Archive: July 2010 (311-320 of 583)

Jul 16 2010 10:15 AM ET

Julie Chen blogs 'Big Brother' episode 2

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Categories: Big Brother, Reality TV, Television

Julie-ChenImage Credit: CBSWhat the BEEP! Oh, “Big Brother Saboteur,” we barely knew you! Sad to see our “Saboteur” leave the house tonight…I was eagerly anticipating a summer full of crazy Big Brother fan-inspired sabotage.

I think Annie played the game well, but she may have shot herself in the foot by playing too hard too soon. After tonight’s show, she told me that the moment she entered the house she started playing her game, while most of her fellow Houseguests sat back and let the game come to them. She also admittedly didn’t handle being put on the block very well and reacted too aggressively. Whatever the reasoning, her HouseMATES delivered a resounding eviction vote of 10-0. Not one vote for Rachel – THAT had to sting! READ FULL STORY »

Jul 16 2010 10:00 AM ET

Do you want to read this? Just ask the octopus.

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Categories: Animals, Gadgets, iPhone/iPad apps, This or That

The World Cup is over, but the tournament’s spirit still lingers. Surely you remember hearing about Paul, the psychic octopus who lives in an aquarium in Germany. If not, a quick run-down: Paul successfully predicted how his home country would fare in each game, including Germany’s loss to Spain in the semifinal. (Yeah, the Germans weren’t so happy about that one.) Capitalizing on Paul’s newfound fame, the people over at uTouchLabs released a new iPhone app called “Ask the Octopus.” Yup, for 99 cents you can tap into Paul’s psychic powers. Well, sort of. You input two potential answers, and a cartoon octopus will choose one for you, just like Paul chose each soccer victor. (I’m starting to believe there really is an app for everything.)

Apparently this is what’s been missing all my life. This morning I couldn’t decide between heels and flats. Turns out, I just needed to ask the octopus. And today at lunch I couldn’t decide between a sandwich or quesadilla. Should have asked the octopus. What do you think, PopWatchers? Would you pay for this app? Or is it too ridiculous? And how would you use a psychic octopus in your life?

Jul 16 2010 09:25 AM ET

Aaron Sorkin to make directorial debut with adaptation of Andrew Young's John Edwards book

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Categories: Books, Deals, Movies, Politics as Entertainment, Things That Are Awesome!

sorkin-the-politicianImage Credit: Will Ragozzino/Getty ImagesThis news should make everyone happy… except for maybe John Edwards. Aaron Sorkin, the man behind The American President, The West Wing, and A Few Good Men, will make his feature directorial debut with an adaptation of Andrew Young’s The Politician, an insider’s account of Edwards’s pursuit of the presidency and the scandal that brought him down. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sorkin will also write and produce the film. “This is a first-hand account of an extraordinary story filled with motivations, decisions and consequences that would have lit Shakespeare up,” Sorkin told the trade. “There’s much more to Andrew’s book than what has been reported, and I’m grateful that he’s trusting me with it.” (Is there anything better than an inspired, fired-up Aaron Sorkin?)

There have been rumors since April that Sorkin — who’s having a great week with the reception to the trailer for The Social Network, which he also penned —  was interested in adapting the book for the big screen, at which point the Internet started pondering casting. Now that it’s an official go, let’s get serious: George Clooney? Dennis Quaid? Michael Sheen?

More:
John Edwards secrets revealed
John Edwards tell-all book details leak
Rielle Hunter on Oprah: Her ‘authentic’ self?
Who should play John Edwards?

Jul 16 2010 09:00 AM ET

Krispy Kreme Cheerwine doughnut announced: Let's brainstorm other ultimate Southern collaborations.

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Categories: Food and Drink

Cheerwine-Krispy-Kreme-doughnutYesterday morning, North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue introduced the world to a dessert so unabashedly sweet, so egregiously caloric, so overwhelmingly Southern that Paula Deen is kicking herself for not thinking of it first. The treat in question is a Krispy Kreme doughnut, filled with Cheerwine-flavored creme and topped with chocolate glaze and sprinkles. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Cheerwine, it’s a super-carbonated cherry concoction bottled in North Carolina. You’ll pretty much only find it in the South, so chances are, if you’ve never been to a Piggly Wiggly, you’ve never seen Cheerwine, either. Just take my word for it: It’s delicious. With the introduction of Cheerwine creme, the doughnut delicacy has reached a whole other stratosphere of Southern-ness. So the delicious collaboration has me pondering what other Southern pairings we can expect in the coming months. Sweet-tea-glazed cheese straws? Pork-rinds coated in peanut brittle? Fried butter balls floating in mint juleps? Biscuits stuffed full of Virginia ham? (Oh, wait.)

But let me turn this over to you, PopWatchers. What other Southern couples have the potential to take over the culinary world? Do you think this veritable diabetes explosion sounds as tasty as I do?

Jul 16 2010 08:00 AM ET

Even as a kid, Peter Jackson was probably a better filmmaker than you'll ever be

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Categories: Animation, Movies

Peter-JacksonImage Credit: Robert Smith/Retna Ltd.Attending a BAFTA tribute to special-effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen recently, director Peter Jackson treated the audience to a few minutes of footage from a Harryhausen-esque epic he’d shot himself as a 15-year-old kid dreaming of cinematic glory in New Zealand. (See the footage here.) Granted, the crude-looking footage, showing a couple of actors fighting at the edge of the sea with a laughably goofy-looking cyclops, is no Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and is certainly a hell of a long way from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Still, when I was 15, I would never have had the patience, discipline, or drive to attempt anything as exacting and painstaking as stop-motion animation. Even today, I can hardly videotape one of my daughters’ school holiday performances without making a blurry, shaky mess of it. Anyway, watch the charming clip of Jackson screening his footage and reflect in the comments below on your own misspent youth.

Jul 15 2010 11:18 PM ET

'Big Brother' instant react: The Saboteur is revealed and [spoiler]!

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Categories: Big Brother, Reality TV, Television

big-brother-castImage Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBSThat’s it, ladies and gents. Summer’s greatest TV mystery has come to an end. That is, if greatest means “most anti-climatic,” mystery means “failed twist,” and end means “end that left us all saying ‘Really, that’s it?’ ” [Entrance to spoiler zone starts here. Use caution.]

Not that the saboteur was completely predictable — I sure as heck didn’t see it coming. The money my brain controls was on Kristen. But it appears she wasn’t laying low because she’s the Sabo; instead she’s simply the least visible Big Brother contestant ever. The money my funny bone controls was on Lane because, honestly, wouldn’t that have been hilarious? READ FULL STORY »

Jul 15 2010 07:40 PM ET

Angelina Jolie coming to Comic-Con

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Categories: Comic-Con, Movies

saltImage Credit: Andrew SchwartzAngelina Jolie will be in San Diego a week from today to promote Salt at Comic-Con, the Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog has confirmed. Obviously, the woman has cred having starred in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Wanted, and with its masked identity theme, Salt is a movie that should appeal to the convention crowd. Jolie, as THR notes, is one of the few women who can open an action film. My question: Be honest. What kind of movie are you more likely to pay to see Angelina Jolie star in: An action flick or a straight drama? I’m not ashamed to say my favorite performance of hers is Mr. & Mrs. Smith (and that I’m totally hoping for a sequel), but I’m not necessarily proud that I haven’t actually seen anything in which she wasn’t wielding a large weapon since Girl, Interrupted.*

*I would have broken that streak if The Tourist wasn’t “an international spy thriller” because it co-stars Johnny Depp.

Jul 15 2010 06:53 PM ET

Capt. Phil's final episode of 'Deadliest Catch' repeats tonight

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Categories: Deadliest Catch, Reality TV, Television

phil-harris-deadliest-catch_240.jpg Image Credit: Blair Bunting/Getty ImagesIf you missed Tuesday’s episode of Deadliest Catch, which, with 8.5 million viewers became the third highest-rated Discovery Channel broadcast of all time, you can watch a repeat tonight at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET. We don’t normally feel the need to bring repeats to your attention, but we’ve heard from a number of readers who said they didn’t see Capt. Phil’s final episode but cried reading our recap. You can tell from reading the thoughtful comments left on that post that anyone who’s ever nursed or lost a parent related to what Phil’s boys, particularly Josh, experienced. (I know I paused the episode and cried after Josh’s heart-to-heart with Phil when he assured him that he’d been a good father and admitted that he was trying to be strong and not cry in front of him, then had to leave the room. My father has been battling an illness for nearly five years, and I remember the moment last October that I had to excuse myself to go sob in the bathroom like it was yesterday.)

I haven’t been able to get the final moments, the montage that draws parallels between Phil’s last stand and the fleet’s war with the raging Bering Sea, out of my head. Set to Johnny Cash’s “Redemption Day,” it’s just perfection. As painful as it is to hear that Phil is gone, when you see the Northwestern burst through that wave at 5:45, you’re reminded that Phil, who would have had that same smile as Sig had it been the Cornelia Marie, had really lived. READ FULL STORY »

Jul 15 2010 06:29 PM ET

'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' author will write a 'Dark Shadows' remake for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton

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Categories: Advance Advancement, Remakes, This Could Be Interesting..., Vampires

In news guaranteed to satisfy a unique coalition of vampire obsessives, soap opera devotees, and Jane Austen lovers, Warner Bros. has put the long-discussed remake of Dark Shadows on the fast track with the hiring of a new screenwriter. According to Variety, Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, will work on a new adaptation of the 1966-1971 supernatural soap. Tim Burton will direct Johnny Depp for the millionth eighth time.

I haven’t watched very much of Dark Shadows, but from what little I remember about tuning into reruns of the show on the network formally known as the Sci-Fi Channel, the vampire melodrama was played pretty straight. Between Burton, Depp, and Grahame-Smith, you have to figure that the movie version will lean in a slightly more absurdist direction. Just imagine what sort of exciting new accent Depp will invent to play lead vamp Barnabas Collins!

Are you excited about this news, PopWatchers? Is this one vampire film too many, or do you think that this creative team will inject a little life into the genre?

Jul 15 2010 06:19 PM ET

The full 'Social Network' trailer hits: Will you friend the Facebook movie this October?

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Categories: Have You Seen This?, Movies

I’ll admit, when I first heard that a movie about the creation of Facebook was in the works, I was pretty skeptical. First of all, I’m not too big a fan of Facebook (too much oversharing for me). Second, I figured there couldn’t possibly be much dramatic interest in watching a handful of college-age software whiz kids develop an innovative new way to kill time on our computers.

But when the first teaser for The Social Network hit the web, I became intrigued. Now — having just watched the full trailer for the movie, which opens Oct. 1 — I’m totally sold. Director David Fincher is a master of mood, whether he’s dealing with cold-blooded serial killers in Seven and Zodiac or a bunch of entitled, squabbling college kids here. The first minute of the trailer, layering an eerie choral cover version of Radiohead’s “Creep” by Scala and Kolacny Brothers over screenshots of Facebook, is brilliantly haunting. The casting, from Jesse Eisenberg and Rashida Jones on down, looks perfect. And the tagline — “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” — belongs in the tagline hall of fame. With a trailer this dense with emotional tension, pitch-black comedy, naked human folly, and overall zeitgeist-iness, Oscar watchers are now on notice.

What do you think? If this trailer — embedded after the jump — were trying to friend you on Facebook, would you accept it or ignore it? If you were writing a status update on your reaction to it, what would it say? READ FULL STORY »

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