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Throughout the David Letterman blackmail/affair imbroglio earlier this fall, part of the debate was: was it just sex, or was it sexual harassment? The latter question depends not just on whether Letterman’s lovers felt pressured, but on whether other female staffers felt the affairs created a hostile work environment.
Well, now at …
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ABC airs It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tonight at 8 E.T. I don’t know if Charles Schultz ever read Albert Camus, but there’s something about the whole Peanuts body of work that espouses a kind of hopeful existentialism. The characters are in absurd situations; like Sisyphus, they are doomed to suffer the same failures over and …
Tuned InAdvertising
So Microsoft has a new operating system to launch. It wants your attention. It wants to reach the young people, who like the Family Guy, which is on the television machine. So Microsoft hired Family Guy’s creator Seth MacFarlane to produce a comedy variety special on Fox sponsored solely by the new Windows 7. Then Microsoft watched the …
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In the DVD era, fans of series and movies have come to expect commentary tracks, with directors, stars or writers talking over scenes about what was going on in their heads or offstage at crucial moments. Today, the makers of Battlestar Galactica—who are already keeping the franchise alive with next year’s Caprica prequel—are …
The big surprise on Monday was the announcement by the Miami Art Museum that MAM Director Terry Riley, who came to the museum just three and a half years ago, will step down immediately as director just one week after the museum unveiled the design for its new building. On Monday night Riley sent out a “Dear Friends” e-mail to clarify …
Tuned InTV Ratings
CNN is a sister company to TIME within Time Warner, so let me be unambiguous and without corporate favor when I say that its latest round of primetime ratings are in the dumpster. Bill Carter of the New York Times reports that for the first time, CNN will finish October in fourth place among cable-news networks in the advertiser-followed …
That was fast. I mentioned a few weeks ago that it’s not unusual for a museum director to step down after seeing through a major new building or addition at the museum. But it is a bit unusual for them to leave immediately after the architect’s plan has been unveiled, especially if they haven’t been in the job that long to begin …
From Hendrix to Hova—TIME rocks out with the greatest concert movies to ever hit the big screen.
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While we’re on the subject of awards-show hosts today, NBC has just announced that Ricky Gervais will host the previously host-less Golden Globes on Jan. 17, having semi-auditioned by being the funniest presenter/accepter at various awards shows past. With Neil Patrick Harris having brilliantly hosted the Emmys and Tonys, who’s left as …
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Because you are no longer allowed to be a show on television without having Neil Patrick Harris sing, NPH recently made his musical debut as the villain The Music Meister on Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold. While it’s not Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the whimsical episode was a notch above the typical Batman: B&B …
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As Top Chef: Las Vegas steams toward its finale and another edition of Top Chef Masters has already been announced, Bravo is piling more on its plate (oh, I’ve got a million of these, folks) with another spinoff series, Top Chef: Just Desserts, which will feature the competing talents of pastry chefs.
The idea may not be as goofy as it …
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I’ve really been enjoying Bored to Death since it moved past its underwhelming pilot; I love its laid-back charm and its low-stakes detective drama, and, well, any comedy with a scene that climaxes in someone hurling a vial of semen sample across a room is bound to win my heart. The show is so intensely, specifically Brooklyn-centric, …
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SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, put down that vase and watch last night’s Mad Men.
