October 2008

At the end of every episode of his new show, chef Jeff Henderson and his students produce an excellent meal. But that’s not the ultimate goal. The Chef Jeff Project (Sundays beginning Oct. 12 on Food Network) seeks to take troubled young people and use the skills needed to master food preparation to lead them down a better path. It’s an approach that sure worked for Henderson, who served nearly 10 years in prison for drug trafficking before finding redemption in the culinary arts. He has since worked his way up to prominence, having served as executive chef at the […]

As film projects go, few seem quite as preordained as Lifetime‘s powerful new docudrama, Living Proof. And here’s the proof. The script, based on the nonfiction bestseller Her-2, which chronicles Dr. Dennis Slamon’s fight for his revolutionary new breast cancer drug Herceptin and the dying women depending on it, wound up in the hands of film star Renée Zellweger — whose own publicist, Nanci Ryder, was successfully treated by Dr. Slamon just a few years before. The actress immediately signed on to executive produce, tapping Harry Connick Jr., her friend and costar in the upcoming feature Chilled in Miami, as […]

“All I know is I’m not done with this business yet,” says Hulk Hogan of the advent of his new CMT reality show Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling, debuting on the net Oct. 18. The series — which pits Hulk’s two best pals, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and Brian “Nasty Boy” Knobbs, against each other to turn D-list celebs (Dennis Rodman! Danny Bonaduce! Trishelle Cannatella!) into top-tier wrestlers — is actually the brainchild of Hogan and his former boss Eric Bischoff in response to a sports-entertainment genre they think has gone soft. Lest you have any doubt, why yes, Hogan […]

There was a moment of hushed, stunned silence after Crash was announced as the Best Picture winner at the 2006 Academy Awards. True to its title, the character-driven drama that explored racial tensions in modern-day Southern California crashed what was supposed to be a coronation of Brokeback Mountain. Small screen, you’re next. Amid the ever-growing world of original cable dramas, Crash now enters the fray as a weekly series, hoping to conquer another medium. It boasts some of the same creators of the film (including the film’s director Paul Haggis, and star Don Cheadle, in producer roles) and an entirely […]

It’s 4pm in Vancouver and Sanctuary star Amanda Tapping has already put in a full day on the set. After our interview, she’ll be heading back to work for a few more hours. This type of schedule has been par for the course for Tapping since she began working as both producer and star of Sanctuary, which premieres Oct. 3 on SCI FI Channel. Still, she gave me plenty of time as we talked about the genre she loves, the fans she adores and the fun of filming in Canada, the country the British-born actress now calls home. The cast […]

Nearly everyone can recall the first monster that scared the bejesus out of them when they were kids. For older folks it’s Boris Karloff in Frankenstein or Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man. For their children it’s Linda Blair’s portrayal of a possessed child in The Exorcist or the nonhuman killing machines seen in Jaws and Alien. And all of these monsters were terrifying because of the magic worked by special effects (EFX) professionals with paste, latex, plastic and a whole lot of creativity. Now, award-winning EFX expert Gregory Nicotero — who has worked on over a hundred films […]

It’s a hot September afternoon in Milwaukee and Frank Caliendo sits comfortably at the Hyatt Regency finishing his lunch while rotating through local media interviews. He’s tired — his standup comedy tour has him traveling the nation with few breaks in between. But he makes time for us to talk about his second season of Frank TV debuting Tuesdays beginning Oct. 21 at 11pm ET on TBS. What’s in store for this season, have you made any changes to the format of the show? Frank Caliendo: Yeah, definitely. One thing I wanted to do was shorten up the intros. I […]