October 2008 - Posts
In the spring, I met up with a group of girlfriends for dinner and drinks before going to see the "Sex And The City" movie. Being a big fan of the HBO series, I was looking forward to the film. Two hours into the two-and-a-half hour flick, I thought, eh, it's OK and it's a bit too long.
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Last week, it was officially announced that “The Road” would be pushed to 2009. And frankly, I’m glad.
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(Warning: Possible spoilers for a whole raft of movies ahead. You have been warned!) I love Halloween, and I love scary movies, as you've probably noticed.
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Last week, Gael wrote about TV shows that belong in the TV dead pool. This week, I want to focus on three that have pleasantly surprised me and become part of my TV watching ritual: ABC’s “Life on Mars,” HBO’s “True Blood” and the CW’s “Privileged.”
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I'm of the opinion that no holiday offers as many fun Web links as Halloween. Here are five fun time-wasters with spooky, scary, monstrous themes. Boo!
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That kid's gonna set his pantlegs on fire...
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• Kids today have such fancy-shmancy costumes. In my day, we had the cheapie plastic ones with the masks whose rubber bands would inevitably break and snap right in your face. Retro Crush remembers, and offers a photo gallery of the costumes I knew so well, from Rubik's Cube to Chachi to that super-creepy robot girl from "Small Wonder." Don't see your favorite retro costume on that page? Check this amazing gallery of old costumes and if you find it, e-mail it to your sister and remind her of the year she got to be Cinderella and you had to be Soupy Sales.
• Few people online wait for Halloween with the same anticipation that Matt of X-Entertainment does. Every entry in his Halloween countdown blog is worth reading, but this year, I especially liked his Whatever O Lantern contest, where he invited people to find a substitute for a pumpkin, give it a Jack O' Lantern type face, and send in a photo. The winner? A swimming pool. I also liked the Pop Tart O'Lantern, but you may have a different fave.
• Don't feel like getting your hands all gunky and carving a real pumpkin? There are plenty of online pumpkin carving sites, but I kind of like this one for its clean looks and simplicity. Here's a more cartoony one, if you prefer that look. And if you just want to look at amazingly arty pumpkins other people carved, check out Extreme Pumpkins. I kind of love the Nerd O Lantern.
• The San Antonio Express-News has a fun online Monster Maker. But one major flaw: You can't save and send your creation, you can only print it out. Hello, it's 2008, Webmasters of the Alamo City. (Via Pop Candy.)
• This link is from last year, but I love it: Expensive purses that scarily resemble movie monsters. This melty face dude and his handbag twin may be my favorite.
Share your own favorite Halloween links -- from pumpkin carving ideas to candy to costumes to scary movies and more -- in the comments.
At the end of last week, after reading several reports about how mad actor Mark Wahlberg was with a "Saturday Night Live" sketch that made fun of him, I weighed in here saying the actor apparently couldn't laugh at himself.
Some of you thought I was misreading his mock anger over comedian Andy Samberg's animal skit during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's show Thursday night. And sure enough, Wahlberg showed up on "SNL" this weekend and confronted Samberg in a scene aimed at showing he does indeed have a sense of humor. I think it also showed that Samberg does Wahlberg better than Wahlberg does Samberg doing Wahlberg.
And it shows that Wahlberg had a keen enough marketing sense in a week when his new movie, "Max Payne," was opening. I still think he was initially unamused by "Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals," but had a sensible change of heart when he realized the potential to impact the box office. I should have known better than to question a movie star's promotional tactics.
So, Mark, thanks for proving me wrong ... and say hi to your mother for me.
"Saturday Night Live" has been making plenty of news in recent weeks, thanks mainly to the high interest in the show's political sketches -- namely Tina Fey's spot-on impersonation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
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Last week, msnbc.com's Anna Chan wrote in Test Pattern about female celebrities who she thinks have got it all going on. She only named two women before asking readers to name more. I would have written that post, but the Internet couldn't hold my list and our servers couldn't handle your responses.
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When the thought of looking at your 401 K balance makes you feel slightly nauseous, you know we’re in strange times. But it seems like money advice is coming at us from everywhere. Especially daytime TV talk shows.
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The new TV season has barely begun, and already one show has been canceled. Who's next? Has "Knight Rider" already run out of gas? Is it time for "Til Death" to just die already? Pick your TV Dead Pool.
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It’s been two weeks since Paul Newman died, and if you’re still feeling the loss, you’re not alone. Thankfully, my favorite cable channel, Turner Classic Movies, has prepared a fitting tribute to this great man by devoting Sunday, Oct. 12 to his movies (really, they could have done a whole weekend). Since there are only 24 hours, every great movie won’t be shown, but TCM has compiled an eclectic mix.
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There's a whole genre of horror-movie flicks where the victim holds the camera, giving the audience a look at his or her last moments. Some movie-goers shun these films, for their shaky camera work if for nothing else, but I fall for these flicks every time. That's why I'm looking forward to this week's release of "Quarantine."
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On Tuesday, manly mag Esquire named Halle Berry its Sexiest Woman Alive, 2008. I certainly can’t argue against that. Not only does she always look great, she’s talented and seems smart. There are many incredibly sexy female celebrities, and Berry’s right up there on my list, but two in particular are tops in my book.
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There are those actors I love no matter what they do (Philip Seymour Hoffman, I’m looking at you), and there are actors whose films I avoid like the proverbial plague (hi, Robin Williams), but somewhere in between those two extremes lay my feelings for Russell Crowe.
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How about another Multi-link Monday? I pull together five fun time-wasting links to start off your week, but remember, you, too, can suggest sites for me to include. Just post them in the comments, and thanks!
• So I always thought my mother's maiden name was French, but according to World Names Profiler, it turns out it's a lot more popular in the Netherlands. Warning: Once you start typing family names into the World Names Profiler, it will be hard to stop, and you may need to start rethinking long-held assumptions about your family origins.
• Have you taken the color IQ test yet? You drag and drop different shades and try and arrange them by hue. It's simple to attempt, but so, so hard to get right. I'm gonna blame my monitor. Yep, that's it. I'm sure the color on my monitor is off.
• Dolphin Olympics is one of those really sweet, cute online games. You go, Flipper! (Via Metafilter.)
• I love this: A world map showing the locations where the photos on album covers were taken. Yes, I was once part of a group of four friends who re-enacted the Abbey Road crossing while in London, like 80 million other groups of tourists.
• A wonderful reader-submitted link comes in from Adrienne. She says: "I can't believe how bad I was at guessing world accents! Perhaps fellow readers will fare better."
As the entertainment editor at msnbc.com, it's my job to keep up on the latest celebrity news, from Heather Locklear's arrest to Britney's tour plans, possible move to New York, continuing court appearances ... well, you get the idea. And while gossip and celebrity news are not the only stories we produce for our section, it is among the most viewed content on the entire msnbc.com site.
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The death of Paul Newman this past weekend was a big blow to the world of actors who can both act and carry off being a hot-shot celebrity. In Hollywood these days, they don't make 'em like they used to.
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