Idol Chatter

Twenty-eight years was a long time to wait for a new album from Yusuf Islam. Back in the 1970s, the artist (then known to the world as Cat Stevens) won over audiences with pop hits like “Wild, Wild, World,” “Peace Train,” and other folk-inspired songs. His recently released album, “An Other Cup,” vaguely remembers that…

Nine chapters into NBC’s new drama “Heroes” and I’m utterly hooked. “Heroes” is reminiscent of X-Men, revolving around individuals all over the world who discover that they have special and occasionally frightening powers. The last several episodes revolved around a rather cryptic yet humorous command: “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World,” a task taken up…

Advertise any film as a mixture of romance, science, and fantasy, and I’ll come running, no further questions. And so it was with ‘The Fountain,’ directed by Darren Aronofsky (‘Pi, ‘Requiem for a Dream’), starring Rachel Weisz and Hugh Jackman (both favorites of mine). This movie weaves three stories together: One “reality-based,” a second that…

As with every other year, Thanksgiving Day signaled the go ahead for radio stations to begin playing endless Christmas music, and the arrival of midnight sparked shoppers to begin the now-traditional mad-dash of buying for the holidays. But the lead-up to this gift-giving season has been a bit unusual for the widely-known charitable Marine Toys…

While Mel Gibson blamed his anti-Semitic rant a few months ago (most would say unsuccessfully) on a drunken lapse of judgment, Michael “Cosmo Kramer” Richards’ only excuse for his racial epithets directed toward two African-American men is that he was angry because he was being heckled in the middle of a performance. The entertainment website…

Kirk Franklin just won the American Music Award in the Contemporary Inspirational category, adding to his crowded shelf of Gospel Music Association Dove Awards and Gospel Grammys. Yay, Kirk! In fact, his fellow nominees in the categories are very deserving in themselves: Casting Crowns and Aly & AJ. What none of these artists deserve is…

In the beginning, there was TLC’s Shalom in the Home, starring well-known rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Now, prepare for television to bring another rabbi into your home–in this case, Rabbi Irwin Kula, whose new national public television special, “The Hidden Wisdom of Our Yearnings with Irwin Kula,” represents an attempt to help people use Jewish wisdom…

We’ve always been made to understand that Sacha Baron Cohen, a.k.a. Borat, is a satirist, not a simple comedian. Otherwise, his anti-Semitic jokes and poo-poo gags would be, well, just that. But this week, Cohen found out the cost of making a serious point. Residents of the Romanian town of Glod, a stand-in for Borat’s…

Hollywood lost a cinematic legacy yesterday when the director of the such critically acclaimed movies as “M*A*S*H” and “Nashville,” Robert Altman, passed away at the age of 81. For decades, Altman set himself apart from other directors by developing a non-linear form of storytelling and by often using long sequences of overlapping dialogue among his…

When facing a movie like “The Ten Commandments: The Musical“–based on a recent stage production and set for DVD release this week–I always approach it from two angles: (1) Is the product a good/entertaining one?; and (2) Is it true to the text? The first good sign for this production is its enormously talented cast.…

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