kudos (45 posts)

Kelsey McNeal/FOX

One of these Highland flingers popped, leapt and emoted his/her way into the hearts of America and waltzed off with the title on tonight's So You Think You Can Dance finale. But that wasn't the only surprise...

Keep Reading

FOX

The guys may have been running on fumes, but it was full steam ahead nonetheless.

Joshua Allen and Stephen "Twitch" Boss, neither of whom has any formal training and both of whom needed a weekend hospital visit to treat dehydration, joined fellow finalists Courtney Galiano and Katee Shean for the first night of So You Think You Can Dance's two-part finale and…

Well, if we knew exactly how to spell that sound Mary Murphy makes when she's super excited—that's how we would describe it.

The fab foursome performed five dances apiece, including a solo and a contemporary group number choreographed by Mia Michaels (and costumed by Braveheart), and kept—as they say in hip-hop speak—hittin' it all night.

Keep Reading

NBC

Melissa Lawson has something to write home about.

The 32-year-old mother of five was crowned the winner of the sixth season of Nashville Star, which was also the country-music competition's first cycle on NBC.

Barely holding back tears of joy, Lawson capped off her triumphant night by singing what will become her first single, the uplifting "What If It All Goes Right," produced by Big & Rich's John Rich.

For her clear-as-a-bell efforts, Lawson, who beat out fellow native Texan Gabe Garcia in the finale's dwindling moments Monday, gets a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records.

She has also secured herself some face time at the Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she'll perform live Aug. 12. Her appearance will be featured on the Today show.

Lester Cohen/WireImage.com

The question now is, can Justin keep up with the Jonases?

Hot on the trail of a certain hunky pop star, the Jonas Brothers took home six ceremonial surfboards Sunday at the 10th Annual Teen Choice Awards, aka TC08, giving the fraternal rockers just 15 more to go until they match Justin Timberlake's grand total of 21 collected over the last decade.

More than 30 million Internet-savvy youngsters, preferably between the ages of 13 and 19, deemed the dapper trio Choice Breakout Band, Male Hotties and Male Red Carpet Icons, as well as the purveyors of the Choice Single ("When You Look Me in the Eyes," beating out Timberlake), Summer Song ("Burnin' Up") and Love Song ("When You Look Me in the Eyes").

Joe, Nick and Kevin's tally was matched only by the CW's teen soap with claws Gossip Girl, which also notched six wins (on a bedpost, naturally): Choice TV Drama, Breakout Show, breakout acting nods for Chace Crawford and Blake Lively (who was also named best actress in a drama) and top villain for the diabolical Ed Westwick.

"I feel like I'm still a teenager, because I'm perpetually in high school," Crawford, 23, said backstage.

Keep Reading

Michael Hickey/Wireimage.com

It's harvest time again.

Usual suspects John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Dave Matthews are all aboard to perform at Farm Aid 2008, which will be held Sept. 20 at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass.

Keep Reading

Patrick Ecclesine/FOX

One chef pissed off Gordon Ramsay just a little less than the other.

Find out who has been invited to join the Brit's culinary empire after the jump.

Keep Reading

CLIFF LIPSON/CBS

Ted and Barney weren't the only ones to give Abby the receptionist the brushoff.

Britney Spears' hyped two-episode appearance on How I Met Your Mother didn't catch the eye of Emmy voters, who left her off their list of semifinalists for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, per the latest round of Emmy scoopage from the L.A. Times' Gold Derby blog.

Spears shouldn't feel too snubbed, though—fellow twentysomething Mary-Kate Olsen, who played a pot-dealing proselytizer on Weeds, didn't make the cut, either. And she's been acting all her life!

But this year, only two under-40 thesps made the first cut, the relative young'uns being Sarah Silverman, who could be a two-time Emmy nominee thanks to her turn as a psycho fan on Monk, and Oscar nominee Amy Ryan, who made quite the impression as the Michael-liking "new Toby" on The Office.

Keep Reading

Ash Knotek/ZUMAPress.com

While excitable critics are abuzz about a possible posthumous Oscar nomination for Heath Ledger's Joker, there's a more immediate honor for the late star.

Ledger's hometown of Perth, Australia, has named an $88 million playhouse after the actor.

West Australian Premier Alan Carpenter, accompanied by Ledger's father Kim, this morning announced plans for the 575-seat Heath Ledger Theatre.

Keep Reading

AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

T-Pain has a knack for showing up in the right place at the right time.

"I'd like to thank T-Pain for gettin' on the record with me," said Kanye West, a two-time winner Tuesday at the 2008 BET Awards, upon accepting their award for Best Collaboration on the Graduation tune "Good Life." "This man's a genius. What he does, what he writes...we're blessed to be in this man's presence."

The 22-year-old rapper-producer, a featured artist on no less than 18 singles (so far) in 2007 and 2008, entered the evening with a leading five nominations, although his shared win with West was it for now.

West was also named Best Male Hip-Hop Artist for the second time, his first win in that category coming in 2005, when Late Registration was still a new album.

Keep Reading

Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com, HBO / Paul Schrialdi

Jerry Seinfeld is going multimedia to honor his favorite monster, George Carlin.

In a New York Times editorial today and an appearance on last night's Larry King Live, Seinfeld recalled his final conversation with Carlin, which devolved into a riff on mortality.

"The honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about," Seinfeld writes in the Times. "I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes.

Keep Reading

Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com

It's going to take an army—or at least a stronger contingent than they've got over at The View—to take down Ellen DeGeneres.

The master of witty self-deprecation won her fourth consecutive trophy for Outstanding Talk Show Host, once again besting Barbara Walters & Co. and Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards.

"I never take this for granted...Every single year, I know people joke about it…It's not what we do it for, but it feels so good," DeGeneres said while thanking her fans, crew, family and fiancée, Portia de Rossi.

"We all know this has been a crazy year. On my show, we've done a lot of crying and a lot of laughing, and I've cried all by myself and people laugh, and then I cry some more...I know you're counting me down, but it's the longest day of the year, I just read, so I can go on," she continued, referring to tonight's summer solstice.

Keep Reading

They couldn't help it from being a sad day, but the hundreds of mourners who attended a private mass and memorial service for Tim Russert did their best to point out the most shining moments of a life well lived.

"As Tim would look out on this gathering, he would say, 'It's wild, it's wild. My family, my closest friends from near and far, the powerful, the ordinary and the largest contingence of all in this room—those who think they should be his successor on Meet the Press," longtime friend and colleague Tom Brokaw began his tribute, drawing hearty laughter from the crowd packed into the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for this afternoon's memorial.

Keep Reading