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Family

“Wimpy Kid” Zachary Gordon wants his “Mummy” in a new episode of “The Haunting Hour”

Just three days after wrapping work on the third Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, Zachary Gordon had a very different — and darker — assignment. Instead of playing the lovable, gregarious schemer Greg Heffley, he had to step into the skin of Seth, a boy with a dark, mysterious connection to an ancient evil. All in a day’s work when you sign on for an episode of R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour. Gordon’s episode, “Night of the Mummy,” premieres Saturday at 5pm on The Hub. Gordon says the episode will show his Wimpy Kid fans a completely different side […]

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Magazine Archive

Sanjay Gupta explores concussions, high-school football in CNN special, “Big Hits, Broken Dreams”

Of all the questions people throw Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s way — and there are many for the neurosurgeon who is also CNN’s chief medical correspondent — among the most common deal with high-school football and concussions. Is the game safe? Can it be made safe and still be the same sport? Should I let my kid play? Gupta addresses these issues and more in his new special Big Hits, Broken Dreams — his new CNN special airing 8pm Jan. 29 — for which he spent a full season embedded with the Junius H. Rose High School football team of Greenville, N.C. […]

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7 Questions With...

7 Questions With … Food Network’s Guy Fieri

1. You’re at a magazine rack and can only choose three publications. Which do you pick? Maxim, Cook’s Illustrated and duPont Registry. 2. If your TV only aired three networks, which three would you want? ESPN, HBO and Food Network. 3. What has been your weirdest fan encounter? Sitting on a plane a woman says to me, “You look like that guy on TV — what’s his name? Oh yeah, it’s Gus Ferrari — do you know that guy?” 4. When was the last time you were star struck? I was shooting Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in Portland, Maine, and went to a […]

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Animation

FX’s “Unsupervised” finds humor in the children left behind

By Stacey Harrison There is a lot of talk about how today’s kids are too protected, hampered in their path to maturity by so-called helicopter parents who hover around every second of their precious little ones’ lives, making sure they never feel a moment’s discomfort and that they know they are special. The characters in Unsupervised are not those kids. The animated FX comedy, which premieres tonight at 10:30, follows the exploits of Gary and Joel, two best friends who must forge through adolescence and the snake pit that is high-school society almost completely without parental guidance. Yet despite their […]

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Drama

Liam McIntyre takes on “Spartacus” role with a “Vengeance”

By Stacey Harrison While death is dished out regularly on Spartacus — often by way of cartoonish violence and slow-motion effects shots — it hit home for the cast and crew in a very real way in September with the passing of original star Andy Whitfield. Production was nearly complete on Season 2 — dubbed Spartacus: Vengeance — with Liam McIntyre assuming the lead role, a development that had occurred with Whitfield’s blessing, when they got the tragic news. Executive producer Steven S. DeKnight said the Spartacus crew knew how gravely ill their friend was, as he fought his second […]

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Documentary

“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” provides a stunning conclusion to the West Memphis Three saga

By Stacey Harrison When word came in August that the West Memphis Three were going to be released after serving 18 years for the murder of three young boys, it provided an unexpected epilogue to a trilogy of documentaries that stirred an international controversy. The third chapter in that trilogy, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, follows the continuing efforts to free Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., who were convicted of the brutal, seemingly ritualistic murders back in 1994 despite a lack of physical evidence. Filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky documented the case in 1996’s Paradise Lost, which […]

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Magazine Archive

A&E rolls out another entertaining reality series with “Shipping Wars”

When I reach Roy Garber over the phone for our interview, he’s on the road. But then where else would he be? If you watch Shipping Wars — A&E’s new reality series premiering tonight at 9 — you’ll quickly learn that Garber feels most at home on the road, earning his living transporting loads that other shippers won’t touch, and those his competitors weren’t able to win from him in a fierce bidding war. In tonight’s episode, it’s a nearly 4,000-pound, 22-foot steel horse that he must pick up from downtown Manhattan and haul down to Florida within 36 hours. […]

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Drama

VOD Spotlight: In “Moneyball,” Brad Pitt takes on baseball economics

I’ve never been a huge fan of baseball. I grew up in the era of free agency and the idea that pouring money on the field was the way to win, and that wasn’t particularly interesting to me. And from that perspective, I found the Brad Pitt-produced film Moneyball, adapted from Michael Lewis’ best-selling book, a welcome change from the more typical sentimental Hollywood treatment of the game. Pitt plays Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane. Tired of seeing the star players on his team lured away by ballclubs with bigger budgets, and hamstrung by the A’s own severely limited […]

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Comedy

Newcomer Erica Dasher fashions her 1st starring role in ABC Family’s “Jane By Design”

As a young upstart suddenly thrust into the limelight in her dream profession, Erica Dasher can very much relate to her character in Jane By Design. Prior to nabbing the lead role of Jane Quimby in the ABC Family series, which premieres at 9 tonight, the actress’ previous credits include a web series called The Lake, along with a couple of guest spots on TV and a short film. But now she’s rubbing elbows with the likes of Andie MacDowell, who plays her Devil Wears Prada-esque boss at a fashion company, where Jane has bluffed her way into an assistant’s […]

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Food TV

Guy Fieri talks “Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off” … and tacos

To Guy Fieri, Rachael Ray is more than a longtime Food Network colleague and fellow food TV superstar — she’s family. Family he is looking forward to beating the (pots and) pans off when the duo’s new six-week series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off begins on January 1. “This is more like a sibling rivalry,” Fieri laughs, “because here you have two people — although we’re not from the same family — there are tremendous amounts of the same thoughts on life. Love people. Love competition. Love food. Love pushing the limits.” Rachael vs. Guy pits Fieri against Ray to […]