WALL-E Is Here

Pixar’s Wall-E is opening in wide release today. We’ve been waiting for a long time to see the lonely robot who is still cleaning Earth, many years after humans have left the planet.

And not a word on Wanted!

P.S.

WALL-E reminds me of E.T. a little bit.

Mama Mia- The Movie

I can’t believe they turned Mama Mia into a movie. And what a cast: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and more. I got a chance to watch the show a few years ago in Vegas, and though the storyline was as stupid as a musical storyline can be, I enjoyed listening to the to the immortal ABBA songs performed by the cast.
But now they turned Mama Mia into a movie. That’s unbelievable!

Little Boxes No More: Is Weeds Going Too Far South?

Last night’s episode of “Weeds” featured a noticeable absence of song (and cheer) at the episode’s opening. So glaring was it that the opening shot simply showed a highway, the Mexican border, and two signs with the words “Weeds” and “Creator: Jenji Kohan” and jumped to Mary Louise Parker attempting to use bubbe’s vibrator as a hair dryer. The latter was more awkward funny than real funny.

Am I excited that Weeds is back for another season? Of course! Do I like the current storyline of Nancy, her brother-in-law, Andy, and her kids on the lam hiding out with Albert Brooks? Damn straight! More opportunity to hear the word “schlimazel” outside the context of 80s sitcoms. Ok, so I stolethat line. But I also miss the entire cast together and want some promise that their current non-Agrestic lives will be colliding in the near future with the people and storylines left behind, and most crucially the Nancy-Celia storyline.

Last night’s “Lady is a Charm” episode gave viewers a twist of hope in this department.

Elizabeth Perkins hinted that Nancy and Celia will be reunited and it only makes sense since Celia is currently taking the fall for Nancy’s booming pot business and it’s only a matter of time before she’s sprung free. To boot, Celia’s loverboy detective visited her at the end of last night’s episode and revealed an incriminating photo of Nancy and her drugpin boss, Guillermo, leaving us with the words, “I’m starting to believe you.”

While this season struggles to find its identity, I’m left with the disturbing thought that Showtime might try to make some sort of web contest to find the next theme song for Weeds. Hell, it might even become the next big reality TV show competition. In the meantime, however, crystal balls aside, it appears that more Yiddish vocabulary is in our immediate future and it’s fairly safe to say, Nancy will be assuming more drug running activities both north and south of the border.

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls, Used Cracked Pavements Instead

Remember your worst nightmare? The one involving you being discarded like yesterday’s trash and easily replaced? The one where you woke and realized that thankfully you weren’t dispensible or at the very least, it was all just a dream, but secretly questioning and doubting your abilities and cringing at your assessment of you self-worth?

Maybe these neurotic tendencies only creep up on me. It’s possible. As I was watching VH1 today, however, and seeing this new 20-year-old chanteuse from North London being hailed as the “new Amy Winehouse,” I had to sneak a listen to her. I also had to ask myself that why in an industry as vast as music, do we need to go around and recycle the same names. Winehouse was able to breathe new life into soul music and put it back on the map. She should be credited as such, in spite of all her drug-laden shenanigans. The girl’s got raw talent. Her predecessors are simply jumping on the over-crowded bandwagon.

And while the singer known as Adele (having your last name dropped from a label eliminates all those ugly pesky ethnic associations) might be more of a promising gamble in the professionalism dept. and she shares some things in common with Amy -notably they graduated from the same performing arts school and share a producer, Mark Ronson, Adele is no Amy, “chasing pavements” and all.

But you be the judge and listen and compare below.

What do Retirees in Florida Do All Day?

Ilana Donna goes to visit the folks in Florida and bites off a little more than even she can chew with the characters she encounters (and no, I’m talking about her family).

With a Goyishe Punim Like That…

Season 4 of Weeds premiered last night and I, for one, couldn’t have been more giddy. As a huge fan of the show, its premise, and in spite of my repressed jealousy for the fair Mary Louise Parker, the show’s start did nothing to sway my belief that this show represents one of the finest half-hour slots in entertainment on TV right now.
Last season ended with Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) torching her house and the entire Agrestic going up in flames. The police go into the basement of Celia’s (Elizabeth Perkin) house and discover Nancy’s booming pot operation and of course come to Celia looking for answers. Without disclosing too much here and potentially spoiling the experience for viewers, Albert Brooks joins the cast as Nancy’s father-in-law and the stereotypical Jewish father who regrets that his son married a goyishe woman. Brooks also doesn’t think much of Nancy’s eldest son, the one with the “goyishe punim” nor the fact that Nancy is eating the German dish, spatzle, and that she smells like gas. References to the Holocaust abound and you start to understand that the Jewish humor jokes are only going to increase exponentially with Brooks’ presence on the show.

The big open-ended question series’ creator Jenji Kohan had us all wondering last night is what’s going to happen with the storyline involving the show’s incredibly talented and witty supporting ensemble (Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, etc) who get left behind in Agrestic now that Nancy, her kids, and her brother-in-law have shacked up with Albert Brooks just north of the border. Kohan leaked to E! that a spin-off show might be in the works that would center around the the rest of the cast. Unfortunately for Nancy-Conrad fans, Kohan sees the split has something irrevocable:

“I love those characters; I just think those relationships wore themselves out, and I wanted to be true to where the characters were. Truthfully, Heylia and Nancy had nothing more to say to each other. Conrad and Nancy weren’t going to be the loves of each other’s lives, so it was time to move on.”

On the flipside, a spin-off might be a welcome relief as it will translate to a whole hour of Weeds entertainment back-to-back and that the Call Girl show will have move to another night. Nothing against the show or anything (’twas better than expected and I’ll admit it has more potential than Sex in the City as it lives up to its sexed-up hype and shows actual sex taking place in the city), but as David Hinckley of the NY Daily News said, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl is sexy enough, but ’tis a pity she’s a bore.”

For a sneak peak of Episode 2 of Weeds click here.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

Another blond Hollywood starlet with ample assets has been possessed by the politician bug, at least virtually. Actress Scarlett Johansson has been exchanging emails with presidential hopeful Barack Obama. The connection? Her twin brother, Hunter, works for the Obama campaign after conveniently leaving his gig as Community Liaison for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer a few weeks ago.

While all this background might explain how Obama and Scarlett were introduced, it doesn’t quite explain why the Dem candidate is garnering “advice” from the Hollywood hottie or why Scarlett is gushing about Obama’s prompt responsiveness to her emails all over the political site, Politico.

Kinda sheds new light on the whole “Yes we can” linchpin of Barack’s campaign.

Beloved Tim Russert Dead at 58

Meet the Press host and NBC political pundit Tim Russert died at 58 today of an alleged heart attack. He is survived by his wife, columnist and activist Maureen Orth and son Luke, a Boston College graduate.

Schilling Poo Poos Kobe Bryant’s Poor Sportsmanship on His Blog

Curt Schilling is probably known better these days for his antics off the Fenway field, than on, but that doesn’t stop the Red Sox pitcher from airing his opinions (and he has many) on his blog, 38 Pitches. Today Schilling made headlines with his most recent lengthier-than-thou post which included a rant on the greatest basketball player to hit the NBA since Michael Jordan, otherwise known as Kobe Bryant. Now I don’t know how Kobe functions as team leader. I’m not sure he’s half the leader Celtics’ captain Paul Pierce is (as Schilling seems to suggest), and I might never know since I don’t have the kind of cash/kudos/fame that permits the luxury of sitting up near the teams’ benches during the NBA finals, but considering that Kobe has managed to rather successfully juggle the role of team captain, superstar scorer, and consistently averaged the highest # of points scored by a b-ball player in the post-season, I would advise Schilling to simma’ down.

Girls Gone Wild for Sex & The City?

Back is Amaldo.com’s video blogger Ilana Donna with a new video documenting the craze that’s managed to sweep the nation, otherwise known as Sex & The City fanaticism and Sarah Jessica Parker idolatry. (The girl gets furious over wearing an old dress? I mean, really?)

While I know I’m in the minority here, can someone tell me why the lives of 4 utterly vacuous women are so intriguing and why women hold these prototypes to be so dear? Do people actually see these women as liberated feminists and mistake their silly little tacky lives - the promiscuity, spending sprees, zero career drive, and total lack of a desire to define themselves as anything but “the other” to be qualities to be admired?

When Will This End?

Hillary Clinton said: “I’m just very grateful we kept this campaign going until South Dakota would have the last word,” but Bill said: “This may be the last day I’m ever involved in a campaign of this kind.”, and I’m thinking: Is today really the last day Hillary and Barack will bore us with their endless meaningless, empty promises and speeches? Will tomorrow be a new day, in which we’ll get to hear real news for a change? The answer is probably NO, but it’s OK to dream isn’t it?