Archive: May 2010 (291-300 of 596)

May 14 2010 02:30 PM ET

'Top Chef' adds Eric Ripert to the judges' table

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Filed under: Food and Drink, Reality TV, Television, Top Chef and tagged: , , , ,

Eric-RipertImage Credit: Rob Kim/Retna LtdI know that Top Chef: Masters is currently airing on Bravo, but, in my opinion, it just doesn’t compare to the original. (I’d much rather see someone who could actually benefit from winning the competition than someone who has already established him or herself in the food world.) For those of you who have been conducting your own quickfire challenges each morning to make up for the lack of Top Chef, the wait will soon be over: Top Chef: Washington D.C. premieres on June 16!

Accomplished chef Eric Ripert will be joining Padma, Gail, and recent James Beard Award-winner Tom Colicchio at the judges’ table for seventh season. No stranger to the nation’s capital, Ripert got his start in the States at Jean Louis at the Watergate Hotel, before moving on to Le Bernardin in New York City (where he would become a mentor to season six finalist Jen “bitch in the kitchen” Carroll). A frequent guest judge, Ripert is a more than deserving choice, but I have to say I’ll miss Toby Young’s snark when eating something particularly repugnant.

According to Bravo, season seven “captures the varied tastes of Washington D.C.” and will feature appearances by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Aaron Schock, Senator Mark Warner, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, and Buzz Aldrin (who is certainly having a great 2010!). READ FULL STORY »

May 14 2010 02:07 PM ET

Diane Kruger on board for 'Special Forces,' Summit picks up Paul W.S. Anderson's 'Three Musketeers (Excess Hollywood)

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Filed under: Movies, News, Television and tagged: , , , , ,
  • That’s a bingo! Summit Entertainment has picked up Paul W.S. Anderson’s 3-D Three Musketeers — which stars Logan Lerman, Milla Jovovich, and Christophe Waltz — for release next summer. [THR]
  • In other Inglourious Basterds vet news, star Diane Kruger has been tapped to star in Special Forces, an Afghanistan-set drama about a kidnapping. [Variety]
  • French production company Pan Européenne is planning a 3-D biopic of oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau with a budget of $37 million. Sacre blue! (Get it? Instead of bleu? Because the ocean is…forget it.) [Variety]
  • Pierce Brosnan, Billy Bob Thorton, Maria Bello, and Giovanni Ribisi are set to star in crime thriller St. Vincent, which centers on a hitman (Brosnan) who goes undercover as a priest to “get close to his target, a gangland traitor (Thorton).” [Variety]
  • There Will Be Blood‘s Paul Dano is set to star in Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. As long as he stays away from oilmen! [Deadline]
  • In a press release, the producers for David Mamet’s Race have announced Eddie Izzard is joining the cast. My guess is he won’t have a flag.
  • SyFy has picked up Super Eruption, a telefilm that centers on a super volcano in Yellowstone Park, and not Superman’s bedroom habits. [THR]
  • Wonderland director James Cox is on board to direct Billionaire Boys Club, which is based on a true story about “a group of wealthy young men in Los Angeles during the ’80s who resorted to murders after their social and investment club went sour.” The things people will do while high on Aqua Net. [THR]
  • Producer Lili Fini Zanuck will direct an adaptation of the 1996 novel Assault on Tony’s by John O’Brien. The dark novel focuses on five bar-goers who are trapped in an establishment for 17 days while a race riot erupts outside the bar. I can think of other terrible trapped situations. [THR]
May 14 2010 02:06 PM ET

'Law & Order' Canceled: Farewell, Mothership

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law-and-orderImage Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBCWhen Law & Order debuted in 1990, only CEOs had cell phones and Sam Waterston was just the guy from The Killing Fields. For the next two decades, through several rotating casts of cops and lawyers, the show proceeded to build a whole universe of shadowy intentions and cross examinations. If you’re like me, you were never a regular viewer, but you still somehow managed to watch literally hundreds of hours of Law & Order. And so, you’re probably feeling just a little twinge of sadness at the news that NBC has canceled the venerable cop show.

Law & Order is practically an American monument. One of the cast members, Fred Thompson, ran for President. Two other cast members – the late Jerry Orbach and Sam Waterston – have become national treasures. It’s a rite of passage for actors in New York to appear on the show or its spinoffs. To me, real-world scandals only felt really real when they appeared as a plotline on Law & Order.

READ FULL STORY »

May 14 2010 01:50 PM ET

'Chuck' has been renewed! And there was much rejoicing...

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Filed under: Chuck, Television and tagged: , ,

chuck-examImage Credit: Jordin Althaus/NBCAn oil spill is causing catastrophic ecological damage off the Gulf Coast. A family in Canada was killed when a crater opened up and basically ate their home. And now, Law & Order has been canceled. The world’s a pretty scary, dark place right now. Except for one sliver of hope, one tiny ray of sunshine, reminding me it’s better to light just one little candle than to stumble in the dark, etc: Chuck has been renewed.

Once more, with feeling: Chuck has been renewed! There’s not enough “hell, yes” in the world for this, but…hell yes! It’s only for 13 episodes (though as Chuckleheads, well, we’ve heard that one before…), but still: More missions, more Chuck and Sarah, more Captain Awesome, more Morgan and Casey. I know some other fans have been a little iffy on this season, but I’ve totally loved it. Many items on my wishlist have already come true, and the show’s proven that its verve didn’t just come from the sexual tension between Chuck and Sarah: the show has not suffered creatively at all from those two crazy kids finally getting together.

My big hope for next season? More of Casey’s backstory — and maybe a steady timeslot that doesn’t suck. What about you, PopWatchers? What’s on your Chucket list?

May 14 2010 01:23 PM ET

Patrick Dempsey starring in movie by 'Hangover' scribes: It feels like the '80s!

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Filed under: Movies, News and tagged: ,

Patrick-Dempsey-Image Credit: Solarpix/PR PhotosFirst Patrick Dempsey nabbed a role in Transformers 3 as Megan Fox’s boss. Now comes the news that he’ll star in Flypaper, an action comedy indie penned by The Hangover scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. According to Variety, the script “tells the tale of a bank that is robbed by two different groups of crooks at the same time. However, they both come under attack by a secret enemy (Dempsey), to save the bank teller whom he loves.” Assuming this has Hangover-style humor, this could be the most raucous thing Dempsey’s done since 1989′s Loverboy. It feels somehow fitting that he’s breaking out of his recent Prince Charming mold in a movie to be directed by Rob Minkoff, who’s also looking to stretch. (His credits include The Lion King, Stuart Little, The Haunted Mansion, and The Forbidden Kingdom.) Good luck, gentlemen. Go forward and get a little dirty.

Is the idea of Patrick Dempsey + the Hangover scribes making anyone else nostalgic? Are you ready to see him as more than a mainstream Mr. Right?

May 14 2010 01:00 PM ET

Sam Worthington to play a sci-fi Allan Quatermain

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Filed under: Movies, News and tagged: , , , , ,

After working blue in Avatar and battling the 3-D Kraken in Clash of the Titans, Sam Worthington will next saddle up to play Victorian adventurer Allan Quatermain, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The billion-dollar Thunder From Down Under will star and produce DreamWorks’ Quatermain, a sci-fi take on the literary hero originally created by H. Rider Haggard. Quatermain, best known as the hero of the rollicking, old-timey novel King Solomon’s Mines, will venture into outer space in the new outing, thanks to a script penned by Mark Verheiden — who, incidentally, wrote the only truly awesome Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, TimeCop. No director has been announced yet.

While we’re certain that no expense will be spared on the project now that a box-office titan like Worthington is on board, let’s pray that it once and for all erases the memory of this shameless 1985 Indiana Jones rip-off, starring Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone: READ FULL STORY »

May 14 2010 12:57 PM ET

Lunchtime Poll: Fiercest pop-culture bird?

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Filed under: Reality TV and tagged: , , , , ,

Ever since Miley Cyrus’ stunning tribute to avian culture — the video for “Cant Be Tamed” — came out last week, I’ve been trying to gauge the nation’s thoughts on who makes the fiercest bird in pop culture. My favorite bird impersonators are obviously various members of Arrested Development‘s Bluth family, but Miley and some of the queens on this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race put up a worthy challenge to the crown of feathers. Vote below. Note: I am not including Big Bird because he is so f—ing fierce he would win way too easily.

Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett

May 14 2010 12:53 PM ET

Russell Crowe walks out on interview after being accused of sounding Irish in 'Robin Hood'

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Filed under: Movies, News and tagged: , ,

Don’t make Russell Crowe angry. You won’t like him when he’s angry. That’s what a Mark Lawson from BBC Radio 4′s Front Row discovered during an interview with the actor, who was promoting the upcoming Robin Hood. While discussing Crowe’s accent in the film, Lawson suggested, “There are hints, to me, of Irish.” Crowe’s response: “You’ve got dead ears, mate. You’ve seriously got dead ears if you think that’s an Irish accent…Bullocks…I’m just a little dumbfounded that you could possibly find any Irish in that character. That’s kind of ridiculous. But then it’s your show…” (Listen to the interview below.)

When Lawson continued to push the point, saying, “You were going for Northern English,” Crowe responded, “No, I was going for Italian. Missed it? [Expletive],” and then walked out of the interview after a question about Gladiator.

Here’s hoping Front Row is a telephone-free set. READ FULL STORY »

May 14 2010 12:49 PM ET

No more 'Annie' comic strip. Punjab, help!

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Filed under: Movies, Those Crazy Kids! and tagged: , , , , ,

Help me, Punjab, help! My favorite-for-obvious-reasons comic strip Annie is ending after 85 years — the last installment will run Sunday, June 13. Originally created by Harold Gray as Little Orphan Annie, the strip inspired 1930s radio program Adventure Time with Orphan Annie, a 1977 Broadway musical, several movies, and my overall sense of self-importance.

According to the AP, “the strip’s last panel is a cliffhanger, showing Annie caught in a tangle with the Butcher from the Balkans. Daddy Warbucks is left to mourn her loss.” So he’s not sure she’s really gone…just like Annie was re: her birth parents! Total role reversal! All he has left of his little girl is half a locket, some tap shoes, and her flowered bathing cap/little yellow bathing suit that he said he liked. Fine, I’ve only seen the movie. And I’ve just made Daddy Warbucks sound like a pedophile. Annie deserves better than this. Annie is sorry.

Will you miss Annie? Also, what’s a “newspaper”?

Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett

May 14 2010 12:44 PM ET

'FlashForward' R.I.P.: Farewell to a weird, wonderful show

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Filed under: News and tagged:

flash-forwardImage Credit: </em>Michael Desmond/ABC<em>FlashForward arrived on the scene last fall with lots of hopeful pre-release buzz that it could be the new Lost. The magical thinking failed. Blame it on the awful pilot, on ABC’s curious half-and-half release strategy, or the simple fact that people just don’t really want another Lost. For a whole host of reasons, ABC has officially canceled FlashForward.

FlashForward had its problems. There were some storylines which would have probably been eliminated if there had ever been one defining creative personality at the helm (I’m looking at you, Aaron the ex-soldier alcoholic with the secretly alive dead daughter being hunted by a government conspiracy!). But there was also a lot to love, and in the end this show was a fascinating gem. If Lost is the smartest kid in class who’s also a varsity basketball player, then FlashForward is the four-eyed chess prodigy who stutters when girls are around but secretly writes beautiful poetry about old videogames. READ FULL STORY »

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