Tag: On the Scene (11-20 of 361)

Nov 2 2012 10:11 AM ET

'X Factor' on-the-scene report: How Britney interacts with her fans, more Emblem3 moments

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Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/Fox

Last night, The X Factor pulled off its second live show of the season without any wardrobe malfunctions. Viewers watching at home saw some stellar and some not-so-stellar performances, Mario Lopez daring to correct Simon Cowell, a recently announced safe Jason Brock awkwardly struggling to pick between hugging the eliminated David Correy or embracing host Khloé Kardashian, and some over-eager Emblem3 boys tripping all over each other. But what didn’t make it onscreen last night? EW was on the scene for Thursday’s live taping. Read on to learn five things that were going on in the studio during the show that you didn’t see on TV. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 12 2012 12:16 AM ET

Hello Brooklyn! On the scene at Barbra Streisand's concert

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Image Credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

“Hello, Brooklyn!” Barbra Streisand called out to her hometown’s swanky new Barclay’s Center early on in her three-plus hour concert. The last time she did a solo show in Brooklyn, she told the cheering crowd, was when she was 8 and singing on a stoop on Pulaski Street. Remember that, she asked her brother who was in the audience? (In case you’re wondering, he scored good seats, not great.) She looked singularly Streisandly, in a shiny black number that had enough sheer to show off those famous legs. “You like the dress?” she asked the crowd. “Good! Donna Karan!” She complimented a member of the audience who must have been wearing a souvenir shirt. “Did you buy it in the shop?” she asked. “It’s cheaper online.” In other words, not much new material to be had tonight.  READ FULL STORY »

Oct 3 2012 12:28 PM ET

An ROUS arrested, Inigo's ninja skills, & 12 more things we learned at the 25th anniversary of 'The Princess Bride'

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Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

What, you didn’t learn enough about everyone’s favorite meta fairy tale from EW’s exhaustive Princess Bride oral history — and you’d like the skinny on the New York Film Festival’s 25th anniversary Bride screening? As you wish!

Last night, director Rob Reiner, screenwriter William Goldman, cast members Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Billy Crystal, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Carol Kane, and Wallace Shawn, and a thousand-odd lucky Princess Bride superfans gathered in Manhattan’s Alice Tully Hall for a special showing of the 1987 classic (now out on blu-ray). After hooting and applauding at their favorite iconic lines — the roar after “Have fun storming the castle!” was so loud that Crystal and Kane’s subsequent dialogue was totally drowned out — the crowd was treated to a panel discussion featuring Reiner and his stars. Here’s the best of what we learned during that discussion, the pre-screening red carpet event, and the movie itself:

1. Chris Sarandon wants to see a sequel called Humperdink’s Revenge
The man who played Buttercup’s wicked fiance didn’t share plot details of his imagined Princess Bride 2 with EW on the red carpet — but he did reveal that he proposed that title to William Goldman “years ago.” It didn’t take, though Goldman has been trying for years to pen a second Princess Bride book called Buttercup’s Baby. (More on that later.)

2. Mandy Patinkin is a Princess Bride quoting ninja
When they spy Patinkin in the wild, people are constantly quoting the Homeland star’s immortal words from the film: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” And when prompted, Patinkin is happy to say the quote himself — provided it’s for the right audience. READ FULL STORY »

Jul 28 2012 08:38 PM ET

'The Producers' plays the Hollywood Bowl: An on-the-scene report

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Image Credit: Mathew Imaging

Mel Brooks’ The Producers is typically a thoroughly New York affair, due to the fact that it’s a slapsticky, backstage musical about a pair of corrupt Broadway producers determined to make the biggest flop in the history of the Great White Way. But last night’s production of the musical at the Hollywood Bowl came off — as you might expect, in such a thoroughly historic Los Angeles location — as a very Tinseltown take on the show.

And it wasn’t only because Hollywood stars like Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dane Cook, and Rebecca Romijn were starring in the show, but rather because of the scene happening in the crowd as the sun set. Under the stars, tons of other stars were out and about. Brooks himself (looking spry at 86 years old!) ambled in with a security guard just minutes before the show started. The legend was followed by Eric Stonestreet, who plays Ferguson’s on-screen partner on Modern Family. Minutes later, Romijn’s husband Jerry O’Connell could be seen finding his seat in the amphitheater, which can hold about 17,000 folks when full. Who knows what other Hollywood stars or legends were in the crowd, but there were likely dozens of other bold-faced names there.

READ FULL STORY »

Jun 24 2012 03:32 PM ET

On the scene: 'Kitchen Nightmares' in Brooklyn

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Image Credit: Patrick Wymore/Fox

Neither donkeys nor doughnuts were on the menu as Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares relaunched Brooklyn restaurant Mama Maria’s last night. Ramsay’s restaurant takeover show heads into its sixth season this fall, and, judging from Mama Maria’s Yelp page, the family business fits squarely among the troubled restaurants Ramsay has endeavored to turn around since the series’ 2007 debut.

Anyone who’s seen even a single episode of Kitchen Nightmares knows the show invades a flailing eatery for a few days, rejiggers its cuisine and décor, then welcomes diners to critique the new and improved restaurant. On the night of the re-opening, patrons are generally treated to a prix fixe of ready-for-reality-TV drama: An aperitif of nervous hope, an appetizer of early-evening success followed swiftly by a main course of server blunders and behind-the-scenes bottlenecks, then a long wait while the imperiled staff attempts to regain its composure, and finally the sweet dessert of redemption. As I headed into the restaurant for an early evening seating, I worried I might be stuck in the smooth sailing portion of the night. Would there be no Nightmare for me? READ FULL STORY »

Jun 19 2012 07:47 AM ET

Snap Judgment: We touched Microsoft's Surface tablet!

The words “Apple” and “iPad” were never spoken during Microsoft’s unveiling yesterday of the company’s new tablet device, the Surface, but they haunted just about every facet of the presentation. First, there was the unusual, Apple-like secrecy surrounding the event — reporters were given just a few days notice that a “major announcement” would be taking place in Los Angeles, and only informed of the specific location just six hours before it was set to begin. (I overheard one reporter from San Francisco saying that he was only able to make a hotel reservation after he’d landed in L.A. that morning, because he wasn’t sure where in the sprawling city he’d have to be.)

When the Surface was finally revealed, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and a few other executives tripped over themselves fetishizing the tablet’s design, repeatedly emphasizing words like “seamless,” and “elegant,” and “perfect.” And much time was spent obsessing over the cutting-edge engineering that allowed for “vapor magnesium” casings that were both unfathomably thin and impressively rigid.

It was plainly obvious that Microsoft was gunning not only for Apple’s hefty market share, but also its zeitgeist-seizing mojo. The one question on all our minds, however, was whether any of us would get to actually use the Microsoft Surface.  READ FULL STORY »

Jun 16 2012 01:55 PM ET

'Project Runway': On the scene at the show's splashy Times Square fashion show

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Image Credit: Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for A&E

Out-of towners got the chance to be part of the upcoming season of Project Runway when Heidi Klum hosted a fashion show smack dab in the middle of New York City’s Times Square last night.

After welcoming the crowd, Klum took her seat beside fellow Runway stars Michael Kors and Nina Garcia and guest judges Lauren Graham and costumer Patricia Field to view the designs created by the new crop of contestants, 16 hopefuls competing for the chance to win prizes including $100,000 seed money from L’Oreal Paris, a fashion spread in Marie Claire, a 2013 Lexus GS 350 and the chance to design and sell their collection at retail chain Lord & Taylor.

Though the audience didn’t get to see anyone auf’d, they were treated to a lesson on the realities of reality television. “I warned you, because this is TV we’re going to do it one more time,” Klum explained after the 32 models (each contestant presented two designs) completed their first finale walk. “And maybe this time we can get some different music, something a little more groovy.”

READ FULL STORY »

May 24 2012 12:56 PM ET

On the scene at 'American Idol' finale: No shortage of lasers, confetti and Phillip Phillips fans

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In many ways, watching an American Idol finale in the flesh can end up being a lot like watching it at home: just like the previous night’s show, if you have a seat closer to the ZZ row than the A row, your eyes are going to be fixed mostly on the big screens instead of on the tiny people occupying the stage far away.

But there are still parts of the taping at Los Angeles’ Nokia Theatre that you probably didn’t catch on TV, like some fun off-camera moments from the judges and the truly loud and dominant crowd of Phillip Phillips fans. Yes, even 20 minutes before the show started, love for the Georgia guitar man was in the air, as one eager audience member shouted, “There’s Phillip!” – and that was just for one of his many appearances on-screen as moments from past episodes played. Here are a few other things you may have missed as you watched this year’s American Idol finale:

READ FULL STORY »

May 23 2012 01:00 AM ET

On the scene at 'American Idol' finale: The audience at Nokia Theatre clearly liked Phillip Phillips better than Jessica Sanchez

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Watching American Idol is so much more satisfying on a television. So thank your lucky stars that that’s where you got to watch it.

That fact that Idol is better on TV became abundantly clear last night, as I was sitting in the audience of the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, where the show’s performance finale was shot and telecast live to the East Coast and the Midwest in front of 7,000 screaming fans. My seat was in the very back row, all but assuring that I had to watch what was playing out just a few hundred feet in front of me on the jumbo projection screens plastered on either side of the stage. Think of the situation as something like how you might experience a Britney Spears concert in a huge arena today and — even though she’d be on stage right in front of you — you’d still end up watching most everything on the screens provided. Sure, it was something to simply exist in the same space as Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips, as they tried to convince America to vote for them one final time, but just like, say, the Grammys or the Oscars, American Idol is a show that’s made to be watched from the comfort of your own home.

READ FULL STORY »

May 9 2012 05:13 AM ET

'The Voice': On the scene for the season 2 finale

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Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

By Whitney Pastorek

Stuck in traffic on the way to the finale of The Voice tonight, I felt a palpable excitement, PopWatchers. Last night’s epic battle of Jermaine Paul, Chris Mann, Juliet Simms, and Tony Lucca had featured such fireworks – both literal and (yes, Adam) metaphorical – I felt certain that I was about to bear witness to a dramatic spectacle! Would Christina punch Adam in the face? Would Tony Lucca’s wife rip out Christina’s weave? Would audience members spontaneously combust in the heat? I did not know, but I was prepared for anything.

Sadly, the answer turned out to be: none of the above. It was a somewhat languid finale for those of us there in person, as the heat in the soundstage led not to combustion, but wilting. It took very little time for Bill the Warmup Dude to inform us that we were the quietest audience ever. “Your clapping should be contagious, like a cold,” Bill told us. “I need your applause to be real applause, with both hands making noise.” Eventually he gave up, and just told everyone that Justin Bieber would be performing later. That did the trick. READ FULL STORY »

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