Archive: December 2011 (61-70 of 380)

Dec 23 2011 01:00 PM ET

Lunchtime Poll: Would any of you blockheads buy Charlie Brown's sad little Christmas tree?

charlie-brown-christmas

Image Credit: United Features Syndicate

For our final Lunchtime Poll before the holiday weekend, I thought we’d check in with Charlie Brown — the only person Linus knows who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. “Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest.”

In A Charlie Brown Christmas, after Lucy tasked him with getting the biggest aluminum Christmas tree he could find for the kids’ play, Charlie Brown instead picked a funny-looking hidden gem that was just like him: barely viable in a sea of brightly colored commercialism, sprouting just a few tufts of foliage in random directions, and in desperate need of a little love.

“Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?” wondered Linus. “It doesn’t seem to fit the modern spirit.”

I’m sitting three inches away from my parents’ glorious so-fake-it’s-real Christmas tree right now and must admit I find it very alluring. (DANCMSTR Dee and Barnacle Bill have always understood the importance of maintaining a modern spirit.) But I think I would buy a sad little Charlie Brown tree for my own sad little apartment. I’d call it a “statement piece” and decorate it with lightweight tinsel fringe, a single strand of sequined caramel corn, and a gem-encrusted Dancing With the Stars bangle to support the “trunk” like Linus adorably did with his blanket.

“Everything Annie touches turns into a disaster,” my regretful visitors would say, and I’d nod solemnly and then press play on Dragonette’s modern-day Charlie Brown anthem on my iTunes. They may be right, but those commercial dogs are not going to ruin my Christmas.

Vote below! READ FULL STORY »

Dec 23 2011 11:40 AM ET

Break out your Carlton Dance, it's a 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' reunion!

Will and Kate, your wedding has officially been replaced with a new royal event of the year — The Fresh Prince of Bel Air cast reunion! In a picture posted on Will Smith’s Facebook yesterday, he was joined by former costars James Avery (Uncle Phil Banks), Karyn Parsons (Hillary), Alfonso Riberio (Carlton), and Tatyana Ali (Ashley). If you’re prone to getting emotional and/or nostalgic, perhaps you shouldn’t read the sweet caption: “There’s nothin’ like spending Holidays with fam.”

It’s no secret how much we at EW love the ’90s show that made “yo homes, smell ya later!” a thing. In fact, we rhapsodized about the Prince‘s six glorious seasons back in August. Now just a few months later, Smith’s photo post is like the best Christmakwazukkah gift ever! READ FULL STORY »

Dec 23 2011 09:00 AM ET

Contrarian Corner: Money can't buy me class, but it can buy a whole lot of 'Real Housewives' music

Sheree-Whitfield

Image Credit: John Amis/Bravo

Confession: When Real Housewives of Atlanta‘s Shereé Whitfield gave Watch What Happens Live viewers a first listen to her new single “Who Gon’ Check Me Boo?” on Dec. 18, I may have reflexively let out a squeal of exhilaration. May have. Okay… I totally did. Yes, PopWatchers, I am coming out with it once and for all: I am a “Closet Freak” for Real Housewives music (shout-out to Miss Lawrence, heeeeeey!). READ FULL STORY »

Dec 23 2011 07:10 AM ET

PopWatch Confessional: What is the oldest working piece of technology at your parent's house?

Filed under: Television, TV and tagged: ,
Modern-family-old-TV

Image Credit: Getty Images; Inset: ABC

Every year, I become more and more fascinated by my parent’s house. It’s like walking into a time capsule of technology. And I’m not talking about cool, retro technology, like record players and classic Nintendo consoles. I’m talking about the dorky stuff. Stuff so bad and useless that even junk-hoarding monsters who troll eBay for nonspecific reasons don’t want it.

I’ll admit, my parents have done a lot of cleaning in the past year. The oldest piece of obsolete tech now is their VCR, and I’m sort of glad it’s there. How else would I watch all the crap I have recorded on VHS tapes that I don’t yet own on DVD? (Tiny Toons’ How I Spent My Summer Vacation, I’m looking at you.) And, in the event of a DVR death, it still records episodes of Modern Family and True Blood via timer.

But a few years ago, you would have found a giant “Macintosh” computer that only typed in chunky green text, a working dot-matrix printer, and a Zack Morris-style cell phone that, if charged, was still somewhat operational. Two of the three were in regular use by my father, the “…but it still works” man. Don’t ask me how. (Is it because technology was more durable back then? Or do parents have this magical power to make the oldest junk last forever? I’ll never know for sure.)

Truth be told, I sort of love this living-history aspect of their house — it’s a reminder of how far we’ve come as a tech-consuming society. And a reminder of a simpler time when Tamagotchis, not Farmville, ruled, and when McDonald’s chicken nuggets weren’t “all white meat.” (Also, when the ancient computer worked, I really loved playing old, blocky-looking computer games — even though they took a half hour to load.)

What about you, Popwatchers? Are your parents’ houses filled with still-working technology of yesteryears? If so, does any of it still work? And do you still use it?

Follow Sandra on Twitter: @EWSandraG

Dec 23 2011 06:26 AM ET

'The X Factor' on the scene: Dear lord, that woman is trapped inside that giant holiday bauble!

X-Factor-winner-Mel

Image Credit: Fox

If you need a reminder that there is hope for humanity this holiday season, look no further than the line of people waiting to get into Thursday night’s finale of The X Factor. Standing behind me: two-thirds of the miles-more-interesting-than-inTENsity, tight-fitting-pants aficionados the Anser. (Yes, their pants remain as snug as ever.) Standing in front of me: All of Chris Rene’s family, who, since we’re on the subject, are quite the fashionable bunch themselves. With only 45 minutes left until the show was live to the East Coast, the line was unusually long, and moving at a snail’s pace — but no one complained, no one pulled rank and cut ahead, and everyone got in with plenty of time to spare. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but after a season rife with ill-mannered judges and rattling extravagance, I’ll take any moments of quiet grace I can get.

And then there was the moment when, after I passed the gate and made my way to the ticket-tent area, I noticed a pair of PAs working furiously to vacuum up what appeared to be a cloud of lint from inside what appeared to be a clear plastic bubble. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 22 2011 09:54 PM ET

'The X Factor': And the winner is....

Filed under: News, Reality TV, The X Factor, TV and tagged: ,
x-factor-finalists

Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/Fox

Update: Annie’s finale recap is live.

SPOILER ALERT! After a two-hour finale featuring holiday songs by the Top 3, a billion holiday commercials, and performances by Justin Bieber and Stevie Wonder, Leona Lewis, 50 Cent, and Ne-Yo and Pitbull, someone has won a $5 million recording contract! The winner of The X Factor is…. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 22 2011 05:21 PM ET

The 25 Best Movie Trailers of 2011

girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-06

Image Credit: Merrick Morton

The recipe for making a movie trailer used to be so simple. You’d just edit together the 10 or 11 most exciting parts of the film — gunshots for an action movie, kisses for a romance, pratfalls for a comedy — and then let the voice-of-god narrator loudly assure the audience that the movie on display was sure to be the best movie… ever.

Like all advertising, though, movie trailers have evolved madly in the last few decades. Heck, movie trailers have become genuine pop culture events. (We live in an era that has previews for previews.) Some trailers tease us with an intriguing new story line; some reintroduce us to franchises we’d long since forgotten about. The very best function as a primal delivery system for pure cinematic bliss. So let’s follow Lisbeth Salander’s lead (see above), break out our laptops, and count down our favorite movie trailers of 2011, starting with… READ FULL STORY »

Dec 22 2011 04:35 PM ET

Jimmy Fallon's 'Late Night' Topical Carolers celebrate 2011

It’s been a great 2011 for Jimmy Fallon, from jamming with the Boss to a spectacular return to Saturday Night Live. Generous soul that he is, he and his Late Night Topical Carolers gave thanks to the multitude of 2011 stories and characters that gave them so much to work with every night with a special holiday tune sung to the music of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

Dressed in what can only be described as the Gap’s Elmer Fudd Collection, the singers honored Charlie Sheen, the Kardashians, and the Republicans, as well as an increasingly operatic Occupy Wall Street tribute. Take a listen. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 22 2011 03:40 PM ET

Stephen Colbert name-checks Kardashians, offers to fund democracy itself in political op-ed

Colbert

Image Credit: Roger L. Wollenberg-POOL/Getty Images

Stephen Colbert wrote an opinion piece today for The State, the largest newspaper in his native South Carolina, to address rumors he’d attempted to buy the naming rights to his home state’s 2012 Republican primary. In the op-ed, Colbert found a way to rope in Tostitos, the Kardashians, Ronald Reagan, and, of course, the South Carolina Republican Party. He claimed the Party had strongly considered his offer (a fact they have denied) and, in the spirit of Southern chivalry, kept his offer on the table. READ FULL STORY »

Dec 22 2011 02:54 PM ET

Was a Kardashian clothing line manufactured using slave labor?

Keeping-UP-with-the-Kardashians

Image Credit: E!

Workers’ rights organization China Labor Watch has just published a damning investigative report into a pair of factories in China, where working conditions apparently resembled an Upton Sinclair/Triangle Shirtwaist nightmare vision of proletariat misery. The report alleges that clothing designer Bebe had products manufactured in the sweatshops… including a line of clothing, handbags, and jewelry that were part of the “K-Dash by Kardashian” brand. If these allegations are true, then the Kardashians would enter the rarified class of businesspeople who have happily availed themselves of the curiously unsympathetic labor ethics endemic to our beloved People’s Republic. (To be fair, I also just described Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, and every single major entrepreneur of the modern age, besides maybe the toolbox who runs American Apparel. This is a horrible world.) READ FULL STORY »

Advertisement

TV Recaps

Powered by WordPress.com VIP