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Archive: October 2010 (101-110 of 590)

Oct 26 2010 03:45 PM ET

Former 'Dexter' showrunner Clyde Phillips preps new show for HBO

Categories: Casting couch, Television, Things That Are Criminal, This Could Be Interesting...

Clyde-Phillips Image Credit: Tatiana Beller/PR PhotosYou likely remember former Dexter executive producer Clyde Phillips as the man we all blamed (or thanked — depending on your opinion) for Rita’s death at the end of last season. But if time has healed your wounds, and you have found forgiveness within yourself, here’s some happy news: Phillips has a new show in the works, his management agency and HBO confirm to EW.

HBO has won the bidding war for project, which is based off of an Israeli series called The Naked Truth, according to Deadline. Set on the East Coast, the show will be a character-driven drama that follows officers in a major metropolitan city. But even more interesting than the synopsis is the fact that the foreign mother series had only two major locations: an interrogation room and the viewing room. Phillips told the pub that he hopes to somewhat honor the original by limiting the number filming locations, and went on to compare the project to ER, which took place primarily within the hospital. (Personally, I hope he was talking about the first half of ER and not the later seasons.)

Nonetheless, I love the sound of this new project from Phillips, folks. It sounds like a Third Watch/ER crossover, except hopefully with the signature dark tone of Dexter thrown in to it. (P.S. – I actually really did love that two-episode TW/ER crossover.)

What do you think? Does the show sound promising to you, PopWatchers? And who would you like to see in this new series? Two words: Keith Carradine.

Oct 26 2010 03:20 PM ET

'What To Expect When You're Expecting' heading to the big screen: Who would you cast?

by Archana Ram

Categories: Advance Advancement, Arrested Development, Casting, Casting couch, Inappropriate Crushes, Jane Lynch, Jon Hamm, Mad Men, Made Us Think, Movie Casting, Movies, Snap Judgment, This Could Be Interesting...

Lionsgate has confirmed that they will adapt the bestselling pregnancy bible What To Expect When You’re Expecting and intend to give it the Love Actually and Valentine’s Day treatment. In other words, we’ll see a series of intertwining vingnettes with enough star wattage to blind most any moviegoer.

The film is still in the early planning stages, but we wanted to throw out our own casting recommendations — and hopefully Lionsgate is listening.

Dreamboat status aside, Jon Hamm would be perfect as frazzled father of three whose wife is expecting again. Mad Men gives him drama cred, 30 Rock gives him comedy cred, and really, who doesn’t want to see Don Draper play a fumbling, ultimately loving father? We all know Sally Draper would!

But Hamm would need someone to grab beers with at the local bar, and that’s where he can turn to Jason Bateman, who might play dad to an awkward teen, if only to remedy my Arrested Development separation anxiety.

As for the women, Rachel McAdams would nail nervous-mother-to-be, no? And may we suggest Jane Lynch as one part of a lesbian couple who is expecting via sperm donor? Considering Lynch’s storied career (Best in Show, Julie & Julia, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin) we know she has more up her sleeve than a red tracksuit.

Who do you think should be cast? We’re taking your suggestions below!

Photo: Tina Gill/PR Photos

Oct 26 2010 02:55 PM ET

Zach Galifianakis in talks for the new Muppet movie

by Margaret Lyons

Categories: Casting, Movies, Muppets, Things That Are Awesome!, Zach Galifianakis

Image Credit: Chris Hatcher/PR PhotosIs Zach Galifianakis in the upcoming Muppet movie? Robert Downey Jr. spilled the beans during a promo interview for Due Date, but Galifianakis’ manager tells EW that the actor is “talking about it.” Please oh please let those talks work out!

Here’s what we know so far: Jason Segel wrote the movie with Nick Stoller, a former Undeclared writer who also directed Forgetting Sarah Marshall and wrote and directed Get Him to the Greek; the movie stars Segel and a new Muppet named Walter as they try to save the Muppet studio; Amy Adams will probably play Segel’s girlfriend. So far, so awesome. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2010 02:30 PM ET

What pop culture phenomena still lies before you unspoiled, making your friends insanely jealous?

by Mandi Bierly

Categories: Arrested Development, Harry Potter, PopWatch Confessional

The new behind-the-scenes featurette on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 below doesn’t really tell us anything new — they’re alone, on the run, outside Hogwarts, we know — but it does run through the first six films in the series in a way that made me think how amazing it would be if you’ve never read the books or seen the movies and still have all of that to look forward to. The idea was fresh in my mind after seeing a recent trailer for Deathly Hallows, turning to the friend I was with, and having her tell me she’s only read the first two books. I imagine the combination of pity/envy is similar to what some people feel for me when I tell them I’ve never seen Arrested Development. (I know I’ll love it. That could be why I’m saving it for when I really need it.)

So, back the headline: What pop culture phenomena still lies before you unspoiled, making your friends insanely jealous? Why haven’t you pulled the trigger? And when do you plan to? READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2010 02:05 PM ET

Russell Crowe belts it out for 'Rocky Horror'

by Archana Ram

Categories: Camp Classics, Glee, Guess Who!, Halloween, Have You Seen This?, Stage/Theater, Television, This Could Be Interesting..., To Care or Not to Care, Viral Video!!!

There’s a flurry of excitement for tonight’s Rocky Horror episode of Glee, so to get you Gleeks even more pumped to “Time Warp,” check out a young Russell Crowe playing Eddie and Dr. Scott in a 1987 staging of the The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Melbourne, Australia. Thank you, YouTube, for archiving gems like these: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2010 01:40 PM ET

'Dead Set': 'Big Brother' + Zombies + British Accents

by Darren Franich

Categories: Horror, Television, Zombies

Image Credit: IFCLast night, IFC aired the first part of the British miniseries Dead Set, in which zombies invade the UK version of Big Brother. The series will thrill undead-loving gore enthusiasts — the walking corpses don’t just munch away on their victims, they delectably devour them like cannibal coinnoisseurs. (Put it this way: Ask yourself how sick the phrase “misplaced intestines” makes you before watching this series.) But Dead Set has a lot to offer besides enjoyable gorenography. For one thing, the series’ portrayal of modern reality-show culture is scandalously funny. At one point in the first episode, we see the BB housemates squabbling over typically insipid reality-show drama, while outside the windows, people are being devoured. It feels a little bit like a modern retelling of The Rules of the Game, with reality-show contestants playing the part of decadently unaware idiots arguing over nothing while the world ends. The eeriest moment in the first hour is a line from a BB housemate that hilariously inverts the old Orwellian line: “Big Brother ain’t watching us.”

Dead Set features celebrity cameos that are utterly meaningless to us Americans, including a hilarious extended experience by Davina McCall (a.k.a. Chenbot UK, pictured above.) I’m a helpless BB addict — I’m convinced that the US version has more to say about contemporary political life than any show since The West Wing — so I dug how the first episode cut seamlessly between in-house shenanigans, the behind-the-scenes control room, and the sign-waving fans outside. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2010 01:12 PM ET

Al Roker and Matt Lauer yuck it up on Jay Leno

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: HeadScratcher, Jay Leno, Late Night, Television

When Jay Leno, Matt Lauer and Al Roker get together, things can get crazy. I mean Judge Smails, Dr. Beeper, and Bishop Pickering crazy. Last night, the two Today hosts joined Leno in a perfect symphony of awkward humor, undignified topics, and gratuitous giggling. Roker joined Lauer opposite Leno halfway through, ostensibly to talk about their Halloween costumes, but really to plug his new mystery novel. It’s a little confusing to follow after that — something about slippery toilet seats, Meredith Vieira’s “storm,” and “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It was a banner night for the show’s drummer, who nailed at least three rimshots in between the silly banter. Soak up the hi-larity: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2010 12:40 PM ET

'DWTS': Are the judges being tough on Jennifer Grey (to level the playing field)?

by Mandi Bierly

Categories: Dancing With the Stars, Reality TV, Television

Before the first steps had been taken in the ballroom this season, 53 percent of PopWatchers picked Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough as the favorites to take home the mirrorball trophy. The couple has lived up to the hype, but in recent weeks, Grey has begun stumbling on the dance floor. At the very end of last night’s Rock Week paso doble to Pink’s “So What” (watch it below), she lost her balance on a turn, then her timing, and propelled herself down to Derek’s knee after the music had ended (but right on cue with some dramatic puffs of steam that complemented the pyrotechnics!). The judges pounced. Now, I agree that her angry paso doble wasn’t as visually stunning as it could’ve been — her legs did look a bit weird as she stomped her way across the dance floor — but a 6, Carrie Ann? I can’t figure that out. Carrie Ann seemed… overly angry. It was as though she took it personally that the contestant she openly admitted was this season’s “Chosen One” had the nerve to screw up. “Jennifer, you need to calm down a little bit. You were out of control,” she said, way to seriously for a celebrity dance competition.* As Annie Barrett noted in her recap, “I had trouble telling whether Jen’s facial expression during the dance conveyed anger or pain, but I’m not sure I saw that.” Carrie Ann continued, telling Jennifer that she should know her limits next time, and try to stay in them. Len and Bruno each gave the couple a 7: Len was the most levelheaded, explaining that the paso is about balance and while Jennifer had the attack, aggression, and attitude, she sacrificed control of her movements; Bruno likened her to a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Jennifer and Derek accepted their marks. Do you think they deserved them? What would you have scored them? And has Jennifer slipping on the leaderboard made you more or less likely to vote for her? READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2010 12:15 PM ET

On the subject of 'Glee' GQ photos, even Jane Lynch gets it wrong

by Karen Valby

Categories: Glee, Hell to the No!, Jane Lynch, Nudity, Television, Those Crazy Kids!

Image Credit: Miranda Penn Turin/FoxThe always lovely, effortlessly cool Jane Lynch was asked over the weekend to weigh in on the whole GQ kneesock/lollipop flap. She started off talking sense, tactfully noting that impressionable young girls had no business flipping through a men’s magazine and that ultimately it was a parent’s responsibility to monitor what his or her children are exposed to in the house. Check and check. But then the record scratched, as Lynch was prodded by the Extra reporter to discuss how the Glee spread might effect young girls and their vulnerable body image: “I think whenever you put a woman scantily clad in underwear,” said Lynch, “it makes a lot of other girls and women feel badly about themselves, so it should be done with great consciousness.”

Oh for the love of … and women who don’t support Sarah Palin’s politics are just jealous of the woman’s pretty chestnut hair and natural curves. The reason the GQ photo shoot was a bust was not because it was too sexy, or too scandalous. Those pictures of soft-porn locker-room fun didn’t make me feel bad about my thighs. Or the fact that I don’t wear pigtails and scallop-edged baby pink training bras.

The main reason the shoot failed was that it was uninteresting, which is the opposite takeaway of the beloved show that celebrates eccentricity and verve. Lea Michelle sucking on a blow pop was the equivalent of the smartest, raddest girl in school — the Tina Fey of the junior class — dressing up as a sexy nurse or a sexy teacher or a sexy panda bear for Halloween. It was unoriginal. It made Dianna Agron and Lea Michele look silly and common, though Agron did a beautiful job reminding all of us that her GQ persona bears little resemblance to her real-world self. Let’s please not turn this whole mess into a statement of priggish American parents and insecure girls and women. Instead let’s expect more from the women we love, and the magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, who cover them. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2010 12:09 PM ET

'Driving Miss Daisy': Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones' middling revival opens on Broadway

by Tanner Stransky

Categories: Stage/Theater, This Week on Stage

Image Credit: Annabel ClarkAlfred Uhry’s drama Driving Miss Daisy has a storied history: The play first launched Off Broadway to much acclaim (and a Pulitzer Prize) in 1987, before being adapted into a 1989 movie starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman that won the Oscar for Best Picture. (Daisy holds the distinction of being the only film based on an Off Broadway production to win Best Picture.) Now, the play has been revived on Broadway in a new production starring James Earl Jones as the crusty chauffeur Hoke and Vanessa Redgrave as the crotchety widow Daisy. Melissa Rose Bernardo reviewed Daisy for EW, giving this latest incarnation a very middling C grade. While she did call Jones and Redgrave’s performances “high-gloss,” she faults the pair for showing “no apparent bond between these supposed best friends.” Bernardo also writes that British Redgrave’s Atlanta accent is “lost in translation.”