Archive: September 2009 (381-390 of 437)

Sep 3 2009 03:57 PM ET

Levi Johnston talks: 'Me and Mrs. Palin'

In the upcoming October issue of Vanity Fair, 19-year-old Levi Johnston, the most famed-for-mere-sperminating figure in pop culture since K.Fed, poses glamorously — and drops some Wasilla bombs on his baby’s grandma, former Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin.

Among his quotables? That Sarah “walked around the house pouting” after her loss; that “there wasn’t much parenting in [the Palins'] house. Sarah doesn’t cook, Todd doesn’t cook—the kids would do it all themselves: cook, clean, do the laundry, and get ready for school.” And that Sarah repeatedly offered to adopt his and her daughter Bristol’s baby because “she didn’t want people to know that her 17-year-old daughter was going to have a kid.”

You’ll be hearing these and other tidbits from the interview all throughout the media for the next few days, no doubt. But do you want to?

Is the fascination with the former Alaskan governor and her family — specifically, the tabloid aspects of her personal life, and the tangential figures in it — exhausted at this point, or do you want more?

And more importantly, in the words of my colleague Margaret Lyons, “Can we include a poll: How many months until Levi has a dating show on VH1? (Loving Levi? Levi Spouse? Will the tagline be ‘I’m sorry, but I’m asking you to leave…eye?’)”

See the piece dissected and digested by MSNBC, below, and tell us what you think:

Sep 3 2009 03:49 PM ET

New 'Where the Wild Things Are' footage: You feeling optimistic or skittish?

“There will be controversy about this,” warns Maurice Sendak in the latest little featurette about Where the Wild Things Are.

And…truth! This New York Times Magazine profile of director Spike Jonze makes it clear that the film is nontraditional: the article says it uses “Cassavetes-speak” and “lack[s] any clear conflict or resolution.” According to Jonze, “Everything we did, all the decisions that we made, were to try to capture the feeling of what it is to be nine.” And as anyone who’s been nine can attest, there is indeed a lot of mumbling and talking over one another and very little clarity or resolution. Realistically rendering the emotional state of childhood isn’t necessarily the same thing is making a good movie, though.

Yet I remain uncharacteristically optimistic, PopWatchers. I cannot wait to see Where the Wild Things Are, and now every shred of information just feeds that. It’s a mood piece that’s more about attitude than plot? Terrific, even though before this very moment that phrase would have sent me running for le hills. I read We Love You So, a blog from Jonze and some of the WTWTA crew, religiously, and have recently become obsessed with Terrible Yellow Eyes, a collection of artwork inspired by Sendak’s classic.

And you, PopWatchers? Are you feeling gung-ho about the film, or has some trepidation worked its way in?

Sep 3 2009 02:30 PM ET

'Lost' DVDs: Good Dharma?

Tags: , , Lost

dharma-kit_lNamaste, incredibly overstuffed “Dharma Initiation Kit“! You’re pretty.

You can get the fifth season of Lost on DVD for $59.99 on Dec. 8, oooooor you can shell out for the de-luxe apartment in the skigh-high collector edition for $119.99. This one appears to include: A VHS tape (dust off that VCR, kids), Dharma Initiative orientation pamphlets, DVDs in floppy-disk clothing (miss you, old friends), a variety of maps, and other fun Lost ephemera. The set is subject to change, though, so maybe don’t count those Dharma chickens before they hatch/disappear/time travel/etc.

Speaking of Lost paraphernalia, the third poster in the Damen, Carlton and a Polar Bear poster series is out.

Lost is unusually prone to the tchotchke industry, which is both fun — hey, a new toy! — and undercover bad news — hey, where’s all my money? Oh, I spent it on Lost toys! — for those of us who like to collect/hoard things. PopWatchers, will you shell out for the fancy schmancy set, or are plain-old DVDs enough for you?

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Sep 3 2009 02:26 PM ET

EW Picks: Today's best in pop culture

Tags:

Movies DVD: Sugar
From the writer-directors of 2006′s Half Nelson comes this hard-hitting drama about a young Dominican baseball phenom (Algenis Perez Soto) who immigrates to the U.S. to play in the minor leagues. Read our review

TV Disaster Lab: Buried Alive episode premiere (National Geographic, 9 p.m. EDT)
Disaster analysis expert Tim Samaras has decided to trigger his own avalanche using explosives to study how the force of such an event accelerates, what g-force it creates, and how it buries its victims — and he’s filming it all. Good thing you’ll be watching from the comfort of your own home.

Music “Zombie” demo, The Pretty Reckless
Sixteen-year-old actress Taylor Momsen, best known as Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl, is the singer for this new band. This demo track they recently posted online is catchy as all get-out, though Momsen wasn’t even born yet when the grunge classics it draws on were first released. Read our take on the Pretty Reckless

Books Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink,Jane Goodall
World renowned researcher and conservationist Jane Goodall examines animals that are coming back from the brink of extinction. Survival stories about the American crocodile and California condor will uplift and inspire any animal lover.

Tech Site: Insanewiches
Sometimes Scanwiches just seems so ordinary, you know? Insanewiches is the judgement-free compilation of weird, sandwich-oriented food art. Suck it, This Is Why You’re Fat! Om nom nom, Insanewiches

Sep 3 2009 01:52 PM ET

'Good Morning America': Who should replace Diane Sawyer?

good-morning-america_lThe announcement that Diane Sawyer will take over the ABC World News anchor chair in January 2010 might be bad news for those who’ve enjoyed her as the host of Good Morning America over the past few years, but it’s good news for pop-culture prognosticators like me. I mean, not since Rosie O’Donnell left The View have we had this big a hole to fill in the daytime TV lineup, and who doesn’t love a very public, high-stakes employment search?

Sawyer’s replacement will clearly need a mix of talents, including, but not limited to, an easy rapport with a wide range of folks: A-list celebs; politicians; average Joes and Janes who’ve been victims of crime/natural disaster/the fickle hand of fate; and perhaps most importantly, fellow GMA-ers Robin Roberts, Sam Champion, and Chris Cuomo. (Let’s be honest, it’s hard to fake the love before 8 a.m.)

Given the peculiar mix of “perkiness” and “gravitas” found among morning-show anchors, it seems like ABC could just as easily turn to a “personality” as it could someone with hard-news experience. And while the network has plenty of in-house candidates to consider, it could also make news by poaching a popular face from a competitor. Using those criteria, we came up with the poll below. Vote with enthusiasm, and feel free to ease on down to the comments section if you’ve got write-in candidates you’d prefer to see fill Sawyer’s shoes. (Just not this dude, please.)

Photo credit: Ida Mae Astute/ABC

Sep 3 2009 12:17 PM ET

Guy Ritchie's 'Lobo': More splatter, less PG-13

lobo-guy-ritchie_lI like Guy Ritchie, director of British underworld gems like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, as well as Robert Downey Jr.’s upcoming Sherlock Holmes redux. And I like Lobo, the DC Comics interstellar bounty hunter created by Keith Giffen in the ’80s, who revels in wanton, planet-scale acts of mayhem. Lobo, who rides a giant space-faring motorcycle-sled-thing, is the last of his race…because he killed the rest of his people. Probably because he thought calling himself  ”the last of his race” sounded cool. Lobo, who used “frag” as a four-letter substitute decades before “frak” came into vogue. So the two of them seem like a match made in director-subject heaven, right? Well, they would be if Warner Bros’ proposed Lobo flick wasn’t planned as a PG-13. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 3 2009 11:59 AM ET

'Réalité': Coming Sept. 25...to the Internet.

Greetings, fans of EW.com’s award-winning(ish) Web series, Idolatry! Today’s important message is that idle hands are the devil’s tools. And seeing how my crazy-sexy-cool cohosts Kristen Baldwin, Jessica Shaw, Annie Barrett, Missy Schwartz, and Dawnie Walton (of Life.com) haven’t been able to unleash their patented brand of reality-TV-related sass since American Idol wrapped its season in late May, the EW.com overlords decided we’d better go ahead and launch an all new (and very important) Web series, Réalité, on Sept. 25. What is this accent-heavy program, you might ask? Press play below for our (should-have-been) Emmy-nominated teaser trailer. It may not answer all your questions, but we sure hope you’ll tune in for our Sept. 25 premiere anyhow. (Also: For further Idol- and Réalité-related updates, follow me on Twitter @EWMichael Slezak. Respeck.)

Sep 3 2009 11:30 AM ET

Put down the baby, Zachary Quinto

Dear Zachary Quinto: What the hell are you doing? We have an entire blog category dedicated to you, and the “crazy” part of the hybrid is supposed to skew towards “goofy” — remember when you loved getting sprayed with milk in a photoshoot, and when you walked your dog next to humans dressed as a butcher and a steak? Those were better times. For reference: This is an example of your good gunplay. The following is not! “For realsies.” (Language totally NSFW.)

Now go sit in the corner, look adorable, and idly suck on your favorite hoodie string until you realize what you’ve done, young man. I mean it!

Sep 3 2009 11:29 AM ET

We all scream for (cheeseburger flavored) ice cream!

hamburger-icecream_lTrue story: I once froze a PB&J sandwich and chopped it up in a bowl of ice cream in a misguided fit of culinary experimentation. It wasn’t pretty (frozen bread is nobody’s friend). But that’s nothing compared to the stuff people are throwing into their sundaes these days. San Francisco’s SFoodie blog has a list of the weirdest ice cream flavors out there, and these things make my PB&J look as boring as plain old vanilla. A few of the unlikely flavor additions: Garlic, sausage, cheeseburgers, and raw horse meat. Yup, that’s right. Instead of caramel fudge, your next cone could have big chunks of Mr. Ed in it. Read on, if you’ve got the stomach for it, and then let us know: Which weird ice cream flavor makes you scream?

Photo Credit: Cheeseburger: Olivier Pojzman/Olivier Pojzman/ZUMA/Corbis; Cone: L. Fritz/ClassicStock/Corbis

Sep 3 2009 11:08 AM ET

Kristen Wiig is seriously serious in 'One Night Only'

I’ve watched this trailer for One Night Only a few times, and my most unlikely suspicions were correct: Kristen Wiig is not even supposed to be funny in this role. Try pausing it on 0:45 for a world-shifting oxymoronic combo of her name and serious-face. Does this make anyone else feel…funny? It could just be that I love her dress so much I may pass out.

The Last Pictures film is so indie it’s not even on IMDB. Only the truly cool people will figure out where and when to see it, or derive any additional meaning from it other than that its four stars give off a pretty strong Revolutionary Road vibe in this still photo.

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