Archive: June 2009 (291-300 of 438)

Jun 9 2009 08:34 PM ET

Whatever, 'Best Week Ever' -- save Paul F. Tompkins!

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Paul-F-Tompkins_l So is Best Week Ever cancelled or what? Well, a little of column A, a little of column B: The show will be back in January, but another “revamp” might mean the end of comedian Paul F. Tompkins’ reign as host. I can accept that, but only on the condition that VH1 give him another show. Do my bidding, television!

Recall the great BWE Switch of Aught Eight, in which frequent commentator Tompkins became sole host of the half-hour series. Some fans embraced the new format, but others…a lot less so. I’m somewhere in the middle: I’m ten kinds of crazy about Tompkins, and he’s one of my favorite stand-ups to go see (seriously, I think I’ve seen him five times in the last three years), but I’m not convinced the format really did him any favors. He’s tweeted that he’s more or less done, saying “they’ll bring it back in 2010, but staff (including me) can’t go that long without work. Maybe new cast?” But what of my weekly fix of hyperliterate, charmingly grandiose humor?! Don’t leave me, PFT.

What about you, PW BWE fans? Do you want another revamp, or were you happy with the current model? And what the nuts are we supposed to do until January?

Jun 9 2009 08:15 PM ET

PaddyPower.com: Betting on the next James Bond

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Filed under: Movies and tagged: , , ,

Paddypower_lWhile we would never condone illegal wagering, we would like to call your attention to an Irish online betting site we like to check out from time to time called Paddy Power. Why? Because in addition to the various sporting events folks can risk their paychecks on (rugby, cricket, soccer, even darts!), the good folks there also take what they call "novelty bets" on the world of entertainment. 

For example, at Oscar time, the site handicaps all of the nominees. Unlike EW.com, however, Paddy Power will actually pay you if your hunch is correct and that obscure little Japanese foreign language film manages to walk away with a statuette. While most of the site's fiscal propositions tend to focus on British pop culture — like, who will win their latest edition of Big Brother — sometimes it sets its bookie gaze to our side of the pond and comes up with some pretty insane stuff.

Right now, you can wager on what the name of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's next baby will be. (For the record, "William" is the 8/1 favorite, with "Tatoo" coming in at 150/1.) Another hot topic is who will play Frank Sinatra in Martin Scorsese's recently announced biopic of Ol' Blue Eyes. Leonardo DiCaprio is the obvious frontrunner at 13/8, followed by George Clooney 9/4, Johnny Depp 11/4, and rounding out the bottom of the list, Joe Pesci at 150/1 — a sucker's bet if ever there was one.

Finally, there's a pair of 007 bets. The first is an intriguing one: who will be the next Bond Girl? Leading the oddsmaker's book is Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto at 15/8, followed by Jennifer Aniston at 4/1, Megan Fox at 6/1, and way down the list, Amy Winehouse at 250/1. The second is more surprising: Who will be the next James Bond? Will Smith apparently has the inside track at 4/1, trailed by Clive Owen and Christian Bale at 8/1, and get this, P. Diddy at 100/1. 

Personally, I'd say save your money. But if I were Daniel Craig, I'd be watching my back.  
Jun 9 2009 07:28 PM ET

'American Idol': Who would you sign next? Pick two finalists and one semifinalist!

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Season-8-Idols_l Okay, so the folks at 19 Entertainment have made it official, signing American Idol's season 8 top two, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, to respective deals with Jive and RCA. Now comes the speculation: Which other contestants will the company sign to its roster? Or more importantly, will they sign anyone other than Kris and Adam? [UPDATE: ROCKER SIGNED! ROCKER SIGNED!]

With those questions in mind, here's a fun exercise for you. Let's put ourselves in charge of the 19 Universe for just a moment. In addition to Kradam, you can sign two additional finalists, and one semifinalist, to a deal. No more than that! I know you might be tempted to pick more, but even the biggest labels have to put a cap on the number of artists they can put their money behind. And to show I'm not above following my own torturous rules, I'll go first and name my talented trio:

Allison Iraheta: Oh, hi, yeah, she only has the potential to be one of the great female rock vocalists of her generation. So unless 19 has an appetite for self-destructon, they will close the deal with the red-headed rocker…immédiatement! (Bonus reasoning: If you believe in signs, the girl's initials are A.I.)

Anoop Desai: This one hurts the most, choosing among 'Noop Dawg, Alexis Grace, and Matt Giraud. (What can I say? Matty G won me over with his Idolatry interview…I'm a sucker for good sports!) But of the three, I'd have to go with Anoop, a contestant who took a little while to settle into his Idol groove, but also showed he was capable of cool, contemporary arrangements ("True Colors," "Dim All the Lights") and buttery smooth, highly distinctive studio renditions of his songs on iTunes. (Bonus reasoning: If you believe in signs, the man's last name ends in "ai.")

Mishavonna Henson: Again, a tough call here, as there were a half dozen or so semifinalists (Kristen McNamara, Jesse Langseth, Felicia Barton, Ju'Not Joyner, Ricky Braddy) I loved this season. But last week while procrastinating on iTunes, I discovered Mishavonna's five-song EP, and realized her underrated "Drops of Jupiter" during Group 2 night was just the tip of the iceberg. Check out "Tear Myself Apart" (after the jump) and tell me the girl's not destined for a platinum future! (Bonus reasoning stretched to the far boundaries of credibility: If you believe in signs, look at mIshAvonna's name again…you can't spell it without an 'A' and an 'I.' Spooky!)

Okay, Idol addicts: Those are the two finalists and one semifinalist I'd sign if I ran 19 Entertainment. Let's hear your picks in the comments section below!

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Jun 9 2009 07:10 PM ET

With which pop culture-y theme would you prefer to leave this earth?

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Star-trek-funeral_lThe Star Trek-themed caskets, urns, monuments, and vaults available at Eternal Image are super awesome. Order now, and have fun in space! You're totally going to space. I mean look at your coffin. I really hope you'll enjoy it in space.

Seriously, though, if we all suddenly had to choose a pop-culture-themed transportation vessel from this life to whatever's next, what would yours be? I'll start: Arrested Development's Bluth Frozen Banana Stand, a.k.a. the Big Yellow Joint. Life-size replica so I could really stretch out, plus "there's always money" in there for my many travels. Margaret would like this PBR casket and a can of PBR, please. Bruno would like to be cremated and stored in a Flavor Flav-style clock cremation urn, so he doubles as a timepiece and isn't just wasting space up on the mantel. Slezak refuses to play along with my silly games and wants nothing more than "to be cremated and spread on the racetrack." So I will just go ahead and decide that this "racetrack" will be the animated landscape of the chalk drawing in Mary Poppins.

Mandi, being Mandi, wrote all this: "Oh, you know. I might have a standard-looking casket on the outside, but then on the inside, have the material silk-screened to look like the "Recorded List" from my DVR. So it would just be the names of my favorite shows of all-time, and the original airdates of my favorite episodes. And like, where the Star Trek symbol is, they could build a holder for my last remote."

She wins. With which pop culture-y theme would you prefer to leave this earth, P-Dubs?

Jun 9 2009 07:03 PM ET

'Old Jews Telling Jokes': Two yentas walk into a bar...

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Jewish humor is as old as the Talmud. Moses himself probably warmed up the crowd before parting the Red Sea with a joke about how it wasn't the heat, but the humidity, that made summers on the Sinai Peninsula so unbearable, or riffed on how bland the matzoh was (…and such small portions!). 

Well, now the website oldjewstellingjokes.com is doing its part to keep the long, proud tradition of Semitic satire alive and well, updating it for the digital age. 

Created last January by 42-year-old New York filmmaker Sam Hoffman, the site features actual old Jews who look like your Uncle Morty or Aunt Sadie telling sometimes painful, but mostly priceless gags to a stationary camera. The jokes range between 30 seconds long and three minutes. The new season, the site's second, starts today and will unveil new old Jews telling jokes every Tuesday and Thursday and even feature some celebrity amateur comics, like former New York mayor Ed Koch. 

Until then, we leave you with this (slightly NSFW) clip from Louis Goldstein…would it kill you to look at it? 

Jun 9 2009 06:49 PM ET

Sucked in by bad movies on TV: A PopWatch Confessional

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It’s happened to me, and I’m guessing it’s happened to you, too. 

 The other day, I was sitting on the sofa, remote control in hand, looking for…well, I don’t know what exactly. Just then, I caught the first five minutes of Into the Blue, the 2005 Jessica Alba/Paul Walker deep-sea treasure turd. Normally, I wouldn’t waste my time with a movie like this. Not when I have plenty of “respectable” movies on my coffee table that I haven’t gotten around to still sitting in their red Netflix envelopes (I’m ashamed to admit I’ve had Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage out for over a year).

But here’s the thing: I got sucked into the trash vortex. Suddenly, I was glued to the Caribbean intrigue as Walker and his shady pal played by Scott Caan discover a pirate ship loaded with booty on the bottom of the sea that just happens to be sitting next to a downed plane full of bricks of cocaine. Alba’s ever-changing assortment of bikinis didn’t lessen the magnetic pull of the matinee either. Not only did I watch Into the Blue to the end, I actually stuck around for another half hour when USA started played it again. 

This happens more than I’d like to admit. Ishtar? Any time I catch that notorious box-office bomb on TV, I’m doomed for the next two hours (don’t laugh, the first half hour is hilarious). Joe Vs. The Volcano? In! Steven Segal’s Under Siege? That’s like Saturday afternoon catnip. Predator 2, TimeCop, Octopussy, Every Which Way But Loose, The Beastmaster, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier? None of them are what anyone would call a masterpiece, but just try turning looking away.  

Now let’s hear from you: what bad movie sucks you in time after time? 

Jun 9 2009 06:35 PM ET

'The A-Team' movie casting: Who's gonna play B.A. and Murdock?

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Mr-t-Chiwetel-Ejiofor_l I love it when a cast comes together. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Still, the news that Oscar-nominee Liam Neeson is in talks to play John "Hannibal" Smith in Joe Carnahan's movie adaptation of The A-Team — with Hangover heartthrob Brandley Cooper potentially coming on as Templeton "Faceman" Peck — is encouraging. Because no one needs another SWAT.

But that still leaves half of a renegade band of veterans, wanted for crimes they did not commit, to cast: "Howling Mad" Murdock (originally played by Dwight Schultz) and B.A. Baracus (Mr. T's star-making role). Murdock is the showiest role in the Team — the brilliant but delusional pilot who spends most of his time in a mental institution — and, as such could go to anyone from Robert Downey Jr. to Sam Rockwell. But I'd like to see them take a chance on Jim Carrey. When given the chance, the man can act (see: The Truman Show); here's a role that'd require him to both play the loon, and the damaged man bubbling underneath.

And then we come to B.A. Baracus. I'm sure every black actor with an athletic build is being looked at — Ice Cube was, at one point, a rumored favorite — to play the driver, mechanic, and legbreaker. But Mr. T, coming off of playing the villain in Rocky III, wasn't the cuddly mohawked teddy bear he'd later morph into: He was downright frightening. These days, muscles don't, ironically, carry the same weight. Think of Don Cheadle in Devil in a Blue Dress or Jeffrey Wright in Shaft — they were terrifying because you believed that they were crazy enough to do whatever crossed their minds. So I'm gonna rally for Chewitel Ejiofor (pictured) — who's never been bad in anything, and elevates everything, from Inside Man to Serenity, Children of Men to Redbelt. Hell, I just wanna see that dude in more movies.

What about you? Who would you like to see flesh out these classic TV vigilantes?

Jun 9 2009 06:06 PM ET

Howard Stern uses Letterman platform to rip on Jay Leno

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Filed under: Television and tagged:

We know one person who must be happy that David Letterman is nearing a deal with CBS to extend The Late Show through the 2011-12 season: Howard Stern. On last night's Late Show, the Sirius Radio star respectfully thanked Letterman for putting him on the map in the first place, but then totally ripped on Jay Leno in a rather uncomfortable (especially if you were Dave) segment. After an unsuccessful first attempt at bringing up the current late-night Conan vs. Letterman war, Stern piped up again (at about 4:20 in the video below) to let everyone know just how much he can't stand Leno. "I've never seen anybody who behaves like a robot like this guy," said Stern, critiquing the way Leno appeared to be reading from a teleprompter during his final Tonight Show. "Where's the emotion? Where's the humanity?" [Gestures to Dave] "Here's the host we wanna watch!" Then he did a little dance. What a fun, sexy time for all of us!

What do you think of Stern's outburst — too much? Just right?

Jun 9 2009 05:49 PM ET

The Teen Wolf is 48 today!

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That's right! Michael J. Fox, who many of us will always think of as Family Ties' young Republican Alex P. Keaton or the hirsute high school hoopster Scott Howard, is celebrating his birthday today. Is it really possible that he's 48? Where does the time go? To help celebrate the Canadian actor's big day, we offer you this classic trailer from 1985's Teen Wolf – the Citizen Kane of lycanthropic puberty films. 


Jun 9 2009 05:00 PM ET

'30 Rock' is 'The Muppet Show'? Or just...every show?

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Is 30 Rock a rip-off of The Muppet Show, as a blog post from writer Brian Lynch jokingly (mostly) claims? It's a cute comparison, and some of it's spot-on — Jenna = Miss Piggy? Truth! — but Liz as Kermit isn't quite as good a fit. And Jack is just every Muppet? And Tracy's Gonzo? Au contraire.

I get Lynch's premise, and I actually found his reasoning quite charming. But he loses me at Scooter/Kenneth. Yeah, they're both naive gofers, but that hardly speaks to their personalities: Kenneth is as loopy as the day is long, while Scooter is a lucid, by-the-book kind of dude. Kenneth thinks hot liquids are "the Devil's temperature." Come on.

What Lynch's comparison does speak to, though, is that however imaginative and wonderful 30 Rock is — very, on both counts — it's ridiculously easy to draw parallels to other shows, particularly shows-within-shows. Por ejemplo: Murphy Brown. Liz is Murphy, a stressed-out, socially disjointed boss who, while highly talented, sometimes struggles to keep it together and is prone to embarrassing meltdowns. She's flanked by a platonic dude sidekick, her balding buddy who happily plays second fiddle (Pete on 30 Rock, Frank on Murphy). There's a stuffy older fellow whose old-fashioned values and pomposity often seem out of sync with the rest of the people, but there's actually an abiding affection between him and everyone else (Jack Donaghy and Jim Dial even have the same initials!). How about the needy, spacey blonde who relies on her looks and is often the squeakiest hinge? And then there's Kenneth or Miles, the younger, easily thrown upstart who's perfect for his job — well, perfect for the on-paper description of it; he actually spends most of his time herding cats and dealing with the petty inanity that seems to consume everyone but him.

 That just leaves Tracy, who I'll say is a collage of all of Murphy's secretaries — the crazy, the unpredictable, and so on. The Museum of TV describes her secretaries like this: "a young African-American man who speaks only in rap, a crash-test dummy, a bickering married couple, and a mental patient." Sound familiar? I see your crash-test dummy and I raise you a Japanese sex doll, btw.

Now I'm sort of attached to this "30 Rock is actually this other show" idea. Is Liz Mary Richards? Dana Whitaker? Larry Sanders? Hit me with your best shot, PopWatchers!

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