1. Last night Madonna released a sneak preview of her music video for “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” which she’ll be performing at the Super Bowl this weekend– presumably with some help from Nicki Minaj and MIA, who co-wrote the song. Watch the full-length version of the football-inspired clip here.
2. Not to be outdone by Madge, MIA dropped the new video for “Bad Girls” — a remix of the track that appeared on her Vicki Leekx mixtape — this morning too. Do you prefer her in a cheerleader costume or a metallic jumpsuit? Watch it here and decide.
3. There’s a rumor floating around that Simon Cowell has offered Beyoncé $500M — or $100M a year for five years — to be a judge on The X-Factor. We wonder how Mariah Carey feels about that. [via MediaTakeOut]
4. After filing the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last month, Roseanne Barr has formally announced that she’s running for the Green Party’s presidential nomination. If she can only convince Aunt Jackie to be her running mate, we don’t see how she could possibly lose. [via Deadline]
5. Apparently, Chris Rock is writing a romantic comedy for Melissa McCarthy “in which he envisions the Bridesmaids breakout playing his wife as the pair indulge in some boisterous dysfunction — a ‘Jerry Springer couple,’ as Rock put it.” [via Vulture]
Bonus Buzz: Four Breakfast Cereals Inspired By TV Characters
1. During last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama decided to top that awkward salmon joke from last year with a bit about spilled milk that was just as groan-worthy; as to be expected, political observers’ immediate response to the cringe-inducing moment on Twitter wasn’t exactly kind. [via Daily Intel]
2. Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming film project Side Effects has lost its financing — apparently the director’s rumored casting of Blake Lively is part of the reason why, but Haywire’s weak box office performance might also be a factor. [via The Huffington Post]
3. Vanessa Paradis insists that rumors that her 14-year marriage to Johnny Depp is over are totally false: “All this is, I don’t know, because the Queen of England didn’t lose her teeth this week and there’s nothing happening.” [via People]
4. There are now two Beauty and the Beast-related TV projects in the works for next season. The CW is moving forward on an update of the 1980s CBS drama that starred Linda Hamilton; meanwhile ABC just announced a version that will go the classic fairytale route. [via THR]
5. “I’ve been talking to [Dave] Chappelle a lot. Been trying to get Chappelle to go on tour. You know I’m not the hard one, but I’m trying to make that happen. After seeing Kanye and Jay-Z, I was like, ‘Me and Dave should do this.’” — Chris Rock gets our collective hopes up during a conversation with Vulture at Sundance.
Bonus Buzz: If the GOP Debate Was a Rave
Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. We’ve got a whopping eleven trailers for you this week, offering everything from animation to big-budget studio comedy to Sundance hopefuls; check ‘em out after the jump.
Read More »
Nestled among this week’s new theatrical releases is The Big Year, a rather syrupy looking Bucket List riff co-starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. Let’s be clear: we have not yet seen it. But we’re not holding out much hope for a movie that puts those three guys together and cannot find one single laugh to put in a trailer.
How could you combine three men as (granted, not always reliably) funny as these and not come up with a laugh riot? Quite easily, turns out. The recent cinema is all but littered with pictures that teamed up established comedic talents and thus sounded like sure-fire crowd pleasers, but which ended up tickling the funny bones of neither critics nor moviegoers. After the jump, we’ll run down ten comic combinations that misfired.
Read More »
On this day back in 1947, President Harry S. Truman became the first US president to give an official address on television, asking the American people to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans. It was the beginning of a complicated and occasionally contentious relationship between the White House and the moving image.
This week, another image of the American presidency — a fictional one, this time — hits multiplexes in the form of George Clooney, whose new film The Ides of March concerns a handsome governor running for the highest office in the land (with the help of equally dreamy staffer Ryan Gosling). In commemoration of this significant date in presidential mass media history, and with Clooney’s Mike Morris aiming to join the ranks of cinematic commanders-in-chief, let’s rank ten of the most memorable movie presidents from worst to best. (And to clarify: we’re ranking them as presidents, not as enjoyable movie characters). Check out our rankings after the jump, and let us know if you agree in the comments.
Read More »
As much as we love SNL digital shorts and all the vulgar laughs and Justin Timberlake cameos they may bring, let’s take a break before this weekend’s season premiere to acknowledge another variety of Saturday Night Live music videos, shall we? Y’know, the ones that weren’t produced by Lorne Michaels. Every now and then, a current or former “Not Ready For Prime Time Player” will lend a hand as the protagonist of a real music video for an actual musician, and some of these guest appearances are pretty great. Check out ten of our favorites after the jump.
Read More »
Musicians have long had a place in films, whether rock stars, jazz sidemen, or tormented composers. What follows is a selection of memorable ones taken from ten films. They range from drug-addicted cult favorites to ambitious hip-hop stars, from showtune composers to sidemen now living in small-town obscurity. What they share is a certain quality: a lingering sense that, if these characters were real, we’d want to seek out more of their music. Sometimes that’s accomplished through a deft performance, and sometimes via a writer or director who brings an insider’s knowledge of a particular style of music. In all cases, there’s something utterly compelling, and something that endures past the last frames of film.
Read More »
Opening today in limited release, American: The Bill Hicks Story is an excellent documentary profiling the now-legendary stand-up comic and social satirist. Hicks was very much on the rise when he died of pancreatic cancer back in 1994 (he was only 32); in the years since his untimely demise, his reputation has only continued to grow. Much of that is due to his nine scathingly brilliant comedy albums — seven of them released posthumously, all among the most beloved stand-up discs of recent years. In celebration of his legacy, we decided to take a look at some of the most influential comedy albums of all time; take a look after the jump, and add your picks in the comments.
Read More »
A little known fact: We, the world, owe the existence of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Will Smith’s financial difficulties. In the heady late 1980s, Smith had squandered his earnings from his rap career and was in deep trouble with the IRS when he was approached by a WB executive about starring in a new show, loosely based on his own persona. Smith’s compromise was our sitcom gain: who can deny the hilarity of the smooth-talking Prince’s dancing or his constant goof-ups with partner-in-crime Jazzy Jeff? Over the six years of the show, Fresh Prince was not only fun, it was culturally relevant. A Young Kathy Griffin had her first television break on the show; and the program hosted numerous big name guests, from Oprah Winfrey to Chris Rock. After the jump, our roundup of some of the best guest stars on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Read More »
As part of last night’s Comedy Central telethon, “Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Concert for Autism Education,” Chris Rock joined a bewigged Tracy Morgan on stage for a performance of “Scarborough Fair.” And then Paul Simon showed up to tell them that they needed to work on their harmonies a bit. Click through for Tracy and Chris’ expletive-laced reaction, and be sure to stick around for the hilarious auto-tune action at the 2:50 mark.
Read More »
