Fans of NBC’s Community (Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. ET) know Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley, the sassy divorcée that Chevy Chase’s eccentric Pierce has sexually harassed during Spanish study group. Fans of TV in general might remember her as a Daily Variety ad salesperson on Entourage, the Staples coworker who had an argument with Dwight on The Office, or the organ procurement person who didn’t realize that the husband (Heroes‘ Greg Grunberg) she was speaking to didn’t know that his wife was dead on House. Fans of movies (who don’t blink) might recall her as a secretary in (500) Days of Summer and the only black woman a producer arguing for more fluff in the opening show-how-efficient-Katherine-Heigl-is sequence in The Ugly Truth.
After meeting Brown, we know her as someone we’d like to have drinks with. The woman, whose big splurge when she finally got a promising network series was to order HBO (she’s working up to a home bowling alley and screening room), knows how to tell a great story. Here, she dishes on her Community classmates Chase and Joel McHale, as well as Jude Law, Gerard Butler, and Michael Bivins…. READ FULL STORY »
Last night, I sat down for the series premieres of Modern Family and Cougar Town, bringing high expectations to the former, and a sense of “eh, might as well finish out the hour on ABC” to the latter. But lo and behold, both shows left me howling with laughter, then promptly fearing that they’d draw 
Now that boys and their toys (G.I. Joe, Transformers, et al) have essentially turned the cineplex into a giant sandbox, isn’t it time to let the girls play? Never fear, ladies; your time is near: Universal just signed a 
This week, the Pop Culture Club took on Bored to Death, HBO’s new comedy about a novelist who tries to break out of his post-breakup stasis by becoming a private investigator. In other words, it’s Raymond Chandler plus Woody Allen times Wes Anderson. The scene in which Jason Schwartzman takes a belt of whiskey to appear tough in a bar and then wheezes and nearly spits it up is straight out of Allen’s Play it Again, Sam; the whiny, affectless, overconfessional dialogue is all Anderson.
With the fall TV season getting into full swing, my DVR has gotten bloated and a little bit crampy, kind of like the way my stomach felt the last time I went to an Ethiopian restaurant and forgot to bring my willpower. But since that cherished little machine next to my television can’t be cured with a roll of Tums, my husband and I were forced last night to get out the scalpel and make some painful cuts from our “Series Recordings” list.
As someone who writes about the 1985 movie 
Congratulations, Eastwick! ABC’s re-imagining of John Updike’s novel (and the film that followed) has earned a season pass on my DVR. Granted, this was not that difficult since it’s up against CSI: NY and The Jay Leno Show, but I found the series premiere entertaining nevertheless. For starters, Rebecca Romijn is (one of) the most likable models-turned-actresses out there. As the money-strapped free-spirited artist/widow Roxanne, she gets to wear her hair curly and sport fabulous accessories, which makes her even more appealing. She also gets to have sex with Kyle XY‘s Matt Dallas, who plays her current boy toy/wannabe boyfriend. Nice to see Dallas and his bare chest again, but I’m not buying them as a couple, or even bed buddies. Maybe it’s because Romijn appreciates a charismatic man in real life and I’m transferring that to Roxy, but I think Dallas and whatever his character’s name is (I’m not getting attached) are too reserved. Actually, I know they are, because the wish she made in the fountain that helped summon the mysterious Darryl Van Horne to the seaside village of Eastwick was that she’d meet a man who “gets her” — and buys $50,000 worth of her art before they hit the Egyptian cotton sheets. Her power is having visions, which came in handy when she needed to save her daughter from date rape.
