Media criticizes SNL for Tiger Woods skit, loses all respect

Boy, during this whole Tiger Woods scandal, the news media has really showed their true colors. Forget finding facts, everybody is just naturally assuming there was a domestic incident, despite that not being confirmed by anyone. However, media sources like to just report it like it happened (as if they know).

Not to mention their eagerness to report the numerous ladies that have come forward to say that they have slept with Tiger Woods. This is sound, solid, useful journalism!

And now this media is using their platform to pick on that dastardly Saturday Night Live that basically has done the same thing they've done, except it's funny and entertaining. And by the way, it's a sketch comedy show so basically they're allowed to play around with the rules because nobody treats them as the truth.

In the comedy sketch, Tiger Woods (played by the “S.N.L.” performer Kenan Thompson) gives a series of press conferences attempting to apologize for acts of infidelity. In each appearance, the fictional Woods appears with more bruises and injuries, evidently sustained at the hands of Elin (played in the skit by Ms. Lively).

Around the blogosphere, viewers wondered if “Saturday Night Live” went too far in mining comedy from the subject of domestic abuse — particularly when the show’s musical guest was Rihanna, who in February was assaulted by her then-companion, Chris Brown.

Has SNL gone too far? There was no domestic abuse reported, they're just taking on the humerous angle that Tiger's wife would be rather angry to find that he's been sleeping around. Nothing more, nothing less. It's the media that's jumping off the boat with this whole domestic violience issue. And I'm sure Rihanna didn't actually watch the freakin' skit.

Again, the media has shown they have no shame, morals or even a sense of place when it comes to covering things these days. But.. gasp... at least they're better than that evil SNL.

Comcast will not ruin Hulu

Perhaps you heard yesterday that Comcast bought NBC Universal meaning that it's probably the most powerful entertainment entity in the universe, except for that evil empire known as Disney. One of things that got me thinking was that NBC Universal has a lot of content streamed on Hulu, but that takes away from Comcast's own on demand service (which by the way, is one of the most addicting tv services ever), so would they pull the plug on Hulu?

As expected, Comcast announced its buyout of NBC Universal today, a deal that has left many wondering what will happen to Hulu, the ad-driven TV and movie streaming site. According to Comcast COO Stephen Burke the answer is: not much. Burke referred to Hulu's existing business model as "smart and appropriate" and said there aren't any plans to change the site.

Burke noted that NBC has been "careful not to put too much cable content on the Internet." Comcast CEO Brian Roberts emphasized further that Comcast has no intent to "crush [Hulu] like a bug." It's worth mentioning that NBCU is only one of two other studios (ABC and Fox) with a stake in Hulu, so it can't determine the site's fate outright. Roberts also said that a Hulu subscription model isn't in the cards -- but time will tell.

Thank god, that would have absolutely ruined my day.

Susan Boyle: most popular woman ever

Who saw this coming? Susan Boyle is killing the sales charts after releasing her first album. While I think this is fantastic, I'm wondering what they're going to do about the music video.

Susan Boyle, queen of the pop charts.

The matronly Scottish singer who rose to unlikely fame on British reality TV has a exclamation point to add to her fairytale success story. Her first album has not only debuted in the number one spot on the Billboard charts - it's the biggest selling debut album from any female artist since SoundScan began tracking record sales in 1991.

The 47-year-old church singer, who makes her home in Blackburn, Scotland, released her album "I Dreamed a Dream" on November 23, and it sold 701,000 copies in its first week, Billboard.com reports.

That beats 2009's previous big seller, Eminem, whose "Relapse" moved 608,000 copies in its first week. The last album to better Boyle's sales was AC/DC's "Black Ice" in October 2008, with 784,000 records sold.

Now when does she do a song with Lady Gaga?

The new Scrubs stinks

Perhaps you've heard of this show called "Scrubs" as it's only one roughly five channels in syndication at any given time. Anyways, for the ninth season and the "should-be-expected" exodus of most of the actors wanting to move on with their career has led to ABC bringing in a new cast. Problem is... the reviews aren't that great about the crew.

Will "Scrubs" be more or less consistent when Zach Braff (who'll be in six episodes) and Sarah Chalke (four episodes) take off for good? Who knows. This is nothing if not an experimental treatment.

Some key characters from "Scrubs" are either missing in action (that's the case with Judy Reyes' Carla) or make very brief appearances (Neil Flynn's Janitor makes a cameo but Flynn's on ABC's "The Middle" now). Bob Kelso, however, is still around, which means we'll get to enjoy Ken Jenkins' wicked way with a punchline for at least another half season (at this point, ABC has ordered 13 episodes of "Scrubs: The New School").

Part of me wants the "Scrubs" graft to take, but another part of me wonders if ABC should have simply pulled the plug. The main problem Season 9 of "Scrub" is that Lucy Bennett (Kerry Bishe), the medical student around which the new season revolves, isn't all that funny or winning, and she needs to be one of those things for "Scrubs" to truly work.

The fault really isn't Bishe's, the problem is more that her bland, tentative character just isn't that entertaining,at least in the first two episodes. Lucy certainly doesn't have the doofy, dorky charm that made Braff's J.D. and his voiceovers engaging for so long. Plus J.D. had Turk (Donald Faison) to bounce off, and the J.D.-Turk relationship is still one of the most consistently funny things about "Scrubs" (which begs the question, what happens when Braff exits and the Guy Love between Turk and J.D. no longer anchors the show? Will it be like Bell Biv DeVoe with just Biv?)

No J.D. and Turk? I am totally out. You hear me? Totally out.

This weekend in terrible movies

Thanks to the pathetic single bookworms of the world, Twilight reigns supreme at the box office, taking in 42 million over the weekend. This basically ensures that guys around the country are now going to need a pale complexion and fangs in order to get laid. Crap...
 
The Box-Office Top Five
#1 "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" ($42.5 million)
#2 "The Blind Side" ($40.1 million)
#3 "2012" ($18 million)
#4 "Old Dogs" ($16.8 million)
#5 "A Christmas Carol" ($16 million)

2012 made just $18 million and after having a $200 million budget and pulling in $65 million during their opening weekend. Looks like they're not recouping their costs in that actual disaster.

The pleasant surprise is "The Blind Side", which gave Twilight a run for its money. This football movie shows that maybe some people out there have a brain, or aren't hopelessly single.

They might have to make movie theater seats bigger

No seriously, really, really big. All that popcorn and other wonderful menu items are so packed with calories, you'll have to spend a couple days at the gym just to work it off. Eww.

The real drama in movie theaters these days isn’t happening on screen.

It’s at the concession stand.

When moviegoers plunk down the bucks for snacks at the nation’s theaters they may be putting themselves at greater risk than any character in the flick.

ABCNews.com reports that, according to a new study by the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest, the offerings at concession stands contain an alarming amount of sugar fat, and calories. Even the smallest bag of popcorn has 700 calories and three days' worth of saturated fat.

The CSPI report studied concessions sold at the nation’s top three movie theater chains: Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theaters and Cinemark.

“A combo at Regal (meaning a medium popcorn and medium soda) has 1,610 calories,” wrote the study’s authors. “That’s like eating six scrambled eggs with chedder cheese, four bacon strips, and four sausage links before the lights come up.”

Sixteen hundred Calories? That makes McDonalds look like weight watcher. Looks like if I'm going on a diet I won't be watching movies anytime soon...

Will Ferrell is an overpaid hack

Has Will Ferrell followed the steps of Adam Sandler as being one the most famous people ever, and then crashing back to earth with an incredible flop? You can't really argue with that considering his latest movies which have received critical pans and bombed at the box office. Now Forbes has named him the most overpaid actor in show business.

Looks like "Land of the Lost" has earned star Will Ferrell the dubious distinction of being the most overpaid actor in show business, according to the list makers at Forbes magazine.

Forbes looked at 100 top actors based on their widely released films over the past five years. It factored in the production costs of those movies against how much boxoffice, DVD and other revenue they generated in order to come up with an operating income for each film, which it then compared with the salaries the stars earned.

In Ferrell's case, the actor's films earned just $3.29 for every dollar he was paid. That's a pretty poor contrast to the $160 that Shia LaBeouf's movies returned to the studios for every buck he earned.

That figure, by the way, put LaBeouf -- who starred in "Transformers" in 2007 and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" in 2008 -- at the top of Forbes list of Best Actors for the Buck. Also included on that list were Robert Downey Jr., Christian Bale and Dennis Quaid.

"Land of the Lost," a boxoffice dud starring Ferrell as an offbeat scientist, racked up about $100 million in production costs, not including marketing, but only returned $65 million at the worldwide boxoffice. His movie "Semi-Pro," which earned $44 million at the worldwide boxoffice, has also dragged down Ferrell's return-on-investment performance lately.

This has always struck me as odd considering that Ferrell himself is still a pretty funny dude, but it just seems like the crap he gets himself into is his downfall. He was also overexposed to the point where you couldn't go to the grocery store without being thrown some sort of Ferrell-ism. That kind of stuff causes your shtick to get old quick, and in the world of comedy, your lifespan in terms of popularity can be pretty dawn short.

But hey, that doesn't mean he's poor or anything...