Archive: May 2009 (201-210 of 467)

May 15 2009 11:25 PM ET

Enter the Fray: So long, farewell...

Riverstrumpgokey_lYou know the old saying: April showers bring May flowers, April repeats bring May finales. (Okay, I just made that up. Should’ve gone with ”sweeps,” it rhymes better.) Either way, this week was chock full of season finales — including The Biggest Loser, Bones, 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, Being Erica, Hell’s Kitchen, The Office, America’s Next Top Model, The Celebrity Apprentice, and Lost (just to name a few). Here’s what else made the Fray this week:

10. Tim Stack wondered: just who are these Jon & Kate people?

9. Jeff Probst blogged his thoughts on the penultimate Survivor episode. If one Reality TV host/judge blog isn’t enough for ya, check out Phil Keoghan’s thoughts on the Amazing Race finale and Carrie Ann Inaba’s thoughts on this week’s Dancing With the Stars.

8. Seacrest, will you quit it with the gay jokes?

7. This week in ”Michael Slezak Predicts the Future” (also known as the American Idol Power List): Gokey goes home!

6. The latest episodes of Idolatry include a tribute to the most awesome, wonderful, rocktagious contestant this season (Allison, duh) and a warning to Kris about possible sabotage.

5. This week on Idol, Adam, Kris, and Danny performed songs chosen for them by the judges.

4. J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek: yea or nay?

3. Did you see the Lost finale? OMG!

2. America finally put the ”Go” in Gokey on Wednesday night. You shared your thoughts during and after the show, and Adam B. Vary reported dutifully On the Scene at the Idoldome.

1. The Celebrity Apprentice went out with a three-hour finale on Sunday night, and sparks flew in the final boardroom.

addCredit(“Celebrity Apprentice: Ali Goldstein/NBC; American Idol: Frank Micelotta/Fox”)

May 15 2009 10:09 PM ET

'Idolatry': Allison Iraheta gives us the inside scoop on her 'Idol' run

Categories: American Idol, Idolatry

Attention Allison Iraheta fans! The wait is over. Embedded below is our very (very, very) special five-part Idolatry interview with the red-headed rocker. Find out (among other things) which two Idol finalists helped Allison with song choice during Motown and Michael Jackson Weeks, how she grappled with mature lyrical content, and why she worried about comparisons to Carrie Underwood and Katharine McPhee. Allison also dishes her "Hot Stuff" song arrangement, her guitar-playing on "Don’t Speak," and the bullet she dodged during Disco Week. (Note: We totally would’ve done 10 parts with 100 more questions, but Allison had to rush back to rehearse for Wednesday’s American Idol finale.) Press play below, and enjoy!

May 15 2009 10:00 PM ET

Pop Culture Pet Peeve: Hey, fake baldies on 'Grey's Anatomy' and elsewhere, who are you kidding?

Diazbaldgreysanatomy_lA few weeks ago, I used this slice of cyberspace to gripe about the inexcusably annoying use of empty take-out coffee cups in TV and the movies. Your numerous impassioned comments about this and other pop culture pet peeves delighted me like only a good ole communal bitch-fest could.

In that same spirit of protest, I now invite you to join me as I vent about another of my bêtes noires that popped up in last night’s season finale of Grey’s Anatomy. To what am I referring? Oh yes, that’s right: The robust terminal cancer patient with the bald noggin as realistic as The Coneheads. There was Izzie, pale and weary, yet still appearing to be at her normal, healthy weight. (The same went for guest star Liza Weil, a.k.a Paris from Gilmore Girls, whose face bore none of the hallowed-out traits of someone who’s undergone months of chemo.) Izzie spent most of the episode under a head scarf, but when she took it off to undergo Derek’s brain scan, all I could think was: "Mmm, that shadow near all those electrode thingies on her skull looks suspiciously like the seam of a bald cap…because it is the seam of a bald cap!"

Now, I’m certainly not advocating that anyone starve themselves à la Christian Bale in The Machinist. And I understand that not every actor is willing to go all Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta and shave their heads for real. But come on, Shonda Rhimes and the rest of you entertainment heavy-hitters who are equally guilty of this sin! (That includes you, whoever did Cameron Diaz’s ridiculous chrome dome in this summer’s My Sister’s Keeper!) I implore you to do better. See, there are these things called lighting and makeup that work wonders. Look into it, will ya?

Okay, end rant. Anything to add, PopWatchers?

May 15 2009 09:46 PM ET

Keyboard Cat meets Chuck Norris and this week's other best videos

Categories: Viral Video!!!

I will never get tired of you, Keyboard Cat! Even though Fatso died back in 2000, this just gets better and better.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for weird/awesome videos that made the round this week…

READ FULL STORY »

May 15 2009 09:16 PM ET

'Survivor Talk': The man, the myth, the dragonslayer, Coach!

Categories: Survivor

Had the medics looked at him, he wouldn’t have been judged fit to come to our studio. But Coach Wade waved off the men of science, fighting immeasurable pain to sit down with me and guest host (and former Survivor champ) Jenna Morasca and talk about his recent ousting. Whether you loved him, hated him, or dreamed of being his assistant coach, you’re gonna want to see this. Is he a renegade or a B.S. artist? I’m still not sure…

May 15 2009 08:44 PM ET

Informal poll: Is Ben Stiller kidding with this hair?

Benstillerhair_lI think he might be totally serious!

Or it’s for a role. (Greenburg, maybe.)

Anyone else getting a slight Kevin Bacon-y vibe?

Who likes bacon bits?

Is this a rhetorical question?

This (almost) concludes Hair Day on PopWatch. Happy Hair Day!

addCredit(“Ben Stiller: Patsy Lynch/Retna Ltd”)

May 15 2009 08:36 PM ET

Cutting out cable to save money? Here's how to survive.

Categories: Misc.

Icon_thesaver_12Movies, music, books, TV — the cost of keeping oneself entertained can add up, especially heading into blockbuster-heavy months of the summer. Fear not! We’ve got your budget covered. Every day this week we put up posts on how to find the best in cheap — and free! — options. Click here to browse through all our thrifty tips.

You’re considering giving cable TV the ol’ heave-ho, but you winder if and where you can still watch your favorite shows. Here’s a guide to get you started:

Greek Two weeks after the episodes air, they post permanently to ABC Family’s site. Free!

Mad Men Episodes only occasionally post to AMC’s website, so buy the season pass on iTunes (season 2 ran $23).

Burn Notice USA posts the most recent episode a week after it airs, and episodes are available for five weeks.

The Daily Show Full episodes are posted the next day, and the archives have eps spanning the show’s full history.

The Hills All episodes get posted to MTV. Yes, Spencer is just as annoying online.

May 15 2009 08:33 PM ET

'Being Erica': The best finale (involving time travel) you didn't watch!

Beingerica_lI’ve completely fallen for SOAPNet’s first original scripted drama, Being Erica — so much so that I crammed it onto my way-too-crowded DVR list, the one I deemed too full to accommodate the likes of Parks & Recreation (despite my Amy Poehler love). And the Canadian import concluded its season Thursday, lost in the roar of mind-blowing big-network finales like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, and 30 Rock. But Erica‘s cliffhanger packed (almost) as much emotional punch as Grey’s — and, hey, even some Lostian mystery!

Erica follows a single career gal (Erin Karpluk) whose unconventional (and kinda sexy) psychotherapist Dr. Tom (Michael Riley) can zap her back to key screw-ups in her life so she can resolve her lingering feelings of guilt and remorse. She’s spent the season mustering up the courage to perform her poems in college, facing the affair that broke up her parents’ marriage, and trying every which way she could to stop best friend/soulmate Ethan from marrying someone else. (He did anyway, but now he’s finally split with that someone else and declared his love for Erica, thank goodness.)

In the finale, Erica faced the most traumatic event of her past: her brother Leo’s death. Dr. Tom agreed to send her back to the day he perished in a fire that ignited when he stomped off to smoke pot in a barn on the family vacation property. But she had to agree to only tell Leo how much he meant to her, not to stop his death. (We all know by now what happens when you screw with the space-time continuum, right? Disappearing from Polaroids, being forced to detonate nuclear bombs on weird islands in the 1970s….) Of course, she couldn’t help herself, and before she knew it, she was wrenched back into a warped version of her present-day life, where her now-grown-up brother was still alive — only to face a different death for Leo, this time killed in a car accident just before getting married. Chastened, she returned to Dr. Tom to apologize — and he gave her a do-over on going back to the past, but he was clearly angry. She fixed it, landed back in the “right” current life — and then discovered she has a creepy new therapist because Dr. Tom has “taken a leave.”

So what the heck happened? Who is this new therapist, and does she have the same magic powers? Where is Dr. Tom, and can I still get an appointment with him if I promise not to mess with my past too much? Consider this my official plea to SOAPNet to give us a season 2 of this rare find — a smart, funny single-girl show that’s shockingly relatable for being about a gal who can time travel.

May 15 2009 07:00 PM ET

Pink and Carey Hart back together: Why I'm psyched

I have no idea why Pink and Carey Hart separated, but I do know why Pink confirming to Ellen DeGeneres that they’re back together made me so happy: It’s because of the article PEOPLE ran about their wedding in January 2006. It felt real and personal, like they actually knew and loved each other. It’s all about their personal vows:*

HERS: "I love you because with you, I always feel beautiful….I love you because I let you hold my heart and you haven’t dropped it….I love you because of who you are, a kind, loyal, sensitive, patient, understanding 12-year-old man. And I love you for the person that you make me, which is an open, trusting, passionate woman that wants to exercise more and smoke less cigarettes….In our future I see us breaking lots of bones, risking death, bodily injury, but also learning and growing together….I look forward to making up with you and waking up with you."

HIS: "From the kiss in your hotel room in L.A. the first night, I knew I would marry you….You’re my partner in crime, my reason to be my sloppy self….You love my crazy family and accept my white trashiness. You’re the perfect woman for me, and I thank God every day he blessed me with you….I will chase you around the world and be your biggest fan….If you ever need a kidney, I will give you mine if I haven’t broken it yet. I will respect you and dance with you and sing karaoke with you….I love you with all my heart and I will be the best husband from this day forward." 

*Also, that their cake was topped with a bride and groom popping a wheelie; tables were named after cities, with place cards explaining the city’s significance to the bride and groom; and the reception featured karaoke — Pink sang "Sweet Child O’ Mine."

May 15 2009 06:53 PM ET

'Scrubs' is inching closer to another season: Please, no

Categories: Television

So it looks like my bittersweet dream of Scrubs ending won’t be coming true after all: according to the Hollywood Reporter, Zach Braff and Sarah Chalke have both signed on for six "transition" episodes. Harrumph.

I feel weird begging one of my favorite shows to stop — I can sort of hear its ghost voice wailing "you said you looooooved meeeee" as I run away. Sigh. But as we’ve talked about before, I’m all scrubbed out (and it sounds like a lot of you are, too, especially after that emotional finale). What’s especially irksome is this quote: "It is still not clear if Scrubs would continue as a single-camera comedy or would switch to a multi-camera format or a hybrid single/multi setup." Oh, like Scrubs parodied in "My Life in Four Cameras"?

A multicamera version of Scrubs without J.D., Dr. Cox, Elliot, Turk, Janitor, or Carla hardly feels like Scrubs at all. This is giving me the grouchies. What about you, PopWatchers? Would you want a Scrubs 2.0?

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