The Wire by Paul Schiraldi/HBO
Three flashback mini-movies produced by David Simon, the creator of the acclaimed HBO series, have been released via Amazon.com as free streams available on the page for the complete fourth-season DVD set. On Jan. 15, the flicklets will also be made available via HBO On Demand, HBO.com, podcasts and related portals. In other words, there will be virtually no missing the backstories about Prop Joe and Omar as kids or McNulty's first day on the job.... In other cop-show news, Law & Order: SVU's Connie Nielsen has signed on to play the title character in A&E's proposed Danny Fricke series, about a hot detective who is promoted while diddling her boss. — Ben Katner
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Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Question: (Spoiler alert) I just watched the season premiere of Friday Night Lights online and really liked it up until one point late in the episode. (I'm sure you know where I'm heading here!) I don't want to give anything away, but there's a storyline that's going to be really divisive to the show's fanbase. What was your reaction to the big "twist" near the end? I was watching it with three people and we all literally groaned. To me, it yanks a show that's built on a very effective, realistic feel into the realm of contrived, melodramatic plot devices. Why did they have to go there? There's so much to explore in the very real relationships of the two characters involved that mucking up the waters with this inescapably huge event feels not only unnecessary but actually disruptive. I really want Friday Night Lights to survive — I'm fine with the obvious attempts to "sex it up" (like starting us out with a swimsuit scene) — but I don't really want to watch these characters struggling ...
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Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
In his seventh year playing Elliot Stabler on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Christopher Meloni snagged his first Emmy nomination. We asked the 45-year-old newbie about finally getting recognized and what his costar (and three-time nominee) Mariska Hargitay had to say.
TV Guide: How are you feeling about your first Emmy nomination? Christopher Meloni: I'm feeling… quite honestly, the best part about it is the congratulatory calls I've gotten from friends, colleagues. I think, actually, they're a little happier than I am. [Laughs] So I pretty much
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Question: Are there any cast changes in store for Law & Order: SVU?
Answer: Actually, SVU is the one Law & Order show not in upheaval mode. With the exception of Connie Nielsen subbing for Mariska in the fall, there are no major cast changes afoot.
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Question: What's going to happen with our beloved Stabler and Benson on Law & Order: SVU now that Olivia has requested a new partner?
Answer: Benson's going to get transferred to the computer-crime division, where she'll be working alongside TARU Tech Morales (Joel de la Fuente). Stabler, meanwhile, will be marking time with temp partners (including Anthony Anderson on May 2) until Connie Nielsen shows up in September. Short-story-shorter: We're probably not going to see a Benson-Stabler reunion until at least November.
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Harold Ramis directs John Cusack in The Ice Harvest.
There are a lot of movie directors who spend their entire careers working in a single genre. In a fickle industry where a couple of bombs can lead to prolonged unemployment, there's a certain job security in mining similar subject matter. On the rare occasion when a filmmaker does step out of character, they frequently find themselves chastised by critics and ignored by audiences that are shackled with expectation. Apparently, these concerns didn't weigh heavily on Harold Ramis when he decided to make The Ice Harvest. A dark yarn with a moral compass as slippery as the setting, The Ice Harvest is a far cry from the flicks that made Ramis. In fact, nothing in Animal House, Caddyshack or
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Connie Nielsen has been tapped to fill the vacancy left when Mariska Hargitay goes on maternity leave from NBC's Law & Order: SVU. The Gladiator babe will play a NYPD detective on temporary assignment to the sex crimes unit while Benson is... oh, you'll just have to click on over to Ask Ausiello for the deets on that, as well as scoop from Smallville, The Office, Everwood, Grey's Anatomy and so, so much more.
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Question: I saw a trailer a few months ago and didn't recognize any of the actors, so it may have been a foreign film. It was about a set of brothers and a woman; one goes to war and is taken hostage. The family assumes he's dead and the other brother ends up falling in love with the wife; then the presumed-dead brother returns. Is this movie available on DVD or not even in theaters yet? It looked really interesting, and any help you could give me in finding it would be great.Answer: You saw a trailer for the exceptional Danish film Brothers (2004). The only cast member most Americans would know is Connie Nielsen, who is Danish but had never made a film in her native language until Brothers; she started her movie career in France and then moved to the U.S., where she starred in films like
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