I knew I should've watched Miss Universe last night. For the second year in a row, Miss USA slipped and fell during the evening gown competition. A composed Crystle Stewart called into Today this morning from Vietnam — and spoke to Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. Because you always need two journalists to conduct an interview when you're talking CONSPIRACY.
I don't know if this is true, but it would be awesome if Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and H.R. Pufnstuf are going to join Land of the Lost on the list of Sid and Marty Krofft shows making the leap to the big screen. (Marty Krofft has been talking for nearly a decade about getting Sigmund and Pufnstuf movies made, so we'll believe it when we see it.) Usually, I dread the idea of movies adapted from old TV shows, but it'd be hard to ruin the Krofft oeuvre, since their early '70s Saturday morning shows were so weird and, really, not that great. Of course, like the rest of Gen X, I loved those shows anyway (despite their narrative sloppiness, laughable cheapness, and ridiculously broad campiness) for the imaginative silliness of their psychedelic visuals. A world populated by giant talking hats? Why not? A fey dragon with a Southern accent? Sure!
Of course, the Krofft brothers have always denied that drugs influenced their trippy creations, but the hallucinogenic qualities of Lidsville, Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, and other Krofft shows is so disorienting, it's a wonder the brothers were able to get away with foisting them on a captive audience of kids already hopped up on sugary cereals. So even a hacky director couldn't turn these programs into something more inept and off-putting than the originals. Still, wouldn't you love to see what a gifted fantasist like Peter Jackson or Guillermo Del Toro could do with this material? Though I doubt anyone will ever do a better tribute to the Kroffts than this travesty homage by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross on Mr. Show.
Boffo box office aside, not everyone is loving the new Indiana Jones movie. A number of folks have quibbles about the movie's accuracy. (Let's not even get started on these guys' complaint.) Over at Asylum.com, they've prevailed upon archaeologist Kristin Romey (who's explored some of the Latin American turf covered in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) to see which parts of the movie plausibly portray archaeologists and their work and which do not. The implausible stuff (besides Harrison Ford, pictured, still being able to kick ass at 65) is pretty evident, but the elements that are realistic may surprise you. It turns out that archaeologists often really are spies who pack heat and behave like horndogs. Who knew? Can't wait 'til the Asylum folks apply similar investigative zeal to this season's other fantasy films, including Iron Man, Prince Caspian, and Sex and the City.
Just in time to sooth worldwide protests over human rights abuse in China, Axl and co. have made good on their promise to complete the long-awaited Chinese Democracy album. According to the NME (via therockradio.com), the music has been delivered to their label, Geffen; the two sides merely need hammer out the finer details regarding money and rights issues — the album reportedly cost more than $13 million to produce — before the album, 14 years in the making, hits the marketplace.
I'm gonna take this news with a horselick-sized block of salt, but IMO, it's a win-win situation: We get the tunes, or we each get a free can of bubbly. (Which, at the time of writing, according to the US census, would end up costing Dr Pepper $303,822,220 — or more than 23 times the album's production cost, assuming each can costs a dollar and that GN'R guitarists Slash and Buckethead don't get serviced). Start planning those Dr Pepper parties now!
Don't know when ABC News got into the business of reviewing leaked screenplays à la Ain't It Cool News, but they have a detailed dissection of the script for W, the biopic of President Bush that Oliver Stone (pictured) is about to start shooting. (Curiously, the article fails to mention the name of the guy who actually wrote the script, Stanley Weiser, whose credits include Stone's Wall Street and that made-for-TV movie about Rudy Giuliani that starred James Woods.) Anyway, if ABC's report is accurate, then the pic looks like it's going to be a Freudian character study along the lines of Stone's Nixon, but instead of blaming Mommy issues for the president's warped character, this one will blame Poppy issues. Judging by the reported details of the screenplay, George W. spent his first 40 years rebelling against his overachieving dad, then mocked his dad for not ousting Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War (and cited that as the reason for George H.W. Bush's election loss in 1992), then spent his own presidency trying to avenge Saddam Hussein's reported attempt on his father's life.
Interestingly, the one Bush insider ABC talks to regarding the script's accuracy (former press secretary Ari Fleischer) suggests that the screenplay puts too much profanity in the president's mouth (this despite Bush's well-documented use of salty language) but otherwise seems to have no complaints about the film's factuality. There's also speculation included about whether the film will influence the election, though I doubt even someone who works as fast as Stone could shoot, wrap, edit, and release the film in just seven months.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Does W look like a film you'd want to see? Or do you think, by the time it comes out, people will be too focused on the next president to want to see a movie about this one?
Director Bryan Singer is finally spilling some details, to Empire magazine, regarding the long-whispered-about Superman Returns sequel (Superman Returns Returns?). While Singer grumbles at talk that his 2006 reboot was a failure -- if a movie that grosses nearly $400 million is a flop, he suggests, then we've set the bar awfully high) -- he does acknowledge that many viewers were disappointed that there was so much nostalgia and romance and so little action. He's not apologizing for that either (it was necessary, he suggests, in order to reestablish the characters after their long absence from the screen), but he does promise that the next installment will have less mush, more rush. "From frame one, it will be unrelenting terror!" he promises. He says he will be directing it, he implies that Brandon Routh will return as the Man of Steel (sorry, all you Superfans who wanted to toss him overboard), and he notes that the script is in development. (No confirmation of the rumor that Transformers' Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman will be writing it.)
So it sounds like the story is not carved in stone yet. Now's your chance, PopWatchers, to tell Singer what you'd like to see in Part Deux, who the villain(s) should be, and what other plot contrivances Superman should leap in a single bound.
Not sure if this rumor — that Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company is following up its reboots of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street with a remake of Rosemary's Baby — is true, but if it is, it can only mean that Satan really did father a child, and that his initials are M.B. Can we at least get him to promise not to wink at the original by casting Mia Farrow in the Ruth Gordon role?
Still a lot of mysteries left over from Sunday's Oscar night, many of them raised in questions from EW.com readers. We've found a few preliminary answers for you; fuller explanations may be coming later. Watch for an article in this week's issue of EW that should put as many of these burning questions as possible to rest. Meanwhile, here's what folks wanted to know more about:
• Why were Brad Renfro (pictured) and two-time Oscar nominee Roy Scheider left out of the "In Memoriam" montage?
• What on earth did Gary Busey think he was doing when he accosted Ryan Seacrest and Jennifer Garner on the red carpet?
• Why was there no footage of Whoopi Goldberg's four hosting gigs in the montage of memorable Oscar show moments?
• Why was Best Song winner Markéta Irglová invited back to give her acceptance speech when winners of awards from smaller films or smaller categories are routinely cut off by the orchestra and rushed off the stage, never to be heard from again?
• What was behind the strange scheduling of the presentation of the awards — no acting awards at all in the first half hour, Best Actress about halfway through the show, kid-friendly presenter Miley Cyrus held 'til after bedtime? Was sexism behind the early presentation of Best Actress, with Best Actor being held towards the end with the other top categories?
Answers, as best as we can figure, after the jump.
The rumors have been circulating for years, sprung from various innuendos dropped by novelist Chuck Palahniuk and director David Fincher. But those guys weren't serious about turning 1999's Fight Club — that singularly disorienting head injury of a movie — into a Broadway musical à la Legally Blonde or Young Frankenstein. They were just kidding around, weren't they? I'm really starting to worry after reading yet another news story this week in which both Palahniuk and Fincher seem to be on board with this idea. Why, why, why?!
Let me make something clear: I love Fincher's Fight Club. It's funny, gripping, thought-provoking — one of the past decade's most essential pieces of pop culture, I'd say. But it's also extremely dark, disturbing, and weird. It's violent. It's cynical. It's a gigantic mindf---! How on earth could they adapt this for the tourist-heavy audiences that lap up these blockbuster movies-turned-musicals? That MTV News story mentions the possibility that Trent Reznor might write the songs, which sounds
sorta cool, but that would probably make it even less appealing to
Great White Way crowds. And even if the producers did somehow transform Fight Club into something that the mainstream would find palatable — some goofy, "offbeat" garbage — I'm reasonably sure that I would start crying harder than Edward Norton's character at a support group.
Look, I'm willing to see how this thing works out, if it actually happens. Who am I kidding? I'd be first in line trying to snag an opening-night ticket, if only so I could mercilessly mock the proceedings in a blog post the next morning. But I really, really hope it doesn't come to that. (Now, a Broadway musical based on MTV2's late-night, low-rent battle rap showFight Klub— that's a whole other story.) Am I missing something here?
In the last few days, Jason Bateman (via E! Online) and Jeffrey Tambor (via XM radio) have both re-confirmed that they, other Bluth famly members, and producers Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard are getting the cornball rolling for an Arrested Development movie once the strike is over. There's no script yet, but that's okay — I'm sure no true fan would mind if everyone went into this project as blindly as they would a first-time karaoke performance of "Afternoon Delight." Even if the AD movie gets cut from 71 to 63 to 52 minutes long, or winds up entitled The Young Man on the Beach, it's going to be so good. And now, to whet your appetite for frozen bananas, in honor of Jessica Walter's birthday last week and because Lucille Bluth is the greatest character from anything ever...
Lucille's clearly on board. And would you look at that? I'm so excited about this, I just blue myself.
So Allhiphop.com is reporting, based on some unnamed sources, that Bill Cosby is recording a rap album called State of Emergency. Yes, that Bill Cosby — the very same sitcom icon /Jell-O spokesperson who's taken to casually bashing hip-hop in recent years. Cosby's drawn a healthy amount of criticism for what some call overly broad, reactionary attacks on a younger generation's culture. What could he possibly do with a mic, other than embarrass himself? According to that unsubstantiated report, State of Emergency will be a "sanitized, issue-oriented CD." That sounds like a pretty atrocious idea, on the face of it. Forget "conscious rap" — could The Cos be singlehandedly inventing the distinct genre of "crotchety rap"?
Well, maybe. But the man does have some relevant experience as a musician — even, one might say, as a rapper of sorts. What else would you call the talky, stream-of-consciousness Beatles and Motown covers he recorded for 1968's Bill Cosby Sings Hooray for the Salvation Army Band!, if not proto-rap? You can find the seriously strange results all over the Web today (here, for example); some of them are even kinda good. So as easy as it is to mock Cosby's flow before we hear it, let's not forget that this could be listenable. Maybe. Anyone else half-believe in this project?
Dig out your banana clips, dust off that "I (heart) Joey!!" pin and get ready... cuz the New Kids on the Block are getting back together!!
Okay, that might not be totally true. The Internet is chock full of reports and rumors that the Boston boy band is planning a reunion of sorts. But the details are sketchy. Are they embarking on a reunion tour? Recording an album? Or is this all just a big publicity stunt for a new reality show called "Making the Band: NKOTB Style"? (I just made that title up. There is no such show. Although I'd probably watch it... Fox, call me!)
At this point, who knows? Danny Wood has posted blogs on his MySpace page denying the rumors. But the band's official website has coincidentally reemerged after quite some time in the dark, playing a "new" song by the Kids. PopWatch contacted several publicists and managers associated with the band and its members,
but those who responded declined to comment.
Whether the rumors are true or not, the real question remains: Does anyone even care if NKOTB gets back together? Do you really want to see 40-year-old Jordan Knight doing the "Hangin' Tough" dance? Can Joey McIntyre even hit those high notes in "Please Don't Go Girl" anymore? And is this what Donnie Wahlberg's career has come to? Who would actually go to these hypothetical shows?
Well, me, for one. I'd totally go. No, seriously. If for no other reason than to witness the absolute hilarity of seeing a bunch of thirtysomething women regress to a mass of screaming girls again. I'm not judging — I'd be right there with them, probably shrieking "I love you, Joey Mac!!" just like I did back in 7th grade at my first concert ever. Stop laughing. You know I wouldn't be the only one.
So if the rumors are true... would any of you PopWatchers plunk down the cash to catch Donnie, Danny, Jordan, Jon, and Joey one last time?
This post was written by Youyoung Lee and Lindsay Soll.The first paragraph contains a possible spoiler — well, probably not, for reasons Youyoung and Lindsay explain, below.
This morning, news traveled through the online community faster than a text-blast on the CW's Gossip Girl: New York Daily News gossip columnist Ben Widdicombe called out little Eric van der Woodsen as the Upper East Side's crown prince blogger. (In response to PopWatch's query about the Daily News story, a CW publicist at first declined to comment, then issued this teasing statement: "We don't know where this rumor came from, but invite everyone to check out Monday night repeats to look for clues to Gossip Girl's identity themselves.") Given that we rate the likelihood of Serena's little brother being the G.G. in real life at only 1:11 odds — among other reasons, it'd take a pretty sick 14-year-old boy to wear a voice modulator to sound like Kristen Bell (pictured) and also, what patient on suicide watch is allowed to surf the Internet? — we figured this might be a good time to round up all the usual suspects on the show.
Chuck Bass: 6:9 Highly likely: Snarky, vindictive, and mysteriously/conveniently absent. One might be deterred by the final episode's shot of him texting Gossip Girl with news of Blair's infidelity, but more likely he was messaging Alfonso, his manservant, because god knows he does not actually write those items himself.
Jenny 2:7 Eh. She's got a chip on her shoulder and something to prove, and sure, she's the perpetual outsider and sneaky enough to get away with it (as when she eavesdrops on Serena and Dan in their Brooklyn loft). But poor girl is too wobbly on her knees to provide the level of snark of G.G.'s voice. Plus, she values her status as the young socialite in Constance Billiard's cool clique too much to jeopardize it (proof: stealing Eleanor Waldorf's bolero to fit in, kissing drunk men at Marquee).
Minority Twins 13:14 Our money's on these two: If Nancy Drew novels taught us anything, it's that the snitch always comes from within. And it's always the quiet ones. Bonus: The twins are perpetually the perfect picture of shock when reading G.G. texts, as if they had prepped for hours in advance.
Weep not for Ryan Gosling (pictured, left), who got snubbed by the Oscars this morning when he failed to score a Best Actor nomination for Lars and the Real Girl. Not only does he already have another movie on the horizon, but he could be up for a major paycheck and a franchise role. According to Moviehole, he's due to replace Ben Affleck (and Harrison Ford, pictured right, and Alec Baldwin) in Paramount's forthcoming, non-Tom Clancy-sanctioned Jack Ryan spy thriller.
Now, this is still very much in the just-a-rumor stage, but if it's true, I have some qualms. Sure, Gosling could do an excellent job; I'm one of those people who think there's very little this protean actor can't do. But I'd hate to see him tied down to a franchise role that would put him on a dumb-action-blockbuster path and keep him from doing more interesting work in quirky indie movies à la Lars and Half Nelson. (That, after all, is what happened to Ben Affleck.) Still, I can't begrudge him the occasional Notebook or Fracture. Dude's gotta eat.
What do you think, PopWatchers? Would you want to see Gosling as Jack Ryan? Or is there someone else you'd rather see take over the role from Affleck/Ford/Baldwin?
Don't know if this is true ('cause I read it in the British press), but there's a possibility of a reunion tour next year for the original lineup of the Kinks. Which is cool, because there's such a groundswell of demand to see the Davies brothers joined onstage, for the first time since 1969, by drummer Mick Avory (pictured, left) and bassist Pete Quaife (right). Well, okay, not really (the key members of the band, over the last four decades or so, have always been the two squabbling siblings, lead singer/songwriter Ray and guitar feedback-pioneer Dave), but still, this is the classic lineup responsible for all the Kinks' 1960s hits, from "You Really Got Me" to "Waterloo Sunset." Having seen Ray (second from left) and Dave (second from right) perform a live acoustic set together more than a few years ago, I'd be up for seeing them rock out with a band, especially a band not made up of hired ringers. Anyone else able to drum up any excitement for a Kinks reunion tour, or are you — after a year of the Police, Genesis, Van Halen, and (almost) Led Zeppelin — all reunioned out?
Okay, I don't know how true this is, 'cause I read it on Page Six, but this item about the troubled, long-gestatingDallas movie says that John Travolta is out as J.R. Ewing, to be replaced by... Ben Stiller? According to the article, the filmmakers have abandoned all pretense of turning the long-running TV drama into a big-screen drama and are now going the camp route, trying to make a behind-the-scenes comedy à la Bewitched. (Because that turned out so well.)
As a longtime Dallas fan (yep... so shoot me, like Kristin shot J.R.), this whole scenario fills me with dread and disgust. Whether it's going to be a comedy (a bad idea... Dallas often had silly plot twists — I'll never forgive the producers for the whole Bobby-was-in- the-shower-and-the-whole-season-was-a-dream shark jumper — but it was always played straight, never campy like Dynasty) or a drama, the film version will hinge on finding the right J.R. I never warmed to the casting of Travolta; while he can play charismatic Southern womanizing weasels (his Bill Clinton in Primary Colors remains the most unjustly underrated performance of his career), he's not evil enough to be J.R. So if he's really off the project, I'm not sorry to see him go, but Ben Stiller? Uh... he can convincingly play a heterosexual male who speaks English, but otherwise, his resemblance to Larry Hagman's J.R. is nonexistent. Hey, filmmakers, why not cast Will Ferrell? Steve Carell? Eddie Murphy? (Who says J.R. has to be white?) Keira Knightley? (Who says he has to be a man? Or middle-aged? Or American?) None of these choices is any more absurd than Ben Stiller.
Free advice: Either hire Alec Baldwin to play J.R. (he proves every week on 30 Rock that he can play an oily, smooth, ruthless capitalist who's still charming and seductive) and make it a straight drama. Or abandon the project altogether. In fact, much as I love Alec Baldwin and think he'd be perfect for the role, I'd still prefer option No. 2. I mean, we didn't really need a big-screen Dallas, did we?
Most days I love the Intarwub for it delivers all brands of strange goodness to my desktop. But then other days, I find stuff like this, a clip in which someone digitally enhanced the final scene of Lost in Translation so that they could make out precisely what Bill Murray whispers into Scarlett Johansson's ear.
I'm all for unearthing cinematic arcana and discovering insidery wonders, but I've gotta say, I think this is one secret best left unlearned. Because the way Sofia Coppola's film ends is magical, and the not knowing the content of that parting whisper is crucial to that magic. (I also don't want to know what's inside the Pulp Fiction briefcase or what James T. Kirk saw just before he died that made him say "Oh, my.")
If you want to hear, follow me... but this way lies one whopper of a spoiler.
This comes from the British press and a member of the Jackson family, so there may be more spin here than in a Hanukkah dreidl, but make of it what you will: Jermaine Jackson has reportedly told the BBC that he and Michael and the rest of the Jackson 5 are planning a reunion tour next year. Assuming that the sibs can actually get their act together and take it on the road — I mean, we've heard this before, haven't we? — I'm excited by the prospect of a Jackson 5 tour for two reasons: First, it could actually be really great, seeing a bunch of born showmen do what they do best, in the only context that ever really worked for all of them. Second, it could be an utter trainwreck, for all the obvious and sordid reasons — and that could be even more entertaining.
Show of hands: Who among you would buy tickets to a J5 reunion show? And would you go because you're hoping for "Victory" or for "Torture"?
That Eva Longoria online sex video you've been hearing rumors about? Doesn't exist. She did appear in a mock online sex video — it's a spoof playing on Funny or Die that pairs her with "Perry Hilton" (actually, Dumb and Dumberer star Eric Christian Olsen, who has several other "Perry Hilton" videos on that site), in a parody of Paris Hilton's notorious night-vision sex tape. Watch it below (don't worry, it's totally SFW), and see if you agree with me that it confirms two things: that Longoria is still the unsung comic ace of the Desperate Housewives cast, and that, if this acting thing doesn't pan out, she's got a future as a gymnast.
Also, Disney Channel's tween pop queen Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus? Not pregnant, says the 14-year-old's publicist, who calls that rumor "ridiculous and completely untrue." Said rumor supposedly started in an interview with J-14 magazine that was posted online, but J-14 says the posted article was faked by unknown hoaxsters.
In both instances, PopWatch breathes a sigh of relief because, like Aunt Sassy says, we don't need to see that.
As Lost fans know, J.J. Abrams' production house Bad Robot creates mysterious, pseudo-viral marketing campaigns that are nearly as entertaining as the actual products they sell. So it is with Abrams' hush-hush new movie project, the trailer for which you probably saw before your screening of Transformers last week. The clip (pictured), which showed Blair Witch-style camcorder footage of an apparent monster or alien attack on New York City, ended with a release date (Jan. 18, 2008) but no film title. Now, however, details about the mysterious movie are starting to emerge — along with some possible false leads.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film is called Cloverfield, though that could be just a working title or a red herring (um, it takes place in Manhattan, yes? Where's the clover? Where's the field?). Paramount apparently greenlit the modestly-budgeted ($30 million) film back in February when it handed Abrams the keys to the Star Trek franchise. Project was so secret that the actors signed on without being shown the script (written by Lost and Alias scribe Drew Goddard). Helping keep the budget down: they're all virtual unknowns; biggest name in the cast is probably Lizzy Caplan, late of CBS' short-lived 2006-07 sitcom The Class. Filming began last month on location, with Matt Reeves (who co-created Felicity with Abrams) directing.
Here's where the possible disinformation comes in. The trailer began popping up on the Web last week, but Paramount issued cease-and-desist orders to several sites, including ethanhaaswaswrong.com and ethanhaaswasright.com. Now, Abrams, talking to Ain't It Cool News, says those two sites have nothing to do with the film, but take a look at them; they seem awfully suspicious. (Ethan Haas, by the way, was the character played by Caplan's co-star Jason Ritter on The Class.) Abrams says there are other secret websites, but he claims no one's found any of them yet, except for this obvious placeholder.
At any rate, Paramount has put the trailer back online, this time in a high-def version, at Apple. Watch it, tell us what you think (for the record, PopWatch thinks it looks pretty awesome), and let the conspiracy theories begin!
Three more items that indicate no loss of interest in The Sopranos, more than two weeks after the series ended:
• First, the hoaxster behind the nutty "Nikki Leotardo" theory about the final sequence, a clearly bogus interpretation that circulated all over the 'Net in the hours after the finale aired, has finally come clean.
• Second, over the weekend, I had occasion to dine at Holsten's, the Bloomfield, N.J. ice cream parlor/diner where the final scene was filmed. (Even tried — and failed — to parallel park in the spot across the street where Meadow struggled to squeeze her car.) The place is much smaller than it appeared on TV (it's one long, narrow room that seats maybe 40 people, tops), there are no Journey-blasting jukeboxes on the tabletops (those were just props), and the onion rings are decent but not all they're cracked up to be. (The ice cream, however, which is made on the premises, is excellent.) Still, I had to order the rings, as did everyone else in the joint, which was full of tourists snapping pictures of themselves sitting in the Soprano family's booth and buying commemorative Holsten's/Sopranos T-shirts. (The flow of tourist dollars is surely silencing the local naysayers who didn't want the Mob drama to film in their burg.) Clearly, this malt shop is going to be a shrine to which Sopranos fans will make pilgrimages for years to come.
• Finally, Steven Van Zandt (pictured) has emerged from Silvio's coma to return to two of his many day jobs: advocate for unsigned rock bands and columnist for Billboard. In an editorial last week, Little Steven urged directors of TV commercials to use more unsigned rockers in their ad soundtracks. Which raises the question: How many of you have ever been turned on to an unfamiliar musical act because you heard their tune in an ad? And how many of you have purchased a song because you liked it in a commercial? Show of hands, please, below.
A little bird told us that, during first half hour of tonight's BET Awards, Dreamgirls past and present Jennifer Hudson and Jennifer Holliday (pictured, left and right) will appear together. Doing what, you ask? Trying to out-Effie each other in a duet of "And I Am Telling You..."? Tossing darts at likenesses of Beyoncé and Diana Ross? Merely co-presenting an award? We don't know, but sounds like the show will be worth DVR-ing just for that cosmically awkward confrontation.
Okay, this comes from the British entertainment press, so you should take it with a few million grains of salt, but still, what if it were really true that the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin, along with drummer Jason Bonham (son of late Zep drummer John B.) plan to reunite? The notice at Gigwise says the pretext that would bring Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones together for only the third time in the 27 years since Bonham's death is a London tribute concert to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the legendary Atlantic Records founder who launched the band's career by signing them to his label in 1968. Plausible enough, though Stereogum (where we first spotted the news) is skeptical that this one-shot gig, much less a 2008 reunion tour, will ever come to pass. PopWatch is similarly wary of the rumor, but still... what if? Yes, yes, they're all older, and everything about Zep's music that seemed bloated and grandiose 30 years ago would seem even more so now. But still — it's LED FREAKIN' ZEPPELIN. Wouldn't you want to see 'em, just in case? Or is it better to let sleeping dinosaurs lie and just remember the band in its "I am a golden god" heyday?
Okay, so a few days ago, I wrote a little blog thingie about how I might have inadvertently reunited Journey with Steve Perry (pictured), the singer we all know was responsible for catapulting the band to rockstar status in their 1980s heyday. My "proof" that this history-making event was upon us? Both Perry and guitarist Neal Schon had made we've-gone-our–separate-ways puns in recent interviews, so of course that meant they were letting bygones be bygones and reassembling after Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain let go their latest singer, Jeff Scott Soto. It seemed obvious to me (and my editors) that my pseudo-intertextual-analysis/crystal-balling was meant as ONE BIG JOKE. But apparently, irony is no match for the fiery passion of Journey fans, who have been flooding the internets with theories of how and when and why the Perry-Journey reunion will take place. Word eventually got back to the ex-frontman himself, and on June 21 he posted a message stating that he has "no such plans whatsoever" to get back with the band. "What you have heard is only a rumor. I'm truly sorry for any disappointment this rumor may be causing," he wrote.
Now, I'm not presumptuous enough to think that my silly little post was the sole cause of said rumor. But if I somehow added to the brouhaha, then oh, woe is me! 'Twas never my intention to seriously raise the hopes that the ex-bandmates would run back to each other with open arms (d'oh!). And now — sigh — there are brokenhearted Journey devotees like PopWatcher Bruce in NC, who was ready to "un-mothball my denim jacket with the Escape scarab patch ironed onto the back."
I'm almost sorry we're still talking about this, but then again, Sunday's Sopranos finale drew almost 12 million viewers, making it the second most watched show on broadcast or cable last week (behind only America's Got Talent). Anyway, while viewers continue to rewind their DVRs in search of clues, we can put a few burning questions to rest, now that series creator David Chase has briefly broken his silence, and now that Adriana herself has spoken to EW.com.
"Anybody who wants to watch it, it's all there," said Chase — who's granted one and only one post-finale interview, to Alan Sepinwall, TV critic at New Jersey's own Star-Ledger newspaper — about possible clues in the finale. He insisted that the purpose of the blackout was not to frustrate viewers or to leave the door open for a Sopranos movie, a project he said he doubts he will ever be inspired to write. Beyond that, he said he wants the episode's content to speak for itself. "I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there."
Confession time, PopWatchers. Raise your hand if you actually believed that an art school student named Bill Vendall was responsible for the phenomenon that was (pardon me, IS) Sanjaya Malakar. Dude claimed the American Idol hopeful was merely a product of his delightfully evil imagination. Oh, the horror! So who ripped that faux hawk cut-out off of the wall after watching that video? Who threw the hair gel in the bottom of their dresser drawer and deleted "You Really Got Me" from their iPod? No judgment. (Seriously though, you believed that?)
Apparently, somebody did. The Idol finalist himself was prompted to come clean about the hoax. His excuse? "Will Ferrell made me do that message." (Ahem, Sanjaya, somebody already tried that one.) So wipe away those tears. He's the real deal.
In case you were busy wolfing down lunch while some of us freaked about Jay-Z's plane crashing in the Smoky Mountains, TMZ has updated its original story: "The three aboard the plane were white men." Whew! Looks like the Care Bear Stare I sent Jay-Z via my Budweiser Crown-tattooed tummy was a rousing success.
Britain's Daily Star reported that Sony BMG chief Clive Davis found Kelly Clarkson's new album so vile, she's now forced to scrap it. I guess you could have stopped reading after the first three words of this sentence to assume this is bogus, even though the American blogs are all aflutter. But her publicist assures EW it's "not true."
That is all. You may go back to trying to ignore Spider-Man 3 now.
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Just in time to sooth 
Don't know when ABC News got into the business of reviewing leaked screenplays à la Ain't It Cool News, but they have a 
Director Bryan Singer is finally spilling some details, to 
Not sure if 
Still a lot of mysteries left over from Sunday's Oscar night, many of them raised in questions from EW.com readers. We've found a few preliminary answers for you; fuller explanations may be coming later. Watch for an article in this week's issue of EW that should put as many of these burning questions as possible to rest. Meanwhile, here's what folks wanted to know more about:
The rumors have been circulating for years, sprung from various innuendos dropped by 
So Allhiphop.com is 
Dig out your banana clips, dust off that "I (heart) Joey!!" pin and get ready... cuz the New Kids on the Block are getting back together!!
This post was written by Youyoung Lee and Lindsay Soll.The first paragraph contains a possible spoiler — well, probably not, for reasons Youyoung and Lindsay explain, below.
Weep not for Ryan Gosling (pictured, left), who got 
Don't know if this is true ('cause I read it in 
Okay, I don't know how true this is, 'cause I read it on 
Most days I love the Intarwub for it delivers all brands of strange goodness to my desktop. But then other days, I find stuff like this, a clip in which someone digitally enhanced the final scene of Lost in Translation so that they could make out precisely what Bill Murray whispers into Scarlett Johansson's ear.
This comes from the British press and a member of the Jackson family, so there may be more spin here than in a Hanukkah dreidl, but make of it what you will: 
That Internet sex video allegedly starring Meg White (pictured)? 
As Lost fans know, J.J. Abrams' production house Bad Robot creates mysterious, pseudo-viral marketing campaigns that are nearly as entertaining as the actual products they sell. So it is with Abrams' hush-hush new movie project, the trailer for which you probably saw before your screening of Transformers last week. The clip (pictured), which showed Blair Witch-style camcorder footage of an apparent monster or alien attack on New York City, ended with a release date (Jan. 18, 2008) but no film title. Now, however, details about the mysterious movie are starting to emerge — along with some possible false leads.
Three more items that indicate no loss of interest in The Sopranos, more than two weeks after the series ended:
A little bird told us that, during first half hour of tonight's 
Okay, this comes from the British entertainment press, so you should take it with a few million grains of salt, but still, what if it were really true that the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin, along with drummer Jason Bonham (son of late Zep drummer John B.) plan to reunite? The notice at 
Okay, so a few days ago, I wrote a little blog thingie about 
I'm almost sorry we're still talking about this, but then again, Sunday's Sopranos finale drew almost 12 million viewers, making it the second most watched show on broadcast or cable last week (behind only America's Got Talent). Anyway, while viewers continue to rewind their DVRs in search of clues, we can put a few 
In case you were busy wolfing down lunch while some of us freaked about Jay-Z's plane crashing in the Smoky Mountains, 
