Year: 2006 (Page 210 of 228)

American Idol by the Bay

So last night definitely proved one thing. Two hours of “American Idol” is overkill. One hour is just right, so thankfully we only had to endure 60 minutes of the extremely good and extremely bad performers (mostly bad).

The first two contestants in San Francisco had opera backgrounds…..Hawaiian Jessica Simpson wannabe Heidi was like a female version of Adam Sandler’s “Opera Man.” Then this dude tried to do an opera-inspired version of a Gladys Knight song. Are you kidding me?

Some of the highlights were John Williams, a military dude who did a weird Michael Jackson thing but somehow got through. Jose, this dude who sang really well but why the hell did he keep snapping his fingers? Shawna, the 16 year old girl whose dad was in a rock band, was just good enough, but the real winner of the Frisco auditions was a girl named Katharine….if Simon says “absolutely fantastic” you know she is good, and she really was. Look for her to land in the top 12, she was that good.

Ah, and the crap….there was plenty of that as usual. This dude who called himself “Wolfie” thought he was Clay Aiken but looked and sounded more like an accountant. There as a chick who said she quit her job to go audition, but when she sucked Simon Cowell was nice enough (did I just say that?) to call her ex-employer and get the girl her job back.

Some other lowlights were Marcus, who could only sing and rap in falsetto…..Debra, the rocker girl with big blond hair who was in desperate need of a makeover…and Manuel, the kid who used hot sauce to warm up his voice and rubbed a good luck charm that he wore around his neck. He had this scary vibrato going on that just wouldn’t stop, kind of like those fake birthday candles you can’t blow out.

Always looking to gain more ratings, Simon walked off the set before the last audition of the day and went back to his hotel….he and Randy were not seeing eye to eye all day long and Randy kept nagging Simon. But fear not, Cowell will be back in Vegas next week, for what I’m sure will be a grueling two hour show again.

And on a side note, since Subway is one of the American Idol sponsors….I’d like to coin-scratch Jared off of my TV once and for all. And is it just me, or is dude getting fat again? The whole world is going low-carb Jared, it’s time for you to catch up.

I’m out.

Charlie & the Heroin Factory

It feels like Charlie’s struggle with drug addiction has been put on hold for almost a year now (not counting the brief revisit two weeks back), so it was a relief to see that the writers hadn’t forgotten about our favorite little hobbit. Still, I’m not completely sure that I was expecting what happened on tonight’s episode, namely Charlie’s chronic daydreaming about Claire’s baby (Aaron) going missing. And after a religious-themed premonition and a chat with Mr. Eko, Charlie is convinced that Aaron needs to be baptized in order to be considered saved. That doesn’t, however, make it okay to steal another person’s baby and force it into the ocean surrounding a mysterious island.

Are Charlie’s visions for real or just an aftereffect of going cold turkey? Whatever the reason, at least we know why Charlie is so damned protective of Aaron – it seems that his older brother didn’t know the first step in early parenting, though the extensive drug use certainly didn’t help. And finally, what was going on with that diaper commercial? Is that what burned out rock stars are to expect at the end of their career, and if so, why don’t we see more rockers dressing up like babies these days? Man, what I wouldn’t give to see the Stones selling Pampers during daytime television.

Meg Ryan adopts Chinese baby in transparent ploy to lure Brad Pitt

Following in the foreign-adoption footsteps of other celebrity moms such as Angelina Jolie and Mia Farrow, single mom Ryan will adopt a female infant from China.

Informed of the news, aspiring Daddy Brad Pitt said he was flattered, but had no plans to leave Hot Mom Angelina for Ryan. Woody Allen said that he too would prefer to remain with his current child bride, Soon-Yi Previn, but to give him a call as soon as Meg’s new little bundle of joy turns eighteen.

Vic Mackey, meet Jon Kavanaugh. Let the games begin.

If season five of “The Shield” were any more like its debut season, Michael Chiklis will be polishing his new Golden Globe about this time next year. I mentioned in a past blog that I thought the show had gotten back to the basics, and if last nights episode was any indication, I was right on the money. The Strike Team is back to kicking ass and taking names, albeit at a low enough level so that Lem’s wiretap doesn’t pick it up. All four guys know about Kavanaugh now and it looks like their going to walk the straight and narrow until they can figure out how to get rid of the monkey on their backs. It’s true that they have to watch what they say when they’re out in the field, but if they’re just lounging around in the Barn, typing in Microsoft Word seems to do the trick.

And for the first time this season, the filler cases used to pad the major plotlines were actually interesting. While the Strike Team track down an underage Mexican slave trade with the help of newbie cop Tina’s undercover work, Dutch and Claudette are forced to reopen a case involving the wrongful imprisonment of a suspect in the school shootings. So, Dutch, was wrong… big deal. If he would have had Claudette’s full attention on day one, maybe they wouldn’t have made that mistake. More interesting, though, is the fact that Super Detective Dutch couldn’t figure out that the “face reader” specialist was more into him than the case at hand. Is Dutch really losing his edge, or is his Gaydar just a little fuzzy?

Meanwhile, the countdown to Vic and Kavanugh’s first face-to-face begins when Corrine runs to Vic about a man who’s approached her numerous times at the school. Vic knows right away that it’s Kavanaugh, confirming Corrine’s statement with a newspaper photo Ronnie dug up in the archives while searching for dirt on the IAD agent. Seems that Kavanaugh is worse than they thought, going so far as turning in his own partner while on the job years before. That really shouldn’t be surprising considering the level of determination (desperation?) that his character has shown thus far this season, but it’ll certainly play a part down the road.

All queries about Kavanaugh aside, why in God’s name would Shane mention his work problems to Mara again? Doesn’t he realize that this is the same psycho bitch who botched up the money train two years ago? I doubt Shane would ever give Lem up to save his ass, especially since Lem is in this trouble precisely because of Shane, but I wouldn’t give Mara those same odds. She’ll do anything to keep her husband out of prison, and screwing over the other three guys is probably on the top of her list.

Holy crap! Chris Penn died!

I just saw it posted on Ain’t It Cool News. (Here’s the link to the link they provided.) I am totally floored. I mean, in truth, he’s looked rather bloated for awhile, but, still, the guy was only 43 years old.

He might’ve been a lesser Penn brother, but I will always remember him for “Footloose,” “Reservoir Dogs” and, perhaps more importantly, “The Wild Life.”

It’s casual.

It sure is.

Rest in peace, Chris.

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