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Tonight On Charlie Rose: Harold Pinter, 1930-2008

You may wonder what a TV blog would have to say about the passing of a noted playwright, but in Harold Pinter's native England, theatre makes the leap to the telly way more often than it does over here. So while we were on vacation when Mr. Pinter passed away on Christmas Eve, we couldn't let the occasion pass without noting two things. First, that you can find a number of wonderful Pinter TV plays and stage productions on Google Video and YouTube, such as this production of "The Collection" with the bewilderingly awesome lineup of Laurence Olivier, Helen Mirren, Alan Bates, and Malcolm McDowell, so be sure to have a look if, as we suspect, things are still somewhat sleepy at your dayjob today.

And second, Pinter fans would probably do well to tune into our old pal Charlie Rose tonight, as Charlie's presenting a collection of Pinter's appearances on his show over the years, the final of which, we believe, was around the time that Pinter won his Nobel.

Posted Jan 02 2009, 12:43 PM by Bryan Christian with | with no comments

Filed under: Charlie Rose, In Memoriam, Laurence Olivier, Harold Pinter, Alan Bates, Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren

How Charlie Rose Can Get His Groove Back

Charlie, Charlie, Charlie... Is everything OK?

'Cause we see you every night -- no, literally, every single night -- and we have to say: you been looking a little... what? Bored? Distracted? Sleepy? Not sure what it is. Maybe like everyone else in the world, you're still hungover from the election. Maybe you had some money in Madoff's Ponzi scheme that we didn't know about. Maybe Ellen Barkin won't respond to your Facebook poke. (Probably it's the recession forcing you to lay off people you clearly appreciated and relied upon.)

Well, whatever it is, get over it. We don't call you "Charles Rosé" around the Remote Island offices for nothin'. On your best days, you're suave, you won't take no for an answer, and you got the best job in the world and know it. So we've got a few ideas that'll put a pep back in your step in 2009!

Wake Up And Smile: Is Amy Poehler Coming Back To "SNL"?

We're just as suprised as you are. Though we bet we're happier! 'Cause we heart her more than you. No, really; we do.

PLUS: more on how Amy's absence affected SNL this weekend, why you should be worried for Mad Men's future, how DVR's may save some small shows, and a trip down memory lane with Steve Sanders and The Flaming Lips.

Charlie Rose Going No Tie?

Here's Mr. Rose on Friday, getting his chat on with Tropic Thunder's Ben Stiller, tieless and letting just the hint of chest peek through his shirt. Clearly, not a look he'll be adopting for an hour with Condoleeza Rice, but here? We say "Nice one, Chuck." Say what you will about him adopting a biz cas fri, or how you don't want to see an old dude's chest, because lookie-here -- that shirt is hanging open in pretty much EXACTLY the correct manner for that look: not too wide, not too long, with the collar still holding its shape just a touch at the top. Which makes Charlie Rose about a dozen times more stylish than every third douchebag we see on the street here in NYC.

Posted Aug 18 2008, 02:33 PM by Bryan Christian with | with no comments

Filed under: Charlie Rose, Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller

Charlie Rose and Björk Make For Really Weird TV

Every time we see a bad episode of Charlie Rose -- and Tuesday's listless, patchworked, and weirdly flirty triple header of Peter Matthiessen, Edward Albee, and Jhumpa Lahiri was a real doozy -- we are reminded of our favorite awkward Charlie show: his 2001 interview with international musical superstar and UN Ambassador to Fairyland Björk, an excerpt of which appears above. Charlie is so out of his depth here, coaxing conversation from the spacy and ethereal Ms. Guðmundsdóttir -- and yet never quite convincing you that he knew who the hell she was... "Tell me about sound," he says, and she just giggles. Man, it's like watching lithium dry. How exactly did this not become a SNL sketch?

about the blogger

Bloggers

Lindy Parker has worked as a ghostwriter, editor, dance instructor and a purveyor of dreams, one beer at a time. She loves Charles Dickens and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and also, straight-to-video releases with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. It's possible she reads more teen fiction than she should. She hails from Los Angeles, her hometown and soul mate, but she lives in Brooklyn, the fling she'll never forget.

Olivia Purnell left Ohio for sunny Los Angeles; then found that she couldn’t ignore New York City’s call, and brought herself to Brooklyn where she has worked with GenArt, BlackBook, the School of American Ballet, and finished an M.A. in Creative Writing from N.Y.U. She loves one-liners with sting and hates the stench of the subway in the summer. That said, she can’t get enough of either.

Jake Kalish is a freelance journalist and humorist whose work has appeared in Details, Maxim, Stuff, New York Press, Spin, Blender, Men's Fitness, Poets and Writers, and Playboy, among other publications. He is also the author of Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights.

Contributors

Ben Kallen is an entertainment, health and humor writer who's been lectured to by Sidney Poitier, argued with by Lea Thompson and smiled at by Jennifer Connelly. He's the coauthor of The No S Diet and author of The Year in Weird, along with hundreds of magazine articles. He lives near the beach in Los Angeles, just like the gang from Three's Company.

Nicole Ankowski has lived in Ohio, Oakland, and on the high plains of South Dakota, but is now proud to call Brooklyn home. She wrote for alternative weekly papers in the first two states, and tried to learn Lakota in the last. (The vowels can be tricky.) She just earned her MFA in Creative Writing and has been published in Beeswax literary journal. She is unable to resist good writing or bad TV.

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