Category: Television

Caitlyn Jenner Admits She Doesn’t Trust the Kardashians

It seems Caitlyn Jenner has pursued all of the physical attributes of becoming a woman, but none of the emotional ones, such as compassion, empathy, and kindness. When asked why she chose to omit her gender reassignment surgery from the advance copy of the book she provided to the Kardashians, Caitlyn insisted it was none of their business, and it was simply not an important issue.She furthered that she did not trust the family to keep it from the press. This revelation comes after Khloe Kardashian revealed to Howard Stern that Caitlyn Jenner was planning a television show about becoming a woman BEFORE she even told her family of her intention to transition. That news caused a rift between Caitlyn and Khloe, given Caitlyn’s clear intention to garner only positive press. The rift became further strained by another omission regarding Robert Kardashian, which Kim felt was unforgivable. Watch below. To quote Kris Jenner, “I thought Bruce Jenner was the most stubborn person I ever met. Then I met Caitlyn.”

TV Tune Tuesday: Meet Musician Aron Wright

As we learned from yesterday’s post about Freya Ridings and an earlier interview I did with the very talented Aurora, television is often the perfect venue to highlight new artists. I’ll try to do this feature every week, and this week’s pick is Aron Wright, whom I discovered on Grey’s Anatomy. His soul-melting voice can also be heard on many other shows, including The Blacklist, The Vampire Diaries, and more. According to Wright, he records his music in a 100-year-old church he converted into a studio. His credits include co-writing the song “Hallelujah” by Panic! at the Disco and penning “Walk Out On Me,” which was performed by Courtney Love on the FOX television show, Empire. The multi-instrumentalist (trumpet, bass trombone, tuba and guitar) was born in Little Rock, AR, and raised in St. Louis, MO before eventually moving to South Africa. He now lives in Nashville. Listen below.

Freya Ridings’ Song Reaches TNT’s ‘Good Behavior’

Freya Ridings

Television shows often have a limited music budget, which means they are forced to get creative when picking tracks. And it’s thanks to that creativity that I was introduced to the very beautiful song, “Lost Without You” by Freya Ridings, which was featured on TNT’s Good Behavior. This will be the third release from the 23-year-old Londoner, whose self-released singles have amassed millions of streams. Of the song, Ridings has said that she wanted to capture a heart-breaking moment from a train station that changed her life. The track was mixed by Tom Elmhirst (Adele, David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Beck). Prior to “Lost Without You,” Ridings released “Blackout” and “Maps,” the latter of which is a cover of the popular Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs song. Listen to the stunning track below.

Alec Baldwin’s Best SNL Performances of All-Time


Written by: Guest contributor

Alec Baldwin has been a regular guest on Saturday Night Live since 1990 and holds the current record for hosting the show 16 times. His talent for mimicry lends itself for clever impersonations, breathing life into a wide range of characters. He’s played everything from a deranged elf to the President of the United States. He clearly enjoys sketch comedy. Baldwin’s playful, impish nature is inclusive, making us feel like we’re in on the jokes.

Cockpit: 10/23/2016

Baldwin and Tom Hanks play off each other in this uncomfortably funny skit depicting the hero-pilot of the Hudson River landing fame, Sully Sullenberger.

Top Gun Auditions: 9/24/2001

Top Gun fans of a certain age will enjoy Baldwin’s eccentric Al Pacino.

The Joe Pesci Show: Robert De Niro, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Brad Pitt: 1/20/1996

Baldwin’s ability to mimic subtle body language and accents fleshes out his Robert De Niro.

Plastic Surgeon: 11/15/2003

Amy Poehler’s character goes to a plastic surgeon, played by Baldwin, for a breast augmentation consultation. The sketch pokes fun at Baldwin’s passionate monologues from the movie Malice.

Glengarry Glen Christmas: Elf Motivation:12/10/2005

Baldwin’s elf channels his Glengarry Glen Ross movie character and breaks the spirits of his elf subordinates.

The SNL Platinum Lounge:11/11/2006

Steve Martin and Baldwin play themselves bumping into each other before the show. Martin turns homicidal trying to prevent Baldwin from breaking his record for hosting SNL.

Inside The Actor’s Studio with Charles Nelson Reilly: 4/7/2001

This skit holds generational appeal to those of us who are old enough to remember the game show Hollywood Squares. Baldwin nails Reilly’s flamboyant nature with just enough camp.

Weekend Edition: Steve Rogers: 12/10/2011

Baldwin shines in this news segment poking fun at himself. He plays the pilot that threw him off a recent flight for refusing to turn off his mobile phone before takeoff.

Prince Charles Press Conference: 11/15/2003

If sexual innuendo is your cup of tea, you’ll enjoy the clever repartee of Baldwin’s secretary interacting with reporters during a news conference.

Date with a Child Psychologist: 9/24/2011

A dinner date goes horribly wrong. Baldwin’s pompous psychologist is impervious to his date’s growing discomfort while he unskillfully manages his child’s prolonged tantrum.

Donald Trump Press Conference Cold Open: 10/15/2016

Baldwin’s depiction of Trump’s first press conference since his election is colorfully irreverent. No matter what side of the aisle you fall on, Baldwin’s impression of Trump has received great reviews and has led to Baldwin to explore his options and take his Trump impression on the road.

Wii Guys: 2/14/2009

Depending on your tastes you’ll either laugh uncomfortably or with abandon while watching Baldwin as a father learn to master a Wii game with his sons.

Donald Trump Vs Hillary Clinton Third Debate Cold Open: 10/15/2016

Kate McKinnon and Baldwin skillfully lampoon the foibles of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. McKinnon would go on to win an Emmy for her performances on Saturday Night Live, with her role as Clinton being the most memorable.

NPR’s Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls: 4/7/2001

The reigning crowd favorite of Baldwin’s SNL skits. As a guest on a highbrow National Public Radio cooking show, he discusses his recipe for Schweddy balls.

Ronan Farrow Exposes Harvey Weinstein’s Shocking “Army of Lies”

Ronan Farrow’s new piece in the New Yorker seems ripped from Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal, only the truth is stranger than fiction. It’s both important and complicated, which has motivated me to provide a breakdown of the most important parts. Here they are.

Weinstein hired Kroll and Black Cube to investigate and suppress allegations against him

Kroll is one of the world’s largest corporate-intelligence companies, and Black Cube is an agency run largely by former officers of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies. Black Cube offers operatives who are “highly experienced and trained in Israel’s elite military and governmental intelligence units.” Their mission was to stop the New York Times piece on Weinstein and to obtain an advance copy of Rose McGowan’s book, which was to be published in January.

Two private investigators from Black Cube met with actress Rose McGowan to extract information using false identities

Under the ruse of being a women’s rights advocate who worked for a fake wealth-management firm, a woman named “Diana Filip” contacted McGowan with a phony initiative to combat discrimination against women in the workplace. They met multiple times, and when McGowan revealed that she was speaking with Ronan Farrow for his Weinstein take-down piece, Filip then contacted Farrow with the same alias. Farrow ignored her. She then contacted a journalist from New York with a different alias, and this time she posed as a “victim” of Weinstein. The journalist smelled a rat and it didn’t go further. The fake website for her bogus wealth management firm has now been removed. Black Cube has since defended themselves, saying they “operate in full compliance with the law of any jurisdiction in which it operates—strictly following the guidance and legal opinions provided by leading law firms from around the world.” Another freelancer also contacted other victims and allegedly reported that information back to Black Cube.

Weinstein’s lawyers helped Black Cube with their mission

One such lawyer who helped Black Cube is David Boies. Boies represented Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential-election dispute and argued for marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court. Though he directed Black Cube in their efforts to squash the New York Times story, his firm simultaneously represented the Times in a libel case. Using a law firm to hire an investigative agency is a cunning tactic, because any objectionable actions used by the agency is then subject to attorney-client privilege, thereby shielding them in court. As for whether it’s a conflict of interest to try to stop a Times story while simultaneously having them as a client, Boies’ argument in his own defense is so twisted it’s not worth repeating. It is worth noting; however, that Boies says his hands are clean because he did not “direct” Black Cube’s methods. To put it simply, they might have hired them to uncover evidence, but they did not “direct” them in how they would uncover that evidence.

Weinstein used the National Enquirer for help

In an effort to undermine the credibility of his accusers, Weinstein appealed to Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer. She then provided details of a call made with Robert Rodriguez’s ex-wife. It was alleged that Rodriguez left his wife for McGowan. The call was recorded. Rodriguez’s ex has now made it clear that she would not have cooperated in any efforts to discredit McGowan, but since they would not stop calling, she finally agreed to have a conversation. Howard has since offered what I consider to be a weak defense, which basically suggests the information provided was off the record, and because they had a television-production agreement with Weinstein, they had an interest in protecting their company against what they believed to be false accusations. Perhaps Howard and Boies should have coffee.

Weinstein also employed an investigation firm, known as PSOPs, to uncover compromising data on his accusers

Two private investigators, named Jack Palladino and Sara Ness, produced detailed profiles of Weinstein accusers, including 100 pages on Rose McGowan. But it didn’t stop there. Many of the private security firms he hired also sought to uncover negative information on the journalists themselves, including Ronan Farrow and David Carr, who died in 2015. Carr’s widow says that he always felt he was being surveilled and though he wrote negative stories about Weinstein, he stopped short of exposing his actions toward women for fear of retribution.

This story is horrific, disturbing, and shocking, but I find some sense of solace in at least knowing that this guy, for the past three decades, has employed extremely technical tactics to keep this quiet. It should be really, really difficult to successfully silence victims, and in this case, he spent millions of dollars to do so. According to McGowan, “It was like the movie ‘Gaslight. Everyone lied to me all the time. For the past year, I’ve lived inside a mirrored fun house.” I also find solace in knowing that these tactics will no longer work, as victims have now mobilized in support of one another. Shame will hopefully no longer be used as a tactic for secrecy. As for men, I can only hope that they join the movement.

Artist on the Rise: RIVVRS

Looking for your next underground artist on the rise? Meet RIVVRS, also known as Brandon Zahursky, who is an interesting mix between Mike Posner and Hozier. I don’t know Mr. Zahursky personally, but I’d imagine he’d take issue with the Posner comparison, but that’s a compliment on the vocals front. He adds an interesting layer of depth to this lane, which happens to be a sweet spot on my playlist, thus making me the perfect person to review his new lead single, “Don’t Give Up On Me.” The song can be found on his full-length album, ‘Cosmic Dream’, which will be released in 2018.

I can’t take full credit for finding RIVVRS, though. He’s has over 30 song placements on network television shows, and over eight million Spotify streams. In fact, his debut single “I Will Follow You,” was written into the script of an episode of ‘About A Boy’ in 2014. Prior to his full-time career as an artist, he worked in the wine industry. When he left, he couch surfed, played house concerts, and performed at a coffeehouse in San Luis Obispo, which is where another artist told him to attend the Durango Songwriters Expo near Santa Barbara. It was there that he got the attention of the Hollywood music supervision community. Sometimes it pays to take a risk, and judging by his new single, he made the right decision.

Listen below to his latest release, which you can also find here.

Steve Earle Proves His Prowess at The Troubadour

Buoyed by his boisterous fan base and the electricity of Los Angeles’ best music venue, Steve Earle graced the stage of The Troubadour for a tireless show that proved he lives up to all that live-performance hype. Steve Earle is a bit of a legend. His country music outlaw status is backed up by some seriously good interview quotes, including one recent gem that went viral. When asked about modern country music in an interview with The Guardian, Earle said:

The best stuff coming out of Nashville is all by women except for Chris Stapleton. He’s great. The guys just wanna sing about getting fucked up. They’re just doing hip-hop for people who are afraid of black people. I like the new Kendrick Lamar record, so I’ll just listen to that.”

His unapologetic attitude also goes for his personal life. Recently divorced from his sixth wife, he said, “She traded me in for a younger, skinnier, less talented singer-songwriter,” but that’s okay because now if he goes to a baseball game he can now stay for the whole thing.”

Earle’s new album, ‘So You Wannabe an Outlaw,’ is inspired by Waylon Jennings’s ‘Honky Tonk Heroes,’ which is best evidenced by his remake of Jennings’ “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way.” Earle is backed on the new album by his long time band The Dukes (guitarist Chris Masterson, fiddle player Eleanor Whitmore, bassist Kelly Looney, and new members drummer Brad Pemberton and pedal steel player Ricky Ray Jackson). The record began when T. Bone Burnett asked Earle to write a song for the television show, Nashville.’ A year later, he wrote another, and the experience moved him toward his country record. Since Earle integrates important social themes into his music, you’ll find his stance woven into the record, most notably with “Fixin’ to Die,” which is about death row. According to Earle, it was inspired by witnessing an execution in Texas. Though Earle has somewhat moved away from his 1986 ‘Guitar Town’ country debut, adding Willie Nelson to your title track certainly allows for a raucous return to form.

I spend a lot of time at concerts watching crowds, because the audience’s behavior says a lot about who’s on stage. In fact, there’s an LA movement to eliminate all talking during shows, out of respect for the performer (see SoFar Sounds). Though an interesting idea in theory, there’ s a deeper issue at play, and it’s important. If the audience is talking during your set, something is awry on the stage. Sure there’s always some drunk schmuck making unnecessary noise, but if no one’s looking, that’s very important data that can help the singer. What if the audience at The Comedy Store was told to laugh, for example, even if the jokes weren’t funny, out of “respect” for the comedian? How would that comedian then know that their set needs tweaking? Or what if the audio is sub-par, thereby impacting the audience’s attention? These things are KEY, and they are all factors as to why I watch those crowds. Having said that, Steve Earle’s crowd is worth mentioning, and not just because it was a sold out show. The crowd listened intently, enjoyed every moment, rarely disrupted their experience with cell phones, and often got excited during his set. Steve Earle commands attention, and that attention is well deserved.

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The Sinner Premieres Strong — Jessica Biel’s Finest Role

I've seen a lot of bad pilots in my life, many of which never made it to air. It's also widely known that pilots are generally tough. It takes time to find the right rhythm, and only a keen eye can spot its potential. So when I see a strong pilot, I'm stunned. Such is the case with The Sinner, starring Jessica Biel. The series is also executive produced by Biel, and this is her first regular role on a television series since 7th Heaven. Biel's producing partner, Michelle Purple, also serves as an executive producer, and this was done through their company Iron Ocean Films.

Episode one makes it very clear that we're in for a ride. Biel plays a young mother named Cora who commits an unspeakable act of violence in public while sitting on the beach with her family. There's no explanation for her behavior, and Cora insists that there's simply no motivation behind her act. But Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) thinks differently.

In just one episode I can safely say this is Biel's finest role. Were it not for the trailer, you'd be shocked by her act, while also being able to watch it again and spot the signs that something about her behavior is slightly awry. This requires a great amount of nuance and intrigue, and she plays it perfectly. And I'm not the only one who thought so. The series drew 3.5 million viewers making it the summer’s top cable drama series debut.

Tune in to the anthology drama on Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA Network

Sarah Jessica Parker and Michelle Pfeiffer Interview Each Other

There’s a new wave of interviews where talent interviews talent, and for the most part — it’s a giant fail. First, it demeans the art of the interview. The idea that anyone, include an actor or director can easily engage in an art form of which they know nothing about, is almost insulting to the Howard Sterns and Barbara Walters of the world. Second, it’s indulgent. It usually involves endless compliments and painful gushing rather than hard-hitting, informative fact-finding or any type of comedic exchange. Lastly, since most actors don’t enjoy being asked any type of invasive questions, they’re far too respectful in these exchanges, and it’s just boring. Having said all that, I stumbled across Variety’s actors-on-actors format during a YouTube deep-dive, and I actually enjoyed the Sarah Jessica Parker/Michelle Pfeiffer sit-down. Because Michelle does not fully understand the art of television and Sarah Jessica does both television AND movies, it’s fascinating to see Sarah Jessica’s explanation of the TV art form. In fact, I learned a few things. Furthermore, Michelle seems surprisingly shy, humble, and unaware of her success. Watch and enjoy.

Farrah Abraham Takes Chad Ochocinco’s Erratic Mother to Task

Of all the Teen Moms, Farrah Abraham has always been my favorite. First, I feel she had the hardest life. She alleges that her mother physically abused her, and though I have no personal data, there is one incident on the record in which her mother was arrested. This leads me to believe there’s more the story, especially given Farrah’s often unjustified anger toward her parents. People don’t just wake up and verbally abuse their mother for no reason. There’s some deep-seeded resentment and mysterious trauma that Farrah has alluded to in other reality shows. Having said all that, she’s also the most ambitious of the cast. Caitlynn and Tyler seem to have have zero jobs, nor does Amber, and though Maci has a T-shirt company, her day-to-day is not featured, so it’s hard to say what she’s actually doing. Sure Farrah did a porn, but so what? She’s an adult, and she has since opened up numerous businesses. I’m also not in the business of sexually shaming consenting adults. Farrah is also HIGHLY entertaining. And when her arbitrary venom is correctly placed, she is someone you want on your team. In the clip below, you will see Chad Ochocinco’s extremely erratic mother attempt to bully everyone in the cast of “Marriage Boot Camp: Family Edition,” including Chad, who I can only assume took this show solely for the money, as there’s no other excuse to keep this woman in his life. In fact, watching him sit beside her in the confessional is almost unbearably painful. Lucky for him, he’s got Farrah Abraham, and she’s not having it. Watch below.