The Lightning Rod: Ben Silverman Exits NBC

For the Observer today I wrote about ousted NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman and how he really does get a bad rap.

Read an excerpt after the jump!

And the Nominees Are: The 2009 Emmy Nominees

About those Emmy nominations: Next year, can we find room in the nomination telecast to--y'know--actually announce all the important nominations!? I couldn't have been the only person scrambling to figure out which actors and actresses were nominated in the supporting categories, post-telecast. Instead of giving us those nominees, Jim Parsons and Chandra Wilson were busy telling us which specials were up for Best Mini-series. Um, seriously? Get worse.

As for the actual nominees, well, they weren't bad. But, make no mistake: They weren't good either. Where was Chuck, Friday Night Lights, January Jones, Justin Chambers, Gossip Girl, Josh Holloway, Elizabeth Mitchell, Matthew Fox...

I wrote up some of my snap judgments for the Observer. Check them out after the jump!

Midsummer Night Borefest: 42 Inch Television Liveblogs the All-Star Game

Long before Twitter, there was such a thing as a "Running Diary." Yep! It's true! And in the spirit of remembering the past, here's my running diary of the 2009 All-Star Game, live from St. Louis. (Hat tip, as always, to Bill Simmons.) To the broadcast!

8:00: With Joe Buck and Tim McCarver calling the game tonight, I'm wondering how long it will take for me to get violently ill at mentions of how great St. Louis baseball fans are. (Spoiler alert: They aren't.)

8:00:01: Not long! Here's a terribly mawkish montage about St. Louis baseball. Excuse me while I go vomit.

The Lost Boys: The Season Premiere of Entourage Reviewed

Another summer, another season of Entourage. Though this time, I've finally figured out how to watch this show: With acceptance. If you just anticipate that Entourage will be the same as it ever was, you'll enjoy it so much more. I reviewed the premiere for the Observer on Friday. Look, an excerpt!

And so Sunday night's season premiere, which picks up about six months after the events of the season five finale, with Vincent Chase (the seemingly ageless Adrian Grenier) and his posse back on top, does what Entourage does best: Showcase a bunch of friends hanging out and having a good time.

You can read the rest here. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday America!: Transformers 2 Isn't All That Bad

In honor of America's Birthday, I figured you'd love to read some of the stuff I wrote for the Observer this week! Great idea, right?

* The Oscars need a fixin' and I'm just the man to make suggestions! Check them out here.

* If Brad Pitt and Steven Soderbergh can't get a movie made, then Hollywood needs to go back to the drawing board. Also, Sony Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal, you are terrible at this. Get worse.

* And finally... Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. As a major fan of both the first Transformers film and Michael Bay in general, I was disappointed. The fact is, the script for this thing is fairly terrible and discombobulated; none of it makes any sense and it feels completely hacked together. Plus, Shia LaBeouf is, shockingly, not good--and this is coming from someone who really loves his manic acting style, including what he did in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But, with all that being said, stuff explodes, robots transform, Megan Fox looks INCREDIBLY hot (seriously, it's out of control), more stuff explodes and I laughed. I laughed a lot. In the end, Revenge of the Fallen is an entertaining piece of crap. It's not the best movie of the summer (Star Trek and The Hangover have that sewn up), but it's also way better than almost everything else released this summer. Think of it this way: Would you rather watch Revenge of the Fallen or Terminator Salvation. See what I mean?

In case you trek to the theaters this weekend, here's a Viewer's Guide to Revenge of the Fallen for your reading pleasure.