Archive: December 2011 (301-310 of 380)

Dec 7 2011 11:00 AM ET

Alec Baldwin joins the pantheon of booted-from-planes celebrities... and leaves Twitter

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Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

It seems like celebrities being kicked off of airplanes is becoming as synonymous to air travel as those hard-to-open bags of peanuts, tiny bathrooms, annoying Captain spiels, and cliched jokes about the perils of flying.

On Tuesday, Alec Baldwin joined the growing list of stars who have been booted from planes. But Baldwin’s exit might be the best one yet, or at the very least, the most relatable considering a game of Words With Friends got him in trouble with American Airlines. The 30 Rock actor told his followers on Twitter, “Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving. #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt.” (I like to imagine he was deeply immersed in a wildly competitive game with John Krasinski in which he kept using Yankees terminology.) READ FULL STORY »

Dec 7 2011 10:37 AM ET

'Once' adaptation coming to Broadway is bad news for 'The Mountaintop'

ONCE

Image Credit: Joan Marcus

The musical adaptation of the acclaimed Irish indie Once, which opened off-Broadway yesterday at the New York Theatre Workshop, is moving to the Main Stem next year. The show — with music by the film’s Oscar-winning songwriters Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová and a book by Misterman scribe Enda Walsh — will start previews on Feb. 28 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, with an opening night set for Sunday, March 18.

That’s great news for the movie’s fans, but bad news for anyone hoping that the Jacobs’ current show, Katori Hall’s acclaimed The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson as Martin Luther King, Jr., would extend past Jackson’s departure on Jan. 15 (the actor is set to start filming Django Unchained for Quentin Tarantino the next day) by recasting his role with another actor.

Read more:
‘Once’ Q+A with Glen Hansard
Samuel L. Jackson is the highest-grossing actor!
Samuel L. Jackson makes his Broadway debut

Dec 7 2011 10:00 AM ET

This Week's Cover: Our Entertainers of the Year!

Filed under: News and tagged: ,
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Having captivated moviegoers around the world with the last installment of the Harry Potter series, Daniel Radcliffe earned the number one spot on our list of the most talented and original performers who entertained us this year. Rounding out the honor roll? Seventeen more people and groups, from Adele to Hugh Jackman to the cast of Bridesmaids.

But we’re not alone in celebrating these talented people. This year, we asked famous folks to offer their own tributes, such as Sandra Bullock (our 2009 Entertainer of the Year), who extols the bladder-busting virtues of South Park pranksters Matt Stone and Trey Parker. “I went and saw The Book of Mormon on Broadway, and was so offended I peed my pants twice,” writes the Oscar winner. “Maybe three times. I lost count I was so offended.”  READ FULL STORY »

Dec 7 2011 09:00 AM ET

Kristen Stewart and Anne Hathaway are Hollywood's 'Best Actors for the Buck'

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Image Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com; Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic.com

According to a study by Forbes calculating return-on-investment numbers (don’t fall asleep!) for the 40 highest-paid actors, Twilight star Kristen Stewart is Hollywood’s Best Actor for the Buck. Every time Kristen Stewart gets a dollar, her films get an average $55.83, an angel gets its wings, and a random theatergoer gets a seizure.

Look at her in that picture. Is she pissed off, or merely awake? I can never tell. (Actually, the longer I stare, the more I think this could be the most jazzed I’ve seen her.)

Also in the Top 5: Vampire Robert Pattinson, Alice in Wonderland‘s Anne Hathaway, Transformers‘ Shia LaBeouf, and Harry Potter‘s Daniel Radcliffe. This is what happens when you star in movies that make tons of cash and also movies that are low-budge. Hooray! Now they can all demand more money.

The full list of bucking broncos is here.

Is it just me or does this study have sort of a “Look at all these suckers!” vibe to it? Poor rich people. Related: I’m so glad I thought better of my original headline for this post, “Kristen Stewart is cheap and easy.” That’s not nice.

Read more:
Can you envision ‘Twilight’ without Kristen Stewart?
Anne Hathaway: Worst accent in movie history?
‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part I’: A hater’s guide

Dec 7 2011 02:00 AM ET

Teen Mom 2 Season Premiere: Tricks, Treats and Tantrums

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Image Credit: MTV

Listen you guys, I’m as surprised as you are that we’ve made it to another season of Teen Mom 2. I mean I figured by now I would have learned to to wean myself off this show, but every time I try it just sucks me back in with all the drama. And yes, there’s STILL a lot of drama, which is really kind of surprising considering that after last season you’d think these girls would have learned to reign it in a little. Ok, that’s not actually fair because SOME of the girls have shown inklings (small as they might be) of maturity, whereas others (JENELLE, JENELLE, JENELLE!) seem to be falling into the same stupid traps over and over again. So, without further adieu let’s catch up with the kids and their kiddos as they prep for Halloween and rate their progress from a scale of 0 to mature. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 6 2011 07:44 PM ET

'Harry Potter' theme park coming to L.A.: Is the phenomenon big enough for two coasts?

Filed under: News and tagged:
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Image Credit: Jason Redmond/AP Images

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando opened its doors just a year and a half ago, but executives are already planning to build a similar Potter-themed wonderland in Los Angeles. Earlier today, Universal officially announced its intention to bring Potter to Universal Studios Hollywood, while also announcing a planned expansion of the Orlando Potter exhibit. The announcement comes at an interesting moment for the franchise since, for the first time in its history, there are no new books or films on the horizon — which is to say, there are no more real Potter events left to celebrate. The big new Potter product — the interactive game/social media website/potential publishing venture Pottermore — remains trapped in beta.

Potter has been a a lucrative mega-franchise for a long time, and since the planned Hollywood park won’t open for at least three years, it’s worth asking: Is the Potter franchise big enough to support to separate parks? And can a franchise with a fundamental endpoint ever be as big as the Disney theme park global empire? READ FULL STORY »

Dec 6 2011 07:18 PM ET

Melinda Doolittle to co-host EW's 'X Factor' live chat for Dec. 7's Top 5 performance show!

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Image Credit: Michael Becker/Fox

Remember when Melinda Doolittle — she of the little ego and the huge heart — was the best singer on American Idol season 6 and then didn’t win? STILL NOT OVER THAT.

Anyway, Mindy Doo will be here Wednesday night! She and I will be co-hosting EW.com’s live chat of The X Factor beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Expect Melinda to apply her experience and wisdom to another Simon Cowell reality TV spectacle in an uttah-ly charming way, and expect me to make lame jokes about everyone’s outfits. It’s gonna be awesome.

For now, take a listen to Melinda’s new Christmas single “God Bless Us Everyone,” embedded below. It’s gorgeous and timeless and getting a lot of radio play already — “probably because it has ‘God’ in the title,” Melinda astutely surmises. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 6 2011 06:40 PM ET

Carson Kressley and Carrie Fisher, together at last

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Image Credit: ABC; HBO

This just in! “Vogue” specialist Carson Kressley and wishful drinker Carrie Fisher are in production on a Hallmark Channel original Holiday 2012 movie called Caroling — a modern-day spin on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Fisher will play the ghost of a book publisher who used to be Kressley’s boss. Carson, beware! Never go with a hippie to a second location.

I think the real question here — besides “Why can’t they fast-track this mess for 2011?” — is “When is Carrie Fisher going to do Dancing With the Stars?” I say she should join the cast of season 15 in fall 2012 — that way she and Carson, who will hopefully have become a third host by that point, can endlessly plug their Hallmark Christmas movie as often as Tom Bergeron mentions the dreaded “Macy’s Stars of Dance.” No one will get annoyed at all.

Sound like a plan?

Dec 6 2011 06:07 PM ET

'Glee': Gimme some White Chocolate!

Filed under: Glee and tagged:

Adam Rose/Fox

It’s about to get hot up in here! Two of Glee‘s pretty boys make their way back in tonight’s episode. First that wannabe boyfriend-stealer Sebastian (Grant Gustin) returns to mack on Blaine (Darren Criss). This time Kurt (Chris Colfer) confronts him and Sebastian lays all his cards on the table, promising to steal both Blaine and Nationals out from under Kurt. Oh, it’s on.

And trouty-mouth himself Sam (Chord Overstreet) returns to help out New Directions for sectionals now that Rachel has been suspended for trying to rig the student elections in Kurt’s favor, and Santana, Mercedes, and Brittany are over on the Troubletones. I’m personally looking forward to the part of the episode when Rachel and Finn apparently find the blond stripping and going by the name White Chocolate. Yes!

What are you looking forward to tonight? Who do you think will come out on top: New Directions or the Troubletones

Read more:
‘Glee’: Watch Kurt and bad boy Sebastian fight over Blaine — EXCLUSIVE VIDEO
‘Glee’ scoop: Chord Overstreet teases Sam’s return to McKinley
‘Glee’ scoop: Gloria Estefan in talks to play [SPOILER] — EXCLUSIVE

Dec 6 2011 06:00 PM ET

Contrarian Corner: The '90s were horrible, nostalgia be damned

Filed under: Music, TV and tagged: , ,

The opening credits sequence of Dec. 9′s Young Adult is suffused with ’90s nostalgia. Charlize Theron plays a writer of a young-adult literary franchise that sounds quite a bit like Sweet Valley High. She finds a mix tape created for her by her high school boyfriend — and is there anything that more precisely defines everything we are supposed to love about the pre-digital era than The Mix Tape? Because she apparently lives in a bizarro universe, Theron’s car still has a tape deck. So she puts in the mix tape and starts singing along to Teenage Fanclub’s “The Concept,” which I’m sure is a song beloved by anyone who was precisely 17 in October 1991. While the credits roll, the camera fetishistically zooms into the cassette, the tape going round and round and round. It feels a little bit like we’re being set up for an extended trip down memory lane to Nostalgia Town, with a brief stopover in Twee Village and a hearty lunch at the Gosh-Wasn’t-Generation-X-Secretly-AWESOME Café. But as the credits continue, Theron continues rewinding the tape to the beginning, and listening to “The Concept,” and rewinding and listening, rewinding and listening. It’s no longer a nostalgic vision; it’s a vision of nostalgia steadily approaching madness.

Now, nostalgia isn’t a bad thing. Oh wait, actually, strike that: Nostalgia is a horrible thing. READ FULL STORY »

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