Jim DeRogatis: Breaking News Archives

WHAT DOES VERTICAL INTEGRATION LOOK LIKE, ANYWAY? Unifying this blog's amateur interest in pop culture and (certain participants') professional interest in The Majesty of the Law, Jim DeRogatis has been covering the heck out of the latest DC machinations surrounding the proposed Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger.

AND THAT'S...THE END OF THE STORY:Radio commentator Paul Harvey has died at 90.

NOT QUITE A TABULA RASA: I thought this week's Dollhouse marked a considerable improvement for two reasons:

1. The persona assigned to Echo this week allowed Dushku to play to her strengths--the tough, but vulnerable, girl, rather than attempting to make her into the clipped hostage negotiator of the pilot or Rambogirl as in the second episode. (And the surprise that she can apparently actually sing was a nice one.)
2. The story this week was less driven by Echo than the Dollhouse's client, which had some nice parallelism to Echo's own issues without being anvilicious.

It's still far from perfect, and the lack of witty banter remains a problem (particularly since this week's episode was written by Jed Whedon and his fiancee Maurissa Tancharoen, who co-wrote Dr. Horrible--I was expecting more), but it's definitely a solid diversion on a Friday or Saturday night. And next week, with a memwiped Echo locked in a vault in the middle of a job, could be very interesting indeed.

BODYSLAM THE SNOOZE BUTTON OF FAME: Todd Bridges embarks on a pro wrestling career.

VERY DIRTY VEGAS: As I've previously noted, CSI is one of those shows I rarely watch, but tend to enjoy when I do. With Grey's and Office in reruns, I DVRed this week's episode to see how the Petersen/Fishburne handoff has gone, and I'm less than impressed. Part of Petersen's charm was that he (and most of the rest of the characters) were unabashedly weird and geeky--something that the spinoffs generally lose. Fishburne, on the other hand, is just so definitionally and effortlessly cool that the show loses a chunk of the geek appeal (the dropping of Sara Sidle, who was similarly geeky, and her replacement with generic perky girl, doesn't help). While L&O is receiving a creative boost, largely by playing up serialized elements that have never been the show's strong suit (in particular, the McCoy campaign for DA, and the interesting quasi-paternal relationship between McCoy and Cutter), this other warhorse has taken a step back.

A LITTLE BRAINS, A LITTLE TALENT: Coming up on the Broadway-to-Big Screen supertrain? Damn Yankees, starting Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal, coincidentally both of whom have performed "And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going" to comedic effect.

Producers are Neil Zadan and Craig Meron, the duo who brought Chicago and Hairspray to the big screen, with estimable pairing of Lowell Ganz and Marc "Babaloo" Mandel to script. Yet to be cast is the woman with her aces in all the right places, so your suggestions for Lola (Johannson? Hathaway? Beyonce?) are welcome.

P.S. Yes, we know: comments are busted right now. Comments are back as of Saturday morning!

CHUNG-CHUNG: Manhattan District Attorney Bob Morgenthau, the basis for Law and Order's Adam Schiff, will not seek re-election this fall, at the same time that Law and Order is doing a contentious race for Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy to take over as Manhattan's DA.