Big Brother & succubus...

Matt threw Julie Chen into complete panic mode yesterday during the live episode of Big Brother.

Julie was interviewing Matt after he was evicted. In response to a question about not aligning with Britney, Matt called Britney a "succubus".

I love when stuff like this happens. But I can completely relate to Julie's nervousness over a word airing that shouldn't. If someone said "succubus" on Star, my instant reaction would be to hit the "dump" button on our delay system and wonder about the exact definition afterwards.

The definition of "succubus" is a seductress or enchantress. According to wikipedia, it's a female demon in human form that seduces men in their dreams. There is little R-rated-ness to a succubus, but my guess is Julie was probably just reacting to part of the word - that's what would catch my attention. It sure made for great TV!

The moment of panic starts at the 19:23 point of episode 22 of Big Brother. Click on the link for the full episode and jump forward using the slider to see that bit of fun.

The X Factor Auto-Tune Scandal...

The big entertainment scandal this week has been that the UK version of The X Factor (a show similar to American Idol) used Auto-Tune to manipulate the audio of one of the contestants on a performance show.

It's kind of obvious Auto-Tune was used when watching Gamu's aired performance...



The producers of The X Factor UK have admitted they did use sound filters to remove excess background noise, but stopped short of saying it was Auto-Tune. And it wasn't just for this one contestant - others were manipulated as well.

They also went on to say that the process was done in editing after the show was taped to give the aired version of the show a better sound.

Even knowing there's something extra being used there, it's still obvious that Gamu is talented. Unfortunately, the producers must have decided her natural talent wasn't good enough. That's not fair to her or the other contestants, especially when people watching from home call in to vote for their favorites later in the season.

Gamu will continue on with the show. Her next performance will show off her real talent without anything extra being used.

The Hollywood Reporter has an article about Simon Cowell's banning of Auto-Tune. He's taking this very seriously and is making sure the US media knows it as his X Factor show (minus the manipulation) will be coming to Fox next fall.

Wondering about the US American Idol now? Well producers of that show responded to all this by telling the Associated Press they've never used Auto-Tune and never will.

RIP Jack Horkheimer - The Star Gazer...

You know the show - the short green-screen weird-looking series with a guy sitting on one of Saturn's rings explaining the night sky.

I remember watching it growing up. It used to air just before the PBS station in Rochester would sign off for the night. And it's continued to air all these years. This Labor Day Weekend's episode will be the last though.

The show's host, Jack Horkheimer, was the executive director of a Miami, FL planetarium. He passed away Friday of a respiratory ailment at the age of 72.

Star Gazer was geared to the general public and amateur astronomers and focused on things in the night sky you could see with your naked eye. You might remember it as Star Hustler, but the name was changed to Star Gazer when the show went online (done to avoid confusion with a magazine that has a very different theme).

Here's the final episode of his series (which was produced for this coming Labor Day weekend)...



Visit Jack's Horkheimer's website for more video from the series (including a few from the 70's & 80's), the show scripts, Mars images, and more. And as Jack always said, keep looking up...

Piranha 3D Oscar consideration???

Prehistoric piranhas and Spring Break - all in 3D!!!! This movie totally deserves an Oscar.

The begging for an Oscar is also brilliant...



Piranha 3D is in theaters now!

Lost & The Squirrel Baby...

One of the best things about season 6 of Lost? Apparently, the squirrel baby according to the cast of crew of the series.

The squirrel baby part starts at 1:21 (after a bonus feature about Lost in other languages)...



Season 6 of Lost (along with the 12-minute epilogue "New Man In Charge" will be in stores Tuesday (August 24th).

Lost news...

Lost is all over the place this week.

First up was the announcement of the cover art for Weezer's upcoming album.

The album's title is "Hurley" and will be in stores on September 14th.

Then there was the news that two Lost stars are interested in doing another show together. Terry O'Quinn (Locke) and Michael Emerson (Ben) had mentioned this on the Jimmy Kimmel show that aired after the Lost finale. Now it's been brought up again thanks to this Associated Press video interview.

There's also bits and pieces of the new 12-minute Lost epilogue "New Man In Charge" in that video!

As for that 12-minute epilogue, it's looking like it might possibly be included on the full series set AND the 6th Season DVD set. Both will be released on August 24th.

As the video interview mentioned above reveals, the epilogue has been leaked online. If you're clever enough, you can easily find it. I can't help you though - I've gone up against Disney once before and don't plan on ever doing that again.

Diana will return to "V"!

The original evil Visitor boss from the 80's version of "V" will be featured as a recurring guest star in the upcoming season two of the revival.

Jane Badler played Diana in the original series. In the new series, she'll be the mother of Anna (who's now the Queen of the Visitors). Her character's name will be Diana, although that's just a nod to the original series. It wouldn't make sense for her to play her original character since this series is a reboot and not a continuation of the 80's version.

Season two of "V" begins in November on ABC. For now, here's some awesome clips of Diana being super evil in the original series (Diana shows up 15 seconds into the first clip)...

The View's So-Called "Assault"...

Reality shows get slammed sometimes because of the worthless dredges of life they dig up and feature. "The Real Housewives..." series on Bravo is one of those shows that spotlights some of the worst the human race has to offer.

And the worst of the worst would have to be Michaele Salahi, featured in The Real Housewives Of D.C. - you might also remember her from when she and her husband made worldwide headlines when they supposedly crashed a White House dinner last fall.

Now she's made headlines again. This time she's accusing Whoopi Goldberg of assaulting her on yesterday's episode of The View.

Unfortunately for her, it's partially on tape. You can see the "assault" in the video below...



Obviously, Michaele is an attention-hungry loser for trying to play that up as assault. Her motives become a lot clearer when you learn that her season of "The Real Housewives..." debuts tonight.

Read more about this on People Magazine's website.

It's Shark Week!

Discovery Channel is going berserk with their advertising of Shark Week this year.

It's worked on me though. And I'm sure they'll be happy to know that in addition to watching the shark-themed programs, I've also been watching season two of The Colony on Discovery. Once again, a worldwide disaster is simulated and volunteers must attempt to exist despite all the odds against them.

It's not a typical reality show like Big Brother or Survivor as there's no cash prize for lasting - it's more of an educational experiment that's surprisingly entertaining to watch too. That's on Tuesdays at 10pm.

But back to the sharks - here's an amazing video of a guy putting a shark in a trance! Not something I'd ever even consider trying...