John Goodman

Community returns for its third season tonight on NBC, bringing along a few new characters — like John Goodman, who plays the vice dean. He joined Community star Joel McHale for an interview with a few reporters, where Goodman talked about his guest role and why he wanted to be part of the show. But what was even more exciting was McHale's juicy scoop about Jeff's relationship with Annie (it's so on) and what else is coming up for the study group.

How will Jeff's relationship with Annie develop?
Joel McHale: Well, I can tell you that that relationship will develop further on the romantic end of things, much to the chagrin of half the audience — at least who comments on message boards, and it’s divided right down the middle. They’ll be like, “Oh, so sweet,” [and the others are] like, “It’s disgusting.”

What other changes are coming for Jeff?
JM: I know that my father will become present in the series. Jeff has a lot of father issues, and so that will be dealt with. And according to Dan, my character’s [going] to kind of be put through hell, so I’m really looking forward to taking the journey.

Do you have a personal opinion on who Jeff should be with, Annie or Britta?
JM: No, wow. Wow, in my personal opinion, geez. That’s a good question. I had not thought about that. You know, when it comes to that I trust Dan implicitly and, with Jeff, he’s a very uncommitted and guarded man. He’s got a lot of issues going on, and you know he’s going to be more gravitated to Annie this year. But, if it’s my personal choice then I guess it would have to be — boy, I don’t know, that’s a good [question] — probably anybody from the WNBA.

Tell us about the musical number that we’ve seen in the preview.
JM: It is an over the top, very large musical number with crane shots and streamers and explosions, and the entire school is involved. I don’t want to say the reason for it, but let’s just say that I did pull a couple hamstrings and I was hoarse afterwards, but believe it’s going to — it’s the first thing you’ll see in the premiere episode, and if that doesn’t grab your attention then we’re in big trouble.

Of the new guest stars (John, Michael K. Williams, and Martin Starr) who is shaking things up the most?
JM: Oh, boy. Well, John is terribly disruptive. He parked his car on the stage and said, “This is my parking space."

To find out what Goodman revealed about his character, and why he wanted to be part of Community, just keep reading

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• John Goodman joins the cast of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close — MTV Movies Blog
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The teaser for the upcoming horror flick Red State is definitely not what we've come to expect from Kevin Smith, king of the slacker comedy. John Goodman and Melissa Leo star in the story of religious fundamentalism gone overboard in Middle America. But is it a scary movie or a political statement? Despite the somewhat obvious message pushing (just look at the title), it's interesting to see Smith branch out into a new genre. He must know what he's doing, because this footage is definitely disturbing. The film will premiere at Sundance next month, but give it a peek when you read more

Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep were among those who dressed up last night to honor the career of legendary director Mike Nichols. The women were joined by stars from many of Mike's famous films like Dustin Hoffman, who starred in The Graduate, Emma Thompson, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hanks. Julia took the stage to toast Mike, saying, "Mike is one of the few people in the world who's an 'EGOT' — it means he's won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony." She mingled with Oprah Winfrey afterward to catch up since their last chat about Eat, Pray, Love. Harrison Ford also shared kind words about Mike, but he spent most of the evening cuddling up to longtime love Calista Flockhart. The evening was notable for another reason — John Goodman finally showed off his dramatic weight loss, and he made the rounds chatting with Hollywood veterans like Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.

To see more from the big night, just read more

There are a slew of actors that I've come to know as the funny, roly-poly, doughboys of showbiz, such as Drew Carey, Jack Black, and John Goodman. But wait — as you can see from the photo below, Goodman has dropped a significant amount of weight. The almost 58-year-old actor revealed his dramatic weight loss on the red carpet at Thursday's AFI Tribute to Mike Nichols in LA.

The before photo to the left was taken in May 2004 and what a huge difference. In a 1992 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the former Roseanne star who's now starring in HBO's new series Treme, admitted that he was sensitive about his weight. He was constantly trying to take it off although he said, "I lose it, I gain it back. No big deal.'' Well it looks like he got it right. There's no word on exactly how he lost what is estimated to be 100 pounds, but his publicist said it was through "diet and exercise." Nice to see the old standbys of weight loss getting some press. Great work John! It's always inspirational to see someone win over the battle of the bulge.

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