Laura Kightlinger, The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman
Laura Kightlinger knows Hollywood. Over the last 20 years, she has racked up writing and acting credits on shows ranging from Roseanne to Saturday Night Live to Will & Grace. Now her sights are set on spoofing Tinseltown (and her own self-confessed laziness) in IFC’s new series The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, premiering tonight at 11 pm/ET. A perfect vehicle for Kightlinger’s brand of dry, irreverent wit, this anti-Entourage revolves around two best friends navigating the lower levels of the entertainment biz. TVGuide.co
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Dancing with the Stars Parts of tonight's looong two-hour finale reminded me of a wedding (even more than that awful band usually does): the way the rejected couples marched in and did their obviously unchoreographed freestyle, and then the finalists kept giving their partners loving looks like they were at the altar. Other parts made me think that my DVR was acting up — we watched the same clips at least three times, just in varying lengths and orders. They had to be absolutely certain that we knew just how far these stars had come. OK, I did enjoy all those rehearsal scenes showing how adorable the relationships between the pros and their star students had become. I love how much emphasis Stacy, Tony, Drew
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Dancing with the StarsTwo things caught me off guard tonight: 1) How worried I was when Jerry and Anna were the first named safe until next week. I mean, it seemed obvious that either he or George would be the next to go, but suddenly the same thought went through my mind as through Stacy's and Lisa's: What if the voting audience overturned the judges' calls once again, sending the better dancers home before the struggling ones? And 2) How thoroughly giddy and nostalgic seeing the "Time of My Life" dance from Dirty Dancing performed exactly as it was in the movie. It had me jumping up and down and pointing like a lunatic ("He's doing the knee turn!" "She's not invading his space!" "They're going to do the lift!!!
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The Pittsburgh Steelers
Dancing with the StarsYou gotta love a show that decides its demographic is so broad that it can have the Pussycat Dolls perform on it one week and (the man, the myth, the legend) Barry Manilow the next. I'd like to picture teenagers and their grandmas watching together in harmony, reminiscing about Lola and her wild times at the Copacabana. And somewhere in between, there are folks like me, who tune in to see such unscripted gems as: Drew threatening to wear a rubber band and a peanut shell next week, and then Tom so quickly saying, "Most guys wouldn't admit a peanut shell would do the job." Also, during the first round of "who is safe from elimination," a sharp-eyed cameraman cut away to Ed
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Alfre Woodard in Something New
In the romantic comedy Something New, in theaters today, Sanaa Lathan plays an upwardly mobile African American who, despite cries of foul from friends and family, finds herself falling in love with Simon Baker's hunky landscaper. Helping the conflicted miss sort through her feelings is Desperate Housewives' Alfre Woodard, playing mom to Lathan — as she did in Love & Basketball. TVGuide.com spoke with Woodard about Something New's important message, the certain something she brings to the table, and, of course, life on Wisteria Lane.
TVGuide.com: Just recently, I interviewed your Something New
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Isaiah Washington, Grey's Anatomy
Dancing with the StarsFinally! By the looks of all those montages and Tom's weird sit-down interview, the producers were very ready to say goodbye to Master P and Ashly. I seriously doubt they had all that prepared for any other couples. And with their departure, this will actually be a tough competition from now on. (Oh, and P? I think I'd rather watch you dance than have to endure that lame Scarface accent ever again.) Even with the new all-live format, the result show felt like so much filler. Regardless of what you think of Spice Girls 2.0, the Pussycat Dolls, wasn't it a little out of place to have them sing their hit without a ballroom dancer in sight? Also, why was that other guy singing about the cha-cha (was that the
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Nashawn Kearse, Desperate Housewives
Dancing with the StarsThe producers must have heeded my warning last week, because I don't know how many times Tom and Samantha reminded us that next week, the only time to see the dances will be on Thursdays — like it's some revolutionary concept. So, powers-that-be, if you're reading now, my next request is that you keep the Thursday shows to one hour and stop cutting into my Earl time! On to the results. I believe Ashly was the only one truly shocked to hear that she and Master P were once again saved by the votes. Next week, I wouldn't blame the judges if they gave P a grand total of three points, so that the voting will finally count for nothing. It's a classic scenario, though: The general public identifies m
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Tricia Helfer and James Callis, Battlestar Galactica
Dancing with the Stars I have to thank the show's producers not only for making this results show short and sweet, but also for adding a bit of old-fashioned variety show to break up the contrived suspense. There was something for everyone: real ballroom dancing by the pros, for the people who actually tuned in to see that; humor, more from Kenny Mayne than from Tom and Samantha; a special musical appearance by Burt Bacharach, who's promoting a new album, so he doesn't mind being accompanied by the show's wedding band; and, of course, all that skin, for the guys forced to watch this against their will. If they really want to make me happy, however, they'll give us more commentary from the overexcited Roberto Benigni impersonator, Bruno Ton
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So what if Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March were 21st-century Manhattanites rather than Civil War-era transcendentalists? That's the vibe I'm getting from Related — all the warm, fuzzy sister stuff I loved about Little Women mixed up with the outlandishly huge loft apartments and excessively impractical shoes I've come to expect from TV's version of modern-day New York City. And it's quite the day of life-changing events for the Sorelli family: Rose has pierced her tongue and changed her major; Marjee's been evicted; Ann's breaking up with her one-of-the-family-now boyfriend (don't leave us, Dan Futterman!) and Ginnie's pregnant. I'm pretty sure they wrote in that last major plot point at the last minute just to steal Tom and Katie's thunder. And to top it all off, their long-widowed pop finally popped the question to his new girlfriend. (Oh, and Tom Irwin? I don't care if you play Moving-Forward Dad here, or Sweet-But-Stern Small-Town Dad on R
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