Awesome Guest Star Casting Day

Perhaps it's because the networks are prepping for the TCA Press Tour happening in the next few days, but somehow a bunch of TV shows announced some excellent casting decisions today...


David Anders, most recently appearing in Vampire Diaries, will always be Julian Sark to me. This TV season though, he's guest starring on the new show Once Upon A Time. I was actually left lukewarm by the teaser shown during upfronts earlier this summer, but this casting news along with all the praise from critics is making me optimistic. At the very least, it's a show I will make sure to check out in the fall.

Fresh from his Emmy-worthy guest role on United States of Tara, Eddie Izzard is heading into the court room to go head-to-head with another strong-willed wife and mother in The Good Wife. I'm thinking Julianna Margulies will have her hands full with Izzard as the opposing counsel.

Party Down and Freaks & Geeks alum Martin Starr will appear in an episode of Community next season as a poli-sci professor. Already this month, the show has announced John Goodman and The Wire's Michael K. Williams to guest star next season. Goodman will play a rival dean while Williams will tackle being a biology professor.


Last, but certainly not least, Parks and Recreation finally cast the ever mysterious Tammy 1, Ron Swanson's first wife, and it is none other than Oscar-nominated Patricia Clarkson! If there ever was a woman to strike fear in Megan Mullaly, it'd be her, and I'm so looking forward to the interaction she'll have with real-life couple Mullaly and Nick Offerman. The latter, by the way, was unfairly snubbed by the Emmys yet again. Had to be said.

Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later

Ten years ago, Wet Hot American Summer debut in New York City and according to Wikipedia, it promptly became a "commercial and critical flop." Was the film perfect? Hardly. But it had an energetic cast doing silly antics and has thus gaining a cult following of which I'm a proud member. I re-watched the film today and I was cracking up at all of the same places I cracked up a few years ago. The film is also a wonderful time capsule of the careers of most of the actors in the film who have since gone on to bigger fame. Thus this following quote from the film, uttered by the then unknown Bradley Cooper, takes on new meaning:

Hey, let’s all promise that in ten years from today, we’ll meet again, and we’ll see what kind of people we’ve blossomed into.

Let's see just how they blossomed, shall we?


Both Janeane Garofalo and David Hyde Pierce were already household names when they did the film back in 2001. They already got a couple of Emmy nominations, with Pierce winning three at that point for Frasier. So really it was all downhill from there. Okay, not really. Both kept working throughout the decade mostly sticking to TV. Garofalo most recently appeared on the now-canceled Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior while Pierce finished his stint on the Broadway stage in La Bête earlier this year.


Michael Showalter wrote the film with the director David Wain. Both were part of the MTV series State in the mid-90s. He has mostly stuck to writing and hosting in his own shows, sometimes collaborating with fellow co-star Michael Ian Black. Browsing through her credits, it's probably easier to name TV shows that Marguerite Moreau hasn't appeared in. She was clearly in demand before the film and kept quite busy since. More recently, she made a multi-episode appearance in Parenthood and Shameless.


This entry is really devoted to these two. Not many people knew who the heck Amy Poehler and Bradley Cooper were when this film came out and now? Let's start with what happened right after the film was released. She started her stint in Saturday Night Live and he went on a show named ALIAS. The rest, shall we say, is history. She went on to appear in a few movies and TV shows before branching out on her own show Parks and Recreation where she is brilliant and has been twice Emmy nominated. He, on the other hand, has turned into a in-demand Hollywood heartthrob getting his huge break in The Hangover. He starred in the film's sequel this year and is rumored to play Lucifer in an upcoming film adaptation of Paradise Lost.

Looking Forward To...

Cowboys & Aliens
Release: July 29, 2011
Distributor: Universal
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Adam Beach, Walter Goggins, Keith Carradine, Abigail Spencer, Clancy Brown, and Sam Rockwell

RIP Amy Winehouse (1983-2011)

Today family, friends, and close associates attended a funeral to mourn the death Amy Winehouse who died just three days ago at the age of 27. The news of her death was both shocking and expected, the latter due to her well-known history of drugs and alcohol addiction. She skyrocketed to fame upon the release of her second album "Back to Black" which eventually won her five Grammy awards. The loss of a single life is heartbreaking enough, but to also lose a talent such as hers is absolutely tragic. May she finally rest in peace.

In reaction to her death, British comedian and personal friend Russell Brand wrote on his blog a touching tribute to the late singer. He briefly talked about his personal history with Winehouse as well as her brilliant talent, but the heart of his piece is a call to action on behalf of addicts. It's wonderfully sincere and beautifully written. An excerpt below:

When you love someone who suffers from the disease of addiction you await the phone call. There will be a phone call. The sincere hope is that the call will be from the addict themselves, telling you they've had enough, that they're ready to stop, ready to try something new. Of course though, you fear the other call, the sad nocturnal chime from a friend or relative telling you it's too late, she's gone.

[...] Now Amy Winehouse is dead, like many others whose unnecessary deaths have been retrospectively romanticised, at 27 years old. Whether this tragedy was preventable or not is now irrelevant. It is not preventable today. We have lost a beautiful and talented woman to this disease. Not all addicts have Amy's incredible talent. Or Kurt's or Jimi's or Janis's. Some people just get the affliction. All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill.

We need to review the way society treats addicts, not as criminals but as sick people in need of care. We need to look at the way our government funds rehabilitation. It is cheaper to rehabilitate an addict than to send them to prison, so criminalisation doesn't even make economic sense. Not all of us know someone with the incredible talent that Amy had but we all know drunks and junkies and they all need help and the help is out there. All they have to do is pick up the phone and make the call. Or not. Either way, there will be a phone call.

To read Brand's full tribute, click here.

Link Roundup: Comic Con Edition

So didn't it feel like everyone who's everyone was at Comic Con and reporting on it? Every year, I get so jealous, but then I realized as awesome as it may be to be surrounded by so many like-minded geeks and be close to celebrities, I would absolutely hate the crowds, waiting in endless lines, and my indecision over which panels to check out would render me catatonic.

With that said, here are some Comic Con-related links for you!

Vulture Watch Andrew Garfield deliver a touching love letter to Spider-Man as only a true fan can.

In Contention Kris Tapley summarizes his Con experience the highlight of which was his screening of Winding Refn's Drive.

TVLine Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof debut lost footage from Lost starring the Man in Black and Jacob.

Flix Chatter Ruth gives us an enviable inside look of her great day inside the very popular Hall H.


Doctor Who The trailer for the second half of the sixth season has been released complete with Rory punching Hitler!

Hitfix After some great coverage all weekend, notably from Alan Sepinwall and Daniel Fienberg, the Hitfix staff present their Best and Worst.

Whedonesque Take a look at the massive banner for the Whedon-helmed Avengers combining all of the released character posters.

DailyMotion Some familiar, unexpected, and hilarious faces auditioning for the role of Fringe's Peter Bishop.

These are just a handful of links and news that came out during this very busy weekend. In the days ahead I'm sure there'll be some more news to filter down or a few follow-ups. Feel free to share a link or any news from Comic Con that you want to highlight!

Birthday Boy: Daniel Radcliffe

Just want to give a quick birthday shout out to an unknown young British actor. His name is Daniel Radcliffe and he mostly does small independent films which almost no one gets to see since they usually play in three theaters for a week. Sometimes he dabbles in off-off Broadway plays playing bit roles and such. I'm really hoping his big breakthrough comes. He seems like such an affable young man with lots of enthusiasm and charm.

No, but seriously isn't he like the richest and most famous British actor? It's actually even more amazing that he IS so friendly, down-to-earth, and humble with all of his wealth and popularity. There are as many opinions about the Harry Potter films and how Radcliffe performed as the titular character as there are stars in the sky, but in the end I'm glad he seems to be one of the good ones. Oddly enough, he caught my heart with this scene from the first film:


Couldn't help but root for him from that moment on really.

Breaking Bad Returns and Other TV Thoughts

I'm really happy that Breaking Bad is back. I only started watching the show about 10 months ago marathoning the first two seasons like it was my job. I finally caught up with the third season just a few weeks ago in preparation for this season and thank God I only had to wait a few weeks, because that cliffhanger was deadly.

Now as a regular episode, the premiere was pretty good, but I really expected MORE from a season premiere. Comparing it to other season premieres, it was actually quite tame even if there was a significant death as well as the nerve-wracking resolution to last season's cliffhanger. There were also some amazing performances from Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and Giancarlo Esposito. The latter brought me chills while Paul probably said 5 words total all episode and he still broke my heart. So again, it was good, but the ridiculously high expectations I had didn't help. I still can't wait for the rest of the season though.

A few brief thoughts on other TV shows:

True Blood - Sookie gets all the luck, doesn't she? In one scene, she's surrounded by a naked and wet Eric (taking a dip and ready to pounce on some crocodiles) and a naked and growling Alcide (helping Sookie rescue Eric). I think words were exchange during that scene, but hell if I processed any of them. In other news, Jason is finally out and thank goodness because that storyline was growing stale. The witch stuff didn't kick into high gear until the end when Marnie put her mojo on Pam by literally melting her face off! NOT PAM!

Weeds - Shane gets a shave/haircut! I'm sure a bunch of other stuff happened in the episode, but yay for this! Episode still setting things up, but I feel an actual plot is evolving. I'm still wholly intrigued by the evolution of the Silas/Nancy relationship. Now they have this shaky business weed-dealing relationship as partners. All they need is weed. Still waiting for SOMETHING to happen on the show though.

Alphas - Unfortunately for this show, their second episode reminded me of a very similar episode that Fringe did and done much better. This team is still not gelling with me and I think they thought that teasing the Big Band Conspiracy in this episode would keep viewers. Not sure how successful they will be.

Still need to see tonight's episode of Torchwood. Maybe tomorrow if I don't die from the heat.

Flames on the side of my face

It-it- the fl- it flame- flames. Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breathl- heaving breaths. Heaving breaths... Heaving...

This is pretty much how I've been feeling the past few days. No energy to do much anything, least of all write. Anyone else feeling the heat?

Looking Forward To...

Crazy, Stupid, Love
Release: July 29, 2011
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Director: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
Starring: Steve Carrell, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Bacon, Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Carroll Lynch, Dan Butler, and Josh Groban

Box Office: Massive Opening for Final Harry Potter

The Harry Potter movie franchise may be coming to an end, but not before it made some serious bank worldwide with its final film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 breaking almost every opening record in box office history.


In fact the film conjured up the highest grossing opening weekend of all time (beating $150-million+ opening of The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3) with $169.2 million which included a record-breaking midnight tally of $43.5 million and a mind-blowing $91.1 million opening day, both records held by Twilight films Eclipse and New Moon respectively.

The story was the same worldwide as the film notched a record $312.3 million internationally dethroning the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film which came out earlier this summer. All in all, the last Harry Potter film took in a massive $481.5 million worldwide besting the series' sixth film, Half Blood Prince. Basically, its opening gross was nothing short of magical.


In other box office news, Transformers: Dark of the Moon became the first 2011 release to pass the $300 million milestone while Midnight in Paris officially passed Hannah and Her Sisters to become Woody Allen's highest grossing film grossing to-date $41.3 million. Finally, the only film to open against Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh opened with $7.8 million.