Alec Baldwin may have a surprising new lover —- the deericorn. In an interview with the New York Post about his seeming mid-life crisis, 30 Rock's master thespian railed at the tabloids for focusing all their energies on his unpaid voiceover work while missing all the truly interesting stories about his life. As Baldwin told the Post:
Business types are excited about the news today that General Electric is planning to sell off its appliance division in a $5 billion move. Normal types are excited because this proves that GE CEO Jeff Immelt is now making decisions for his $323 billion company based on how they would affect the characters of 30 Rock. After Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy got relieved of his imaginary position running the microwave division of GE's NBC on the April 21 episode, it was only a matter of time before this sale happened. The loss of a leader of Alec Baldwin's caliber—and its ripple effects on Tina Fey—sends strong signals to Wall Street. Recap video of that fateful episode is below. If GE decides to finance Tracy Morgan's Fat Bitch 2 movie, we're rating its stock a strong buy.
For all the career renaissance we've seen from Alec Baldwin over the last three or four years, not even his Golden Globe for 30 Rock overshadows his legendary turn as "Sociopathic Father" in last year's wildly popular Web-exclusive release Thoughtless Little Pig. Even Morley Safer couldn't stop talking about it last night on 60 Minutes; in the accompanying video, watch the "appalling" Baldwin float like a butterfly and sting like a bee under Safer's withering sallies, punch back with word of his forthcoming book on "divorce and parental alienation" and finally score the knockout with his disarming rejoinder about a potential political career: "There's other things I want to do. I mean, in a matter of weeks I'm going to be 50... By 60 Minutes correspondent terms, I am a young man!" Oh, Alec, you bastard. We just can't stay mad at you. [60 Minutes]
Actor Alec Baldwin was on 60 Minutes last night discussing the infamous voice mail in which he called his daughter a "thoughtless little pig." Baldwin said his behavior was "totally wrong," but also offered so many excuses for the outburst that it made me wonder if he isn't going to lose some of the public goodwill he's built up in the year since the call surfaced. Here's how my own thinking on Alec Baldwin has evolved (along with a video except of Baldwin on 60 Minutes):
As reported earlier, some USAToday windbag thinks 30 Rock is flailing. Now, I find the show to be the funniest thing ever made and thought the last few episodes were wonderful. So, clearly I disagree. But some of you don't! In fact, this morning we received a crazed, homo-hating Tips email defending the USAToday article. First off, the emailer thinks that our commenters are all "gay." (Which is not true. Just Conbon is.) Well, more specifically he thinks you are all "gay urban liberal art school grad white people." So, OK. He's not entirely off base, but still! Jerk! After the jump, you can read the entire peculiar missive, as well as participate in an important poll: Does 30 Rock now suck?
"Since the strike, this once-dependable sitcom has... lost its way creatively, ditching plot and character in a desperate, scattershot search for laughs, as if its new goal were to become a live-action version of Family Guy... [Liz Lemon] at least used to try to make her show better [but] has spent the spring dragging through outlandish romantic entanglements and going ballistic over missing sandwiches." [USA Today via TV Tattle]
Jordan Carlos, the comedian we once touted as a possible candidate for the Saturday Night Live Barack Obama impersonation position (Lorne Michaels didn't agree, obviously), is getting tired of being pigeonholed as a black comedian without a steady job in television. Although he does have that gig playing Stephen Colbert's black friend. He's been on the NYC comedy scene for years now, and he feels he's not getting the respect he deserves. Specifically, he's a little peeved that the NBC show 30 Rock ripped off his own character idea, and that the Daily Show is one big exclusive white person club!
Game-changing perfect executive storm Ben Silverman gave the keynote address at the TelevisionWeek Upfront Summit in New York recently (a sorry substitution for a line of high-kicking dogs and ponies on the stage of Radio City, we realize, but what can you do). In it, the programming maverick laid out his bold vision for TV's cross-platform, "log on to NBC.com now to find out if Hiro ever gets off Samurai Island!"-future. From TVWeek.com:
Just weeks after NBC unveiled its much-touted, Ben Silverman-approved "family hour"—only to reveal their loose definition of "family" to include the holy hot mamas of 30 Rock's fictional (for now, at least) Mothers I'd Like to Fuck Island, and its inlet of pubescent discovery, Erection Cove—comes news that the network would be repositioning the sitcom in the more engorgement-friendly 9:30 slot, effective immediately:
On last night's 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin's network head Jack asked Tina Fey to help him invite a couple ladies to his upcoming fundraising dinner for cranky old presidential candidate John McCain. Of note: Alec Baldwin calling Chuck Norrins "C-Nor." Oh, and the mayor of New York was on the show! Michael Bloomberg, who was briefly going to be our next president in the land of imagination, presented Liz's ex-boyfriend the beeper king a medal for a heroic subway rescue. Clip above! And you can watch the whole thing on Hulu, because it's Friday so who gives a shit.
The return of 30 Rock included a spoof reality show called MILF Island, which in turn included a champion named DeBorah, alternately praised and imitated by the characters within 30 Rock. It turns out the real-life DeBorah, Deidre Goodwin, is a theater actress who plays Sheila in A Chorus Line and was Velma in Chicago. Goodwin told Entertainment Weekly that filming of MILF Island involved cockroach eating and "cooter slams:"
· Intrepid Defamer Videographer™ Molly McAleer watches a LOT of TV during the course of her day. Unfortunately, she sees a lot of funny moments that, for one reason or another, we don't get around to covering. She found herself with a few spare minutes this weekend and cut together this outtake reel of hilarious moments that we didn't manage to feature last week (save for KTLA's Jessica Holmes; her act is worth a second look). With that intro, please enjoy this feature that we haven't quite gotten around to naming yet. Enjoy and, if you have any suggestions for what we should call this, leave your suggestions in the comments! [Molls She Wrote]
· Proving that that they aren't going to let a little thing like a self-imposed "family hour" get in the way of making a buck (particularly after GE's atrocious first quarter earnings), it's NBC's officially licensed "MILF Island" t-shirt. [NBC.com]
· Nobody has more fun than Miley Cyrus. Nobody. [YouTube]
· Noted political heavyweight Brody Jenner has just released his official presidential endorsement. The resident beefcake of The Hills is voting for ... wait for it ... Obama! If you're wondering why, the answer is simple: "He's just cool!" Word. [Us Magazine]
· And just when you thought things were going bad for the State of California comes this news: California in for a devastating quake within 30 years. [SF Gate]
Earlier this month, NBC's resident rock star Ben Silverman announced his plans to deliver a warm and cuddly hour of programming in NBC's 8-9pm block. But last week's triumphant return of 30 Rock and The Office was notably filled with "vulgarities" one doesn't normally associate with family fun. As Silverman promised during the heart-warming press conference, he intended on making sure the first hour of primetime was "about family, and it's about heroes, real and super. It's good endings and the good guys winning." But as the NY Times points out today, the "good guys" are more likely to get bleeped than share PG lessons with viewers, and "winning" is more likely to be associated with causing erections on MILF Island.
That "MILF Island" episode of 30 Rock everyone was talking about Friday? In which 20 hot moms square off in front of 50 eighth-grade boys at "Erection Cove?" It aired during NBC's "Family Hour," in which the whole family is supposed to be able to gather in front of the TV together. NBC executive Ben Silverman re-launched the concept just 10 days ago. Anyone who took the man at his word — and hopefully few people did — either had a very awkward night or has a very interesting family. Now NBC is trying to rewrite what it meant by "family hour." Here's network exec Mitch Metcalf in tomorrow's Times:
On last night's season premiere of Tina Fey's brilliant 30 Rock, Alec Baldwin's Jack is riding high on the huge success of a new reality show. MILF Island's conceit: "20 MILFs; 50 eighth-grade boys; no rules." The idea, which Baldwin's GE executive had floated in an earlier episode, is so preposterous, so outrageous, that I thought for a second that it was a real show. In this late phase of reality television, in which VH1 picks up a bisexual dating game with a Myspace star, the more baroque the premise, the more plausible it appears. After the jump, the full episode from 30 Rock.
Emailed stalker sighting: "Tonight I spotted Alec Baldwin around 7:30pm at the French Roast Cafe on 11th Street West and 6th Avenue. He was was drunk and standing at the bar with a woman and a man. He had his arm around the woman a few times, and seemed to be falling all over her. Alec seemed to be meeting the couple there, because they all left together shortly after he arrived."
TV IS BACK TONIGHT!! The Office! 30 Rock! Goodness and light have come and banished all the mirthless gloom from the world! On The Office, Michael and Jan have a dinner party. I love the episodes when they leave the, um, office. Like that episode where Jim has the party and he wears that cute sweater and his hair is floppy and... Anyway! On 30 Rock it's the return of "MILF Island"! An insider friend who works for the show tells me it's very, very funny. Which is ridiculous because that show is never funny. It's so awful and never makes me cry bittersweet tears of unadulterated bliss. Most of all, I'm excited to stop socializing with people on Thursday nights. It was getting exhausting and expensive! Much like our friend Alex Blagg, I can't wait to sit on my ass, eat pizza, and feel happy again. Some reminders of why we should all give thanks lie after the jump.
With the return of NBC's 30 Rock only four (loooooong) days away, the New York Times has published a feature interview with one of the show's stars, Jack McBrayer. And we're pretty sure his comment about the underwear he was required to don, for the upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, marks the first time the illustrious NYT has ever run the sentence, "They are not flattering on nobody." But that's the sort of thing that happens when a true country boy makes it big.
We're thrilled to report the extending of an olive branch in the East Coast-East Coast comedy wars that have devastated the industry since a Tina Fey quote in Reader's Digest appeared to openly question Jon Stewart's ability to earn sincere laughs, vs. politically aligned "clapter." Fey told cinemablend.com that the quote was taken out of context:
