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Now that we’ve got most of the major players (okay… now that we’ve got our Finnick) for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, we thought we’d go ahead and cast the rest of the film. Take a look at some of our picks for the film’s more minor characters below. (WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
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Image Credit: Murray Close
Accio random Harry Potter history facts!
The greatest — well, one of the greatest — things about the Harry Potter canon is that there was just so much stuff that happened. The books are full of flashbacks and details, and J.K. Rowling is great about providing additional information — Pottermore — about the world, even if it was never in print (But we’re still waiting on that promised encyclopedia, Jo).
Because of that, you can pick almost any date on the calendar, and read up on exactly what happened that day in history. You know, hypothetically. I want to state for the record that I fully understand that it’s not “real.”
August 22 is a major day for Harry and Co. It’s no April 1 (Happy Birthday, Fred and George!) or October 31 (there isn’t enough time to list everything that ever has gone down on Halloween!) but according to exhaustive HP fansites, it is the date of one of the most infamous Quidditch World Cups of all time: the one from Goblet of Fire, where Ireland defeats Bulgaria and Barty Crouch Jr. kicks off the real story, casting the Dark Mark into the sky using Harry Potter’s own wand. It’s also Percy Weasley’s birthday, if you want to celebrate a traitor who finally came back to his family in the end. READ FULL STORY »
James Franco is busier/cooler/better than you.
The actor took a break from filming and producing movies, attending and teaching at multiple universities, performing in a soap, and writing a book to star in (and direct, natch) a commercial for Samsung, touting the new Galaxy Note — perfect for multitaskers like Franco!
In the full-length ad, Franco walks through different rooms in a house and gets in on a pillow fight, plays part-time doctor, and solves complicated math problems. Good on the actor for spoofing his image. I, for one, can’t wait for the inevitable three-hour-long director’s cut.
Check out the living art piece/tech commercial below, and explain to me the decision behind the tiger: READ FULL STORY »
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Get ready to update your college papers and work emails — “F-bomb” is now Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary official.
The dictionary giant teased its list of new additions (usually about 100 a year) and “F-bomb” made the cut. Who can you thank? Kory Stamper, an associate editor for Merriam-Webster, said the company traced the word back to 1988, when New York Mets catcher Gary Carter mentioned in an interview that he had given them up. Recent political discourse had also brought the term mainstream, with Dick Cheney dropping an “F-bomb” on the Senate floor in 2004, and Vice President Joe Biden trotting it out in 2010. “It’s a word that is very visually evocative,” Stamper told The AP. “It’s not just the F-word. It’s F-bomb. You know that it’s going to cause a lot of consternation and possible damage.” READ FULL STORY »
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Who’s a better deal: Anderson Cooper or Sean Hannity? The Daily Beast has compiled a pretty exhaustive list of each newscaster’s salary and viewers, giving everyone a cost per viewer number. The answers may surprise you.
Anderson Cooper, the buzzy silver fox over at CNN, is the most expensive for a network: His reported 11 million dollar salary for Anderson Cooper 360 costs CNN $18.09 per viewer. On the other end of the scale, Today’s new co-host Savannah Guthrie’s two million dollar paycheck costs NBC just 47 cents a viewer.
You can check out The Daily Beast’s gallery for the full list, but some surprises that stuck out to us: Piers Morgan is costly for CNN; his six million dollar salary means the network must shell out $10.71 per viewer. Brian Williams and Robin Roberts are bargains — just $1.68 and $1.30 per viewer, respectively. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA/AP
If you need a minute-long Monday morning pick-me-up, you can’t do much better than this video of NASA employees totally flipping out. They’ve got good reason to be excited: Early this morning, their rover Curiosity successfully touched down on Mars after a dramatic landing involving a supersonic parachute, a sky crane, and an incredibly cool space jetpack (I know, redundant). If Curiosity hadn’t stuck it like McKayla Maroney, a cash-strapped NASA would have been dealt a devastating blow. Instead, the agency is on track to potentially discover whether the Red Planet ever supported life.
So yeah, the video’s pretty awesome… especially compared to recent high-profile Hollywood failures set on our celestial neighbor. This clip might even be the first step toward fixing Mars’ reputation as box-office poison. Think about it: The Curiosity landing has “Future Ron Howard Movie” written all over it. Add in, say, Robert Downey Jr. as a brilliant but prickly engineer and Emma Stone as his tart-tongued protegee, and this could be bigger than Prometheus — not to mention several times more intelligible. Watch the video below — then take to the comments to discuss who you’d like to see in Curiosity: The Movie.
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EW can exclusively reveal that Walking Dead comic writer Robert Kirkman will be appearing at this year’s New York Comic Con, which takes place at the Javits Center, October 11-14.
The founder of the Image Comics imprint Skybound will be promoting the forthcoming 100th issue of his superhero comic Invincible and the new Skybound title, Clone, as well as discussing the second Walking Dead novel, The Road to Woodbury, which Kirkman penned with Jay Bonansinga and is being published by Thomas Dunne Books on October 16. Kirkman may even have a word or two to say about the third season of the Walking Dead, which returns to screens October 14.
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You wouldn’t think there’s much overlap between the worlds of iCarly and Breaking Bad. But iCarly star Noah Munck, who plays quirky Gibby Gibson on the Nickelodeon sitcom, is a huge fan of The One Who Knocks, regularly live-tweeting his thoughts on the hit AMC drama to his nearly 400,000 followers.
Tonight, Noah will chat live with you during the new episode of Breaking Bad, titled “Fifty-One,” at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT. He’ll be adding his commentary as Walt celebrates another birthday and an increasingly unhinged Skyler considers her options, plus he’ll be interacting directly with you. So get your questions ready for him! READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Amy Senna
Here’s something you won’t find at your local Buy N Large. Computer programmer Mike Senna recently unveiled a life-sized, working Wall-E replica that can trundle around on its treads, wave both hands, raise its eyebrows, and — of course — warble its own name. Senna has spent a staggering two and a half years on this project, toiling for about 25 hours each week while holding down a full-time job at a biometrics company in Orange County. Though Senna has some experience bringing beloved pop culture bots to life — he completed a similar R2D2 replica in ’03 — Wall-E presented a unique set of challenges.
For starters: The robot “changes size during the film,” Senna tells EW, which made its dimensions difficult to determine. Without real-life schematics or prototypes, Senna had nothing but screen shots from Pixar’s movie to guide him. Senna also had to custom create nearly every one of Wall-E’s parts, although he did luck out by finding a perfect pair of eyes at Home Depot. The builder wanted his creation to be able to convey emotions — just like the “real” Wall-E — so he spent the lion’s share of his time building its head.
All that effort paid off: The larger-than-life Wall-E that roams around Disneyland has immobile eyes, but Senna’s 3.4-foot-replica features peepers that can move. READ FULL STORY »
Today is kind of a big day in Harry Potter world.
It’s the Boy Who Lived’s birthday (not to mention J.K. Rowling’s!) and, as even Muggles know, July 31 was also the day Hagrid broke down a door and was all, “You’re a wizard, Harry,” kicking off the whole saga.
July 31 will now also be known as the day Potter fans are faced with a choice more daunting than whether or not to trust Snape: whether or not to shell out a ridiculous amount of money for a very special collection set. Warner Bros. announced today that on September 7, they will release a brand-new 31-Disc Collection.
According to the press release: READ FULL STORY »
