Archive for the 'Headlines' Category

“American Idol” Auditions - Memphis, TN by amit

On September 3rd at 5 AM, Richard and I set out to the FedEx forum in downtown Memphis in order to interview the thousands of misguided contestants hoping to be the next big thing. We met several interesting people who had no idea what the words “reality” and “hygiene” meant and a few others who could actually sing. Keep checking C&V in the next few days for the full video broadcast/podcast/YouTube of our epic behind-the-scenes access to the “American Idol” audition line.

To get your stomach growling, here are a few photos of the people you’ll meet.

posted on 12:51 am 09/04/2006
Exclusives, Headlines, Music | Comments (5) | Permalink |

Official Haley Joel Osment Mugshot by amit

TheSmokingGun.com, famous for proving James Frey’s memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” wasn’t entirely true, has posted a mug shot of none other than Haley Joel Osment (”Walker, Texas Ranger”). Last month the dead-people-seeing actor started seeing the road ahead of him spin and flipped his ‘95 Saturn. The cops gave him a drug test and discovered the 18-year-old’s blood contained a whooping 0.16 alcohol level, double the California limit. Not only was Osment boozin’ it up, he was also caught with marijuana and, to top it all off, broke a rib during the vehicular Cirque du Soleil. Take a look at his mug shot below. See anything odd? Keep looking. There it is. It’s officially known. Haley Joel Osment is 5 feet, 4 inches! No wonder he’s drinking/smoking/driving. The kid’s still a kid. Osment faces up to 6 months in jail and should be able to make several friends.

I’ll leave you with yet another mug shot that debuted this week, Don Vito, Bam Margera’s (”Jackass”) uncle.

“Sir, look into the camera” - Officer Mike

posted on 11:47 pm 08/30/2006
Headlines, Movies, News | Comments (1) | Permalink |

Review: The Cheetah Girls 2 19/100 by amit

Most people experience movies in a plush theatre or from the comfort of their own home, but I witnessed last Saturday’s world premier of The Disney Channel’s The Cheetah Girls 2 while eating at the Ancient China buffet (they make a mean crab rangoon). The follow-up to Disney’s popular made-for-tv-movie The Cheetah Girls reunites characters Galleria, Chanel, Aquanette (also a hairspray brand name), and Dorinda in a musical adventure from New York City to Barcelona, Spain. Why Spain? The quartet has always hoped and dreamed to compete there in the New Voices of Musical Festival. Sadly, upon arrival to the once superpower country, intra-band turmoil ensues and morale reaches an all time low after seeing and hearing the tough competition, solo singer Marisol. The film then turns into a cinematic paella filled rare chunks of humor and slices of undercooked fun. I quickly lost appetite after being force fed several random musical sequences of the girls galavanting their way around the Spanish cityscape.

The songs are meant clarify and expand a story, but the girls’ computer modified voices couldn’t even carry a tune or a plot. This ruins the sequel’s pacing for what could have been an award-winning screenplay from Alison Taylor (The Cheetah Girls). Sloppy writing Alison. Real sloppy. To help the momentum, the foursome is joined by a “mysterious guitar-strumming” local named Angel (Spanish for closet queen) who provides the classical Spanish tones the group’s sub-par music desperately needs. Unfortunately, he’s drowned out by the overproduced Cheetah cacophony clinically proven to cause inner ear bleeding (ask your doctor before Netflix’ing this film). While watching this waste of celluloid, I thought to myself “Cheetahs are interesting animals, I’ll look them up on Wikipedia after I get my fill of General Tso’s chicken.” At home and digesting, I skimmed the entry and was astonished to learn that cheetahs can run up to 70 miles per hour. This fact caused quite the consternation when I tried to discover the meaning behind the group’s name. Nothing about the four Cheetah Girls’ sizes even suggest the concept of “moving” let alone “fast.”

Lay off the Salisbury wildebeest

For some reason Disney didn’t realize their target audience of young girls have images to uphold. How a company touting to own the “happiest place on Earth” can cast rotund actresses knowing full well teenage girls have to be less than 90 pounds if they want guys to talk to them, is beyond this reviewer and probably even world-renowned physicists Steven Hawking. I’m blow away why family focus groups haven’t sent an avalanche of hate mail to The Disney Channel for erroneously depicting 17 year olds. All in all, The Cheetah Girls 2 fails to pounce (Rotten Tomatoes, there’s your line). Sequels are always supposed to be equal or better than the original (e.g. Godfather II, Son of the Mask, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day), yet this TV-Movie doesn’t live up to it predecessor at all. Keep your fingers crossed Disney green lights another installment to round out the trilogy. Maybe the the plot will center around the girls trying to get a lucrative exercise video contract. Take notes screenwriter Alison Taylor.

Galleria (Raven-Symoné) excited about churros.

Send all negative comments about this review to:
The Disney Channel
500 S Buena Vista St. MC 9722
Burbank, CA 91521-9722

posted on 4:40 pm 08/29/2006
Headlines, Reviews, TV | Comments (4) | Permalink |

N-Decent-BC by amit

Last place network, NBC, isn’t the best at realizing what’s bad and what’s in bad taste. At the opening of Sunday night’s 58th Emmy Awards (congrats winners) a skit starring Conan O’Brien in a plane crash was shown to the horror of millions. According to Reuters, the attempted “LOST” parody was shown hours after 49 of the 50 passengers on a ComAir flight were killed after take off from Lexington, Kentucky. Take a moment to watch the skit below.

Here’s the actual NBC “apology” on the rumored postcard it was printed on,

The network once home to “Friends” and “Seinfeld” has yet to apologize for the real tragedy at hand. They’re own programming. How can NBC even show it’s face at network parties knowing a show like “Deal or No Deal” pays the bills? That’s like a crack dealer showing up at your potluck with microwave quiche. It’s just wrong. So what else does NBC have in store? After thumbing around on their site, I found a list of “all new” shows coming to the Hindenburg of networks. There’s “1 vs. 100″ from the producers of “Deal of No Deal.” I’m going to go out on limb here and say 100 is definitely bigger than one. Game over. Next, there’s “You’re the One That We Want.” It’s “American Idol” meets musicals where contestants vie for only two spots on the 2007 Broadway production of “Grease.” It’s officially the newest, cheapest way to come out to your parents.

Best of luck National Broadcast Company, and please show some decency in the future (queue “The More You Know” sound).

posted on 1:54 pm 08/29/2006
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Radiohead Bonnaroo DVD To Be Released by amit

One of the best shows C&V attended at Bonnaroo ‘06 was a Saturday night show with Radiohead (setlist). Fans who weren’t lucky enough to attend, stop cutting yourselves. Lead singer Thom Yorke announced on the show “BBC Music 6″ that the epic 2.5 hour concert will be released on DVD soon. He noted,

“We did this festival called Bonnaroo. We did 2.5 hours. And there’s 80,000 people, admittedly they’ve been smoking the sticky green all day– probably wouldn’t go anywhere anyway. It was just amazing. We played loads of new stuff. We did whole sections of quiet piano songs and it sounds like the most grotesque, self-indulgent nonsense, but it probably is my favourite gig for years and years and years. It was a really mellow evening. Actually it’s all being filmed, but we’re sitting on it because there’s loads of new stuff on it. Because we’re mean like that. It will come out eventually.”

Yorke continued to profess his love for Bonnaroo to Pitchfork Media by adding,

“When we played Bonnaroo we got such a nice vibe, a genuine good feeling from the first beat. Things like Bonnaroo give you the hope that you can do it the other way…I dream to take some of that vibe and take it around the country…and then Clear Channel trying to fucking shut the gate down.”

If you’ve subscribed to our iTunes podcast, you can hear the DVD announcement from Thom Yorke on BBC Music 6, or listen to it below.

posted on 3:19 pm 08/28/2006
Headlines, Movies, Music, News, News | Comments (0) | Permalink |