famous-related stories
Posted Jul 1st 2007 12:21PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Web, Pickups and Renewals
On July 26 at 11:00 p.m., Bravo's new docu-series Welcome to the Parker will debut. It will then fall into its regular timeslot of Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. starting August 2.
The new series takes a look inside the five-star Parker Palms Springs hotel, run by Samir Chraibi. Some episodes will include a suite being trashed by Hollywood types, someone demanding a full-time pillow fluffer and similar problems and encounters average folks like you and I will never experience.
Like almost all of it's other programming, Bravo is also utilizing its Web presences to get people revved up about the show. The staff of the Parker will keep blogs on BravoTV.com. The site will also feature preview videos and extended scenes from previous episodes.
Posted Apr 11th 2007 2:19PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: The Daily Show, Celebrities
There was a great piece on last week's episode of
This American Life (the radio version) by John Hodgman about how television has changed his life. John Hodgman is, as many of you know, a regular contributor on
The Daily Show and also plays "P.C." in those popular Mac ads.
His monologue on
This American Life was about suddenly becoming recognized when he's at Radio Shack or at the airport and not knowing how to respond to the stupid things people say to him. For example, the employee at Radio Shack was just
shocked that Hodgman would be shopping at Radio Shack in Greenfield, Connecticut! Hodgman lays out all his star struck encounters in his typical Hodgman style, making the things we all do and take for granted sound just plain stupid. I highly recommend listening, it's the first "chapter" and you can listen for free
on iTunes for the next week. It can also be streamed at
This American Life's official website.
BTW, that episode also had an interesting interview at the very beginning with an astronaut who talks about how much she loves
Battlestar Galactica, and also how The Borg figured out the ultimate spaceship.
Posted Apr 4th 2007 8:01AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals
Bravo is developing a new reality series called Money Shot that pits photographers against one another for the chance to have their pictures appear in the pages of People. The photographers will take place in a number of different competitions and have their work judged by a panel of experts who either work as photographers, or who have been shot by famous photographers. I'm not entirely sure why having your picture taken makes you an expert anymore than listening to music makes you a musician, but no one at Bravo has asked me, so what the heck do I know?
The new series is currently in development. No word yet on when it will air. While we wait for the series to debut, I think we should all place bets on who will be the first commenter to crack a joke about the title of this new series and its connection to the porn industry. I'll bet five bucks someone makes a joke within ten minutes of me posting this.
Posted Dec 28th 2006 11:01AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: PBS, Celebrities, Documentary
On January 3 at 7pm, the PBS series American Masters will profile famous photographer Annie Leibovitz, who has provided us with some of the most striking and memorable images of the past few decades. Leibovitz is responsible for the Rolling Stone cover featuring Yoko Ono and a naked John Lennon, and has shot equally intriguing photos of other celebs, including Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg and the artist Christo.
Despite her knack for getting her subjects to expose themselves for her photos (both literally and figuratively), Leibovitz's life has remained more or less out of the spotlight. This documentary, shot by her younger sister, will examine Leibovitz's professional and family life as she compiles images for her new book.
Posted Dec 11th 2006 4:03PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Cable, Industry, OpEd, Celebrities
In case you missed Julia's earlier post about it, TV Land's countdown of the one hundred greatest quotes and catchphrases kicks off a five-night run this evening at 10 pm (it will also air at 10 pm the following nights).
I like TV Land, I really do, and this is just another example of the network's dedication to light-hearted entertainment that's not meant to be analyzed too deeply. It's easy to find fault with the list and notice certain omissions, but what the heck, it's only television.
Continue reading TV Land, catchphrases and a complaint
Posted Dec 2nd 2006 2:24PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Video, Commercials, Celebrities
There's an old British 'Where Are They Now'-type special up
on YouTube that is all about Sacha Baron Cohen. The special looks a little dated because it focuses on his work on television as Ali G, and it shows Kristoff, an Albanian reporter character that strongly resembles Borat. It chronicles Cohen's childhood-- he attended an affluent school and then went to Cambridge. There are some old, cringe-worthy video clips of him and his brother ridiculing Jews and of Cohen hosting various cable access shows. One interesting revelation is a picture is of Cohen as a model. That's right- behind the Ali G and Borat characters is a rather good-looking fellow. His short stint as a fashion model reportedly inspired his red carpet reporter character, Bruno.
The video is after the jump. It's pretty long, so if you just want to see the modeling bit, it's at 8:00.
Continue reading Sacha Baron Cohen, former male model - VIDEO
Posted Oct 1st 2006 3:01PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Cable, Web, Celebrities
Here's a bit o' fun for your Sunday. I don't know how long it's been around, but I recently found the
Dead Celebrity Soulmate search on the Biography Web site. You select the qualities you want in a dead lover, and the program matches you with the perfect deceased mate. One of the women it matched me with was painter Frida Kahlo. Lord knows I'm a sucker for artistic chicks with a unibrow. If I were gay, it would have matched me up with Edgar Allan Poe or Vincent Van Gogh. Either way it looks like I have a thing for artistic types. Apparently this transcends my sexual preference. I hope we all learned something about me today. Anyway, try it out and let me know who the dead love of your life is in the comments. Just stay away from Frida, she's mine.
Related: What celeb do you look like?Posted Sep 20th 2006 4:32PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, PBS, Celebrities
PBS'
American Masters series will be airing a two-part special on the life of eccentric New York artist Andy Warhol tonight and tomorrow night with both parts airing at 9 pm. Warhol's career spanned over thirty years, his most notable work probably being his paintings of Campbell's Soup cans and his multicolored images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe. His multimedia show "The Exploding Plastic Inevitable" introduced the world to the band The Velvet Underground.
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film was directed by Ric Burns, who previously made documentaries on playwright Eugene O'Neill and photographer Ansel Adams. Ric is the brother of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, best known for his PBS miniseries
The Civil War.
Posted Sep 3rd 2006 10:36AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, TV Royalty, Talent, Celebrities
I was cleaning up some of the files on my old computer when I stumbled across one that brought back some interesting memories. It's a photograph of one of my all-time favorite celebrities! I remember being so amused by the picture the first time I saw it I immediately saved it (in fear of it disappearing off the face of the Internet in the near future, I guess). And now, I share it with all of you. See if you can guess who this celebrity is.
Okay, I'll go Gene Shalit for a second and give you a cheesy hint: This late-night TV star looks willing to "bear" it all!
Answer after the jump.
Continue reading Who's that celebrity?
Posted Jun 8th 2006 12:55PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: TV on DVD, Animation
Warner Home Video has become the official distributor of not only the original theatrical Popeye animated shorts produced by both Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios, but also Popeye's TV series such as The Continuing Adventures of Popeye and Popeye and Son. The result is hundreds of animated shorts featuring the lovable but unintelligible sailor man getting their first legitimate release since the character first appeared on movie screens in the early 1930s. Popeye actually started out even earlier as a breakout character in E.C. Segar's "Thimble Theater" comic strip. Currently, Warner Home Video is working on restoring the cartoons, but no word on exactly when the DVDs will be available, other than some time in 2007. I just hope they release the theatrical shorts separately from the TV shows, as I'm not quite as interested in his made-for-TV stuff. Nevertheless, this is a very cool thing, and fans should be thrilled.
Posted Jun 2nd 2006 3:04PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Cable, Celebrities
On June 28, TV Land is premiering a new original series called
My First Time. Each episode of the six-part series will focus on a celebrity and their first "big break." The stars themselves will talk about how they first stepped into the limelight, and of course, footage of their first time, hopefully embarrassing, will be shown. I like the light and breezy approach TV Land often takes with its programming, so I'm hoping this show might actually be more interesting than it sounds. Of course, there's always the 2003 Showtime series coming out on DVD around the same time which is also called
My First Time. This one is slightly different, though, as it shows porn stars reenacting the first time sexual experiences of regular women. I suppose in some kind of cosmic sense the two shows are similar, I just wanted to make sure you knew which one you were watching. Such mistakes can really put a damper on family reunions. I'm just saying.
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
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