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Archive: August 2010 (31-40 of 533)

Aug 30 2010 03:27 PM ET

Emmy Awards 2010: What you didn't see on TV

Categories: 24, 30 Rock, American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, Emmy Awards, Glee, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Hamm, Lost, Mad Men, Modern Family, Neil Patrick Harris, On the Scene, Reality TV, Television, The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, True Blood

Rickey-Gervais-Emmys Image Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBCAs I arrived at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles for the 2010 Emmy Awards, the first thing I saw stepping out of the car was Dr. Horrible. There he was, bigger than life, soundlessly sermonizing above the Emmys red carpet on one of the several dozen jumbo-screens populating the L.A. Live complex that plays home to the Nokia. The moment turned out not to be a fortuitous prognostication of Neil Patrick Harris’ Emmy fortunes; it was simply part of a replay of last year’s Emmys, when Dr. Horrible (NPH) and Capt. Hammer (Nathan Fillion) did a little sketch on the emergence of web-only content. But it was a welcome sight anyhow, and presaged a (mostly) enjoyable Emmys evening inside the Nokia. The immense, cavernous, two-humpback-whales-could-fit-inside-of-it-comfortably-and-still-have-enough-room-for-a-small-fleet-of-school-buses Nokia.

The Nokia is so gargantuan, in fact, that this on-the-scene, what-you-didn’t-see-on-TV recap simply won’t be quite as detail-drenched as our American Idol on-the-scene recaps in the spring. Even the Idol finale at the Nokia nets more juicy detail for the simple fact that the judges are on a raised platform and a semi-conscious monkey could make them out with no difficulty. But despite the fact that even my most excellent seat in the Orchestra section of the Nokia (row BB!) still put me a good 12 parsecs away from the stage and all the commingling A-listers in the front rows, I’ve still gots a heaping helping of fun/revealing/foolish on-the-scenery for you to chew on. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 30 2010 03:05 PM ET

Can Josh Schwartz finally make a young D.C.-set drama work?

by Mandi Bierly

Categories: Television

Image Credit: Ocean/Corbis; Larry Busacca/Getty ImagesChuck‘s Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who’ve made Orange County and New York City young and sexy with The O.C. and Gossip Girl, are heading to D.C. for their next venture — an untitled pilot at ABC that, according to Variety, centers on twentysomething roommates who “juggle their personal and professional lives in Washington” and “find that the ideals that brought them to D.C. don’t always match with the realities of living in the nation’s capital.” If it sounds familiar, you’re probably thinking back to 2000′s D.C., The WB’s short-lived Capitol Hill intern drama from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf and Go writer John August that starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Jacinda Barrett, and Daniel Sunjata. “That might have been a little bit before its time,” Gosselaar told EW while looking back on his career in 2008. “‘It’s one of the most frustrating things, because you figure as an equation, the sum should equal this [meaning success]. And when it doesn’t, you’re goin’, How did that go wrong?…I just know that it wasn’t going well. And once a show doesn’t go well, you feel like the writers aren’t writing the way they want to, they’re writing to get ratings.”

Can Schwartz and Savage, who’ve hired Remember Me screenwriter Will Fetters to pen the script, avoid suffering the same fate? They’ve definitely got the ability to zero in on a culture and put juicy backstabbing moments onscreen. You might want them to bring out the claws and sex it up, but I’m actually hoping for a tone more like The Good Wife — where the characters actually behave like normal people you could imagine encountering in your lifetime. It doesn’t make them boring (case in point: Archie Panjabi’s Emmy win for sexy boot-wearing Kalinda), it just makes them real. They can fight and flirt, and we’re invested. What do you think it will take to make a D.C.-set drama about twentysomethings work? A burgeoning romance with a superior is a given.

Aug 30 2010 02:30 PM ET

'Lost' 80-hour marathon: What's your longest pop culture binge?

by Darren Franich

Categories: I'm Just a Geek, Lord of the Rings, Lost, Things That Are Awesome!

Do you love Lost? Do you love it so much that you could devote days of your life to doing nothing but watching the show? Yup, me too. So I wish I lived in London: according to the New York Post, the Prince Charles Cinema will be showing all six seasons of Lost in one 80-hour sitting. (Fortunately for the sleep-deprived audience, Kate episodes will be strategically scattered throughout the series at perfect naptime intervals.) I’m sad I won’t be able to make the screening, but the news got me thinking: What is your personal record for a pop culture marathon? READ FULL STORY »

Aug 30 2010 01:48 PM ET

Report: 'Saturday Night Live' adding three new cast members

by Tim Stack

Categories: Advance Advancement, Casting, Casting couch, Late Night, News You Can Use, Saturday Night Live, Television

Image Credit: Kevin Parry/WireImage.comOut with the old, in with the new: NBC’s Saturday Night Live is reportedly adding three new cast members for its upcoming season. The lucky newbies? Actor/comedian Taran Killam, who’s appeared on Mad TV and How I Met Your Mother (Killam is also the boyfriend of HIMYM star Cobie Smulders) and Chicago-based comedians Paul Brittain and Vanessa Bayer. Nearly every season, SNL faces cast changes: just last week, series regular Will Forte announced he wouldn’t be returning to the show. A rep for SNL had no comment for EW other than no contracts had been signed for new cast members yet.

What do you think about these potential new SNL stars, PopWatchers? Do they have what it takes?

Aug 30 2010 01:05 PM ET

Excess Hollywood: John Woo tackles 3-D, John Cusack will play Poe

by Kate Ward

Categories: Casting, Deals, Excess Hollywood, Movies, Television

John Cusack has been cast as Edgar Allen Poe in the fictional thriller The Raven, which will be directed by Ninja Assassin‘s James McTeigue. The story will follow the finale five days of the writer’s life, when he goes in search of a Poe-inspired serial killer, and a way to get the raven to just stop quothing Say Anything… already. [THR]
Face/Off director John Woo will make his IMAX debut with his next film, the WWII-set Flying Tigers (hooray for evolution!), IMAX Corporation announced in a press release.
In scrumtrulescent news: Recent Emmy winner Betty White is set to appear on Inside the Actor’s Studio this fall. [Access Hollywood]
Frank Langella has been tapped to lead the jury for this year’s Zurich Film Festival, while Isabella Rossellini will head the jury for the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. [Variety, Variety]
Michael Rapaport, Mary McCormack, Kelly Osbourne, B.J. Britt, Ed Asner, and Carol Cane have joined the cast of Should’ve Been Romeo, an indie comedy that follows a potato chip pitchman who is faced with sudden unemployment and a visit from his grandfather. Hey, there’s always money in Chipotlaway. [Variety]

Aug 30 2010 12:40 PM ET

Reasons why Bruce Willis should do 'The Expendables' sequel

by Mandi Bierly

Categories: Middle-Aged Butt-Kicking, Movies

Sylvester Stallone is moving forward with plotting a sequel to The Expendables, which has now grossed an estimated $82 million domestically. According to his Twitter page*, he’s busy thinking of the most dangerous places to set the film and trying to talk Bruce Willis into playing its super villain. Reasons why Bruce should say yes:

1. The Expendables ($35 million) outperformed 2007′s Live Free or Die Hard in its opening weekend ($33 million), and Live Free or Die Hard was Willis’ best live-action, non-cameo opening weekend since 1998′s Armageddon ($36 million). Moral: Audiences like to see Bruce Willis blow sh– up, and Stallone will most definitely hand him a detonator (or 20).

2. As much as we like the young guns in The Expendables, there was a different kind of electricity when Stallone and Willis shared the screen. They are equals. And that makes for a good antagonist.

3. We’ve already established that Bruce’s character in the Expendables world is bald. We like him bald. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 30 2010 12:00 PM ET

Lunchtime Poll: Fred Savage is dead. Long live Fred Savage!

by Darren Franich

Categories: HeadScratcher, Lunchtime Poll, Made Us Think, News You Can Use

This year’s Emmy Awards ceremony was broadcast live from Bizarro-Hollywood, a magical wonderland where an adorable university professor can get more screen time than the entire cast of Lost. All is not well, however, in Bizarro-Hollywood: a confusing teaser shot for the ‘In Memoriam’ montage featured a picture that looked shockingly like a young Fred Savage. It was actually Corey Haim, but the Internet loves death rumors more than cute cats and porn, so the “Fred Savage is dead” gossip spread within seconds.

Savage himself tweeted from the Hollywood Bowl last night: “Yacht, Chromeoan [sic] and Chemical Brothers. My first techno show kicks ass!!” So unless heaven has an awesome soundtrack, we can deduce that the elder Savage is still alive. But maybe this death rumor is a blessing in disguise? READ FULL STORY »

Aug 30 2010 10:45 AM ET

Ryan Reynolds, Bradley Cooper, and their abs to star in buddy cop flick

by Mandi Bierly

Categories: Movie Casting, Movies, Sexytimes, Things That Are Awesome!, Waiting

Image Credit: Robin Wong/PR Photos; Solarpix/PR PhotosWe need a new PopWatch category, This is from our dreams, and I’d file this after that post about Sam Worthington and Chris Pine possibly teaming up for the film This Means War. Real-life buddies Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper are now attached to star in a Lethal Weapon-esque action comedy about two San Francisco detectives who need their retired-cop fathers to help them solve a case. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Business blog, the untitled comedy is written by Up in the Air Oscar nominee Sheldon Turner. So many thoughts running through my head right now:

1. Will Psych‘s James Roday start accusing someone of stealing the father angle? (Apparently, this plot was first pitched five years ago with The Rock attached to star, so it’d be a tougher sell than The Mentalist rant.)

2. What are the odds that Reynolds and Cooper will have to pose as a gay couple at some point in the movie?

3. Why does Mel Gibson have to be Mel Gibson? I would have loved to have seen him and Kurt Russell play the dads. (Tequila Sunrise is right up there with Tango & Cash for me.)

4. Who should play the fathers? Russell as Cooper’s (it’s in the hair) and Kevin Costner as Reynolds’? Go a little more eccentric with Jeff Bridges and Bill Murray? A little more charming with Scott Bakula and Mark Harmon? Or is older funnier?

Aug 30 2010 09:41 AM ET

'Temple Grandin' wins big at Emmys. But who is she?

by Simon Vozick-Levinson

Categories: Emmy Awards

Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty ImageWho is Temple Grandin? Her name was called out seven times at last night’s Emmy Awards, where the rancher-attired Grandin herself was “a palpable presence,” in the L.A. Times‘ words, “at one point, rising and excitedly swinging her hand lasso style from the audience.” Grandin was there, of course, as part of the HBO movie named after her, in which she was played by the Best Actress in a Miniseries or Movie-winning Claire Danes.

Born in 1947, Grandin was diagnosed as autistic at a young age due to her inability to speak or function socially like other children. As an adult, Grandin became a renowned public advocate for those born on the autistic spectrum. Her high-functioning autism ultimately allowed her to earn a doctorate in animal science, become a university professor, and pen an autobiography about her experiences. She has also made notable contributions to the ethical treatment of livestock. Grandin, who believes that her autism helps gives her insight into the feelings of farm creatures, famously designed more humane corrals for cows headed for slaughter.

Grandin has been the subject of several film treatments before HBO’s award-winning movie, including a BBC documentary (“The Woman Who Thinks Like A Cow”) and an episode of director Errol Morris’ First Person. (Click through to the jump to see clips from both of those shows.)

In our review this February, EW’s Jennifer Armstrong said HBO’s Temple Grandin “put[s] us right inside the mind of its subject” and praised Danes for “transcend[ing] a standard awards-bait performance.” According to Deadline Hollywood, Danes said after the Emmys last night that she “never worked harder on a performance.”

Were you a fan of HBO’s Temple Grandin? Pleased by the Emmys love? Let’s hear it. And to read what EW wrote about Emmy’s other big winners in the movie and miniseries categories — The Pacific and You Don’t Know Jack — click here and here. READ FULL STORY »

Aug 30 2010 12:51 AM ET

'Big Brother' recap: Enzo finally realizes how much he sucks

by Sandra Gonzalez

Categories: Big Brother, Mini TV Watch, Reality TV, Television, TV Recap

Image Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBSIf EW writers and readers had a nickel for every time we’ve called out Enzo for being a terrible player, we’d have enough change to buy him a spaceship so he could fly away from the Big Brother house and back to his home planet. I think he’d like that. Heck, we’d like that. Oh, we can all only dream…

Cabin fever aside, it was an interesting night inside the house. Wait, what do you mean you were “watching the Emmy Awards”? Traitor. Kidding. Let’s start from the top. [SPOILERS AHEAD]. READ FULL STORY »