‘Survivor: Panama’ – Shane Powers’ Acting Past Uncovered

Shane Powers, one of the new contestants on Survivor: Panama – Exile Island, is listed in his official CBS bio as being the owner of an entertainment marketing company. Other than that, his bio is rather skimpy.

However, RealityNewsOnline has discovered that Shane is also an actor who has appeared in several movies and the occasional small TV role.

Shane’s most prominent role appears to have been as Sam the record store owner in the 2002/2003 release, Luster. According to a plot synopsis of the movie, Sam is in love with Jackson, a blue-haired poet who often shops at the store. But other regular customer Derek is also in love with Jackson. Jackson is in love with Billy, another guy he met at an orgy. But Billy favors rock star Sonny. So Jackson considers his own cousin Jed, but Jed is seduced by Jackson’s lesbian friend, Alyssa. And somewhere along the line, one man in the movie kills himself for reasons that appear to have something to do with being heterosexual but falling for Jackson. I don’t know about you, but I’m confused just by the summary!

The U.S. box office was not exactly staggering, but it managed to get a New York Times review. The review is somewhat mediocre, noting that the movie is “relentlessly bright and superficial, even when the subject turns to self-destruction. It's as if the filmmaker, along with most of his characters, had taken too many self-esteem seminars at the local Learning Exchange. There is no room for negativity in Mr. Lewis's newfound universe, where bright sunshine and beautiful boys prevail.” (If you’re interested, you can check out the DVD at Amazon.com.)

In addition, Shane has appeared in several “Black Scorpion” features – both on TV and in movies – including Black Scorpion, Black Scorpion II: Aftershock, Black Scorpion Returns, and Sting of the Black Scorpion. Shane plays Specs, whoever that is, in this storyline that features a female Batman-like character who is secretly a “sexy undercover cop,” according to Yahoo. Some viewers described these as campy, while others said they were the worst movies or shows they had ever seen. I guess it depends on your perspective. (If you’d like to check these out, here is a link to the TV series on DVD.)

Shane has three minor credits on Third Rock from the Sun – as “Mugger,” “Man,” and “Video Pirate” – while he doesn’t even list the show as one of his favorites in his CBS bio. He also played “Guy #1” in the pilot episode of My So-Called Life.

While the CBS bio does not make any mention of Shane having been an actor, we first realized the likelihood that the two Shane Powers were the same when we saw the photo shown at the right side of the top of this article – which is from his role in Luster. Although the photos are so similar as to make it highly likely that we were talking about the same person, RealityNewsOnline checked with CBS representatives and confirmed that indeed they are the same person.

It’s unlikely that Shane’s acting experience, such as it is, will give him much of an edge in Survivor, nor will he probably be recognized by any of the other players. But it is interesting that yet another actor is on the show – will he be trying to actually win the million dollars, or will he be more interested in portraying himself as a character, in the hopes of parlaying his appearance into more significant acting roles? Only time will tell.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other Survivor: Panama pre-show articles:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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