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Saturday, November 13, 2010
'Smallville': Down Memory 'Lane'
While this week’s episode of Smallville, titled “Abandoned,” was promoted for the guest appearance by Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane’s mother, it was other actors who dominated the hour.
Hatcher, who of course played Lois in Lois & Clark, appeared in a brief scene at the start of the episode as Lois’ dead mother, Ella — Erica Durance’s Lois watched a videocassette of a message her mother left her, before dying of cancer. In the recording, Ella offered a comforting message to Lois from beyond the grave, but also warned her that losing a parent can leave “a hole in a person’s heart.” This set up the other themes of the evening.
The bigger story line of the night involved Tess, who encountered Granny Goodness (Christine Willes), an evil orphanage owner. (Smallville is doing a good job of utilizing the New Gods characters, such as Granny, created by Jack Kirby.) Granny reawakened lost memories in Tess, who was revealed to have been left by her parents in the care of the dictatorial, abusive Granny. Although Tess escaped her clutches until this evening, Granny had raised a batch of damaged, angry young women led by Harriet (Lindsay Hartley, wife of series regular Justin Hartley, in a leather outfit with Wolverine-y claws). Mad Harriet and her sisters-in-villainy briefly trapped Clark, rendering him helpless in the presence of their “green fire rocks” — i.e., Kryptonite.
Meanwhile, Lois decided that her mother’s words about lost parents applied as much to Clark as to her, so she journeyed to the Fortress to try and force a reconciliation between Clark and his Kryptonian dad, Jor-El. Julian Sands re-appeared in that role, as did Helen Slater as mom Lara. The pair delivered a message of love and compassion for Lois to convey to Clark.
In a scene that stood outside the rest of the episode, Granny met with Desaad and Glorious Godfrey, with Desaad proclaiming that they now formed an “unholy trinity” that would “prepare the way for Lord Darkseid.”
The hour was a hodgepodge of scenes without much flow, yet virtually every one of them was key to the Smallville mythos, including the hour’s two surprise endings.
First, Clark showed us an engagement ring he has for Lois — she doesn’t yet know what a lucky girl she is. And finally, Tess discovers her real identity: she’s Lutessa Luthor, the illigitimate child of Lionel Luthor and Pamela Jenkins.
Once again, the hour was held together chiefly by the fine performances of Tom Welling and Durance, and the promise of more revelations to come as Smallville hurtles ever-closer to its series conclusion.
What did you think of this week’s Smallville?
Twitter: @kentucker
NBC scoop: Network ponders three-hour comedy block on Thursdays
Image Credit: NBCAfter the current – and very low-rated – installment of The Apprentice ends its run, NBC could go with a three-hour block of comedies on Thursdays.
Sources told EW that the Peacock may shake up the lineup, with 30 Rock possibly moving to 10 p.m., to make way for the return of the critically-beloved Parks and Recreation and the new comedy Perfect Couples, which has been described as depicting “the misadventures of three engaging couples as they struggle to find out what makes the ideal relationship — and how to maintain it through humorous trial-and-error.” NBC’s other cult faves – The Office and Community - would likely remain in their timeslots, while Outsourced could go at 10:30 after 30 Rock. NBC would not comment, but the possibility of a lineup change certainly piqued the interest of the competing networks. Says one high powered suit, “They’ve got nothing to lose at this point.”
There’s still a chance that NBC could move a Law & Order into the important 10 p.m. timeslot on Thursdays since it owns a piece of the legal franchise, but a three-hour comedy block would create buzz and provide good counter-programming to the stiff competition from The Mentalist and Private Practice. And this wouldn’t be the first time that NBC ran six comedies. During the 1990-91 season, then-NBC topper Brandon Tartikoff scheduled Parenthood, Working it Out, The Golden Girls, Empty Nest, Carol & Company and American Dreamer on Saturday nights.
Meanwhile, the current installment of The Apprentice has been a big disappointment for the Peacock. Though the network attempted to reboot the franchise to make it more applicable to the ailing economy, the show has hit historic lows this season. It ticked up on Nov. 11 (up 14 percent to a 1.6 rating/5 share among adults 18-49, and averaging 4.5 million), but NBC’s numbers were inflated because of an NFL game in Baltimore.
Will Potter films have their own legacy? - Boston Globe
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Authors imagine. It’s their job. In some cases, they build a whole world from the ground up — as J.K. Rowling certainly did in her phenomenally successful Harry Potter series. Readers imagine too, filling in the parts of that world the words only suggest.
For the first few years of Potter mania, from the UK publication of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’’ in 1997 through “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’’ in 2000, the field was wide open for the shared imagination of author and readers. When Hogwarts was all in the mind’s eye, no two versions were quite alike, and each new reader who entered Rowling’s wizarding world found it ripe for both discovery and invention.
That changed when the movie versions began to land in 2001, arriving like an echo two or three years after each book’s release. Moviemakers imagine, too, but it’s their job to fill in the details for us. How exactly does that house on Grimmauld Place make itself visible? What does Diagon Alley look like? How about Dumbledore’s office? And, for that matter, what do Harry, Ron, and Hermione really look like? Now we know; or, at least, we’ve been handed a version that can be hard to shake.
And so, the most successful book series in history (some 400 million volumes in 67 languages) begat the most lucrative international film franchise ever (as measured in pure box-office dollars). The last book in the series came out in 2007, and now, right on time, the movie series is set to come to its own protracted close.
Warner Bros. has decided to split the last book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’’ into two movies, the better to tell the sprawling, 759-page story and, presumably, to squeeze out a few more golden galleons along the way. Part one opens Friday; part two is expected to open next July.
The books seem assured a lasting legacy, but how about the movies? Do they stand on their own as cinema, or are they skating by on borrowed magic? Do they add to the books, or supplant the reader’s own imagination? For parents new to the Potter world, do you introduce kids to the books first, or the movies? Consider this the reflections of one muggle parent, Potter fan, and film buff.
I’ll say up front that I love the books. Not necessarily for literary merit (I think they’re great yarns, but I might never have thought to pick them up if I didn’t have kids) but because the stories and characters became such an integral part of my parenting years. My wife and I are pop-culture skeptics, at least when it comes to how we raise our two sons (born in 1994 and 1998), and Harry Potter gave us a full-blown media extravaganza we could buy into without too much trepidation.
We read each book out loud as a family, even when the boys were well able to read them solo, and even when the books began to expand to Tolstoyesque proportions. I took a couple of days off work when “Deathly Hallows’’ came out, and we turned off the phones, stayed away from newspapers and the Internet, and powered through the book in one marathon four-day reading session. We were that worried about accidental spoilers — and that anxious to learn how it all ended.
But it has been about more than books, of course. Parents of Potter fans know the litany: Potter-themed Halloween costumes and birthday parties, the wand duels and the midnight book-release parties. In my house, there was that curious anticipation when both sons neared their 11th birthdays — a mix of preteen pragmatism (they know there’s no such place as Hogwarts) and a remaining glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, an owl would be arriving with a message for them. My older son also credits the first Harry Potter computer game with turning him on to gaming.
The movies only amped up the Potter hype. We thought seriously about avoiding the first, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.’’ We had the first four books under our belts by that time, and my then-7-year-old had started reading them on his own. The movie posed a dilemma: Would seeing it only spoil things?
We went anyway. And after about 15 minutes (during the initial Norbert scene in Hagrid’s hut, to be precise) he quietly asked if we could leave the theater. “I think I like using my imagination better,’’ he told us later. (Now that’s magic.)
As a family, we’ve since made our peace with the movies, and we’ll be seeing the new film in IMAX as soon as we can get in. The films have gotten better over time — darker too, but that reflects the progression of the books. And as kids get older they develop that capacity for separation that helps them enjoy the spectacle of the movies while maintaining a deeper affection for the books.
Rowling reportedly pushed for Terry Gilliam as director, but we got Chris Columbus instead for the first two movies (“Sorcerer’s Stone’’ and “Chamber of Secrets’’) — long on wonder and faithfulness to the books, but ultimately thin on story and character development. I recently watched the first film on DVD with my younger son, and he condensed the whole experience down to about half an hour, skipping from favorite scene (Diagon Alley!) to favorite scene (Sorting Hat!). Movies one and two are like illustrated pop-up books, and what fans tend to like about them is the way they make the Potter world come to life.
Director Alfonso Cuaron took the closest thing to an auteur tack with “Prisoner of Azkaban.’’ I liked the movie at the time, but the rest of the family resolutely does not, and for the primary reason that the movie makes Hogwarts look decrepit and, frankly, a little depressing, with the warm, fire-lit glow of the first two movies traded in for a palate of various shades of steel gray.
Mike Newell took the reins for “Goblet of Fire,’’ but for me the series started to really gel with “Order of the Phoenix,’’ directed by David Yates, who stayed on board for “Half-Blood Prince’’ and now both installments of “Deathly Hallows.’’ Working with screenwriter Steve Kloves, who has been aboard for all but one of the movies, Yates manages to create real, full-blooded cinema experiences with some terrific action scenes and a sense of the character changes that Harry and friends experience (and which are explored at length in the books). Yates is perhaps no visionary, but he knows how to make a movie that stands on its own, and he has brought a welcome consistency to the second half of the film cycle.
The Potter movies have issues — that lack of overarching, connecting vision is one, especially when compared to that other recent fantasy cycle, Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings.’’ But the Potter films have virtues too, starting with some ravishing set designs, the cream of British acting talent (topped by Alan Rickman’s turn as Snape, with an honorable mention to Imelda Staunton’s Umbridge), and a group of appealing younger actors who started as children and managed to convincingly inhabit their roles (and robes) over the long course of filming the series.
As of 2011, there will be a new generation of fans who don’t have to wait for either the books or the movies. (Too bad for them — that anticipation was a large part of the fun.) I have read comments from new fans on some sites who recommend seeing the movies first and then reading the books. The movies, they reason, are like a shorthand introduction to the plots and characters; saving the books means you get to sit back and savor all the details after that first brief taste.
I still say, especially to parents: Read the books first and let young readers fill out that imaginary world for themselves. A firm rooting in that self-made world will help allow them to view the Potter movies as just one more imaginative take on the books’ world, and one they can compare to their own equally valid version. There is nothing my sons like better after watching one of the movies than discussing how scenes were left out or changed — and how they might have done things differently.
Rick VanderKnyff is a senior producer for MSN.com. He can be reached at knyff1@hotmail.com. 
Zsa Zsa Gabor Goes Home from Hospital - People Magazine
By Stephen M. SilvermanUpdate Saturday November 13, 2010 04:15 PM EST Originally posted Saturday November 13, 2010 10:05 AM EST 
Zsa Zsa GaborRon Galella/GettyZsa Zsa Gabor went home Saturday afternoon after having been rushed to the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Friday afternoon for an infection in her leg.
Zsa Zsa GaborRon Galella/GettyZsa Zsa Gabor went home Saturday afternoon after having been rushed to the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Friday afternoon for an infection in her leg. Her husband, Frederic von Anhalt, told PEOPLE on Saturday morning that she was being treated with antibiotics.
Since summer, the celebrated socialite, 93, has suffered a series of health issues. On July 18, she was also rushed the medical center after falling out of bed and breaking several bones, including her right hip. Within five days she fell into critical condition and was not responding to those around her, although by Aug. 11 Gabor grew stronger and was sent home.
Two days later, however, she was taken back to the hospital due to complications from the hip-replacement, and on Aug. 15 Gabor requested last rites from a Catholic priest.
When she subsequently refused a liver operation, it was decided she would spend her final days at home – though on Aug. 31, said to be in pain and unconscious, she was again rushed back to the hospital – and again returned home a few days later.
"She's taking a lot of medicine right now," von Anhalt told the Los Angeles Times. He added that she also has a blood infection.
• Reporting by ELAINE ARADILLAS and MIKE FLEEMAN
Kanye just isn't feeling it, 'Today' - Washington Post
1.After Kanye West took to Twitter to accuse Matt Lauer of being "brutal" and trying to "force [his] answers" in an interview earlier this week, the "Today" anchor stood by his interview techniques and wryly noted that West was scheduled to give a live performance on "Today" on Nov. 26. Not anymore. On Friday, West again used his medium of choice to tweet this update: "I'm not performing on the Today Show for obvious reasons. I'm so happy the world got to see just a small piece of 'the set up.' " Earlier in the week the rapper appeared on "Today" to apologize for accusing then-President George W. Bush of racism in 2005 because of the White House's mishandling of the response to Hurricane Katrina (a.k.a., the "worst moment" of Bush's presidency). During West's sit-down with Lauer, he was disturbed about being interrupted by footage of himself interrupting (there's that word again) Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
2.Seventeen-year-old "Gossip Girl" star Taylor Momsen has gone into inappropriate hyperdrive over the past year, doing her best to shock with gothy barely there outfits and quotes like this one from an interview in the October issue of Revolver magazine: "If it's a good sex tape, I'll watch it." Now, according to Us Weekly, she's blaming her parents for her bad attitude. "Everyone's like, 'Wow, why is she upset, and why is she so miserable about things?' " Momsen said. "My parents signed me up with Ford [Modeling] at the age of two. No two-year-old wants to be working, but I had no choice." If Momsen's wild theory turns out to be valid, we may finally have an explanation for Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and the countless other young starlets who have struggled with the same inability to transition seamlessly from kid star to non-substance-abusing and/or inappropriate-outfit-wearing adult.
Demi Lovato's Disney Show To Be Revamped - MTV.com
Demi Lovato's Disney hit "Sonny with a Chance" is slated to continue production next season without the troubled star. Network representatives told Variety that the show will focus the inner-workings of the sketch comedy program Lovato's character, Sonny, appears on, "So Random!"
"This allows her the time she needs to get well, without distraction or pressure," a Disney Channel spokesperson said. "Again, we extend our ongoing support to Demi and her family as she works to overcome personal issues."
The show's new format will focus on a beefed-up version of "So Random!" packed with with guest stars, performances and digital shorts. The revamped show will give Lovato time to work on her problems and shooting will kick off in January as originally scheduled.
Lovato recently quit her tour with the Jonas Brothers to deal with "emotional and physical issues." The teen starlet has been reportedly grappling with depression and cutting, and entered a treatment center to try to resolve her issues. However, her rep recently batted away rumors that Lovato is dealing with substance-abuse problems.
"Demi Lovato is not in treatment for drug or alcohol addiction," her spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. "As we have said since she entered treatment last week, Demi decided to seek help for emotional and physical issues she has battled throughout her life. She has taken this step in order to get her life in order."
Addiction specialist and "Celebrity Rehab" host Dr. Drew Pinsky has maintained that stars in Lovato's position need to put recovery before their careers in order to overcome their personal issues.
"The important thing for Demi when she has finished treatment, whatever treatment it is she has received, is that she have adequate and thorough follow-up care, follows the direction of her team of professionals and that she doesn't return to work too prematurely," he said. "The number-one reason my patients that are celebrities get in trouble is they go back to work because they make a lot of money for themselves and other people. It's very gratifying, but it takes them out of their treatment."
Send your well-wishes to Demi Lovato in the comments.
ABC picks up more episodes of ‘Castle’
Image Credit: Mitch Haddad/ABCGood news for Castle fans: The drama has done so well for ABC that the network has decided to pick up two more episodes. That brings the total season order to 24.
On average, Castle ranks a strong No. 2 in its Monday timeslot in total viewers (12.8 million) and adults 18-49 (3.2 rating/8 share). Over the last four weeks, Castle – which is getting a big boost from Dancing with the Stars – has drawn more viewers than Hawaii Five-0. This is the show’s best season ever.
The show also attracts an advertiser-coveted upscale audience as TV’s No. 1 show at 10 p.m. among adults 18-49 in homes earning more than $100,000 annually, according to ABC.
Box office update: 'Unstoppable' speeds away with $8.1 mil on Friday - Entertainment Weekly
Image Credit: Robert ZuckermanUnstoppable takes its title very seriously, as the Fox runaway-train film led the box office on Friday by grossing $8.1 million, according to early estimates. The result should give star Denzel Washington his eighth debut of at least $20 million in nine films, even though the $85 million action film fell short of the opening days of his last two projects, The Book of Eli ($11.7 million) and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 ($8.2 million). Also, although Unstoppable was No. 1 on Friday, it’ll likely finish the weekend second to DreamWorks Animation’s Megamind, which tallied $7.9 million on Friday for a drop of 37 percent. Megamind will benefit from kids being out of school on Saturday and Sunday — last weekend, the animated superhero comedy soared 64 percent on Saturday. As a result, expect Megamind to finish the weekend with about $29 million and Unstoppable to pull into the station with around $23 million.
In third place was the Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis comedy Due Date, which fell 55 percent for $5.5 million, and should conclude the weekend with about $16 million. Skyline landed a bit softer than I was expecting — the alien-invasion thriller sucked up $4.7 million on Friday to settle into fourth place. That figure suggest a weekend total of about $13 million, which is right in line with Universal’s hopes for the Brothers Strause film. I thought it’d earn closer to $20 million, but with a budget of only $10 million, Skyline will still be a success story. Fifth place went to the workplace comedy Morning Glory, which attracted $3.1 million. The Rachel McAdams movie should transition from the weekend with just under $10 million. Check back here on Sunday for the complete box office report.
1. Unstoppable — $8.1 mil
2. Megamind — $7.9 mil
3. Due Date — $5.5 mil
4. Skyline — $4.7 mil
5. Morning Glory — $3.1 mil
Box office preview: Can Megamind slow down Unstoppable?
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