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AMERICAN IDOL S10: Top 5 Get Modern and Classy

by Poncho

Tonight’s theme is “Now and Then” or something like that. It’s modern songs and then songs of the ’60s or ’70s, and all five contestants are butchering and/or killing one of each. This should be interesting.

The first round is the “Now” round, and this is how they did.

James Durbin opened the show with “Closer to the Edge” by 30 Seconds to Mars. I just can’t make up my mind about this one. For one, I think it was a good choice, and an original one (I don’t know how long the song lists are for the contestants this season, but I’d like to think they have carte blanche). I also think he’s got good communion with the audience and his vocal pyrotechnics thrill them, too. And, of course, he nails the song in the wailing part. But he still misses quite a few notes on the lower register, and while I commend the song choice, I’d rather hear it as a closing number, or an encore one. Do you get what I mean? I didn’t think the number had enough energy, soul, or emotion to carry an audience for a full show.

When I read Jacob Lusk’s song choice—“No Air” by Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown—I cringed. When I saw his performance, I cringed again. Let me list what was wrong. First: The song choice sucked. It’s one thing to turn a solo into a duet, but to turn a duet into a solo is just dumb. Second: He came in full skanky diva mode, and he’s supposedly a dude. Third: It sucked. Fourth: He, again, lost control of his vocals. Fifth: It sucked. Sixth: His awkward dancing reminds me of [Mexico’s] Juan Gabriel. Also: It sucked. Need I say more?

Lauren Alaina rocked. She sang “Flat on the Floor” and left the previous guys just like that. Her vocals were spot on, her delivery amazing. Just one complaint: I wish she would make more of the stage; she barely moved and the whole performance looked energetic and static at the same time. Other than that, it was just a few steps from a true Idol Moment™, in my opinion. Good stuff indeed. She’s a keeper, that one!

Holy cow! Scotty McCreery was good as well! He sang “Gone” by Montgomery Gentry and I did feel like I was at a concert, one where they drench you in Velveeta, but hey, who am I to complain? (If one of you heard me singing, you might). The vocals were fantastic, though it seemed he was half a beat too slow for the first third of the song. He had good chemistry with the backups; he gave them their spotlight AND upstaged them. I still think he’s too cheesy and his crazy [singing] faces gives me the creeps, but for the first time in a while, Scotty was fun!

Haley Reinhart took the “Now” [part of the show] one step further and turned it into “Tomorrow.” She established a new precedent by doing an unreleased Gaga song. Yup. She sang “You and I” from the upcoming Born this Way. I loved how the judges were absolutely clueless in what to critique. And I think that worked better! She’s been hurting for a bunch of weeks because of the lukewarm feedback from them and she pulled an “in your face.” I think it was good, sexy, and fitting. The song felt like it belonged to her and vice versa. The tone was fantastic, her growl fit wherever she put it, and she looked much more comfortable on stage than she’s ever been. The whole thing worked for me. If I were American, I would have voted like crazy for her. How could someone not love her when she’s the only really bold one left after they ditched Naima? #SaveHaley. ‘Nuff said.

Now, for the second round, the “Then” performances…

James went into the overly sentimental territory (like Jacob last week) and botched it. His voice was completely flat in Harry Nilsson’s “Without You.” Thank God it didn’t go into Ken Lee territory but it was pretty close. Bummer, because I thought this guy almost had the It factor, but sadly no. He just cannot connect to an audience through his voice. He depends entirely on the theatricality and his “deep emotional connection” felt completely fake, even with his strategically placed tear-down-cheek thing. And for the first time, Steven Tyler called him on his pitch. That’s something, ain’t it?

I’ll admit I enjoyed Jacob a little better this time. After hearing him sing “Love Hurts,” one would think older songs are more his thing. He still lost control of a few notes, but even when he went for the crazy ones, he held it all together much better than he has since the semifinals. But still, I don’t like him. And while he sang so-so, his moves were like that of a child having a temper tantrum. It sort of suits the song, though, so who knows?

I have bittersweet feelings about Lauren tackling “Unchained Melody.” She does sing beautifully, has good sense of pitch and nice (not great) stage presence. And she’s growing as a performer. She managed the song well, but she missed the nice things that make it a classic. For one, she gave it a few more runs than she should, even missing the beat a few times because of it. And then, she didn’t even TRY to go high. The prettiest part of the song for me is the falsetto part (you know, the “I neeeee-hee-heed your lo-oove”), and she went the other way. Like her trying to tackle “Natural Woman” a few weeks back, she seems to lack the life experience to sing a song THAT intimate to someone, and so it felt pageantry, even artificial.

Almost the same thing happened to Scotty on his next choice. He sang “Always on My Mind” mostly on key but didn’t get the feeling and soul of it. Also, his country vibe didn’t quite fit the arrangement. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad by any means, but it wasn’t memorable.

OK, scratch all I’ve written so far. Haley stole the night. Again. Her “House of the Rising Sun” was AMAZING. Flawless. Even if her song choice could be nitpicked, she just had the first Idol Moment™ this season. Period. Everything about Haley’s performance was perfect. The lighting, the a capella start, the way the band entered. OMG. I’ll use my first Randy-ism and say “Haley is in it to win it!” She’s hands down the one who’s most improved, and who’s taken this contest as a platform and learning experience. And it shows. This was fantastic.

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Movie Review: WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

It’s always hard for me to write a review for something that I neither loved nor loathed. Such is the case for the movie adaptation of Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants (which I haven’t read), starring Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz. It has talented actors, nice production values, and beautiful costumes but for some reason doesn’t connect emotionally.

Set during the Depression, it’s the story of Young Jacob (Pattinson), a Cornell veterinary science student who joins the circus as the vet after a family tragedy leaves him homeless. He falls for the star attraction, Marlena (Witherspoon), who’s married to the evil Machiavellian boss, August (Waltz). Jacob struggles between his need for a job and the horror he feels when he sees August mistreat the animals. In the end, Jacob has to decide what kind of life he wants and whether he can give Marlena the one she deserves.

Though the movie has one heartthrob and two Oscar winners in it, Tai the elephant, as Rosie, steals every scene she’s in. She’s more expressive than Pattinson, makes us gasp in wonder, whimper in pain in sympathy, and clap with delight. She has more chemistry with the humans than the leads have with each other, which is ultimately the movie’s downfall.

This is the first time I’ve seen Pattinson play a normal person without any wizardly or vampiric powers and he’s rather…dull. There’s no extra oomph factor that makes an actor truly memorable on screen. Meanwhile, the normally spunky Witherspoon is subdued as the trapped Marlena. They both look great—her slinky gowns are to die for—but there’s absolutely no heat between them. When you can’t feel the love in a love story, it’s a problem.

Waltz’s performance as the capricious August is masterful; the actor made me tense from bracing for the violence that might erupt from his character at any time without warning. I can’t think of many actors who could’ve played this part as well as he did. But it’s similar to what Waltz did in Inglorious Basterds and therefore didn’t feel as fresh.

Since I’ve never seen a live circus, I did enjoy the few glimpses of the show under the big top. I marveled at the acrobats and Rosie doing her tricks. But once the lights in the theater came up, the movie left me with an empty feeling, as if the circus had moved on and left me wanting more.

Nerd verdict: Elephants lacks emotional weight

Photos: David James

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AMERICAN IDOL S10: Top 7 in the 21st Century

by Poncho

I’ll be the first to admit this episode was much more interesting than the last. The premise by itself, “Songs of the 21st Century”, made me smile a little, because this was the first real chance for most of these kids to be current (Miley Cyrus songs aside). They made me feel awkward, though: Of the seven songs, I only knew three beforehand so perhaps that gave them some advantage since I can’t compare theirs with the original performances.

Before I started watching this show, I did a little backtracking and noticed that, if this was one of the past seasons, we would’ve already witnessed outstanding performances [by this point in the competition]: Kelly Clarkson had already made us stand up with “A Natural Woman,” the Velvet Teddy Bear had taken many to “A Whole New World,” Fantasia & JHud had brought “Summertime” to a full “Circle of Life,” Carrie Under-bot had sung the hell out of “Alone,” and even Kris Allen had made us hear “Ain’t No Sunshine” like it was the first time while others melted with Glambert’s “Mad World.”

But not this season. There haven’t been many standout performances—none at all, for that matter. I even went back to last week with Casey’s “Nature Boy” and [decided] it wasn’t that much of an Idol Moment™. I’m still waiting…

Scotty McCheesy opened the show “Swingin’” on full Velveeta mode. C’mon! I thought he was pulling back! It was not good. His lower register only shone a couple of times and the whole thing was boring. I still think he’s got one of the most mature voices on the show, but he must do something else on stage pronto. He’s getting way too comfortable in his niche and there’s just no wow factor to it. I mean, I’m even starting to want to fast-forward through his airtime (a privilege only granted to the judges). Also, his song ain’t really from this century. Though LeAnn Rimes covered it, “Swingin’” was originally released in 1983! I call that cheating!

I didn’t think anyone would sing anything from Muse on AI but James “Sloth” Durbin did try to perform “Uprising.” He even brought some marching band drummers to the Idol stage. I’ll give it to him: He’s a showman, and a very good one, I must say. A good singer? Not really. He botched a lot of notes, especially the lower ones, but he sort of came together on the wailing. It wasn’t unpleasant, but good it was definitely not. And he’s absolutely got to stop eye-sexin’ the camera because it gives me serious chills.

Next was one of the most excellent song choices and the most current one in the show tonight: Haley Grrreinhart went blue-eyed soul and sung Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” The Grrreinhart bandwagon keeps rolling, babe! Oh, my! Gotta admit that taking over Adele’s great soulful voice ain’t easy, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t say Haley did it nicely. It’s not tough to see Haley as the one who’s growing the most, and who’s less afraid of taking risks (“BENNY AND THE FRAKKING JETS”!!). The bridge started rough but she quickly managed it, and her falsetto and run at the end were things of beauty. This one paid off, in my book.

The Lusky Skank got overly emotional with “Dancing with My Father” by Luther Vandross. I will not argue about his connection to the song—it was definitely there. Hell, the emotion even overpowered his diva faces and took a serious toll on the pitch. I’ve been saying for quite some time that Jacob needs more control and getting that emotional on stage is not the way to find that.

Ca-sneer Abrams growled and sneered through Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe” and though it wasn’t bad, his performance lacked something. He lacks the appeal and stage presence Adam Levine has, and that really hurt Casey’s take. Also, Casey’s vocals couldn’t match the high tempo of the song. It felt like he was singing after the beat and it sounded weird. The original is way better than his 90-second version.

When Stefano Long-gone took the stage for his take on Ne-Yo’s “Closer,” I thought I was watching some guy being left alone by the rest of his boy band. It wasn’t just the look, but the way he got lost in the song. He did seem more comfortable and relaxed on stage. He did go out of his boring balladeer confort zone but that didn’t pay off. On other songs it seemed he tried too hard to hit the glory notes; this time it looked like he didn’t even try.

And finally, another candidate for our annual election of “Best Musician Who Upstages the Contestant”: the violinist playing next to Wauwen Alaina while she sang Sara Evans’s “Born to Fly.” Lauren was actually very good, nearly excellent. She sang the hell out of the song and took the stage very well. Her only mistake was that she didn’t interact enough with the other performers and looked awkward when she sang next to them. Either she needs to put them violin players somewhere where they can’t bother her, or ask the producer to get duller ones. Or better yet, get to know them before they perform together.

So that’s my take of this week’s Idol. I expect Stefano and Jacob to be in the bottom 3, and I’d put Scotty there, too. I’d put Long-gone out of his “Misery” (ha!).

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Hot Trailers: COWBOYS & ALIENS, RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

In case you weren’t watching the American Idol results show last night, the second Cowboys & Aliens trailer premiered and the movie, opening July 29, continues to look gooood. I can’t embed the video but you can see it here.

The trailer for another big summer movie debuted this week: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, starring James Franco, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Brian Cox and Andy Serkis. Are you a fan of the previous ape movies? How does this origin story look to you? I can’t decide if it’s must-see for me.

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AMERICAN IDOL S10: Top 9 Rock Out

This post is by guest blogger Poncho, an expert on AI and many things pop culture.—PCN

Even with the theme being “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” the episode had little rock and less roll. Some of the choices were weird, most of the songs were performed (mostly better) in previous seasons, and the whole thing was more boring than last week. So let’s get rolling:

I just figured out who Jacob Lusk reminds me of. His weird dance moves in the second half of “Man in the Mirror” immediately made me think of Juan Gabriel! Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing; JG is a very successful recording artist…in Mexico. Anyway, the vocals were kind of good, but what’s with him thrusting the backup singer? And what’s with the backup-bots waving boringly? Besides, I’m fed up with his overly theatrical skanky diva faces. The judges loved the performance; I say meh.

I told PCN last week I was on board Haley Scarnatto Grrrreinhart’s bandwagon, and after hearing her cover Erma Franklin/Janis Joplin, I say the girrrrrrl took another “Piece of My Heart.” She wasn’t as good as last week, but she’s growing as an artist, picking songs that fit her grrrowl, improving the phrasing, looking gorgeous on stage, commanding more presence and, in general, looking less awkward. On the downside, she’s still got lots to grrrrrow.

Casey Abrams brought an upright bass! I couldn’t care less for his performance, even though “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” is one of my favorite songs ever. The upright bass upstaged Casey but it might still be me hating him for what he did to Nirvana.

I’ll say it about Lauren Alaina: NOBODY has made that girl feel like a “Natural Woman.” I’m not advocating underage sexin’, just saying you can master the technical aspects of a song as hard as “Natural Woman,” make changes to the phrasing and intonation of the verses (I hated the runs in the first ones, liked the softness in the middle), but if you have no connection, there’s no point. And that’s it—she sang pretty but sold nothing.

One thing we learned (or re-discovered) about James Durbin is that he has serious trouble with his lower register. And I mean serious. It’s a good thing Steven gave him props for “weeping” like his guitar because it was the only good thing about the performance. The pitch problems throughout the song made all guitars around the world need tissues.

This was the first time Scotty McCheesy actually really entertained me. It’s no secret I like his voice and believe he’s got a real chance in country music, but this was the first time he looked like a contender. He raised the tempo and he’s starting to pull the cheese factor back. Weird thing—the cheese he brought kinda worked.

I had a headache watching Pia Toscano. She sang uptempo (more like mid-tempo in my book, but whateva) and even with a few pitch problems here and there, managed to sound amazing. But then, the visuals were all wrong. First, the dress was a fashion no-no (hear it from a straight guy); second, she walked around the stage and her walk was very, very boring. If you close your eyes, you hear a great “uptempo” song. If you mute the TV/VCR/PC, you see someone singing a ballad. Guess she’s still Pia Tosca-bore.

If anyone was really a bore, it was Stefano Langone. Three words: Kick him out.

Finally, Paul McDonald was real fun to watch. It wasn’t the greatest performance, but his voice actually fitted the song and the arrangement. He brought his spastic-chicken dance to the stage, even while playing his guitar (I think the other guys beside him had ants in their pants, too, because they danced very weirdly as well). But somehow it all worked. It was fun, a little underwhelming, but fun nonetheless.

What did you think?

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Beverly Hills Film Festival

Smith and Bowen

L.A. folks, did you know the Beverly Hills Film Festival starts today and runs through this Sunday, April 10th? The festival showcases independent films and tonight has the West Coast premiere of Conception, which was just named “Best of the Fest” at the Palm Beach Film Festival. Check out this cast: Julie Bowen, Connie Britton, Alan Tudyk, David Arquette, Jonathan Silverman, Sarah Hyland, Pamela Adlon, Gregory Smith and more. It’s a romantic dramedy featuring nine couples at different stages of their relationships on the night they conceive a baby. I hope to post a review of this later this week.

For more info on the festival and other films being screened, click here.

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AMERICAN IDOL S10: Top 11 Perform Elton John Songs

I haven’t been posting American Idol recaps this year because I haven’t been home most nights the show is on. Finally found myself with a little free time yesterday evening so I tuned in, though I wasn’t thrilled about the theme being Elton John songs. He and Bernie Taupin have written some great tunes but their catalog is ballad-heavy and I just wasn’t in the mood. I wish we could have Springsteen or U2 night. Hell, I’d take Bryan Adams, Eagles, Bob Seger. We need some rock ‘n’ roll and I don’t mean what James Durbin is doing.

This isn’t a full recap, just the highlights. Let’s jump straight to the surprising best performance of the evening: Haley covering “Bennie and the Jets.” I’ve liked her husky voice in the past but she always picks the wrong songs and tries too hard to be vampy on stage. I thought it was going to be more of the same when she started out reclining seductively on the piano but man, she burned it up. Though she still does that throat-clearing type of singing too often for my taste, the song allowed her to growl, belt, and slink through different octaves, opening up my eyes and making me say “Yowza.” Check out the clip below if you missed it.

Elsewhere, Casey did a nice job with “Your Song” but he’s had better performances. Pia was pitch-perfect as usual but still lacked a warmth of feeling. The best singers are also the best interpreters, taking lyrics beyond words and into emotional territory. For some reason, Pia hasn’t learned to do that yet. Plus, her song, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” is a drag.

Lauren had a personal best with “Candle in the Wind” though I’d be thrilled if I never hear that overexposed saccharine ballad again. The judges were too harsh on Naima because I liked her groovy reggae version of “I’m Still Standing.” Jacob was good but wasn’t in the top 3 for me. I still dig Paul‘s funkiness; Steven Tyler said it perfectly when he told Paul if he started hitting all the notes, he’d become boring. I fast-forwarded through Scotty‘s performance as I normally do because he’s just too corny for me. “I love you, Grandma!” in the middle of the song? Puh-leeze.

Who stood out and who are you rooting for?

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Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011

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Movie Challenge: Best Picture Hybrids

There’s been a lot of ink leading up to the Oscars this Sunday and last week I realized I was bored with the nominees being discussed the same way over and over again: Who will win? Who might be an upset? Who should win but probably won’t? Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

When I saw yet another article this morning dissecting the 10 best picture nominees, I thought, “What if I mixed the titles together and made up a whole new batch of movies?”

Here’s what I produced:

The Grits Are All Right—A woman’s quest to find a better recipe for her favorite Southern dish after her mother-in-law said her cooking was “just okay.”
The Fighter’s Bone—After mistakenly believing that abstaining from sex for 48 hours before a fight would help him, a boxer loses the championship title when his body reacts to a hot ring girl during round three.
The King’s Inception—How Colonel Tom Parker met Elvis Presley and helped create a rock ‘n’ roll icon.
The Social Hours—A reclusive accountant goes on a murderous rampage after being forced to socialize at one too many office birthday parties for co-workers he doesn’t know and doesn’t want to buy gifts for.
Black Kids—A happily married white couple gets a shock when the wife gives birth to twins significantly darker in skin tone. After many tears, they reconcile when she convinces him it was due to all the self-tanner she used during pregnancy.
True Swan Story—Based on the 2008 incident in which a man was terrorized for three days by an angry swan in Central Park after it got fed up with him repeatedly throwing Taco Bell wrappers in the lake.
127 Toys—The disturbing discovery in J. Edgar Hoover’s closet after his death.

Which one of these would you see? Feel like producing your own? The titles you can play with are: Black Swan, 127 Hours, The King’s Speech, Inception, Toy Story 3, The Social Network, Winter’s Bone, True Grit, The Fighter, and The Kids Are All Right.

Leave your hybrid titles with fake plots in the comments and, if we get enough “nominees,” we’ll vote for one to win the best picture Acanerdy Award!

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TV Review: THE CHICAGO CODE

Though Shawn Ryan’s The Chicago Code (FOX, Mondays, 9 p.m.) isn’t the most innovative cop show ever, its style and content make it immensely watchable. Jennifer Beals stars as Teresa Colvin, the Chicago Police Department’s first female superintendent. She assembles a secret task force to take down corrupt alderman Ronin Gibbons (Delroy Lindo), who put her in charge because he thought she’d play nice. Having no official backing or funding, she has only two team members, her ex-partner Detective Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke) and his new partner, Caleb Evers (Friday Night Lights‘ Matt Lauria).

The show carries a few Ryan trademarks: snappy dialogue, whiplash-fast pacing, and excellent acting. If you saw The Shield‘s pilot, you probably weren’t surprised (I was expecting it) when ***mild spoiler alert!!*** a seemingly integral part of the task force was fatally shot.

***end spoiler***

Not sure if I like the voiceovers from multiple characters’ POV and don’t know if it’s necessary. (Don’t love it on Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, either, but at least they stick to only one narrator.) The show has enough going for it, though, that I’m willing to put up with the narration if it doesn’t get too distracting.

Beals, who has become more beautiful and a better actress over time, exudes a breezy confidence as Colvin, wearing her power lightly but never letting us or her underlings forget who’s boss. That isn’t as easy to do as it sounds. I remember when Mariska Hargitay started out on Law & Order: SVU as Detective Benson. She was trying so hard to act tough, it was painful to watch. She eventually relaxed into the role, doing something Beals seems to have figured out from the get-go: If you’re in control, you just are and don’t have to prove it.

Clarke is hard-nosed without being a jerk and you wouldn’t know he’s Australian from his Chicago accent (though I don’t know how authentic it is). Lauria is appealing as the baby-faced cop whom Wysocki underestimates at first. Lindo covers his sleaziness with smooth indignation, making him a formidable opponent and someone I’ll enjoy watching Colvin’s team take down.

Nerd verdict: Code crackles

Did you watch this? What did you think?

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Thoughts on Super Bowl Ads & Post-Game GLEE

Since I’m not a football fan, I reversed my viewing habit of DVR’d shows and only watched the commercials (after Christina Aguilera’s horribly overwrought and mangled version of the anthem, that is). I thought the funniest ones were this Doritos one where the guy was able to bring a dead fish, dead plant and finally Grandpa back to life by sprinkling Doritos crumbs on them…

…and the Bridgestone one where the poor office worker thought he’d hit “reply all” to an e-mail and raced around retrieving everyone’s computer or smart device before they could read it. Love how he went about the whole thing with a ninja cry.

The best homage to a classic Coke ad was the House spot with the kid trying to give the mean doctor a churro, a la the boy giving Mean Joe Green a Coke in the 1980 Super Bowl commercial. But instead of softening up Dr. House, the kid gets a cane thrown at him. The spot perfectly captures how Dr. Crankypants won’t soften for anyone.

The ads for Groupon, on the other hand, were flat-out wrong. The Timothy Hutton pitch was bad enough, switching to him enjoying fish curry when we thought he was spotlighting the troubles in Tibet, but the one that aired later was even worse. It began with Elizabeth Hurley talking earnestly about saving the rainforests, then suddenly shown in a bathrobe saying, “But deforestation isn’t all bad,” and segueing into how you can save money on Brazilian waxes with Groupon. Eww. I don’t want to know about Hurley’s, ah, jungle down there. I love irreverent humor but these spots just didn’t work for me.

After the SB, I tuned in to the Glee “event,” though with all the teasers hyping it during the game, I felt I’d seen almost the entire episode. By the time it was over, I found it underwhelming, partly due to the following reasons:

Mr. Shue told Rachel and Puck to wow the football team with a performance to entice them to join glee club and what did they sing? Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now.” Really? That song is nice and all but they thought a country ballad was the best way to impress a bunch of macho dudes? Puck making menacing faces at the guys while singing “Can’t stop looking at the door/Wishing you’d come sweeping in/The way you did before” was so ridiculous, it made me laugh.
The Warblers singing Destiny Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills” was also odd. They’re a bunch of high school students—how many bills do they have? The best numbers are the ones where the kids connect emotionally or the songs arise out of something they’re going through. When they crowed “We’re ready for regionals!” after finishing this song, I thought, “Yeah, ready to get your butt kicked if you don’t come up with something better.”
The centerpiece “Thriller” routine was shot with so many closeups and quick cuts that we couldn’t see the big picture, which is the point of doing that number—the choreography. The camera should’ve pulled back. From what I could see, it looked rather messy, with dancers all over the place instead of in sync with each other.

I did like Katie Couric interviewing Sue for being a giant loser, beating out such contenders as the economy, Mel Gibson, Dina Lohan and her dog, Sparky, “who is apparently also a loser.” Couric’s delivery was perfectly deadpan, and clued-in to the humor of her having the loser gig. Sue: “I thought this was the most fascinating people.” “That’s Barbara Walters,” Couric replies, with only a bit of edge in her voice.

Which ad(s) did you like the best? Worst? What did you think of Glee?

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Pop Culture Purge

I have this habit where I’ll read something on the Internet and react by shouting at my computer as if it can hear me. Sometimes I’ll come to the dinner table and start rambling at my husband. Mr. PCN finally said, “Why don’t you put your thoughts in a post so I don’t have to listen to them anymore?” The word “crazy” (pronounced as three syllables: cruh-AY-zee) might have been used but I don’t remember.

So, here’s my first pop culture purge, where I just throw out random thoughts I had this week about the entertainment I consumed or read about. If you all don’t find it too strange, I might do it again next week. My husband would be thrilled.

Javier Bardem is in talks to play the next Bond villain. Assuming he signs on, I hope producers will give him a memorable role like Jaws or Oddjob, not a lame one like Le Chiffre, who just sits around playing cards and bleeding from his eyes. Oooh, that’s sooo intimidating. But what makes a bad guy memorable? Why does Alfred Molina only have about 5 minutes in Raiders of the Lost Ark but we all remember him as the guy who yelled, “Throw me the idol!”?
Grey’s Anatomy this week had doctors live-tweeting a difficult surgical procedure. But aren’t cellphones banned in hospitals due to interference with machines? Lexie was tweeting right in the OR and I kept expecting one of the monitors to fail mid-surgery.
Loved this bit from last night’s 30 Rock episode. Jack (Alec Baldwin) was pitching a TV prototype to his new Kabletown boss (Ken Howard). The TV was voice-activated so viewers would no longer need remote controls. Problem was, it was a little too sensitive and responded to everyone’s command, including actors on TV. After his boss walked out, Jack muttered, “Crap.” Behind him, the TV switched over to Keeping up with the Kardashians. Haha! Also loved when Liz gave Jack sex advice and said, “Sometimes ladies like to keep their blazers on.” Oh, and Brian Williams needs his own sitcom. So what if he already does the news at NBC? He’s hilarious every time he pops up on Rock. Ryan Seacrest has 17 jobs; so can Williams.
Colin Firth has chosen his follow-up to his sure-to-be-Oscar-winning role in The King’s Speech: a remake of a Michael Caine movie called Gambit which will co-star…Cameron Diaz. Seriously? Because Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Rachel McAdams, and all other superior actresses are busy? I don’t think Diaz is the worst out there, but when’s the last time she made a really good movie?
Though this week’s American Idol auditions took place in L.A., the judges kept saying, “You’re going to Hollywood!” Shouldn’t they just say, “You’re going up the street!”?

What pop culture tidbits occupied your mind this week? Got hot Super Bowl plans?

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