Saturday, September 25, 2010

Donnie Wahlberg


Tom Selleck (Las Vegas, Jesse Stone, Magnum P.I.) is Frank Reagan, chief of police, worried dad and caught between living up to and dealing with the Reagan legacy.

Donnie Wahlberg (Boomtown, Band of Brothers) is Danny Reagan, Iraqi war vet and hot-headed detective who resorts to justice that is occasionally outside of the law.

Bridget Moynahan (Sex and the City, Eli Stone, Ramona and Beezus) is Erin Reagan-Boyle, assistant DA and newly single mom. Lone female Reagan. Moral compass.

Will Estes (Eleventh Hour, Reunion) is Jamie Reagan, who decided not to follow Erin into law, despite the law degree. He's a new beat cop. And he's got a choice to make.

Len Cariou (Damages, Law & Order, Brotherhood) is Henry Reagan, very stern patriarch and former chief of police. Exactly what did he start on his watch?

Buzz buzz
Tom Selleck! Donnie Wahlberg! Bridget ... I think you see where I'm going. With a cast like this, and writer-execs (Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green) who helped create and maintain the magic that was The Sopranos, what could go wrong?

But what do I know anyway? After having seen the pilot I predict...
It's the rare pilot that doesn't get hit at least briefly with the virus of onerous exposition ("Hey sis. I forgot we also have an assistant DA in the family!") and this has a few of those scenes. But they're over in a flash so go with it. I like this a lot. Love having Donnie Wahlberg back on TV (RIP Boomtown, gone so soon). Ditto Tom Selleck and the rest. Not groundbreaking (so far), but comfortable. The extra level of drama that gets wedged hard into the last few minutes is a bit of a jolt and seems, for the pilot as a whole, too much. Will the show need that extra or jettison it quickly? I hope it develops more naturally than it arrives.

John Utendahl


After a "smooch-filled" lunch at L.A.'s Urth Caffé, Jesse James and girlfriend Kat Von D headed down the street for some hands-on shopping at J. Gerard Design Studio and Peace Gallery. While the LA Ink star browsed couture gowns, James doted on her. "He kept on kissing her and wrapping his arms around her from behind," the onlooker says of the duo, who "were finishing each other's sentences." Adds the onlooker: "The romantic chemistry was palpable." The two also picked up his and hers "Rebel with a Cause" T-shirts, and James bought Von D a glass bead lariat-style necklace, which she wore out the door.

• Gossip Girl stars Penn Badgley and Blake Lively, shopping together at Bloomingdale's in downtown New York. Lively, who sported a black sundress, bought something in the lingerie department before the pair moved on through the store. Badgley followed his girlfriend as she led the way. "They were cute," an onlooker tells us.

• Pink and hubby Carey Hart, sharing a relaxing Las Vegas getaway at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The couple checked into the hotel's Tower and for almost a week, and they spent time hanging at the Beach Club with friends and playing blackjack. Pink also pampered herself with some treatments at Reliquary, the hotel's spa.

• Tyra Banks, sharing breakfast at Wall & Water at N.Y.'s Andaz Wall Street Hotel with beau John Utendahl. The supermodel was casually dressed in leggings and a shirt, while her boyfriend sported a suit. He spent most of the meal reading the Wall Street Journal as Banks ate eggs and worked on her iPad.

• Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, doing some post-dinner partying at Skybar at the Mondrian Hotel in L.A. The couple first shared a romantic meal at Asia de Cuba, then held court with friends at a corner table at the bar. Soon, Hudgens and her girlfriends headed back inside the hotel to SPiN, the ping-pong club, for a spirited game.

• Jessica Szohr, celebrating her recent Nylon cover with a bash in New York. Joining her? On-again beau Ed Westwick, and her Gossip Girl costar Leighton Meester, among others. Szohr was presented an enormous tower of cupcakes, and guests sipped Svedka and danced all night.

• Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade and girlfriend Gabrielle Union were having a blast over dinner at Miami Beach's Café Prima Pasta, where they split chicken parmesan and pasta. "They looked happy and were laughing and holding hands the whole time," a source tells us.

Blue Bloods


'Blue Bloods' (10PM ET Friday, CBS) sounds good on paper.

Yet despite its good cast and competent execution, this drama about a family of New York cops feels a bit perfunctory. There's nothing necessarily wrong with the drama, which is ably headed by Tom Selleck, but there's every chance that 'Blue Bloods' will turn out to be just another cop show.

We aren't short of those.

I suppose there's a small chance that 'Blue Bloods' could turn out to be something more than the sum of its parts, a la 'The Good Wife,' which turned out to be more than just another legal drama (though the law cases are often timely and provocative enough to be interesting on their own).

But the majority of the 'Blue Bloods' pilot concerns the kidnapping of a little girl, and there's every reason to believe that upcoming episodes will similarly focus on the case of the week.

There will be an ongoing plot going forward, but as 'Burn Notice' has proved, an ongoing thread can actually become quite frustrating when it is relentlessly shoved into the margins. (I sometimes wonder, when it comes to 'Burn Notice.' if there's a command from on high that the show's mythology can never take up more than 10 or 15 percent of an episode. In 'Burn Notice's' most recent season, this rigidity came close to giving me an aneurysm, because the restricted screen time regarding the show's mythology caused the story about who burned who to feel ever more muddled, cramped and rushed.)

On 'Blue Bloods,' Selleck is effortlessly commanding as New York police commissioner Frank Reagan, an imposing man who, with a single look, can make the mayor of the Big Apple seem like a pipsqueak. Such is the power of the 'stache. OK, I kid. Of course, Selleck's mustache is as luxuriant as ever, but even more impressive is his quietly charismatic presence. He's absolutely believable as a man who has successfully navigated the treacherous and dangerous waters of the police force and New York politics.

Rounding out the cast are Donnie Wahlberg as Danny Reagan, a detective who is Not Afraid to Do What It Takes to Get Results (this is CBS, after all. The Formula must be obeyed). And as the night follows the day, in opposition to the male character who Does What It Takes is a female character -- in this case, Danny's sister, Erin (Bridget Moynahan) -- who Says No. 'Blue Bloods' follows the pattern of most formula-driven shows, in which female characters exist to tell male characters not do what they want to do. On top of that, Erin is a lawyer, of all things. Sheesh. No wonder her husband left her.

Will Estes' character, Jamie, has a potentially interesting journey ahead of him. Jamie has given up a law career to be a beat cop, and one of my favorite scenes in the pilot was of Jamie and his training officer, a veteran officer played by Nicholas Turturro. In that moment, and a few others, 'Blue Bloods' became the kind of relaxed yet alert character drama that you would expect from Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green, the creators of 'Blue Bloods' and veteran writers who've worked on 'The Sopranos' and 'Northern Exposure.'

Yet if 'Blue Blood' focuses on the catching of bad guys rather than the examination of consciences and relationships, it will no doubt fade out of my TV-watching rotation. Television, especially this season, is chock-full of shows about law enforcement and lawyers. There has to be something more to a show for it to overcome my growing case of procedural fatigue.

Mark Zuckerberg Girlfriend


Mark Zuckerberg Girlfriend-Priscilla Chan – Have you heard about Mark Zuckerberg’s new girlfriend, Priscilla Chan? Zuckerberg is one of the most powerful and influential businessmen in the world and the two of them have been dating for a short amount of time. Zuckerberg is most famous for starting the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook. He even has a movie being made about his amazing life, detailing how the website came to be.

The two met while they were studying at Harvard around 2004. That was the same year that Zuckerberg came up with the Facebook concept. Him and a few pals that he knew, including Chan, picked up and moved to California so that he could develop his business project into the empire that it has become today. From that point on, Chan and Zuckerberg remained close to one another, but kept their relationship secret for the most part.

She is not only his girlfriend; she also plays an active role in the Facebook business. She has stood by Zuckerberg through all of the lawsuits, fame, and press inquiries, and the two of them have somehow managed to keep their relationship out from the prying eyes of the media. The couple has been working on spending time together outside of work, and apparently has a number of rules to keep their relationship healthy, including one that stipulates that they must go on one date per week, spending at least 100 minutes of alone time together.

Spencer Legrande

The Bishop Eddie Long scandal (photos below) grew Friday as Spencer LeGrande was added as the fourth plaintiff with new allegations about sleeping pills (Ambien). The Bishop Eddie Long’s scandal had begun this week with two plaintiffs, Maurice Robinson and Anthony Flagg; by midweek, Jamal Parris was making similar allegations; and today, Spencer LeGrande comes forward with claims that read distinctly similar to those made by the previous three plaintiffs.

Spencer LeGrande is now 22, but at the time Eddie Long began alleged interest in LeGrande, Spencer was only 17. Previously another plaintiff claimed interaction starting at age 15. But while Spencer LeGrande’s allegations carry a unique similarity to those of Parris, Flagg, and Robinson, there is one stark difference: allegations of sleeping pills.

Bishop Eddie Long gave Spencer LeGrande Ambien, a sleeping pill, on a trip in Kenya before he made unwarranted advances on LeGrande, claims the new lawsuit. LeGrande met Long through New Birth Charlotte in March, 2003. At age 15, Bishop Long made LeGrande his Armor Bearer at New Birth Charlotte.

The news comes as plaintiff’s counsel released the above scandal pictures this week of Long photographing himself, on a cellphone in his spandex bike shorts, for young men.

Why was LeGrande allegedly hand selected by Long? Eddie Long is accused of inserting himself into the lives of male teens who lacked fathers; once inserted, Long is accused of abusing that trust and trying to get the men into bed and often succeeding. When the men found girlfriends, Long allegedly told the males to dump them for himself. “Plaintiff LeGrande’s father had not been an active part of Plaintiff LeGrande’s life since Plaintiff LeGrande was an infant.”

Ghost Whisperer Cancelled


If your wandering why there’s no Ghost Whisperer this time, it means the show was cancelled. But do not worry , Fox seems to be making a show for Jennifer Love Hewitt.
The network is currently in negotiations to pick up the comedy, Deadline reports.
Currently there were no details about Hewitt and Fox deal about the new comedy show but it is described to be a female version of The Big Bang Theory.
Jennifer Love Hewitt’s move to Fox will give her more air time for her. Let’ see what will happen next and after she was reported to be filming a guest appearance in Love Bites and a role in Castle.

Albert Greenwood Brown


Albert Greenwood Brown, convicted in 1980 of the abduction, rape and murder of a 15th year old girl in Riverside, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, September 29. His lawyers have asked Judge Jeremy Fogel of the Northern District Court to delay the execution in order to examine whether his 2006 order to upgrade lethal injection procedures has been respected. Executions have been barred since 2006 and this will be the first one since Judge Fogel’s order. These are the new regulations as they appear on the CDCR website.

More details about Brown, the case, his subsequent appeals, and the execution ban due to the order can be found on the CNN news blog; and here is the 9th Circuit decision rejecting Brown’s arguments regarding ineffective assistance of counsel and 8th Amendment arguments regarding lethal injection. For readers unfamiliar with ineffective assistance claims, the appellant or habeas petitioner needs to prove the two-prong “Strickland standard”: first, that the attorney’s services fell beneath the minimum expected from a professional (the “performance prong”), and also that, had the attorney done his or her job properly, the outcome of the trial would have been different (the “prejudice prong”).

Amber Dubois

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Friday signed three measures designed to bring abducted children home before they fall victims to horrific crimes, like what happened to Escondido teenager Amber Dubois.

“We’re ecstatic, Hopefully this will help,” said Moe Dubois, Amber’s father who sponsored the legislation in her memory.

Amber, 14, was snatched from an Escondido street in February 2009. Her body was found earlier this year.

A convicted sex offender, John Albert Gardner in April pleaded guilty to the crime and also to raping and murdering Poway teenager Chelsea King in February of this year. He is serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole. The latter incident resulted in the broader “Chelsea’s Law” to crackdown on sex offenders.

Earlier this year, Dubois stressed the need for the bills. “When a child is being taken from you a mile a minute, every minute counts.”

He said he will continue to push for more child protection.

“This year we focused on recovery. Next year we will focus on prevention,” he said.

The three measures are:

• Assembly Bill 34 requires the state to report an abduction to a national tracking system within two hours, instead of the current four hours.

• Assembly Bill 33 requires improved law enforcement coordination across jurisdictions to improve responses to abductions.

• Assembly Bill 1022 creates a the position of “director of missing children operations” to oversee programs aimed at reducing abductions.

When a Stranger Calls Movie


The smartest thing about the remake of When a Stranger Calls is that it strips the original 1979 version to its bare essentials as a primal exercise in stormy-night terror. While taking the original film’s suspenseful first act and expanding it into an 87-minute cat-and-mouse game, screenwriter Jake Wade Wall adds a few clever updates involving cellphones and home-security services, as well as the maze-like menace of a lavish modern home that serves as the setting for mayhem when cute teenager Jill (Camilla Belle, in the role originated by Carol Kane) takes on a babysitting job that she may live to regret. Someone is stalking her in the big, expensive glass palace that her employers call home (a splendid set designed by Jon Gary Steele), and that creepy voice on the phone (belonging to Lance Henriksen, master of doom-laden threat) should’ve been her first clue to grab the pair of terrified kids she’s supposed to be protecting and leave the house ASAP. But no, the script, the overwrought score, and the uninspired direction of Simon West (Con-Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) insist that poor Jill be put through a Halloween-like night from hell, complete with a black cat as an omen of nasty things to come. Kudos to Wall and West for attempting to generate horror through suggestion (by keeping the homicidal stalker mostly off-screen), but let’s face it: the original film is hardly a classic (its TV-movie sequel, When a Stranger Calls Back, is considerably better), and the remake takes too long to yield minimal rewards. Maybe Jill should’ve just unplugged the phone. –Jeff Shannon

Csi Ny


When 'CSI: NY' returns for its seventh season, it'll be the new kid on the block -- the Friday night block. The series has moved from its former Wednesday timeslot to air Fridays at 9PM ET on CBS.

And that's not the only big change to take place: Original star Melina Kanakaredes, who left the series this summer, is being replaced by Emmy-winning actress Sela Ward. The only thing not changing, it seems, is the location -- still New York, New York.

During a location shoot in Central Park, Ward told us how happy she was to join the veteran hit series. "I'm loving being on the show. I love the character, love Gary Sinise, love all of the cast," she said, adding "It's very different for me, so I'd be lying if I didn't say this may be the hardest thing I've ever done ... but slowly but surely, I think I'll get my sea legs."

Ward and Sinise haven't worked together before, though they'd met on the awards circuit (he for 'Truman,' she for 'Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story'). And when the offer to join 'CSI: NY' came in, Ward couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with the fellow Emmy winner.

"I had made a conscious choice not to do a lot of work for a while while my kids were younger and now that they're older, I was just missing it," she said. "And the offer came in and I thought, "You know what? I've never done anything like this. It'll be challenging and I'd love to work with Gary.'"

Still, joining a tight-knit cast that's been together for seven years must've been daunting. "You would think it would, but no," she responded. "And I really attribute that to the generosity and spirit of this cast and the set and trust me, every show is not like that."

The cast and crew have welcomed her with open arms, and co-star Hill Harper gave her a rave review. "It's been great. Sela is a wonderful actress, she has great spirit," he said. "We're kind of a hard-edged New York show and her character brings all this Southern charm which is really lovely."

So new night, new star -- and a whole new energy, Harper noted. "It challenges the writers to have to think more creatively," he said. "You get used to this character does things this way, this character does things that way. Now you have to create a whole new character [and] you have to create a whole new way that different characters interact. It's pretty special."

Ward loves her character, Det. Jo Danville," for "her humor and her smarts. And I think she's a little mysterious and I like that."

Danville is thrust into a case from her very first step -- when she trips over a corpse in the crime lab. "The character hadn't even been written when I got the phone call," Ward revealed. "When Melina decided not to renew her contract, this all went down very quickly. So we talked a little bit about the character and possibilities for the character and then off they went to write. I think I got a script three days before we started shooting, so it was a real fast track. We're still talking about Jo and who is she, and she's still evolving."

Sela Ward


Sela Ward didn’t have much to go on when she was offered “CSI: NY,” but one factor made all the difference: Gary Sinise.

The Emmy winner for both “Sisters” and “Once and Again” returns to series work when she joins the CBS crime drama in its seventh-season premiere Friday, Sept. 24. Replacing Melina Kanakaredes — who opted out of the show — Ward is creating a fresh character as forensics detective Jo Danville, giving her lots of interaction with Sinise’s alter ego Mac Taylor.

And that’s something Ward couldn’t resist.

The actress has fond memories of the time she and Sinise shared on the award circuit in the mid-’90s when they were winning honors for cable-movie biographies, she for Lifetime’s “Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story” and he for HBO’s “Truman.”

“We were seated next to each other several times,” Ward tells Zap2it, “and I kept thinking, ‘This is the neatest guy. I’d love to work with him one day.’ In the back of my mind, my experience of him was that he was so gracious. He’s such an accessible, down-to-earth guy, I never forgot how taken I was with who he was as a person.’”

The same could be said of the “CSI: NY” producers’ view of Ward, since they allow her a unique entrance in the season premiere. Jo steps off an elevator into the crime lab that is otherwise empty … except for the slain young woman who has somehow ended up there.

“It actually wasn’t written that way,” Ward reports. “It was originally written so that you see Jo walking down a New York street with her rolling bag and stopping to hail a cab, then this guy tries to pick her up as she’s getting in the cab.

“When she blows him off, he starts to take the cab — and she smashes his foot with her rolling bag. Then our producer Pam [Veasey] said, ‘Why are my guys not the first people she meets?’ So they decided to change that up.”

Ward was cast so quickly after Kanakaredes’ decision to leave, she had no time for research, but she’s looking forward to visiting an actual CSI lab. “I’m still trying to find my way,” she admits several episodes into filming. “It’s not an easy thing to walk into this kind of world if you’ve never done anything like this before. The dialogue alone makes your head spin.”

Melina Kanakaredes


Gary Sinise returns as Detective Mac Taylor in this Friday's season premiere of 'CSI: New York.' There are a few changes for the season ahead: Not only a brand new time slot but long time star Melina Kanakaredes is out, replaced by Sela Ward. PopEater spoke to star Gary Sinise about the changes to expect for the upcoming season, what goes through his head when he hears The Who, what it's like being mentioned by Ari Gold on 'Entourage' and considers new trademarks in an attempt compete with Caruso's sunglasses.

'CSI: New York' has a big cast member change this year. Melina Kanakaredes left the show, and Sela Ward is replacing her. On a character driven show, this can really hurt.
Well, the franchise is strong. It's a very solid formula on our show. People loved Melina on the show, and I think they're going to love Sela. It's going to be a very seamless transition. I've seen the first episode, and while it's different, it's really, really good. Sela comes into the show as if she's been doing it for a long time.

How often do you actually shoot in New York? I've stumbled upon a shoot here and there, but not anywhere near the amount of times I seen a 'Law and Order' being filmed -- which is almost impossible to avoid.
We only come once a year. We used to come twice a year, but then they started cutting the budgets down, so now we come once a year. We love coming to New York and shooting there. I wish we could do it more, but we are based here in Los Angeles and it's expensive to come.

Do you ever get jealous of David Caruso on 'CSI: Miami' because he's got the whole sunglasses shtick and want to try something of your own? I was thinking that right before it goes to the opening titles, you could say your line and then spit out a piece of gum, or something...
[Laughs] Yeah, I could eat a lollipop like Telly Savalas. Look, he made that into a thing and God bless him. He's turned it into an Internet sensation. No, I'm not jealous of him or anything. We've got a good show going, and people seem to enjoy the characters on our show. Who knows? If our show stays on the air long enough, I might have some funny little thing I come up with.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Raising Hope


Fox’s back-to-back new sitcoms, Raising Hope and Running Wilde, premiered on Tuesday night, and two more different shows are difficult to imagine.

Raising Hope is from Greg Garcia, the writer-producer who gave us My Name Is Earl. Like Earl, Raising Hope is grungy and low-down, interested in the challenges faced by at least 90% of America: How to take care of your family, make money, find time for love. The premise is a nicely exaggerated one that’s quickly rooted firmly in Garcia’s brand of sitcom reality. A teen (Lucas Neff) acquires a baby from a one-night stand; he decides to keep the kid and raise it, even though he’s still being raised at home by his parents (the terrific Garret Dillahunt and the wonderful Martha Plimpton). Cloris Leachman stumps into the room now and then to utter a hostile non sequitur.DIARY OF THE DEAD (2007)

I thought Raising Hope was sweet and funny — I laugh at its sight gags (the baby rolling around in its untethered car-seat) and think the chemistry between Dillahunt and Plimpton is what every sitcom needs, which is: You have to believe right from the start that these people love each other, fight a lot, and that you’ve known them for years.

By contrast — and the contrast is huge, maybe insurmountable — Running Wilde is conceived as a classically structured screwball comedy, in which a person of high stature is brought low by gentle humiliation and slapstick. In this case, it’s Will Arnett as a rich jerk trying to buy the affection of a woman he’s loved for years (Keri Russell). Russell used her wide eyes to express disbelief at the foolish, spendthrift ways of Arnett’s Steve Wilde. As indigent, professional do-gooder Emmy, Russell also has a clever daughter named Puddle (played by the devilishly good Stephania Owen). This trio is supplemented by two characters who work for Steve, one of whom, Robert Michael Morris, will always be, to me, Mickey the make-up man in Lisa Kudrow’s great, short-lived The Comeback.

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