Aw Jouse that's so sweet it hurts, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing the photo Jouse - it's lovely and just makes me go awww!

If any of you in the UK are interested in Hugh's animation work for kids, it looks like five life will be running the second series of MechaNick starting November 3rd. This is a preschool series that Hugh narrates. You can see a little clip from the first series here. The first few days' schedule according to mydigiguide.com is: 03 Nov 6:25-6:35am Em's Garage Garden 04 Nov 6:25-6:35am The Burglary 05 Nov 8:20-8:30am Spanner and Axle 06 Nov 8:20-8:30am Moose in a Mess 07 Nov 8:20-8:30am Ricardo Razzmatazz There are 40 episodes in the 2nd series, so presumably this will continue through November and December. (BTW, if anyone gets five Life and could record episodes for me, please PM or email me.)

Hope everything's ok at home for Hugh's family.

It must be an odd business to work in when the initial 'buzz' is "has Hugh run off in a snit?" rather than "I hope everything's ok with his family." Or maybe the reporter is just annoyed that Hugh isn't talking...

Aw, Jouse, that photo is precious. :) Thanks for sharing!

Kind of obnoxious that that was the spin, agreed. "Producers are tightlipped," maybe because they actually like Hugh and realize his family business is personal? What more than, "He needed the weekend off and we gave it to him, he'll be back Monday" do they need to announce to Variety?

Here's the Hollywood Reporter version of the same story. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i727c1748dbac59ed99864556f2004718 The fact that they say the trip was "unscheduled," that the show's production schedule had to be shifted — and that this is even important enough to be a story at all, much less in both of the major trade papers — sets off my journalistic antenna in an unhealthy way. They are heading into sweeps month, and with the writers' situation so uncertain, the networks and production companies are particularly anxious to get as much in the can as possible before Nov. 1. Clearly something unexpected came up at home that had to get dealt with suddenly and in person. If it were a birthday or anniversary or other regularly scheduled event, no one would have paid the sligh-*test*-('") attention and it certainly wouldn't have made the trades. On the other hand, I suppose it can't be all that serious if he's planning to be back at work on Monday. The reality is that it's really none of my business. But I can't help wondering who tipped off the trades and why.

They are heading into sweeps month, and with the writers' situation so uncertain, the networks and production companies are particularly anxious to get as much in the can as possible before Nov. 1. Maybe that's why the story hit the trades? Both the strike and the fires have caused a lot of skittish coverage of filming schedules. I was just reading yesterday the details of various shows and how they've had to rewrite, cancel planned location shoots or move productions to avoid the wildfires and various issues surrounding the fires. Couple that with the strike and I'm sure the trades' antennas are hyper-sensitive to any hiccups in various production schedules, as that's a hot story at the moment.

I agree that that is why theindustry antennae are hyper sensitive about this. If he were a US actor and there was a family emergency (a death in the family or grave illness, eg) it could be dealt with in a day, after work or on the week end--and behind the scenes. Because it is Hugh and "going home" for him means travelling halfway around the globe, 10 hours of travel there another 10 back, it's not a simple task to accomplish. The fact that the studio knew and granted the time--and that the time he's away is relatively short. He wouldn't be getting back home until Friday mid-day at the earliest and then leaving Sunday to get back to LA by monday (theoretically he could leave Sunday night and be back on the set Monday morning gives him really only a couple days home. It's like asking for one to one an half days off if he were based here.

Oh Christ, maybe he left the iron on. Thank you! Just want to add I hope everything's okay at home and it's just the media blowing something out of proportion. I've read before that he's flown home for one day or something when one of his kids was in a play, turned around the next day and flew back. This sounded like he made a last minute request to the producers to go home - if that's accurate - which of course makes it sound worrisome. But either way, it's his business and HL's the last person on earth who would do the storming off the set in a snip thing. On a positive note - bailey - LAX, Sunday, Stake out Part Deux!!