Archive: June 2009 (281-290 of 438)

Jun 10 2009 01:24 PM ET

Megan Fox and her little black dress: Hotter than Angelina Jolie?

Filed under: Movies and tagged: , ,

Megan-fox_l Like the rest of the straight male species, my jaw dropped right alongside Shia LaBeouf's when Megan Fox bent over his engine compartment in Transformers. The girl is spectacularly hot. Really. But I also thought she was WAY too big for her britches last year when she said she was "much hotter" than Angelina Jolie. "Who does she think she is?" I thought. Megan Fox may be the new "it" girl, but she's got a ways to go before she can touch Ms. Jolie.

Well, this week, now that Fox has titilated the entire planet, I'm starting to wonder if Fox was right. First, she showed up at the Tokyo premiere for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen showing a whole lotta gams in this purple dress, then yesterday, at the Seoul premiere, she popped my eyes out yet again rocking the black dress pictured here. Jolie can certainly pull it off physically, but I'm not sure she could wear that sheer dress without it coming off as somehow beneath a woman of her Oscar-winning stature. Jolie is elegant, classy, Hollywood royalty, which his precisely why I bristled when Angie-Come-Lately Megan Fox dissed her. But at the same time, in terms of pure, unadulterated "hot" factor, Fox has definitely taken hold of a certain je ne sais quoi that Jolie may have left behind. Certainly, we all want to gawk at post-event red carpet photos of Angie looking fabulous with Brad, but she doesn’t generate the same kind of in-the-moment buzz that Fox gets sporting that black number last night. Looked at another way, Changeling may have been a better movie than Transformers, but it’s pretty obvious which of the two made more "hot" lists. I’m still not giving Fox “hotter than Angelina” status just yet. But yeah, I’m getting there…

So what of it, PopWatchers? Is Megan Fox hotter than Angelina Jolie? Which do we like better, the purple or the black dress?

Jun 10 2009 12:40 PM ET

'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies': Free, exclusive audiobook chapter!

Tagged:

Pride-prejudice-zombies_l Did you devour author Seth Grahame-Smith's hit Jane Austen-zombie mash-up? Then you'll love listening to the first chapter of the audiobook edition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, courtesy of Audible.com, a storehouse of over 60,000 digital titles. It's available for download exclusively to EW.com readers because, well, you're totally awesome!

Here's the link: www.audible.com/ew. Enjoy!

Jun 10 2009 12:39 PM ET

Angela Kinsey does her Sean Connery impression for her one-year-old (and Conan)

The Office's Angela Kinsey stopped by The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien last night to talk about how her grandmother thinks Michael Scott is "vulgar" (love her Texas accent), how she used to be Max Weinberg's intern at Late Night, and how you should never stop in West Virginia on a road trip. My favorite part of the interview, however, comes at the end, when she tells Conan that she does Sean Connery impressions for her one-year-old daughter, quoting from The Rock and The Hunt for Red October. Angela, should you like to partner on my pop culture flash cards for infants idea, call me. (Your first job will be to come up with a catchier title than "pop culture flash cards for infants." Apparently, Pop Goes the Culture is already taken. How cute would that have been?)

Jun 10 2009 12:00 PM ET

Must List poll: Which will be summer's Must band reunion?

Tagged: ,

What is old is new again. That seems to be the theme in music this summer, with a number of 80's and 90's acts reuniting for new albums and tours: alt-metal-ers Faith No More, London punks Blur, Christian rockers Creed, Gen X-er's Blink 182 and, finally, pop-rock staples No Doubt. All of these acts (and more) can be found touring the US of A this summer, and we've got to know: Which will be summer's Must reunion? Which of these bands are you dying to see? Vote below and speak up in the comments.

Jun 10 2009 10:00 AM ET

Quote of the Day: Ray Charles Memorial Edition

Tagged:

"I got a woman, way over town, that's good to me. Say I got a woman, way over town, good to me. She give me money, when I'm in need. Yeah, she's a kind of friend indeed. I got a woman, way over town, that's good to me. Oh yeah." — Ray Charles, who died on this day in 2004, from the song "I Got a Woman"

Jun 10 2009 12:08 AM ET

Allison Iraheta: Rocker signed! Rocker signed!

Filed under: American Idol and tagged:

I have just cracked open an ice-cold Labatt Blue — thanks to my brother Andy for leaving a six-pack in my fridge this weekend! — to celebrate the news exclusively broken by my most excellent colleague Tanner Stransky over on our Hollywood Insider blog: Allison Iraheta, the season 8 rocker that cold and creepy Simon Cowell never fully embraced, has been signed to a record deal by 19 Recordings, and her MAJOR LABEL DEBUT ON JIVE RECORDS WILL DROP THIS FALL. Rocker saved. Rocker signed. Rocker on her way to global chart domination. Expletive, yeah! Grab the beverage of your choice, press play, and celebrate! Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Iraheta has a contract.

More on 'American Idol,' The Rocker
Exclusive: 'American Idol' alum Allison Iraheta officially signed to 19/Jive
EW's American Idol HQ
'American Idol': Who would you sign next? Pick two finalists and one semifinalist!
'American Idol' recap: Don't be afraid of the dark horse
'American Idol': First audition dates set
Kris Allen officially signed to 19/Jive
Adam Lambert officially signed to 19, RCA

Jun 9 2009 10:36 PM ET

'Hangover' with your mom?

Hangover-Cooper_l Did you see The Hangover last weekend, PopWatchers? Of course you did. So did I. With my mom.

Yep, you read that right: I saw the comedy—complete with its high level of profanity, innuendo and straight-up nudie shots—with my mother. And the best part? She loved it. (But how can I expect any less from my super-cool mum, who's so tapped into pop culture, she was once quoted alongside our own Michael Slezak in the now-infamous Cougars 4 Cook article?) Some of my co-workers, however, are shocked that I would see such a film with a parent. But I scoff at them, especially considering the fact that I willingly took my mother to see The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle in the theaters.

That being said, there are some films that I probably would avoid seeing accompanied by a parent. For one: Closer (that film, instead, served as the backdrop to the most awkward first date I ever had). Or even the American Pie movies. Or, on a more serious note, A History of Violence (yet I deemed a naked Viggo in Eastern Promises more than acceptable for parent-child viewing).

So my question for you now, PopWatchers: What's the dirtiest film you've seen with a parent? I've polled some of our EW staffers, and here are some of their answers (so you don't feel so alone):

Tim Stack: "Boogie Nights with both my parents and grandparents.
Jeremy Medina: "American Psycho. Nothing says a great afternoon with your mom than watching a naked Christian Bale chase after equally naked girls with a chainsaw."
Aubry D'Arminio: "My dad took me at, like, ten years old to see The Last Emperor. It was my first on-screen threesome."
Christine Spines: "Purple Rain and Dressed to Kill."
Leah Greenblatt: "Being nine with my stepmom and a bunch of her friends and watching the Top Gun sex scene between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis was awkward enough for me….it was that string of spit when they were kissing, and I actually went to hide in the bathroom."
Chris Nashawaty: "When I was a kid, my dad took me to see Altered States, which has a lot of sex in it. I was eight or nine. He made us walk out half way through."
Missy Schwartz: "Idid see Flashdance at the drive-in with my mother, sister, and step-father when I was in third grade. It was a double feature with Footloose. And obviously, the memories of Flashdance are much more, uh, vivid. I don’t think I’d ever seen nudity on the big screen before. Awkward."
Michael Ausiello: "I took my 80-year-old grandmother to There's Something About Mary — and that's after I had already seen it! She made it past the hair gel but walked out during a scene with about 100 'f—s' in it. Still mortified to this day."

Jun 9 2009 09:46 PM ET

Girls Gone Dark: Teen books go bleak. Should we worry?

Tagged: ,

Let's face it, PopWatchers. Though we might spend our days laughing about last night's I'm a Celebrity… or dreaming about the possibility of a Saved By the Bell reunion, we can't ignore the fact that we live in pretty dark times. That might be the reason why so many of our budding young adults are shirking light-hearted teen books for reads like the anorexia-centric Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, or the death-centric If I Stay, by Gayle Forman.

The death and destruction-focused book genre has become huge for teen girls, with books like Stay and Wintergirls lining the bookshelves where Sweet Valley High-esque books once reigned supreme (read Katie Roiphe's fascinating Wall Street Journal article for more detail on this phenomenon). But it's interesting how much a difference a few years could make when it comes to our younsters' sensabilities. After all, it wasn't so long ago that I was a teen myself, and I can tell you that most people my age deliberately avoided all depressing literature in the late 1990s (though it should be said that the quality of these contemporary books far surpass the I'm 16 and Dying genre from my youth). Instead, we buried our noses in Louis Sachar books, or in tales from the Goosebumps and aforementioned pink-plated Sweet Valley High series.

Seeing this change in teen interests leads parents to question just one thing: Could this newer, darker literature be harmful for teens? Roiphe says no, since most of the books end on an uplifting note that seems to indicate that good times are around the corner. And I have to agree. What's the danger of literature that allows our youngsters to confront the problems facing them and realize that they're not facing them alone? And teens can tolerate only so much mindless dribble—I dumped most of my brainless, Clueless-type reads in favor of classic literature by the time I hit 16. It's nice to see that there's now a non-Judy Blume genre for girls that helps them cope with angst.    

PopWatchers, do you think the genre is dangerous or beneficial for teens? Are you fans of these books? And what did you read as a teen?

Jun 9 2009 09:00 PM ET

Songs guaranteed to get people dancing at your wedding reception: An EW Reader Public Service Announcement

It's wedding season and, not to bring up the Great Bierly Sibling Debate of 2007 — Is Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" the best dance song ever? (surprisingly, I argued no) — but we all know what that means: Fun people like us will be expected to get the party started on the dance floor. Because we can't work with nothing at the reception, let's take a moment to list the songs guaranteed to get people moving so that brides and grooms can either email this link to their DJs or print the post, highlight their picks, and deliver it by hand.

I'll get the ball rolling: The Jackson Five's "I Want You Back." I was recently at a party, standing still on a dance floor with other people who weren't ashamed to look uncool if it meant they got to alcohol quicker (it was the least crowded bar in the venue), and even though the DJ was doin' his job, it wasn't until the intro of this song played that any of us actually started dancing. And literally, we all began to move, at precisely the same moment, and the mass, synchronized shoulder bounce made it feel like the floor had just risen a few inches.

Your turn. People need you.

Jun 9 2009 08:54 PM ET

Is Kendra the new Anna Nicole?

Kendra-Wilkinson_l On Sunday night, Kendra Wilkinson officially went from Hugh Hefner's Girl Next Door to full-fledged star of her own series (creatively titled—you guessed it—Kendra). And we mean star: The series enjoyed the highest-rated series debut on E! since 2002's The Anna Nicole Show.

So my first question is simply, why? I caught about ten minutes of the show but lost interest as soon as my inner feminist began begging for mercy while watching Kendra purchase a stripper pole—before furniture—for her new home. But there are a few reasons that may explain the big debut: Maybe E!'s built-in Girls Next Door audience tuned in in droves. Or perhaps Kendra's laugh has officially bled into our consciousness and seized the part of our brains that control the remote.

Or maybe audiences are desperate to find their new Anna Nicole. There are certainly similarities between the late model and Hef's ex: both are blonde, both are busty, both are bubbly and both are former Playmates (though, it should be said that Kendra is significantly more stable than Anna Nicole). It makes sense that both shows would find similar audiences, but it doesn't explain why Denise Richards: It's Complicated wouldn't fare as well on the network. After all, the former Bond girl (as Dr. Christmas Jones, no less) is also a busty blonde who appeared in Playboy, right?

Did you watch Kendra, PopWatchers? What did you think? Is Kendra the new Anna Nicole? And are blonde Playmates to E! what ginormous broods are to TLC?

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP