The weekend is approaching, which means my weekly dance with the devil is close at hand. I’m not speaking of anything illicit. I’m speaking of my unhealthy obsession with Sid Meyer’s Civilization V. I’ve been playing this create-your-own-nation-from-the-stone-age-to-modern-day-and-beyond videogame from its very first version when I was a kid — I can still vividly recall the trumpets

The newest drama from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) has a doozy of a title — The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. But the 2009 play, which officially opened Off Broadway last night at NYC’s Public Theater, has a simple premise: A father, frightened

Want to create Thor using upper-level mathematics? It’s simple! Just follow this straightforward equation. Remember: There will be a test. But we’re following summer-school rules, so everybody gets an A for showing up! 1. Begin with a hefty dose of Henry V, the 1989 film which kickstarted Thor director Kenneth Branagh’s big-screen career. Like Henry

There was a time when even Stephen King didn’t think he’d finish the tale of Roland the Gunslinger and his quest to reach The Dark Tower. It took the near-death experience of getting hit by an out-of-control driver to finally spur him toward a resolution. Now come rumblings that an ambitious plan by Ron Howard

You’re feeling antsy today, and you don’t know why. Perhaps you tried to leap over a tall building this morning, or plotted to sabotage your best friend’s wedding, or just walked around all day with an uncontrollable craving for popcorn? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Because when Thor’s hammer hits theaters today, it signals the

I knew it. I knew this was going to happen when I clicked “play.” This just-released Glee cover of Rebecca Black’s “Friday” is now officially stuck in my head, and I haven’t been this unhappy since Mr. Schuester rapped for the first time. This utterly addictive rendition of the worst song I’ve ever heard, predominately

How would you celebrate a Tony nomination? Whoopi Goldberg, who’s up for Best Musical as part of the team behind Sister Act, told EW she “worked like a dog and then did Jimmy Kimmel and The Joy Behar Show.” First-time Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee Rory O’Malley of The Book of Mormon partied

Charlie Sheen has wrapped his Violent Torpedo of Truth Tour, but now he’s hoping to take it abroad. “I might do a European leg of this thing,” he told EW last night at a Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation charity gala in Los Angeles. Sheen says if he’s learned one thing about live performing from the tour it’s,

The Oprah Winfrey Network announced today that Peter Liguori has been named interim Chief Executive Officer of the network, replacing Christina Norman, who helped to launch the cabler in January. Liguori will oversee the struggling network while continuing to serve as chief operating officer for Discovery Communications. The shakeup comes at a time when the fledging cabler is

Only a show like Supernatural can take you to heaven and hell in the same episode. And if there’s one person up for the particular challenge of such strange travels, it’s long-time fan-favorite writer and executive producer Ben Edlund, who tonight makes his directorial debut in a Castiel-centric episode that will address the story behind

It is hard to think of many more luckless or traumatic fates than being a Jewish child in Nazi Germany. But imagine if you were also deaf. In the documentary Ingelore, first time director Frank Stiefel relates the story of his mother, Ingelore Herz Honigstein, who was born without the ability to hear to Jewish

Ever since Emily Deschanel’s pregnancy was announced in March, Bones fans have been wondering how her fall due date will affect the show. Now that the Fox drama has finally received a season 7 pickup, that’s something producers are in the process of deciding — both in terms of story and production schedule. “I imagine

The good news: Oprah Behind the Scenes on OWN is exactly what it set out to be — a unflailingly honest and entertaining look at the making of The Oprah Winfrey Show as it winds down its historic 25-year run in syndication. Now, the bad news: It can’t turn the fledging network into an overnight success

Instead of yelling at contestants on The Biggest Loser, Jillian Michaels will be yelling at… Dr. Phil? Wishful thinking, but the trainer, who is leaving the NBC weight-loss reality show after Season 11, has signed on to be a correspondent on Dr. Phil, covering lifestyle issues. She’s also landed another day job: Co-host on The

Wedding dress madness continues on PopWatch! And while last night’s Grey’s Anatomy wedding was no royal wedding, it was gorgeous. I had only just stopped weeping from Bailey’s speech about God when the Bails (we’re tight that way) stood at the altar and officiated the ceremony between Callie and Arizona, both wearing white bridal gowns

Uh-oh, Office fans. “The Inner Circle,” last night’s episode — which happened to be the show’s first outing post-Steve Carell — scored ratings that were 17 percent worse than the ratings for the show’s April 28 episode, “Goodbye, Michael.” While it is a little unfair to compare the two episodes (“Goodbye, Michael” was an Event

Last Mother’s Day, Betty White famously hosted a stellar episode of Saturday Night Live. Well, we can’t have the almost-nonagenarian back for a second go-round, but we’ve got the next best thing: Tina Fey. And the former cast member, and current 30 Rock star sure chose a good week to host, what with such headline-grabbing

Jersey Shore’s third season finale aired March 24. Does that mean the fist-pumping reality program has been off the cultural radar long enough that jokes about it are funny again? Half an hour ago, my answer would have been “No.” Then I saw the following clip from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, in which the

Now that Michael Scott has left Dunder Mifflin and Deangelo Vickers is ruling the roost, NBC’s The Office ratings took a tumble Thursday night. Will Ferrell continued his guest-star stint on The Office (6.8 million viewers, 3.5 preliminary adults 18-49 rating), with the adult demo falling 17 percent after spiking last week for Steve Carell’s

Ain’t nothing — not even being booted from American Idol less than three weeks before its grand finale — gonna hold Jacob Lusk down. At least that’s the message the glowing 23-year-old Compton, Calif., native was sending out about an hour after Idol host Ryan Seacrest broke the news to him that he was the

Pull the strings! Pull the strings! Last night, on Conan, The Office and Something Borrowed star John Krasinski talked to the recently de-bearded late night host about Michael Scott’s favorite line, photo-bombing Billy Crudup and photographer Terry Richardson ( …and Lindsay Lohan and President Obama), and his desire to shave poor Coco’s head. But things

Oh, George Clooney, only you could pull this off looking better today — at 50 years old! — than you did in your 30s. (Then again, The Caesar didn’t help matters. Neither did this.) But, yes, you read that right: Today, the Ocean’s Eleven star and People‘s 2097 Sexiest Man Alive (I’m just speculating here,

What do mermaids, mutants, pirates, cowboys, nice aliens, mean aliens, handsome vampires, gross vampires, evil fascist wizards, evil fascist robots, evil fascist Nazis, evil communists who have the redeeming trait of not being fascist, and homicidal psycho rebel apes have in common? They’re all going to kill — or be killed — at your friendly

Expect a surge in the Top 4′s performance level next week: Fox has confirmed to EW that Lady Gaga is set to appear on American Idol as a mentor for our remaining finalists. And before you scoff at the idea of a 25-year-old handing out career advice, remember that Miley Cyrus served as a mentor

He might have gotten eliminated last night, but that doesn’t mean Jacob Lusk was ready to exit the stage. After being cut following ill-advised, off-key renditions of “No Air” and “Love Hurts,” the singer with powerful pipes performed his semifinals number, “A House Is Not a Home” — and continued singing the song straight into

The Idol block this week was decidedly Jenny’s. Wednesday night found the diva wearing the hottest heels in the universe, and in case you were wondering, she continued the streak last night in a pair of red-soled Louboutins. But truly, her pumps weren’t the story last night in the Idoldome: It was all about her

Does anybody do uptight passive-aggression better than Parker Posey? The indie darling’s guest spot on tonight’s episode of Parks and Rec was so pitch-perfect that I can’t wait for her character, Lindsay Carlisle-Shea, to appear on the show again. Just like another memorable guest played by a different funny lady (Megan Mullally’s Tammy Swanson), Lindsay

You know him as Paul Young the ex-convict on Desperate Housewives, now see him as Will the NASA engineer in the Piper Perabo-starrer Covert Affairs!  EW has learned that Moses will guest star in the USA drama as a prime suspect in a CIA investigation into a leak from NASA. Moses plays a wanna-be astronaut who

It seems like someone at White Collar is a big fan of  Weekend at Bernie’s. EW has learned that Jonathan Silverman will have a guest spot in the sixth episode of the show’s upcoming third season, which kicks off June 7. “He plays a bad guy who is working with a black widow. They’re working together

Frenchie Davis is ready to leave Idol controversy in the past and be recognized for one thing: The Voice. In last week’s premiere, she belted her way back into the public spotlight when she powered through “I Kissed a Girl” (more on that unconventional song choice below), which was good enough to make Christina Aguilera do

Hugh Jackman is in the midst of a two-week concert run in San Francisco, and his musical coordinator, Richard Marx, has posted a video on YouTube that includes a clip of Jackman singing “Right Here Waiting.” As someone who saw Jackman receive 28 catcalls in one night onstage in Broadway’s The Boy From Oz (yes,

There are many things about the times we live in that are truly we-really-do-live-in-the-21st-century amazing. The fact that the Osama bin Laden raid was unwittingly live-Tweeted by a guy living in Abbottabad, Pakistan I still find astounding. The 13-year-old version of me loves to pretend I’m Capt. Picard any time I pick up an iPad.

I’ve had actual dreams that have started this way: Johnny Depp emerges out of nowhere, champagne flutes in hand, and offers to take me to the movies. But for the audience members of today’s episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, that was very much a reality. With just 15 episodes left, Oprah isn’t messing around.

We’re only a couple of weeks away from broadcasters unveiling their fall schedules and intriguing pilots are emerging as front-runners to land coveted series orders. Of the two most high-profile super-girl-power pilots, ABC’s Charlie’s Angels has ridiculously strong odds; we’re told its screenings have gone very well. NBC’s Wonder Woman is considered less certain despite

Uh, oh. Is time up for poor Alex on Nikita? Perhaps. Considering how we left her at the end of last week’s episode, that’s definitely the first thing that came to my mind when my chat with one of the baddest girls on Nikita block, Melinda Clarke (pictured) turned spoilerific. “One of our series regulars dies…and

A covert elite U.S. team drops into foreign countries around the globe to carry out dangerous missions under the radar of local military? It’s not Seal Team Six. It’s Fox’s Exit Strategy. The action-drama pilot starring Ethan Hawke has been heating up in recent weeks and suddenly seems topical given the recent U.S. mission to

Even though British pop star Cheryl Cole had been rumored as a judge on the U.S. version of The X Factor for weeks, now that she’s been officially hired, the overwhelming response to today’s news is still likely to be: “Cheryl who?” For the uninformed, she’s a past reality-show contestant herself (she’s part of Girls Aloud, an all-female quintet