It's that time of the season again—the one when all your favorite Idol-ers and celebs team up to raise awareness and funds to benefit poverty stricken children around the world. So who'll be joining this year's event? Basically every celeb under the sun including Bono, Brad Pitt, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Fergie, Chris Daughtry and Snoop Dogg. We could go on, but this preview sums it up best (with some added bloopers, of course!)
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Billy Crystal by John Medina/WireImage.com
To celebrate his 60th birthday, funnyman — and avid New York Yankees fan — Billy Crystal will suit up in pinstripes and play for his beloved team. Crystal will sign a one-day, minor-league contract that allows him to play for the Yankees in Thursday's exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Tampa. Though manager Joe Girardi hasn't decided Crystal's role in the lineup, the City Slickers star will wear No. 60 as another tribute to his age.According to the Yankees, Crystal hit .348 and was captain during his senior year at Long Beach High School in New York. In addition to rooting for the Bronx Bombers at Yankee Stadium, Crystal also directed 61, a movie about the 1961 Yankees and Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle's race to break Babe Ruth's home-run record. — Adam Bryant
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As anticipation for this Sunday's 80th Academy Awards grows, some Oscar fans just can't help looking back. In a survey by Parade magazine, readers were asked to pinpoint the most memorable moments from the show's 80-year history as well as sound off on this year's races. Categories included everything from most memorable acceptance speech — which went to Sally Field's "You like me right now!" declaration — to the viewers' preferred host of the annual event, where Billy Crystal was the landslide winner.Richard Gere and Sandra Bullock came away as the fans' favorite actor and actress to never receive an Oscar nod, while (shocker, not!) 69 percent of readers want the acceptance speeches cut shorter. Looking toward this weekend's ceremony, George Clooney (Michael Clayton) and Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) are your picks in the lead-acting contests, while No Country for Old Men has the viewers' support for best picture. (Full results from the survey can be found he...
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Billy Crystal by Lester Cohen/WireImage.com
Saludos, my night owls.... Billy Crystal and his peeps are reportedly on the prowl for a late-night-TV hosting gig. The big question, of course, is where . "Billy was initially set on Conan O'Brien's slot when Conan takes over... The Tonight Show [in 2009]," a source tells the New York Post's Page Six. "But even if that didn't work out, he would do something in syndication." Billy's ask: $20 mil over five years. My ask: be better than Chevy.** To be fair, I'm midway through Chevy's biography, and he didn't get to do the kind of show he wanted.
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And he feels mahvalous about it! Funnyman Billy Crystal will receive the 10th-annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on October 11, in a star-studded (and hopefully laugh-filled) gala to be broadcast on PBS at a later date, says Playbill.com. Prior recipients include fellow Oscar host Whoopi Goldberg and SNL VIPs Lorne Michaels and Steve Martin. The Twain Prize recognizes "people who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist." The parallels between City Slickers and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Startling. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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The one thing I realized as Oscar night droned on and on for nearly four hours: If I ever had to choose someone to be stranded with for hours on end (say, like those poor Jet Blue passengers a few weeks ago), it would have to be Ellen DeGeneres.Keeping her cool, and her genuine aura of chipper goodwill, throughout three costume changes (in suits from red velvet to all-white to royal blue) and what seemed once again like an overindulgent excess of movie montages (we definitely could have done without Michael Mann’s fuzzy survey of cinematic American history), Ellen was welcome nearly every time she popped up. Offering a spec script to Martin Scorsese, directing Steven Spielberg on how to take her photo with Clint Eastwood, asking the megastars in the front row to lift their legs as she vacuumed the Kodak past midnight (ET), while informing us that Helen Mirren had just asked for a rum and coke (sounded pretty good to me at the time), Ellen did her darndest to deflate the bloat a...
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Consider this an unqualified rave. NBC is offering a deluxe sweeps and holiday treat in Tuesday’s prime-time special Tony Bennett: An American Classic (8/7c), which is as lustrously filmed as it is impeccably sung. For those of us who’ve been waiting for Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall (Chicago) to tackle a new musical project, here it is. Marshall has lovingly conceived and masterfully executed a shimmering, swinging hour of razzle-dazzle showmanship that redefines what a variety special can be.I’m tempted to say they don’t make ’em like this anymore, but the truth is, even back when they did, they didn’t make ’em this good very often. (What this special reminded me of most, especially in the elaborate and evocative production numbers, was Bob Fosse’s landmark Liza With a Z special that Showtime so magnificently resurrected and restored earlier this year.)This is the rare music special that looks as good as it sounds. And it sounds spec...
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Question: Just read your review of the Oscars and thought it a bit harsh. This is, after all, an awards show, with the main event being the handing out of awards. Certainly the singing performances, funny montages and humorous turns by Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and Steve Carell were attempts to liven up the evening. Some succeeded, some failed. But what would you recommend instead? Although I agree with you that there are many ways to reduce the lengthy event, that won't automatically make it any more interesting. So what will? Or do you concede that the Oscars are just one of those events that viewers and critics alike will always find fault with, no matter what happens or who hosts?
Answer: Gee, a critic being harsh? How did that happen? You're right, though. I've been reviewing Oscar shows since maybe the late '80s, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've had a mostly positive impression (usually the years with Billy Crystal at the helm). As I
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Rob Corddry
Rob Corddry, a correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, follows in the footsteps of such comedic peers as Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler when he lends his voice to The N's O'Grady (Fridays at 9:30 pm/ET) this week. Here's what he had to tell us about his animated gig, advising Jon Stewart on the Oscars and more.
TVGuide.com: On O'Grady, who or what are you voicing? A news reporter, perhaps?Rob Corddry: No, actually
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Jon Stewart did his best, but it wasn't good enough. There are limitations in being a clever, self-deprecating master of irony, when what the job of Oscar host truly demands is being a showman. Which Stewart would probably be the first to admit he's not.
His humor, politically barbed but never obnoxious, was possibly a bit too sophisticated for that cavernous room. But what really defeated him, as it has almost every modern-day Oscar host except for Billy Crystal, is the deadly monotony of the Oscar show itself. What a fossiled relic. The Oscar broadcast is a classy but inert dinosaur, and this year's was more forgettable than most.
Stewart gamely tried to deflate the evening's pomposity whenever he could — after a montage on message movies, he quipped, "and none of these issues were ever a problem again" — but still, we had to sit through it all anyway.
Even with a last-minute shocker, as Crash
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