'Birds of Prey' styles itself on its comic book heritage

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

From left, Ashley Scott as Batman's daughter Huntress (aka Helena Kyle), Rachel Skarsten as Black Canary (aka Dinah Lance) and Dina Meyer as Oracle (the secret identity of Barbara Gordon, formerly Batgirl). "Birds of Prey" debuts tonight. The WB 'Birds of Prey' 8 tonight, KFVE

"We really want this show to look like a comic book," says producer Brian Robbins.

And it does.

"Birds of Prey," airing its first episode tonight, is so stylish that some viewers will flee and others will be fascinated. It's the Batman story with a fresh generation of characters.

In the old days, Barbara Gordon's dad was the police commissioner and she was Batgirl. Then a bullet from The Joker left her confined to a wheelchair.

"She found a way to master cybernetics and weaponry," says Dina Meyer, who plays her. "She has redefined herself as Oracle."

She has the smarts and the technology, but the wheelchair keeps her from physical activity. That's where Helena Kyle steps in as Huntress.

Helena's dad, Batman, has left town in a funk.

"He went into a self-imposed exile," says the show's creator, Laeta Kalogridis. "He might be brooding or he might be pursuing."

Whatever he's doing, he doesn't know that he had a daughter by Catwoman, who was murdered by The Joker. The daughter is Helena, now an angry alternative type, willing to retreat into the bar scene.

Instead, Barbara keeps nudging her back into fighting crime — something Helena does well.

"The daughter of Catwoman and Batman is going to be half human, half meta-human like her mother," Kalogridis says. "Dad's human, but Mom was not."

For actress Ashley Scott, a mere human, portraying Helena takes some preparation. "I've been fortunate ... (to know) tae kwon do and gymnastics," she says. "And I have a trainer."

Both actresses may be familiar to fantasy buffs. Scott played Asha in "Dark Angel" and was Gigolo Jane opposite Jude Law in Steven Spielberg's "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence." Meyer, best known as the professor who seduced Jason Priestley in "Beverly Hills, 90210," was in "Starship Troopers" and plays a Romulan commander in the upcoming "Star Trek: Nemesis."

Alongside them, however, are two characters who will help nudge nonbuffs into the story. Dinah (Rachel Skarsten) is a wide-eyed teenager who has haunting visions and wants to help. Detective Jesse Reese (Shemar Moore) is a skeptical cop.

"I'm just a regular dude," Moore says of his character, "and we don't realize ... these girls exist. (Then) I run into these divas that are jumping from rooftop to rooftop."

Moore brings lots of personal fame to the project. He's been hosting "Soul Train" since 1999, was one of the stars of the movie "The Brothers" and won an Emmy on "The Young and the Restless" — a role fans recall fondly (when he left, the show's ratings dropped).

"There's not a grandma on the planet," he says, "who hasn't come up to me in an airport or a grocery store and says, 'Baby, you went and died in Africa, but you look pretty alive in front of me right now.' "

Skarsten, by comparison, matches her character's innocence. She's 17 and Canadian with roots far from Hollywood.

"Acting was never part of the plan," she says. "I had my whole life planned."

She was a cellist and ballerina, the daughter of a successful psychologist who died of cancer when she was 9. She was discovered while singing at her father's memorial.

"An agent saw the ... (memorial) and asked if I would go in and audition" for a part, she says. "I didn't have enough money for a portfolio."

She got the job (a Honeycomb cereal commercial) and an acting career. When Pax TV started filming its first series ("Little Men") in Canada, she was the lone orphan girl at the school for boys.

That put her in frilly dresses, which is not her current mode. Skarsten has been the goalie for an amateur Toronto hockey team.

"Hockey has been wonderful," she says. "It keeps me in shape."

Her Norwegian roots might help, too. Tall (5-foot-10) , thin and athletic, she seems ready to boot some bad guys — if Huntress ever tires.