“Weeds” was announced to be back starting with the 13th of August. Matthew Modine was also announced to be having a recurring role. This would be the third season of “Weeds”.
Matthew Modine will play the character of Sullivan Goff, who is a mysterious land developer for a new Christian church development called Majestic. This new project is to be built near Agrestic. The actor, who has recently appeared on “Bedford Diaries”, will play a character who will have both personal and business interaction with Nancy and Celia, alias Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins respectively.
Matthew Modine will appear in at least 10 episodes of the comedy.
Zooey Deschanel will be another guest star of the show, who will play Cat, the ex-girlfriend of Justin Kirk’s character. Carrie Fisher will play Arlene, Celia’s divorce attorney.
“Weeds” has been a four-category nominee at the Golden Globe awards.

The Oscar winning actors Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker have had another reason to celebrate: they have picked up awards at the 38th edition of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards ceremony, which took place in Los Angeles. Like at the Oscars, Forest Whitaker has been chosen Best Actor for his playing Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” and Jennifer Hudson has been elected Best Supporting Actress for her role from “Dreamgirls”.
Hudson has stated that “There is nothing like being recognized and honoured by your own.”, while Forest Whitaker has said that this role allowed him to “go back to Africa and touch” his roots.

Another winning actor at this year’s NAACP Image Awards gala has been Isaiah Washington. He has been chosen Best Actor for a Drama Series for his role from “Grey’s Anatomy”. “The first time I was up here I felt deserving of something. This time I feel privileged.” has said Washington.

Other winners of the night have been Keke Palmer, who has been named Best Actress for her role in “Akkelah and the Bee” and Djimon Hounsou, Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Blood Diamond”. “The Pursuit of Happiness”, the movie starring Will Smith, has won Best Film, while “Ugly Betty” has won at the Best TV Comedy Series category. Vanessa Williams has been awarded the Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy prize for her role from the famous comedy show.

At this year’s gala the comedian Bill Cosby has been inducted into the NAACP’s Hall of Fame, while the Chairman’s Award has been given to Bono from U2. Prince has been awarded the Best Male Music Artist prize.

Technorati Tags: naacp image awards, forest whitaker, djimon hounsou, isaiah washington, idi amin, greys anatomy, jennifer hudson, vanessa williams, dreamgirls, last king of scotland

The “30 Rock” star Tracy Morgan pleaded guilty in his New York court. He drove while being intoxicated and as part of the agreement, Morgan must undergo supervised treatment by specialized doctor, as well as perform an undetermined amount of community service. Tracy Morgan must also stay out of legal troubles for six months, as part of this agreement.
If he will meet this conditions, Morgan will need to pay a $1,000 fine and he will not be sentenced to prison.
All Morgan’s problems started after on the 28th of November he was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving. His erratic driving was noticed by the police and this was the reason for his being stopped by the cops.

Technorati Tags: tracy morgan, 30 rock

30 Rock, that’s a nice new sitcom for NBC. Really. Alec Baldwin as the boss Jack Donaghy and Jack McBrayer as Kenneth are the funniest characters so far, together with Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan. For the ones that didn’t catch it on NBC here’s a list of my favourite episodes.

“30 Rock” has potential, but there’s a rumor about the cancelation of this show (always those ratings!). In case the rumor is true, NBC should give it a chance because it’s a funny show.

Technorati Tags: alec baldwin, tina fey, tracy morgan, 30 rock, nbc

After calling his co-star fellow, T.R. Knight, a faggot, Isaiah Washington apologized for using that word “that is unacceptable in any context” – as Washington himself stated. T.R. Knight told Ellen DeGeneres about his coming out after having overheard Washington calling him a faggot in October.
ABC stated Thursday that Washington had used “inappropriate language” when he had answered a reporter’s question about this matter, in the Golden Globes Awards backstage press room. Washington had said that in fact he had not called T.R. a faggot.
So, after dealing with the problem back in October, now ABC took the situation very seriously, as they considered Washington’s actions as unacceptable. The star apologized to T.R. Knight telling that he can not defend, or explain his behavior. He also stated that he realized he had also marred the crew perfect night at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony.
Washington will have a face-to-face sit down with the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy”. It will be now him to hear what their colleagues feel and think about him.

Technorati Tags: Isaiah Washington, Grey’s Anatomy Star, T.R. Knight, Apology

I’ve finally got the “Seinfeld” DVDs – the 7th season (probably the best season ever), which is also the last one that featurs Larry David. I’ve found out many interesting things, and I want to share them with the ones who are interested in:

“The Soup Nazi”
A very cool thing is that The Soup Nazi is in fact a real character (his name is Al), who sells soup in NYC. The soup is quite tasty and one might stand in a queue to get it. Jason Alexander (George) and Wayne Knight (Newman) did eat there for many times.

Larry Thomas was the one who had the idea of Omar Sharif from “Lawrence of Arabia” playing the role of “The Soup Nazi”.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has not watched “Scent of a Woman” yet, the famous movie staring Al Pacino… Jerry was the one who showed her how to imitate Al Pacino.

Who could steal an armoir? (In this episode two guys were to steal the armoir that was watched by Kramer in the street.) The producers kept wondering: who would have such reasons to steal a armoir? Larry David found a brilliant idea: the guys were gays! This way they would have the justification for stealing the old, “ancient” piece. The gay thieves have a more developed esthetic sense that the straight ones… that is my guess.

During the 8th season was filmed in New York, Jerry thought that it would be interesting to call by at “The Soup Nazi”, and he did it. It seemed that the guy was very angry with the promotion from the movie so he roared at Seinfeld: “You fucking asshole!” and other several swear-words of this range, which are hard to be imagined. Nevertheless, the producers were not so surprised by this attitude…

“The Maestro”
The lawyer Jackie Chiles (one of my favourite characters from the movie), played by Phil Morris, and the trial through Kramer brought an action against the coffee company are in fact some parodies related to the trial of O.J. Simpson and his lawyer Johnnie Cochran. The strange thing is the Phil Morris spent his childhood together with Johnnie Cochran.

“The Gum”
This episode seems to be written for Ruthie Cohen. Who’s she? She is the cashier of the bar where the four fellows have been meeting, and she is an “extra” appearance in all the episodes of “Seinfeld”. Practically, she is the character with the most numerous appearances from the show besides Jerry. She has only one line to say, but she was very happy that the scenarists thought about her.

“The Caddy”
For the surprise of Phil Morris, the lawyer Jackie Chiles appears as a “recurring character” in this episode, which is chaffing again the trial of O.J. Simpson.
Brenda Strong is playing Sue-Ellen Mischke, “the braless wonder”. In this episode there is a flashback in which Sue-Ellen is stealing Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) her boyfriend . In the movie, the name of the boyfriend was Tom Cosley and it is related to a real thing; it’s the name of a guy whom Julia Louis-Dreyfus had been dating in high school. Julia said that she hadn’t heard from him for a long time and after the episode appeared on TV the guy contacted her.

“The Cadillac”
The episode was born after a real happening: Larry David’s father, “president of the condo” in Florida, got from his son a brand new Lexus, a thing that excited the comments of people. Larry David always considered these old guys communities as places with a very special humor, and about which it was very funny to write about.

“The Friars Club”
The scenarist David Mandel had the idea with Bob’s hearing aid, after he remembered a school mate who was having such a hearing aid. He was always managing to escape his teachers’ comments, blaming the hearing aid not working well. Bob would do this in another episode. (Bob was being playing by Robert Schneider).

“The Wig Master”
The events from this episode were really passed through by Spike Feresten, the scenarist. The part with the wig creator who would not leave and the part with the condoms that were found in the parked car, are also real stories.

“The Bottle Deposit”
This is an important episode for Wayne Knight (Newman), who started to have palpitations and heart problems because he had needed to run at the filming over a maze field. After he reached the medicine, he found out that his heart was to pressured, and that he was also suffering from diabetics (the 2nd grade), and from obesity etc. This made him start a fitting program and a new more healthy life. Wayne Knight did thank Jerry Seinfeld for the way this episode changed his life. Sincerely, Newman is now far slimmer that he was during the filming.

“The Invitations”
The question was: Can you kill somebody funny? The idea came again from a real story. The mother of one of the scenarists told them a story about a man who died because he licked too many envelopes. This was happening back in the 40s. This was a difficult to make episode, and Jason Alexander (George) admitted that it was for the first time that his fans turned against him.

Technorati Tags: Seinfeld, Kramer, Larry David, Seinfeld DVD, Jason Alexander, Wayne Knight, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

I received a month ago the DVDs that contained the seasons 1 to 6 of “Seinfeld”. I had ordered them from Amazon a little bit too late (not that I’d wanted that), but “Seinfeld” was still broadcasted by a local television, and I didn’t considered that a priority. But, that was a really big mistake. I had knew that these DVDs would contain many ‘delicious’ add-ons, but my expecting have been overrun. I did ‘waste’ an entire week browsing the inside-looks, all the bloopers, the exclusive stand-ups and other very fascinating stories.
I’m also a big fan of Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm), so I have been very glad to find out that Larry contributed at the main part of the phenomenal success of the series. Larry confessed that he had a few moments when he did not want to be involved anymore, because of the increasing number of episodes that NBC was demanding.
I could say that I understand him. His last work, Curb Your Enthusiasm, is generally an improvised and genial show. It’s so “Larry David”…

To come back to the “Seinfeld” DVDs, they are perfectly composed and it’s obvious that all the ones that were involved in the show did what they could best so everything be more than all right. I was expecting to some more superficial inside-looks. I was expecting to fewer inside-looks, however. But that was not what I found in my DVDs, I was happy! The audio comments of every episode represent a great amount of work. At the seasons 5 and 6, I remember (though not very well) I bought Gift Box DVD (without thinking too much at what represented the gift itself – I was thinking of a DVD with special features).
Yet, it wasn’t so! I got “The Puffy Shirt”, the well-know pirate shirt which is exposed also at Smithsonian and a block notes with the original scripts of  the two episodes “The Pilot”. It was a wonderful surprise.
I need also to mention Larry Charles, who is, in my opinion, the third important man behind the show. He is also a good friend of Larry’s. Many of his ideas became turning points in the important moments of “Seinfeld”.

The “Seinfeld” DVDs – seasons 5 to 6 – need to be seen by a fan of the show! They are about €130.

And now randomly let’s see what one could find out from the inside looks:

• “The Sniffing Accountant” had really been Jerry accountant, and he had left with $80.000 to spend it on drugs.
• “The Contest” really existed, as Kenny Kramer was telling (he’s the one which inspired the producers for creating the character Kosmo Kramer). It seems that then Larry David won.
• Joe Devola is a real character, with whom Julia Louis-Dreyfus met after the end up of the sitcom. He seemed to really impress her in some way…
• Newman was some neighbor of Kenny Kramer’s and Larry David’s.
• “The Bubble Boy” was inspired by some news read by David in the newspapers. The reactions of the ones affected by this disease were not so agreeable.
• “The Jacket” is almost similar with an experience of Larry David when he was dating the daughter of the writer Richard Yates.