Dear Sarah Jessica Parker: You may be 45 years old today, but in my heart, you will always be the girl in this clip from the seminal 1985 teen-dance movie, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, a movie I love so much that I wrote my name on my VHS tape in permanent marker so that no one would steal it, ever. Thank you for everything. Also, if you are 45, I do not want to think about how old that makes me. xo, w
Image Credit: CBSThis Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes, we’ll watch Anderson Cooper swim with great whites without a cage. As he did for the 2008 special Planet in Peril: Battle Lines, he dives with “The Sharkman,” Mike Rutzen, who risks his life to prove that the predators are misunderstood, that every Shark Week special that has ever told us great whites determine what an object is by just going ahead and taking a bite of it, is apparently wrong.
“Just remember, if I get eaten, just keep rolling,” Cooper says, like a true newsman. “Because the only thing more stupid than being eaten, would be to be eaten and not having videotaped.” Watch a one-minute preview after the jump in which Cooper is immediately greeted by a curious 15-footer approaching him from below. Honestly, I’ve often wondered why we don’t see more (or any) free dives with great whites during Shark Week. But now, I’m not sure my nerves could take an hour special. READ FULL STORY »
For a game named after the real-life 1989-90 U.S. invasion of Panama, you might expect it to cleave to a somewhat realistic depiction of political espionage and endogenous warfare. But after about the 16th time you’ve leapt from a burning building, grappling-hooked onto an enemy helicopter, flown said helicopter into a bridge, and parachuted safely onto a speeding boat, you begin to realize that it’s more concerned with awesomeness than authenticity. READ FULL STORY »
Nigel Lythgoe is just messing with us now. As if his Twitter background weren’t bad enough, the bloke is meting out a steady stream of So You Think You Can Dance rule changes one at a time so that we have no choice but to obsessively follow “dizzyfeet” and report on this possibly Vertigo-afflicted entity’s every move. I mean, we don’t have to, but we are anyway. The latest: In this summer’s season 7, the partners will change every single week. (In every season since the first, partner-switching has been delayed until the Top 10.) We’ll miss out on becoming attached to those ‘It’ couples who really work, but this way every dancer will have more control over his or her individual fate from the get-go. I like this idea a lot. Your thoughts?
Last night’s news: “Only one dancer will leave the competition each week, and not two.” Keep it up, Nigel! We are still wondering what Travis Wall’s brother ended up serving you in a New York restaurant. Ahhhhhh. Twitter.
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett
Image Credit: Alexandra Wyman/WireImage.comMelissa McCarthy, beloved in PopWatch Land from her days as Sookie on Gilmore Girls and Dena on Samantha Who?, has landed the lead role in the CBS comedy pilot Mike and Molly. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mike and Molly, from Chuck Lorre (The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men), revolves around “Mike (Billy Gardell), an overweight, charming police officer, and Molly (McCarthy), a pretty and plump woman, who meet at Overeaters Anonymous.”
Hmmm. It’s nice to see a broadcast network casting a different body type as a lead, but does it have to be justified by making it the focus of the show and a problem? What was so wonderful about Sookie’s storyline was that it didn’t involve her body. Yes, she was in the classic “best friend” role, but she was a confident, kick-ass chef who got married and became a mother. There was no question she or the audience felt she deserved that. She was a three-dimensional character.
Who knows how the pilot plays out. We just have to have faith in McCarthy to make this part as layered as Brooke Elliott‘s on Drop Dead Diva (which returns to Lifetime in June). That’s a show with a plot that revolves around weight — a model died and mistakenly sent herself back to Earth in the body of a brilliant plus-sized attorney — but when you watch Elliott you’re not thinking she’s a full-figured actress. You’re thinking she’s just a great one.
Read more: Melissa McCarthy takes the EW Pop Culture Personality Test
It seems like new Glee content springs up, oh, every day? “Like a Prayer,” sneaky gays, and now “Hello, Goodbye.” Yay, a new number, a great zinger from Kurt, what’s not to like?
I’m not complaining exactly, but…
Image Credit: Nino Munoz/FoxIt wasn’t the most shocking elimination in American Idol history. But Paige Miles’ ouster from the show last night stung the 24-year-old nonetheless. Working on limited time and voice, a laryngitis-stricken Miles called EW.com today to talk about her elimination and the secret health troubles that have plagued her throughout the competition.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Hi, Paige. How are you doing?
PAIGE MILES: Pretty good. How are you?
Good. Sorry to hear you’re so sick. You don’t sound too good.
Oh, it’s just laryngitis, and after all these interviews it’s getting worse. I’ve been struggling with it for a couple of weeks now.
Did that have a big effect on your ”Against All Odds” performance on Tuesday? READ FULL STORY »
For his next trick — excuse me, illusion — the Magical Mystery Phoenix will tell you all about what happens to innocent reptiles before they become your bags and belts. Except it’s not a trick. He seems dead serious. DEAD SERIOUS WARNING: The video after the jump is visually horrifying for anyone who likes animals, doesn’t like animals, or is indifferent to animals. But you really only need to play the audio in the background of your real work documents (i.e. this blog) for a few seconds to get the full effect of What the hell is this guy doing? Again! READ FULL STORY »
Every few years, pop culture and linguistics fans are treated to some version of the same story: The Simpsons has affected the English language. D’oh is in the dictionary, a scientist used the term “embiggen” in a research paper, etc. These are perfectly cromulent stories (easy, but I had to use it), but they ignore what to me is the single biggest contribution: yoink.
What else can you say when you accept someone’s offer of a chip, and you have to reach your hand in the bag? Or when someone hands you cash in an otherwise nontransactional setting? Or when you faux-steal something from someone, say, the sock of their foot as you walk by the couch? You say “yoink.”
(Some suggest that the term originated on this episode of The Flinstones, but it sure doesn’t sound that way to me.)
What’s your overlooked Simpsonsism, PopWatchers? (“Meh” and the rest of the usual suspects don’t count.)
The trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has been released. Watch it here, or chance the slightly fuzzy embed after the jump. Michael Cera stars as a charming slacker, a bass guitarist for a garage band, who meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). To win her, he must defeat her seven evil exes: “A nefarious league of exes controls her love life and will do whatever it takes to eliminate him as a suitor.” Skateboarders, vegan rock stars, identical twins — this adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels has everything, including Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, and Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick. It’s cowritten and directed by Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), who does a nice fakeout in the trailer making it look like a classic indie love story before Cera starts getting his ass kicked, then [extreme closeup] fights back. What do you think? READ FULL STORY »
