Archive for January, 2009

The annual 31 Days of Oscar festival on Turner Classic Movies is always a great way to catch up on great films I might have missed, but this year it might also teach me something new. This year’s Oscar celebration – which starts Feb. 1 and goes through March 3 - is divided up like a college curriculum, with “departments” like Zoology and Communications and courses of study including Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Advanced Ballet, and Contemporary Issues in Mass Media.

It’s really a trip to look through all the different movies that fall under each “course.” Genetics has The Parent Trap, among others, while Bedknobs and Broomsticks falls under Aerodynamics. Dr. Strangelove, naturally, is covered under Nuclear Physics, and The Graduate is a key component of Contemporary Moral Issues.

It’s a pretty clever spin on an old tradition, I think. The full list of films on the docket is over here, and to see a few of the “courses” I might enroll in myself, just read more.

Tuesday, Feb. 3 – Architecture Department
Architecture of Ancient Rome
Noon – Julius Caesar (1953)
2:15 p.m. – Ben-Hur (1959)
6:15 p.m. – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

Sunday, Feb. 8 – Anthropology Department
Urban Ethnic Cultures
8 p.m. – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
10:15 p.m. – Moonstruck (1987)
12:15 a.m. – Marty (1955)
2 a.m. - Boyz N the Hood (1991)
4 a.m. – The Jazz Singer (1927)

Saturday, Feb. 14 – Sociology Department
Race, Gender and Ethnicity
8 p.m. – Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1955)
10 p.m. – The King and I (1956)
12:30 a.m. – South Pacific (1958)
3:15 a.m. – Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967)
5:15 a.m. – Annie Hall (1977)

Friday, Feb. 27 – Political Science Department
American Elections and the Legislative Process
8 p.m. – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
10:15 p.m. – All the King’s Men (1949)
12:15 a.m. – The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
2:30 a.m. – The Best Man (1964)
4:30 a.m. – So This is Washington (1943)

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• Too many doubters? Looks like Trust Me is going to have to work for viewers’ trust. The TNT show drew 3.4 million viewers for Monday’s premiere, which is lower than many other recent TNT premieres.
• Cookin’. Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen had a pretty decent debut on Thursday with 11.1 million viewers.
• And sagging. Sorry, I had to: Ratings for the Screen Actors Guild awards were down this year, to 5.4 million viewers on TBS and TNT combined.
• House’s new home. House continues to rock its new Monday slot. This week, with a lot of its competition in reruns, the show nabbed 15.6 million viewers.

Photo courtesy of TNT

I’ve begged, I’ve pleaded, I’ve promised you candy (OK, not really . . . but maybe I should have!) and a ton of you have responded and taken the BuzzSugar survey! But I would still love if a few more of you could pitch in, and today’s the last chance.

So, if you could take a second to help a girl out, I’d like to get to know a little more about you. After all, your comments, feedback, and loyalty are what make BuzzSugar tick. So, if you’ve got a few minutes, please take this year’s BuzzSugar reader survey! It’s quick, it’s painless, and it’ll help me make sure I’m delivering the best, most timely, and most fun entertainment content on the web.

Just click here to get started. Thanks in advance for your help!

• Check out this creepy little Coraline box I received in the mail, complete with two button-eyes I will need should I decide to cross over into my “Other Mother”‘s world.
• Ahhh! So much ’80s stuff coming to big and small screens, including the movie Parenthood being turned into a TV show; He-Man the movie getting a director; and Mickey Rourke continuing to star in movies. We’re going back in time – buckle up.
• In blonde casting news this week: Hilary Duff landed the role of Bonnie in the new Bonnie and Clyde movie (no, it’s true, you read that right); and Amanda Seyfried will play the main character in the film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance.
• I’m pretty excited that the new Franz Ferdinand album is out now! I was also interested in your thoughts on TV on the Radio’s cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes.”
• Hey, Lost fans: Here’s a funny video you should be sure to check out. Trust me.
• Are you ready for the Super Bowl this weekend?! Which entertainment-related event are you most looking forward to? And which fan fight song is the best?
• Sundance has wrapped up and it was a good year there. Check out my roundup of awards and news coming out of the festival.

• Fox has a repeat and a new episode of Cops and is new with America’s Most Wanted
• NBC is new with Crusoe and has a repeat of Saturday Night Live Sports Extra
• CBS is new with Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials, has a repeat of NCIS, and is new with 48 Hours
• ABC has Anchorman and a repeat of Life on Mars
• MTV has 199 Lives: The Travis Pastrana Story
• Late-night highlights include Steve Martin and Jason Mraz on a new episode of Saturday Night Live on NBC, a repeat of MadTV on Fox, and a new episode of Talkshow With Spike Feresten on Fox

Yay: The Zack and Miri Make a Porno DVD will hit shelves next Tuesday, Feb. 3! But on Wal-Mart’s shelves the title may look a little bit different. Wal-Mart requested that director Kevin Smith change the title on the DVD covers so the word “porno” isn’t there, and Smith has agreed to do it. Here’s more:

Smith said Weinstein Co., which released the film Oct. 31, has complied with Wal-Mart’s request and created new DVD covers for the retailer, but the director worries that some unsuspecting customers will be fooled when they see the shortened title.

[Smith said,] “I mean, at least with the word ‘porno’ in the title, you can kind of give people a warning about what they’re in for.”

That’s a good point, really – is it actually doing anyone a service to take the word “porno” out of the title? Or is it understandable that Wal-Mart would want the DVD cover to not include that word?

Photo courtesy of The Weinstein Company

Calling all fangirls and Buzz Book Club readers: One of the most highly anticipated movies of ’09 is coming to a theater near you on March 6, so this month’s book club selection is the critically acclaimed series of comic books, Watchmen.

The saga of bringing this comic book series to the screen has been most dramatic. Director Terry Gilliam, who was first attached to the project, deemed the complex, groundbreaking work “unfilmable.” Eventually the talented Zack Snyder took the helm mostly out of fear that someone else wouldn’t do it well enough, and from the looks of the previews so far it looks like Snyder has done an awesome job. Filmable? Unfilmable? It’s our turn to be the judges.

For those of you new to my book club format, here’s how it works: I announce a new book each month. Every week I suggest chapters to complete by the next post (which, in this case, will go up every Friday in February). In these weekly Book Club posts, I’ll posit a few discussion-provoking questions for you to respond to in the comments section.

To find out what Watchmen is all about and to get the first section, read more.

The synopsis for Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons reads:
“It all begins with the paranoid delusions of a half-insane hero called Rorschach. But is Rorschach really insane or has he in fact uncovered a plot to murder super-heroes and, even worse, millions of innocent civilians? On the run from the law, Rorschach reunites with his former teammates in a desperate attempt to save the world and their lives, but what they uncover will shock them to their very core and change the face of the planet! Following two generations of masked superheroes from the close of World War II to the icy shadow of the Cold War comes this groundbreaking comic story – the story of The Watchmen.”

The first section: Read from the start of the book through chapter three. Stop before chapter four. We’ll discuss this section next Friday, Feb. 6.

American Idol wrapped up its 2009 audition episodes last night with stops in New York and Puerto Rico – and now it’s on to Hollywood! This year, 36 contestants will be picked from the Hollywood crowd to move onto the semifinals. And while we haven’t seen everyone who got a golden ticket – not by a long shot – I’ve already got my eye on a few early standouts.

Three of the female singers caught my attention so far: Emily Wynne-Hughes (pictured at right, the one with the cupcake tattoo who sang “Barracuda”), Leneshe Young (the Louisville auditioner who sang one of the only original songs in Idol history that wasn’t awful), and Megan Corkrey (the Salt Lake City single mom whose voice reminded me of Feist).

How about you? Which Idol contestants are you digging so far?

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