Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Is there more to Kim Kardashian than meets the eye? We're about to find out. The model who's one of the stars of E! channel's 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' has always been famous for... being famous.
Now she's stepping behind the camera (a bit) as the producer of a E! half-hour documentary called 'The SPINdustry,' chronicling the world of entertainment public relations. Yes, that sounds like Bravo's 'Kel on Earth,' but that's just a big coincidence. The press release actually makes it sound like Kim's picking up the camera and shooting footage herself.
Kim's involvement as producer of 'The SPINdustry' likely has a lot to do with the fact that it's on E! and the subject of the show is the launch of a new product by Command PR. Comprising Command PR two publicists, Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck, who are FOK. Friends of Kim. Get it?
When the original 'We Are the World' was created 25 years ago, the music video of the final performance was put together in record time. Over a month of work went into the production. For the remake of the song, which brought together the likes of Pink, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, the Black Eyed Peas, Tony Bennett, Jeff Bridges, Bono, Justin Beiber... and more, the video, which was filmed in 3-D, was completed in about a week. Tonight, 'We Are the World 25' will have its world premiere at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on NBC during the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
This isn't just an entertainment we'll be seeing, although it's going to be something to watch how 80 stars were crammed together into a cohesive, musical chorus as spectacular as the original 'We Are the World' 25 years ago. No, this is also a call for donations because there is still a lot of work to be done in Haiti.
Does it take an Oscar winner to play a character that's already won an Oscar for another actress? No, but it can't hurt. After over half a year of speculation and rumor, Michael Ausiello in Entertainment Weekly has reported HBO's confirmation that Kate Winslet will star in 'Mildred Pierce,' the remake of the 1945 Joan Crawford movie of the same name.
There's a lot to be excited about with this news. For starters, instead of just a two-hour TV movie, HBO is giving the adaptation of James M. Cain's novel time. It'll be a five-hour miniseries which virtually ensures more time to delve into the original story. Then there's Winslet essaying the role. She's such a good actress that it's a certainty she won't do what Joan did with the role. We'll be seeing another Mildred, Winslet's own interpretation of the role.
There's more details coming out about Gena Rowlands' upcoming guest turn on 'NCIS,' thanks to a report from TV Guide soap expert Michael Logan. When Rowlands appears on 'NCIS' March 2 as Gibbs' former mother-in-law, Joann, the show will flashback to a time when Joann and Jethro were much younger.
Hunley (pictured), who plays Anna DiMera on 'Days of Our Lives,' told Logan that she was thrilled to play Joann in flashback, especially because of her admiration for Rowlands. "When I first saw her back in the '70s in 'A Woman Under the Influence,' I thought, 'That woman looks like me! She has my eyes!'" Hunley told Logan.
Internet polls are always a little squiffy when it comes to interpreting actual raw data. But if I were Jay Leno right now, my chin would be quivering right about now.
Another 15 percent said they would watch Jay in his new time slot, 12 percent said they never watched him in the first place and the remaining 4 percent were undecided.
It looks like Ellen won't be the new Oprah after all. If I were Oprah, I'd be very relieved. I wouldn't want someone taking over my soul and inhabiting my body solely for "ratings."
This ends speculation that Ellen would "become the new Oprah" in the wake of Oprah announcing she will end her show in September of 2011. If she did take Oprah's place though, it would have been interesting to see if Stedman came with the deal.
Since April 1, 1963, 'General Hospital' has been broadcast on ABC. If you're keeping count, and they are at the network, that means 'General Hospital' will air episode 12,000 on February 23. It's a remarkable achievement, especially when coupled with the fact that in that the past 47 years, 'GH' has won the Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Drama Series ten times. That's more than any other soap opera; and the Daytime Emmys only began being doled out in 1971!
To commemorate the 12,000th show, SoapCentral.com reports that 'General Hospital' has conjured up a new opening for the show. The current one, with music by Dave Koz, includes a collection of images of the stars. It also ends with one of the best endings ever for a credit sequence. All the men are gathered for a big group shot, sitting and posed in a variety of ways. They're all in black and white on a white set.
Apparently, rumors are growing that the makers of the commercial had a hand model serve for the bathing beauty (literally! Wocka, Wocka!) because of her condition, brachydactyly, better known as "clubbed thumb."
Asylum's Brett Smiley compared images from the commercial to Fox's actual hands and found some alarming differences. He also called the cell phone giant for an explanation and was met with a thousand variations of the phrase "It's part of our corporate policy not to comment on rumor or speculation."
Just about everyone seemed to love Ellen DeGeneres's debut on 'American Idol' this week, including viewers and fellow host Kara DioGuardi. TVWeek.com reports that ratings for Ellen's Tuesday night debut were up one percent versus last year's first episode in Hollywood (although they note that the first episode on Hollywood always gets a bump in ratings). The site also reported that 27.7 million people tuned in, the most viewers the show has had this season.
DioGuardi lauded Ellen's debut to TV Guide, explaining that Ellen "knows more about music than you think she does" and saying she was a good judge of talent who speaks to contestants "with kindness, but also had criticism in there."
If you're a big fan of the CBS drama 'Numb3rs,' stick your fingers in your ears and run around the room yelling "LA LA LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU."
Michael Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly says that 'Numb3rs' star David Krumholtz has been cast in the new FOX Ron Howard sitcom about an IRS agent. The show doesn't have a title yet, it's just called 'Untitled Ron Howard IRS Pilot,' which I think would be a funny title for the show (very 'Arrested Development'-like). "Tonight after 'American Idol,' an all-new 'Untitled Ron Howard IRS Show'!"
If there's any good news about this for 'Numb3rs' fans it's this: if 'Numb3rs' is renewed for another season, Krumholtz has to continue with that show. He gets the Ron Howard show only if 'Numb3rs' doesn't come back for a seventh season. And it doesn't really seem like that show is coming back next fall (though everyone thought that about another CBS show last year, 'Cold Case,' and that was renewed).
Whether people remember her from 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' or 'The Golden Girls' (or even 'The Golden Palace') or her Super Bowl Snickers commercial, they want more Betty. While it's unlikely Lorne Michaels will do anything with 'SNL' that he doesn't want to do, this could be a publicity boon for the show. On the other hand, the public is very fickle when it comes to this sort of thing.
Can the 88 year-old actress even handle the stress of a rehearsal week followed by a late-night live show? Filming a commercial or a clip for '30 Rock' is one thing, but this would require a level of energy she may not have anymore.
Now where is that Facebook campaign for Abe Vigoda to guest-host 'SNL'?
I'm never quite sure what to make of big screen versions of TV shows. Sometimes they work ('The Brady Bunch,' 'Mission: Impossible'), but more often they don't (too many to list here), because it's as if a show's plot or theme is necessarily great, it's the actors that were in the show and the time when the show aired. You can't recreate that with a big name star and some "nostalgia" factor.
The latest show to get that big screen treatment is 'The Big Valley,' the western that aired on ABC in the mid-60s. It starred Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Long, Linda Evans, and Lee Majors. Kate Edelman Johnson, daughter of show co-creator Louis, is planning to do a movie based on the show and The Hollywood Reporter reports that Sarandon is in talks to play Victoria Barkley, the role Stanwyck played in the show.
If there is a 'Big Valley' movie and she does star in it, then she has to be credited on screen as MISS Susan Sarandon.
Dick Cavett should have a talk show again. We need someone on regularly who is a bit calmer, a bit more thoughtful/smart than what we have now. Charlie Rose is fine, but Cavett would be a welcome addition. Last night he was on 'Late Night' and Jimmy Fallon even recreated the set from his '70s talk show! After the interview (after the jump), Cavett does a magic trick.
If you've never read the 1994 book 'The Late Shift' by New York Times media writer Bill Carter, you've missed one of the great television books. It's a fascinating, odd, and most importantly, true (truth really is stranger than fiction when it comes to late night) look at the late night wars (the first one, not the second) that happened after Johnny Carson left 'The Tonight Show.' Now Carter says he's working on a sequel.
Carter told Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's 'Countdown' (video after the jump) that he couldn't tell him everything about what's going on in late night because he had to leave something for the book. He then said a sequel was in the works. If it's anything like the first one it will be a must-read.
'The Late Shift' was made into a goofy but entertaining film starring John Michael Higgins as Dave and Daniel Roebuck (Arzt on 'Lost') as Jay.