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Palin Defeats Clinton!

And Biden! And Cheney! And not quite Obama, but close! The nomination acceptance / unveiling of Sarah Palin drew an Alaska-sized 37.2 million viewers last night on the broadcast plus cable news networks, besting the tallies of Hillary Clinton (26 million) and Joe Biden (24 million) at the DNC, doubling night 3 of the 2004 [...]

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TV Time-Waster: The Best Pilots Ever

Love the show now, but… seriously? / NBC Oooh, this should be a good way to blow off some work this afternoon. TV Guide has come up with its list of the 10 Best TV Pilots in the issue on newsstands now. Their list, my knee-jerk cavils and additions, and your invitation to play along, [...]

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Corporate Press Release Theater: ER Exhumes Dr. Greene

NBC appeals to the heartstrings of ER fans—and reminds the rest of us that the thing is still on the air—by announcing that it will bring back Anthony Edwards for one episode of the we-swear-this-is-the-last season: BURBANK – September 4, 2008 — NBC announced that Golden Globe winner and Emmy® nominee Anthony Edwards will reprise [...]

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Tell Me What You Really Think

OK, I am already probably the last blogger on the planet to link to Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan’s hot-mike embarrassment, but it’s too good not to. They now have something in common with Jesse Jackson! 1. Note to cable-news guests: Until they unclip that mike from you, assume that it is on. 2. More [...]

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Tougher in Alaska?

A few more morning-after RNC thoughts: * The more I think about the Sarah Palin speech, the more I wish I were writing this column again today. Mind you, I’m not saying that Palin is a national figure because of the popularity of reality shows like Deadliest Catch, or that the popularity of these blue-collar [...]

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The Morning After: Who Will Go Furstenberg?

Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke Spoilers for last night’s Project Runway coming up after the jump:

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The Personal Is Political

Watching Sarah Palin’s speech, for a while you might have thought that Trig Palin was John McCain’s running mate. The governor of Alaska, of course, was the one being introduced to a curious nation, whose quips, attacks and asides would be parsed by the pundits, but before the speech began, and as it continued, the [...]

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Ratings: CW Up, TNT Even Upper, GOP Down

* The ’90s are back! While certain TV critics may have been underwhelmed with 90210, the teen-soap remake was The CW’s highest-rated debut ever (fine, that’s going back two years, but still). 4.9 million people watched, a small number by network-TV standards but roughly a gajillion by CW standards—important news since, The Hollywood Reporter says, [...]

More Talk With: Damien Hirst

Hirst in July with one of his “spin” paintings/PHOTO: Pal Hansen for TIME Let’s get back to that conversation with Damien Hirst. Today we talk about his past work and his decision over the past few years to return to painting — not canvases turned out by his scores of studio assistants, which is how [...]

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TV Tonight: Anarchy in the U.S.

Ray Mickshaw/ FX Sorry I haven’t had a chance to put together the vaguely-promised Shield Watch: besides having other things to deal with, it takes me a while to get my bearings on a new season—especially when it’s been over a year since the last one. I am intrigued by the gang war paralleling the [...]

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Why MSNBC Makes Brian Williams Squirm

Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart got “all up in [Brian Williams'] grill”—though Stewart disputed whether “the whitest man in America” could possess a grill—about the on-air feuding that broke out last week at NBC’s sister news channel, MSNBC. (Nutshell: Tim Russert is gone, everybody wants to be the new daddy, and it’s [...]

A Talk With: Ann Temkin

Ann Temkin /MOMA I caught up this morning with Ann Temkin, the newly appointed chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. LACAYO: What are your main goals going into the new job? TEMKIN: The museum is such an outstanding place, the resources here are so inspiring -— [...]

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Palin Media-Sexism Train Arrives on Schedule

Yesterday it was a prediction. Today it’s a reality: 1. You start with a legitimate grievance. (The “What about the kids?” question would not, in fact, have been asked of a man.) 2. You argue that, by extension, any other criticism—about experience, about issues, etc.—must also be sexist. (The sum total of evidence for chauvinism [...]

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RNC Wrapup: Bush Escapes Custody

Due, I assume, to unforeseen technical problems, millions of Americans inadvertently saw President George W. Bush endorse John McCain last night at the Republican National Convention. The President’s brief remarks had been slated in the 9:30 hour, which would have ended them before the major broadcast networks picked up coverage at 10 p.m. E.T. Instead, [...]

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The Morning After: Mediocrity Has a New ZIP Code

Michael Desmond/The CW To be fair, I can’t properly review last night’s 90210, because I missed the beginning, owing to a TiVo mishap. But unless the beginning included the phrase, “James Poniewozik, you are our $10,000,000 grand prize winner!,” I can’t imagine it helping all that much. The fact that The CW held back screeners [...]

MoMA Names Ann Temkin

The two biggest unfilled jobs in the museum world this summer have been the next director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum and the next chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. Now there’s just one. Ann Temkin, a MoMA curator in that department since 2003, will succeed the just-retired John [...]

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TV Tonight: From The Peach Pit to The Barn

Mackey’s back in town. / Prashant Gupta / FX Lots of TV on television tonight beyond the on-again Republican National Convention. First, and least threatening to President Bush’s demographic, is The CW’s remake of 90210, which the network did not send to critics in advance, presumably for fear we would be blinded by its sheer [...]

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Palin: Smear or Gift? Pt. 2

Expectations for Sarah Palin’s nomination speech before the media went nuts with the pregnancy story: How presidential is she? How well will she address [her foreign-policy experience, her real position on the Bridge to Nowhere, Troopergate...]? Expectations for Sarah Palin’s nomination speech after the media went nuts with the pregnancy story: How human is she? [...]

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Palin Rumors: Smear or Gift?

The Sarah Palin story/ies blew up while I was on vacation, and it’s so fascinating—from a media coverage angle as well as others—that I’ll try to resist the urge to overpost. (By which I mean not just the pregnancy but her whole candidacy and rollout.) I may not be able to keep that promise, though. [...]

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The Morning After: Meanwhile, in Non-Political Soap Operas…

GIOVANNI RUFINO/THE CW I’m back from vacation, and Gossip Girl has returned with me. I’m not sure what I’m more unsettled by: seeing Chuck as a quasi-sympathetic figure (“Damn that motherChucker!”), or seeing Jay McInerney as an actor. (Me: “Guy who wrote Bright Lights, Big City! Distracting!” Most of GG audience: “Ew, old guy! Distracting!”) [...]