Mandy Scrubs In
Zach Braff's real-life squeeze is putting on her Scrubs. Mandy Moore makes a guest appearance on two episodes of the NBC sitcom as a patient's grandniece who is set up on a blind date with J.D. (Braff). The show is slated to return to NBC's schedule in midseason.
Spoiled Daddy's Girl Gets Killed on 'Lost'
NEW YORK - It would seem to be lights out for Shannon on "Lost." The spoiled Daddy's girl was apparently killed off Wednesday night as the ABC thriller made good on its promise to eliminate one of its characters.
Hyped by the network as the episode that "people will be talking about all year long," it had indeed spurred lots of chatter even before it aired. Despite mighty efforts by the series' producers to keep secret the victim's identity beforehand, bloggers and other "Lost" sleuths seized on Shannon Rutherford weeks ago as the castaway most likely to be "lost forever."
Even so, the episode put forward another possible candidate: fellow refugee Sawyer (Josh Holloway). Feverish and weakened from a bullet wound, he fell into unconsciousness during a grueling hike through the jungle interior.
It seemed he was a goner. Or just a red herring? At last sighting, he was being carried on a makeshift stretcher by others in his party. His condition seemed grave. "Lost" can be a tease.
But by all indications short of a death certificate, the bell tolled for Shannon. Pushing through the thick jungle growth in frantic pursuit of Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), the vanished child whose image keeps haunting her, Shannon was mistaken for one of the demonic Others and shot by trigger-happy Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez).
Wounded and bloody, Shannon collapsed into the arms of Sayid (Naveen Andrews), who had just professed his love for her and told her that, by golly, he had seen Walt's vision, too.
It was just another day on the uncharted tropical island where Shannon and dozens more airline passengers crashed last fall at the same time launching "Lost" into a hit.
Played by Maggie Grace, Shannon had been depicted as a sexy brat whose checkered past included seducing her stepbrother Boone Carlyle, a fellow island refugee until his death last season in a freak accident. Shannon was left reeling by that loss.
On Wednesday's episode, Boone (played by Ian Somerhalder) made a guest appearance in a flashback. He was seen comforting teenage Shannon upon the sudden death of her father, after which her stepmother rudely cut off her funds.
Then trust-fund Boone betrayed Shannon when he announced that Mom had offered him a well-paying job.
No wonder Shannon wrestled with abandonment issues.
"I know when we get out of here, you're just gonna leave me," she tearfully told Sayid moments before she was shot.
"I will never leave you," he said.
His devotion seemed to be a "Lost" cause.
McCready's Grand Troubles
"This is going to ruin my career. Please don't do this to me."
So pleaded Mindy McCready as she tried to talk cops out of arresting her for alleged drunken driving, a police officer testified Tuesday in Nashville, according to the Nashville Tennessean.
As the police blotter shows, McCready's reputed lobbying effort failed. The troubled country singer, whose career has stalled as personal and legal troubles have mounted, was booked May 6 on suspicion of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.
A passenger, James Shell, also was arrested, the Tennessean said. He was dinged, in part, for allegedly allowing McCready to get behind the wheel.
Following Tuesday's court hearing, the case was turned over to the grand jury of Davidson County, Tennessee. It'll be up to the panelists to decide if McCready is to be indicted on DUI charges. If she is, and if she's found guilty, the Associated Press said, she'll face at least two days in jail and nearly one year on probation.
McCready, who turns 30 on Nov. 30, already is in hot water for allegedly violating the terms of her probation in a drug case handed down in Williamson County, Tennessee. A court hearing on that matter is scheduled for Monday.
Nearly a decade ago, McCready was a rising teenage star with a hit album, Ten Thousand Angels, and a number one single, "Guys Do It All the Time."
Today, McCready is three years and counting between new albums and a cautionary tale fit for The Oprah Winfrey Show, which she appeared on last week to talk about the boyfriend, William McKnight, who allegedly almost choked her to death. The happy couple--McCready told Winfrey she's still in love with McKnight--are currently expecting their first child.
Other recent McCready hits include: the time she was accused of using a fake prescription to score OxyContin; the time she OD'd in a suicide attempt; the time she faced charges for allegedly sort-of stealing a pickup truck (she said she was trying to help police catch the real criminal--the case was dismissed last week); the other time she OD'd in a second apparent suicide attempt; and the time she was jailed for an alleged probation violation.
"You are truly messed up. You really are," Winfrey told McCready on the talk-host's show. "You are truly messed up."
Concurred McCready: "It's true."
New Line makes Dumb a little Dumber
New Line Home Entertainment has just unveiled plans that a new version of the hilarious Farelly Brothers comedy Dumb And Dumber is coming to DVD in January, featuring an Unrated cut of the film with 6 minutes of additional, never-before seen footage inserted back into the movie.
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels are too lame to live - and too dense to die - as a pair of deliriously dim-witted pals on a cross-country road trip to return a briefcase full of cash to its rightful owner. Along the way they'll confound cops, kidnappers and anyone and everyone who had the misfortune of crossing their paths in this comic caper for every idiot in the family!
The 2-disc Platinum Series release will feature an anamorphic widescreen transfer of the film, complete with a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital track in English and a number of extras, such as 3D Animated Menus and 2 Alternate Endings. Also included on the release are 9 Deleted Scenes as well as a new Retrospective Documentary. Further the DVD will contain a selection of Trailers, TV Spots and Fake Trailers.
Scheduled for release on January 3, Dumb And Dumber: Unrated will carry a $19.97 suggested retail price.
The Corpse Bride rises
Tim Burton's return to the world of creepy puppets comes to DVD early next year with the arrival of The Corpse Bride from Warner Home Entertainment.
Set in a 19th century European village, this stop-motion, animated feature follows the story of Victor, a young man who is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride, while his real bride, Victoria, waits bereft in the land of the living. Though life in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love.
The disc will come in seperate fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen versions, both in Dolby Digital 5.1 EX. Extras on the disc include the three documentaries Tim Burton: Dark vs. Light, Voices from the Underworld and Danny Elfman Interprets the Two Worlds, the featurettes Making Puppets Tick and Inside the Two Worlds, interviews, art galleries and an isolated score.
With a $29.98 suggested retail price, the DVD arrives on the 31st of January.
Nick Plans 20 More Spongebob Episodes
NEW YORK - Pull up for another meal at the Krusty Krab.
Nickelodeon has ordered 20 more episodes of "SpongeBob SquarePants."
That will make for a total of 100 adventures for the animated sea creature or cash cow as they know him at Nickelodeon when the new episodes finish airing in 2007.
"It just doesn't feel like we should stop yet," said Cyma Zarghami, Nickelodeon's chief executive.
Nickelodeon stopped making new episodes while the "SpongeBob SquarePants" feature film was in production, and there was some question at the time whether the series would start up again then 20 episodes were ordered last year and are airing now.
It's the kid-oriented network's most popular show. Last week, for example, the 4.5 million people who watched "SpongeBob" on Saturday morning made it the most popular event on cable after football. Four episodes of the cartoon ranked among Nielsen Media Research's top 15 cable shows.
"SpongeBob SquarePants" is the most widely seen show in Nickelodeon parent MTV Networks' history; a recent deal to air it in China means it's shown in 25 different languages around the world.
It has also generated nearly $4 billion in merchandise sales since its 2000 premiere. Much of that is adult-sized; about a quarter of regular "SpongeBob" viewers are adults, more than double the typical Nickelodeon show, Zarghami said.
"`SpongeBob' came at a time when the country was maybe a little bit blue, and SpongeBob was an endlessly optimistic character that came along and gave us a boost," she said, trying to explain its popularity. "And maybe it's just because he's plain funny."
Nick is going all out to promote this Friday's special "Where's Gary?" in which SpongeBob's pet snail runs away after feeling neglected. Nick has enlisted skateboard king Tony Hawk in the "search," and more than 700,000 youngsters have already played an online game keyed to the special.
The special is "very entertaining and it's also creepy and disturbing like all good cartoons should be," said Tom Kenny, the voice actor who portrays the porous yellow creature.
Kenny, who said he's delighted that he'll be working for 20 more episodes, has one of entertainment's ultimate undercover jobs, providing a voice that is recognizable to millions yet retaining anonymity when he walks out in public.
Not that he hasn't had any fun with that. Kenny occasionally finds himself walking in a park where he'll see a cluster of kids having a "SpongeBob" birthday party, complete with an adult dressed up in the character's costume.
"It's very tempting to walk by and say, `Hey, have a great birthday,'" he said, adopting SpongeBob's voice.
Collection Shows Isaac Hayes' Career
NEW YORK - It's a difficult image to conjure: Isaac Hayes struggling to overcome a nasty case of stage fright.
Not the hippest guy in the room, the epitome of cool.
Not the genius behind the soundtrack for "Shaft."
Not the voice of Chef on "South Park."
And yet it happened.
It was back in the late '60s, at the Masonic Temple in Detroit. Hayes was making his first-ever live appearance, sharing the bill with the established Staple Singers, and he wasn't sure how the audience would greet him.
"I had on some hippie-type outfit," says Hayes, his deep laugh rumbling at the recollection. "I had on red, white and blue pants, and moccasins. A purple shirt, and a terrycloth floppy hat. I was dressed weird, you know?"
Then Hayes made a joke, and the audience laughed. He removed the hat, revealing his shaved head, "and the ladies screamed," Hayes said.
Goodbye, stage fright. Hello, career.
Hayes, calling from his home base in Memphis, is reminiscing about his 1969-75 run at Stax Records a memorable era captured on the new 2-CD collection "Ultimate Isaac Hayes Can You Dig It?"
The collection, released Nov. 1, runs the gamut of Hayes' amazing output at the time, from hits like "Theme from Shaft" to the gospel sounds of "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" to a rarely heard duet with Dionne Warwick.
"Shaft," with its indelible hi-hat cymbal riff, earned Hayes a pair of Grammys. The soundtrack album stayed on the charts for 60 weeks, and changed the way that movies treated music. Movie soundtrack albums became a money-making genre, with artists from Curtis Mayfield ("Superfly") to Marvin Gaye ("Trouble Man") following Hayes' lead.
Hayes was one of the pioneers in breaking other traditional music business boundaries, whether by mixing his funk with a string section or stretching out on a 12-minute cover of the Warwick hit "Walk on By."
"I felt what I had to say musically could not be said in two minutes and thirty seconds," Hayes said. "So I did my thing. If it was a hit, great. But I just did what I wanted creatively."
The 63-year-old Hayes was a presence on the musical scene before his debut album, "Presenting Isaac Hayes," was released in 1969. With partner David Porter, he wrote the hits "Soul Man," "I Thank You" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" for Sam and Dave. He was in great demand as a session player and producer.
But it wasn't until his second solo album, "Hot Buttered Soul," that the music was given the full Hayes treatment. His earlier songs, Hayes said, were limited by Stax owner Jim Stewart's "meat and potatoes" approach to recording.
Hayes had something different in mind.
"I'd been hearing things in my head for a long time, but I'd been restricted," Hayes said. "Now I did what I felt. ... When I had the opportunity to do my own thing, that's when I thought about strings and different chords."
By the time of his album "To Be Continued," he was in the studio with violins, trumpets, French horns and flutes. And he became regarded as a brilliant interpreter of other writers' songs sort of the Sinatra of soul.
Coming up with often outrageous arrangements for music by Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach, Al Green and Kris Kristofferson was as rewarding for Hayes as writing his own tunes.
"I like to see how people responded," said Hayes. "I liked that. It was a big validation."
Even bigger was meeting with Bacharach and Webb, who each expressed their admiration for Hayes' covers.
These days, Hayes is keeping himself plenty busy. He's working on a children's book, and promoting a cookbook aimed at helping people fight hypertension (the ailment claimed his grandfather, his father and good friend Barry White). And he's still rolling with the cast from "South Park," playing school cafeteria kingpin Chef.
He's doing a local radio show. And he's working on a new album his first since 1995's dual release, "Branded" and "Raw & Refined" with veteran drummer Steve Jordan.
As the conversation continued, Hayes recalled another live performance, when he was long past his struggle with stage fright.
He was in a place called the Tiki Bar, sharing the stage with R&B greats the Bar-Kays. Hayes planned to play a song by Glenn Campbell that's right, Black Moses doing a cover of the Rhinestone Cowboy.
There was chatter in the crowd, and Hayes started talking as the band vamped, telling the story of a jilted lover's lonely life. And then he began to sing: "By the time I get to Phoenix ..."
"The audience said, `Whoa,'" Hayes remembered. "When I finished the tune, there were maybe a few dry eyes in the house but not many. I got a standing ovation."
Review: 'Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic'
Sarah Silverman tells jokes about the Holocaust and 9/11, AIDS and slaves, Jesus Christ and her dying grandmother.
She refers to Asians as "chinks" and anyone Hispanic as a Mexican. She is equal opportunity in the relentlessness of her remarks: No one emerges unscathed.
Silverman is also undeniably cute and irresistibly likable, with a big smile and bright eyes and an almost childlike enthusiasm in her little-girl voice.
And therein lies the paradox of her shtick, on full display in her quasi-concert film/musical, "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic."
Silverman's humor is not so much observational but confrontational. She forces you to confront your own foibles and prejudices, as well as the rampant political correctness designed to change such attitudes, by energetically embracing them. Unlike some comics who draw their laughs through self-deprecation, Silverman comes off as a shameless, radiant narcissist.
"I don't care if you think I'm racist," she says toward the end. "I just want you to think I'm thin."
It's all a put-on, of course. But her timing is so perfectly deliberate, she's bound to fool many people who are too literal-minded to be in on the joke. If these comments came out of anyone else's mouth, they'd be considered inexcusably offensive. Taking that risk assuming that you can figure out for yourself whether she's kidding or not shows that she's fearless, and that's incredibly exciting to watch.
At least for a while, anyway. One weakness Silverman and director Liam Lynch reveal in "Jesus is Magic" is that a little bit of the gimmick goes a long way. Many of her jokes are breathtakingly funny in their wrongness ("I was raped by a doctor, which is a bittersweet experience for a Jewish girl"). But after less than an hour the motif feels redundant, worn-out, and the interspersed musical numbers, ostensibly intended to break up and enliven the traditional concert-film structure, only drag the pacing to a halt.
The intentionally campy songs (which Silverman wrote and performs, and the girl can sing) are high-energy but surprisingly low in creativity. In one, she holds up various ethnic stereotypes "I love you more than Jews love money ... I love you more than Asians love math" while dressed as a go-go dancer and playing the guitar, but she goes for the obvious cliche, providing no sharp insight. A couple of fake backstage conversations (with her sister, actress Laura Silverman, and fellow comedians Bob Odenkirk and Brian Posehn) also feel a bit forced.
Silverman herself is so bewitching, though, you want to like the movie more. Her appearance in "The Aristocrats" is one of the funniest segments in a film populated by eclectic, talented comics, and she consistently brings the house down during the annual Friars Club roasts.
Seeing her in any form even in a film that's flawed is magical in itself. She's easily one of the most compelling, clever comics working today male or female.
"Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic," a Roadside Attractions release, is not rated. Running time: 72 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.