Andrew Bowen Stern (l.) and GiGi LeMaire of Savvy, Photo credit: Chris LeMaire.
Andrew Bowen Stern and GiGi LeMaire, members of the pop singing group Savvy, hit the road running without apparent jet lag after arriving at LAX yesterday to begin work on their new album with Cash Money Records.
Savvy‘s show The Wannabes currently airs weekdays on Starz Kids & Family.
Moneyball is a sports drama starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, the real-life Oakland A‘s general manager, who successfully put together a baseball club on a limited budget by using computer-generated analysis to draft his players.
His newfound way of picking his players results in criticism from his peers, who think he’s obliterating the heart and soul of the game.
The family film Dolphin Tale is based on a true story and follows the friendship between a boy and a dolphin whose tail was lost in a crab trap. Without a tail the dolphin may not make it. So, it’ll have to rely on the smarts of a marine biologist, a prosthetic doctor and the young kid who has bonded with the dolphin.
The pic is heartfelt, with a stellar cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr.
Taking a step away from his role as Jacob Black in the Twilight movies, Taylor Lautner stars in Abduction. He portrays Nathan, a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website.
Nathan soon realizes that he’s being tracked by a team of trained killers, which means he’ll need to solve the mystery of his life in order to survive.
Hollywood continues to cannibalize itself with another remake of one of Sam Peckinpah’s action-thrillers, Killer Elite.
What’s up with all these filmmakers remaking Sam Peckinpah pics? First Straw Dogs just a week ago and now Killer Elite, a film that originally starred James Caan and Robert DuVall – and now stars Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert DeNiro.
The story is changed a bit and now revolves around a retired member of Britain’s Elite Special Air Service, who is pressed into action again when his mentor is grabbed and held captive. His plan is to kill the three assassins sent out by their leader.
Jim Caviezel (pictiured) stars in "PERSON OF INTEREST," Thursday evenings, (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Eric Liebowitz/CBS ©2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved
“Crazy broad appeal you don’t usually see,” according to CBS execs, referring to the unusually high test ratings for their new futuristic crime drama, Person of Interest.
The series star, Jim Caviezel is playfully introduced as the “critically acclaimed actor and onetime savior, (referring to his overnight success as the name character in The Last Temptation of Christ)” from CBS publicist, Lana Kim.
While Caviezel is undoubtedly a part of the show’s power, the concept and the way the script handles its story is evidently an idea whose time has come.
Person of Interest is about a Big Brother computer that can foresee people who will be connected to violent crimes. Problem is that it cannot distinguish between the killer, victim or eyewitness to the murder, much less the murder’s location or time. R.E.D. CIA agent John Reese (Jim Caviezel) is hired to figure out the computer’s riddles and intervene before the murder happens.
Intriguing idea, but great stories made into terrible films are Hollywood legends. This time Exec Producer Jonathon Nolan, himself a master scriptwriter ( Momento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight) genied with the script until he got Person of Interest right for a wide range of critics and an even larger audience.
Caviezel begins with his thoughts about the deep John Reese character. “Well, simply former special forces CIA on the surface, but deep down, a guy who is searching for a purpose, and Finch (Michael Emerson, who plays the mysterious gazillionaire who invents the psychic computer) seems to offer that, and I think that purpose probably is justice,” Caviezel says. “People often say person of interest, but I like to think of it as people of interest. The thing about the material is that we all have a value out there, and I think that that is gonna hit ‑‑ like it hit me, it’s gonna hit other people but there’s something more than just all the technology out there, and a story.”
Person of Interest‘s 1984-ish future society include spying video cameras everywhere. Caviezel comments on the program’s use of spy cam POVs in long shots, where many city pedestrians, not aware that a TV show was being shot, reacted. “When I’m beating up people in the middle of the streets, a lot of the New Yorkers think, ‘Look at that guy beating that guy up in the middle of the street,’ Caviezel says with what may be a smile. “Some of them actually come over and want to take a swing at me for doing it.”
“Do you plan to bring something special to it?” an interviewer asks in a serious tone. “Well, I’m trying,” Caviezel says, like President John Kennedy in one of his quirky press conferences, and even the stone-faced journalists can’t hide their smiles.
Person of Interest debuts tonight (Thursday) 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT on CBS.
Pictured (L-R): Shelley Hennig (back to camera) as Diana and Natasha Henstridge as Dawn in "The Secret Circle" on The CW. Photo: Liane Hentscher/CBS
Natacha Henstridge spoke recently about her role in The Secret Circle as principal of a school where a family of witches attend and is something of a double agent for the antagonist of the series.
“I think one of the great things about this character is, although she is very much a strong ‑‑ a strong woman again ‑‑ yet again playing another strong woman,” Henstridge says, focusing on the character, the script that she genuinely wanted, as several jaded entertainment journalists record and write her every word. “Fantastic. I love it. But, yeah, I’m playing the principal of the school and the mother of Faye Chamberlain (Phoebe Tonkin), who is sort of the one kind of pulling the strings, kind of making things happen,” Henstridge says of the chance to demonstrate her gear-changing as an actor. “It is sort of in the center of the school and the principal gets to sort of keep an eye on everything, all of the goings‑on in the school and ‑‑ but is a much more dynamic character than I even originally thought she would be.
“She does some not so great things and definitely has an agenda but also has a real, sort of, moral scale in which she has morals. They are very unusual morals, but they are there nonetheless, which makes the character a lot of fun to play because I think playing a straightforward villain, all the way, is less interesting unless you care about the character. So I think she’s a cool character in that way.”
To the question of ‘will she ride a broom,’ Henstridge deadpans “Do you know what? Season 6, if the ratings get bad, I’ve already suggested a musical version. You never know. I mean, why not?”
With a literate script of a witch-driven story and Henstridge anchoring the character-end of the show, a musical version (or 3-D gimmick version) will never be necessary.
The Secret Circle appears Thursday evenings on The CW Television Network, based on the L.J. Smith book trilogy The Initiation, The Captive, The Power.
Pictured: Bestselling author Jackie Collins, whose new book is entitled "Goddess of Vengeance." Photo by Greg Gorman.
Jackie Collins may have hinted at the idea of her Lucky Chances character, Lucky Santangelo taking a backseat to her daughter Max, but in this latest installment of the book series Goddess of Vengeance, the author has her front and center in the story.
That’s good news or for fans of Lucky books – and in the video below, Collins explains why Lucky commands attention, why her bestseller books should be movies and her thoughts on who should play Lucky in a big screen version of the novel.
Peter Greenberg is one of the foremost experts on travel. His PBS series, The Royal Tour has Greenberg visiting hot travel destinations with the help of each country’s heads of state.
For his latest installment, Greenberg goes the distance of Mexico with its president Filipe Calderon to give viewers a taste of places south of the border usually left off that fancy tour package.
In the video below, Greenberg details all the reasons why we should be visiting Mexico, all the fantastic places and things to see that are available to everyone – and why Mexico is safer than what most Americans have been led to believe.
The special airs Sunday, October 2nd. Check local PBS listings for The Royal Tour airtimes.
HARRY'S LAW -- Season:2 -- Pictured: (l-r) Nate Corddry as Adam Branch, Mark Valley as Oliver Richard, Karen Olivo as Cassie Reynolds, Kathy Bates as Harriet "Harry" Korn, Christopher McDonald as Tommy Jefferson -- Photo by: John Russo/NBCHarriet "Harry" Korn -- Photo by: John Russo/NBC
There are a lot of changes for the second season of Harry’s Law (Wednesdays, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, NBC) aside from the move to Wednesday nights.
According to Nate Corddry, who stars as Adam Branch on the legal dramedy, Harry (Kathy Bates) is moving up…literally.
“We premiere with a new set and three fulltime brand new actors,” Corddry begins. “The business has been going well for Harry and she’s decided to purchase a loft space above the shoe store so she’s starting to expand her business.”
Harry’s clientele will now also include white-collar defendants as well and in that expansion new characters will be introduced. Mark Valley (formerly on Human Target) and Tony-winning, New York actress Karen Olivo will join Harry’s firm. Plus, the role of Tommy Jefferson (Christopher McDonald) will grow significantly.
“Chris has come back full time and he’ll be in every episode,” Corddry confirmes. “He now works in the same loft as Harry and I.”
Of course that means that Corddry and McDonald will continue their contentious relationship on a more frequent basis.
“There’s a lot of grist for the mill,” he acknowledges. “David E. Kelly (Harry’s Law creator/writer) really loves that relationship between the two of us and wrote to it often. For those people who are fans of the show, the news is that it won’t let up.”
Corddry is grateful for the opportunity Harry’s Law has given him, but he also points out that even the Oscar-winning star of the show, Kathy Bates is riding high on her TV series adventure.
“She’s so happy,” he gushes. “She turned to me the other day, we were shooting a scene and we had these wonderful guest actors – Alfred Molina, Jean Smart and Jason Alexander – it was really well acted and the crew was great and she just turned to me and said, ‘An embarrassment of riches.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and she said, ‘There are just so many reasons why this job is great.’ She’s really happy to be there and we’re all really happy to be there. The work is good and the company is good…you can’t beat it. We’re definitely a lot more comfortable with each other for season two.”
Pictured (L-R) A.J. Cook , Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness and Paget Brewster, stars of Criminal Minds. Photo: Francis Specker/CBS ©2011 Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved
The producers of Criminal Minds (Wednesdays, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, CBS) must have gotten piles of hate mail after A.J. Cook, who plays Jennifer “JJ” Jareau, and Paget Brewster, who stars as Emily Prentiss, were cut from the show, because they’re both back on the series beginning with the season premiere.
Was it a way to stir up some controversy for a show that really didn’t need it? Who knows and no one’s talking.
Morgan (Shemar Moore) and JJ (A.J. Cook) zero in on a suspect, on the seventh season premiere of CRIMINAL MINDS. Photo: MATT KENNEDY/CBS ©2011 CBS BROADCASTING INC. All Rights Reserved. #CriminalMinds
Still A.J. Cook isn’t dwelling on being dumped. She’s just happy to be back on Minds again.
“It feels rewarding,” Cook begins, “and satisfying that everything’s back to normal. The girls are back and the team is back and the family is back and it just feels right. Everything makes sense again.”
Considering the character of Emily Prentiss was dead (as far as the BAU team was concerned) and they added characters to supposedly soften the blow of JJ’s exit, the producers have got serious resolutions to handle. Cook tells EntertainmentHeartbeat all the drama will be dealt with in a logical way.
“We actually just did a screening of the premiere and it’s exciting,” she assures fans. “It’s really well done and I think they did a really great job of explaining everything. We have a lot of changes, we had a lot to deal with and we’re going to explain it all. We’re just trying to make the show that the fans want and they fought so hard to get back together.”
Prentiss (Paget Brewster) and Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) are questioned by a Senate Committee for their actions surrounding Prentiss' assumed death and disappearance, on the seventh season premiere of CRIMINAL MINDS. Photo: Michael Yarish/CBS ©2011 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. #CriminalMinds
In fact, Cook insists, this year is specifically dedicated to the fans.
“We’re going to see a lot more into the personal lives and there is going to be a little turmoil within the team with this whole Emily deal, but we’re going to learn something new about all these characters,” she says.
Why?
“After seven seasons we have to…we have to get into the characters,” Cook points out. “Why they are the way they are and what they do when they leave the BAU. It’s exciting. It’s really exciting for us as actors.”
How personal will it get? Though Cook doesn’t give detailed specifics, she does hint that JJ will bring a bit of her work home.
“We’re shooting an episode right now that brings us back to JJ’s family and how she coping with being back at the BAU, being out in the field and having a family… juggling that. There are going to be some really great moments within the team and the relationships within the team. So, it’s exciting.”
Pictured: Simon Cowell, The X Factor creator and executive producer. CR: Ray Mickshaw / FOX
The X Factor, Simon Cowell promises, will be an all-new take on a television talent competition.
“I wouldn’t have made the show unless I thought it was going to be different,” Cowell insists. “It’s taken me a while with FOX to decide when we were going to do this. They wanted it last year, we weren’t ready for it last year, we felt the time was ready now. The fact that this is being launched in 2011, we see this as a game changer.”
That “game changer,” Cowell claims, means that they’re going to make new rules, with unique and different contestants and, of course, mentor the wannabes to stardom.
As for that other show that was already mentoring talent…The Voice…well, Cowell says there is room for all – and he’s not worried The X Factor will suffer as a result.
“We’ve been on the air for seven years now in the U.K. and we’ve always had mentoring,” he begins adding, “I think they started two years and they had mentoring, but that happens. I think it’s important for anyone – because The Voice went out before The X Factor – that we were on air before them and this was something we always felt was unique to us. I think when you watch the show how we work with the contestants, how that is shown on the show – who you end up working with, it is very different to The Voice and I didn’t have a problem with The Voice. When we heard it was coming we said to our team, ‘You’ve got to accept the fact that there are two shows and that you’ve got to make the show better.’ Therefore I think the people that benefit from this is the audience because you’re going to get better made shows.”
Along with Cowell, The X Factor’s panel of judges are: Paula Abdul, L.A. Reid and Nicole Scherzinger.
The show kicks off 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
ABC's "The Middle" stars Patricia Heaton as Frankie. (ABC/CRAIG SJODIN)
What a great way to kick off the new season of The Middle (8:00 p.m. ET/PT, ABC) – Ray Romano checked in for a guest starring role.
Patricia Heaton, who starred as Romano‘s wife Debra Barone on the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, says that Romano is portraying the former best friend of her current on-screen husband Mike (Neil Flynn).
In the video below, Heaton tells EntertainmentHeartbeat.com that Romano appeared to be having fun with the character – but got a bit of an education from the script supervisor about ad libbing.
