The Oscar-nominated film (best picture, best actress, best adapted screenplay)
arrives March 30. Full announcement after the jump.
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The rundown from the network:
NBC announced today season finale dates for a variety of shows that extend all the way to Tuesday, May 25 with the season’s climactic episode of “The Biggest Loser” (8-10 p.m. ET).
In chronological order, the season finales include (all times ET): “Trauma” (Monday, May 10, 9-10 p.m.); “Mercy” (Wednesday, May 12, 8-9 p.m.); and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (Wednesday, May 19, 10-11 p.m.).
Also among NBC’s season finales are all of the Thursday night comedies, including: “Community” (Thursday, May 20, 8-8:30 p.m.); “Parks and Recreation” (Thursday, May 20, 8:30-9 p.m.); “The Office” (Thursday, May 20, 9-9:30 p.m.); “30 Rock” (Thursday, May 20, 9:30-10 p.m.); “The Celebrity Apprentice” (Sunday, May 23, 9-11 p.m.); a two-hour “Chuck” (Monday, May 24, 8-10 p.m.); “Law & Order” (Monday, May 24, 10-11 p.m.); and a two-hour “The Biggest Loser” (Tuesday, May 25, 8-10 p.m.).
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From Nielsen:
According to preliminary results from The Nielsen Company, CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV attracted an average audience of 106.5 million U.S. viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl of all time. The game was viewed in 51.7 million households, making it the most watched television program of all time among households, beating the M*A*S*H finale in 1983, which was seen by an average of 50.2 million homes. The game scored a preliminary 45.0% U.S. household rating.
“The Super Bowl remains the premier television event of the year, and is one of the few programs in an era of fragmented TV viewership that can still attract a huge national audience,” said Dave Thomas, Nielsen President, Media Client Services. “This year’s Super Bowl had a compelling narrative, with the underdog New Orleans Saints coming from behind against powerhouse Indianapolis Colts. There was tremendous interest in both the game and the advertisements leading up to last night and the excitement of the game itself translated into record ratings.”
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Here's the top of the announcement:
Ten years after emerging as a cult sensation, “The Boondock Saints” will return to the big screen in a special one-night presentation, The Boondock Saints 10th Anniversary Event, on Thursday, March 11th at 7:30 p.m. local time. Creator, writer and director Troy Duffy will introduce the event and share rare behind-the-scenes experiences and footage as well as exclusive interviews with cast and crew members including Norman Reedus (Murphy MacManus) and Sean Patrick Flanery (Connor MacManus), captured especially for this anniversary celebration. Audiences will also be treated to special performance clips by The Dirges, Ty Stone and Taylor Duffy whose music is part of the upcoming soundtrack to The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, along with a sneak peek into the mobile games, comic books and graphic novel currently in development.
More after the jump. And "Boondock Saints II" arrives on DVD/BD on March 9.
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I've spent the weekend recovering from a cold, but have managed to sit through the Super Bowl so far. Much better game than it appeared at first. Loved the onside kick to start the third quarter: a terrific gamble, and one that woke up the game. (UPDATE: New Orleans has won what was a fine game until the Manning interception put the Saints out of the Colts' reach. Lots of drama, lots of shifting fortune, and I had no complaints regardless of who won.)
Haven't seen any ads I have loved — amused by the Betty White spot, and the Ditka/McMahon ad, and the Griswolds reunion, but no more than amused. The Letterman-Leno-Oprah spot, above, was a surprise but not much more than that. What do you think made Dave grumpier: the Colts losing, or having to share a screen with Jay? If anyone was done a favor here, after all, it was Jay.
EW.com has a story about how the ad came to be, which I don't entirely buy.
And the Who are just sad, although the light show was good.
Stuff I had in the paper today included:
A chat with Peter Billingsley, immortal as "A Christmas Story's" Ralphie, more recently the director of "Couples Retreat," coming to DVD.
A talk with Henry Louis Gates Jr., about his latest PBS series, "Faces of America."
Today's DVD column, topped by Oscar nominee "A Serious Man."
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It will be on May 25, for $59.99 (DVD) and $79.98 (Blu-ray). Announcement is after the jump.
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Full announcement, including the most recent audition information, after the jump.
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The Sandra Bullock film will hit store shelves on March 23, a couple of weeks after the Oscars, where Bullock is expected to pick up her first statuette. Full announcement, with extras details, after the jump.
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This is a companion of sorts to the written material I posted about the Oscars, including my interview with Walter Kirn, mentioned in the video, and the list below of which nominated movies are available on DVD. A little different content here than other places.
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I was going to write up impressions of "Lost" but it's late, and my brain is a little fried from everything else I did today — Oscars columns, a couple of interviews, homework for my autobiographical-writing class, "Lost." So tomorrow I will weigh in, and for now bid you all sweet dreams.
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If you want to see things in Northeast Ohio theaters, one chain's guide is here.
If you're planning a trip to the video store or changes in your Netflix cue to catch up, here's what I know right now about the home-video availability of some Oscar movies. If I have not listed something in a category, I could not find a release date for a DVD/BD.
Best Picture
"The Blind Side" — March 23
"District 9" — available now
"The Hurt Locker" — available now
"Inglourious Basterds" — available now
"Precious" — March 9
"A Serious Man" — Feb. 9
"Up" — available now
Animated feature
"Coraline" — now
"Fantastic Mr. Fox" — March 23
"The Princess and the Frog" — March 16
"Up" — now
Documentary feature
"The Cove" — now
"Food, Inc." — now
Lead actor
Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker" available now
Lead actress
Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side" – March 23
Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious" — March 9
Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia" available now
Supporting actor
Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds" available now
Director
Kathryn Bigelow, "Hurt Locker," available now
Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds" available now
Lee Daniels, "Precious" March 9
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You can find the complete list by category here. If you want to look at nominations by movie, that's here.
From my immediate kneejerk Twitter/FB reaction: "Happy includes: G Sidibe, J Renner, Up in the Air, Up, Mo'Nique, Christoph Waltz, In the Loop. But D9 stole Star Trek's best pic nom." I should also note "The Hurt Locker."
Do I get to pick the winners? No, but I lean toward "The Hurt Locker" as best pic but would be fine with a win by "Up in the Air" (Walter Kirn!) or "Precious." Also, "D9" and "Up" over "Avatar," which I would give a zillion tech awards but not best pic or best director. (Interesting to see it nominated in those categories but not for writing or acting.) Kathryn Bigelow for best director. Actor: I go Renner or Clooney over Bridges. Actress: Can see the appeal of Bullock, but Streep is always brilliant and Sidibe was marvelous. Supporting actor: Waltz, easy. (And what is Matt Damon doing in that category for "Invictus"? Good performance but he's a co-lead.) Supporting actress: Mo'Nique, with Anna Kendrick as the runner-up.
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We went a little early with this week's regular video –songs from "Hope for Haiti Now," "Lost," some interesting classic-TV DVDs including an Orson Welles "King Lear," promotional items for "Life" and "Party Down" — because I will be doing an extra video later Tuesday on the Oscars. I will also be posting a link to the nominees and some comments in a couple of hours when the nominees are announced. But while best picture and director may be a horse race, it already feels — as I and others have said, based on prizes given to date — that the four acting winners are locked in : Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz and Mo'Nique. We shall see.
Watched, with half attention, "The Bachelor" last night. What a waste of two hours. Anyone who had been looking up to now knew who the final four would be and who was going home. Everything last night just made that clearer. At great length.
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In today's Beacon Journal:
Thanks to a new DVD release of "Omnibus" performances by Leonard Berstein, as well the previous release of his "Young People's Concerts," I look back at how Bernstein used television — and the days when commercial broadcast TV included cultural programming.
Also today, my weekly DVD column, this time topped by notes regarding the latest "Doctor Who" releases.
The DVD column notes that I planned to have a separate piece about the DVD release of basketball documentary "More Than a Game" in Monday's editions. The piece, which I wrote Friday, has already arrived online here. I had expected it not to arrive until Monday, and was trying to make a small update today, but these days a lot of things wind up being posted before they appear in print. Oh, well.
If by some chance you happened to watch "Seducing Cindy" on Fox Reality, here's a Friday column about one of the competitors, who is also a local guy.
Also, I want to mention the soundtrack to "Hope for Haiti Now," the all-star telethon not long ago. I enjoyed quite a bit of the music during the telethon, and find the album even more impressive. Some artists seem to benefit from being heard but not seen (Beyonce, Madonna), and the song selection works as a sequence, with a lot of blending from one song to the next. Still uneven, but it engages me –John Legend, Mary J. Blige, Coldplay, Christina Aguilera, Crow/Rock/Urban, the Bono/Jay-Z/Rihanna triplet.
I was using it as music to wind down with the other night, and woke up instead because I was so drawn in by the music.
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A couple of people have passed this along this piece on how to report TV news. And I have seen way too many pieces using this very format…
How To Report The News – Watch more Funny Videos
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The author of "The Catcher in the Rye" has died at the age of 91. The Washington Post/Associated Press obit is here.
From the New York Times e-mail:
Mr. Salinger's literary reputation rests on a slender but
enormously influential body of published work: the novel "The
Catcher in the Rye," the collection "Nine Stories" and two
compilations, each with two long stories about the fictional
Glass family: "Franny and Zooey" and "Raise High the Roof
Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction."
Like many suffering adolescents, I read "Catcher" more than once. The first time, I was taken by its sadness; it took a second reading when I was a little older to see the humor.
I also went on to "Franny and Zooey," "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters," and "Nine Stories," which I remember loving most of all. But Salinger went into seclusion, the stories stopped coming, and I moved on to other writers and other personal obsessions.
Still, there was a time when I would have read anything with Salinger's name on it. And now I want to go back to "Catcher," to remember what it felt like to read it when I was young.
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Jan Hrebejk, Emily Abt, Jesper Ganslandt, Mark Harris get nods. Full announcement after the jump.
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Today's mailbag column is here. Topics include "Lie to Me," "The Amazing Race," an old John Denver recording and more.
Watched last night's "American Idol" and am still waiting for a contestant to knock my socks, well, at least below my ankles. This was another night where the major entertainment involved judge-watching. Neil Patrick Harris was far more interesting, and focused, than Joe Jonas. Even more amusing was the way the Fox-based "American Idol" kept throwing out "Doogie Howser" references with NPH. It's not just corporate envy (that is, Fox not touting competitor CBS by showcasing "How I Met Your Mother"). "Doogie" may have aired on CBS but it was made by 20th Century — wait for it — Fox.
From the e-mail, a couple of series announcements by ABC Family:
Paul Lee, president, ABC Family, today announced the pick-up of two one-hour dramas: “Huge” and “Pretty Little Liars.” Each series has been given a 10-episode order and are scheduled to premiere in 2010. …
"Huge,” based on author Sasha Paley’s book of the same name, is being developed by Winnie Holzman (“Wicked,” “My So-Called Life,” “Once & Again”) and daughter Savannah Dooley. Holzman will be executive producer on the premiere episode, and will serve as consultant for the remainder of the episodes. Dooley will serve as producer on the series. Alloy Entertainment’s Bob Levy and Leslie Morgenstein will serve as executive producers; Robin Schiff (“Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion” and ABC Family’s “10 Things I Hate About You”) will serve as a consulting producer. Funny, heartbreaking and provocative, “Huge” follows the lives of six teens and the staff at a weight-loss camp, as they look beneath the surface to discover their true selves, and the truth about each other.
“Pretty Little Liars” follows four estranged best friends who are reunited one year after their best friend and queen bee of the group, Alison, goes missing – only to discover they are receiving messages from an anonymous "A" who knows all their secrets. The drama stars Lucy Hale (“Privileged”) as Aria, Troian Bellisario (“Navy NCIS”) as Spencer, Ashley Benson (“Eastwick”) as Hanna, and Shay Mitchell as Emily. Also starring are Laura Leighton (“Melrose Place”) and Nia Peeples (“The Young and the Restless”). Additionally, Bianca Lawson (“The Vampire Diaries”) has been cast in a recurring role as Maya. Warner Horizon and Alloy Entertainment are producing; Bob Levy, Leslie Morgenstein and Marlene King are executive-producing.
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From CBS:
Jennifer Lopez will guest star in an episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER to be broadcast this March on the CBS Television Network.
Lopez will play Anita Appleby, a no-nonsense author of self-help books that teach women how to train men into relationship machines through the power of denial. When Robin tells Anita how Barney acts toward women, she makes it her mission to "break" him.
"We couldn't be more excited about Jennifer Lopez joining us on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER," says Executive Producer and Co-Creator Carter Bays. "We're looking forward to a week of revealing outfits and sexy dance moves the likes of which this show hasn't seen since Regis Philbin guest starred."
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