This is a week that I have a tough time relating to. Born in ’76, I never really got the full impact of '60s music and never heard enough that excited me to make me want to go back and visit it. I know this sounds strange coming from a guy that found enough stuff exciting to own 4,000+ pieces of audio from the '80s, which is arguably the worst decade for music. (At least I know El DeBarge and Taco would be on my side of the debate). So a song like "Some Other Guy" is almost like listening to an original for me. Fortunately though, Leiber and Stoller wrote a lot of great tunes that were covered by a mess of bands, so I’m sure I can say I’ve heard most. Side note: Many of the artists I will type as the performer of the songs really aren’t the original performers and I know that. But the artists I type are the versions that I remember as the hits. In a lot of cases, the original Leiber and Stoller song was performed by a soul group to little fanfare and then turned ...
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As the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death nears — it's Aug. 16, but you knew that — plans are moving full-steam ahead for an extreme makeover of Graceland. Among the upgrades:• a bigger, better visitor center • a convention hotel • a high-tech museum in which the digitized Lisa Marie's pop can swivel his hips forevermore.Since the ex-Mrs. Presley, Priscilla, was recently caught canoodling with American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe, can a reality show be far behind? "The Search for the Next King of Rock 'n' Roll," anyone?
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Yunjin Kim by Mario Perez/ABC
In case you hadn’t heard, American Idol was in a giving mood this week. Save the children. Save the world. They put Heroes to shame this week with their all-star charity drive to raise money to help victims of poverty in this country and in Africa. The footage was at times quite wrenching, of orphaned-by-AIDS African children and of children in this country dispossessed by Katrina and disenfranchised in urban centers or rural backwaters, seeking relief and comfort and, in the best of all possible worlds, an education.At first it looked like the Idol results show was being awkwardly tacked onto this earnest all-star telethon, for the most part handsomely mounted until we got to that truly bizarre, undeniably creepy Celine Dion/Elvis duet. Reminds me all over again why I resist all invitations to go to Las Vegas, cheese capital of the world. I must have missed Celine’s obit, because there is no way a member of the living human race was responsible for that.Anyway… to th...
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This is going to be a different kind of blog tonight as I am frankly stunned, shocked and really pleasantly surprised that Idol pulled this little telethon together so quickly and so effectively. Idol is in a position to do something to help others less fortunate, and I am proud they took this opportunity to do it. They have friends in very high places, and scores of Idol-worshiping celebrities offered their services to help spread the message. Not only that, but they partnered with One.org to bring awareness to extreme poverty. And although the show felt pretty much like a long Ford commercial, I am happy and amazed that they did it. A little more than halfway through the show Ryan announced they had raised $30 million! That’s pretty impressive. So if you haven’t donated, do so now! There were some funny moments, but mostly these were two hours that really touched me. I started to lose it during the segment about New Orleans: After walking back and forth to the bathroom f...
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Elvis Presley's three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show are chronicled in a three-disc DVD set due for release on Nov. 21.... BET is in talks to air syndicated episodes of HBO's The Wire, starting with Season 1 and unspooling perhaps as soon as 1Q 2007.... Dane Cook — my current fave to play Fletch on the big screen (see related blog entry), and Jessica Simpson's apparent fave to play footsie (per the New York Post) — is taking his Tourgasm act to Las Vegas on Nov. 17.... Fox News Channel celebrates its 10th anniversary with Thank You America!, a two-hour special airing Sunday at 8 pm/ET and hosted by Chris Wallace and Martha MacCallum.
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Elvis Presley, 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America
What does Elvis Presley's 1956 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show have in common with the 1901 assassination of William McKinley? And the onset of the Pequot War of 1637, for that matter? They are three of the 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America, as revisited in a History Channel series airing for five consecutive days starting Sunday at 9 pm/ET. (A detailed schedule appears at the bottom of this page.) To gain insight into this trip down memory lane, TVGuide.com spoke to acclaimed director Joe Berlinger (Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills), a coexecutive producer on the project who also helmed one of its installments.
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Question: Do you know what Brian Krause will be doing once Charmed is done and dusted?
Answer: He just lined up two projects: The Lifetime pic Ties that Bind and the indie flick The Headhunter. In the latter he'll play Elvis Presley's longtime friend and bodyguard. Tom Sizemore is his costar, so that should be a fun shoot.
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Prince's 3121 has debuted at the top of Billboard's album charts, marking the first first-place bow of his career.... Graceland, the home where Elvis Presley lived, gorged and died, has officially been upgraded from tourist trap to national landmark.... Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis is out to buy Playboy, the New York Post reports.... Come fall, Lynn Toler will be replacing Mablean Ephriam as the judge on Divorce Court.... As if standing trial for murder weren't bad enough, record mogul Phil Spector is now being sued for millions by a personal assistant who claims he sexually harassed her. What's next? Gum on his shoe?
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With "Don't Forget About Us" now topping Billboard's Hot 100 chart, Mariah Carey has tied Elvis Presley for second place among recording artists with the most No. 1 singles in the rock era. Carey and the King now each have 17 (although some music-biz sources credit Presley with 18: long story), while the Beatles boast 20 (backwards versions not included).
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Question: I'm just curious about why Paul Thomas Anderson's production company is named Ghoulardi Films. Was he a big fan of Channel 8's Shock Theater when he was a kid?
Answer: Here's a hint: Hipster Cleveland-area TV horror host Ghoulardi's real name was Ernie Anderson. Yes, Paul Thomas Anderson is his son. The director actually grew up in California; his father moved from Cleveland in 1966 to pursue work as a voice actor and became an extremely successful TV announcer. For younger readers who think the history of horror hosts begins with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Ghoulardi was only one in a long line of oddball characters who introduced TV showings of old horror movies. They're all descended from "Vampira," a wasp-wai
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