Per the Hollywood Reporter, Helen Mirren has signed on to play Nicolas Cage's momma in the sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which features Ed Harris as the baddie.... Jennifer Hudson is in talks to join another freshly minted Oscar winner, Forest Whitaker, as well as nominee Jackie Earl Haley in Winged Creatures.... Ice Cube will star in Tough Love, a true-story-inspired comedy about an NFL star who makes his spoiled-brat kids spend a summer on the mean streets of Oakland.... MTV Films has bought the spec script I Want to ___ Your Sister, about a brother trying to protect his younger sis from lugs just like him. Um, Date? Marry?
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Question: Just watched the series premiere of Treasure Hunters, and I enjoyed it (especially the interactive portion, hokey as it was) in spite of myself. Someone should turn the producers on to a little show called The Amazing Race, if you ask me. But anyway, my question: Is host Laird Macintosh a robot? Really seems like it. Or is this one for Ask Ausiello? Thanks!
Answer: With Ausiello currently on a well-earned summer break, I guess I'll field this. Laird Macintosh may not be an actual robot, but he plays one on TV. Are those cell-phone instructions not the cheesiest use of a host since, maybe, the disembodied head on the repulsive Unan1mous? While Treasure Hunters isn't a bottom-feeder like that Fox atrocity, I found the setup needlessly, even comically, confusing, and the rip-off factor (not just of The Amazing Race, but of The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure) more than a little off-putting. I'm not wild about the teams-of-three setup: too many characters, not enough character
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Mix equal parts The Da Vinci Code and The Amazing Race, then sprinkle in Nicolas Cage's National Treasure, and you'd get NBC's Treasure Hunter
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