Everyone with Twitter accounts were proudly announcing themselves as “Team Conan”, upset by how NBC was treating the red-headed host like a red-headed stepchild. The movement came together so quickly that an “I’m With Coco” image soon became as iconic as Obama’s “Hope” poster. It’s hard to find a person on the Internet who hasn’t voiced their support for the beleaguered O’Brien, all feeling that Jay Leno had manipulated his way back to his old show.
If you’re having trouble keeping track of all the key players in the late-night talk show wars, visit Wonderwall’s Field Guide to Your Late Night Guys, and as always, check out Predicto.com to see if our community can correctly predict what will happen next in this epic TV feud!
We’re looking forward to spring time, but have to admit that these cold days of winter provide the perfect setting to talk about Russian writers and the women they love. With that in mind, we accepted an invitation to the New York premiere of ‘The Last Station,’ a new movie that explores the relationship between ‘War and Peace’ author Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sofya.
Christopher Plummer, who plays Tolstoy in the film, talked to us about the difficulties researching his role, while writer/director Michael Hoffman told us why marriage can be even more complex than Russian fiction. Each gave us their Academy Awards predictions about exes Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron, a pair of film directors who dealt with some road bumps in their own marriage.
Check out our interviews with Plummer, Hoffman and rising star James McAvoy, plus see what Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti had to say about everyone’s frontrunner, Meryl Streep.
Even as the movie was being filmed, there was a lot of hype surrounding Avatar. The groundbreaking sci-fi adventure flick took award-winning director James Cameron only two weeks to write and more than ten years to produce. He first thought about Pandora and the Na’vi way back in 1994, inspired, he says, by every single science fiction story he had every read. He couldn’t bring himself to transpose his screenplay to the silver screen immediately because he believed the technology at the time was not advanced enough to fully bring his vision across.
So, like a sower planting seeds for future fruition, Cameron pulled strings around the movie industry, encouraging the innovative development and use of filming for 3-D, performance capture and enabling the seamless integration of real life actors with computer-generated imagery. He even invented his own movie camera system so he could shoot Avatar exactly the way he wanted. The result? A visual feast of a film that drew hoards of moviegoers into IMAX and 3-D theaters all over the world.
Nearly three weeks after its worldwide premiere, Avatar moved from a runaway box office hit to the second-highest grossing film of all time. Perhaps due to the higher movie ticket prices of 3-D cinemas, the movie grossed more than a whopping $1.3 billion, a good chunk higher than top-grossing film No. 3, The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. It still has a long way to go before it overtakes the all-time box office ruler Titanic, but with the movie still running ongoing, and with an extended showing under way, some say it just might be possible for this sci-fi hit to push the historical drama to No. 2 — which, by the way, also bears James Cameron’s name in the movie credits.
Titanic grossed $1.8 billion when it debuted back in 1997. It was a film that went against the trend of James Cameron’s movie projects. Now that the director has released a film that he came up with and sits perfectly in his comfort zone, will he be able to outdo himself? Will Avatar dethrone Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time? 69% of Predicto Mobile voters say this is a definite possibility. If 20 days can rack up more than a billion dollars from moviegoers around the world, what more could it do in a month?
Once upon a time, American Idol was a televised karaoke competition. Young, aspiring singers would pour their renditions of Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston and Bonnie Raitt on to the stage. Their dreams were praised or crushed (much more fun for sadistic voyeurs in the audience) by the presiding panel of pop music, consisting of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell.
The drama was mostly relegated to the show, with a few bouts between judges, but now the off-camera antics of the justices are upstaging the talent!
Who can forget when Paula Abdul — reportedly offered less money than fellow judge Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest — parted ways with TV’s ratings juggernaut last year? Or when Kara DioGuardiand Ellen DeGeneres joined the ranks? Well, another judge is making headlines by packing his bags and exiting Idol. Cowell is ditching the slowly declining mega-hit for the U.S. version of The X Factor.
For the uninitiated, The X Factor is a British televised karaoke competition that’s similar to Idol and discovered previous winner and reigning pop queen, Leona Lewis. Cowell is bringing it to the states in fall 2011 and announced that the current season of Idol will be his last.
With his announcement coming just days before American Idol’s season premiere, attention has gravitated to the question of who will join sinister Simon at the judges’ table. Naturally, one of the names that has come up is that of Paula Abdul.
Paula hasn’t had much going on since her departure from Idol after Kris Allen was crowned. If the olive branch was extended, would she sign up for The X Factor?
It’s going to be a while before we find out, but what do you think will happen? Visit Predicto.com to register for the text message-based mobile game that has everyone predicting the outcome of sports, pop culture, news and entertainment events. Along with being able to vote on surveys — including this one — you’ll get updates when the answers are revealed.
Sign up today — and get more Predicto by becoming a fan on Facebook!
The puck-ish stars of ‘Big Time Rush’ — Kendall, Logan, James and Carlos — are melting hearts on the new Nickelodeon series about four hockey players who set out to become teen idols. They gave us a power play of pop predictions, including their take on Adam Lambert, this year’s Grammy Awards and what the future may hold for the members of that “other” boy band, the Jonas Brothers. Plus, find out which celeb crushes the four hotties are harboring in this interview exclusive!
As fans of truTV’s ‘Haunting Evidence’ know, John J. Oliver has an uncanny knack for looking into the future. Naturally, we were “psyched” when this professional psychic offered to talk celebrity predictions with Predicto TV.
Ever gracious, John was nice enough to stop by our office and spend some quality time discussing what we can expect in 2010. After we’d granted him one vital request – that during our in-depth interview he be able to face south for optimal feng shui – he settled in and gave us some seer-ious 2010 predictions. In part 2 of our chat (watch Part 1 here) he clairvoyantly tips us off as to whose new year will be smooth sailing, as well as who can expect rocky roads ahead.
The Predicto TV team was invited to many great events throughout 2009. No matter how exclusive the guest list, sometimes it seemed everywhere we went, members from the cast of ‘The Real Housewives of New York City’ were in the house.
The ladies had plenty to share with us, but the number one topic was usually whether or not controversial Kelly Bensimon will be back in 2010. A lot of Predicto members voted to kick her off and even those who didn’t made sure to let us know they weren’t supporting her with their votes. Member “kristileigh” for instance commented that Bensimon would NOT be dumped, but added “Kelly has some issues.”
Issues aside, the girl appears to be a survivor. As the Bravo series’ third season nears its premiere, we’re already hearing that Bensimon is at the center of dramaand tossing barbs at mom-to-be Bethenny Frankel. See what other juicy morsels the ‘Housewives’ offered up to our cameras – check out Episode 55 of Predicto TV now!
Zhu Zhu Pets. No, no, we didn’t swear at you in some exotic language. Zhu Zhu Pets are the new must-have toys that are all the rage these days. These furry, robotic hamsters have been a darling of millions of toy shoppers.
Marketed as “recession-friendly pets,” Zhu Zhu Pets give would-be pet owners everything that is fun about owning a pet, but without any of the hassles that come with actually keeping real-life hamsters. They are small. They are furry. They are adorable as they move and scurry, especially when set to “Adventure Mode” and they explore the environment. Those who want to do less chasing and more petting can set them to “Nurturing Mode” and they will coo and purr. That’s all they need to know — on top of how they never need to eat, sleep or take a dump.
The theory has been a hit. Zhu Zhu (or “little pig” in Chinese) Pets began selling at $10 per toy clip, but had faced massive shortages, prompting a surprising 400% markup to $40 per toy.
Criticism has hounded these toys, however. Some say that part of why people give pets to children is to teach them responsibility — something an electric hamster doesn’t really impart, aside from regularly replacing batteries. Web cartoonist David Willis recently lampooned the toys in his Web comic, Shortpacked!, citing the point of buying a toy hamster when a real hamster will do.
More damning are allegations that the toys are not safe. Zhu Zhu Pets have been cited by consumer watchdog groups for containing more than the allowed levels of the metal antimony. U.S. federal safety regulators from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, however, announced on December 7 that the toys were safe and cleared them of the antimony level issues. Still, some groups such as GoodGuide insist that their methods for testing are different and thus will yield different results from that of government tests.
Of all the major award shows, the Grammys by far have the quirkiest nominees. This year, non-musical celebs like Jimmy Carter, Carrie Fisher and Michael J. Fox all received nods. Granted, they were for spoken word albums, but still.
Which makes Andy Samberg’s nomination (as part of the comedy trio Lonely Island) for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration even weirder. How has a goofy actor from SNL broken into a category that features rap heavyweights like Jay-Z, Kanye and T.I.?
It helps that “I’m On A Boat” isn’t his first foray into critically acclaimed song parodies. It may seemed to have debuted ages ago (it was only 2005) but “Lazy Sunday“was an online smash that helped define YouTube as the destination for must-see video clips. This song also reminds us that once upon a time, people were really excited about seeing the Chronicles of Narnia.
Samberg and his Lonely Island cohorts have been churning out the catchy Yankovic-eque tunes ever since. “Lazy Sunday” was a viral hit, but “Dick in a Box”won him and Justin Timberlake Emmy awards.
Who would have imagined that a Color Me Badd impression would wow the world, and then spawn an equally successful sequel with “Motherlover“, featuring cameos by A-listers Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson?
But to be honest, we think that Jake Gyllenhaal’s one-second appearance in “I Ran So Far Away” was the best of the lot. And for a song dedicated to a highly controversial world leader, it’s oddly romantic.
Then there’s “Jizz in My Pants.” Yep, the title says it all. And just recently, Samberg teamed up with Rihanna on “Shy Ronnie”, which is worthwhile just to hear Rihanna sing in disgust, “He’s pissed his pants.”
And of course, there’s his Grammy-nominated hit “I’m On A Boat”, a pitch-perfect parody of rap video excess, with its obnoxious use of Auto-Tune and a gratuitous T.I. appearance.
So can a catchy but fake rap song beat out the real thing? The Predicto Mobile community believes that Samberg and his Lonely Island friends will be go home empty-handed on Grammy night, with 66% predicting they’ll lose the prize. As SNL’s Debbie Downer would say, wah wah.
Do you think Samberg has a shot at Grammy glory? Have your say by visiting Predicto.com and registering for the text message-based mobile game that has everyone predicting the outcome of sports, pop culture, news and entertainment events. Along with being able to vote on surveys, including this one, you’ll get updates when the answers are revealed.
Sign up today — and get more Predicto by becoming a fan on Facebook!
Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton has never been shy about expressing his opinions on the rich and famous, but now he’s on the receiving end of the tongue-lashing.
Perez was supposed to appear on Los Angeles TV station KTLA to promote his new book. Apparently, Hilton arrived at 8 a.m., nearly an hour and a half before his scheduled on-air time, and demanded to be put on the show.
Since this couldn’t happen, the Queen of All Media reportedly stormed out of the studio. The station’s Sam Rubin was so upset about what went down that he berated Hilton the following day.
Never one to run from a fight, we’re curious to see if Perez will defend himself against what we’re sure will be perceived as an attack.
What do you think will happen? Visit Predicto.com and register for the text message-based mobile game that has everyone predicting the outcome of sports, pop culture, news and entertainment events. Along with being able to vote on surveys, including this one, you’ll get updates when the answers are revealed.
Sign up today — and get more Predicto by becoming a fan on Facebook!
We know how much you love celebrity gossip – now make your opinions heard! Predicto is your source for one of the most popular spicy celebrity gossip blogs on the Internet! You can also participate in exciting SMS survey blogs right from your own cell phone. At Predicto, we bring you the week’s hottest news and recap your predictions. Connect with the Predicto Mobile community and join in the fun today!
When Conan O’Brien announced that he wouldn’t participate in the destruction of The Tonight Show by hosting his program at 12:05 AM rather than 11:30 PM, the online reaction was immediate and intense.
It helps that “I’m On A Boat” isn’t his first foray into critically acclaimed song parodies. It may seemed to have debuted ages ago (it was only 2005) but 
Who would have imagined that a Color Me Badd impression would wow the world, and then spawn an equally successful sequel with 
And of course, there’s his Grammy-nominated hit 
