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the kids are all right is better than alright

and we have the year's first oscar contender. it took more than half the year, buy the kids are all right is the first flick to hit theaters that will also hit the awards circuit. following an unconventional family in california (lesbian moms, each of who had a kid with the same sperm donor) whose life is thrown upside down when the teenage kids seek out their bio dad. the film is full of great performances - annette benning, julianne moore and mark ruffalo all do a great job - and some of the best writing to hit the big screen since juno. the kids are all right strikes the perfect balance between comedy and drama and is the most real portrait i've probably seen of a same-sex couple on screen. with just enough styling to retain its indie cred, the kids are all right is sure to strike a chord with anyone. though it pushes two hours, it flies by, a big deal in my book. the movie is just now making its way into bigger theaters, so it should stick around enough for you to see it. and you should. check out the trailer above.

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back tomorrow

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back tomorrow

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and degeneres out

ellen degeneres has left the building. after one season as american idol's fourth judge, ellen degeneres has departed her seat. the fox powerhouse is now down two judges, with simon cowell having left the season at the end of this past season. that leaves only kara dioguardi and randy jackson. former executive producer nigel lythgowe has returned to run the show (he left in order to focus more on his pet project, so you think you can dance?) but is back now that simon has left to focus on the u.s. launch of the x factor. what is nigel planning to do? reportedly, he wants a full overhaul of the panel. with simon and ellen out, it seems like he has a good shot at it. kara is under a year-to-year contract, which means they don't even have to fire her. she technically doesn't even have a job. but randy has one year left. depending on how much it would cost the net, i say buy him out. the only thing that will salvage this sinking ship of a show (does anyone even remember the contestant's names from the latest cycle?) is to relaunch it. randy jackson has annoyed me for far too long - is "it was pitchy, dawg. i jus' wasn't feelin' it" even commentary? but, the names that are floating around as new judges sound worse than what the show already has. jessica simpson, chris isaak (who?) and harry connick jr. are all being touted as replacements. um that sounds worse than having just paula abdul alone at the table. what should really happen is fox lets idol slip away and give the x factor it's chance to sweep in and take the spotlight. who do you want to see sitting next to those red plastic cups this fall?

when worlds collide

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continuing on the lazy train

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hollywood and i are being lazy

so watch this:

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nada

again...sorry?

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travel day

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just some videos

...to entertain you.

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new katy perry

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book review: the millennium trilogy

yes, i'm talking about all three books. i'm sure you've seen the bright covers of the girl with the dragon tattoo, the girl who played with fire and the girl who kicked the hornet's nest at the bookstore, but you just weren't sure what to make of them. they sound bizarre - secluded hacker helps journalist break story? snooze. that's what i thought. wrong. i read all three books back-to-back (as i tend to do, i don't jump on trends until i can marathon them; see: twilight) and i couldn't put any of them down. the first book (tattoo) introduces the world of millennium magazine (hence the trilogy title), a unbiased news source known for breaking some of the biggest stories to hit sweden. when journalist and magazine partner mikael blomkvist is accused of libeling a power player in sweden, things go downhill for the mag. until he's recruited to break one of the biggest mysteries amongst a mysterious family in sweden. along the way, blomkvist enlists lisbeth salander, the aforementioned hacker, to help him crack the case. the next two books pick up a while after the events of the first and delve into lisbeth's world. she's been declared incompetent and put under guardianship for the mentally ill by the country, but was it all a big cover up? you'll have to read and see. the books read like a good movie - lots of action and unexpected twists. while there were some moments of predictability, i was kept entertained. i liked the first and the last book best, as seems to be the case with trilogies, and highly recommend them. and if rumors are true, a fourth manuscript exists. author stieg larsson died before his books were ever published, so chances of the rumor being true are slim to none. but we can hold out hope, right?

the series has already been made into a film trilogy - watch the first two films' trailers above - in its native sweden (the first flick is out on dvd and the second can probably be found at your local arts cinema) and production is to start an an american adaptation of the first film soon, to be released next december. i know i'll be watching the swedish versions asap and can't wait to see how these films translate into hollywood. my only worry is that kristen stewart is reportedly in contention to play lisbeth. lisbeth is a reserved character, but she's more than biting lips and staring upward. i hope they track down an unknown to play the part. as for mikael? i see liam neeson, but names like brad pitt and daniel craig are being floated around.

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inmate no. 2409752

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off

i'll be posting every other day while I'm away from home. so nothing today, ok?

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inception delivers

chris nolan has done it again. and i say that without ever have seen the dark knight. yes, i'm one of (probably) two people on the planet who has not seen the dark knight nor avatar, though both are on my netflix queue. anyway, i digress. nolan's latest theatrical effort, the leonardo dicaprio thriller inception, does anything but disappoint at the theater. the movie follows leo and 500 days of summer's joshua gordon levit as dream hackers, a duo who go into peoples' dreams to steal information. the duo are offered the chance to carry out an inception, rather than an extraction, where they are to plan an idea in someone's subconscious rather than take one out. leo and levit are joined by ellen page as their "dream architect" and a couple of
comrades to get into cillian murphey's head and tell him to break up his family business, all at the hands of ken watanabe, a businessman desperate to end his competition's domination of the energy industry. complicated enough for you? just wait until marion cotilliard is thrown in as leo's unstable wife who haunts not only his dreams, but the dreams he travels into. inception is everything you want and more in a summer thriller, but runs a little (and by "a little" I mean a
lot) long at 2.5 hours. the plot and inconsistencies amongst the dream worlds gets a little confusing, but you should get the gist. my biggest complaint is that dicaprio seems to have painted himself into a corner in the sense that this role is eerily similar to his turn in last winter's shutter island. none the less, still go and see it. and check out the trailer above if you have no clue what i'm talking about (read: you've been living under a rock).

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traveling today. back tomorrow with a review of inception.

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want to see justin timberlake act?

yeah, me neither. but he is. justin is one of many faces in the social network, the movie based on the rise of facebook. yes, someone made a movie about that. it looks like it could be great or horrible. judge for yourself above.

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my new favorite

so i've been a fan of diablo cody since juno came out. i've read her book. i watch united states of tara. i even sat through jennifer's body, which wasn't really that bad. but now diablo has her own talk show. yes, it's on youtube...but still, it's a talk show! diablo tweeted a while back that she was going to park a trailer in her driveway and host a talk show in it. naturally, i thought she was joking. but, nope, she mad her dream a reality. it's called red band trailer and ms. cody has some pretty big guests, like adam brody and chelsea handler. and that's just the first two guests. check out the 10 minute episodes above and subscribe to her channel, because jason bateman is going to be on next week.

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the hills says goodbye

last night mtv aired the series finale of one of their biggest hits, the hills. in the final moments of the series' final episode, the creators of the show gave the audience quite the twist - they basically revealed that the whole show was a sham. after kristin left brody for europe and the show took a fond look back on each of the characters, the screen turned back to brody as a hollywood hills backdrop rolled away and the camera panned out to reveal that kristin's car had not really pulled away, but was parked off camera in a studio backlot. tricky, tricky. the only thing that bothers me about it is, hello, we invested 4 years in this show - we deserve to know whether it was real or fake, right? brody apparently gave an interview and said multiple endings were shot, including one with lauren conrad. in the scene, brody returned to his apartment after leaving kristin to reveal that he and lauren had really been together this whole time - another nod at the "is it real or not?" thing. my other problem is that spinoff series the city is supposed to take place in the same reality, right? so are we now supposed to wonder whether that's real or not, too? i mean, i figured it's kind of fake, but at least more real than the hills, since they show whitney making clothes and such. oh well...check out the end of the hills era above.

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the end of an era

2006 - 2010

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what is going on!?

nothing, apparently. so watch the latest parody from lisa nova & co of keeping up with the kardashians below.

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nada

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there's not much

so watch this.

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"liza" does gaga?

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the emmys are coming!

the nominations for this years' emmys are out. here they are and who i think will take home the trophies.

drama series

• breaking bad
• dexter
• the good wife*
• lost
• mad men
• true blood

comedy series

• curb your enthusiasm
• glee*
• modern family
• nurse jackie
• the office
• 30 rock

lead actor, drama

• michael c. hall, dexter
• kyle chandler, friday night lights
• jon hamm, mad men
• hugh laurie, house*
• matthew fox, lost

lead actress, drama

• kyra sedgwick, the closer
• glenn close, damages
• connie britton, friday night lights
• mariska hargitay, law and order: svu
• january jones, mad men
• julianna marguilles, the good wife*

lead actor, comedy

• jim parsons, the big bang theory*
• larry david, curb your enthusiasm
• matthew morrison, glee
• tony shaloub, monk
• steve carrell, the office
• alec baldwin, 30 rock

lead actress, comedy

• toni collette, united states of tara
• edie falco, nurse jackie
• tina fey, 30 rock
• lea michelle, glee
• julia louis-dreyfus, the new adventures of old christine*
• amy poehler, parks and recreation

supporting actor, comedy

• chris colfer, glee
• jesse tyler ferguson, modern family
• ty burrell, modern family*
• eric stonestreet, modern family
• jon cryer, two and a half men
• neil patrick harris, how i met your mother

supporting actress, comedy

• julie bowen, modern family
• jane krawkowski, 30 rock
• jane lynch, glee*
• sofia vergara, modern family
• kristen wiig, saturday night live
• holland taylor, two and a half men

supporting actor, drama

• michael emerson, lost*
• andre braugher, men of a certain age
• terry o'quinn, lost
• aaron paul, breaking bad
• martin short, damages
• john slatery, mad men

supporting actress, drama

• sharon gless, burn notice
• archie panjabi, the good wife
• christine baranksi, the good wife*
• rose byrne, damges
• elizabeth moss, mad men
• christina hendricks, mad men

now, i'm probably wrong about a lot of them, but that's the fun. right? as far as the other categories go, here are my picks for the winners:

guest actor, comedy: mike o'malley, glee

guest actress, comedy: betty white, saturday night live

guest actor, drama: john lithgow, dexter

guest actress, drama: sissy spacek, big love

for a complete list of nominees, head over to emmys.tv. the awards air august 29th on nbc and jimmy fallon is set to host.

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just pictures.
yes, her nail says "fuck you." what a role model.

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miley's a "fairy princess"

well, at least according to dolly parton. parton's amusement park "dollywood" recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. in honor of making it that far, dolly held a concert for the park's guests. lucky for us, the concert was filmed for a special on the hallmark channel. dolly invited her god-daughter miley cyrus on stage to sing "jolene." it's kind of creepy that 60-something dolly and teenager miley would duet about another woman stealing their man, but whatevs. check out the performance - and bonus behind the scenes interviews with miley and dad billy ray - above.

lindsay lohan: inmate

yep, people. that's right. miss lohan is headed to jail. after violating her 2007 probation, a judge sentenced lilo to the clinker today for 90 days. now chances are the former teen queen will be in jail for less than a day if the track records of starlets like paris hilton, nicole richie and khloe kardashian hold up. my hope is lindsay will get the full stint in jail - because the 90 days is run across three different charges of 30 days each, hopefully she'll at least get a month. she needs a wake-up call and i think that's the only thing that will get her to realize that her life is far from stable. when you bare no resemblance to the happy, successful person you were 5 years ago, there's a problem, lilo. click here to see tmz's coverage of lindsay's hearing today, including her sentencing and her plea to stay out of jail. wake up, lindsay. you don't look in compliance with your probation or living a clean life when you're photographed partying every night. how about you stay home and watch a movie or something? oh, and nothing says "i'm a changed and serious person" like lavender nail polish.

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ending the holiday weekend right

... with no blog.

happy birthday, amuricah

looking good for 234.

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happy saturday.

get off the computer

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gift from god

if you're not watching real housewives of new york "star" kelly killoren bensimon's youtube yet, you should be. the model/photographer/author/mom/crazy person is vloging helpful tips all summer long, like how to decorate your home with jelly beans or make a "belt" out of rope. check out her latest video above and click here to see the rest of her summer adventures in the hamptons. all of her vids last only about a minute, so you won't be killing too many braincells.

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love (really) bites)

this really blows. one of the shows i was most looking forward to this fall - nbc's love bites - has been pushed back to mid-season, for a lot of reasons. first, star becki newton is preggers. that's a positive oops. now for the bad. co-star jordana spiro has dropped out due to her contractual obligations to her tbs show my boys. and to add insult to injury, creator and show runner cindy chupack (a former sex and the city writer) has backed down from her head honcho position to focus on writing the show. this is the second time in two years nbc's strongest series has been pushed to mid-season. parenthood faced similar set-backs last season. there's no plan to recast jordana right now and the apprentice will take love bites spot on the fall schedule. hopefully the added half-season will get the show back on track.