Of all the ways to describe Harvey Pekar — irascible, schleppy malcontent; droll observer of life’s minutiae; disagreeable David Letterman guest; star and subject of the wonderful 2003 film American Splendor — "opera star" would not immediately leap to mind as a remote possibility. And yet tonight that’s exactly what Pekar will be, starring as himself (naturally) in Leave Me Alone, a "new jazz opera" written with San Francisco-based musician Dan Plonsey that’s about, well, in part the creation of a new jazz opera called Leave Me Alone. It premieres tonight at Oberlin College in Ohio for one night only, and will be simultaneously webcast for free starting at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Anyone familiar with Pekar’s determinedly autobiographical work — before American Splendor the film, he was best known for American Splendor the comics, published in the 1970s and first illustrated by R. Crumb — can recognize that Leave Me Alone is really just an expansion of what Pekar’s always done: Turn his own life into a fascinating rumination on life, and art, itself. But no, he won’t be singing; four vocalists will back up Pekar, Plonsey, and their respective wives, all playing themselves and re-creating moments from their own lives on stage.
So PopWatchers, if you have time to click on over to the free webcast and watch it, do trundle yourself back over to these parts and talk about what you thought of Harvey’s little avant-garde show. It certainly promises to be quite meta, occasionally uncomfortable, and unlike any jazz opera you’ve ever seen before.
As was reported earlier this week by the Hollywood trades, 3rd Rock From the Sun alum Kristen Johnson is — as she told EW just yesterday — "99.9 percent" locked for the pilot of Fox’s remake of the British cult hit Absolutely Fabulous. And here’s just a little bit of back-patting for us here at EW: "The funniest thing is, EW is how I found out about Absolutely Fabulous," she says. Supposedly, Johnston read about the plans for the remake in the pages of our dear little magazine. Score one for us! Because, the general consensus is that she’s perfect for the project. Glad we could help.
Well, here’s the deal: I’m not really much of a blogger. Is blogging like clogging? I’m not much of a clogger either, actually. But I did tell my friend Dalton at EW that I would blog for episode 303 of Friday Night Lights, and so I’ve been trying to figure out what that means. I started by re-watching the episode. And MAN, there are some great freaking actors on our show! So while I’m not sure if this counts as a legitimate blog, I’d just like to give a little revelatory shout-out to them as I watch this show….
Who knew the first big political debate of the Obama Administrationwould be between Bill O’Reilly and Jessica Alba. Over Swedishneutrality, no less. Here’s how it all began: On Jan. 20, Foxreporters caught up with Alba at an inaugural party and asked theactress to give an on-camera shout-out to the conservative talk showhost. Alba, turns out, isn’t a fan. “He’s kind of an a-hole,” she toldthem. Later, she tried to turn the tables on reporters by asking themwhat they liked best about Obama. When she didn’t get an answer, Albajoked, “That’s right, be neutral. Be Sweden.” That remark touched offa storm of controversy, with O’Reilly calling Alba a “pinhead” forsupposedly mixing up Switzerland and Sweden. TMZ.com and other websitespiled on, too, calling her “a ditz.” Alba then retaliated on her webpage by posting a link to a Wikipedia article about Swedish neutrality.“She is absolutely correct,” TMZ followed up with a fake apology.“Sweden was a neutral country…60 years ago…. We apologize for notconsidering the political climate of the world in 1942 when wesuggested she may have meant, ‘Be Switzerland.’”
This week’s pop culture events ranged from pageants to performances to perplexing time-travel issues on an island somewhere in the Pacific. 
Anyone who’s already gotten nerd goosebumps from watching the Watchmen 
It occurred to me recently, as I was the youngest person in a showing of 
