Chris Matthews by Lisa Berg/NBC
Chris Matthews recently celebrated his 10th year as the host of MSNBC's Hardball, and he spent a few decades in politics before that tenure. He's distilled his observations into a new Random House book, Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation and Success. Ah, but can politics teach you how to handle Daily Show host Jon Stewart when he calls your book "sad," as he did when Matthews recently appeared to get a plug? Matthews tells The Biz how he survived what he called "the worst interview I've ever had in my life."TVGuide.com: What made you think your experience in politics would make a good advice book?Chris Matthews: It's what I know. You write what you know. I've spent 36 years watching politicians, and I've learned the traits that work with people. The absence of those traits usually suggests the failure of a career. I'm talking about people who get elected time and time again and succeed in American politics: Generally they have a set ...
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NBC has recruited wrestling legend Hulk Hogan to host its revival of American Gladiators, which is slated for a midseason bow, Variety reports.... Jon Stewart's production company this week can expect a series pickup for Important Things with Demetri Martin, a sketch-variety show fronted by Daily Show contributor Martin and eyed for a late 2008 launch.... HBO is developing a movie based on the book Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (shop Amazon).
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Katherine Heigl and Kevin Dillon by John Shearer/WireImage.com
And some people worried that getting Ryan Seacrest to host this year’s Emmy telecast was going to be the producers’ worst idea. That’s before we got a look at the set, an unwieldy and unappealing theater-in-the-round setup that looked more suitable for the new American Gladiators revival than for an awards show. The nominees, half of whom saw only the backs of the various presenters and performers, had a deer-in-the-headlights look every time Seacrest approached them or the cameras awkwardly cut to them. They appeared to be sitting in penalty boxes, not deluxe auditorium seats.Honestly, though, we poor schnooks at home were the ones suffering the penalty here: as in, confronted with one of the worst Emmy telecasts I can remember. As Emmy years go, I’m actually at peace with the majority of the winners, given who was and wasn’t nominated (and we’ve been over that frustrating ground plenty of times since the July nominations). Learning who won was a lot m...
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9:20: Steve Carell just threw to a clip package that makes his costars all seem jealous of him. Cool of Fox — or maybe just smart — to let them do their thing even though The Office is on another network.9:23: "What a great show... this part of the audience has seen," Best Comedy, Music or Variety Show winner Jon Stewart says, poking fun at the Emmys-in-the-round conceit. You just know they've got poor Mitovich stuck behind the stage. Hopefully he's at the bar getting scoop from Vanessa Williams instead. He's enterprising that way.9:25: Tony Bennett's special won best music... er, special. Oh, gee. Now the producer is kissing up to him right on stage for the world to see. Wait, the guy just called Tony "Dad." In that case, it's sweet. If they aren't actually related, it's just creepy.9:27: Mark Harmon and Marcia Cross — hot coupla presenters. And Marcia's totally got the girls out. Let's hear it for breast-feeding. 9:28: Oh, Toni Collette is nominated. And just like t...
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Jon Stewart by Frank Ockenfels/Comedy Central
Despite having participated in the lowest-rated Oscars telecast of the past three years when he hosted in 2006, Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart has been asked back to oversee the ceremony when it airs Feb. 24, 2008, on ABC. "I am thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time," Stewart says in a statement, "because, as they say, the third time's a charm." As previously reported, the 80th Annual Academy Awards will be produced by Gil Cates, who amid his 14 turns at the helm was on hand when Stewart braved his first, Brokeback-tastic hosting gig.
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Steve Carell, Kyle Chandler, the cast of Entourage, Back to You's Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, Katherine Heigl, Hayden Panettiere, Jimmy Smits (Cane), Jon Stewart, Kiefer Sutherland and Kate Walsh have been confirmed as presenters for the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, airing Sept. 16 on Fox. Yes, Ryan Seacrest is still scheduled to host.
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Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are Nos. 3 and 4 on the list of 32 who have been called upon to give testimony as YouTube fights a $1 billion lawsuit by Viacom.... The season premiere of FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will be streamed on the show's MySpace page starting Thursday, a month before its on-air broadcast.... ABC is producing music videos, 11 in all, to promote many of its fall shows and the artists whose songs are used on them. Among the pairings will be Ugly Betty and Mika's "Big Girl" refashioned as "Betty Girl," available Thursday at ABC.com.... Al Gore's Current TV cabler has launched a music blog called The Daily Fix.
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Tom Snyder by Jim Smeal/WireImage.com
I've been thinking a lot about Tom Snyder since his death from leukemia was made public, in part because my mind already had been preoccupied with the '70s, when this unforgettable talk-show icon was in his late-night NBC heyday.My own late-'70s time warp was prompted by a 30-year high-school reunion over the weekend in which I referenced That '70s Show more than once. (Did we really look like that? Dress like that? Have hair like that? Only our senior class pictures know the truth, and I'm not sharing.) During my high school and college years, Snyder was a blazing, sometimes hair-raisingly pioneering presence in what had been a late-night wasteland following Johnny Carson's legendary Tonight Show.Snyder's show, which aired from 1973 to 1982, was called Tomorrow, and to me, the title always underscored the fact that everything about it was a bit ahead of its time. The show's level of discourse, its idiosyncratic host with his brash intensity and eclectic range (historic interviews w...
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The Simpsons Movie courtesy 20th Century Fox
After weekly letters from fans demanding full-frontal Simpson nudity, it's finally here. As The Simpsons Movie premiered in L.A. under a cloud of yellow confetti and a Duff Beer Blimp, writers Matt Selman, David Mirkin and Michael Price told TV Guide how anatomically accurate a naked Simpson really is. "They have three fingers, what else might they have three of?" Matt Selman jokes. "People have never known what Simpsonite genitalia looks like, and now they do," adds David Mirkin. "We finally lived our dream." The movie, which took four years and went through several scripts, is finally finished — but the show writers' work is far from over. There's still a new season of The Simpsons on the horizon. "We have a great episode that's set as a flashback to the '90s where Homer forms the first grunge band," says Michael Price. "We have a flashback fantasy where Bart is in the Sex Pistols and Nelson is Sid Vicious and Bart is Johnny Rotten. We have a big election-themed episode with ...
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Stephen Colbert courtesy of Comedy Central
Some of the guest voices on tap for the 19th season of Fox's The Simpsons, premiering Sept. 23:• In the season-opener, Lionel Richie as himself and Stephen Colbert as Homer's life coach.• Steve Buscemi as a bank robber who forms a "connection" with hostage Marge (Sept. 30).• Jack Black as the owner of Coolsville, a new rival comic-books emporium in town (Oct. 7).• Later in the season, it's a Frasier reunion as Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney voice Sideshow Bob, brother Cecil and their dad.Other voices en route to Springfield include Jon Stewart, Matt Dillon, Maya Rudolph, Dan Rather, Placido Domingo, Kurt Loder, Weird Al Yankovic, Beverly D’Angelo and Topher Grace.
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