Idol Chatter

The hit Fox counterterrorism drama “24” depicts a universe where people rely on one of two things when faced with difficult decisions. Either they turn to the protocols, laws, and directives of the hierarchies in which they work, or they serve as their own moral compass. The show’s hero, Jack Bauer, uses the latter technique…

With March Madness behind us and the May “upfronts”–where television executives announce the shows they are scheduling for fall–only weeks away, it is that time of year when existing shows receive the unwelcome news that they are getting the pink slip. NBC’s The Black Donnellys” was cancelled so they could air the Ashton Kutcher-produced series…

Perhaps it’s no accident that a movie about finding the miraculous in the ordinary is being released during this Holy Week of Passover and Easter. No, I am not talking about the recent DVD release of the religious drama “The Nativity,” but that inspirational family charmer “Charlotte’s Web,” now available on DVD this week. While…

Showtime just premiered a 10-part series called “The Tudors” starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a sexy, pompous King Henry VIII and Sam Neil as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. The series basically switches back and forth between explicit sex scenes between Henry, his boys, and the ladies of court, and the power struggles of the various Cardinals…

It must be Easter, or Passover, or Holy Week, or Orthodox Easter … or at least Spring Break! I can always tell because there are two times a year (the December holidays and now) when spiritual issues rise to the front of media attention. This week’s TV offerings will include classic biblical profiles such as…

I echo Michael Kress’s post yesterday about giving thanks for baseball’s Opening Day. There truly is something refreshing–if not anti-climactic–about the first day of a 162-game season. Most of the country saw the primetime emotion in New York, but I hope you also got to see the refreshment of spring and the redemption of Easter…

Amidst the intensity of Holy Week for Christians and the joy of Passover for Jews comes the secular festival known as Opening Day. Even as I frantically cleaned my apartment for Passover last night, I dilligently checked the Mets score online every few minutes (remember when local games could all be seen on local broadcast…

With the beginning of Holy Week upon us and Easter just around the corner, the dark days of Lenten abstinence are coming to an end. I thought giving up email for Lent–OK, just checking once a day for work purposes and anything urgent–was laudable. But some students gave up something far more precious to the…

Yes, Jesus appears in a myriad of forms, outfits, and doing all sorts of activities in America. We boast portraits of the Savior in such diverse poses as Jesus in the boxing ring, Jesus as a flowing-haired hippie, and procelain statuettes where he plays football and soccer with happy children. But the latest version, called…

She’s changed her name and image more times than Prince or John Mellencamp. Her successful standup career was followed by a popular sitcom, which gave early screen credits to writers like Buffy’s Joss Whedon, SNL’s Norm MacDonald, and the Gilmore Girls’ Amy Sherman–who hyphenated her name upon marriage to fellow “Roseanne” scribe and Gilmore producing…

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