CHAT FIGHT
'THE VIEW' LADIES LITERALLY RIP INTO UNGRATEFUL CHICKS
The ladies from "The View" shredded a copy of Time magazine yesterday after getting dissed by the issue's cover girls - controversial country music group, The Dixie Chicks.
"We are furious!" roared "View" moderator Meredith Vieira in the opening moments of the show, "Furious!"
In Time's cover story this week, Dixie Chick Emily Robison says that the group takes its political views very seriously and will try to limit appearances to high-caliber, meaningful gigs.
Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines' "new motto is, 'What would Bruce Springsteen do?' " says Robison. "Not that we're of that caliber, but would Bruce Springsteen do 'The View'?"
Even with a new CD to promote, the group has no plans to appear on "The View," the article says. "They're . . . not doing . . . 'The View,' " sneered co-host Joy Behar as she tore the article into confetti and tossed the shreds over her head.
When the singing group was starting out, however, it had no problem appearing on the show and was even interviewed by former co-host Debbie Matenopolous.
"This is obnoxious, obnoxious," said Vieira. "We started these girls - back in 1998, they couldn't get arrested. We were one of the first national shows to give them a platform, because they deserve a platform - they are incredibly talented performers."
The Dixie Chicks alienated their Country Western fan base in 2003, when during a performance in London, they said that the group was ashamed to be from Texas because President Bush was from Texas.
The Chicks apologized soon afterward, but have since taken the apology back.
"It's one thing to diss the Bush administration, it's treason to diss 'The View'!" said Behar. For the next hour, the four hosts of the women's coffee klatch show repeatedly slammed the Dixie Chicks until the show was over - when Vieira made it clear they were joking around and invited The Dixie Chicks to appear anytime.
Critics Revolt at 'Marie Antoinette' Screening
Many Cannes attendees had been forecasting that Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst, would turn out to be the sleeper at the festival. After an early screening for the press today (Wednesday), many agreed that it was a sleeper all right -- but in the wrong sense of the word. A thunder of boos erupted when the closing credits appeared, followed by a smattering of applause. At a news conference, Coppola insisted that she had intended to make a film that reflected life at the court of Versailles prior to the French Revolution and the life of the young queen in particular. She insisted that the film had no political intent (even though it argues that the French revolution was caused in large part by the costly decision of the king to send troops to America to support the colonists' revolt against the British). One reporter observed that it seemed ironic that $40 million had been lavished on a movie that depicts royal decadence. Co-star Steve Coogan responded that $40 million does not represent a decadent film budget.
Mop-topped Hicks crowned 'American Idol'
LOS ANGELES - Taylor Hicks, the mop-topped manic dancer who wooed TV audiences with his raw singing style and boisterous personality, was named the new "American Idol" Wednesday in a pop star-filled finale that included Prince and Mary J. Blige.
Hicks, 29, of Birmingham, Ala., became the latest in a string of Southern and Midwestern contestants to win the Fox talent contest after collecting more viewer votes than runner-up Katharine McPhee, 22, of Los Angeles.
Hicks leaned over, overcome by host Ryan Seacrest's announcement.
"Soul Patrol!" he shouted, acknowledging his avid fans by their nickname. "I'm living the American dream," he added as he closed out the show with a performance of "Do I Make You Proud."
It was Katharine vs. Taylor, McPheever vs. the Soul Patrol, with a recording contract and the fifth "Idol" title up for grabs.
More than 63 million votes were cast, "more than any president in the history of our country has received," Seacrest said.
Fans picked the raw sound and footloose moves of Hicks, who made his mark on Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" on Tuesday's show. The sultry McPhee's well-trained voice was shown to perfection on the standard "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
Last season's victor, Carrie Underwood of Checotah, Okla., opened the finale, joining Hicks and McPhee on "I Made it Through the Rain" and later soloing on "Don't Forget to Remember Me."
On Tuesday, Underwood won two trophies at the Academy of Country Music Awards, underscoring how much an "Idol" victory can mean. She was named top new female artist and won best single for "Jesus Take the Wheel."
Other pairings of contestants and stars included Paris Bennett and Al Jarreau; McPhee and Meat Loaf; Chris Daughtry and Live; Elliott Yamin and Blige; Hicks and Toni Braxton, and the dozen finalists with Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick.
Prince was a surprise final performer, taking the stage for two songs, including "Satisfied" — and without an "Idol" contestant alongside.
Asked backstage if he had any advice for contestants, Meat Loaf replied: "If you want to do this, you're gonna go up and down, and up and down, and people are going to love you and hate you ... Just stick with it," he said.
With two hours to fill the show also tossed in some comedy. Contestant Kellie Pickler was seen trying gourmet dining and dumping her escargot — snail — under her chair, while "Golden Idols" were awarded to also-rans who flopped in their auditions.
Second-season runner-up Clay Aiken, with a slick new look, performed a "duet" on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with his alter ego, a wannabe "American Idol" contestant who evoked the originally geeky Aiken.
Hicks and McPhee weren't as odd a finals pairing as second-second finalists Ruben Studdard and Aiken, but close.
McPhee was the first Los Angeles native to make it big on "American Idol." With a singer-vocal coach mom behind her and a starlet's beauty, McPhee looked and sounded groomed for success.
Hicks, whose thatch of prematurely gray hair helped him stand out from the pack, had barely survived the first audition at which judge Simon Cowell warned he didn't have a chance of advancing in the contest.
McPhee attended the prestigious Boston Conservatory for a semester; Hicks has been a fixture on honky-tonk stages. McPhee skillfully played to the cameras, all calculated seduction; Hicks stomped across the set, with Cowell once comparing him to a drunken dad at a wedding.
The finale closed out a relatively tame contest compared to seasons past, when jammed phone lines, technical glitches and annoyingly untalented singers drew complaints from fans. Last year, judge Paula Abdul denied an ex-competitor's claims of an affair in 2003.
This season's biggest jolt came when rocker Chris Daughtry of McLeansville, N.C., was voted out before the finale. Many observers had predicted he would win the contest after routinely drawing praise from the judges and online support.
Despite the lack of offstage drama, or because of it, this edition of "American Idol" was the most-watched yet. Compared to last year, the show was up 14 percent in total viewers with an average weekly audience of 30.3 million — impressive growth for an established program.
The Tuesday and Wednesday episodes routinely ranked as the top-rated TV shows, drawing 28 million or more viewers. The series also is seen via delayed broadcast or satellite delivery in more than 150 other countries.
Debaroti Dasgupta, 26, accompanied by her mother, flew in from Malaysia for the show after winning a radio competition in which she impersonated finalist Elliott Yamin.
"So my heart broke when he was out in the semifinals," she said before the show Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre. "But I"m here supporting Taylor and I hope he wins tonight."
Tom stompin' mad CBC won't air show
Stompin' Tom Connors is Stompin' mad, but the CBC says he has no reason to be.
The legendary Canadian singer claims he spent more than $200,000 of his own money to film a concert special in high-definition that he was led to believe would air on CBC-TV.
But the network subsequently passed on the show and Connors feels he has been left holding the bag.
"It kind of riles a fella up," Connors, 70, said yesterday after he and his representative, Brian Edwards, sent an open letter to media outlets, detailing their side of the argument.
"I haven't looked into (legal alternatives) yet, but we're trying to get Beverley Oda, the new minister of Canadian Heritage, involved in this," Connors added.
CBC spokesperson Ruth Ellen Soles said the network merely agreed to look at the special when it was completed, but no deal ever was struck.
"First of all, CBC acknowledges Stompin' Tom is a Canadian icon," Soles said. "But CBC did not commission the production of a Stompin' Tom show. We agreed to look at it when it was completed. I want to underline that no commitment was made and no contracts were signed.
"We then reviewed it and made the decision not to purchase the show for broadcast. It was a programming decision. We make those every day. It's the nature of the business. And it's interesting to note that at the time, we encouraged the producers of the show to approach other broadcasters."
Connors indicated that pitching the show to CTV, or Global, or one of the specialty music channels is an option, but he feels it fits best at the CBC.
"This (CBC) is our national network and Stompin' Tom is a national character," Connors said.
Connors and Edwards believe that at the very least, the CBC acted immorally by strongly encouraging them to move ahead. And in a wider sense, they feel Connors has been unfairly ignored by the CBC through the years.
"Every Canadian artist who ever was a Canadian artist has had a CBC special," Edwards said. "Many of those shows received in excess of a million-dollar budget (from the CBC), and they didn't even have a hit record yet.
"With Stompin' Tom, we're talking about someone who ranked No. 13 overall when the CBC counted down the 100 greatest Canadians."
The Couch Potato Report - May 24th, 2006
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on a performance that should have won an Oscar, and one of the greatest filmmakers ever.
Several moths ago I correctly predicted that Reese Witherspoon would win the Best Actress Academy Award.
My reasoning at the time was that her work in WALK THE LINE was so good, and that she was so likable as a performer and person that the category would play out more like a coronation than a contest.
However, if the Academy Awards were actually given out each year to the actors and filmmakers who produce the best work, Witherspoon wouldn’t have an Oscar now.
Instead, Felicity Huffman - normally seen on television’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES - would have one for her work in TRANSAMERICA.
Huffman doesn’t just play Bree, a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual awaiting gender-reassignment surgery, she is Bree.
Huffman transformed herself for the role. The way she moves, the way she speaks, the way she acts, and all of it is new and interesting.
She gave a superb performance and she deserved to win the Academy Award for her work.
In the film, as Bree is waiting for the surgery, she finds out she fathered a son, seventeen years ago, and she heads to New York, to bail her son out of jail.
The pair end up going on a cross-country journey and together they find the answers to some of life’s questions that have been plaguing them.
TRANSAMERICA is heartfelt, honest, funny, painful, and Felicity Huffman is incredible in it, but the rest of the film just isn't as good as she is.
That is primarily due to the pacing. While some might enjoy the length of time the film takes to get where it’s going, I found it too drawn out.
Plus, while it has superb acting at it’s core, TRANSAMERICA never seems to aspire to be brilliant.
The filmmaker’s are content to tell their main story, with a few side stories along the way, but in the end, one person finds out another one’s secret and they aren’t happy about the fact that that person has a secret.
That sense of familiarity hurts TRANSAMERICA, but otherwise, I highly recommend the film, primarily due to Felicity Huffman’s Oscar worthy performance.
No, TRANSAMERICA isn’t perfect, but if you accept it - and it’s subject matter - for what it is, you will witness a very good film.
And if you pick up THE CECIL B. DEMILLE COLLECTION you will witness 5 very good films!
Cecil B. DeMille was one of the world's most successful filmmakers during the first half of the 20th century.
DeMille directed hundreds of silent films, before coming into huge popularity during the late 1910s and early 1920s, when he reached the apex of his popularity with such films as Don't Change Your Husband (1919), The Ten Commandments (1923), and The King of Kings (1927).
DeMille was one of the first directors in Hollywood to become a celebrity in his own right, and he is regarded as a man who knew what the movie-going public wanted, and gave it to them over and over.
Gloria Swanson immortalized DeMille with the oft-repeated line, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up” in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, wherein DeMille played himself.
DeMille is probably best known for his 1956 film The Ten Commandments, which is very different from his 1923 film by the same title.
Cecil B. DeMille is one of the innovators who made moviemaking what it is today.
Inside THE CECIL B. DEMILLE COLLECTION you get his 1934 film CLEOPATRA, with Claudette Colbert as the man-hungry Queen of Egypt who leads Julius Caesar and Marc Antony astray.
This is the definitive CLEOPATRA, far superior to the Elizabeth Taylor version.
The set also includes 1935’s THE CRUSADES with Loretta Young; 1932’s THE SIGN OF THE CROSS with Fredric March; 1939’s UNION PACIFIC with Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea and some great train wrecks; and the 1934 release FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE about four passengers who escape their bubonic plague-infested ship and land on the coast of a wild jungle.
THE CECIL B. DEMILLE COLLECTION is a superb set of films, unfortunately all you get are the films.
There are no vintage short subjects, making of features, audio commentaries or behind-the-scenes documentaries.
The films are superb, yes, but had they been supplemented with some special features, if could have given us a unique look inside the films of one of Hollywood’s true legends.
As it is though, THE CECIL B. DEMILLE COLLECTION is still worth watching because we might not have some of the films we love today had Mr. DeMille not lead the way.
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.”
THE CECIL B. DEMILLE COLLECTION featuring CLEOPATRA, THE CRUSADES, THE SIGN OF THE CROSS, UNION PACIFIC and FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE is available now at a store near you along with the very good modern day film TRANSAMERICA.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
The Canadian film WHOLE NEW THING is about a boy who is enrolled in high school after years of being home schooled by hippie parents. The intelligent and androgynous youth confounds his classmates and captures the attention of his English teacher, which leads to problems for everyone involved.
The SPECIAL EDITION of the 1977 classic SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT features a remastered version of the film, a new “Making `Smokey And The Bandit'” feature and a CB Radio Tutorial.
And the JOHN WAYNE - AN AMERICAN ICON COLLECTION is a two-disc set that features five of The Duke’s films.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch.