The View by Donna Svennevik/ABC
The ladies of The View are taking their talkfest on the road this summer, broadcasting their show live (and in HD) from Sin City June 23-27.In addition to the special location, Barbara and Co. have invited some serious talent to their Vegas party, including Amercian Idol winner David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta. The boys will appear and perform on June 24. Other stars making the trek to the desert include Jimmy Kimmel and Rihanna (June 23), Jessica Simpson (performing from her new album on June 25), Heidi Montag (thankfully not performing on June 26) and Bette Midler (June 27). The question is, with all the chatting these women like to do, will what happens in Vegas stay there? — Adam Bryant
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Everyone was in the house for the grand finale of American Idol, as Jordin and Blake opened the show with a long-awaited Beatles tune. "I Saw Her Standing There" was a premonition of things to come. We drifted quickly into a performance by the touring Gwen Stefani singing her song “4 in the Morning.” She looked and sounded fantastic. Red-carpet tidbits — there were lots of Idols both past and present. However, the real stars were ushered past me on the red-carpet press line at the speed of light, as though I had a form of jumping leprosy. I spoke to:The crying girl.Blake’s dad, Dallas.Writers of the song “This Is My Now” (as opposed to my later on).Sabrina Sloan — simply lovely.Constantine Maroulis — all business, currently starring in The Bold and the Beautiful. Kelly Clarkson rocked the heck out of “Never Again” will I put up with Clive Davis yelling at me; I’m a star, damn it! I can’t imagine why Clive doesn’t like ...
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David Hyde Pierce, Bette Midler and Marcia Wallace do The Simpsons
After 18 seasons and 400 episodes, Fox's The Simpsons (Sundays at 8 pm/ET) has attracted more than 350 celebrities to offer their voices to animated doppelgangers. Some have played themselves (Steve Buscemi, anyone?), some new characters (Reese Witherspoon as Rainier Wolfcastle's daughter, for instance), some old characters (Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who reprise their roles from 24 on May 20) — and in one instance, a mix (Elizabeth Taylor played herself and voiced Maggie's first word). Throughout, producers have attract
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Last Comic Standing's Chris Porter and Michele Balan
They say dying is easy, comedy is hard. But dying while doing comedy? This quintet of Last Comic Standing cutups wouldn't know, since they've all aced their sets so far. The five funny finalists from the NBC series (new episodes air Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET) took time out to joke around with TV Guide before yukking their way toward the season finale, airing Aug. 8.
Name: Chris Porter
Hometown: Kansas City, Mo.
Age: 27
Years in the biz: Eight
Brand of comedy: Rock and roll
On getting into stand-up: "I went to see my friend at an open-mike night and was like, I'm funnier than half these people. A month later I tried it, and it was like crack — I wanted to do it all the time."
On how the show has changed his life: "
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Nikki Cox, Las Vegas
NBC's Las Vegas is MIA this Friday night (to make way for a Heist encore), but Nikki Cox could probably use the free time, anyway. The red-hot redhead, after all, is busy making plans for her wedding to fellow actor (and Vegas guest star, natch) Jay Mohr. Still, she found time to talk with TVGuide.com about the evolution of Vegas' Mary, the "rumored" pillow fights she has with her female costars and more (meaning Mohr.)
TVGuide.com: I saw you the other day on the cover of InStyle Weddings looking all pretty....Nikki Cox: All "gussied up." [Chuckles]
TVGuide.com: Is what I saw you in your actual wedding dress?Cox: No, my dr
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Clockwise from top left: David Faustino, Christina Applegate, Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Married... with Children
Question: The other night my boyfriend and I were talking about that housewife who used to complain about Married... with Children and other shows she thought were dirty. As we remembered it, she got a lot of attention and made a lot of progress. But TV isn't any cleaner today. Did she actually do anything? Thank you.
Answer: Looking back, what suburban Detroit housewife Terry Rakolta actually did was create much ado about nothing, which was still a pretty notable effort for a total outsider who started by banging out letters from home. For those who don't remember the dust-up, during the 1988-89 season, mother Rakolta turned on her TV to find MWC's Peg Bundy (Katey Sagal) in search of a new bra. The episode, typical for the raunchy, standards-torturing show, was called "Her Cups Runneth Over" and its content apparen
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ERFirst things first. Why all the hype about John Stamos? He was hardly featured this week or last and that's it — it was a two-week appearance. All those "Very Special Episode"-type promos that said "John Stamos joins ER…. " for what? Like Bette Midler brilliantly sings in her new Peggy Lee tribute CD: "Is That All There Is?" OK, I said it. Besides that let down (cue Debbie Downer noise), I quite enjoyed tonight's overly hyped "crash episode." This week certainly was a busy one for plane crashes, what with Wednesday night's Lost tailies flashback episode and now this. I knew from the promos that one of tonight's victims would be tennis star Serena Williams (she was pretty darned good), but who knew Uncle Leo from Seinfeld would be another crash victim
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Question: I have been trying for a long time to get a song that was played in an episode of Magnum P.I. The song is played when Thomas is looking at his brother's name on the Vietnam Memorial. I believe it was sung by Joe Cocker. Could you please find out the title of this wonderful song for me?
Answer: And help maintain the Hawaiian flavor set by this column's lead question? But of course.
You're thinking of the Season 6 episode "Going Home," in which Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) goes home to Virginia for his grandfather's funeral. The song in question is Cocker's version of the Bob Dylan song "I Shall Be Released," which has been covered by such musical notables as Joan Baez, the Box Tops, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Hollies, Rick Nelson, Aaron Neville, Peter, Paul &a
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Bet you didn't know this: Joan Cusack backed out of The Stepford Wives remake (opening today) to spend time with her ailing father. Her role was recast with Bette Midler, who happily rose to the occasion. However, the 58-year-old legend had never seen the original 1975 cult classic about a suburban hamlet where disobedient wives are swapped for robots.
"When I got cast, I rented it," Midler recalls. "I was surprised at how sad it was. It was so tragic. All [the heroine] wanted to do was be a photographer. The poor girl. That was what was considered threatening in 1975? Imagine."
While she's pleased that women's lib has come far since the '70s, the Divine Miss M wonders if it's gone too far. "There are so many things happening in the media that are hard to absorb," she laments. "I never thought I would see the day when someone [like Paris Hilton] could make a pornographic film and survive it. I remember when, if you got arr
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