The adorable and not-easily-impressed McKayla Maroney is making her acting debut in Hart of Dixie. For those of you not familiar with the show, it’s a Rachel Bilson drama/comedy on The CW. McKayla will be playing Tanya, Rose Hattenbarger’s best friend on the show. While she has acting aspirations, Maroney noted that she’s not done with her gymnastics career. Check out the full Access Hollywood interview below for all the details, including why she and her Olympic teammates are cooler than Justin Bieber. Continue reading “McKayla Maroney is Impressed With Hart of Dixie”
Tag: TV
Tom Hanks Sees Emmy in Olivia Munn’s Future?!?
My nightmare of Olivia Munn becoming the biggest star in America continues! This time around, the legendary Tom Hanks told the girl formerly known as Lisa that an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Emmy Award is in her future. Check out the Entertainment Tonight video below and please let me know if you think Hanks was being serious, being polite, or being patronizing. Whatever the case may be, the cameraman was totally on point trying to brush off Bolivia Bunn for the exponentially more interesting and talented Tom Hanks. Continue reading “Tom Hanks Sees Emmy in Olivia Munn’s Future?!?”
Aaron Sorkin Says The Newsroom is a Romantic Comedy
Some people think of HBO’s The Newsroom as a drama. Others feel that it’s a satire. I’ve always thought of the show as a romantic comedy with dramatic overtones that satirizes the sad state of news reporting in America today. Some of my friends made fun of my take on the show, but The Newsroom’s writer Aaron Sorkin backs me up on this. In a recent HBO GO chat he said:
The Newsroom may talk tough sometimes but at its heart it’s a romantic comedy and it can only succeed if you’re invested in the characters.
See. I told ya so.
Olivia Munn on New Girl Season 2
It appears there’s no stopping our (so not) beloved Bolivia Bunn. After several 2012 movies and a great run on HBO’s The Newsroom, Munn has landed a multi-episode arc on Fox’s New Girl. According to Deadline:
She will play Angie, Nick’s (Jake Johnson) new love interest who is sexy, earthy, charming and can hold her own with the group. Munn, repped by CAA and Mosaic, will film her episodes before production starts on Season 2 of HBO’s Newsroom, on which she co-stars.
The silver lining in all this is that New Girl stars the exponentially superior Zooey Deschanel. Their respective talents — and hotness generated by talent — are in different leagues. Munn is working with a shot glass, while Deschanel draws from a pint glass. Zooey will help reveal Bolivia for the fraud that she is, right? Right?!?
So yeah…my recurring nightmares of waking up to find that Olivia Munn is the biggest star in America will be making a comeback.
WWE Programming Now Available on Hulu Plus
WWE and Hulu have teamed up…wait, the WWE doesn’t give a crap about tag-teams anymore so I’ll have to rephrase that. WWE programming is now available on Hulu Plus. According to the press release, subscribers will be able to watch “all WWE TV programming” the day after it airs. Hulu Plus costs $7.99 a month and is available on a number of devices, including PCs, tablets, smartphones, and videogame consoles.
For wrestling fans that want to cut the cable cord, WWE programming on Hulu Plus could be a fantastic deal. It allows these fans to watch shows like Raw and SmackDown without having to pay for cable-television service that includes hundreds of channels they’ll never watch. It will be interesting to see if this deal will change WWE’s strategy with YouTube. The company has been serving up clips of its shows a few days after they air on television. I’m sure the company will continue to post clips, but I wonder if they’ll be as extensive or if the delays will be longer. Hulu Plus allows viewers to watch the shows in their entirety, but some people will be satisfied with what WWE’s YouTube channel offers.
I could see using the service when I travel internationally. The combination of Hulu Plus and a VPN service would allow me to watch Monday Night Raw anywhere in the world. For some WWE fans, this could be the only (legal) way to enjoy these shows in a timely manner.
Any of you intrigued by WWE programming on Hulu Plus?
K-Town, Britney Spears, and Gangnam Style
I love the video above of Britney Spears learning the “Gangnam Style” dance from Psy. It’s awesome on multiple levels. First of all, it’s fun watching her learn how to do this ridiculous dance that’s sweeping the nation (this decade’s “Macarena”?). Secondly, I’m quite pleased with the MILF she has transformed into. Watching her go from teen sensation to troubled youth to MILF has been a wonderful journey.
All of that aside, this “Gangnam Style” thing is troubling. As a resident of Los Angeles Koreatown, I feel bad for the Korean-American population. There are many people that will think of Psy’s stupid song-and-dance when they think of Koreans. There are many that will think that Korean-American youths are like the idiots on K-Town (season finale below). I’m guilty of the same thing. I have nice and normal friends that live on the Jersey Shore, but when I visit them, part of me thinks that every other person in town is a moron like The Situation or Snooki. Sadly, some people will think that Koreatown is full of miscreants like the ones in K-Town and people walking down the street doing the “Gangnam Style” dance.
Reality television and stupid music, killing the world one neighborhood at a time. *sigh*
Geoff Johns Writing Arrow Episode, More Trailers
Here’s a bunch of assorted news on Arrow, CW’s upcoming series about DC Universe bow-slinger Green Arrow. Comic-book fans will be pleased to learn that Geoff Johns, one of the most consistently great writers of the last decade, will be penning an episode of the show. On a recent post on DC’s blog Johns is quoted as saying, “I’m thrilled to be writing this episode of Arrow, and while I can’t give too much away, I think comic fans are going to like what we have in store for them — keep an eye out for the Huntress.”
CW has also released some new trailers for the show. The first one is pretty sweet. It makes Oliver Queen look like a modern-day warrior (as opposed to a guy with outmoded weapons and an Errol Flynn fascination).
The next one is…not so good. It’s cheesy and more along the lines of what I expect from The CW.
Hopefully the show’s tone is more like the first trailer and the second is something that’s being used to attract the frau.
Anyway, let me know what you think of the two Arrow clips. Are you excited that Geoff Johns will be writing an episode of the show?
American Idol 2013 Judges Finalized
The judges for the next season of American Idol have been finalized! Providing insights, entertainment, and (hopefully) insanity in 2013 will be Mariah Carey, Keith Urban, Nicki Minaj, and Randy Jackson. With the show’s popularity waning, the producers decided to spruce things up with a new set of judges. (Though they couldn’t get rid of Randy Jackson. He must have naked photos of Nigel Lythgoe.)
AI was never able to replicate the drug-addled wonderfulness of Paul Abdul, who left the show in 2009. There’s an extremely high chance that the duo of Carey and Minaj will make the show more insane than it has ever been. The potential for awkward awesomeness is off the charts!
Check out the photo of the new judges below and let me know what you think of the American Idol 2013 team (please!).
Conan O’Brien Reviews Resident Evil 6
On the latest episode of Clueless Gamer: Conan O’Brien, the crimson-haired hero reviews Capcom’s upcoming Resident Evil 6. Find out why he gave the game a 35 out of 1,500 and see why all other video reviews have been rendered obsolete.
Coffee Talk #517: Confusing Moments in Pro-Wrestling History
Today’s column was inspired by a chat I was having with RPadholic Tokz_21 on the RPad.TV Google+ Messenger group. On last night’s WWE Monday Night Raw, wrestling legend Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack on air. It’s sad and I hope everyone sends positive vibes to Jerry, hoping for a speedy recovery. Now to be completely honest, initially I wasn’t sure if it was real or if it was an angle. Pro-wrestling can be funny that way. The writers have no boundaries and have crossed several lines over the years. Would an angle involving Lawler’s age (he was in the ring that night too) be out of the realm of possibility? Of course not. Sadly, the heart attack was real, but the whole thing had me thinking about times when I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t in pro-wrestling…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, wishing that Andy Murray becomes a one-hit wonder, Emma Watson searches leading to computer viruses, or iPhone 5 fever, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Today’s column was inspired by a chat I was having with RPadholic Tokz_21 on the RPad.TV Google+ Messenger group. On last night’s WWE Monday Night Raw, wrestling legend Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack on air. It’s sad and I hope everyone sends positive vibes to Jerry, hoping for a speedy recovery. Now to be completely honest, initially I wasn’t sure if it was real or if it was an angle. Pro-wrestling can be funny that way. The writers have no boundaries and have crossed several lines over the years. Would an angle involving Lawler’s age (he was in the ring that night too) be out of the realm of possibility? Of course not. Sadly, the heart attack was real, but the whole thing had me thinking about times when I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t in pro-wrestling.
When Owen Heart died due to a harness mishap during the Over the Edge PPV, I initially thought it was an angle. He was playing The Blue Blazer, a masked idiot that thought he was a superhero. He was actually supposed to have a botched fall to the ring, keeping with his character. Sadly, the harness released him too soon and he suffered a tragic fall. I distinctly remember watching the PPV at my friend Justin’s place and arguing that it was a work. It wasn’t until the cameras completely pulled to the crowd that I was aware that something very bad and very real happened.
On a lighter note, a pair of WCW angles vexed me for a long time. The first involved Brian Pillman. In an “I Respect You” match against Kevin Sullivan, Pillman suddenly bailed with the words, “I respect you, booker man!” I knew that Sullivan was a WCW booker, but this was something that was never said on air. Pillman was fired and that’s where things got cloudy. Did he really get fired or was it part of a storyline? Former WCW exec Eric Bischoff said it was part of an angle and that Pillman was supposed to develop his “Loose Cannon” character in ECW before returning to WCW. Pillman said that he wanted to get fired and had no intention of going back to WCW. He ended up going to ECW and eventually brought the “Loose Cannon” persona to WWE.
Kevin Sullivan was involved in an angle with his wife, Nancy Sullivan, and Chris Benoit. The story was that Benoit, who was feuding with Sullivan on TV, took things too far by stealing his wife. Sullivan booked it so that Nancy and Chris traveled together, ate together on the road, and stayed in the same hotels. Art imitated life, with Nancy and Chris actually falling in love and eventually getting married. For a long time, I thought it was just an elaborate angle. It wasn’t until kayfabe went out of style that I realized, “Oh…that really happened.”
Anyway, those are some wrestling moments where I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t. I’d love to hear about some angles that you weren’t sure about. Please share some stories in the comments section!