian?
I am getting so sick of LOST.
Fo’ real, people.
Why don’t you tell us how you really feel, Kenny…
I agree with Kenny… seriously it’s an awesome show, but can I read one review of ANY tv show or read any story without some reference to Lost??
There is a film called “Horror Vision” (2000) available for rent on Netflix. Jake Leonard is listed in the cast.
The show got too nutty for me at the start of the second season (hello, smoke monster?!), but I think that does look like Matthew Fox.
What I don’t get, marilinda, Derek, and kenny k, is, if you don’t enjoy reading posts about LOST, why do you read posts about LOST? There are thousands and thousands of blogs and sites and discussions on the web: Go! Seek! Find! Read! Enjoy! Or take up knitting, hockey, sudoku, stamp collecting. Waste no more time reading stuff that does not interest you. ’nuff said.
You tell em Donna….great country this America, you can actually decide all by yourself what you want to read and what you don’t….
Well, Dave, I will. (And thank you Derek for agreeing with me).
I love LOST. It is the one of the best shows to hit TV in quite sometime. Every episode keeps me riveted and longing for more. The cast is stellar, the writing some of the best in television.
Don’t get me wrong: I am a fan, and the show deserves all the kudos it gets.
Still,any avid EW reader must be a wee bit sick of the coverage LOST receives within its pages and on its website.
I am to the point where I would rather see a photo of Paris Hilton, Ashlee Simpson and Kevin Federline in a group hug than another EW with Matthew Fox, or Evangeline Lily, or Terry O’ Quinn gracing the cover.
C’mon, EW. Give it a rest will ya?
Or maybe my renewal subscription will, um, get “lost” in the mail…
Message to Donna and Lila: Between knitting myself a hockey jersey for this fall’s season, I enjoy checking out EW Popwatch and posting my comments. I -like all of you fine pop culture fans – are entitled to my opinion. Don’t take it personally, sweetie.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta get back to my sudoku…
Just want to clarify, the scientist is not Russian but PORTUGESE!