They will be Barbies! Mattel is planning versions of Barbie and Ken modeled after Mad Men ’s Joan, Roger, Don, and Betty. If you can afford one of the 7,000 to 10,000 copies — they’re $74.95 each! — it will surely be your “statement doll.” According to the New York Times, in the interest of maintaining that wholesome Barbie image we all know and maybe have weird nightmares about as adults, “The dolls come with period accessories like hats, overcoats, pearls and padded undergarments, but no cigarettes, ashtrays, martini glasses or cocktail shakers.” What?! How will I make mine act out typical scenes like Draper dinner party, 11 a.m. in the Sterling-Cooper office, or working lunch?
I suppose I could get my mom to mail me my Samantha’s Party Treats setup from the American Girls catalog, and then I could just convince myself the Mad Men Barbies are drinking booze from their fancy goblets. And it will be fun to manipulate doll-Betty to eat those oversize petits fours. And maybe my old Kirsten A.G. doll with the busted hairline and hair that is one giant knot could play Sally Draper and serve doll-Don his Sunday-morning cocktails. She’d tower over him, much like Nanny in Muppet Babies, but that would somehow seem appropriate because Sally’s so adorably clumsy/unkempt. Oh, God, I have so many plans!
Anyway, if Mattel has any sense left in its pretty little doll-head, it knows it should send us a batch of Mad Men Barbies so we can do another EW.com doll video series. But first, it will fix the way-too-skinny Christina Hendricks model and not waste the opportunity to idealize a realistic (okay, still idealistic) female figure. If I blog it, they will come.
“I’m great,” he said Thursday at a Paley Center panel on the show. “On the health front, I had my second to last treatment last night, and one more on March 17, but I’m totally fine.”
Dexter‘s Michael C. Hall being treated for cancer
Hall’s Showtime drama won’t gloss over life’s hardest turns, either. Instead of flash-forwarding through Dexter‘s shock at his new wife’s death, Season 5 will find him still reeling from the death of Rita (Julie Benz) at the hands of the Trinity Killer.
“The death of Rita is something that we feel is so awesome that needs to be honored,” executive producer Sara Colleton said Thursday at a Paley Festival panel about the show. “The process by which Dexter deals with it will allow the audience their own carthorses. We’re not going to jump ahead, we’re going to actually process it.”
Julie Benz joins ABC’s new super Family
“He’s going to have to learn about what it means to be someone that everyone is treating as if he’d gone through something traumatic,” Hall said. “Grief is an effect that he’s had projected on him before.”
He may also catch a bit of blame. “He’s in hot water to a degree,” Hall said. “I think there’s a way out of it, but that’s what we’d like to see, for him to figure his way out. His capacity for stress management broadens his capacity for straight-up killing.”
Dexter‘s John Lithgow talks about the shocking finale
The show will also examine the tragedy’s effect on Rita’s children. Dexter‘s own homicidal tendencies — his Dark Passenger, he calls them — sprung from the brutal murder of his own mother.
“Cody and Aster are somewhat insulated from Dexter‘s world,” said Colleton. “Harrison [Dexter and Rita's newborn] is a bit young to exhibit any signs of trauma, but it is something that will haunt Dexter. Has he inadvertently reproduced a situation that brings him right back to the beginning ? That is an issue that we are going to explore.”
It was a record-setting night at the 67th Golden Globe Awards as Mad Men became the first drama series to three-peat and Meryl Streep picked up her record seventh Globe trophy to become the winningest performer in the history of the ceremony.
James Cameron’s epic blockbuster Avatar was named best drama picture, and Cameron earned the best director prize. The Hangover won best comedy picture and is the first film since Babe, 14 years ago, to win the category without any other nominations. Dexter’s Michael C. Hall, who announced recently he’s battling cancer, received some welcome news: He won in the best dramatic TV actor category and his co-star, John Lithgow, won for supporting dramatic TV actor.
Winning for Julie & Julia in the film comedy actress category, Streep beat three other actresses and herself in It’s Complicated. Her It’s Complicated co-star, Alec Baldwin, earned his third trophy for TV comedy actor for 30 Rock.
“It means a great deal to have the admiration of the people in my film community. I don’t live in the glare of the spotlight. I come from my little outside life and I come into this room with every person I’ve ever worked with,” Streep said. “It’s like a little homecoming.”
Streep’s co-winner at the Critic’s Choice Awards, Sandra Bullock, won her own Golden Globe for film drama actress for The Blind Side, while Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) was named film drama actor and Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes) won his third Golden Globe for film comedy actor.
On the TV side, newcomer Glee, which led all TV nominees with four nominations, won the biggest one: TV comedy series.
Despite its three-peat in the best dramatic series category, Mad Men‘s leads, January Jones and Jon Hamm, came up short. Jones lost to Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife) for TV drama actress and 2008 TV drama actor Hamm was bested by Dexter‘s Michael C. Hall.
Hall wore a black head covering as he won his first Globe in four nominations. “I think a matter of personal health is personal … Because the award shows were imminent, I thought I had to make a statement,” Hall said backstage, explaining why he chose to announce his cancer diagnosis.”
Hall said of his headwear: “It’s nice to have a justifiable excuse for accessorizing.”
Battlestar Galactica is going to be a videogame. According to this press release, Syfy is partnering with Unity Technologies and game publisher Bigpoint to create an online multiplayer game based on the mind-blowing TV space opera, to be released this fall. Incredible! Splendiferous! Braingasm! The mind races with possibilities. I visualize space battles, political intrigue, Centurion gunfights, and a mini-game where you try to outdrink Colonel Tigh.
There’s also the added thrill of competition. Alongside the just-released Star Trek Online and the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic, BSG Online would make this a true showdown between the three biggest sci-fi media franchises. Of course, BSG Online wouldn’t seem to lend itself to the typical quest-and-explore RPG aesthetic–unlike in those other franchises, the BSG universe is mostly dead and empty–but that just makes me more intrigued to see what the game developers will do.
What do you want to see in Battlestar Galactica Online, PopWatchers? Would you rather play as a Viper pilot, a colonial politician, a Cylon sleeper agent, or a poor mute Cylon raider? Do you think the game will honor the TV show, or is this an awful idea? It has to be better than that terrible BSG Xbox 360 game, right?
In every generation there is a chosen one. Thirteen years ago today, we chose ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
This post is not meant to make anyone feel old. I promise. But there is troubling news to deliver, so you might want to sit down. Sitting? Okay. Here it goes: It’s been 13 (!!) years to the day since Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on the WB – in all fairness, I told you to sit.
I was nine years old when Buffy premiered on the WB. To be honest, I don’t remember much about it except that my sister watched it, and I sat there. I’m sad to report that I did not follow up that viewing with more. She continued to watch – it remains one of the only instances I can admit she was right and I was wrong. Years later, shortly after Buffy concluded its final season, I re-watched the premiere, and this time, I was smart enough to realize how awesome it was.
I watched the entire series in about two months, and the hole burned in my wallet from buying all the seasons that summer is still smoking. The cool thing was that despite completely missing the height of Buffy mania, there was (and is) still a great deal of Buffy mania. That’s the definition of great TV, I say. No matter how much time passes, it’s still fun to talk about and watch, and there is always someone willing to do both with you.
Betty White fans, your prayers have been answered. The former Golden Girl will appear on Saturday Night Live in the near future, she confirmed to PEOPLE at Elton John’s annual Oscars viewing party on Sunday night.
Fans have been clamoring for White, 88, to do SNL – an idea she called “ridiculous” just a few weeks ago – ever since her comic turn in a Snickers ad during the Super Bowl. One Facebook page devoted to the cause has attracted half a million fans.
When asked by PEOPLE, “Are you doing Saturday Night Live,” she answered, “Yes,” even if she remains perplexed by the groundswell of support.
“I don’t know why or how,” she says, “but it’s been wonderful.”
White didn’t offer any details about the SNL gig, and it remains unclear when she will appear – or what it will entail.
Entertainment Weekly said she might appear on a special “Women of Comedy” episode with former SNL cast members Molly Shannon, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – but executive producer Lorne Michaels reportedly denied that.
White’s career resurgence hasn’t come completely out of the blue. She did star with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in the romantic comedy The Proposal, and was recognized with a lifetime achievement award at the Screen Actors Guild.
David Chase made plenty of fans with legendary HBO series The Sopranos, so word that he’s finally getting moving on his film project is reason to celebrate. But no, it’s not about the mob.
Chase set up a film deal with Paramount in 2008, and has been working on ideas ever since. Now Deadline Hollywood reports that the writer/producer/director has locked onto a concept that follows a group of young men who form a rock band in the 1960s and the impact it has on their lives.
No title, cast or plot line beyond that concept have been revealed, and if the news has you wondering if he still plans to bring Tony and the Family to the big screen, we wouldn’t get your hopes up. Between this film and creating/writing duties on A Ribbon Of Dreams, a miniseries about the birth of Hollywood, his hands are full right now.
In their bold, skin-tight, neon leotards, it’s going to be tough seeing through the contestants of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 14. Luckily, we only need to look at them to pick out our favorite/s.
While the costumes aren’t all that flattering to begin with, it helps – nay, forces us to focus on the girls’ faces. Past all that excruciatingly bright eyeshadow that Tyra decided to apply on them, there’s bound to be one or two who will stand out minus the makeup.
So let’s see who among these 13 ladies has your vote for the win on America’s Next Top Model this year. There’s a bartender, a mother, and even an “answering service operator” in the bunch, but it all comes down to performance throughout the show.
Unfortunately, America’s Next Top Model Cycle 14 hasn’t arrived on our television screens yet. Right now though, I want to see who’s your favorite even before the season kicks off.
It hardly came as a surprise, but it’s good news nonetheless: Entertainment Weekly is reporting that NBC has issued early renewals to The Office, Community and 30 Rock, ensuring that its strong Thursday night comedy lineup will be back for at least one more season. Parks and Recreation was renewed less than a month ago.
Don’t forget to catch: CW Renews ‘Supernatural,’ ‘Antm’ ‘Vampire Diaries,’ ‘Gossip Girl ‘ and ‘90210‘
Nine million people tuned in to see Pam (Jenna Fischer) give birth on The Office, which for the first time beat an original Grey’s Anatomy episode in the coveted 18-49 demo. It was the highest rating episode for the NBC staple since the big Niagara wedding last year, also featuring the show’s main couple
Fox’s recent decision to renew ‘Fringe‘ for a third season came as a surprise to some, but it probably wasn’t a shock to most fans. The Thursday night sci-fi show isn’t exactly a ratings blockbuster, but there are other factors keeping ‘Fringe‘ in play, including its devoted fan base and its excellent pedigree (the show is produced by the in-demand J.J. Abrams and supergeeks of the moment Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman).
Despite delivering some truly thrilling episodes this season, ‘Fringe‘ continues to slip in the ratings. Surprisingly, Fox doesn’t seem too concerned about the show’s low Nielsen rankings. According to TVbytheNumbers.com, Fox has picked up ‘Fringe‘ for a full 22-episodes. Not 9, not 13, but a full 22!
That’s quite a show of faith from the network known for greenlighting great sci-fi shows (‘Firefly,’ ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’) only to strangle them with inept scheduling before laying them out on the chopping block.
So what’s next for ‘Fringe‘? Judging by the previews for its return in April, the show will explore its intriguing mythology with more episodes about Walter’s past and the warring universes plot.
I guess we’re done with the standalone case-of-the-week eps this season. I enjoy the case-of-the-week plots, but I’m hoping season three will deliver more arc-based storytelling and offer more eps that relate to the grand scheme of the show.
‘Fringe‘ heads back to Fox on April 1st with an ep titled “Peter,” in which Walter reveals Peter’s alternate universe origins to Olivia.
