Filed under: OpEd, The Apprentice, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities

After weeks of tasks, bickering between Piers and Omarosa, “You’re fired!” and money raised for charity, Donald Trump finally said the words “You’re hired!” (figuratively) to one of the two final contestants: America’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan and country singer Trace Adkins. Since I know some of you haven’t watched the finale yet, I’ll name who was crowned winner of the first edition of NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice after the jump. I can confirm though that it’s a man!

Continue reading The Celebrity Apprentice winner

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Filed under: Celebrities

Every year, The Boston Phoenix publishes a list of the 100 Unsexiest Men of the Year, where they judge 100 males involved in everything from sports to politics to the internet. They always include several TV faces (and other body parts), and this year they’ve included a cartoon character.

No, not Dr. Phil, though he is a bit of a cartoon. The “doctor” is on the list, but the cartoon character I’m talking about is Quagmire, from Family Guy. The Phoenix sends a note to creator Seth MacFarlane that “nothing screams hilarity like jokes about date rape!” Giggity.

Continue reading Dr. Phil is not a sexy man

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Filed under: Drama, Independent, Casting, Deals, Cinematical Indie

Ooh, here’s one title that I fervently hope doesn’t get changed for the big screen: Timothy B. Tyson’s book Blood Done Sign My Name will be adapted into a film by Jeb Stuart, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The book tells the true story of a black Vietnam vet allegedly murdered by a white businessman, and also examines a young teacher’s role in the civil unrest that followed. Rising young star Nate Parker (The Great Debaters, Pride) will star. THR says that the independently-financed production will be filmed in North Carolina in May and June.

As described by the book’s publisher, the story is explosive. It starts in May 1970 with the public murder of Henry Marrow in Oxford, North Carolina. The killing sparked street protests in the small Southern town. “While lawyers battled in the courthouse,” the synopsis reads, “the Klan raged in the shadows and black Vietnam veterans torched the town’s tobacco warehouses.”

Continue reading ‘Blood Done Sign My Name’ To Be Directed by ‘Fugitive’ Writer

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Filed under: Comedy, Horror, Thrillers, Casting

Check out this collection of old and new faces, courtesy of Variety:

• He became super famous, or at least, super recognizable after jutting out his lower lip and playing Bubba in Forrest Gump. Now Mykelti Williamson is doomed to some terrible death — or at least, he’s doomed to be surrounded by it. He’s picked up a role in the next accident fest — Final Destination 4. Unfortunately, there’s no word on who he’ll play — whether he’ll have a bit part, or figure prominently. Either way, you’ll get to see him in 3D! In the meantime, you can catch him in Vice, a new drama starring Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah.
• Then we’ve got Saturday Night Live alum Nora Dunn. Recently, she’s been hanging out on the Pineapple Express, but now she’s also getting spiritual — or at least, into the spiritual business. Dunn has signed on to play a literary agent in the upcoming Jeff Daniels film The Dream of the Romans, which I told you about the other day. Daniels stars as a reclusive writer of spiritual books who gets hounded for advice by a few eager fans.
• Finally, there’s more talent signing on to the Patrick Swayze comedy Fired Up, which focuses on two guys who sign up for cheerleader’s camp to pick up girls — AnnaLynne McCord (Nip/Tuck) and Jake Sandvig (Sky High). There is no word on McCord’s character (although I bet it would be safe to assume that she’ll be a cheerleader), while Sandvig will play some dude named Downey. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. (I really hope this is good, for Swayze’s sake.)

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Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting

The story of a womanizer who gets beaten for his ways and loses his balls is interesting in its own right. It’s strange, different, and has a ring of poetic justice. Now, continuing the uniqueness, this castration comedy is getting a diverse cast. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Judy Greer, Chloe Sevigny, Cybill Shepherd, and Billy Dee Williams have signed on to star with Patrick Wilson in Barry Munday. This is one cast I never would have dreamed could come together.

As we told you back in February, the film is based on Frank Turner Hollon’s book, Life is a Strange Place. It focuses on a womanizer who gets caught canoodling with a teen, and his father beats him so hard for it that Barry ends up in the hospital with injuries that lead to castration. He begins to see that his life is not quite how he’d like it, and just as he realizes he will never be able to have kids of his own, he’s named in a paternity suit. “Barry is elated at the second chance at fatherhood. Now if he can just avoid his crazy ex-girlfriend, her rabid dog, a mob of angry gay midgets, and his mother until the baby is born…”

Judy Greer will play the ex-girlfriend and soon-to-be mom, Sevigny will be her flirty sister with a secret life who hits on Munday, Shepherd is taking on the role of their mother, and Billy Dee will be a “tough boss at Munday’s insurance company.” Is anyone else as charmed by this cast as I am?

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Filed under: Horror, Casting, Fandom

The Hollywood Reporter has some more casting details for Drag Me to Hell, the Sam Raimi horror film everyone’s excited about (and for good reason — it looks to be his first real foray into the genre since Army of Darkness). The news isn’t as major as when we learned that, say, Alison Lohman signed on, replacing Ellen Page, or that Justin Long joined her — the new additions are Cloverfield’s Jessica Lucas, TV vet Lorna Raver, and character actor David Paymer — but more notable are the character descriptions that accompany the announcement, which finally give us some hint of what Raimi has in store for us. (No real spoilers, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to go in completely cold, best to stop reading now.)

Continue reading Sam Raimi Picks Three More for ‘Hell’, Reveals Plot Details

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Filed under: Casting, Politics

Right on the heels of the announcement that Elizabeth Banks would play the First Lady in Oliver Stone’s ever-so-timely biopic of President George W. Bush (which is surely, as Erik Davis put it in the above-linked post, “one of the strangest projects in recent years”), Variety reports that James Cromwell and Ellen Burstyn have been cast as George H.W. and Barbara. Josh Brolin is already set to play Dubya himself. The film is called simply W.

Cromwell is an expert at playing United States Presidents. He’s portrayed fictional heads of state in The Sum of All Fears and an episode of The West Wing, as well as the extremely non-fictional Lyndon B. Johnson in the 2002 made-for-TV movie RFK. He’s also played Senators, high-ranking military officials, and WIlliam Randolph Hearst. If anything, I’m worried that he might be too presidential for the role of the folksy George H.W. As for Burstyn, well — if she can convincingly paint her face blue and run shrieking through the forest trying to kill Nicolas Cage in a bear suit, Barbara Bush should be a cinch.

Stone hopes to have the film ready before Bush leaves office next January, which is a pretty impressive turnaround as presidential biopics go. And while I usually have some sort of conception of what to expect from an upcoming release, I cannot even begin to imagine what W will be like. Can we expect more hysterical conspiracy-mongering à la JFK? The unexpectedly toned-down empathy of Nixon? The excruciating boredom of Alexander? The mind reels.

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Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show

Here’s who’s on the late night talk shows tonight.

• Charlie Rose: Senator Arlen Specter and Vitaly Churkin
• The Daily Show: Senator Arlen Specter (repeat)
• The Colbert Report: Samantha Power (repeat)
• The Late Show with David Letterman: Eva Longoria and Colbie Calliat (repeat)
• Jay Leno: Conan O’Brien, Anderson Cooper, and Allison Moorer
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Don Rickles, Jim Sturgess, and Black Tide
• Tavis Smiley: Parag Khanna and Van Jones
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien: Jake Gyllenhaal and Ghostland Observatory (repeat)
• The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Susan Sarandon and Bonnie Somerville (repeat)
• Last Call with Carson Daly: Rex Lee and Fat Joe (repeat)

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Filed under: OpEd, Spoilers Anonymous, Prison Break, Celebrities

Prison Break fans, you better sit down for this, especially if you were a Sara/Michael ’shipper. According to E!’s gossip columnist Kristin Dos Santos and TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello, actress Sarah Wayne Callies will be back as a series regular for season 4 of FOX’s Prison Break! No need to check your computer monitor, you read right: Dr. Sara Tancredi could very well be alive!

Continue reading Dr. Sara comes back to Prison Break?

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Filed under: Celebrities, Obituaries

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Richard Widmark: He was best known to TV viewers as the star of the NBC detective series Madigan in the 1970s. It was a spinoff of a movie of the same name. He also appeared in the miniseries Benjamin Franklin and in several TV movies, including Cold Sassy Tree, A Gathering of Old Men, Brock’s Last Case, and Vanished, and also made a guest appearance as himself in one of the classic I Love Lucy episodes set in Hollywood. He made his debut on the big screen in the film noir classic Kiss of Death and went on to star in dozens of other films, including Night and the City, No Way Out, Don’t Bother To Knock, Warlock, The Alamo, The Bedford Incident, Broken Lance, Murder on the Orient Express, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, Coma, Against All Odds, and many more. He got an Oscar nomination for his role in Kiss of Death.He died in Connecticut at age 93 after a long illness.

Continue reading TV Obits: Widmark, Mann, Wilde, Battley

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