Archive: May 2011 (21-30 of 457)

May 31 2011 01:01 AM ET

Chris Harrison blogs 'The Bachelorette' episode 2

Chris-Harrison

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day holiday. I hope you also took a moment to remember what it’s all about. To start this week I’d like to thank all of those that have served or are still bravely serving our great country.

There’s so much I want to talk to you about this week, but there’s a dark cloud hanging over this show right now and it’s really hard to talk about anything other than Bentley. I’m going to put him on the back burner for a moment and talk about a few other things before we deal with him. The first thing we did this week was move the guys into the mansion. Usually this is a very easy, uneventful morning and this time was much the same, except for one small problem. Once I talked to the guys in the driveway and sent them in, I noticed there was something – rather, someone –was missing. Jeff “The Mask” rode alone with a producer to the house and he was still in the car when I moved the rest of the guys in the mansion. We quickly realized “The Mask” was missing and we did it over again. READ FULL STORY »

May 30 2011 10:01 PM ET

'The Bachelorette' episode 2: The Best Men vs. No Rhythm Nation

I’ve got a confession to make, rose lovers. I saw You Got Served… at a movie theater. It was not a just-flipping-channels or I’m-trapped-on-an-airplane viewing — I went to a movie theater, paid actual money, and willingly watched the movie in which Lil’ Kim tells the dance crews the only way to settle things is her way, and that’s “straight hood.” So imagine my surprise and delight when Ashley’s first group date with her chosen suitors involved a dance off!! No spoilers here (click over to my full Bachelorette episode 2 recap for all the details) but suffice it to say that dudes were getting served left and right on this date. Unfortunately, they were mostly serving themselves, and what they were serving was heaping helpings of stupidity. If you’ve already seen the episode, dance on over to the comments and sound off about Ashley’s Sin City adventures. Would you like to have dinner in the middle of a mall fountain? What’s cooler: traveling by private jet or rocking the knit cap and black Mardi Gras mask look? And what’s more horrifying: Intentionally toying with the Bachelorette’s emotions or naming your daughter Cozy? Ready, set, post!

More Bachelorette from EW:
Chris Harrison’s exclusive Bachelorette episode 2 blog

May 30 2011 12:00 PM ET

'The Hangover Part III': What should be in the three-quel?

The-Hangover-Part-2

The Hangover Part II just hit theaters this weekend, but in Hollywood, it’s never to early to talk sequels. Director Todd Phillips already floated the idea at a press conference last week, telling reporters that the three-quel would be “very much a new idea,” and joking that he’s open to accepting bribes from cities who would like to be the next Vegas or Bangkok. But if a third Hangover does happen, what should be in it? Here are a few of our suggestions: READ FULL STORY »

May 30 2011 10:00 AM ET

'Platinum Hit' brings Kara DioGuardi back to TV; what has she been up to since 'Idol'?

Platinum-Hit

Image Credit: Williams & Hirakawa/Bravo

No matter what you thought of Kara DioGuardi’s stint as a judge on American Idol, you kind of had to feel bad for her when she left the show. Her exit in September 2010 was greeted with a mix of shrugs and relief, as though she was the one holding the show back during its tepid ninth season. She became a scapegoat, even though Simon Cowell’s senioritis and Randy Jackson’s continued banality were far bigger issues for the show.

She returns to reality television tonight in the form of Platinum Hit, which premieres on Bravo at 10. The show puts 12 up-and-coming singer-songwriters (with heavier emphasis on the latter) in the spotlight and pits them against one another in a series of songwriting challenges doled out by DioGuardi and co-host Jewel, with $100,000 and a series of recording and publishing deals at stake.

Each episode focuses on a particular songwriting genre, which is appropriate for DioGuardi, considering she has penned everything from dance tracks to rock anthems to country jams to whatever it is that Ashlee Simpson makes. But what has the award-winning songwriter been up to since her departure from Idol?
READ FULL STORY »

May 27 2011 06:30 PM ET

'MLB 2K11' Perfect Game winner nabbed $1 million, and he's not even a baseball fan!

Ready to feel inadequate? This year’s $1 million winner of the second annual MLB 2K11 Perfect Game Challenge isn’t even that into baseball, but still took home the big prize.

“I had to do a lot of research,” 25-year-old winner Brian Kingrey of Hammond, La. told EW. “I had to look up batting averages of the players and everything. Luckily, the game is very consistent with the batting averages of real-life players.”

The baseball tenderfoot’s diligent research paid off, because he pitched his way to a perfect game and, ultimately, to the grand prize. Kingrey and his wife, both music teachers, are using the cash to buy a new fridge. “We just got into our new house and everything, and we were using this mini dorm fridge the whole time.”

Though not a ball player, Kingrey’s been a lifelong gamer. Between playing video games, guitar, piano and a variety of woodwinds, Kingrey’s dexterous fingers likely aided in analog stick-aiming finesse. The player Kingrey used in his pitching pursuits? None other than Roy Halladay of the Phillies, who pitched a real-life perfect game in 2010.

I’m trying to think of a way I can one-up Kingrey at his own game. Would you ever enter a contest in something that was relatively foreign to you? Textile arts have never been my bailiwick–perhaps the American Quilter’s Society will starting hold a million dollar challenge?

May 27 2011 06:00 PM ET

Are there TV shows that scared you as a child that STILL scare you?

unsolved_mysteries

Image Credit: Everett Digital

It’s my job to publicly admit my embarrassing secrets, so here’s one to laugh at over the long holiday weekend: I was once terrified of the show Unsolved Mysteries and sometimes still am. 

My fear of the show stems not from my distaste for the creepy and unusual — in fact, some of my current favorite shows deal with exactly that. Instead, I believe my lingering aversion to Unsolved Mysteries stems from the scarring episodes I watched as a wee tot.

My parents were always pretty liberal about my television viewing — there were never any particular rules regarding rated-R movies or age-inappropriate TV programming. I’m not sure why. (Based on the pictures of my parents when they were newlyweds, I think my parents’ liberal approach to parenting is a result of their hippie spirit, but I have never confirmed this theory.) While this generally made for a pretty cool childhood (take that jealous grade-school peers!), it also often backfired, resulting in numerous irrational fears that are still in me today. Example: Occasionally being terrified by Unsolved Mysteries. READ FULL STORY »

May 27 2011 05:30 PM ET

Does 'L.A. Noire' actually work?

There is one word that comes to mind when you’re playing through L.A. Noire: Ambition. It was ambitious for Brendan McNamara and Team Bondi to take the game’s main technical innovation — a new form of motion-capture performance that makes the population of Noire look vastly more “humanlike” than most digi-people — and turn it into a central aspect of the gameplay: You have to stare into the eyes of the game’s characters and decide if they are lying or telling the truth. But the true ambition of Noire only really becomes clear after you’ve been playing the game for awhile. When I spoke to McNamara a few months back, he professed a great love for the literature of Dashiell Hammett and James Ellroy, for vintage film noir like Out of the Past and Detour, and for the essential ’70s neo-noir Chinatown.

At first, L.A. Noire seems to largely capture the tone of those works without quite grasping their deeper meaning — sort of like when Electronic Arts turned the epic sweep of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies into a gorgeous-to-look-at, incredibly simple button-masher. READ FULL STORY »

May 27 2011 05:00 PM ET

Rob Pattinson in 'Cosmopolis.' How 'bout we do some wishful thinking?

Cosmopolis

Image Credit: Caitlin Cronenberg

At left, see Twilight star Rob Pattinson in a scene from the upcoming adaptation of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis, directed by David Cronenberg. Since Cronenberg’s last film, Eastern Promises, boasted some naked fighting, can tweens everywhere expect Cosmopolis to follow suit?

(Hint: No naked fighting. But nudity? How about you read the book, kids, to find out?)

Follow Kate on Twitter @KateWardEW

Read more:
Rob Pattinson to star in David Cronenberg’s ‘Cosmopolis.’ Why am I wishing he’d Twi-lighten up?
Happy 25th birthday, Rob Pattinson! Here are 25 things that endeared you to me.

May 27 2011 04:45 PM ET

Lee DeWyze vs. Nigel Lythgoe: Other alums who have feuded with 'Idol'

Lee-DeWyze

Ah, American Idol. One of the only programs on television that manages to anger audiences even after the show has wrapped. As previously reported, season 9 winner Lee DeWyze and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe have engaged in a Twitter argument over the fact that DeWyze did not participate in the season 10 finale. (Lythgoe claimed he was too “shy” to get involved; DeWyze shot back that he wasn’t asked until two minutes before the show announced the winner. “I didnt feel a last second jump on stage was appropriate. It was Scotty’s moment,” he tweeted.) But DeWyze is hardly the first person to feud with the program that shot him into the spotlight — here are some other former contestants and Idol personalities who have taken on Idol, and which side came out on top. READ FULL STORY »

May 27 2011 04:26 PM ET

TV Season Finale Awards: The polls are now closed!

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We’ve reached the final round of EW.com’s 2nd annual fan-voted Season Finale Awards, and after combing through more than 1,500 of your nomination ballots, we’ve got your short lists in 20 categories. UPDATE: After four days of voting, the polls have now closed. Winners will be announced later today!

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