The post-Super Bowl 'Office' is truly funny
An hour episode of NBC's The Office follows the Super Bowl Sunday night — a prime audience-building slot — and it is the most hilarious episode of the five-year-old sitcom I've seen yet. I'm a regular Office viewer but I rarely laugh out loud like I did at this episode, which begins with a loud and crazy big bang involving all the Office dwellers and includes a story within the story featuring Jack Black, Jessica Alba and Cloris Leachman. If I try to explain further, I'll ruin it so I won't, but be sure to check out the preview below.
From its wild beginning to its quieter sweet moments between office lovers Jim and Pam (John Krasinski and Jenna Fisher), the episode is smartly written and played to quickly grab the attention of those game viewers who might be drifting away from the plasma. The focus is on office stress relief — something to which we all can relate, right? It includes a roast of always-awkward boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and gives almost every Office character a moment of his or her own. So linger over the nachos and give yourself a super post-bowl treat, whether you usually watch The Office or not.
Photo by Paul Drinkwater
Super Bowl's entertainment: the ads
Super Bowl Sunday is almost here, which means we'll soon seen the huge-budget commercial ads — air time alone is $100,000 per second; the average commercial costs about $1 million to produce — during NBC's broadcast of the big game. This year, we'll see Bob Dylan and will.i.am in a Pepsi ad, Conan O'Brien hawking Budweiser and Jason Statham time-traveling through decades for Audi. However, the most talked-about ads are those in 3D, one for SoBe's Lifewater and one for Dreamworks' new movie Monsters vs. Aliens. Don't have the 3D glasses? No problem — 125 million pair were to be distributed free at 25,000 locations. There's still time to get them. Look for a SoBe display in your supermarket; Target and Meijer stores will have the glasses Saturday; and there's always plenty of them on eBay. Hang onto them after the Super Bowl party, though. You can use them to watch NBC's 3D episode of Chuck on Monday night.
Art courtesy of NBC
Check out exclusive video from The Fray
With its new self-titled sophomore album hitting stores on Tuesday, The Fray recently hit the road for a nine-city club tour showcasing some new songs and a mix of hits from its first album, How To Save A Life. Our T.J. Walter talked by phone with frontman Isaac Slade for a piece in this weekend's magazine, then met up with him at a Washington D.C. show. Click read more to find The Fray's new single, You Found Me, with their special introduction exclusively for USA WEEKEND readers.
Photo by Chapman Baehler
Celebrity Birthdays: Christian Bale, Gene Hackman
In case you ever wondered how old Batman is, we have your answer: Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) turns 35 today. The actor will continue his reign as hero du jour by starring in another big blockbuster, Terminator: Salvation, out this May. (Check out the trailer for that here.) Wilmer Valderrama, Fez on That ‘70s Show, is 29. In less than three decades, Valderrama somehow managed to date Mandy Moore, Lindsay Lohan and (possibly) Christina Milian. Hats off to him! Gene Hackman, who has been acting since the 1960s, celebrates his 79th birthday. Newly unemployed vice president Dick Cheney is still going strong at 68. And singer Phil Collins, a one-time member of Genesis, turns 58.
Photo by Stephen Vaughan
January 29, 2009
Sweets offers 'Bones' info
Unfortunately for Bones fans like me, the Fox drama is not on tonight. So here's a little inside info to tide us over until next week. Thanks to readers who asked about him, we talked to John Francis Daley, who plays Dr. Lance Sweets, and we found out he thinks it's a really fun role to play. "Sweets is the butt of a lot of jokes and he basically has to deal with everyone not taking him completely seriously, but at the same time he's very brilliant. And that's where his character and me as an actor part ways," Daley jokes.
In his role providing "couples therapy" to main characters Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), Daley shares plenty of screen time with the stars. He says Deschanel and Boreanaz "have a natural chemistry that you can see off screen. The dialogue on the show very much reflects the dialogue they have in real life. It's fun to watch them go back and forth."
And about his character's slightly unconventional name: Daley says he asked executive producer Hart Hanson about it, and "he told me that he just thought it was funny to her that Booth call someone 'Sweets.'"
Photo by Eric Ogden/Fox
Guy Ritchie's dad takes shots at Madonna
Madonna's divorce may look amicable enough, but it seems there's no love lost between the diva and her former in-laws. My favorite piece of celebrity info so far this week is In Touch Weekly's interview with Guy Ritchie's father, John Ritchie, in which he says, “We hope she does have a lot of boyfriends because it means she won’t ever get back together with Guy!” Ritchie says his son is better off. "The worst thing would be if they reconciled." Of reports that Madonna is dating other men, Ritchie says, “Guy doesn’t care at all. At least she won’t be looking for him.”
Photo by Tom Munroe
Grammys will have great performances
Need reasons to watch the Grammy Awards on Feb. 8? Here are five: U2, Kid Rock, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and Rihanna will perform. And they are just the artists announced today. Other performers you'll see on the CBS broadcast include Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Paul McCartney (with special guest drummer Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters), Katy Perry, Radiohead, T.I. and Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood, and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West in a special performance of their hit single Swagga Like Us.
There will be some pretty sexy presenters, too. Simon Baker of CBS'
hit The Mentalist, Jack Black, Duffy, Josh Groban, Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow will be handing out trophies. Maybe Paltrow and her husband Chris Martin, the frontman of Coldplay, will finally be seen on a red carpet together. (They generally go out of their way to avoid photographers.)
Photo by H. Darr Beiser/USA Today
Today's Birthdays: Oprah, Heather Graham
Oprah Winfrey turns 55 today with resolve to take better care of herself and lose weight, again. Two of today’s birthday celebrities dated each other in years past. Actress Heather Graham, 39, aka Felicity Shagwell in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, played real-life girlfriend to actor Ed Burns, 41, who most recently starred in 27 Dresses. The two split in 2000. Magnum P.I.’s Tom Selleck celebrates his 64th, and diving great Greg Louganis turns 49.
Photo by Chris Chavira
January 28, 2009
Cast the new 'A-Team' movie!
Director John Singleton departed a big-screen adaptation of the 1980s action TV series The A-Team late last year, and now Joe Carnahan is in negotiations to helm the adventures of a crack unit of eccentric commandos on the run for a crime they didn't commit. I for one am stoked since Carnahan (Smoking Aces, Narc) is a solid filmmaker, and there's already a release date: June 11, 2010. So who would you cast in the film as the cigar-chomping leader, Hannibal Smith, or the wacked-out pilot, "Howlin' Mad" Murdock? Even more important, who do you want replacing the legendary Mr. T as the hard-hittin', plane-hatin' B.A. Baracus and spouting such lines as "I pity the fool!"?
Hulk, Wolverine do battle on new DVD
Wolverine, Thor and the Hulk are three of Marvel Comics' most famous characters, so when they all throw down on the same DVD, it's an event. Now in stores, the animated direct-to-DVD Hulk Vs stars the big green guy going up against the Norse god of thunder in one feature, and the clawed X-Man in the other. Both mini-movies take the less-plot, more-clobbering route of entertainment, which rings true for any fan who's witnessed any of their epic battles in the comics. Especially good is the David/Green Goliath rumble between the Hulk and Wolvie. To get the lowdown on that matchup, I chatted with talented voice actor Steve Blum, who's played Wolverine in animated series and features as well as video games. Click read more for his thoughts and check out a clip featuring the feisty runt below.
Photos courtesy of Lionsgate
