Musings From A Nobody

CELEBRITY APPRENTICE 1/31/08

On tonight's special two hour Celebrity Apprentice, the task was to come up with a slogan and branding to recycle old Crocs shoes and have them donated around the world.  Tito Ortiz was at a fight, so he wasn't able to participate in this challenge. 

Anyway, supermodel, Carol Alt was project manager for the women and finally, Piers Morgan was the leader for the men.  Piers and Vinnie Pastore manufactured a fight which sent Vinnie to ladies' team to infiltrate their business dealings and become an informant for the guys.  He later had a change of heart and confessed to Marilu Henner about his shady doings and subsequently, became a true member of the female team. (But, only to Marilu).   Later, Piers and Stephen admitted to Nely and Carol that they knew about the women's entire sloganing plan.  Once, Omarosa found out about this disturbing development she promptly demanded his ouster from the women's team.  Vinnie went back to the men's team furious that Piers let the cat out of the bag, that he was a corporate spy and was "fired" from that team as well.  So, he wound up, like he said as, "a man without a home".   

The presentations to the Crocs executive went well.  But, I felt that the women's Super giant Crocs shoe receptacle was more interesting and creative.

In the boardroom, all of Piers' arrogance came forth including insults hurled at Vinnie such as him being, "a very fat Italian" and a,"histrionic drama queen".  In my opinion, this whole spying thing was very puerile but, Trump had to deal with these shenanigans.  But, at least the gals finally won!  Next surprise was that Vinnie wanted to resign, while Piers just sat there with his stereotypical stiff British upper lip.  Then, Vinnie vacillated regarding quitting or not, when there was a chance that Piers could get fired but, he eventually and officially resigned.  Sopranos and pop culture fans, probably got a chuckle or two out of the use of Journey's Don't Stop Believin' being played at the end and a brief blackout screen a la the last moment of series finale of The Sopranos.            

NIP/TUCK 1/29/08

On a very over the top Nip/Tuck, Christian was still feeling guilt over Gina's death.  And the only person he could totally confess to, was his very young, couldn't possibly understand son, Wilbur.  Furthermore, Wilbur may be acting out at school over his mother's latest, "disappearance".  And looks can be deceiving regarding Wilbur's schoolteacher.  Meanwhile the doctors perform surgery on a patient involved with cannibalism!  The eulogies at Gina's funeral were very unusual.  Sean's agent, Colleen, continued to blur the line between the professional and personal when having him do surgery on her hammer toes.  And Colleen got competition from a rival company to be Sean's agent and the guy didn't know what he was getting into, messing with her.  Interesting music used in tonight's episode including, Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made For Walkin, Toto Coelo's I Eat Cannibals and Billy Idol's Flesh For Fantasy.    

FLORIDA PRIMARY

Hillary Clinton won the Florida Democratic Primary, but thankfully for Barack Obama and John Edwards, it didn't count, since Florida was stripped all of its delegates as a penalty for moving their primary up too early. 

But, for the Republicans, it was very real, even though they only received half the delegates.  Senator John McCain won, Mitt Romney was a close second and Rudy Giuliani's strategy to take Florida and use that momentum to sweep through Super Tuesday failed.  But, Giuliani was gracious in defeat, while McCain and Romney used their victory speeches to try to top each other with who had the most social conservative positions:  Romney on unwed parents and McCain on "activist" judges.  Luckily, those, "depraved" plastic surgeons of Nip/Tuck were on in a few minutes!

SEX AND THE CITY MOVIE POSTER

The movie spinoff of the very popular television series, Sex and the City will be arriving at the end of May.  But, the movie's poster is already up.  Click onto image to enlarge.

DANCE WAR: BRUNO VS. CARRIE ANN

America voted and tonight someone was eliminated on Dance War.

Tonight's show opened with a, "Motown" song, Wilson Pickett's Land of 1000 Dances.  But, Pickett was on Atlantic Records not Motown.  But, why quibble, the guys and girls looked all early sixties fresh and innocent (for a change), the vocals were fine and the dancing was exciting and energetic.

Host, Drew Lachey announced that the winning team will receive a recording deal with Hollywood Records. (As a group or as individuals?)

Team Bruno performed to Aretha Franklin's Think with Lacey on lead.  She sounded good, but the other two girls did not (and they paid for it later).  And Carrie Ann agreed with me. 

Team Carrie Ann took on the Temptations classic, Papa Was a Rolling Stone.  All of the team members were dressed in suits, looked sharp and sounded decent.  Nice dance break towards end of song.  And this was actually a Motown tune!

Second go around for Team Bruno as they sang and danced to Usher's hit, Caught Up and this was quite a disappointment.  This is my favorite Usher song and they did not do it justice.  Cringe-inducing vocals by the men did the song in.  But, an interesting dance break saved it from being a total disaster.

Second time around for Team Carrie Ann and they performed Diana Ross' Upside Down.  Decent with Mariel's divalike vocals putting a whole new spin on this timeless ditty.

The winning team was Carrie Ann.  I was slightly surprised since there were more weak links on her team (Elizabeth, Bradley and Allysa, with only Bradley acquitting himself tonight) than Bruno's.  But, it is what it is and Bruno had to make the heartwrenching decision to let one of his own go.  Lacey, Phillip, Tony and Zack were picked in the first round (and in that order).  Yes, Zack was chosen last in this round, I think if he had to go to next and final round there would have been a stampede on the stage. 

Kelsey and Charity were in the bottom two and had to perform one last time for their survival.  They sang to the disco nugget, Don't Leave Me This Way by Thelma Houston and they both sounded horrible!  Get rid of them both!  But, Bruno selected Kelsey, so Charity was eliminated.  Kelsey is now the weakest link and needs to step up her game ASAP!   

Lastly, Drew Lachey announced that country superstar, Taylor Swift will perform on next week's show.  Dance War needs filler already?   

   

SCREEN ACTOR GUILD AWARDS

The Screen Actor Guild Awards were given out tonight and most of the winners were predictable.  Daniel Day Lewis and Julie Christie won top acting honors for There Will Be Blood and Away From Her, respectively. (yawn)  Javier Bardem was victorious for his supporting turn in No Country For Old Men and the film itself won best cast ensemble. (second yawn) 

On the TV front, The Sopranos won best cast ensemble and top acting awards for its stars, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. (megayawn) Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey won for their work on the sitcom, 30 Rock, while The Office won best cast ensemble. (sleeping)

But, the nicest surprise was veteran actress, Ruby Dee winning (wide awake!)for her brief, but stellar work as Denzel Washington's mom in American Gangster.  Go Ruby, that golden boy is next!

DIRECTOR GUILD AWARD WINNERS

Joel and Ethan Cohen win best director at the Director Guild Awards which undoubtedly means that they will pick up the Oscar for their directorial work in No Country For Old Men.

BOX-OFFICE REPORT 1/27/08

The spoof to last year's megahit, 300 entitled Meet the Spartans was number one at the box-office this past weekend with nearly 19m.  Hey, the promos looked stupid, but at least a few people found it entertaining.  And speaking of dumb, the update on Rambo featuring the original star, Sylvester Stallone was a close second with 18m.  Last week's huge debut, Cloverfield dropped to third place, with almost 13m at the weekend's box-office.  That's a far cry from the 41m it made in its debut, last weekend.  27 Dresses came in fourth with 14m and Diane Lane's hi tech thiller, Untraceable debuted at number five with 11m.  And Juno and The Bucket List hang on with nearly 10m apiece.  (All figures based on studio estimates.)   

AGING ACTION MOVIE STARS

What's up with all of these aging, baby boomer, action male movie stars still making sequels to their original hits from twenty or thirty years ago? 

Last summer, we had fiftysomething Bruce Willis saving something in the latest edition of the twenty year old Die Hard franchise, Live Free or Die Hard.  The movie was a hit, but how much longer can this everyman, John McClane be an action hero?  Wisecracks will only get you so far!

Next summer, we have sixtysomething (!) Harrison Ford reprising the role that made him an international solo star, Indiana Jones.  At least, this sequel has the young Shia Labeouf for credibility!

And lastly, we have 61 year old Sylvester Stallone returning this weekend as Rambo (the first one came out twenty-five years ago!).  Well, at least he admits to using (story here: HGH's), this probably helps him maintain that high body count his Rambo movies are known for!  Also, his Rocky Balboa sequel from last year did remarkably well.  He may remain an action star for a while now.

Former action hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger wisely moved onto politics after his last entry to the Terminator movies, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.  But, then he could say, "I'll Be Back"!

Sometimes action star, Will Smith is in his late thirties, so at this rate he could star in I, Robot 12, thirty years from now!  Don't laugh, as kids, my brother and I joked about Rocky 6 and then it actually happened!

                

MOVIE: BREACH

Chris Cooper superbly played the notorious spy, Robert Hanssen in 2007's brainy, but entertaining thriller, Breach.  Ryan Phillippe (who has never been better) portrayed the young surveillance/computer expert, Eric O'Neill who worked as a "clerk" for Hanssen, infiltrating and eventually crashing the facade that Hanssen's character tried to uphold (heavily religious family man and highly esteemed Soviet analyst).  Laura Linney was excellent as a top FBI official who wanted to bring Hanssen down by assigning O'Neill to this case.  Smart, dialogue heavy (and that's a good thing) and based on a true story.  Recommended.