Hemingway & Gellhorn
You can almost hear echoes of Bogie and Bacall as the rugged author taunts his ravishing muse: "There's nothing to writing, Gellhorn. All you do is sit down at your typewriter and bleed."
Ernest "Papa" Hemingway, embodied with...
read more
Person to Person
The revival of CBS' legendary program Person to Person special will feature George Clooney, Jon Bon Jovi and Warren Buffett.
Longtime newsman Edward R. Murrow launched...
read more
TV's former Catwoman voices Cool Cat (inset).
When Nickelodeon's Emmy-winning The Wonder Pets! series kicks off its third season on May 18, Eartha Kitt will be among the guest stars, voicing a Cool Cat who wants to scat. Kitt's voice work for the animated series marks one of her final performances before succumbing to colon cancer last Christmas Day.
Playing Hip Hippo to Kitt's Cool Cat in the season opener is ...
read more
It started with a bang: Uncle Junior popping Tony in a fit of dementia. But most of the fireworks in this brilliant sixth season of The Sopranos have been more emotional than visceral, a psychologically riveting study of the corruption (of soul and spirit) that taints anyone within whacking distance.
That long list includes poor Gene, the hit man who hanged himself; hapless Artie Bucco, whose restaurant and psyche are in tatters; jailed Johnny Sack, whose daughter's wedding ended in his tearful public humiliation and loss of esteem; and Tony's delinquent son A.J., who can't live up to anyone's expectations and whose attempted revenge hit on Junior was truly pathetic (the kid can't even vomit like a man).
"It's not in your nature," Tony told A.J. in one of the season's many wrenching scenes of anguish and regret.
Not that there hasn't been comic rel
read more
Question: I just wanted to say that I nearly broke a rib laughing during last Sunday's Sopranos after the way Lauren Bacall got jacked, not to mention her subsequent reaction to it. Also, I guess I'm the only fan out there who isn't upset with the way the season is progressing. I know it's slow going right now, but a lot of good shows in the past have taken their time building up to a thrilling conclusion, like X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, etc.
Answer: I am loving this season beyond measure. To me, this spring there has been all the rest of TV, and then there's The Sopranos: so much richer and more real (with, I guess, the exception of this hilarious Hollywood detour) than anything else around. The episode about Vito's gay life being exposed was truly a landmark episode, illuminating this season's theme of how everyone's life and potential have been corrupted by exposure to the Sopranos (from Vito to the poor schnook who hung himself in the premiere to pathetic Artie
...
read more
Daryl Hannah, Roy Scheider, Eric Roberts and Sean Young have been cast in Dark Honeymoon, an indie about a man who discovers horrible things about his new bride. Like, she doesn't really enjoy Smallville.... Per Variety, Woody Harrelson will fill the title role in The Walker, playing an escort to high-society dames. The cast includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin and Eric Roberts Willem Dafoe.
read more
Question: Just read your review of the Oscars and thought it a bit harsh. This is, after all, an awards show, with the main event being the handing out of awards. Certainly the singing performances, funny montages and humorous turns by Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and Steve Carell were attempts to liven up the evening. Some succeeded, some failed. But what would you recommend instead? Although I agree with you that there are many ways to reduce the lengthy event, that won't automatically make it any more interesting. So what will? Or do you concede that the Oscars are just one of those events that viewers and critics alike will always find fault with, no matter what happens or who hosts?
Answer: Gee, a critic being harsh? How did that happen? You're right, though. I've been reviewing Oscar shows since maybe the late '80s, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've had a mostly positive impression (usually the years with Billy Crystal at the helm). As I
...
read more
Jon Stewart did his best, but it wasn't good enough. There are limitations in being a clever, self-deprecating master of irony, when what the job of Oscar host truly demands is being a showman. Which Stewart would probably be the first to admit he's not.
His humor, politically barbed but never obnoxious, was possibly a bit too sophisticated for that cavernous room. But what really defeated him, as it has almost every modern-day Oscar host except for Billy Crystal, is the deadly monotony of the Oscar show itself. What a fossiled relic. The Oscar broadcast is a classy but inert dinosaur, and this year's was more forgettable than most.
Stewart gamely tried to deflate the evening's pomposity whenever he could — after a montage on message movies, he quipped, "and none of these issues were ever a problem again" — but still, we had to sit through it all anyway.
Even with a last-minute shocker, as Crash
read more