Year: 2006 (Page 130 of 228)

“Chrs wuz robd”: American Idol fans smell conspiracy

Rumors are swirling that callers who intended to vote for Chris Daughtry this week received a personal thank you…from Katharine McPhee. While I’m the first to admit to having a conspiratorial, paranoid mind, I also think that there’s something to this one.

Here’s the way I see it: the producers of “AI” were facing the possibility of three white males in the finals, as McPhee had begun to falter week after week. Knowing that having three males in the finals would bring claims from numerous groups that they’re chauvanist white devils, not to mention the possibility of low ratings as a result of the finals being a landslide, the producers took the show’s best candidate for Idol winner and threw him under the bus. According to my wife Buffybot, they’re doing something similar in “The Amazing Race.” Whenever the hippies finished last — which has happened twice — it just so happened to be a non-elimination round. They are now one of the final three teams. The hippies are supposedly great television. Their survival cannot be a coincidence.

But here’s the part the “AI” people didn’t consider: if Taylor Hicks wins — and for God knows what reason, he is now the odds-on favorite — it will kill the show, because they will lose any and all credibility they may have had. The only way the show survives at this point is if Elliott goes the distance. Still, even if does win it all, he’ll be the Ruben to Chris’ Clay.

Really, Mr. Fuller. Would it have been so bad for three dudes to be in the finals?

A fantasy league for the celebrity-obsessed

ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, aka the Sports Guy, in trying to build a bridge to his non-sports-oriented wife, has come up with a whole new way for Hollywood gossipmongers like us to waste many precious minutes every day: the Us Weekly fantasy league. Do they honestly think this will increase magazine subscriptions?

The rules are simple:

“Here’s how it works: 10 teams, auction format, $200 cap, five male and five female celebs per roster. Scoring is head-to-head for 22 weeks, playoffs over the last three (so you can have two seasons per year). OK, let’s say you pay $55 for Lindsay Lohan. If she makes the cover of Us, you get 10 points (three for the inset photo). Every other Lohan picture inside is worth one. If she appears in the Fashion Police, you’re docked three. That’s it. Simple.

You can add or drop your celebs each Monday. Like maybe you want to dump Jake Gyllenhaal (because the whole Brokeback thing has played out) and grab Josh Hartnett (because he’s dating Scarlett Johansson). Then again, you might want to hang on to Gyllenhaal. He’s single and his number might be up in the Lohan deli line.”

Of course, as Us Weekly points out, “Gyllenhaal is not single and Lindsay Lohan is now getting her meat from Kate Moss’ ex Jamie Burke — which is why your wife will totally own you in this league. Brilliant idea. Game on.”

Sadly, no online site has yet taken it upon itself to actually facilitate the building of this league. If Us Weekly has any business acumen whatsoever, they’ll rectify that tout de suite.

Ally McBack On Television

allymcbeal

Perhaps jumping the gun on next week’s fall schedule announcement, ABC ordered four new series yesterday, including a drama that stars former “Ally McBeal” actress Calista Flockhart. The family soap “Brothers and Sisters” will star not only Flockhart, but also former “Six Feet Under” actress Rachel Griffiths, soon-to-be-former “Alias” actor Balthazar Getty, and a current cast member of “Prison Break” whose identity is revealed in the linked article (so don’t click the link if you don’t want to know who’s involved).

Other series picked up by ABC include the drama “Men in Trees,” starring Anne Heche as “a Manhattan shrink who flees big city life for Alaska;” “Traveler,” a conspiracy thriller about “three Ivy Leaguers who get caught up in a national security emergency;” and “Ugly Betty,” a U.S. remake of one of the most popular Latin telenovelas of all time.

Here’s betting that Hollywood’s version of Ugly Betty ends up being substantially more attractive than the original:

bettylafea

One can only hope.

HBO’s “Deadwood”: dead?

That’s the word on the block, anyways, according to CNN.com:

The pay cable network has opted not to pick up the options of the actors on the show, releasing them to pursue other projects. “Deadwood” creator David Milch is shifting his attention to “John From Cincinnati,” a one-hour project he is writing for HBO. The surfing-themed drama has been ordered as a pilot, subject to finalizing deals on the financial and talent side.

Just more sad news from the TV front, I’m afraid, and only a few weeks before season three is set to premiere. We can only hope that HBO doesn’t plan to conclude their two top-rated dramas (including “The Sopranos”) in the same year. And if they do, then they better have something just as good to replace them.

Ellen, your one-stop source for “Snakes on a Plane”

Samuel L. Jackson made another appearance on the Ellen show last week, and they spoke exclusively about “Snakes on a Plane.” Here are the two segments

Segment 1: Jackson talks about “Pacific Flight 121” and how awful a title that was, and even shows some behind-the-scenes clips of the snakes wrangled together on the set.

Segment 2: Begins with a (snakes-free) clip from the movie, which Jackson wryly observes is eerily similar to his speech in “Deep Blue Sea,” where a shark jumps up and eats him. I personally love the bit regarding Jackson’s favorite word to say, and the game of charades he and Ellen play around it. Enjoy, Snakeheads.

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