Archive: August 2010 (231-240 of 533)

Aug 18 2010 12:45 PM ET

CBS is developing an 'Undercover Boss' companion series

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

CBS is developing a companion series to Undercover Boss, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Produced by Studio Lambert (the force behind Undercover Boss), the new, currently untitled show will follow two employees from the same company who compete against each other for a promotion. Though it’s being sold as a companion piece to Boss, the spin-off won’t have the undercover element. So maybe it’ll just be called Boss. Or Outta My Way, Biatch, I’m Gettin’ This Promotion, Not You! The latter has a lovely ring to it, no? Pithy, too.

Makes sense, dropping the “undercover” concept. Now that the show’s already aired a string of episodes, wouldn’t you be a wee bit skeptical now if some new guy showed up at your place of employment with a “documentary” camera crew following him around?

CBS had no comment — on the pilot, that is. I didn’t ask them about my suggested titles. Maybe I should.

Aug 18 2010 12:31 PM ET

'America's Got Talent' brings big drama on Wild Card night

Acrobats Michael Lipari and Ashleigh Dejon were back for Wild Card round of America’s Got Talent last night. The duo gave a fiery, intense performance to Rihanna’s “Rude Boy,” that also gave the audience and the judges a huge scare (those looks on Howie and Sharon’s faces!). Check it out below (performance begins at 1:40): READ FULL STORY »

Aug 18 2010 12:30 PM ET

Emmy voting ends: Who won the battle of the print ads?

glee-emmy-adsImage Credit: The Hollywood ReporterIt’s now in the hands of Ernst & Young: Voting for the 62nd Primetime Emmys closed last night. Since we can no longer influence last-minute voters, let’s do our own poll on who won the race for best Emmy ad. In recent weeks, two shows have made headlines for their clever marketing, Outstanding Comedy Series nominees Modern Family and Glee. It’s a tough call: While I only got a little chuckle out of the Glee ad with Sue Sylvester talking about her 19 toes, the one of her begging Academy voters not to give the show a single statue (while taking shots at Will Schuester’s hair and rapping) was brilliant. I appreciate that they stayed in character. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 18 2010 12:06 PM ET

Alessandra Torresani of 'Caprica': Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Hottie of 2010

Filed under: TV and tagged:

Our annual Sci-Fi Hotties gallery honors a tradition of gorgeous genre gals that stretches back from the supermodel multiples of Battlestar Galactica through Princess Leia’s golden bikini all the way to the dawn of cinema, when Georges Méliès wisely opted to dress a bunch of girls in sailor outfits in A Trip to the Moon. This year, in a close race that included ageless genre vet Milla Jovovich and Tron Legacy‘s robo-vamp Olivia Wilde, readers crowned an unexpected victor: Alessandra Torresani of Caprica seized a thwomping lead. (A little bit of campaigning on Twitter always helps, of course: hope you’re taking notes, Cotillard!) EW talked to the star about the joys of being a geek goddess, the eternal lure of Twitter, and (fingers crossed!) the possibility of a second season for Caprica. (Mild spoilers ahead.) READ FULL STORY »

Aug 18 2010 11:47 AM ET

January Jones is the White Queen in 'X-Men: First Class'

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Half of the attractive actors in Hollywood have already been cast in X-Men: First Class, next year’s Matthew Vaughn-directed preboot about the salad days of Professor X and Magneto. Now we can add the former Mrs. Draper to the swelling mutant ranks: Mad Men‘s January Jones will play Emma Frost, a.k.a. the White Queen, a.k.a. the mercilessly hot WASP telepath with a preference for skin-baring outfits. (She also occasionally turns into a diamond form, so yes, she would be a high-maintenance girlfriend.) The character was originally a supervillain but later became an endearingly amoral superhero: it’s not clear which way she’s leaning in First Class, but given that Jones’ de facto expression can best be described as “Icy Disregard for Lesser Beings,” I’m expecting the moral compass to point towards Evil, Evil, Evil.

I’m pretty optimistic. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 18 2010 11:32 AM ET

The man who slowed down Justin Bieber: 'It was a joke, and now it's this phenomenon'

Filed under: Music, Web Surfing and tagged: , ,

Nick-PittsingerImage Credit: Courtesy of Nick Pittsinger / Chris Hatcher/PR PhotosIf you were anywhere near an Internet connection yesterday, you heard the hauntingly beautiful ultra-slow Justin Bieber track. Florida-based musician and producer Nick Pittsinger, 20, dramatically slowed Bieber’s “U Smile” down, and the result has been and burst of Internet fame he never expected. “I’m a producer, so I just like to mess around with audio. It was a joke, and now it’s this meme, this phenomenon,” he says. We talked to Pittsinger this morning to get the skinny on his Bieber fever.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Walk me through the process. How did this all start?
NICK PITTSINGER: Me and a friend have inside jokes about Justin Bieber, and I thought it would be an interesting idea to slow it down. When you slow down a video by 800 or 1,000 percent, every detail is seen — you see exactly how stuff breaks or people sneeze. I decided to take that and apply it to this Justin Bieber song. It has a nice melody, and I was pretty sure it would yield a decent [result]. The result was amazing, totally unlike anything I’ve ever heard — and I listen to a lot of stuff. It’s mind-blowing. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 18 2010 11:05 AM ET

'Melissa and Joey' premiere: I love the '90s

Melissa-and-joeyImage Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC FamilyIf you caught either episode of Melissa & Joey last night, you may have thought that ABC Family was running reruns of failed sitcoms during it’s 8 o’clock hour. Melissa & Joey is by no means offensive, and I wouldn’t even call it awful — it’s fine to have on in the background, or on mute — but it’s not good, and is a really strange programming choice for a cable network in 2010. Aside from a few stray jokes about texting and a brief shot of what looked like a Twitter account, it’s easy to think this show was made 10 years ago, and has been growing dusty on the shelf of some TV executive ever since. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 18 2010 09:56 AM ET

'Black Swan' trailer: This can't end well, can it?

Filed under: Movies and tagged: ,

Director Darren Aronofsky doesn’t do fluff. He does unflinching works of overwhelmingly sweet/sickening sadness, like Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler. The trailer for Black Swan, his ballerina film starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, seems to continue this trend. Portman plays an accomplished dancer whose obsession and insecurities threaten to warp her perceptions of reality. Kunis seems to be a young All About Eve upstart eyeing Portman’s character’s position with the company. But does she really exist, or is she a figment of Portman’s character’s paranoia? Hmmm. The trailer is delightfully Kubrickian, what with the masked figures, confused realities, and elaborate dance theatrics. Take a look: READ FULL STORY »

Aug 18 2010 09:10 AM ET

J.J. Abrams playing '7 Minutes in Heaven'

Filed under: Lost, Movies and tagged: , ,

J.J. Abrams and the folks at Bad Robot have conquered the art of the high-concept pitch. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision Blog, Abrams’ company has picked up an idea from Lost director Jack Bender that goes a little something like this: Two teens at a party play 7 Minutes in Heaven, and when they emerge from the closet, everyone else in the house is dead. I don’t have any idea who’s going to be in the movie, who will direct, or even a clue beyond that 21-word plot description, but I’m already digging into my wallet.

Anyone who’s seen Abrams’ trailers for Cloverfield and Super 8 knows he’s a master of the less-is-more approach, the I’m-not-sure-what-I-just saw-but-I-want-more school of salesmanship. His projects typically have a sharp hook, and just a taste of the story is often enough to reel in an audience. No wonder he’s a green-light machine.

Does the short pitch for 7 Minutes sound interesting to you? Does Abrams’ track record give you confidence that the result will deliver the goods?

Photo Credit: Armando Gallo/Retna Ltd

Aug 18 2010 08:00 AM ET

Forbes ranks the richest rappers: Some guys named Shawn, Sean, and Aliuane top the list

Filed under: Music and tagged:

Forbes has once again taken time from covering entrepreneurs who work with short-term CDs and gold-backed bonds to cover those who work with 12-track CDs and gold teeth. And again, Jay-Z has topped the business magazine’s annual list of highest-earning hip-hop stars, raking in an impressive $63 million over the past year. That’s over twice as much as his nearest competition, Diddy, and $28 million more than he made last year.

Kanye West experienced one of the bigger drops, going from third place in 2009 all the way down to 10th, right behind Pharrell (the only other artist in the Top 20 who uses his real name). Kanye’s drop could be a result of VMA backlash and his subsequent laying-low, but with a new album coming up, it’s hard to imagine that his estimated $12 million won’t increase soon.

Personally, I was surprised that a lot of the names on the list, like Diddy, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, haven’t had a huge hit in awhile. Also, where’s MC Hammer? I would have assumed that his Cash 4 Gold investment strategy would have paid off by now. I’m probably less surprised at the names on the list than I am at the names on the list. Calvin? Clifford? Aubrey? Lonnie? Somehow I think I now understand the need for their monikers. Here’s the full list:

READ FULL STORY »

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