Tag: EW Pop Culture Personality Test (31-40 of 52)

Jul 31 2009 08:44 AM ET

'Defying Gravity' star Ron Livingston: Space sex and The EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Ron-Livingston_lOn ABC’s new drama Defying Gravity (premieres Sunday, 9 p.m. ET), Ron Livingston plays one of eight astronauts — four men, four women — who embark on a six-year mission to explore the solar system. Or so they think that’s their objective. Turns out, there’s something Mission Control refers to as “Beta” pulling the strings. What it is and what it wants are mysteries that unfold over 13 episodes, which split time between the current happenings on the spacecraft Antares and flashbacks to the crew’s training and selection process.

So what can Livingston, who stars as flight engineer/tragic hero/ladies man Maddux Donner, tell us about the series from former executive producers of Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives? There will be space sex. “The idea was, what’s a really cool workplace environment that we haven’t seen before,” he says, burying the lead. “The astronaut corp halfway to Venus seemed like a cool place to go to work. Then a lot of stories follow from what needs to be done day-to-day. It also keeps the men and women cooped up in a confined enough space that the other half of the mystery from week-to-week is who’s gonna end up sleeping with who.” There we go! “That’s a big part of the show, and it keeps it fun.”

You know what else is always fun? The EW Pop Culture Personality Test. READ FULL STORY »

Jul 23 2009 07:22 PM ET

'Most Popular' host Graham Norton takes the EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Graham-Norton_l On each episode of WE tv’s new game show Most Popular (Thursdays, 10 p.m. ET), seven women face an audience of 100 females who, after each revealing round of questioning, must vote for the lady they’d like to leave the stage. The audience members then tell host Graham Norton why they gave the contestant the boot. “Having it be all women gives it an edge,” says Norton, who admits that occasionally he’s appalled by what he hears. (“I did ask,” he says in their defense.) “As a man, I find it fascinating the way that women judge each other. I suppose because women are used to feeling like they’re being judged all the time — when they leave the house, they think about what they’re wearing, how their hair is, they wonder how other people are responding to them in a way that, perhaps, some men don’t — they feel free-er to give opinions about seven women who’ve walked on stage and gone, Yeah, do you like me? It’s a popularity contest, and you can’t explain it: Some people are just likable. A hundred women sit there thinking, Yeah, we like you. Even though you’ve run over your dog or you’ve slept with married men. We just like you.”

How popular will Norton — best known for his hilarious and outrageous chat shows on British TV — be after he takes the EW Pop Culture Personality Test? Let’s find out.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Have you ever written to fan letter to someone?
GRAHAM NORTON: I wrote a fan letter to Rupert Everett once. He was in the Noel Coward play The Vortex in the West End and I’d read in the newspaper that someone wrote a letter to him of complaint saying that they’d enjoyed the show but they couldn’t hear him. They’d wished he’d spoken up a bit. And he wrote them a letter back saying, “Glad you enjoyed the show. I’m sorry your enjoyment was marred by my performance being inaudible. I hope these few enclosed pubic hairs make up for some of the disappointment.” [Laughs] You can imagine this lovely suburban woman was appalled to open this letter and find Rupert Everett’s pubic hair inside. I thought it was hilarious, so I wrote him a letter to tell him I thought it was so funny. I was still at drama school, so this would have been back in 1988.

The piece of pop culture memorabilia from your childhood you wish you still had?
I was a big collector when I was a kid because I grew up in Ireland. There was very little to do, so collecting was almost an activity. I had my David Cassidy scrapbook. But then have you ever met David Cassidy? [Laughs] Yeah, I shed fewer tears about losing my David Cassidy scrapbook than I once did. 

Your geekiest possession today?
I have a Carrie Fisher Pez dispenser. Well, it’s a Princess Leia Pez dispenser. I sort of know her a bit, so I see it as Carrie. She came into my house, and that’s just embarrassing that you’ve got a really dusty Pez dispenser of somebody on a shelf in your kitchen.


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Jul 15 2009 05:22 PM ET

'Dark Blue' star Dylan McDermott takes the EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Dylan-McDermott_l On TNT's newest drama Dark Blue (premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET), Dylan McDermott stars as Carter Shaw, the head of a small team of undercover cops in Los Angeles who take down the city's worst criminals. "This is a character who is deeply conflicted," he says. "He's really good at his work, but the only problem is that he doesn't have much of a life. He finds himself in his mid-40s, sort of lost and empty and obsessed with his work because it's the one thing he understands." It's a heavy role that McDermott (Big Shots, The Practice) is clearly enjoying. "I found myself in a dungeon on a Tuesday night at 1 a.m. handcuffed, in the dark, with a gun to my head," he says. "It was pretty interesting to be that person." We thought we'd continue the torture interrogation with an EW Pop Culture Personality Test…

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When do you talk back to the TV?
DYLAN McDERMOTT: My favorite show right now is Locked Up Abroad. It's amazing. It's on National Geographic. It's real people telling their stories about how they did prison time, how they got caught, and then they recreate them. It's a remarkable show.

The movie you have to watch every time you spot it on cable?
Taxi Driver. The movie's just hypnotic for me. The music, the story, De Niro, Jodie Foster, and Harvey Keitel…

The movie that makes you cry?
I would have to say the original Breathless.

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Jun 8 2009 01:56 PM ET

Mark-Paul Gosselaar: The EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Raising-the-bar-mark-paul-gosselaar_l Raising the Bar returns tonight for a second season on TNT (Mondays, 10 p.m. ET), and we’re happy to report that Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who stars as passionate public defender Jerry Kellerman in the sudsy Steven Bochco courtroom drama, gets a haircut in the first of 15 new episodes. We celebrated by having the friend of PopWatch take the EW Pop Culture Personality Test.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: First things first, we hear there was a summit in your trailer on the day your hair was cut.
MARK-PAUL GOSSELAAR: That was pretty uncomfortable, having the head of TNT, Michael Wright,Steven Bochco, the second in command at TNT, Sam Linksy, the unit production manager, Caroline James, and my wife all in thetrailer watching “the cut” as it was deemed.

What exactly was the debate?
We wanted to stay true to what the character would do. But we didn’t want to go in a direction that I’ve already gone in for other characters…Yeah, there was a lot of things to consider. [Laughs] Too many things to consider — it was a two-hour process: “Let’s not go all the way short, let’s go medium length. Style it at that point, see what we think.” “No, that doesn’t work for the storyline. Let’s go shorter. Style that.” “How does that look? Well, take a little bit off here.” It was more complicated than it should have been, but they just wanted to make sure it was done right.

Was there a lot of discussion before your shirtless scene in this season’s second episode?
[Laughs] I hate takin’ off my shirt. I really do. You just become so vain. You start watchin’ what you eat. You’re like, Should I get a tan? But the character works in New York and he never sees daylight. All this personal drama that you put yourself through. I wish I could just be one of those guys who doesn’t give a f— and have a big belly hanging over my pants. That could be me in a couple seasons. I’m 35 now, I could just let everything go. But I can’t say I didn’t do a couple of push-ups. Not before the scene — that’d be a little too much — but the days leading up to it.

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May 20 2009 01:00 PM ET

Felicia Day talks 'The Guild,' that 'Dollhouse' Tweet, and the EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Guildseason2_lBefore she costarred in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Felicia Day already had a web hit to her credit, The Guild. She writes and stars in the award-winning series about a group of adult online gamers who, for better or worse (mostly worse), come to know one another off-line. Seasons 1 and 2 were just released on DVD, with audio commentaries and other extras, exclusively through Amazon. Taking a break from penning Season 3, which she begins shooting next month, Day phoned PopWatch to chat about The Guild, "the frowny face heard ’round the world," a recent high school production of Dr. Horrible she attended, and her Dungeons & Dragons dice collection. (That’s why we administer the Pop Culture Personality Test, people.)

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’re right on time.

FELICIA DAY: I try to be. I sit in front of the phone. It’s the equivalent of sitting in your car outside someone’s house. I do that, too.

For a half hour, like Cyd [a.k.a Codex, her character in The Guild] does?

No. You have to take everything and exaggerate it in comedy. I would say, conservatively, I’m usually 15 minutes early in the car.

The show is written for gamers, by a gamer, but I stopped playing back in the day of Atari 2600, and I still related to it. Is that something you hear a lot of?

Yeah. A lot of our fans are not gamers at all. They’re kinda geeks, they’re techno people. And there are a lot of women who like my show, which I find to be gratifying, ’cause that’s what I was aiming to do — give a geek girl a chance. I mean, listen, you don’t have to be a surgeon to understand ER. Just because you don’t know gaming terms doesn’t mean you’re not gonna get it, as long as I did my job and made jokes understandable.

How are you going to top the final shot of Season 2, with Codex running away from herself in a sort of out-of-body experience? [Note: That would only really be a spoiler if we told you why.]

I have no idea. I was actually a little intimidated when I sat down to write Season 3. That visual was actually the one thing I got in my head to be able to write Season 2. I was like, Oh, this would be a really cool analogy for somebody dying inside. Which some gamers pointed out was inaccurate because your ghost should be running back to your body, but I figured people would intellectually understand. [Laughs] It’s always hard to sit down [to write] and have enjoyment without having pressure on yourself. I got over that in a couple of weeks.

Describe your writing process. I follow you on Twitter, so I’ve got some idea of –

The agony? [Laughs] The problem is I do so many other things that it’s hard to stick with a schedule, and I think scheduling is really important with writing. So after a couple weeks, I figured out that I need to get up in the morning, and I need to not check my email, and then I need to write, and then I need to whine a lot, and then I need to go buy some kind of expensive coffee and maybe some peanut butter pretzels, and then I need to sit down and get a first draft on paper, a "vomit draft" I like to call it. Because I could agonize over a page for weeks… It’s hard with comedy because you read it, and then you go back, especially with a rewrite, and it’s hard to trust that if it made you laugh the first draft, you should keep it. Your instinct is, Oh, I’ve seen that. Maybe I should make it funnier. It’s like watching a sitcom taping. The first couple times you watch [a scene filmed], you’re like Oh, that’s kinda funny. Then after the fourth take, you’re like, Please get me out of here.

Why did The Guild succeed online when so many web series don’t?

Web video is really at a weird position now. There are a lot ofcompanies going under. Personally, I think that’s because people were trying to doTV shows on the Web. When I see people funding Webseries and I look at the description of the show, I’m like, "Why wouldI watch that on the Web with lower production values, when I could seethat on TV next week?" TV has to please everybody to make a show, theWeb needs to be the opposite. If it’s a Somali immigrant familycomedy set in Chicago, it’s something you’ve never seen before, and itmight be really interesting. You’re more likely to give it a chancethan Hey, it’s a bunch of white people who work in a coffee shop. Seen it. It’s been done better. With very attractive people…. The Guild is tailor-made for anaudience that is specific. We were able to get our show to peoplebecause it was aiming toward a niche. Then we were able to grow out ofthat niche because it’s about the characters not the gaming. But youprobably never would have seen the show unless the hardcore gamers hadspread it around the first year. 

And you’re hoping to take Season 3 footage to Comic-Con?
That should be fun. I only went the first time last year for Dr. Horrible. I saw a rumor on the Internet that they’re going to screen my Dollhouse episode.

Well, since you brought that up…

Segue!

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May 5 2009 02:17 PM ET

'NCIS"s Cote de Pablo talks Tiva tension and takes the EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Isn’t it the actor who usually tears up during an interview, not the journalist? Last week, we met up with NCIS‘ Cote de Pablo for lunch in New York City to talk about the tension that’s about to explode between her character, former Mossad agent Ziva David, and Michael Weatherly’s Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo in season 6′s final three episodes (CBS, Tuesdays, 8 p.m. ET). SPOILER ALERT! If you were hoping that Tony questioning Ziva’s loyalty to NCIS after uncovering her connection to the mysterious Michael Rivkin might somehow be one of those situations in which anger turns to passion — stop. "We could not be farther away from kissing," de Pablo says. "I’m telling you, it’s not ‘I hate you’ [kissing sound] anger; it’s ‘I want to kill you’ anger. Like, ‘I want to shoot you in the head, but instead I’m gonna put my gun on your knee’ anger….He does something to her that is almost unforgivable. However, the reason he does it is because he truly believes it’s going to help her. Little does he know that he almost kills her." Metaphorically or physically, we ask. "Physically and emotionally," she answers. Our eyes get a little misty, which we point out to her. "Tell me when you watch the end of that episode," she says, "because I want to be sitting next to you." Here, de Pablo talks about the Tiva chemistry, what makes NCIS work, and why she doesn’t have a TiVo.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why do you think the show has gotten its best ratings ever — in season 6?

COTE DE PABLO: People don’t watch this show because of the crimes we solve. They watch the show because they want to see how people relate within the show. We’re like a little dysfunctional family. I’ve always thought of Ziva as the adopted kid who comes in and has this really funny thing with one of the siblings, which is Tony. It’s funny how the audience caught on.

And what’s interesting is that you’re able to do that character stuff without sacrificing the logic of the cases. Or maybe it’s just because the character stuff is so well written that I don’t stop and try to find holes in the plots.

We all have a really great chemistry and when we get a script, we get together, and we make it work. That’s one of the things about the show — and about us — that is still sort of remarkable, and Mark Harmon always points it out: Isn’t it fantastic that during our sixth year, we can still come to work and question a scene to the point where we won’t go out there and shoot it unless it’s clear to all of us? We make sure we all understand what’s going on, that we’re all on the same page. So many shows out there, they’re just doing the words. We love our jobs, and we care about it so much that we show up and we add our input to make it better…Daddy Mark Harmon. We love him. [Laughs] He’s our dad.

You watched "Legend (Part 1)" [the first half of the two-parter that introduces the cast that would lead the as-yet-untitled NCIS spinoff; Part 2 airs tonight]. What was your reaction to OSP [Office of Special Projects]?

I think that will be very interesting. God knows, we all wish themthe best of luck. It’s a tough thing: They’ll go on their journey,they’ll find their chemistry, and they’ll gel. It happens for everyshow. I thought Michael Weatherly was so, so good in that episode.

Tell us one moment from these next episodes that is going to floor us.

When I almost shoot Michael in the knee. [Laughs] I keep saying Michael, but it’s Tony. I’m not shooting Michael, I’m shooting Tony.

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Apr 16 2009 02:20 PM ET

Jason Aldean: The EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Jasonaldean_lYou ask why we do so many EW Pop Culture Personality Tests with male country singers. The answer: Because we like their music, and they like doing interviews in bars. We recently grabbed a Bud Light with Georgia native Jason Aldean, whose third album, Wide Open, just debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. Look for Aldean, the 32-year-old southern rocker known for the hits “Hicktown,” “Johnny Cash,” and his latest, “She’s Country,” opening for Keith Urban this summer.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When do you yell at the TV?
JASON ALDEAN: When I’m watching the Atlanta Braves or Georgia Bulldogs. Probably college football more than anything. I think my wife gets annoyed at me on Saturdays when I’m at home. The other one is Deal or No Deal. I never want ‘em to take the deal. I want to tell them which ones to pick, and they never listen to me.

Have you ever hit the million?
Yes! I have my lucky numbers, and occasionally I hit it. My main lucky number is 9. That was my baseball number in high school. My other lucky number is 3, because that’s the one I wore before I got to high school and had to pick a different one. My six-year-old daughter just started playing softball this year, and she got #3, too, so that’s kinda cool.

I was always #23 for Ryne Sandberg from the Chicago Cubs.
I was Dale Murphy for the Braves. That’s where the #3 came from.

Not Dale Earnhardt.
No. [Leans into tape recorder] Dale Murphy.

Are you a TV person?
The DVR thing has rocked my world. Being on the road, I used to not keep up with any shows. Now I got a DVR, so I’m watching everything: CSI: Miami, my favorites Criminal Minds and The Mentalist. I like some of the HBO stuff, Entourage and Eastbound & Down. My wife got me into the Grey’s Anatomy deal, so I’m watching that. I could tell you all about that. Izzie’s got some kind of cancer, so it’s nail-bitin’ right now.

Were you a fan of Ghost Denny?
I was ready for him to go away. You can only do so much with a dead guy on a show, you know what I mean. It’s been better since he left…. That’s a man’s show right there, by god. [Laughs]

Well, Owen [Kevin McKidd] looks manly.
The redheaded dude? Yeah, yeah. He’s a freak. He’s like strangling her in the bed. Have you seen that episode? Jesus. See a counselor for God’s sake.

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Apr 14 2009 03:00 PM ET

Harold Perrineau: The EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Haroldperrineau_lIf you caught last week’s premiere of the ABC dramedy The Unusuals (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. ET), chances are you’re loving Harold Perrineau’s character, Leo Banks, the member of the NYPD Homicide unit who refuses to take off his bulletproof vest because he just turned 42 — the age his grandfather, father, and uncle were at the time of their deaths. (You’re also loving that he’s partnered with Adam Goldberg’s Eric Delahoy, who’s just been diagnosed with a brain tumor and is fine putting himself in positions where he could be killed — though some sort of divine intervention has already saved him twice). "Leo’s paranoia escalates throughout the season, and gets really dark," Perrineau tells us. "It seems really funny at first, but that’s the great thing about our show: Something that seems really funny sometimes turns out to be, Oh, well, I guess that wasn’t as funny as I thought…." But you know what’s always funny, right? An EW Pop Culture Personality Test.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When do you yell at the TV?
HAROLD PERRINEAU: I yell at the TV often times for sports. I’m not a big fan sports fan, but I do watch mixed martial arts and boxing. The only other time I yell at the TV is when I find out that some show that I love is not gonna be on anymore. I yelled at the TV when Sex and the City went off the air. I know that’s weird, but I did.

You did, really?
I really loved Sex and the City. Gotta tell ya.

This is why we do these tests, to find things like that out. [He laughs] How many TiVos do you have?
Two. Upstairs and downstairs.

What is the worst TiVo mishap you’ve experienced?
I thought I’d taped a huge boxing event, and I didn’t get back home for a week. When I did, I realized that I’d only taped a minute of it. I was like, "Nooooo." I’d begged everyone not to tell me who won.

Have you ever written a fan letter to anyone? If so, who?
I did one time, but I never sent it. When Halle Berry did Introducing Dorothy Dandridge for HBO [in 1999], I was so moved and impressed that I literally grabbed my book and wrote a huge fan letter. "I’m an actor as well. This is just amazing work." As I was about to tear it out, I was like, Dude. Come on. You’re gonna send a letter to Halle Berry? Cut it out. She’s gonna think you’re trying to hit on her. And so it’s still sitting in my diary. I come across it every once in a while as I’m reading back. [Laughs]

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Apr 6 2009 05:38 PM ET

Nathan Fillion: The EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Nathanfillion_lThere comes a time in every blogger’s life when she’s asked to interview someone she’s had some fun writing about, and the decision must be made: Do I own the fact that I’ve said this man makes me want to procreate, or do I not? Because I’m professional (really), I decided that Nathan Fillion need not hear about that last Friday, when ABC offered me a few minutes on the phone with him during a tightly-scheduled satellite press tour to promote Castle (Mondays, 10 p.m. ET). But then, he started the conversation by acknowledging that EW.com has been “so kind to Castle and to myself,” and I laughed. Longer than that time I met David Boreanaz for a sit-down and he asked “Where do you want me?”. I felt the need to explain…

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So have you read any of my items on PopWatch, our blog?

NATHAN FILLION: My mother is my Google Alert lady, so if it’s got “Nathan Fillion” or “Castle” in it, she always gets the article and forwards it to me. I’ve read a number of things from EW.com, but I don’t know if any were yours in particular. But if it was EW.com, I’m sure I read it, so yes, actually. The answer is yes. You are lovely, and quickly becoming my favorite.

I wrote the one about how Castle is making my clock tick because I love the relationship between him and his daughter.

I did read that, and I forwarded that to Molly [Quinn], who plays my daughter. She’s fantastic. I’ve got to tell you something: I was sitting in on all those auditions. I was one of the first people cast on Castle, so I said, “I’ll sit and read.” You want someone to walk in the room and just light it on fire, and that was Molly. She was completely confident, and relaxed, and listened to you and connected. Just so appropriate and perfect for the role. So perfect. And so clever. Too clever. Matter of fact, I don’t like her anymore. I’ve just decided.

Did the two of you do anything special to bond?

[Laughs] She’ll tell you it’s the absolute truth: I’m terrible to her. I’ll get a text from her saying, “Hey, I saw the last episode. It was great. Blah, blah, blah…” And I’ll say, “Yes, it was fantastic. Oh by the way, I just heard you’re fired.” I’ll always do that. And I always tell her, “I’m toughening you up for real life, for the real world out there. You’re the little sister I never had…or wanted.” She’s old enough to be my daughter. Maybe I’ll start saying that…

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Apr 5 2009 02:00 PM ET

Heidi Newfield: The EW Pop Culture Personality Test

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Heidinewfield_lHeidi Newfield is nominated in a surprise four categories at tonight’s Academy of Country Music Awards (CBS, 8 p.m. ET) including Top Female Vocalist and Single, Song, and Video of the Year for her hit "Johnny and June," which she’ll also perform. We decided to get to know the former Trick Pony lead singer, who’s gone solo with the album What Am I Waiting For, with an EW Pop Culture Personality Test.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The person or band you still need to see in concert?

HEIDI NEWFIELD: We were just talking about this the other day: I have not seen Bruce Springsteen in concert, and that’s just wrong. I still kick myself that I never got to see Ray Charles in concert, that’s a huge regret of mine. So sad I never got to see The Police when they did their last tour. And AC/DC, they just came to town and I was workin’.

The song you wish you’d written?

"I Can’t Make You Love Me." That’s one of my all-time faves. I wish my name was on that one.

What is your position on karaoke?

I suck at it. That’s my position on it. [Laughs] I’m absolutely the worst karaoke singer on the planet. It’s because I’m used to playing with a live band, and it’s so different when you walk up there and you sing to the record. I promise you I have screwed up my own songs. People have literally been in the bar going, "Is that… that’s… no, nevermind." [Laughs] Obviously, I can always pull up a Trick Pony song. Or I’ll do something Fleetwood Mac or Stevie Nicks. Growing up playing in all kinds of situations, from bars to events, I covered a lot of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks.

Your guilty pleasure dance song?

Right now, it’s Jamie Foxx’s "Blame It." If you want something, like, fallback, baby girl, it’s gotta be "Brick House." "Sweet Home Alabama." Oh, I’m totally embarrassed to admit this, but anything like "We are Family," the stuff they play at weddings and you’re like, "Oh, I haven’t heard this for awhile."

So you’re doing the Electric Slide is what you’re saying?

I’m not afraid an Electric Slide. I’ll get out there and rock it with the best of ‘em.

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