Posted on November 30th, 2008 by Princess Kitty in Movies
According to Variety, the “Fame” remake is set to start filming on December 3rd. While the kids in the cast are relative unknowns, the adults have some star power.
Megan Mullally will be the voice instructor and Charles S. Dutton will be the acting teacher. Kelsey Grammer will be reunited with his former “Frasier” wife, Bebe Neuwirth, and they will be the orchestra leader and dance instructor respectively. Debbie Allen, whose career was launched by the original “Fame” (both movie and TV series), will be back as the school’s principal.
The latest word on the casting of the students is as follows (according to Reuters): Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono, Paul McGill, Naturi Naughton, Kay Panabaker, Kherington Payne (a “So You Think You Can Dance” alum), Collins Pennie, Walter Perez, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle and Thomas Dekker.
The movie is set to be released on September 25, 2009. I have to admit I was very skeptical about this remake but Dutton, Grammer, Mullally and Neuwirth being cast makes me feel a lot better about it.
Posted on November 29th, 2008 by Princess Kitty in Movies
Based on Kate DiCamillo’s book of the same name, “The Tale of Despereaux” features the voice talents of just about everybody including Matthew Broderick, Robbie Coltrane, Frances Conroy, Tony Hale, Ciaran Hinds, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, Christopher Lloyd, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Tracey Ullman, Emma Watson, and Sigourney Weaver.
Here’s the summary from Fandango: Tiny and graced with oversized ears, Despereaux was born too big for his little world. Refusing to live his life cowering, he befriends a Princess named Pea and learns to read (rather than eat) books—reveling in stories of knights, dragons and fair maidens. Banished from Mouseworld for being more man than mouse, Despereaux is rescued by another outcast, Roscuro, who also wants to hear the tales. But when the Princess dismisses Roscuro’s friendship, he becomes the ultimate rat and plots revenge with fellow outsider Mig. After Pea is kidnapped, Despereaux discovers he is the only one who can rescue her…and that even the tiniest mouse can find the courage of a knight in shining armor. In this tale of bravery, forgiveness and redemption, one small creature will teach a kingdom that it takes only a little light to show the truth: what you look like doesn’t equal what you are.
Posted on November 28th, 2008 by Princess Kitty in Movies
A new trailer has been released for “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and I absolutely LOVE it! It’s all Scrat! The movie is set to debut, in 3-D, on July 1st.
Posted on November 28th, 2008 by Princess Kitty in Commercials
There are several versions of this commercial, and the Heidi Klum one is pretty good too, but this is my favorite. It’s Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, Alex Rodriguez and Michael Phelps having a “Risky Business” moment. My favorite part is Tony Hawk sliding in on a skateboard.
Posted on November 26th, 2008 by Princess Kitty in Biggest Loser
Aired 11-25-08
It was Thanksgiving at the ranch. Well, not really. The filming was actually done a while ago but everyone did a nice job of pretending it was Thanksgiving.
Renee and Michelle were distraught over losing Coleen. Over the weeks she’d become an adopted family member to them. They also knew that her elimination now put the Black Team at a 4 to 2 disadvantage with the Blue Team. Michelle was particularly disappointed because she had won last week’s challenge and, as a result, was able to give Vicky a one pound penalty that pushed her below the yellow line. Basically she gave them Vicky on a silver platter and the others didn’t take advantage of it. Specifically Amy, who had paid dearly the previous week for voting off Vicky’s husband Brady, was the one who saved Vicky. Trainer Jillian Michaels told her Black Team girls that Vicky will still get rid of Amy at her first opportunity. In her interview clip, Jill said that she guarantees that Amy saving Vicky will backfire on her. Jill also promised her girls that she’ll beat the weight off of them to keep them safe at the next weigh in.
Blue Team trainer, Bob Harper, was not at all surprised to see that Vicky was still there. He figured that all the drama from Brady’s elimination would assure that Amy would save Vicky. He called it her redemption. Redemption?! Bob, Amy isn’t the one who needs to be redeemed. I wonder what his reaction was when he watched the episodes from the past few weeks and saw how obnoxious Vicky really was. Amy thinks the tension is all behind them now and everyone will act like adults. Heba noted, in her interview clip, that there is no question Vicky is still out to get Amy. For her part, Vicky said that she’s going to keep an eye on Amy because she doesn’t 100% trust her yet. Oh Amy. It’s starting to look like you made a BIG mistake last week.
Product Placement Alert One: As host Alison Sweeney walked into the kitchen to meet the teams, the camera lingered on a package of Jell-O SugarFree pudding.
Alison was wearing a San Diego Chargers jersey and asked what they all thought of when they heard the word “Thanksgiving”. The answers were turkey and football. Alison announced that it was NFL week at the ranch! She took them all outside to meet Jerry Rice and Steve Young. Ed said that meeting them was the realization of a childhood dream. They took the contestants through a football training camp obstacle course. Alison informed them that their runs would be timed and the winner would get to give $5000, donated by NFL Play 60, to the school of their choice. NFL Play 60 is a youth program to fight childhood obesity. Steve said that he and Jerry would add another $5000 to make the total donation $10,000. After they all did the course once, Steve and Jerry told the group that they’d be doing it a second time and whoever improved the most would win. Vicky suspected this might be the case and dogged it the first time through. As Renee said, “Vicky is gaming us all and we should have gotten rid of her last week at the elimination.” Heba came in 6th with a 5 second improvement. Amy was 5th with 7 seconds and Michelle was 4th with 11. Ed came in 3rd with a 12 second improvement and Renee was 2nd with 17. That meant Vicky won with an improvement of 23 seconds. Vicky talked about how wonderful it was at Thanksgiving to be able to give back to her community and especially the kids – and none of it made me detest her any less.
Trainer Tip and Product Placement Alert Two: Bob said that it’s impossible to avoid all temptation during the holidays so we should focus on the indulgences that are really worth it. He suggested chewing a piece of Extra SugarFree Gum to help control the cravings.
Hey! Ali Vincent is in a commercial for the Biggest Loser: Families Cookbook. Her win was a marketing dream for this show.
During the workouts, Bob was starting to get frustrated with Ed. The girls were beating him up. They had a little confrontation in the gym that was overheard by Jillian. She said, “I love when Bob gets pissed. It never happens.” Since it’s NFL week, Bob just hoped that the lone guy in the house would at least win the football challenge.
Challenge
For the challenge, everyone met Alison on the field of a football stadium. The challenge required them to stand at about mid-field, grab a football that was launched at them and run to the end zone to put the ball in an opponent’s bin. When someone got 10 balls in their bin, they were out of the game. Little Amy was lost because she knew nothing about football. Vicky immediately instructed the Blue Team to take out the Black Team. Alison told them that the winner would get a 2009 Pro Bowl trip to Honolulu, Hawaii courtesy of Expedia. Right before they started, Alison told them that, each time they actually caught a ball, they would get $500 in cash. I believe we saw Ed catch one ball and that was it. The rest were all picked up from the ground. Blue immediately took out Michelle and then Renee. Vicky then began targeting Amy which seemed to open Amy’s eyes to the fact that the feud wasn’t over. Amy finished off Ed and then Heba took out Amy. The battle was then between Heba and Vicky. In the end, Heba helped a sobbing Vicky win. Michelle said that, “once again, Vicky has everyone on the Blue Team fooled and it’s kind of sad.”
When her girls told her what happened at the challenge, Jillian said it triggered the crazy side of her. No one bullies her team except her! She was going to do whatever it took for her girls to win the weigh in. Jill commented that the Blue Team historically acts in a cultish way (she called it the Church of Bob) and they play for the color rather than for themselves. Her experience is that the ones who play for themselves are the ones who win.
Tuesday night was Rocco vs. Rocco on Reality TV. Rocco DiSpirito returned to the “Biggest Loser” campus while he was also “Dancing with the Stars”. He greeted the teams with a full, and sinful, Thanksgiving meal. After a significant amount of torture, he finally confessed that he wasn’t going to make them eat all the fatty foods. He was there to show them how to make healthy alternatives. The best part of this whole segment was watching little Amy show her big ‘ole crush on Rocco. The food looked pretty good too and all the recipes are at NBC’s website at this link:
After the meal, they all talked about what they were thankful for and Renee had a touching moment talking about how she was thankful to be at the ranch with her daughter Michelle after all the time they spent estranged. Rocco gave the group some presents including a video from their families back home.
Product Placement Alert Three: Heba and her husband Ed came into the kitchen looking for a snack and just happened to find Orville Redenbacher’s 100 Calorie Smart Pop.
We saw everyone watch their videos and, unlike last time when they watched separately, Renee and Michelle sat and watched this set together. Michelle got a message from her dad (Renee’s ex) and Renee’s video was from her husband (Michelle’s Stepdad). It was great to see them happy and supportive of each other. They have come a long way during their time at the ranch. Unfortunately, we also got more crying Vicky as she watched the video from Brady and their kids. Apparently this time she didn’t think the chance to see her kids was a “lame” present. Yes, I’m bitter. They can try all they want to give Vicky a redemption edit but it isn’t going to work for me. She’s just been too mean.
During the Last Chance Workout, Bob came into the gym being a bit of a smartass. I love him, but that’s what he was. He was full of hope for an all Blue final and walked around saying, “Do you feel it? There’s weird energy out there today. There’s something going on people. I can feel it.” Jillian responded, “It’s called an ass-kicking.”
Weigh In
The rules remained the same for this week. The two with the lowest percentage of weight loss would fall below the yellow line and the rest of the group would determine which one goes home.
Amy – lost 5 pounds for a total of 2.89%.
Heba – lost 7 pounds for a total of 3.03%
Ed – lost 9 pounds for a total of 3.44%.
Vicky – lost 7 pounds for a total of 3.74%.
Renee – lost 8 pounds for a total of 3.86%.
Michelle – lost 10 pounds for a total of 5.38%.
Amy was beside herself crying. Bob said it was going to be a dark night at the campus because he and Amy were close and he knew that Vicky was determined to get rid of her. They headed straight to the elimination room with both Heba and Amy feeling that they had a promise of support from Vicky.
Michelle voted to eliminate Heba.
Renee voted for Heba.
Ed, of course, voted for Amy.
That left Vicky who decided to stab Amy in the back. After a tearful but brave Amy departed, Alison told the remaining five that they needed to pack their bags because they were headed to New York.
Amy said that she was leaving the ranch as a strong, confident woman. The next time we see her, she promises to be $100,000 richer and 100,000 times hotter. In her “where they are now” clip we saw that Amy has gone from a size 22 to a size 8 and is getting access to athletic trainers courtesy of Michigan State University. She even got to sing the National Anthem at a hockey game. The little bit we heard sounded really good.
Next Time: Christian Siriano joins the contestants in New York for makeovers and they all get to guest on The Tyra Banks Show.
Full episodes and bonus clips are available at NBC’s website here:
Mel B was at the finale to get the scoop for Access Hollywood. She asked about the rumors that were swirling on the internet yesterday about a confrontation between Derek Hough and Warren Sapp and she got a very sweet statement from Corky Ballas about all his “kids” having won DWTS.
Here we are at the end of the line for season 7. It seems like a long time ago that we were watching Jeffrey Ross, Ted McGinley and Kim Kardashian dance. The Finale opened with a recap of Monday’s performances and a bit with Cloris Leachman doing man on the street interviews. It ended with a shot of Cloris adjusting her underwear because, well, she’s still Cloris.
The first musical performance of the night was from Alicia Keys. She performed “I Need You” and I think it was one of the best musical performances they’ve had on the show. It was nice to see Alicia get out from behind the piano.
The countdown of eliminated contestants began with a Quickstep from Jeffrey Ross & Edyta Sliwinska. I think Jeffrey’s been practicing because it was pretty good. Certainly better than I remembered. Next was Ted McGinley & Inna Brayer with their Foxtrot. Ted also looked quite good. Maybe the key is that these dances didn’t really matter so they were having fun. Last in the group were Kim Kardashian & Mark Ballas with their “Baby Got Back” Mambo. Bless her heart; Kim did dance just as I remembered.
Misty May-Treanor & Maksim Chmerkovskiy stood with co-hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris for an interview. Misty said that she’s been cleared to walk but still can’t dance. She really sounded like she wants a “do over” next season. When they were asked who they were rooting for, both Misty and Maks gave the politically correct answer of “everyone”. Maks said it was the first time he couldn’t speak his mind because he really didn’t know. Tom responded, “We’ll be saving this tape.” Rocco DiSpirito & Karina Smirnoff then took the stage to dance their Mambo. Rocco was still as cute and happy as ever.
Toni Braxton & Alec Mazo also did an interview instead of a dance. Toni just had some “minor, successful surgery” but said that she will be on the “Dancing with the Stars” tour, dancing and singing. Tom then announced the return of the “unpredictable, uncontrollable force of nature”, Cloris Leachman & Corky Ballas. They did their Tango and it was classic “Clorky”, including Corky copping a feel of Cloris’ rear end. After the dance, we were treated to another Cloris interview that delighted Tom and confused Samantha.
Susan Lucci & Tony Dovolani took the floor to do their Paso Doble. Susan looked lovely but was still tentative in her dance. They were followed by Maurice Greene & Cheryl Burke doing the Salsa. Maurice was smiling and laughing and, as always, seemed to be having a great time.
Jeffrey Ross, in his role as Roastmaster General, roasted the three finalists. I can’t believe I’m saying this but, Jeff Ross was hilarious. He had lines such as: “Come on. What can you really say about Lance Bass that hasn’t already been said about Clay Aiken?” and “Warren, you’re an inspiration. I mean, how do you dance eight hours a day, every day, for three months and stay so out of shape?” I laughed through the whole thing.
Cody Linley & Julianne Hough did their Jitterbug. The kid really has come a long way on the show. The judges kept calling Lance the most improved but I think that title should go to Cody.
Audience Alert: Vanessa Hudgens was there, keeping it all in the Disney family.
We finally got to the final dances for the last three couples. They each reprised their favorite dance from the season for a final set of judges’ scores. Tom reminded us again that the audience vote from Monday night would still count for half the total score.
Warren Sapp & Kym Johnson: During their recap clip I actually got a little teary-eyed when Warren told Kym that he loved her. They were such a great pairing. They did their Hustle and it was a good choice because it allowed Warren to be Warren. Head judge Len Goodman said that, while Warren might not have been the judges’ champion, he was definitely the public’s champion. Bruno Tonioli called Warren the greatest “hustler” of them all and said again that he was irresistible. Carrie Ann Inaba said Warren & Kym were “too cool for school” and added that they inspired people to dance. Scores: Carrie Ann – 9, Len – 9, Bruno – 9 for a total of 27. Their total for the two nights was 80 out of 90.
Lance Bass & Lacey Schwimmer: Their recap clip was very sweet as well and Lance said that the experience has given him a newfound confidence in dance and life in general. They did their Jitterbug and ripped up the floor with it. Bruno said there was no doubt about it – Lance has become a great showman. Carrie Ann applauded them for having never taken the safe road during the competition and she enjoyed the Jitterbug – although she did think they struggled on a couple of the lifts. Len said that, early on, he would never have imagined Lance making it to the finals but he deserved to be there and has sparkled in the last few weeks. Scores: Carrie Ann – 9, Len - 9, Bruno – 10 for a total of 28. Their total for the two nights was 81 out of 90.
Brooke Burke & Derek Hough: Their recap acknowledged the rough patch their relationship went through in the middle of the competition but Brooke said they came out of it truly respecting each other. They redid their touching Viennese Waltz to John Mayer’s “Daughters”. It was a beautiful way to end the season. Carrie Ann was all choked up and said that Brooke & Derek deserved the trophy. Len declared it to still be the dance of the season and Bruno called Brooke the jewel in the crown of a really grand finale. At that point we got the money shot of the night – Brooke’s fiance, David Charvet, crying in the audience. Oh yeah, I lost it at that point too. Scores: Carrie Ann – 10, Len – 10, Bruno - 10 for a total of 30. Their total for the two nights was 88 out of 90.
3rd Place: Lance Bass & Lacey Schwimmer. Lance said that Joey Fatone will never let him live down the fact that he finished one spot lower than Joey. He also said it was the most fun he’d ever had.
The final musical guest was Miley Cyrus singing “Fly on the Wall”. I was struck by how much her life has changed since she sat in the Ballroom audience watching her dad on DWTS. There was a shot of a very good looking, but rather unenthusiastic, young man in the audience applauding at the end of the song. I’m guessing that’s the infamous “maybe, maybe not” boyfriend Justin Gaston.
Next up was Tom’s interviews with all the eliminated contestants sitting in the audience or, as he put it, the time when he asks “our eliminated couples who they think, between the two remaining, will win and they ignore the question and plug their latest project.”
Finally we arrived at the big moment. The winners, and champions of season 7, were Brooke Burke & Derek Hough. Warren & Kym were as gracious as ever and I definitely got the feeling from both Warren and Lance that they knew it was going to be Brooke’s night. The show ended with Julianne, Mark and Corky running over to them and Mark and Corky carrying Brooke & Derek around on their shoulders.
I think America got it right. The top 3 all deserved to be there and Brooke deserved to be the winner. Good job!
You can relive all the fun of season 7 at ABC’s website here:
Posted on November 25th, 2008 by Princess Kitty in Television
NBC is putting Howie Mandel and “Deal or No Deal” on hiatus as of January to make room for – Howie Mandel and “Howie Do It”, a hidden-camera reality show.
Variety is also reporting that “Life”, “Heroes” and “Chuck” will take a break in January but will return in February with new episodes.
“Friday Night Lights” will be returning to NBC (after airing on DirecTV) as of January 16th. “Medium” will also be returning to the airwaves but no date has been set yet. Speculation is that it will end up on Monday night.
