My holiday gift to you is to get you caught up on the all the pop culture that you might have missed while prepping for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza or just some time out of the office. So before Santa makes all his deliveries, check out this week’s pop culture roundup and have a wonderful rest of the week. The blog will resume its regular posting on Monday December 29th.
- So now The Interview will be showing at select theaters on Christmas and VOD later this week.
- Here are the theaters that will be showing it; unfortunately, there are no heroes in Albany 😦
- The Interview is somehow beating The Shawshank Redemption on IMDB.
- A New York theater is doing a live read of The Interview.
- Sony has hired the real life inspiration for Olivia Pope to deal with the hacking scandal.
- Team America: World Police has sold out on Amazon after all the controversy over The Interview.
- Interesting tidbit from the Sony hack – head of Sony pictures wants Idris Elba to be the next James Bond. #cosign
- Netflix has found its Luke Cage.
- This is just outstanding:
- The new Pee-Wee Herman movie will be a Netflix production.
- Kim Dickens (Deadwood, Friday Night Lights) will be in the Walking Dead spinoff.
- Madonna has released new tracks online after her new album was leaked.
- Dave Grohl’s new supergroup is putting out an album.
- Matthew McConaughey is lending his voice to an animated kid-samurai movie.
- Garth Brooks decided to drop by a Justin Timberlake concert:
- Justin Lin (Fast & Furious) will be directing the third Star Trek movie. Interesting choice.
- Viola Davis may appear in Suicide Squad.
- Charlie Sheen will reprise his role from Ferris Bieller’s Day Off in ABC’s The Goldbergs.
- His FX series Anger Management ended its run earlier this week.
- Kate Winslet is in talks for Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic.
- Captain Phillips’ Barkhad Abdi will appear on Hawaii Five-O.
- Do yourself a favor and watch the Fargo marathon on FXM New Year’s Day.
- Someone robbed Satin Dolls, the strip club that stood in for the Bada Bing on The Sopranos.
- Michael Pitt is out and Joe Anderson is in on Hannibal.
- The Today Show allegedly canceled their interview with Amy Adams when she said she’d prefer not to weigh in on the Sony leak scandal since her interview was only 4 minutes.
- SNL spoofed Love Actually in this cut sketch:
- SNL also did a solid Serial parody:
- Kevin Hart will be the first SNL host of 2015.
- To prepare for his role in Fifty Shades of Grey, Jamie Dornan visited a sex dungeon.
- Tim Burton discusses why he was fired from the Batman franchise.
- Did you see the Doctor Who Easter Eggs on Gracepoint?
- Adam Sandler once again tops Forbes’ list of overpaid actors. Congrats?
- A status update on the many Kevin Smith films that are in the works.
- The new season of MythBusters will tackle The Simpsons.
- The actor who played Councilman Jamm on Parks and Recreation blogged about his last day on set.
- David Fincher will direct an HBO pilot about the 80s music video scene.
- The executive producer of Homeland has sold an “action workplace comedy” to NBC.
- The cast of Orange is the New Black has their own version of the 12 days of Christmas:
- Jim Carrey would be willing to reprise his role as The Riddler.
- Bo and Luke from The Dukes of Hazard have released a Christmas album.
- Andrew Lloyd Webber is bringing School of Rock to Broadway.
- The fake musical from Smash will actually be performed for one night.
- NPR asks a scholar how Exodus: Gods and Kings compares with the source story in the Bible.
- David Schwimmer will play Robert Kardashian in Ryan Murphy’s miniseries about the O.J. Simpson trial.
- Snoop Dogg and his son are getting a reality show on ESPN.
- Bill Gates once again participated in Reddit’s Secret Santa gift swap.
- John Waters is making a version of his cult hit Pink Flamingos with an all-child cast.
- The Santa from a classic M&M commercial (“they do exist!”) is making bank in residuals.
- Bill Murray’s Baloo will sing “The Bare Necessities” in the Jungle Book remake.
- There was some changing of the guard in late night. The Colbert Report aired its final episode
- Craig Ferguson also ended his run on The Late Late Show on CBS:
- @Midnight will briefly be @11:30 for a few weeks.
- Redditors are raising money for a scholarship in the name of Hae Min Lee, the girl whose murder was investigated on Serial.
- Bruce Campbell has some details about the Evil Dead series coming to Starz.
- Eddie Vedder = nice to fans.
- The awesome drum score from Birdman won’t be eligible for an Oscar.
- Sarah Jessica Parker will return to HBO in Divorce.
- NBC is moving Constantine to a new timeslot.
- A ranking of all the Christmas gifts given in the Harry Potter books.
- Sebastian Roche is headed to Once Upon a Time.
- Also headed to OUAT – Ghostbusters’ Ernie Hudson as Poseidon.
- Last Comic Standing is back on for summer 2015.
Time for some trailers
- The final season of Parks and Recreation:
- The Backstreet Boys have a documentary:
- Chris Hemsworth in In the Heart of the Sea:
- Better Call Saul:
- Will Smith and Margot Robbie in Focus:
- Here’s a combo you don’t expect – Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren in Woman in Gold:
- A teaser for season 3 of Bates Motel:
- Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet in A Little Chaos:
- Season 3 of Orphan Black:
- A trailer for the Entourage movie:
- Splitsider looks at the best standup specials and albums of 2014.
- Vulture continues it countdown to Friends being on Netflix by evaluating the best platonic duo.
- Tessa Thompson (Dear White People) has joined the cast of the new Rocky movie, Creed.
- Here’s the most Googled people and things from 2014.
- The Oscar shortlist of Best Foreign Language Film contenders was released.
- Mark Hamill made an appearance at the live read of The Empire Strikes Back.
- Brad Pitt was dismissed from jury service for being “too distracting.”
- Kendrick Lamar debuted a new song during the final week of The Colbert Report.
- Further proof that Robin Williams was awesome – he and Ben Stiller helped a co-star ask a girl to prom when filming the latest Night at the Museum:
- The Library of Congress is adding a bunch of movies to the National Film Registry.
- Here’s a meme-themed pinball machine.
- NKOTB’s Jonathan Knight is competing on The Amazing Race.
- A brief history of Kenny Powers insulting everyone on Eastbound & Bound.
- The Teletubbies sun baby is now a 19 year old college student.
- McDonald’s is getting rid of a bunch of menu items (but not the Big Mac).
- FXX is launching a late night animation block.
- This is great on many levels – Ghostface Killah performing at a grilled cheese restaurant called…wait for it….Toastface Grillah:
- Gwyneth Paltrow’s lack of a college education was a deal breaker for Yahoo Food.
- Adult Swim’s Black Dynamite will air a police brutality musical.
- Dax Shepard will play his Parenthood character again on About a Boy.
- Joe Cocker has passed away. He was 70. I saw him in concert with Tina Turner in the late 90s and he was outstanding.
- 7th Heaven star Stephen Collins has admitted to sexually abusing underage girls.
- In happier news, congrats to Lance Bass on his wedding. Joey Fatone was his ring bearer.
- Elton John also tied the knot last weekend.
- Cameron Diaz is engaged to Benji Madden.
- Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard welcomed their second child (a baby girl not named Elsa).
As always, we end with the supercuts and mashups
- Here’s a supercut of dorky dads dancing to “Uptown Funk”
- A tribute to Scrooges from TV and film:
- Star Wars meets Grand Theft Auto:
- This fan-made Marvel vs DC trailer isn’t real, but it’s pretty great:
- Mashing up two Christian Bale movies – Knight of Cups and the Dark Knight trilogy – was a no-brainer:
- Here’s a supercut of people whispering:
- A The Incredible Hulk supercut:
- A mashup of 2014 movies:
- And finally, Home Alone recut as a horror film:
Happy Holidays!!!!!
As Heather's World Turns 