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Archive: October 2011 (271-280 of 382)

Oct 11 2011 11:18 AM ET

Kanye West blesses Occupy Wall Street protests

by Aly Semigran

Categories: Have You Seen This?, Hollywood, Kanye West, Politics as Entertainment

Image Credit: Andrew Burton/AP Images

Depending on which side of the political spectrum you fall on, Occupy Wall Street is either a futile attempt for progress made by smelly hippies or a much-needed democracy-in-action movement that speaks to the struggling working class. Bonus incentive if you fall on the latter: There are celebrities galore!

On Monday, Kanye West joined the growing list of stars who have visited the protesters who have been making their point(s) in downtown Manhattan for about three weeks. West was accompanied by Russell Simmons, who tweeted after the experience, “I just walked @kanyewest thru the #occupywallstreet. I love how sweet and tolerant he was to the crowd.” (It’s pretty fair to say that Geraldo Rivera didn’t get quite the same reception when he visited the area.) Simmons, who posted photos of their visit on Twitter, wrote on Tuesday morning, “This morning I applaud @kanyewest for using his celebrity to help others His appearance yesterday mattered!! #occupywallstreet.” Yes, citizens, thank goodness for Kanye! READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 09:33 AM ET

Phoenix Jones becomes latest superhero to be undone by bad dancing

by Jeff Labrecque

Categories: 100% Pure Cheese, Comic Books, I'm Just a Geek, Late Night, The Bad Man Scares Me!

If you’re a superhero long enough, sooner or later the populace that prospers under your protection will turn against you. It’s happened to all the greats: Batman, Mr. Incredible, and now Phoenix Jones. The clearly jealous Seattle police have arrested the masked vigilante — who was so good at his job that no one even knew he existed until he got a publicist and a Facebook page — for assaulting two citizens with pepper spray on Sunday morning. Jones insists he was just doing his duty, breaking up a fight, but the police claimed that the two victims were just “dancing and having a good time.” (Were they doing the Batusi?) The cops have added insult to injury by unmasking their only rival in protecting Seattle from bad dancing, revealing that Phoenix Jones is really just mild-mannered husband and father of two, Benjamin Francis. Watch the news clip below. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 03:12 AM ET

'House' react: Did another episode of big changes leave you craving the familiar?

by Sandra Gonzalez

Categories: House, Mini TV Watch, Television

Well, that’s two episodes down. So why don’t I feel like we’ve quite hit our stride in this new season just yet?

Many of you agreed with my assessment last week that House producers were forced to use the first episode of this season as damage control of sorts and that the episode — while generally good — was not a good indicator of where the season was headed.

Enter week two… READ FULL STORY »

Oct 11 2011 02:35 AM ET

'Kim's Fairytale Wedding': Part 2 included an actual wedding...barely!

by Breia Brissey

Categories: 100% Pure Cheese, About Last Night, Celebrity Weddings, Horrifying But Hypnotic, Kardash...Okay We'll Stop Typing Now, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Kim Kardashian, Reality TV, Ridiculata, To Care or Not to Care, Why Am I Crying?

Image Credit: Michael Simon, Albert Ferreira/Startraks and Nick Saglimbeni

Last night, the final two hours of Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event aired. And if you managed to sit through three hours and 33 minutes, you were finally rewarded with an actual wedding. But more on that later.

E! packed even more wedding prep into last night’s special leading up to the actual nuptials. Seating charts, catering menus, a bridal shower, and bachelor and bachelorette parties Vegas style. All of which had Kim making this important life observation: “I don’t know how Elizabeth Taylor got married so many times!” So really, part 2 was just a continuation of part 1. But with the wedding right around the corner, Kim finally answered some of the important questions brought up in Sunday’s special. Which Vera Wang wedding dress would she choose? Why choose just one? Let’s go with three. Would she hire Robin Thicke or Christina Aguilera to perform on the big day? Mr. Thicke won the job and was seen serenading the newlyweds during their first dance. Also seen: Rob Kardashian showing off his pre-Dancing with the Stars moves. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 10 2011 10:50 PM ET

'Two and a Half Men': Talk about fourth episode here!

by Erin Strecker

Categories: About Last Night, Fall TV, Mini TV Watch, Television, Two and a Half Men

Image Credit: CBS

It’s Monday night…you know what that means. Time for the Internet to weigh in on Ashton Kutcher’s fourth go-round on Two and a Half Men. Many deride it, but it’s quickly becoming the little big show that could. While there was a drop off from the previous week, over 17 million viewers (!) tuned in last Monday. The numbers don’t lie. For whatever reason — Love of the show? Shirtless Kutcher? Morbid curiosity? — people are still watching. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 10 2011 10:36 PM ET

'Enlightened' premiere: Laura Dern's new HBO series is anything but...

by Christian Blauvelt

Categories: About Last Night, Dude, THAT's Your Plot?, Mini TV Watch, Television, Things That Are Sad

Image Credit: Prashant Gupta/HBO

Not quite getting your fill of feel-bad TV? Well, here’s the show for you!

Enlightened, the new comedic drama starring Laura Dern (who’s also credited as co-writer and co-creator, along with former Freaks & Geeks producer Mike White), debuted tonight on HBO. You’ll notice I call it a comedy drama, as opposed to a dramedy, though perhaps the latter, more wishy-washy term better describes the tonal inconsistency of Ms. Dern’s latest effort. This is either the blackest comedy to hit TV in a while, or the most pointlessly histrionic drama. At first it seems to be a devastating satire of America’s feel-good, self-help culture in the Era of Oprah and Phil, but by the end, with it’s relentlessly serene images—a sea turtle floating in tranquil, azure waters; a bonfire on a beach; ooh…a sunset—it seems, unmistakably, a loving embrace of it.

Enlightened’s premiere episode opens with an image of grief at its most grotesque. Laura Dern’s Los Angeles health-and-beauty executive, Amy Jellicoe, has just found out that her boss, Damon, with whom she’s been carrying on an affair, has transferred her out of her department. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 10 2011 08:00 PM ET

'Dancing With the Stars': Week 4 is liiiiiiiiiiiiive!

by Annie Barrett

Categories: Cher, Dancing With the Stars, Reality TV

Image Credit: Adam Taylor/ABC

Update: Annie’s recap is live. Do you beliiiiiiiieeeeeeeve in life on Planet Mirrorballus? Cher does! Cher is there. CHER. Is THERE. Cher is somewhere in the ballroom! She will obviously fit right in. (And she will obviously have a camera on her the whole time.)

Welcome to week 4 of Dancing With the Stars season 13! Go ahead and discuss the two-hour performance show here, or try out a more “live blog” atmosphere over at EW.com’s Viewer.

Remember to nominate your Hidden Gems of the Week in this post as usual, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning for my full recap!

In the meantime, ask me anything about THE BALLROOM (or whatever) in the video player below and I may answer your question later on! READ FULL STORY »

Oct 10 2011 12:28 PM ET

America Ferrera joining 'Chicago' cast in London, also sets Broadway debut -- EXCLUSIVE

by Dave Karger

Categories: An EW Exclusive!, Ugly Betty

Image Credit: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images

Who knew? Ugly Betty can sing! Emmy-winning actress America Ferrera will join the London cast of the long-running musical Chicago next month, EW has learned exclusively. Ferrera will play Roxie Hart, the role made famous by Gwen Verdon and Ann Reinking on Broadway and Renée Zellweger in the 2002 film. (American Idol‘s Kara DioGuardi is currently playing Roxie on Broadway.) Ferrera’s eight-week stint will begin on November 7.

After her run in Chicago, Ferrera will then make her Broadway debut in a revival of Beth Henley’s 1984 play, The Miss Firecracker Contest, about a Mississippi woman who enters a beauty pageant. Holly Hunter filled the role off-Broadway as well as in the 1989 film Miss Firecracker. Ferrera begins rehearsals in March; the production, to be directed by Judith Ivey, will premiere next spring.

Oct 10 2011 08:00 AM ET

45 Years of 'Star Trek.' 45 reasons why it's still amazing.

by Christian Blauvelt

Categories: Geekery, Sci-Fi, Star Trek, Things That Are Awesome!

Break out the Romulan ale! This fall marks the 45^th anniversary of Star Trek.

Trek’s humble origins are almost hard to believe. When TV producer Gene Roddenberry pitched his “Wagon Train to the Stars” to NBC, it had already been rejected by CBS in favor of Lost in Space. Then, even after the Peacock finally did pick it up, they dismissed the pilot, starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike of the USS Enterprise, as “too cerebral,” and demanded a re-shoot. Only Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock survived the cast change for a new pilot built around a hammy Canadian named William Shatner, who, so far, had only scrounged together a career out of bit parts in movies like Judgment at Nuremberg and a couple very memorable Twilight Zone appearances.

Needless to say, expectations for Star Trek were low. And though it did face cancellation after just three seasons, it’s become one of our most venerable franchises, having spawned five subsequent series and eleven movies. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 10 2011 01:31 AM ET

'Kim's Fairytale Wedding': Was it worth the wait?

by Clark Collis

Categories: Celebrity Couples, Celebrity Weddings, Kardash...Okay We'll Stop Typing Now, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Kim Kardashian, Reality TV, Television

Image Credit: Michael Simon, Albert Ferreira/Startraks and Nick Saglimbeni

Tonight’s E! special Keeping Up with the Kardashians: Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event was an outrageously elongated affair — and I refer not just to the fact that merely saying its full title would occupy slow-talkers until Christmas 2017.

Despite its two hour length, this evening’s show did not actually cover the nuptials of Ms. Kardashian and NBA player Kris Humphries, who married way back in August. That will be taken care of in Monday’s companion special, Keeping Up with the Kardashians: Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event 2: Electric Boogaloo. This show was all about the build-up. Which Vera Wang wedding dress would Kim choose? Could she have real diamonds in her bouquet (remarkably, not a joke)? Would she hire Robin Thicke or Christina Aguilera to perform on the big day (remarkably, also not a joke)? The result was two hours of wedding prep porn, which at least meant it was a step up from Kim’s accidental excursion in real porn.

Or maybe not. Say what you like about XXX movies but they rarely feature gruesome close-up footage of a woman having elective, jowls-tightening surgery. (Obviously Debbie Does Dallas and Then Has Elective, Jowls-Tightening Surgery is the exception which proves the rule here). But one of the show’s major plot strands found Kim fretting while her mother Kris went under the knife and whatever other terrifying tools were surgically utilized onscreen after I covered my eyes with my hands and tore out my ear drums with my toes.

Speaking of tools, the show’s running time allowed plenty of space to explore the not-all-that-relevant binge eating of Kim’s sibling Rob who (just in case there wasn’t quite enough conspicuous consumption on display) was seen wolfing down a vast amount of Mexican food with Christian Bale-in-American-Psycho lookalike Scott Disick. Meanwhile, Humphries was routinely railroaded over wedding plans by Kim and Kris and routinely bad mouthed by Kim’s sister Khloe, who was determined he sign a prenuptial agreement. Oh, yes. Humphries is a professional basketball player but it is his wife who is the rich one. That’s how much money the Kardashians have.

And they just keep on getting more of it. The newlyweds are rumored to have made a(nother) fortune from televising their wedding and in tonight’s show Khloe and her husband Lamar Odom discussed their then upcoming appearance in a commercial that was actually screened in the course of the episode’s many, many ad breaks. As it happens, another advert was for the new Johnny Depp movie The Rum Diary. The film is adapted from a novel by Hunter S. Thompson who once described the TV business as “a cruel and shallow money trench.” In arguably related news, the second half of Kim’s Fairytale Wedding will be broadcast on Monday at 9 p.m. ET / 8 p.m. CT.

Did you watch tonight’s show? What did you think?