My cold-weather Olympic fever is beginning to kick in as I picture that fresh HD feed flowing through the old box with relentless, precise abandon as the world’s finest skiers, skaters, and sliders gather in Torino, Italy, in just a few weeks to strut their chilly stuff. The NBC Universal …

What do Quentin Tarantino's blood guts and swearing, viciously adult films have in common with kids entertainment monolith Nickelodeon?

Yesterday, the Recording Academy announced the recipients of this year’s special merit awards, which will be presented at the Grammys in Los Angeles on February 8. David Bowie, Cream, Merle Haggard, Robert Johnson, Jessye Norman, Richard Pryor, and the Weavers will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards; Chris Blackwell, Owen Bradley and …

Neverland vet sues Jacko for unpaid bills

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I fear that reality television is one step closer to gladiatorial, Running Man-type stakes with the announcement that the Fox Reality channel is seeking “one incredible risk-taker who engages in the gamble of a lifetime by selling everything he or she owns to make …

Ted Koppel, his hair, and much of his staff from ABC’s Nightline, signed a three-year deal yesterday with the Discovery Channel — the home of sharks and choppers — to produce and host at least six long-form specials per year “examining major global topics and events.” A 42-year veteran of …

We learned a few weeks ago that Chris Rock would not be returning to host this year’s Oscar telecast and today the other shoe dropped: show producer Gil Cates announced comedian, author and Daily Show major-domo Jon Stewart will host the 78th Academy Awards telecast, his first such stint. “My …

The Great Ape Kong pervades our cultural consciousness, looming over a collective fantasy urbanscape from a forever-’30s Empire State Building, reaching into our dreams through a window we know better than to leave open, a ferocious yet tragic fellow primate doomed by presumptuous and misplaced love. Can Peter Jackson’s 21st …

A new Harris Poll confirms the common understanding that the United States is a nation steeped in the core beliefs of Christianity, all of which continue to be held by a large majority of the nation today. Spreading belief around the Invisible Cafeteria a bit, significant minorities of Americans also …

In a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on his reappointment, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat and indecency hawk, said on Tuesday he wants to keep the pressure on cable companies to offer family-friendly programming even after the two largest, Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc., announced on Monday their intention …