Results tagged “tv”

Last week, NBC dramatic warhorse Law & Order continued its "ripped from the headlines" mantra and filmed a crash at Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard at West 151st Street that resembled this past summer's Taconic State Parkway wrong-way crash that left eight people dead. In the Taconic incident, mother of two Diane Schuler was apparently drunk and high when she rammed her minivan—carrying her two children and three nieces—into a car carrying three adults, killing everyone, except Schuler's young son. The Post says the L&O crash features a "Chevy Astro minivan -- packed with kids -- north in the southbound lane of the boulevard, causing a fiery crash that leaves the minivan and another car burned to a crisp."

Is the media frenzy over the balloon boy stunt making you sick? You're not the only one! Parents Richard and Mayumi Heene are very busy pimping themselves out to the networks, and they're not about to let their li'l star's stomach virus stand in the way of their precious 15 minutes. This morning Falcon—the six-year-old boy who was hiding in the attic while America was voyeuristically titillated worried sick that he was in a runaway helium balloon—vomited twice on two different talk shows this morning, just like a pussified wus. Here's the Today Show spew, at 5:50 in:

Move over, Steve Wilkos. Brooklyn-boy-made-good Michael Mazzariello is the newest addition to in-your-face daytime TV with the recently premiered . East New York native "Judge Mazz," the former chief prosecutor for the Board of Ed, takes cases right at the scene of the crime, including within the five boroughs.

Last week's season premiere of Saturday Night Live may have had America's Most Overhyped Sexpot Megan Fox as host, but this week's second episode ended up being the true Ladies Night, with divas in full force. Host Ryan Reynolds did that thing you do when your spouse is an even bigger star than you and brought along his wife (and soon-to-be Broadway actress) Scarlett Johansson, who reprised her role as a local saleswoman pitching "Chandeliers!" for dad Fred Armisen's Long Island business, that has now apparently expanded to porcelain fountains.

Below is video of David Letterman explaining to his talk audience—and the rest of America—about how he was extorted for $2 million or else his sexual relationships with female Late Show staffers would be revealed. About 7 minutes 25 seconds in, Letterman explains what the "creepy stuff" in the blackmail package was: "The creepy stuff was that I have had sex with women who work for me on this show."

Makenzie Vega, a 15-year-old actress who plays Julianna Margulies's daughter in CBS drama The Good Wife, was staying in the room directly above the one where investment executive Andree (Sara) Bejjani was found murdered Saturday. Vega says that hours before the murder she had a retrospectively scary exchange with suspect Derrick Praileau, the housekeeping manager at the Essex House who has confessed to stabbing Bejjani with a 10-inch bread knife during a violent rape attempt.

Veteran NYC news anchor Ernie Anastos, who currently appears on MyFoxNY (channel 5)'s 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. broadcasts, spiced things up last night. Gawker explains, "Perhaps overloaded by transitive small talk between the weather report and a commercial break, Anastos — who once said 'dot cock' on live television — told meteorologist Nick Gregory that 'it takes a tough man to make a tender forecast,' and then, to the utter shock and appall of his co-anchor, Dari Alexander continued, 'Keep fucking that chicken.'" Huh?

Okay, by now you've hopefully watched the season premiere of Mad Men—and if you haven't, consider this your spoiler alert. In it, Bryan Batt's character, art director Sal Romano, finally gets some male lovin' from a hotel employee while on a business trip with Don Draper. Batt has talked plenty about the scene (video after the jump), saying he told his on-screen interest, "Close your eyes and pretend I'm Christie Brinkley." We talked to the actor who played that full-service bellhop, Orestes Arcuni, and he told us a little bit more about being transported to the mid-century set.

Being behind the wheel of a New York City cab can likely supply you with plenty of fodder for a screenplay, especially when you're driving away from a job on Wall Street. Nearly a decade ago 45-year-old Mike Puerto quit his job trading derivatives and got his taxi license. He worked on a script for a Wall Street drama and, according to the NY Post, taped a sign behind his seat that read: "If you are a TV producer or executive, I have a pilot ready to go into production." Well, he's now got himself a producer, director of photography, agent and actors on the ready for his TV project, titled "M&A" (mergers and acquisitions). While networks expressed interest, a solid deal hasn't come through, however; so Puerto found advertisers and his plan is to buy time on Spike TV. The entourage he assembled all work for free (for now), and are convinced that Puerto is on his way to success. Paul Jarrett of Rosetta Films told the paper, "None of these people have been paid anything. It's just that Mike is such a captivating person that we keep coming back to see if he will pull all the pieces together and actually get this thing made." The sign in the cab now has this addendum: "will shortly go into production."

Tyra Banks is bringing back her talk show this Fall, and declares that this time around it will be more real than ever. Whereas her other show revolves around physical appearance, her talk show will celebrate inner and outer beauty. Today she was in Union Square taping a segment for the show wearing a bodysuit and a scarf on top of her head. (A before-stripping-down photo of Tyra, smiling with her eyes in Union Square, after the jump).

An employee at the Target in East New York is accused of conspiring with her boyfriend to set fire to the store as a diversion while they stole $8,000 worth of flat-screen televisions. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling surveillance cameras! The FDNY says video depicts Jared Devonis, who was fired from Target two weeks ago, using a lighter to start a fire in the paper towel aisle.

Last night, Conan O'Brien officially took over hosting duties for The Tonight Show and opened the show with a taped bit that showed him running across the country from NYC to LA (with scenic stops at the Wrigley Field in Chicago, St. Louis Arch, and a Victorian Doll Museum somewhere else).

Unless you were one of those people on Friendster who used to list "Kill Your Television" under Favorite Shows, you probably have heard that Conan O'Brien will be taking over later this evening. As New York officially lets go of its red-headed late night stepchild once and for all, Conan introduces himself to Los Angeles with an inaugural show that has a distinct '90s feel to it: his guests are Will Ferrell and Pearl Jam and the return of old sidekick Andy Richter as his new announcer. Will Pimpbot 5000 return as well? In an interview with today's Times, Conan said, "I can’t go anywhere without people saying, ‘Good luck in LA’ Or, ‘What’s it like in LA?’ Osama Bin Laden is in a cave somewhere saying, ‘I wonder how Conan will be in LA.’”

Newsweek's cover story this week is about Oprah Winfrey and "Why Health Advice on Oprah Could Make You Sick." Ouch! The first example mentions how actress Suzanne Somers was on the show, explaining her hormone therapy regime ("She smears progesterone on her other arm two weeks a month. And once a day, she uses a syringe to inject estrogen directly into her vagina"), prompting Oprah to say, "Many people write Suzanne off as a quackadoo. But she just might be a pioneer." While Oprah did have critics present, they weren't given the prominence Somers had; Albert Einstein College of Medicine director of endocrinology tells Newsweek that Somers "simply repackag[ed] the old, discredited idea that menopause is some kind of hormone-deficiency disease, and that restoring them will bring back youth." While many of Oprah's medical endorsements are taken to task, Newsweek does give props for Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Columbia Presbyterian cardiac surgeon: "On one show, 'Everybody Poops,' Oz conducted a genuinely fascinating seminar on what comes out the other end. (It should be shaped like an S and 'hit the water like a diver from Acapulco.' Who knew?)"

The NHL is doing something they haven’t done since 1956, scheduling games of the Stanley Cup back-to-back. The reason for this almost historic event is the demands of television. NBC does not want hockey games, with their potential for multiple overtimes, running into the first week of the new Tonight Show hosted by Conan O’Brien. Yet, NBC doesn’t pay the NHL to carry it’s product, instead they have a deal where both parties split the profits after all production costs have been covered.

New Yorkers aren't exactly known for a "sharing is caring" attitude, but cab riders across town may soon be forced to make room in the back seat for total strangers, if several new proposals are approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Today the TLC will meet to discuss and possibly vote on three pilot programs they say would help reduce congestion, make more cabs available, and pull in extra money for hacks. Under consideration:

After a showstopping debut that broke Amy Poehler during a sentimental farewell and pissed a lot of people off by using the governor's blindness a punchline, Armisen's send-up might have finally begun running out of steam. Last night's appearance saw him as one half of a comedy duo, alongside his predecessor Eliot Spitzer (played extra creepily by Bill Hader). The New Jersey punchlines were back in full effect, along with the idea that Governor Paterson's best chance at getting reelected is that New York voters will enter the booth next November with a "Sanjaya mentality."

In its advertising, Sears vows to match competitors' prices, but one Long Island lawyer has been walking a long road of disillusionment after the retailer refused to live up to its promises. Back in 2007, when Warren Dank showed employees at a Hicksville Sears ad clippings from competitors selling a 46-inch flat-screen for as low as $2,400—$1,200 less than what Sears was charging for the exact same product—a manager refused to budge on the price. And so Dank found his life's calling: He drove around to three different Sears outlets in the metropolitan area and was denied the promised discount every time.

A Staten Island man will spend nearly six years (69 months) in prison for selling a satellite TV package to New York customers that included the Hezbollah television channel Al Manar (pictured), which the feds call "a terrorist organization masquerading as a TV channel." In December, Javed Iqbal, who emigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan as a teenager, agreed to a plea deal to settle the case, which could have landed him in prison for up to 15 years. At yesterday's sentencing, he said he was "deeply sorry" for what he calls a mistake, and his lawyer tells the Times the channel was just one "narrow aspect" of a TV package that was "180 degrees from Islamic fundamentalism." But federal prosecutor Eric Snyder called Iqbal "Hezbollah’s man in New York City. He did all this to bring the Hezbollah operations to our shores, to allow Hezbollah to have their operations here in New York City. That’s a very dangerous thing." The NYCLU had defended Iqbal on First Amdendment grounds, and the trial highlights the ongoing debate over how far the government can go in coping with terrorism: Is this censorship, or just keeping America safe?

Bravo's alleged boyfriend-beating "housewife" is at it again. Page Six now reports that Kelly Bensimon allegedly stole an idea for a jewelry piece from a former Elle Accessories co-worker, Celeste Greenberg. The story goes like this: Greenberg procured a vintage owl pendant for then editor-in-chief Bensimon to wear for photo shoots, and together they promptly made a deal to manufacture a replica of the design. Trouble is, those verbal agreements are always so tricky. Greenberg is now filing a lawsuit that claims Bensimon "cut Greenberg out and went ahead and manufactured the pendant on her own," which she currently sells for $325 and has been happily hawking the piece during her Real Housewives screen time.

Someone has added some new theme music to the Diff'rent Strokes opening, and even he admits, "This has turned out far more creepy than I thought it would." Aside from the new music, the video is unedited except for some color hue alterations.

Start spreading the "news": The next season of Fox's terrorist crime thriller 24 will be set right here in New York City. After seven seasons in LA and one in DC, "Day 8" of the series will unfold in the Big Apple. Sources also tell Entertainment Weekly that next season "CTU will make a comeback under the leadership of a new, yet-to-be-cast male character by the name of Brian Hastings. Described as an MBA type with a razor sharp intellect, Hastings will be joined by two new twentysomething agents (one male, one female), as well as Mary Lynn Rajskub's returning Chloe." Will the Counter Terrorist Unit clash with the NYPD, just like in real life? Will Bauer spend half the episode waiting for the friggin' F train? Or maybe save New Yorkers from evildoing photographers? The narrative possibilities are seemingly endless here, but don't expect to glean any plot clues by following the production around town—when shooting begins next month, most of it will still happen in LA.

The rollout of Eliot Spitzer 2.0 continued with an appearance on last night's Saturday Night Live. All right, so it may not have been the actual "Love Gov," who has been popping up recently on various talk shows. But even just having Bill Hader as Spitzer show up in a signature left field ending in this underage bar sketch last night felt like further confirmation that the former governor has returned to the conversation.

The new Bravo housewives were unmasked earlier this week as the network aired a preview of The Real Housewives of New Jersey (watch it here). It was all very mafia mini-mall chic, to say the least. The big cameo this week was by none other than former NYC police commissioner Bernard Kerik! He now lives in Housewife territory in Franklin Lakes, N.J, and went uncredited for his scene, where he was training an attack dog in the yard of the show's Manzo family. The NY Times points out that "Mr. Manzo’s father, who weighed 350 pounds but was known as Tiny, ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Paterson before buying the Brownstone [catering hall] in the 1970s. In 1983, he was found dead in the trunk of his Lincoln Continental with four bullet wounds to his chest. The crime was never solved." Kerik actually held a fundraiser in December at the Manzo's catering hall to raise money for his legal defense as he fights a federal indictment on corruption, tax evasion and perjury charges. He'll be getting ready for his real close-up when he faces trial this October.

One of the pursuits the newly unemployed have turned to is being a film or TV extra. The NY Times speaks with the folks seen milling in the background—one, laid off from a private equity firm, put the $8/hour pay in perspective: "I’ve gotten a few paychecks as an extra, but I haven’t even looked at them yet. My intention is to get back into finance, and in the interim, I’m going to keep doing these fun little side jobs." Casting agencies are recently flooded with many more potential extras some of whom are really into it: Another person explained, "There’s a whole subculture of people in the city who make their living as extras. Many extras are like the Lost Boys — outside-of-the-box individuals who come from inside-the-box places, like the suburbs. When they get on set, they find a family of eclectic, creative types, and it’s like, ‘Welcome to the crew.’" (We think he means the Lost Boys of Peter Pan, though these Lost Boys would be cool, too.) And the Times reporter tried out as an extra and found herself, along with 100 other extras, "herded up the backstairs of a dilapidated studio that surely had not passed fire inspection since the late 1980."

The NYC Department of Health has taken an aggressive approach to promoting the benefits of not smoking. This week, it focused on how a pack of cigarettes will now cost over $9, thanks to a federal excise tax, and offered free nicotine patches for the day to help encourage smokers to break the habit.

Jim Cramer was back on The Today Show for the first time since last week's extended interview on The Daily Show—where, by most accounts, he served as doormat for Jon Stewart's extended chastising of his and the rest of CNBC's behavior throughout the economic meltdown. And like a kid who sticks his tongue out once his parents have left the room following a spanking, Cramer took the opportunity this morning to finally stand up against Stewart's attacks. Following the segment's financial talk, The Daily Show discussion begins at around 3:08 below.

Tracy Morgan was back in the building last night to relive his SNL glory days as host of the show he was a cast member on for seven years. But getting through that NBC security has become no easy task since the anthrax scare of 2001. Just as he does with sometimes questionable material though, Morgan somehow found a way to make it work. Here's last night's SNL cold opening, which reminded us a little of Alec Donaghy's Hulu ad, and had cameos from WWE Superstar John Cena (who the audience didn't recognize) and Tina Fey (who now may have topped Jon Lovitz for most appearances by a former cast member in one season).

Mayor Bloomberg left U2 Way outside of Letterman's studio yesterday to make a cameo on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, welcoming the new host (and Brooklyn native) to New York. Overall the appearance was dry (the two posed for photos in front of images of City Hall, Rockefeller Plaza...Castle Grayskull), but it did serve as a way for Fallon to poke fun at the previous night's De Niro interview. Bloomberg declared that he wasn't sweating the city's economy as much as Fallon was "sweating last night with the interview with De Niro."

     

For the past thirty years, Norm Abram has served as the master carpenter for This Old House. Abram has become a beloved and inspiring figure who demystifies the home renovation and restoration process to millions on public television. Abram, who also hosts The New Yankee Workshop, has been making frequent trips to Brooklyn these past few months, as This Old House tackled its first ever New York City project with the restoration of a brownstone in Brooklyn. We spoke Abram at the wrap party for the project, which brought a decrepit Prospect Heights SRO (see some photographs from last December) back to its former glory.