"It is better to spend money like there's no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money!"
Erin go Bragh!
Katandy's Reagan's Quest
Kids' programmers are ramping up with tunes, toons and movie spinoffs. In their new and upcoming lineups, they're emphasizing ties to movies and games from their corporate siblings.
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon
The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra is a spinoff from the TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
"Programming is more competitive than it's ever been," says Margaret Loesch, a veteran of kids' TV who runs the new kid on the block, The Hub, a joint venture between Discovery Networks and Hasbro. "What I'm getting as feedback from kids and advertisers is consistent: They're looking for more choices."
Most of the kid-targeted cable networks are up this year in the ratings, with Disney XD, Disney Channel and Nick Jr. leading the increases. Leader Nickelodeon is down slightly, and third-place Cartoon Network, up 1%, is seeking a boost by "trying to refresh; they're trying to be more Adult Swimmish," says Amy Sotiridy, senior VP at ad firm Initiative, referring to that channel's successful (and far edgier) late-night block.
What's on tap:
Nickelodeon
On Friday Nick launches Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures (8 ET/PT), a buddy comedy about two surfer dudes. But the network is putting its biggest emphasis on animation, where SpongeBob SquarePants, which premiered in 1999, remains unrivaled. Some will be spinoffs, including The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. This fall, look for a new version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the self-explanatory newcomer Robot & Monsters. In live-action, Nick will take a page from Disney next year with How to Rock, a music-based series starring rapper Master P's daughter, Cymphonique Miller.
Disney Channel
Bidding farewell to a trio of hits, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place and Suite Life on Deck, Disney is eyeing recent addition Shake It Up (Sundays, 8 ET/PT), a dance-fueled buddy comedy, as the next franchise for tween girls. (It's the top-rated series among that crowd.) Animated hit Phineas and Ferb, which plans an Aug. 5 movie, will serve as a platform to expand more deeply into animation, including next summer's Gravity Falls, in which twins visit their great-uncle's weird town. New live-action A.N.T. Farm (Fridays, 8:30 ET/PT), about an 11-year-old musical prodigy, will be joined this fall by Jessie, an ambitious teen from rural Texas who moves to New York to become a nanny. On Disney XD, look for animated spinoffs Ultimate Spider-Man and Tron: Uprising in 2012.
Cartoon Network
After years of working at arm's length from corporate sibling Warner Bros., Cartoon is now embracing the studio and its DC Comics label. New programming block DC Nation will showcase projects such as Green Lantern: The Animated Series, coming next year. Ratings for a revamped Looney Tunes Show (Tuesdays, 8 ET/PT) have been solid. Cartoon is gearing up for Level Up, a 2012 live-action series (a movie is due this fall) about three gamer pals who enter a real video game; the return of ThunderCats July 29; a new version of Ben 10; and How to Train Your Dragon, based on the DreamWorks film. Goofy toon Adventure Time is its top-rated series, and overall, there's a "shift in emphasis," says chief content officer Rob Sorcher: "The stuff that's really worked is at its core a comedy."
The Hub
A new joint venture between Discovery Networks and Hasbro, The Hub this fall will give The Aquabats, a "super-hero" rock band, a new platform in The Aquabats Super Show, from the creators of Yo Gabba Gabba. Investor Warren Buffett is behind Secret Millionaire's Club, a series of animated specials that will teach "business principles." And a pint-size riff on American Idol is due in Majors & Minors, in which 16 singers are mentored by X Factor's Leona Lewis and Idol winner Jordin Sparks for the chance to win a record deal and concert tour. And while The Hub downplays its role as promotional vehicle for Hasbro products, the channel is mining the toymaker's vaults with shows pegged to Clue, The Game of Life, Scrabble, Transformers' Rescue Bots and trading-card game kaijudo.
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Christina Aguilera Jaime King The Avatars of Second Life Gabrielle Union Rachel Bilson
That's right. The royal couple of Monaco followed their civil wedding on Friday with a Roman Catholic ceremony Saturday in front of some 300 guests gathered in the Main Courtyard of the Prince's Palace in Monaco.
Armani confirmed early this year that he would be the wedding dress designer. The gown was an off-white silk design featuring a long train with floral embroidery trimmed with stones in gold shades and crystal.
See photos of: Naomi Campbell
To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-LifeTopStories/~3/ciCMmK1nxnc/1
Kelly Monaco Jill Wagner Michelle Obama
Macaulay Culkin hit up The Red Door Lounge in Billings, MT last night where he did a fantastic rendition of the classic song, "My Way" -- but did he do it as well as our own Harvey Levin did?
Now HL's version, slightly more produced and with the help of Paul Anka.
So the question is ...� UPDATE: From our bitter boss ...��
Source: http://www.tmz.com/2011/07/03/macaulay-culkin-my-way-karaoke-billings-montana-video/
Dita Von Teese Thora Birch Saira Mohan Hilary Swank Rihanna
Putting an official end to their under-the-radar romance, Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds's divorce became final on Friday, after an out-of-the-blue split late last year.The final divorce documents were filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to E!.
The pair discreetly dated before exchanging vows in rural wedding outside Vancouver in 2008. They have no children.
"Irreconcilable differences" were cited in court papers, and both have said very little to the press to shed additional light on their relationship or breakup.
While Johansson, 26, rebounded this year with a short-lived fling with Sean Penn, Reynolds insisted in a recent interview, "The media was not invited to my marriage, and they're definitely not invited into the divorce." And the 'Green Lantern' star, 34, did concede, "I don't think I want to get married again."
He explained, "Any kind of crisis can be good. It wakes you up. I gotta say, I'm a different person than I was six months ago."
While the partnership did not result in any children, the former spouses did produce a unique collaboration: A new documentary about a lost orca whale found in a British Columbia waterway, and the contentious debate among locals about the affectionate animal's fate. You can catch a glimpse of 'The Whale' -- executive-produced by the couple, and narrated by Reynolds -- via the trailer, available on the movie's official website.
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http://www.popeater.com/mm_track/popeater/movies/?s_channel=us.moviespop&s_account=aolpopeater,aolsvc&omni=1&ke=1
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Celebrity Splitsville
Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry
Split
Halle Berry called it quits with her boyfriend, Gabriel Aubry, ending their five-year relationship. The couple has a 2-year-old daughter, Nahla Ariel Aubry.
Evan Agostini, AP
Evan Agostini, AP
Source: http://www.popeater.com/2011/07/02/scarlett-johansson-ryan-reynolds-divorce-final/
Lokelani McMichael Lacey Chabert Mary Elizabeth Winstead Vogue Missi Pyle
Dear Sugar,
I read your column religiously. I’m 22. From what I can tell by your writing, you’re in your early 40s. My question is short and sweet: what would you tell your 20-something self if you could talk to her now?
Love,
Seeking Wisdom
Dear Seeking Wisdom,
Stop worrying about whether you’re fat. You’re not fat. Or rather, you’re sometimes a little bit fat, but who gives a shit? There is nothing more boring and fruitless than a woman lamenting the fact that her stomach is round. Feed yourself. Literally. The sort of people worthy of your love will love you more for this, sweet pea.
In the middle of the night in the middle of your twenties when your best woman friend crawls naked into your bed, straddles you, and says, You should run away from me before I devour you, believe her.
You are not a terrible person for wanting to break up with someone you love. You don’t need a reason to leave. Wanting to leave is enough. Leaving doesn’t mean you’re incapable of real love or that you’ll never love anyone else again. It doesn’t mean you’re morally bankrupt or psychologically demented or a nymphomaniac. It means you wish to change the terms of one particular relationship. That’s all. Be brave enough to break your own heart.
There are some things you can’t understand yet. Your life will be a great and continuous unfolding. It’s good you’ve worked hard to resolve childhood issues while in your twenties, but understand that what you resolve will need to be resolved again. And again. You will come to know things that can only be known with the wisdom of age and the grace of years. Most of those things will have to do with forgiveness.When that really sweet but fucked up gay couple invites you over to their cool apartment to do ecstasy with them, say no.
One evening you will be rolling around on the wooden floor of your apartment with a man who will tell you he doesn’t have a condom. You will smile in this spunky way that you think is hot and tell him to fuck you anyway. This will be a mistake for which you alone will pay.
Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don’t know what it is yet.
You cannot convince people to love you. This is an absolute rule. No one will ever give you love because you want him or her to give it. Real love moves freely in both directions. Don’t waste your time on anything else.
Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you’ll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you’ll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room.
One hot afternoon during the era in which you’ve gotten yourself ridiculously tangled up with heroin you will be riding the bus and thinking what a worthless piece of crap you are when a little girl will get on the bus holding the strings of two purple balloons. She’ll offer you one of the balloons, but you won’t take it because you believe you no longer have a right to such tiny beautiful things. You’re wrong. You do.
Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.
When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kisses you while explaining that this kiss doesn’t “mean anything” because, much as he likes you, he is not interested in having a relationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back. Your daughter will have his sense of humor. Your son will have his eyes.
The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.
One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, don’t look at her skeptically after she tells you she thought the coat was perfect for you. Don’t hold it up and say it’s longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly even too warm. Your mother will be dead by spring. That coat will be the last gift she gave you. You will regret the small thing you didn’t say for the rest of your life.
Say thank you.
Yours,
Sugar
