HIMYM, He's Just Not That Into You, Lost, Christmas Movies, Music Lists, & More - December 23, 2009

I’ve been a couple of weeks behind on How I Met Your Mother but I wanted to comment on the episode a couple of weeks ago guest starring Joanna Garcia. I loved this episode. The story was that Garcia’s character was the perfect girl for Ted but she was only available for a short amount of time. She would end up in long relationships and then be back in another one in no time. So, when she ended up single again, Ted had to act quick. Ted got a call from her neighbor who he had worked out a deal with for her to call him if she knew of a breakup. Ted scrambled quickly as did the group to make sure to keep her away from other guys and give Ted the chance that he had been waiting for. Chaos ensued as it always does and it was fun to watch. Ted didn’t get her but the next guy ended up being the right one for her and they ended up together forever.

There has been a new trailer released for the final season of Lost. It continues with the trend of showing previous footage building to the final season. The trailer does start with being told like a children’s story with “once upon a time”.
http://abc.go.com/watch/clip/lost/SH006723620000/165261/245061

Heroes is set to return on January 4 with two hours of new shows. The promos that they are running look very cool and start with the morphing of Nathan into Sylar. The puzzle piece effect looks good and it is basically focusing on where all of them fit in the world as far as pieces.

I watched the movie, He’s Just Not That Into You last night. I really enjoyed this movie. Unique romantic comedy that was co-produced by Drew Barrymore. The movie follows a lot of characters with most being intertwined with one another. We follow several different couples and also singles looking for love. The rules of dating are talked about which is a fun twist throughout the movie. Really strong cast including Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johnansen, and more. For me, I thought the Gigi character stole the movie. I’m sure that tends to be the plan since she appeared to be the narrator of the story. I really enjoyed her story the most of trying to find love while also seemingly getting lost in how to go about dating and the rules of it especially phone calls. The phone call stuff was hilarious. This is a spoiler obviously, so SPOILER ALERT….but I thought it was hilarious that Janine could seemingly put up with everything from Ben including being cheated on but then she snaps over him lying about smoking. Fun movie.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Avatar - $77 million. 2. The Princess and the Frog - $12.1 million. 3. The Blind Side - $10 million. 4. Did You Hear About The Morgans? - $6.6 million. 5. New Moon - $4.4 million. 6. Invictus - $4.2 million. 7. Disney’s A Christmas Carol - $3.4 million. 8. Up In The Air - $3.2 million. 9. Brothers - $2.8 million. 10. Old Dogs - $2.3 million.

Sad news this week with the passing of Brittany Murphy. So young. That girl had a lot of talent for sure. Clueless is one of my favorite movies of all time so I’m always going to think of that movie when I think of her. She had plenty more success after that movie with other roles including in 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, and more. It’s always so sad to hear of an actor/actress passing away so young. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends missing her right now.

Well, I wasn’t taking this story seriously cause it is a yearly rumor but is Simon Cowell getting ready to leave American Idol? His brother said that this season will be his last season. Wow, this will hurt the show tremendously if Simon does leave Idol. The show will not be nearly as good. Yes, I do think he is way too harsh at times obviously. My thing is that he is honest and I tend to agree with him more than any of the judges. The show’s personality has a lot to do with Simon and this is a major hit for Idol if the news happens to be true. American Idol has also released its programming schedule for the new season. American Idol 9 returns on Tuesday, January 12. Hollywood week will be the week of February 9-17. The voting will begin on February 23. Also, Idol Gives Back will be returning this season on April 21.

Speaking of American Idol, the contestants on the show over the decade have done very well. Billboard released their decade lists. On the artists of the decade list, Kelly Clarkson placed at number 14, Carrie Underwood at number 50, and Daughtry at number 90. How is Carrie that low is what I want to know. She should be top 20 for sure at the very least. On the top 200 albums of the decade, Carrie’s Some Hearts placed at number 14 while Carnival Ride placed at number 132. Kelly Clarkson was in at number 29 with Breakaway. Daughtry’s debut album placed at number 48 while Clay Aiken’s Measure Of A Man album placed at number 170.

Nielsen Soundscan has released their list of the top selling albums of the decade and here is the top 10. Looking over this list is albums that I have seen battling it out since their release early in the decade.
1. The Beatles – 1 – 11.4 million sold
2. NSync – No Strings Attached – 11.1 million
3. Norah Jones – Come Away With Me – 10.5 million.
4. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP – 10.2 million.
5. Eminem – The Eminem Show – 9.7 million.
6. Usher – Confessions – 9.7 million.
7. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory – 9.6 million.
8. Creed – Human Clay – 9.4 million.
9. Britney Spears – Oops I Did It Again – 9.1 million.
10. Nelly – Country Grammar – 8.4 million.

Billboard released their top one-hit wonders of the decade. These lists are always kind of odd cause you wonder what the criteria is that they are juding on what is a one-hit wonder. Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” was number one on the list. This song was huge especially being tied to the American Idol results shows every week but he has yet to follow up to the hit. Strange to see Bo Bice’s version of “Inside Your Heaven” on the list at number nine. That is kind of unfair. That was a Carrie Underwood song mostly since she won and it became her single. Now, you could make the argument that he had the song off of his album The Real Thing that never followed up. Ahh, I’m sad to see Dream on the list at number ten with He Loves You Not. I loved Dream. They were a fun female pop group with great harmony. Then, Sean Combs did nothing else with them including just dropping their second album. Then, to top it off, he did a reality show shortly after looking for a girl group. Umm, hello?? LOL. You just had one. What is funny is that most of the songs on this one hit wonders list are songs that I wasn’t ever really crazy about. I do have to look at number twenty with Samantha Mumba’s “Gotta Tell You”. I had forgotten all about this song until I played it. Yep, I loved that song when it was released and I still like it now. These lists always kind of puzzle me sometimes especially when I get to Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles”. What about “An Ordinary Day”? I still hear that song and they do mention that it made it to the top 30. So, that doesn’t qualify as a good second hit? DJ Sammy and Yanou featuring Do with “Heaven” places in at number 30. Ok, yeah this one qualifies but I loved this version better than the original and still hear it randomly on radio. Wow, there are some songs on this list and some singers that I have completely forgotten about. Definitely worth taking a look to send you down memory lane of this decade.
http://www.billboard.com/#/../../features/one-hit-wonders-of-the-2000s-page-1-1004051216.story

Ok, here is my funny moment of the week. After seeing Dream on that list, I looked for them on Twitter to see what they were up to now and found out that three of the four members of Dream have reformed a group called Lady Phoenix. I kid you not!!! Ashley, Melissa, and Diana are back together. Their sound is very much a mix of Pop/R&B/Big Band. No new album just yet.

When you look over this list of music over the decade, one thing really shows in it and makes you remember just how influential that MTV’s TRL was. That show was a music monster in the early part of the decade. It fizzled out in the last few years of being on the air but the importance that the show had on the music industry is shown on all of these best of the decade lists.

I’m loving the new season three promos for Chuck currently airing on NBC. There have been several of them and I’ve seen them airing multiple times during shows so that is nice to see. I am very excited for season three. Here are a couple of my favorite promos released so far.



I was hoping to include the video from this week’s Live With Regis and Kelly of Mark Consuelos Christmas tree hunting in this week’s Wrap Up which was very funny. No one has posted it though. It had him going to a place looking for the family Christmas tree. It had to be the right size and all. The lady there was really helpful and it was a very funny segment.

I really like the new Lifehouse music video for “Halfway Gone”. It is really cool with how it is edited. Fun video and cool concept.

With Christmas being here, I thought I’d just share some of my favorite Christmas movies from over the years.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – My favorite Christmas movie ever. So funny and a movie that is going to be played on Christmas forever. I remember that the first time that I saw this movie was hanging out with some friends that were in town for the holidays. We all watched it on HBO at their house and laughed all the way through it with the adults that were there as well.
Ernest Saves Christmas. Why does this movie not air anywhere anymore?? I loved this movie and it had a fun story to it with Ernest working on keeping the Santa transition going.
The Santa Clause. This Tim Allen movie became an instant Christmas favorite of mine after I saw it.
Home Alone. Lots of good comedy in this and launched Macaulay Culkin’s career. I liked the sequel as well. Hey, I even liked the third one that didn’t have Culkin in it which also included a young Scarlett Johansen.
A Charlie Brown Christmas. You can’t go wrong with any Charlie Brown special.
The Muppet Christmas Carol. Gotta love the Muppets. I watched a little of the new one the other night on NBC as well. I’m hoping to watch the whole thing if it is up on Hulu.
Yeah, I’m sure there are some movies not on this list that are classics and you’re wondering where they are? You’d be surprised at what classic movies that I’ve never seen.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, December 29. Glee (Season One – Volume One), Time Warp (Season Two), United States Of Tara (Season One), Whale Wars (Season Two).

TV Line Of The Week: From Survivor.
“I’ve accomplished the impossible out here…all by myself and brought a couple of bums with me.” - Russell on making it to the final three against Natalie and Mick. One of those “bums” ended up beating him of course. LOL.

Twitter Update Of The Week: Neil Patrick Harris
@ActuallyNPH "Holiday Airline Madness! Flight to NY cancelled, mad dash to find seats in full planes. Feel like I'm on the Amazing Race. In the bad way."

Video of the Week: The JK Wedding Entrance Dance. I had never seen this until today. Pretty funny. 35 million views and counting.


Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays!! Take care and God bless!!