How thoroughly awesome is Glenn Close? I mean, yes, you already know that if you’ve seen Fatal Attraction or Jagged Edge or pretty much anything she’s ever done (ever), but last night’s second-season premiere of Damages drove the point home for me all over again. (Read Ken Tucker’s A- review here.) And while the story arcs that took center stage look like they’ll actually improve on the already quite good season 1, it was the smaller Patty Hewes moments that brought me the greatest joy. My three favorites? The way Patty glanced downward, like she was about to choke on her own bile, for just a millisecond, when Arsenault began his explanation for pulling funding from her charity with a puffed-up "let me tell you a story…" The way her eyes lit up with evil glee just a few minutes later, after discovering Arsenault’s daughter had earned herself a spot at Yale. "Well that’s quite an accomplishment," Patty cooed, as the initial seeds of the girl’s downfall were sown. And then, of course, there were her completely insincere instructions to Uncle Pete that he quit spying on Ellen, which ended with my favorite line of the night. "Fine. Watch her. I’m concerned about her well-being." (Ha!) Yes, Patty might be troubled by the memories of trying to have her young associate killed off, but since everyone’s still breathing and (semi-)functioning, might as well stay on top of their exact whereabouts and motivations.
Archive: January 2009 (281-290 of 354)
'Damages' season premiere: Murder, lies, and gunplay!
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'FOTC': Someone's been working out!
Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret McKinzie and Jemaine Clement sure are lookin’ FIT FOR LESS on the cover of TimeOut NY. (Thanks, Dlisted!) I can almost hear them breaking into a ‘roid-induced ditty entitled "Baby I Left You So Many Sweat Puddles on the Bowflex" or something less/more gross/creative. Season 2 premieres Sunday, Jan. 18, even though you’ve probably seen the first ep online already. We can’t wait!
And just because it’s David Bowie’s b-day…let’s relive Jemaine’s impression of "1986 David Bowie from the movie Labyrinth" from season 1, shall we? Bowie’s in space!
Clip du jour: What to do when the car won't start
There are so many classic Kids in the Hall sketches, but this one has the underappreciated Kevin McDonald at his prettiest. Seriously, just look at that skin. This clip is also winter-themed, which is nice. And bonus, it just might teach you something.*
* Total lie.
More on the Kids in the Hall:
The Kids answer some silly questions
Dave Foley talks KITH past, present, and future
The Kids in the Hall on tour and still cracking us (and themselves) up
Mark McKinney takes us on tour and behind-the-scenes
People's Choice Awards: You showed up? Here's a trophy!
This is not the blog post my editors asked for. In this space, you are supposed to be reading a Best and Worst of last night’s People’s Choice Awards, one of those snarky little fiestas where I run down all the highlights of the ceremony, crack some jokes, get worked up when Sugarland doesn’t win, whatever. But PopWatchers, I can’t do it this time.
I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, it’s hard to make a list of ‘bests’ when there weren’t any.” But even if I faked it by saluting Christina Applegate’s classy speech or the emotional fortitude it must take for Ellen DeGeneres to keep getting up there and smiling at the nice people who cheer for her when she dances her funny dance but refuse to give her the civil rights necessary to marry her “roommate,” I would be doing you, the intelligent and savvy readers of EW.com, a disservice. Because the People’s Choice Awards, by any reasonable standard, are the worst kind of pandering, artificial hooey. And we, the alleged people, deserve better.
I intend no disrespect to the winners of the “awards,” nor to enthusiastic hostess Queen Latifah (pictured), nor to the hardworking men and women who labored behind the scenes to produce these two hours of televised pap and circumstance. But with the exception of The Dark Knight — victorious in so many categories they had to shove them all into a montage at the end — do I think for a second that these “winners” are, indeed, the “people’s” choice? No. Let’s be honest: As the very clear post-show disclaimer explained, a complex system of “E-Polls” and market research and extravagant math went into choosing the nominees you saw upon your screen. And that system led to a telecast in which praise was lavished on a crassly commercial cross-section of demographically advantageous properties starring celebrities who were willing to show up.
The Beatles catalog is finally downloadable!...Oh wait, no it isn't.
You may not have even heard the news that a Norwegian broadcaster was offering up the entire Beatles catalog, previously unavailable in any digital form, as a downloadable podcast earlier this week. Well, it doesn’t really matter, because as of yesterday the plan is dead, and Paul McCartney describes the effort to finally offer a digital Beatles catalog as "stalled." This is getting ridiculous. The Beatles will never become irrelevant, but this refusal to join the 21st century isn’t doing the legacy any favors. Already, there are kids today who call the Beatles overrated, saying they "don’t get" the hype, etc. Music, and the way people listen to it, has changed, for better or worse, and the iPod generation is more interested in the hot new single than an LP work of art like The White Album. There’s nothing the Beatles or Apple Corp. (the company established to manage their catalog) can do about that, but it would definitely help keep the band’s music alive and well if the young music fans who live on iTunes were at least given access to Beatles tracks, should they decide they want to hear for themselves what all the fuss is about.
But perhaps even more important, this "stall" is just bad business. Shunning a distribution model that is growing for one that is dying (CDs) makes no sense, not to mention the fact that anyone savvy enough to use bittorrent can get the entire catalog for free anyway. Interestingly, Amazon just revealed that its top-selling MP3 album of the year was Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV – an album that Trent Reznor also offered as a free, high-quality download through a Creative Commons license. This means a TON of people paid for an album, even though they didn’t have to, simply because they wanted to support the artist. But the only option for someone interested in obtaining the Beatles in digital form is an illegal version where nothing goes to the artists. In other words, even if a kid WANTED to pay for an Abbey Road download, there’s just no way.
Enough is enough. I love and respect the Beatles and hope that future generations are exposed to their brilliance so the legacy lives forever. Hopefully, Apple and the Beatles themselves will realize their wrong-headed resistance to change is putting that in jeopardy. What think you?
addCredit(“Everett Collection”)
Site of the Day: Idol Chatter (and its Top 10 Jewish Movie Characters)
Idol Chatter, a religion and pop culture blog, recently posted an item with its picks for the Top 10 Jewish Movie Characters. Mordechai Jefferson Hammer (Adam Goldberg, pictured) from The Hebrew Hammer came in at No. 1, because he was the most frequently referenced character when the author of the list solicited nominations from her Facebook friends. (I think it’s poetic, then, that I found out about the list from my Facebook friend Jonathan Kesselman, writer/director of The Hebrew Hammer, who said he was honored using a metaphor I can’t print.) Check out the list — which also includes Star Wars‘ Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness, pictured) at No. 5, and Julius Levinson (Judd Hirsch), Jeff Goldblum’s father in Independence Day, at No. 4 — then tell us who you would have nominated.
Quote of the Day: Explain your title (and stop with the crying) edition
"Jules, you know…honey…this isn’t real. You know what it is? It’s St. Elmo’s Fire. Electric flashes of light that appear in dark skies outta nowhere. Sailors would guide entire journeys by it, but the joke was on them. There was no fire. There wasn’t even a St. Elmo. They made it up. They made it up because they thought they needed it to keep ‘em going when things got tough, just like you’re making up all of this…. We’re all going through this…. Hey, it’s our time on the edge." — Billy (Rob Lowe), to Jules (Demi Moore), in St. Elmo’s Fire
'The Real World: Brooklyn' preview: The house! The roommates! The hookups!
After 20 seasons of hot tubbing, bar crawling, bar brawling, and spit swapping, The Real World has finally made its way across the bridge and through the tunnel to Brooklyn, New York. The 456th — er, I mean, 21st — season of the reality show that helped spawn the entire genre begins tonight (10 p.m. EST) on MTV, and you’re probably wondering why this show is even still on the air. Well, The Real World might seem like that senior in college who just can’t graduate, but this season, according to cast member Katelynn, the show is breaking the mold. “We’re not at all like anything that you guys have ever seen before," she told me during my visit to the house last month. "I think what you’re going to find from our group is that every single one of us is ambitious and driven. We all pursue our own passions and we pursue them vehemently. We’re not your normal vapid, 20-somethings, party-and-get-wasted group."
We’ll see how true that is as the show unfolds, but until then, we’ve sorted through all the nonsense to bring you a rap sheet onthe roommates (after the jump) and a video tour of their pad, located right on theEast River on the very tip of Red Hook (in other words, it’s pretty much in themiddle of nowhere, as in, it took me over 40 minutes to get there bycab from Manhattan). Press play below for a personal tour of the RW digs by roommates Katelynn and Chet. My mad videographer skills really shine through, so you won’t want to miss it!
Mickey Rourke in 'Iron Man 2'? Discuss!
Is Mickey Rourke the next big ex-star to score a career rebound via the Iron Man franchise? He may well be. Variety is reporting that the 1980s idol — whose long professional losing streak apparently ended with his award-baiting performance in this season’s The Wrestler — is in talks to play the bad guy ("Tony Stark’s Russian alter ego") in Iron Man 2. (This comes right on the heels, of course, of news that the actor has signed on to a Sylvester Stallone action vehicle.) The sequel is due to start shooting this spring and be released in the summer of 2010. As everybody knows by now, last summer’s Iron Man juiced the Hollywood career of another 1980s idol who had fallen on tough times, Robert Downey Jr.
Personally, I think this sounds like a good idea. I mean, hell, judging by this photo, Rourke kinda already resembles a comic-book baddie! Still, I hope that this excellent franchise isn’t just succumbing to gimmickry. What about you? Thoughts, concerns, ovations — bring ‘em, PopWatchers!
Kelsey Grammer's new ABC pilot: Greenlight/Red Light?
I don’t find myself thinking a lot about Kelsey Grammer (unless I’m channel-surfing, stumble onto a Frasier rerun, and check immediately to see if it’s the episode The Ski Lodge). But apparently, I do miss him. I just read that he’s got a pilot at ABC, to be written by Everybody Loves Raymond alum Tucker Cawley, and I was psyched. According to Variety, Grammer will star as "a corporate tycoon who reconnects with his family after being downsized out of his powerful job." What do you think, PopWatchers: Greenlight or red light?
It gives Grammer, last seen on the small screen on Fox’s Back to You, pictured, a chance to play haughty — which he does best — and it’s timely. I’m going greenlight. And you?
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