Idol Chatter

“My Name is Earl” kicked off its anticipated second season by pairing two of the show’s most distinctive characters–the eponymous amends-seeking hero, played by Jason Lee and his moustache, and his insufferably white-trash bitch of a wife, played by Jaime Pressly and her six-pack abs. The task: #183 on Earl’s list, “I never took Joy’s…

The success of any heroic journey in fiction is based on the premise that the hero is an ordinary person who is endowed with special powers and is sent on a special quest to fulfill his or her destiny. NBC’s new drama “Heroes,” which debuts Monday night, takes that classic premise and gives it a…

Single Jewish women (and their mothers) are supposed to experience a Pavlovian drool reaction to the presence of doctors, but I never went thusly gaga, not even for television doctors. And while I do admit that Clooney was cute, this whole “Grey’s Anatomy” McDreamy nonsense over the admittedly adorable Patrick Dempsey wasn’t a reason for…

The long-anticipated FoxFaith Movies, a division of 20th Century Fox, officially came into being this week, a great triumph for whoever is putting out the new division’s stationery, with little relevance for the rest of us. Fox has been in the Christian movie business for some years, mostly in distributing DVDs of films as big…

Perhaps the best way to describe last night’s debut of the CBS series “Jericho” is that it is something like “Lost” meets “Left Behind.” The show borrows storytelling devices from both, but with only moderate success. Last night’s pilot introduced us to the tiny, old-fashioned fictional town of Jericho, Kansas. But before we can become…

Innovative jazz musician John Zorn is having a good month–he’s won two prizes, though most people only know about one of them. Even hardcore Zorn fans may not know that the jazz musician and founder/CEO of Tzadik Records took the prize for Best Blend of Jazz and Heritage at the Oyhoo Jewish Music and Culture…

The ever-rising star television series creator and producer J. J. Abrams has done it again: “Six Degrees” (which premieres tonight at 10 on ABC) is riveting, complex, and promises something simple but essential for TV drama: good stories. Reminiscent of the film “Love Actually” in more ways than one, the pilot opens with scenes from…

Idol Chatter readers may remember a post I wrote back in January on my love for Duane “Dog” Chapman, the unlikely star of the A & E series “Dog: The Bounty Hunter” and a deeply faithful Christian. The long-haired, leather-wearing, born-again Dog (God spelled backwards, of course)–along with his wife/business partner Beth, son Leland, and…

The Russian Space Agency recently turned down Madonna’s bid to get a spot on an upcoming mission. This must come as a disappointment to those Christians who would love to see the pop diva shot into space, once and for all. Barely recovered from her latest U.S. concert tour–which includes the spectacle of the star…

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