Month: November 2014

Categories
Television

Spectacular casting news!!

Hugh Laurie heading to ‘Veep’

Hugh Laurie is White House bound.

The British actor, best known for his two-time, Golden Globe-winning turn as the title character on House, is joining Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Veep.

The HBO political comedy left off with vice president Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus) ascending to the oval office when POTUS resigned to take care of his wife. The show is now heading into its fourth season.

Details are unknown about Laurie’s role at this time, but with Meyer in charge, at least for the time being, someone might fill the role of vice president.

Categories
Books

I will read this one for sure!!

Beach Boys’ Mike Love Writing a Memoir

Mike Love, a founding member of the Beach Boys and lead singer on such hits as “Surfin’ U.S.A.” and “Little Deuce Coupe,” has a book deal.

Love has an agreement with Blue Rider Press for Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy. Blue Rider, an imprint of Penguin Random House, told The Associated Press on Wednesday (Nov. 19) that the memoir is scheduled for a 2016 release. It will come out, appropriately, during the summer.

According to Blue Rider, the 73-year-old Love will open up about the band and his “complex” relationship with Brian Wilson, Love’s cousin and the Beach Boys’ leader during their peak years in the 1960s. Love and Wilson have fought over songwriting credits and creative control of the group.

Categories
Concerts

See you in Chicago!!

Foo Fighters Announce 2015 North America Tour, Box Office-Only Pre-Sales

Following news Foo Fighters will be touring Australia next spring in support of the band’s new album Sonic Highways, fans stateside have wondered when the rock icons would hit their homeland. Now the Foos have responded with 29 dates spanning four months through the U.S. and Canada, with a box-office-only ticket pre-sale starting Saturday before tickets hit the web.

The Washington, DC to Memphis, Tenn.-spanning dates include the band’s first-ever stadium headlining shows, with support from Royal Blood and Mission of Burma. Along the routing, they’ll hit DC’s RFK stadium for a July 4 all-day 20th anniversary blowout, New York’s Citi Field on July 16, two nights at Boston’s Fenway Park on July 18 and 19, and Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Aug. 29, which already sold out in a day after its early announcement.

Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. this Saturday at box offices only in a sales event the band is calling “Beat the Bots.”

“Fans sick of Scalper-BOTS programmed to clog online queues and snatch up huge amounts of tickets to resell them will get first shot at tickets to these shows,” said a press release.

A full list of box office locations and details is available at the band’s website. Online pre-sales for the tour begin Dec. 1, with general sales starting Dec. 4 and 5.

Full Foo Fighters 2015 North American Tour Dates Here:

July 4: Washington DC — RFK Stadium
July 6: Camden, NJ — Susquehanna Bank Center *
July 9: Toronto, ON — Molson Canadian Amphitheatre *
July 16: New York, NY — Citi Field *
July 18: Boston, MA — Fenway Park **
July 19: Boston, MA — Fenway Park *
Aug. 12: Edmonton, AB — Rexall Place *
Aug. 13: Calgary, AB — Scotiabank Saddledome *
Aug. 17: Denver, CO — Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre *
Aug. 19: Maryland Heights, MO — Verizon Wireless Amphitheater *
Aug. 21: Kansas City, MO — Sprint Center *
Aug. 22: St. Paul, MN — Xcel Energy Center *
Aug. 24: Detroit, MI — DTE Energy Music Theatre *
Aug. 25: Pittsburgh, PA — First Niagara Pavilion *
Aug. 27: Indianapolis, IN — Klipsch Music Center
Aug. 29: Chicago, IL — Wrigley Field (SOLD OUT)
Sept. 11: Vancouver, BC — Rogers Arena
Sept. 12: George, WA — Gorge Amphitheatre
Sept. 14: Portland, OR — Moda Center
Sept. 16: Mountain View, CA — Shoreline Amphitheatre
Sept. 18: Anaheim, CA — Honda Center
Sept. 21: Los Angeles, CA — The Forum
Sept. 25: Phoenix, AZ — AK-Chin Pavilion
Sept. 27: Albuquerque, NM — Isleta Amphitheater
Sept. 29: Oklahoma City, OK — Chesapeake Energy Arena
Sept. 30: Wichita, KS — INTRUST Bank Arena
Oct. 4: Atlanta, GA — Centennial Olympic Park
Oct. 5: Nashville, TN — Bridgestone Arena
Oct. 7: Memphis, TN — FedExForum

* w/ Royal Blood supporting
** w/ Mission of Burma supporting

Categories
Music

I bought a copy!

Band Aid 30 single sales have gone ‘bonkers,’ says Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof, the Irish musician and co-founder of the Band Aid 30 campaign to fight Ebola, says the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas is selling like crazy.

“From what we’ve seen from iTunes, it’s gone bonkers,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Monday. “Within four or five minutes we had a million quid ($1.7 million).”

The single, which premiered on the British version of the TV talent show X Factor Sunday night, went on sale online Monday morning with proceeds going to help fight the spread of the hemorrhagic virus in West Africa.

“iTunes haven’t been able to refresh their charts because the demand has been so vast,” said the veteran rocker.

Some of the biggest names in the British music industry gathered at a London studio on Saturday to record the song, including boy band One Direction, U2’s Bono, Robert Plant and Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin.

The lyrics have been updated from the 1984 original Do They Know It’s Christmas. That version, featuring artists like Bono, George Michael and David Bowie, went on to sell 3.7 million copies and raised $14 million for famine relief.

Aided by online digital sales, it seems likely that the 2014 version will smash previous Band Aid single sales.

“That isn’t what [Band Aid co-founder] Midge [Ure] and I expected when we knocked off an OK song 30 years ago,” explained Geldof.

“But, every time it’s worked. Without question, without any shadow of a doubt, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions alive today who would have died of hunger.”

Geldof relaunched the Band Aid cause last week, after he said the United Nations contacted him, saying help was urgently needed to prevent the disease from spreading beyond West Africa.

Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people since it broke out in West Africa earlier this year according to the World Health Organization, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

 

Band Aid 30 lyrics

It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to be afraid
At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
At Christmas time
But say a prayer, pray for the other ones
At Christmas time, it’s hard but while you’re having fun
There’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear
Where a kiss of love can kill you, and there’s death in every tear
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you
No peace and joy this Christmas in West Africa
The only hope they’ll have is being alive
Where to comfort is to fear
Where to touch is to be scared
How can they know it’s Christmas time at all
Here’s to you
Raise a glass to everyone
And here’s to them
And all their years to come
Let them know it’s Christmas time after all
Feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again
Feel the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again
Heal the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again

Categories
Doctor Who

It wasn’t a great season, but here’s hoping the next one is!!

‘Doctor Who’ Showrunner Confirms Peter Capaldi to Return for Season 9

Peter Capaldi’s 12th incarnation of Doctor Who will run at least two seasons, it was confirmed Monday.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter after an event in London to mark the DVD release of the BBC series’ recently completed eighth season, showrunner Steven Moffat said that Capaldi was returning.

“Yes, he’s confirmed,” Moffat said, although he later added that Jenna Coleman, who has played the Time Lord’s companion Clara Oswald for the past two years, had not, something that could fuel rumors in the U.K. press that she is going to leave the show following the upcoming Christmas special.

At the DVD launch event, Capaldi, Coleman and Moffat were joined onstage with Michelle Gomez, who played Doctor Who’s nemesis the Master in the latest series, and Samuel Anderson, who played Clara’s boyfriend, Danny Pink.

During a Q&A session, Gomez said that finding out she was playing the first female incarnation of the Master was “up there with being Hillary Clinton.”

Capaldi also revealed that he was initially approached to audition for the part of the eighth Doctor Who in 1996’s unsuccessful TV film reboot attempt, a role that eventually went to Paul McGann.

“But I turned down the opportunity,” he said. “I loved it so much that I didn’t want to have the disappointment of going for something that I would never get.”

The Q&A followed the world premiere of Earth Conquest: The Doctor Who World Tour, chronicling the cast’s 12-day promotional tour in August that covered seven cities across five continents. The documentary, which focuses on the series’ vast international network of fans, is included with the DVD.

In a separate release Monday, it was announced that ratings for the first 10 episodes of Doctor Who season eight were up 23 percent in the U.S., without revealing exact figures. The season premiere was the show’s highest-rated premiere ever on BBC America.

In the U.K., the season snared an average consolidated audience of 7.4 million viewers, an increase of 39 percent on the overnight figures. At an event last week, Moffat denied that there had been a ratings drop and that U.K. viewing figures “are the same” as the previous season when including delayed viewing.

“It’s been an outstanding debut series for Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who and I’m very grateful to Peter, Steven Moffat and everyone involved,” said Danny Cohen, director of BBC Television, in a statement.

Categories
People

Best wishes, Mr. Hockey!!

Gordie Howe ‘not doing well at all’ in recovery from stroke, says son

Gordie Howe is “not doing well at all” several weeks after suffering a stroke, according to his son Mark.

The Hall of Famer known as “Mr. Hockey” had initially been improving better than expected, but that changed recently.

“His health has taken a turn for the worse this past week to 10 days and we are doing what we can to help his situation the best that we can,” Mark told The Canadian Press. “But he is not doing well at all is the bottom line.”

Gordie Howe, 86, had a stroke Oct. 26 while visiting his daughter in Lubbock, Texas. His family released a statement Nov. 4 saying the hockey legend was “recovering at a remarkable rate.”

News began to surface this weekend indicating that was no longer the case. In an interview with “The Hockey News,” Mark Howe said his father’s situation was “headed in the wrong direction.”

“As a family, if we’re not going to be able to reduce his pain, the outcome is not going to be good,” Howe told THN.

Howe is considered one of the greatest players in hockey history. His professional career spanned five decades, most notably with the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. He played 25 seasons with the Red Wings, making his debut on Oct. 16, 1946, and led them to four Stanley Cup titles.

Howe left the Red Wings to join the World Hockey Association’s Houston Aeros for the 1973-74 season, and played six seasons in the now-defunct league before returning to the NHL for one final season with the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80.

He played in one more professional game, taking a shift with the IHL’s Detroit Vipers in 1997.

Howe played 1,767 regular-season NHL games, scoring 801 goals and adding 1,049 assists for 1,850 points. Known for toughness as much as scoring in his playing days, he also amassed 1,685 penalty minutes.

He had 508 points (174 goals, 334 assists) in 419 WHA regular-season games.

Categories
People

May he rest in peace.

TV legend Glen A. Larson, creator of ‘Magnum, P.I.’, dies at 77

Glen A. Larson, the successful writer-producer behind classic TV series like Magnum, P.I., Battlestar Galactica, and Knight Rider, has died. He was 77.

According to a statement his son James made to The Hollywood Reporter, Larson died of esophageal cancer while at the UCLA medical center in Santa Monica on Friday night.

Larson’s career was a long and storied one—initially a singer in 50s pop quartet The Four Preps (watch a clip here), he broke into the industry on hit shows like The Fugitive and It Takes a Thief. He would become a prolific creator in the ’70s and ’80s; in addition to the aforementioned dramas, he brought to the tube such series as Alias Smith and Jones, The Six Million Dollar Man (which was based on the novel Cyborg), Switch, Quincy, M.E., The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, B.J. and the Bear, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (based on the late-’20s character), Battlestar spinoff Galactica 1980, The Fall Guy, and Manimal.

Larson is survived by his wife, Jeannie, his brother, Kenneth, and nine children.

Categories
Movies

Dumb and Dumber To isn’t a classic like the original, but it was pretty good and I did laugh out loud.

Box office report: ‘Dumb and Dumber To’ beats ‘Big Hero 6’

Dumb and Dumber fans flocked to theaters for the long-awaited Dumb and Dumber To this weekend. The sequel made an estimated $38.1 million for a strong debut — one that beat out Disney’s Big Hero 6.

Audiences first met Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels’ foolish alter egos in 1994′s Dumb and Dumber, a film that grossed $127.1 million in the U.S. and became an icon of low-brow comedy. Judging by this weekend’s box office, audiences’ tastes haven’t changed too much — even despite the critics’ consensus that the 20-years-later sequel is, well, not great.

It makes sense that moviegoers wouldn’t be too swayed by critical opinion for this movie though: Dumb and Dumber To is pure nostalgia, and people will always love nostalgia, even if it’s bad quality. It helps too that Dumb and Dumber To isn’t exactly a movie made for the critics — it’s no Big Hero 6, and it knows it.

Big Hero 6, on the other hand, is a critical and commercial success. The Disney animated feature debuted alongside Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar last weekend and won: Big Hero 6 grossed $56.2 million while Interstellar brought in $47.5 million. The hype around Big Hero isn’t likely to die down anytime soon thanks to its association with Disney and its family friendliness — there aren’t many other movies out now that parents and kids can both see, and, more importantly, enjoy.

One of the movies kids can see but might not enjoy? Interstellar, a long, science-heavy film with an emotional message. The space drama grossed an estimated $29 million this weekend, dropping only 39 percent from last weekend’s total.

After those three though, the numbers start dropping: Beyond the Lights came in fourth with $6.5 million, while Gone Girl – now in its seventh week — brought in $4.6 million and, predictably, remained in the top five.

1. Dumb and Dumber To – $38.1 million
2. Big Hero 6 – $36 million
3. Interstellar – $29 million
4. Beyond the Lights – $6.5 million
5. Gone Girl – $4.6 million

Jon Stewart’s directorial debut Rosewater also opened this weekend, but only in in 371 theaters, and earned $1.2 million while Foxcatcher opened in six theaters, bringing in $288,000. In other limited release news, The Theory of Everything expanded into 41 theaters and brought in $738,00. Birdman, now in 857 theaters, grossed $2.5 million in its third week and made it into the top 10 for the first time.

Categories
Music

I look forward to buying it tomorrow.

Robert Plant, Bono, Sam Smith, Disclosure team for Ebola charity single

For the 30th anniversary of Band Aid, Bob Geldof convened a group of over 15 musicians to record a new version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” to raise funds for the battle against Ebola in West Africa. The stars aligned in London on Saturday to record the charity single. Just one day later, the song is available online. Watch the corresponding video below.

Geldof started Band Aid in 1984 to aid in the fight against famine in Ethiopia. This latest single marks the fourth time “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” has been recorded and the first since 2004. Featured on this new version is Band Aid veteran Bono along with Robert Plant, Marcus Mumford, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, Disclosure, Chris Martin, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Karl Hyde, Rita Ora, Jessie Ware, Sinead O’Connor, Ed Sheeran, One Direction, and members of Elbow and Bastille.

In addition to the new faces, some of the song’s lyrics have been altered to reflect the crisis in West Africa. The line “Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears” has been replaced with “Where a kiss of love can kill you and there’s death in every tear.” The lyric “there won’t be snow in Africa,” often criticized for being factually inaccurate and generalizing about an entire continent, now reads, “No peace and joy this Christmas in West Africa/ the only hope they’ll have is being alive.”

The charity single goes on sale Monday (November 17th) for $1.29 and all proceeds go to fight the Ebola epidemic. Geldof commented, “It really doesn’t matter if you don’t like this song. It really doesn’t matter if you don’t like the artists, it really doesn’t matter if it turns out to be a lousy recording — what you have to do is buy this thing.”

Categories
Movies

Oh well…

Jennifer Lawrence Scrapped Her Cameo in the Dumb and Dumber Sequel

Hollywood releases a lot of films every year, and despite what it might feel like, Jennifer Lawrence is not in most of them. One such movie is Dumb and Dumber To, which reportedly saw its J.Law cameo dropped from the film at the actress’s insistence.

A huge fan of the original, Lawrence signed up to play a younger version of Kathleen Turner’s Fraida Felcher in the upcoming sequel, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, she chose to exercise her veto power over the cameo appearing in the final cut.

Probably for the best. It’s the Norbit rule: When you’re gunning for Oscars, you don’t want a character named “Fraida Felcher” in your filmography.