A tipsy Taylor Armstrong apparently claimed that Real Housewives of Beverly Hills co-star Brandi Glanville has slept with every man in Beverly Hills. That’s about 16,000 adult males, for those keeping score. The cast members – sans Brandi Glanville – recently got together and the drinks were flowing hardcore. Soon enough, Taylor went OFF on her nemesis Brandi. Turning to jazz musician Chris Botti, who joined them at a restaurant, a drunk Taylor slurred: “We’ve got a good table… thank God my arch nemesis [ Brandi Glanville ] isn’t here…or she’d be going down. She has slept with every man in Beverly Hills.” “She travels to find someone to sleep with… some sort of flight plan !” As the rest of the room looks on uncomfortably, Taylor continues: “She has slept with every man in Beverly Hills. There’s close to 16,000 men in Beverly Hills.” “And she’s only been divorced a couple of years.” Brandi, of course, was married to Eddie Cibrian until he cheated on her with LeAnn Rimes, who he went on to marry instead. She’s been quite outspoken about this. Expect her to react similarly in this case once she gets wind of it. [Photos: WENN.com]
Forget winter. Spring is coming, HBO viewers. And it will bring along with it Game of Thrones Season 3 . The epic series returns on March 31, as the network teased last night in the first official trailer for new episodes. What can fans expect? No footage is unveiled in the following video, but mysterious words are spoken: The great war is between death and war, ice and fire. If we lose, the night will never end. Game of Thrones Season 3 Promo
Forget winter. Spring is coming, HBO viewers. And it will bring along with it Game of Thrones Season 3 . The epic series returns on March 31, as the network teased last night in the first official trailer for new episodes. What can fans expect? No footage is unveiled in the following video, but mysterious words are spoken: The great war is between death and war, ice and fire. If we lose, the night will never end. Game of Thrones Season 3 Promo
Did you see this coming?? Folks are asking BET why the show airs so late in defense of poor viewer turnout and, according to The Grio , the network isn’t putting any of the blame on their shoulders: When T.J. Holmes left CNN to host his own show on BET, Don’t Sleep, some called it a risky move, while the network’s viewers seemed to be excited. Holmes saw it as an opportunity to “reach out and report on stories that directly affect the African-American community.” Unfortunately, the viewership has not lived up to hype. Holmes’ show combines comedy, news and commentary not unlike The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Don’t Sleep airs in the 11 pm time-slot and drew 400,000 viewers on to its October 1 premiere. The October 9th episode drew 1 million viewers, but since then, it has slipped to as low as 203,000. “To be honest, the ratings haven’t been great in the past two weeks. Our audience always says they want this kind of programming, but they don’t show up,” said Debra Lee, BET’s CEO. theGrio’s 100: T.J. Holmes, News anchor leaves CNN for BET As a result, Don’t Sleep will now be on for one hour once a week, instead of every night. BET released a statement saying, “The viewers have spoken and due to the overwhelming demand, Don’t Sleep will now be expanded to a one hour weekly format allowing for a more comprehensive discussion of the issues and events affecting the African-American community,” “We will now have an hour-long format to educate, empower, and engage. This will allow us more time to delve deeper into topics and determine how we can all, in our own way, be agents of change,” Holmes wrote on his website. “As part of being extended to an hour, the show will move to Wednesday nights at 11 p.m. This will allow us to do on-location reporting from cities and communities across the country.” Here’s a thought BET. How about you address the rest of your programming as a whole and leave real shows like ‘Don’t Sleep’ alone for now. Images via twitter
Even Jean-Luc Godard , the bad boy of the French New Wave, loved a good car crash. And Mel Brooks loves sitting down with an erudite interviewer just as much as he loves a good fart joke. Together these auteurs climb the peaks and plumb the depths of this week’s High and Low with new DVD releases that belong on the shelf of any film lover who enjoys a good Marxist dialectic leavened with the occasional showtune-singing Nazi. HIGH: Weekend (The Criterion Collection; $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-Ray) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Starring Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Juliet Berto. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: A fairly despicable bourgeois couple (Darc and Yanne), who are both cheating on and planning to kill each other, travel to the country to attempt to get money from the wife’s dying father, even if that involves patricide. They get stuck in a mammoth traffic jam and auto accident that appears to run the entire length of France. The further along they travel, the closer they seem to get to the end of civilization itself. WHY IT’S SCHMANCY: A brutal satire on capitalism that tests its audiences with repeated musical cues and a lengthy static shot of workmen eating sandwiches while the narrator goes off on a lengthy tangent about colonialism — the “I Am John Galt” speech for the far left — Weekend is one of Godard’s most daring and entertaining movies, with the always-provocative auteur throwing everything at the screen. (The film’s final title card declares “ fin du cinema .”) WHY YOU SHOULD BUY IT (AGAIN): Besides marking the film’s Blu-Ray debut, this Criterion release features a thicker-than-usual booklet with color artwork, an essay by Gary Indiana and excerpts from a 1969 Rolling Stone interview with Godard. There are also archival interviews with cast and crew members, excerpts from a French TV show about Godard that was filmed partially on the Weekend set by filmmaker Philippe Garrel, and other goodies. LOW: The Incredible Mel Brooks (Shout Factory; DVD/CD $89.93) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: This five-DVD, one-CD collection features some of the many highlights of Mel Brooks’ career in film, television and recordings. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: This is one-stop shopping for fans of Melvin Kaminsky (Brooks’s given name). The set includes a five-part documentary about his filmmaking career ( Mel and His Movies ), interviews (vintage and contemporary) with Dick Cavett, hilarious appearances on The Tonight Show and Mad About You , episodes of programs he created ( Get Smart and When Things Were Rotten ), and much, much more. WHY IT’S FUN: This compilation makes it into “Low” only because Brooks himself famously noted that his work “rises beneath vulgarity.” But while he’s always been a rule-breaker — has anyone dared to satirize racism as sharply and hilariously as Brooks did in Blazing Saddles ? — his comic genius has made him an icon of 20th-century popular culture. WHY YOU SHOULD OWN IT: Like Shout Factory’s recent box set of Steve Martin’s television work, this is a meticulously curated collection of an extraordinary artist. (Where else are you going to find a 60 Minutes segment on the same DVD collection as sketches from The Electric Company and vintage Mad Men –era TV spots directed by Brooks before he took his vision to the big screen?) In addition to all the digital treats, there are also essays by Leonard Maltin, Gene Wilder and Bruce Jay Friedman. Here’s as good a glimpse into the wonderfully warped mind of a director-writer-actor-producer-songwriter as you’re probably ever going to find. Alonso Duralde has written about film for The Wrap, Salon and MSNBC.com . He also co-hosts the Linoleum Knife podcast and regularly appears on What the Flick?! (The Young Turks Network) . He is a senior programmer for the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and a pre-screener for the Sundance Film Festival. He also the author of two books: Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books). Follow Alonso Duralde on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Michael Jackson’s personal assistant has filed a class action lawsuit against AEG, claiming he lost big bucks because of the company’s hiring of Dr. Conrad Murray. Williams and the rest of the employees connected with MJ’s ill-fated “This Is It” tour stood to rake it in three years ago, but obviously did not in the wake of his death. Thus, they want compensation from AEG . Like yesterday. According to Michael Amir Williams ‘ lawsuit, AEG agreed to pay MJ’s staff up to $7.5 million for their services connected with the 50-plus concert extravaganza. “This Is It” never took place, of course, because Dr. Conrad Murray pumped MJ full of Propofol and killed him. He was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Williams alleges is liable for damages by failing to act responsibly, hiring Murray in the first place and then failing to properly manage or supervise his actions. Whether a judge and jury agree is an open question.
Anthony Bourdain doesn’t mince words. The Travel Channel and Cadillac found this out first hand when the celebrity chef went off on the network for its product placement in his No Reservations series finale. In a Tumblr post entitled “Fighting Mad,” Bourdain was PISSED about the network making it look like he was endorsing the car in violation of his contract. The 56-year-old writes: “It came as a shock and a disappointment to turn on the TV for the last two episodes of my show, and see that someone had taken footage that me and my creative team had shot for my show, cut it up and edited it together with scenes of a new Cadillac driving through the forest.” “Scenes of me, my face, and with my voice, were deliberately edited in such a way as to suggest that I might be driving that Cadillac.” “That, at least, I was very likely IN that Cadillac – and that if nothing else, I sure as s–t was endorsing Cadillac as the vehicle of choice for my show.” “All this following seamlessly from the actual show so you were halfway through the damn thing before you even realized it was a commercial.” Bourdain noted that he had a clause put in his Travel Channel contract that specifically dealt with this sort of thing, as he felt it undermines his credibility: “It was clearly expressed in writing, clearly understood and agreed to that I would not use or mention any products in my show and my name and image would not be used in connection with any products in return for anything of value or any other consideration without my specific agreement.” “After the first airing of the commercial, I let the network know of my extreme displeasure. Fair warning one would think. They ran it again anyway.” Bourdain did apologize to Cadillac , however, for subsequent tweets that contained some nasty insults, saying he had “no problem” with the car company: “I apologize to the guys on the production line at Cadillac, for finding the thing YOU make, and I have no doubt, are very proud of, in the middle of a rancorous disagreement.” While Bourdain expressed pride for No Reservations ‘ eight seasons, he admitted the promo stunt left him with a pretty bad taste in his mouth. When asked for comment, a publicist for the Travel Channel said in a statement: “We’ve enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Tony, but his decision to make further remarks on this matter in the public domain is unfortunate.”
WENN Terrence Jenkins joins Giuliana Rancic as Anchors of E! News , the global leader in pop culture information, reaching more young adults than any other entertainment news program. Starting November 12th, Jenkins will bring his own unique perspective to the network’s highly rated news broadcast, E! President of Network Strategy and E! News Cyndi McClellan announced today. Until recently the co-host of BET’s long-running 106 & Park video countdown show, Jenkins will also contribute in-depth personality profiles and original reporting pieces. “Terrence Jenkins is a talented and well-connected television personality who will bring an original sensibility to our news programs,” Cyndi McClellan said. “His energy and engaging personality, coupled with E! News Lead Anchor Giuliana Rancic’s proven experience, should help cement E! News’ stature as the leading source for news across pop culture, delivered to an engaged audience on all platforms.” A graduate of North Carolina A &T State University where he pledged Omega Psi Phi, Jenkins hoped to continue the career in broadcasting that he’s started on the radio in college. Jenkins, who had used the name Terrence J previously, has quickly become a popular figure for young audiences, with key roles in such recent theatrical features as Think Like a Man, Burlesque and Sparkle, along with prominent TV roles on BET’s 106 & Park and The Game. “I’ve always had a passion for the wide spectrum of pop culture that E! News covers so well; I can’t wait to get started,” Jenkins said. “I’ve had a great career so far, and it’s all been building toward this. And then getting to work with great people like Giuliana and the entire E! News team just makes this seem like an even more perfect opportunity.”
This week’s new DVD releases make it easy to put a little Highbrow dark chocolate in your Lowbrow crunchy peanut butter and enjoy a satisfying double feature . Whether you’re in the mood for serious German cinema (that mixes in some genre tropes) or ass-kicking science fiction (flavored with pungent political satire), there’s plenty for all tastes this week. HIGH: Fritz Lang: The Early Works (Kino Classics; $39.95 DVD) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: This trio of early works by legendary German director Fritz Lang includes an adaptation of the classic opera Madame Butterfly and two films Lang co-wrote with his then-wife Thea von Harbou that feature actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge — two key collaborators on Lang’s masterpiece, Metropolis . WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: 1919’s Harakiri , the Madame Butterfly adaptation, tells the story of a Japanese girl and her doomed romance with a European officer who abandons her. The Wandering Shadow (1920), Lang and von Harbou’s first collaboration, follows a woman fleeing from a sex scandal and her eventual shot at redemption. Four Around the Woman , from 1921, sees a socialite falling victim to a crime…or is she involved in a blackmail plot? WHY IT’S SCHMANCY: Before he fled Nazi Germany, before M and Metropolis , even before Spies and the Dr. Mabuse movies, Fritz Lang was a successful filmmaker in Weimar-era Germany, when Expressionism was the happening thing. For scholars who wanted to explore the master’s entire oeuvre, however, many of Lang’s earliest films were difficult to access. Harakiri was one of four films Lang made in 1919, his first year as a director. And yes, the film has German actors performing in yellowface, but at least the filmmakers bothered to get genuine Japanese costumes and artifacts from the Hamburg Anthropological Museum. This DVD features restorations mastered from 35mm elements. WHY YOU SHOULD BUY IT: Fritz Lang: The Early Works should appeal to more than just Lang completists. Anyone who cares about the roots of movies or just wants to check out silent cinema at its most vibrant should pick up this collection. LOW: They Live (Collector’s Edition) (Scream Factory; $19.93 DVD, $29.93 Blu-Ray) WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Written (under the pseudonym “Frank Armitage”) and directed by John Carpenter; starring “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster. WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: A homeless drifter (Piper) finds a stash of special sunglasses that allow him to see the truth about the world around him: the rich and powerful are actually aliens who are destroying the planet and manipulating humans with subliminal messages in the media that induce people to consume mindlessly and to conform. WHY IT’S FUN: Released in 1988, Ronald Reagan’s last year in office, They Live is one of the most stinging satires of the Gipper’s era. Carpenter basically implied that yuppie-ism and the rest of the decade’s excesses were the product of cultural manipulation. (Okay, so extraterrestrials were behind the whole thing, but it’s an intriguing idea.) And if you’re not in the mood to look for political perspective, there are gross aliens and crazy shoot-outs and a fight scene between Piper and David that goes on…and on…and on…into cinema legend. WHY YOU SHOULD BUY IT (AGAIN): This new Collector’s Edition features great new goodies, including interviews with Foster (who’s still got Those Eyes), David and Carpenter, plus previously unseen footage from the original TV spots for the movie and a featurette on the visual style, scoring and stunts. (There’s also a Carpenter-Piper commentary track that’s been previously available.) Alonso Duralde has written about film for The Wrap, Salon and MSNBC.com. He also co-hosts the Linoleum Knife podcast and regularly appears on What the Flick?! (The Young Turks Network) . He is a senior programmer for the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and a pre-screener for the Sundance Film Festival. He also the author of two books: Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men (Advocate Books). Follow Alonso Duralde on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
