I was under the assumption that Disney Channel stars endured the worst It Factor hard-wiring, but Nickelodeon just debunked that with an atomic "It" bomb named Reed Alexander. He's a 15-year-old iCarly actor who fancies himself a Mario Batali for tweens, and he's prepared for a syndication deal. Alexander appeared this morning with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb on Today to talk about making "great make-ahead desserts" that are "so fun for your friends in the summertime." Which is fine! Except that he's the most frightening child you. Have. Ever. Seen.
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The Karate Kid? Is that the best they can do? If you turn it into a hit, things will never change. It'd be like asking McDonald's to serve lobster when the gristle burgers they already sell buy the board members plenty of private jets already, thank you. You probably don't need to be told, but big-screen LCD TVs can be had for what you'd spend on maybe 12 nights at the movies. Twelve Karate Kids! Plus some cable...
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At Thursday's AFI tribute to Mike Nichols, famous faces from the director's 50-year career in film, theater and television filled the red carpet. Before the ceremony, we caught up with George Segal, the actor who shot to prominence with an Oscar nomination in Nichols' first film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. We asked Segal about his then-green director, memories of Woolf with his Oscar-winning co-star Sandy Dennis, and the specifics on his new TVLand show Retired at 35.
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While performing a surprise concert with Jack White in Nashville last night, Conan O'Brien announced his plan to release a vinyl album of rockabilly hits. The 300 fans who packed into White's Third Man Records heard a sneak peak of the recording, which will include covers of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock," Elvis Presley's "Blue Moon," The Stray Cats' "Rock This Town" and Radiohead's "Creep." A fan in the audience posted video from the night here. [Yahoo!]
A harrowing aquatic mishap forces Miami Medical's staff to buckle down on tonight's episode. If hospital drama isn't your milieu, Comedy Central's got a brand-new comedy special starring one of the biggest post-millennial acts, and Friday Night Lights returns with a new, sure-to-be-under-appreciated episode. I picked out a nice prostitute movie on TBS for the rest of you guys.
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They did it, you guys! In protest of ABC's decision to cancel FlashForward, literally dozens of fans the world over decided to stage their own version of the show's blackout sequence. While collapsed on the ground, they all shared a single vision of a future where FlashForward was still canceled, but at least their YouTube videos will be seen by more people than watched the actual finale! Here are the best of the bunch, culled from Seattle, Burbank, Chicago and London:
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Over the course of three seasons, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has transformed his protagonist from a spineless husband and chemistry teacher into a cold-hearted meth chemist who neglects his family in order to churn out hundreds of pounds of lethal crystal for cash. The role, born somewhere deep in Gilligan's subconscious, won star Bryan Cranston back-to-back Emmys, and tied together three seasons of one of the best (and darkest) dramas on television today. Gilligan himself, though, could not be any more different than the grim world and characters he created.
In anticipation of this Sunday's season finale, the native Virginian -- who also wrote and produced over 30 episodes of The X Files and penned the Will Smith blockbuster Hancock -- phoned Movieline to cheerfully talk about the nuttiest scene he ever wrote for Walt (that never made it to air), the encouragement of AMC, and the possibility of renewing Breaking Bad for a fifth season.
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If you consider yourself part of a cult film's fanbase, there's a distinct chance you believe Tim Curry is a god among men, or at least a sweet transvestite among plainclothes comic icons. On the red carpet before the taping of the AFI Life Achievement Awards Honoring Mike Nichols, Movileline spoke with the Rocky Horror Picture Show/Clue legend about how he won his newest role as a horrifying psychopath on CBS's Criminal Minds. It's a slap in the face to those who claim you can't get ahead by harassing actresses at the gym.
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Last night, the Real Housewives of New York City cast assembled on a magenta couch in midtown Manhattan for the first of a three-installment reunion. The ladies answered Andy Cohen's hardball questions -- like, "Alex, why was your husband so bloated this season?" and "Ramona, have you had anything injected into your face lately?" -- and then scratched each others eyes out. Click through for the moments (and disses) that made the Movieline Real/Fake alarm sound.
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Last night So You Think You Can Dance treated us to a nonthreatening exhibition round. The competitors weren't competing -- they were simply introducing themselves in cute choreographed numbers for the weeks to come. Totes cute. It's like in the '90s when the USA Network used to broadcast women's exhibition tennis, and the point of watching was how attractive they were. "Gabriela Sabatini Vs. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario! HOT and LIVE and in Dayton." But what would a recap of SYTYCD be without a declared winner? We've picked the best performance from the night, one with sly wit and a genius costume change.
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Last night on two different late night programs, Bryan Cranston and John C. Reilly shared eerily similar stories about their sex scenes with A-list actresses. One story involved a c*ck sock. Another story involved a chastity belt. Both stories involved bruised egos. Click through for those humiliating tales as well as the other highlights you missed last night while praying for Glee's cancellation.
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· And why shouldn't D.L. Hughley host a game show for NBC called Who's Bluffing Who? The pilot, which NBC ordered last night, will feature contestants who try to bluff their way into winning $500,000. The network guarantees that players will need both knowledge and deceptive talents to compete. If this series is greenlit, please forward all complaints to Don't Forget the Lyrics executive producer Jeff Aploff. [THR]
Kim Kardashian finds another E! crowd, Dexter picks up two season regulars, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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The World Cup is nigh -- even I'm getting sucked in. Soccer movies, though, are rare and usually dire -- except when they're docs, and when they're global, and when they focus on the game as real people play it, anywhere they can...
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After previewing Kathy Griffin's newest stand-up special a couple days ago, I wondered why the art of the stand-up special seems to have withered in an age where a simple one-liner can become the most popular video on the Internet. The best stand-up specials of all time remain compulsively consumable gems years later, well after Comedy Central stopped using them to pad its daily schedule. Movieline has compiled its 10 favorite specials after the jump with the hope of honoring a format that deserves to stay relevant forever. Banjos and mic stands ready!
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If you watched this week's Real Housewives of New Jersey until the very end, you probably caught the two surprise reveals that Bravo buried in the teaser for next week's episode: 1) Danielle Staub has a sex tape and 2) One housewife is leaving the show. Most viewers probably assumed that those two revelations were interconnected -- the cast members would badger Danielle about her latest scandal until she snaps, punches Teresa in the face, and is ejected by Bravo producers. However, the controversy-prone Danielle isn't the one jumping ship -- that'd be Dina Manzo, the most reasonable of the cast members. Who else needs to go?
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