The Office on The Huffington Post

Willow Bay: Welcome to HuffPost LA

2009-12-02T12:49:50Z

In a city as populous, diverse and sprawling as Los Angeles, it's no surprise that we're lacking a geographical hub. In fact we're really quite famous for it. So what better way to harness technology than to create a place online where people can gather and connect around local issues they care about? We like to think of HuffPost LA as our digital town square -- a place for Angelenos to get up-to-the-minute local news, share tips and gripes, and even create some buzz of their own.

Our goal is to give LA a page of its own, where bloggers can express themselves on the issues that matter to them -- whether they're substantive, sublime, simple or just plain fun. As you'll see, we have some familiar faces on the page. And we are excited to introduce you to some compelling new voices as well.

One of the joys of launching our local pages is that it gives us a chance to celebrate all that we love about our hometowns. In the days and weeks ahead, there will be plenty of opportunity to analyze and assess all that could use improving in LA. But on our first day on the job here at HuffPost LA, we want to take a moment to share what inspires us about the city. To share what brings us great pleasure, and to appreciate "what works," as Zev Yaroslavsky does in "LA's Big Green Secret."

In a Lettermanesque turn, Eli Broad, one of the city's great civic leaders and philanthropists -- and someone you've heard from before on HuffPost -- offers his "Top Ten Reasons to Love LA." Jonathan Greenblatt highlights our "better angels" in his post about some of LA's most impactful non-profits. And our new "top cop," LAPD Chief Charlie Beck shares his favorite Langer's sandwich and more in an exclusive interview with HuffPost LA's contributing editor Tina Daunt.

We're tapping into the depth and breadth of the creative community here. In addition to the entertainment industry, Los Angeles has a wealth of talent in other creative fields -- art and culture, fashion, architecture, design and music. One of the city's cultural visionaries, Michael Govan, CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, examines what makes art and art history in Los Angeles distinct. Journalist Joe Robinson offers his take on how LA might reinvent itself culturally by solving the hideous traffic problems that keep Westsiders housebound most weeknights.

Artist and writer Nancy Marks profiles the incredibly talented, LA based designer Michael Smith. And, in an era of celebrity obsession, singer and songwriter Ben Lee offers an ode to "working artists," the actors, stylists, screenwriters or musicians who "make their small but generous contributions to the cultural landscape we live in."

The Office's Ellie Kemper adds her take on dressing for success -- Los Angeles style. Former adult entertainment star Jennifer Ketchum rides the subway for days to get a better handle on the honor system at work underground, and contributing editor Deborah Schoeneman takes on bragging in the age of social media. (See if you can match the boldface names with the face brags and twags.)

We hope you'll enjoy hearing from these new contributors and others we'll continue to add to the mix. Our Los Angeles editor, Billy Silverman, and I would like to hear more from you, too. Send us your ideas for stories, tips, and feedback in the comments below, or email us at losangeles@huffingtonpost.com.

"The Office" Makes Paywall Joke, Mocks Wall Street Journal Site (VIDEO)

2009-11-13T08:51:51Z

"The Office" joked about newspaper paywalls — specifically the one at Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal — on Thursday night's episode.

"Hello everyone, I'm sure you've seen the article in the Journal. Just want to stress it's all conjecture," Dwight quoted from an e-mail sent to all Dunder Mifflin employees.

"Erin, do we have the journal?" Michael asked.

"Your feelings journal? You told me to put it in the time capsule," she replied.

"Michael, he means the Wall Street Journal online," Pam corrected him.

"Oh, the Wall," he said.

"I've found the article!" Oscar shouted, but when the team ran over to his desk, they found only a stub of the whole article.

"It's $1.99 to finish the article," Michael said. "I wonder what it was gonna say."

Watch:

Suicide Prevention Groups Protest "The Office"

2009-11-05T17:41:47Z

NEW YORK — Some suicide prevention groups aren't laughing over a scene in "The Office" where Steve Carell's character tries to scare young children by struggling in a hangman's noose.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and other mental health organizations say NBC and other entertainers should stop using suicide as a punchline. They worry that depiction of a method of suicide might encourage mentally ill people to take their own lives.

Glenn Beck Meets The Office In Media Matters Video

2009-10-22T13:12:00Z

Here's a funny video from Media Matters that documents the deep connection between the fictional concerns of the real Glenn Beck and the real concerns of the fictional The Office character Dwight Schrute. At issue here, is OnStar, a by-subscription feature in modern cars that provides drivers with GPS enabled navigation, remote diagnostics, and on-board security services that can assist drivers in the case of an auto accident. Naturally, Glenn Beck worries that this will help the "government" to "know where you are in your car all the time" and even put a "microphone" in your car, to broadcast socialist propaganda! To which Dwight Schrute adds: consider the spy satellites!

[WATCH]

Of course, Glenn Beck isn't thinking BIG enough! Why doesn't he warn his listeners about the dangers of the Sontaran Strategem?

RELATED:
Beck's latest conspiracy involves government, OnStar, and the "possibility" of "martial law" [Media Matters]
Glenn Beck no stranger to conspiracy theories or incendiary rhetoric [Media Matters]

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Jenna Fischer Back In Bikini Shape After Back Break

2009-10-19T10:50:37Z

She may play a somewhat dowdy receptionist-come-salesperson on The Office, but Jenna Fischer is well aware that being the resident hottie of a hit show means keeping herself in tiptop shape.

So after she broke her back in four places by falling down stairs in a Manhattan restaurant in 2007, she had a lot of work to do to lose the weight she gained during her convalescence.

The Office Wedding! (VIDEO) Jim & Pam's 'JK' Chris Brown Spoof

2009-10-09T06:39:00Z

Jim and Pam finally tied the knot this week on The Office, and they did it in style, spoofing the famous "JK wedding" YouTube sensation.

To catch you up on the plot of the episode: the run-up to the wedding was rough on Pam, and she finally broke down when her veil ripped just before the ceremony. So instead of heading to the church, Jim and Pam ran off to an undisclosed location, leaving the wedding party and guests waiting. Hours later, the bride and groom returned, and the festivities began. In the video below, you see where they ran off to, and the rest of the ceremony.

WATCH & SCROLL DOWN FOR ORIGINAL:

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Brad Balfour: Q&A: Actress Jennifer Garner Is Treated to The Invention of Lying

2009-10-08T09:24:55Z

British comic Ricky Gervais has one kicky concept behind his directorial debut, The Invention of Lying. On an alternate earth, humanity lacks the capacity for lying so truth-telling is just telling. People may speak the truth, but have no sense of humor and no idea of fiction. As a result, they do reveal it all -- including how inflated their views of themselves can be.

As Mark Bellison (Gervais) struggles to survive at a mediocre television company, the pug-nosed, pudgy writer endures a rivalry with the better looking, more successful and far more arrogant Brad Kessler (Rob Lowe). Mark suffers through miserable dates his mother encourages him to go on. When he meets tall, gorgeous Anna McDoogles (Jennifer Garner) on one of those dates, he falls for her and she tells him that despite the fact they get along, and that he's a nice guy, she can't continue to see him -- let alone marry him -- because she's way too out of his league; she'll never have his children. Since he's just not up to her in looks or physique, their relationship has to remain platonic.

Whether you think the creator of the English, original version of The Office -- and star of Ghost Town -- is or isn't in her league, he's so frustrated by her refusal and other factors that when his mother is on her death bed he has a brainstorm and tells her one big lie -- the first -- that death is not the end of things. She will go to a nice place where everything is wonderful. Unfortunately, his comment is overheard by the nurses and doctors and his words are spread everywhere -- that he knows things no one else in the world knows.

Soon Bellison becomes an international phenomenon, making proclamations on the afterlife and just about everything else. He lies up a storm to help friends; lies to get money from the bank; cheats at the casino; and eventually, to win the affection of Anna. People start camping out on his lawn to learn more, so he develops a strangely familiar story about the "Man in the Sky," who does all these mystical things, and is kind and wonderful. When he pastes a set of rules on two pizza boxes and reads out his Commandments, we get the message.

Though The Invention of Lying falls flat in places by the time it ends, this fascinating idea show how Gervais is leading the charge to create comedy that requires more than an endurance for bodily function jokes and absurd R-rated sight gags.

The 38-year-old Garner -- wife of Ben Affleck, former star of the spy series Alias, and who was much drubbed when she played anti-heroine Elektra -- did a great job as the ingenuous Anna. The almost 5' 9" actress further enlightened me about Gervais, the film and the art of lying in the following exclusive one-on-one interview.

Q: Did it feel to you as if this movie was an episode of The Twilight Zone?

JG: I think that's what they were going for. So, yeah, it did feel like that, except that it was the funniest episode of The Twilight Zone that was ever invented.

Q: When you got this script, did you think of it as a science fiction idea or more of a parody?

JG: I liked the questions that it brought up. I liked the conversations that I felt would start. I thought that it was funny. Really, when I first read it, I just laughed out loud, and that's the most important thing. I loved the way my character was introduced. I loved the challenge of looking at a scene and thinking, 'I have to play this with no subtext, no irony, no sarcasm and just be as straightforward as I could possibly be.' I think that's a really interesting acting challenge.

It wasn't until I read it again and then thought about it a little more that I thought that. As soon as you read it or see it, you can't help but think about the world and think about all these advertisements that I see, one way or another, are lies. We're sold lies all the time and it's so much a part of our society. But we edit out [a lot] of what we can say. I like that the film is provocative in that way.

Q: Do you think this film has a British point of view or a British tone to it?

JG: I feel like it has Ricky's sensibility, but no, I feel it's pretty universal. Matt Robinson co-wrote and co-directed the script and the movie with Ricky. I think that they didn't really seem to have, "Oh, that's too British" or "You're trying to pull it to the American." There were a couple of references or words that of course you have to switch, but no, it does not seem British to me.

Q: It's got a great cast.

JG: There are some of the greatest comic talent alive and a lot of them are in this film, from Tina Fey to Louis C.K. to Christopher Guest...

Q: And Jonah Hill.

JG: You could go on and on and on. I signed on before all of those people. So I had the benefit of being on the film and hearing more and more about how great the cast was every day and how it was growing and growing. I felt like, "Wow, I signed onto this tiny independent movie, and now it's turned into this whole thing." It's just a lucky coincidence for me.

Q: And when they saw your name on it, did they jump onto it because you were signed already?

JG: [laughs] Yeah. I don't flatter myself to think that I was the draw there. I think that Ricky Gervais definitely has quite a following and is very, very respected.

Q: When Ricky asked you to be in the film, did you ask why he wasn't putting you into the British episodes of The Office?

JG: I do ask Ricky all the time why I haven't been invited to be on Extras or The Office or anything else. I bug him about it all the time and I'm still waiting. They're both done. They're speedy over there.

Q: You've done a lot of rom-com. What do you think of Gervais and his universe of humor? It's not the obvious humor, it's more realistic. Is there a trend towards this sort of comedy?

JG: I think there are a couple of different trends in humor. One is the Judd Apatow kind of humor of embarrassment [that's] humor of gross-out. Then there's the humor of embarrassment with reality, using real relationships and situations.

That's what Ricky does. I think part of what he does so well is that his humor is never mean spirited. It's very honest. He's very interested in what's honest, and he finds the truth to be the funniest. I loved working with him because he's so clear about what would make something funny, and he's always right. He's so funny and so incredibly good at what he does.

Q: Do you think Bellison deserved to get what he got in the ending?

JG: I think he had earned it by then, certainly, because he's the kinder one. The interesting thing about Anna in the film is that she's the first woman to make a choice romantically.

In a world where women are driven by evolution and by the quest for the best genetics for their offspring, she's the first woman in this world who knows that something is different here. She's the first woman to say, 'No. I love this man. That's a good enough reason to be with him and have kids with him.'

Q: Both you and Ben [Affleck] have been leaning towards humor after you both started out in more serious roles. Do you find that you started to trade quips at home, reading each other the funny lines from your projects?

JG: Yeah, we'll tell each other the funny scenes or whatever. But as far as trading quips, I don't know if we actually are living the life of His Girl Friday or something like that. It's probably much more boring and banal than that.

Q: Right, but I just assume that he beats you out with the laughs. He's a smart and funny guy.

JG: Are you saying that you think he's funnier than I am? Are you challenging me, saying that you think that my husband would come up with the funnier quips than I would? Because I will tell you that is certainly not the case.

Q: Oops! Are you picking projects now that mix it up for you; are you trying to show different aspects of yourself? Where do you think you're going in your career?

JG: The whole point of being an actor is that you don't do the same thing every day. So I'm just interested always in finding something that feels like, "Oh, wait. I've never done this before. This is different. This will be a real challenge." Luckily, all different kinds of things have come my way and so I've been able to pick and choose.

Q: If you had your ideal choice, what would be the thing that you'd like to do next, the most contrasting thing to follow this up?

JG: I just want to do something that's good. Nothing has to come next. I would love to do a musical, but if that happens five years from now, I'm fine with that. I don't feel like, "I have to accomplish this right now." It's much more that I just love whatever it is that I do. I don't just say yes to everything.

What I'd love to see happen next is a film that my production company has been working on for a long time called Butter. It's this little movie that takes place in the world of butter carving at the Iowa State Fair. So if that could happen next I would be thrilled.

Q: Do you ever think that Ben should direct one of your projects or even cast you in one of his, or do you guys try to stay as far from that as possible because of the scheduling issues?

JG: Of course, I wish that he could direct everything. There's no one better. Scheduling is definitely a big factor for us. If we were both on the same set at the same time all day--our kids are too young for that, so it's something that doesn't come up right now. But who knows, maybe we'll revisit it in a few years.

Q: Do you find now with kids that your outlook on what you want to do in film has changed, either wanting to do family-friendly projects or going in the opposite direction?

JG: I don't really feel like I'm driven away from doing family stuff or towards it. I look at the scripts that come my way. I look at the script that we're developing in my production company. It's much more about finding something that I like to do than it is about some overall thing like, 'I better stay away from family movies' or 'I'd really like to do a family movie.' I mean, if a family movie came along and it was great, then I wouldn't care if I had no family or a family of ten kids, I'd still want to do it.

Q: But you're not inviting superhero costume films?

JG: Sure. If one came along, and it was great, I would suit right up.

Q: Which hero would you have in mind? Do you have a favorite?

JG: I don't know who she would be. It would have to surprise me. I don't have a particular favorite.

Q: Wonder Woman?

JG: Sure.

Q: Are you good at lying?

JG: I'm a horrible liar. I can exaggerate. I can definitely make a good story better, but as far as just telling a lie, not very good.

Q: So you would've been good for a world where no one lied?

JG: No, because I do think there's real value in a white lie to save someone's feelings.

Q: Are there some people that you'd like to tell the truth to, since it's perhaps a world in which you can't lie?

JG: Yeah, there are one or two that I'd like to get ahold of.

Q: What would you tell them?

JG: Wouldn't you love to know [laughs]?

Lisa Napoli: Screens, Everywhere

2009-10-06T22:30:02Z

Jet Blue used to be a fun treat, before its prices stopped
being a bargain and before the (three then four then seven dollar) bus
from downtown Los Angeles to LAX was invented and Long Beach seemed more
ridiculous and arduous a trek than ever. Especially
since I was then TV-free, I liked having a few hours tethered to my own
personal TV set while I whiled away the trek from coast to coast; when I first moved west, I would settle in on trips back east
and eagerly scour the commercials to see how many downtown LA backdrops I could spot in
the scenes.

Now, I just fly the
cheapest ticket I can get, and this time, with cable TV installed in my place, I intentionally didn’t bring enough
reading material for the plane because, well, I figured since I was leaving my
new utility for five days, perhaps I should attempt to keep watching from the
friendly skies. If only for the purpose of this blog. They have those TV
shows on there, anyway, so I figured it would count for something other than
just movies. I eagerly plugged my
headset in to see this show called Community, because who isn’t craving more of
that? Every single person I know is, in some form or fashion.

When I realized Community
was a modifier for the word "college," that was cool, too, because who wouldn’t be
interested in a show about an educational institution? Especially since I could tell immediately that
it would be Loveboat-style, you know, the kind where several characters develop over time. Plus, Chevy Chase is so charming, even
now (especially now) that he’s all gray.

It took me about three minutes (I didn’t clock it, cause I
turned off my beloved iPhone at the behest of the flight attendant) to unplug
the headset in disgust. It was
such stupid drivel and the characters such cartoons (in the worst possible
sense of the word) that I couldn’t suffer through it any longer. It’s funny how dumb-ed down, populist
stuff is harder to do than you think.
Despite the fact that I’m a native of Brooklyn, I never was much of a
fan of Welcome Back, Kotter, but Horshack and clan would have been far more
compelling.

The Office was up next, but the mystique of that show has
always eluded me, too; if you work all day with a bunch of buffoons engaging in
office politics, why on earth would you want to come home and watch more of the
same? As an affirmation? I just find it all terribly depressing,
that we are all anesthetized by screens wherever we go. How can I feel that way since while
away countless hours in front of another screen? Is it because this one lets me talk to it? After a few minutes, I unplug my headphones and turn on my iPhone, and listen to some talks by the former monk Gil Fronsdal, which I carry with me in case of emergencies like this.

As I finish this, I am sitting in front of a 47 inch Vizio
flat screen at my friends' house in a lovely burg in Westchester. The new device is the pride and joy of a living
room that used to have as its focal point a giant old-fashioned pool
table. We are watching Monday
night football; for years I’ve tried to understand the game and I have this
mental block against it. But it's fun to be with old friends, drinking wine, yapping about the world, ignoring their occasional color commentary. M. is trying to explain the game to me again; I know he has twenty times before; i still don't get or want to get it, but I let him try just for the ego of it.

The man of the house just announced to the two of us that he's got to go to sleep, that he'll be up to run at 545am, right before his long commute to work. Sorry if he disturbs us. That was just after he regaled us with tales of his recent early morning fishing expeditions with an old friend. "It's not that I love to get up early," he said. "But I love doing something useful early. The difference is I used to watch a whole lot more television, and I gave that up to do these other things."

M. and I, liberated from day jobs for now, keep drinking wine, stretched out on the sofas that have replaced the pool table. It's hard to imagine we've all known each other for decades. Somehow we are now killing time, with the Cowboys victorious, watching the Colbert Report, followed by Michael and Michael Have Issues, and a Girls Gone Wild commercial comes on. Time to excuse myself to go to sleep.

Marshall Fine: Movie Review: The Invention of Lying

2009-10-01T07:22:46Z

Ricky Gervais is such a funny human being that I held out huge hope for The Invention of Lying, even after seeing a trailer that made it feel like an impossibly one-joke outing.

After all, the original Office is essentially a one-joke concept - and Extras was one joke, expanded into two. They rank as some of the funniest television ever created. So I'll never sell Gervais short; he always makes me laugh.

The problem of The Invention of Lying isn't the single joke - it's the lack of others to flesh it out - and, worse, a lack of comic focus. Gervais and co-writer/director Matthew Robinson create one premise, then seem to shift to something else - and then to something else again. But the conceptual problems are less troubling than the essential shortage of laughs.

The set-up seems simple enough: Gervais and Robinson create a world in which people only tell the truth. No one can tell a lie; no one even knows what a lie is or can imagine "saying something that isn't."

Their spin on it, however, is not just that people only tell the truth - they offer it relentlessly and compulsively.

For the rest of this review, click HERE to reach my website: www.hollywoodandfine.com.

Our 17 Favorite TV Oddballs Of All Time (VIDEO)

2009-09-22T16:02:38Z

In every great comedy series there's that one crude, crazy, or curious character who stands out: The Oddball. From Andy Kaufman on "Taxi" to Abed in the recent premiere of "Community," oddballs are classic characters who use their eccentricities to enrich the show. Here, we've collected 73 of our favorites. Vote and tell us which are your favorites!

Mr. Skin: Rated TV-MA: How Sex Came of Age on Television

2009-09-22T14:33:06Z

Sunday's 61st Primetime Emmy Awards saluted television's finest accomplishments this year, and it was a daunting task, to be sure -- but perhaps not in the way it seemed for most of the previous six decades.

For whereas FCC chairman Newton Minow famously declared the medium a "vast wasteland" all the way back in 1961, today's TV landscape has blossomed - here a Lost, there a Mad Men - to supersede movies as popular culture's premiere venue for, indeed, culture.

Or, as Newsweek noted: "Film has always been The Four Seasons to television's Motel 6. Not anymore."

Another way of looking at it is that TV long ruled as the "electronic babysitter", programmed to pacify while mom and dad enjoyed a night out at the theater.

Now television is what adults stay home to do while the tykes get their brains blown out by the latest CGI humungous at the multiplex.

TV has grown up and, as with all maturation processes, a lot of that has to do with sex.

Of course, sex has illuminated the boob tube -- pun, of course, intended -- probably since the first Miss America Pageant aired and most notoriously during the 1970s "jiggle TV" phenomenon of Three's Company and Charlie's Angels.

But consider that point of view -- leering, giggly, adolescent and, it seemed at the time, permanent.

By the 1980s, sitcom couples, married or otherwise, could share a bed (a hard-line taboo in the days of I Love Lucy and relegated from there to The Munsters and The Flintstones until, in the revolutionary year 1969, Mike and Carol snuggled a blow for liberation on The Brady Bunch).

Broadcast outlets kept sex in the background while pay cable channels such as HBO and Showtime put it sharply in the forefront, first with subscriber-baiting softcore concoctions such as The Hitchhiker and Red Shoe Diaries and, then, in the programs that have come to define the great mass-consumed art of the modern era.

You know: the ones that contain nudity.

Many cite HBO's 1999 debut The Sopranos as the genesis of this modern, previously unimaginable phenomenon. And it's certainly hard to argue against what that moment made possible: The Wire, Six Feet Under, Big Love, Damages, Entourage, In Treatment, Sons of Anarchy, and so on.

And in a clear case of competition proving to be a good thing, the networks followed suit with House, Grey's Anatomy, The Office, 30 Rock, Gossip Girl, etc.

Now think about the quality of Hollywood movies congruent with that same decade. We can even extend that challenge even to independent and foreign films.

Can you name one title that you'd group in the same league as those programs? Indeed, what was your last experience in a theater that moved you in a manner typical of what one can find these days with a remote control?

Has there been a suspense film as nerve-rattling as 24? A comedy as uproarious as Curb Your Enthusiasm? A police saga as intense as The Shield? A chiller as sardonic as Dexter?

As for the heady pleasures of on-screen sex and nudity, cinema is not the place to look. At least not at those prices! So let's follow the money.

Observers point out that big-screen movies cost so much that studios dare not diminish the size of the largest possible (paying) audience. Television, by contrast, can afford to take risks. It can fund creative visionaries (Aaron Sorkin, David Milch, Denis Leary) and their often palpably adult visions (The West Wing, Deadwood, Rescue Me).

In the event of failure -- which almost all TV shows prove to be -- reality programming saves the day and keeps the machine fueled, literally, by cheap thrills.

Another issue arises as to what it precisely is, then, for which we wish to pay.

Movie-going today is very often about experiencing sensory overload: astounding visuals and gut-shaking sound-effects that are not possible on even the most elaborate of home theaters. Explosions and mechanical mayhem have supplanted plot and character at the movies and, thus, the simple art of storytelling has moved into living rooms (and bedrooms).

And where plots develop and characters grow, sex happens (particularly when there are no giant robots rampaging in the way).

Underlying all this is that all on-camera erotic entertainment -- from hardcore porn to Baywatch -- has been automatically consumed at-home since advent of the VCR a quarter-century ago.

Just compare the prospect of paying to view a fleeting nude scene in public, surrounded by strangers, to the same opportunity at home, behind a closed door, with fast-forward, pause, and rewind buttons.

Nudity is no longer a draw at the box office, but it does remain a tantalizing sales-point when a customer considers making the leap from basic to premium cable.

As such, naked vampires on True Blood will grab more eyeballs (and dollars) than any equivalent playing at a theater, even if Kate Beckinsale were to lose her leather catsuit in those Underworld movies.

This circumstance also indicates why the film Powder Blue (2009) - which contains the debut nude scene of universally lusted-after A-lister Jessica Biel -- just barely warranted a theatrical release in three small markets, and why it is guaranteed to run on cable in perpetuity.

Had the former TV sweetheart of Seventh Heaven deigned to first bare flesh on an episode of Entourage, for example, her revelation would have generated record ratings and word-of-mouth on par with, say, Sharon Stone's leg-crossing in Basic Instinct from all the way back in the olden days of 1992.

In time, TV nudity will doubtlessly be supplanted by technology that may very well beam images of unclothed starlets directly into our brains.

But that's then. TV is now. And it is the height of what's hot to remain tuned in and turned on.

Love Lessons From 'The Office'

2009-09-17T10:00:27Z

Frankly, there are a number of love lessons to be gleaned from the employees at Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. Here are our favorites.

Jilly Gagnon: Back to School!

2009-09-09T15:13:00Z

Hey, kids, get excited, because it's your favorite time of year again, back-to-school time! What's that? It's not your favorite time? I'm pretty sure what you meant to say is "I can't wait to get back to making the grown-ups' lives just a tiny bit less full of reasons to contemplate the whole bottle of Ambien tonight, because I would never complain about living essentially cost-free, with almost four months of vacation time annually. That would just make me a whiny little sack of..." Oh, that is what you meant to say? Great! And with these tips, this school year will be the best one yet!

* Cool kids can wear anything and, even if it's as ridiculous as sherpa boots in 90-degree heat, the lemmings' sheer desire to bask in the reflection of that shimmery sparkle will ensure that it reaches "trend" status.

Take some initiative, lemming -- if you spend enough hours on enough consecutive days waiting at the main entrance to the mall, you're sure to spot one of the cool kids. Follow her at a discreet distance and purchase anything she does. Then head "home," to a location where you can see into her bedroom window, but are safely out of her sight-lines, and wait until she lays out that precious first-day-of-school outfit, so you can make sure to wear the same thing. This will not make your target like you, but if you're lucky, and you stick to it on a nightly basis, you'll start getting inside her brain, and when she finally loses it, you'll be there to step in and replace her...

* Pregnancy pacts are so last year. Make this year the most newsworthy ever by going on a hunger strike. Trust me, you'll have no trouble finding other girls to sign up with you.

* School isn't so bad when you're making it a better place, like they did in the 80's documentary, 21 Jump Street! Insinuate yourself into the stoner friend group, but act cool about it, man. Maybe even take a puff or two so no one gets suspicious. Then call in both school and city authorities to crack down on the offenders, making sure to be conspicuously absent at the planned 'bust' so that no one knows that you had anything to do with it. Repeat with all other suspicious characters in your year and those immediately above and below yours. Don't worry about anyone putting together the pattern of your friendship and their own downfalls; "common sense" is not taught in public schools.

Use your vigilante experience as fodder for college essays. Taking initiative like that always impresses admissions boards, as will the significantly lower number of applications from your district.

* Did you know that 74% of adults report recurring nightmares of high-school test situations for which they're not prepared? No tips here, it just seemed like you should know what you have to look forward to.

* Everyone has a class or two that just doesn't come very easily -- Einstein failed math as a kid, and look where he ended up!

This year you're still not Einstein. Spend the first few class sessions in singling out which kid looks most bribable, but still C-level or above. Then bribe him. If you're worried that the subject you're "learning" might cover something you'll actually need to know later in life, rest assured that this is almost never true. I mean, you watch The Office, right?

* You can save yourself a lot of taunting if you know in advance that "daily World of Warcraft marathons" do not count as an acceptable substitute for your P.E. requirement.

* You're right to suspect your mom's statement that "it's just an awkward phase." Especially since this is the 7th consecutive year she's made that claim.

* Starting a countdown calendar can make the school year seem less brutally, cruelly endless. Set yours up so day 0 coincides with the day you can finally get out of this hellhole. What, you believed these are really supposed to be the best years of your life? There's a reason that the only people you hear make that claim about high school are Disney tween stars and your one friend's mom who shops in the junior's section and buys booze for you guys, on the condition she be allowed to drink it with you, ohmygod, isn't she just the fun mom?

Michael Giltz: DVDs: Japanese Noir? Hai!

2009-09-08T21:31:07Z

Criterion is a peerless company when it comes to preserving and presenting classic films. But don't be surprised if some day they're remembered even more for the relative obscurities unearthed and presented on their "budget" Eclipse line, in which great films without the name recognition of The Seventh Seal or The Bicycle Thief are offered up with a great print, but few to no extras.

New York's Film Forum just ended its highly popular event, British Noir, which played to packed houses. But I just had my own festival with Eclipse Series 17: Nikkasu Noir ($69.98; Criterion Eclipse) , which includes five films from Nikkatsu, the Japanese studio that specialized in their own style of noir, the way Warner Bros. was known for gangster flicks. What an entertaining eye-opener. They are in order:

I Am Waiting (1957) -- a real gem, with a one-time boxer saving a canary (that's girl singer, in noir speak) from possible suicide while he waits for word from his brother in Brazil. The magnetic Yujiro Ishihara is the boxer and he's teamed here with his frequent costar Mie Kitahara. Classic tough guy with bottled up feelings meets broad who can out-cold him when it comes to her despair. They can't all be this great, can they, I wondered?

Rusty Knife (1958) -- Yujiro Ishihara again (known as Yu-Chan to his fans) tries to go straight but the cops want him to fess up to witnessing a murder years ago of a major politician. Guess whose daughter he's developing the hots for, by the way? Solid entertainment.

Take Aim At The Police Van (1960) -- The weakest of the bunch, relatively speaking, but still enjoyable fun. This shows a prison guard suspended from his job after the van he's riding in is attacked and prisoners are killed or wounded. He investigates and stumbles onto plots within plots, not to mention a crime lord-ess who is handy with a bow and arrow and may be going soft for him. So many twists I grew a tad cynical, but fun.

Cruel Gun Story (1964) -- The boxed set heads right back to greatness with this despairing tale of Joe Sishido as apparently the only gangster with a code of ethics. He takes a job of knocking off an armored car only to see the men he works with and the mobsters he works for all try and betray one another at every turn. I assumed Sishido -- who has a puffed-up face that looks like he's eternally recovering from a beating -- was an unlikely leading man because of his odd looks, much as I enjoyed his cool. In fact, he reportedly had surgery to attain this weird look because he thought his normal features held him back. And it worked! Bleak, bleak film that I'm sure Tarantino name-checked when it came to Reservoir Dogs.

A Colt Is My Passport (1967) -- A stone cold classic and a crazy mix of gangster flicks and a western, courtesy of some windswept plains for a showdown and a spaghetti western score straight out of Leone. Joe Sishido again, as an assassin who does his job, only to have his employers betray him yet again, sending him on the run and into the arms of a waitress who had given up on love. All the movies feature some splendid camera work but this one is especially rich in evocative touches, like the shot of the moll driving a truck at night, her face floating in the windshield along with the wheel, as if her isolation weren't clear enough already.

Any fan of noir or just pure entertainment from around the world should check this out. I was so swept away by the set, I didn't have time to re-watch much of Jacques Tati's charmingly old-fashioned Playtime ($39.98 on BluRay), which looks smashing and still amuses for the first reel or Chantal Akerman's formally rigorous look at a day in the life of a widow, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles ($39.98; Criterion). The latter film moves at such a steady pace it makes My Dinner With Andre look like Raiders Of The Lost Ark. In a playful mood, apparently, Criterion is holding a contest for the best cooking video as an homage to a scene in the film in which the heroine prepares a meal, step by step. The rules can be found here. Read them while you get a flavor for the film:

Also out now:

THE RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ($59.99; Acorn) -- What an ambitious TV series. This 13 episode corker for fans of Brit mysteries was a 1971 response to the popularity of Sherlock Holmes. Instead of the umpteenth spin on the great detective, it packaged together mysteries popular in the England of Doyle featuring other detectives in the nascent genre, ie. the "rivals" of Holmes. The practical result is that they cast and produced what amounted to 10 pilots for ten different detective shows. And quite a few of them are very compelling indeed. The show ran two seasons and this set contains season one, which includes two mysteries for some of the heroes. John Neville is compellingly vain as the autopsy specialist Dr. Thorndyke, Robert Stephens is fun as a blind aristocrat, and so on. The sets are rather stagey and the supporting roles (this is Thames TV and not the BBC) a bit broad at times (especially on the atypical ghost story anchored by a fine Donald Pleasance). And Peter Vaughan took two episodes before I appreciated his grasping, mercenary detective. But all in all, a good deal of fun.

THE OFFICE SEASON FIVE ($59.98 regular or $69.98 on BluRay; Universal) -- Remaking the UK version of The Office remains a terrible, terrible idea. It just so happens that in doing so (and after a season of painfully aping the original), they found their own voice and created a similar, but more heartfelt series that is very very good. This season is strong to me as ever, though fans seem to rank it slightly below the last few. The roast of Steve Carell was hilarious, Idris Elba of The Wire was inspired casting and Amy Ryan has done exceptional work. Dwight going off on his own and competing successfully with Dunder Mifflin? Also funny. Unlike most sitcoms, this one needs to be watched in order so DVD is definitely the way to go. The BluRay looks great and for a change is only a tad more expensive.

GAUMONT TREASURES 1897-1913 ($79.95; Kino) -- Another excellent survey of early cinema that is sure to rank among the best reissues of the year. I've never read a good look at early Hollywood and the role of women. Specifically, I've often wondered how they dominated writing and editing and even directed quite a bit but got shunted to the side as Hollywood's importance increased. One such pioneer was Alice Guy, represented here with more than 60 shorts, including "Wonderful Absinthe," "Turn Of The Century Surgery," and the half hour film "The Birth, the Life and the Death Of Christ." Fans of Guy or the curious should be certain to head to New York City and the French Institute Alliance Francais in partnership with the Whitney when they screen some of her shorts with original live music by four female composers inspired by her work on September 29. The other two discs, which I've skimmed over, include 13 shorts by cliffhangar specialist Louis Feuillade and two full-length films by Leonce Perret.

THE BEIDERBECKE TAPES ($39.99; Acorn) -- A sequel to The Beiderbecke Affair, but equally forced zaniness with two retired schoolteachers indulging in their love for sleuthing. Harmless, but unmemorable.

BURNING THE FUTURE: COAL IN AMERICA ($26.95; Dcurama) -- A strangely beautiful film that takes a cold-eyed look at the destructive nature of that very 19th century fuel source, coal. Smart, but when even a banal speech by the President to schoolchildren urging them to do their homework can be distorted into a controversy, it's hard to see this opening up many minds.

DISNEY NATURE EARTH ($29.99 regular or $39.99 BluRay) -- I can't recommend highly enough the absolutely stunning, gorgeous to look at TV documentary series Blue Planet and Planet Earth. Both are by the same team, which took footage from the hugely popular Planet Earth and gave it a new score and narration so it could be seen in movie theaters where the jaw-dropping scenes they captured on film were even more spectacular. I wonder if Disney has a ride devoted to footage from this film a la This Is Cinerama? They should do so, immediately. If you had a chance to see this in the theater, I'd say go right ahead. I've never been much into nature documentaries; their work turned me into one. But if we're talking about what to watch in your home, there is no reason to take this edited version of highlights over the two series already available to you. You couldn't possibly be disappointed it you watched them. If you really are afraid to commit, I suppose this is a good teaser to give you a taste of what to expect. The BluRay looks stunning, of course and is one of those DVDs you'll always keep on hand when you want to wow guests.

SUGAR ($28.96; Sony) -- A genuinely independent film, this quiet drama from the creators of Half Nelson follows a Dominican player as he joins the farm system of a major league baseball team. When it sticks to quotidian details (like the players ordering the same thing day after day at the local diner because they don't know English), the movie is good. It loses its way when our player goes from simply hoping to make it into the majors to a potential top prospect, which is a very different story. Steroids and an unexpected left turn derail the film even further until its focus returns to the man at the heart of it just in time for the finale. If it had jettisoned the dramatic twists, this could have been a very focused, revealing look at culture shock and what it's like for these players when they come to America. Worthy and well-intentioned, which is a backhanded compliment for a not-bad film.

And here's a quick glance at a crush of TV and other releases:

Martini Movies ($19.94 each; Sony) - five oddball films of variable quality are lumped together as "Martini Movies." Who cares as long as they're out? Movies include Michael Douglas's Vietnam film Summertree, Jacques Demy's Model Shop, Timothy Bottoms in Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing, The Pursuit of Happiness and The Buttercup Chain. No, I hadn't heard of most of them either.

Fringe First Season ($59.98 regular or $79.98 on BluRay) -- I stopped watching and friends immediately insisted it got a lot better. Sigh. I'll try again.

Valentino: The Last Emperor ($29.99 or $34.99 on BluRay; Phase 4) -- a well-reviewed documentary about the acclaimed designer who may or may not be the last of his kind but is certainly memorable. More than 40 minutes of extras.

Two And A Half Men Season Six ($44.98; Warner Bros.) -- Six years in a cuddly comedy and Charlie Sheen still seems dangerous. Good for him.

Brothers and Sisters Third Season and Desperate Housewives Fifth Season ($59.99 each; ABC) -- B&S is a little better than you expect (thank you, talented cast), while DH is just as bad as you feared. Over the top satire and soapy twists only work for so long. (Arrested Development should be glad it was canceled after three years. There was nowhere left to go, creatively.)

Doctor Who: Image of the Fendahl and The Deadly Assassin ($24.98 each; BBC) -- Drip, drip, drip. They slowly squeeze every penny out of Doctor Who fans with their dribbling out of episodes and movies. They don't get more important than The Deadly Assassin, a high water mark for Tom Baker. But still. One mammoth boxed set per doctor. Smaller boxed sets for each full season. Is that so hard?

Rescue Me Season Five Volume One ($49.95; Sony) -- Denis Leary's criminally underappreciated TV show (he must get sick of that: just watch the damn thing, he'd growl) gets the dreaded Season 5 Volume One treatment, as if any fan anywhere in the world would want half a season of anything.

Goosebumps: The Headless Ghost and Attack Of The jack O'Lanterns ($14.98 each; Fox/Scholastic) -- Dependable chills for kids in the ever-popular Goosebumps series. Three tales per DVD.

Important Things With Demetri Martin Season One ($19.99; Paramount) -- I'm not driven to watch this sketch comedy show grouped around a single theme each episode, but whenever I do I'm dependably amused. Funny guy, even if his film debut Taking Woodstock didn't quite catch fire.

The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency Season One ($59.99; HBO) -- The mysteries are beside the point in this long on charm, short on difficult to solve puzzlers crime show. Grammy winner Jill Scott is delightful as Precious Ramotswe, the keen-eyed observer of human nature from the best-selling series of novels. She's surrounded by a winning cast and it's all buoyed by a good score and just the right gentle tone.

Thanks for reading. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews at Popsurfing and enjoy the weekly pop culture podcast he co-hosts at Showbiz Sandbox. Both available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

How Your Favorite TV Shows Are Handling The Recession (VIDEO)

2009-09-07T11:06:06Z

While veteran shows struggle to incorporate the ailing economy into their story lines, networks are launching new shows born of the recession. In addition to new series in the slideshow below, Fox is developing a comedy called "Two-Dollar Beer" that follows a group of friends living in Detroit and trying to cope with the city's economy, while ABC Studios is developing "Canned" that focuses on a group of friends who all get fired on the same day.

'Family Guy' Mocks 'The Office' In Emmy Ad (VIDEO)

2009-08-18T13:53:40Z

"Family Guy" is the first animated series in almost 50 years to earn an Emmy nomination for best comedy series, and it is not going to lose without a fight.

The show, which is up against six other comedies ("Entourage," "The Office," "30 Rock," "Weeds," "How I Met Your Mother" and "Flight of the Conchords") has started a public ad campaign bashing its competitors.

The first short in the series has baby Stewie attacking "The Office" and his friend Brian for defending it. "Indians and Hispanics don't live in Scranton!" He yells.

Stewie, who was recently outed, may have stiffer competition in his future brawls when Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh guest-star this season.

WATCH:

Amy Ryan Is Pregnant

2009-08-15T07:44:07Z

Amy Ryan's next role? Mom.

The actress, 39, is expecting her first child with fiancé Eric Slovin, a comedy writer, her rep confirms to PEOPLE. The baby is due in October, says a source close to Ryan.

Tamar Abrams: Oh Unlucky Day!

2009-08-03T12:23:16Z

I'm not the superstitious type. I've never avoided black cats, have walked under numerous ladders, don't even mind being seated in row 13 in theaters and airplanes. But I confess that I dread August 4 each year. Bad things have happened in my life on August 4 -- two cataclysmic events.

The first was in 1994 when I was carrying my then-20 month old daughter down a flight of stairs to our driveway. She heard a neighbor, twisted in my arms and began a freefall down the steps. I acted instinctively. I dove headfirst down the stairs, scooping her up along the way, and twisting to land on one leg. I broke that one in the fall and the other one during the twisting movement. I was the single mother of a toddler with two broken legs. I recall pleading with the emergency room doctor: "I can't have two broken legs. I'm a single mom." He wanted to help but had no special dispensation to offer.

I moved from that house before August 4 could roll around again. I wasn't superstitious but to borrow my favorite line from The Office, I was becoming at least a little stitious.

In the ensuing years, I became a little melancholy each time August 4 rolled around but would ride it out. Until 1999. We were on a short vacation in the hills of Virginia with another family when I used my mostly-forgotten cell phone to check home messages. More than a dozen had piled up in the 18 hours I'd been away, surely not a good sign. It was August 3 and my business partner and dear friend of 15 years, Janel Radtke, was on life support in a hospital in Nyack, New York. No one knew what had caused her to have a seizure in the night but she had suffered irreparable brain damage. We hurried home and Janel died the next day - August 4.

That was 10 years ago. My legs have mostly healed and I have learned to live in a world that is a bit darker and certainly filled with less laughter since Janel left us. August 4 is the birthday of my dear friend Laura and of President Obama. Good things have been known to happen on August 4 and I try to recall them each year as the date nears. But I admit that on that date there is a little more urgency in my voice as I tell my friends to "be well," and I try not to schedule errands or major trips. It may well be my own personal Unlucky Day or perhaps it's a reminder that we only have this one moment in time. Who knows what danger lurks around the corner or on the calendar? Perhaps once a year it is not a bad thing to be reminded of what is lost and what remains.

Be well, friends.

Emmy Nominations 2009: See Who's Up For TV's Biggest Prize

2009-07-16T09:00:29Z

LOS ANGELES — Tina Fey's urbane sitcom "30 Rock" received a record 22 Emmy Award nominations Thursday, while the 1960s retro series "Mad Men" led the drama pack with 16 bids.

The shows were honored last year as best comedy and drama, and have a chance to repeat the performance at September's awards. "30 Rock" broke the record it set last year, when it received 17 nominations.

Jenna Fischer Engaged To Lee Kirk

2009-07-06T17:37:20Z

Move over, Jim Halpert. Jenna Fischer is engaged!

The Office star -- whose character, Pam, is currently engaged on the hit NBC show -- will wed writer Lee Kirk, her rep confirms to Usmagazine.com.

Gildart Jackson: Father, Writer, Actor, Father

2009-06-18T17:37:28Z

My wife Melora Hardin and I made "You" with our family. Rory and Piper, our children, are both in it. My parents-in-law (both professional actors), our nanny, our friends... Those friends who don't act helped by giving us locations, pulling cable on set and, most importantly, bringing their signature dishes at lunch and dinner to feed the ravenous cast and crew. The making of this movie was a family adventure. And we quickly found that this was the way we needed to look at it -- and the way we needed to sell it to our family!

We are very involved parents but for the 18 days of shooting our lives were taken over by the movie. Rory and Piper got a different taste of family life for that time with 40 people in our house most days and Mom and Dad not able to play CandyLand or read "Curious George" at every request. It was like we were on board a magnificent ship once we had set sail and the first "action!" was called. Then, it was hoisting the mainsail and pumping the bilges, and our needs and desires had to fall in line. Making a film is a wonderful, rigorous, all consuming, intense, frenetic, thrilling voyage and as I look back what made our trip even more wonderful was that we were sailing together as a family. I feel like it was a true gift to our kids to have had this family adventure.

Rory and Piper now know that they can set sail, weather the storm, reach their destination and return home. Individually, and as a family. I am proud of this gift. As I am proud of the movie. And now, of course, our kids will always have "You" -- our movie -- to watch, to show their friends as they grow up, to remember what it was like when our family set sail on the high seas.

In general being an actor is pretty wonderful job from the point of view of raising children. That is, of course, assuming that you are a working actor and, luckily, my wife is. I don't work as much as she does, but from the family perspective this is a great thing. I get to spend a lot of time with the kids. And, actually, so does Melora even when she's working; she has a trailer and regularly brings the kids to the set. On "The Office," she had a fantastic part but doesn't have to be on set every day, so she is able to be with the kids a lot of the time. Also, actors get paid well so we are fortunate enough to be able to afford a nanny when we both need to be doing other things. I think our lives as actors dovetail very well with our lives as parents.

When we made our movie "You," we changed the rules a little bit by putting on more hats. As filmmakers -- Melora directed, acted in and produced the movie, I wrote, co-produced and act in it -- it was a much more intense and difficult juggle when it came to raising our family at the same time.

"You" is part of a growing trend in independent films having their debut online. It can now be found on iTunes and Amazon VOD. The film's official site is: http://youthefilm.com/

Marshall Fine: HuffPost Review: Year One

2009-06-18T09:27:34Z

I wish Jack Black well. I really do.

And Michael Cera, too. Funny guys, both of them.

But I'm sorry, films like Year One just aren't going to cut it anymore.

They were fine for when you were still struggling, when you didn't have your pick of the comedy material available in Hollywood. But you guys are on top - and this is what you make?

Perhaps you were blinded by the Harold Ramis brand, which is a lot thinner than it looks, if you examine his work as a director closely. But the script (by Ramis and Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg of The Office) wasn't all that funny when Mel Brooks did it and called it History of the World: Part I. Instructively, there was never a part two.

Jack Black as a caveman? Sure, that's a no-brainer. Michael Cera as a shy caveman? That could be funny.

Except that the joke here is that the Stone Age only exists among a backwards tribe in the mountain forest. When Black and Cera break from their tribe and run out of the woods about 20 minutes into the film, they find themselves in the biblical times of Cain and Abel and Abraham.

Yikes - evolution lite, as the characters hop-scotch across eons, looking surprised at the invention of the wheel and getting queasy at a high-velocity ride on a slow-rolling oxcart.

For the rest of this review, click here to reach my website: www.hollywoodandfine.com.

"The Office," "Heroes" Among Most-DVRed Shows

2009-06-18T08:52:41Z

At least 30% of viewers forLost, The Office and Heroes were procrastinators, watching either later that night or up to seven days after the programs first aired.

Read more: Television, DVR Ratings, The Office, Dvr, Heroes, Tv, Media News

David Wild: Lovin' Her: Oscar, Thy Name Be Maya Rudolph

2009-06-18T01:44:41Z

Last night, I went to see Away We Go with the wife -- by which I mean mine. Following a truly mediocre crepe dinner, I walked into that theater in Burbank very much in love with one woman, and left it in very much in love with two.

Even having enjoyed Maya Rudolph for years on Saturday Night Live and the occasional film role, her work in Away We Go opposite the always-charming John Krasinsky was a complete and entirely pleasant revelation. This is one of the subtlest and most moving performances anybody has given on film in recent memory. Not just by a comedian. Not just by a woman. By anyone, full stop.

Having done quite well for herself playing a wide range of real characters from Condoleezza Rice to Donatella Versace, Rudolph does something unexpected here for such a funny person -- she gives the most naturalistic, authentic-feeling performance imaginable and somehow gets at some essential if ephemeral truths about our larger human comedy. Away We Go -- directed by Sam Mendes and written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida -- is, among other things, a lovely movie about being in love. Toward that end, it sure helps that both of the leads here are so damn loveable. As I see it, Krasinsky has been wildly bro-mance worthy since his very first boyish smirk on The Office, and there's absolutely no trouble seeing what his character sees in Rudolph's here.

In an odd way, I've actually loved Maya Rudolph most of my life. One of the first dozen albums I ever bought as a kid was by her late great mom -- Minnie Riperton's Perfect Angel, a luminous beautiful song cycle produced by Stevie Wonder and Richard Rudolph, Riperton's gifted music man husband and Maya's father. The breakout hit from "Perfect Angel" was "Lovin' You," that unique little, high-flying gem of a song apparently written by Riperton and Rudolph in part to keep their young daughter Maya entertained while spending time in the studio with her folks.

"Lovin' You" ended up being far and away Riperton's biggest hit, going all the way to #1 in 1975. Sadly, Minnie Riperton's life and brilliant career were cut brutally short when she died from breast cancer in 1979 at the age of 31. Even as a kid myself, I knew that Riperton's death was a real loss for music. Now as an adult and a parent myself, I can't even imagine what a loss it must have been for her loving family.

All these years later, it was tremendously moving to see Maya Rudolph give the performance of a lifetime -- a utterly unique gem there to be treasured by anyone with even half a heart. I don't really know how much of Rudolph's life found its way into her work here, and ultimately it does not matter. However it happened, it happened, and that performance will live for a long time. Don't take my word for it -- see the movie and fall in love with Rudolph for yourself.

So let the Academy be officially forewarned: if this woman doesn't get an Oscar nomination, then I'm not watching the show.

Shawna Vercher: In the Days of Transparent Social Media, is "Reality" TV Out-Dated?

2009-06-03T12:27:31Z

Maybe we're becoming information snobs, but discerning net surfers are demanding updated and transparent content on any number of subjects. Is your site the source of political reporting? Slant the article unfairly and deal with the consequences of an unkind blogosphere. Looking to cover current events? Leave out critical facts and you'll risk being scooped by the likes of a tweet. And for celebrities deciding to get into the Twitter game? Don't get cute and have an assistant do it for you unless you are controlling at least some of the messaging. The followers aren't kind.

Now consider for a moment the new shape of a "television" viewer. (Hulu and YouTube, I'm looking in your general direction.) At a time when more people are going to the Internet for their viewing entertainment -- many of whom will blog and post about it afterward -- where do scripted reality shows fit in?

I call into exhibit a sampling of some of the alleged revelations that have recently hit the headlines and rocked the reality genre:

* MSNBC.com reported that Jon and Kate are not a hapless couple of eight children that just like to parent in front of a camera crew. Their shows are in fact based on pre-scripted scenarios that meet two specific criteria: entertain the audience and have a well-decorated/well-sponsored household.

* TMZ dished that Spencer Pratt left the reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here in part because he was not provided a script. Wait...so The Hills is so scripted that a game show on a full set in the jungle for charity is just too much for him to bear?

* According to an AP story, not even the reality of a singing competition is sacred as AT&T employees did their part to skew the results of the final show by "assisting" certain Arkansas residents with their multiple votes for American Idol Kris Allen.

* And a blogger at Tree Climber's Coalition broke the story that MTV's Real World crew left behind a real mess after shooting on an island, including pages of the script littering the area. There's a hint of irony there if I could just put my finger on it...

Traditional scripted shows like The Office and Two and A Half Men still have a massive following and loosely scripted programming that is clearly slanted for "news-ertainment" like The Daily Show and The O'Reilly Factor are performing stronger than ever. Residing in the murky area are the shows that are marketed as unfiltered that later prove to be manufactured. It's the perceived attempt at a slight of hand that is receiving the most backlash.

So as more reality shows devolve into little more than amateurs practicing their improv skills and truly unscripted moments find their way to FaceBook walls in mass and on demand, will reality show writers soon find themselves out of work? (Yes, that's a real job and, yes, that should have been our first clue.) Or will it be enough to satisfy fans if these shows simply change their tagline to "Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real-ish"?

Shawna Vercher is a web publicist and CEO of the web marketing company VTi-Web. You can witness her further fuse her pop culture obsession with her social media nerdiness by reading her work as a columnist or by seeing her in person as a professional speaker.