Hey, a new True Blood promo! (Maybe to go with the new poster?)
Sweet fangy fantasia, I cannot wait. Even though I had some mixed feelings about the first season, I’ve become completely fixated on the second and am basically crossing days off the calendar at this point, not unlike a crazy person. Anyone with me?
Andy Samberg isn’t just going to host the upcoming MTV Movie Awards, he’s going to clean up. He’s already been faux-nominated for Best Kiss, Best Male Performance, Best Fight (twice), and now, Best Female Performance in a series of promotional shorts. In the latest spoof, for Evenings with Ms. Eloise, Samberg plays a sickly bluehair, promising a distraught Anne Hathaway that live or die, she’ll always be watching “right over your shoulder.”
Actually, Hathaway has my vote — for this, not for Bride Wars. I look forward to her episode of Inside the Actors Studio when she explains how she conjures up that little catch in her throat at the 20 second mark. After her song and dance routine with Hugh Jackman at the Oscars, is there anything this gal can’t do?
First things first: I’m a fan of goofy Tony and his plethora of pop culture references, but when he slid into that seat opposite Michael Rivkin last night — after translating Ziva’s phone conversation with him to track them to a restaurant, then calling her back to the office to get her to leave their table — it was the first time I ever remember chanting "Ton-y! To-ny! To-ny!" It’s nice to be reminded every once in a while why he’s the senior field agent. And, of course, how good he looks in a suit.
That final scene of Tony and Rivkin in Ziva’s apartment, embedded below, practically made me wet myself. Pretty sure the post-commercial teaser shot of Tony on the ground, weapon drawn, was the best one ever. You didn’t want it to be Tony, and yet you totally wanted it to be Tony. Him killing Rivkin must have been that "almost unforgivable" thing Cote de Pablo told us Tony would do to Ziva…From the trailer for next week’s season finale, embedded after the jump, we know she wasn’t lying when she said that Ziva holds a gun to Tony. My heartrate just picked up thinking about it — that’s good TV.
Now we can address the question in the headline and in the season finale promo: Who’s not coming back from the trip to Israel? We’re supposed to think it’s Ziva, and maybe it will be — exec producer Shane Brennan isn’t afraid to divide the team, which we learned in last season’s finale. He’s told us that this story arc carries through to the season 7 premiere, so expect a cliffhanger. (I’m thinking it will turn out to be Director Vance who stays behind for that assignment discussed at the intelligence summit…Any chance Ziva has been working an assignment for Vance that she wasn’t allowed to tell Gibbs about, like when Tony had to date the Frog’s daughter for Jenny?)
P.S. Why didn’t Gibbs reveal that it was Ziva who killed Ari and not him? Because when someone’s loyalty is being questioned, you don’t want to bring up that she turned on her half-brother, even if he was evil (but hot)?
P.P.S. Yay for McGee making a sexy friend.
Watching Ryan O’Neal on this morning’s Today Show was a difficult task. The longtime companion of cancer-stricken Farrah Fawcett bravely shared the intimate details of Fawcett’s highs and lows during her three-year search for a cure. But to be honest, I felt like an interloper. O’Neal was so open, so personal, and so resigned. When he talked about his incarcerated son, Redmond, and shared Farrah’s joke to him that he cease his own leukemia medication, I felt an immediate bond with this man that I didn’t feel I had earned.
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It was Great Television, I suppose. But it left me shaken all the same. How are we supposed to react? What right do I have to know about this family’s painful private moments? The question is moot, of course, since Farrah’s two-hour documentary is scheduled to air Friday on NBC. I’ll continue to send all my hope and prayers to Farrah and her family, but I’m not sure how I feel about watching Friday night. What about you, PopWatchers? What did you learn from O’Neal’s appearance on Today?
I laughed! I cried! I was proud of Simon for remaining backstage, though I suspect some Bravo underling was tasked with distracting him with pretend questions about the cut of his pants and designer of his shoes!
Bravo’s Andy Cohen was completely at home with the New York ladies, relaxed and unwilling to coddle or sweet-talk them. I always thought I would kill for the chance to have these broads in one room, so that I could force them into accountability. But he did a damn fine job. Whether telling Ramona she had a big mouth or forcing her to stop blabbering and acknowledge Bethenny’s tears or admitting that he had passed on an offer to see Jill’s reduced breasts backstage. (Andy’s two missteps: I could have gone without the images of Bobby diddling in Jill’s playground or Silex in heat.)
I’ll end up watching the whole season because there’s no Bravo reality TV show I can resist. (Except for that one with Kelly from Destiny’s Child, where competition is the new black or you can’t wear failure after Labor Day.) But I found this first episode a little stomach-turning. Remember that MTV show Sweet 16, where horrible young men and women get C list rappers to serenade them at their strobe light birthday parties in front of a crowd of gaping, upsettingly hair-gelled teenagers? Well this series shows where those girls end up 20 years later.
After meeting the Housewives in three other cities, you’d think I’d be immune. But something about the kids on this show left me in a funk. Teresa, the real dum dum of the bunch, says her three little girls are divas and future stars. Apparently the oldest, Gia, gets an audition to be in a movie with the Rock this season. She asks the girls to strike poses and look fabulous and puts sparkle gloss on their lips despite their protestations. Dina, who I think I might grow to like this season despite myself, has a gawky 12-year-old daughter who wants permission to make her nanny wear a maid’s outfit and call her ma’am. Jacqueline, the lone softie in the mix, has a 17-year-old daughter who says proudly that her Mom is cool and hip, you know, like Amy Poehler in Mean Girls.
Mothers pride themselves on their daughters thinking of them as sisters, and coo over their grown sons acting like 8-year-olds. I will say this for the other Housewives. Their kids seem genuinely well-adjusted. (Well, maybe not Tamra’s bonehead son.) LuAnn’s kids, Jill’s daughter, Nene’s son, even Ramona’s eye-rolling daughter. I don’t fear for the human race when I hear them talk. But then last night there was this depressing exchange of dialogue between Caroline’s sons:
Albie (the golden child, future lawyer, apparent chick magnet):
"You buy books to say ‘I got books in my room.’ I buy books to read."
Christopher (the future car wash/strip-club magnate):
"Yeah, that makes me a baller. That makes you a douche."
What can I say? We’re a failure of a species. And apparently two straight hours of Housewives makes me a total Debbie Downer. I’ll drink more next week, and hope that will lighten me up instead (though it could also force me off television forever). In the meantime, I’ll leave you on a positive note. I think this season will be amusing if only to watch the ladies battle frizz.
Oh, and Dina made me laugh twice. That’s something, right?
On her diet:
"My nephew’s graduation is coming up and I don’t want to have to wear a muumuu."
On the prospect of kicking the season’s bad girl Danielle’s ass:
"Look at these arms. I can’t even kick my cat’s ass."
What do you guys think? Do I need to lighten up? Do you cringe when mothers call their daughters princesses? When people like Danielle say they have a personality you either love or hate, do you immediately shout out loud ‘Hate!’
Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island comedy ensemble were on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. Samberg and Fallon reminisced about how Fallon sort of discovered the group (awww) when he was hosting the MTV Movie Awards — which Samberg is hosting this year. Torch passing! (Then they made my day and aired the classic SNL male synchronized swimming short from the ’80s.) But the real point of the segment was the first-ever live performance from Lonely Island, there to pimp their debut album Incredibad.
"I’m on a Boat" isn’t my favorite digital short, and a lot of what makes those videos funny on SNL is the sharp tonal contrast between them and the rest of the show. On Late Night or any other nighttime talk show, though, flashy live musical numbers, complete with gyrating back-up dancers, are de rigeur. That said, the song is funny, and inflatable dolphins = win.
I’m in the minority with this belief, but…I’m starting to really like Fallon on Late Night. Yeah, he’s still sort of a goofy interviewer — most of the questions seem awkwardly placed and inorganic — but there’s no one on TV having more fun than he is, and for me, that enthusiasm goes a long way.
What’d you think, PopWatchers?
Congratulations to the band White Rabbits for claiming the top spot on my Must List this week with the video for their new song ”Percussion Gun.” It’s the first single from the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Missouri band’s sophomore album, It’s Frightening, which was produced by Spoon’s Britt Daniels and drops next Tuesday. The simple video suits the song’s driving beat and urgent vocals, and I’ve played it, like, 15 times in the past week and a half. I can’t remember the last video I watched so many times that didn’t have a Britney-level budget/production value. And I didn’t even know until last week that drummer/former EW freelancer Jamie Levinson used to sit one cubicle row away from me at E-dubs HQ. Thanks, White Rabbits, for giving me the second song on my official summer playlist.
Check out the video for yourself below, watch the most recent Must List Live, then share your own picks with us. List up to three items from current TV/movies/music/books/games/online. Don’t forget your e-mail address, in case we decide to use your submission in the magazine. Deadline is Thursday, May 14 at noon ET.
White Rabbits "Percussion Gun" Music Video from White Rabbits on Vimeo.
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be Klingons. And there’s plenty more where that came from.
