Posts Tagged ‘Entertainment’

Is it just me, or has TV suddenly discovered Twitter?

Sure, TV shows or personalities tweeted before: Survivor‘s Jeff Probst has live-tweeted episodes for the past few seasons, so has Phil Keoghan of The Amazing Race. But suddenly, it seems every TV show wants you to tweet with them while you’re watching the program. Some even give you a hashtag to use with your tweets.

Some recent examples include 60 Minutes (#60minutes), 20/20 and CBC’s The Fifth Estate. Sure, these programs are all newsmagazines, so I can see why they might want to engage their audience on this new medium (and hey, trying to get people to watch live TV again and commercials instead of having them PVR it, is a better business model). But there’s one show who’s sudden interest in social media perplexes me.

The Good Wife.

Yes, that Good Wife. The courtroom show. The women’s show that men also happen to like so it’s a hit.

A couple weeks ago for their season premiere, viewers were invited to follow the actors feeds (and the main Good Wife account), while they tweeted during the episode.

That alone caught me off guard. While I don’t mind keeping half an eye on my iPad while watching Survivor or The Amazing Race, The Good Wife is a show I want to pay attention to (and typically it’s a show you need to pay attention to, it leaves a lot unsaid).

But the I found this: A fake gossip website that’s blogging about things that are happening in storylines in the show.

It leaves me a little perplexed. I know that women tend to use social media more than men, but I wonder how much traction stuff like this gets. Do people tweet while watching the show? Is there an appetite for some gamification around the web? Will the show’s demographic even participate in an online game based on the show?

I’m not sure where The Good Wife is going with all of this, but I’m interested to find out.

Ever since I was 13 years old, I’ve been in love with George Clooney.

He does have that smoulderingly handsome thing down, doesn't he?

I’m not kidding. In my Grade 8 yearbook, most of my friends left comments wishing me well on meeting Clooney marrying Clooney and living happily ever after in Hollywood. During my Grade 8 trip to Ottawa, I spent all my souvenir money on an ER T-shirt and candy.

I taped every TV appearance George made. For years. It was labelled my George Clooney tape. Along with the the Leno, Rosie O’Donnell and Letterman appearances, I also had key ER episodes recorded on there. I think I even managed a rare Roseanne episode featuring Clooney.

You don’t even want to know about my magazine clippings. Or how at 17, I convinced my mother to buy me an issue of Playboy because an interview with George was in it that month. (She did, cracking jokes how I was just buying it for the articles, wink wink.)

And I had a plan. Once I turned 18, I was hitting the road, going to L.A. and finding him. Did I truly believe something would come of it? Likely.

I was more than a little obsessed in case you can’t tell.

Soon, I moved past George. I never went down to L.A. I sod my clippings book and the George Clooney tape on eBay or 50 bucks. Just because a movie came out with him in it didn’t mean I had to rush out and see it.

I still had my moments though. Four years ago, George came to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). A friend told me where the after party for his movie, Michael Clayton, was being held. I spent two hours waiting outside the location on Bay Street. Finally at 1a.m., I went home without an autograph or even a George sighting.

Like really, would one crappy picture be worth hours of waiting?

Flash forward to this year. It’s TIFF time again don’t know you know, and who was expected to attend? Mr. Clooney. Again, a friend in the industry passed on when and where his press conferences were being held, and I managed to find out where he was staying via Twitter, but watching the news the first night of TIFF made me realize something.

The report was from the red carpet of Brad Pitt’s new flick, Moneyball. A woman in her 40s, maybe even 50s, was waiting to see Pitt with her daughter and her husband, who she had instructed was to say he was her brother if Brad asked. His job was to take to the photos. And he did. The woman was ecstatic after Brad rushed by her and “knew she was alive.” They had waited hours to grab a glimpse of Brad Pitt.

It was about then I realized that even if George Clooney was in town, I had better things to do with my time than wait around at the Ritz to see if I could grab a peak or try and sneak my way into a press conference I didnt belong (not to mention what getting caught doing the latter would likely do to my career).

It was odd to think about because I am exactly the type of person you would think would be in to all this celebrity hunting stuff. I read all the magazines, pour over all the gossip online, but when it comes down to it, I’ve got better things to do than “run” into George Clooney after camping out somewhere for 12 hours waiting for him to show up.

And really, if he ever met me I’d just be a crazy-assed fan anyway. I’d much rather be me all of the time and read about him, and all the other celebrities in my magazines.

The project where I read a book a week this year. See more about my project here (and feel free to leave your book suggestions). You can read my other 52 in ’11 posts here.

Book 23: The One that I Want by Allison Winn Scotch
My rating: Something to chew on

The One that I Want tries to be more than it is.

At its heart, it’s a chick lit book. Our main character, Tilly, is married, happy and trying to have a baby.

Suddenly, she is given the gift (or curse) of being able to see the future by visions she gets when she look at photographs she has taken. She gets these “powers” after visiting an old childhood friend who’s giving psychic readings at a fair.

Soon, Tilly’s father begins drinking again and gets in a car accident, her troublesome sister moves in and Tilly’s husband leaves her. What’s a girl to do?

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The project where I read a book a week this year. See more about my project here (and feel free to leave your book suggestions). You can read my other 52 in ’11 posts here.

Book 22: Like Me by Chely Wright
My rating: Worth the read

It seems every celebrity is coming out with an autobiography these days.

Some are just full of name-dropping, some are funny, some were likely just written for the paycheque.

And then there are memories like country singer Chely Wright.

I was curious to pick up this book when it first came out last year when Wright officially announced she was gay. For a hardcore country singer in Nashville, that was kind of shocking. I was curious to read more about how hard it must have been for Wright to keep who she was under wraps for so long.

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The project where I read a book a week this year. See more about my project here (and feel free to leave your book suggestions). You can read my other 52 in ’11 posts here.

Book 21: Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison
My rating: Great beach read

I’ve never been a shoe person.

I guess that’s why even though this book came out four years ago, I never picked it up.

Kind of odd, I guess. I mean I watched Sex and the City. I’ve read all of Laura Wiserman’s books (and Candice Bushnell for that matter) and they all revolve around women and their shoes.

Unlike most women my age, I don’t have the need or the thirst to buy all sorts of different shoes — especially the uncomfortable “fashionable” ones. Up until a few years ago, I only had three pairs of shoes — one pair of runners and two pairs of heels (both black). I’ve branched out since then, but I still don’t see the point into spending that kind of money on shoes.

That being said, Shoe Addicts Anonymous was a lot more than just about shoes and was a great quick read while I was on holidays.

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