La Cucina is described as “a romantic drama about life, love and the joy of cooking.” But what you really need to know is that it marks the film debut of Mad Men’s beloved Joanie, Christina Hendricks. The cast also featuers Joaquim de Almeida (24), Rachel Hunter, and Leisha Hailey (The L Word). The DVD/Blu-Ray is out Jan. 12, but meanwhile you can see Christina drinking red wine and sexily eating some sort of potato chip in the trailer:
Who’s hungry for La Cucina?
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia wraps up its fifth season tonight on FX at 10 p.m. ET, and you must watch so you get it when others walk around chanting, “Flip-, flip-, flip-, adelphia.” Trust me. It will happen. In the episode, the 10-year ban keeping the Paddy’s Pub gang from competing in the city-wide flip cup championship has been lifted, and they’re looking to reignite the rivalry with the bar staff they’d poisoned. “Flip-, flip-, flip-, adelphia” is their chant. I was shouting it on the street after they showed this episode before the cast’s Nightman Cometh Live stage show in September.
Other reasons to watch: Frank wears skinny jeans. Charlie gyrates (always funny) and tries to pull a “Good Will Hunting.” (He throws out lines from the movie in an attempt to outsmart Penn frat boys who have no respect for Dennis, who was a legend when he was a brother 15 years ago.) The twist ending shows just how deceitful and narcissistic the gang can be. Enjoy.
People like to cast Alfre Woodard as a woman of power, but why can’t she keep it? After the disappointments known as NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy and CBS’ Three Rivers, Woodard is heading to cable in the TNT pilot Delta Blues, exec produced by George Clooney. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she’ll play a new police lieutenant who tries to rein in a Memphis cop (Jason Lee) who lives with his mother and moonlights as an Elvis impersonator.
The good news: IF the show gets picked up, TNT should let it play out its first season no matter what. The bad news: That sounds like a USA show to me, not a TNT series. (Then again, USA shows are doing well now….)
Do you think Delta Blues sounds like a hit, or is Woodard one series away from being known as a show killer?
Photo credit: Sara De Boer/Retna
Warner Brothers unveiled its official teaser poster for the Sex and the City sequel with Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie in the white Halston Heritage number that marked the first public sighting of filming in September, and my reaction? A mixture of “Huh?” and “My eyes!”
Love the dress, love the necklace, love the shoes — though I could do without the gold aviators — but there’s nothing subtle about this teaser. It sounds more like it’s screaming at me with that blinding light. (I guess that explains the sunglasses.) I know Carrie isn’t afraid of a little bling, but this looks more like a poster for a New Year’s Eve party or a Hed Kandi album cover come to life.
And where are the other gals? A Warner Brothers rep is not yet sure if teasers featuring Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall will be released, but you may remember from the first SATC that the teaser included just Parker, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this technotronic-futuristic teaser is all we get.
It also seems like the producers just can’t let go of these “Carrie” puns. Last time it was “Get Carried Away”; this time it’s “Carrie On.” It really just reminds me of that amazingly hilarious Saturday Night Live SATC spoof titled, “Carrie On, Bags.”
What do you guys think of the poster? Yay! Or now way?
I understand the “Relax, it’s just a TV show” argument put forth by people who are loving MTV’s trashy reality show Jersey Shore. I see how watching this group of obnoxious goofballs can be fascinating and entertaining. But please, let’s not kid ourselves. It absolutely is offensive, and as an Italian-American myself, I feel like I need to call bullcrap on some of the arguments saying otherwise.
I reached my breaking point yesterday morning while watching a Today Show segment in which NBC News correspondent Jeff Rossen read from what he said was a casting notice for Jersey Shore, claiming that it specifically called for “loud, proud Italians,” and “guidos and guidettes” to participate in the new show. When asked about the cast notice and creation of the show, MTV said in a statement to EW: “MTV picked it up, and worked with the third-party production company to further develop (including supplemental casting) the creative in the tradition of MTV’s authentic reality series True Life, which had successful Jersey Shore episodes — ‘True Life: Staten Island,’ ‘True Life: I Have A Summer Share,’ and ‘True Life: I’m A Jersey Shore Girl.’”
So it may very well have been a third-party producer, and not an MTV employee, who actually wrote that casting notice. But in either case, it isn’t as if this show just stumbled upon a subculture of cocky, promiscuous airheads from the Jersey Shore that happen to be Italian-American. Producers specifically set out from the beginning to build a series around “loud, proud” “guidos” (MTV points out that several cast members are only half-Italian and one is not Italian at all), and only two of the eight people cast on Jersey Shore are even from the state of New Jersey, let alone the Shore. (The guy who calls himself Pauly D said in the premiere episode that he’d never even been to Jersey before the show.)
READ FULL STORY »
PopWatch is on a quest to determine the Greatest Guilty Pleasure Reality TV Show of All Time. We have 32 seeded contestants in four categories (see full bracket here), and we’re finishing the quarterfinals in the Competition category. After you vote, please leave comments about why you love the show you chose.
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Quarterfinals, Competition: Bromance vs. Tool Academy
Bromance
Few vanity reality shows are as decadent, or as bizarre, as Bromance, the competition to be Brody Jenner’s new best friend. What could’ve been a mere rich-do-play diversion turned into a high-camp mix of macho posturing, socioeconomic striving, and barely-repressed obsession. The contestants don’t even want to be Brody’s friend. They want be Brody: the wealth, the women, the golden-god physique. It’s The Talented Mr. Ripley reimagined as a Frathouse Pledge Week sponsored by MTV. Put simply: Dude, man, guy, bro… y’know? – Darren Franich
Tool Academy
PopWatchers, when I first heard the title, I honestly thought this had to be some kind of home-improvement show on HGTV. How could I be so wrong, there is nothing educational or redeeming about these tools. Although they seem to keep hair gel companies in business, so there is economic stimulation. I love that there’s always someone willing to get tattooed with the Tool Academy logo (shouldn’t that be a warning sign to any future mate!?), and that there are girls who are willing to go on national TV to tell the world how douche-y their boyfriends are. One such esteemed participant is one of the ladies lining up in the Tiger Woods scandal. Thank you girls, for sharing these depths of tool-ness with us in public. As for the men, I love that VH1 gives them an insulting nicknames like Tat-Tool and Tiny Tool and puts them through humiliating tasks like mock funerals. The serious tones of the therapist giving them relationship help only makes Tool Academy more delightfully absurd. — Wendy Mitchell
Now that NYC temperatures have dropped well below “bearable,” I cannot stop daydreaming about how much better my life would be if I was wearing Fantastic Mr. Fox’s cream-colored bouclé sweater. I saw the movie Sunday and really thought the obsession would go away around Tuesday, but it hasn’t. I don’t know what to do. I’ve also thought about commissioning fleece pajamas in the adorable yellow-based apple pattern of Mrs. Fox’s dress. It seems crazy, because they’re animals. But not totally crazy, because clothes are typically worn by humans, and so what if the most bangin’ outfits in my recent memory happen to have been worn by foxes? Back to crazy: I’m basically modeling my prospective winter wear after stop-motion carnivorous mammals. But! Those same carnivorous mammals modeled themselves after corduroy-suited Wes Anderson and enjoy guzzling spiked cider from the bottle. (Foxes: They’re just like us!) Have you ever lusted after the couture of animated creatures? Tell me I’m not alone. I feel so, so alone. Happy holidays.
Last night’s sixth season finale of Top Chef culminated with Pasadena chef Michael Voltaggio taking home the gold, beating out older brother Bryan and nice-guy Kevin. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, Michael chatted with EW.com about his win, the sibling rivalry, and those swipes at Kevin’s cooking style.
How does it feel to finally let the secret out?
It’s finally nice to be able to talk about it. It’s probably the hardest part of this whole process. One thing I might do is start playing poker because I have the best poker face now.
Did you tell anyone? Obviously your mom knew.
No. It’s funny, I was so nervous to even talk about it. Even after the show finished airing, I’m like, “It’s over right? It’s over everybody. You watched it. It’s over. Yeah, I won. We can talk about it.”
So you watched the episode live last night?
Yeah, but I was surrounded by, like, 125 people. It was pretty loud. I haven’t really had a chance to sit there and watch it. We closed the restaurant [The Dining Room, where Michael works] for the night and invited the VIP guests of the restaurant and some local friends, but nothing too crazy. READ FULL STORY »
The judges loved her. Tweens adored her. But after her best performance night of the season, our perky jazz dancer failed to collect enough votes to move onto the finale and was eliminated before a dancer who didn’t even dance(!) Tuesday night. So how does she feel about it all? Below, Mollee talks to EW about battling critiques about immaturity, meeting her role model, and how it feels to go home before Ashleigh.
ENTERTAINMENT WEKLY: Are you feeling bummed after last night?
MOLLEE GRAY: You know, actually, I was really bummed last night. I think anybody would be after being voted off their dream. But this morning, I woke up okay. We’re going to start rehearsal soon for the finale, so it’s like I didn’t even have to leave. We’re performing in the finale, so I don’t know. It’s like I got kicked out of the competition, but not performing-wise.
Are you surprised that you went home?
Actually, I’m not at all. I thought I was going to get voted off in the top 10. I packed my bags and was ready to go. One of the main guys [backstage] tells us, “Never expect the expected.” So we always go into that results show just clueless to who’s going to be gone. And I think that’s the best way, so no one gets cocky, no one gets depressed. Everyone is a little nervous, but the same. READ FULL STORY »
