Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!!! We have a Sassenach

 or # is finally over. We can now resume our normal life and take 10 minutes to shower, without worrying we’ll miss the announcement. I’ve been obsessing over this since Sam Heughan was cast. Every time my phone told me someone had Tweeted, I held my breath until I read it. Even the mentions this:

In the two months since casting the first lead character of Jamie Fraser, thousands of Outlander fans have started online campaigns, “Claire Watch 2013” and “Free Claire” in anticipation of today’s announcement.

Today, the Outlander Twitter-verse exploded again. And I have to say, I’m pretty proud of us Outlander fans. We’ve been fan-casting for a loooong time now. So I assumed that whenever the actual casting was announced, we would shred the poor actors to pieces, just because they weren’t the ones we had been fantasizing about (Fifty Shades anyone?). It did happen a bit with Sam Heughan, with a bit of a negative reaction at first. But with Caitriona… Apparently not. We are embracing her as soon as she was announced. Good for us. Of course, it does help that Starz is doing a pretty amazing job with the actors. Ok, I haven’t seen them act as our beloved characters, but just by the photos, I love them!!!

So, today, Diana Gabaldon and Starz announced that we finally had our Sassenach, and Sam Heughan dinna has to be afraid, cuz there’s the two of them now.

What do we know about this Caitriona Balfe, besides the fact that I can’t pronounce her name?

ABSOLUTELY NO-THING!

So, we googled (what else?).

First, let’s see the Press Release photo.

Stop right there!!! Before you start complaining, let me say just 2 words: contact lenses.

Ok?

Let’s carry on.

According to her  profile, she’s Irish and was born on 1979. She’s had roles in films such as “Super 8″, “Now you see me” and “Escape Plan”. And she’s been in a tv series called “H+” in which she played a character named Breanna (foreshadowing anyone?)

Diana Gabaldon said, “Hard to believe lightning can strike twice, but it surely did. The moment Caitriona Balfe came on screen, I sat up straight and said, ‘There she is!’ She and Sam Heughan absolutely lit up the screen with fireworks.” .

“The casting of Claire Randall was a long and difficult one because the role is so crucial to the success of our show. Outlander is told from Claire’s point of view and we experience the entire story through her eyes, so it was vital that we find exactly the right actor to play her,” said Executive Producer, Ronald D. Moore. “Caitriona wasn’t on anyone’s radar, she wasn’t on any list, but when we saw her audition tape, we immediately knew she was someone special. Then, after we had her read with Sam, we knew we’d found our Claire. At its heart, Outlander is the story of two people — Claire and Jamie — their loves and losses, their adventures and tragedies, and now we finally have them both.” .

Wanna see and hear her talk? So did we!

Ok, so I know I said I was proud of us as fans cuz we embraced the actors chosen to play our all time favorite characters. But let’s stop kidding ourselves and be honest for 2 seconds and list the 5 reasons we hate Caitriona:

1/ She’s gorgeous

2/ Diana Gabaldon loves her as Claire

3/ She’ll get to travel through the stones and live our every fantasy. She’ll get to be Claire and we won’t.

4/ Lots of kissing and sex scenes with Sam Heughan

5/ She’ll have a hot guy tell her things like:  ”I meant it, ye know,” he said softly. “I will protect you. From him, or anyone else. To the last drop of my blood, mo duinne.”

Don’t hate her yet? I have a Bonus Track:

She’s a Victoria’s Secret model.

There you go. NOW you hate her.

In other casting news, we have a Godfather too. Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser will be played by Duncan Lacroix.

Yeah, I know. You are still hating Caitriona’s VS’s photo, right?

So, what do you think? Do you love or hate Caitriona Balfe as Claire?