ROSEANNE BARR & TOM ARNOLD REUNITE ON #ROSEANNEROAST

Tom Arnold & Roseanne Barr reunite on Comedy Central's #RoseanneRoast

"She went on Johnny Carson, she got validation from the King and that can never be taken away from her... I want you to know Roseanne, that you're my Johnny Carson. Thanks for letting me sit in your chair for a little while.". - Tom Arnold

So amazing to see Ex-Husband and Wife Tom Arnold and Roseanne Barr aka Rozilla (as per Gilbert Gottfried) reuinte on Comedy Central's #RoseanneRoast and be real civil about it. Funnywoman Barr received some real nasty shots from some of her Contemporaries including the likes of Gilbert Gottfried, Jeffrey Ross, Ellen Barkin, Seth Green, Carrie Fisher, Jane Lynch and Wayne Brady all paying their (dis)respects to the Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Comedian/Actress.  Despite Barr admitting on Twitter she was so nervous earlier that she chewed her nails off, she handled it all like a Champ, taking all shots with a smile.  

Upon finally taking the stage, Barr asked "Where the hell are the Stars? I must've pissed-off every Celebrity I know. I was in a Movie with Meryl Streep and I get Amy Schumer?".  Unafraid to shake things up, she continued, "Thank God for Jane Lynch... you are one ferocious B*tch, but I hate you because you're thin. But I guess I'd be thin too if all I ever ate was (delete expletive)!", taking aim one-by-one at her Roasters. 

Barr left on a high note telling the Audience, "If I can bury my hate for the likes of Tom Arnold, maybe there's a chance we could have World Peace", before delivering a condensed and tolerable version of Star Spangled Banner to wild applause.

Check Comedy Central Canada's Website for additional details, although unfortunately #RoseanneRoast wasn't available for live streaming on their Website.

In the meantime, you can stream it here.  Thanks to my Reader Kevin for sending this over!

(Photo credit: Comedy Central)

ALL-STAR READING OF "8" IN LOS ANGELES: GEORGE CLOONEY, BRAD PITT, MATT BOMER, CHRIS COLFER & MORE SHOW SUPPORT

AFER presents a live Reading of 8

An all-star Cast Reading of Dustin Lance Black's Play 8, took place this evening in Los Angeles with the likes of Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matthew Morrison, Matt Bomer, Martin Sheen, George Takei, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Bacon, John C. Reilly, Chris Colfer and many more taking part.  

Directed by Rob Reiner, 8 is based upon Court Transcripts and actual Interviews chronicling the landmark Federal Trial of California's  Prop. 8, which served to prohibit Same-Sex Couples from marrying. The Reading was presented by the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Watch the one-night-only Reading below:

For more, visit AFER's Official YouTube Page here.

(Photo/video credit: AFER)

CAST OF "GLEE" APPEAR AT COMIC-CON 2011

Cast of Glee in Toronto - June 2011

The Cast of Glee hit-up Comic-Con in San Diego earlier today and it's safe to say that some fears have been alleviated, namely the possible exit of Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith upon their impending Graduation.

"Just because they're graduating, doesn't mean they are leaving the show," Glee Writer/Co-creator/Producer Brad Falchuk told conference attendees. "It is not our intention to let them go ... they are not done with the show."

Other revelations were made about the forthcoming season of Glee, including a new love interest for Amber Riley's Mercedes.  In addition, Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester will be running for Congress possibly to put an end to all Glee clubs altogether.  We will also be seeing more of a focus on the relationship between Klaine (Darren Criss' Blaine and Colfer's Kurt) and a continuation of the love story between Artina (Jenna Ushkowitz's Tina and Kevin McHale's Artie).

RIO - MOVIE REVIEW

Still from RIO

The Creator of Ice Age, Carlos Saldanha, has done it again - this time in 3-D with his latest Animated Feature, RIO. Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) is a rare Macaw Bird, who has been domesticated by his Owner Linda (Leslie Mann) in Minneapolis after she had found him in a box rolled-off a truck. Upon having it brought to her attention by Ornithologist Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) that Blu's species is in danger of becoming extinct, he and Linda make their way to Rio de Janero, where he is to mate with beautiful and free-spirited Jewel (Anne Hathaway).

Before long, both Blu and Jewel are kidnapped by a team of greedy Poachers. They are terrorized by tyrannous Watch Bird Nigel (Jemaine Clement), but manage to escape. One catch though - Blu does not know how to fly and after having been captured, both he and Jewel are bound together by chains. Together they find themselves on the wildest adventure of their lives with the help of their Friends Rafael (George Lopez), Nico (Jamie Foxx) and Pedro (will.i.am) who protect them from the Poachers and Nigel. Will Blu and Jewel manage to stay free of their Captors? Will Linda and Blu ever unite again? And above all, will this species of Blue Macaw birds become extinct forever?

On the rare occasion, I take the time to review an Animated Feature as admittedly it isn't a favourite genre of mine. RIO however, truly exceeded my expectations through and through.  Visually, it is a spectacle with enough vivacity, depth and detailing to make any Brazilian proud to call this Film their own - even with all the Urban North American-isms found throughout its Script.  RIO's multi-layered story line is told clearly and the heart it possesses underneath it all is palpable. Its ambition to educate our Children on the dangers of Extinction is expressed and understood, while packaged in the universality of a Love Story between a Bird and his Owner, and also that Bird and another.

If there was any doubt of Blu's visceral appeal as a Hero, a Child attending my Screening in tears had cried out "Blu!!!!!" as the Macaw had to fight his biggest challenge yet against his Captors.  My general rule of thumb is that Children rarely lie and perhaps that Child's sentiments also could be felt throughout the Theatre, although suppressed by the inhibitions that come with Age.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 68TH ANNUAL GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS

Aaron Sorkin

For those of you who missed the 68th annual Golden Globes tonight on NBC, here's a recap and some highlights:

-The Social Network executes a full-on assault on the evening, winning most major Awards - Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) and Best Score (Trent Reznor)

-The televised broadcast going black as Natalie Portman is announced as a nominee for Best Actress in a Drama Motion Picture for Black Swan.  Of course she won joking, "That Man - Benjamin Millepied - he`s the best Actor ever because in the Film he said he wouldn`t sleep with me and look, he really does want to sleep with me! ". Millepied is now engaged to Portman and the Father of their Child, to be born this Summer.

-Colin Firth winning Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for The King's Speech and true to character, delivering understated words.  No surprises there.

-A recovering Michael Douglas presenting the Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama to The Social Network Producer Scott Rudin; Douglas received a standing ovation.

JANE LYNCH AND BRUNO MARS ON SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

Bruno Mars, Jane Lynch 
& Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live

Glee's Jane Lynch made her long-awaited appearance as host of Saturday Night Live last night and as expected, she delivered the laughs.  The episode however, is a testament to how incredibly funny and talented Kristen Wiig is, as she stole the show repeatedly in skits like Password.  The skit had both Wiig and Lynch playing sassy stars paired with contestants on a game show where they were to give clues to a password to be guessed correctly.  Hilariously, Lynch kept giving away the answers repeatedly in a jumbled sentence which included the word "almost 50 times!".   Wiig also did a hilarious parody of CNN's Budgeting Expert Suze Orman, constantly eluding to a Lesbian relationship she had many years ago with her guest, played by Lynch.

Another highlight of the show was a skit where Lynch played a woman trying to return a bag at the Customer Service Desk of a store with Denzel Washington (Jay Pharoah) as the Clerk.  Pharoah's imitation of the Oscar-winning actor was perfect, accosting Lynch for returning the Bag and then accusing her of being Racist because the bag's brown colour was not to her liking.  Too good.

Lynch also delivered in a parody of Faith Hill singing the theme song to NBC's Sunday Night Football show, showing off her singing chops and proving that she can still sound good without all the production behind Glee.  The song would just not end, entrancing the show's anchors in boredom.

NEW PREVIEW GLEE SEASON 2 - FEATURING CHARICE, BRITNEY SPEARS AND JOHN STAMOS

Fox just released a new Promotional Clip previewing what we can expect on Season Two of Glee, which premieres Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 8:00 PM EST.

We can expect from this clip:

-a butch new character named Shannon Beiste, a Football Coach who will rival Sue Sylvester and her endless pursuit of more school funding

EMMY AWARDS RECAP: JANE LYNCH WINS BIG

A huge congratulations goes to Jane Lynch, one of tonight's big winners at The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards.  Lynch was awarded Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Glee, which should come as no surprise.  I've been championing her from the get-go here, so this victory is especially sweet for me!  Above this, Glee Director Ryan Murphy also scored a win in the Outstanding Director for a Comedy Series category.

The ceremony held at Nokia Theatre and hosted by Jimmy Fallon united Television's biggest stars and there were some surprises to be found.  Paying tribute to Glee, the program opened with Fallon, the cast of Glee and many of television's biggest stars singing a highly entertaining rendition of Bruce Springstreen's Born to Run.

Claire Danes and the team behind Temple Grandin cleaned-up, winning multiple awards this evening after receiving a whopping 15 nominations.  The made-for-television Movie is based on the true story of an Autistic woman, who actually was in attendance tonight.  Danes was awarded Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

For a third year in a row, AMC's Mad Men won Outstanding Drama Series although its stars Christina Hendricks, Jon Hamm (who will be in-town for TIFF), Elisabeth Moss and January Jones, were all shut-out in the Acting categories yet again.  Modern Family, which continues to win the praise of audiences across the nation, won Outstanding Comedy Series - its star Sofia Vergara drew a lot of Red Carpet attention this evening as did Glee's Lea Michele, who is celebrating her Birthday today.

George Clooney made an appearance also tonight accepting the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his charity work, more notably his efforts in organizing the Hope for Haiti Now Telethon.

To view a full list of tonight's winners, click here.

Check out a few of these beauties below:

JANE LYNCH TO HOST SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE THIS OCTOBER

Best news in months!  Funnywoman Sue Sylvester Jane Lynch has been tapped to host the October 9, 2010 episode of Saturday Night Live, timed around the launch of Glee's second season.  Perfect. 

I'm sure many of us have seen Lynch's fantastic comedic work in Christopher Guest's Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind and even Judd Apatow's The 40 Year-Old Virgin to expect nothing but brilliance from this seasoned champ.  Set those PVR Timers!  No musical guest has been announced, although I think it would be a brilliant idea to have the cast of Glee appear on the show to do two numbers to push the next volume of Glee: The Music series.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Matt Carr)

JANE LYNCH OF GLEE'S WEDDING MENU

Mr. Will-W.:Pop Maven favourite, Jane Lynch is a married woman.  Lynch tied the know with longtime partner, Dr. Lara Embry on Memorial Day in an intimate affair at Blue Heron restaurant in Massachusetts.  The couple actually resides in California where same-sex marriages are still not yet recognized.  Thanks Prop 8!

The close-knit group which included no celebrities in attendance,  dined on :

 Lobster Triangles

 Oysters

 Seared Scallops with Apple Reduction

 Japanese Crab Salad

NEW MUSIC: OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN FT. SUE SYLVESTER - PHYSICAL (GLEE)

Scream.  Too ridiculously good. One thing I cannot deny about this season of Glee is that the story lines continue to be lacking, but the musical component of it all is better than ever. 

Meant to be used as a weapon of humiliation, the kids of Glee dug up an old video of Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) and Olivia Newton-John performing a super-hot rendition of her 1981 hit Physical.  But the results were anything but humiliating.  The video they shot not only camped it up, but also sexed it up with some hunky torso-bearing dancers who didn't seem to mind being objectified, while the two vocalists got twirled and lifted.  I love the all the fixings they added to the track from the tastefully auto-tuned bits to the updated bassline.  Everything.

As a friendly reminder, if it weren't for the massive success of this hit single, we might not know who Kylie Minogue is today.  Newton-John paved the way and carved a blueprint for Australia's finest export. 

Check out Physical by Olivia Newton-John ft. Sue Sylvester below in full (audio content owned by Sony Music):

VIDEO: SUE SYLVESTER DOES MADONNA'S "VOGUE"

Although I'd hate to spoil the surprise totally, here is Sue Sylvester's (Jane Lynch) rendition of Madonna's Vogue - just a taste of what's to come on next week's The Power of Madonna episode of Glee on Fox. It's odd but her voice isn't quite what I had imagined it to be. I was expecting Lynch's voice to have a smokier timbre and more lower end to it. Quelle surprise!

THE CAST OF GLEE ON OPRAH - A RECAP

The cast of Glee visited Oprah Winfrey today to a super-excited audience, including The Big O herself.  For the first time on live television, the cast delivered a rendition of Journey's Don't Stop Believin' and they were amazingly sharp, no doubt due to their on-going preparation for the upcoming Glee Live! In Concert! Tour.

Winfrey evenly divided time amongst the immensely-talented cast and when speaking to producer/writer/director Ryan Murphy on what inspired him to create television's newest phenomenon, he said that "television lacks optimism.  It's almost impossible to find anything on television which always has a happy ending every week."  Winfrey also noted that after her crew had followed the cast around the set of Glee for a day, they came back reporting to her that the show's actors are easily the hardest working group in television.

Lea Michele, the show's brightest star blushed modestly, looking away from the camera while listening to Murphy commend her on  having "the voice of this generation... she is the next Barbara Streisand, the next Patti LuPone... she's inclusive... something we can relate to".  Heartthrob Broadway star Matthew Morrison who did not sing today, performed a little Dance-Off with co-star Harry Shum, which drew loud cheers from the audience.  The "Queen of Mean" Jane Lynch reflected on her high school days when she claimed to have been "very intense".  She also indicated that she sang in her school's choir for four years.  Hunky Canadian Cory Monteith admitted to being extremely nervous with this being his first time singing live and he did a very credible job as evinced below:

GAGA ON GLEE

It's confirmed.  Lady Gaga will be appearing this season on an episode of Fox's Glee.  Producer Ryan Murphy just confirmed that Gaga accepted the offer, although there is no word what kind of a role she will be playing exactly.   

Gaga is the latest major star to sign on for a cameo this season, following the suit of Jennifer Lopez, Olivia Newton-John, Neil Patrick Harris and Josh Groban.  There will also be an all-Madonna episode to come,  which will have Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) performing Vogue.  This of course has already been publicized widely.

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

Up in the Air and Glee lead this year's pack of Golden Globe Awards nominees. The former garnered a total six nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in the motion picture categories, while the latter earned four in the television categories. Following closely behind Up in the Air with five nods is Rob Marshall's musical Nine, due in theatres on Christmas Day, while James Cameron's Avatar got four. Golden Globe darlings including 30 Rock, Mad Men and Big Love all earned three nominations behind Glee.

The motion picture acting categories are highly competitive this year and notably, personal favourites Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep each received two nominations. Bullock is nominated for her stellar performance in The Blind Side (Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama) and also The Proposal (Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy). Meryl Streep will be competing against herself for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy with Julie & Julia and the soon to be released It's Complicated; her 24th and 25th Golden Globe nominations and surely just two of many more to come.

The match for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama is heated one with some really evenly-matched nominees including George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus), Tobey Maguire (Brothers) and Jeff Bridges (A Crazy Heart). The same can be said about the very competitive Best Supporting Actress category which will be pitting Mo'Nique (Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire), Pénelope Cruz (Nine), Julianne Moore (A Single Man) and co-stars Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air).

REVIEW: JULIE & JULIA DVD

This is the movie which inspired me to blog and although I don't intend to review many DVDs here, I will make an exception for this one. Julie & Julia, directed by Nora Ephron, is something special. Based on the novel Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, this film intertwines the real life stories of celebrity chef Julia Child and blogger-turned-author Julie Powell.

We are introduced to Child (Meryl Streep) who relocates to Paris with her husband Paul Child (Stanley Tucci). Having worked a government job in America previously, Child has no other real passion in life other than eating. She decides to take cooking lessons at one of the finest culinary institutes in Paris, starting off on shaky ground. Determined not to be a "frivolous housewife looking to kill time", Child soon proves that with determination and some elbow grease, she too can chop an onion and debone a duck with the best of them. One thing leads to another and she finds herself developing the first ever English language French cookbook. But of course, Child is not met with her share of rejection and opposition along the way.

Simultaneously, we learn the story of Powell (Amy Adams) who worked at a crisis-counselling Call Centre after 9/11. Miserable and uninspired, she finds passion and inspiration in Child's famed The Art of French Cooking. Hungry for a challenge, she makes it her goal to prepare each and every one of the 524 recipes from that cookbook within one year. To document the journey, she launches a blog where her readers lend their encouragement as she sets out to reach her ultimate goal, successfully deboning a duck. In the process of emulating her idol, Powell encounters some roadblocks in mastering Child's recipes. The unwavering dedication she places on her culinary craft leads to mounting tension between her and amazingly supportive husband Eric (Chris Messina). Powell's blog becomes wildly successful, generating much media interest. We learn that even she manages to the catch the attention of her beloved idol in the process of becoming a successful author.

MY LESBIAN LOVE INTEREST

Good God, can somebody just call off the race for Golden Globe Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series right now? Ditto for the Emmy win as Best Supporting Actress, Comedy? We have a clear winner.... I think.

The road to her shining moment has been a long one, but Jane Lynch is definitely on fire. She was hilarious as the sex-crazed store manager in The 40 Year-Old Virgin. She was a wildly inappropriate camp counselor in Role Models and more recently, she brought out some chuckles as Julia Child's younger sister in Julie and Julia alongside Meryl Streep. Looking back further in her career though, the roles weren't always so illustrious. Lynch had many one-time/recurring roles on television shows like Married With Children, 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Dawson's Creek and more. She also had minor roles in popular films like The Fugitive and Collateral Damage.

Lynch brings her A-Game as Sue Sylvester, the prejudiced and domineering cheerleading coach on Fox's Glee. She is an undeniable audience draw for the Wednesday night show, posing a serious threat to Will Schuester's (played by Broadway actor Matthew Morrison) title as Glee Club coach. It is the tension of this story line which ignites the show with fiery momentum. Her delivery is pitch-perfect. She makes being a villain look so good that I struggle to dislike her. Lynch fully embodies Sue Sylvester as that woman we all know who is remarkably and ruthlessly driven. Although she is questionable in her execution, somewhere beyond her tough exterior we want to know and understand her back story truly. That my friends, is good acting.

Watch Lynch talk about her character on a recent Fox promotional piece for Glee below:

If you still haven't caught on to this show, please do yourself a favour and watch it. I mean, the music alone is reason enough. Thanks.