Robert's New Toy

Robert got a miter saw for his birthday (a bit belatedly a couple weeks back) and this weekend was the first chance he had to try it out. He had no project to work on (yet, though I'm told that will soon be rectified) so he just went out and cut up a bunch of wood. The man was positively giddy - I kept hearing little outbursts of "Hee hee!! I love it!!" while he was out there. It must be nice to be so easily amused. :o)




(What the heck is he going to do with that little sliver of wood? "Nothing. But see how straight it is?!!" Yes, dear. It's very straight.)

Movie Morsels 42 - Half-Blood Prince

A(nother) new Harry Potter trailer has premiered - and yes, it has stuff in it the other ones don't.

A Few Videos

First: EW.com has a short behind-the-scenes interview with Tim Gunn posted on their site this morning and I found it quite enlightening (especially with regard to the heinous Kenley). I can't embed it, but you can check it out here.
-----
Second: Bruce Willis popped up on David Letterman last night to promote... something, but the best bit was this clip of his cameo in High School Musical 3.

-----
Third: ETonline has a behind-the-scenes peek at Jake Gyllenhaal's Prince of Persia. I don't care so much about the movie but Jake's body warrants a post!! ;o) The hair has to go, though... and Jerry Bruckheimer really makes me cringe. Just focus on the abs, people!!
***UPDATE: The video starts playing anytime you load the page and it is already annoying me. I can't have that thing blaring out at me every time I log-in to the blog! So I've removed the embedded clip - sorry. You can still check out the video @ ET's site here.

TV Tidbits 32 - UPDATE

So, The Hollywood Reporter is now saying that Lipstick Jungle has indeed been canceled - along with My Own Worst Enemy. There is no official word on either series from NBC as yet, however.

NBC has pulled the plug on freshman tentpole drama "My Own Worst Enemy" and returning sophomore series "Lipstick Jungle," sources say.

The cancellation comes after both shows dropped to new lows in the ratings in recent weeks, with the Christian Slater action series sinking to a 1.8 among adults 18-49 (4.3 million viewers) on Monday night and "Lipstick" falling to a 1.2 (3.3 million viewers) on Friday.

Though the "Lipstick" number was an improvement on the previous week, the show's ratings have been below the line for a while now, and sunk into the red zone after the drama moved to Fridays.

NBC's expectation for the return of "Lipstick" was modest, but "Enemy" was considered an important show. A spy thriller with a grown-up budget inspired by the Bourne movies, "Enemy" received NBC's coveted post-"Heroes" time period. That valuable Monday hour of scheduling real estate has become less worthwhile in recent weeks, however, as "Heroes" shed viewers -- weakening the lead-in for "Enemy" and hastening its decline.

No word whether Monday's episode will be yanked from the schedule, or if the show will solider on for a few more weeks, or what program will take its place. "Enemy" is currently shooting its ninth -- and final -- episode. "Lipstick" has shot all 13 of its initial order. Both are produced by Universal Media Studios; NBC had no comment.

Oh, and MadTV has also been canceled by FOX after 14 seasons. I had no idea that show was still on.

TV Tidbits 32 - Mini-Spoilers & Season Updates

It's been quite a few Wednesdays since I gave you any scoopage but after chatting with my parents earlier this week, I realized once again that I may be in possession of TV-related knowledge that may be of interest to others. And so I have assembled some tidbits here for you, after which I'll update you on which shows are already canceled - and which ones will soon join them. Here goes!

First up: Mini-spoilers (courtesy of TVGuide.com's Matt Roush and EW.com's Michael Ausiello).

NUMBERS:

Liz Warner paired with the "new guy," Nikki worked quite well in the episode "Scan Man." Will they team up again?
Matt: Do you want the good news first? Of course you do. "Nikki and Liz will definitely be teaming up again," exec producer Ken Sanzel tells the Buzz. But for how much longer is the big question, seeing as Liz has a job transfer pending. "That will be addressed in the next few episodes," says Sanzel, "as a big opportunity comes her way."

...is done with the "Charlie needs to get his clearance back" arc, so why must Agent McGowan still be in the episodes? And do you have any "Chamita" scoopage?
Matt: Do you want the bad news first? Of course you do. Agent McGowan's three-episode arc is now done, but, Ken Sanzel shares, "We have plans for a future storyline that would involve Keith Carradine's return." This is where I soothe that sting with the scoop that Charlie and Amita's relationship will definitely continue to mature.

MEDIUM:

Any "OMG, I totally didn't see that coming!" twists we can look forward to on the new season?
Ausiello: As I reported on Monday, Family Ties' Tracy Pollan has signed on for a three-episode arc as a corporate intuitionist who offers Allison a big-bucks job at her company. But that's not the OMG! part. This is: Girlfriend's up to no good!

GHOST WHISPERER (I don't watch this show - and haven't for some time - but Hottie McHusband Jim just died last week and it's "big happenings" for those who do still watch the show. Like my mom. As such, I threw this in...):

I am going to have to give up watching Ghost Whisperer for good. I can't believe they actually went ahead and killed Jim! I am done. Unless you can give me a reason not to be?
Ausiello: I gave you two months' notice and a come-to-Jesus talk with the show's producers and still you were surprised? There's no winning with you people. And here's your reason to keep watching: Jim's not going into the light without a fight. This Friday, his ghost drops a metric ton of angst all over his grief-stricken widow when he refuses to cross over to the other side. By episode's end, he pulls a morally questionable move on a dead guy in an effort to join the living again.

THE OFFICE:

Ask Ausiello has been lacking in Office scoop lately! Spill!
Ausiello: I've got bad news: Turns out Amy Ryan is not returning in the near future. Total bummer. Now for some better news: Another beloved character is!

-----

Oooookay. So, now we move onto cancellations and would-be-canceleds.

Pushing Daisies is the biggest on-the-bubble show right now. Like it's fellow 1 season strike-shortened brother Chuck, Pushing Daisies has been going down in the ratings every week its second season. However, unlike Chuck, Pushing Daisies does not already have a full-season pick-up and, therefore, is in real danger of being canceled. Viewers are currently at around 6 million/week, which isn't fantabulous, and production on the last ordered episode (#13) is set to end within the next couple weeks - and there's been no order for further episodes placed by ABC yet. On one hand, we shouldn't worry yet - officially, ABC has until January to exercise its options with the show. On the other hand, Lost will be coming back in January... in Daisies' day and time slot. Prognosis? Still unclear. Oh, and worse news? If Daisies' 13th episode does wind up being its series finale, word is that it'll be a less-than-satisfying end to the show (much like The Sopranos' finale). Whee.

If you are a fan of Life, however, the news is much better - its next 9 episodes were just picked up by NBC. (Oh, and Knight Rider's gotten a full-season order, too. Rejoice.)

Like Lipstick Jungle? Start saving up to by the DVDs because new episodes are likely to stop coming - supposedly, NBC moving the show to Friday night is just the first nail in Jungle's coffin. Sorry, guys.

And finally - a refresher list of those that have already passed on: Do Not Disturb, Opportunity Knocks, The Ex List, Easy Money and Valentine.

Hollywood Goes Bollywood Revealed

1. Helen Mirren
2. Katherine Heigl
3. Ashley Judd
4. Liz Hurley
5. Madonna
6. Oprah Winfrey
7. Goldie Hawn
8. Jessica Alba
9. Anna Kournikova
10. Alyssa Milano

Well, I hit 50% this week, so I guess that's not too bad. A mini shout-out to Christina for guessing once again (yay!)... but her guesses were 0/2. :o( Still, I enjoyed seeing someone else's take on the photo. Keep guessing!!

Bill Buttlicker

Oh. My. Goodness. I have to say that I have very much not been impressed with The Office so far this season... but last Thursday night's phone exchange between Dwight and Jim was HI-larious!!! Definitely the best moment of the season, no question. Check it out (before YouTube takes it down):

My favorite, favorite part? At the 1:30 mark "BUTTLICKER! OUR PRICES HAVE NEVER BEEN LOWER!" I must've watched that 10 times if I watched it once.

Amazing Race Recap - week 7

This is a pretty good one... not fantabulous, but pretty good. As usual, I've highlighted my favorite bits.

Finally! I've been waiting all season for a challenge that has all the criteria to make a good Amazing Race episode: It has to be exotic and indigenous to the episode's country; it must be frustrating; and it must make the most ridiculous teams look really, really silly. Thank you, Delhi, and thank you, Holi festival!

In this festival, people celebrate by running around pelting each other with paint dye and water. It seems odd that they would hit people with the ingredients for paint rather than just splattering them with paint. Seems pretty inefficient: In vaudeville, what if instead of being hit in the face with a pie, the straight man was splattered with flour, water, sugar, eggs, and cream, and then tossed into an oven preheated at 350? But I'm not complaining: This roadblock would not have been half as fun without the giant multicolored mushroom clouds enveloping our players.

This was the rare episode that was actually better than the previous week's teaser. And I have the divorcées to thank for that. To see Kelly, in second place, darting into the melee, only to be instantly set upon by hordes of paint tossers, was to have Christmas come early. It was as if the celebrants had been alerted to their arrival and told, "Color with extreme prejudice." Kelly dashed in circles, only to be pooped back out onto the sidelines without going up the ladder she needed to in order to grab an envelope.

The attack on Kelly might have seemed a bit beyond the pale, which is why, before their arrival, the producers stuck in some careful reminders about why she deserved it. First we saw her and Christy snickering about how awful it would be to kiss either Andrew or Dan: Mean Girls 101. And then, as their lost cab driver took them through slums, they turned up their noses at the smell. I'm not saying it didn't smell, but what better way to legitimize the people attacking her than by first showing her calling their home stinky? If I heard them walking down my block, bitching about how bad my street was and how they couldn't believe anyone would live there, I would be within my rights to run out and scribble on their faces with a Sharpie. I think it's in the Constitution.

It would have been enough to see Kelly repeatedly pelted in the face with paint, but the icing on the canvas was that she had completely misread the clue. Each player was supposed to thumb through a ring of hanging envelopes, all but six of which had the words "TRY AGAIN" written in big letters on them; to move on, you had to find the envelope marked "THE AMAZING RACE." The divorcées thought you had to yank down one envelope at a time, bring it back to your teammate, and then open it up. Even if you're prone to misinterpreting clues, as the divorcées are, wouldn't the fact that the envelope had the words "TRY AGAIN" in huge letters be a huge clue that perhaps it was a dead end? I've been racking my brains trying to think of anything that the producers could have written on the envelopes that could be more obvious, and I can't come up with anything. "YOU'RE AN IDIOT"? Nope, still not as clear as "TRY AGAIN." Anything short of electrifying the wrong envelopes wouldn't work, and even that might not dissuade them. Lab rats in mazes could have figured this out faster than they did.

Terence finished it much quicker, although with just as much drama. When he grabbed his envelope, he shoved people out of the way like George Costanza pushing his way out of a kids' birthday party when a smoke alarm goes off. But to be fair, he did have paint in his nose, a fact he would not let a disgusted Sarah forget: "I'm spitting out color. Look!" I'd hate to be Sarah when Terence gets a hemorrhoid.

I enjoyed Dan's reaction to the roadblock scene, though: "It was like a wild rave party, except there weren't any hot blond girls, and all we had was a sausagefest of guys with paint." It's like Dan learned everything he knew about raves from a 1998 issue of Maxim that someone left in his frat bathroom.

Meanwhile, Ken and Tina brought up the rear. Ken took on the colorful task, and when Tina began screeching obvious orders to him, a group of revelers attacked her with green paint as she called them "Stupid morons!" I'm sure at this moment, Ken briefly wondered if he had magical powers and had willed this to happen. Imagine how much more pleasant life would be for him if every time Tina snapped at him, a complete stranger would magically come up and hit her in the face with paint. It's like the old Milton Berle "Makeup!" bit, except potentially toxic.

Everyone got the clue, and even the divorcées caught on, although afterward they were convinced cabbies were ignoring them because they were multicolored. As they woefully yelled things like, "I can't believe no one will stop!...They acted as if we didn't exist!", yes, I too was aware that it looked like Bertram van Munster was using them to stage an incredibly ham-handed Soul Man-like morality tale on privileged whites learning what it's like to be an African-American trying to get a cab in New York City. Of course, that all stopped when they finally did get a cab and began making faces out the window to scare people. You stay classy, divorcées!

Before the next detour, Ken and Tina had to do their penalty speed bump, handing out holy water. Ken somehow missed that it was holy water, and kept making lighthearted jokes. Did he think that he was handing out refreshments to the world's slowest marathon runners? Was Ken ever an altar boy? Because I'd hate to hear his communion-wafer shtick.

The detour was a choice between following confusing power lines, finding the numbers on the small tags hanging from them, and writing them down or hauling and then manually grinding giant bags of dried chilis. Terence and Sarah were the only ones who opted for the chilis, in what turned out to be such a painfully spicy experience. When they finally finished, Sarah said, "If somebody said to me right now, 'Put cow manure on your body and it will make you feel better,' I would lather myself up with it, that's how much pain I'm feeling." I think it says a lot about Terence that she would make this claim, and yet still balk at spraying water up his nose.

Nick and Starr and Toni and Dallas teamed up for the power lines, and got it right on the first try. The divorcées, however, failed numerous times, keeping their streak of misunderstanding clues alive. The frat guys made the same mistake of following the wrong numbers, allowing Ken and Tina to pass them both. I know it seems like my loyalties are constantly shifting, but I did enjoy watching Christy try to block Tina's view when the judge was checking her number, only for her and Kelly to be proven wrong yet again. Hey, on my food chain of disdain, Ken and Tina rank slightly higher than the divorcées, so when forced to choose a side when they face off, I'll root for the green machine.

(But forget the teams. In this detour, I found myself rooting for the animated judge. If he was handed a wrong number, he tossed it back with utter contempt: Do not come to my country and miscount my power lines! Do I come to your country and mock your nuclear plants? But when a team was right, he'd make a big show of disapproving of their solution, only to suddenly grin and give a thumbs-up. With his scowls and that psych-out, he was like the Indian Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest all rolled into one. If American Idol's ratings continue to drop next season, I recommend they sub him in as a money-saving scheme. Who knows: If he catches on, wearing newspapers on your head could be this year's Rachel 'do.)

In the end, Nick and Starr landed in first place yet again. It looked like their time was so fast that Phil's matmate wasn't prepared; he stood over to the side, watering the lawn (and doing a bad job of it, judging by the giant brown spots), and Phil had to call him over. I later realized this had nothing to do with Nick and Starr's speed, as he had to be called over for everybody. Erratically showing up late, seeming distracted at all times...hey, he could join power line judge and be the new Paula Abdul!

Ultimately, the frat guys once again finished second to last, surviving by being slightly less incompetent than the losing team. But it was the divorcées' turn to go home. They bade farewell tearily, calling themselves best friends 4-eva, and giving one last dig to their ex-husbands for good measure. Said Christy, "I would have never had this experience had I still been stuck at home ironing sheets for [my ex]." So with this loss, I wish these bestest of friends the bestest of times, ironing sheets for each other.

I still don't have a clear team to root for, even after all these weeks. I am not as averse to Nick and Starr as Robert is - he really, really, REALLY hates Nick - but I don't actively like them, either. I was surprised that Ken and Tina did so well (or, rather, were able to benefit from other teams being so very stupid so well) because I think every other Speed Bump'd team (in previous seasons) has promptly bitten the dust. I could not believe how stupid the divorcees were; Robert almost felt bad for them but I did not. They are just way, way, way too stupid for pity. Plus, they're kind of mean. And I never got over their overreacting to Sportsbragate. The fat fratties are my #1 team to go home. The dudes do NOTHING. They don't even try!! They never rush, they always just stand around looking helpless when they can't figure something out and they are big whiny crybabies. Ugh. I really hope they go home next. Oh, and Robert adored the guy at the sewing machine acting as the detour judge. He could not get enough! If they start selling T-shirts with that guy's photo on'em, you know what to buy Robert for Christmas.

Ayyyy! Puzzle 14: Hollywood Goes Bollywood

Not really, but I thought the poster's tag line was catchy. :o) This week's puzzle is really just a bunch of Hollywood actresses dressed in saris. Whee.

As usual, answers go up Wednesday and my guesses are in the comments.

Robert's Birthday Dinner - Take 3

So, in "Better Late Than Never" news, here are a few photos of Robert's third (and final - yay!!) birthday celebration. Robert's parents made dinner for him on Halloween night so we headed over to the McCauleys' to dine with the family. The dinner (which consisted of 'meat-on-a-stick,' fried rice and asparagus [which I actually ate, thank YOU!]) was quite tasty and Robert got a special pumpkin cobbler for dessert (which he loved). I've never seen a family fight more over cheese, sour cream or whipped cream... ! Anyway, a few spirited political debates aside, it was a lovely way to cap Robert's birthday month. (Geez. I hope you're reading this, Robert, because I'd better be getting a month, too!!!!)

This is Sweet Pea, Maria's demon cat, dressed as a sailor.

And here is Robert, leading us in a somewhat tone-deaf rendition of Happy Birthday... (he wouldn't let me include the photo of him blowing out the candles).

Rest in peace, Robert's Birthday Month. I shall not miss thee.