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:

• I have zero interest in the Saw franchise, but Paranormal Activity looks super-creepy. Apparently America agrees with me, because Paranormal Activity beat Saw VI at the box office on Friday.
• I remember renting the 1988 version of The Blob on VHS from our library when I was a kid. Now you can see it for free, just like I did! Except instead of VHS, you can totally watch The Blob on SlashControl.
• Vampires may be the new hot thing, and as Jenna Maroney told us on 30 Rock, werewolves may be next, but after that? Witches are the new hotness.
• I've always felt a kinship with Amelia Earhart, ever since I put on my mom's riding pants, boots, scarf, and a short wig for biography day in the 5th grade. So maybe that's kind of a sad reason to want to see Amelia, but there it is. You can read Cinematical's review of Amelia here.
• Speaking of Amelia Earhart, Cinematical Seven has 7 biopics worthy of their subject. And Amelia isn't the only film on the list featuring Hilary Swank.

So let's talk about last night's episode of The Office. Should Hilary Swank be offended that half of Dunder-Mifflin didn't find her "hot," or should she be flattered that the other half did?

It's funny that this even came up because just the other day I made a reference to Swank in another post about a reality TV star that was rather unfair so I won't link to again, and here we see a major network sitcom discussing whether Swank is hot or not.

This being the web, where a mention of something on a TV show can mean an almost instantaneous response (even Wikipedia locked the Janis Joplin entry after last night's 30 Rock episode), we knew there would be a lot of talk about Swank, and someone has put up a site called IsHilarySwankHot.com. It's pretty basic, you just go there and click yes or no.

For the record, I have no opinion on the matter.

(S05E12) If The Office has one weakness it's this: when it feels the need to split time equally between an A-Story and a B-Story, it's a fair bet that one of them is going to suffer. I guess the "curse" of having such a large and talented cast is that you want to include them in every episode; trying to keep them all involved means sometimes shoehorning them into the episode with more forced awkwardness than a Dennis Miller pop-culture reference.

So, while I found Michael's foray into the world of industrial espionage funny and even a little moving at the end, I could have done without the Hilary Swank hotness debate. That's not to say I haven't had that debate internally myself (what is it about Hilary Swank that makes her hotness so hard to quantify?), just that it felt more like an extended Saturday Night Live sketch than a truly organic storyline.

I would put this in the "What the f***?" category.

Tonight's Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC is a repeat...from this past Tuesday. That's right, they're dipping waaaay back into the archives, because fans have been asking for it. The guests are/were Hilary Swank, Hilary Duff, and Dancing with the Stars castoff Shandi Finnessey.

Now, OK, I understand that the show probably has to be a repeat, because Kimmel is sitting in for Larry King tonight on CNN at 9 (though I wonder if it's live or taped or what's going on with that), but do they have to air a repeat from three nights ago? Seriously, that's just bizarre to me.

It's keeping with what all the late night shows do now, from Letterman to Carson Daly. When they show repeats they're always fairly recent. But they're usually from 2, 4, 6 weeks ago, not 3 days.

Evangeline Lilly has fallen victim to Ashton Kutcher and his Punk'd gang. The Lost actress will appear on the newest (and supposedly last) season of the MTV prank show, along with fellow celebrities Hilary Swank, Magic Johnson, and Nelly Furtado. Lilly's episode will be aired in an eight-episode marathon of the show on April 7. Each episode will be aired individually beginning on April 10.

No word yet on how Lilly was punk'd. Perhaps they switched Dominic Monaghan with Billy Boyd and waited for her to notice. MTV is promoting this season as the show's last, but fake announcements about the show's cancellation have been released before. A similar claim was made after the 2003 season of Punk'd, but the show returned in 2004. A Punk'd Awards highlight special covering all past seasons is scheduled for June 5.

Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank spoke in very general terms during an interview with Vanity Fair magazine about her soon-to-be ex-husband, Chad Lowe. She actually dropped a bombshell: saying he struggles with addiction. She doesn't mention what he's addicted to (drugs? alcohol? sex? video games?), but says that his "substance addiction" played a minor role in their break-up. She says, "When I found out, it was such a shock because I never thought he'd keep something from me. And yet, on another level, it was a confirmation of something I was feeling that was keeping us from being completely solid." Sad. Lowe, who works primarily in television, did not give any comment.

Back in January, the lovely and talented Anna Johns reported that Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank and husband Chad Lowe had agreed to separate, but were willing to get through the tough time and come out a stronger couple. Apparently this didn't happen exactly as planned.

According to a spokeswoman for Swank, she and Lowe have decided to initiate divorce proceedings after eight years of wedded bliss. A lawyer for the couple said Swank and Lowe have made a joint decision to divorce and that they still remain friends and have the utmost respect for each other.

Ms. Swank, who has won Oscars for performances in the movies Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby was a regular on Beverly Hills, 90210 back in the late 1990's. Mr. Lowe, brother of actor Rob Lowe, played the AIDS-infected Jesse McKenna on ABC's Life Goes On back in the mid 1980's and has had appeared in many other TV series since, including ER, Without a Trace and Law & Order: SVU.

Another Hollywood split-up. This time it's Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe. The two have been married for eight years, but it's not final. While they're splitting up, they aren't getting divorced. The official statement says, "Hilary and Chad have decided to separate, but they are hopeful they'll be able to get through this tough time." The two reportedly split sometime last year.

While we all know Hilary from her Oscar wins for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby, Chad has been an actor in tv land for a long time. Who can forget him as Jesse on Life Goes On? And, more recently, his turn as John Denver in the made-for-tv movie in 2000. Let's hope these kids work things out.