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Television

The 10 Best Sitcom Finales in TV History

By Jason Bailey on

Last night, NBC brought down the curtain on The Office in rather a lovely fashion, with a series finale that was warm, nostalgic, and plenty funny. Bringing a long-running sitcom to a close is a tricky bit of business (how ya doin’, Roseanne), but The Office joins a handful of shows that have done it very, very well. Here are some other examples. … Read More

Celebrity

43 Great Tina Fey Quotes for Her 43rd Birthday

By Jason Bailey and Chloe Pantazi on

One of Flavorwire’s favorite people, Tina Fey, turns 43 years old today, so we’re marking the occasion in the best way we know how — by rounding up some of the funniest witticisms and best advice from the brilliant and funny writer/comedienne. We’ve got one for every year, so click through for her thoughts on working motherhood, celebrity, homophobia, strip clubs, and Mark Wahlberg’s… Read More

Celebrity

Celebrities Praising Celebrities: The Best Tributes From the Annual “Time 100″ List

By Jason Bailey on

Time magazine released its annual “Time 100” this week — a list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The list is, as usual, light on shock; it pretty much features the political figures, artists, athletes, and philanthropists you’d expect. What makes the feature compelling is the deployment of similarly well-known folks to write testimonials about the influential people they admire. Since we love hearing about the actors our favorite actors love, it warms our hearts to read, for example, Jon Hamm’s fan letter to his fellow AMC star Bryan Cranston. “Over the past five seasons,” Hamm writes, “I’ve marveled at Bryan’s ability to turn Breaking Bad’s Walter White from a feckless, terrified father and husband to a ruthless, terrifying father, husband and crime lord. The transformation is mesmerizing. The performance is fearless. Bryan is that good.” These stunt tributes don’t always work (particularly in the political realm — the only thing we want to read less than Sarah Palin’s tribute to Glenn Beck is Ted Nugent’s tribute to Sarah Palin), but when they do, they’re a joy to read. See our favorite celeb-penned tributes from the past five years of “Time 100″ below. … Read More

Television

The Embarrassing Early TV Commercials of Your Favorite Comic Actors

By Jason Bailey on

Last week, the folks at Gawker did a bit of celebrity archaeology, discovering a 1993 TV ad for the NRA that featured a very young Molly Shannon. The soon-to-be Mary Catherine reached out to the site, emphasizing that she appeared in the spot when she was — direct quote, with emphasis — “A STRUGGLING ACTRESS,” and while we understand her taking pains to separate the spot from her own views, she’s hardly the first future famous funny person whose early work was only humorous in retrospect, and unintentionally. After the jump, we’ve got early commercials by several of our favorite comic actors — all equally embarrassing. … Read More

Pop Culture

What Your Favorite Pop Culture Idols Were Wearing as Teens

By Alison Nastasi on

Our favorite photo of the week belongs to Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton who shared an uber nerdy image of himself wearing ankle watches (with friendship bracelets!), acid-washed jeans, and a ratty Depeche Mode tee. We’ve featured the image of the Stand by Me star after the jump, along with photos of other pop culture idols and their (mostly) regrettable teen fashions. It’s a snapshot of simpler times, before the stylists and PR managers thoroughly preened them. See what a few of your favorite, famous teen heroes were wearing back in the day, below. … Read More

Books

21 Books Written by and About Women That Every Man Should Read

By Emily Temple on

This week, we read a great interview with Meg Wolitzer (whose just-released novel The Interestings is currently being enjoyed by more than one member of this office). “Men,” she says, “with very few exceptions, won’t read books about women.” Though not exactly a new idea, this pronouncement gains a little force by coming hot on the heels of GQ‘s “The New Canon: The 21 Books from the 21st Century Every Man Should Read,” which contains (you guessed it, drumroll please, etc.) three books written by women. Though we won’t disparage any of the books that made the list, we will offer our own — as an attempt to work towards ameliorating the problem laid out by Wolitzer and neatly exemplified by GQ. After all, though there are three books by women on their list, only the Munro could really be said to be primarily about them. After the jump, 21 books by and about women that we think every man should read. … Read More

Film

Your Favorite Actors on Their Favorite Actors

By Jason Bailey on

The Ryan Gosling fan club is getting even more crowded. Recently, James Franco took to the Huffington Post to do what countless fans and stalkers have spent the past several years doing: writing on the Internet about Ryan Gosling. “I want to make love to this section,” Franco writes of the first, Gosling-heavy hour of The Place Beyond the Pines. “He played the role to a T. Look at the funny glasses he wears when he robs banks, green on the sides; look at the writing on the bike before he paints it black; Gosling touches, all, I’m sure of it.” Actors obsessing over actors — they’re just like us! And let’s be honest: there’s something kind of wonderful about actors and actresses who genuinely love each other’s work, and who can articulate what makes it great. So we went on the hunt for the favorite actors of some of our favorite actors, to find out who they love, who inspires them, and… Read More

Film

Celebrate Alec Baldwin’s 55th Birthday With His 10 Best Scenes

By Jason Bailey on

The great Alec Baldwin turns 55 years old today, and in attempting to cook up a proper tribute to him, we realized that his is a body of work less about hours than moments, less about films or shows than particular scenes. His career trajectory has been an unusual one: though he was initially pegged as a marquee leading man, he never quite found success as one. The good stuff came later, when he reinvented himself as a character actor, the kind of gunslinger who could parachute in for a supporting role, crush it in a couple of scenes, and slip out the back door. So to mark his 55 years, we’ve rounded up our ten favorite Alec Baldwin scenes, from film and television, for your consideration. … Read More

Film

Tina Fey’s ‘Admission’ Is Smarter and Savvier Than it Looks

By Jason Bailey on

If the bad news about Admission, the new Tina Fey-Paul Rudd vehicle from director Paul Weitz, is that it won’t quite fill that already gaping 30 Rock-size hole in your heart, the good news is that it is an altogether smarter and more interesting film than its trailers promise. It is neither a broad comedy nor a dopey rom-com; it’s actually, surprisingly enough, a seriocomic drama in something resembling the Alexander Payne mold, a slightly eccentric examination of flawed people doing their very best. It’s less traditionally comic than Baby Mama and Date Night, Fey’s previous — likable and utterly forgettable — big screen vehicles, and finds her moving slightly but surely out of her Lemon-esque comfort zone. This is a good thing. … Read More

Film

80 Wonderful Michael Caine Quotes for His 80th Birthday

By Jason Bailey and Chloe Pantazi on

Break out the cake, light up the candles, and trot out your best Cockney-accented imitation: the great Michael Caine is 80 years old today. Sir Michael, who first came to international fame clear back in 1966’s Alfie, has always struck us as a particularly down-to-earth chap, blessed with fierce intelligence, a quick wit, and a rather astonishing work ethic — he’s appeared in well over 100 films since his first credited role in 1956’s Hell in Korea, and during his most productive period in the 1980s, he would frequently star in three or four pictures per year. That doesn’t just mean he’s done a lot of movies; it’s means he’s done a lot of interviews. So in celebration of his 80th year on Earth, we rounded up some of our favorite quotes from his many interviews (and from his own writing); enjoy the wit and wisdom of Sir Michael Caine after the jump. … Read More