BUZZ: Who killed Denny?

You may know Jeffrey Dean Morgan, 40, as that guy who dies on every show he gets on. In 2005, he was cast in Showtime's "Weeds" as Judah Botwin, the lead character's husband who died from a heart attack, in which he only got to appear in family videos. Later on Morgan scored a brief spot on the WB's "Supernatural" as John Winchester, the father that the lead characters have been searching the country for in between creepy adventures. Most recently, he was cast in ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" as Denny Duquette--by far the most beloved patient on the show. He played a heart patient who was in desperate need of a donor, but had no problem wooing Isabel (Katherine Heigl). Despite the fact that he proposed to her and they were supposed to live happily ever after when he got his heart transplant (that Isabel stole for him), he died in the season finale.

But with every TV appearance, he gets more air time and bigger character plots. Banking on Denny's huge following, Morgan has taken to the big screen. He just wrapped two films. One is the dramedy Live!, also starring Eva Mendes and Jay Hernandez ("Six Degrees"). Plot: "A mockumentary following an ambitious TV network executive trying to produce a controversial reality show where contestants play Russian Roulette." The other is Kabluey, which isn't even worth mentioning, despite the fact that Lisa Kudrow's in it.

Right now he's filming three movies.

1) The Adventures of Beatle Boyin: it's an extremely bizarre dark comedy about a girl who wants to be an assassin and how she falls in love with a girl who's being hunted by a real assassin. I have no idea where he fits into that...maybe he's the assassin.

2) The Accidental Husband: "When talk radio host Emma Lloyd (Uma Thurman) advises one of her listeners (Justina Machado) to break up with her boyfriend (Morgan), the jilted ex sets about getting his revenge." This will be his first big screen lead.

3) P.S. I love you: "A young widow (Hilary Swank) discovers that her late husband (Gerard Butler) has left her 10 messages intended to help ease her pain and start a new life. " There to dry Swank's tears is Harry Connick Jr.

Morgan'll have to take a backseat.

After he's done with those three, he'll start horror movie Among the Shadows. Plot: "Suspicious events and menacing dreams soon convince Sylvia that she is either being haunted or hunted. As the line between reality and nightmare blurs, Sylvia finds herself facing a truth that is far worse than anything she could have imagined." Sounds pretty corny, but there are no stars in the film, so he should steal the spotlight.

Let's cross our fingers for Denny to get some more substantial films in the future.

BUZZ: New Celeb Projects

Britney Spears has signed on for a comedy called In the Pink.
Here's the plot: "A rich, misogynistic corporate executive (Tim Allen) soon finds himself out of a job, and is forced to make a living out of selling Mary Kay cosmetics alongside a group of door-to-door saleswomen (Cher, Bette Midler, Britney Spears and Wanda Sykes). Things look up, however, when he develops a genuine understanding of the female psyche, and uses his knowledge to propel his business upwards."
I guess Allen, Cher, and Midler really can't get any lower than this...unless of course they appear in her next music video.

Jennifer Hudson has signed with Arista Records to work on her debut album next year. She plans on mixing old school music with more modern tunes. Hope it doesn't come out like Christina Aguilera's attempt.

Lastly, Beyonce has a new single out that is bilingual called "Beautiful Liar." It supposedly features Shakira, but I couldn't hear her on the version I listened to on Youtube ...unless Shakira has horrible spanish enunciation.

MUSIC: latest releases

12/05 Releases:


CIARA: 5 out of 14 songs
"That's right": The beat is hot enough for me to ignore the crappy lyrics
"Like a boy": She's trying something different with violins in the background. But the most impressive part of this song is how angry she is at Bow Wow asking him "What if I had a thing on the side?," talking about his lying and cheating. She says that she wants to switch places and "play him like a toy" and "act like a boy." If you loved Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," you'll love this one.
"Promise": It's the slow single she has out now. This is the new sexy side of Ciara.
"I Proceed": It was produced by Pharell. He sampled Salt n' Pepa's "Push it", making it a passable dance song.
"Make it last forever": This song samples "It takes two to make a thing go right" and it is the hottest song of the entire album.


Drake Bell
Um, yeah. So the lyrics and the production is way too juvenile for my taste. But I'm thinking whoever watches his show "Drake & Josh" and finds him charming will pretend that it's good. It sounds like it was literally produced by Nickelodeon. If he wanted to sell the music to an animated movie, like Shrek he could make millions.


Dreamgirls
2 disc (36 songs), out of the 20 songs I sampled, the superb vocals are in:
"Love you I do" Jennifer Hudson
"I want you baby" Eddie Murphy
"Family" Jamie Foxx & Jennifer Hudson
"And you're going to love me": They've got to get Jennifer Hudson to sing it live at the Grammy's, the Emmy's, or the Tony's, so we can see if the track was digitally altered or not.
"When I first saw you" Jamie Foxx
"Listen" Beyonce Knowles
"Dreamgirls"
"When I first saw you" Beyonce Knowles & Jamie Foxx


Gwen Stefani
"Sweet Escape": It sounds a little motown-y; something catchy you can sway to. It features Akon.
"Orange County Girl": She sounds like Brooke Hogan while she's trying to rap the lyrics "I'm just an Orange County girl living in an extraordinary world." It's really bad.
"Early Winter": It sounds Blondie-ish with her 80s vibe and it's produced by a member of Keane. The lyrics, "Why do you act so stupid? You know I'm always right," shows a bit of the forthright Gwen we used to know before she went Hollywood.
"Now that you got it": It has hot drum beat and a catchy hook, with "Hollaback girl" fame potential.
"4 in the morning": It's a throwback to the old Gwen, with a little "Don't Speak" vocals to it. But the song itself isn't anything phenomenal.
"Yummy": There's remnants of "Wind it up" in it, with African drums and Pharrell helping her out. She calls it disco tetris. It's bizarrely my favorite song.
"Flourescent": It has a very similar beat to Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl" in the chorus, but then it slows down. It's okay.
"Breakin up": The song has a Clipse-like start with the words "How sick is this?" But she doesn't have the same appeal.
"Don't get it twisted": It has a fairytale rhythm in the beginning with the words "Don't get it twisted. Don't get clever. This is the most craziest shit ever!" But then the song turns to crap.
The rest aren't even worth mentioning. She's gonig to have to go nuts on music videos to make these songs interesting.

Tim Sale, "Heroes" comic book artist

It's really interesting that "Sales is colorblind, so all the vibrant hues in the "paintings" (and the comic book within the fictional story) are added to his original drawings by computer before the artwork is printed on canvas."

You've got to admit, those comics make half the TV show.

The Year for Africa

Hollywood chose to exploit Africa this year in every way manageable.

There's the films:

Catch a Fire with Tim Robbins and Derek Luke, a story about the wrongful imprisonment of a South African suspected of terrorism.

The Last King of Scotland with Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy, about a Ugandan dictator's regime.

Blood Diamond with Leonard DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly in a story about the illegal trafficking of slave-labor mined diamonds in South Africa.

Babel with Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and Gael Garcia Bernal, where, among other plotlines, a man must find medical attention for his wife after she was accidentally shot in a Moroccan village.

3 Needles with Lucy Lui, Sandra Oh, Chloe Sevigny, and Shawn Ashmore, a story that follows three storylines, one of which involves a nun having to sacrifice her virginity to save a South African village.

There's the adoptions:

Angelina Jolie adopted Zahara from Ethiopia

Madonna adopted David from Malawi

There's the ad campaigns:

Gap's RED: Gap is taking part in the Product Red campaign. The collection contains several different shirts with words that include the consecutive letters RED in them, like desiRED or inspiRED or admiRED, as well as several other literally red items. The shirts are manufactured in Lesotho from African cotton. Modeling the clothes are celebrities like Jennifer Garner, Don Cheadle, Chris Rock, Steven Spielberg, Penelope Cruz, Mary J. Blige, etc. A percentage of the profits will go to the Global Fund to help women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Keep a Child Alive: The organization's ambassador is Alicia Keys. There's been controversy about the ad campaigns where several Americans have colorful face paint which supposedly mocks African tribes. Not to mention, underneath their photographs are the words "I am African," which is apparently offensive to real African Americans. According to the official website, in their defense, they believe that "Each and everyone of us contains DNA that can be traced back to our African ancestors." Therefore we should all unite against AIDs and poverty, no matter our skin color. Such face-painted individuals include Gwyneth Paltrow, Giselle Bundchen, Sarah Jessica Parker, Seal and Heidi Klum, Richard Gere, etc.

YouthAIDS "Kick Me" campaign: Rapper Ludacris launched this national, grassroots, student-led campaign to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS among youth in the U.S. "The "Kick Me" campaign is based on the old prank of someone sticking a Kick Me sign on another's back without their knowledge -- just like 90% of those infected with HIV/AIDS may not know they are carrying HIV. YouthAIDS is turning that practical joke into a practical lesson."-P.R. Newswire. The funders of the campaign are Levi and Virgin. YouthAIDS also ran the ad campaign with Aldo and celebrities (Pink, LL Cool J, Avril Lavigne, Benji & Joel, and Ludacris) who did the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" black and white photographs that advertised engraved dog tags.


Today is World AIDs Day. Volunteer, donate, get tested or spread the word. Save the future!