Daniel Radcliffe in My Boy Jack by Patrick Redmond/ Masterpiece Theater
I love it when TV can be both very, very good as well as good for you. Such is the case with a logjam of terrific historical dramas competing for attention this Sunday. Two of them had me fighting back tears (and occasionally losing the fight), and then there’s Showtime’s The Tudors, that stimulating royal tonic of sex, religion and other courtly intrigues. Not a lot of boo-hooing while watching this Henry VIII romp, but rarely a dull moment, either.The quality honors this weekend go to HBO and PBS. HBO for concluding its remarkable John Adams miniseries with an episode of quiet, pained humanity as the nation’s second president (Paul Giamatti) goes into retirement with about as much grace—which is to say, very little—as he conducted himself in the political arena. Grumpy, discontent, impatient to the end and convinced he’ll be forgotten by time, John never lets up. There’s a terrific scene in which he’s invited, in his 90s, to view the portrai...
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Jonathan Rhys Meyers by Jonathan Hession/Showtime
Jeers to Jonathan Rhys Meyers for his one-note performance on The Tudors. No, make that two-note: As King Henry VIII, he swings between pouting and rage with nothing in between. Such a limited emotional palette suited Rhys Meyers fine when he played a shallow sociopath in Woody Allen's Match Point, but it quickly grows dull to watch on a weekly TV series. (And does anybody else think it's historically improbable that Henry is prettier than any of his wives so far?) In the bodice-ripper's second season, the truly regal presence of Peter O'Toole — as the pope, no less — only makes Rhys Meyers look more plebian. His work's unfit for a king.• For more Cheers & Jeers, check out the new vodcast.• Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Cheer or Jeer on TVGuide.com or in TV Guide magazine!
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Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Natalie Dormer, The Tudors
In The Tudors' (Sundays at 9 pm/ET, Showtime) steamy second season, Henry VIII becomes a royal pain for Anne Boleyn — and the pope.King Henry VIII is all grown up and has politics — and sex — on his mind. In the second season of Showtime's bodice ripper The Tudors, Jonathan Rhys Meyers relates to the monarch's new maturity. "I like growing older," he muses, sitting in his trailer at Dublin's Ardmore Studios, puffing on a Marlboro Light. "I just turned 30, and it does inform the way I play Henry, who is much more mature and less erratic. I've changed over the past year."
Ask him how, and the angry young man reemerges: "It's none of your business." True, Rhys Meyers had a rough 12 months, including a drunken brush with authorities at the Dublin airport, days before the death of his mother. And The Tudor
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Jonathan Rhys Meyers by Hal Horowitz/ WireImage.com
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) will star opposite Julianne Moore in Shelter, a supernatural thriller helmed by Swedes Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein (Storm).... Max von Sydow, Emily Mortimer and Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) have joined Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, in which U.S. marshals (Leo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the insane. Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson and Michelle Williams costar.... Dimension has bought the rights to Locke & Key, Joe Hill's graphic novel about three children who are the caretakers of a magical mansion. Hill is the son of Stephen King.... World Wrestling Entertainment has found a tag-team partner in 20th Century Fox, inking a that gives the studio dibs on pics headlined by the org's wrestlers. — Mickey O'Connor
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Glenn Close by Craig Blankenhorn/Sony Pictures TV, Jonathan Rhys Meyers by Jonathan Hession/Showtime, Jennifer Beals by Paul Michaud/Showtime
Three good things about the writers' strike:1) No more Bionic Woman to disappoint us.2) Pepito the Wonder Chihuahua gets more "me" time.3) More chances to catch up on kick-ass cable shows on DVD!And let me tell you, that last one is a biggie, considering that a few cable shows I had to skip out on because of too many TiVo conflicts have just hit the shelves. One of them being FX's stellar, chilling Damages, which features quite possibly the single greatest performance of the last season. Is Golden Globe winner Glenn Close's Manhattan litigator Patty Hewes ingenious or pure evil? I'm not sure yet, but she is delicious nonetheless and I am having a hoot finding out.Centered around an Enron-type class-action suit against billionaire Arthur Frobisher — played with demonic menace by Ted Danson — the show should be about the case, since nobody does trial-angst better than Close (see Jagged Edge). But instead of courtrooms, we get boardrooms and some seriously twisted detours, co...
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If the barometer of an interesting TV awards show is the number of fresh faces invited to the party, then the Golden Globe nominations (announced Thursday morning) passes the test. Not with a perfect score, mind you. Any institution that so completely ignores NBC's wonderful Friday Night Lights deserves some spirited jeering.And the Globes' addiction to sexy sizzle and hype can lead to some puzzling choices: Big Love, fun as it is, over The Sopranos' final season? Bill Paxton over James Gandolfini? (And if the Globes is going to shower love on Big Love, how could the women who play Bill's wives go unheralded, especially Ginnifer Goodwin?) Californication over Weeds?But let's look at the bright side. The Hollywood Foreign Press clearly spent some time checking out the TV landscape during last summer's remarkable season of cable breakthroughs. My own pick for No. 1 show of the year, AMC's Mad Men, is nominated for best drama, along with its dashing leading man, Jon Hamm. FX's Damages,...
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Teri Hatcher by Alexandra Wyman/WireImage.com
You know, by being socked in it. Metaphorically speaking, of course. The Desperate Housewife is being sued by Hydroderm, TMZ says, because she broke the anti-competition clause in her contract with the company when she mouthed off about how wonderful City Cosmetics' Lip Plumper is. According to the legal docs, Hydroderm paid the erstwhile Lois Lane $2.4 million for her exclusive endorsement, and now its execs want all $2.4 million back.... In a move that will surprise no one, yesterday Dennis Quaid and his wife sued the makers of heparin, claiming that negligent packaging of the blood thinner led to the massive overdose their newborn twins were given at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A.... Sasha Baron Cohen and his fellow Borat creators were sued again yesterday, this time by a driving instructor who claims he was suckered into appearing in the film.... A Dublin court has dropped all charges against The Tudors' Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who got a bit drunk and disorderly at the airpor...
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Geraldine Meyers-O'Keefe, the mother of The Tudors' Jonathan Rhys Meyers, passed away on Tuesday after a short illness. She was 51. It was rumored that Rhys Meyers' Sunday arrest for disorderly behavior and public drunkenness (seven months after he underwent rehab) stemmed from the actor's grief over his mother's admission to the hospital.Rhys Meyers is due to appear at Dublin District Court next month.
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Jonathan Rhys Meyers by Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com
Seven months out of rehab, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers has gotten himself busted for public drunkenness and disturbing the peace. But of course! How better to celebrate a hit series and those enviably high cheekbones? At the Dublin airport on Sunday, the Tudors lead was twice confronted by police about what the Associated Press describes as "erratic, abusive behavior" at a British airline gate. When he refused to chill, they finally hauled him in, cheekbones and all. — Ben Katner
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Maybe he's a Method actor. In any case, People.com reports that Tudors star Jonathan Rhys-Meyers has entered rehab for a drinking problem.... Resident Evil babe Milla Jovovich and her fiancé, director Paul Anderson, are expecting their first bambino this fall....
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