Roger Catlin
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Roger Catlin is a writer in Washington, D.C., who blogs daily at www.rogercatlin.com. Previously, he covered television, visual arts and rock 'n' roll for the Hartford Courant.

Blog Entries by Roger Catlin

The Ballad of Herman Cain: The Night I Drove Old Dixie Home

Posted December 2, 2011 | 14:47:07 (EST)

Herman Cain is my name and I served up some pizza plain

'Til so many calories came, I tore up my bio again

In the winter of 95, those who served the hungry, made me their guy

I lobbied Congress and I met some gals

It was a time I...

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Hugh Laurie Goes to New Orleans

6 Comments | Posted September 28, 2011 | 18:27:07 (EST)

Ah, celebrity! It opens so many doors to the good life: the best tables at restaurants, invitations to royal events, packed goodie bags at awards shows.

And say you're a weekend musician who has dabbled in a certain style of music, record companies may contact you to come into the...

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Bristol Palin's Dancing Success

Posted November 11, 2010 | 13:32:30 (EST)

She's been one of the worst dancers of this or any season, but Bristol Palin has still made her way to the Dancing with the Stars final four somehow. This follows another week where a contestant with higher scores from judges was sent home as the woman famous for being...

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How Glenn Beck Spent the Day of Rally to Restore Sanity

Posted November 2, 2010 | 11:27:32 (EST)

It seemed the opposite of sanity that on the day of Jon Stewart's big rally with Steven Colbert on the National Mall that Glenn Beck, who inspired the gesture with his own late summer rally, that would be here, in my hometown of West Hartford, Conn., at a Barnes &...

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Review: 30 Rock Plays Like a Long SNL Sketch

Posted October 15, 2010 | 00:29:27 (EST)

It was a noble experiment 30 Rock attempted Thursday: putting on its show live. Other sitcoms have attempted the same thing over the years, most recently by Will & Grace. But Tina Fey's Emmy-winning show is usually so dense in humor and precise to the second, it was immediately jarring...

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MTV's New TRL Is The Seven

Posted September 28, 2010 | 17:16:26 (EST)

It's been nearly two years since TRL quit after a decade and 2,247 episodes.

But there's still a need for MTV to have a later afternoon live weekday show, if only to cash in on favors and give promotional time to stars pimping new movies or releasing new albums.

Enter...

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The Rise and Fall of the Mean British Judge

Posted September 24, 2010 | 14:37:05 (EST)

When the 10th season of American Idol begins in January, it will be for the first time it comes without a British accent.

It's been known for nine months that Simon Cowell will be leaving the program. But as the distinctively blunt, acerbic and most opinionated judge on the panel,...

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Bristol Palin and The Situation Debut on Dancing with the Stars

Posted September 21, 2010 | 14:53:25 (EST)

In addition to propping up sagging careers and boosting network numbers, Dancing with the Stars may prove useful in helping cut young tabloid stars down to size.

The 11th season premiere of the ABC hit Monday almost single-handedly quashed the confidence of the Jersey Shore star The Situation, and made...

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Taylor vs. Kanye at VMAs, in Song

Posted September 13, 2010 | 21:55:59 (EST)

You know this isn't anywhere near the best MTV Video Music Awards, as some backstage twerp was insisting, if the biggest part of the show Sunday came in responding to what happened last year: Kanye West swiping the microphone from winner Taylor Swift and interrupting her victory speech with his...

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TV Critic As Terrorist

Posted September 2, 2010 | 12:48:17 (EST)

The hostage situation at the Discovery Channel Wednesday, which ended with the death of the offender, shows the extent some people will go to complain about cable programming.

He was not directly blaming Kate Gosselin or any of the Duggars, but the main thing James J. Lee, 43, was obviously...

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Inside the Big Brother House

Posted August 16, 2010 | 16:35:27 (EST)

For all its fanciful interior décor, the Big Brother house looks like a terrible place to be locked in for two and half months. The entrance to Studio 18 on CBS' Radford lot has the ambiance of a medium security facility, with a guard at a desk at the door...

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Caught in the Salahi Wine Storm

Posted August 3, 2010 | 18:31:13 (EST)

There had been talk at the TV Critics Association tour this season about gate crashers, with tourists sneaking into the ballroom where press conferences are going on, or people breaking into the parties full of stars.

But what did we have here? The veritable King and Queen of party crashing,...

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