Image Credit: Legendary Pictures
The weather is warming up, the brown things are turning green, and it’s time to watch some baseball. Or, if stadiums aren’t your thing, watch some baseball in a dark theater on a giant screen. Advance word on the Jackie Robinson flick 42 is quiet, though the First Family loves it.
The buzz on 42 – plus other things the White House has yet to approve for your week — below.
Image Credit: Michael Desmond/Lifetime
You probably don’t remember, but New York was covered in snow the last time I put together the PopWatch Planner. (Sorry, y’all.) To the rest of the country: enjoy what I assume is wonderfully warm weather.
If you still need a little heat, just watch Jennifer Love Hewitt in the season premiere of The Client List. That, and other suggestions, after the jump.
Watch out, Cory Booker: Another government bigshot is making a play for the title of New Jersey’s most likeable politician.
For months, Governor Chris Christie has been one of David Letterman’s favorite targets. (Insert joke about a target that’s easy to hit here.) And though Christie isn’t always willing to entertain discussion of that weighty topic — see how he shot down Barbara Walters during her “Most Fascinating People” special last year — he was more than a good sport about it yesterday, casually pulling out a doughnut as soon as he sat down with Dave. His explanation? “I didn’t know this was gonna be this long.”
Christie’s geniality continued as he assured Dave that he doesn’t mind fat jokes, as long as they’re funny. He then recited a few of his favorite Letterman digs at his own expense as the host looked on, chuckling in a mixture of amusement and embarrassment. It’s sort of like those “celebrities read mean tweets about themselves” videos on Jimmy Kimmel, except much more intense (and with free doughnuts!). Grab a pastry and watch for yourself below:
Image Credit: Darren Michaels/CBS
Playing diner owner Han Lee on the ribald 2 Broke Girls, Matthew Moy has one very memorable role on the CBS comedy. That’s mostly because the show’s creators have been criticized for making Han one big stereotype after another: The character speaks with a heavy accent, often doesn’t understand American slang and turns of phrases, and is regularly made fun of for his small stature and clueless nature.
Behind the silly role, however, is Matthew Moy, an actor who, truly, couldn’t be further from who he plays on TV. Moy is very clued into pop culture, which is why we put him through the ringer with the EW Pop Culture Personality Test. As we head toward tonight’s new episode of 2 Broke Girls (9 p.m. on CBS!) — titled “And Too Little Sleep,” which finds Han and Co. helping Max (Kat Dennings) and Caroline (Beth Behrs) prepare a huge cupcake order — study up on Moy by hearing a lot about his love for Katy Perry, Steel Magnolias, and (yes, really!) the ceramic statue of Jeri Ryan he has in his living room.
Name a TV show that makes you cry.
Actually, there was an episode of Taxi that was really emotional, and I didn’t expect it because it’s a sitcom. Danny DeVito had a very emotional scene, and it was really great. I didn’t expect that from a comedy. It had a lot of heart to it. I was watching it late at night and he had a really meaty scene.
At what moments do you yell at the TV?
I was thinking about this the other day. When I yell at my TV, it’s usually watching…usually it happens during the election. There’s when I’m watching CNN and MSNBC.
What kind of sitcoms do you watch?
I watch the weirdest things. I watch old episodes of Golden Girls because my mom watches it, so I grew up watching that. Sometimes I watch reruns of Futurama, which is a cartoon and not based in the real world at all. There’s also 3rd Rock from the Sun. It’s really neat to watch the different people interact.
The craziest thing about Charlie Sheen’s tiger-blood-soaked, “WINNING!” meltdown — er, “melt-forward”? Now that the crazy is nearly two years in the past, the ex-Two and a Half Men star is actually ashamed of his behavior. (Well, some of it, anyway.) When David Letterman asked last night if Sheen ever feels embarrassed when he thinks back on the spring of 2011, the actor answered the question quickly and matter-of-factly: “Of course. Have you seen some of those interviews? That stuff’s out there forever, man.”
That said, Sheen still seems proud of his very public crackup’s sheer audacity. “I booked a 21 city tour in 33 days with no act!” he crowed at one point during the Letterman interview, sounding equally incredulous and boastful. He also didn’t miss a chance to take a swipe at his old sitcom, even as he revealed that he’d like to return to the show for its last episode: “I am dead,” Sheen said, referring to the convenient subway accident that killed off his character at the beginning of season 9, “but so’s the show.” How’s that for a violent torpedo of truth?
Lindsay Lohan may not understand why east coasters have their knickers in a twist over Frankenstorm Snowicane Rainmageddon Sandy — but today’s morning shows weren’t messing around when it came to Sandy coverage. Today, Good Morning America, and CBS This Morning each devoted themselves entirely to keeping an eye on the storm. Pity the nation’s soaked news correspondents.
GMA had a little fun with the news, branding today’s show as a special edition called “GMA Halloween Superstorm.” But the coverage itself — on the storm’s path, its progression, and how its advent will affect the presidential election — was pretty straightforward. Here’s video of weather anchor Sam Champion in New York and ABC News correspondent Matt Gutman in Nags Head, N.C., explaining the basics of Sandy. Check out that sea foam!
One month ago, Homeland and Modern Family were named Best Drama and Best Comedy at the 64th Annual Emmy Awards. Their crowning ushered in the 2012 fall TV season, an exciting new beginning filled with surprising triumphs and unsurprising failures. (Made in Jersey and Animal Practice, we hardly knew ye!)
It’s too early to tell whether any of the networks’ shiny new shows will dethrone Homeland or ModFam at next year’s Emmys. Still, we’ve seen enough of them to know which ones are live-watch musts, which deserve a spot on the DVR… and which should follow CBS’s legal drama and NBC’s monkey comedy to an early grave.
For now, though, let’s keep things positive. Which of the following new shows is your favorite one of all? Vote in the poll below — and explain yourself in the comments.
Steven Spielberg’s career can be roughly divided into two distinct periods: the Mad at Dad phase, and the Reconciliation phase. The director admitted as much in a probing 60 Minutes interview last night. See, Spielberg’s parents, Arnold and Leah, got divorced when he was 19 — and for the following 15 years or so, Spielberg was furious with his father. He thought workaholic Arnold, an engineer, had instigated the split after years of ignoring his family in favor of his job.
What Steven didn’t know was that his beloved mother had actually fallen for another man — one of Arnold’s friends. As adorable 95-year-old Arnold explained to Lesley Stahl last night, he didn’t tell his son the truth for years because he was still in love with Leah… and Spielberg responded by littering movies like E.T. and Hook with absentee fathers or the void they left behind. Eventually, Steven’s wife, Kate Capshaw, prodded him to make peace with Dad — ultimately leading to films like War of the Worlds and Lincoln.
Not interested in Spielberg’s psychology? Press “play” on the first video and skip ahead 10 minutes. You’ll miss Spielberg discussing his daddy issues and his brushes with antisemitism — but you’ll get inside scoop on Lincoln, the director’s latest perfectly engineered Oscar-bait project. You could also just watch the second clip, which takes a more in-depth look behind the scenes of Lincoln — complete with a brief appearance by the famously taciturn Daniel Day-Lewis. It also features John Williams playing the theme from Jaws. Have at it, Spielbergians: READ FULL STORY »
Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t dodge tough questions during his big 60 Minutes interview last night — not even when Lesley Stahl asked him about his father’s stint as a Nazi stormtrooper. (The Governator said that growing up, talk of World War II was basically verboten — he didn’t learn about his father’s past until “much later.”)
After showing the newswoman around his childhood home in Austria, chatting briefly about using steroids during his bodybuilding days, and claiming that movie studios originally thought he couldn’t be a sex symbol like, say, that hottie Woody Allen (wait, whaa?) Arnold finally got to the topic most people are most curious about — his relationship with Maria Shriver.
After eight years with Shriver, Schwarzenegger strayed from his longtime girlfriend by having an affair with co-star Brigitte Nielsen while filming Red Sonja in the mid-’80s. (Younger folks will know Nielsen as the one who showmanced her “Foofy” Flavor Flav.) Schwarzenegger was fairly unapologetic while discussing the affair, both on 60 Minutes and, apparently, in his new memoir Total Recall. “You cheated on Maria,” Stahl pointed out, “and you don’t even write that you felt bad about it. You just write it.”
