Archive: September 2009 (341-350 of 437)

Sep 7 2009 04:03 PM ET

Y'all ready for Camp Ruby?

Categories: Television

Despite gaining 2 lbs., Ruby Gettinger inspired a lot of young people in Sunday’s season finale of her Style network show. Ruby was recruited to attend and speak at a kids’ weight-loss camp in the Poconos. She (and Jeff and Georgia) had some trouble adjusting to strict rules in the first few minutes — Ruby joked, “How am I supposed to order pizza with no cell phone!?” And she made sure to disinfect her cabin with the 20 cleaning products she packed (sounds like our style of hygienic roughing it!).

Soon Ruby was a happy camper, though. Her Southern drawl was a treat for the kids, and she threw herself into activities from volleyball to dodgeball to horseback riding (Ruby’s first time ever on a horse.) And she liberally gave out her famous hugs, while getting the campers to open up about their biggest dreams.

Maybe camp counselor is the perfect new career for Ruby (now that she’s proved too cheeky to be a Savannah tour guide). And sure, she could continue inspiring kids, but how about adult camp in her scenic Southern hometown? It would be kinda like her famous Women’s Fat Night stretched out for a week. C’mon, Ruby, think about it. Your chefs could create healthy meals, Dr. Bradley could lead empowering sessions, your trainers could inspire some fun workouts, and plenty of people (like me!) would pay just to have a Ruby hug and hear a few “y’all”s in person.

Who else would sign up for Camp Ruby?

Sep 7 2009 02:54 PM ET

'True Blood': No one is anticipating the season finale more than... Hitler

We’ve all been there: Stuck in some place that doesn’t get HBO on a Sunday night.* Only fingers crossed, it won’t happen to us on Sept. 13, when HBO airs the much-anticipated season 2 finale of True Blood. Below, a fan’s R-rated take on what it would sound like if Adolf Hitler found himself in that unenviable position. (Hint: Hilarious.)

* Seriously, I almost cut a visit with my parents short recently because they don’t get HBO. Have cable concerns ever factored into your vacation plans or accommodations?

More True Blood:
The winners of Ken Tucker’s ‘Write Your Own True Blood episode’ competition
TV’s Best Bads: True Blood’s Eric to rival Buffy‘s Mayor
Ausiello TV: True Blood finale shocker?
True Blood: The precise moment Eric earned his hottest new vampire title

Sep 7 2009 11:45 AM ET

Things we learned this summer...watching TV and movies

skarsgard-hundtricket_lWith the season coming to an end, it’s time to look back at what the last few months in entertainment have taught us. You can get your thinking caps on by clicking through our gallery of 20 Things We Learned This Summer. I’ll start the addendum to the list.

1. A bit of Swedish: For instance, Hundtricket, the title of a 2002 film that features True Blood‘s Alexander Skarsgard in a shower scene (pictured), means “The Dog Trick.”

2. Mark Feuerstein is no longer “TV poison”: Royal Pains earned a second season on USA, which means the next time we write about its leading man we won’t have to mention that he also starred in three failed NBC sitcoms — 1997′s Fired Up (shot down after 23 episodes), 1998′s Conrad Bloom (after nine episodes), and 2002′s Good Morning, Miami (30 episodes) — and one blink-and-you-missed-it CBS drama, 3 Lbs. (canceled after only three airings in 2006).

3. Movie execs do have a heart, at least the ones at Pixar. Ten-year-old Colby Curtin’s dying wish to see Up was granted with a home screening. (I will not tear up again. I will not tear up again. I will not — nope, just did.)

Your turn. What did you learn this summer?

Sep 7 2009 08:59 AM ET

'At the Movies': It's back, and it's serious

ABC’s At the Movies re-launched this weekend with two new hosts: The New York Times film critic A.O. Scott and the Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips. Wait, actual newspaper critics? On television? Has ABC gone nuts? The debut episode barely called attention to the fact that these weren’t the same guys we’d been stuck with for the past year. “Let’s get right to it,” Scott remarked, as if the The Two Bens Experiment was just a bad dream.

If only we were so lucky. A year ago, ABC hired hosts Ben Mankiewicz, a semi-knowledgeable and semi-articulate movie guru from Turner Classic Movies, and the baby-faced Ben Lyons, who, bless his heart, had notoriously called I Am Legend “one of the greatest movies ever made.” I said then that the revamped show didn’t work, although I must admit that The Two Bens got better as the season progressed. It didn’t matter, though, because the very people who’d watch a movie-review show — film lovers — were turned off by The Two Bens’ questionable credentials. Lyons, in particular, was targeted: Roger Ebert thinly disguised his disapproval of Lyons, and someone built a website, Stop Ben Lyons, solely to highlight young Ben’s offenses. Add the show’s dwindling ratings to the mix, and ABC decided it was time to return to the program’s original purpose — intelligent film criticism.

READ FULL STORY »

Sep 7 2009 08:12 AM ET

TV's top brass: Why so white?

ewu_logoFor our final class of our EW University course on TV Auteurs, Prof. Jennifer Armstrong is back to address the lack of diversity in our list, and in the TV industry as a whole.

Aaron Sorkin, Aaron Spelling, Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams: All great auteurs, with distinct voices and visions, who left indelible marks on television. All genuinely brilliant in their own ways. All deserving of auteur status.

And, of course, all white men.

When we assembled our list of TV visionaries to discuss in this EW U course, there was no arguing with the names we chose. We could’ve added a few more –- a David E. Kelley or a Seth MacFarlane or a Chuck Lorre -– but, guess what! Those are still more white men. Distinctive talents, sure. But when it comes to offering a broad range of perspectives, television still lags behind, you know, real life. (Movies could use a dose of perspective, too, by the way.)

What makes this disconnect even more shocking is that these days, strong leading ladies are THE thing, especially on cable. It seems all you need to do to make a hit is plunk a female star of a certain age who isn’t getting the juiciest parts these days (hi, Kyra Sedgwick!) or ever (Jada Pinkett Smith) into a sassy character who solves crimes/saves lives each week; or, on pay cable, give her a flawed character who screws up lives while baiting Emmy voters (see: Edie Falco).  And yet a large number of TV’s most commanding female characters are being created and shaped by …  men. Pinkett Smith’s Hawthorne comes from John Masius; Sedgwick’s The Closer comes from James Duff. They’re part of a long tradition: Sex and the City sprung from the mind of Darren Star (who later brought us Cashmere Mafia), Desperate Housewives from Marc Cherry’s fertile imagination. There are, certainly, a few up and coming female executive producers these days: Rebecca Sinclair (an alum of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls), who turned The CW’s 90210 remake around; Stephanie Savage, who’s given both The O.C. and Gossip Girl bite (even though she takes second billing to the more auteur-ish Josh Schwartz); The L Word’s Ilene Chaiken; and Weeds’ Jenji Kohan. Tina Fey’s one of the few female voices on the Big Four — and she’s clearly one of the most unique (not to mention critically drooled-over). But none of those ladies has gotten the chance to prove she’s more than a one-hit wonder. The only woman who could come close to entering the all-boys auteurs’ club is Grey’s Anatomy’s Shonda Rhimes (pictured above) — who, thanks to Private Practice, is the only woman and the only person of color with more than one show on network television right now. Her vision is still too new and untested – Grey’s is a surefire and distinctive hit, but Practice is far wobblier — to achieve auteur status. However, she could become a Sorkin or a Kelley over time. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 6 2009 04:00 PM ET

Labor Day TV Marathons (and the movies you'll watch again...and again)

mike-rowe_lWhether you’re looking to stay on the sofa or you need to know what channels to avoid so you don’t end up there on Monday, here’s our cheat sheet of notable Labor Day TV marathons. Because we know certain movies can be as sure a thing as, say, 19 hours of The Golden Girls, 18 hours of Dirty Jobs, and 15 hours of NCIS, we’ve included a bonus list of films to watch/not watch. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 6 2009 03:00 PM ET

What's your favorite tennis-related movie moment?

Categories: Movies, Sports

With All About Steve, Extract, and Gamer double-faulting with our critics, it looks like our best bet for high drama this weekend might be on the tennis courts at the U.S. Open in Flushing, Queens. Seriously, that Oudin-Sharapova match yesterday was just about the best girlfight I’ve seen since Sheree-Kim on The Real Housewives of Atlanta. And that’s saying a lot.

But as someone whose interest in televised athletics is generally limited to the speed-sewing on Project Runway, I find that watching the Open just makes me think back on my favorite tennis moments in movies. There’s the fateful net shot in Match Point, of course, and the romantic volleying in Wimbledon. And who could possibly forget the gut-wrenching suspense of the climactic match in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train? There are also plenty of great tennis moments in movies that don’t have anything to do with the sport. Remember Annie and Alvy’s meet-cute on the court in Annie Hall? How about Tim Roth and Gary Oldman’s existential rally in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead? Or Sandra Bullock’s ball-to-the-face in Two Weeks Notice?

Still, for my money, the best tennis moment in movie history has got to be Dionne’s killer one-liner during a ball machine lesson in Clueless. (It’s a bit too blue to write here, so check out the trailer below at 2:15). Cheap? Vulgar? Sure. But Venus Williams never served an ace that good.

Your turn PopWatchers: What’s your favorite on-court movie memory?

Sep 6 2009 01:00 PM ET

A substitute for Joan's missing 'Mad Men' wedding?

Christina-Hendricks_lWere you, like us, a bit sad to see that Joan’s wedding on Mad Men happened between seasons 2 and 3? Joan’s a fashion icon even in the secretarial break room, so there was no telling how great she would look rocking an early ’60s bridal creation. Even if she was marrying a creepy sometime-rapist, Joan would have had those hips working the aisle in style — lots of crinoline and a Jackie-style white pillbox hat and veil topping it off, perhaps?

But no, we didn’t get to witness the ceremony or even get to see any wedding pictures, just silver-fox Sterling tipping his hat to Joan and calling her “Mrs. Harris” in episode 1. Matthew Weiner, why have you robbed us of this wedding-day bliss? We keep small hope alive for a flashback later this season but will have to be somewhat consoled by bratty Margaret Sterling’s impending nuptials.

Meanwhile, it turns out we can live out our Joan wedding fantasies with actress Christina Hendricks modeling contemporary bridal fashions in the Fall 2009 InStyle Weddings (disclosure: a sister magazine to EW). And – how’s this for meet-cute Sterling Cooper style – Hendricks reveals in the magazine’s interview that she was introduced to her fiancé Geoffrey Arend, an actor who appears in (500) Days of Summer, through a night out with Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell). Get started on that Campbell-style chip-n-dip wedding registry, Christina! For her own real-life wedding, Hendricks will wear a Carolina Herrera strapless dress in a color called candlelight. She tells InStyle: “It’s got a bit of Sophia Loren to it, but really, it’s a Christina Hendricks dress.” Joan couldn’t have said it better herself.

Is anyone else crying in your champagne because we didn’t get to see Joan’s wedding? Hendricks looks great in everything everywhere the InStyle spread, though, right?

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Photo Credit: Holloway: AMC

Sep 6 2009 09:00 AM ET

Bradley Cooper: Summer's biggest breakout star?

Categories: Movies

6a00d8341bf6c153ef01157093016d970c-800wiTrue, he wasn’t exactly an unknown. But after years of toiling away in best-buddy roles, Bradley Cooper finally ditched his That-Guy-In-Wedding-Crashers identity this summer thanks to the left-field success of The Hangover. The low-budget comedy made over $270 million and gave a well-deserved career-boost to each of its three leads: Cooper, The Office’s Ed Helms, and loose-cannon comedian Zach Galifianakis.

But of that cast, it’s Cooper who now seems best poised for a shot at the A-List. He’s already snagged tabloid covers thanks to a few photo-ready flings with high-profile actresses (much to the chagrin of EW’s own Michael Slezak). And while this weekend’s All About Steve probably won’t be a gold star on his resume, the actor’s other upcoming projects — the all-star rom-com Valentine’s Day with Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway and a big-screen version of The A-Team, not to mention a Hangover sequel — all have huge box office potential. Now we just have to wait and see if Cooper can hang on to his Hangover momentum long enough to establish himself as a real leading man.

Of course, Cooper wasn’t the only rising star of the summer. Ryan Reynolds scored back-to-back blockbusters with Wolverine and The Proposal (not to mention a scorching hot EW cover), while Star Trek crewmembers Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, and Zoe Saldana all look primed to live long and prosper in Hollywood. And let’s not forget District 9‘s Sharlto Copley, (500) Days of Summer‘s Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, and Inglourious Basterds‘ lovely Melanie Laurent — all of whom are now on ready to join the big leagues in Hollywood.

So, PopWatchers, who’s your pick for the summer’s breakout star?

Sep 6 2009 08:06 AM ET

Aaron Sorkin: Talker, walk with me

ewu_logoThis week, EW University takes a look at the people who helped shape the modern TV landscape. Today’s TV auteur is Aaron Sorkin, whose distinct voice pushed network comedies out of the ‘90s and network dramas into the White House. Class is now in session!

When Sports Night premiered in 1998, it was met with critical praise, fanatical devotion on the part of its 10 million or so viewers (which at the time made it the 45th most-watched show), and a revived conversation about the future of the laughtrack for network comedies. Sports Night debuted with canned laughs, but it was so out of place that ABC couldn’t help but eventually side with Sorkin and the show’s fans. Out went the laughtrack, and in came an era where the differences between multicamera and single-camera comedies became normal TV fan knowledge, not just inside-baseball musings.

Sports Night’s contemporaries were Home Improvement; Friends; Fraiser; Spin City; Suddenly Susan; That ’70s Show; Everybody Loves Raymond; King of Queens; Will & Grace; Mad About You; Just Shoot Me; Moesha; Dharma & Greg; Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place; The Drew Carey Show; The Nanny; 3rd Rock from the Sun; and Newsradio. Noticing a pattern here, other than, wowza, there were a lot more comedies on the air 10 years ago? Network comedies of the late ’90s had a particular style and rhythm, and a lot of similar tendencies: a classic sitcom pacing of set-’em-ups and knock-’em-downs, frequent big-name guest stars, a lot of kooky neighbors or catch-phrasey foils. The closest thing Sorkin has to a  “holy crap” a la Raymond is “shoe money tonight!” – and that’s only on one episode. (And it’s the name of his production company. Ah, trivia.) READ FULL STORY »

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