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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has achieved a remarkable feat. Fandom is united in fawning praise at the mid-season mark. That’s unheard of for such a disparate audience. Akin to a bunch of Klingons sharing the last goblet of Bloodwine or containing troublesome Tribbles in a box. The show successfully hearkens back to the original’s theme of episodic exploration without sacrificing character depth. Creators Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet have learned to stoke a fire without overheating....

This might be the most interesting news we hear all week. Bill Skarsgard, who is playing Pennywise the clown in the upcoming IT movie has officially boarded another Stephen King adaptation. Castle Rock, the Hulu series that is based on King’s multiverse, has brought Skarsgard on board as a series regular. The most interesting part? Bill Skarsgard is not playing Pennywise in Castle Rock. At least not as far as we know....

Family Feud host Steve Harvey is well known for his amusing reactions to bizarre answers given by contestants on the popular game show, but one particularly strange answer on a recent episode actually resulted in the family-friendly host dropping an F-bomb. The flub came during a Celebrity Family Feud edition of the television series, featuring old and new sports stars from the National Football League, with former Buffalo Bill defensive end Bruce Smith providing the swear-inducing answer during the game show’s Fast Money round....

MOVIE REVIEWS: GRINDHOUSE It’s hard to know whether the studio was thumbing its nose at religion, but Miramax has selected the Easter holiday weekend to resurrect the double bill at the nation’s theaters. That Grindhouse, which features two separate movies from writer-directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino – as well as some fake trailers – also includes a prodigious amount of blood may be seen by some of the faithful as compounding the blasphemy....

THEATERS DODGE OLYMPICS Aware of the competition from Friday’s scheduled telecast of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, Sony and Warner Bros. have decided to move their latest releases into theaters today (Friday). (China reportedly is spending $300 million on the show, more than the budget of any Hollywood film ever produced.) While one of the film’s Pineapple Express is expected to give The Dark Knighta run for the money in its fourth weekend, analysts point out that by opening the film on Wednesday, Sony risks depleting is weekend audience, particularly if the film receives poor word-of-mouth....

A SUPER WEEK FOR ABCABC’s telecast of the Super Bowl guaranteed the network a win for the week, but what may not have been so predictable was how big a lead it turned out to be. Not only did the game, in which the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-10, produce the biggest audience for any television program since the Super Bowl of 1996, but people stayed tuned in for the post-game show in greater numbers than usual, and a special episode of Grey’s Anatomy which followed drew the biggest audience for any entertainment program since the final episode of Friends in May 2004 – 38....

FOX’S SMITH NOW TOP-PAID CABLE NEWS ANCHOR Under a new three-year contract, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith will be paid $7-8 million a year, making him the highest-paid news anchor on cable TV and giving him a salary close to that paid by NBC and ABC to Brian Williams and Charles Gibson, the New York Timesreported today (Monday), citing an executive briefed on the deal. (CBS’s Katie Couric is the highest-paid anchor, earning $15 million annually....

PALIN FASCINATION Once again NBC’s Saturday Night Livedrew a bigger audience than any program that aired in primetime Saturday as viewers tuned in to see how Tina Fey would skewer Republican candidate Sarah Palin following Thursday night’s debate with Joe Biden. They were not disappointed. In one fell swoop Fey took on Palin’s position on gay marriage and the non-issue (thus far) of Palin’s pregnant daughter. “I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers,” she said....

SILVERMAN BEING SHOWN THE DOOR AT NBC? NBC’s primetime schedule for the fall is regarded as an “unmitigated disaster” and is likely to result in the departure of NBC Co-chairman Ben Silverman and his top programming executive, Teri Weinberg, L.A. Weeklycolumnist Nikki Finke reported on her online Dateline Hollywood Daily, citing unnamed network insiders. Finke reported that Silverman has withdrawn from day-to-day decision-making at the network after delegating to Weinberg, his former Reveille Entertainment assistant, responsibilities that she was too inexperienced to handle....

Three thousand dancers, their families and teachers from around the globe descend upon Glasgow for one drama filled week. Clad in wigs, make up, fake tan, diamantes and dresses costing thousands of pounds they compete for the coveted world titles. A year of incredibly hard work for just a few tense minutes on stage. This feature length documentary was given access for the very first time to the little known world of competitive Irish Dancing....

We have gotten confirmation from Paramount Pictures that the title of J.J. Abrams’ Super 8 is not changing. At least for the time being. Suspicions arose this past week when Paramount Brazil uploaded their 2011 release slate sizzle reel with a trailer for Super 8 that had the sci-fi shocker listed as Darlings. Paramount has confirmed that this title card was in place for security purposes only, and that the movie, which Abrams claims is a loving tribute to the early work of Steven Spielberg, will be titled Super 8 across the globe....

On June 13th, Aquamarine will be swimming it’s way up the DVD charts and we are celebrating by giving away copies of it! CLICK HERE to see that miracles can happen! Synopsis: Two best friends get exactly what they fish for in Aquamarine, a laugh-out-loud hilarious comedy about friendship! Emma Roberts, Sara Paxton and pop sensation JoJo star in adventure that’s “the sweetest treat since Princess Diaries!” (Yahoo! Movies) It’s the end of summer and Claire (Roberts) and Hailey (JoJo) have a major problem....

The Good For their time, these episodes were a lot of fun. The Bad I think there should have been more commentary tracks on this Second Season collection. The Adventures of Superman: The Complete Second Season is a 5 disc assortment that looks at one of the earliest incarnations of The Man of Steel. Still in their lush black and white from, these shows give us the indelible characters of Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and others....

George Clooney hits the snooze button in Anton Corbijn’s (Control) spectacularly uninteresting hit man drama, The American. You’ll hear fawning literati praises about the understated character work and solemn plot, beautifully photographed with an Italian setting. But that’s all conjecture, because no wide angle shots or staccato violins can make up for how incredibly bored I was throughout this film. Its just too quiet, literally. The dialogue is sparse and uneven....

The Avengers star Chris Evans took a break from filming the superhero ensemble in New Mexico over the weekend to present an award at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards. The actor revealed on the red carpet that, due to the isolated nature of New Mexico, the cast is bonding together in their off time. Chris Evans also talked about his scenes with the entire Avengers group where, unlike his starring role in Captain America: The First Avenger, he is not the only superhero on the set....

In the last 10 years, A24 has become a film production and distribution company that’s synonymous with quality, giving its first chances to new and promising directors, who will find great new actors who do movies that are very different from everything else on the multiplex. Those bets have been paying off, as now A24 is a brand in itself, and many of their directors and actors have become the new stars of Hollywood, earning awards and recognition....

It’s OK — within reason — to see similar themes, visuals, etc. in movies. For example, a lot of princess movies, rom-coms, and slashers are all fairly similar. However, directly ripping off a movie is pretty frowned upon. While ripoffs can happen in any genre and to any production studio, Disney has dealt with quite a few of them. Several smaller studios have released major ripoffs of Disney classics over the years....

The first trailer for the upcoming DC series Titans took the Internet by storm, but not in the way that DC seemed to expect. A number of DC fans were excited to see this series, particularly those who loved the animated Teen Titans series growing up. A number of fans were previously disappointed with the first reboot of the series, Teen Titans Go!, which took a satirical twist on the show, becoming incredibly cheesy and campy rather than working as a sequential narrative like the original series....

The 24 Director/Cinematographer discusses the future of Jack Bauer As the cinematographer and director on the Fox hit 24, Rodney Charters is very much responsible for that show’s look. He recently took that vision to the internet with the creation of The Rookie. Set in the brain of 24’s surveillance center, CTU, this show features webisodes that follow new recruit Jason Blaine and the adventures he gets into. Charters recently sat down with us to discuss both The Rookie and 24....

We just got a scoop from a source named “L.” who claims he may have some definitive info on who has been cast as Superman in Justice League of America. Hey! I’m a big fan of your site, and I’ve always wanted to be a spy. Not in the literal, garrott wire and Russian murdering sense of course, but in the movie rumour way. So, I thought you guys might be interested in this: About three weeks ago I went along to some casting sessions in soho for a movie called Justice League....