Kevin Bacon offered an apology to fans for retweeting a key plot point from 'The Following.' (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Kevin Bacon apology: The actor said sorry for tweeting a key 'Following' spoiler

By Molly Driscoll, Staff Writer / 04.10.13

Kevin Bacon, star of “The Following,” apologized to fans after he revealed a crucial plot point for his show before international audiences would have seen the episode.

Bacon retweeted a comment from a fan that revealed the spoiler. A user named @jodigomes had tweeted approval of a recent plot development, which was a major twist for the show.

The actor apologized for retweeting the spoiler.

“To all the fans abroad and late watchers I'm truly sorry I retweeted a spoiler,” the actor tweeted on April 9. “I just wasn't thinking. Won't happen again.”

Bacon also posted a similar apology on his website, with the website version ending in “(My bad).”

Bacon plays a former FBI agent named Ryan Hardy who is brought back on the job after a serial killer he helped catch escapes from prison. The killer, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), has amassed a group of fanatical followers who will do anything to help Carroll succeed in his plot against Ryan. Further complicating matters is the fact that Ryan became involved in a relationship with Joe’s ex-wife.

Williamson told Entertainment Weekly that he mentioned to his agent, “I want to get someone like Kevin Bacon” when discussing the part of Hardy. His agent replied, “What about Kevin Bacon?”

The show is quickly approaching the end of its first season, with the last episode set to air April 29, but the “Following” network, Fox, has already renewed the show for a second season. 

Bacon broke out with his lead role in the 1984 film “Footloose” and has since appeared in films such as “Apollo 13,” “Mystic River” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love” as well as guest-starring on the TV show “Bored to Death.” Purefoy starred as Mark Antony on the HBO series “Rome” and recently appeared in the Showtime comedy “Episodes.”

Kathryn Erbe returns to 'Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,' which stars Mariska Hargitay (pictured), on May 8. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

Kathryn Erbe returns to 'Law & Order'

By Molly Driscoll, Staff Writer / 04.10.13

Actress Kathryn Erbe will return to “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” for a May episode, reprising her role as Alexandra Eames. 

Erbe portrayed Alexandra on the “Law & Order” show “Criminal Intent” beginning in 2001, when “Criminal Intent” first came on the air. Alexandra was the partner of Vincent D’Onofrio’s character Robert Goren. “Intent” went off the air in 2011.

The actress has already guest-starred once on “Special Victims Unit,” having appeared in an episode that aired this past October. In the “Unit” episode, Alexandra was working in a homeland security task force as a lieutenant and combined forces with the "Victims" team when Alexandra's terrorism case is related to a sex trafficking ring which the "Unit" characters are looking into.

According to TVLine, “Unit” star Ice-T was responsible for the plot which will feature Erbe’s return – Alexandra helps out his character, Fin Tutuola, when someone Fin knows begins to cause problems for the characters on “Unit.”

“There’s a lot of bad blood from Fin’s past involved in it,” Warren Leight, the show’s executive producer, told TVLine of the episode.

Ice-T suggested the storyline because he said fans enjoyed a past storyline where the sister of a detective was threatened by an ex and that they should include another plot where one of the team was in trouble.

Leight said Ice-T told him, “The fans really like it when we’re in harm’s way. And don’t forget, I used to be a narcotics officer. There’s got to be a lot of people who want me dead.”

According to TVLine, rapper 2 Chainz will also guest-star in the same episode, which will air May 8, playing someone Fin knew in the past.

“Unit” is currently airing its fourteenth season and many believe the show will be renewed for another year.

Erbe has also appeared in the TV show “Oz” and the 2011 comedy “The Love Guide.”

Aly Raisman (l.) poses with her teammate Gabby Douglas (r.). (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Aly Raisman places first on 'DWTS' as Olympic teammates watch

By Molly Driscoll, Staff Writer / 04.09.13

Aly Raisman’s former Olympic teammates Kyla Ross and Gabby Douglas attended the April 8 episode of “Dancing with the Stars” to cheer on Raisman, who placed first in the episode with her partner Mark Ballas.

Raisman performed a contemporary routine with Ballas that was set to the song “Titanium” by David Guetta. The theme of the evening was the best year of the contestants’ lives and Raisman had chosen 2012, when she competed at the Olympics. In addition to the “best year” theme, each celebrity participant had to perform a solo during the routine.

“I'm excited that this is the show they'll be at because it's all about the Olympics,” Raisman had said of Ross and Douglas’s appearance in an interview with USA Today.

Judge Bruno Tonioli seemed especially impressed by Raisman’s performance.

“Forget about titanium, you are going for gold,” he told her during the show.

Raisman and Ballas earned a score of 27 out of 30, while former frontrunner Zendaya and her partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy and contestant Kellie Pickler and her partner Derek Hough were directly behind Raisman and Ballas, with both earning a score of 26 out of 30. Contestants Victor Ortiz and his partner Lindsay Arnold and Lisa Vanderpump and her partner Gleb Savchenko tied for last place with a score of 18 out of 30. Vanderpump had fainted during one of her practices and so had reduced rehearsal time.

Raisman told USA Today that she hoped to integrate some of her “Dancing” skills to her gymnastics in the future.

“I'm excited to bring some cool moves I've learned on the show to my floor routine,” she said. 

During this routine, she particularly wanted to win over judge Carrie Ann Inaba, she told TV Guide.

"I want to impress Carrie Ann [Inaba]," Raisman said in an interview before the show. "She said I held back the first week and that I went out of character last week, so I don't want her to think that again this week."

The former Olympian served as the captain of the American women’s gymnastics team for the London 2012 Olympics and earned a gold medal for her floor routine. 

“Dancing” will eliminate another couple on its April 9 episode.

Margaret Thatcher was Britain's first female prime minister. (AP)

Margaret Thatcher: Her portrayals in pop culture

By Saba Hamedy / 04.08.13

As the legacy of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who passed away at age 87 on Monday, is honored, Thatcher is also remembered in everything from songs to films. Like many symbolic historical figures, the pop culture renditions are a mix of positive and negative.

Here’s a list of some of the most notable:

"Saturday Night Live": The NBC comedy show “Saturday Night Live” poked fun at Thatcher following her election in 1979. Guest host Michael Palin, known for his role in Monty Python films, played her in one skit on Weekend Update, donning a wig to imitate her voluptuous hair.

James Bond: In the closing scene of the 1981 Bond film "For Your Eyes Only," actress Janet Brown has a cameo as Thatcher. During the closing scene, Brown speaks with James Bond, portrayed by Roger Moore, on the phone and congratulates him on a successful mission. When he asks her to "give us a kiss," she responds with, “Oh, really, Mr. Bond."

"House of Cards": Long before Netflix created a US version, the UK had its own political drama with the same title. Released in 1990 on the BBC, the four-part series took place as Thatcher has just left office. However, she is not portrayed onscreen.

"The Iron Lady": The most recent onscreen portrayal of Thatcher in 2011 had mixed reviews. While Hollywood favorite Meryl Streep won the Academy Award for the film in 2011 for what The Guardian called a “note-perfect performance,” the film was still criticized for focusing on Thatcher’s personal life rather than her politics. In The New York Times, film critic A.O. Scott argued that those entering the film with strong stances on Thatcher – either good or bad – will leave more confused. “Though the film pays lip service to Mrs. Thatcher’s analytic intelligence and tactical shrewdness, its focus is on the drama and pathos of her personal life,” Scott wrote in a statement issued on Monday, Streep herself gave her respects to the Thatcher family. “To me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit… I was honored to try to imagine her late life journey, after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side," Streep said.

"The Audience": Playwright Peter Morgan is behind a play called “The Audience,” in which Queen Elizabeth II, played by Helen Mirren, meets with 12 different historic prime ministers, including Thatcher, played by actress Haydn Gwynne. According to the show’s Facebook page, representatives for the production said the April 8 performance “will go ahead as scheduled” at London’s Gielgud Theatre. However, “as a mark of respect,” Morgan will give a short speech prior to the start.

Saba Hamedy is a Monitor contributor.

'Mad Men' stars Jon Hamm (r.) and Jessica Paré (l.). (Michael Yarish/AMC/AP)

'Mad Men' season premiere recap: Where is Don Draper now?

By Kevin Yeoman, Screen Rant / 04.08.13

The shroud of secrecy that series creator Matthew Weiner places over every new installment – and especially the new seasons – of Mad Men has actually become an integral part of the show’s appeal. Audiences head toward the now-standard two-hour season premiere with little more to go on than a perplexing arrangement of clips and sound bites from the previous season, leaving viewers to assume that even though the characters of TV’s best program continue their inexorable march through time, perhaps nothing has really changed.

And that’s what really set this series apart from all the others: Seeing what the future has in store for Don, Megan, Sally, Betty and the entirety of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce is kind of difficult. There’s a curiosity, sure, but it isn’t easy to watch as the magnificent Don Draper loses the magic that once made him the toast of Madison Avenue, or as Roger Sterling dabbles in LSD to combat the ennui that’s absorbed him even more than he’s absorbed in himself. And although it’s funny, no one wants to be reminded of getting older by watching as Pete Campbell relinquishes his hairline with less fuss than Harry Crane surrendered his office in season 5.

As we pull back and look upon it all, it seems that Mad Men is leading the audience down a path of death and despair. But after watching the spectacular season 6 premiere, ‘The Doorway, Part I & II,’ it seems that the series which left its audience with the (thankfully) unfulfilled expectation that Pete Campbell was a suicide waiting to happen, isn’t just pointing toward the end; it’s pointing toward the way out.

Last season saw Don on the precipice of becoming the Don Draper of old, after the idyllic fantasy of his marriage to Megan shifted into something that was no longer entirely under his control and therefore, not entirely fulfilling. The audience was left with Don poised to acknowledge a part of himself he’d figuratively kicked under the bed through the permissive lucidity of a fever-dream, while Jon Hamm’s brilliant and subtle performance illustrated how easily the actor playing the character – and then the actual character – could shift between identities. With an understated raise of his brow, Hamm illustrated how easily Dick Whitman became Don Draper, and how Don Draper can leave behind the man who spent much of season 5 on “love leave“ to become the man who, as we see in the season premiere, is sleeping with his neighbor’s wife.

Season 6 offers a handful of pleasures early on. There’s the thrill of finding out Roger Sterling and Pete Campbell have sideburns! Stan Rizzo and Michael Ginsberg have incredible facial hair! Burt Peterson is back! SCDP has an upstairs! Betty Francis is wandering around the Village and has dyed her hair!  But more importantly, it’s still all about Don Draper and his relationship to the unalterable passage of time – which is noted by the realization that his wristwatch has stopped as he’s reading ‘The Inferno’ on a heavenly beach during the “vacation” he and Megan enjoy courtesy of Sheraton.

“Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find myself alone in a dark wood,” Don reads in voiceover after the season begins from the POV of a man watching while a doctor performs life-saving chest compressions on him.

Naturally, that points to death, but even as Don and everyone else is seemingly stuck contemplating their own future – Weiner seems to be taking issue with the assessment that season 5 (and to an extent, the show’s future) was obsessed with death – ‘The Doorway, Part I & II’ manages to be both completely obsessed with death (e.g., Bobby Draper wants to check out a violin case because it reminds him of a coffin) and able to joke about the audience’s preconceptions about the series’ so-called obsession all at the same time.

The premiere feels like the antithesis to ‘Just a Little Kiss‘ from the get-go, as Don chats with the clearly troubled PFC Dinkins and agrees to give his bride-to-be away, despite having just met him. From then on, Don is rapt with the notion that his time in Hawaii wasn’t just a vacation; it was an experience that even he struggles to put into words. This puts the character in a sort of malaise that acts as the connective tissue throughout the rest of the episode. Even then, Don is met with a multitude of signals that either reminds him of death’s looming presence, or the past he’s tried so hard to conceal.

The two points come to a head at the funeral of Roger Sterling’s mother, as Don, experiencing someone’s death yet again, is forced to listen while an elderly woman eulogizes Roger’s mother and explains how she adored her son, and how life was full because of him. All of this (and his uncanny ability to find a libation at any social event) causes Don’s emotions – presumably about his absent maternal figure – to literally explode from within, forcing him to vomit into a handsome umbrella stand.

But it is Roger’s monologues in therapy that paint the fullest picture of Mad Men season 6 and just what’s going on with him and Don. Like Sandy, the formerly Julliard-bound violinist who regales the Francis family with Chopin’s ‘Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2,’ these characters are just running away from their dissatisfying lives. They aren’t looking toward the end; they’re just looking for the doorway out.

Kevin Yeoman blogs at Screen Rant.

Kendra Wilkinson quits 'Splash.' Why? (+video)

By Molly Driscoll, Staff Writer / 04.04.13

Contestant Kendra Wilkinson quit the reality show “Splash” on April 2, saying that she was unable to complete the high dive that was required.

“I'm so sorry, everybody," Wilkinson said during the show. "It's bittersweet. One thing I don't do is quit. This is the first time in my life I've quit something. This will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Wilkinson said she was unable to dive from the board because of her fear of heights. On the show, she walked up to the diving board, which was 23 feet high, then said she was unable to go through with it.

When she said, “I can’t do it,” there were some booing heard in the crowd.

The reality star tweeted after the show, saying that she realized now that “Splash” wasn’t a good fit for her.

“I got a lot of hate tonight but I’ll take it,” Wilkinson said on Twitter. “Big mistake signing up for the show. Sorry I let you all down.”

She said in a later tweet that she had actually planned to quit the show earlier, but got through the previous week’s episode.

“I was supposed to quit with last weeks dive but I didn't and did it,” Wilkinson tweeted. “Felt amazing and it was a huge accomplishment to me and my family.”

“Splash” debuted March 19 on ABC with contestants Wilkinson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Drake Bell, among others. The show requires celebrities to complete new dives, which become harder, each week.

Another contestant, Chuy Bravo, had previously withdrawn from the competition after he injured his heel. Two participants, “Cosby Show” actress Keshia Knight Pulliam and Detroit Lions player Ndamukong Suh, have been eliminated so far, with seven contestants remaining, including soccer player Brandi Chastain, who is serving as Bravo’s replacement.

Wilkinson first came into the public eye for her role on the E! reality series “The Girls Next Door,” which focused on residents of the Playboy Mansion. She starred in the “Girls” spin-off series “Kendra” and also competed on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”

Hilary Duff will guest-star on Ashton Kutcher's sitcom 'Two and a Half Men.' (Casey Rodgers/AP Images for Johnson's Baby)

Hilary Duff will play Ashton Kutcher's love interest on 'Two and a Half Men'

By Molly Driscoll, Staff Writer / 04.03.13

Hilary Duff will be returning to TV again to guest-star on the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men.”

Duff will play a love interest named Stacey for Ashton Kutcher’s billionaire character, Walden, and will appear on the show’s season finale. But according to E! News, Kutcher won't fall for Duff. Instead, he becomes attracted to Stacey’s grandmother, who will be played by actress Marilu Henner of TV’s “Taxi.”

The season finale of the sitcom, which will finish its tenth season, is set to air May 9.

“Two and a Half Men” starred actors Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones for eight seasons, though the eighth season was abbreviated because Mr. Sheen entered a rehabilitation facility. In the show’s ninth season premiere, Sheen’s character, Charlie Harper, was revealed to have died and Kutcher’s character, Walden Schmidt, was introduced as Cryer and Jones’ new roommate.

Industry watchers say the odds are good that “Men” will return for an 11th season next year, with negotiations currently underway. 

Hilary Duff rose to fame as the title character on the Disney TV series “Lizzie McGuire,” which aired from 2001 to 2004 and was turned into a movie titled “The Lizzie McGuire Movie,” released in 2003. She also starred in the films “A Cinderella Story,” “Raise Your Voice,” and the 2003 remake “Cheaper by the Dozen” and that film’s 2005 sequel. Duff guest-starred as movie actress Olivia Burke for a series of episodes on the CW soap “Gossip Girl” as well as appearing in a 2010 episode of the NBC comedy “Community.”

Duff also has a successful music career, selling more than 13 million albums worldwide and has performed in four concert tours.

Kutcher first became well-known as spacey best friend Michael Kelso on the 1999 sitcom “That ’70s Show,” and has since starred in movie comedies such as “Dude, Where’s My Car?,” “Just Married” and “New Year’s Eve.” He was cast as Steve Jobs in the biopic “Jobs,” but the film’s release was recently changed from April 19 to an undetermined date.

'Finding Dory' is scheduled for a 2015 release. (Disney Pixar/AP)

'Finding Dory': The 'Finding Nemo' sequel is coming in 2015

By Sandy Schaefer, Screen Rant / 04.02.13

We heard that Oscar-winning animation filmmaker Andrew Stanton is directing a Finding Nemo sequel last year, not so long after his expensive live-action debut John Carter proved to be a disappointment at the box office. It didn’t take long for Ellen DeGeneres to enter negotiations to reprise her beloved voice role as the memory-impaired blue tang fish Dory from the first movie.

A few months later, Disney/Pixar introduced DeGeneres’ character to the current kiddie generation – who were either not alive or too young to remember the year 2003 - by giving Finding Nemo a 3D theatrical re-rerelease. That decision was rewarding on two levels, in terms of immediate profits AND early marketing for the sequel, which has now been officially titled… Finding Dory.

Here is an excerpt from the press release, with Stanton and DeGeneres discussing the story and themes for Finding Dory:

“I have waited for this day for a long, long, long, long, long, long time,” said DeGeneres. “I’m not mad it took this long. I know the people at Pixar were busy creating ‘Toy Story 16.’ But the time they took was worth it. The script is fantastic. And it has everything I loved about the first one: It’s got a lot of heart, it’s really funny, and the best part is—it’s got a lot more Dory.”

Director and Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton takes audiences back to the extraordinary underwater world created in the original film. “There is no Dory without Ellen,” said Stanton. “She won the hearts of moviegoers all over the world—not to mention our team here at Pixar. One thing we couldn’t stop thinking about was why she was all alone in the ocean on the day she met Marlin. In ‘Finding Dory,’ she will be reunited with her loved ones, learning a few things about the meaning of family along the way.”

According to Stanton, “Finding Dory” takes place about a year after the first film, and features returning favorites Marlin, Nemo and the Tank Gang, among others. Set in part along the California coastline, the story also welcomes a host of new characters, including a few who will prove to be a very important part of Dory’s life.

Finding Dory will open in theaters on November 25th, 2015. The ocean-set adventure will surely be released in both 2D and 3D, which is encouraging news for those who were impressed by how the extra dimension enhanced the breadth and scope of Finding Nemo‘s aquatic setting and fishy inhabitants featured in the 3D re-release (read our review for a more in-depth analysis). Indeed, those effects should be all the more pronounced in the sequel, thanks to more pre-planning and advancements in computer animation over the past decade.

While you have to take a grain of salt with Stanton’s claims about him committing to Finding Dory being a matter of good timing – and not a direct response to John Carter‘s smaller-than-desired ticket sales – what’s been revealed about the sequel so far sounds promising, especially considering how many people appeared concerned that a followup to Finding Nemo would just re-hash the Best Animated Feature Oscar-winning original movie’s storyline.

Instead, it sounds as though the “Finding” will be more figurative than literal in the Nemo sequel, which has Albert Brooks returning as Marlin and DeGeneres as Dory becoming a more fully-rounded character (e.g. the protagonist, by the sound of it).

There’s potential for Finding Dory to rank alongside the second and third Toy Story movie – as Pixar sequels which keep pushing the studio to mature and grow from a creative standpoint – something its last followup to a lucrative original work, Cars 2, failed to accomplish. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for that to happen (in the meantime – just keep swimming, swimming…).

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.

'The Walking Dead' stars David Morrissey as the Governor. (Amy Sussman/Invision/AP)

'The Walking Dead' season 4: Comic book creator Robert Kirkman discusses what's ahead

By Kevin Yeoman, Screen Rant / 04.02.13

Season 3 of The Walking Dead has come to a close, but just like the gruesome fate that potentially awaits each and every character, the series will return to stalk and torment those still counted among the living.

But unlike the climax of season 2 – which teased viewers with a tantalizing and somewhat-foreboding glimpse of the prison – season 3 reached its conclusion with a slight sense of optimism (as Rick and the others welcomed the citizens of Woodbury into the prison), but no real indication of the direction The Walking Dead would be headed in season 4.

In a series of interviews, comic book creator Robert Kirkman discussed the season 3 finale, the fate of Andrea, Milton and the Governor, as well as what fans can expect from the core group of survivors, now that they seem intent on making a go of it as a community in the prison.

While there have been certain key deviations the series has taken from the source material, e.g., Andrea’s demise, Kirkman maintains that at least some of season 4 will focus on the dynamic between Rick and the recently-welcomed Tyreese.

Kirkman said:

“There’s some really, really cool and big stuff that people have been expecting, or that people have been anticipating from the comics, that will work into Season 4. To give a hint, I will say that we do have Tyreese and Rick, who are now united, which is a big moment for the comic book fans. There’s a lot of story that comes from those two guys being on the same side. We’ll possibly see a bit of that in Season 4.”

But Rick aligning himself with Tyreese won’t be the only change fans will see in the character. According to Kirkman, Rick’s brief interaction with the Governor and the environment he created in Woodbury has caused Rick to re-think some aspects of how he intends to survive in this zombie-infested world, and what it means now that he’s decided to no longer keep everyone at arm’s length or, as we saw in ‘Clear,’ ignore a stranger’s plea for help.

“It’s going to be different in a lot of ways. We’ll see a very different Rick Grimes for one. His experiences against the Governor and with the various things that happened to him in season three are informing his character in huge ways. We’ll see a lot of familiar elements from season three: we’ll see the prison, Rick and his group are still in the same place but those elements are all going to be radically different. I can’t really get into it but season four is going to be extremely different than season three in some very startling and cool ways.

This is the moment where Rick takes a turn; he’s no longer going to be pushing people away, he’s no longer going to be doing what ever he can to protect these people in ways that hurt other people. He’s not going to be the guy who would leave that guy on the side of the road — the backpack guy in Episode 12. He’s letting the people of Woodbury in and trying to tell Carl that these people are like us, you have to be open to this and the only way to survive in this world is to have people and be in a community. That’s going to be a big part of season four.”

While Rick seems more intent on exploring his compassionate side, and possibly learning to grow a community, Carl has adopted a far more ruthless, kill-or-be-killed type of mentality. As evidenced by his merciless killing of a young man who appeared to have been surrendering, Carl’s shift into that of a child soldier has now yielded some negative results, and the youngster may soon find himself at an ideological crossroads with his father.

“Rick’s got his work cut out for him. He’s aware of this and he sees what allowing his son to become a child soldier has brought, which is a very big part of Season 4. Moving forward in the show, this is a guy who’s working as hard as he can to maintain a life for this child. [In] the process of surviving… he’s allowed his son to lose a pretty substantial piece of his humanity. It’s now a question of: Is there going back? Is this now status quo? These are the things that a father will have to deal with.”

In the closing moments of ‘Welcome to the Tombs,’ we saw as Rick welcomed not only Tyreese and Sasha into the fold, but he also brought the people of Woodbury to the prison. There have been questions circulating as to why the decision was made to stay in the prison, rather than the relatively normal confines of Woodbury, but Kirkman says the continued threat of the Governor makes the prison the more sensible choice for Rick and the others.

“They see the prison as something that is much more easily defended than Woodbury. They were able to get into Woodbury easily themselves. The Woodbury defenses are very effective against zombies, but not very effective against humans. They see [the prison] as much more of a defensible position.”

And while the comic creator acknowledges the next season’s storyline will begin at the prison, there’s no guarantee that is where it will end.

“There’s always going to be new locations and new places to discover and explore. I don’t want to reveal too much; Season 4 is still five months away. But I will say that as we see at the end of Season 3 we’re definitely going to start Season 4 at the prison. We may be there the whole season and we may not be… But there are going to be some big differences from Season 3.”

Kevin Yeoman blogs at Screen Rant.