Archive: October 2011 (51-60 of 382)

Oct 27 2011 09:00 AM ET

This Week's Cover: Melissa McCarthy rules our 2011 Comedy Issue

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Categories: Bridesmaids, Movies, Saturday Night Live, Television, Things That Are Awesome!, This Week's Cover

Bridesmaids, Mike & Molly, and a winning SNL gig have turned Melissa McCarthy into a red-hot star, as well as the cover girl for our 2011 Comedy Issue. EW sat down with the hilarious McCarthy for a little steak, a bunch of drinks, and an unexpected amount of tears. “Comedy to me is all about the bumps and bruises and weird tics,” says McCarthy. “It’s everything you find out about somebody when you fall in love with them that on paper is really creepy but you find adorable.”

When McCarthy was a teenager at an all-girls Catholic school in Plainfield, Ill., she stunned her mild-mannered parents by diving deep into a wickedly surly goth phase. “There was a three-year chunk as a teen where I should have been tranquilized and put in a cage,” she says. If her daughters ever try to pull some of the crap she did in high school, she has a plan. “I will embarrass my kids to their core. I will threaten to show up in hot pants and a tube top. Their dad will drive me. And he’ll let me and my friend Lisa get pretty drunk in the backseat and we will come into that party and just rip it up.”  READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 07:10 PM ET

Johnny Depp calls out Ricky Gervais in 'Life's Too Short': 'No one makes fun of Tim Allen on my watch and gets away with it!'

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Categories: British Things, Golden Globe Awards, Johnny Depp, Ricky Gervais, Things That Are Awesome!, Things That Are Classy

No one ever doubted that you would get your comeuppance Ricky Gervais, but kudos for somehow making it happen on your own show, to your own benefit. Brilliant! In case you missed it, Gervais called out, well, pretty much everybody at last winter’s Golden Globes. He had particularly nasty things to say about Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie’s nominated film The Tourist, but Depp has now been given the chance to retaliate via an appearance on Gervais’ upcoming BBC2 comedy series, Life’s Too Short.

The show stars Warwick Davis (Willow!!!) as the head of a talent agency for little people, and Gervais recurrs as himself. In the clip, Depp strolls into the office and passive-agressively vents his Gervaisian frustrations in the form of backhanded compliments. “How great for you,” he deadpans when Gervais says he’s been writing his own films. ”That must be so great.” Ha! It’s childish, and I love it. Watch the clip below:  READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 06:28 PM ET

'The X Factor': Is it refreshing or is it way too much?

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Categories: British Things, EWWWWWWWWWW.com, Horrifying But Hypnotic, Reality TV, Simon Cowell, The X Factor, Things That Make Me Die Inside
SImon-Cowell-x-Factor

Image Credit: Fox

Last night’s two-and-a-half-hour X Factor — a.k.a. American Idol on Steroids, a.k.a. Simon Cowell Must Think We’re REALLY Stupid — was a big ol’ trainwreck full of flashy lights, over-produced backing tracks, faux-bickering by the judges, rushed eliminations, and the list goes on. Reading over the comments on my recap of the telecast and Adam B. Vary’s hilarious on-the-scene report, it seems people are torn between liking the rawther British, unsentimental, over-the-top gaudiness of the show, and loathing it.

I can see both sides, and in my recap I said that The X Factor‘s quick pace and unsentimental approach was a refreshing change from American Idol. I miss Idol too, but this is a different show. Simon is clearly aiming for pure spectacle here, and if the U.S. X Factor is supposed to be as campy-bordering-on-idiotic as the British version or something like America’s Got Talent, then mission accomplished. But if it’s supposed to be a singing competition, it’s largely a joke. The question is, are we willing to let it be what it is and have some escapist fun, or does Simon’s idea of fun make us want to throw ourselves off a cliff? READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 04:20 PM ET

'Like Crazy' opens in limited release this weekend. Does it chronicle the best hipster romance?

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Categories: Burning Questions, Everyone's a Critic, Indie, Movies, Those Crazy Kids!
like-crazy

Image Credit: Fred Hayes

I know, I know, calling someone or something “hipster” is as vague as the elusive “manic pixie dream girl” herself. No one who is a hipster would ever actually admit to being a hipster (though, for the record, all of these folks qualify), and most hipster things have gone so mainstream (Arcade Fire, for one) they have all but lost their hipster cred.

But the big question here today, PopWatchers: Does a movie like the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, with its hipster elements, fall under the same hipster movie umbrella (organically made, of course) as bona fide hipster flicks like Garden State?

I ask this because Like Crazy, the heart breaker of an indie that won over audiences at Sundance earlier this year, gets released in theaters in New York and Los Angeles this weekend. Fight me all you like on this one, but there’s no question this is a hipster flick. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 03:56 PM ET

Steve Jobs wanted to reinvent the television. Can Apple follow through?

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Categories: Apple
steve-jobs

Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

If you want to understand why old people don’t enjoy technological innovation as much as the rest of us do, then consider the Television. TV used to be a happy little friend, a charming robo-governess providing entertainment for the whole family. Using it was simple: You turned it on; you flicked through a few channels; sometimes you had to adjust the antenna. Now, using an average TV entertainment system involves at least four remote controls: One remote for turning the TV on, one remote for adjusting the channel, one remote for trying (and failing) to make the Surround Sound system sound as good as it did at the store, and one more for hitting yourself in the forehead until you fall into a deep coma and dream of a world without television.

Steve Jobs felt your pain. As EW reported, buried on page 555 of Walter Isaacson’s massive new biography of the iconic Apple CEO, Jobs describes his next great personal goal: The streamlined reinvention of the TV set. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 03:25 PM ET

Top 5 signs your Ryan Gosling crush is getting out of control

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Categories: Awwwwww So Cuuuuuute, Inappropriate Crushes, Now That's What I Call a Face!, Ryan Gosling
ryan-gosling

Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Ryan Gosling is perfect.

There’s no room for debate on that. Disagree? I’m sorry, you’re just wrong. Did you even see the Dirty Dancing scene with Emma Stone in Crazy, Stupid, Love.? Were you born without a pulse? He won our collective hearts in The Notebook, challenged our way of thinking (I loved Lars and the Real Girl, Ryan! I get you!), and officially hit A-list status this year with Love, Drive, and Ides of March.

And that’s just onscreen; his off-screen antics — hey girl! — are certainly not helping my borderline-stalking behavior. (Story of my life… ) So I get it. I’m right there with you, PopWatchers. But to not be ostracized by your friends — and not to mention to avoid police interest — here is my handy guide outlining warning signs that your Ryan Gosling love may be out of control.*  READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 02:50 PM ET

Glenn Beck cries chatting with Kathie Lee on 'Today' -- VIDEO

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Categories: Glenn Beck, Have You Seen This?, Politics as Entertainment, Television, Things That Are Sad

What caused Glenn Beck to cry on Today this morning? Did someone make Beck sit in a drum circle at the Occupy Wall Street movement? Or did someone buy him an Obama 2012 bumper sticker for his car? Nope, it’s neither of those things.

Rather, during a taped interview with Kathie Lee Gifford, the former Fox News commentator got emotional talking about the his own difficult childhood, which he drew inspiration from for his latest fiction book The Snow Angel. Among other things, Gifford and Beck discussed his mother’s death, a possible suicide, and why he and his family didn’t talk about it for a long time. “When you live in an alcoholic family or an abusive family, you tiptoe, you don’t want to step on any mines,” Beck said.

But when Beck tried to talk about the abuse (“My father told me abuse is generational”), the political pundit — who now runs his own pay-per online network GBTV — broke down and cried. “Now The Today Show is going to make fun of me again,” he said, wiping away tears. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 02:45 PM ET

'Dancing With the Stars': Backtrack Maks says, 'I have nothing to apologize for' -- VIDEO

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Categories: Dancing With the Stars, Morning Madness, Reality TV, Television

On Monday’s Dancing With the Stars, hot-headed pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy lashed out at the judges’ harsh criticism, telling judge Len Goodman to “get out” of the ballroom biz and claiming, “This is my show, you know. I helped make it what it is.” He apologized on Tuesday night’s results show, even after Goodman called him “Mad Maks the Thunderdome” that morning on Access Hollywood.

This morning, Chmerkovskiy reverted to his original attitude as he told Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts he has no regrets. “The last time I apologized was to my grandma when she was dying,” he said stoically. He took particular issue with the judges’ tendency to make snarky comments for laughs. He concluded, “I have nothing to apologize for to Len, certainly not to Carrie Ann [Inaba]. She can make all the faces that she wants.” Watch Maks tell his side of the story and spill about his fellow pros’ reactions to his comments (we’re lookin’ at you, Derek Hough!) after the jump. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 02:25 PM ET

Grace Kelly movie in the works. Who should play the princess?

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Categories: Magic, Movie Casting, Things That Are Classy
grace-kelly

Image Credit: Everett Collection

On Tuesday, news broke that a period piece about actress Grace Kelly may soon be in the works. The script, titled Grace of Monaco and written by Arash Amel, reportedly focuses on Kelly’s life during a politically-charged six-month period in 1962 and is aiming to be compared to last year’s Best Picture winner The King’s Speech.

Despite a relatively short acting career, Kelly is one in a class of iconic actresses from Hollywood’s golden age. After starring opposite Gary Cooper in High Noon, she caught the attention of director Alfred Hitchcock and starred in three of his films — Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief — before retiring from acting at the age of 26 after she met and married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Hitchcock attempted to replicate his star in subsequent films, to varying degrees of success, which contributed to the phrase “Hitchcock Blonde” and to the subtext of 1958′s Vertigo, in which Jimmy Stewart’s character creepily tries to remake a woman in the image of his lost blonde love. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 26 2011 01:58 PM ET

Tonight's 'Work of Art' goes Pop! with EW's own Jess Cagle

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Categories: Art, Réalité, Reality TV, Television
Work-of-Art-Cagle

Image Credit: David Giesbrecht/Bravo

Who says art has no consequence? Certainly not any the contestants sweating bullets over tonight’s double elimination on Work of Art (airing on Bravo at 9 p.m. EDT). EW’s own managing editor, Jess Cagle (pictured, left, with judge Simon de Pury) joins the panel to judge the artists’ attempts at Andy Warhol-style Pop art. The winner will receive a two-page spread in EW. The losers will find their 15 minutes of fame are up. Watch a sneak peek from the episode below. READ FULL STORY »

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