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Posts tagged as “Behind the Scenes”

Athletes as SNL hosts are no good

Today it was announced that Yankee’s A-Rod “turned down multiple overtures to host Saturday Night Live.”
As he puts it:

I finally figured out to make the game the priority. Ultimately I am a baseball player. This is what I do best and what I should be concentrating on.

I say that’s very good news.
However, some people seem to disagree:

What???? How could that be? Doesn’t he know that hosting “SNL” is one of the perks of being a superstar New York athlete? Turning down the chance to host “Saturday Night Live” is like telling Oprah Winfrey, “No thanks, I’d rather not be on your show.” It’s just not done!

This might be a good analogy if you were an actor/actress, or an entertainer.
We’re here talking about a professional sportsman.
I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I doubt many people enter pro sports to one day host SNL.
“Geez I wish I could meet Lorne Michaels… If only I had 14 gold medals. I bet that would be a good way to do it.”
Not only that, but if I were an athlete even remotely interested in this, I’d reconsider simply based on the fact that, you know, I can’t act.

Need I remind you peeps of the last time a sports guy hosted the show?


Reading from a teleprompter is not the same thing as being funny.
Even Christopher Walken knows that.

This trend has especially intensified these last couple of years with Peyton Manning, LeBron James, Michael Phelps, and, point out above, Charles Barkley (arguably one of the worst SNL host of all time).
As we already saw last September, the latest seasons’ hosts (save for a few) haven’t really been varied, or even good.
We should rejoice that an athlete turned down Saturday Night Live and save us eye-bleeds (even for the wrong reasons).

The CW 2010: It’s for dudes too

The CW 2010: It’s for dudes too

For my first blog back on A TV Calling 2.0, I will try to continue the trend talking about what teenagers like, to Alex’s great dismay.

And what they (seem to) like is The CW. Born from the merger of The WB and UPN, The CW is equally the property of Time Warner and CBS Entertainment. All of their pilots in development are produced by both their production arms, Warner Bros. TV and CBS Paramount TV. Problem is, since fall of 2006, the netlet barely produced an original hit, focusing on the sure bets of both the WB and UPN. So, it carried the last seasons of “Gilmore Girls”, “Everybody Hates Chris”, “7th Heaven”.

The only sure-fire hit born under the CW banner is “Gossip Girl”. And one can argue that this show is mainly watched by female teenagers. And yes, this season has brought us “The Vampire Diaries”, who is also targeting the same female viewership, and whose showrunners’ mission is to try and not resemble “Twilight” too much. If you think I’m joking, go read this Paley Festival recap.


But for this fourth season on air, both those hits can be attributed to luck, and hide a network who has trouble expanding the soap-opera fare, and more crucially, beyond female viewers. It brought back “90210” last year and “Melrose Place” this year, but the scandal-ridden storylines barely mesmerized viewers. One is struggling in its second season, and suffered a showrunner switch in the middle of the first season, and the other returned last week to catastrophic ratings. It’s not expected to make it past this season, a shame when you know the original series lasted seven seasons.

So Dawn Ostroff, The CW’s President of Entertainment, decided to take drastic measures: having male viewers back to The CW. What better than a highly-trained female assassin played by the cutie from Die Hard 4? Yep, “La Femme Nikita” is about to be resurrected with Maggie Q as the lead. And Lyndsy Fonseca (“Desperate Housewives”, the upcoming “Kick-Ass”) is to play her hunter, a 19-year old felon that makes a deal with a secret organization (what else?) to escape a lengthy prison sentence. It sounds good and all, but don’t forget that they can make it lighter, a la “Alias”, than the original USA Network show. But ass-kicking females playing cat and mouse is sure to bring back boys to the yard.


Another pilot, still untitled and penned by Amy Sherman-Palladino, centers on a hunky horse trainer that becomes the patriarch of his parent’s Wyoming ranch after the parents die. And “Nomads”, produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, features globetrotters working undercover missions for the CIA. This last one sounds more FOX-like than CW-like. But it’s all about finding a hit outside their comfort zone, or this could spell the end of Dawn Ostroff’s tenure of the netlet.
Or it could be just a bluff move, where none of the shows are picked up and Ostroff’s people decide to go with companion shows to “Vampire Diaries”, like “Betwixt”, or “Grey’s Anatomy”-lite like “HMS” (Harvard Medical School).

Taylor Lautner: Badder, Bulkier, and Sparklier

Taylor Lautner: Badder, Bulkier, and Sparklier

Lordy is a big fan of the “tween-sucking vampire franchise that made Summit tens of millions” as he calls it, and asked me to write a special article about his favorite part: Taylor Lautner.
That guy is kind of the Neil Patrick Harris to his How I Met Your Mother (yeah, I went there). He’s the one you didn’t think was going to break out from the pack when it first started, but now it seems oh so obvious that he’s the star emerging.

So, besides starring in “Sparkle Sparkle“, what is he doing these days anyway?

Simply put: the guy is fast becoming the real action star out of his Sparkle Pack.
Pattinson is too busy doing romcoms and Stewart is too busy making indies.
Taylor had expressed hopes to lead a few action movies once he’s done sparkling.

And honestly, if you want to see what kind of talent an actor wants to showcase, don’t go far.
Just look at their own little Saturday Night Live monologue.
Zach Galifianakis showed he was funny.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt showed he was awesome (more on that at a later date).
Taylor Lautner showed he could kick your ass.

He’s doing that thanks to his new pecs.
Indeed, the 18-year old (yes, he was born in 1992) actor (who already has his own production company) has bulked up pretty intensely these last few months.
Why so you’re asking?
In case you didn’t know, Robert Pattinson not being New Moon‘s lead (surprised?), the movie had to rest solely on Jacob Black’s shoulders (Lautner’s character for you newbies).
Taylor Lautner was going to be replaced because of the massive physical change the character had to endure between the first two films.
So as to keep the role, Lautner gained almost thirty pounds of muscle.

Now that he’s all grown bulked up, he did the one thing every action man dreams to do: become a Toys “R” Us salesman (albeit with a much higher paycheck).
Remember the toy-to-movie craze from a few months ago?
Well Taylor represents one of these toy franchises.
The first job Lautner took outside of his werewolf gig was one that got him to stretch his newfound muscles.
Please, let’s avoid any sexual innuendos as the people reading us are tweens (yes I also hate that word).
I am here of course referring to the famous Hasbro Stretch Armstrong 1970s action figure.
Indeed, Universal Studios is making a 3-D movie aimed for a 2012 release with muscle-man as the lead. Not much more yet to talk about, although it is produced by Brian Grazer and the script is written by Steve Oedekerk (a writer for a bunch of Jim Carrey comedy, such as Ace Ventura and Bruce Almighty). There are rumors floating around that Monsters vs. Aliens director Rob Letterman could potentially helm the movie.


And if you’re wondering, it was his SNL backflips that got him the job.
Really.
Brian Goldner (Hasbro’s CEO) watched in mid-December his monologue and was so impressed he called WME to cast Lautner.
So next time you say you kicked ass at your job interview, think again.

Taylor was also about to take on another toy-role as Mattel’s Max Steel but ultimately dropped out.
Apparently, Mattel didn’t push the project fast enough for our young entrepreneur.

Summit isn’t ready either to let those muscles loose.
Cancun, a spec script by Eric Champnella and Grant Thompson, was last December acquired by the company with guess-who attached to star.
Side-note, this is the first project of the aforementioned Lautner prodco he has with his dad Dan.
As the name implies, it takes place during spring break in Cancun.
The plot sounds like Taken, only with Lautner’s girlfriend, and with more martial arts involved (duh).

Last but far from being least, Taylor is going to star in the thriller Abduction.
Lautner will play Nathan, a guy that finds out he’s considered missing and then goes all Bourne on everyone.

Here is an actual extract from Shawn Christensen’s script:

Karen takes out a First Aid Kit and grabs some cotton balls and begins dabbing some of Nathan’s facial scars.

KAREN (CONT’D)
You’ve got glass stuck all over
you. Take off your shirt.

Nathan reluctantly takes off his shirt.

See, the Twilight fans won’t be that homesick.
I can already hear the lame puns about Abduction being renamed Ab-duction.

So, yeah, bottom line is: Lautner is apparently angling to become the next major action star.
Who could blame him after spending years flexing those abs only to be sparkling?
He is also now the highest-paid teenage actor (more so than Zac Efron or Miley Cyrus) thanks to $7.5 mils from John Moore’s Northern Lights.

Taylor Lautner is definitely going to sparkle for some time.

And yes, I’m aware that it’s the vampires that sparkle, not the werewolves.