Weekend Suggestions/Rumors, Gossip 04-27-07

Hi:

A few suggestions this weekend:

Movies: Not much new this weekend

NEXT - starring Nic Cage in a role much like Denzel’s in Deja Vu. Good cast but they could all go down the drain with this one!

It’s probably a quiet weekend because next week we have the beginning of the Summer Blockbusters (which used to be Memorial Day openings):

SPIDERMAN 3 which looks awesome!

Future Movie News:

Eric Roberts (of HEROES fame) has just signed on to play a Mafia Mobster in the new BATMAN DARK KNIGHT movie.

Release Date: 7/18/08 (a ways away….)

Queen Latifah has just signed to do a remake of ALL OF ME, the hilarious movie of years ago which starred Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin. Like most remakes, this probably won’t do too well.

Tom Hanks has reportedly been offered a ‘total’ of up to $50M to star in the ‘prequel’ of The DiVinci Codes – “Angels and Demons”. Also, Gisele Buncheon (Tommy’s cutie) could be offered up to $13Million! This could turn out to be one of the most expensive movies ever made: $200M

Those of you waiting for the X FILES sequel may have to wait a bit longer. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny are both anxious to make it and Frank Spotnitz (producer) at first, last week, said that a script was ready to go……Not So Fast people. Now they say the script just might need a little more tweeking!!!

TV:

Polly Bergen is joining DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES next season. She will play Lynette’s mom. She will be introduced in the season finale on May 20th.

Not much else going on.

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It’s been a tough week for some of our favorite people:

Rosie is leaving The View. I figured she wouldn’t last more than a season. Watch for Rosie to go on to bigger and better things. Rumor has it that she could be offered a ‘night time show’ for $35/40 million! Think about that, Mr. Trump!!!

Alec Baldwin has had a really tough week. He will land on his feet when all is said and done. I’m glad NBC didn’t let him out of his contract. 30 Rock is one of the best comedies in a very long time and he makes it that way!

The Indian people are after Richard Gere for the ‘kiss’! Puhleez. They’re just unhappy cause Sanjaya didn’t win IDOL!!!!!

And finally, Hugh Grant may have to go to court because he threw a container of baked beans at a group of paparazzi for getting into his face! That’s OK Hugh. I see another appearance on the Jay Leno Show in your future!!!

Have a great weekend everyone. Talk to you next week.

Joanie

AI Gives Back – 04/26/07 Top 6 Finalists

Hi Everyone:

Well, what a night it was! Over 70 million votes were cast on Tuesday night. How wonderful is that!!!

They also announced that Newscorp (a corporate sponsor I think) donated $5M for the Gives Back Concert.

Ellen DeGeneres was the host at the Disney Concert Hall and Ryan took the reins (as usual) at the Kodak Center.

We started off the night with Ellen introducing Earth/Wind/and Fire (click here to watch the video!) WOW, Philip Bailey hasn’t lost any of that powerful voice over the years. They did a quick rendition of 3 of their top songs. Great way to start the show!!!

We then flashed to Randy who was in Louisiana (where he comes from). These poor Katrina victims still need so much more help than they have been given. Very sad. All night you will see these ‘beautiful, soulful’ faces of these children who are suffering needlessly.

We then go to Quincy Jones who wrote a song for the Final Six to sing called Time To Care. They did a great job. Quincy’s such a great guy and soooo talented.

Then came Eric McCormack (from Will and Grace) asking for donations. He said, “If everyone who voted for Sanjaya gives just $1.00, we’ll collect a LOT of money tonight.”

Then Ben Stiller said that he was going to sing a song (I forget the name of it) and NOT stop until they collected like $2Billion dollars! He started singing and a note came on the screen in big letters to PLEASE give so he would stop singing! It was funny.

Then Ryan walked over to where the Top 6 were sitting and said, “Tonight I am going to call names randomly. No Top 3 or Bottom 3. There will be a big surprise tonight though. Something that has never happened on Idol before.” (of course it went in and out of my head) So first he called Melinda to stand up and said she was safe. He then went back to Ellen.

Ellen introduced Il Divo to sing Somewhere. This is the group that Simon put together and what voices they have. If you do not have any of their CDs, I recommend you pick one up at www.amazon.com cause they were wonderful.

Back to Ryan who said that he wanted someone to come up from the audience and introduce the next act. He called out a “number” and who jumped on the stage but Jack Black! Instead of introducing someone, he said that he was going to sing “A Kiss From A Rose” from Batman Forever! He wanted the judges to tell him how he did. He then proceeded to do what he does best and sing and jump all over the stage. The judges thought he was awful. Seal was sitting right there and said he was great! Ryan told him to go and he started singing a Whitney Houston song as he walked off. Good fun.

We then went back to the Top 6 and Ryan asked Blake to stand and said that he too was safe.

We then went back to Africa and Carrie Underwood sang a song with a group of children. “I’ll Stand By You” by Chrissie Hynde

Back to Ellen who had Rascal Flats who sang, “My Wish”

Paula then talked with people at a food shelter and how they needed our help too. Then they went back to the stage and she was standing beside Ryan and all you could see was her cleavage!!!

Ford Commercial up next – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” – Cute

Then they had a LOT of celebs lipsynching to “Staying Alive”. Some of them were really funny – Hugh Grant doing his dance from Music and Lyrics, David Schwimmer – who knew he could dance! and many others.

Back to the Top 6 – Phil… you’re safe.

Then we had Josh Groban sing, “Raise Me Up” (WOW what a powerful song) with children from an African choir and they were great. What beautiful faces smiling out at us in spite of the sadness in their lives.

Kelly Clarkson was next. She sang Up To The Mountain and who accompanied her but JEFF BECK! It was good to see him. Talk about talent! Has he been around a long time or what!!!! Great song and both did an awesome job.

Back to the Top 6 and Ryan asked LaKisha to stand and said, “LaKisha, you are safe”! (that was a surprise to me)

Then came what I had been waiting for all night….the Celine Dion/Elvis Presley duet of “If I Can Dream”. It was really cool. Both of them walked out on the stage at the same time. I believe this was taken from Elvis’s Aloha from Hawaii special. It was seamless. Celine did a great job singing along side him. And of course, Elvis was absolutely awesome. Never will there be another Elvis!!!! Loved the end where Celine threw the microphone from one hand to the next. It was worth the wait.

It’s now 9:44 and Ryan announces that there has been over $30 million dollars donated so far to the causes!!!! How great is that!?

Annie Lennox sang next. The song was “A Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel. Boy could that Paul Simon write great songs. Another really inspirational song that Annie did a terrific job singing.

We then came to the final 2 of the Top 6….namely, Chris and Jordin

Ryan said, “Chris, you are safe this week. Please sit down.” With that the audience GASPED and my friend Amanda and I almost fell off our couches and poor Jordin is crying her eyes out.

What does Ryan do next????? He says, “I told you that this was going to be a shocking week on Idol. Jordin, you are also safe. No one is going home tonight. However, next week after the votes have been tallied from this week and next, there will be 2 finalists going home.”

How mean was that????? Couldn’t Ryan have said at the beginning of the show, “All 6 of you are safe tonight so sit back and relax.” Would that have been so wrong? No one was going to turn the program off. It was just very cruel. I’m sure that Ryan didn’t have much say in how this was setup but I certainly hope that someone catches ‘flak’ for this….

It kinda brought the whole program down.

Anyway, we ended the show with Bono (who should someday win a Nobel Peace Prize www.one.org Aids for all the work he’s done with his work).

They sang, An American Prayer (<-click here to watch the video on youtube!) which I hadn’t heard before. I wonder if Bono wrote it? It was great. (note from Jamie-actually it was written by Bono and co-Eurythmic to Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart)

One quick comment….was it just me or did Phil Stacey not have a great voice!? Where did that come from? Just a thought.

Now that my hands are numb and carpal tunnel is setting in, I’ll sign off for this week. It was a truly inspiring (did we not get another glimpse of what the ‘true’ Simon is like?) program and everyone connected with this must have worked so hard to get it on the air. $30 Million dollars and I’m sure more will be coming in.

Until next week…

Joanie

AI Gives Back – 4/25/07 – Top 6 Finalists

Hi Everyone:

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather we are having. It is delightful out there.

Last night AI had the first of 2 very special shows called AI Gives Back. The judges, including Ryan, went home to their roots and Ryan and Simon went to Africa as well. You don’t realize how many people are suffering in this world until you see it in front of you. What beautiful little faces on these children and they have such hope in their hearts. (It’s a good thing that I don’t stay up late at night because I’d be watching those Christian commercials and adopting more children than Angelina!!!)

OK, the Top 6 Finalists were asked to sing songs of “Inspiration”.

(Missed the show?
Just click on the song titles to view video captures of the performances on youtube!)

First up was Chris

Chris – Sang If I Could Change The World by Eric Clapton. It was a wonderful job and the judges gave him high praise. See you next week Chris.

Next up came:

Melinda – Sang There Will Come A Day by Faith Hill. I’m not familiar with this song but she sang it as beautifully as she does every week. If she’s not in the finals I give up!!! EVERYONE loves Melinda.

Then came:

Blake – Sang Imagine by John Lennon. What a truly inspirational and touching song. He did a great job. This is probably one of the best known songs of all time and he had a lot of guts going for it… it worked!

Up next was:

LaKisha - Sang I Believe by Fantasia. Now, when she first said, “I Believe” I thought she meant the song years ago that went, “I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.” And, trust me, she should have done that one. I think this is the song that Fantasia sang when she won the Season 3 competition. Remember, she starts out for a few verses and….out comes the Choir (ya always have to have the Choir)! Well KiKi, I don’t know if Fantasia did you in but it just wasn’t your night and I’m truly afraid that you may be going home tonight. I hope I’m wrong.

Then we had:

Phil – Sang The Change by Garth Brooks. Now, as we all know, I am NOT a country western fan BUT, that being said, I love, love, love Garth Brooks. Phil did a good job although he didn’t ‘knock my socks’ off. The judges really liked it. I do see him in the bottom 2 but I think he’ll be back next week.

Up next was:

Jordin to end the show – Sang You’ll Never Walk Alone. Now, I gotta tell ya, this girl definitely chose well. What a truly inspirational song this is. (can you picture Jerry Lewis singing this each year at the end of his telethon?). Anyway, she had me in tears. She looked beautiful too. Excellent job. Unlike KiKi, she did not have to scream to project the words and how she felt. WOW! Final 2 Jordin…..

Tonight we will have the 2 hour special hosted by Ellen Degeneres. I heard that Celine Dion will be doing a duet with Elvis Presley. I think the name of the song is, “If I Can Dream” and boy is it powerful. Celine will belt it out, I’m sure. This is much like years ago when Natalie Cole sang along with her dad, Nat King Cole, to Unforgettable. Lots and lots of celebs will be participating.

Click on this link for a classic 1970 Elvis performance on youtube.

Hope everyone voted lots of times last night!!!!

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Dancing With The Stars

It’s getting hard for me to do Dancing cause, I’m all over the place with my handy remote. Monday night, I was taping ‘24′ and ‘Dancing’ and trying to watch House/Red Sox/Yankees. It was very stressful!

7 Left This Week

1. Joey/Kim - Jerry Springer came to help Joey look ‘masculine’ this week. They did a good job. He tried to look ’swashbuckling’.

9-9-9 for a total of 27….not bad!

2. Heather/Jonathan – They’re starting to wear on me. She wasn’t that good this week…not terrible, just not too good. 7-8-8 for a total of 23

3. John/Edyta – They said he’s like a teddy bear and something like a duck! Anyway, they were OK. (they did the mambo) 7-6-6 = 19

4. Laila/Maksim – ChaCha – She was “HOT” tonight. Had all the right moves and even threw in some of her own. Loved it. 9-9-10 = 28

5. Billy Ray/Karina – Jive – OK, so he’s still in it, much to the surprise of many people but I could see him really trying. Some of those moves were unbelievable though. The ‘bubbachicken’? 7-7-7 = 21

6. Apolo/Julianne - Rumba – I have to admit I didn’t see the dance except on flashbacks but from what I did see, they were awesome. I know she was under the weather this week and her brother is absolutely adorable. The chair didn’t bother me at all….the only one it seemed to tick off was Len. Anyway, they received: 9-9-10 = 28

7. Ian/Cheryl – they were last and danced the Pasa Doble. Ian was really struggling with the poses on this one but they did a decent job. Cheryl certainly gets the best out of every partner she has. 8-8-8 = 24

Bottom 2 were Heather and John with Heather going home. Bye Bye Heather. You won’t have to travel back and forth to the UK anymore…..

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Talk to you tomorrow.

Joanie

Weekend “What’s New” 4/20/07

Hi Everyone:

Is that the SUN I see outside my office???? How exciting.

What’s New/Happening this Weekend…

First of all, the Yankees are in town. If you’re lucky enough to score tickets, they will be great games and the weather will be terrific.

DVD

Notes On A Scandal – This is an English movie that stars Cate Blanchett and Dame Judi Dench. It is a very compelling thriller and both stars were nominated for Oscars. Bill Nighy plays Cate’s hubby in the movie. (I just loved him in LOVE ACTUALLY – great movie if you haven’t seen it yet).

Smokin’ Aces - Starring Jeremy Piven (of Entourage fame). It takes place in LasVegas and I get the feeling from watching previews/interviews with Jeremy that he does not play a nice person. He had to learn a lot of card tricks for his role. (I wonder how best bud, John Cusack, feels about this flick?)

George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda – An English period piece (sounds like I’m ‘pushin’ English flicks this week!) starring Hugh Dancy. I think I’ve mentioned this movie before. It looks very “Jane Austin” romantic.

Of course, you know that you can buy all of the above on

www.amazon.com

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New on CD

Norah Jones‘ “Never Too Late” – 405,000 the first week on the shelves.

The Shins, “Wincing The Nite Away”

Robin Thicke – “The Evolution of Robin Thicke” I’ve listened/watched his videos for awhile. Good voice and ‘pleasant’ to watch. His wife appears in one of his videos. The CD is selling well and received rave reviews.

(He is Alan Thicke’s (of Growing Pains) son, by the way.)

Read more reviews of new and up and coming CDs at

www.Austin360.com

This website gives you all kinds of information on the Entertainment industry.

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TV:

A new Mark Burnett (Survivor) series on CBS starts on May 31 called PIRATE MASTER Basically it is about 16 ‘pirates’ on a high-seas adventure searching for treasure. Up to $1 Million!!!

Showtime has signed THE TUDORS for another 10 episodes for next season. It has enthralled the media as well as audiences. If you haven’t caught it yet, jump on to SHOWTIME ON DEMAND and catch up. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is excellent as a young, dashing Henry VIII. It is filmed in Dublin, Ireland, by the way.

If you do not currently have SHOWTIME, I highly recommend it because come this summer, when re-runs hit the regular waves, on SHOWTIME you will be able to watch all new episodes of Brotherhood (loosely based on the Bulger bros), and Dexter (story about a ‘blood analyst/specialist’ for the Miami police who ‘catches/tortures’ really bad people in his free time!

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At The Movies This Weekend:

FRACTURE – Who doesn’t love Anthony Hopkins and, from the previews, he reminds you of his Hannibal Lecter character from Silence of The Lambs. I think Ryan Gosling does a good job too.

That’s the only one that caught my eye.

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On Cable:

 

BLOOD DIAMOND is now on ON DEMAND. It stars Leo DiCaprio and Dimon (?) who both received Oscar nominations for this pic. It is about the ‘black market’ in the diamond industry.

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Well I guess I covered all the bases. Hope everyone enjoys the weather. Let’s hope that Spring is finally here!!!!!

Joanie

Wednesday, April 18th, Final Results

First of all, did you see Bucky Covington in the audience tonight???Randy wore a hat tonight that just didn’t work for me.

Group sang ‘I’m Alright’, I’m glad ‘country week’ is OVAH. Liked KiKi’s outfit.

Fergie performed, ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ She’s a pretty girl (who’s got a hot boyfriend… Josh Duhammel from LasVegas) but she needs the rest of the Black Eyed Peas to really bring it home…

Another Ford commercial, “I Ran So Far Away” – cute.

More talk about next week’s special shows.

Here We Go… Ryan put the Finalists into 2 groups this week.

On one side, we had: Sanjaya/LaKisha/Blake

On the other side, we had: Chris/Jordin/Phil

Then we had Melinda in the middle who we all knew would go forward.

Ryan did to her what he does at this point every season…pick the group you think is the Top one. What did Melinda do??? She sat down on the stage. Very cute and smart.

So Ryan did it for her: He told Chris/Jordin/Phil to sit down, they were all safe.

Simon was starting to grin and said, “I think something special is about to happen!”

Next Ryan told Blake to sit down…that left Sanjaya and LaKisha. Simon really looked worried. Not because LaKisha should have to go home but because of all the ‘kooks’ out there who were voting for Sanjaya!

Then the unbelievable happened. We heard those special words from Ryan that we’ve been waiting for lo these many weeks, which were:

Sanjaya, your journey ends here. You are going home tonight!

Now what kills me is the kid seemed surprised by all of this. Anyway we did the ‘flashback’ (<-click here to see the ’salute video’ on youtube) and the song
(God help us, we had to hear it again!) and he even improvised saying, Let’s Talk About My Hair!!!

BYE BYE Sanjaya, it was almost like we didn’t know ya…or wanted to!

By the way, over 38 million votes were cast.

Now we get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ and see how it goes from here. 6 left. Who will be next????

Talk to you next week. Joanie

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Dancing With The Stars – Comments

The group had to dance the Rumba or the Samba this week.

Ian/Cheryl (who is dating Joey Lawrence’s bro, Mathew), SAMBA

A couple of slips on the dance floor but overall a good job. 24 points

Clyde/Elena – RUMBA No improvement for me. Should be going home but, then again, Sanjaya was still hanging on at this point. 13 points

Heather/Jonathan – SAMBA They were really good. Jonathan looks really hot with his hair shaved off. She slipped at the end but my opinion was that it was NOT intentional like some people have said, 21 points

Joey/Kim – RUMBA – I just love Joey and thought they did a decent job. It’s just fun watching him every week. 25 points

John/Edyta SAMBA – John gave it his best shot but they weren’t too good. Overall points – 18

Laila/Maksim – SAMBA – They did a very good job. 28 points

Apolo/Julianne – SAMBA – WOW what a great job. This is Julianne’s favorite dance and it showed. The first 30 points of the competition!

Billy Ray/Karina – RUMBA – I didn’t think anyone could dance worse than Clyde but Billy Ray found a way. It was just terrible. 17 points

OK….bottom 2 were Heather/Jonathan and Clyde/Elena

I don’t think that Heather should have been in the bottom 2 and I had to comment of Billy Ray’s expression when he was told that he was safe for another week!

Bottom line – Clyde went home (one down and one to go!!! which we know happened the next night…)

Idol Update of 4/17/07 – Top 7 Finalists

Hi Everyone:

Sorry I’m so late this week. I was sick yesterday and when I got in to work today and tried to log on to my ‘old’ yahoo account, it told me that I was deactivated? Anyway, I’m up and running now. If I miss anyone on the List, please let me know so that I can add them to the group.

Martina McBride was the ‘mentor’ this week. She is a country western singer who has sold over 16M records in her career. She was very nice to all of the Finalists. I am not much of a country fan and hardly knew any of the songs so I couldn’t judge whether they were like the ‘artist’ who sang them or whether they did a good job…

First up was Phil who sang – The Blacktop Ends – Phil was ‘all bald’ this week. He seemed comfortable singing country. I wasn’t ‘rocked’ by it but he did a decent job. – Probably back next week.

Then came Jordin who sang – Broken Wing – This is a Martina song and she did a great job. Didn’t care for the dress too much though. She’ll definitely be back next week.

Then we had Sanjaya who SANG??? - Let’s Give Them Something To Talk About - Of course he chose that song because everyone is talking about him AND his hair! He had a ‘Willie Nelson‘ bandana wrapped around his locks. He was just terrible – This just isn’t funny anymore. Enough is definitely enough. If he doesn’t go home this week…there’s no justice!

OH MY GOD….is that Constantine in the audience???? Be still my heart!

Up next was LaKisha who sang – Jesus Take The Wheel - She looked terrific, by the way. OK, we all know that this is a Carrie Underwood song and she won a lot of awards with this song. And we also know that KiKi sang it because she was thinking of her little girl….and that’s where you get into trouble. I feel that unless the song is YOURS, you just don’t have the same feel as the singer/songwriter. She tried to give it her own brand but she started to get into a Gospel sound that sounded like shouting and it just didn’t work. I gotta funny feeling that KiKi will be in the Bottom 3 this week.

Then came Chris who sang – Mayberry (a Rascal Flats song) – Didn’t care too much for the song and the judges more or less agreed. I said that he sounded ‘nasally’ before even Simon said it. Chris tried to tell him that it was a form of singing but I didn’t buy it any more than Smon did. He’s such a cute kid though and must have had a hard time this week because he comes from the Virginia area. He should be OK for another week.

Next came Melinda who sang – Trouble is a Woman and once again showed all of the “Idol Fan Base” what a great performer she is. I’m tellin’ ya…she could sing the phone book and it would sound great!

Finally we had Blake who sang – When The Stars Go Blue (by Tim McGraw) – Blake had an argyle sweater on and the outfit just didn’t do it for me. Didn’t really care for the song either. I’m not as confident that he won’t be in the Bottom 3 as I am with Chris though. We’ll see.

Sooo… that being said, I think Phil (as I look back) did a very good job and should be in no fear of leaving us this week.

I think the Bottom 3 will be KiKi/Blake and SANJAYA!!!!!

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Weekend of 4/13 – What To Do?

Hi:

Let's see, what's new this coming weekend.  By the
way, did anyone notice that Friday is April 13th!!!!

OK, let's tackle TV first:

New series called The Pacific is in the works from HBO
and Dreamworks (Spielberg and Hanks), the same group
that brought us A Band of Brothers - one of the most
excellent series to be presented by HBO!  It is a 10
part mini-series about WWII.  Cameras will start
rolling in Australia this coming August and will
continue for the rest of the year.  No word yet on who
will star.  I assume we're looking at a 2008 Premiere.

Rumor has it that Tom Selleck has been offered a role
to head up the Montecito in the series Las Vegas,
starting next year.  Now that James Caan has decided
to go back to films, it leaves a gap that could be
well filled by Selleck's presence.  Let's hope he
accepts!

Eric Johnson, who played Whitney Fordman in
Smallville, has won the lead role of Flash Gordon in
the new SciFi Series that will run for 22 episodes.
It will premiere this coming August.

Movies:

New this weekend is DISTURBIA - looks scary and the
equally scary PERFECT STRANGER starring Halle Berry
and Bruce Willis.

DVD Releases:

Bobby - this is the story of the last day in the life
of Robert F. Kennedy.  Emilio Estevez worked on this
production for about 7 years.  It has an all star cast
and is very well acted.  Well worth a watch!

Doris Day Collection, Vol. 2 - Who didn't love Doris
in the 60s!!  Fun watch!
With: Romance on the High Seas, My Dream Is Yours,
On Moonlight Bay, I'll See You in My Dreams,By the
Light of the Silvery Moon, Lucky Me and more!

Up and Coming:

April 17 - The Last King of Scotland with Forrest
Whitaker who won the Oscar for his riveting portrayal
of Idi Amin.  Also stars Gillian Anderson (X Files)
and James McEvoy (an up and coming star from
Scotland!)

April 24 - The Queen - Helen Mirren received an Oscar
for her 'dead on' portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II.
Great Movie!


Also, A Good Year with Russell Crowe is now in stores.
 A light, romantic story for a change from Russell.

You can order any of these DVDs, by the way, on
www.amazon.com. 

Ongoing shows, not to be overlooked - The Sopranos,
The Tudors and the always funny Entourage (our own
Mark Wahlberg's creation!!!)

Have a great weekend everyone.   

Joanie

AI Results Show – 4-11-07

Hi Everybody:

Well the storm has not started yet so I was able to
make it into work...no problem!

I have to admit that I only had a small piece of paper
to write the results down from last night and wound up
going to a 'bigger' piece of paper!  (why that reminds
me of Roy Scheider in JAWS when he said, "We're gonna
need a bigger boat." I don't know!!!)

click on the song titles below to watch the videos
on youtube!

OK...to start off, we had Ryan standing with all the
Finalists and he says, "I wonder who'll be going home
tonight?"...as he STARES at Sanjaya!!!

The group then did a Latin song...WHOA! did Blake look
'hot', come to think of it, Jordin did too!  Loved the
Orange/Black clothes theme on some of the kids.

35 million votes were tallied the night before.  Do
you think they got it right this week???? We'll see.

Then came Akon who sang Don't Matter.  He had the
whole audience on their feet, dancing and singing
along.

Then they did the new Ford commercial.  This one was
very reminiscent of Michael Jackson's song, "Black or
White" (I believe), where the person changes into
another person.  It was cool.  The song, by the way,
was The Turtles, "Happy Together."

They then did something funny.  They showed outtakes
of the auditions of the Judges and their opinions of
some of the contestants (they didn't show the
contestants faces though).  They DID however, show
Tony Bennett trying to 'make it to Hollywood'!  It was
very cute.  Of course, at the end of the skit, you
could hear the Judges saying, "Other door....other
door, etc."

Then we started with the elimination process.

What Ryan did this week was call each person's name
and as they stood up, he said whether they were SAFE
or in the BOTTOM THREE (I'll never get that right.  2
or 3?? each week)  

First up was Phil....bottom 3
Then he called Sanjaya's name and said, "Never mind.
Sit back down."
He called LaKisha...SAFE
Again with the Sanjaya...stand up/sit down.
Melinda....SAFE
Sanjaya...stand up/sit down (again!)
Haley....bottom 3
Blake....OK
Sanjaya - stand up
Chris - stand up
Then Ryan said, which was ONCE AGAIN unbelievable,
"Sanjaya, sit down.  You're safe again this week.
Chris, you're in the Bottom 3!!!!"
It's a good thing I was alone cause I was NOT a happy
camper!!!!

We then had J Lo sing "Que Hiciste".  Gotta admit,
she reminded me of Haley.  Pretty girl, not much of a
voice.  In J Lo's case though, she's certainly
branched out into many other venues and has done quite
well for herself!  Ryan interviewed her again, we saw
some more of her mingling with the Finalists and then
it was FINALLY time to see who was going home.

Haley or Phil????
HALEY was chosen to go home.  So they did the
'memories' part of the show...flashbacks, etc. Then
made her sing and that was just about it.

Next week...COUNTRY SONGS with Martina McBride
Will Sanjaya go home finally?????  Stay tuned.

Have a great weekend everyone.  Let's hope we don't
get the torrential rain on Monday.

Joanie

Top 8 Finalists – Week of April 10th

Hi Everyone:

Sounds like we may get a little precip tomorrow.  Is
this gonna be a "Thursday" thing now???

Last night we had J Lo mentoring the group and she was
very nice to each and every one of the finalists.  She
had comments to help each of them when they sang the
song they had chosen.  Boy, she is so nice and pretty.
She was like the 'old' Jenny From The Block kinda gal
last night.

First up:

Melinda - sang  Sway - OK, I still think Melinda is
the most talented of all the finalists.  Her outfit
and hair were terrific and I couldn't understand why
Simon had a negative comment.  I liked when she said,
"He has wanted to say something bad, so I'm glad he
finally got the chance."  You GO GIRL!!!

Then came:

LaKisha - sang Conga - A Gloria Estafan and MiamiSound
Machine song. She had all the rhythm and bounce
of the original!! Hot dress KiKi!  It got everyone up
and dancing.  CYA next week.

Next:

Chris - sang Smooth (Rob Thomas/Santana) - J Lo asked
him to sing it a key higher which sounded great in
rehearsal and then he dropped it down for his
performance.  Still, it was a good job and was a right
choice for him.  I didn't think he was better than the
2 girls before him.  I'd say...just as good.

Then we had:

Haley - sang Turn The Beat Around - Welll, as Simon
said, "You're voice isn't as strong as many in this
competition.  You're best bet is to wear as few
clothes as possible."  which is what she did last
night.  Ya know, and this is a VERY old flashback, she
reminds me of Betty Grable from the 50s.  Her legs are
gorgeous, she's pretty, and has just enough voice to
get by if she decided to do movies.  She'll never win
this competition though.  In fact she could go home
tonight.

Then came:

Phil - sang Maria/Maria - Phil has been very lucky the
last few weeks to stay in the competition.  This
rendition did nothing for me.  It was lacking any
feeling and should put him in the Bottom 2.

After Phil we had:

Jordin - sang The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You - Did you
happen to notice the Santana/Gloria theme tonight?
OK, Jordin, once again, did a great job.  Showed a lot
of poise for her 17 years.  She'll definitely be
moving on.

Then we had:

Blake - sang I Need To Know - now we all know that
Marc Anthony (J Lo's hubby) had a BIG hit with this
song and she tried to help Blake put 'feeling' into
it.  As she said, "Give me goose bumps.  Make me want
you."  This was a great dance song that should be done
on Dancing With The Stars.  He did a very good job.
The audience, as well as the judges, liked it!

And, last but not least, we had:

Sanjaya - sang  Besa Mae Mucho   -  OK, what can I
say!  He had the curls, growth on his chin and face
and even sang in Spanish.  J Lo told him that she
enjoyed him a lot (her and Tony Bennett!!!).  She
seemed impressed with him.  THEN he started his
performance.  I still went by my 40 second rule and he
didn't fail me!!!  I'll admit that he was a little bit
better this week but, PEOPLE, enough already!  It is
time.....

So that was the show last night.  J Lo will sing for
us tonight and they'll probably send Haley or Phil (my
choice) home.  What more can I say......

Talk to you tomorrow.  

Joanie
------------------------------------------------------
A few comments on Dancing With The Stars

Ian and Cheryl - Loved their waltz but was very
distracted by her 'hair extensions'.  She didn't
really have to do that.   They were very enjoyable.

Heather and Jonathan - Also did the waltz and Heather
was very graceful.  Jonathan is a great partner for
her and I see her moving on for a few more weeks
anyway.
Laila and Maksim - Danced the Pasa Doble - Thought
they did a good job.  Not as good as past weeks but
she's a fast learner and I see them in the top 4.

Joey and Kym - Danced the Pasa Doble - Received the
first '10' of the competition and Joey was thrilled!
The bit with his daughter, Brianna, was cute too.  She
'whipped' him into shape with her stick and whistle.

Apolo and Julianne - Danced the Waltz and were just
about perfect.  What a cute couple.  Rumor has it they
are seeing each other away from the show too!

Leeza and Tony - Danced the Pasa Doble and they
struggled with it.  Leeza is really too stiff and Tony
did the best he could but she just looks too nervous.
Liked the camera showing her children though.  Boy are
they growing up fast!!!

Clyde and Elena - Danced(?) the Waltz.  I can't
remember a time when a couple danced worse since this
competition started.  He literally 'walked' thru the
dance.  I think even Anderson Cooper could have done
better!!!
John and Edyta - Danced the Waltz.  Even his mom was
laughing in the audience.  They certainly gave it
their best shot but weren't smooth by any means.

Billy Ray and Karina - Danced the Pasa Doble - For a
guy who started out so badly the first week, he
certainly is coming along.  He's almost 'begging' to
go home though with everything he has on his 'plate'.
He is finding it very difficult to put in the
rehearsal time that is needed.

In fact, Len Berman said that these couples were only
rehearsing 13 hour averages when previous years, the
couples were rehearsing 19 hours each week and it
shows.

OK....believe it or not, Clyde (Sanjaya) stayed and
Leeza went home.  I understand Leeza but not before
Clyde.  What a sports fan base there must be out there!!

4/6-4/8-Weekend/TV/DVD/News

Hi:

I'm probably going to be all over the place on this.
Sorry, my mind is in all directions today!

Let's see, where can I start.

New on DVD this weekend:

Charlotte's Web - great Easter present for the kids

Entourage, Season 3 - very cleverly written series on
HBO - in fact, the new season will premiere this
Sunday, April 8th.

The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie
About the beginning of the CIA. - It's supposed to be
a very good film.
-----------------------------------------------------
New in Film Premieres:

The Hoax - Starring Richard Gere and Al Molina
Story about Clifford Irving writing a book about
Howard Hughes which is complete hoax; hence the title
of the film.  Gotta be decent with those 2 starring!

Grindhouse - The Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino
'double feature' - Starring Rose McGowan in both
films.  Kurt Russell takes a turn as a 'bad guy' in
this one.  He did most of the car chase scenes.  I
guess he's been driving in races for years.  Said he
had a great time! - Rumor has it that Rodriguez and
McGowan hooked up during the making of these films.
He is separated from his wife.

The Reaping - Starring Hilary Swank
Can't see why Hilary wanted to make this 'thriller'.
It looks mighty scary! - It's gotten very good
reviews.

Firehouse Dog - For the kids
------------------------------------------------------
TV:

Just learned that 30 Rock has been renewed for a 2nd
season.  This is a very entertaining half hour of
comedy with the incredible Alec Baldwin.  He's already
received a few awards for his role.  I wish more
people would tune in - Thursdays, NBC 

OK...new shows and Season Finale dates:

Monday, April 23rd - After 'Heroes' a new show called
The REAL Wedding Crashers.  This is an Ashton Kutcher
(did a little something called PUNK'D for a few
seasons).  It will be on for 6 one hour episodes.  I
guess if you're a fan of the movie (which I am), this
should be worth a 'look'.

CBS - Season Finales

Thursday, May 3rd, 10PM - Shark  For those of you who
have watched this season, you know that Shark lost a
case and a serial killer was set free (Billy
Campbell).  Well, guess what, in this episode, he
draws him out in the open and tries to lure him in a
trap in order to get a conviction.  James Woods does a
great job as Shark.

Sunday, May 6th - The Amazing Race concludes for the
season.

Tuesday, May 8th, 9PM - The Unit - The CIA looks into
the Unit members' past missions and tries to pin
criminal charges on them.  -  Another great show.
Dennis Haysbert is excellent.  He was great as the
President on '24' years ago!

Thursday, May 10th, 10PM - "Special Night"
Without A Trace - The team searches for a teenage girl
who has joined a cult.  Also Elena's (Roselyn Sanchez)
husband's case falls apart and he is set free.  Jack
tries to protect her from his wrath.

Wednesday, May 16th, 9PM - Criminal Minds
Gideon's GIRLFRIEND! is murdered by his nemisis,
Frank. (Keith Carradine).  Gideon was unable to arrest
this sick, serial killer earlier in the season so
needless to say he is out for revenge now.  His BAU
team members must profile him as a suspect in order to
capture both Frank and Jane (Amy Madigan).

Other season finales - CSI: Miami on Monday, May 14th
CSI: NY on Wednesday, May 16th and CSI on Thursday,
May 17th
-----------------------------------------------------

Last weekend:  I watched 2 films; one good and one not
so good.

The first was Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst.
 It is a Sophia Coppola film which she wrote and
directed.  The scenery and costumes (which won an
Oscar) were beautiful but there was no substance to
this film.  Save your $3.99 - On Demand - and watch
something else!

The other film is one that few people watched. It is
called Winter Passing and stars Zooey Deschaneal
(Emily's sister from Bones) as well as Ed Harris and
Will Ferrell in a serious role.  It is 'different' to
say the least but worth a watch.  It is on STARZ
-----------------------------------------------------
Well I guess that's it for now....except to Remind
You:

THE SOPRANOS is back  -  Sunday, April 8th, on HBO at
9PM for it's Nine Last Episodes.

THE TUDORS continues on Showtime on Sunday also.

------------------------------------------------------
Have a great Easter/Passover everyone.

Until next week...

Joanie