Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog | PopWatch

PopWatch Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog

Archive: April 2009 (111-120 of 498)

Apr 23 2009 10:41 PM ET

'Twilight': TwiCon is coming. Do not put away that pea coat

Tagged: Twilight

Twilight_peacoat International pop culture sensation/punching bag Twilight is getting its own convention this summer: TwiCon will invade the Sheraton Dallas Hotel (a well-known vampire hangout) from July 30-Aug. 2. The unofficial conference will feature live Twilight-inspired band performances, a Volturi Ball, panels, workshops, and — of course — a "Vendor Hall where dozens of vendors will be set up for yourshopping pleasure."

I find this hilarious because ComicCon is all about the over-the-top costumes, whereas I just perused EW.com’s recent ‘Twilight’: How Edward and Bella Got Their Look gallery and the flashiest piece I’ve seen so far is probably Bella’s cream thermal. Thirteen-year-old office visitor Kaitlyn Collett, who I just bribed with candy in exchange for any information about Twilight, has helpfully pointed out that there are tons of versions of Bella’s wolf/heart charm bracelet on Etsy.com.

OMG. Who’s going?

Apr 23 2009 07:15 PM ET

'Liberace': Gayest Broadway show ever?

by Thom Geier

Tagged: 100% Pure Cheese, Is This a Rhetorical Question?, Stage/Theater

Liberace_l Seeing the announcement of a new Broadway show this fall recreating one of Liberace’s Vegas showroom concerts, I got to thinking: Doesn’t the Great White Way have a gay-enough reputation without a show starring a man in a gold-sequined tuxedo? Not that there is anything remotely gay about Wladziu Valentino Liberace, of course. This truly gifted pianist, who once described himself as a "one-man Disneyland," died of complications from AIDS in 1987 after repeated denials that he was gay (and successful lawsuits against papers that implied he was anything but heterosexual). Sure, he could lisp his way through an episode of Batman as a piano-playing villain or camp it up with Phyllis Diller on his short-lived TV show (see the clip below), but there weren’t enough gay fans at that time to pay for all those rhinestones and candelabras. So he did what he could to keep the swooning house fraus happy.

Aside from Broadway, though, have things changed all that dramatically for performers vying for stardom in the American mainstream? Consider the string of American Idol contestants who, for whatever reason, have chosen to remain closeted while on the show (or sidestep questions about their sexuality). What do you think, PopWatchers? Is Liberace too gay even for Broadway? And could a sequin- and guyliner-loving performer like Liberace still be embraced by middle America today?

Apr 23 2009 07:03 PM ET

'The Real Housewives of New York': Getting less real by the minute?

by Leah Greenblatt

Tagged: Reality TV

Some reality-show rubrics are evergreen — rode-hard Penthouse pets and BadaBing girls will no doubt keep rocking Bret Michaels’ love bus ’til his last flaxen hair-track falls to the RV floor — but others, like Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York City, seem, increasingly, to be victims of their own success.

Call it the Hills syndrome: The soapy tribulations of a group of camera-ready unknowns capture the public’s imagination (or lack thereof), which leads to media coverage, which leads to paparazzi interest, which leads to … said unknowns becoming celebrities who can’t pick up a nonfat Starbucks frap or have a tear-stained catfight in an exclusive nightclub without someone being there to capture it.

On The Hills, that meant ignoring the fact that LC and Whitney were supposedly lowly interns at Teen Vogue, while also being on the cover of said magazine — a turn of events strangely unrelated to my own intern experiences — and learning about Speidi’s Mexican "wedding" from the tabloids weeks before it aired on the show.

With Housewives this season, it means watching the cast hawk their wares — the Countess’s etiquette book, Bethenny’s Skinny Girl empire, Ramona’s skin care and jewelry lines — as if all these opportunities have nothing to do with the fact that these women, once mere bling-y, Botoxed mortals, are now beamed into our living rooms once a week (and then ad naseum on subsequent reruns).

Not that I would begrudge the ladies their right to sell ill-gotten owl necklaces or snuggle up to the Yankees’ most eligible bachelor (Madonna’s done with A-Rod, after all), but is there a weird disconnect when the current press coverage of our favorite guilty pleasures starts to subsume the months-old footage we see on Bravo every Tuesday night?

Does it affect your enjoyment of these shows at all to see that the cast, as carrot-tressed cawfee-tawker Jill Zarin explains below, are, among other meta developments (oh shattered innocence!), now the subjects of their own college sociology study, or is that just par for the pop-cult course?

Apr 23 2009 06:45 PM ET

Casting a big-screen Bernie Madoff: Who's your pick?

by Leah Greenblatt

Filed under: Movies and tagged: Hell to the No!, Movies, Ripped From the Headlines!, Things That Are Criminal

Hoffmanmadoff_l The story of the uber-swindler and his $50 billion Ponzi scheme has already been turned into a thinly-veiled, reliably ripped-from-the-headlines March episode of Law & Order — but despite the glut of Madoff-focused books currently in the works, the only big-screen biopic seems to be the decidedly low-grade-looking Bernie Maddoff: Made Off With America, from filmmaker Edward Druilhet, whose skimpy imdb page doesn’t seem especially promising (nor does the film’s homepage poster, a commemorative-plate explosion of Americana — Lady Liberty! Beady-eyed eagle! Wind-whipped American flag! — and chintzy fonts).

While the official site also, oddly, allows visitors to vote for the best candidate to play the Wall Street Beelzebub and his wife, we can’t help thinking we’d rather see a number of better-known actors in the role. Dustin Hoffman? Veteran British character actor Tom Wilkinson? L&O’s own Atticus Finch, Sam Waterson, playing against noble type?

Much-publicized Madoff victims Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon could no doubt play themselves, but tell us, readers, who else would you like to see in the cast? Or would you rather see Madoff’s entire tale taken off the showbiz table?

Apr 23 2009 06:08 PM ET

'Bones' season finale to feature guest appearance by Motley Crue. Discuss.

by Mandi Bierly

Filed under: Bones, Television and tagged: Bones, Television, This Could Be Interesting..., Waiting

Motleycruebones_l SPOILER ALERT! Fox has confirmed that Motley Crue will guest star on the May 14 season finale of Bones, performing "Dr. Feelgood." This sounds like one of Booth’s hallucinations to me, but maybe not. A corpse is found at the popular nightclub, The Lab, where the Crüe plays, and the team investigates with "Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) working together like never seen before." (How did Fox resist putting an exclamation point at the end of that sentence? Impressive.) Also guesting in the episode, Ryan O’Neal (Brennan’s dad, Max) and Brendan Fehr (Booth’s brother, Jared).

What are your theories? Go.

Apr 23 2009 06:04 PM ET

Lindsay Lohan on 'Ellen': Then and now :(

by Annie Barrett

Filed under: Those Crazy Kids!, To Care or Not to Care and tagged: Celebrity Couples, Morning Madness, Things That Are Sad, Those Crazy Kids!, To Care or Not to Care

You’re probably not dying to learn…well, no new information regarding Linsday Lohan’s breakup with Samantha Ronson, but check out an excerpt of The Thin Woman’s interview on Ellen this morning anyway. Lindsay Lohan 2009 is the mirage on the left.

Remember this bubbly concoction, Linsday Lohan 2004? I loved her. She was so. Fetch.

I miss Lindsay Lohan 2004. Take a sabbatical like Ellen did, Linsday Lohan 2009! Trust me, there’s enough Mean Girls on premium cable to sustain us until then. "Love ya."

Apr 23 2009 04:31 PM ET

Clip du jour: Clothed Matthew McConaughey interviewed by shirtless man

by Mandi Bierly

Filed under: Movies and tagged: Clip du Jour, Movies, Ridiculata

Think this will be the most awkward interview we’ll see Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner give while promoting their new romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past? I have a new-found respect for Garner’s acting ability (watch her pretend that she understands what McConaughey is saying) and her wit (she tells the National Lampoon interviewer to take off his pants). Well played, Jennifer. Well played.

Apr 23 2009 01:58 PM ET

Watch the opening sequence of 'The Brothers Bloom'

by Clark Collis

Filed under: Movies and tagged: Movies

Director Rian Johnson’s movie Brick very much divided the relatively small number of people who saw it. Some, such as myself, thought it a brilliantly skilled relocation of the noir genre (specifically the work of crime author Dashiell Hammett) to a contemporary high school. And some thought it a load of overly arch baloney. Anyway, Johnson has now posted the opening sequence of his follow-up The Brothers Bloom on hulu.com. The film, which the director describes as a "big, fun, globe-trotting con man movie," stars Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as a pair of sibling grifters attempting to bilk millionairess Rachel Weisz out of her fortune. However, this pre-credit sequence depicts the very start of the young Blooms’ life as con artists. See what you think. But, frankly, anything that features Rod Stewart’s terrific reworking of The Temptations’ "(I Know) I’m Losing You" and not one but two blackly comic gags about injured cats is just aces by me.

Apr 23 2009 10:19 AM ET

'American Idol': On the scene for Top 7.2 results night

by Whitney Pastorek

Filed under: American Idol and tagged: American Idol

Anoop_l

Idoldome. Tonight. Had people. In it. Archie sang. Screaming happened. I am being brusque. Just like how Ryan tossed Lil Rounds to the curb. She had kids. She was courageous. And outspoken. She had a lot of fun up there. She is now dead to us. And Anoop left. He’ll be missed. Maybe not as much as his parents. But still. This message was brought to you by Ford, Coca-Cola, and iTunes. Catch me on tour this summer. More after the jump. Like how Allison Iraheta is my new personal life guru. Disco Night. Fever. Catch it. Wow. It’s a lot easier to write like this.

READ FULL STORY »

Apr 23 2009 10:00 AM ET