Posts Tagged ‘CBS’

Hey all you folks who have a hankering for having cameras watch your every move–head on down to Mohegan Sun Casino on Thursday, March 28th, for an open casting call for “Big Brother,” season 15.

The long-running CBS reality series is holding an open call for the most entertaining, outgoing, intriguing, and scheming among us to try out for a spot on the next season of the show. While you’re hanging out, you’ll also be able to meet former “Big Brother” contestants JoJo Spatafora and Michelle Costa who will be making a special appearance during the auditions.

If you think you can stand to live in a house full of strangers, while cameras catch your every interaction, you might have what it takes to be a “Big Brother” house guest. The eventual winner of the show will walk away with half a million dollars!

Participants must be 21 years of age or older.

Find a full list of eligibility requirements, and download an official application here.

The casting call will run from 10 a.m. to noon at the VISTA Lounge. If you can’t make it down to Connecticut for the open call, check out their website for details on how to submit an application packet electronically. All submissions must be received by May 11th.

Oh, say can you see those super-Boston-imposed fireworks at this year’s Boston Pops Independence Day spectacular? What we natives so proudly hail as the greatest city around, the twilight of works will be gleaming with NO Boston theme.

Last year, the Pops production popped up images like Fenway Park and the State House as works boomed within. The reproduction was a little off and forced on viewers. Taking away from the beauty of the flames.

“The public spoke … people didn’t care for it,” said Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for Boston 4 Productions. “We always try new and different things. We always look at the event and what would enhance the broadcast.”

Turning 39 this year, the Boston Pops will sparkle our Fourth of July on the banks of the Charles River. “From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam…”

Millions tune into the  CBS broadcast for the nation’s premiere Independence Show.  Happy Birthday America!

The Hatch Shell opens at 9am, usually fills up by 2pm and the works bang the city by 8pm. FREELY.

Alcohol, glass containers and tarps larger than 8’ x 10’ will be confiscated if you plan on hatching it up at the Oval. If you don’t get a wristband to hang in the Shell all day. Don’t worry you can catch the rockets beaming the  Boston skyline all over the Back Bay.

It’s an all-day summer affair. Recorded live music will keep the grounds entertained early. As the Pops get ready to ship it with Fleet Week, The Drop Kick Murphy’s, Hollywood Jennifer Hudson, Mama Mia cast, Actor Michael Chiklis, and Keith Lockhart who will all be center stage for the halftime show.

Not only are the Drop Kick’s Boston bright, Chiklis is a hometown native who will shoot our homes this Fall as gangster Vincent Savino in the upcoming CBS drama series “Vegas”.

We’ll  be going Way Way Back, to Marshvegas for the Fourth but it doesn’t matter if we’re on the banks of the Charles River, a Castle Island feet or bobbing on a boat off Plymouth harbor.

We are free because of the BRAVE! Take a moment during your holiday red, white and blue to remember the sacrifices made by brave American service members that continue to defend our country and protect our freedom!

Journalism icon Mike Wallace died Saturday night, surrounded by family and friends, in New Caanan, CT. Wallace, 93, had a broadcast career that spanned over sixty years. He was probably best known as a correspondent for CBS’ 60 Minutes, where his assertive style of interviewing became legendary.

Wallace was born in Brookline, MA to Russian immigrant parents. He graduated from Brookline High School and went on to attend the University of Michigan, working part-time as a reporter for a local newspaper while attending college. After graduating, Wallace worked as a writer and broadcaster at several local Michigan radio stations before locating to Chicago. During World War II, he served as US Navy communications officer and returned to Chicago when he was discharged.

Over the next decade or so, Wallace went on to host many game and news shows, (common during a time where news and entertainment were melded together), eventually moving from radio to television. One of his most popular early shows was Night Beat, where Wallace first displayed his talent for pit-bull styling reporting. It was that style that producer Don Hewitt remembered years later when he was creating 60 Minutes. The show premiered with Wallace and Harry Reasoner at the helm on September 24, 1968.

He was a regular correspondent with the show until March of 2006, but continued to work as a “Correspondent Emeritus” until 2008. The impressive array of awards he received through the course of his career include twenty Emmy awards, (including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy), three Peabody awards, three Alfred I duPont-Columbia University awards and a Robert F. Kennedy School of Journalism award.

He once told his friend and colleague Morley Safer “It’s astonishing what you learn and feel and see along the way. That’s why a reporter’s job, as you know, is such a joy.”

Johnny Depp to star in ‘The Night Stalker’ Remake & Paul Revere project.

★ Johnny Depp to star in Disney movie about Paul Revere.

★ Zookeeper opens in 3rd places its first weekend in theaters.

★ Ben Affleck allegedly lost $400k in poker games to Universal Studios president, Ron Meyer, but seems to be having a fine time with his family.

★ CBS gets caught fudging with Boston’s fireworks shots.

★ Reports say former Celtic star Shaquille O’Neal will be working for Turner Broadcasting.

★ Scenes for the upcoming movie Ted filmed at the Hatch Shell.

★ Boston’s own Chris Evans, the current Captain America, admits to seeking therapy, and gained 15 pounds for his new role.

★ Supermodel Stephanie Seymour calls the police on her son in Connecticut.

★ Matt Damon is bald!

★ Meryl Streep’s daughter gets married in Connecticut.

Monday’s 4th of July spectacular went off without a hitch, but what viewers saw across the nation on the national telecast was thanks in no small part to the dress rehearsal held the night before. On Sunday night, hundreds of native Bostonians and out-of-towners alike gathered on the Esplanade to watch the Boston Pops hold their dress rehearsal for the annual 4th of July Pops performance special on CBS.

New host Michael Chicklis, who proudly touted his Bay State roots, took the stage wearing a grin from ear to ear. Though the actor was born in Lowell, raised in Andover, and spent four years at Boston University’s School for the Arts, he seemed a bit shaky in his hosting duties, stumbling over words awkwardly at times. Chicklis did surprise the crowd by taking a turn showing off his vocal abilities. He happens to be a member of several performing bands in the Boston area such as The Surgeon General, Best Kept Secret and Double Talk. He has also appeared on Broadway,  starring in the one-man show “Defending the Caveman.”

The Pops, led by Keith Lockhart, were themselves a bit flustered with the announcement just days earlier that Lionel Richie, the planned special guest performer, was dropping out due to strained vocal chords, and was replaced, last minute, by country star Martina McBride. Though the talented brunette got the crowd rocking with her rendition of “God Bless America” and performances of her own hits like “Independence Day” and “This One’s For the Girls”, it seems that none of her music had any previously done orchestral arrangements, so some of the musicians were up all hours of the night Friday and Saturday writing arrangements. So much so, that in order to give them extra time, the performers did not have to report to the Hatch Shell for practice until late in the afternoon on Sunday, as opposed to their usual early call on dress rehearsal day.

The dress rehearsal is always done on the night before the special airs on TV, and is done in order for the CBS camera crews to mark their angles and vantage points for different shots they will get throughout the broadcast, and also for them to determine where the best times for commercial breaks will fall. The entire performance is done as if it were happening on July 4th night, the only difference being, they do not end with any fireworks!

Late night talk show host Craig Ferguson once again helmed Boston’s annual celebration on the 4th of July. The nationally televised concert put on by the Boston Pops at the Hatch Shell overlooking the Charles River featured country crooner Toby Keith, and was conducted by Keith Lockhart. The national telecast aired on CBS, and featured the usual patriotic tunes played by the Boston Pops orchestra, and 20 minutes of fireworks perfectly timed to a variety of current pop music recordings, including songs by Michael Buble and Lady Gaga. Though not in attendance on Sunday night, the “Pokerface” singer was in Boston July 1st and 2nd, playing to sold out audiences at the TD Banknorth Garden.

When arriving in town Wednesday night, the 24-year-old Grammy winner, known for her eccentric behavior and outlandish performances, grabbed some beers with Berklee band Semi Precious Weapons, her opening act, at the Bukowski Tavern in Inman Square in Cambridge, and was also honored with a special unveiling of an exclusive Polaroid to be displayed at the MIT Museum. Earlier this year, the woman who was born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, was named Creative Director of the Polaroid camera company. That same night, police were called to the Ritz-Carlton parking garage after a member of the paparazzi got into a scuffle with one of Lady Gaga’s bodyguards.

TNT’s newest crime drama, “Rizzoli & Isles,” is the latest television show to continue the long held tradition of being set in Boston.  This crime drama comes out later this year and centers around a Boston detective played by Angie Harmon and a medical examiner (Sasha Alexander) who work closely to solve crimes.

Currently, there are several other shows along with “Rizzoli & Isles” that are set in Boston.  In fact, Boston has been featured in shows so often, that there is even a Wikipedia page about it.  These include the latest installment of the Jesse Stone series, “Fringe,” and the recently premiered “Boston Med,” that delves into the goings on of three of Boston’s best hospitals – Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Boston.

Some recent well known Boston-set programs include the James Spader lawyer dramas “Boston Legal” and “The Practice,” “Ally McBeal” and “Crossing Jordan.”

Teens might remember that the main characters in programs like “Dawson’s Creek” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” attended college in Boston, while “Two Guys and a Girl” and “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” also took place there.

Of course you cannot mention Boston-based television shows without giving a nod to “Cheers,” the 1980s sitcom centering around a bar “where everybody knows your name.”  People from all over the world still come to Boston to visit the famous bar on Beacon street where all of the exteriors were filmed.

It is important to note that although all of these shows were set in Boston, most of them were taped in Los Angeles.  As disappointing as that might be for some New England filmmakers, it is still exciting to know that Boston is the home to so many favorite television shows.

Last week, CBS aired the sixth installment of the Robert B. Parker-created character series, Jesse Stone, once again starring Tom Selleck. In “Jesse Stone: No Remorse”, Selleck returns as a crimefighter who takes on a case in Boston after losing his job as a small-town Massachusetts police chief. Hot on the trail of a serial murderer, the made-for-TV movie costars Kathy Baker and William Devane. The film is dedicated to Parker; the novelist died of a heart-attack in late January, but not before he was able to see a finished version of the movie, to which he gave his blessing.

Previous releases in the series from Sony Pictures Television includes “Stone Cold,” “Jesse Stone: Night Passage,” “Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise,” “Jesse Stone: Sea Change” and “Jesse Stone: Thin Ice.” The movies are based on the characters from Parker’s best-selling series of books. Selleck had previously received an Emmy nomination for his work in “Jesse Stone: Sea Change.” One of his more recent television appearances included a stint on ABC’s “Boston Legal”. Selleck also served as an executive producer and co-wrote the script based on the novel. The show aired on CBS on May 9, from 9-11PM.

In related news, on Wednesday, May 19, CBS announced its new fall line-up will include 3 new dramas and 2 comedy series, which will include “Blue Bloods”. The one hour drama series will co-star Selleck and Boston’s own Donnie Wahlberg as New York cops who also happen to be family members.

★ Cast of the Bay State film, Fury Vengeance talk about real life animal encounters at the premiere (above).

★ Two-time Tony Award winning actress Frances Sternhagen, also known as Cliff’s mom on Cheers and Bunny MacDougal on Sex and the City, performs at the Salem Theatre Company.

★ Katie Holmes to star as Jackie Kennedy in HBO miniseries.

★ Jody Adam’s of Harvard Square’s Rialto appears on Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters”.

★ Former Boston contestant from the CBS reality show “Big Brother” may soon be behind bars.

★ Scott Brown’s daughter, and former “American Idol” contestant, Ayla, gets job on CBS’s “The Early Show”.

★ “Project Runway” contestant, designer Kara Janx, to appear at the May 12th and 13th Stylefixx event in Boston, previewing her spring 2010 line.

★ The New England Patriot Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen drop $20 million to build the their ideal home in Brentwood, California.

Connecticut resident Rob Zombie (aka Robert Cummings) is making his television directorial debut tonight with the airing of an all new episode of CSI: Miami on CBS. The Haverhill, MA born rocker filmed the episode in LA during the month of January. The episode will feature guest stars Malcolm McDowell, Paul Blackthorne, and Michael Madsen as well as his Halloween co-stars, William Forsythe and Kristina Klebe. The highly regarded actor, Malcolm McDowell will play a crooked attorney defending a murder suspect, and Michael Madsen is cast as a bodyguard to the murder suspect. The show will also feature Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon Zombie as a Los Angeles photographer.

“I am very excited to be working on a show that has such an intense and unique visual angle on the classic crime drama formula and look forward to putting my own bizarre stamp on the world of CSI: Miami,” Zombie was quoted in regards to his experience.

The 45 year old horror-obsessed musician, actor, writer, and director has certainly been busy lately, with a new tour recently being announced, “The Gruesome Twosome Tour” with co-headliner, Alice Cooper. Tickets went on sale Tuesday, February 23rd.