December 13, 2007 - Golden Globes, Kid Nation Wraps Up, & More

Hope everyone is doing great!! Let's get into this week's Wrap Up.

Nothing new on the strike news. They're not even talking at this point. You might as well settle in cause this could be a while before this is settled. I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking that the ones doing the negotiations need to be locked in a room and not come out until a deal is reached. This leaving and going home or breaking off negotiations needs to stop. Seriously, lock them in a room and let them come out when they get a deal so this thing ends.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. The Golden Compass - $25.7 million. 2. Enchanted - $10.7 million. 3. This Christmas - $4.9 million. 4. Fred Claus - $4.6 million. 5. Beowulf - $4.5 million. 6. No Country - $4.1 million. 7. August Rush - $3.5 million. 8. Hitman - $3.4 million. 9. Awake - $3.3 million. 10. The Mist - $2.6 million.

The new TV season started with a lot of controversy around the new show, Kid Nation. I watched it out of curiosity to see what all the talk was about. It became one of my favorite shows and I was completely hooked on it looking forward to each week's episode. This week saw the show wrap up. 40 days was how long these kids lived in Bonanza City. There were happy moments and sad moments. These kids stepped up to the challenge big time and earned all my respect for what they were able to do. This week's finale saw one more gold star rewarded worth $20,000 which went to Zach. One last town challenge was done and if the three tasks were completed, there would be three more gold stars ready to be given out worth $50,000 a piece. They completed the tasks and the three gold stars were handed out. However, the kids got a reunion with their families first when they all showed up. The families got to attend the final town hall meeting. The council rewarded the $50,000 gold stars to Sophia, Morgan, and Migle. Sophia was the only one to double up on stars as she is taking home a total of $70,000. My favorite kids on the show were Sophia, Laurel, Michael, and Zach. I do hope these kids all get to keep in touch cause this was a special experience that they got to take part in together. Hopefully, they've exchanged phone numbers, emails, or whatever so these friendships that were made will continue on.

The nominations are out for the Golden Globe Awards and the TV end has a definite cable feel to it. Here are the nominations for some of the categories.
Best TV Series, Drama: Big Love, HBO; Damages, FX; Grey's Anatomy, ABC; House, FOX; Mad Men, AMC; The Tudors, Showtime.
Best TV Series, Comedy: 30 Rock, NBC; Californication, Showtime; Entourage, HBO; Extras, HBO; Pushing Daisies, ABC.
Best Actor, Drama Series: Michael C Hall, Dexter; Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Hugh Laurie, House; Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors; Bill Paxton, Big Love.
Best Actress, Drama Series: Patricia Arquette, Medium; Glenn Close, Damages; Minnie Driver, The Riches; Edie Falco, The Sopranos; Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters; Holly Hunter, Saving Grace; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer.
Best Actor, Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Steve Carell, The Office; David Duchovny, Californication; Ricky Gervais, Extras; Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies.
Best Actress, Comedy Series: Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?; America Ferrera, Ugly Betty;
Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies; Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds.
Best Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Ted Danson, Damages; Kevin Dillon, Entourage;
Jeremy Piven, Entourage; Andy Serkis, Longford; William Shatner, Boston Legal; Donald Sutherland, Dirty Sexy Money.
Best Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Rose Byrne, Damages; Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy; Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters; Samantha Morton, Longford; Anna Paquin, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee; Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl.
Best Picture, Drama: American Gangster, Atonement, Eastern Promises, The Great Debaters, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood.
Best Picture, Musical or Comedy: Across the Universe, Charlie Wilson's War, Hairspray, Juno, Sweeney Todd.
Best Actor, Drama: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood; James McAvoy, Atonement; Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises; Denzel Washington, American Gangster.
Best Actress, Drama: Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age; Julie Christie, Away from Her; Jodie Foster, The Brave One; Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart; Keira Knightley, Atonement.
Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd; Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl;
Tom Hanks, Charlie Wilson's War; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages; John C. Reilly, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Amy Adams, Enchanted; Nikki Blonksy, Hairspray; Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd; Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose; Ellen Page, Juno.
Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford;
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War; John Travolta, Hairspray; Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton.
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There; Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson's War; Saorise Ronan, Atonement; Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone; Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton.
Best Director: Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men;
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Ridley Scott, American Gangster; Joe Wright, Atonement.
Best Animated Film: Bee Movie, Ratatouille, The Simpsons Movie.

We have a final four set on Survivor with the finale airing on Sunday night on CBS. The finale will see the million dollars be between Todd, Courtney, Amanda, and Denise. This is a tough pick on will win. I do still think that Courtney will get into the final two (or three if they decide to do three again). Denise would be tough to beat if she gets to the end. Todd and Courtney's chances will depend on how the jury is voting whether it is game play or personal. Amanda is in a spot where she can pick who she wants to align with to see how far she can get and has a very good chance at winning.

Regis Philbin is going to be hosting the Academy Awards preshow on ABC.

It looks like Journeyman is indeed coming to an end. Hollywood Reporter is saying that NBC had until a certain time period to pick the show up for a full season and it hasn't happened. It does appear that the final two episodes of the show are going to air. Word is that the episodes will air on Monday, December 17th and then on Wednesday, December 19th. What a bummer as this was a show I was really enjoying watching.

ABC has pulled Big Shots from their schedule. The show still had three more unaired episodes left but it appears that they will not air.

I ended up staying up late watching Independence Day the other night on one of the movie channels. I've seen this countless times so I don't know why I was so glued to watching this again. It is one of my favorite movies ever though. Interesting that the version of the movie that was airing was the version with additional scenes that were cut out of the theatrical version. I figured if you wanted to see that version that you'd have to buy the DVD but I was wrong.

American Idol will once again be doing an Idol Gives Back show which raised a ton of money last season for charity. The special will air April 9th.

The Hills wrapped up for the time being on Monday night but will return in the spring to answer the questions that we were left with. What will happen with Lauren and Whitney in Paris? Are Heidi and Spencer done? How will things go with Lauren and Brody being apart for a little while? Fun finale and I'm glad that Lauren got the second chance of going to Paris. She was not going to mess that up again. My only complaint of the season was that they give too much away of the next episode in their promos. They basically tell you the whole episode in a 30 second preview.

If you're a Carrie Underwood fan, check out this interview that Glamour did with her. Really good interview.
http://www.glamour.com/news/articles/2007/12/underwood

Live Free Or Die Hard. This was a movie that I was looking forward to seeing with the next installment out of the Die Hard series. Bruce Willis returns as detective John McClane. The basic idea of the movie was taking an old school John McClane and bringing him into the modern era of ways to fight bad guys. It is a big time computer hacker storyline. What happens when someone takes all the hacking tips and builds it to shut down the country? John McClane is sent on a seemingly routine mission which is to pick up Matthew, a computer hacker, and bring him in. However, he ends up walking into a warzone when Matthew is bombarded with a full out assault looking to finish him off. Pretty fitting that Justin Long from the "I'm A Mac and I'm a PC" commercials plays the computer guy teamed up with McClane. I liked the combination of McClane and Matthew as each had a completely different style of how to handle situations. Matthew was more of a think this thing out a different way with his technology knowledge while McClane is more of a handle this now in whatever way kind of person. What I've always enjoyed about these movies is that there isn't a lot of downtime with what is going on. One big action scene will end and everything is ok with the characters but you just sit and wait to see what is the next big problem that is going to arise. As far as action goes, this movie delivers big time. There are a LOT of great action scenes that leave you on the edge of your seat. The movie runs just over two hours in time and the time flew by. If you like the Die Hard movies or just action movies in general, I think you'll like this movie. I loved it.

I laughed pretty hard at the scene on this week's How I Met Your Mother when they did the slow motion of Barney knocking the sandwich out of Marshall's hands. Barney was sure that Wendy the waitress was looking to get even with Barney for dumping her and thought the food was contaminated. One of the best episodes of the season. That was also the last new episode that will air until the strike is resolved.

iTunes has released what its best sellers were for 2007. Top albums were (in order): Maroon 5, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, Daughtry, and Colbie Caillat. Top singles for the year were (in order) Big Girls Don't Cry (Fergie), The Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani), Hey There Delilah (Plain White T's), Girlfriend (Avril Lavigne), Glamorous (Fergie).

I can't say that I saw this news coming but Paul Reuben is set to return as Pee Wee Herman in two new movies. The first movie is planned to be released in 2009.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, December 18th. The Bronx Is Burning (World Championship), The Mod Squad (Season One - Volume One), One Tree Hill (Season Four), Raw Hide (Season Two - Volume Two), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (Volume Two).

TV Line Of The Week: From How I Met Your Mother
"You're killing the bar dude." Marshall to Barney after every circumstance of Barney telling of his hitting on Wendy the waitress.

You Tube Video Of The Week: A Fake Water Bed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4K6ScFZoMw

Have a great and safe weekend!! Take care and God bless!!