The Saturday Night Live Christmas show is always a spectacular, almost in the Radio City Music Hall sense of the word. Martin Short and Paul McCartney shepherded a team of celebs who helped make the last episode of 2012 joyful and triumphant. Alec Baldwin and Sam Jackson chimed in, and there were cameos from Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig, Tom Hanks and Jimmy Fallon. It’s SNL‘s version of those SportsCenter commercials, where all your favorite funny people just happen to hang at Studio 8H.
As someone who was weaned on SNL during Short’s brief tenure back in 1984 (and later fell back in love with his comedy during his Jiminy Glick phase), I greatly enjoyed his monologue and sketches — and wish he had done even more. Larry David isn’t impossible to imitate, but his version of the HBO curmudgeon set in Charlie Brown’s world was an all-timer in my book. READ FULL STORY »
Next week, Saturday Night Live will return after a two-week hiatus with a new episode starring Oscar winner Jamie Foxx. As anyone who spent all of 2005 humming “Gold Digger” knows, Foxx is a talented double threat — he showed off his pipes in 2006′s Dreamgirls, not to mention on four studio albums of original tunes.
Which means that in at least one sketch — and probably several — Foxx is going to sing. He’ll likely croon for the first time in his monologue, warbling a goofy song about, I don’t know, Quentin Tarantino’s eccentricities or how it happens to be December.
Of the eight regular episodes of SNL that have aired this season so far, five have kicked off with a musical monologue — six, if you count the striptease dance number Joseph Gordon-Levitt performed in September. READ FULL STORY »
“Just go have fun and be a jackass.” That’s what Jeremy Renner’s The Town co-star — and SNL all-star — Jon Hamm advised the Oscar-nominated actor about the opportunity to host for the first time. And even though Renner isn’t known for his comedy — “If I laugh in one of my movies,” he said during his opening monologue, “somebody dies” — he seemed willing to pile up a high body count. Perhaps that’s why I laughed hardest when he and Taran Killam filled Bobby Moynihan with lead during “The Stand Off” digital short.
But Renner has some imposing competition in our latest Saturday Night Live host poll. First off, there’s Anne Hathaway. If audience reaction seemed mixed after her show last week, there turned out to be an enormous enthusiasm gap between those who loved her and those who wrinkled their noses. She rocked 57 percent of the vote, topping Louis C.K.‘s performance and marking the best voting debut for a host since Jimmy Fallon last season. Seth MacFarlane continued to prove that his season premiere had lasting power, and Bruno Mars held on to eliminate Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Click below for last week’s official results, and then vote on whether Renner earned a spot in the final four. READ FULL STORY »
Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge Jeremy Renner fan. My obsession with the Avengers star may not rival that I have with Michael Fassbender (I like to watch this clip when I’m feeling blue — completely family friendly, I assure you), but it’s up there. I mean, have you seen Renner’s arms? Just… sa-woon. Oh, and he’s a pretty good actor too (you know, if those Oscar nods are anything to go by). But wow, that was a painful episode of Saturday Night Live, wasn’t it? READ FULL STORY »
The last time a fair-haired actor best known for his onscreen intensity made his SNL hosting debut, things didn’t turn out so well. Daniel Craig was game but never fully comfortable on Saturday Night Live, and the material he was given — a weirdly un-topical set of sketches about construction workers, a space mission, and Fred Armisen in a skirt — didn’t help matters. So is Jeremy Renner, a similarly serious star, destined to deliver a similarly underwhelming performance?
Even though Renner’s SNL promos were pretty rote, I’m going to give the Oscar nominee the benefit of the doubt. His skills as an impressionist are untested, but he’s given witty performances in action movies like The Avengers and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – and Renner also told EW earlier this week that he’s planning to follow advice given to him by SNL pro (and his co-star in The Town)Jon Hamm. I can’t think of a better Saturday Night Live role model, unless Renner also consulted with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.
Who’s manlier — Jeremy “Action Star” Renner or Kenan “Of Kenan & Kel” Thompson? The answer, according to Renner’s new SNL promos, will not surprise you. The clip’s setting might, though; instead of a soundstage or the halls of Studio 8H, Renner and Thompson shot their video at a bar (or at least, a bar set). It’s the perfect place to discuss a government plot… one that doesn’t exist. Or does it?! Watch and learn:
Two weeks ago, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said that the studio would like another Bourne movie, following the well-received summer sideboot starring Jeremy Renner as fugitive agent Aaron Cross. Some reporters automatically assumed that meant a sequel was already in the works, but though that might prove inevitable, it is not yet official, according to sources close to the franchise. In fact, the future of Bourne is almost as up in the air as it was when Matt Damon decided not to return as the titular secret agent. READ FULL STORY »
The London Olympics, it must be noted, are just a little over halfway finished, and the major focus will now shift from the swimming pool to the track and field stadium and team sports. World-record holder Usain Bolt will attempt to make history today in the 100 meters, the Dream Team is still on course for gold in hoops, and the American women’s soccer team has its eyes set on an Olympic threepeat. For those of you numb from Bob Costas’ measured tones tucking you in at night, however, there are plenty of other gold-medal-caliber entertainment options this week. By plenty, I mean seven. So you may as well just succumb to the Olympic spirit, vow not to harp about NBC’s tape-delayed coverage, and try to mix in a little Full Metal Jacket Blu-ray or The Bourne Legacy in between all the U-S-A! chants. Good luck with that.
SUNDAY, AUG. 5
Lollapalooza at Grant Park in Chicago
Olympics Primetime: Who is the World’s Fastest Man?, NBC
Lollapalooza might be the best example of Olympic counter-programming ever conceived. I doubt many folks in Chicago for the weekend festival have been obsessively following the sweaty jocks 4,000 miles away. Tonight, the festival closes with performances from Jack White, Florence + The Machine, and Childish Gambino (a.k.a. Community‘s Donald Glover), among others. You can watch a live stream online.
Sometime around 4:50 p.m. ET, Usain Bolt will defend his title as the World’s Fastest Man in the men’s 100-meter final. He coasted through his preliminary heat — winning despite nearly stumbling out of the starting block. NBC’s primetime coverage will surely celebrate his repeat gold, or the crowning of a new champion.
MONDAY, AUG. 6
Pete Seeger on The Colbert Report, Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. Olympics Primetime: Men’s 400-meters final, NBC
I have this hope that Colbert’s sit-down with the 93-year-old folk legend will be as electric as the host’s interview last year with Maurice Sendak, who died earlier this year. (Hmm…, maybe “electric” isn’t the right word for Seeger.) But can they close with a duet of “This Land is Your Land”? Please.
American sprinter and 2008 Olympic gold medalist LaShawn Merritt injured himself in his qualifying heat, so the 400-meter title is wide open. So far, no one’s come within a second of Michael Johnson’s 13-year-old world record.
TUESDAY, AUG. 7
Full Metal Jacket 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Olympics Primetime: Final day of men’s and women’s gymnastics, NBC
Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 Vietnam epic wowed critics with its stark portrayal of Marine boot camp and the multitude of contradictions that soldiers faced in southeast Asia. A new Blu-ray looks back, and passionate fans can dig even deeper with Matthew Modine’s Full Metal Jacket Diary app, which chronicles the actor’s own tour of duty with the unknowable director.
In London, hard-luck gymnast Jordyn Wieber goes for gold in the women’s floor exercise, and three other golds will be handed out during the last night of gymnastics competition.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 8
Dallas season finale, TNT, 9:00 p.m. Olympics Primetime: Women’s beach volleyball final
Tonight on Dallas!
Please let Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings make the beach volleyball final: May-Treanor has not yet thanked everyone she has ever met since she was 7 years old during her post-match heart-to-hearts with the camera!
As someone who’s been to a hospital once, let me say that Childrens Hospital is the best, most realistic medical docudrama on television. These doctors — heroes actually — make other, similar shows seem like a childish game of Operation.
The U.S. women’s soccer team faces Canada in the semifinals, and the winner of that game will face either France or Japan — yes, the same Japanese team that thwarted the Americans at last year’s World Cup — in the gold-medal game. It’s unlikely that NBC will tape-delay the entire game in primetime, so tune in for it live at 2:45 p.m. ET.
FRIDAY, AUG. 10
The Bourne Legacy out in theaters Olympics Primetime: Women’s 4×100 relay and men’s 4×400 relay finals, NBC
Finally, Jeremy Renner’s got his own blockbuster vehicle. After driving shotgun in Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol and squeezing in to the back seat for The Avengers, the two-time Oscar nominee takes the wheel from Matt Damon in this unique “sideboot” of the Bourne franchise. “You think Jason Bourne was the whole story?” says a bad dude in the trailer. “There’s a lot more going on here!”
Olympic relays are high-stakes affairs, especially since American women sprinters have an infamous reputation for dropping the baton. In the men’s 4×400, medical marvel Oscar Pistorius, who lost his own legs and runs on prosthetic blades, will compete for South Africa.
SATURDAY, AUG. 11
Jeff Ross Roasts America, Comedy Central, 11 p.m. Olympics Primetime: Men’s 50K walk, 4 a.m. ET
Somehow, Jeff Ross has made insulting people to their faces a noble deed. As the Roastmaster General, he produces many of the Comedy Central roasts that help pay for many celebrities’ continued addictions. On Saturday, he sets the mood for Sunday night’s ritual tar-and-feathering of Roseanne with this one-hour special documenting his cross-country tour.
On the Olympic front, I’m calling you out, posers. You think you’re an Olympic fan? But just how committed are you? Wake up early to see a stampede of skinny men wiggle for 50 kilometers as if they’re racing for the last Porta-John in London. Watch this whole race and earn the right to light the torch in Rio 2016.
SUNDAY, AUG. 12
Olympics Primetime: Closing ceremonies and men’s basketball final
Will the Spice Girls reunite for the closing ceremonies, book-ending the Games with the Beckhams? Will One Direction, Pink Floyd, Annie Lennox, The Clash, George Michael, and Russell Brand perform? Will the Queen bungee-jump from Big Ben?
More importantly on these shores, will America’s NBA stars be smiling as they take their final Olympic stadium bows? LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and the rest of the undefeated American have already been tested, nearly losing to Lithuania (population: 3.2 million). On Sunday morning at 10 a.m. ET, they’d better be playing for — and winning — gold or an entire nation will welcome its hoops squad like the city of Cleveland greeted the Miami Heat.
No one could claim that The Avengers are an evenly matched team of superheroes. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) are more-or-less indestructible — Thor can even fly, for Odin’s sake — whereas Captain America (Chris Evans) is just the most fit human being ever with a seemingly shatterproof shield. And while Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) are supremely talented, they are very much earthbound mortals. Then there’s Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), who can fly and shoot rockets and such, but is embodied by a highly flawed man who’s always just a hair away from death.
But what about the actors playing all of these roles — are they as lopsidedly matched? READ FULL STORY »
Unsure who Black Widow is? Having trouble deciphering the Hulk’s roar? Can’t tell the difference between Iron Man and the Iron Giant? In anticipation of the release of The Avengers on May 4, EW’s team of super geeks is here to help guide you through the mythos with our seven-part series of superhero primers, the recently declassified “Avengers Files.” It doesn’t matter if you’re a comic book connoisseur or a Nick Fury newbie — follow along this week as we deconstruct Earth’s mightiest heroes and pose the question: Which Avenger is the mightiest?
Name: Hawkeye/Clint Barton
First comic appearance:Tales of Suspense #57 (September, 1964), written by Stan Lee, penciled and inked by Don Heck.
First appearance in The Avengers (comic):Issue 16 (May, 1965), written by Lee, penciled by Jack Kirby.
First movie appearance: To set the stage for Hawkeye’s bigger role in The Avengers and to cultivate greater continuity among its movies, Marvel squeezed the the bow-twanging lone wolf agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (that’s Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division in Marvel movie lingo) into last summer’s Thor (gross $449 million worldwide), where he came thisclose to giving Thor the shaft in his brief cameo. READ FULL STORY »
