Archive: August 2009 (281-290 of 386)

Aug 10 2009 03:27 PM ET

'Gossip Girl' season 3 preview: Totally WTF!

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Mondays have been pretty bleak without the juicy joy of The CW’s Gossip Girl. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel: The soap will be back on Sept. 14! From the newly released teaser, here are some of the nuggets to look for this season: Chuck and Blair are finally a couple! And Dan is drinking beer! And Serena loses her top! And Carter is shirtless with some horses! Okay, that’s weird. But everything else looks GG-great.

What do you think PopWatchers? Are you excited for Gossip Girl season 3?

Aug 10 2009 02:57 PM ET

Country songs to become TV anthology series (or my game show)

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Filed under: Television and tagged: ,

Country singer and former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Clint Black has been tapped to exec produce a new TV anthology series called American Storytellers. According to Variety, the show will turn current and classic country songs into dramatic hourlong episodes. No network or on-screen talent has been announced, but producers will be looking to cast country artists in major roles.

Now, I can see where this sounds like a good idea to someone. Country music tells some hauntingly beautiful/heartbreaking stories (see the clip below). But (a) the genre does have music videos, so we’ve already seen “The Heart Won’t Lie” brought to life and (b) how is this not gonna end up cheesier than a stuffed crust pizza? I don’t think Reba McEntire and Vince Gill can star in every episode — though a girl can dream.

READ FULL STORY »

Aug 10 2009 02:35 PM ET

Miley Cyrus pole dancing at the Teen Choice Awards: Rather unfortunate, yes?

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Filed under: Those Crazy Kids! and tagged: , , , , ,

In what could be perceived as an attempt to be edgy or an homage to ice cream distributors (they probably don’t get enough credit), Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus pole danced on top of an ice cream cart at the Teen Choice Awards Sunday afternoon (the show airs on Fox tonight at 8 p.m.). Personally, I never dropped it like’s it hot when the ice cream truck came ’round the neighborhood; I usually just went straight for a Good Humor Chocolate Eclair bar. Call me old-fashioned. But the stripper-esque choreography, coupled with Cyrus’ questionable red-carpet attire, came off completely inappropriate and ill-advised.

What did you think of Cyrus’ performance, PopWatchers?

Aug 10 2009 02:10 PM ET

'American Idols Live' tour review: Kradison rules, but Matt Giraud impresses, too!

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Filed under: American Idol and tagged:

idol-tour_lIt’s a credit to the top 10 finalists of American Idol‘s eighth season — or perhaps a discredit to the series’ production team — that almost all of ‘em came off better during their Idols Live Tour set in Newark, N.J. Sunday night than they did during their tenure on Fox’s ratings juggernaut of a reality competition. Whatever the reason for this improvement — freedom from post-performance judgment, lack of weird songbook restrictions, the benefits of on-the-road job training and experience, faux fauxhawks for most of the male contestants — it was an undeniable treat for an Idol geek like myself to see the contestants soar, even if some flew higher than others, and even if the touring band occasionally seemed to take a back seat to pre-recorded musical tracks.

The concert is divided neatly into two acts: The bottom six finishers perform their individual sets in descending order, essentially serving as a great big warmup act to the post-intermission appearances by season 8′s top four (the signed-by-19 trio of Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, and Allison Iraheta, as well as Danny Gokey). It seems, however, that fifth-place finisher Matt Giraud failed to get the memo about his role in the show, as he performed his three-song set with all the energy and charisma of a headliner. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 10 2009 01:41 PM ET

Jeremy Piven, I will turn this car right around if you don't stop it!

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Jeremy-Piven_lJeremy Piven continues to make himself seem as irredeemably obnoxious as possible. The latest: A fight with Chris Kattan backstage at It’s On with Alexa Chung.This is certainly the biggest thing to happen on that show. Nothing screams “youth and fashion” like Piven and Kattan. Carry on.

According to the NY Daily News, Kattan “greeted Piven with a snarky, ‘So, what are you here to promote, your Broadway play?’…The actor sniped back irritably, ‘Well, what are you here to promote? Mango?’” Then things escalated! They ripped each other a little more, and it sounds like Piven then took it too far; Kattan tried to backpedal and apologize, but The Piv literally slammed a door in his face. Twice, according to the story. Piven’s publicist says the two were joking around, but Kattan’s rep says “Chris tried to apologize.” Uh…fight? For the record, Piven was there to promote The Goods, and Kattan was there to promote Bollywood Hero. So easy does it on the high horses, fellas. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 10 2009 12:49 PM ET

'Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers': She's old

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Filed under: About Last Night, Television and tagged: ,

Joan Rivers has had a lot of plastic surgery, is Jewish, and has slept around with a ton of people because she’s old. Plenty of her faux-haters reinforced these important themes at last night’s Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers. The two-hour telecast was fairly standard as far as these things go — tons of cursing, “scandalous” allusions to gay sex, and a near-constant need on my part to IMDB comedians with whom I’m not entirely familiar. For me, the most interesting part of any roast is watching the reaction shots of the speakers’ targets. Greg Giraldo’s segment last night provides the best reaction roundup. I love trying to pinpoint an initial twinge of “f— you!” before the target gets it together and executes a hearty hand clap (Brad Garrett), overdramatic full-body convulsion (Whitney Cummings),  or halfhearted gesture related to the insult (Carl Reiner checking his wristwatch). I say “I love it,” but I think it’s that I find the reactions — even when they’re convincing! — so uncomfortable and artificial that they become a little bit fascinating. Press play below — there’s a David Carradine joke in it for you if you make it ’til the end. Who else watched last night?

Aug 10 2009 12:15 PM ET

Kate Gosselin on 'Today': Isn't it ironic?

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Filed under: Television and tagged: , ,

Is there someone in your life who still doesn’t quite grasp what “irony” is? You can just show that person this video of Kate Gosselin on the Today Show this morning. Gosselin complained about her chatty brother and sister-in-law: “They decided to take their fame elsewhere and make money off my children. You have to understand, this has become a business for them. When they appear on talk shows…it’s a huge source of income for them to do this.” Those rascals! (Part 1 of Kate’s Today chat — featuring tears — is here.)

I wish the camera had focused on Meredith Viera more — she definitely seemed to be dying inside with each question and answer. Especially “When you’re not with the kids, where are you, then?” Like she cares.

Aug 10 2009 11:00 AM ET

EW U: Let's do the time warp again!

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Filed under: Lost, Movies and tagged: , , ,

ewulogoWelcome to the first class of Jeff “Doc” Jensen’s EW University course on time travel as a time-honored sci-fi trope. Coming up this week: additional posts that take a look at memorable movies and TV shows where this favorite conceit plays a starring role, plus a trivia quiz “final exam” and a gallery of our favorite time travelers.

As you may have noticed from a summer filled with starcruisers, giant robots, and adamantium-boned mutants, the genre commonly (if imprecisely) called science-fiction is big business, invading and filling the culture’s escapist landscape like tribbles, replicants, bunches of alien-hatching pods — you get the idea.  This week’s EW University course is devoted to one of the most popular sci-fi tropes: time travel. And there’s been a lot if it lately. One of the year’s biggest films, JJ Abrams’ Star Trek, hinges on a time-travel plot twist. The forthcoming The Time Traveler’s Wife — adapted from the best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger and starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana — promises to be one of the year’s biggest date flicks. Other recent examples of time travel pop: Deja Vu, The Lake House, Heroes, Journeyman, Doctor Who, Life On Mars, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and, of course, Lost.

“Time travel stories are a great type of wish fulfillment,” says Lost exec producer Carlton Cuse. “The ability to enter a world otherwise closed to us with knowledge no one in that world possesses is always rich in story telling possibilities. But beware: Time travel is very alluring when you start out. Sort of like having an affair with the girlfriend of [a] South American narco trafficker; it’s exotic and exciting and adrenaline-pumping for a while, but extricating yourself with all your limbs intact is very, very hard.”

(We shall have to take the esteemed Professor Cuse’s word for this.) READ FULL STORY »

Aug 10 2009 09:53 AM ET

Kathy Griffin takes Bristol Palin's ex, Levi Johnston, to the Teen Choice Awards. Wait, what?!

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johnston-griffin-teen-choice_lWhen a friend said last night on Twitter that Kathy Griffin had taken Levi Johnston — teenage father of Bristol Palin’s son Tripp — as her date to this year’s Teen Choice Awards, I thought I had to be reading some sort of joke. But apparently this is a thing that actually happened.

So weird. Since when is former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s former future son-in-law a red carpet celebrity? I can’t tell if Johnston meant this appearance as a self-aware gag about extending his 15 minutes of fame — in which case, pretty funny! — or if he’s genuinely trying to position himself as someone Hollywood should care about. The fact that he was in town for a Vanity Fair photo shoot suggests the latter option, which is sort of tragic, but I’m guessing the answer is a little bit of both.  READ FULL STORY »

Aug 9 2009 03:25 PM ET

Steve Zahn, you rock!

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Steve-Zahn_lThere are some actors whose mere presence on the bill puts you in a good mood. Patricia Clarkson does this for me. Joan Cusack, Judy Greer, Ben Shenkman, Harry Dean Stanton. Steve Zahn owns this territory. From Reality Bites to Joy Ride, I’ll watch just about any movie this guy shows up in. Many I’m willing to wait for the DVD. Management (what kind of movie title is that?), I’m looking at you.

So it was with gusto that I hauled my ass out of the heat and caught the 10 a.m. showing of A Perfect Getaway, which incidentally is a great fun piece of air-conditioned throwaway about a couple on their Hawaii hiking trip who run into fingerprint-shaving murderers. There were three people in the theater, which might account for its modest $5+ million opening. But I got my Zahn fix. And I’ve got a new girl crush on Samantha Who? alum Kiele Sanchez, who plays a Georgia girl who can disembowel a goat.

Now, A Perfect Getaway was made for $14 million. It’ll play well on DVD. I say it’s a nifty B movie. (Our Lisa Schwarzbaum says B-.) But what’s remarkable is that it is essentially a Steve Zahn vehicle. He’s the biggest star. His wife is played by former supermodel Milla Jovovich who tells Zahn’s character that “I’ll give you a B.J. in the car.” How does Zahn do it? He’s a character actor who gets to play the romantic lead in a Jennifer Aniston movie. Granted, I heard it sucked. But Hollywood gives him genuine opportunities. So what is it going to take to convince someone to give Cusack or Greer a similarly front and center role. I don’t want to see Greer playing second banana to a blown-out bigger star for the rest of her career. I want her to get some Zahn action.

Here he is kicking genial ass back in 1998 promoting the underrated John Hamburg movie Safe Men on Conan. Nice biceps, man.

Any fellow Steve Zahn fans out there? What actors will you stick around to watch even if they’re in a so-so movie? What character actor do you wish could snag onto some starring roles?

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