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check back

tomorrow

day 2.298

get tangled

here's your first look at disney's tangled. originally called rapunzel, the film's name was changed after last year's the princess and the frog failed to attract boys to theaters. tangled is said to be a reworking of the classic fairy tale about the girl with long, long, long, long, longggg hair trapped in a tower. as fat as i know, this is disney's first ever cgi-animated musical. the cast includes mandy moore as rapunzel and zachary levi (tv's chuck) as flynn, the guy who is followed in the above teaser trailer. i can't tell if the story will in fact follow flynn more-so than rapunzel, or if that's just a marketing strategy. the latter is my guess. hopefully tangled will bring disney back into the "classic" animation - the look of the cgi was created to mimic hand animation - and musical - the guys behind the little mermaid and beauty and the beast - game.

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salma's a scardy cat

who knew salma hayek had a deathly fear of snakes? salma was being interviewed alongside co-stars maya rudolph and maria bello for extra about their new flick grown ups when a snake crept over to the interview set-up. check out the clip above as salma loses her shit and climbs maya rudolph like a tree.

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i don't get it...

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am i getting old?

that has to be it right? why else would i not enjoy the mtv movie awards? i'm usually glued to the tv watching the show, but this year i fast-forwarded through the majority of it. plus, my dvr cut off i don't know how much of the show. i just didn't find it all that enjoyable. maybe because the show used to have a lot more over lap with movies with that got real awards. the past few years it's been all about twilight and harry potter. i don't think movies adapted from mythological book series are all that new or exciting. we all know what happens because we've all read the books - or at least read the synopses on wikipedia. plus, the awards used to be hosted by household names. who the hell is aziz ansari? i know he's on parks and recreation but, let's be honest, no one is watching that show. if you're going to get someone from tv comedy to host the show, get someone from the office or the cast of modern family. and, if it has to be parks and rec, get effing amy poehler. ok, that's my rant. onto the awards.

basically, twilight won everything. here's the few twilight didn't win.

best breakout star: anna kendrick, up in the air (she finally got something for it!)

best scared-as-shit performance: amanda seyfried, jennifer's body

biggest badass star: rain, ninja assasin (who?)

best comedic performance: zach galifinakis, the hangover

best villian: tom felton, harry potter and the half-blood prince

best fight: beyonce and ali larter, obsessed (this movie was in this awards year?)

best wtf moment: ken jeong (that naked asian), the hangover

generation award: sandra bullock

bullock's acceptance speech and the night's two performances, katy perry's "california gurls" and christina aguilera basically singing her entire album, are the only parts worth watching.

(sorry for the quality, but the whole show can be seen at mtv.com)

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more reasons to love sandra bullock

sandra bullock is back in the spotlight. the blind side star made an appearance at spiketv's guy's choice awards yesterday to accept the award for "troops choice, entertainer of the year." the actress referenced the pink elephant in the room right off the bat with a joke. check out her acceptance speech above and make sure to tune into mtv's movie awards tonight, where sandra is expected to appear once again.

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bring it on: the tv series?

the cw's new series, hellcats, looks a lot like bring it on. aly michalka's character (that's the hard-edged blonde) seems like a xerox of the eliza dushku character in the movie; and ashley tisdale the kirsten dunst character. they just swapped hair colors, and moved to college. here's the full preview for the show i talked about a couple weeks ago when the cw announced it was adding the series to its fall schedule. though it does looks like regurgitated bring it on, that's a good thing.

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nada

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thank you for being a friend.

rue mclanahan, 1934-2010.

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gleek peak: the finale

here's a first look at the season finale of glee, next tuesday.

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get gleek-ed

so there isn't really anything worth discussing today...that's why i'm here with a preview of tonight's glee episode! well, sort of. i have the full songs from tonight's episode. at 9/8c, you'll be able to hear mr. schuester bust out "tell me something good," puck, finn and mercedes give off some "good vibrations," vocal adrenaline sing "another one bites the dust" and quinn makes her singing return with "it's a man's man's man's world." check them out below.

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happy memorial day

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miley's not a "robot"

miley cyrus is continuing to shed her disney image. the soon-to-be former hannah montana recently performed new tracks from her upcoming album (can't be tamed) at a concert in lisbon. one of the songs was "robot," which basically sounds like "hey, disney! i'm not hannah montana." check it out above.

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money can't buy you class

but apparently, it can buy you a video retoucher. who knew there was such a thing? how much vaseline was smeared on that lens?

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sex and the city 2: don't get carried away.

oh sex and the city 2. what to say? really, what to say? i don't even know where to start. the follow up to the 2008 big screen series continuation was less than stellar. now, let me preface my review with the setting in which i saw the flick, because that might have had an effect on my complete experience. there were not one but two groups of women numbering over 10. one was seated next to me while the other group was two rows down and i suspect they were some sort of birthday group or bridal shower (and were too old to be doing either of those things at a movie theater). both groups appeared to have spent the day drinking because they were completely slap-happy the entire two and a half hour running time. there was also a row of men and women who broke out a plastic jug filled with what had to be franzia. they brought along plastic cups (not red solo ones, but the squatty clear ones you get on planes) and drank themselves into the night. these three crowds, coupled with the gaggle of girls who came in sets of four (natch they were all discussing whether they were carries, charlottes or mirandas. natch none of them would be samantha. or at least they wouldn't say it to their faces). and one very mismatched gay couple (standing together, they looked like the number 10) who laughed uproariously in my ear.

ok, so i've set the scene for you. now let me get to actually talking about the movie. like i said it was two and a half hours. that's an hour more than i like movies to be. however, i didn't check my watch. that's a good sign that i was entertained. and i was, but not consistently. i know the movie was made to be an escape - a chance for all of us to get away from the world's "troubles" and experience the, as samantha says, decadence. i get that and i fully embrace it. but, i don't know that the movie needed an escape. it is called sex and the city, not sex and abu dhabi. is there no way for these women to have a good time in the city? the first movie took the women to mexico, this one to the middle east. they did the show in new york for only 6 seasons on tv, meaning there has to be some story left untold there.

my other problem with the movie was that it didn't have a consistent tone. yes, there are such things as dramedies. but usually those have a specific type of humor laced in with the drama. satc2 went from slapstick, to sight gags, to puns and snark and back again. it was all over the place. the writing was far from the quality and it didn't seem like anyone cared to say "no one would ever say this" (the phrase "lawrence of my labia" was uttered. funny? yes. necessary? no). i think the women are so far removed from the series that they've forgotten who these characters are. they were basically caricatures of the people they used to be. everything was so overplayed. i think it may have been an attempt to cover up the fact that the movie really had no plot. it was as if 5 separate episodes of the tv show were written and then clumped together for a feature film. none of the story lines carried the movie (ha, pun). and the two major conflicts the film revolved around were resolved way too easily. there wasn't one major climax, but rather a bunch of mini ones.

i don't want to spoil anything for anyone interested in seeing the film, so i'll just sum it up from here. if you're a fan of the series, go ahead and see the movie. you'll enjoy it. but don't expect that chill down your spine the first film gave you. sex and the city 2 feels like a bridge - just a pathway and not a journey - to what is inevitably going to be sex and the city 3. hopefully carrie finds her way, again, by then.

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morning glory looks glorious

maybe it's because i want to go into the world of tv news. maybe it's because i love rachel mcadams. maybe it's because i wish diane keaton was my grandma (yes, two days in a row i've talked about her. shove it). i don't know what it is, but morning glory looks really good. the film follows mcadams as a naive producer hired to help a failing morning show get back on top. keaton and harrison ford play the anchors on said morning show. naturally, hilarity appears to ensue.

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even more new tv!

well, at least in theory. hbo has ordered a pilot for tilda, a new half-hour comedy about a much-feared hollywood blogger. and, no, it's not based on perez hilton. it's reportedly based on nikki finke, who founded and runs deadline hollywood. the show will star diane keaton in her first regular tv role. about time. if there's anywhere to transition from movie star to tv star, it's hbo. i think the "box office" part of "home box office" is the stars' way of justifying the change. keaton will be joined by another movie star, juno's ellen page. page will play a young assistant at a hollywood studio. page's character will have to decide whether she wants to continue on the corporate track or follow keaton's tilda, who has taken a liking to her. sounds good, but it will be interesting to see how this idea transitions into a series. but, that's getting ahead of myself. first we have to see if the show even makes it to series (though that's more of a likely than a long shot with keaton attached). just another show i'm looking forward to this fall. where will i find the time?

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take a spin

if you loved (or even just tolerated) the devil wears prada, i suggest you check out spin by robert rave. spin hit shelves last august and i wanted to read it as soon as it was released because every review i had read about it had praised it as "the devil wears prada for guys." now that i finally got the chance to check the book out, i can say those reviews i read did not disappoint. spin tells the story of taylor green, a recent midwestern college grad who moves to nyc in order to find himself. it takes green falling into a job as a publicist for one of nyc's biggest power players, jennie weinstein. the story follows taylor's trials and tribulations as jennie's, well, bitch. the novel is actually a roman a clef (that means fictionalized reality people) about author robert rave's time working with former nyc pr queen lizzie grubman, who you might remember from her short-lived mtv series power girls.

isn't she a beaut? much like the devil wears prada's miranda priestly "exposed" on vogue's anna wintour, spin's jennie reveals what all goes on behind the doors of lizzie grubman p.r. the whole time i was reading the book, i assumed it was about lizzie. my speculation was confirmed in the book's final chapter when *spoiler* jennie purposefully drives her car into a hamptons-esque restaurant. lizzie grubman famously drove her suv into a party in the hamptons. click. although, grubman denies the novel is more than pure fiction and not about her and rave hasn't confirmed or denied who jennie really is.

definitely check the book out if you want a quick read that is laugh out loud funny. it's filled with sarcastic wit and tongue-in-cheek references to the world of celebrity. and if you're a young adult interested in media industry, i think the book gives a pretty honest account of what it really takes to get what you want.

even before the novel was published, speculation about a movie version began. while i don't know if someone has the rights to the film, i can't wait until they make this. author rave publically backed zac efron in the role of taylor and i can totally see it. here are some promotional clips for the book that give you a glimpse of what a film version would look like.

rave is set to release his follow up novel, waxed, in early august. waxed follows the lives of the employees at a - you guessed it - upscale waxing salon that caters to the rich and famous. i'll probably make it my final summer read before i have to head back to the world of learning.

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paula abdul dances back (to tv)

paula abdul is headed back to tv. the former american idol judge signed on to produce, judge and play mentor on got to dance. the show, which will air on cbs, is adapted from a british series of the same name. the competition series looks to be a combination of america's got talent and american idol, with judges choosing finalists from auditions that take place in front of a live audience. it seems like the answer to so you think you can dance? - it's pretty much everything that show isn't. here's a preview of the british series.

the show will most likely air in midseason (as in january) and could very well be pitted against american idol, which will be in its first season without mainstay simon cowell. i just don't know if it will work. yes, america has fallen in love with the competition series. but, have they fallen in love with dancing? i think that remains to be seen. dancing with the stars is big because of the stars. and so you think you can dance? is successful because it's a summer series and on fox, home to the king-of-kings, american idol. the announcement of paula joining got to dance comes after months of speculation as to what she would do after exiting the idol judging table last year. abc was the first network to enter talks with her, but failed to land her as one of their dancing stars or as the host for the net's relaunch of star search (fun fact: original star search host arsenio hall and abdul used to date). there's no word on whether or not abdul headlining got to dance will impede the pint-sized spitfire (yeah, i went there) from joining simon cowell as a mentor on his new talent competition the x factor. either way, abdul and cowell are set to reunite in the near future. rumor has it abdul will return to the idol stage as part of a special sign-off for mr. cowell.

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want to get carried away?

it's summer and that means books. a lot of books (well, at least for me). the first book i've knocked out this summer is candace bushnell's sex and the city prequel the carrie diaries. the carrie diaries tells the story of sex and the city protagonist carrie bradshaw's senior year of high school in suburban connecticut in the 1980s. it's all about carrie finding her passion for writing and experiencing love for the first time. ironically, all the "sex" carries experiences is vicarious: she still holds her v-card at this point, a far cry from the carrie we've all gotten to know. but that's because this isn't the carrie bradshaw you know. aka this isn't sarah jessica parker. carrie bradshaw started out as candace bushnell's alter ego; the name was used in candace bushnell's auto-biographical weekly sex and love column that was compiled into the book sex and the city, which in turn inspired the tv series and movie franchise. like any adaptation, liberties were taken with the characters when they were thrown on screen. even though hbo's carrie was very similar to candace bushnell in the beginning, as the show progressed she developed into a completely separate person. i don't think the path carrie went down on screen is the same path bushnell would write for her. the carrie of the carrie diaries screams "i'm really candace bushnell." anyway, back to the review. the carrie diaries is pure fluff. it's a good summer/beach read, but is horribly predictable. i should keep in mind that diaries was written for the teen set and that might explain why it's so simple. the whole novel seems like a set-up for already-in-progress sequel. the best part of the book is the last line, which *spoiler alert* sets up carrie's first adventure in new york with none other than samantha jones (fyi: in the literary world, jones isn't a publicist, but in advertising). if you're a fan of the tv series, feel free to pick up the book, but don't think it's a have-to. diaries is carrie's coming of age story, but it could be anyone's. the writing of the book and style of the show are very different, which leads to very different experiences with carrie. the teen-prequel series will no doubt be made into a movie, so maybe just wait to see that. it seems like bushnell knows herself, but not carrie. at least not anymore.