Archive: January 2010 (1-10 of 461)

Jan 31 2010 02:00 PM ET

Happy birthday, Justin Timberlake! Five things JT gave us this year.

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When I heard that Justin Timberlake turns 29 today, I panicked. I totally forgot to buy him something! But what does a person get for the guy who has everything? A new pair of snazzy glasses? A round of golf at a Dubai course shaped like his own face*? An agreement to never speak the name of his latest straight-to-DVD movie?

But then I realized, it’s not about what we can give Justin. It’s about celebrating what Justin has given us during his 29th trip around the sun. It’s what he’d want. (It’s also much cheaper.) So without further ado, here’s a list of five great things JT did this past year.

1. “Dead and Gone” live at the Grammys, an awesome duet with T.I. (be sure to tune in to tonight’s ceremony at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and check out EW‘s live blog!)

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Jan 31 2010 09:11 AM ET

Miss America 2010: Why we prayed for it to end (and for world peace, obviously)

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Oh, Miss America pageant, why must you force us to watch the human body being grotesquely twisted this way and that, like some electrified lump of meat? But, hey, that’s enough about judge Rush Limbaugh strutting his stuff to “Poker Face” earlier in the week. What about the TLC broadcast of last night’s Las Vegas-held contest?

Well, the first thing to say is that Clinton Kelly from What Not To Wear — who co-hosted the event with Mario Lopez — ought not to have worn that beard. It somehow made him look a lot like Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund, which is unfortunate when you’re saying things like, “Okay, you’ve got to rip off that dress,” to young women. And the second thing to say is, the whole shebang was hellaciously boring. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 30 2010 02:05 PM ET

'Jersey Shore': Where should they go for season 2?

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Tags: , , , , Jersey Shore, Reality TV, Television

Just as we were getting ready to return to an untanned, GTL-free life where “situation” is just another noun, MTV announced that Snooki, the Situation, JWoww, and the rest of the gang will back for another season of Jersey Shore this summer. The catch? The cast will ditch Jersey and “find themselves in a new destination.”

Rational reaction: Obviously, the northeast was out of the question if MTV wants to shoot during the winter for a summer premiere.

Actual reaction: Are you kidding me with this?! Jersey was practically the show’s 10th castmember! (note: count includes Angelina and the duck phone) Where else could they go? READ FULL STORY »

Jan 30 2010 09:30 AM ET

'Selleck Waterfall Sandwich': Our new favorite website (for the next 90 seconds anyway)

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When people find out I’m an entertainment journalist — and not a rogueish, 19th century ship’s captain, as I like to claim — they usually ask one of three questions: “Is George Clooney as nice as he seems?,” “Are Brad and Angelina really splitting up?,” and “Where can I find photographs of Tom Selleck, a waterfall, and a sandwich?” Until today my answers were always the same: “Yes,” “Couldn’t care less,” and “I’m calling the cops.” But now lovers of moustachioed actors, falling water, and tasty bread-based foodstuffs — and crude Photoshopping — can turn those frowns upside down thanks to the accurately-named website Selleck Waterfall Sandwich.

Of course, this is exactly the kind of purposefully odd and hipster-ish site that seems specifically designed to attract the attention of blogs such as PopWatch in the hope that enough publicity will lead to a book deal for whomever is responsible. But it’s still worth 90 seconds of your time — and I found the site’s child-sung theme song to be almost as strangely haunting as its lyrics (“Selleck, waterfall, sandwich/Selleck, waterfall, sandwich…”) are predictable.

Anyway, check it out, and tell us what you think.

Jan 30 2010 09:15 AM ET

This Week on Stage: Liev Schreiber shines in 'A View From the Bridge'

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After a slow start to the year, in terms of new theater offerings, the boards welcomed several new productions in the past week. First, and probably foremost, was the revival of Arthur Miller’s play A View From the Bridge (at left), a dark drama starring Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schreiber as niece and uncle, that EW’s Thom Geier awarded a B+. Geier mostly lauded Schreiber, saying the show “pivots on Schreiber, as it must, and he’s more than up to the task,” while remarking that Johansson “struggles a bit on what to do with her hands, but otherwise acquits herself well in her Broadway debut.”

The reviewers here at EW also offered their takes on several other new shows in NYC and elsewhere, including Ages of the Moon (B-), Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family (B-), The Orphans’ Home Cycle, Part 3 — The Story of a Family (A), As You Like It (B-), and Time Stands Still (A-). All those reviews—and tons more!—can be found in the EW.com Stage hub, which includes up-to-date news and reviews; or consult this handy guide below, which includes links to all of our stage reviews of current shows. (Note: The reviews are typically of the show’s original casts.)

BROADWAY

The Addams Family — Musical; opens 4/8/2010

All About Me — Musical Revue starring Dame Edna and Michael Feinstein; opens 3/18/10

American Idiot — Musical; opens 4/20/2010

A Behanding in Spokane — Comedy starring Christopher Walken; opens 3/4/10

Billy Elliot — Musical; opened 11/13/08; EW grade: B+

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Jan 30 2010 08:00 AM ET

Who Killed Miss America?

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miss-americaImage Credit: http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/100126/miss-america_510.jpgIn 1991, when Katie Stam was just 5 years old, growing up in Seymour, Ind., you could spy the pint-size beauty cutting cereal boxes into princess crowns and fashioning sashes out of thick ribbons with her favorite cousin. You could also spy Stam, in mid-September of that year, watching her beloved Miss America pageant on NBC with 26.7 million other television viewers. “We would pretend we were Miss America,” she remembers fondly, noting that her family gathered around the television annually for the show. “We had the most amazing connection with the pageant. It was such a big deal to us.” And to the rest of the country. The Miss America pageant was a true television event, close to the Oscars and the Super Bowl.

No longer. When current Miss America Stam, now 23, traded in her homemade crown for the real deal last January on TLC, only 3.5 million viewers tuned in, a stunning drop of 87 percent from when she was a little girl. And now, tonight at 8 p.m. on TLC, Stam will relinquish her title as a new Miss America is crowned. The question is, will anyone notice? The pageant’s days of dominating watercooler conversations are long gone. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 30 2010 02:05 AM ET

'Caprica' recap: Bits of Software

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We have to talk about the Zoe-Robot, because the way that Caprica is dealing with her(/it) is some combination of brave, stupid, lame, and brilliant. (I’ve watched last night’s episode twice, and I’m still not sure how I feel about it.) In scenes featuring the Zobot, the camera constantly switches between showing her lumbering Cylon body and her Avatar-Zoe body, with Alessandra Torresani still wearing that purple club-kid dress.

On a purely logistical level, I realize that this is just to keep Torresani in the show, and also to cut down on special effects costs. Shifting to a more thematic consideration, I suppose the back-and-forth cuts are meant to jumble our connection to the Zobot, since it’s easier to empathize with a human than a tall stack of Frankenstein machinery. On a narrative level, the switch may represent a free-flowing perspective shift from Zoe (who still unconsciously sees herself in human form) and the rest of the world. As far as pure enjoyment goes, the effect is annoying, except that last night it yielded a few visuals that were striking in their utter madcap bizarro-world fascination. Just off the top of my head: READ FULL STORY »

Jan 30 2010 01:00 AM ET

'Kitchen Nightmares' recap: Welcome to spuddy hell

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Kitchen-NightmaresGordon Ramsay has been called a lot of names – many of which would not meet PopWatch decency standards. He’s never been dubbed quitter, though. So when he stormed off in defeat from a doomed Philadelphia restaurant on the premiere of Kitchen Nightmares, I didn’t believe it for a second. The fact that the Foul-Mouthed One’s outburst took place at the 20-minute mark also tipped me off that it wasn’t the end of the story for Hot Potato Café, but they certainly had their work cut out.

The Fishtown eatery, with its fondness for serving weeks-old frozen fodder and lack of adequate leadership, was in desperate need of a Ramsay overhaul. It was the recipe for a perfect Nightmare story: bad food, a family operation with three inexperienced owners (who produced almost as many bleeps as Ramsay), and to seal the deal, a poor review in the local paper that had soiled their reputation. The headline of the review had read: ”Spuddy Hell.” READ FULL STORY »

Jan 29 2010 06:51 PM ET

Check out Crispin Glover in 'Alice in Wonderland'

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The new Alice in Wonderland stills caught my eye today, in part because I’d almost forgotten about one costar in particular: Crispin Glover, who plays the Knave of Hearts. A few years ago I went to see a screening of Glover’s deeply strange art films What Is It? and It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! that featured among other things, an actor with cerebral palsy and repeated deaths of snails via salt. I came away from Glover’s post-screening Q&A reminded of what an odd duck he is — though a thoughtful and articulate one who seemed determined to pursue his own artistic interests no matter where they took him. (He also happens to star in the the third segment of The Beaver Trilogy, the cult mashup that I keep returning to. If you haven’t seen it, it’s definitely worth a look — George McFly doesn’t have anything on the Orkly Kid.) What do you think about Crispin? Fascinating character or just plain strange? And are you glad to see him in a high-profile movie again?

More Crispin Glover from EW:
Sundance 2010: Exclusive Crispin Glover portrait from the EW photo studio

Photo Credit: Disney

Jan 29 2010 06:29 PM ET

Mini Doc Jensen: 'Lost' viral videos that are good... and not so good. Plus, 'Lost'-themed Haiti relief effort

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It’s been a busy week in Lost land as the culture gears up for the premiere on Tuesday. Heck, it’s been a busy day. By now, you’ve probably heard that the first four minutes of the premiere are online — and I hope you haven’t watched them. If you want to hear my reasoning, go here. So instead of going on and on about that here, I’d like to direct your attention to something infinitely good that is being done in the name of Lost.

Maureen Ryan, the TV critic for the Chicago Tribune and a big time Lost fan, has organized a charity fundraiser with the goal of generating money for relief efforts in Haiti. She’s got bunches of fun pop culture stuff she’s put up for Ebay auction, including some Lost memorabilia donated by a cool fan named Ian Leino. If you’ve been thinking about donating to the cause and looking for the means to do so, please investigate these opportunities. You can get more info by reading Maureen’s own words on the cool thing she’s doing here. Please give it some consideration.

ITEM! One of the funniest expressions of Lost fandom I’ve seen in awhile. A guy named Mike used his big Italian family to re-enact key scenes from the first five seasons of Lost. The results are hysterical—and actually informative! Even Lost exec producer Carlton Cuse has enthused about the work. You can watch here:

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