Nine hundred ninety-five thousand six hundred minutes. That’s approximately how long Regis Philbin — who holds the world record for longest time spent in front of a TV camera — has been on the air. It’s nearly the equivalent of two years, which we learned this morning on Reeg’s final episode of Live! when the cast of Broadway’s Rent serenaded the host with “Seasons of Love” (i.e., the song that taught everyone who came of age in the ’90s that there are 525,600 minutes in a year). They even tailored the lyrics to Philbin (“Regis, we love you”), who looked deeply moved but — as promised — didn’t cry. We may not be huge daytime TV fans here at Flavorpill, but Regis Philbin has been a fixture of the small screen for half a century, and we’re sad to see him go. Watch the Rent tribute after the jump. Read More »
1. Production has been shut down on the current season of Two And A Half Men, prompting Charlie Sheen to write an open letter to TMZ about the show’s creator, Chuck Lorre. Among the highlights: “I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words — imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists.” [via Vulture]
2. Perhaps inspired by the financial success of Avenue Q, producers have announced a new off-Broadway production of Rent that will open August 11 at New World Stages. Previews begin July 14. [via EW]
3. Mark your calendars: The Beastie Boys have finally set April 19th as the US release date for their long-delayed album Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2. The record will feature Nas and Santigold among other acts. [via NME]
4. Zachary Chesser, the man who threatened violence against South Park’s creators for depicting Mohammad, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail for “inciting violence and providing material support to terrorists.” [via Gawker]
5. Last night 30 Rock parodied Jezebel when Jenna was featured on a blog called JoanOfSnark.com. (As Liz Lemon explained, “It’s this really cool feminist website where women talk about how far we’ve come and which celebrities have the worst beach bodies.”) Watch a clip here.
All the hubbub about Brian Bedford’s spectacular performance as Lady Bracknell in the recent Broadway revival of The Importance of Being Earnest has gotten us thinking. So much media in our culture revolves around, or at least includes, elements of cross-dressing or gender confusion, whether to comic or dramatic effect. Is this an evolution towards greater acceptance and understanding of all, or just, in some way, a deeply ingrained human impulse? Of course, cross-dressing is no new trend. The phenomenon is evident in everything from Norse and Hindu mythology to figures that shaped actual historical events (usually in the form of women dressing up as men to fight wars or be pirates, for some reason) to literature, theater, film and every kind of media in between. There are hundreds of examples, so there’s no way to document them all here, but the trajectory of our favorites still has some bearing on the largeness of the phenomenon. Click through for out brief history of cross-dressing in media.
China has a strong tradition of theater, from folkloric operas to dreamscapes of shadow puppetry to the workman’s ballets of Mao. Director Meng Jinghui’s latest, however, marks a stark departure from this deeply rooted tradition of musical theater. Known for his boundary pushing and avant-leanings, Jinghui has made a name for himself with plays led by rhino keepers, and others performed behind a glass wall. This time around, he’s taking on the musical. And then, he’s taking it down.
