All right, secret confession time: The Poseidon Adventure is one of my favorite cheesy movies of all time. But this version was a little bit disappointing. Sure, watching Steve Guttenberg trying to be all serious was inadvertently humorous, but they missed the campy factor from the get-go. Instead of an implausible tidal wave that wasn't seen on radar and could flip an entire ship, they went with a terrorist plot. Plus, without the presence of the remarkable Shelley Winters or the cool Gene Hackman, this remake just doesn't hold water. Oh, and poor C. Thomas Howell: He barely made it out of this alive, had a gnarly broken arm and he played a pedophile on ER earlier this month. Can he not get some better gigs?... While I do love Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and think the little kid from this week may have been the cutest thing to ever don a Boston Red Sox hat, I think I have finally become immune to the
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EROK — how many of you felt very old during that opening scene? C. Thomas Howell has not aged well. Ponyboy has grey hair! After I got over that initial shock, I quickly became disturbed because Ponyboy was playing a psychopath rapist. And not just any old rapist — this one kidnapped and raped a 10-year-old girl. Oh, Ponyboy. Then who comes to the rescue as a paramedic? None other than John Stamos. Now there's someone who has aged extremely well and John is three years older than Thomas. I'm assuming John will be doing more next week since this is only a two-week guest appearance because he gave us next to nothing tonight. I mean, anybody could've played that paramedic who ended up trying to get a date out of Neela. Speaking of Neela, I love how they are making Parminder
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Question: Any special episodes of ER coming up?
Answer: Big poops! There's a huge plane-crash episode planned for Nov. 17 that'll feature tennis ace Serena Williams as a woman caught in the wreckage on the ground. November/December will also spotlight guest turns by former teen idol C. Thomas Howell (Nov. 10) and The Practice's Lisa Gay Hamilton (Dec. 8). But the really big news is that Rescue Me spitfire Callie Thorne — she plays Denis Leary's psycho stalker Sheila — has landed the pivotal role of John Leguizamo's sexed-up ex. Her first episode airs Dec. 8 and, well, I may have to start watching ER again!
OK, folks, that's all the poop that's fit to print. Before I go, what do you say you join me in a chorus of "Fight On!" to commemorate USC's historic win Saturday against the Fighting Irish. Pleas
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Question: A friend of mine says there are two remakes of The Poseidon Adventure (1972) in the works, one for theaters and one for TV. How can that be? It's not like Titanic, where the source is a historical event anybody could draw on. If my friend is right, what gives?
Answer: Your friend is right: A four-hour miniseries version of The Poseidon Adventure is scheduled to air on NBC in November 2005, and Warner Bros. has a theatrical remake called Poseidon due out in 2006. Because neither project is finished, I don't have access to contractual credits, but my guess as to how it happened is that the theatrical version is a remake of the first film and the TV version is an adaptation of the original novel by Paul Gallico. The why is another matter; I can't even begin to say. In any event, the $150 million thea
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