Archive: March 2009 (361-370 of 518)

Mar 10 2009 06:09 PM ET

Jeremy Northam to play doctor in CBS pilot (and other casting news)

by
Categories: Inappropriate Crushes, Pilot Season, Television

Jeremynortham_l

I know, I know. We let the 3,000th comment milestone on our Jeremy Northan, why aren’t you a bigger star? post go unheralded, but someone’s been paying attention: Northam has just been cast in the CBS pilot Miami Trauma. (That’s still the title we’re going with? Really?) According to The Hollywood Reporter, he’ll play "a likable but enigmatic new doctor on the traumaward." Don’t you hate it when a casting makes you root for a show that you were fully prepared to never watch?

In other CBS casting news, courtesy of THR:
• Chris Parnell, Missi Pyle, and Deanne Dunagan are expected to join the comedy ensemble Big D, which revolves around a couple that leaves New York for the wife’s hometown of Dallas and has to deal with her family. Parnell plays the wife’s brother-in-law, a preacher, which you’d think would excite me. Only, I’m most psyched to see Pyle as his wife, who’s said to be "prone to emotional displays."
• Saffron Burrows (criminally underused on ABC’s Boston Legal), Jesse Bradford, and Gaby Hoffmann have lined up for The Eastmans, a drama about a "complicated family of doctors." Burrows will play an M.D. trying find a cure for autism, which her child may or may not have. Great to see a show deal with that…. (And that Burrows’ role in Deep Blue Sea was good for something.) Bradford’s character will no longer be practicing because he got caught with a Vicodin addiction (there’s got to be a House joke in the pilot); Hoffman is a pathologist.
• Matt Czuchry (Gilmore Girls‘ Logan) has signed on for The Good Wife, which is said to revolve around a politician’s spouse (Julianna Margulies!) who works as a junior associate at a law firm. He will play a fellow newbie, a "handsome Harvard grad." I believe "handsome" is code for "they’ll originally but heads but be contemplating an affair by Sweeps."

Thoughts?

More on pilot season:
Sarah Michelle Gellar’s siblings cast for HBO pilot: We’re liking the family
Melissa Leo signs on for David Simon’s HBO pilot, Treme
Pilot season: Is The CW hosting a ‘Degrassi’ reunion?
Scott Wolf, Michael O’Keefe tapped for pilots
Geoff Stults, Michael Vartan returning to TV. Squeee!
‘Hot Girls in Scary Places’
ABC in business with Courteney Cox, Kelsey Grammer, Cedric the Entertainer
Cybill Shepherd on Lifetime? Yes!
More CBS procedurals, more slackers
Twilight for television: The CW orders pilot for Vampire Diaries
Kristen Johnston: The scoop on her Absolutely Fabulous return to TV
CBS orders more than procedurals after all
CBS plans arranged-marriage reality show. Discuss.
Bruckheimer, star-crossed lovers, and ‘Fame’ comparisons
CBS plans arranged-marriage reality show. Discuss.
ABC likes Lauren Graham, CBS more procedurals!
Grade the latest orders, including ‘Parenthood’
Grade the latest orders, including one from Shonda Rhimes and a detective show with an 11-year-old genius 
V and Lost in the ’80s a go
Ab Fab import and Witches of Eastwick-based drama a go
Grade Fox’s latest orders

Mar 10 2009 06:04 PM ET

Matt Czuchry's latest school tie: 'Handsome Harvard grad'

by
Categories: Pilot Season, Television

Mattczurchy_lLooking for an actor that radiates "preppy and well educated"? Might we suggest…drumroll…Matt Czuchry Oh, what’s that, Hollywood? You already know about him, and have cast him as "a handsome Harvard grad" on a new pilot? Well, knock mama over with a feather.

Seriously, Matt Czuchry has played some smartypants guys over the years. He was student at the fancy-schmancy prep school on Young Americans, and more notably the smarmy Yale blue blood that Rory dated for way, waaaaay too long on Gilmore Girls. (Ah, Logan Huntzberger, you were cute but you made me crazy.) He played an enterprising, lying Vanity Fair reporter (pretending to be a teacher) Veronica Mars, and while I can’t figure out where his Christian radio host character on Friday Night Lights went to school, we did learn that his sister at least went to Princeton. Later this year, he’s playing University of Chicago grad (go Maroons!) Tucker Max in the film version of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. And finally, he’s been cast on The Good Wife as a first-year associate working alongside Julianna Margulies, who’s playing a politician’s wife.

Maybe next he can play one of Andy Bernard’s Cornell classmates on The Office, or one of Chuck’s Stanford buddies on Chuck, or maybe another random person Meredith from Grey’s Anatomy apparently knew at Dartmouth, or he could drop by the Caltech labs on Big Bang Theory. Never stop learning, Matt!

Okay, PopWatch brain trust, who are some of your favorite booksmart characters? I’m partial to Wonderfalls‘ Jaye, myself, but I know there are more out there…

Mar 10 2009 05:52 PM ET

Redemption is thine, Reese Witherspoon

by
Categories: Fa-fa-fa-fa-fashion

Reesewitherspoon_lAfter knocking Reese for her blue and black Rodarte disaster at the Oscars, we thought it only fair to point out that the star totally turned it around for her Monsters vs. Aliens premiere in Berlin on Monday. In a stunning teal Valentino — the color! the collar! — paired with silver satin peep-toes, she brought back the chic and sleek Reese we knew and loved. (Also, note to self: Aways stand next to a blue blob when being photographed.)

So this officially marks the end of your fashion probation, Witherspoon. Just try to stay on the right side of the red carpet from now on, won’t you?

Mar 10 2009 05:50 PM ET

Beyonce talks world tour, new videos

by
Categories: Beyoncé, Music

Beyonce_lAs if 2009 hasn’t already been jam-packed for Beyonce Knowles, the singer-actress is currently preparing a year-long world tour with dates in Canada set to launch later this month. "I’ve been working on this tour for eight months," Beyonce told EW when we caught up with her on the set of a TV ad she was taping. "It’s crunch time! I’ve been rehearsing and trying to make sure I put my set list together. Right now I’m anxious and I can’t sleep — I’ll be wanting to be at rehearsal. That’s the only thing I can think about. But I can’t wait." While details are still being worked out, she has dates tentatively penciled in for the U.K., Ethiopia, Japan, Brazil, and more, plus a run through the U.S. this summer. She’ll be backed once more at each show by the all-female band from 2007′s The Beyonce Experience tour.

Beyonce has also finished two new music videos to keep fans happy while she’s crisscrossing the globe: "Broken-Hearted Girl," from the ballad-heavy I Am… half of her recent double album, and …Sasha Fierce‘s up-tempo "Ego." Beyonce co-directed the latter clip with her choreographer. "My goal for [the 'Ego' video] is simplicity," she says. "In ‘Single Ladies,’ I saw this old tape of Bob Fosse’s wife, and I used that as inspiration. I thought in this world, with all the technology and everything that’s going on, to strip everything down — great idea. So I kind of did the same thing, but glossy and black, for ‘Ego.’"

One thing that the video for "Ego" won’t share with "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" is a certain animatronic appendage. "I didn’t have the Sasha Fierce hand [in the video]," she laughs. "But I have it on the tour. It’s actually even more wild — I have to figure out how I’m going to perform with that hand!"

More on Beyonce:
EW Gallery: 10 ‘Fierce’ Beyonce Looks
Beyonce’s "Single Ladies" dance contest
The six easy steps to the "Single Ladies" dance
Even President Obama likes the "Single Ladies" dance

Mar 10 2009 05:50 PM ET

'American Idol': What should the top 13 sing for Michael Jackson night?

by
Categories: American Idol

Michaeljackson_lOkay, I’m bracing myself for the inevitable spoilers to hit the net about what songs American Idol‘s top 13 finalists will be signing on tonight’s Michael Jackson-themed performance episode, and rushing to post with my own request list before they do. I immediately eliminated "Man in the Mirror," "Rock With You," and "Who’s Lovin’ You" from consideration, seeing how Kris Allen, Stephen Fowler, and Matt Giraud respectively tackled those numbers during the semifinals. (Which doesn’t mean some ill-informed contestants won’t go there anyway. Ugh.) And I eliminated "Ben" and "Billie Jean," thanks to Nikki McKibbin slaughtering the former, and David Cook offering the definitive Idol rendition of the latter, in previous seasons. With that in mind, here are my picks. Do post your own, or at least mock my selections, in the comments section below.

Allison Iraheta: "Scream" (Am I the only one who loves this song?) (Yes.)
Adam Lambert: "State of Shock"
Jasmine Murray: "I Just Can’t Stop Loving You"
Kris Allen: "The Way You Make Me Feel"
Matt Giraud: "I Want You Back"
Alexis Grace: "It’s Your Thing"
Lil Rounds: "Human Nature"
Scott MacIntyre: "Butterflies"
Anoop Desai: "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"
Megan Corkrey: "Off the Wall" (dance, girl, dance!)
Michael Sarver: "Another Part of Me"
Jorge Nuñez: "Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’" (could be a-mah-zing or could be disastrous, I know)
Danny Gokey: "Say Say Say"

More on ‘American Idol’
‘American Idol’: Our Advice for the Top 13
‘American Idol’: Tracking the Top 13 Finalists with our Idol Tote Board
‘American Idol’: Q&As With the Top 13!
‘American Idol’ recap: Boys Gone Wild Card!
‘American Idol’ recap: Rage Against the Machine
EW’s ‘Idol’ Headquarters
‘American Idol’: Randy Jackson denies report that he dined with Adam Lambert

addCredit(“Jackson: Eamonn McCormack/WireImage.com; Idol: Michael Becker/Fox”)

READ FULL STORY »

Mar 10 2009 04:27 PM ET

'Training Day' in space? Jeez, I hope so.

by
Categories: Advance Advancement, I'm Just a Geek, Movies, Ninjas, Sci-Fi

Trainingday_lIn scanning the wires this morning — saying things like that makes me feel like a newspaperman of old, minus the "press" badge stuck in my fedora and the morning scotch — I saw that David Ayer is writing and directing a sci-fi flick for New Regency called Last Man. I almost relegated it to the Bin Where Other Things of Non-Pressing Geekery Sit until it hit me: This is the dude who wrote Training Day and directed Harsh Times, doing science fiction.

This is the New Blood. Who knows if Ayer’s film — which, according to Variety, is about "a hardened captain assigned to protect an outpost on a distant planet [who] must lead a group of young, inexperienced American soldiers in battle against an alien race" — will be any good? I’m just hoping it’ll be different. I’m hoping that some of Ayer’s street-level sensibility will come through. Okay, who am I kidding. I just hope, that when our hero has his final stand again the aliens, he shouts "Grabnork ain’t got $#!& on me!"

What say you, PopWatchers? Do you want this kind of chocolate in your sci-fi peanut butter?

Mar 10 2009 04:04 PM ET

'American Idol' Power List: Vote for your favorite from the top...14?

by
Categories: American Idol

Poweridol_lThe American Idol finals are so close to their kickoff, Ryan Seacrest is Twittering about the potentially X-rated "Idols-13" phone number. But before the baker’s dozen of contestants takes to the stage to do their best (or worst) to Michael Jackson’s songbook, it’s time to vote for this week’s Idol Power ranking. Jorge Nuñez finally cracks the countdown, after being ignored by yours truly for the last three weeks (sorry, Jorge!) and there’s one surprise contestant who’s clinging to the No. 13 spot on a combination of talent, good looks, and pure unadulterated outrage. Do read on, and then vote for your own favorite in our wildly popular Idol Power Poll at the end of this article. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up for our EW.com Idol Prediction Challenge, whatcha waiting for? Go to EW.com/idolpredict and do the damn thing!

14. Jasmine Murray: (Unranked last week) Somehow scored a slot on the Wild Card show after eviscerating Sarah Bareilles’ ”Love Song” in the semis, then cracked the top 13 after going flat on a song from the Mulan soundtrack. Judges keep calling her a ”package artist”…but are they talking about the art of singing?

13. Ricky Braddy: (Last week: No. 8) Yeah, the judges gave him the boot during the Wild Card round. So what? His "Superstition" was note-perfect and chock full of personality, and so we’re making him the poster-boy for shafted contestants like Kristen McNamara, Mishavonna Henson, Ju’Not Joyner, and Felicia Barton. It’s a protest ranking, y’all!

12. Michael Sarver: (Last week: No. 12) Laid-back ”roughneck” faces an uphill battle. Not only has it been three weeks since he last took the Idol stage, but his "I Don’t Want to Be" is widely considered one of the weakest vocals to propel a contestant into this year’s top 13. How far can likeability and Simon’s endorsement carry him?

11. Megan Corkrey: (Last week: No. 16) The judges keep saying she’s ”original,” but her cover of ”Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” was pretty karaoke — unless you count the big notes where she went badly off pitch — and her dancing was Rated J…for Jank! Still, she brings a different vibe from the ”big vocalists” in the top 13, and picks interesting songs.

10. Jorge Nuñez: (New this week) Stormed into the public consciousness with a good but bombastic take on ”Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” and built on those good vibes with an amusingly tearful response to the judges’ positive comments.  Still seems a cut below the top-tier contestants for now, though.

READ FULL STORY »

Mar 10 2009 03:47 PM ET

Oprah dedicates Thursday's show to Rihanna

by
Categories: Celebrity Couples, Music, Oprah Winfrey

Oprahrihanna_l "He will hit you again." That was Oprah’s warning to Rihanna on her talk show last Friday while announcing that she will do an episode about domestic violence this week "dedicated to all the Rihannas of the world." I certainly look forward to hearing what she has to say — and I hope Rihanna tunes in as well. Of all the people advising her these days, I can’t imagine anyone has better words of wisdom to offer than the mighty O. What do you think, PopWatchers? Should Oprah get involved? Seems pretty bold, as even the slightest quote on this subject gets reported everywhere. Can she pull it off without being unfair to Chris Brown given that he has not yet been convicted? Should we worry about that at all? And if the reports that the troubled couple has reconciled are true, wouldn’t you rather see them appear on the show together so they can justify their love?

Read more:
Rihanna and Chris Brown: Does a reunion mean case closed?
Chris Brown: Should he be up for a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award?

Mar 10 2009 01:30 PM ET

'Castle': Snap judgment on Nathan Fillion's new show

by
Categories: About Last Night, Inappropriate Crushes, Snap Judgment, Television

Castlenathanfillion_l

While I agree with EW TV critic Ken Tucker that the premiere episode of Nathan Fillion’s cop-mystery series Castle was "too-playful-by-half," here are the facts: I am this show’s demo. I DVR character-, comedy-, and chemistry-driven procedurals like Bones, Psych, and NCIS. I would probably blush were you to put me in a room with Nathan Fillion. And my schedule is wide open Mondays at 10 p.m. ET. So congratulations, ABC. You got me.

That said, I am hoping that the cutesy quotient was excessively high in the premiere because producers wanted to make sure that we all got that Fillion’s Richard Castle — a famous crime writer who partners with Det. Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) first to solve a series of murders matching those in his books, then because he wants to "research her" for the heroine in his next series of novels — is unpredictable. He’s the kind of man who encourages his 15-year-old daughter to drink champagne so she has stories to tell her children and eats whipped cream from the bottle. He can pick up a dropped handcuff key with his toes, talk himself out of arrests and into search warrants because the mayor and judge are fans, and play poker with (guest stars) James Patterson and Stephen J. Cannell. He enjoys signing women’s chests, yet allows his Broadway diva mother, who probably gets more than he does, live with him. I get it. We can now move past the pilot shorthand and give Castle some time to breathe, to not be "on." Fillion’s a good enough actor to sustain quiet moments. Let him. (Especially if it spares him from trying to sell a stale comeback about his claims being big when asked if he knows a small claims lawyer. No one’s that good.)

READ FULL STORY »

Mar 10 2009 12:00 PM ET

'The Last House on the Left': Why I'll be dropping by

by
Categories: Horrifying But Hypnotic, Movies

Lasthouseonleft_lI don’t do scary movies. It’s not that I have issues with violence or supposed "quality." I’m just a wuss. I freaked after Candyman. Hannibal Lecter sauteing that dude’s brain kept me up for days. I still jump every time I think something’s crawling near me, even though Arachnophobia was almost 20 years ago. (Omigod, did I just type that? Quick, somebody check my math!) So I’m probably not the person you’d expect to see at The House on the Left, but I will so be there when it opens this Friday. Why? Because I am a justice junkie.

I have an extreme need to see the right thing happen — an almost pathological obsession with fairness, if you believe my good friend Dan Snierson. Which means [SPOILER ALERT!] I hate movies like Arlington Road or Mystic River, where bad things happen to good people [END SPOILERS]. But bad things happen to good people all the time, you say. Yeah, I know. That’s why when I hear that there’s a movie about the parents of a murdered daughter getting bloody vengeance on her killers, I get happy. In real life, that eye-for-an-eye business is dangerous, childish, and only leads to more misery. On celluloid, it’s cathartic.

The Last House on the Left, a remake of Wes Craven’s 1972 film (which — ignorance admitted — I’ve never seen), stars Tony Goldwyn (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and Monica Potter (Trust Me) as parents of a girl (Darcy’s Wild Life‘s Sara Paxton) kidnapped and brutalized by escaped killers. After finding out what the cretins did to their baby girl, they embark on the kind of torture even Jack Bauer would find excessive. It all sounds horrifying and dehumanizing, precisely the kind of thing we should all avoid — and precisely the kind of thing you secretly wish would happen to truly evil people. Justice, of a sort, prevails. Who knows? The Last House on the Left could quite possibly suck. And it may well give me nightmares. But I can’t help seeing bad guys get got. I’m a junkie.

How about you, PopWatchers? Anything you like watching against your better nature? Share, please.

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP