Evans Above

NKOTB a.k.a. New Kids on the Block a.k.a. Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood just finished performing on the MuchMusic Video Awards and the one word to describe the performance is “ouch”.

The MMVA performance really looked like five guys getting ready to take a kick at the multi-million dollar reunion tour can. The dancing was awkward, the vocals shaky — Jordan Knight in particular cracked spectacularly during “Step by Step” — and it looked like a bunch of guys at a company karaoke party pretending to be NKOTB.

I guess they can cash their cheques after the tour, which opens in Toronto this September, and finally put the reunion demands in their past.

Canadian Idol returns on Tuesday…and I couldn’t care less. Ratings for it were down last season, as they were for American Idol this season.

The only winner I clearly remember in five seasons is Ryan Malcolm and that’s only because he was the first. There was some curly blond guy and a dark-haired girl. Yep, they’ve obviously etched their names and careers into popular culture.

I think it’s funny how all the various Idol shows trumpet the “idol” word, like somehow these people have been properly elected idols that the masses must bow down to. The way Seacrest intones “This is your American Idol” the way they say “The President of the United States” when the State of the Union address starts. Sadly, some force-fed TV watchers actually accept that these people must be idolized because they’ve been told repeatedly that they’re idols and they’re the best. No, they’re supposedly the best of the people who auditioned. That doesn’t mean some 17-year-old singer in Wichita who thinks the show is a joke can’t sing circles around the winners.

I worked at a part-time job that was chock full of actors and singers. One of the women who worked there, the type who’d dote on any of the contestants, wondered aloud why none of the people at this job auditioned for the show. One savvy university student summed it up well: “Because they want careers.”

Reaching into the mailbag this week, we find Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. It’s a given in the movies that the easier a heist appears, the greater the chance that something will go very wrong.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers whose parents own a jewelery store. Hoffman is the more successful brother. He’s got a job as a payroll executive, a sexy wife (Marisa Tomei), and a drug habit that needs cash to fuel it. Hawke is financially struggling, needs money for his little girl, and he’s sleeping with his sister-in-law.

Knowing that their parents, Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris, have their store fully insured, the two brothers figure they can stage a robbery. They’ll have the cash they both need and nobody gets hurt. Or so they plan…

Hoffman is, of course, fantastic. He truly is the embodiment of the actor you’d pay to watch read the phone book. But with him, you’d come back the second night to see him read the Yellow Pages™. Albert Finney matches Hoffman toe-to-toe as the pair’s father. With this duo in the cast it’s hard for the rest not to be partially in their shadows, but that’s not a slight considering the scale of performances we’re talking about here.

This DVD release includes interviews with the cast and director as well as commentary from Hoffman, Hawke and Lumet. Considering Lumet’s a filmmaking legend, that’s worth the price of admission alone.

While you’re at it, check out our photos from the Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

When I first saw Leona Lewis’ X Factor performances on Youtube, I thought she had an amazing voice.

Months later, her album hits North American shores and, after an appearance with Simon Cowell on Oprah, Leona’s single “Keep Bleeding Love” is everywhere.

And it bores me. The girl’s got a killer set of pipes and this boring, generic song does nothing to really show off her vocal skills. It could have been released by any fill-in-the-blank artist.

I was just watching the local CTV news in Toronto and their community interest story was on a girl, Nicolette Nardi-Addesa, who was having her sweet sixteen party.

Mention sweet sixteen parties these days and your mind turns to the self-absorbed, vain, unappreciative girls on MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen. The type that yell “I hate you!” at the mother who bought them a Lexus in the wrong colour.

Nicolette is NOT that girl. She decided that instead of throwing a party that was about how much you could receive, hers would be about how much you could give. Tickets for her party required a minimum donation and the money raised would go towards the Children’s Wish Foundation so that a sixteen-year-old with a life threatening illness could have their wish come true.

Congratulations to Nicolette on her sixteenth…and congratulations for growing up to be a young woman who can think of others in this increasingly insular world. If you’re inclined to make a donation to Children’s Wish to follow Nicolette’s example, visit their site at https://www.childrenswish.ca/.

My friend, actress/writer/singer/whatever-she-sets-her-mind-to Jaclyn A. Smith, is hosting Unplugged at Vancouver’s Grace Gallery this Saturday, March 29th, 2008 starting at 6pm PT. The evening of art, food, drinks and live music, which is helping to raise awareness for Earth Hour, will feature appearances by Greenpeace founder Rex Weyler and director of The Whale Center, Dr. David Randle.

Jaclyn, or “Jax”, who can currently be seen opposite Eugene Levy in American Pie Presents: Beta House , has also made a video in support of Earth Hour. Take a look:

I’m pretty sure that Kristy Lee Cook wasn’t planning to say anything raunchy to American Idol judge Simon Cowell when she said that, if she stuck around another week, “I can blow you out of your socks and you know it.”

Simon for once was speechless and tactful, while fellow AI judge Randy Jackson immediately went “Whoa, whoa!” and suggested that host Ryan Seacrest not go there. Seacrest was doing his best not to laugh, his voice cracking as he went on, while Paula Abdul had the possibilities of the phrase fly over her head, adding, “Aim for that. Blow him out of his socks.”

Cowell, grinning ear to ear, managed to stay quiet, while Seacrest finally ventured that, “It’s hot! Turn on the air, Debbie!”

A great live TV moment that hit the border of family TV but didn’t cross it, but the big question is whether FOX’s Standards & Practices people will snip it out for the West Coast airing.

Of course, Cook’s online bio on the Idol site says her favorite quote is: “Rope it, ride it, wrestle it, cowgirl it.” I bet.

Man, oh, man what a sham NBC’s coverage of the 65th Golden Globe Awards was.

After losing the exclusive on the press conference that replaced the usual glam ceremony, NBC tried to salvage whatever ad dollars still remained in the building. While E!, CNN, and the TV Guide channel held the press conference live, NBC took its ball and went home, having Access Hollywood anchors Billy Bush and Nancy O’Dell announce the winners “live…as we get them .”

How were they getting them? Was an asthmatic homing pigeon flying the results from Beverly Hills to the Burbank studios? The other cable nets finished showing the awards announcement live in 30 minutes, while NBC stretched it out to an hour.

The worst moment? Nancy O’Dell, in the last few minutes of the broadcast, asking Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger to predict the race for Best Motion Picture – Drama, even though the winner, Atonement, was announced half an hour earlier.

Check out DigitalHit.com’s coverage of the 2008 Golden Globes, the saddest Globes ever.

Another DVD set to arrive a day before the holidays was Kissology, Vol. 3: 1992-2000. Again, the KISS fan in your household won’t care what day of the year they get this. The DVDs are chock full of material, but I found the commentary tracks by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley to be the most interesting. The two are quite honest in their discussions about Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. Paul says their return to the band in the mid-90s was “a miraculous second lottery” where “2 individuals chose once again to throw away the winning ticket” while Gene describes the reunion period as “torture.” To be fair, there are two sides to every story, but the KISS ball belongs to Gene and Paul now, so they can decide what laundry gets aired.

The package contains over ten hours of performances including the MTV Unplugged performance, the Dodgers Stadium Psycho Circus concert, the Detroit Rock City premier party performance, The Last KISS performance from Continental Airlines Arena, and their Coventry gig from 1973.

Song’s performed include “Rock and Roll All Nite”, “Domino”, “Lick It Up”, “God of Thunder”, “Shout It Out Loud” and too many others to mention.

If you are, or you know, a member of the KISS Army, then this DVD set is for you.

Wow, just before the Xmas holidays hit, we received yet another package in the ol’ DigitalHit.com mailbag. This time it was Get Smart the Complete Series — Seasons 1-5 DVD Box Set. It doesn’t matter one iota that the holidays have passed. If you’re a fan of this classic series from Mel Brooks and Buck Henry you really won’t care which one of the 365 days of the year you’ll get it on.

The five DVD set has the complete series and over nine hours — 9 hours! — of extras including featurettes, commentary from Mel Brooks, an interview with Buck Henry, highlights from the reunion seminar held at the Museum of Television & Radio, footage of Don Adams’ 75th birthday party at the Playboy Mansion, bloopers and a whole bunch of interactive features.

It’s great seeing the series again as Max and his Control cohorts The Chief and 99 battle Siegfried and KAOS. The shoe phone, the cone of silence and “Would you believe…” are all here to provide you with hours of comedic pleasure.

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