clips

Unexpected 'View' Spider Saves Us From Another Boring Barbara Walters Story

seth · 10/29/07 04:16PM


We'll have to wait until Wednesday to find out what The View has in store for us this Halloween: We're pretty sure it won't be nearly as scary as last year, which featured Rosie O'Donnell in full Queen Victoria drag, or the one before that, in which Barbara Walters horrified a nation by refusing to break her breathy, baby-voiced Marilyn Monroe character for the entire episode.

Alec Baldwin's '30 Rock' One-Man Tour-De-Force

seth · 10/26/07 04:49PM



Last night, nestled in an episode of the consistently hilarious 30 Rock starring Carrie Fisher as the ghost of Liz Lemon's schizophrenic, rat-infested future, was a scene of less than two minutes in duration that could easily go down as one the greatest acting triumphs of this or any other generation. In it, Sir Alec Baldwin (is he not a Sir yet? Because he should be) inhabits no less than five figures from Tracy Jordan's formative years, seamlessly traversing age, gender, and ethnic lines with a proficiency that would make a bitterly envious Eddie Murphy storm out of the room faster than he did on Oscar night. Jack Donaghy, we salute you.

Fake Steve Jobs fakes out iPod lovers

Owen Thomas · 10/26/07 04:19PM


After Dan Lyons, the Forbes editor who blogs as Fake Steve Jobs, visited Microsoft's main Redmond campus to talk about his new book, Options, he sat down for an interview with Microsoft's Channel 10. The best part? Fast forward 8:30 to the point where Lyons says, "I'm very excited about the Zune 80," Microsoft's latest music player. He then pretends to realize his gaffe: "People who read my blog are going to be very upset." Of course, any close readers of Fake Steve Jobs will know Lyons, in a classic move, dropped that bit in intentionally to drive the iPod-fanboy commentards on his blog batshit crazy. Dan Lyons invented this kind of thing on The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Have you heard of it?

All Hail The Hero's Return: The 'Rambo' Trailer Goes Live

seth · 10/26/07 01:17PM


Back in May, the internet-leaking gods gifted us with some hyperviolent footage from a project then-titled John Rambo, starring sexagenarian superstar Sylvester Stallone, eager to prove that after a nip/tuck here and a human growth hormone injection there, he was more than up to the task of hunting down yet another yellow-skinned army through a reptile-infested jungle using nothing more than his trusted bowie knife, a pocket flamethrower, and his bare hands.

Steve Carell Learns The Hard Way That Being A Movie Star Sometimes Subjects You To Rachael Ray

seth · 10/26/07 12:32PM


We know Steve Carell came equipped to the Rachael Ray Show with his best "Juliette Binoche and me starring in a romantic comedy—whodathunk it?!" material, but we think the true odd-couple pairing that needs to be spotlighted here is Carell and Ray herself. Nothing quite unsettles us like the shimmering cackles of the easy-meal munchkin—who, we like to imagine, spends her commercial breaks power-smoking Lucky Strikes before gargling a handful of driveway gravel. Sadly, even her interpretive hand-gestures—we think she's mushing Carell and Binoche together like a large wad of pizza dough?—fail to prevent Carell's Funny Soufflé from falling.

NBC reveals the emptiness of Second Life

Mary Jane Irwin · 10/26/07 12:20PM


Dwight, the detestable lackey of NBC's The Office, has ventured into Second Life. "Second Life is not a game," he testily declares. Exactly. A game would be, y'know, fun. We hope Chris Anderson of Wired watched this episode.

Did Alec Baldwin Just Finally Win An Emmy?

Joshua Stein · 10/26/07 11:00AM



Last night on the NBC show "30 Rock," Alec Baldwin reached the apotheosis of his dark and stormy acting career, a career that has had so very many funny moments. (Remember that voicemail he left for his daughter? Hilarious!) Baldwin lost the 2007 Emmy (his sixth nomination!) to Ricky Gervais (foreigners, always taking our jobs!)—but now we're feeling confident that his public rehabilitation is complete.

Top Models Slut It Up For Tyson

mark · 10/25/07 08:07PM


· We haven't watched a single minute of this cycle of ANTM, so we'll need you to answer this question for us: does every episode feature a C-list master-of-ceremonies for a half-assed slut-off? (Before you answer that, Tyra's definitely at least a B.)
· The best time to pass the hat for a political campaign is always when your potential donors' beach houses are burning to the ground.
· So that's what Axl was hiding behind that catcher's chest protector all of those years.
· Our pals at BoingBoing drag an animated skeleton out of The Simpsons Movie director's closet.
· Dumbledore's recent outing is causing other fictional characters to ask themselves uncomfortable questions about their sexuality.

Checking In With Donald Trump's Beauty Queen Harem At 'Pageant Place'

seth · 10/25/07 05:05PM


We thought we'd pay a visit to MTV's Pageant Place, which, for the uninitiated, is something like a Meerkat Manor for the Trump pageant queen set. And like their adorable Kalaharian counterparts, this quarrelsome matriarchy also employs complex and highly sectarian sociodynamics: Take Tara Conner, for example, the disgraced Miss USA famously forgiven for her blow-doing indiscretions by Trump the Merciful (and who indirectly caused a small amount of friction between her combforwarded boss and Rosie O'Donnell): Since being welcomed back into the clan and made Mr. Trump's favorite posable Barbie, she continues to be ostracized by her sash-wearing peers, whose fake smiles belie their not-so-secret desire that she too might meet an untimely, Flower-esque fate at the fangs of Trump's own cobra strike.

Robert Evans Is Playing 'Mind Games' With Us

mark · 10/25/07 03:12PM


We often find ourselves wondering how superannuated producing legend Robert Evans kills his time in between taking inventory of his world-class turtleneck collection, giving piggyback rides around his estate to protege/adopted son Brett Ratner, and surfing AshleyMadison.com for a love match who might bring him up to a year of nuptial bliss. Thanks to this video forwarded by a reader, we have a better idea of how he's keeping busy: by making noirish fake movie trailers (for an advertising firm called Sinfactory, apparently) with production values so good they could easily later be repurposed as perfume commercials. Are we still a little bit confused about the footage we've now watched more than a dozen times? We are. But are we going to keep replaying it over and over, allowing ourselves to be lightly hypnotized by Evans' silky voice? You bet your sweet little ass, sister.

"Every Ball Has A Backdoor"

Emily Gould · 10/25/07 01:50PM

"To me, one of the biggest differences between the ['The O.C.' and 'Gossip Girl'] is that New York City is a character in 'Gossip Girl," according to both shows' wunderkind creator Josh Schwartz. And: sure! Especially if you mean "the only difference" and "Vancouver or Toronto or a soundstage is a character." Anyway: on last night's episode, Jennifer Aniston's little sister Serena Van der Woodsen has called her star-crossed Williamsburg love Dan. She is just about to ask him to her on-again friend Blair Waldorf's masquerade ball, but then she hears a girl's voice in the background and she's all "Who's that" and he says, "Um, my sister," even though it is actually his old best friend, the terribly-wardrobed Vanessa, whose tacky outfits pissed me off in every scene (she can't dress well because she is meant to portray a poor!).

She's not a cartoon, she's the Paris Hilton of Second Life

Nicholas Carlson · 10/25/07 11:34AM


Remember Second Life, the metaverse that seems to garner more mentions in the press than actual users? Well, CSI: NY treated us all to a lamer version of reality last night, incorporating Linden Lab's lonely virtual world into its plot. What we want to know: Why can't CBS understand that all we want from it is some Jessica Fletcher and a few sunny-skied pharmaceutical commercials?