Who saw this coming? The Gong Show will return to television by way of Comedy Central beginning July 17th. The title has changed slightly: It's now The Gong Show With Dave Attell since Attell will take over the hosting duties held by Gong creator Chuck Barris in the show's original '70s/early '80s incarnation.
Yes, but who will take over for Gene Gene The Dancing Machine?
Eddy Arnold, the Nashville fixture whose hits were fixtures on the 1960s country charts, has died at the age of 89. Best known for "Make The World Go Away," Arnold helped popularize the smooth, string-driven "countrypolitan" sound that became a trademark of 1960s Nashville. The Tennessean has extended coverage of Arnold's life and accomplishments. Here's a clip of Arnold singing his biggest hit.
When Warner Brothers absorbed the 40-year-old (sorta, kinda, at times) independent label New Line Cinema back in late February, it was inevitable that certain "redundancies" were going to be eliminated. But who could have guessed the company would ax both of its boutique labels, New Line's Picturehouse and its own Warner Independent Pictures? Apparently confident that New Line and Warner Brothers can handle movies of all shapes and sizes, the company decided to shutter Picturehouse and WIP, both nascent divisions that had always struggled to find their footing the pseudo-independent marketplace. How much of an effect this will have on the flow of movies into arthouse cinemas remains to be seen, but in the meantime, let's celebrate the highlights: Over the course of its three-year existence, Picturehouse gave us A Prairie Home Companion, The Orphanage, The King Of Kong, Pan's Labyrinth, and Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story, among others. From the five-year old Warner Independent, we got Before...
In deference to that leak-crazy Web. 2.0 we all keep hearing about, Beck is keeping his cards close to the vest about his forthcoming record produced by Danger Mouse. It's coming out this summer, it has 10 songs, and will be released on Interscope in the States and XL in the rest of the world. And that's about all we know--no album title, no release date, no nothing else. Word on the street is that the record could come out at any time, like a rabid raccoon or that recent Racounteurs record. So, if you see wild Beck record roaming the streets, call the authorities.
A bronze bust of Frank Zappa has been a tourist attraction for years in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius—and now it’s coming to Zappa’s hometown of Baltimore. The original—sculpted by Konstantinas Bogdanasby, a man whose bread-and-butter was making statues of Lenin before the fall of communism—was erected in 1995; one of the Lithuanian Zappa fans who commissioned the bust petitioned the City Of Baltimore to accept a replica for public display. The timing was good: Last year Baltimore declared August 9 to be Frank Zappa Day, and now it’s agreed to shell out the $50,000 it’ll take to transport and install the bust. “Like John Waters and a lot of artists we’re proud of,” said a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, “it’s a big deal that Frank Zappa is from Baltimore.”
Hollywood's dream team--if your dreams involve gratuitous explosions, clumsy expository dialogue, and Aerosmith power ballads--Michael Bay and Jerry...
