When Strangers With Candy premiered on Comedy Central, I felt like it was an inside joke I didn’t completely understand. And apparently, that’s true. As FourFour: The Revenge explains this week, Amy Sedaris’s character Jerri Blank is based on eccentric motivational speaker Florrie Fisher, reformed hooker and
I have a few minor phobias: I dislike flying; I get queasy on rollercoasters; I try to avoid possums, especially the ones who will lure me on an airplane or a ride at Six Flags. But apparently some people have crippling phobias, and obviously, there’s only one way to
The most soul-crushing E! True Hollywood Story I ever saw was about the actor Hervé Villechaize. This was dark stuff even by tabloid standards: drinking turpentine, stabbing his own self-portrait, smashing guns into his assistant’s face. As a child, I adored Fantasy Island, but by the time
Before I started assembling these video digests, I had no idea how many pets could talk, chug Fanta from a bottle, or pledge their love to Montel Williams. My own cat, who has mastered little more than shedding, seems like such a dilettante in comparison. * * * One talent the cat does
On Tuesday, I saw The Omen, which I’m ready to declare the comedy of the summer. I didn’t see it because I thought it would be good—a friend greeted me at the theater by enthusiastically asking, “Are you ready to be disappointed?”—but rather, out of some
Last week’s American Idol finale has left a lot of TiVos with nothing to do. Fox has responded with a second season of So You Think You Can Dance, produced by AI’s Simon Fuller, a near-mimicry of the Idol formula. In case you’ve missed it, here’
This week, an early film from Tim Burton called Vincent has been making the rounds. A charmingly dark animated short from 1982 about a little suburban boy who just wants to be Vincent Price, it’s probably the closest thing to memoir Burton can muster. It’s also narrated by
I grew up in the ‘80s without MTV, which felt a bit like growing up without oxygen. I compiled my own music video collection by taping a network show called Friday Night Videos, but my library was nothing compared to Milinkito’s ginormous compendium of ‘80s videos, including such little-
I’m lost when it comes to Lost. I don’t know who’s on the island, what’s in the jungle, or why Michelle Rodriguez keeps getting busted for DUIs. I’m sure it’s a good show, but it demands so much… attention. Most of the time, I
Last year, director Paul Weitz found himself torn between two dramas: the Iraq war and American Idol. It’s a disconnect familiar to many of us with a conscience and a television set—thousands of soldiers have died, but holy crap, Mandisa should not have been voted off!—and it
