How did you all celebrate Earth Day? I turned my desk fan off and spent a bunch of time refreshing Google to see if the homepage image would fulfill my ultimate Earth Day fantasy and gradually tint itself blue. But you probably, like, recycled.
(I know that water is part of the Earth. 3/4!)
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett
Image Credit: PETAPETA published an anti-McDonald’s ad in Thursday’s Chicago Tribune that featured an image of the late actress Bea Arthur and this headline: “McCruelty: It’s enough to make Bea Arthur roll over in her grave.” According to PETA, the Golden Girls actress (who died nearly a year ago on April 25) left behind money for the animal rights organization in her will. PETA decided to use Arthur’s gift to mount a campaign against McDonald’s factory-farming practices. “We’re using it to pressure McDonald’s to switch to a less violent, USDA-approved chicken-slaughter method,” the ad reads. “With this new system, millions of birds would be spared broken legs and wings and being scaled to death in defeathering tanks.”
While Arthur was clearly a staunch supporter of PETA and the organization’s mission, I’m still slightly rubbed the wrong way by the use of a deceased person’s image in such an advertisement. Would Arthur have wanted her iconic glare juxtaposed with a photo of slaughtered chickens? Who knows? Perhaps it comes down to the specifics of the actress’ will. If Arthur had stipulated in her will that she’d allow PETA to use her image, then I really can’t criticize PETA for carrying out her wishes. However, if Arthur simply left behind money for PETA without any specific instructions, then I’m back on the fence.
PopWatchers, what do you think about PETA using Bea Arthur’s mug in its advertisement? Clever? Effective? Insensitive?
Image Credit: Everett Collection
Expectations were low for In Living Color when Fox launched the prime-time sketch-comedy series. ”I didn’t think we were going to get it on the air or get paid for it,” remembers Damon Wayans, 49, who, alongside his brother Keenen, created the groundbreaking show (which featured then unknowns Jim Carrey and David Alan Grier). ”We would have done it for free. We were just looking for a chance to express ourselves creatively.”
And express themselves the Wayans brothers certainly did. The show boasted a host of popular and controversial characters, including the gay, effeminate ”Men on Film” guys and Homey D. Clown, a straight-from-jail ghetto jester who would shoot down kids’ requests with the catchphrase ”Homey don’t play that.” ”You have to have affection for all your characters, but people love Homey,” Wayans says. ”On In Living Color, we did great characters that got into the pop culture.”
Color also brought us Fire Marshall Bill, a fire-safety teacher (played by Carrey) who continually burst into flames; spoofs of Oprah, Andrew Dice Clay, and Tracy Chapman; and the Fly Girl dancers, whose ranks included Jennifer Lopez and Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba. ”You just sit back and go, ‘Wow’ when watching their careers,” Wayans says. ”It’s sad it’s gone, because I think the dream was to have an institution that lived on like Saturday Night Live. It was the best time of my career.”
Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesThat hair. Those teeth. Those vocal cords…. Well, two outta three ain’t bad. Pretty boy Tim Urban may have gotten the boot last night for an uninspiring rendition of the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Better Days,” but he’s already counting the days down until his next career starts. Anyone out there looking for a super dreamy Joseph?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tim, I have to say I loved you and I’m sorry you’re gone.
TIM URBAN: Thanks. I love you too.
Millions of teenage girls just died inside. So now that you’re off the show is it a relief at all that you won’t be berated every week on live television?
Yes, there is a little bit of relief because of that. It’s nice because going forward I get to perform for people but I don’t have to sit afterwards and listen to criticism.
Way back when, when you didn’t even make it to the top 24, were you devastated? READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Barbara Ntike/Lifetime TelevisionThis is it! Seth Aaron, Emilio, and Mila will attack each other with wire hangers (in their minds) on tonight’s season finale of Project Runway. I love the show and appreciate the judges’ comments, but I don’t ultimately care what would work “editorially” or on an actual runway. My favorite moments of the show occur when the designers produce something I’d want to wear myself. It’s all about me! (Can you picture me popping into the opening credits to declare that in triumph? If so, sorry.)
This season, I loved Emilio’s first purple-patterned dress and even a few of Mila’s crazy black and white coats. But my ultimate obsession: Seth Aaron’s jackets! Be still my heart! Pop my collar! Make me edgy (with watermelon pockets)! I could watch an entire spinoff season of Seth Aaron’s Jackets. Do it, Lifetime!
Who should win tonight — and is he or she the one whose designs you find most wearable?
‘Project Runway’ on EW.com: Missy Schwartz’s episode recaps, exit interviews, and more!
P.S. I am also a little obsessed with Valeria!
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett
Image Credit: Vince Bucci/Fox
In tree-covered, sleepy downtown Pasadena, Idol was giving back in its second, non-Hollywood home. (John Young has the scoop of what went down in the Idoldome a mere 15 miles away). But things weren’t as cheery before the show as the audience waited in the rain, uncovered, to pass through security. People grumbled; rain in L.A. can be tough for the faint of urban heart. The Pasadena Civic Auditorium is quite beautiful, I had time to notice, like an old-style courtroom, built in the year blah-blah-long-time-ago. But the social chaos outside was more like a nightclub, with Idol-ites pushing to get in like the Titanic was sinking — in Sunday fineries instead of short dresses and shiny shirts. READ FULL STORY »
Do you feel like FREAKING SOMEONE OUT right now? Insert ear plugs, then treat household/office pests who have the misfortune of floating past your desk to this ridiculous “motion poster” for A Nightmare on Elm Street (out April 30) over at Trailer Addict. It’s just a few seconds long, but the “metal claws on glass” sound effect can remain embedded in that sorry soul’s awareness all night. I’ve never been more excited for Michael Slezak to drop by in my life.
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett
Image Credit: Everett Digital(1); Eike Schroter/CBS(4)Last night at New York’s Paley Center, members of The Good Wife cast including Julianna Margulies, Josh Charles, Archie Panjabi, Matt Czuchry, and Christine Baranski, screened the April 27th episode — we’ll see originals through the May 25 season 1 finale — and tried to avoid revealing spoilers. Some of them were better at that than others… READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Double Negative/Marvel; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.comThe late Adam Goldstein, better known as turntable extraordinaire DJ A.M., is featured in this summer’s highly anticipated blockbuster Iron Man 2. The Los Angeles Times reports that the DJ shot his part in the film last spring, months before the 36-year-old died of an accidental overdose in August. “We tried to make it respectful,” director Jon Favreau told the Times. “And for people who know him, they’ll get a kick out of it and for people who don’t, it will sort of slide by without much notice.”
The scene, apparently, features A.M. scratching at Tony Stark’s house party. 2Pac’s “California Love” plays before the function gets ugly and Starks asks A.M. for, “a fat beat.” We’ll all get a chance to see what follows when it hits theaters on May 7. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Eric Liebowitz/The CWThis season of Top Model has been a drag to say the least, so I thought maybe last night’s jaunt to a drag club would liven things up. You know, with wordplay! But my hopes were predictably dashed — this episode was a bore from top to bottom. Not even butt-ugly dresses by Whitney Port could bring some brightness to the endeavor. Bring on the hair. Shudder. READ FULL STORY »
