Is It A Rumour Over Nothing?
People have been asking "Is Seinfeld coming in May?"
Well, it seems the anwser is "No, its not coming in May." Thanks to one of our friendly retailers, we have a rumored date of June 5.
Of course this won't be official until it's announced by Sony.
Until then, here is a list of the season 8 episodes:
The Foundation
The Soul Mate
The Bizarro Jerry
The Little Kicks
The Package
The Fatigues
The Checks
The Chicken Roaster
The Abstinence
The Andrea Doria
The Little Jerry
The Money
The Comeback
The Van Buren Boys
The Susie
The Pothole
The English Patient
The Nap
The Yada Yada
The Millennium
The Muffin Tops
The Summer of George
Oshawa serves up silliness for faux American right-wing pundit Stephen Colbert
OSHAWA, Ont. (CP) - Hordes of Stephen Colbert fans turned out Tuesday to fete the American comic whose buffoonish right-wing pundit delights fans on both sides of the border with his idiotic commentary on "The Colbert Report."
As many as 3,000 people packed the General Motors Centre in this normally quiet working-class city on Tuesday night. They were there to take part in "Stephen Colbert Day," the event that came about when Oshawa's mayor lost a bet on an OHL game with Colbert, the eyebrow-arching faux commentator whose inspiration is Fox News's pugnacious Bill O'Reilly.
"This is a city I have admired ever since I learned of its existence recently," Colbert, who didn't attend the festivities, told the crowd via a taped message played on the arena's big screen.
He ordered the throng to turn "Stephen Colbert Day" into a wild party, naming several local pubs where the celebrations could continue into the wee hours.
"I want this to be the biggest raver in Oshawa since last year's peony festival," he said to roars of laughter before digging into a cake festooned with the words Happy Stephen Colbert Day.
Mayor John Gray was also forced to eat cake - his own birthday cake, decorated with a photo of Colbert in all his thumbs'-up, arched-eyebrow glory.
"I feel very lucky to be born on Colbert Day," Gray told the crowd on Tuesday night. "Mr. Colbert, this is the way to lose a bet."
The seed for "Stephen Colbert Day" was planted when about two million Colbert fans inundated an online contest a few months ago to name the mascot of the Saginaw Spirit, a Michigan OHL team. Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle was born as a tribute to the comedian.
Colbert - who encouraged fans of his Comedy Central/Comedy Network show to cast the ballots - threw his support behind the squad and began trash-talking its OHL rivals, especially the Generals.
After a public volley of taunts and counter-taunts, Gray issued a challenge to Colbert on the eve of a recent showdown between the two teams: if the Generals won, Colbert would have to wear a Generals jersey for an entire show. If the Spirit won, Gray had to declare Colbert's birthday "Stephen Colbert Day" in Oshawa.
Colbert accepted the challenge but had a more humiliating suggestion: he wanted "Stephen Colbert Day" to be declared not on his own birthday, but on Gray's - March 20.
In the absence of Colbert, hockey icon Don Cherry provided the night's biggest star power. Dressed in a brilliant red crushed-velvet jacket, he was treated with reverence as he waited in the wings before taking to the stage to honour former Boston Bruin Bobby Orr, whose birthday was also on Tuesday. The legendary defenceman once played for the Oshawa Generals.
"Sir Cherry!" one teenaged girl shouted out in excitement as the larger-than-life Hockey Night in Canada commentator walked towards the stage.
Of Colbert, Cherry had this to say: "He's the guy who started all this and then didn't even have the guts to show up." He later referred to Colbert as a "leftie pinko," adding that if the comedian was a hockey player, he'd wear a visor.
It was an uncharacteristically silly event for the city of Oshawa, a community on Lake Ontario that's long lived in the cultural shadow of nearby Toronto. Even Gray acknowledged "Stephen Colbert Day" was something of a rarity for his city.
"Oshawa isn't exactly known for liveliness," said Gray. "We have that old, grey image, and we're trying to shake it off. We've been looking for a way to expose the world to all the great things about Oshawa, and Stephen Colbert comes along and helps us."
Until Tuesday's event, Oshawa was best known to the rest of Canada as the home base for General Motors Canada and for the Generals, its dynamic OHL club. The squad has a serious NHL star in the making in John Tavares, who recently broke Wayne Gretzky's record for the most goals scored in the OHL by a 16-year-old player.
Five finalists in the Stephen Colbert lookalike contest were on hand at the General Motors Centre, all of them certain they had the swagger and the arched brow necessary to win the prize of a trip to New York City for a taping of "The Colbert Report."
They ranged in age from Jacob Kanter, 16, of Toronto to John Tate, 58, of Manitoba, and included at least one Colbert - Jason Colbert from Ancaster, Ont., who suggested he might be distantly related to his comedic idol.
Maurice Collard of Saskatoon, Sask, won the contest, even though young Kanter's Colbert imitation and belligerent commentary, including a swipe at Hillary Clinton, got the biggest laughs.
Tate, a retired schoolteacher from Treherne, Man., possessed the most striking physical resemblance to Colbert. He recounted how a former student called him up and told him he wanted to take pictures of him because of the uncanny likeness.
"I assumed it was just some project he was doing for school. He came over the next morning and of course it wasn't pictures, it was video, and next thing I know I'm on YouTube - he's going to pay," Tate said.
The night's festivities also included a showdown between the mascots from the Michigan and Oshawa OHL teams and lots of free cake and Dr. Pepper, Colbert's favourite soft drink.
Woody's the man for Johansson?
Forget Justin Timberlake and Josh Hartnett.
The love of Scarlett Johansson's life is Woody Allen.
"I'd sew the hems of his pants if he asked me to," the actress, 22, coos in the April issue of Vogue, on newstands Tuesday.
And the adoration is mutual.
She's "criminally sexy," Allen, 71, said in an e-mail sent to Vogue about his Match Point muse. "She is unlike anyone who has come before her, and while she is a much stronger actress in every way, there is a tiny bit of Marilyn Monroe in her zaftig humidity."
Though their heat is strictly professional, Johansson tells Vogue she works hard to keep her romantic life private. But she's quick to declare as "not true" reports last month that she and Timberlake were an item.
"We had fun together, but it's not like the first time I've ever hung out with him," she says. "I think this happens because we're both single and in the spotlight, and obviously Justin's a very high-profile person."
But Vogue reports Johansson's sunny disposition turned dark when asked about Hartnett, her co-star in The Black Dahlia.
"I'd rather not comment on my personal life in that way," the actress says.
Johansson's next film, The Nanny Diaries, opens April 20.
The Couch Potato Report - March 20th, 2007
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on two great TV series, a useless movie, with a great making of, and James Bond.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: One of the greatest things about DVDs is the fact that we can now sit back on our couches and watch old TV shows and series in their entirety, whether it is St. Patrick's day or not.
Neither video cassettes or laserdiscs offered us that option as easily as DVD does, and I for one love seeing shows I love again and again!
One show that I loved when it aired in the late 1990s - on CBC no less - was the unique series TWITCH CITY, and it now available on DVD for my viewing pleasure once again!!
The very funny TWITCH CITY takes place in the Toronto neighbourhood of Kensington Market.
Don McKellar from THE RED VIOLIN and PRAIRIE GIANT stars in the show as Curtis, a couch potato who never leaves his apartment and is constantly watching television.
For some reason, I related to the character.
In the first episode Curtis' roomate Nathan is sent to prison for killing a homeless man with a can of cat food.
In a nod to that other great television series filmed in the area, the homeless man was played by Al Waxman, who had been the star of the 1970s sitcom KING OF KENSINGTON.
Prior to his incarceration Nathan's girlfriend Hope was about to move in with him, but now that he is in prison, Curtis rents out his room.
However, he is still interested in having Hope move in.
Throughout the series, Curtis and Hope get to know each other better, they continually try to find new roomates, and they watch The Rex Reilly Show, a Jerry Springer-esque show that always has a unique topic to hook viewers with.
TWITCH CITY didn't have mainstream success when season one aired in 1998 or when it came back in 2000, and to thsi day it is still thought of as the second best series ever made about Kensington, but those of us who watched it, enjoyed it, and we can now own it on DVD!
And who knows, maybe some day KING OF KENSINGTON will come out on DVD as well so we can watch more TV.
Most North American viewers watch more than forty hours per week, I certainly do, and the time I spent watching TWITCH CITY was time well spent.
I would also make that claim regarding DOCTOR WHO. I have spent my whole life watching this series, and I always enjoy it!!
DOCTOR WHO is the long-running BBC science fiction show about the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as "the Doctor", who explores time and space with his companions, solving problems and righting wrongs.
DOCTOR WHO originally ran from 1963 to 1989. Then, a television movie was made in 1996, and the programme was successfully relaunched in 2005 with the great Christopher Eccelston starring as the title character.
Like all Time Lords, the Doctor has the ability to "regenerate" his body when near death, allowing for the convenient recasting of the lead actor, so when Eccelston left the show after one season, he was replaced by David Tennant.
It is Tennant's shows that are now available on DVD in DOCTOR WHO - THE COMPLETE SECOND SERIES and they are a great addition to the legacy of DOCTOR WHO.
The series brings back classic villains, introduces interesting new ones, and if you are a long time fan of the show, there is even the return of an old friend.
Even if you are not a long time fan of the show, the episode where one of the Doctor's former traveling companions will still pack an emotional whallop. The show is that well written and acted.
But it is also fun! Fun to watch, and in SERIES TWO the actors make it look like it was fun to film as well.
If you missed any of the DOCTOR WHO episodes when they aired Monday nights on CBC recently, you can catch them again as they air on Saturdays from 12:30 a.m. - 1:30 a.m.
And the incredible DOCTOR WHO - THE COMPLETE SECOND SERIES is also now on DVD.
Okay, I have two more releases to discuss with you this week, and I will do that briefly.
The reason I am being brief about the film SHORTBUS starring CBC radio's own Sook-Yin Lee is because the film is useless!
Completely and utterly useless.
In this film, people go to the exclusive club Shortbus to work out problems in their sexual relationships.
There are straight people, gay people, and some who are just lonely and alone.
All of them are trying to work out their problems.
And the actors in SHORTBUS are not pretending or acting, this is a film full of very graphic situations.
John Cameron Mitchell, the writer and director of the film, is on record saying that SHORTBUS is that it is an uncensored look at relationships.
My opinion is that he knew how uninteresting a film he was making, so he decided to put as much nudity in it as possible in order to get people talking about the movie.
But in the end, SHORTBUS is just a film full of desperate people, in desperate situations and none of it all that interesting, entertaining, or even titallating.
However...the DVD includes a making of featurette that is interesting. It seems as if the filmmakers actually took some time to plan out, cast, create and film their movie, and while I have nothing good to say about their work, I did find the process that they went through quite engaging.
So let me surmise...as a film SHORTBUS is completely and utterly useless, but the story of how it got made is actually very interesting.
Now, lets get away from the useless side of cinema and move toward something more usefull.
Yes, the latest James Bond film is very usefull, and entertaining and even if you have never seen a Bond film before, you can still enjoy CASINO ROYALE.
There are great action sequences, an interesting story, and if you have watched these films over the years, or read the books, there is even a nod or two to the series' history.
Plus, CASINO ROYALE has another thing going for it! Someone named Daniel is now Bond...James Bond.
Daniel Craig is a superb James Bond and CASINO ROYALE is now available on DVD, alongside the utterly useless SHORTBUS, the always entertaining DOCTOR WHO - THE COMPLETE SECOND SERIES and the 1990s CBC series TWITCH CITY.
Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report
CHEECH is a Genie nominated film from Quebec about six people living through the worst day of their lives.
Also next week, Sylvester Stallone returns is the very satisfying ROCKY BALBOA; Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly star in the Oscar nominated BLOOD DIAMOND; and the great Ashley Judd is a woman searching for love in COME EARLY MORNING.
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!
New Releases, March 20: Modest Mouse, Joss Stone, Elliott Yamin
Modest Mouse "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank"
After several delays, this Pacific Northwest indie-rock act finally returns with its fifth studio album. The first single from the record is "Dashboard."
"We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" is the band's first release to feature former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr as a permanent member. Last year, Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock told Rolling Stone that Marr planned only to be a studio player for the forthcoming Modest Mouse album, but the guitarist found he was a perfect fit for the group.
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Joss Stone "Introducing Joss Stone"
Young soul sensation Joss Stone is set to follow her highly successful debut album, "Mind Body and Soul." Prior to that 2005 effort, the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter had released an EP, 2003's "The Soul Sessions," when she was just 16 years old.
"Introducing Joss Stone" features production work by Raphael Saadiq (D'Angelo, The Roots). The British vocalist will support the album with a North American tour that launches in late April and includes a May 6 date at New Orleans' Jazz and Heritage Festival.
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Elliott Yamin "Elliott Yamin"
Elliott Yamin is the latest star from last season's "American Idol" series to release a debut record. He follows finalists Chris Daughtry, Katharine McPhee and winner Taylor Hicks. The first single from Yamin's self-titled record is "Movin' On."
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Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price "Last of the Breed"
Few titles are as appropriate as this one. "Last of the Breed" is a collaboration between three of the finest country singers of all time--Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price--inarguably the greatest country super-group since the Highway Men (which featured Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson).
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Ted Leo and the Pharmacists "Living With the Living"
The edgy rock trio--featuring singer/songwriter/guitarist Ted Leo, bassist Dave Lerner and drummer Chris Wilson--is set to drop its fifth record. The band will support "Living With the Living" with a North American tour that kicks off March 28 in Philadelphia.
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More new releases:
Andrew Bird, "Armchair Apocrypha" (Fat Possum)
Miguel Bose, "Papito" (Warner Bros.)
C-Murder, "Screamin' for Vengence" (Priority/Capitol)
Roger Clyne and Peacemakers, "No More Beautiful World" (Emmajava)
Marques Houston, "Veteran" (Universal)
J-Dilla, "Ruff Draft" (Stones Throw)
Joseph Israel, "Gone are the Days" (New Door/UME)
LCD Soundsystem, "Sound of Silver" (Capitol)
Low, "Drums and Guns" (Sub Pop)
Jesse Malin, "Glitter in the Gutter" (Adeline)
Stephen Marley, "Mind Control" (Republic)
Miguel Migs, "Those Things" (Om)
Otep, "Ascension" (Capitol)
Panda Bear, "Person Pitch" (Paw Tracks)
Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby, "Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby" (Sony)
Tracey Thorn, "Out of the Woods" (Astralwerks)
Soundtracks and scores:
"Amazing Grace" (Spring House)
Traveling Wilburys Reborn With Rhino
After being out of print for more than a decade, the two studio albums from all-star band the Traveling Wilburys will return to the marketplace in a variety of formats June 12 via Wilbury Records/Rhino, Billboard.com has learned.
"Traveling Wilburys Volume 1" and "Traveling Wilburys Volume 3" will be available together in one package with bonus tracks and a DVD of rare footage, as a deluxe linen-bound edition, a vinyl set and a digital bundle. The DVD boasts a 24-minute documentary and five music videos.
The Wilburys formed in 1988 after Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison assembled at a California studio to record a B-side for the Harrison single "This Is Love."
The resulting song, "Handle With Care," was instead released under the Wilburys name, with the artists posing as a band of brothers. It went on to reach No. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the "Volume 1" album hit No. 3 on The Billboard 200. The reissued version of the album includes the previously unreleased tracks "Maxine" and "Like a Ship."
Orbison died in late 1988 before a second album could be completed; it was eventually released as "Volume 3" in 1990. The set is expanded here with the B-side "Runaway" and "Nobody's Child," which was released on a benefit album for Romanian orphans.
Sales can't buy love for some top bands
NEW YORK - Few bands inspire such intense hatred as Nickelback.
The post-grunge Canadian quartet has been trashed, bashed and hated on by countless critics, music snobs and other like-minded souls. So have much-maligned acts like Hinder, a rock band from Oklahoma; the Grammy-winning Black Eyed Peas, who have spawned infectious rap hits "My Humps" and "Don't Phunk With My Heart"; and Britney Spears, who in her heyday ruled radio but was condemned for everything from her voice to not writing her own songs.
Yet these acts have sold millions upon millions of albums. So are the critics wrong? Do music buyers have bad taste? Is this karmic payback to all the haters?
"There are some bands that, let's face it, are critic-proof," said Nathan Brackett, a senior editor at Rolling Stone. "Just like there are some movies that are critic-proof. Nobody is really reading the reviews for `Norbit,' you know? And nobody's reading Nickelback reviews either."
That might be a good thing. Nickelback's "All the Right Reasons," which debuted at No. 1 on the charts in the fall of 2005 and was still number 16 this week, was called "hard-rock ridiculousness" by The New York Times and "unspeakably awful" by Allmusic.com. Even the late Nirvana frontman and grunge icon Kurt Cobain would disapprove, suggested Rolling Stone, which called the disc "so depressing, you're almost glad Kurt's not around to hear it."
Young people who "are introduced to these bands on the radio, they don't have a lot of baggage," Brackett said. "A lot of kids don't care if an act, you know, kind of took their guitar sound from some other band."
Post-grunge outfits like Nickelback and Hinder continue to be popular — or wreak havoc, whatever your opinion — in part because they appeal to the estrogen set, said Craig Marks, editor in chief of Blender magazine. A "slightly hipper band" will sell more albums to guys than girls, he said.
"They're selling a lot of records to very casual music fans who don't buy a lot of CDs," Marks said. "When you're selling 5 million albums like Nickelback or 2 1/2 million like Hinder, and especially when you're making your mark with big ballads that are kind of wedding songs, then you're selling records to both males and females. And that's often how you get from selling 1 1/2 million records to selling 4 or 5 million records."
When "teenage girls or tween girls like an artist, that's often a sign that ... the artist isn't cool," said Marks, who also gives Spears as an example. "You know, `My little sister likes them.'"
Advertisements, music reviews and fashion trends tell us that "cool" is an edgy rapper, an up-and-coming hipster band or a British chanteuse like Amy Winehouse. Cool is not Nickelback or the Black Eyed Peas. They're not so uncool that they're cool, like Fountains of Wayne.
They're just, in a word, uncool.
Chris St. Peter, 26, of New York, witnessed this hatred years ago at a concert in Boston, where Nickelback was opening for another band in front of an indie-rock crowd.
"They threw batteries at them, which is also terrible but also really funny," St. Peter said. "Nickelback represented everything I think they hated."
Though he didn't hurl any batteries, St. Peter gives the band a thumbs-down. "I hope they go the same way as, like, Creed, and they just sort of disappear."
But for every hater there's a lover like Jaclyn Hafenstein, 30, from Madison, Wis. "Don't they trash them because their music is considered simple, not unique?" she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Why is that bad? Whatever it (is) they're doing, it makes me bob my head and sing along! I can't say that for every band, whether I like them or not."
Often, bands that are popular in places like Wisconsin get dissed by snobs on the coasts. "There's a real danger with ... writers being in their kind of music-critic clique, you know, in either New York or L.A. or San Francisco, and kind of ignoring these bands just because all the critics they know and all the kind of so-called cool kids are ignoring these bands," Brackett said.
He points out that classic acts like Led Zeppelin, the Doors and Billy Joel were at first ignored by critics. Then again, he said, "there are a lot of times when music critics are right."
Acts hoping to collect both money and respect would do well to study an It band like Fall Out Boy, which sells heaps of records to teen girls while delighting the critics, too. They don't take themselves too seriously, unlike, say, the Killers in their latest incarnation or — again — Nickelback.
It all comes back to Nickelback, doesn't it? At least they're now big enough to headline their own shows, and that means no batteries will be hurled.
Only verbal ones, from outside the venue.
"You know, you have to be really popular in order to corral that sort of hatred," Marks said. "It's the best ballplayer on the visiting team who gets booed during the introductions. No one boos the guy off the bench, but you always boo the star of the other team. You know, it is a tribute to their success."
David Letterman goes home sick
NEW YORK - David Letterman showed up for work, but had to go home sick Tuesday before taping the "Late Show."
A stomach bug was to blame, a network spokeswoman said.
Adam Sandler, one of the night's guests, was quickly enlisted to fill in as host.
The CBS late-night personality has had extended absences following heart surgery and a case of the shingles. But this was believed to be the first time Letterman showed up for work and couldn't go on.
He will have time to recover. Letterman had taped Wednesday's show in advance, and he's being pre-empted for NCAA basketball on Thursday and Friday.
"Extras" calling it a wrap after two seasons
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The comedy "Extras" won't return for a third season.
Writer-directors Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who also star alongside Ashley Jensen, have decided to forgo another season of the BBC2/HBO series in favor of bowing out with a special finale -- the same way they ended their previous show, "The Office."
"Extras" was nominated for an Emmy last year in the comedy series writing category; guest stars Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller and Patrick Stewart also received Emmy nominations. Gervais starred as a hapless actor looking for his big break.