Alas, the traditional outdoor Lost Season 4 premiere has been canceled.This is sad news in a lot of ways. Can there be little doubt that this is partially motivated by a refusal of WGA and SAG members refusing to support the event? All WGA members are being ordered not to support their shows, and SAG is supporting the WGA in the strike. So while this was not confirmed as a reason for the cancellation, you can't help but wonder. At any rate, it is a big bummer.


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Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland follows Vaughn as he handpicks four up-and-coming comics and then leads them on a remarkable 30-city, 30-day, 30-show tour as tour creator and emcee. The film features footage from the tour’s performances, as well as behind-the-scenes and a host of surprise guests.


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Dickens creates a world. All great writers do this, but there is no writer in our language of whom it is truer than of him. The novels - even The Pickwick Papers - are drenched in tears and sadness. We weep quite as much as laugh over his pages. But the laughter, the jokes, the language itself, all confront life in a manner that compels us to share his robust attitude to the wretchedness of childhood, the humiliations of poverty, the dread of death.

Many of the funniest moments occur during extremely sad episodes. This is what makes the dramatisation of his novels such a ticklish business. The Roman Polanski film of Oliver Twist evoked the squalor of 19th-century London, the pathos of the workhouse, the misery of Fagin's lair. But it could not catch the atmosphere of the novel which, for all its terribleness, and terror, is a comedy - or a tragedy shot through with comedy.

Oscar Wilde was trying to be clever, and succeeding perhaps, when he said you would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell, but in his clever joke he captured something of the essence of The Old Curiosity Shop. Dick Swiveller is one of the most wonderful characters in Dickens, beginning as a wastrel who has to dodge the streets, where he has run up debts in pie shops and pawnbrokers, and ending as the hero who marries the put-upon parlourmaid of Sally Brass - "The Marchioness".

In cancelled passages of the novel Dickens had made it clear that the Marchioness was the natural child of Sally Brass and the villain of the novel, Daniel Quilp, the terrifying dwarfish self-projection of the writer (Quill-Pen/Quilp) himself. Quilp is always comic - viz his bursting in upon the supper party when his mother-in-law, Mrs Jinnywin, is dissecting his character - and always evil. His persecution of his wife, his diddling of the owner of the Old Curiosity Shop, his lecherous designs upon the 14-year-old Nell are seen through the comic mask of Dickens's language.

An ITV dramatisation on Boxing Day was a disaster. It presented the whole sequence of events and characters - even the Punch and Judy men Codlin and Short, or Mrs Jarley the waxworks proprietress - with a muted actorly seriousness that castrated the atmosphere of the book. It made a sad contrast with a BBC effort at dramatising the book, which I remember from my childhood, in which the sometime Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton, brought Quilp to life with violent animation.

Dickens's characters, if viewed by anyone other than Dickens, would not necessarily be comic at all. Witness Mr Micawber, reborn as Marmeladov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Burglars, child-molesters, swindlers, workhouse proprietors, prison "screws", orphans, bullying fathers and cruel step-parents are not funny when met with, either in contemporary life or in history. Dickens's way of coping with the dreadfulness of human wickedness is to make them into grotesques. His was the most glorious artistic apogee of a generalised English irony - witness the manner with which the population at large made Hitler a comic creation during the Blitz.

Now, we live in a different atmosphere. Esther Rantzen encourages the Artful Dodger to ring Childline. Mr Dombey and Mr Murdstone would be urged to seek family therapy. Mr Dorrit, rather than languishing in the Marshalsea, would find that his investments in Northern Rock had been compensated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Probably we are all much nicer in consequence, but with our You and Yours culture of whinge, we have lost our sense of humour. In consequence, we are less noble than Dickens.

In Catford and Toxteth and the Gorbals, there are still plenty of Little Nells, warding off dwarfish lechers. The Artful Dodger is on crack cocaine. Addicts of drink and gambling every bit as pathetic as Nell's grandfather shuffle from government-sponsored casino to the corner shop for their lottery tickets. Dickens was not heartless in finding comedy in their lives. On the contrary, by making them tragi-comic he allowed his readers to remain alive to the dignity of the poor even in their most abject state. But we live in a state run by Mrs Jellybys and Mr Bumbles, where laughter is frowned upon and those in authority see their job (which Dickens never did) to improve those less fortunate than ourselves.

Less than three months after its much-ballyhooed launch, Fox Business Network is drawing an average of 6,000 daytime viewers.

The Nielsen number, for the period Oct. 15 through Dec. 16, rises to 15,000 during prime time.

Taken in isolation, the debut might be judged an abysmal failure. But no one -- including Fox executives -- expected the fledgling channel to make a serious run at the top business network, CNBC, until it had been on the air for at least a year.

Still, the figures reinforce the perception that Rupert Murdoch's newest television operation faces a tough road.


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It seems that different moles over at Warner Bros. are not seeing eye to eye over Brandon Routh donning the tights once again. As you know, we passed along the speculation from Latino Review that WB has decided to let go of Routh's services in favor of whoever plays Supes in the upcoming JLA movie. That actor would end up playing the character in future individual installments of the character, outside of the JLA franchise. As I said yesterday, this bit of speculation flew against previous confirmed reports that WB wanted to keep the two franchises (JLA and Superman) separate.

Now, AICN is reporting the exact opposite. Their mole says Brandon Routh will continue playing the Superman character in future individual films regardless of what LR is reporting.

The speculation train keeps rolling along...


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Toshiba has released a statement which indicates that it is surprised by WB's decision to abandon the HD DVD format and go exclusively Blu-ray.

There seems to be 'sour grapes' involved as Toshiba draw on the fact there are various contracts in place regarding the support of HD DVD And the two companies worked closely to standardize the DVD format and shape HD DVD as its successor.

TOSHIBA'S STATEMENT:

Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD. As central members of the DVD Forum, we have long maintained a close partnership with Warner Bros. We worked closely together to help standardize the first-generation DVD format as well as to define and shape HD DVD as its next-generation successor.

We were particularly disappointed that this decision was Made in spite of the significant momentum HD DVD has gained in the US market as well as other regions in 2007. HD DVD players and PCs have outsold Blu-ray in the US market in 2007.

We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer.


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Jay Leno kept the jokes coming his second night back on the air, even as the striking writers' union and his network sparred over whether he was violating union rules by writing his monologues.

The Writers Guild of America had scolded The Tonight Show host earlier Thursday for penning and delivering punch lines in his first monologue in two months, which aired on NBC the night before.

NBC quickly fired back. "The WGA agreement permits Jay Leno to write his own monologue for The Tonight Show," NBC said in a statement.

According to the contract between the Guild and producers that expired Oct. 31, "material written by the person who delivers it on the air" is exempted from the agreement. The exception applies to shows outside prime time, which includes NBC's Tonight Show.

Guild spokesman Neal Sacharow declined comment on whether the Guild would move against Leno. Penalties could include a fine or loss of union membership.

Ruling the skies
Prince William will begin taking flying lessons next week at the start of a four-month assignment with the Royal Air Force, the British military announced yesterday.

The prince will begin his course Monday with about 10 other students at the RAF Cranwell base in eastern England, the air force said. He will be known as Flying Officer William Wales and will train on helicopters as well as fixed-wing aircraft.

"During his time with us, Flying Officer Wales will be realizing a personal ambition to learn how to fly," said Group Capt. Nick Seward, commander of the air force flying school.

William, 25, is following in the footsteps of his father, Prince Charles, in serving with all three branches of the armed forces.

Club expansion
In the coming months, Baltimore's largest live music club will get even bigger.

Rams Head Live in Power Plant Live plans to add balconies and expand its club into the adjacent restaurant and bar space by late May. The move should increase the venue's capacity by roughly 400 to 2,000, said vice president Erin Brunst.

"One of our business practices is to always reinvent ourselves," Brunst said. "This is a great way to continue to make things exciting."

Though the Rams Head restaurant closed permanently in December, the venue will remain open during renovations and serve food at kiosks inside.


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Warner sister company New Line has confirmed that it too plans to shift to Blu-ray exclusivity.

Though it's widely expected that Warner Bros. subsidiaries New Line and HBO will follow Warner Home Entertainment to Blu-ray exclusivity, for the moment they remain format-agnostic. That's according to Warner Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara, who said that the studio's announcement that it would drop HD DVD support does not extend to titles released by New Line, HBO or the BBC (which Warner distributes here in the US).

"They'll be making whatever decision they're going to make," said Tsujihara. "I assume they'll let people know very quickly, but they are not covered by this initial announcement."

Tsujihara's comments came in a post-announcement conference call with various members of the media, including High-Def Digest.

mmmm now it seems that all the big guns are fighting the new format war. IMHO..Blu ray is gonna win!


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Independent film and award winning teen comedy, "Raging Hormones" - www.raginghormonesmovie.com - will now be available on DVD through Victory Multimedia Distribution in Inglewood, CA. - www.victorymutlimedia.com. "Raging Hormones" won the awards for "Best Comedy", "Best Director", "Best Soundtrack", and "Audience Appreciation" at the New York Independent film festival. Some of the cast were guests on the Howard Stern Radio Show, and it has recently finished a two year run on HBO and Cinemax.

"We are very excited to be able to offer the DVD for "Raging Hormones" through Victory Multimedia.", Michael Dugan, president of Thrill Street Entertainment, Inc., the producer of "Raging Hormones" said. "We created a great film on a micro-budget and thanks to Howard Stern and HBO we have generated an enthusiastic audience of teens and young adults that can now have access to the film on DVD."

Although it was made for pennies compared to most feature films, "Raging Hormones" has a cast that is becoming more and more noted everyday. Antoni Corrone from "We Own The Night" and "Bab Boys 2", gives an hysterical performance as a blue-collar father, and Tony Hale from "Arrested Development" steals the screen in his performance as a young punk.

The award winning soundtrack also features some very popular music from The Lords of Acid, The Genitorturers, The Numb Ones, Nation of Fear, Bughead, Twisted Tarantulas, and The Nature Kids. "Raging Hormones" is a great example of a grass-roots film that becomes popular through word-of-mouth instead of a multi-million dollar marketing campaign.

"Everyday, we receive fan letters of encouragement from all types of people including stoners, big beautiful women, fraternity and sorority houses, and even many soldiers in the U.S. Armed forces. They all tell us how much it made them laugh.", Dugan added. "We are very proud of this little film, and extremely happy that now Victory Multimedia will be distributing it on DVD."



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Season premiere date: Jan. 6.

Time slot: Sundays at 9 pm/ET, on HBO

What's what: A complex and panoramic portrait of American society's waste of human potential and betrayal of its own stated ideals, as demonstrated by the lives of Baltimore drug dealers, the police who attempt to break up their operations, and the regular citizens affected by their activities.

Who's who: Probably the largest cast of any U.S. open-ended television series, with a constantly shifting group of current and former gangsters, the street peddlers who work for them, their neighbors, cops, lawyers, politicians, teachers, social workers, prisoners and dockworkers.

What's next: Each season has focused on some segment of Baltimore society affected directly by the drug trade and/or by the attempts to stop it; this fifth and final season will examine how newspaper journalism and related media play their roles. We also see the ongoing turf battles within the illegal drug business and within police and other government agencies, particularly the schools and the rivalry between and within the Baltimore city and Maryland state governments.

Why watch: The breathtaking ambition of the series, and its wit, grit and sophistication. While the show can occasionally offer excessive speechifiying and, rarely, an awkward infodump or strained irony, it's a natural extension of what the creative staff was attempting to do with previous projects Homicide: Life on the Streets and The Corner: an indictment of what is wrong with the way things usually go, never failing to make its case with brilliantly drawn characters in believable and often morally and ethically ambiguous situations that have no quick or easy fix.


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If you're an Oprah Winfrey Show fan, you know all about Nate Berkus (the handsome home designer who makes frequent appearances). Recently, Nate took a break from beautifying bedrooms to play host on his powerful pal's new reality show, Oprah's Big Give. ABC confirmed Nate's participation on Oprah's Big Give Thursday. Now, I wonder if Nate's hosting abilities will be as impressive as his decorating skills!


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On the first day of the new year, MSN Health and Fitness and NBC launched "The Biggest Loser Million Pound Match-Up," a challenge to America to shed one million pounds during the course of The Biggest Loser: Couples, the current season of the hit reality series.

All those who want to take part in the challenge can register with a workout partner via biggestloser.msn.com. The registration period ends on Tuesday, March 11. Participants will be able to put their fitness knowledge to the test, as well as receive fitness expert advice from Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, two of the The Biggest Loser's trainers, and MSN Health and Fitness experts.

Prizes will also be given on a daily basis.

Participants can talk about their weight loss journey on Windows Live Spaces, MSN's blogging and social networking platform. Windows Live Spaces can also become a venue for participants to connect with other challenge-takers in their area, giving them the opportunity to show support for one another through a virtual community.

The five teams that best perform in the challenge will be sent to Los Angeles in order to attend The Biggest Loser: Couples finale. The winning team, meanwhile, will also receive a luxury fitness trip for two and a personal trainer for one year.

MSN and NBC is hoping the "Million Pound Match-Up" will help give a setting where Americans can team up with a partner and lose weight in an enjoyable manner. Furthermore, MSN is sending its representatives to five different cities, namely Chicago, Houston, Miami, Wichita (Kansas) and Mesa (Arizona), in order to encourage and motivate Americans to participate.

Challenge rules and other details can be reviewed by logging on to http://biggestloser.msn.com. Participants can also sign up for the sweepstakes through the same website.

Tune in to The Biggest Loser every Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.


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Welcome!!

Hi there! My name is Kara Belmont and I'm a TV addict!! Yes i'm a crazy chick who's hopelessly addicted to the boob tube! This is my blog and i'm gonna cover everything and anything related to the television world!

Stay tuned!

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