Christopher Rosen

Monday: The Dick Cavett Show with Woody Allen
The first thing you'll notice is how young they are; when the show originally aired on October 21st, 1971, Woody Allen was a fit-looking 36-year-old and Dick Cavett was all blonde sideburns and bronzed skin at 35. But beyond the initial shock of their youth is something more stunning and important: the death of the interview. Nowadays, television interviews are taped, edited and little more than distribution vehicles for sound bites. Or worse, they're just another extension of the marketing campaign for whatever ware the interviewee is hocking. That's not the case here, where over seventy-five live minutes Mr. Cavett and Mr. Allen ramble on about everything and anything, no matter how inconsequential. It should be no surprise that Mr. Allen is hilarious and quick on his feet; in fact, some of his one-liners actually wind up in Sleeper two years later.  read more »

If you're like us, you spent Thanksgiving Day watching the Tennessee Titans eviscerate the winless Detroit Lions 47-10. Boring blowouts like that tend to cause the mind to wander, which ours did while seeing yet another television spot for Jim Carrey's Yes Man. While the trailer has been out for months and posters for the film adorn subway stations from Coney Island to Yankee Stadium, we hadn't really given the Peyton Reed directed comedy much thought until faced with watching yet another Lions turnover. The short of it all is that Yes Man looks pretty terrible. But here are three reasons why its mere existence actually confuses our very being.  read more »

Normally, the Best Original Song category at the Academy Awards is the bane of our existence: an overloaded mess of badness that extends an already unending night into ass numbing proportions. No matter how the producers try to gussy up the presentation--"let's have Beyonce sing all the songs!"--the performances invariably suck. Of course the exception to this happened last year when Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova performed the ballad "Falling Slowly" from Once to beautiful perfection (and also deservedly went home with the hardware), but otherwise not a year goes by when we don't think that the telecast would benefit greatly from a total exclusion of the Best Original Song category. That opinion might have to change after this year. Sure, the potential nominees include the usual (boring) suspects like a Miley Cyrus song from Bolt and Peter Gabriel's number from Wall-E, but there are also original songs from Jenny Lewis (for Bolt as well), Bruce Springsteen's title track for The Wrestler and the team-up of A.R. Rahman and M.I.A. forSlumdog Millionaire. Cool! However! The most bananas song of all might be a little duet performed by British singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum and... Clint Eastwood. Yep. That Clint Eastwood.  read more »

In theory, there are a number of things wrong with Duplicity, Tony Gilroy's follow-up to Michael Clayton. The title sucks; it sounds like that stupid Michael Keaton comedy Multiplicity. And what good movie gets released on March 20th? March is a studio dumping ground for films that aren't quite good enough to play in the big months of summer and fall, but aren't crappy enough to stick in January. Yet with all that baggage (not to mention the fact that star Clive Owen already has what looks like a disposable international espionage thriller coming out in early 2009 called, fittingly, The International), we're wildly excited about the just released trailer for Duplicity.

Lots of that excitement has to do with the two leads: the aforementioned Mr. Owen and little actress named Julia Roberts.  read more »

If you think roughly three-quarters of Hollywood's output arrives between now and Christmas day, that's probably because it does. Or at least it seems like it does. Thanksgiving marks the official kick-off of the holiday season, and there's something at the box office for everyone in your family. Here's a handy guide to the Thanksgiving weekend new releases.

Four Christmases

What's the story: Whither Vince Vaughn? The last two movies the patron saint of fraternities has starred in have been holiday-themed studio fare. However we'll pretty much guarantee Four Christmases is going to be better than Fred Claus. From director Seth Gordon (The King of Kong), Christmases pairs Mr.  read more »

One of the coolest wrinkles in this seemingly endless (although it's barely begun!) awards season is that film studios are putting previously unavailable content out to the masses. For instance, the scripts for two of summer's biggest hits, potential Oscar contenders Wall-E and The Dark Knight, can be officially downloaded right now. (If you need something to read during your lunch hour, you could do worse than The Dark Knight script by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan. "Why so serious?" indeed.) Additionally, Warner Brothers has also released Alexandre Desplat's beautiful and melancholy score for the upcoming The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; though the cheeky bastards have hidden it on their BAFTA awards consideration site, you can find it here.

We listened to large chunks of Mr. Desplat's score this morning and found it positively gorgeous. It's perfect for a rainy day and totally in-line with what we expected to hear from David Fincher's film, especially after the initial Benjamin Button teaser used Camile Saint-Saëns' "Aquarium" movement from his Le Carnaval des Animaux.  read more »

Like our esteemed colleague, I Am Legend completely freaked us out. While it wasn't really a good movie, it's realistically unrealistic version of post-apocalyptic Manhattan--Stray lions! $6 dollar per gallon gas prices! CGI vampires!--scared the bejesus out of us. Seriously, we still have the occasional nightmare revolving around the "last man on earth" scenario. Sadly for our sleep patterns, it was no surprise when Warner Brothers announced in September that they'd be moving ahead with another film under the I Am Legendheading, starring Will Smith--when a film makes over $500 million dollars worldwide, a franchise is born. There was just one small problem: Mr. Smith blew himself up at the end of the first movie. To get around that minor wrinkle, it was widely assumed that the second film (I Am Still Legend?) would be a prequel that filled in the gaps between the bleak vampire-filled future and the flashback scenes, which showed the height of the evacuation of Manhattan years before.

Yeah, about that... Rumors are flying all over the internets that the new film will, in fact, be a sequel.  read more »

If you're one of the people who saw Twilight this weekend (and since the film grossed over $70 million dollars at the box office, chances are you did), then you've probably already seen the new trailer for Adventureland, Greg Mottola's follow-up to Superbad. A nostalgic time capsule about a recent college graduate working at a Long Island theme park in the summer of 1987, we've had our eyes on this project since it was announced last year. But despite a script that our hyperbolic friends over at The Playlist say could make the film the "Rushmore of 2009", Adventureland looks like a very ignorable teen flick.  read more »

Monday: Beautiful Girls
While it's easy to dismiss the late Ted Demme's 1996 ensemble dramedy without a second thought, Beautiful Girls is a pretty charming and affable movie... as long as you can get past the "Sweet Caroline" sing-a-long. Matt Dillon, who will never be accused of being a great actor despite his ridiculous Oscar nomination for Crash, is oddly captivating here as the high school hero destined never to top his past glories. And it's always nice to see a role for Timothy Hutton that allows him to tap into his best qualities as a performer: basic intelligence and believable indecision. At the very least, tune in to see Sam Robards (The Captain on Gossip Girl) play yet another sniveling weasel.  read more »

Apparently ABC subscribes to the theory that it's best to deliver bad news at the end of the workday. Last night, after everyone had gone home, the network announced they would not be picking up full seasons of Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money. While ABC bizarrely refused to use the word "canceled", this effectively does just that. No new episodes will be ordered for the three sophomore series beyond the initial commitment of thirteen. There is no word yet on whether or not all of the episodes will eventually air. We can't say this news is at all surprising.  read more »

We don't know about you, but we're sick and tired of reading about the collapse of the Big Three. Thankfully, Hollywood is here to help! Today they unveil their own version of the Big Three, and unlike the car companies, this venture is certain to be financially viable. With guaranteed smash hits Bolt and Twilight opening, plus the runaway success that is Quantum of Solace still going strong, this will be one huge weekend. How huge? Expect all three films to gross north of $30 million. Ka-ching! While studio executives get ready to buy bigger yachts (and while car company executives get ready to buy smaller private jets), here's a handy guide to the weekend's new releases.  read more »

Are you all caught up on Grey's Anatomy? Good! Then we have a question for you: what exactly are we watching? Knee deep into the show's fifth season, most of the press bestowed upon Grey's has been of the casting variety. Amazingly, no one seems to be talking about the actual content of the show, which has gotten as ridiculous as an episode of Prison Break. To wit, last week Izzie (Katherine Heigl) made out with her ex-boyfriend Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)... who has been dead for three seasons!

Needless to say, the internets have exploded with theories as to why this happened. The most prevalent seems to be that Izzie has a brain tumor, which would allow Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes to write Ms. Heigl off the show, something she's reportedly wanted to do since the actress blasted the Grey's writers last year.

Ms. Rhimes commented on the rumors to Michael Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly in an email: "Watching the chemistry between Jeffrey and Katherine again has been really touching. I can't wait for our viewers to see where we're taking it. But what it won't involve is Izzie having a brain tumor."

OK! So brain tumor is out. Then what the hell is going on? Here are three possible answers.  read more »

It's 2 AM and you awake with a jerk, alone in your fully-lit apartment and still on the couch. On TV, the credits of some movie you've already seen a billion times are scrolling by. It feels like rock bottom. And we know, because we're just like you: single.

Need a movie to keep you company until you literally can't keep your eyes open? Join us tonight when we pass out to Back to the Future [starting @ 11:40 p.m. on Encore]

Why we'll try to stay up and watch it: While it isn't a great show by any means, Life of Mars, ABC's goofy time-traveling police procedural, has us oddly smitten. Perhaps that's because it reminds us of Back to the Future. When Detective Sam Tyler wows his colleagues by calling someone a "tool" or quoting Vanilla Ice, we immediately hearken back to Marty McFly ordering a Tab and saying everything is "heavy."  read more »

We've had a number of problems with the path The Office has taken over the course of the past two seasons. Nearly everything, from making Michael into a clownish cartoon character to the totally stillborn love triangle between Dwight, Angela and Andy (a story arc that just stinks of time filler), has felt wide of the mark that was hit so routinely during the halcyon days of seasons two and three. However if you wanted to pinpoint the exact moment when we think the show started losing its considerable steam, look no further than the exit of Rashida Jones' Karen Filippelli. As Karen, Ms.  read more »

For this bit of exciting and awesome news, let us dust off our best Gossip Girl impression: Spotted: Uber-producer Josh Schwartz raiding Seth Cohen's old comic book collection as he gets ready to play ball with the big boys of summer blockbusters. Hope you bring your "X" game, Josh.

Ahem. For the non-cognoscente who don't have the foggiest idea of what we're referring to: Josh Schwartz, the creator of Gossip Girl, The O.C. and Chuck, has been chosen by 20th Century Fox to write the script for X-Men: First Class. Based on the 2006 Marvel comic of the same name, the film will deal with a young class of mutants attending the Xavier Institute, including such familiar X-Men faces as Rogue, Iceman and Angel.  read more »

Apparently nonplussed by the failure of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Seth Rogen is heading back to the billion-dollar industry that no one likes to talk about... for Showtime. Mr. Rogen, along with his partner-in-comedy arms Evan Goldberg, is developing an untitled series for the cable network about three floundering twentysomethings who grapple with life and relationships while working in a pornography store. The duo's longtime assistant, Matthew Bass, is set to write and co-executive produce the series. We guess the hope is that by hanging around someone as funny as Seth Rogen, some comedy sensibility inadvertently rubs off. (And no, that's not a porn-related pun.  read more »

For a director who works as infrequently as Noah Baumbach, a misfire always adds insult to injury. It has been a little over a year since he wildly disappointed us with the so-difficult-it-caused-migraines Margot at the Wedding, and yet if Mr. Baumbach were a prolific filmmaker like Woody Allen, we probably wouldn't have even noticed how bad it really was. (To wit: does anyone even remember Cassandra's Dream?) While the screenwriter half of Mr. Baumbach has been busy, with both the long gestating Wes Anderson film The Fantastic Mr. Fox and the on-the-nose adaptation of Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children for Ron Howard, we figured it would be quite some time before we heard from his directorial alter-ego again. Wrong! We've been seeing his work all Fall and hadn't even known. According to our friends at Videogum, Mr. Baumbach has been directing short films for none other than Lorne Michaels and Saturday Night Live.      read more »

How have we never heard the term "internerds" before? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tina Fey uses our new favorite new word to describe the hordes of opinionated internet commenters who have become an extremely vocal minority in the last few years. Brilliant, Ms. Fey! We're totally stealing that... starting now: the trailer for J.J. Abrams' reimagining of Star Trek, which premiered in front of Quantum of Solace this weekend and is now available online (in HD!), has made the internerds very, very unhappy. To put it another way, hell hath no fury like a Trekkie scorned!

A quick scan of Ain't It Cool News reveals that the natives are not only restless, but also kinda pissed.  read more »

Monday: Chuck
With so many television shows getting toe tagged or suffering on life support, it's probably time to remind everyone that Chuck is one of the most charming, romantic, smart and consistently fun hours of television we watch every week. NBC has already ordered a full second season, but if the ratings continue to slack, we can't imagine a third being in the cards. Do us a favor and watch this gem while you can. Pretty please? [NBC, 8 p.m.]

Tuesday: The Savages
When making the rounds last year for The Savages, Tamara Jenkins' first film since 1998's Slums of Beverly Hills, the writer-director joked that she was on the "Terrence Malick schedule, without the masterpieces.  read more »

Ladies and gentlemen, start your letter writing campaigns! A day after NBC announced the cancelations of My Own Worst Enemy (yay!) and Lipstick Jungle (boo!)--and a week after Fox doomed Joss Whedon's Dollhouse to an early grave with a Friday timeslot — ABC has moved one step closer to dropping the axe on Pushing Daisies. While nothing is official as of yet, the speculation is that the just wrapped thirteenth episode will be the series' last. Creator Bryan Fuller has promised that he'll continue the show's storylines on in comic book form if Pushing Daisies is eventually buried. (Sorry, we couldn't resist.)

We're never happy to see people lose their jobs, but Pushing Daisies is a show that irritated us to no end.  read more »

Want to know how bad the economy is here in the United States? Hollywood is now outsourcing their big movie premieres. It's true! For instance, did you realize that Quantum of Solace, the sure-to-be blockbuster which is on pace to score the highest opening weekend in the history of the James Bond franchise, has already grossed upwards of $190 million dollars internationally? Sigh. America can't even get first run releases anymore. Just add that to the list of things Barack Obama is going to make better. Here's a handy guide to the weekends new releases.

Quantum of Solace

What's the story: Bond is back! In Quantum of Solace, 007 (the smoldering Daniel Craig) is caught in an international web of intrigue while trying to avenge the death of his love, Vesper (played in Casino Royale by the gorgeous Eva Green). This is the first James Bond picture that is an outright sequel and thus far the reviews, en masse, have been strikingly negative.  read more »

It's 2 AM and you awake with a jerk, alone in your fully-lit apartment and still on the couch. On TV, the credits of some movie you've already seen a billion times are scrolling by. It feels like rock bottom. And we know, because we're just like you: single.

Need a movie to keep you company until you literally can't keep your eyes open? Join us tonight when we pass out to Knocked Up [starting @ 12:05 a.m. on HBO Comedy]

Why we'll try to stay up and watch it: One of our favorite random bits of movie trivia has to do with Annie Hall. It goes something like this: the archetype of every single serious-minded romantic comedy made in the last thirty years (we're not including things like 27 Dresses in this conversation) was originally called Anhedonia and it was supposed to be a murder mystery. Only during post-production did Woody Allen and his editor, Ralph Rosenblum, realize that the crux of the film was the relationship between Alvy and Annie. So instead of a sprawling, two-and-a-half-hour shaggy dog, audiences were treated to a taut, 94 minute gem. For Mr. Allen, the course of history was changed forever.

We're reminded of this story whenever we see Knocked Up.  read more »

Amy Poehler was such a titanic presence on Saturday Night Live that it's going to take two women to replace her. Starting with the broadcast this weekend, hosted by Paul Rudd, Michaela Watkins and Abby Elliot will be joining the cast in featuring roles. Both women have sketch comedy experience, having previously worked in Los Angeles--Ms. Watkins with The Groundlings, Ms. Elliot at the UCB Theater. And if their names ring a bell, that wouldn't be surprising either. Ms. Watkins has appeared on many television shows, most recently in a guest-starring role on The New Adventures of Old Christine, while Ms. Elliot is the daughter of former Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Elliot.  read more »

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes. She had to fire actress Brooke Smith, setting off a hailstorm of criticism stemming from the fact that the actress was part of the show's first lesbian relationship with fellow actress Sara Ramirez. And while we still tend to believe Ms. Rhimes' original assertion, that Ms. Smith was shitcanned because her character wasn't working, the stigma that she was let go for playing a lesbian (and grossing out too many ABC executives) remains. Put it this way: when even Isaiah Washington, who was infamously fired after using a gay slur to describe co-star T.R. Knight, comes out and blasts the handling of the situation, you know you're in trouble. (To Mr. Washington's credit, he never blamed Ms. Rhimes, only the people who put her in such an awkward position.)

Well, Ms. Rhimes finally has some good news to report. Actor Kevin McKidd, who has appeared in four Grey's episodes thus far season and will show up again tomorrow night, has been added to the cast as a series regular.  read more »

David Chase and Jerry Seinfeld have a lot in common. Both men were the creative forces behind two of the most incendiary television shows of the past twenty years; shows which a large majority of the viewing audience (not us!) felt ended with disappointing whimpers. Both men will forever attempt to live up to past successes, and most likely fail doing so. And both men have intentionally shied away from the spotlight in the wake of their overwhelming fame. Perhaps that last similarity is also why whenever they sit down for interviews they seem increasingly prickly. They're not used to the attention.

Mr. Chase proved that theory again this week. Making the rounds for a brand new DVD release of The Sopranos--a 33 disc set that weights ten pounds and costs close to $300 dollars!--the 63-year-old continued on his steadfast refusal to answer questions on the one thing every Sopranos fans want to know about: the ending.  read more »

Proving that it's never too early to peer into the future, the Times Online has published their list of the 50 most anticipated films of 2009. We're onto next year already? We still have to catch up on all the things we missed this year! (When is Eagle Eye coming out on DVD?) A cursory glace leads us to believe that 2009 will look a lot like 2008. If you're a fan of sequels, big budget action spectacles and comic books, Hollywood has you covered.

Accordingly, the Times lists Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as the biggest movie in 2009. Originally scheduled to be released around Thanksgiving, the sixth film in the series was pushed back to July so Warner Brothers could have a summer tent pole.  read more »

After six episodes, we're still not sure what to make of Fringe. While J.J. Abrams' much-hyped new show has become a permanent fixture on our DVRs, we can't say that we really like it. However, we don't really dislike it either. Tonight brings the series' first new installment in two weeks, ominously titled "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones". As Fox's website describes it: "a strange, almost-otherworldly parasite mysteriously attaches itself to the internal organs of a dying FBI agent." Eek! Sounds good to us! If you haven't been watching, here are some pros and cons to help catch you up before tonight.

Pro: Fringe is super scary...  read more »

Despite an incredibly mawkish trailer, we're highly intrigued by Will Smith's latest sure-to-be hit, Seven Pounds. What is the deal with this movie? A month away from its release and we know scarcely anything about it. We were hoping for some answers when Mr. Smith and his co-star Rosario Dawson appeared with Oprah Winfrey late last week, but we had no such luck. The trio discussed Seven Pounds in very superficial terms, hailing it as "dark", "excruciating" and filled with "loss". According to Ms. Winfrey, we have to see it for ourselves. Ugh! Be more vague, Oprah! Thanks to IMDB, here's what we do know: Mr. Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent who is haunted by his past. In an effort to make amends he tries to help seven strangers, including Ms. Dawson's Emily, a woman with a heart condition. When Ben falls in love with Emily it predictably complicates matters. Much has been made about the twist ending of the film, and there are shockingly few internet spoilers bouncing around cyberspace. So! Here are our best guesses at spoiling it for you.  read more »

Unless you're planning on helping the Obama family unpack boxes at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you probably don't have any current plans for Wednesday, January 21st, 2009. Well, allow us to change that! The fifth season of Lost will return to ABC's airwaves that night with a two-hour season premiere, starting at 9 p.m. A recap episode of the previous four seasons will air during the 8 p.m. hour, presumably so the network can plug the evening as a three-hour event, while simultaneously fooling our DVR into thinking the first hour is brand new content. Harrumph.

The decidedly normal announcement is in direct counter to last season's dramatics, when the WGA strike threatened to limit the fourth season of Lost to only eight episodes (eventually a total of fourteen aired).  read more »

With television schedules becoming year-round events, Fox has gotten an early jump on the network competition by announcing their mid-season lineup... and if you're a fan of Joss Whedon, prepare to be disappointed. Mr. Whedon's latest series, the Elisha Dushku-starring spy-thriller Dollhouse, has been stranded on Friday nights at 9 p.m. If that time slot sounds familiar to you, that's probably because it's where shows generally go to die (just ask CBS' The Ex-List) and where Mr. Whedon saw his last Fox venture, Firefly, meet an early grave.

Dollhouse has been a cursed endeavor for a while now.  read more »

A note to future studio executives: don't bother opening movies on Halloween. The box office took a hit last weekend with nearly every movie in the top-five coming in with lower numbers then had been anticipated. This week that should change with the release of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, which is expected to pull down huge numbers even though we don't know one person who will ever see it. Here's a handy guide to the weekends other new releases.

JCVD

What's the story: Jean-Claude Van Damme (yep) stars as "Jean-Claude Van Damme" in this meta tale about the down on his luck actor coming to grips with his own failures while also being caught up in a bank heist gone wrong. The trailer is bananas and leads us to believe that Mr. Van Damme's comeback film, which owes large debts to Dog Day Afternoon and the works of Charlie Kaufman, could be pretty awesome.  read more »

With the exception of the most important election of our lifetime, this has been the slowest news week ever. When the casting of Jack Black in an adaptation of Gulliver's Travels makes headlines, you know we're close to the bottom of the barrel. So! Why don't we use this as an opportunity to check in with the kids from Dawson's Creek? In case you haven't noticed, this has been a banner Fall for the former residents of Capeside! At least most of them.....  read more »

It's 2 AM and you wake with a jerk, alone in your fully-lit apartment and still on the couch. On TV, the credits of some movie you've already seen a billion times are scrolling by. It feels like rock bottom. And we know, because we're just like you: single.

Need a movie to keep you company until you literally can't keep your eyes open? Join us tonight when we pass out to Jaws [starting @ 10:45 a.m. on Action Max]

Why we'll try to stay up and watch it: Last week we saw an Empire Magazine interview with David Fincher, where the director was asked to scribble down his favorite films of all-time. It got us thinking of our own list, something we've obsessively edited and adjusted in our heads for the better part of forever. Ordering our favorite movies is like counting sheep. Does Goodfellas beat out Pulp Fiction? Should The 40-Year-Old Virgin rank ahead of Annie Hall? Do we like Rushmore more than The Royal Tennebaum's? It's an ever-evolving list that changes almost daily. Still, there is one constant. No matter how many times we rethink it, Jaws invariably cracks our personal top-five.  read more »

Now that the election is finally (finally!) over, we can rest easy knowing that Sarah Palin will return to the backwoods of Alaska never to be heard from again. Ha! As if! The Alaskan governor has come too far and gained too much notoriety to just simply accept running a non-continental state. As Tina Fey so hilarious stated last weekend, Ms. Palin is never going back. But while we aren't sure if the most polarizing figure in the country will ever become the "White Oprah" (don't you have to be even moderately likeable to accomplish that?), Ms. Palin could easily have a ginormously successful television career if she so wanted.  read more »

Like many of you, we reveled in the history we witnessed last night. It was something we never thought we'd see in our lifetimes; something that a few years ago seemed not only impossible, but also laughable. And yet there it was, spread out across our television screens in living color. This was not only a great moment to be American, but also a citizen of the world. Yes, that's right...

CNN turned their correspondents into holograms. Can we just say: bananas? Also: are you kidding?

Shortly after 7 p.m., Wolf Blitzer went live to CNN reporter Jessica Yellin from Grant Park in Chicago to check in with her about the mood of the crowd.  read more »

A few nights ago we finally caught Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story on cable, having intentionally missed it last winter. It was exactly the kind of movie we expected it to be... a better version of the Scary Movie/Date Movie/Epic Movie/Please God Not Another Movie spoof films but with lots of unnecessary full frontal male nudity. Seriously. But what caught our attention wasn't the misplaced and uncovered penis; it was Jenna Fischer.  read more »

Regretfully, we watch Grey's Anatomy. It manages to be both the worst and the most embarrassing show on our DVR list--and we're still watching Desperate Housewives! Yet every week we fire up the digital recording with the hope that maybe Grey's will get better and reinspire whatever misplaced affection we felt for it during the earlier seasons. (Scary thought: Grey's Anatomy is already on season five.) And then every week, our hopes are proven unfounded. Perhaps the revival starts now.

Over at Entertainment Weekly, Michael Ausiello is reporting that ABC has decided to fire Brooke Smith, the actress who plays the loathsome Dr. Erica Hahn on the nighttime soap. Woo-hoo!  read more »

If you're looking for a meme to grab onto during the upcoming Oscar season, try this: in an effort to make pre-established release dates, studios are rushing their prestige films to the detriment of the product. And we thought that only happened with summer tent poles!

We first noticed a month ago when The Weinstein Company pushed John Hillcoat's version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road back until 2009 because it wasn't going to be ready for its November 26th release date. Fine. It's nice to see TWC head Harvey Weinstein show some restraint, right? Unfortunately for The Road, that change didn't happen until after some advanced screenings lead to  read more »

Monday: Saturday Night Live: Presidential Bash 2008
With the exception of Rachel Maddow, no one on television has benefited from the election cycle more than the folks at Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately, the expiration date on their cultural relevancy reads November 5th. As a going away party, Lorne Michaels and NBC are offering this compilation of the best political skits from the past year, with some original ones sprinkled in as well. If you haven't figured out how Hulu works yet, this show is for you! We'll DVR it just in case something crazy happens. For all we know, John McCain might take the stage with Tina Fey-as-Sarah Palin as she holds up a "Palin in 2012" t-shirt.  read more »