Bill Prady teases The Big Bang Theory S5 finale

post from Danielle Turchiano's feed on 04 May 2012 04:05:18 PM. © Danielle Turchiano's feed

Though when we caught up with The Big Bang Theory executive producer Bill Prady a few weeks ago, he only wanted to tell us that in this season’s season finale “events will occur. Some events that were...

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Video: Meet the Bad Girls of Summer Movies!

post from BuzzSugar on 04 May 2012 04:00:45 PM. © BuzzSugar

Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johansson - this Summer's movies are full of leading ladies playing characters with a bad streak! In this week's episode of The Buzz, BuzzSugar editors Becky Kirsch and Shannon Vestal are giving you a preview of the stars we're most excited to see. Take a look!

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Why Ivanka Trump should get her own Apprentice

post from reality blurred on 04 May 2012 03:49:59 PM. © reality blurred

Ivanka Trump has been on The Apprentice for eight seasons now, although her expanded role started in season six, when she replaced Carolyn Kepcher (remember her?). In today's Daily Beast, I make the case for what we've known for a while: Ivanka is by far the best Trump, both on the show and off, and really deserves her own show. I detail why she really is better than her father, mostly because she's not as... keep reading »

» read the full story and comment, or find the latest news about The Celebrity Apprentice 5
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ay_04_ivanka-trump

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EXCLUSIVE: Cee Lo Green Visits 'Parks & Rec'
Finale

post from TV on HuffingtonPost.com on 04 May 2012 03:45:32 PM. © TV on HuffingtonPost.com

"Parks and Recreation" is getting a larger-than-life guest star when "The Voice" (Mon., May 7 at 8 p.m. ET and Tues., May 8 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC) coach Cee Lo Green guest stars. In the "Parks and Rec" season finale, "Win, Lose or Draw" (Thurs., May 10, 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC), it's finally election day in Pawnee.

The City Council race between Leslie (Amy Poehler) and Bobby Newport (guest star Paul Rudd) has come down to a razor-thin margin. The parks department crew waits for the race to be called and ponder their futures ... and new opportunities.

Cee Lo and Rudd are joined by other guest stars Kathryn Hahn and Ben Schwartz. Take a look at the exclusive stills of Cee Lo's visit to the parks department below.

Is that Ron Swanson in a "Voice" chair?!

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-finale_n_1478178.html

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See a Very Strange Wedding on the Hart of Dixie
Season Finale

post from BuzzSugar on 04 May 2012 03:45:02 PM. © BuzzSugar

The Hart of Dixie season finale airs May 14, and if the pictures are any indication, it looks like we'll be treated to a very unusual (and possibly illegal) wedding, as you can see George with both Lemon and Zoe as brides at the altar. OK, I'm sure it's some kind of dream, but it's still pretty crazy to see. Check out that and more pictures from the freshman series's final episode of the season, like Wade and Zoe getting close to a smooch!

Photos courtesy of The CW

View Slideshow ?

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LearnVest: One Girl Speaks Out: Why I Relate to
HBO's Girls

post from TV on HuffingtonPost.com on 04 May 2012 03:42:31 PM. © TV on HuffingtonPost.com

In our "Money Mic" series, we hand over the podium to someone with a strong opinion on a financial topic. These are their views, not ours, but we welcome your responses.

HBO's new series, Girls, has caught a lot of backlash for depicting 20-somethings who live off their parents after college and struggle to find work in New York City.

Today, one 22-year-old girl living in New York City argues that, despite all the bad press, she sees truth in the show's portrayal of her generation.

Everyone has something to say about Girls -- I've even had several male friends chime in on how impossible it is for them to relate on any level.

The show follows four 20-something girls in New York City. The main character, Hannah Horvath, played by the show's creator Lena Dunham, is an aspiring writer whose parents pull the plug on her financially in the first episode. One friend is an art gallery assistant, another just got back from gallivanting overseas and another is still in college and supported by her parents.

Critics have complained about the show's lack of diversity, the characters' whining and how spoiled they are.

I am not a television critic. I also happen to own the smallest TV in the history of television, which doesn't have HBO. Every week, I watch the show online a few days after it comes out. (Fitting, isn't it?)

But I am a 22-year-old girl, living in New York City, with student loans, awkward booty calls and a few close girl friends. As Hannah, a slightly awkward 24-year-old Brooklynite, would put it, I'm a voice of my generation. Definitely not the voice, but a voice.

As I watch the show, I find myself nodding my head. "Yes," I think, "she gets it. This show is actually my life."

When most 20-somethings move to New York, especially to work in fashion as I did, nearly all of them compare their lives to Sex and the City. But let's be honest: I live in Bed-Stuy, deep in the heart of Brooklyn, and I have much more in common with Hannah than with Carrie.

A $200,000 Education, a Great Résumé ... and an Empty Inbox

I graduated college with a freelance job at a fancy magazine. A fancy magazine that could only afford to pay me $700 a month, but required that I live close enough to pull hard hours and make it home without getting mugged. Which means I couldn't really afford the $1,100 a month apartment I signed a one-year lease for in Greenwich Village, but I figured I could make it work, right?

When I graduated last May from George Washington University, I was extremely confident that all of the internships I fought for and the classes I took would be enough to pull off the New York dream.

I moved from Washington, DC, where my apartment and living expenses were paid for by my parents, to New York. My parents agreed to give me $400 a month for two months to help with rent, but after that I was on my own. No problem! Babysitting in New York is a piece of cake, people say, and you can make some serious money.

Well, after creating profiles on what felt like 100 different sitter sites with absolutely zero responses, things got a little more difficult. So there I was, with a $200,000 education, a part-time job at a respected publication and a huge family that's helped me get plenty of work experience. But my inbox was void of offers to babysit.

I started trying to do odd jobs for people (like picking up my cousin's mail for her and organizing contacts for her in exchange for money here and there), but instead of pouring myself into looking for part-time work, I really focused on trying to get full-time positions.

So that was it. $700 a month had to be enough.

After My First Month, Things Were Getting Desperate

Every night, I cried to my college boyfriend -- who was living at home in Massachusetts without a job -- about how broke I was, how miserable I was. He was kind enough to pay half my rent on my second month in New York.

Luckily, I paid him back a week before I found out he was cheating on me.

I'm not alone in having trouble paying rent after college. The economy is pretty terrible, and most of my friends have received help from their families in some form or other. Other than my roommates, pretty much everyone else I know gets parental help, even some friends as old as 25-26.

Since then, I've been able to secure a great full-time job as an editorial assistant (which I found via Twitter -- the power of social media!), and moved to this apartment in Brooklyn that's more in line with what I make, since I'm trying not to spend more than 30% of my salary on my apartment.

(Don't know how much you should be spending on rent? Here's how the ideal budget breaks down.)

However, student loans have kicked in and saving seems nearly impossible. And each time my parents get their phone bill, the conversation about being on their family plan comes up -- like Hannah says, it's cheaper for everyone!

After a Year, My Carrie Bradshaw Dreams Have Faded ...

... and my Hannah Horvath reality has set in. Many of my friends are still supported by their parents and probably can't relate to Hannah's character, but I'd like to think I'm not the only young woman, living in Brooklyn, nodding my head "yes" every Sunday night when I see Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna screwing up job interviews, hooking up with guys at the NYC bar Tom & Jerry's or arguing with their parents over money.

Well, maybe not that bit about the hook-ups.

Emily Note is a 22-year-old native of Philadelphia who currently resides in Brooklyn and works as an assistant and writer in the fashion industry.

More From LearnVest
Want $1,000 to help pay off your student loans? We want to give it to you.
Generation 'Why Bother': The Truth About Being 20-Something Today
Why I Want to Marry Rich: The Man's Perspective

This story originally appeared on LearnVest.com.

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Once Upon a Time - I'm Your Puppet

post from Television Without Pity on 04 May 2012 03:30:00 PM. © Television Without Pity

The Stranger: August is Pinocchio and the little boy who "found" Emma. Emma takes denial to a whole new level. Regina puts the moves on David.

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Toni Nagy: The Voice (and Face, and Body, and
Style)

Beauty may be only skin deep, but it is a great way to get ahead in the entertainment world. Considering that actors make a living from their flawless faces being projected on massive screens in high definition, there is some perverse logic to this madness. Yet in the music world there was a time when raw talent was your ticket to success. You could be gritty-looking, but if you could sing, you could have a career. Since MTV (and given the historical fact that video killed the radio star), this Hollywood standard of beauty has become the norm in the music business as well. The result is that fewer talented people rise to the surface, although they are lovely to look at.

The Voice is a reality show that is actively looking to combat the prejudice of attractiveness. The initial audition process is with the judges having their backs to the contestants. Those trying out cannot be critiqued by their looks, but only by the appeal of their voice. This is a noble effort to combat a very real dilemma in not only the music industry, but also in society in general. Of course every culture has a standard of beauty, but in a multi-cultural population, having just one ideal is detrimental. We have come to prioritize Hollywood perfection to such a degree that it is corroding our collective psyches. Little girls dressing like women, eating disorders, debilitating self-esteem issues, racial tension, are all symptoms of a culture obsessed with the myth that being a specific type of beauty makes you a better person. Although this works just fine for the big industries of the beauty businesses, it is not empowering to the people desperately trying to fit in.

I commend the good intentions that go into The Voice, and although I am even a fan of the show, I am not convinced that a person's throat is their most valuable body part in the end. After the judges have their blind auditions, they then get to see the person behind the voice. So yes, anyone has a chance to get on a team regardless of how old, young, skinny, rotund, but eventually these elements will come under the microscope as well. Of course, this is not deliberately a beauty contest, but the judges don't live in a vacuum and are still seduced by the current status quo. The question of who is the most marketable has to come into play.

As the process of eliminating contestants proceeds, it becomes obvious who is going to stay and who is going to go home. The show is organized in such a way that the members of each of the teams battle their fellow team members to become their coaches' number 1 pick. Then, the last four contestants will battle each other in a final competition to decide who will become the winner of The Voice, which will happen Tuesday May 8. Yet as the team members compete to win, all these other components of what they look like and how they present themselves start to impact their staying power.

Of course the judges never say, "Well, you are just not as cute as your competitor and your derrière is a little too boxy for my taste," but they are not blind and do seem to judge the overall package. This unintentional judgment falls under the category of "confidence." The sexier people do have a more commanding presence on the stage, and, for a viewer, it is hard to disagree with that. There were of course some exceptions where talent did surpass the longer legs, but the final four are all good-looking, skinny, young, with swagger, style, captivating eyes, and dreamy smiles.

It is not The Voice's responsibility to counteract a deeply embedded cultural premise, but we cannot deny the influence of beauty on the show. Their efforts to deflect us from this type of thinking are valiant, especially when you consider just how they captivate you with the stories of these people's lives. One example is Jamar Rogers, a man who is HIV positive and a recovering meth addict. Rogers had one of the most infectious personalities on the show, and it was impossible not to be inspired him. But, as irony would have it, what made him the full package was not only the fact that he overcame such adversity: he also had charisma. He looked like a star.

Whereas The Voice may not be a totally bias-free model, it does show revolutionary intentions. And because social media facilitate each contender to build an authentic fan base, I do believe that, regardless of looks, the show provides prospects for those who take advantage of the opportunity. Perhaps what is most refreshing about the show is that by getting involved in their stories you realize that all four final contestants are decent people who just want the chance to live their dreams.

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'The Borgias' Renewed For Season 3

"The Borgias" will return for a Season 3 full of sin on Showtime. The cable network has ordered a third season of 10 episodes slated to premiere in 2013.

Jeremy Irons will return as Pope Alexander VI. Production on Season 3 is expected to begin during summer 2012. Now in Season 2, "The Borgias" (Sundays, 10 p.m. ET on Showtime) tells the story of the Borgia family, their rise to power and the struggles they face to keep it. The Season 2 cast is rounded out by François Arnaud, Holliday Grainger, Joanne Whalley, Lotte Verbeek, David Oakes and Colm Feore.

Thus far, the second season of "The Borgias" is averaging a little more than 500,000 viewers per episode.

Creator Neil Jordan will continue to serve as executive producer of Season 3 and will write and direct select episodes.

Click through the slideshow below to see what else is worth a watch this week.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/the-borgias-renewed-showtime-season-3_n_
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'Best Friends Forever' Returning To NBC

"Best Friends Forever" is returning to NBC. But don't get rid of those sad khakis just yet, it's for one night only.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the comedy created by and starring Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair will return to the Peacock's schedule on Fri., June 1, starting at 8 p.m. ET.

The show debuted in April to critical acclaim and about 4 million viewers, decent numbers for NBC. However, the show slipped in ratings in subsequent airings. Its last episode in its original Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. timeslot has 2.7 million viewers. The show was yanked from the schedule and replaced with additional episodes of its lead-in, "Betty White's Off Their Rockers."

Fans have rallied behind the show on social media using the term #SaveBFF on Twitter and circling a petition to save the show from cancellation. Co-creators Parham (@lennonparham) and St. Clair (@jessica_stclair) are also involved with the effort to save the series.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/best-friends-forever-nbc-june_n_1478307.
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