TVSquad

The folks at our sister site Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:

• Con: Another vampire movie. Pro: It involves Clueless director Amy Heckerling and Krysten Ritter from Veronica Mars and Breaking Bad. I'm so conflicted!
• Good thing Ian McKellen is so graceful, otherwise, he probably would have drop-kicked Elisabeth Hasselbeck during his recent appearance on The View.
• Is it just me, or does The Men Who Stare at Goats look amazing? See if it lives up to the hype by reading Cinematical's review.
• Cinematical takes a look at some of the best and worst biopics, and I really enjoy the ones on the "best" list. Of course, I also love a few on the worst list, like Evita.
• I really want to see Precious, but I'm also terrified of it. Oprah told me I need to go see it though, and I don't like to defy Oprah. You can read Cinematical's review of Precious here.

Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history.

Cookie Monster has been in "cookie rehab" of sorts for about three years now. The View ladies finally caught wind of it and went off on a three minute tear about it using voices that are normally reserved for members of WTO protests or people who are on fire.

How bad did it get? Elisabeth Hasselbeck was the "good cop."

It was inevitable. Ever since Rosie O'Donnell grew a second head and spit venom at Elisabeth Hasselbeck, The View has been on the radar. Even without current host Rosie O'Donnell, there's been buzz with new co-host Whoopi Goldberg. Hasselbeck keeps causing trouble on the set with her lone conservative voice, Whoopi is outspoken in her own right, Joy Behar is a lunatic and even Barbara Walters has been known to snag a headline or two. Of course Lifetime wants a piece of that buzz. And to get it they're grabbing ... uh ... Sherri Shepherd?

Doesn't Sherri Shepherd think she'll fall off the edge of the earth if she goes too far? I thought she was still there because they didn't want to have to rebuild the table with one fewer chair. Huh, I guess I was wrong. Lifetime picked up Sherri Shepherd's sitcom Sherri for 12-episodes.

ABC in turning things around on The View -- at least for one day. In what a cynic might call a stunt, The View is going to broadcast one show from the next two weeks from backstage. Essentially, what they're doing, is a rerun, but in a way you never saw the show.

On Friday, May 30, the experimental episode will show how The View is made, by lifting the curtain so you can see how the magic happens. They've chosen to show the upside down, backstage View on that Friday - and don't worry about marking it in your calendar. You can expect plenty of reminders from Barbara Walters (if she's there), Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd. With all that behind the scenes footage, only half of the show as seen originally -- from the camera's point of view -- will be seen.

Ex-Survivor: Australian Outback castaway and current The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck called her daytime talk show to let her co-workers know the name of her baby boy born over the weekend.

Although it's November sweeps, I doubt she planned the timing of the birth to boost ratings. Perhaps the phone call, though! In her call to the show she told them that Taylor Thomas Hasselbeck was born at 7:52 am on Friday morning.

Elisabeth's husband is Tim Hasselbeck, a back-up quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals.

The Cavemen are starting to make the talk show circuit to promote the new ABC sitcom Cavemen (which premieres tonight at 8 after a hefty recasting and retooling). One of the Cavemen made an appearance on The View to promote the show, and quickly made it known he had little time for people who don't believe that cavemen exist, that they ever existed, or that the world is flat.

If you haven't been following, he's talking directly to View co-host Sherri Shepherd, who famously said that she's "never thought about" whether the Earth is round or not and doesn't believe in evolution.

The caveman also breaks a little news and reveals what famous singer is actually a caveman. Video after the jump!

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Jordin Sparks has told the press she's had no professional voice training, but a woman who claims to be her former voice coach says otherwise.
  
• Rosie fans are circulating a petition to have Elisabeth booted from The View.
• CMT is bringing us a new rodeo reality show, where we can see our least favorite celebrities bucked off bulls.
  

The video's embedded below (we'll have the downloadable files soon). You can also subscribe to this podcast via our feed.

As of 6 pm eastern, there are more than 14,000 signatures on an online petition to fire Elisabeth Hasselbeck from The View. Of course, this is more fallout from her split-screen debate with former co-host Rosie O'Donnell. It was the debate--the split screen in particular--that made Rosie leave the show three weeks early.

Another big announcement came from The View today. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is pregnant with her second child! Barbara Walters actually appeared surprised at the news because she said, "When you said you had an announcement, my heart sank!" Walters was, of course, referencing Rosie's big announcement last week that she is leaving The View in June.

It's no surprise, really. Elisabeth's been wearing empire-waist shirts and E! and all the other celebrity-obsessed organizations have been speculating about her possible pregnancy for a while now.

Elisabeth and her husband, pro football player Tim Hasselbeck, have a 2-year old daughter named Grace. The second child is due in November, just in time for sweeps.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of The View, took up some air time yesterday to rant about the name of a character on last week's Law & Order SVU that had a similar name to hers. On SVU, an 'Elizabeth Hassenback' was raped and murdered. Hasselbeck said she didn't see the episode but a friend told her about the similarities with the names and she was disturbed. Hasselbeck called one of the producers for SVU and asked about the names, which the producer said was a coincidence. Hasselbeck also said the producer was defensive and rude with her and essentially hung up on her when she tried to tell him that she didn't appreciate the victim's name because it made her feel unsafe. I admit that I flipped the TiVo back to see the victim's name because I thought it was Elisabeth Hasselbeck. She argues that's it's socially irresponsible to basically portray her as being raped and murdered. She also said she didn't want any more SVU actors on The View, as if she has control over that and they actually had anything to do with it!

So... is Elisabeth Hasselbeck overreacting? Or, is SVU really taking a nasty swipe at her?

Does a day go by on The View where they don't talk about something controversial? Where an argument doesn't occur? Where somebody doesn't freak out?

YouTube has the latest meltdown, from today, when Elisabeth Hasselbeck gets into an argument with Joy Behar about the 72 hour pill and pregnancy and rape and the sanctity of life. Then Barbara Walters gets into it, and displays that phony "voice of reason" tone that she so often has.

It honestly looks like Hasselbeck is going to walk off the set, or at the very least start crying or pouting. Guest host Lisa Loeb just looks really, really uncomfortable and is probably thinking, "I should have gone to Regis and Kelly."

Video after the jump...

[via Gawker]