LOST Extras: New Coffee Table Book
In honor of the final season of LOST, ABC and Grinder Press are releasing a coffee table book entitled LOST’S Hottest Extras: The Castaways You May Have Missed.
Most of us were probably focused on Sawyer’s, I’m sorry, James’s shiny chest or maybe Sayid’s curly locks or even perhaps Kate’s… freckles. Here’s just a sampling of the hotties you missed.
I’m Not Going to Talk About Avatar
Hooray! It’s Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2010 Golden Globe Awards Eve!
We’re scrubbing floors, tidying up and planning the menu for the big day tomorrow. How about you?
Kidding! Well, OK, I’m planning a menu but that’s mostly because I like to eat things and will make any excuse to do so.
I’ve read some online “analysis” about why the Golden Globes are better than the Oscars. Mostly it has to do with a lack of stuffiness and a willingness for the HFPA to vote their hearts and not according to some old grudge or because someone is blood brothers with Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg or, God help them, Ron Howard. Or that strange, little Brian Grazer creature who turns up everywhere, his hair like a periscope announcing his arrival.
Celebrate Life Day with Chewie, Lumpy and the Gang
Tonight is the Third Annual Toys For Tots Screening of the Star Wars Holiday Special (from 1978), brought to you by the MN Film & TV Board, at Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis. There will be a short intro by Transylvania TV (”the retro monster comedy that’s really not for kids”), complete with some trivia questions, Marines collecting unwrapped toys for Toys For Tots and photo ops with a Storm Trooper, Rebel Pilot and Princess Leia from the Rebel Legion. Clint Lugert of THEY Design designed a kickass poster for the event and it will be for sale for $15.
Best of all, you can order up some drinks in the theater and not have to watch this thing sober. I’ve seen the entire special once and that might have been enough for me. I’m going to be there but more for enjoying holiday drinks with friends in the bar than watching the special, although I may sneak in for the part with Bea Arthur. I love Bea, her gangly stature, pessimism and deep voice – and she sings in the cantina for this! She’s my favorite Golden Girl, hands down. RIP, Bea.
Anyway, the theater at BLB is kinda tiny – I think it actually only seats 95 – so there is a chance that some people will not get in. But everyone can enjoy the Treebacca poster! It’s super rad. If you want to buy one online, visit the THEY Design poster store.
Get Yer Poster While Ya Can!
You’re My Present This Year: Weird TV Commercials
One of the most interesting things about the holiday season is all the strange commercials that start popping up on TV. You can usually count on some doozies from Lexus, Kay Jewelers and Folgers and this year is no exception. Here’s my take on the strangest commercials out there this year.
The number one slot for weird goes to the “Brother Homecoming” commercial for Folgers (an update on the classic “Peter Comes Home” commercial from years ago). The older brother knocks on the front door (weird already) and his sister answers it. Only you have no idea she’s his sister based on his reaction – he’s says, “Do I have the wrong house?” meaning, “You’re one sexy lady!” and she points to herself and says, “Sister! Ha ha ha.” What? I expected them to start making out. She says something like, “I waited up for you all night.” Huh? Really? And then he says, “It’s a long way from West Africa.” Notice he says West Africa, which is nice and vague and not at all threatening so people don’t become sad thinking about Darfur or upset thinking about Somali pirates.
This Is No Time For Fun And Games
You know how, when you’re healthy, you sometimes think, “Oh, if only I could stay home today and lie on the couch and watch TV ALL DAY. Or read ALL DAY. And eat whatever I want. And ignore the world?” And then, as soon as you’re sick and actually lying on the couch, watching TV and reading back issues of The New Yorker ALL DAY, you feel horrible, miserable and don’t enjoy it at all? Yeah, what’s that all about? I know life isn’t fair but, come on, throw me a wishbone here.
So, yeah, been sick. Whoopee!!
What it entailed was a lot of coughing, gasping for air, tension headaches, sleeplessness, eating chocolate chips from a bowl while watching TV and periods of restless “clean up” around the house. The cleaning up was me thinking, “Oh, what’s a little illness? I can still dust, vacuum and do laundry… Uh, I don’t feel so hot… all that dusting made me feel… faint…” So then I gave up on productive activities and decided to read books. Catch up on some reading, see? Keep the brain working. Learn stuff. But then that became too hard. “What did I just read? What… Eat cookie? What was that last sentence? What if I don’t really have a cold but instead I have cancer?”
A Grand (?) Finale: Who Will Start the Bidding?
This season of Real Housewives NY culminated in Jill’s charity “function,” which we’ve been hearing about every episode.
First, let me say how shocked I was by their low ticket sales five days out from the event. They hadn’t even broken even yet. Actually, this is comforting since it’s the same way a gala event I had to plan this year went, although we had at least broken even on ticket sales prior to the event. I just figured that, with all the fab people they claim to know, they would have had many more than 170 people.
And, as often happens on committees, some members did next to nothing and some got really pissy about how things should be done. Alex, for example, hadn’t even invited anyone as of the final committee meeting. Her excuse: I was busy. Too busy to send out an e-mail or ask four or six friends to go? Yes, this happens all the time. I bet anything that she could have told them exactly what dress she was planning on wearing but somehow inviting guests had slipped her mind. Later, she made a point during her “camera talk” time to say that she and Simon had called some people and got a few to go. Yeah, right.
OK, this week we’ve got more trouble for Chrysler, the swine flu, Justice Souter announcing his retirement and yet I spend my time wondering why Kelly and Bethenny on Real Housewives of New York keep trying to talk things out and get along.
Look, sometimes, for whatever reason, two people just don’t like the cut of each others jibs and that’s that. I know I’ve experienced it many times – both ways, meaning, that plenty of people don’t like my jib and I don’t care for the jibs of some others. (What is a jib? It is a type of sail on a ship and the expression may go back to pirate times, old-timey pirates, not the Pirates 2.0 we’re dealing with now. Essentially the expression means, “I don’t like your face.”)
Forget The Beef. Where’s the Glamor?
I know I’ve said it before in various ways, but the Housewives of New York are really just teaching us one thing over and over again: that everyone’s life is mundane in its own way. It was driven home to me again on the latest episode about Halloween when everyone was in a tizzy about the parties coming up that week and then, once they were at the parties, it seemed to be about standing around together to drink and eat or to drink and complain. I can’t imagine why they were so excited. It seemed like much more work than it was worth. Where’s the glamor? The glitz? The spice? The tits?
Um… Housewives? We Need to Talk.
Housewives, you’re letting me down. Well, except for Countess LuAnn. LuAnn never lets me down. But the rest of you… You’re really boring.
The last episode I watched involved the unveiling of Jill’s new decor in her condo, which is pretty/ugly and not comfy-looking at all. The dining room looks OK; the rest looks like a boutique hotel and I don’t mean that in a good way. It looks like the lobby of a W Hotel – its not exactly the place you want to curl up and watch a movie or talk on the phone while in your PJs. And the kitchen! I know New York apartments and condos are small but that kitchen is fit for a boat.
Check out this post on the blog Jezebel that shows all the fashion that’s going to be in the HBO Grey Gardens movie on Saturday, April 18th. Yes, the movie stars Drew Barrymore as my beloved Little Edie and I’m not really OK with that but the fashion in this movie is absolutely outstanding. They went to great lengths to find the best revolutionary costumes.