Tag: Politics as Entertainment (21-30 of 819)

Feb 4 2013 04:45 PM ET

Geraldo Rivera threatening New Jersey with Senate run

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Geraldo-Rivera

Image Credit: Joe Burbank/AP

New Jersey voters are accustomed to pugnacious politicians who scrap their way to power and personify the best and worst traits of the Garden State. (See: Gov. Chris Christie, who wears the state’s reputation for toughness like a badge of honor.) The murky swamp that is New Jersey politics is home to some crafty critters, so residents shouldn’t have blinked when Geraldo Rivera recently announced he was contemplating a run for U.S. Senate.

“I mention this only briefly … fasten your seatbelt,” Rivera said on his radio program late last week. “I am and have been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker in New Jersey.”

Rivera, a Fox News personality, followed up with several tweets confirming his interest.

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Feb 4 2013 09:00 AM ET

Inside the Best Picture Nominees: A deep dive into 'Zero Dark Thirty'

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ZERO-DARK-THIRTY

Image Credit: Jonathan Olley

Name: Zero Dark Thirty

Release date: Limited release: Dec. 19; wide release: Jan. 11

DVD release date: N/A

Run time: 2 hours, 37 minutes

Box office: First weekend (wide): $24.4 million; total domestic (so far): $71.8 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93 percent

Movie Math: Real life + (Homeland x The Hurt Locker) + (National Geographic’s Seal Team Six – basic cable production values)

Tweetable description: Brilliant, determined CIA agent spends years obsessively hunting down terrorist mastermind; is not named Carrie Mathison.

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Jan 29 2013 09:42 AM ET

Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams slow-jam the debt ceiling -- VIDEO

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What would it take for NBC to just go ahead and transform Rock Center into a sketch show? Brian Williams has been the network’s comedic secret weapon for years now — and this Late Night performance is just the latest in a long line of surprisingly funny guest appearances for him. (Bonus: Watching it might actually teach you something about current events.)

Yesterday, the newsman joined Jimmy and The Roots for a sensual slow-jamming about the debt ceiling, keeping a perfectly straight face even as Fallon cracked up over lines like, “Take it from my man Brilly Willy: ain’t nothing worse than a soft Boehner.” And then came the Salt-n-Pepa interlude, which not even a buttoned-up BriWi could resist. Turn down the lights — er, the brightness on your computer screen — sit back, and see the magic happen:

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Jan 28 2013 09:58 AM ET

Watch Obama and Clinton's mutual love-fest on '60 Minutes' -- VIDEO

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obama-hillary-interview

Image Credit: CBS

Last night, 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft introduced his joint interview of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with something of a disclaimer: “The White House offered us 30 minutes [with Obama and Clinton] — barely enough time to scratch the surface of their complicated personal and professional relationship,” he said.

But 30 minutes ended up giving the president and his top diplomat plenty of time to sing each other’s praises — expressing their mutual professional admiration, enthusing about their close friendship, and stopping just short of braiding each other’s hair on camera. Here’s a sampling of quotes from their love-fest:

Obama: “I just wanted to have a chance to publicly say ‘thank you,’ because I think Hillary will go down as one of the finest secretaries of state we’ve had. It has been a great collaboration over the last four years. I’m going to miss her.” READ FULL STORY »

Jan 24 2013 09:54 AM ET

Lip-sync-gate continues: Inaugural official says Beyonce didn't sing anthem live

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beyonce-national-anthem

Image Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Well, that settles it (maybe, possibly, probably not): According to CNN, an unnamed inaugural official has confirmed that Beyoncé lip-synched while performing the “Star-Spangled Banner” on Monday.

“Because she didn’t have time to rehearse with the Marine Band, she decided to use her recording with the Marine Band,” the official said, noting that the singer didn’t arrive in Washington D.C. until late Sunday night. The official doesn’t know why Beyoncé elected not to sing live — by all accounts, “she was spot on” in her pre-recording session, and “she’s actually a very good live singer.” There’s apparently no word on why Bey ripped out her earpiece mid-song, either.

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Jan 23 2013 02:14 PM ET

Great moments in lip-synching, from The Beatles to Jennifer Hudson -- VIDEO

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Whitney-Houston_510x317.jpg

Image Credit: George Rose/Getty Images

There’s a silver lining to yesterday’s whole Beyoncé lip-synching debacle: If Bey did, in fact, mouth the words to the national anthem at Monday’s inauguration, at least she’s in good company.

As Jennifer Lopez noted on The Daily Show last night, basically every major musician has relied on pre-recorded tracks at some point — even giants like The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston. (Not to mention lesser beings like Ashlee Simpson and Milli Vanilli.) So in honor of the earpiece-removal that scandalized a nation, let’s look back at some of music history’s most memorable lip-synching moments — both famous and infamous.

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Jan 23 2013 09:53 AM ET

Jennifer Lopez defends lip-synching: 'All performers do it at some point' -- VIDEO

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As lip-sync-gate rages on, Beyoncé still hasn’t responded to requests for comment or released a statement about whether her Inauguration Day vocals were live or pre-recorded. But either way, Bey can count on the support of her peers — i.e. fellow megastars who understand that sometimes, lip-synching is a necessary evil.

Jennifer Lopez didn’t exactly defend Queen B’s honor while visiting The Daily Show last night — but she did acknowledge that basically every musician has to rely on pre-recorded tracks in certain contexts. “You know, sometimes it happens,” she explained to Jon Stewart. “When you’re in certain stadiums and in certain venues, they do pre-record things.” She also cited Whitney Houston’s iconic “Star-Spangled Banner” as proof that even the greatest singers lip-sync sometimes — “All performers do have to do it at some point.”

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Jan 22 2013 02:13 PM ET

Beyonce reportedly lip-syncs national anthem: Why we shouldn't care

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Beyonce

Image Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Here’s a truth bomb that will rock you to your very core: Sometimes, at big, important events, singers don’t actually sing.

An artist may choose to mouth along to a pre-recorded track during a “live” performance for any number of reasons. Maybe the weather is bad; maybe she simply isn’t feeling well. Whatever the excuse, though, lip-synching is about as ubiquitous as the common cold — especially if the singer in question happens to be performing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Jennifer Hudson did it at Super Bowl XLIII in 2009. Whitney Houston also did it when delivering her definitive version of the anthem in 1991.

Which brings us to Beyoncé, who reportedly used a pre-recorded track when she sang the national anthem at yesterday’s presidential inauguration.  READ FULL STORY »

Jan 22 2013 01:02 PM ET

Rep. Peter King has no idea who Jay-Z is

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New-York-PostGeneral consensus: Earpiece or no earpiece, Beyoncé crushed it at the inauguration yesterday. (UPDATE: Maybe!)

That explains why the cover of today’s New York Post printed the headline “First Couple” alongside a photo of music’s undisputed power couple. The joke, of course, being that — all due respect to the Obamas — every inauguration attendee was really most excited to snap a picture of Bey and Jay. Well… almost every one.

As Buzzfeed points out, in the Post photo Rep. Peter King (far right) happily joined in the DIY paparazzi moment. Only problem: King later tweeted that he had no clue who the nice man escorting Beyoncé was. “Anybody who looked important I took a picture of at inauguration. I didn’t know who the guy beside @Beyonce was,” he explained, linking to the Post cover. READ FULL STORY »

Jan 22 2013 11:31 AM ET

Jon Stewart vs. Stephen Colbert: Who had the best inauguration jokes? VIDEO

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Comedy Central’s crack fake news team kicked off four more years of Obama jokes last night, when the president’s second inauguration provided a wealth of material for both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Jon Stewart began the evening with a discussion of the day’s main event: Michelle Obama’s awesome new bangs. He also hit on the inauguration itself — which featured an Obama screw-up that must have made Mitt Romney spit out his milk, George Stephanopoulos proving that all tall people look the same to him, and a presidential address that detailed “a healthcare plan designed to kill your white grandparents. Kill ‘em dead!” Pretty solid stuff, though not quite as notable as the fact that the show welcomed Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor just hours after she swore in Vice President Biden. (Someone give The Daily Show‘s guest booker a raise, stat.)

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