June 2007 News Archive (Page 4)

Third-season winner and current Last Comic Standing judge Alonzo Bodden has some advice for the new crop of comics as they begin to compete for America's laughs.

"Being funny is the biggest thing," Bodden told USA Today on Wednesday. "But [viewers] have to like you, because you're asking them to vote for you."

The 44-year-old Queens, NY-native had previously worked as a jet mechanic - but after being crowned the winner of Last Comic Standing's Fall 2004 edition, he's appeared on everything from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien to working in such films as Scary Movie 4 and the upcoming National Lampoon's Totally Baked: A Pot-u-mentary.

"The biggest change is you become a name," Bodden said. "Before, I was working the clubs. People laughed, but they didn't know who I was. I've gone from club headliner to being a nationally known act."

John Heffron won Last Comic Standing's second installment. He agreed with Bodden's assessment with what the reality competition show can do for one's career. While the 36-year-old had some stand-up success prior to appearing on the Summer 2004 edition of the series, his career has really taken off since, as he's currently finished his third comedy album "The Better Half" and also has plans to develop a television show.

"After Last Comic Standing, things just went insane... comedy clubs, corporate events. I was on the road 44 weeks last year," he told USA Today.

Original winner Dat Phan was able to land cameos and voice-overs in a few movies and television shows thanks to his success on the Summer 2003 edition of the series; he's currently touring and developing his own reality show, The Dat Pack, chronicling the journeys of his "comic crew."

"[Last Comic Standing] kicked off my career immensely," the 32-year-old said.

As Last Comic Standing's most recent winner when he took home the fourth-season title last summer, Josh Blue's victory was also probably one of the most heartwarming since the 28-year-old has cerebral palsy. However, he's based most of his shtick on the neurological disorder since his early days as a stand-up comedian at Evergreen State College.

"I was pretty big on the college circuit before. But [Last Comic Standing] blew the doors off everything," Blue said. "I travel all over the country to sold-out shows."

With auditions over, our first look at the 20 So You Think You Can Dance finalists came last night as they partnered up were thrust out of their comfort zones and into some challenging choreography.

Here's how it went down, by pair...

Jaimie Goodwin and Hok Konishi
Jaimie, a contemporary dancer, admitted that ballroom and hip-hop were kind of foreign to her. Doing Shane Sparks' hip-hop routine next to Hok Konishi - a youngster who dominated auditions for two years now, and spends a good part of his life upside down, break-dancing like a madman - could not have been easy. But Nigel Lythgoe (and no doubt many viewers) thought Jaimie held her own against the awesome Hok... who, it goes without saying was his usual amazing self.

Anya Garnis and Danny Tidwell
Originally from Russia, Anya had been a pro ballroom dancer for 17 years. She's also hot, as Nigel pointed out during auditions. Her partner, Danny, is the brother of last season's Travis Wall (who happens to be a dead-ringer for Blake Lewis, by the way). Anya and Danny learned the jive from Tony Meredith. Great, surprising pairing of style of dance to song: Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend." A good performance, and a pair to be reckoned with.

Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron Bink
A swing and ballroom dancer and a professional krumper â€" seems a natural combination, no? Lacey Schwimmer (pictured) is little sis to last season Benji Schwimmer, who won the top prize. I'd like the producers to interview their parents â€" how did they raise such incredible dancers?

Follow the link to continue reading our complete guide to last night's two-hour So You Think You Can Dance ...

Last Comic Standing can only hope to find another Alonzo Bodden this year.

But even though the auditions last night on the season premiere didn't thrill us, the fact that Alonzo - a former champion - is now a judge makes us smile. He had a few good lines as he dressed down many comedic hopefuls.

Such as? Go find out for yourself. Our Last Comic Standing episode guide is live now!

Forget business school: Donald Trump is apparently ready send some ladies to charm school.

The Donald and Fox are developing Lady or a Tramp, a new reality competition series that would take a group of girls out of their wild and crazy lifestyles and send them to charm school where they'll attempt to become proper women. Sound like Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School?

For good reason, probably. It basically is.

Reportedly, The Apprentice star will serve as Lady or a Tramp's executive producer and could possibly come on air to check on the progress being made by the girls.

Lady or a Tramp is based on Ladette to Lady, a British reailty show in which a group of women are sent to Britain's Eggleston Hall charm school, according to Variety. Trump's American edition will reportedly follow a similar format and test its contestants on how to live like a debutante through a series of challenges, with one girl being "expelled" from the school at the end of each episode.

The show would also show viewers the validity of its contestants' wild and crazy ways by broadcasting "ample footage" of their partying, according to Variety.

From the wrestling ring to the pages of Playboy to Survivor.

So has gone the path of WWE Diva, Ashley Massaro. Reports are coming in that this model/wrestling superstar will be appearing on the next edition of everyone's favorite reality show.

Fellow WWE star Paul London told Prowrestling.com that Ashley "was written out of the WWE storylines because she's leaving to be a contestant on the Survivor reality show." This could explain this week's "suspension" of Massaro on the CW's SmackDown!

WWE reps had no comment - but Ashley would join Kristine Lefebvre as reality contestants that have taken their clothes off for Playboy.

And that's not to mention Kenrda Wilkinson, Holly Madison and all the women that appear on The Girls Next Door.

Don't look now, but Dancing with the Stars has apparently become the publicity platform of choice for former Beverly Hills 90210 stars looking to revitalize their careers.

After Ian Ziering finished fourth with professional partner Cheryl Burke during the show recently concluded fourth season, it was reported that Tori Spelling - his fellow former 90210 star and current co-star of Oxygen's Tori & Dean: Inn Love - was in discussions with producers to appear on the show's Fall 2007 installment.

Now Ziering has spilled the beans that he talked another fellow former 90210 star, Jennie Garth, into two-stepping on Dancing with the Stars, In Touch Weekly reported in its June 18 issue.

"We texted each other back and forth," Ziering told In Touch about his conversations with Garth, who unlike most of the rest of her former 90210 co-stars, found four more seasons of regular television work on The WB's What I Like About You sitcom after 90210 ended its 10-year run in 2000.

"She had a lot of trepidation at first," Ziering told In Touch. "And as an actor, it's scary because there is no second take. If you screw up, it's out there for everyone to see."

Garth's publicist Nicole Nassar confirmed In Touch's report to Access Hollywood on Wednesday. "It's official [Garth will be doing the show next season]," she said.

The debut of America's Got Talent last week did what no other network show could do: it beat HBO's finale of The Sopranos in the ratings.

NBC's reality competition was watched by 13 million viewers, while The Sopranos' surprising ending drew 11.9 million viewers, the AP reports.

That means it "was more popular last week than all but one show on the far larger world of broadcast television," even though "ABC, CBS and Fox are all available in 111 million homes for no extra charge, and nothing they aired last week did better than The Sopranos," the AP reported out.

Approximately 30 million homes have HBO.

In its second week, America's Got Talent 2 "drew 11.9 million, about 1 million fewer than the previous week," according to Media Life. But it "will be among the week's top draws in both 18-49s and total viewers."

And, hey, if Jerry Springer keeps going topless, who knows how high the numbers could soar?

Yikes.

Larissa Aurora topless? Not bad. But Jerry Springer topless? Someone pass the remote.

Viewers of America's Got Talent were treated to the latter event last night, sadly, as it almost overshadowed all auditions in Los Angeles. What talents were actually impressive enough to move on, though?

Check out our episode guide now and find out!

Frankie Abernathy, the punk rock-adoring former Real World: San Diego housemate whose struggle with cystic fibrosis helped to further raise national awareness about the chronic lung disease, died Saturday evening in her mother Abbie Hunter's Shorewood, Wisconsin, home. An official cause of death has yet to be determined; Abernathy was 25.

According to Hunter, Abernathy was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis â€" a hereditary disease that causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive tract â€" at the age of 3. She is survived by a sister, Mamie; her mother; stepfather Perry, and her dad, Joe Abernathy, who now resides in Texas.

"It was very sudden," her mother said. "It wasn't something that was expected. She was doing fine, and we really don't know very much yet. It still was kind of a shock, and it just wasn't how we figured things would go. It seems like her little body just gave out."

Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common life-shortening, childhood-onset hereditary diseases, and every year in the United States alone, 1 in 3,900 children are born with it. Difficulty breathing and insufficient enzyme production in the pancreas are the most common symptoms, and thick mucus production â€" as well as a weak immune system â€" often results in frequent lung infections, which are treated, though not always cured, by oral and intravenous antibiotics.

Hunter said Abernathy, who was born in Blue Springs, Missouri, on December 21, 1981, moved to Wisconsin last fall with her family, and, while she wasn't working full time, she was designing purses forged from old vinyl records. This winter, her health began to worsen.

"It was a day-by-day thing," Hunter said. "Some days she felt good, and some days she felt bad. We were kind of hoping to get her [on a list] to see if she would qualify for a lung transplant, because the disease does get progressively worse. In the winter, most [people with cystic fibrosis] usually have a rough patch, and she had a rough patch this year. She had been sick more this last year than she'd ever been in the past. I am very grateful that it was very quick for her. It certainly made it hard for the survivors. She's just our little girl."

Abernathy â€" who had said at one point during her time on 2004's The Real World: San Diego that "Tomorrow is a privilege, so live today like tomorrow isn't happening" â€" helped put a face to the disease. Abernathy didn't stay for the entire season; she left because of several problems she had with her roommates and because she missed her boyfriend, Dave, terribly.

"Her experience on The Real World taught her about what she needed to do, and it helped other people as well," Hunter said. "I know several people weren't aware of the cutting epidemic at the time" â€" Abernathy cut herself intentionally with a kitchen knife during the show's taping â€" "and I know several people wrote Frankie and thanked her.

She was a different person for The Real World realm, and I think she touched a lot of people and made an impact on a lot of people's lives. That's what you want when you have a child â€" you hope they do that. I wish it had been in a different way, but I am proud of her, and as I said, she got a lot of personal growth out of her experience, and she was very fortunate to have had the experiences she did."

 The Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel (pictured) will serve as the guest judge beside regulars Carrie Fisher and Garry Marshall on the moviemaking competition series On the Lot tonight.

The remaining 15 director finalists have been divided into three groups of five. Last week, the first group of five director finalists â€" Sam Friedlander, Hilary Graham, Trever James, Shalini Kantayya and Adam Stein â€" each premiered a film that he or she wrote, shot and edited in five days. The judges offered their critiques, and viewers voted for their favorite films after the show.

On Tuesday, one of the five will be told "It's a wrap" and will be eliminated from the competition. In addition, the second group of five director finalists will premiere their films for the judges' feedback, and viewers again will vote for their favorites after the broadcast.

On the Lot is produced by Mark Burnett Productions, DreamWorks Television and Amblin Television. Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg are creators and executive producers. David Goffin serves as executive producer with Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey and Conrad Riggs co-executive producers.