Fancast: dish 'n dat

It's the end of the week! Rejoice!

Before rushing into the market to pick up that last bag of super spicy nachos, don't forget to pick some up for the teeny tiny gladiator show, Gladiator 2000!

As you decide what team you'll be rooting for, remember who the real heroes are this week: namely, Hayden. And, you know, that previous presidential candidate and current senator too and stuff.

Remember the actor you see on that commercial may have gotten his start on a 90's TV show.

Later on, when you watch The Late Late show, remind yourself that Craig is now just like you! And he can vote! Let's just hope he does!

Ever wonder what the stars of your favorite television shows are watching on TV? We got a chance to catch up with some of the cast of Friday Night Lights at "An Evening With Friday Night Lights" hosted by the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and they clued us in on what shows are keeping them busy during the writer's strike:

Derek Phillips' (Billy Riggins) Favorites:
Seinfeld: I’m a huge Seinfeld fan. I love Seinfeld.
Mash: I think that’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed about Friday Night Lights, is that the uh, it has a sense of humor, but it also deals with some very serious issues. That was spectacular about Mash. It dealt with some real harsh stuff going on in the world, but it dealt with it lightly.

Connie Britton's (Tami Taylor) Favorites:
The Office
The Daily Show With John Stewart
Grey’s Anatomy: I had [gotten lost] but got back into it this last season.

Kevin Rankin's (Herc) favorites:
Curb Your Enthusiasm: My favorite thing in the world, I just got it early on DVD, Curb Your Enthusiasm, favorite show of all time!
The Office: both US and UK versions. Yeah, but I mean Curb, I can’t even go beyond that. I love funny stuff. My TV is for funny. I don’t watch TV for drama. I think TV should be for comedy, except for Friday Night Lights.
The Simpsons
Friday Night Lights

Today, Slate wonders if The Wire is going too far by giving Omar nearly magical powers (flying off balconies?? Come on, now) and asks, what's up with the preachiness of the show? Too much talk of hope and dreams and such.

So Omar is Batman now? He can dodge a hail of bullets, then fly off a fifth-story balcony, and slip away? The Wire has always allowed itself a little magical realism when it comes to Omar. Alone of the show's characters, he's allowed to exist outside the normal laws of space and time. We've seen that in small ways (last season's impossible, catbird-seat observation post) and large (his hilarious gunslinger duel with Brother Mouzone in Season 3). It's as though David Simon has decided, perhaps as a present to Omar's many fans, to suspend the show's otherwise ruthless realism when he walks on camera. That said, I fear the balcony escape stretches the Omar Rules too far.

I can explain in one word why this episode disappointed me so much: McNulty. I've already mentioned my puzzlement over Jimmy's too-fast decline and my frustration over the serial-killer fabrication, but it's something else about him that's troubling me: The show drags whenever Dominic West is on the screen. He lacks the unexpected, living, three-dimensionality of practically everyone else on The Wire—from Bunk to Carcetti to Marlo to Dukie. West's McNulty is a dead weight, and I think this season is suffering in direct proportion to the amount of time he spends on the screen. (Also, my friend Jessica Lazar asks a great question: If McNulty is such a drunken wreck, why does always he look so natty? He dresses dandier and dandier every episode.)

What would Kirsten Dunst look like if she were to trade out her indie-chic hipster fashion sense for a 1940's film noir look? Would James Franco look like he was in his element if he were to dress like the actor he is often compared to, James Dean? Vanity Fair answers these questions, and more, in it's Killers Kill, Dead Men Die pictorial, a striking Annie Leibovitz creation that grabs your attention like a stray bullet in a dark alley. Our favorite? The Crime Scene, with Kirsten Dunst, James McAvoy and Bruce Willis and The Ladies of LA, because Anjelica Huston and Diane Lane look like they just belong in that era.

Say it ain't so, Angelina! In a statement sure to disappoint her Tomb Raider fanboy demographic, Brad Pitt's significant other has confessed, among other things, that she sucks on the keyboards! No, not those keyboards, those other ones:

"As Brad knows, I don't really how to turn on a computer," she said to the (probably flabbergasted) audience.

Wait a minute, didn't she play, like, a HACKER in the 90's? And a super cool tech-savy treasure-finding babe on Tomb Raider?

Other of her revelations include:

• She retains fond memories of sharing a single acting scene in Tomb Raider with her father Jon Voight, from whom she's currently estranged. "Strangely enough, the scene was about a daughter and her father who had not spent their lives together and had a lot of questions for each other ...[It was] kind of therapeutic for us to get some things out and talk. We spent that time as two artists, and it was a special time. It was an important time."

• Asked if her humanitarian efforts were an even greater passion than acting, she chose a third alternative: "I love being a mom, and I think that's my big passion: being with my family." [People]

Niki Taylor and stylist Philip Block at the R. Scott French 2008 fashion show (Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2008), February 4, 2008 in New York, NY.
Philip: "Niki, can I stop smiling now?"
Niki: "No, Philip. Look, do you wanna be a supermodel or what?"

The Superbowl has passed, and all bets are off. Literally! A day after Tom Brady helped his team lose the game, all the blogs and sports dailies are quacking about "The Curse of the Babe." "Babe" being Gisele Bundchen, his super cute current girlfriend. "Curse" being the tendency for a beautiful lady to trip up her sports beau during the big game. The blogs were also up in arms about Jessica Simpson's "curse" on Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys.

Fortunately, Gawker's there to diffuse the myth. Don't believe tha hype!

Are celebrity girls really cursed? Or is there a deeper psychological mechanism at work? We know the answer, which we will tell you now.

Item two: This supposed curse really needs to be clarified. Plain old beautiful women are not dangerous to performance, apparently, because damn near every married professional athlete has a beautiful wife. Tiger Woods, the most successful athlete working today, has a famously smoking wife:

Okay, we get it, TV writers have a lot of time on their hands. But what are they doing to pass the time? Staying home and bugging their husbands or wives to death perhaps? Taking to the picket lines, or sacrificing their babies to the Gods of the Strike?

But also they're being really creative! Take this recent NY Mag piece, where writers of big time shows like The Office and The Simpsons try their hand at re-writing each other's shows. The best one, hands down, is the bit where the Ugly Betty gals take on Gossip Girl. A marvelous work of art! Except, perhaps, that bit about Dan taking on "hipster/stalker" Vanessa? Way too far-fetched if you ask me.

By Veronica Becker and Sarah Kuscerka, writers from Ugly Betty

Over the past 13 episodes…
The students of the Upper East Side’s Constance Billard and St. Jude’s schools lied, cheated, slept together, and—against all odds—fell in love. When we left off, Dan and Serena were happy, Vanessa was jealous, Blair was in exile, Chuck was plotting revenge, Jenny’s rise to power was imminent, and Nate was sitting pretty, literally and as always.

UP NEXT…

EPISODE 14: “The Breakup”
Sure, Serena and Dan were a match made in heaven—too bad Manhattan society’s social scene is hell. After one too many masquerade balls, debutante debuts, and Botox brunches, the differences between this Uptown Girl and her Wrong Side of the Tracks Romeo become too much for the couple to bear. After a disastrous V-Day, a spurned D. leaves his love for good.

EPISODE 15: “Saved?”
Blair’s legging-clad lemmings all officially defect to Jenny’s clique, and Blair’s popularity—like her virginity—can’t be resurrected. When her ex won’t forgive her, B. has to find a new guy, someone even more popular than Nate … Jesus. Looks like the only way for Blair to wipe her slate clean is to be born again—literally. Blair’s newfound religion crucifies her sense of style as she trades Imitation of Christ for the real thing.

Did you watch last night's episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles? After all that butt-kicking action, are you up for meeting the face behind the machine that is Cameron? Summer Glau, who plays Cameron on the show, gave Fancast some insight into her character. She let us in on that crazy (and kind of scary!) promotional poster that's been showing up everywhere and giving everyone nightmares, on the possibility of a love connection on the show and of course, on who would win? TX from Terminator 3 or Cameron?

On the comedic aspect of her role:
Well, I always told Josh it’s just me trying to be as honest as possible as Cameron. I never want to ask the audience to laugh at me because then it just doesn’t feel real, and so I just approach everything and try to be really sincere, as Cameron would be. She’s so – I think that is what is so funny about her is just that she can’t be anything but genuine. She’s very open, like a child. She absorbs the behavior around her and tries to understand it as best she can, and sometimes it ends up being extremely funny.

On the strange and kind of disturbing promotional poster:
Yes. You know, I remember when we were on set and James Middleton, who is one of our producers, was describing this concept to me about this awesome poster. I was going to be naked and I wasn’t going to have any legs, and my guts were going to be hanging out. I was trying to act excited, but I was terrified. I thought, oh my gosh, this sounds so scary, and I’m going to be up on a billboard looking like that.

Then I said, oh, come on. Let’s just use a picture, a normal picture, maybe Lena holding a gun and that sounds good. Then I saw the poster, and I thought, wow. I’m actually – I understand the concept now. I thought its’ really different. I think it’s going to make people wonder. It’s interesting. And I think it says a lot about the show.

But I remember they were talking about how they were going to start the campaign in LA in December, but I went home for Christmas and for New Years. And when I got home is when all the posters were up. I can’t even describe how it feels. It doesn’t feel like me. When I look at it, I just think about the team of people that put it together. It doesn’t even really register that it’s me, so it kind of represents all of us to me.

The scene was chaotic, to say the least, at last night’s The Hottie and the Nottie film premiere at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, starring Paris Hilton and Christine Lakin. You might remember Christine as the cranky tomboy on Step By Step and Paris from, well, you just know Paris. And so did every reporter who asked poor Christine about her movie. They wanted to know what it was like working with Paris, what Paris wore on set, who Paris was hanging out with on set. Christine, although probably wanting to talk a bit more about herself and her role, gracefully obliged. I see Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy taught her some manners!

The Hilton clan, Mama Hilton, Papa Hilton and little brother Hilton were there to support the heiress, and so were the paparazzi, who were scrunched up along Sunset blvd. along with the fans (but you could tell who was who because the paps had wild, vicious looks in their eyes! Oh yeah, and cameras.) When Paris arrived, blasting her new album from her black Escalade, the red carpet turned into pandemonium, with reporters, as angry and cold as they were, dropping whatever they were doing to catch a glimpse of her outfit or ask her any pesky question—and there were a lot of pesky questions, having little to do with the movie (which I guess is expected?). Even Perez Hilton, who was next to us when she arrived, slowly trailed off whatever he was talking about just to look at her. Then he came back to earth “I’m sorry, what did you ask?” he stumbled. We can only guess what he was planning on writing about her on his blog.

There were some gems in the crowd, like the adorable little Caleb Guss, whose dad told us he’d be playing Ringo Star’s son in his next film, the lovable Mr. Gary Marshall whose long list of credits include A League of Their Own, Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries and old time classics like the Dick Van Dyke show, Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, and funny man Greg Wilson.

Caleb Guss (young Nate) on working with Paris
Meeting her was fun, bc I’ve seen her in movies and stuff. It was fun being in a movie with someone I’ve seen in a movie! I didn’t know if I was gonna work with her. I always saw her in makeup, and but it was fun to think that I could be in a movie with someone that big!

What he’s watching on TV:
Cartoons? Tv shows, I’m watching Lost and Saturday Night Live, and something else…I don’t know!

The Greg Wilson (Arno) on what he’s watching on TV:
I just started Lost again, my guilty pleasure is American Idol. I can’t stand it, I watch the show, mostly the early rounds, they’re the best, all the meltdowns, the Daily Show and The Daily Show.

Kathy Hilton on what the Hilton household is watching on TV?
I would say we are watching...we love that Dancing with the Stars and American Idol!

Christine Laikin on working with Paris
I actually really got to know her in terms of what we did during our rehearsals and things like that. She’s an incredibly sweet girl, and I think she’s a girls girl. She loves fashion, her closet is amazing, she knows how to have a great time and she’s really loyal to her friends. I think the thing that people would be surprised to know is that she’s got a lot of girlfriends who are really normal, sweet girls, not Hollywood girls, who kind of have just been with her for a long time. So, it was a pleasure getting to kind of hang out with her.

And then, there was Paris:

Paris on Letterman
Letterman was amazing. He’s so sweet, so charming, he’s the best. When the strike’s over we’re gonna talk more.

Paris on directing
Maybe one day, not right now [inaudible]

Paris on Valentines day plans, will she be spending it with Stavros?
I’m single, so I’ll be in Las Vegas working, doing the pussycat dolls show.

Paris on whether she would have wanted to play the Nottie part
No. I couldn’t, like, I couldn’t. The prosthetics are too gnarly!

Toxicology reports are in and it looks like Heath Ledger's death was caused by an accidental OD, putting an end to speculation that illegal drugs were in someway involved in the tragic death. People reports:

"Mr. Heath Ledger died as the result of acute intoxication by the combined effects of Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Diazepam, Temazepam, Alprazolam, and Doxylamine," said an announcement released Wednesday morning by office spokeswoman Ellen Borakove.

Oxycodone is a painkiller, Hydrocodone is also known as Vicodin, Diazepam is commonly called Valium, Temazepam treats anxiety or sleeplessness, Alprazolam is known as Xanax, and Doxylamine is a sedating antihistamine often used as a sleep aid.

As a result, Heath's mourning dad has released the following statement about the news:

The Oscars are coming but the biggest award show party has been the latest victim of the writer's strikes. Vanity Fair has announced that they have canceled the famed Vanity Fair Oscar Party, a soirée that us Fancaster Editors were super eager to attend (yes, attending parties is part of our job description. It's a dirty job, somebody's gotta do it).

"After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party," the New York-based magazine said in a statement.

The black-tie crowd at last year's VF bash at Morton's steakhouse in West Hollywood included Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Sean Penn, Martin Scorsese and the rest of The Departed crew, Oprah Winfrey, Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Ellen DeGeneres, Al Gore, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, Jerry Seinfeld, Jessica Biel, überproducer Brian Grazer, Kirsten Dunst, Clive Owen, Penélope Cruz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Peter O'Toole…etc. [E!]

The expose on Britney Spears on Rolling Stone: "Britney isn't America's sweetheart. She's an inbred swamp thing who chain-smokes, doesn't do her nails and screams at people who want pictures." This isn't an expose on the poor girl, this is a hit piece. A little harsh, Rolling Stone! You're normally one of my favorite reads of day! For shame, Jann Wenner, for shame.

And, by the way, how does not doing your nails turn you into a "swamp thing"?

1980's heartthrob Andrew McCarthy has the scoop on shooting Lipstick Jungle. Turns out they shoot TV shows that are set in New York actually in New York! Not on some Paramount or Universal backlot that looks suspiciously like the downtown scenes from Back to the Future! Yes, all that I know of New York is what I learned taking the Universal Studios backlot tour. I learn something new every day!

He also kind of sort of does a lot of name-dropping. But I guess that's expected from someone with Andrew's acting caliber. The man was in Weekend at Bernie's for God's sakes (by the way catch the entire film at Fancast)

Nov. 8, 2007—I am sitting at a table in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, about to do a table read of the first two episodes of Lipstick Jungle, a new television show for NBC based on Candace Bushnell's novel of the same name. At any given point in the last six months, I would have told you that the odds of my sitting here were 50-50—at best. Candace is the person responsible for creating Sex and the City, and because of that, there has been a lot of time and attention focused on Lipstick Jungle in the hope that lightning might strike twice. But the history of this project has been fraught—even by television's fickle standards.

We shot the pilot in March, were picked up in May, and were scheduled to begin shooting in late July. Then, just over a week before our start date, I got off a plane and checked my messages; there were calls from my agent, my manager, and Tim Busfield, the man responsible for the show's day-to-day operation. I knew I hadn't been fired; if that were the case, I would have received only one sheepish call from whomever had drawn the short straw. But something was no doubt up.

As it turned out, a few weeks earlier, NBC had changed leadership, and the new regime decided to replace the writer/producer on the show. The upshot: We were "shutting down" while a new team could be put in place. For the next few weeks, phone calls and rumors flew as everyone speculated on what had happened and what it meant for the future of the show. Eventually a new writer/producer was hired, and we were told that the show would go forward.

No one I spoke with actually believed that.

There are a lot of ways to bury a show, and having been disappointed more times than I care to admit over the last 25 years, it was easy to see what was happening—or so I concluded with defensive pessimism. Then, one of the lead actresses announced she was pregnant, and the show was officially pushed to late November.

I looked for other work.

Set design for the 80th Academy Awards revealed at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences grand lobby February 6, 2008, in Los Angeles California. The Oscars will be hosted inside a bright and shiny gigantic egg!

Did you check out Heidi Montag's music video? Chances are you commented anonymously (don't lie, we know you're cheekymonkey335), probably with some pretty nasty words. Because by their very anonymous nature, comments encourage nastyness--and also, readers who are moved beyond the depths of anger are more likely to take the time to comment than someone who just goes "meh"!

Well, anyways, turns out, Heidi actually read all the comments! People reports:

Although some PEOPLE.com readers called “Higher” the “worst video ever,” and said her voice sounds like a “chipmunk,” Montag recorded the following message on the gossip site PerezHilton.com:

“She’s so beautiful and she’s an unbelievable singer,” he says. “The quality of music and the music video has never been seen before.”

The 2008 Kid's Choice Award noms have been announced and the tenacious Jack Black has been tapped to be this year's host. Great choice! Except that he'll have to tone down his family un-friendly banter for the kitties. And also, do we really need this award show? Shouldn't they just, like, give Miley Cyrus all of the awards and be done with it?

TV Show
Drake & Josh
Hannah Montana
iCarly
The Suite Life of Zack & Cody

Reality Show
America's Next Top Model
American Idol
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Deal or No Deal

Television Actress
Miley Cyrus ("Hannah Montana")
Emma Roberts ("Unfabulous")
Jamie Lynn Spears ("Zoey 101")
Raven-Symone/That's So Raven

Television Actor
Drake Bell ("Drake & Josh")
Josh Peck ("Drake & Josh")
Dylan Sprouse ("The Suite Life of Zack & Cody")
Cole Sprouse ("The Suite Life of Zack & Cody")

Cartoon
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Ed, Edd and Eddy
The Simpsons
SpongeBob SquarePants

SPORTS:

Male Athlete
Tony Hawk
Shaquille O'Neal
Alex Rodriguez
Tiger Woods

Female Athlete
Cheryl Ford
Danica Patrick
Serena Williams
Venus Williams

OTHER CATEGORIES:

Video Game
Dance Dance Revolution
Guitar Hero
High School Musical: Sing It!
Madden NFL '08

Book
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume One: The Long Way Home
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Harry Potter series
How to Eat Fried Worms