Let’s face it, some things in life are just too funny not to laugh at.  And somethings in life (like “Toddlers and Tiaras”) are too appalling not to watch.  Now when you combine the premise of “Toddlers and Tiaras” with the Champagnes a “proud pageant family,” you get the perfect combination of both. And laugh you will.

This funny and amusingly offensive mockumentary series centers around the world of children’s beauty pageants (the “Miss Stars Eyes Pagaent” to be precise).  The setup goes like this: Michael Champagne (Sam Pancake) is the very proud, if not a little “swishy” father to Annette (Stacy McQueen), our little pageant princess (who happens to be played by an adult).  Michale is married to Ribina (Dee Freeman), the professional smoker that supports the family, who is fooling around every chance she gets with Michael’s brother, Ethan (Troy Conrad).  Whew.

It’s written and directed by Steve Silverman, who says, “It’s ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ meets ‘Reno 911′ meets everything that’s politically incorrect, but just a whole heck of a lot of fun to say out loud in the world today.”

The laughs (and the series) officially launches today, February 1st.  But episodes can be pulled up online all day everyday at their website, www.prettytheseries.com.

Here’s the official trailer to tease you a little…

I’ll be honest, I tried to read this book about a year or so ago.  The concept – cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1″ over 365 days and blogging about it – intrigued me.  A blog that gets turned into a book, that gets turned into a movie…what’s not to be intrigued by.

I just couldn’t get into it the book though, try as I might.  And well, I never bothered to track down the original blog (it is still out there). Thankfully, the Julie & Julia movie opens today – and yes, I do plan to make one of the early screenings.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I rarely find movies based on books to be even half as good as the books their based on.  I hear from a few friends that got to see an advanced screening, that this time around that I’ll be pleasantly surprised.  I’m really looking forward to it.

I love how Sony Pictures paid their respects to the current world of food bloggers.  My friend’s blog, Dine and Dish, was one of the featured food blogs on the Julie & Julia official site on July 9th.  I’m sure it was a difficult decision to narrow down all the incredible food blogs out there, to select just 30. How cool is that?

For those food lovers out there who are ready to gobble up Julie & Julia when it hits theaters today. Hollywood.com has the exclusive look into acclaimed chef Rocco DiSpirito’s top 5 movies for foodies as well as 15 questions with Meryl Streep, who plays Julia Child in the film. Some of DiSpirito’s picks include “Like Water Like Chocolate” and “Babette’s Feast.”

With the fifth installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise – Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – in theaters right now, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — the seventh and final book of the series poised to hit shelves on Saturday, the excitement of people across the country – young and old – has reached a fever pitch. Order of the Phoenix grossed $44 million in its first day of release, the highest opening Wednesday gross ever for a movie. Deathly Hallows is the number one seller on Amazon and has sold more pre-orders at Barnes and Noble than any other title in the chain’s history. Midnight release parties have been planned. The internet is rife with rumors, speculation and spoilers, some credible, and some not so much.
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As you may or may not have heard, in a promotional stunt to support the upcoming July 27th, Simpsons’ movie, a few select 7-eleven stores have gone through a complete overhaul.
read more from "Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart – Mmm Squishee, Mmm Donut, Mmm Genius!"

Summer can be a challenging time for moviegoers. You get all excited to see the next big event movie, something starring a muscled leading man and featuring lots of special effects and explosions, but then you leave the theatre feeling disappointed by the terrible plot line and laughable characters. You wish you’d spent the $30 you just dropped on two tickets and a bag of popcorn on something else. Never fear; there ARE some truly wonderful movies to be found this time of year. Here’s a few that are worth your time and money right now:
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You would think that since I came up with this assignment for all of the mods that I would at least have an idea of five things that I love. Thing is, I can think of more than five things, and well, some of those things might work best if I go with the themed option. Or maybe I’d do better to skip the theme. Who knew it would be so difficult to narrow things down to a mere five. Okay, the hell with a theme, here you go, in no particular order:

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2006 was a great year for movies. My three favorite films of the year include a mob thriller, a low budget ensemble comedy and a star-studded musical. It’s not every year that you three of the best films come from such very different genres. There was great variety in filmmaking this year and a preponderance of movies that were admirable and deeply affecting. At the end of each year my film geek friends and I create Top 10 lists and email them to each other, sparking all sorts of interesting debate and discussion. After much deliberation, these are my picks for the Top 10 movies of 2006. If you’re planning to see a movie anytime soon, you might want to consider one of these fine films:
Erin’s Top 10 Films of 2006

1. The Departed
2. Little Miss Sunshine
3. Dreamgirls
4. The Queen
5. Little Children
6. The Good Shepherd
7. Letters from Iwo Jima
8. Hollywoodland
9. Thank You For Smoking
10. An Inconvenient Truth

The top spot on my list goes to The Departed, Martin Scorsese’s masterful film about undercover work in the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish Mafia in Boston. The intricate and air tight plot is compelling and the acting is tremendous. I love the fact that at this late date in his career, Scorsese can make a Mafia movie that feels different and fresh, one that doesn’t rely on old clichés. The Departed had me on the edge of my seat, and I hope that Scorsese will finally get his long-deserved Oscar for this effort.
Second place goes to Little Miss Sunshine, one of the biggest and most surprising comedy hits of the year. This is a small movie that did big box office based primarily on positive word of mouth. That doesn’t happen every day. It’s a unique, hilarious and endearing film that combines laugh out loud moments with genuine emotion.
Dreamgirls surprised me. I’m not the biggest fan of musicals, but this one really works. The film is buoyed by the magnificent performance of Jennifer Hudson. Her name is on everyone’s lips as Oscar nominations approach, and deservedly so.
The Queen is a behind the scenes look at the interaction between Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair in the week following Princess Diana’s death. It’s completely engrossing and fascinating; the actors are so mesmerizing in their roles that you completely forget you’re watching actors at all. Helen Mirren is going to win Best Actress for her performance in this film, I’d bet money on it.
At fifth place on my list, Little Children is a dynamic film about two self-absorbed suburban parents and a community reacting to a pedophile in their midst. It’s a elegant morality tale, directed by the very talented Todd Field (“In the Bedroom”) and filled with moments of despair, irony and wicked humor.
My list continues with The Good Shepherd, a lengthy but very solid film about a career CIA agent (well played by Matt Damon) and Letters from Iwo Jima, Clint’s Eastwood’s wrenching film showing the battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the doomed Japanese. Also notable for me this year is Hollywoodland, a surprisingly emotional movie based on the sad life of George Reeves, television’s first Superman. In eighth position, Thank You for Smoking is a bitingly funny film whose protagonist is an unapologetic lobbyist for the tobacco industry. Finally, in tenth place, An Inconvenient Truth, the movie that woke up our country this year, got everyone talking about climate change and proved that even a simple Power Point presentation can be powerful in the hands of a good director.
My runner-up awards would go to United 93, The Matador, Borat, Cars and Monster House, great movies that didn’t quite make my Top 10.
Caveat: There are a still a number of movies that I have not seen which could be contenders for a place on this Top 10 List. These include The Last King of Scotland, Half Nelson, The Fountain, Shut Up & Sing, Volver, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu.

Rosebud

[youtube]V8FxZTQ8lsc[/youtube]

Well, it’s the seventh sign, my friends, the apocalypse is near. If you haven’t heard the news yet, Dustin Diamond, aka Screech from Saved By the Bell, has a sex tape coming out.

This by itself is unpleasant but not entirely unsurprising. I mean, obviously his career has kind of tanked since his heyday if you will of Screechdom. While Mark-Paul Gosselaar (aka the cute one) went on to NYPD Blue, and Tiffani Amber Thiessen had a good run on Beverly Hills 90210, poor Dustin has been stuck on the D-list comedy circuit. Heck, even Mario Lopez has kept his face on TV- it may have been on a bad knockoff of the View, and Dancing with the Stars, but it’s still work. Dustin, in the meantime, has apparently descended into the pit of bitterness and “what happened” entitlement complex otherwise known as “Former Child Star-Itis”. It’s a bad case, too. If you don’t believe me, you can go to his website and see for yourself. Yes, he is selling T-shirts to pay for his mortgage, and his woe is me tale is chock full of Gary Coleman/ Danny Bonaduce crazy goodness.

But I digress. The point is, he seems to have sunk to a real low in order to keep his name in the spotlight. His tape, if you believe the hype, contains an act that is just disgusting, nasty, and vile. By itself it is those things; Screech performing them adds “vomitous” to the mix. Screech performing it on tape elevates it to the rank of “If I watch that, I will have to dunk my head in a vat of bleach and pull my brains out my ears with a knitting needle to erase the memory.” It’s an act with its very own name, one you may or may not recognize. To protect the innocent I will omit the actual name, but it rhymes with “Dirty Tan Chaise.” If curiosity is overwhelming you, you can always google the name of the purported tape- I kid you not, they are calling it “Saved By the Smell.” If that doesn’t give you a hint that perhaps this is not something you want to Google, then you are beyond my help.

Usually when you hear about a celebrity sex tape, I think most people are at least a wee bit curious, right? Like, maybe you wouldn’t pay the $20 or whatever for a Night in Paris, or the John Wayne Bobbitt tape, but if a friend had it in the DVD player you’d take a peek. I need better friends. I still haven’t seen any of them, even the infamous Tommy Lee one, but if it was there, I would. But if this thing was playing, I tell you what, I would run. After sprinkling the TV with holy water. Blindfolded. This definitely heralds the arrival of the celebrities you didn’t want to see naked sex tapes. I guess it was bound to happen. What’s next? Urkel does Uranus? (insert collective groan. Yes, I wrote this whole paragraph just so I could write that one thing.)

There is one winner in this whole debacle, though, and that is Elizabeth Berkley. The infamous “Showgirls” star has finally relinquished her 11 year crown as “Most Embarrassing Saved By the Bell Alum”. Bravo, Elizabeth.

Apparently I’ve been living in a cave all summer. I only recently heard about the lonelygirl15 / youtube phenomenon, and LA Times staff writer Richard Rushfield insinuates that the only plausible explanation is recess-dwelling. I think that’s his way of making himself, & the millions of others like him who’ve fallen down this rabbit hole, feel better about their obsession with the videoblog of an unknown 15-yr old girl. She’s home-schooled in a small town and is very sheltered, in part, she says, because of her family’s religion. That she’s cute goes without saying. In other words, she’s every compu-geek’s fantasy. Just to emphasize this point, her sidekick in this drama is compu-geek Daniel, or as she calls him on her YouTube page, “Computer Genius.”
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