So it turns out, dear readers, that I am indeed a mere mortal and occasionally I feel under the weather. Right now I’m battling either a nasty cold or a light flu; I’m not sure if it has made up its mind yet as to what it is. This has knocked me down for the count – my boss took one look at me yesterday and sent me home, where I slept most of the day and watched a lot of wedding-related programming which seems to comprise a lot of the daytime TV schedule. I’m feeling slightly better today, but I’m also hopped up on enough cold medicine to take down an ox. The good news is that I seem to have stopped coughing; the bad news is I’m exhausted walking from one room to the next.
However, I must soldier on. I couldn’t leave you without your pop culture roundup. That would be heresy. I just can’t guarantee that everything is spelled right and that the order of links makes total sense. I tried my best, but I can’t make any promises as to coherency. So while I try the difficult act of breathing without getting winded, kick back and enjoy the pop culture goodness that I’ve assembled.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Paul Rudd are rumored to be front-runners for Ant-Man
- Discovery has ordered a TV drama about the Five Families from the men who wrote Goodfellas.
- Charlie Hunnam has quit the Fifty Shades of Grey film adaptation. I think this was a good career move for him, though he was the only reason I had any interest in the movie.
- Jon Bon Jovi walked a fan down the aisle in Vegas.
- Speaking of Sin City, Adele is rumored to be considering a Vegas residency. If this is true, I am so there.
- Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will host the next two Golden Globes.
- This makes me tremendously excited – SyFy is doing a Muppet-building contest show.
- The nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been announced.
- We have our first casualties of the fall TV season: ABC cancelled Lucky 7 while CBS cut bait with the dreadful We Are Men.
- Bill Murray may join Cameron Crowe’s new movie. Bradley Cooper is already attached.
- If you love those Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy commercials for Dodge as much as I do, you’ll be happy to know that he made SEVENTY of them.
- Captain America Chris Pine will appear in Horrible Bosses 2.
- Peter Dinklage will star in an upcoming comedy at Paramount.
- Watch Tom Hanks play around on a giant piano keyboard (with a little help from Sandra Bullock):
- Bullock also showed off her rap skills:
- Susan Sarandon and her daughter Eva Amurri are attached to a pilot for NBC.
- Netflix has ordered a drama from the team behind Damages.
- The Gone Girl film adaptation is slated for an October 3, 2014 release.
- The Simpsons will have guest vocals from Judd Apatow, Channing Tatum, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann and Seth Rogan.
- Nick Offerman will also make an appearance in Springfield in another episode.
- Somebody give Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen their own buddy comedy already. These guys are killing me with their Twitter photos.
- Anthony Hopkins wrote a fan letter to Bryan Cranston about Breaking Bad.
- The good people of Albuquerque sure did love Breaking Bad – fans posted an obituary for a character in the local paper and a steakhouse hosted a “memorial” service.
- A fan bought Walt’s underwear for almost $10,000 at a Breaking Bad auction.
- In case you were wondering, Britney Spears was not a fan of the show’s finale. Bryan Cranston responded.
- I’m generally not all that excited for The Walking Dead, but I am pretty psyched that Michael Cudlitz (Southland) has joined the cast.
- Lost episodes of Doctor Who are now available on iTunes.
- Whoa – Marilyn Manson without makeup is a trip.
- Will Ferrell and John C. Riley are pairing up again for a new movie.
- Hugh Jackman raised almost $2 million for charity from his birthday benefit concert.
- Woody Allen’s next film will be called Magic in the Moonlight and will star Colin Firth and Emma Stone.
- File this under things that make you go hmmm….Japanese school kids perform “Day Man” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
- IFC has renewed Comedy Bang! Bang!
- Caroline Manzo is officially leaving The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
- The kid from Iron Man 3 has landed the lead in Jurassic World.
- Madonna has been banned from the Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters for texting during a film. I like how these people operate.
- The A.V. Club has a story on an old favorite of mine, Homestar Runner.
- Kate Walsh has joined the cast of FX’s Fargo.
- Britney Spears’ new album has a name – her name.
- Michelle Williams took her daughter to visit the Dawson’s Creek set.
- Actor Kumar Pallana, who was a regular in Wes Anderson films, has passed away. He was 94.
- The Rock will appear in the earthquake movie, San Andreas.
- The cast of Modern Family played Family Feud on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
- AnnaLynne McCord joins the cast of Dallas.
- After 20 years of playing the same character on multiple shows, Richard Belzer is retiring Detective Munch.
- Lady Gaga and The Muppets are making a Christmas special. This could either be amazing or terrible. I don’t see any middle ground.
- Oy. Lifetime is now developing a Wizard of Oz related show. That brings the number of active Oz related projects to five,http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a523293/wizard-of-oz-inspired-drama-red-brick-road-in-development.html
- A new Wizard of Oz exhibit has opened in Maine.
- The showrunner for The Daily Show has left.
- Fox has a shortlist for their Fantastic Four reboot.
- The NFL owners passed a rule that the league can force a team to participate in HBO’s Hard Knocks.
- I’m concerned that Eminem doesn’t actually know what year this is – he drops a Monica Lewinski reference in his new song “Rap God.”
- Speaking of Marshall Mathers – his daughter was selected as Homecoming Queen. That makes me feel old.
- We’ll probably never see it, but there is a short that fleshes out the back story of one of the characters in Gravity.
- It is rumored that Marvel has at least five additional TV projects in development. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D has received a full season pickup.
- The rapper Pitbull has opened a charter school in Miami.
- 20 fun and obscure facts about Scrubs.
Trailers
- Michael Bay and Starz are teaming up for a new pirate show:
- Sarah Silverman’s new HBO special:
- I’m really looking forward to Will Ferrell’s Spoils of Babylon mini-series on IFC
- George Clooney and Matt Damon head up an all-star cast in Monument Men
- This documentary on Calvin & Hobbes looks great
- The trailer for Avalanche Sharks, SyFy’s newest terrible movie, has been released:
- Ad Week has an interesting story on how much it costs to run a commercial on different TV shows.
- The guy from Blur is working with actor Idris Elba on new music.
- FX has landed a WWII miniseries from Danny Boyle.
- CBS has ordered a pilot from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
- The writers of Elementary and Sleepy Hollow engaged in a good natured Twitter fight.
- Proving that nothing makes any sense, FOX has ordered additional episodes of Dads.
- Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton have a new duet on Rogers’ album.
- MTV has renewed Teen Wolf for a 4th season.
- Michael B. Jordan auditioned for the new Star Wars movie.
- Snoop Dogg has changed his game once again.
- Elizabeth Berkley revisited her Saved By The Bell roots on Dancing with the Stars:
- Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is doing a whole week dedicated to Pearl Jam.
- The adorable Sophia Grace and Rosie, best known from their appearances on Ellen, have a new deal at NBC.
- The details of the new Eminem cd have been leaked.
- The second season of House of Cards will probably be its last.
- Alexander Skarsgard stars in the music video for Cut Copy’s “Free Your Mind.”
I would totally sign up for this cult.
- Quentin Tarantino has released his list of favorite movies of 2013 so far. Some interesting choices.
- Seth Rogan is planning to make a Christmas stoner movie. Makes sense to me.
- Vulture has an update on the Mean Girls musical.
- Meg Ryan is attached to an NBC pilot.
- The bad news is that NBC’s Thursday night comedies are tanking in the ratings; the good news is that means Community could return at any time.
- Craig Robinson (The Office, This is The End) was detained in the Bahamas for drug possession.
- Jennifer Lawrence’s film adaptation of the book The Glass Castle may have a director.
As always, we end with the mashups and supercuts:
- A compilation of the times that Stephen Colbert has broken.
- An Archer/Top Gun mashup:
- Someone mad a Pokemon/King of the Hill crossover:
- And finally, here’s a supercut that theorizes that Tom Hank’s career is just one long movie: