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January 11th, 2010
06:37 PM ET
Pam & Jim's two-part baby special on 'The Office' testing captions Viewers will get to meet Pam and Jim Halpert's new addition in a special two-part episode of “The Office” airing on March 4 and March 11. Pam’s original due date was pushed from February to March due to the winter Olympics. Baby Halpert will have been in incubation for about 10 months. Another new addition to the NBC comedy will be Academy-Award winner Kathy Bates, who will join the show on February 4 as the CEO of a company that acquires Dunder Mifflin.
January 11th, 2010
04:45 PM ET
Carole King & James Taylor bring back the '70sA few years ago, I was fortunate enough to step into a time machine of sorts for a performance I'd been too young to experience the first time around: Carole King and James Taylor playing the legendary Troubadour club in West Hollywood, with their original backing band, The Section – drummer Russ Kunkel, bassist Lee Sklar, and guitarist Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar. A few hundred people squeezed into the tiny old club for each of the half-dozen performances, the first time that combo had graced that stage since 1970. Needless to say, the crowds went crazy for every show – and now those who missed out can get a taste of the magic. Today, King and Taylor announced North American concert dates for their Troubadour Reunion tour, featuring The Section and other special guests, including King's longtime sideman, Rudy Guess; the multi-talented Robbie Kondor; singer/violinist Andrea Zonn; and longtime Taylor backup singers Arnold McCuller and Kate Markowitz. Tickets go on sale January 23, a few days after they play "Today" and "The Late Show with David Letterman," and after spring dates in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, they kick things off in the U.S. May 7 in Portland, Oregon. Both JamesTaylor.com and CaroleKing.com have more info. If the '07 Troubadour show – one of the best I've ever attended, without a doubt – are any benchmark, tickets won't last very long.
January 11th, 2010
02:48 PM ET
French New Wave pioneer Eric Rohmer deadEric Rohmer, who directed such art-house classics as "Claire's Knee" and "Love in the Afternoon," has died, according to news reports. He was 89. Rohmer was one of a group of filmmakers, including Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, who created what came to be called "La Nouvelle Vague," the New Wave, French films dominated by jump cuts, hand-held cameras, and a love for Hollywood genres such as film noir. Rohmer - who was born Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer - Truffaut and Godard all wrote for Cahiers du Cinema, the publication that became their manifesto. But while Godard's films embraced the experimental - sometimes to the point of antagonizing the audience - and Truffaut's showed a love for old Hollywood styles, Rohmer's were often about relationships between small casts of characters, men and women trying to cope with sexual temptation, sometimes with drily comic results. (For some, too much so: "Kind of like watching paint dry," was what a Gene Hackman character once said of Rohmer's talky films. Editor's note: The previous sentence originally said Hackman said the line, not his "Night Moves" character. We regret the error.) The filmmaker was beloved by colleagues for his youthful attitude and warm friendships. Rohmer's other films included "My Night at Maud's," "Pauline at the Beach" and "The Duke and the Lady."
January 11th, 2010
01:29 PM ET
Charles Barkley impersonates Alicia Keys on SNL
 testing captions Retired NBA player Charles Barkley channeled his inner lady in a promo for his Saturday Night Live hosting gig that aired on NBC during one of the NFL Playoff games on Saturday. Barkley donned some jewels, makeup and heaps of fake hair to play musical host Alicia Keyes pounding the ivories for a version of her hit song, “Empire State of Mind.” The spoof never made it onto the actual live show later that night, maybe because the producers realized that Charles, while good at basketball and surprisingly funny as a host, makes one ugly woman.
January 11th, 2010
11:35 AM ET
Who's off the market in Hollywood, London and Yankee Stadium testing captions Love is in the air, or maybe in the bottled water they put in talk-show green rooms.
According to Buble’s camp, the singer proposed to the South American beauty two months ago in front of her family in Argentina. Soccer moms across America will surely be disappointed.
January 11th, 2010
08:45 AM ET
'Simpsons' marks 20 years on a high note
 testing captions Four hundred and fifty (that's right - four, five, zero) episodes in, "The Simpsons" is still capable of being truly great television. It's also still better than a lot of comedies out there. But let's be honest, it's been all downhill for this show ever since the fourth or fifth season. There have been some gems in the past decade, like the VH-1 parody "Behind the Laughter" and "E. Pluribus Wiggum," where Springfield holds a presidential primary, but it's mostly been sub-par stuff for a long time. Thankfully, the 20th-anniversary episode was one of those gems, focusing mostly on Krusty the Clown's new sidekick Princess Penelope (voiced with a New York accent by Anne Hathaway), and their surprising love affair. If not for the romantic twist, this might have been yet another "Krusty-on-the-verge-of-being-washed-up" episode. Instead, it was surprisingly sweet to see the old Clown find love - though admittedly it wasn't as successful as episodes involving Moe's dating life. FULL POST  |
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