• Josh Schwartz's superbly entertaining NBC premiere Chuck is bringing on The O.C.'s own Rachel Bilson for a multi-episode run as a romantic option for the titular geek, says USA Today. For more on Chuck and the season's other new shows, listen to the special TV Guide Talk podcast, featuring me, Ausiello and Roush and available Friday.• Martin Mull has joined the TNT light-drama pilot Family Man, playing William H. Macy's older brother who can barely hold down a job at Astroburger. (I'm already laughing!)• Also per the Reporter, Anne Archer has boarded Lifetime's Family Practice pilot as the Kennedyesque clan's matriarch, opposite Beau Bridges.• Lifetime has inked a deal to develop a comedy project starring identical twins Natalie and Nicole Garza.• Judy Davis and James Purefoy (Rome) will topline Diamonds, a $15 million miniseries about a lady senator whose daughter is murdered in Africa, says Variety.
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Well, as John Kessel (the author of the short story adapted for this first broadcast episode of the series) advised us, the acting by Judy Davis and Sam Waterston in "A Clean Escape" was excellent; it was particularly good to see Waterston away from the harness of Law and Order (and he even got to be the U.S. president in this one, as opposed to district attorney or ADA for NYC). Good performances are crucial in this kind of context; as several have noted elsewhere, this was largely a two-character drama, one which with not much revision could be nearly as powerful as a "legitimate" theater/stage play, particularly given the stark and sweeping ethical dilemmas involved: personal responsibility, the (necessary?) abuse of (always corrupting or at least reason-distorting?) great political and military power, real and metaphorical losses reinforcing one another as the drama plays out. Literary sf (along with other forms of fantastic literature, such as fantasy and surrealist fiction) an...
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August Schellenberg in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Annabel Reyes/HBO
Nominations for the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, to be broadcast Sept. 16 on Fox, were announced Thursday morning. Here are the major races in the miniseries or TV-movie field.Lead Actress in a Miniseries or TV-movie:Queen Latifah (Life Support)Helen Mirren (Prime Suspect: The Final Act)Mary-Louise Parker (The Robber Bride)Debra Messing (The Starter Wife)Gena Rowlands (What If God Were the Sun)Lead Actor in a Miniseries or TV-movie:Robert Duvall (Broken Trail)Tom Selleck (Jesse Stone: Sea Change)Jim Broadbent (Longford)William H. Macy (Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King)Matthew Perry (The Ron Clark Story)Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV-movie:Greta Scacchi (Broken Trail)Anna Paquin (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee)Samantha Morton (Longford)Judy Davis (The Starter Wife)Toni Collette (Tsunami: The Aftermath)Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or TV-movie:Thomas Haden Church (Broken Trail)August Schellenberg (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee) Aidan Qui...
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Anne Heche and Russell Porter by Bob Akester/ABC
ABC's Masters of Science Fiction anthology series, announced what seems like light-years ago, will finally hit the airwaves during the dog days of August. The lineup — slashed from six installments to four — is as follows:August 4: "A Clean Escape," based on Nebula Award-winning author John Kessel's short story about a postapocalyptic psychiatrist (Judy Davis) determined to solve a man's (Sam Waterston) apparent memory lapse.August 11: "The Awakening," based on a short story by Howard Fast, starring Terry O'Quinn, Elisabeth Rohm and William B. Davis, and concerning Baghdad-based soldiers' discovery of a "mysterious casualty."August 18: "Jerry Was a Man," based on the Robert Heinlein story about an affluent couple (Anne Heche and Malcolm McDowell) who acquire an anthropoid.August 25: "The Discarded," based on the short story by seven-time Hugo Award winner, three-time Nebula Award winner, and Science Fiction Grand Master Laureate Harlan Ellison, directed by Jonathan Frakes,...
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Per the Hollywood Reporter, John Stamos has joined the cast of ABC's TV-movie adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun, playing Carl Lindner, one of the community members who fights to keep the African-American Younger family from moving in.... Gabrielle Anwar will star opposite Jeffrey Donovan in the USA Network drama pilot Burn Notice, about a special ops agent whose career is mysteriously ended.... Per Variety, Judy Davis and Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls) have joined the cast of USA's The Starter Wife six-hour mini.
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Question: There's a movie about a burglar who breaks into a house on Christmas Eve; the house belongs to a couple who bicker constantly. Their son lives there, too, and a bunch of awful relatives are on their way over for Christmas. In the end the dad and son help the burglar out. Can you tell me what it is?
Answer: It's the mean-spirited The Ref (1994), which stars Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey as the squabbling parents, Dennis Leary as the burglar who takes them hostage in their own home, and the incomparable Christine Baranski as the bitchy sister-in-law who can make the word "slip
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