Archive for April, 2008

• Fox is new with Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? and Don’t Forget the Lyrics
• NBC is new with My Name is Earl, Scrubs, The Office, 30 Rock, and ER
• CBS is new with Survivor, CSI, and Without a Trace
• ABC is new with Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, and Lost
• The CW is new with Smallville and Supernatural
• Bravo is new with Step It Up and Dance
• MTV is new with Rock the Cradle
• VH1 is new with I Know My Kid’s a Star
• Comedy Central is new with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report
• Late-night highlights include Cameron Diaz, Terrence Howard, and Avril Lavigne on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC, John Goodman, Bear Grylis, and Robyn on Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, Sean Combs, John Cho, and Stone Temple Pilots on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, Sigourney Weaver on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on NBC, and Helen Hunt, Sarah Chalke, and She & Him on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS

The more I think about Paula Abdul’s now-infamous slip-up — criticizing a song that was yet to be performed on last night’s American Idol — the more ridiculous it gets. Popwatch has a report from inside the auditorium on what they’ve dubbed PaulaGate, saying even the audience was audibly snickering as Paula launched into her critique.

Paula’s since given two explanations for what happened — one that she accidentally gave Jason Castro the critique meant for David Cook, the other that she gave Jason feedback based on her notes from the dress rehearsal. Considering that Paula’s feedback for Jason was negative but her comments for David were positive, the first theory seems pretty implausible — but the second one could make some sense.

Of course, there are a few other possibilities, too — namely that Idol is more scripted than it claims to be and/or that Paula is crazier than we even thought. So, consider this your opportunity to post your conspiracy theories on PaulaGate and Idol in general. Is it scripted? Does it bother you that the judges could give feedback based on a performance the rest of us didn’t see? Is Paula just nutso? If you haven’t seen the video yet, check it out after the jump. If you’re ready to weigh in, just

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Here’s the good thing I can say about Tennessee: The effort behind the film is commendable. “A” for effort. “D” for most everything else. And you know, I wasn’t altogether convinced that it would be a terrible movie simply because Mariah Carey was in it. I wanted to give Tennessee the benefit of the doubt, so I did, but now I just want those 95 minutes of my life back.

On paper, maybe a touching drama about road trips and brotherly love looked like cinematic gold. And some of the shots of bronzey Southwest sunsets are quite striking. But that’s where the “pros” of this movie end. You know how sometimes a series of slow and quiet scenes can be evocative, tense and rich? Not so much here. In this case it just makes for an incredibly flat, boring film. The story comes out lackluster and cliché, and none of it is helped by Mariah Carey’s mumbling, careless shrug of a performance. It’s not even worth it to go into the details of the plot, really, but still,

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The last thing you may be looking for from your pop culture intake is a big old message about global trafficking — or as MTV’s EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) project puts it, modern-day slavery. However, I think it is precisely this blending together of real-world message with pop culture that Radiohead is attempting to do in a new video for their song “All I Need.” They succeed beautifully by showing us two young boys in different parts of the world going about their everyday lives and how different their respective experiences are.

Of working with MTV and the importance of this issue, frontman Thom Yorke told the Hollywood Reporter:

All power to MTV for taking this on because its obviously going to be difficult for them in terms of the advertisers. With the (“All I Need”) video, their lawyers had to beg to make sure there wasn’t a single white trainer with a logo on it because the implication would be a little too close. But the implication is still there.

For those who don’t know, a “trainer” is an athletic shoe, like one made by, say, Nike.

Nothing like a poignant video tackling a somewhat taboo topic in the West to suck all the snark right out of the blogosophere. Stereogum called the video “deeply inspiring” and said that the final shot is “one of the more emotionally charged moments in a music video that we can remember.” I couldn’t agree more and think everyone should pause today and take a look.

You can watch the video for yourself and check out Radiohead’s recent brilliant performance on the Conan O’Brien show if you

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• According to ComingSoon, America Ferrera will star in the coming-of-age drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which will be directed by Mad Hot Ballroom’s Marilyn Agrelo.
• Paramount and Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B have picked up the rights to two memoirs, Beautiful Boy and Tweak, Variety reports.
• FX has ordered a series about a rebel motorcycle gang from one of the producers of The Shield, reports Zap2it.
• Mariah Carey’s album remains at the top of the charts for the second week in a row, while Ashlee Simpson is coming in at No. 4, behind Leona Lewis and the Flight of the Conchords album, writes E! Online.
• The iTunes store has added three series from BBC America to its catalog, Broadcasting & Cable reports.
• Reuters reports that there’s already a book and documentary in the works about New York governor Eliot Spitzer.
• Spike TV has given the green light to its first comedy series, The Factory, an improvised show from the co-creator of Strangers with Candy, writes the Hollywood Reporter.
• Jonah Hill is in talks to provide the comic relief as Shia’s sidekick in the Transformers sequel, writes ComingSoon.

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TV pilot season was slow to start up because of the strike this year, but now it’s definitely in full swing. It seems like you can’t look at the Internet without seeing news of another casting for the 90210 spinoff — today’s is the totally adorable Jessica Stroup of Reaper and Prom Night, who will play video blogger Daphne Silver — and Joss Whedon’s highly anticipated Dollhouse already has its own fully functional fan community. Things will probably only get crazier in a couple of weeks, once the networks hold their Upfronts and announce which Fall pilots are a go.

Some people are early adopters who become interested in TV projects based on concepts and cast alone; others have to wait until the show is actually on the air to start caring. So, where do you fall?

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Towelhead (which also goes by the title Nothing Is Private) was one of the movies on my to-see list at Sundance that kept getting edged down by other movies, partially because of other priorities, though I also worried that it would be really disturbing. Now the film, based on the novel by Alicia Erian, has a theatrical release date of August 8 and a trailer which has only made me more uneasy about watching the movie — though also more curious, too.

The story is of the coming-of-age variety, though this one features a 13 year old girl (Summer Bishil) whose Caucasian mother (Maria Bello) sends her to live with her Lebanese father (Peter Macdissi) in a small suburban town. She begins to explore her awakening sexuality, spending time with a boy from school (Eugene Jones III) and befriending a neighbor (Aaron Eckhart) whose intentions are far from pure. Her home life with a strict and sometimes abusive father only further drives her curiosity about her identity, her sexuality, her place in the world.

Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, tries his hand at directing with the movie, and it seems to bear his signature marks of examining the darkest corners of the human soul while offering glimmers of humor and redemption. I’m both interested in and slightly afraid of this film. To check out the trailer,

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Even without the writers’ strike, the seventh season of Fox’s 24 might have been in trouble. The show had some fairly legendary production problems that caused the writers to scrap one entire plotline that would have sent Jack to Africa.

Now, it looks like some good will come from the delay after all: The producers will finally get to delve into their Africa storyline — not for a whole season, but for a two-hour prequel designed to fill in the long gap between seasons of the show. The prequel is set to air sometime in the Fall, and producer Manny Coto told the Associated Press that it would find Jack wandering around the world, ultimately finding himself in the middle of a war-torn country:

“He’s a soul in turmoil and has been moving from place to place trying to find somewhere he can be at peace. But he winds up in Africa in the middle of a military coup.”

That Jack just can’t catch a break, can he? The events of the prequel will lead directly into the seventh season, which is set to start in January 2009.

Meanwhile, the rest of the season sounds like it’s proceeding as previously planned, with eight episodes already shot. Jack will be subpoenaed by the Senate for crimes against humanity; there’s a new president (played by Cherry Jones) running things, and Tony Almeida is, mysteriously, living again.

Has this long break made you miss 24? Do you think you’ll pick the show back up when the special airs later this year?

Photo courtesy of Fox