Posts by Zach Dionne
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Box Office Top Five: Aaron Paul Couldn’t Defeat the Warriors or the Dog
‘Need for Speed’ couldn’t top repeat weekends from ‘Mr. Peabody & Sherman’ and ‘300: Rise of an Empire.’ Wes Anderson, meanwhile, set a second record in a row.
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The James Brown Biopic Has a Trailer and the Real Music
Also in the Afternoon Links: The full Prince/Zooey Deschanel collabo, a stellar ‘Letterman’ performance by New York rapper Le1f, and Depressed Darth Vader’s ‘Episode VII’ ultimatum for J.J. Abrams.
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The Lady Gaga Forced Outrageousness Meter: Vomiting Onstage at SXSW Edition
Jay and Ye aren’t the only superstars at South by Southwest this week. Lady Gaga’s also in town, and she’s working to raise more eyebrows than she ever did around the launch of Artpop. Techniques include being roasted on a spit and being vomited on.
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Matthew Perry’s ‘Odd Couple’ Reboot Will Costar Thomas Lennon
No, Perry’s latest stab at TV re-stardom hasn’t come and gone as quick as ‘Mr. Sunshine,’ ‘Studio 60,’ and ‘Go On.’ It still hasn’t even happened yet! And now ‘Reno 911!’ and ‘The State’ actor and writer Thomas Lennon is set to play Felix to Perry’s Oscar.
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Seth Rogen Has Never Smoked Weed With James Franco Because James Franco Doesn’t DO That, Man
Also in the Afternoon Links: Black Simon & Garfunkel take on Lorde, CBS renews basically everything it’s got, and a glorious supercut of 1,001 must-see films emerges.
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Down Goes Chu! Arthur Chu, the ‘Jeopardy!’ Champion Crafty Enough to Be Reviled, Has Finally Lost
The 30-year-old Ohio native, whose nontraditional category-hopping, Daily Double–hunting strategy prompted viewers to skewer him as a game-show Antichrist, left just shy of $300,000. His 11-game winning streak was the longest since Ken Jennings’s in 2004.
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Who’s Going to Lead ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’? Probably Jesse Plemons or Someone You Don’t Know
Disney’s seriously considering five candidates, including ‘Friday Night Lights’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ actor Jesse Plemons and Ed Speleers of ‘Downton Abbey.’ “Sources also indicate the reason for the delay has to do whether execs and creatives want someone of a different ethnicity from the previous Caucasian leads,” ‘Variety’ reports.
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Now We Know Why Rust Cohle Couldn’t Keep a Girlfriend
Also in the Afternoon Links: Drake + ‘House of Cards,’ ‘Seinfeld’ as a show truly about nothing, and Neil Young’s blisteringly successful Kickstarter venture.
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Supersize Comedy Renewals: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Gets Three More Years, ‘Key & Peele’ 20 More Episodes
It’s the second consecutive three-season renewal for ‘The Big Bang Theory.’ Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, meanwhile, are not only having their Comedy Central series supersized — they’re getting an animated spinoff in the process.
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Amazon Ordered Four of Its Pilots — Including ‘Transparent’ — to Series
It’s heartening to see that Amazon might be making decisions with more of an eye toward long-haul freshness than instant gratification.
