Matt's Guide to Weekend TV

Bill Maher The Emmys are the big draw this weekend - my predictions (a combination wish list/analysis) can be found here - but here's a look at some of the other TV this weekend that stands out. FRIDAYTop, or should I say, topical pick of the night: the return from hiatus of HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher (10/9c), with the usual array of outspoken guests including Keith Olbermann at the roundtable and FX's Louis C.K. among the interviewees. Wonder if this week's Tea Party-fueled debate on CNN will come up?Geek alert, or something to do while debating whether to shell out for the new Blu-Ray of the complete Star Wars movie series: Cartoon Network launches the fourth season of the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars (8/7c) with an hour-long episode pitting the Jedi Knights and their clone army against the Separatist droids. (I'm assuming this means something to the die-hard fan.) This is preceded by a two-hour block of new episodes of action toons Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Young Justice, Generator Rex and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. Want more fall TV news? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!CBS News' 48 Hours drops the "mystery" format on a special night for the hour-long report Bullying: Words Can Kill (8/7c), looking in particular at the escalation of online bullies. Producers spent six months following events at a Rhode Island middle school that has directly confronted the issue on how to push back against all of the tormenting.So what else is on? Cinemax's bloody, bawdy guilty pleasure Strike Back (10/9c), having lost one of its team quite explosively a week ago, reels in a few notable guest stars - Game of Thrones' Iain Glen as a weapons dealer and Lost's Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as a Sudanese sadist of a militia leader - for this week's latest shoot-em-up heroics. As is the show's tradition, this a multi-episode mission ending on multiple cliffhangers. ... Speaking of leaving us hanging, Fox's fabulous Fringe (9/8c) repeats last season's mystifying finale, leaving us wondering "What-The-Fringe?" about Peter Bishop's fate. ... NBC airs the ALMA Awards (8/7c), honoring Latino performers. George Lopez and Eva Longoria are hosts. SATURDAY Pick of the night: A spooky new Doctor Who (BBC America, 9/8c) takes the TARDIS travelers to a hotel that sounds more like a lethal funhouse, where every room reflects the visitor's darkest, deadliest fears. Even the Doctor's. Need a pick-me-up? BBCA spotlights some of the UK's (and others') best stand-ups in the first of a two-part special, Funny as Hell (11/10c), filmed at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival this summer.Thanks, NBC-Universal, for challenging TV writers' spell-checking capabilities. First came Syfy, and now Cloo, a channel devoted to crime and mystery. Cloo's first original true-crime series, Killer Instinct (premieres 9/8c), stars retired FBI profiler Mark Safarik as he recreates notorious cases, giving his insights into the criminal mind. This is paired with Dateline on Cloo (10/9c), repurposing some of the newsmag's most sensational stories.Even OWN is getting into the true-crime thing, though naturally with a more emotional twist, launching Confronting (10/9c), a docu-series about prison mediation in which victims and offenders come face to face.So what else is on? As a prelude to ABC's last-ever broadcast of All My Children Sept. 23, SOAPnet airs a two-day marathon of some of AMC's best-remembered moments. Saturday's I Love Lucci Erica Kane-fest starts at 7/6c, and Sunday's Last Chance for Romance wallow starts at 5 pm/4c. ... True romantics can head to Hallmark Channel for Love Begins (9/8c), starring Nancy McKeon from The Facts of Life and Wes Brown as Clark Davis, the hero of Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly series, Hallmark's most successful brand-within-a-brand. This is the first of several prequels. SUNDAYThe Emmy Awards telecast (Fox, 8/7c) is tonight's top pick, regardless of whether you agree with the results (or even the nominations). Jane Lynch hosts.Top non-Emmy pick: Ineligible for Emmys this year, AMC's Breaking Bad (10/9c) apparently has nothing to lose by airing a new episode opposite the awards. You don't want to miss it. This thrillingly pivotal episode features Emmy caliber work by many of its principals, including past winners Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul as Walter White and his conflicted partner in crime Jesse Pinkman. Most of the OMG moments this week result from Jesse's eventful trip south of the border, with Gus and Mike looking on as the lab assistant steps up to show the Mexican cartel how to make the magic meth. A poolside reunion between Gus and Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) adds to the intensity. But the true heart of the hour comes in a wrenching father-son talk between Walt and his son (RJ Mitte, never better) on his 16th birthday.So what else is on? The indefatigable Linda Ellerbee is back with a new edition of Nick News (9/8c) titled A Gift of Life, about organ donation, introducing us to kids who've donated and received life-saving transplants and some who are still waiting. ... VH1's latest Rock Doc defies you to just say no. Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation (10/9c), narrated by exec producer Ice-T, charts the rise of crack cocaine and its influence on the hip-hop culture over the last quarter-century.Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

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Listen To It Awesome

A Mary's Hideaway presentation of the musical in 2 functions with music by Phillip Swann, additional music by Jim Andron, Michael Cruz, Marilyn Harris, Emilio Palame, Ray Steelman lyrics by Mark Winkler book by Martin Casella and Ray Dean Harris, created by Harris. Direction by Sharon Rosen.Henry - Michael F. McGuirkbr/>Lena - Robyn HurderMary - Sally MayesWill - Michael BuchananEddie - Chris HochThere is really a subset of Off Broadway musicals which include five approximately folks inside a bar who sing of affection and loss for a few hrs before everybody goes home unhappy. The figures, that's, even though malaise very frequently stretches towards the audience. The producers of "Listen To It Awesome," in the Acorn, a minimum of come with an ace within the hole: Sally Mayes, who grabs our attention if he or she offer her an audio lesson about jazz, love, or even the thrill of putting on men's suits, and therefore prevents the evening (and something suspects half the crowd) from wisping away. Story concentrates on a Hollywood nightclub, Mary's Hideaway, stashed with no sign outdoors the doorway. Those things begins having a nineteen forties-noir private eye covered with trenchcoat and stage fog, this even though the show is decidedly non-noirish and also the time is 1953. This can be a "funny" club, we're told, and never as with '-' funny. The non-public detective works out not to become a private eye he's a plainclothes cop, who makes Mary's Hideaway to gather his $200 payola after which just sits there through a few days of plotting. The cop extorting money from Mary (Mayes) is, understand this, Mary's ex-brother-in-law -- they're keen on one another she makes him a sandwich -- and despite getting a loyal offstage wife works out to possess a secret of their own (even though it ain't not a secret to anybody following a story). Also on tap really are a sexy woman singer, who's itchiness for any movie contract and calls Mary "mother" (though not within the parent/child sense) a slimy MGM producer from the Arthur Freed unit along with a sweet youthful boy-singer just from the bus who's catnip towards the older males. None of the matters as long as Mayes stands there and sings. Michael Buchanan, because the sweet youthful factor, works out to possess a fine voice themself he even holds their own in the second act duets with Mayes. The relaxation from the cast simply works the fabric, such because it is. Show, started in the Celebration Theater in La and additional developed at both NY Musical Theater Festival and also the National Alliance for Musical Theater festival, involves the commercial Off Broadway stage with five stars, three music artists, and believe it or not than nine credited authors. Lyricist Mark Winkler, the only real sole-specialist one of the group, boasts in the program bio that he's the coauthor of "Naked Boys Singing." You will find no naked boys here, even though boys hug the boys and also the women hug the women and everyone sings.Choreography by Marc Kimelman. Music direction by David Libby. Set, Thomas A. Walsh costumes, Therese Bruck lighting, N Sullivan seem, Carl Casella and Peter Fitzgerald music supervisor and arranger, Joe Baker production stage manager, Jane Pole. Opened up Sept. 14, 2011, examined Sept. 11. Runs through March. 9. Running time: 2 Hrs. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Seeking Actorfest L.A. Volunteers

Back Stage is seeking males and ladies volunteers to help at its annual Actorfest LA event. Actorfest NY will probably be held November 5, 2011 within the California Market Center in downtown La. Volunteers is going to be set-up, help with casting calls, and help with courses. The large event lasts 10 to 12 several hours.In return, volunteers can get free lunch then one-year subscription to BackStage.com. To volunteer, please email your title, phone number, and resume (or back-link aimed at your website) to actorfestla@backstage.com. To learn more in regards to the event, visit internet.actorfest.com. Thanks! Assist you to at Actorfest.

Permission to Laugh Again

Permission to Laugh Again By Stephen Medwid September 11, 2011 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani with New york city firemen on "SNL" on Sept. 29, 2001. 10 years ago, "Saturday Evening Live" gave a grieving America permission to laugh again. Certainly, no sane person may find humor within the horror which was Sept. 11, 2001. Like a native New Yorker, the demise and destruction literally hit too near to home for me personally.Being an actor, my resolve for the main one principle all stars live bythe show must go onwas offer the exam 2 days following the tragedy when i sitting inside a room at Stars Connection, waiting to audition for Josh Payne, then talent coordinator of extra supplies and under-fives for "SNL."The atmosphere was eerie. Outdoors, sirens constantly wailed. Like several the other stars there, I attempted to tune it, but all of us understood what that seem meant also it stored everybody within the room on edge. In the window, you can look downtown and find out the vibrant, still-smoldering afterglow of ground zero. "What am I doing here?" I requested myself. The only real answer I possibly could develop was: Maybe laughter is the greatest medicine.I looked around in the number of 20 approximately anxious stars. I was all uncomfortable and, I am sure, feeling guilty about attempting to pursue our careers at the time of these chaos and heartbreak. One youthful lady looked especially terribleweary, haggard, her eyes a dull glaze. I recall thinking she'd not be hired for television. I Quickly learned she would be a nurse who was simply working nonstop in the fallen towers. All of a sudden, she grew to become probably the most beautiful lady within the room.Josh was great at reducing the strain. He introduced a number of sketches and that we carried out them being an ensemble, much like about the show. For any couple of fleeting moments, there have been chuckles and smiles. He collected our headshots and rsums. It was to reality.By accident, I went into Josh because he was exiting your building. We walked a couple of blocks together, talking about the occasions of history couple of days. He was still being uncertain if the season's first show, scheduled for that finish from the month, would really air or perhaps be postponed.The next week I received my answer. The show's film department hired me and many others as background entertainers for that opening credits. All of us met within the basement bar of the midtown restaurant. One of the various cast people we labored with were Ana Gasteyer and new recruits Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers.On Sept. 29, I, like countless other audiences, sitting transfixed before my tv at 11:30 p.m. The show opened up, happens full of the harsh faces of recent You are able to City firemen, cops, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and "SNL" executive producer and creator Lorne Michaels. First, Paul Simon sang a heartbreaking rendition of "The Boxer." Next, Michaels walked as much as Giuliani and requested if "Saturday Evening Live" could return to being funny. Having a wry smile, Giuliani responded, "Why begin right now?InchAt that time, you can feel a whole nation exhale. With tears during my eyes, I became a member of the studio audience in unabashed laughter. Then came individuals familiar words, "Live from New You are able to." My heart pumped and my jaw dropped. There' wasfirst with Gasteyer after which with newcomer Shaun Richards. I had been forever part of this historic show.The actual healing for me personally, however, would occur within the next several days. Like a frequent background under-five player, I observed firsthand the hit-or-miss procedure for determining what lengths to push the comedy envelope throughout uncharted and seeking occasions. No one was sure that which was funnya significant problem for any satirical program depending heavily on political incorrectness. Yet it presented the very best in the stars, along with the authors.For me personally, like a television viewer ten years ago, "SNL" certainly strengthened the idea that laughter is the greatest medicine. So that as a New You are able to actor today, still it appears a method the world can take advantage of. Stephen Medwid is definitely an ex-sportswriter who came back to his native New You are able to following a 12-year hiatus in Hawaii and California, where he analyzed, carried out, and trained drama. He presently plays a core connect on TV's "Damages," stands set for Tom Selleck on CBS's "Blue Bloods," and was featured at the spine Stage's Who Got the Part? in 2008. He is constantly on the write his memoirs and workshop his one-guy show. Both of them are entitled "A Sportswriter in Paradise." Permission to Laugh Again By Stephen Medwid September 11, 2011 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani with New york city firemen on "SNL" on Sept. 29, 2001. 10 years ago, "Saturday Evening Live" gave a grieving America permission to laugh again. Certainly, no sane person may find humor within the horror which was Sept. 11, 2001. Like a native New Yorker, the demise and destruction literally hit too near to home for me personally.Being an actor, my resolve for the main one principle all stars live bythe show must go onwas offer the exam 2 days following the tragedy when i sitting inside a room at Stars Connection, waiting to audition for Josh Payne, then talent coordinator of extra supplies and under-fives for "SNL."The atmosphere was eerie. Outdoors, sirens constantly wailed. Like the rest of the stars there, I attempted to tune it, but all of us understood what that seem meant also it stored everybody within the room on edge. In the window, you can look downtown and find out the vibrant, still-smoldering afterglow of ground zero. "What am I doing here?" I requested myself. The only real answer I possibly could develop was: Maybe laughter is the greatest medicine.I looked around in the number of 20 approximately anxious stars. I was all uncomfortable and, I am sure, feeling guilty about attempting to pursue our careers at the time of these chaos and heartbreak. One youthful lady looked especially terribleweary, haggard, her eyes a dull glaze. I recall thinking she'd not be hired for television. I Quickly learned she would be a nurse who was simply working nonstop in the fallen towers. All of a sudden, she grew to become the most amazing lady within the room.Josh was great at reducing the strain. He introduced a number of sketches and that we carried out them being an ensemble, much like on the program. For any couple of fleeting moments, there have been chuckles and smiles. He collected our headshots and rsums. It was to reality.By accident, I went into Josh because he was exiting your building. We walked a couple of blocks together, talking about the occasions of history couple of days. He was still being uncertain if the season's first show, scheduled for that finish from the month, would really air or perhaps be postponed.The next week I received my answer. The show's film department hired me and many others as background entertainers for that opening credits. All of us met within the basement bar of the midtown restaurant. One of the various cast people we labored with were Ana Gasteyer and new recruits Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers.On Sept. 29, I, like countless other audiences, sitting transfixed before my tv at 11:30 p.m. The show opened up, happens full of the harsh faces of recent You are able to City firemen, cops, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and "SNL" executive producer and creator Lorne Michaels. First, Paul Simon sang a heartbreaking rendition of "The Boxer." Next, Michaels walked as much as Giuliani and requested if "Saturday Evening Live" could return to being funny. Having a wry smile, Giuliani responded, "Why begin right now?InchAt that time, you can feel a whole nation exhale. With tears during my eyes, I became a member of the studio audience in unabashed laughter. Then came individuals familiar words, "Live from New You are able to." My heart pumped and my jaw dropped. There' wasfirst with Gasteyer after which with newcomer Shaun Richards. I had been forever part of this historic show.The actual healing for me personally, however, would occur within the next several days. Like a frequent background under-five player, I observed firsthand the hit-or-miss procedure for determining what lengths to push the comedy envelope throughout uncharted and seeking occasions. Nobody was sure that which was funnya significant problem for any satirical program depending heavily on political incorrectness. Yet it presented the very best within the stars, along with the authors.For me personally, like a television viewer ten years ago, "SNL" certainly strengthened the idea that laughter is the greatest medicine. So that as a brand new You are able to actor today, still it appears a method the world can usually benefit from. Stephen Medwid is definitely an ex-sportswriter who came back to his native New You are able to following a 12-year hiatus in Hawaii and California, where he analyzed, carried out, and trained drama. He presently plays a core connect on TV's "Damages," stands set for Tom Selleck on CBS's "Blue Bloods," and was featured at the spine Stage's Who Got the Part? in 2008. He is constantly on the write his memoirs and workshop his one-guy show. Both of them are entitled "A Sportswriter in Paradise."

Shoreline acquires 'Generation P'

Shoreline Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Victor Ginzburg's socio-political satire "Generation P."Shoreline made the announcement Sunday within the Toronto Worldwide Film Festival, where the Russian pic influences Vanguard Programme."Generation P" stars Vladimar Yepifantsev and Michael Yefremov and won the Special Jury Prize within the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Pic's based on Victor Pelevin's novel and follows a disillusioned youthful Russian poet who works in advertising - and finds his voice creating subversive campaigns for western-style goods through the completely new ages of consumerism in Russia following november communism. Ginzburg is certainly a united states of Russian descent.The sale is created by Mike Eigen of Shoreline Entertainment with Jim Steele of Filmray settling regarding the producers. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

Rampart

A Lightstream Pictures, Waypoint Entertainment presentation in association with the Third Mind Pictures. (International sales: Sierra-Affinity.) Produced by Lawrence Inglee, Clark Peterson, Ben Foster, Ken Kao. Executive producers, Michael DeFranco, Lila Yacoub, Mark Gordon, Paul Currie, Garrett Kelleher. Co-producers, Luca Borghese, Ross Ioppolo. Directed by Oren Moverman. Screenplay, James Ellroy, Moverman.With: Woody Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Francis Capra, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Brie Larson, Audra McDonald, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Robert Wisdom, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Jon Bernthal, Jon Foster, Stella Schnabel, Sammy Boyarsky.Casting a cynical backward glance at the police scandals that rocked Los Angeles in the late '90s, writer-director Oren Moverman ("The Messenger") and resident crime-fiction specialist James Ellroy deliver a well-wrought but dramatically narrow account of a scuzzy cop's personal and professional meltdown in "Rampart." Woody Harrelson is excellent as a cynical, trigger-happy officer oblivious to the fresh winds of change and accountability sweeping through his embattled department. But while the film is drenched in atmosphere and packs a verbal and visceral punch, its relentless downward spiral makes for an overdetermined, not entirely satisfying character study with modest niche-release prospects. The title alone would seem to promise a dense, meaty ensemble piece examining the vast network of corruption and misconduct that came to light within the Los Angeles Police Dept.'s Rampart division, from which more than 70 cops were charged with acts of unprovoked brutality, evidence falsification and other crimes. But while Ellroy has written plenty of novels in this intricate, layer-by-seedy-layer vein (and previously co-scripted the 2008 L.A. corrupt-cops thriller "Street Kings"), his collaboration with Moverman keeps the scandals largely in the background of the Rampart cop who drives the film's every scene. It's 1999, and Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) is a rough-justice type whose 24 years on the force have taught him the necessity of bending the rules from time to time. Early scenes offer a quick sketch of this charismatically crooked figure, from his combative relationships with his fellow officers, laced with casually racist and chauvinist put-downs, to his weirdly functional relationships with his ex-wives (Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon), who still live with him and each have a daughter by him. (Also, they're sisters.) It's implied that Dave's fierce protectiveness of his daughters partly motivated his alleged killing of a serial rapist years ago. That propensity for boundary-pushing violence again rears its head when Dave chases down and repeatedly beats a suspect, an act caught on video and rapidly disseminated on the news, threatening to stir up the sort of Rodney King-like embarrassment the LAPD doesn't need in the wake of Rampart. Soon he's being pressed to retire by assistant district attorney Joan Confrey (a splendid Sigourney Weaver), the most satisfying of the many distaff nemeses Dave squares off with; another is Linda Fentress (Robin Wright), a foxy defense lawyer whom he ill-advisedly picks up in a bar. Tightening the noose around his own neck, Dave surprises a trio of armed robbers in a tense, terse setpiece that invites the scrutiny of D.A. Investigator Kyle Timkins (Ice Cube). After making some off-color insinuations about Timkins, Dave offers a supremely cynical self-justification: "Bear in mind that I am not a racist. In general I hate all people." The feeling would seem to be mutual, as everyone who knows Dave turns on him in the film's second half. Pic more than bears out the intelligence and moral toughness of Moverman's 2009 directing debut, "The Messenger," which also featured Harrelson and Ben Foster (almost unrecognizable here as a homeless informant). But while that film had a searching quality that uncovered new depths in every scene, "Rampart" seems to choke off feeling as it progresses, as if the filmmakers, having figured out humanity's cynical equation, had nothing left to offer emotionally. Having spent its first half setting up its antihero for defeat, the pic has nowhere to go but down, striking the same punishing note to ever-diminishing returns. But even when he seems to be in permanent moral free-fall, Harrelson keeps you watching; his unruly energy and devil-may-care attitude make Dave as likable as he is despicable, and his refusal to buckle to forces of political correctness and hypocrisy commands some admiration. Harrelson slimmed down by 25 pounds to play a guy who, the general reputation of cops notwithstanding, has little time to eat, and his dedication is on display in a series of sex scenes played with a complete absence of vanity. With the exception of one immersive latenight club sequence, the raw, handheld lensing and fleet editing never call attention to themselves in the expert tech package. The city's sun-bleached exteriors take on a hard, hellish cast in d.p. Bobby Bukowski's color-saturated HD lensing, and the pic fairly teems with local atmosphere, especially in its handful of scenes at the original Tommy's burger joint at the corner of Beverly and Rampart.Camera (color, widescreen, HD), Bobby Bukowski; editor, Jay Rabinowitz; music, Dickon Hinchliffe; music supervisor, Jim Black; production designer, David Wasco; art director, Austin Gorg; set decorator, Sandy Wasco; costume designer, Catherine George; sound (Dolby Digital), Lisa Pinero; sound designer/supervising sound editor, Javier Bennassar; special effects coordinator, Larz Anderson; visual effects supervisor, Dottie Starling; visual effects, Wildfire Visual Effects; stunt coordinator, Tim Trella; associate producers, Charlie O'Carroll, William Paul Clark; assistant director, William Paul Clark; casting, Laura Rosenthal, Rachel Tenner. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 10, 2011. Running time: 103 MIN. Contact Justin Chang at justin.chang@variety.com

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Amy Wise and HGTV's Carter Oosterhouse Got Married

Carter Oosterhouse and Amy Wise Amy Wise and HGTV's Carter Oosterhouse have become married, Us Weekly reviews.The pair swapped vows Saturday before 215 visitors in Oosterhouse's home town of Traverse City, Michigan, where Smart's parents also live. The College Blues actress used a Carolina Herrera gown.Amy Wise and Carter Oosterhouse are engaged"We're feeling so excited and fortunate to celebrate this happy day with this family and buddies," the bride and groom stated.Wise, 35, and Oosterhouse, 34, met in a eco-friendly-charitable organisation event in November and also got involved in April.Wise most lately made an appearance on Shameless. Oosterhouse hosts HGTV's Carter Can and In Demand & Eco-friendly.