The Hollywood Reporter brings us news of Oprah Winfrey’s latest television venture–and it’s not for her gradually improving cable network OWN. Her Harpo Films banner is producing an untitled drama about a black college president who attracts controversy on a national level.
As she prepares to work with a new network entirely, Ms. Winfrey has seen Read More
After months of biting our nails in anticipation as we await the second season of Lena Dunham’s HBO comedy Girls, we can almost see the home stretch! According to a hot-off-the-press-release from the network, the Sick, Sad Trials of Hannah Horvath & Friends will be returning to the air in only 100 days, which is around the same time we’ll all be sick of talking about Ms. Dunham’s $3.7 million book deal.
Great synergy, everyone! Keep up the good work! Read More
Hey, remember that scene in Girls last season when they flashed back to a party at Oberlin College, where Marnie had eaten that pot brownie and had a panic attack and Hannah’s gay boyfriend got Charlie to take care of her?
Well that actually happened! Well, not really. We’re pretty sure the show isn’t an exact autobiography, because some of us went to Oberlin and don’t remember seeing Allison Williams around. But we do remember seeing Lena Dunham out and about, especially at the offices of The Grape, our “alternative” student newspaper. (That appropriately has no web presence besides a dead link.)
And we’re not the only ones who remember, apparently: Read More
With its more recent series taking them in period (Boardwalk Empire), fantasy (Game of Thrones), and youth-oriented (Girls) directions, HBO may be returning to the tried-and-true. Read More
Lena Dunham was having a bad Friday night. The Girls star and director was filming an exterior scene in Williamsburg (observers described it as—spoiler ahoy!—a fight between her character and her love interest played by Adam Driver). But a nearby house party—a birthday celebration attended by the sort of early-20s liberal-arts graduate Brooklynites whose lives Read More
Well, it’s no unicyclist requirement, but HBO’s “Atlantic City by way of Greenpoint” period drama, Boardwalk Empire, is currently casting for male background extras. Must be comfortable with a haircut and fake cigarettes. Read More
This year, the 9th annual Tubey awards—the anti-Emmy Awards, created by the website TelevisionWithoutPity.com—is hoping to beat its own record of 26 million votes by asking its readers to take part in one of the most esoteric TV electoral processes known to man. (“Show We Most Love to Hate-Watch” or “Cutest Kid on Reality TV,” anyone?)
Though the voting is broken up into several weeks of questions, The New York Observer spoke to TWP’s Site Director Dan Manu about the Tubeys and one of next week’s hot topics: whether Girls qualifies as the most overrated show on TV this year. Read More
So: a New York Post escapee/former columnist and reporter named Mandy Stadtmiller—who, according to her Wikipedia page “quit The New York Post and announced her upcoming ebook in the style of The Devil Wears Prada (novel) about her time working for News Corp. — including her time appearing on the front page of the newspaper with a gigolo — called “News Whore.’“—is back in the regular editorial hustle.
She’s now a deputy editor at xoJane. Even more, her big debut for the site is about how she supposedly inspired a character on Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom. But less exciting than the fact that she inspired a character on The Newsroom—which, really, what can be less exciting? A character on Studio 60?—is the way she characterized the Post to Aaron Sorkin on a date, and now, blogged about it. Read More
Aaron Sorkin’s back with another shot at television with the premiere of HBO’s latest, The Newsroom, last night. Like his ‘Sports Night‘ and ‘Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip‘ before it, the show takes place in TV. Unlike those shows, they can say “fuck” on this one. Starring Jeff Daniels as the Olbermann-esque Will McEvoy, ‘The Newsroom‘ opens up by indicting America, and specifically, American media, and dares to answer the question: What would greatness in news look like in 2012?
Last night, he gave us an hour’s worth of answers. This morning, some editors of the Observer gathered to talk about how he managed the task. Read More
Last night’s premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom may have been a bit of a letdown, but we’re holding out hope for HBO’s new Sunday night staple. After all, the M. Night Shyamalan twist that SPOILER ALERT the whole series takes place in 2010 was kind of a neat trick, right? Read More
