I was so charmed by this clip of Jenna Fischer gabbing with pregnant Angela Kinsey (from her "Adventures with Angela" vlog series on the official website for The Office), I had to share. In this installment, the costars hang out in a hotel room as Fischer recalls her NYC runway debut in a charity fashion show, and they both try to figure out the Heidi Klum supermodel strut:
Not only does this footage remind me how painfully long it's been since The Office has been on the air (remember, it's back April 10!), but it's an entertaining glimpse into the friendship between two actresses who so convincingly portray nemeses (for non-Office fans, Fischer plays receptionist Pam and Kinsey plays accountant Angela). In fact, the video makes me miss one of my favorite shows and my favorite girlfriends. I'm planning a June vacation with a close group of friends right now, and I actually think these down-to-earth chicks would fit right in with us. Although we don't glam it up with lip gloss when we're just hanging out, and there are more bottles around. But you know what I mean.
In the past, we've asked which famous men or women you PopWatchers would genuinely like to date, and now that it's that Spring Break time of year, let's dish about this: Which TV stars do you think you'd have the most fun going on vacation with, and where?
As if rumors of an Arrested Development movie weren't a thrilling enough prospect, there's more potential comedic brilliance on the horizon: The stars of the 1995-98 HBO comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David — Bob Odenkirk and David Cross (pictured) — are reuniting for a new TV project. Cross has announced on the pair's joint website (alert: NSFW language) that this May, now that the pilot they wrote has been picked up, the duo will begin shooting their new HBO series. Reportedly, it's titled David's Situation and will be produced in a sitcom format, including "ad breaks" (which they'll write and shoot themselves, presumably with — because otherwise what's the point, right? — their trademark warped humor.) In his post, Cross also says each episode will shoot in front of an audience of about 150, and he emphasizes how excited he and Odenkirk are to work together again, declaring, "it's really strong and important to the health of America."
Who else agrees? Who thinks these two can recapture the magic with their new Situation? I'd love to hear from Mr. Show fans out there in PopWatch land. Tell me the funniest character (or scene) you remember, and I'll tell you one of mine — it's David Cross' jaunty night janitor, who shuffles onto Mr. Show about two and half minutes into this clip, which you can watch after the jump.
Can't get enough Ricky Gervais? The Office and Extras guru is currently busy prepping his debut as a feature film co-writer/co-director (with Matt Robinson), a movie called This Side of the Truth. It's a comedy about a world where no one has ever told a falsehood, until Gervais' character discovers lying and uses this new tactic to woo Jennifer Garner's character. (Also in the film: comic all-stars Christopher Guest, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Hodgman.) Gervais is also blogging the production here, complete with video and audio clips. (Some of these have some NSFW language.) Worth checking out, just to see Gervais and Robinson attack their assistant with Nerf guns, or to hear a lengthy guest appearance from Karl Pilkington, the monkey-loving savant from Gervais' podcasts. Minutes of fun!
Want to watch someone use her computer on TV (pictured)? You're in luck! The very first web-to-TV series, NBC's quarterlife revolves around an angsty 20-something blogger who can't stop confessing her deepest, darkest s--- online and posting incriminating videos of her good friends. She has to do it, because she's always honest, and that'sjust how she is. Writers are like that, why can't you deal? Here's why I can't deal: People, even writers, are NOT REALLY LIKE THAT. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about because only 3.8 million people watched the show, but the main character, Honest Dylan, would be blown off the face of the planet if she existed in real life. Nothing about her "blog" (hello: vlog! no written content!) was realistic, particularly the notion that anyone would want to read watch it. Why was I getting so angry about this?!?! I couldn't help but wonder!
I think this is why. Aside from Honest Dylan's tendencies to plant her face an inch away from the camera (I like to keep a distance of at least 10 feet) and wear multiple layers including ugly sweatshirts to the office (I am always fashion-forward. Ha! Yeah right!)... statistics-wise, I practically am an alternate version of Dylan. We're the same age. We both have a blog. We're both editorial underlings at a magazine (though mine is way better, suck it, Dylan!). We both eat Cheetos with the bag upside down and think it's really quirky and cute to do so, even — no, make that especially — if no one else is around. Ask either one of us and we'll tell you: We are quite simply the greatest things ever. That's a fine and relatively innocuous thing to think, occasionally. But watching this on-screen embodiment of the 21st Century Blogger? Excruciating. Basic math: If Dylan disgusts Annie, and Annie is like Dylan (at least on paper — or in cyberspace!), then by the transitive property, ANNIE DISGUSTS HERSELF. As Dylan points out, "We blog to exist, therefore we are idiots." Bingo.
Thanks, quarterlife.
P.S. I'm obviously going to keep watching. Someone has to. Next week: A video PopWatch featuring special guest, the freeze-dried ice cream that's been on my desk for eight months!
P.P.S. Um, hi, Winona Ryder in Reality Bites — THAT WAS NOT IRONIC.
P.P.P.S. But this post sure was, huh?
P.P.P.P.S. Love me! Love me!
P.^5.S. BLOGGING IS LIFE.
Did any of you tune in? Or had you seen this online before NBC picked it up? It's all about "the 'Net" these days.
According to the New York Times, Perez Hilton, a.k.a. Mario Lavandeira, the man who has made photoshopping squiggly boogers and drool marks on hapless celebrity heads into a cultural touchstone, is now set to become a highly-paid A&R rep with his own imprint for Warner Bros Records. "The talks are preliminary," says the Times, quoting unnamed sources close to the negotiations, "and an agreement is not certain, but Mr. Lavandeira could receive $100,000 a year as an advance against 50 percent of any profits generated by artists he discovers and releases through Warner Bros."
With an estimated 2.8 million visitors per month, perezhilton.com is undeniably a platform of influence. But is this just one more example of the music-industry's current desperation? While Lavendeira appears to be a genuine music fan and even, at times, an admirably early adopter, especially for European artists, the bulk of his power lies in the size of his readership, not his crystal-ball ability to anoint unsigned artists.
If, like me, you're depressed by the already-bitter presidential campaigning in both parties ("A choice of cancer or polio," as the Rolling Stones once sang; bonus points to the first PW-er who can name that tune without looking it up on the Internet), David Mamet may have a tonic for you. His new political satire, November, opens this Friday on Broadway, with Nathan Lane starring as a hacky president facing a tough re-election bid. To promote the show, Mamet has been blogging in character as President Charles H.P. Smith, casually dropping extremist pronouncements about various issues of the day. (He'll continue doing so for the duration of the play's run.)
I have to say, Mamet's parodic political proclamations aren't making me laugh as much as they should, perhaps because I spend far too much time reading political blogs, and I've seen stuff out there that's far more outrageous than anything Mamet has dreamed up here. (It's really hard for political satire to outdistance reality, though Mamet did pull it off with startling prescience in the screenplay he co-wrote for Wag the Dog.) Still, we have to take political laughs where we can find them these days, especially with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert trying not to peeve the Writers Guild by coming up with actual jokes. Besides, it's nice to read something from Mamet that isn't NSFW. Read for yourselves, PW-ers, and decide if Mamet's satirical jabs are timely and hilarous or stale and tame.
A colleague recently forwarded me a link to Literary Rejections on Display, a Web site that chronicles hundreds of dismissals received by fiction and non-fiction writers. The site's latest posting amusingly dissects a verbose rejection letter from Orchid: A Literary Review that includes a quote from composer Camille Saint-Saens: "I write music the way an apple tree produces apples." To which Literary Rejections responds, "No offense, but I write novels the way five elephants giving birth consecutively over ten years produce other elephants, or Café Lattes for that matter, so don't give me this 'involuntary urge' business or 'natural fruit on the tree' stuff." Another particularly funny post chronicles a Random House editor's rejection letter that repeatedly reminds the aspiring author how much he enjoyed the novel, and then lists numerous reasons he had to reject it.
Anyhow, whether you're a writer who's looking for a better way to deal with cruel dismissal than crying into a cup of herbal tea, or you're simply a bookworm who wants to better understand the indignities your future favorite authors are suffering on their way to their seven-figure book deals, Literary Rejections on Display is worth checking out.
With this post, we bid adieu to comedian Michael Showalter, who concludes his stint as PopWatch celebrity guest blogger by recounting his adventure's on his virtual promotional tour of cyberspace today.
Still wondering what Perez Hilton said during his meet-and-make nice with Posh Spice that didn't end up in her Victoria Beckham: Coming to America TV special (below)? Or how exactly PerezHilton.com became "the first media outlet in the world to break the news of Castro's death?" Now's your chance to ask him. Post your questions for Perez below (and keep 'em clean, please), because he's phoning PopWatch tonight to answer them. If you're stuck, throw the celeb-hound a bone and ask about his upcoming VH1 special What Perez Says (premieres Sept. 11), which will capture his gossip-gathering techniques at this Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. Look for your answers on EW.com Tuesday.
Happy 25th anniversary to Grease 2! And I'm sure many of you are thinking, "Um, why should I care?" Well, um, many reasons. The first is that there is a blog clearinghouse dedicated solely to all the bloggers out there who love the 1982 movie musical as much as I do. (And no, I'm not ashamed to admit it!)
Among the other reasons you should be ecstatic over a celebration of this awesome sequel:
A young Michelle Pfeiffer was excellent as Stephanie Zinone, the rebellious Pink Lady who enjoys chomping on gum and singing about finding her "Cool Rider."
What other flick has an entire scene in a bowling alley where the entire cast sings and dances to such provocative lyrics as: "Don't get sore when you lose tonight, We're gonna show you how to do it right.
We're gonna score tonight..."?
Didi Conn reprised her role as the ditzy yet endearing Frenchy (she of the cotton candy coiffure), but luckily left her beauty school ambitions behind.
During science class, the teacher and students break out into a number about reproduction with the key phrase, "Where does the pollen go?" I wish my high school classes would've been as lively as that!
So who's with me on my love for Grease 2? And who's running out right now to rent it because I was so persuasive? Anyone?
If you read the music blogs, you've probably already seen "Arcade Fire Stole My Basketball" this morning, a site alleging that frontman Win Butler snaked some guy's ball from a rec center in Berkeley after an altercation involving court space. You've also most likely seen "Arcade Fire Didn't Steal Dude's Basketball," the response blog purportedly set up by Win's brother Will.
But I would be remiss in my job here at PopWatch if I didn't draw your attention to this post over at Stereogum, which has generated one of the funniest comment threads in a long while. (Warning: It's slightly NSFW.) I won't ruin it with over-explanation; I'll just say I find it hard to believe anyone will ever top "The Decemberists trained a falcon to crap on my head at my wedding."
PS: Cross your fingers that this whole thing is a scam, some sort of viral marketing campaign designed to inform us that the Canadian collective will be replacing the Pussycat Dolls as interstitial music for the upcoming NBA Finals. Because I cannot hear that Pussycat Dolls song ever again. I hate it more than I hate Manu Ginobili, and that is a LOT.
On Wednesday, I posted a long musing on the state of cultural criticism in a comment-board world, and wondered if, now that readers' opinions are given the same space — and sometimes weight — as those of professional writers, we are moving towards a society in which educated, informed, professional criticism is no longer welcomed or necessary.
You guys responded, and how. After the jump, some further thoughts, and a big, big compliment.
I was going to post about this last week, but I ran out of time and lost my nerve, for reasons that will soon become obvious. Still, the idea stuck with me, and as the issue doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, I guess it's time to tackle it head-on. This is going to be long, but I can't stop myself.
[Imagine this next bit said in the movie trailer guy's voice.]
In a world where no piece of professional media can exist without an accompanying Internet message board, the barrage of commentary, courtesy of You™, may be doing irreparable damage to an intellectual tradition that stretches back thousands of years: that of the cultural critic. The word "critic" itself comes from the Greek kritikós (one who discerns), and implies a certain level of scholarship, perspective, education, aesthetic/historical understanding, and calm, considered, reasoned thinking. It's a concept that seems to be directly at odds with the public's ability to put 10 or 15 poorly-spelled words into a little box and click "post." And yet every day, at publications big and small, the public is doing just that... and being celebrated for it.
So I ask: In light of this trend towards all-user-generated-content-all-the-time, can those of us who get paid to have opinions maintain our dignity, our sanity... and our jobs?
After the jump, I attempt to inspire a rational discussion which will no doubt disintegrate into people yelling at me on the comment board. Won't you come along?
When the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes qualified life in the state of nature as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short," who knew his words would also describe the spin cycle of your average modern It Band? Swedish pop outfit Peter Bjorn & John may have been playing together since 1999, but it's only in the last few months that their irrepressable single with the madly perky whistle melody, "Young Folks," earwormed its way into America's consciousness — ascending from spots in the top-10 singles lists of coolmakers like NME and Pitchfork to guest appearances on network tentpoles Gray's Anatomy and How I Met Your Mother.
And now, the backlash: An unidentified blogger has established an anti-PB&J site, protesting the fact that their popularity rewards mediocrity. But isn't it harmless, you ask?
Not to stoppeterbjornandjohn.blogspot.com. "As much as we would all like to just ignore the whole 'buzz band' phenomenon — to chalk it up (correctly) to the meaningless machinations of a press in need of a story — the fact is that those decisions matter," the blogger exclaims earnestly. "They matter in terms of what bands get played, what bands get signed, what bands get associated with indie rock as a genre. Whether we like it or not, the sound of the 'buzz band' gets attributed to us, in terms of what we supposedly like. We, the indie-rock fans, suffer when the buzz band is bad."
What do you think, readers? does this dude (Why do we assume "dude"? Perhaps we should examine our own prejudices over here at EW.com. But we'd bet you many Swedish krona that we're right.) just need to get a new hobby? Or is Chicken Little on to something, making PB&J responsible for (or at least a harbinger of) the indie-rock sky's imminent collapse? Please tell us which side you come down on...
Even the most diehard fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation -- and, yes, you non-fans can just skip ahead now -- recognize that the first season of the superlative sci-fi show was all too often... well... let's just go with soul-crushingly awful, shall we? But what I hadn't realized was that those episodes are also a profoundly rich source of gut-busting comedy. Said realization came via a friend and fellow Trekkie who sent me a link to a monthly series of reviews of ST: TNG Season 1 episodes that recently started over on AOL's TV Squad, reviews written by none other than Wesley Crusher (pictured) himself, Wil Wheaton. And. They're. Hilarious.
I knew Wheaton had his own blog of some considerable Web esteem (the archives go alllll the way back to 2001!), but I was not prepared for quite the level of geeked out, snarky-smart, slightly ribald brilliance Wheaton unleashes in these reviews. Here's just one (rather tame) excerpt from a review of "Justice," set on a libidinous, Edenic planet called Rubicun III, populated by a species called the Edo:
Before the Edo leaders will tell Riker how many people they can bring down from the Enterprise, they suggest that they "play at love." Rivan, the woman, suggests that Worf play at love with her (Aside: if my memory serves me correctly, Michael Dorn and Brenda Bakke, who played Rivan, spent a little time, uh, playing, together during the production of this episode), while Liator looks at Riker, jams his true desires deep into the closet, and asks Troi if she'll play with him. Just before Sexual Harassment Panda shows up, Wesley Crusher says, "Dude, this is bulls--t. Either hook me up with some fine Edo ass, or let me get away from you creepy middle-aged swingers and find it on my own." Okay, maybe that's not what he says, but it's certainly what a certain actor who played Wesley Crusher was thinking at the time.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip has started a viral marketing blog called Defaker (hmm... wonder who they're parodying?), and it is such a lame excuse for "blogging" that there's already a rumor going around that supposedly blog-averse creator Aaron Sorkin is writing it himself, and doing it badly on purpose.
First off, the (lone) post is too long. And trust me when I say, I know from long blog posts. Secondly, there is only the one post, which, as Mark Lisanti very graphically points out, would never fly in the Denton-verse or anywhere else, for that matter. (Unless you're low culture, and then you can leave the same post up for three months and I'll still check back on your site every day). Thirdly, the post is little more than a glorified recap of the episode, and not a very funny one at that.
Damn you, Gawker media empire! Now we'll have even less time to procrastinate be productive at work, since we'll have to spend those valuable minutes each day reading your new music blog, Idolator. Okay, actually, we look forward to reading your witty prose (full disclosure: Idolator's editor is longtime EW contributor Brian Raftery), your knowledgable MP3 recommendations, and your takedown of overrated tastemakers in the mainstream media and the blogosphere -- including us. Bring it on, y'all.
First King Kong, now Rocky. Want to see Rocky Balboa take shape, literally? Sylvester Stallone has launched an online production video diary, a la kongisking.net, for his sixth Rocky movie. So far, rockybalboablog.com has just one entry, in which Stallone explains that he'll be fighting real-life current light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver in the film, and that he hired the currently active boxer for the sake of realism -- or, as Tarver says in the clip, ''more danger than realism.'' Watch til the end, though, and you'll see that the 59-year-old Stallone really is still in top fighting form. Can't wait for his next ab-tastic video post.
Can't get enough Ricky Gervais? Seen every episode of The Office and Extras? You'll be able to get an additional Gervais fix for the next few weeks, thanks to England's Guardian newspaper, which is hosting The Ricky Gervais Show, a series of 12 half-hour podcasts featuring funny chatter from Gervais and his pals. Available now is the first episode, where Gervais, writing/directing partner Stephen Merchant, and fellow funnyman Karl Pilkington have a hilariously frustrating (and occasionally profane) conversation about modern technology. ''I've never heard such drivel,'' complains Gervais. Neither have I -- though, as drivel goes, it's pretty awesome.
He calls himself ''Hollywood's Original Blogger,'' though technically, he's only been blogging since last week. Then again, Army Archerd's blog, at armyarcherd.com, isn't too different from the gossip column he wrote for Variety for 52 years, until just a couple months ago. If you want to know what Hollywood's senior set is up to (Warren, Liz, et. al.), check it out.
Except for a few glimpses onstage at the Toronto portion of Live 8, we haven't seen much of Tom Green lately. According to the former MTV comic's blog, he's been writing, directing, and editing an indie documentary. He's also joined with a handful of other celebs to post on Blog for Hope, an all-star blog created by Yahoo! and the American Cancer Society that invites its famous bloggers (including Green, Fran Drescher, Jill Eikenberry, Mary Hart, and Sam Donaldson) to share their experiences with cancer. Anyway, it's nice to see Green burnishing his humanitarian credentials; in fact, he should probably win a Nobel Prize for not making a sequel to Freddy Got Fingered.
Home
As if 
Can't get enough Ricky Gervais? The Office and Extras guru is currently busy prepping his debut as a feature film co-writer/co-director (with Matt Robinson), a movie called This Side of the Truth. It's a comedy about a world where no one has ever told a falsehood, until Gervais' character discovers lying and uses this new tactic to woo Jennifer Garner's character. (Also in the film: comic all-stars Christopher Guest, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Hodgman.) Gervais is also blogging the production 
Want to watch someone use her computer on TV (pictured)? You're in luck! The very first web-to-TV series, NBC's quarterlife revolves around an angsty 20-something blogger who can't stop confessing her deepest, darkest s--- online and posting incriminating videos of her good friends. She has to do it, because she's always honest, and that's just how she is. Writers are like that, why can't you deal? Here's why I can't deal: People, even writers, are NOT REALLY LIKE THAT. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about because only 3.8 million people watched the show, but the main character, Honest Dylan, would be blown off the face of the planet if she existed in real life. Nothing about her "blog" (hello: vlog! no written content!) was realistic, particularly the notion that anyone would want to 
According to the 
If, like me, you're depressed by the already-bitter presidential campaigning in both parties ("A choice of cancer or polio," as the Rolling Stones once sang; bonus points to the first PW-er who can name that tune without looking it up on the Internet), David Mamet may have a tonic for you. His new political satire, November, opens this Friday on Broadway, with Nathan Lane starring as a hacky president facing a tough re-election bid. To promote the show, Mamet has been 
With this post, we bid adieu to comedian Michael Showalter, who concludes 
If you read the music blogs, you've probably already seen 
On Wednesday, 
I was going to post about this last week, but I ran out of time and lost my nerve, for reasons that will soon become obvious. Still, the idea stuck with me, and as the issue doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, I guess it's time to tackle it head-on. This is going to be long, but I can't stop myself.
When the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes qualified life in the state of nature as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short," who knew his words would also describe the spin cycle of your average modern It Band? Swedish pop outfit Peter Bjorn & John may have been playing together since 1999, but it's only in the last few months that their irrepressable single with the madly perky whistle melody, 
Even the most diehard fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation -- and, yes, you non-fans can just skip ahead now -- recognize that the first season of the superlative sci-fi show was all too often... well... let's just go with soul-crushingly awful, shall we? But what I hadn't realized was that those episodes are also a profoundly rich source of gut-busting comedy. Said realization came via a friend and fellow Trekkie who sent me a link to a monthly series of reviews of ST: TNG Season 1 episodes that recently started over on AOL's TV Squad, reviews written by none other than Wesley Crusher (pictured) himself, Wil Wheaton. And. They're. 
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip has started a viral marketing blog called 
First King Kong, now Rocky. Want to see 
Can't get enough Ricky Gervais? Seen every episode of The Office and Extras? You'll be able to get an additional Gervais fix for the next few weeks, thanks to England's Guardian newspaper, which is hosting 
Except for a few glimpses onstage at the Toronto portion of Live 8, we haven't seen much of Tom Green lately. According to the former MTV comic's 
