3 for 1

Yesterday two pop culture icons left us and earlier in the week there was another.

They say celebrity deaths come in threes. This was one of the clearest examples of that.

On Monday Ed McMahon passed away. He was older, had been in poor health for a while, it wasn't a terrific shock.

Then yesterday morning after a long battle with terminal cancer Farrah Fawcett finally let go.

And shockingly, yesterday Michael Jackson died of a heart attack.

Jackson's death is incredibly shocking, and hard to stomach. I love, love, love pop music. I mean hard core fluffy can't stop your feet from moving, change your life rock your world pop music. Michael Jackson produced more of that music than anyone else. From the early stuff with The Jackson 5, to the unparalled Thriller. True his personal issues often outshined his unbelievable talent, I really think in the end his music will be his enduring legacy.

Even last my friends and I had a dance party to "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough," as a memoriam.

I need a hero...

So, it's been pretty much universally acknowledged that Julianne Hough has been offered the role of Ariel in the Footloose musical movie (I refuse to call it a remake, it isn't!)...I think it's interesting because apparently it came down to her and Hayden Panetierre, and they were both on my "casting list" although Julianne for Rusty, not Ariel. I listened to her album the other day to decide how I felt about it vocally, and really, she definitely has the vocal chops, but Ariel's a pretty intense role emotionally. Plus I don't think I'm going to enjoy seeing Julianne get beat by her boyfriend.

But between her and Chace Crawford, two of my favorite TV personalities are now in this movie. I'm interested in seeing where it goes.

It's also funny because of this:

Yup, that's Julianne's big brother Derek as Ren in the London production of Footloose. Hehe, good times!

Summer Reading: A Little Bit Wicked, Life, Love and Faith in Stages

Have I espoused before how much I adore Kristin Chenoweth? I'm pretty sure I have. I've at least talked about how much I love Wicked, and I feel the two probably go hand in hand.

A Little Bit Wicked is Kristin's attempt to get all Jen Lancaster on her cute, blonde, Christian butt. (I say butt, because Kristin would never use the a-word) Everything about this book made me want to give Cheno a big hug and tell her how much her work has meant to me over my life. Alan Cumming, her and Kathy Bates's version of "Easy Street" is easily the only thing that makes the ABC made for TV remake of Annie passible. I watched her hug hit sitcom Kristin. (Me and her parents, pretty much), I set my VCR for her role in The Music Man. And then there's Galinda...you want my opinion on that, check out this post from a few months ago for that explanation. Annabeth was the saving grace of the last few seasons of The West Wing, and Pushing Daisies was taken from us far too early.

The book deals with her feelings about her meteoric rise on Broadway, her on again off again relationship with Aaron Sorkin, her ever present and unapologetic faith in Jesus Christ, and has a wit and humor that people associate with this little spitfire. I highly reccomend the book. I started it at 4 o'clock PM yesterday and finished it at 10:30 this morning, so it's not a hard read, but it's good!

In Praise of: Degrassi The Next Generation

For the past 3 days I've been watching the Degrassi: Every Episode Ever marathon on The N.

It's kind of hard to believe this show has been on for 11 seasons (Whoa right?) I'm up to season 3 now (a season I actually own on DVD, it's the best one.) I have to say, being in high school when the show was at it's height, I really appreciated it. My friends and I used to go to one house and have Degrassi parties on Friday nights (we were super cool). We all had crushes on Craig, although these days we prefer the more constant Spinner, or the ever noble Sean, thought Ellie was the coolest ever and compared every slutty girl we ever met to Manny.

I say season three is the best, because it is. In season 3, Craig cheated on Ash with Manny, she got pregnant and had an abortion. Paige and Spinner were dating, Ellie became a cutter, Marco came out of the closet, and Jimmy could still walk.

Degrassi is primarily an issues based show. It's basically eleven seasons of very special episodes. I still mourn for JT, harbor resentment for Craig's shabby treatment of Ellie, and I'm wary of genetically modified foods because Emma said they were bad.

Oh right, and I still totally have a crush on Craig, even if he is a coke addicted bipolar asshat.

Big Wolfy Beefcake

WOW! JAILBAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, Ok, so really there's no news attached to this photo, I just felt the need to share this with you.

New Moon could be the worst movie ever, and it'll still be worth my ten bucks just for the man candy!

Paging Dr. Grey...

Greek season finale last night (I hate summer seasons and their brevity)

It was a very good one, and as this season in general has shifted focus away from Casey, this was the episode that shifted it back. Max returned from London and Casey was forced earlier than expected to make her decision between him and Cappie.

Rusty got a D on his Organic Chem test, and realized that between school, Kappa Tau and Jordan he's having trouble balancing. Something is going to have to give.

Dale and Calvin decided to resist their temptors together.

But for me I laughed really hard when Ashleigh decided she was fed up with Casey's whining and indecisiveness and she made the following statement.

"Paging Dr. Grey! Oh no worse! You're Joey Potter! NO! I know who you are, you've got to make up your mind Felicity!"

Casey was properly horrified, and I remembered why Ash is my favorite character on the show.

Casey did make up her mind. She chose Cappie, too bad Cappie said no. Then Ash told him he was stupid. And the season ended.

Todays a big day, you'll be hearing from me a couple times. I'm finally going to watch the True Blood premiere and there are some new New Moon stills out. It's going to be vamptastic.

Summer Reading: Queen of Babble Gets Hitched

I've written at length about how much I love Meg Cabot, so when I finally read the finale to the Queen of Babble triology last night and this morning, I was expecting great things. I was a little disappointed.

Queen of Babble revolves around the lovably neurotic and big mouthed Lizzie Nichols. By the time Gets Hitched begins Lizzie is living in New York City, working in a West Side bridal shop, and recently engaged to her dreamy French Aristocrat boyfriend Luke, after having spent New Years Eve with his best friend and her recently out of the closeted best friend's ex Chaz. (to clarify, Lizzie's friend Shari is the gay one, not Chaz) SCANDALOUS, I know. As the year rolls on Lizzie and Luke put off planning their wedding and Chaz and Lizzie continue to deny they have feelings for each other.

This is Cabot so I'm sure you can guess the ending. Anyway, I laughed a few times, not as much as I usually do. It was a nice capstone to the triology, although unlike The Princess Diaries series it didn't build, each installment wasn't better than the last but in fact worst. The first Queen of Babble remains one of my favorite books, but it's sequels are definitely sub standard.

New take on an old favorite

Last night Bravo premiered Top Chef Masters. The idea for the show is to take the Top Chef format and insert instead of new chefs trying to find their way, already famous and influential chefs who've acted as guest judges on the show.

Each week 5 chefs compete and then there's going to be a champion round. They compete for a possible score of 20 stars and whoever had the most stars wins.

The format is exciting and fun. I like it, but not as much as the real Top Chef. First of all it's hosted by Kelly Choi, who's a bit patronizing and not as pretty as Padma Lakshmi, and Tom Callichio is no where near as important to the show.

Summer Reading: The Tales of Beedle The Bard

JK Rowling's companion to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows the short and sweet The Tales of Beedle The Bard came out almost a year ago, I bought it six months ago and I've just gotten around to reading it today.

Beedle is a necessary read for even the most casual of Harry Potter fans. Rowling enfuses these Brother's Grimm style fairy tales with her wit and somewhat twisted sense of humor. Each tale is followed by a "commentary" by the ever wise, somewhat omneiscient Albus Dumbledore. One extremely pro Muggle story is commented on partially with an excerpt from a letter to Dumbledore by Luscious Malfoy that is apparently the basis of the rampant antagonism between the two wizards in the original series. The final sentence of this commentary is, "This exchange marked the beginning of Mr. Malfoy's long campaign to have me removed from my post as headmaster of Hogwarts, and of mine to have him removed from his position as Lord Voldemort's Favorite Death Eater." I giggled for a while

The real piece de resitance is the final tale, "The Tale of Three Brothers." All of the stories contribute a great deal to understand the world of Harry Potter but obviously "The Tale of Three Brothers" contributes to the plot. Obviously, Voldemort's quest for the unbeatable wand and the origins of Harry's invisibility cloak are both rooted in this tale. I really enjoyed the little collection. A must read for any Potter Fan.

Who will save New Jersey?

Last night I was lucky enough to check out The New World Stages production of The Toxic Avenger. I had a great time at the show. Toxic is campy, silly, naughty and fun.

The show is set in a just of the NJ Turnpike town that is being used by an evil Manhattan based corporation as a dumping ground for Toxic waste. Mervin Ferb III, a local science geek discovers that the corporation is in fact owned by the town's corrupt and ambitious mayor. She has some local buddies beat up Mervin as a warning to keep quiet but the overly drugged idiotic bullies accidently drop him into a vat of the waste and turn him into a "big green freak" of a mutant monster and promptly attack the love of Mervin's life, blind nobel and hot librarian Sarah. Hilarity ensues.

The Toxic Avenger is chock full of Jersey in-jokes, not least of which includes a Springsteen parody song and sequence entitled "The Legend of The Toxic Avenger."

If you can make it to The New World Stages you should check out the show, or any of their shows. They also have Altar Boyz which remains one of my favorite musicals ever. Anyway, it's a good strategy because as an off Broadway theater their ticket prices are much lower than Broadway ($55-85, verse $85-150) . If I had to give the show a movie rating it would be a Pg-13, just as a warning. But it's very very funny. Check it out!

Tonight

The Tonys are rarely surprising. I love them, but they might be the single most predictable award show on TV. This year wasn't different. Hair, Billy Elliot and Next To Normal dominated.

The awards are secondary at the Tonys, what they're really meant to be is a commercial for Broadway. And they didn't fail in that. I was sitting with my friends watching and we wanted to see every single show nominated. Of course we're unable to afford to go see every show, but it was still unbelievable.

Neil Patrick Harris hosted, in a leather suit, but you know, he's gay, it's the Tonys, it's totally allowed.

He summed up the whole thing very well in his final number.

"This show couldn't be any gayer if Liza was made mayor and Elton John took flight..." (it was a Wierd Al-ized version of "Tonight" from West Side Story)

Summer Reading: The End of The Jews

When Adam Mansbach came and spoke at Scranton this past March, I got the sense that the dude was angry. Or at least kind of peeved and played on that to enhance his image as "young priveleged white male in tune with the black struggle." But it wasn't until I made it through his second novel (The Allendale Public Library doesn't stock his first one Angry Black White Boy, a satire about white privilege, hm, I wonder why?) The End of The Jews that I realized how angry he is.

Or if Mansbach isn't angry at least his book is. The End of The Jews chronicles the multi-generational Brodsky family, Jewish family from the Bronx, grappling with artistic and intellectual pursuits. It's an intersting read, for sure, and as Mansbach and I said when we talked, "The Bronx is the Bronx," so there were certainly elements that I related to on that level, being the granddaughter of Bronx Irishmen, rather than the grandson of Bronx Jews.

Mansbach's characters are flawed, loveable and all too human. The centerpiece, brilliant novelist Tristan Brodsky is the kind of tortured genius who you can't help but want to see fall off his high horse. His grandson Tris is slightly more sympathetic and their respective love interests, Tristan's wife Amalia and Tris's girlfriend Nina are a but clicheed as women stifled by their love for their brilliant men.

It's a good read, and honestly, I'm waiting for Mansbach's third effort, which he read to us from, which seems a little bit more up my alley. Either way, I stretched my horizons, I don't usually read contemporary male authors. Good for me!

A dream is a wish

The trailer and production stills for the new Disney Animated Feature The Princess And The Frog are now out. I won't post the trailer, but I'm in love with this still

I watched the trailer too. The movie looks lovely. I'm a huge fan of Disney, specifically of their traditional animation, and I was completely heartbroken when the studio was closed and I love John Lasseter for making the executive decision to get the traditional animation back on track. As much as I love Pixar (still have to see Up!) computer animation isn't as magical as hand drawn.

The movie comes out "this holiday season" which probably means Thanksgiving. I'm really excited.

OMG LOOKS SO EFFING GOOD!

So I'm finally watching my DVR'd MTV movie awards, and I have to say, it's been a long time since I watched an MTV awards show...I forgot what a joy they are to watch, so silly and out there and enjoyable.

Twilight cleaned up...mostly I would bet because the MTV Movie Awards are fan voted, and Twilight fans are NUTS (I can attest, I am one of them).

I was watching pretty much for the New Moon preview, I'm not going to lie. It did not disappoint. Check it out.



Ok, so that wasn't really it, that was Andy Samberg mocking it, but it was damn funny. The actual trailer was great too.



Damn does Jacob look fine! Anyway, it looks way better than Twilight did, what with all the bright colors and formalwear. LOL, what do you guys think?

The awards were given, Eminem threw a fit (I love the guy's music, really, but he has got to learn to take a joke!) The Ben Stiller tribute was hilarious, I really hope Triumph makes it to The Tonight Show. Denzel presented with his daughter...Miley won best song, I really liked the whole show. Keep it up MTV, keep the fun coming, representing the people's voice!

In Praise of: WE Go Bridal

I'm not married...I'm not engaged...hell, I don't even have a boyfriend, but I love love love, watching bridal shows on TV and the best best best ones are on WE (Women's Entertainment) WE is the home of Platinum Weddings, Bridezillas, Amazing Wedding Cakes, Rich Bride Poor Bride, and David Tutera's My Fair Wedding.

Tune into WE on Sundays and they're on allllll day. I've procrastinated on many a paper by watching WE Go Bridal.

My Fair Wedding might be my favorite, when couture level event planner David Tutera comes in a takes really tacky brides and turns their weddings into these beautiful elegant affairs and gives them designer wedding dresses devoid of sequins.

Bridezillas is good too though, so funny.