Showbiz Sandbox 71: Missing Good Movies In Toronto, Eh?

September 14, 2010

Trying to record a podcast when your hosts are half a world apart in three different time zones is no easy task, but still we persevered. We even managed to land Megan Garvey from the Los Angeles Times as a special guest. She tells us all about the Times’ new iPhone app which provides an interactive tour of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Host Michael Giltz is at the Toronto International Film Festival and he fills us in on all the movies that people are buzzing about. Unfortunately, he’s been shut out or has missed most of the future Oscar contenders that make their annual debut at the festival.

The MTV Video Music Awards were held over the weekend and Lady Gaga was a big winner. The pop sensation showed up in a dress made of red meat and walked off with eight trophies.

Big Deal or Big Whoop is abbreviated this week due to travel schedules, but we still manage to fill you in on some of the week’s top entertainment news, including a return to “At The Movies” for Roger Ebert and Oprah’s fading ratings. During Inside Baseball we discuss the Hollywood Reporter’s decision to go from a daily trade paper to a weekly magazine.

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Showbiz Sandbox 56: What You Talkin’ Bout Guillermo?!

June 1, 2010

The past week’s entertainment news was filled with surprises. First Gary Coleman, star of the hit 80’s sitcom unexpectedly died at the age of 42 from a brain hemorrhage. Then, after more than two years of work, the ongoing turmoil at MGM causes director Guillermo del Toro call it quits on the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”. A question lingers over whether Peter Jackson will step in to helm the film himself?

Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter, one of the industry’s big trade papers, left many mouths agape when they hired former Us Weekly editor Janice Min to transform the film into a broader weekly publication.

Maybe not such a surprise was the tepid box office results over the North American Memorial Day Weekend. Customarily the start of the summer blockbuster season, this year audiences stayed away from theaters, probably because they don’t find any of the new releases, including “Sex and The City 2” and “Prince of Persia” all that interesting. Another expected, though sad, turn of events was the passing of actor Dennis Hopper, who had been battling prostate cancer since last October.

Over in the music world, Germany’s Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest with her catchy pop song “Satellite”.  Read more