Archive: September 2010 (171-180 of 588)

Sep 23 2010 02:07 AM ET

'Top Chef: Just Desserts' recap: There's no crying in the pastry kitchen!

Top-Chef-DessertsImage Credit: Kelsey McNeal/BravoI can barely keep track of who’s whom at the start of a reality-show season. There are too many people on screen, faces start blending together like grains of sugar and salt in a white bowl, and names like Heather H. and Heather C. don’t help much, either.

But thank you, Seth, for coming out so early in the competition as this season’s nut-job. (It helps my brain immensely.) Sure, Angelo’s erotic relationship with food on this past season of Top Chef was weird, but bursting into a crying fit in front of a guest judge? Proclaiming “I didn’t do it!” like a five-year-old? And building armor out of baking tools to pass the time? Yeah, we’ve reached another level of crazy.

Seth’s antics actually called to mind the lunacy that Kelly Bensimon brought to Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New York City. In the beginning, we thought, “Wow! What a great, kooky addition to the cast.” Then we began to worry, “This doesn’t seem right.” And finally, it devolved into, “She should probably get off this show for her own good—and ours.”

Similarly, we saw only hints of Seth’s off-his-rocker personality last week (claiming insomnia; speeding through the kitchen), but all was forgotten when he won the Quickfire. This week’s Quickfire, though, was a whole different shebang. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 22 2010 10:12 PM ET

The new 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' trailer: So much to see! So little time!

Deathly-Hollows-006Image Credit: Jaap BuitendijkIf the first full trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows left me riddled with goosebumples, today’s new HP7 trailer — focusing exclusively on Part 1 of the “EPIC FINALE,” out Nov. 19 — left me catching my breath. Mostly from excitement, sure, but also from exhaustion: It’s a roughly two minute barrage of you’d-better-not-blink shots designed to goose Potter-heads with glimpses of all the new (and returning) characters, and iconic sequences and moments, we’ve been practically feverish to see on screen. Ooo that’s Bill Nighy as new Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour and wait now Voldemort’s peering into Dumbledore’s tomb and oh hey there’s the gravesite of Harry’s parents and eek it’s Prof. Snape by Voldemort’s side and hang on Imelda Staunton’s back as the diabolically pink Dolores Umbridge and whoa Harry, Ron and Hermione barely missed that double-decker bus in central London and…you get the idea. Check out the jam-packed trailer for yourself: READ FULL STORY »

Sep 22 2010 09:00 PM ET

'Survivor: Nicaragua' quick take: Everyone goes absolutely bonkers!

Image credit: Monty Brinton/CBS

Nicaragua turned into crazy town this evening with accusations, admissions, apologies, and a heaping helping of flat out arrogance. In the end, after a heated Tribal Council, it cost one person their spot in the game, while several others found themselves on very shaky ground. My full recap will be up at midnight (UPDATE: Click to read Dalton’s full Survivor recap, now live), but if you can’t wait to sound off on all the fireworks, read on after the jump. [SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Wednesday's episode of Survivor: Nicaragua.] READ FULL STORY »

Sep 22 2010 06:58 PM ET

Alexis Bledel signs on to 'Violet & Daisy': from 'Gilmore Girls' to teenage assassin?

Categories: Movies

Alexis-BledelImage Credit: Henry S. Dziekan III/WireImage.comAfter all those years serving up family-friendly television on The Gilmore Girls, apparently what Alexis Bledel really wants to do is kill people. Bledel, who played Rory Gilmore on The Gilmore Girls and also starred in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants films, has signed on to play a teenage assassin in the indie drama Violet & Daisy. She’s replacing Carey Mulligan, who was originally cast in the role but dropped out over a scheduling conflict. The movie, which also stars Saoirse Ronan and James Gandolfini, has been described as a cross between Thelma & Louise, Superbad, and Pulp Fiction — which sounds both totally awesome and too good to be true. Then again, Violet & Daisy is the directorial debut of screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher, who won an Oscar earlier this year for his screenplay for Precious, so we’re hopeful that description isn’t just hype.

We know Bledel has a knack for delivering snappy dialogue, but can you imagine her also popping caps in people? Does Bledel seem too squeaky clean to play a violent assassin? Or is that exactly what makes the idea appealing?

Sep 22 2010 06:44 PM ET

'Raising Hope': Can we get some love for Martha Plimpton?

Categories: Television

raising-hopeImage Credit: Randy Tepper/FoxFox’s Raising Hope has already been called the season’s best new network sitcom. After one viewing, I’m prepared to dub Martha Plimpton my favorite actress on a freshman comedy. The show, from My Name is Earl‘s Greg Garcia, has a great cast — from Lucas Neff, who plays Jimmy, the 23-year-old slacker who genuinely believes that raising the daughter he fathered with a one-night stand who ended up being arrested for murder and electrocuted will give him purpose, to Cloris Leachman, who spent most of last night’s premiere in her bra as Jimmy’s dementia-stricken great-grandmother Maw Maw.

But for me, it’s Plimpton, as Jimmy’s mother Virginia, who perfectly embodies the over-the-top insanity and heart this show is capable of. She had some choice line deliveries in the premiere (“I bet you don’t even know where to go to get reasonably priced portraits,” she told Jimmy, trying to get him to drop off the child, christened Princess Beyoncé by her late mother, at the fire station), but none more impressive than when we found out that Maw Maw didn’t like that her granddaughter’s family was living with her in her home for free — when she was aware of it, that is. “She’s lucid,” Virginia told her husband Burt (Garret Dillahunt). “It’s been almost five minutes.” But as loud as you laughed at that — and the way Virginia turned a corner and sent Princess Beyoncé flying across the backseat of the car to show Jimmy why one needs to strap down a car seat — that’s how loudly you had to “Aw” when Virginia and Burt finally gave in and helped Jimmy get her to sleep by singing her the same song they played for him when he was a bay (and they were 15). There’s something oddly comforting about three people who admit their overall goal is the one all new parents start with: Let’s keep this baby alive.

Will you keep watching Raising Hope? Is Plimpton, who’s as ballsy here as she was guesting as a lawyer last season on CBS’ The Good Wife, the reason why?

More: Raising Hope and Running Wilde premiere reviews: Which was funnier?

Sep 22 2010 06:02 PM ET

Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline sign on for the Baby Boomer-centric 'Darling Companion'

Categories: Movies

Diane-KeatonImage Credit: Noel Vasquez/Getty ImagesBaby boomers, this one’s especially for you: Kevin Kline, Diane Keaton, Elisabeth Moss, and Richard Jenkins are set to star in writer-director Lawrence Kasdan’s comedy Darling Companion, which is being billed as the final installment of Kasdan’s boomer trilogy following 1983′s The Big Chill and 1991′s The Grand Canyon. Darling Companion is the story of a woman (Keaton) who has a dog she loves more than anything and anyone — including her jerky, self-involved husband (Kline). When the jerky husband loses the dog after a wedding, he and his wife and some of the wedding guests go on a search for the missing pooch and, according to the movie’s press release, “the adventure … takes them in unexpected directions — comic, harrowing, and sometimes deeply emotional.” Personally, I can’t say the boomer navel-gazing of The Big Chill and The Grand Canyon ever spoke deeply to me. (I’m a Gen X-er — our seminal cinematic touchstones were more along the lines of The Breakfast Club, Say Anything…, Reality Bites, Slacker, and Dazed and Confused). Still, Darling Companion sounds potentially intriguing — provided it doesn’t descend into corny slapstick, like a dog wrecking a wedding cake, à la Tiger at Mike and Carol’s wedding in The Brady Bunch. The casting certainly seems spot-on — no one gives self-involved jerks a more brilliant physical-comedy spin than Kline — and, as the writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, among many other fine movies, Kasdan has a lifetime pass.

What do you think? Does Darling Companion sound like your cup of tea? What movies have spoken to your generation the way The Big Chill did to baby boomers?

Sep 22 2010 06:00 PM ET

'Robin Hood' DVD giveaway!

Categories: Giveaways, Movies

robin-hoodHey PopWatchers! We’re giving away Robin Hood DVDs, courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Here’s how to enter to win:

1. Go to our Facebook page.

2. Click “Like” at the top of the page

3. Find the post on our Wall announcing the giveaway, click Comment, and tell us who’s your favorite pop culture Robin Hood, and why. (Note: Commenting on this post won’t enter you in the giveaway; see the official rules after the jump.)

4. If you’re a winner, we’ll contact you via Facebook message to request your mailing address.

The giveaway starts NOW! READ FULL STORY »

Sep 22 2010 05:40 PM ET

'NCIS' season premiere: Decent suspense. But enough blood?

Categories: NCIS, Television

ncisImage Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBSNCIS returned last night with an eighth season opener in which, somehow, Ralph Waite (The Waltons), who reprised his role as Gibbs’ father, Jackson, survived. I’m not saying I wanted him to die at the hand of Paloma (Jacqueline Obradors), the head of the Reynosa Drug Cartel who, along with her Mexican justice department official brother Alejandro (Mark Sanchez), wanted to avenge their father’s death from a Gibbs bullet. But I can’t be the only one who had a season 2 finale flashback to Caitlin’s death by sniper as Jackson stood in Gibbs’ home, asking his son to come home and help him rebuild the store Paloma had shot to smithereens after Jackson pulled a shotgun on her.

Fortunately for the Gibbs men, Paloma fell victim to the classic Big Bad mistake of wanting to torture her target before putting an end to him. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 22 2010 04:59 PM ET

Jennifer Lopez on 'American Idol': Why she needs to be the new Simon Cowell

Simon-Cowell-Jennifer-LopezImage Credit: Michael Tran/FilmMagic.com; Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com“Concentrate on the moment and just live,” declared Jennifer Lopez, looking out on a crowd of American Idol wannabes, moments after Ryan Seacrest announced the “Get Right” singer would be part of the show’s season 10 judging panel at a press conference in Los Angeles earlier today. To which I say, “Oh. No.”

Yeah, I realize you can’t judge a judge on a seven-word sound bite, but J.Lo’s new-agey, everyone-gets-a-gold-star first impression left me wondering if she understands the role she should be playing as Fox’s venerable-but-vulnerable ratings powerhouse enters the post-Simon Cowell era. (“I believe in tough love, but I don’t think I can ever be cruel to another artist. There are definitely better ways to say things,” Lopez later told reporters; read my colleague Lynette Rice’s rundown of the proceedings here.)

As we learned from Ellen DeGeneres’ disastrous stint on Idol last season, it can be tough for a well-established, well-liked celebrity (especially one with an active career) to sit down at the judges’ table and give negative feedback to contestants. “It was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings,” Ellen said when announcing her exit from the show in late July. Perhaps even harder, though, was the idea that viewers might not absolve her of the “sin” of crushing the dreams of so many wannabe music stars in front of 20 million viewers.

But in the words of Kara DioGuardi, “Here’s the thing”: In the Idolverse, it’s not only okay to be unflinchingly tough and brutally honest, it’s absolutely necessary. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 22 2010 04:50 PM ET

Miley Cyrus films a video to tell fans 'I'm just like y'all!'

It’s been an awfully quiet summer in the world of Miley Cyrus. There hasn’t been a new dance party anthem — leaving me to rely on my old standards, “See You Again” and “Party in the U.S.A.” — and I can’t bear the thought of enduring a Nicholas Sparks melodrama just to get a Miley fix. Without her Twitter, rumors this summer ran rampant, so finally the raspy voiced teen star filmed a video to set things straight and update her fans on her busy teen life.

Miley introduced fans to her new rescue dog (point 1 for Miley), joked about gaining weight on vacation (point 2 for Miley), and really did her part to come across as a normal teen girl wanting to live a normal teen life, even if that life includes an immaculately decorated, NYC studio apartment-sized shoe closet. It was great to see her acknowledge that she needed to go take a math quiz — even if she was procrastinating said math quiz to make a video. (Miley Cyrus stalling on math homework — I always knew we could be friends.) Of course, Miley proved that after her math, she could stand to brush up on her geography, with her “California is not the most beautiful city in the world” comment.

Rumors Miley debunked in the nearly 10-minute video: READ FULL STORY »

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP