Hey, it’s February. Is spring here yet?? I am cold!!! This week, I’ve got thoughts on the Idol week, Gilmore news, news and thoughts on Armed and Famous, Batman news, and more. Sorry, no movie review this week as I haven’t seen anymore. I’m thinking about reviewing some older movies that I’ve seen a while back as a way to do movie reviews if I haven’t seen anything new. Again, I am over on My Space now so if any of you are that I don’t know about already, let me know. I realize very few of you are on My Space but just wanted to let you know in case.
Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Epic Movie – $18.6 million. 2. Smokin’ Aces – $14.6 million. 3. Night At The Museum – $9.6 million. 4. Catch and Release – $7.7 million. 5. Stomp The Yard – $7.7 million. 6. Dreamgirls – $6.7 million. 7. Pursuit Of Happyness – $5 million. 8. Pan’s Labyrinth – $4.8 million. 9. The Queen – $4 million. 10. The Hitcher – $3.6 million.
American Idol is now lifting up other shows around it ratings wise. House aired at 8pm on Tuesday night following American Idol and House had its biggest ratings of the season. Bones which aired at 7pm on Wednesday night before Idol also had its best ratings of the season. My thoughts on this week. Some good talent. I thought the talent was better overall on last week’s episodes. Highlight of the week had to be the 64 year old guy who got to audition as a tribute to his wife who passed away from cancer two days before the audition. It was a dream of his to audition despite being over the age limit and his wife made him promise to audition. He had a good voice too. The judges were very touched by the audition and Simon led the group in thanking him for the audition. Simon stood up and said that he wanted to shake the man’s hand. Just a really nice moment!! I liked Chris Sligh on Tuesday’s episode. He was the guy that said people told him he looked like Jack Osbourne and the judges immediately thought he looked like Justin Guarini. Good personality and definitely funny. When asked by the judges on why he was there, he replied “I’m here to make David Hasselhoff cry” which is referring to when Idol cameras caught Hasselhoff crying after a performance by Taylor Hicks last season. One thing that is funny this year is that contestants aren’t leaving without a fight maybe more than any other year. Everyone has now started to just keep singing expecting to change the judges’ opinions. Did anyone else say “other door” when Simon tried to go back inside the audition room but pushed on the wrong door? That has been happening to contestants all through this season so far. It was funny to have it happen to a judge.
Other Idol news. Katharine McPhee’s album is now in stores and she is all over the media circuit promoting it. She performed two songs on Regis and Kelly this morning. I’m liking what I am hearing so far about the album and I am going to buy it soon. Larry King Live last week had his second Idol themed show in as many weeks. The first show had Taylor Hicks and Fantasia Barrino in the same studio taking calls and questions. Last week had Justin Guarini, Kimberly Caldwell, Ace Young, and Bucky Covington. They also had four Idol “rejects” from the previous night’s episode to discuss the show. Fun show. William Hung also appeared on the show and performed “Achy Breaky Heart”. It is off his new album. He’s not doing bad at all for himself. It seemed like mostly everyone was nice to the “rejects” They all agreed that people know what they are getting into with that show. Bucky pointed out that when he read his contract that it said that if we find something funny about you, the show will exploit it. Kimberly pointed out that everyone knows what they are getting into with that show especially after 6 years but did say that the judges didn’t have to be as rude as they are at times. Both Idol shows were very good.
Is it likely that Gilmore Girls isn’t coming back for an 8th season? Well, that’s the word from E Online’s Kristin as she said she has talked to a lot of her inside sources with the show. If you didn’t know, the actors’ contracts are up after this season. Alexis Bledel did an interview with TV Guide saying that she isn’t interested in continuing the show. The CW apparently is planning on going forward with a Rory-less 8th season if Alexis doesn’t want to come back. Lauren Graham though is standing by Alexis saying that she won’t do the show without Alexis. They have decided to work as a team here and if both want to continue the show, they will, but if they don’t, they won’t. It’s not all bad news though as Kristin also says that CW President, Dawn Ostroff, has stated that the CW will do “whatever it takes” to keep the show going and turn the show around creatively for another season. The show’s CW rep had this to say about the rumors of Alexis not coming back saying it’s “really just a†rumor…I’ve never heard that from Alexis’ people or any reliable source close to the production.” My thoughts on this is that the show should definitely not continue without Rory. If there isn’t Rory, it’s not Gilmore Girls!! The show is about both Rory and Lorelei and you can’t move the show on without one of them. Just my opinion though. I think I’d rather them end it than continue without one of the two main characters. The characters are a team and it’s nice to see Alexis and Lauren sticking together as a team in real life too. So, it’s all rumors right now and we’ll have to wait and see how this plays out. This week’s episode had Luke winning the custody case over April. He and Anna will share custody over her. Lorelai’s letter really helped Luke in his case. She wrote in it how Luke had been such a great father figure for Rory when she didn’t have a dad in her life and how Luke was always going to be someone in their lives. Christopher ended up finding the rough draft of the letter and didn’t take it well at all as he has been very jealous of Luke lately. Christopher told Lorelai that he wasn’t going to be her second choice despite Lorelai saying that she was committed to him and not Luke. Christopher walked out the door and things don’t look good for their relationship but previews for next week show that Lorelai and Luke may continue to get better. I’m sure that letter had to sting when he is reading how Luke was there for Rory when she didn’t have a father in her life and would do anything he could for her. If you’re not a Gilmore watcher, Christopher is Rory’s dad but hasn’t always been a part of her life and Lorelai raised Rory on her own. Two better episodes and I’m beginning to believe what Ostroff said about the second half of the season being much better. It has been so far.
Big Brother fans, we have a season 8. Big Brother 8 has officially been picked up for this summer on CBS. The really interesting note out of this is that Arnold Shapiro has stepped down as executive producer and will instead be an executive consultant. Allison Grodner will still be executive producer of the show as her and Shaprio both produced it together. The two of them took over the show with Big Brother 2 and changed up the show from the first season. Grodner was quoted as saying that they are looking at this season as a new start, “We consider ‘All-Stars’ sort of the end of an era, and now we’re getting a chance to start once again with a fresh cast and new twists”.
Katie Holmes is out of the Batman sequel. Variety is reporting that she “dropped out” of the movie. Other reports say that there wasn’t really much interest in bringing her back in the role. There is talk that her character is in the script and the character may be getting recast. Two names have been thrown around this week as replacements with Rachel McAdams being one but as of yesterday, it didn’t sound very likely. If you didn’t see Batman Begins, I recommend checking it out as I think it may just be the best out of all the Batman movies.
Jennifer Garner is set to star in a remake of the movie “Christmas In Connecticut”.
Survivor Fiji Islands premieres next Thursday, February 8th on CBS.
The 108 inch television was shown on Live With Regis and Kelly this week. Very impressive looking but where are you going to put that thing?? They are doing tech week on the show which is always fun. Leo Laporte was on there for two days showing some of the latest in computers and other gadgets. There was a lot of nice things shown this week from computers to TV’s to phones. Regis isn’t an electronics person at all so it’s funny to listen to him have fun with it.
Sony is already talking about cutting prices on the Playstation 3. Sony is taking a hit in their video game department mostly due to the fact that the PS3’s are expensive to make. Prices were already cut on them in Japan and it may happen elsewhere too as Sony is looking at ways to break even in their video gaming line. Nintendo’s numbers are still up though with Wii’s selling very well.
The date for the final book of the Harry Potter series is set for a July 21, 2007 release at 12:01am.
ABC is moving “The Knights Of Prosperity” to 7:30pm to get the new comedy away from American Idol. The show sounds like it was doing decent until American Idol premiered and viewership has dropped for the show by over 2 million viewers since Idol premiered. Kristin over at E Online is saying that she has heard that the show’s back nine episodes haven’t been picked up meaning it will likely be canceled. Idol also took a ton of viewers away from CBS’s reality show, Armed and Famous as it has been pulled from the schedule. Ratings for the show have dipped since Idol returned.
Well, bummer that Armed and Famous got canceled. I didn’t even get to watch it and review it yet before it was canceled as I hadn’t had time to sit down and watch the episodes. The show is going to air on VH-1 this weekend in a five hour marathon. The last of the five episodes is an unaired episode and there is talk that the final two episodes could also air on VH-1 at a later date. The marathon begins Saturday at 4pm. I watched all four episodes over the weekend and really enjoyed the show. The show features celebrities training to be police officers in Muncie, Indiana. The celebrities are each teamed with a veteran officer. They go through a training program and are then sworn in as officers. They then go out on late night patrols. The cast is Erik Estrada, Trish Stratus, La Toya Jackson, Jack Osbourne, and Jason Acuna. If you didn’t know, I’m a big Trish Stratus fan. A lot of the women in WWE are there for looks and Trish was brought in that way. She wanted to become a wrestler and worked hard at it. She became one of the best women’s champions of all time. She recently retired from the ring and she is missed. Trish has always been tough in the ring and it shows on this show. She took the full version of the taser in the training which no one else wanted to do. Jack Osbourne said “you’re the toughest dude I know” and that “you’re more of a man than me”. Everyone got a big laugh out of the comments. Erik Estrada arrested a 75 year old woman who said she’d always wanted to meet him but not like this. She then kept calling him Ponch all the way to the station which had him and his partner cracking up laughing. It’s not all laughs though as there has been a ton of serious moments too in this show whether it is criminals getting out of control or the celebrities learning on the job of how tough police work is. LaToya Jackson has impressed me with how far she has come since the beginning of the show. Jason Acuna proved a lot of people wrong too as several thought he wouldn’t take it seriously cause of the show that he is from. He’s been a solid officer but hasn’t gotten as much TV time as the others. Jack Osbourne has really changed and for the better!! He is not at all the person that I last saw him as on TV. Good for him!! I recommend checking out the marathon. I found it to be a very entertaining show.
I sure wish that season one of The Hills on DVD would hurry up and get released so I can start watching season two on TV.
Diamond Comics is going to be celebrating ten years of Buffy The Vampire Slayer at February’s New York Comic Con. The convention takes place February 23-25. From the Buffy cast, Nicholas Brendon, Juliet Landau, and Bianca Lawson will be appearing.
TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, February 6th. Anything But Love (Volume 1), Baywatch (Season 3 with syndicated episodes on it), Ben 10 (Season 1), Charlie and Lola (Volume 3), Charmed (Season 7), Kate and Allie (Season 3), Mad About You (Season 3), Teen Titans (Trouble In Tokyo), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Season 6).
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