A faux version of New York City that Spider-Man and the Transformers once called home and a New England-y lot that was featured in Back to the Future as well as episodes of TV's Ghost Whisperer, Monk and House went up in flames Sunday morning when a massive, 12-hour fire tore through the Universal Studios back lot in Universal City, Calif. The blaze began just before dawn on a sound stage and ultimately claimed at least one building and three blocks' worth of movie facades, while more than 100 firefighters and water-dropping helicopters battled the flames. The tragedy is believed to be one of the longest-running commercial fires in Los Angeles County history, partly due to low water-pressure which slowed down the dousing effort.Nine firefighters and one sheriff's deputy suffered minor injuries, some in an explosion in the building housing the studio's (replaceable, thankfully) videotape and film reel library. The clock tower featured in Back to the Future was among the landmark set ...
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One CIA mole down, one to go? On Night 1 of TNT's The Company, Alfred Molina's Harvey Torriti made clever use of a few "Barium meals" to suss out a deep-placed snitch within the spy group's ranks. If only that were the end of their problems. As the series — executive-produced by Ridley and Tony Scott — resumes this Sunday at 8 pm/ET, the action weaves in a Hungarian uprising and the Bay of Pigs debacle, all while a second mole flies under the radar. TVGuide.com spoke with Molina about the twists and turns ahead.
TVGuide.com: What brought you to this project? Was it the pedigree of the Scotts?Alfred Molina: That didn't hurt, but when I received the script and they told me who and what was involved, it just struck me as a really exciting thing. The script was terrific and it was a wonderful part. I was very, very happy to get involved.
TVGuide.com: Are you an espionage buff at all?Molina: A little bit. I'
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Arriving on DVD April 17: Spider-Man 2.1: Extended Cut, featuring eight minutes of never-before-seen footage, new commentary and more.... LL Cool J will host the 38th NAACP Image Awards, airing Mar. 2 on Fox.... TVGuide.com's Matt Mitovich previews the week ahead in TV every Monday on The Jimmy Barrett Show on Richmond, Virginia's WRVA 1140, as well as for our friends Down Under on News.com.au's Show Talk. (Don't get confused if you check out the latter, though: The Aussies are, like, six months behind us TV-wise.)Monday's Today's News was written by Ben Katner.
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Having celebrated his 84th birthday on Dec. 28, comic-book legend Stan Lee is still as exuberant and industrious as ever. In 2005, the man responsible for creating or cocreating Spider-Man, X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and dozens of other Marvel characters formed POW! Entertainment with partners Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman. The company's first release is the animated tale Mosaic, arriving in stores today on DVD. It's the story of a teenage girl (voiced by Anna Paquin) who's given the responsibility of saving the world after being transformed into a chameleon-like creature. TVGuide.com recently spoke with Lee about his plans for POW! and about the upcoming season of the Sci Fi
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Just how dark and tangled a web will MJ's superhero beau weave in Spider-Man 3, due out in May 2007? "You can see on the poster that it's literally black!" Kirsten Dunst told TVGuide.com at a press gathering for Marie Antoinette (in theaters Friday). Not only does the franchise's third entry — which features the introduction of Venom, Spidey's black-goo-based polar opposite — promise to be the grittiest, it might even bring Peter Parker's blockbuster big-screen adventure to a close. "We're not sure [if this is the final entry]," Dunst said. "Might be, might not be. But it's always been something I can [do] when it's coming up, so it's weird that it maybe won't be part of my life anymore."
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