Ellen's Triple Crowning. And Other Emmy Tales

The first batch of Emmy winners in creative / technical awards and "guest" acting were announced. It's the stuff they can't fit on the air because they have more categories than you could possibly keep track of, but still not so many as the Grammys.

Curiously the cancelled Pushing Daisies, which couldn't ever manage a "best comedy series" nomination beat EMMY's "best drama series" Mad Men in three of their four shared categories (Art Direction, Costume Design, Make-Up) and lost to Mad Men only once (Hairstyling). The lack of technical trophies for Mad Men makes me worried for their chances in the big categories next Sunday night. Not that there's ever a point in "worrying" about who might win EMMYs. It always feels so random.

I was amused to see True Blood taking the "casting" award. Wasn't the process of selecting all the frequently unclothed eye-candy reward enough for those casting directors? The guest spot acting winners were Justin Timberlake and Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live) for comedy and Michael J Fox (Rescue Me) for drama.

After years without a new "Triple Crowner" we got two in 2009:
Geoffrey Rush joined their ranks in June and Ellen in September.

And then there's Ellen Burstyn who joined the esteemed company of the Triple Crowners (Oscar + TONY + Emmy) with a winged trophy for her guest starring work on Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit. Burstyn's girded steel mantleplace has more than paid for itself by now. Add one Emmy to her haul which also includes an Oscar, a TONY, a BAFTA, a Globe, an Indie Spirit, a Satellite, a Genie and numerous critics, film festival and theater honors. As someone who loves the cinema and is none to fond of watching our great actresses vanish or spend their sunset years in procedurals like Law & Order, I'd like to congratulate the wonderful Burstyn but also slap Martin Scorsese. Why can't he (or Darren Aronofsky or William Friedkin for that matter) find another plum role for her? I don't want to say that Scorsese "owes" her for what she did for him in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) but certainly he's been exceedingly generous with other stars [oh, you know who] who didn't give half as much as Ellen in their collaborations. Why didn't he ever work with her again? Attention all filmmakers: She's 76 years old. Time is a wasting. Hand her something incredible soon.

for the complete list of Emmy winners
*

DVD: Coraline, Hotel, Watchmen

Try to imagine this DVD release roundup in 3-D for maximum enjoyment.

What's new on DVD Tuesday? We'll bookend this roundup with the two best releases. Links to add them to your queues provided because I'm sweet and helpful like that.

Coraline - I loved the use of 3D in Coraline so I'm wondering how it will transfer to the flatter world of home entertainment: Will that tunnel into Other Mother be as beckoning? Would the transformative acrobatic sister act pay off quite so well? Even if they won't, the film's imaginative visuals and fun character play will pull you into its rewarding tale of a bored little girl suddenly fighting for her soul and her parent's lives in a fantasy world that's not quite like her own. Coraline's journey is often compared to Alice's trip through the looking glass or down the rabbit hole. Miyazaki's Spirited Away was also described that way. It's good company to be in. [netflix / blockbuster]

I had never heard of koumpounophobia (the fear of buttons) before discovering the world of Coraline but I suspect many wee viewers of this movie might have it once they grow up. If you have children, did you take them? Was it too scary for them?

Watchmen - Were Zach Snyder not so slavishly devoted to the recreation of the brilliant source material's 2D compositions, I feel certain that he would've wanted his dark superhero epic to be in 3D. Imagine the stylized carnage: that iconic smiley face pin would spin madly right in the air between your eyes before disappearing deep into the frame as it falls to the pavement, ashes of Dr. Manhattan's enemies would flutter about your face and easily frightened viewers would be jumping, ducking and squirming as boiling oil, shattered glass, stantions, axes and bullets optically careened toward their faces.

On the other hand, who needs it? Patrick Wilson's ass is its own 3D effect and no amount of camera tricks will deepen Malin Akerman's flat performance.

In my original review I explained in far greater detail why I'm down on the movie (I love the comic) but I might give this another go on DVD. They've added 24 minutes for the director's cut and while that might just be padding, you never know. The movie's weird start and stop pacing will probably feel less awkward on DVD as well. [netflix / blockbuster]

The Unknown Woman - This was Italy's Best Foreign Film submission way back in 2007 for those of you who care about such things. I do care but I worry that I don't care quite enough. By the time I finally have access to the foreign films that sound most interesting, it's often years later and I've usually forgotten why I was interested in the first place and have moved on to obsessing about newer foreign films that I'll also forget about by the time someone deigns to release them. [netflix / blockbuster]

As is ever the case there's also old seasons of TV shows hitting the stores.

Charlie's Angels fourth season is just out (at this point in the series Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson were no longer with the show. The trio is Kris (Cheryl Ladd), Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) and new girl Tiffany (the unfortunately named Shelley Hack). [netflix/ blockbuster]

Anyone remember Hotel? It's coming out. Having some knowledge of the hospitality industry I can assure you that a series could be made of the fascinating, serialized complex variety (like The Wire, Mad Men, The Sopranos, etcetera). Hotels are crazy microcosms of the larger world, everything being shoved into one building (restaurants, bars, living environments, the workplace). There's abundant politics, celebrity cameos, union and management scuffles, guest stars, occasional crime and dangerous liaisons (24/7 workplace that also contains alcohol and beds. Do the math). But if I'm remembering Hotel correctly (and I only saw it when I was a little kid) it was just The Love Boat in a building with a rotating cast of mildly famous or formerly hugely famous guest stars having short form drama. Still, Old Hollywood fans should note that Anne Baxter is a series lead and first season guest stars include Bette Davis, Shirley Jones, Donald O Connor, Shelley Winters, Margaret O'Brien and Jean Simmons [netflix / blockbuster]

I've saved the other best for last. Pushing Daisies 2nd Season is freshly served. The show about a pie maker who can raise people from the dead is dead. Pushing Daises is dead. Long live Pushing Daisies. Excuse the redundance. My mind goes into looping sadness when I think about this show for the second season is also The Final Season. The television gods are as cruel and fickle as any deity from Mt. Olympus or Asgard. [netflix/ blockbuster ]

Which will you be renting or do you have movies still to be watched stacked near your TV?
*

Top Ten: Best of 2008 TV (A Limited Perspective)

Tuesday Top Ten: For the listmaker in me and the listlover in you

First things first, this disclaimer: I watch so little television that I'm rather like a SAG and movie awards show voter voting on the best of the film year having only seen 15 movies or so... (oh, come on, you know that's how they do. How else to explain the tiny pool of films they award or their lack of imagination in what to honor within those same films?) so with a huge grain of salt... my ten favorite TV-amajigs of the year

biggest anxiety: Joss Whedon's Dollhouse comes out in 2009. I've spent too much time in 2008 thinking about it. The reports of trouble on set are not surprising. This is the pinpoint reason I can't invest in TV... it's not safe to love anything. It's too emotionally draining to love TV. Movies last forever but TV shows get cancelled immediately if they're at all different/interesting: see #2

biggest surprise: the US version of Kath & Kim is not terrible. It's a little shaky but it's improving and Molly Shannon is still an underrated actor who exhibits range working from within very narrow characters (see also: The Year of the Dog). That said I heard from an LA friend who heard from a friend on set (unsubstantiated gossip. Wheeeee) that Molly & Selma Blair are most definitely not getting along: screaming matches!

Nathaniel's Top TV of 2008

10 Ronnie on Make Me a Super Model and Cody on Step It Up & Dance. Basically the only reason to watch reality television is to crush on cute boys (or girls depending on how you do). Don't you agree?

09 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC

08 Brothers & Sisters I didn't use to understand why so many people added the qualifier "guilty" to "pleasure" when talking about it. Now I see. It's hard to take seriously but I've never once been tempted to stop watching it.

07 The plot complications and expanding cast of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
I have been a Terminator nut since -- for as long as I can remember. Despite that, I thought this show was a bad idea (how does one improve on Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day? The answer is that one does not. Though one wishes Lena Headey would at least try) and the first several episodes did nothing to change my mind. I still don't love any single performance or any episode in particular. But the longer it goes on, the more delicious nutty, overpopulated and convoluted it gets, the more I enjoy it despite all the things that aren't so good about it. Who'da thunk?

P.S. Good luck to Terminator Salvation trying to pretend that so many story threads from 3 Terminator movies and a tv series never happened and make sense of the ones they choose not to ignore.

06 Samantha Who? Hardly groundbreaking for a sitcom but still endearing. Extra bonus points: the trio of supporting actresses in Samantha's orbit (Jennifer Esposito, Melissa McCarthy and Emmy-winning Jean Smart) are totally invested in making with the funny: well done.

05 True Blood. I love vampires. I didn't use to have to qualify that but here it goes. I love vampires that are interesting, mean, bloodthirsty and/or horny --not the stupid asexual twinkle-in-the-sunshine kind that were so popular this year. Blargh!

04 30 Rock. The only show on television that literally makes me LOL each and every episode. Sometimes even LMFAO.

03 Battlestar Galactica -still breath-stoppingly brilliant all the way into its fourth and final daring season. It will go down in history as one of the fullest small screen experiences of all time. If you're still not watching, watch the video Catch the Frak Up before the final episodes air in early 2009.

02 Pushing Daisies -There's no show I look forward to seeing each week more. The second season has been an itty-bitty uneven but who cares. It's so rich: alternately amusing, bittersweet, wicked, morbid, musical, witty, eccentric and lovable. There's something to lose your fool mind and heart over in every damn episode. Just thinking about going without Olive, Ned, Chuck, Emerson and Aunts Vivian & Lily next year makes me need carbs. Lots and lots of them in pastry form --preferably with drops of anti-depressants added in the baking.


01 Mad Men - it wasn't really a contest.

What were your favorites this year?

p.s. 1 Next Week: The Top Ten Movies -- the countdown begins. The annual FiLM BiTCH Awards are on their way.

p.s. 2 A preview of Big Love coming back soon...

Teardrop Pie?

I can't find any official notice online but a little birdie who knows behind the scenes crew on Pushing Daisies told me it was cancelled last night. It's only hearsay but I might be needing a delivery of one of Chuck's famous anti-depressive enhanced pies later today. Update: Neither cancelled nor picked up yet for more episodes to complete that season 2. My birdie was sharing set jitters apparently. That's what people think is happening.

I'm dying here. Please ABC... don't throw this away for a new show that won't have half of Daisies awards pull or audience loyalty.

I Link I Do

Thompson on Hollywood is Jon Hamm the next George Clooney? It's a great question
Goatdog Kate Hepburn in Morning Glory (1933)
Nick's Flick Picks is in London having an interesting time
Coming Soon Spider-Man 4 might get a Pulitzer'ed writer. Hopefully the acclaimed playwright won't be asked for a retread of the last three. It's time for a new emotional arc
Club Silencio highlights from the great Mad Men
Welcome to LA "still my idea of scary"
Hollywood Loves Broadway This Saturday, Catherine Zeta Jones hosts a benefit in California with a ton of stars doing show tunes (Hugh Jackman, James Marsden, Amy Adams and more. Wheeee)
Stale Popcorn gets angry about AFI's treatment of festival hit Three Blind Mice
i09 Four reasons why you need to be watching Pushing Daisies
In Contention chooses the ten best directors working in the English language
BBC News Magneto & Charles Xavier to star in Waiting for Godot
*

How Much Daisy Could A Daisy-Pusher Push...

Howdy, y'all. JA from MNPP here, popping my head in from a busy day at the-home-blog... why am I so busy, you ask? Well it's a Pushing Daisies Wednesday it is, and I'm just downright obsessed with that show. So obsessed in fact that I've gone and interviewed the man behind the show, the lovely Mr. Bryan Fuller, twice now!

Nat was already kind enough to personally link to the first half which appeared last week, and today I've got the second half up and... it has absolutely nothing to do with Pushing Daisies this time. But it does have to do with movies! Scary movies, mostly. It's October after all, tis the month.

So y'all should check that out, since I know we've got some Daisies fans here. And if you're not a fan, become one right this very second. The show needs the ratings, and I can't take any more shows I adore being axed. Do it for me! Someone you don't know! If you're not willing to give up a portion of your life for strangers, than for who, I ask? Who???

Ahem. Pushing Daisies is on ABC, Wednesdays at 8pm.

(I am being shameless with plugs for myself
and for this show, I am aware. Forgive me.
Lee Pace forgives me. See him forgiving me up there?)

.

Link Six-Pack

In Contention "tech support" look at this year's visual effects race
Daily GreenCine rounds up W. commentary
Low Resolution finds comfort in the smile of a child. Awwww (no, really)
Gold Derby EW's silly "recall the vote" project doesn't fix the Best Actor race of 2003. I personally suspect that if Johnny Depp hadn't polluted his genius creation of Jack Sparrow with redundant second and third go-rounds, everyone would have realized by now that his was the best.
Stale Popcorn 'Black and White Fridays' on The Wizard of Oz. Interesting choice: Keeps Dorothy in "Kansas" for the whole movie, don't it?

Must Read (in case you haven't already)
My New Plaid Pants -has a G-R-E-A-T interview (and it's only part 1. Wheeeee) with the creator of Pushing Daisies, our current favorite thing on TV or thereabouts. Plus: I love pie. Just thought I'd say

Hump Day Hottie, Lee Pace

Hump Day Hotties 5th season premiere...

I wasn't quite counting down the hours to tonight's premiere of Pushing Daisies (like my buddy JA was) but my DVR was aware and the recording was triple-checked. Okay so I was counting down the hours. It had been a long time between the first and second season. I was nervous.

How kind of them to thank us for that interminable wait by stripping scrumptious Lee Pace down to his skivvies soon after the recap scenes. The only more rewarding way to kick off the premiere might have been a brief musical duet from Kristin Chenowith and Ellen Greene but you can't have everything.


I'd rank this episode somewhere in the middle of the quality range that Pushing Daisies hits. At its best the show's sublime silliness and pinch of bittersweet drama tastes totally gourmet. At its worst, it's still a decent meal but the flavors a touch ripe and the plating way too busy.

My favorite line in the new episode was delivered by "Olive Snook" i.e. Kristin Chenowith, the winner of the 2008 Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy (Shut Up! this show encourages fantastical thinking. I'm having a pleasant false memory). She has been shipped off to a nunnery (don't ask) by Lily Charles (Swoosie Kurtz), who once stayed there to hide a pregnancy.

You holidayed here 30 years ago and found a baby in the cabbage patch. And by cabbage patch I mean your lady parts.

LOL. So why am I not talking about Lee Pace, the presumed subject of this post? I'm getting there.


In truth, he never has all that much to do in any given episode. In many ways he's the straight man of the show. The supporting cast is the swirling colorful comic relief. Pace is there to provide anchor. He does it beautifully. Pace never flinches from or winks away "Ned"'s sweetness, softness or soulful sincerity which would be temptations for some lead actors... especially within a show so possibly indulgent of winking.

Since this is a film blog, I must say that I hope he gets big movie roles on every Daisies hiatus. It'd be a shame if he was never challenged with a Soldier's Girl level role again. He was so convincing as the transgendered "Calpernia" in that Showtime film. Directors ought to be asking him to stretch again... when he's not making pies. And while we're talking movies, I really must rent The Fall. I'll leave you with this beauty of a number from the spring period comedy Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (spoilers -- it's late in the film). Kristin Chenowith isn't the only woman who bursts into song when she's thinking about Lee Pace. He has that affect on Amy Adams, too.



previous seasons of Hump Day Hotties
... if you're feeling chilly.

Tues Top Ten: Emmy Wishes

tuesday top ten: for the list love in you and the list maker in me

Flipping through the internets this morning I realized that Sarah Silverman had won an EMMY a few days back (along with her songwriting partner in crime) for that irreverent flash of comic brilliance "I'm F***ing Matt Damon". It's been lampooned so many times since -- I even was tempted to picked up a guitar and sing about my wild fornications with Kathleen Turner -- and with such diminishing returns that people now like to pretend that it wasn't funny at the time. They're wrong.

I normally don't bring up the EMMYs unless I am rabidly frothing at the mouth with some new or, more frequently, repeated injustice. But today a less angry more blindly optimistic approach.

Top Ten Things I Hope To See Happen at the EMMYs on Sunday

10 Carry On. Project Runway finally triumphs over Amazing Race. The designing competition isn't as good as it once was but seriously voters, you're really late here.
09 Carrie On. Sex & the City's divas Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis host the entire show together (drunk on cosmos) when Howie Mandel mysteriously falls ill.

08 Mary Louise Parker wins Best Actress in a Comedy for Weeds. There's never enough MLP to go round, if you ask me.
07 Abundant Michelle Pfeiffer Cameos. Even though her hubby David E Kelley won't be picking up trophies the camera-man inexplicably cuts to La Pfeiff's reaction to every single win. Wheeee.
06 Undead retroactive EMMY tribute to Buffy the Vampire Slayer with special statues for both Joss Whedon & Sarah Michelle Gellar.
05 Mad Men wins Best Drama in a landslide. Because... duh.


04 Freak Accident Falling debris shockingly kills all Academy members who continue to think Two and a Half Men is funnier than Pushing Daisies, Weeds, How I Met Your Mother and more. Charlie Sheen swallowed up by freak earthquake.
03 Write In Vote Coup! Mary McDonnell wins Best Actress in a Drama for Battlestar Galactica even though she's not on the ballot. And President Roslyn didn't even have to fix the voting this time!
02 Mea Culpa. The Academy President walks solemnly out on stage to declare that all of their rule changes still haven't fixed their collective bad taste. One more rule change for next year: All people playing law enforcement officials, doctors or lawyers will be deemed ineligible for acting prizes. Just to, you know, shake things up a bit. OK, a lot.

01 Hopelessly Devoted to Her. Kristin Chenowith wins Best Supporting Actress for Pushing Daisies and sings her acceptance speech, including a funny shout out bit to her longtime Broadway fans (like me).

Will any of my wishes come true? Dream with me in the comments.
*

Emmy Finalists (sigh)

I'll keep this brief since this isn't The TV Experience. What can be done about the Emmy Awards? Who are the people who think Two and a Half Men is the best that the creative community in Hollywood can come up with in terms of laughs? And yet there it sits each year in the Emmy comedy zone.

Grey's Anatomy is a big hit, we can give it that. But as dramas go, it's not that well written. The lead character is tremendously annoying and whiny. The plots are repetitive. The medical stuff is lazy. I've watched enough episodes (friends love it) to know. Just one example: I sat their flabbergasted that a hospital show would pretend that a character could survive drowning and going braindead for a long stretch of time with absolutely no side effects and look not much worse for the wear and carry on long emotional conversations without even a hitch in their voice mere moments after being revived. It's a silly show. Even Katherine Heigl, willing to bite the hand that feeds her, doesn't think it's all that. And yet there it is on the shortlist for Best Drama and the challenging, emotionally potent and increasingly complex Battlestar Galactica --regularly considered by critics and TV geniuses (like Buffy's Joss Whedon) to be the very best thing on television -- isn't even considered finalist material? Nor is Brothers & Sisters. It's histrionic sure but still more entertaining than Grey's Anatomy plus it's got Sally Field doing her best work since the late 70s/early 80s. UGH.

This is why I could never write about the Emmys the way I write about the Oscars. There would be so few happy turns of events to enjoy. Here are the finalists...

Pushing Daisies: Whimsical, inventive and sweet whilst somehow avoiding
sugar coma or non-intentional repetitiveness AND it appeals to the masses!?! (wow)

Comedy Finalists: (my favorites in bold) Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Family Guy, Flight of the Conchords, The Office, Pushing Daisies YES, 30 Rock, Two and a Half Men, Ugly Betty and Weeds

Drama Finalists: (my favorites in bold) Boston Legal, Damages, Dexter, Friday Night Lights YES, Grey’s Anatomy, House, Lost, Mad Men, The Tudors and The Wire

The actual nominations are announced on July 17th. Here's how the voting works.
Are your favorites still in the running?
*

Ten TV Shows I'm Watching

Tuesday Top Ten: For the listmaker in me and the listlover in you

The days of Tivo / DVR have finally defeated me and I now find myself regularly watching television... even if I'm not really writing about it yet. No longer dependent on air times, I actually enjoy it --occasionally. Let's not get crazy! These are the (still running) shows I'm into...

10 (ok 12) Shows
I can sometimes be found watching Desperate Housewives.
Not by choice!

12 Top Chef (Bravo)
My hesitation with this show was always: you can't taste the food. That's still a problem. You can hear the singing and watch the dancing and consider the clothing on various other game shows. You can't taste food if it's on your TV. Licking the screen doesn't won't help. That said, I watch it sometimes. Padma Lakshmi's weirdly droning voice doesn't even bother me anymore. Her skirts do. They are so tight I fear they run afoul of safety condition requirements for the kitchen. The sexy rump is sure to distract the chefs and they're working with fire. I've only got to keep one hand on the remote.

11 Make Me a SuperModel (BBC/Bravo)
I was stunned to discover that America actually did this show better than Britain (we usually mess up transfers) not that it isn't still stoopid. That said: pretty people being very pretty (and often naked) is good disposable TV ... with less of the rampant delusion and repetition that ANTM's 209th cycle will bring you. Plus: it's unisex. I'm for that (see also: #1)

10 Moonlight (CBS)
This is my guilty pleasure. Only there's little pleasure and lots of guilt. It's really terrible. It's so terribly written I've considered writing down the names and... um... doing something with the names. Voodoo dolls maybe? Gift baskets full of garlic?

You don't really need sunglasses to watch this show. You need earplugs.

But you're aware of my soft spot for the vampiric. And bad acting aside, I like both leads for some reason. I even hate the bad '80s inspired set design. Why am I watching this? What's wrong with me???

09 Step it Up & Dance (Bravo)
As a big fan of Showgirls, dance heavy musicals and "body flight" (thanks Strictly Ballroom), this was a natural fit for me. However... I'm considering dropping it from my DVR. For a show on Bravo it sure does feel homophobic. Every f'ing week the judges bitch that certain male dancers are too feminine and praise the"masculine" ones for just that even as they acknowledge their bad technique. We get it. You're the type of fags who write "straight acting" in their 'what are you looking for?' dating profiles. Issues!!! Please keep those between you and your therapists, judges. Please and thanks.

08 Big Love (HBO)
I don't have HBO so I have to wait for the DVDs but I think it's a strong show and definitely a unique one. I'm especially fond of Jeanne Tripplehorne's work (who'd have thunk it back in the Basic Instinct bad-acting days?) It's disappointing that she's not nominated for Best Actress @ the Emmys. But then Emmys and disappointment go hand in hand. It's the law.

07 Weeds (Showtime)
Mary Louise Parker forever! Billy Crudup's life choices confuse me.

06 Torchwood (BBC)
It appeals to the same geek pieces of me that Buffy bulls-eyed, only its not as strong thematically or as consistent in its quality. That said, it's fun, weird, genre-loving and unapologetically queer... a thrilling combo that nothing else on TV can claim.

The team (sniffle) as it was. Two of them died in the season finale.

05 Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
All of its weaknesses are still present (hysterical drama and overdone comedy even at times it should pull back, so many characters that not all of them get interesting stories, boring business deals, Calista Flockhart's story lines if not Calista Flockhart) but the most important selling point of any scripted show is characters the audience falls in love & comfort with and wants to spend time with every week. And on that count it's grade "A"

04 Project Runway (Bravo)
This used to be the best thing on television but there were times during this past season that I just wanted to scream. Couldn't they have just one episode where they just make pretty dresses instead of fulfilling some random stupid gimmicky corporate-sponsored "challenge" So maybe it's jumped the shark. I'm definitely worried about the move to Lifetime. We'll see. It's "on notice"

03 30 Rock (NBC)
The only show on television that makes me laugh so hard that I have to hit pause once or twice to recover. I am a Krak addict. They don't use Ms. Jane Krakowski enough... but the rest of the show is hilarious enough to compensate.

02 Pushing Daisies (ABC)
When is this coming back on? I'm dying here. I need its whimsy and its anti-depressent pies in my tiny unmusical life.

01 Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi)
One of the greatest shows of all time. Why? Oh I don't know... endlessly fascinating characters, brilliant rug-pull plotting, intellectual and emotional rigor. Take your pick. Even when it errs or tries too hard you can always be sure that it's trying. More movies and TV shows should. Not for this show any coasting. It wants to be great. It often is.

If you're still not watching, I may never be able to convince you. Your loss. Do you happen to vote on the Emmys? You'll start with the miniseries on DVD if you're finally ready to be sucked into its intergalactic maelstrom.

And you?

Do you watch any of these shows? Would you like to see a weekly television column here? Which shows are you faithful to week in and week out? And which are you running out of patience with? I'm full of questions.
*

Linking Daisies

Boy Culture Tom Ford's OUT photo shoot. yum yum --->
I'm choosing to imagine that this is a playful counterpart to that Vanity Fair cover w/ Scarlett & Keira only gay and without star wattage or tinseltown glamour or... er. OK. They're nothing alike. Regardless, the version I was dreaming of back in 02/06 will never happen anyway.

Nick's Flick Picks joins the film festival world. Wheee
Soft Citizen terrific Vancouver Festival TV spots. Funny angle to use because it's so true (thx Johanna)
ModFab breaks down Into the Wild for ya
Lazy Eye Theater wants you to know that _______ doesn't scare him
film ick lots of Golden Compass news
IFC says what I'm thinking about I'm Not There. They beat me to it.
Nikki Finke Warner Bros ignorant sexism and strange notions of box office cause & effect
The Evening Class interesting spoiler-laden interview with Ang Lee & Tang Wei on Lust, Caution
Philadelphia Inquirer the onslaught of Iraq war films: Redacted, Elah, Rendition, The Kingdom and more...

And over at Zoom-In, I've posted my reaction to the debut of the new maybe-hit show Pushing Daisies. I have a strange relationship to the cute and excessively stylized in filmed arts. I run hot and cold with that crap... very rarely lukewarm. So am I hot or cold on Daisies? You'll have to read the review for the full temperature reading but here's a sum up: Hot but I fear temperatures will be dropping precipitously