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.
Oscar ratings were dramatically down this year. This despite all the George Clooney pimping, the red dresses, and Sean Penn’s new arm candy. While the writers’ strike is rumored to be the primary culprit of ABC’s bad fortune in a year that was ripe with downer nominees, some fault needs to be shifted to the downright lack of charisma of the show’s host, John Stewart. Considering I had to wait till 10:50 PM before there was one comment that made me chuckle and that it’s all but erased from my memory, it can’t bode well for Stewart’s wittiness. Yeah, yeah, writers’ strike and there were 5 writers that had pitch in to write the telecast this year and they had fast turnaround given time restrictions, but isn’t Stewart a comedian after all? If Tina Fey can pull off of the more memorable SNL episodes to hit the tube in a long time, can’t Stewart work some magic? I always thought Stewart was a little bit of a whiny sissy anyways, but maybe he lacks that bitch is the new black factor after all…
Brian Williams did a very good job as the host of Saturday Night Live. He’s got an excellent sense of timing, and together with a natural acting skill, he was very amusing. On the musical side, it was Feist, who gave an interesting and solid performance. During the show It was announced that next week musical guest will be Amy Winehouse. Well, It’s a whole week from now, and with our Amy… It’s still a long way to go, and you can never tell what’s gonna happen in so many days…
A runaway trained government agent, an amateur stuntman, and the Bible are all in this week’s new movies.
The Bourne Ultimatum: Matt Damon is back in the third movie in the Jason Bourne series. While being chased by just about every cop, FBI agent, and even the Interpol, Bourne tries to trace back to the beginning in an attempt to find out who he was before he lost his memory. He is passing Moscow, Paris and London to Tangier and New York City in search for the truth.
Hot Rod: SNL’s Andy Samberg is Rod Kimble, an unemployed live-with-mom guy who, for some reason believes he has what it takes to become a great stuntman. When Rod’s abusive stepfather gets sick,he is trying to raise $50,000 for an operation that will cure his stepfather by performing the greatest stunt ever.
The Ten: The ten Commandments in ten overlapping stories, each in a different style. Jessica Alba, Adam Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Robert Corddry and Famke Janssen, in an observation of the most basic human morals. Anyone mentioned blasphemy?This R rated comedy opens only in selected theaters.
This week’s peak is from the new movie Stardust. Enjoy the weekend.
Alec Baldwin is teaming up with Anthony Hopkins, Dan Akroyd, Sex & The City alum Kim Cattrall and everyone’s favorite bobble head w/boobs Jennifer Love Hewitt to star in “Shortcut To Happiness.” In previous iterations, the film’s title was “The Devil & Daniel Webster” with Love Hewitt playing of course, the devil (she dyed her hair fecal red just for the part) and Baldwin, assuming the role of the desperate writer willing to do anything, including bedding Love Hewitt (quelle sacrifice), to have a hit. As you can imagine he gets his wish, but Dan Akroyd must suffer greatly for Baldwin’s happiness. Sound contrived enough for you??
Tsk Tsk Alec. We understand Sir Anthony’s uncanny knack for making poor film choices and since JLH, Kim Cattrall, and Dan Akroyd currently don’t have careers to speak of outside of TBS and PAC, we’re trying to figure out how a man at the top of his professional game could sign on to do such a lame project.
On this week’s Amaldo.Com Cast, I discuss my DVD picks of the week, season finale talk, a certain chanteuse nuptials, and our upcoming Amaldo.Com interview with Ingrid Michaelson whose Keep Breathing appeared as the closing song on the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy” last week.
As I watched “Jay Leno” last night and he mentioned the Fall line-up, I started thinking that I covered ABC and the CW (briefly), but I totally neglected the Peacock!
Considering NBC gives me “The Office,” I think I owe it some sort of mention here. The major item of interest that NBC is adding to their Fall line-up (and most likely to satisfy “Heroes” fans craving for the show while it’s on hiatus), series creator Tim Kring is bringing us a “Heroes” prequel that will air in the same 9 PM time slot on Monday night called “Heroes: Origins.”
The “Origins” series will consist of six stand-alone episodes, with each one introducing a new character and telling his or her back story. They’ll take place within the “Heroes” universe but won’t be tied into the main arc of the series, although one or two regular characters may pop up.
It will also carry an interactive element: After all six “Origins” episodes air, viewers will be able to vote on which character joins the main show the following season.
The much-talked about, remake of the 70s series, “Bionic Woman” will also be on NBC’s line-up, as will Candace Bushnell’s (creator of “Sex & The City”) “Lipstick Jungle” which documents the lives of 40-somethings played by 30-somethings. Hmmm….
And because once in a while it’s nice to throw in something new, “Journeyman” features a time traveller/reporter (played by the actor in the picture seen here). But have no fear, “ER” is back for like a 15th season as is “Deal or No Deal.”
It’s nice to know some things stay the same. Or that our network execs are so adverse to change and/or taking a risk that they condemn us to John Stamos primping for a scalpel while some terrorist who’s threatened to blow the ER to smithereens holds a weapon of miniscule proportions to his face.
We already mentioned on Amaldo our early critical disappointment of Bjork’s unoriginal new album Volta weeks ago when she performed on SNL so this quote is like icing on the cake, or a nail on a coffin, as the case may be.
Björk is a lot of things - a freak, a genius, a singer with the kind of presence otherwise reserved for academy trainees - but she isn’t funky. When she breaks from swooning to scat over rhythms pushed to the fore, her phrasing tends toward the upright and the staccato, landing hard on syllables and clipping words with a mind for punch. But she doesn’t linger suggestively, as good funk singers do. She’s a hammer typewriter slamming on the page rather than a roller ball dripping between tics.
D.R Scott wrote on this blog about his dislike of SNL:
“I believed Saturday Night Live just wasn’t that funny. Oh sure, there were always random moments of savage comedic brilliance, but most of the time I felt as though I needed a few shots of Johnny Walker Red and a bong hit to get most of the sloppy, lazily-written bits to work.”
Watching last night’s NBC special SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE IN THE 90′S: POP CULTURE NATION got me thinking about it and my insight is that maybe it’s not supposed to be so funny. Sure, the show’s producers will not agree with me, but maybe It’s not about laughing as hard as you can. It’s more about smiling. No one can say that a bearded Will Ferrell, wearing a too tight shirt hammering a cow bell is not something to be smiling about. The feeling I get watching the show resembles in a way what I felt watching “Clerks II” for the first time. It’s like meeting your old buddies again. They are not always hilarious, and you sometimes think they are immature, but still, it’s fun to see them again.
For the week that was 4/29, Beth tackles Alec Baldwin, Heather Mills, Sanjaya, Richard Gere, Sarah Silverman, and Rosie O’Donnell in her weekly podcast.
Last week, the infamous voicemail message from Alec Baldwin to his 12-year-old daughter (the one where he calls her a “rude, thoughtless little pig”) leaked all over the internet. Here on the blog, we debated a bit the media frenzy surrounding the whole incident. As was evidenced with Anna Nicole Smith, the media has a penchant for going too far in the realm of exploitation of celebrities’ personal lives, but who pays the ultimate toll?
Well, this time it would appear to be Alec Baldwin’s acting career. Baldwin was making pretty serious strides in his career, what with “The Departed” and “The Good Shepherd.” He’s proven that not only is he adept at playing the serious dramatic thespian every actor aims to be, but he’s a damn funny guy and a critical asset to “30 Rock.”
So it’s a sad day today for a couple reasons. First off, I’m really tired and dragging at like 9 AM. I realize not many of you care about that too much. But secondly, my friend took a big exam and thinks she failed. Also, bad. I feel very sad for her. But third, the only other show besides “The Office” on the NBC Thursday line-up I liked (”30 Rock”) might have go on without the presence of Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy.
In what’s sure to be the nail on Alec’s career coffin, tomorrow on “The View” he will publicly apologize to his daughter (Huh? Ever heard of a phone, Alec?) and make mention of how he wants to be released from his “30 Rock” contract. “No can do,” says NBC.
Talk is already circulating that Alec would be the perfect Rosie replacement when she leaves “The View” in June. Double Huh? That’s a definitive flush down the can for Baldwin’s acting career.
One thing’s clear from all this. Baldwin needs to fire his publicist STAT. Clearly whoever that person may be is blowing some heavy crack. And I’m not talking all the steam that’s blowing out of Tiny Fey’s head right about now.
As my husband and I were in the car on our way to work this morning, we listened to an interview with comedian Richard Lewis who is in Providence this weekend doing some comedy show. Among some of the things we learned in listening to Lewis’ shtick (aside from the fact that the comedian is inherently unfunny, especially for a Jew (and one that played a rabbi at that!) and that he may claim he’s “recovering” from drug abuse, but all rambling evidence points to the contrary), Alec Baldwin’s tirade on his daughter, which is plastered all over the internet or TMZ.
Apparently Kim Basinger (Baldwin’s ex) leaked the voicemail from Alec to his 12-year-old daughter Ireland to TMZ in which Baldwin, among other verbal obscenities calls his girl a “thoughtless little pig.”
And now ladies and gents, I present to you a very talented comedian with a very dark side indeed:
That’s not all. “I don’t give a damn that you’re 12 years old or 11 years old, or a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the a– who doesn’t care about what you do,” Baldwin screams into the phone. He then warns Ireland that he’s coming to Los Angeles today, Friday, and will “straighten her out.”Baldwin is going to have to do some fast spinning to get out of this situation, especially if the tape starts getting airplay. There will likely be little tolerance for this kind of behavior, especially toward a child — and his own child, at that.
It certainly is hard imagining telling one’s own kid how angry you are because they — the child — has “humiliated” you by missing a phone call.
More from the call: “Once again I’ve made an a– of myself getting to a phone to make a phone call … I’m tired of playing this game with you. You have insulted me for the last time …You’ve made feel like sh– and you’ve made feel like a fool over and over again … I’m going to straighten your a– out … You are a rude, thoughtless little pig.”
So much for Imus and the tragedy over at VA Tech. The media now has new fodder for exploitation. And I’m not talking Michael Richards here.
Dame Edna’s alter ego emerged from a different kind of closet in the latest edition or Heat magazine. Barry Humphries aka Dame Edna admitted that he is “partly Jewish.” While Damn Edna could be the bastard child of Julia Child and Mike Myer’s mother-in-law and frequent SNLer Linda Richman (Child contributing the Y chromosome in this scenario), who would have guessed Humphries was a canasta player?
With my background it was not spoken of, but I could play canaster without anyone teaching me, so I thought ‘well I must be Jewish!’ And I get on very well with North London people. I like the mix of scepticism and humour, and the intelligence of the average Red Sea pedestrian.Outside of character Humphries, who is also well known for the larger-than-life Les Patterson, has been involved with cultural Jewish events.
For a number of years, he has been a patron of the Jewish Music Institute’s Suppressed Music Project, which focuses on composers who suffered under the Nazi regime.
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.
Oscar ratings were 
Alec Baldwin is teaming up with Anthony Hopkins, Dan Akroyd, Sex & The City alum Kim Cattrall and everyone’s favorite bobble head w/boobs Jennifer Love Hewitt to star in “Shortcut To Happiness.” In previous iterations, the film’s title was “The Devil & Daniel Webster” with Love Hewitt playing of course, the devil (she dyed her hair fecal red just for the part) and Baldwin, assuming the role of the desperate writer willing to do anything, including bedding Love Hewitt (quelle sacrifice), to have a hit. As you can imagine he gets his wish, but Dan Akroyd must suffer greatly for Baldwin’s happiness. Sound contrived enough for you??
On this week’s 
The most enjoyment I’ve gotten out of SNL all season was watching Scarlett Johansson (surprisingly funny gal) and series’ regular Alec Baldwin pop in. So when I found out that Zach Braff was 
As I watched “Jay Leno” last night and he mentioned the Fall line-up, I started thinking that I covered 
We 
For the week that was 4/29, Beth tackles Alec Baldwin, Heather Mills, Sanjaya, Richard Gere, Sarah Silverman, and Rosie O’Donnell in 
Last week, the infamous voicemail message from Alec Baldwin to his 12-year-old daughter (the one where he calls her a “rude, thoughtless little pig”) leaked all over the internet. Here 
As my husband and I were in the car on our way to work this morning, we listened to an interview with comedian 
Dame Edna’s alter ego 