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Buzz Brainteaser

BuzzSugar — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:30:18 PDT

Welcome to Buzz Brainteaser, the trivia feature on BuzzSugar! Every weekday I'll test your knowledge about TV shows, music, and movies. If you enter in the correct answer, you win points!

What actress played Megan, one of the main members of the Midnight Society during the 1999-2000 season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Buzz Brainteaser

BuzzSugar — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:30:18 PDT

Welcome to Buzz Brainteaser, the trivia feature on BuzzSugar! Every weekday I'll test your knowledge about TV shows, music, and movies. If you enter in the correct answer, you win points! On the Nickelodeon show Are You Afraid of the Dark?, what did the kids who told scary stories call their group?

What to Rent: New DVDs This Week

Shannon Vestal — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:00:00 PST

Contagion

Matt Damon stars in this drama as a man whose wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the first victim of a deadly virus. As he grieves and tries to keep himself and his daughter safe, the world goes through crisis, and several other characters try to solve the mystery of how and where the disease broke out. Stephen Soderbergh directed this thriller, which boasts an ensemble of A-listers that includes Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Marion Cotillard. The subject matter may make you feel like a germaphobe, but the movie is a tense and entertaining ride. The DVD extras include several featurettes.

86%

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

A woman (Katie Holmes) moves into a decrepit mansion with her boyfriend (Guy Pearce) and his daughter, but their home life is less than idyllic when the little girl starts complaining about being tormented by creatures in the house. Guillermo del Toro produced and co-wrote the horror film (a remake of a '70s made-for-TV movie), but his touch doesn't save the film from feeling a bit formulaic. A three-part making-of documentary is included as a DVD extra.

59%

To see one more new release, just keep reading.

Candy Coded: What You Need to Know About Your Favorite Sweets

Fitness Magazine — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:09:35 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Fitness Magazine here on FitSugar!

It seems like these days there's always a reason for a sweet treat - holidays, baby showers, birthdays, and the list goes on. We could tell you not to eat it, but unless you have the willpower of a saint everyone craves sugar once in a while. To help, we got the dish on the best drugstore treats to nibble on and the ones to completely nix.

1. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
"If you're craving chocolate, then the darker, the better," says Katie Cavuto Boyle, RD, owner of Healthy Bites. "Dark chocolate has less sugar, is dairy-free, and is rich in antioxidants that have been shown to reduce blood pressure and decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease."

Nibble: Hershey's Miniatures: Special Dark
Serving Size: 5 pieces
200 calories; 13g fat; 7g saturated fat; 25mg sodium; 24g carbs; 18g sugar; 3g protein
Nix: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures
Serving Size: 5 pieces
220 calories; 13g fat; 5g saturated fat; 130mg sodium; 26g carbs; 23g sugar; 4g protein

2. Go Nuts!
"Chocolate that contains nuts may be even better for you, because the nuts contain a variety of nutrients and healthy fats that may displace some of the total chocolate, sugar, etc.," says Marie Spano, RD, owner of Marie Spano Nutrition Consulting in Atlanta.

Nibble: Dove Silky Smooth Almond Milk Chocolate Bar
Serving Size: 1 bar
190 calories; 12g fat; 6g saturated fat; 20mg sodium; 18g carbs; 16g sugar; 3g protein
Nix: Twix Caramel Cookie Bars
Serving Size: 2 cookies (1 pack)
250 calories; 12g fat; 9g saturated fat; 100mg sodium; 33g carbs; 24g sugar; 2g protein/li>

More suggestions for making the better candy choice after the break.

Operation Organize: Charitable Closet Clearing

Lauren Conrad — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:30:31 PDT

We are thrilled to share this story from LaurenConrad! The TV personality, writer, designer, and style maven started LaurenConrad.com, a social networking site that features daily posts by Lauren on all of our favorite topics - fashion, beauty, food, party planning - and Lauren will be sharing her latest fashion finds with Fab every month. This week, we talk closet cleaning for a cause.

If you have read my book Style then you know what I think when it comes to cleaning out your closet: if you can’t see it, you won’t wear it. The solution? Overhaul your closet, and get organized. (Check out Chapter 4 of Style for helpful tips on editing and arranging your closet.) So what do you do with all of the pieces you want to ditch? Pay it forward. And no, I don’t mean watch the movie.

Think of it this way: as your unused homecoming dress sits in the deep dark depths of your closet, there is someone out there who is looking for, or needing, that very dress. They don’t say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” for nothing. Instead of tossing or selling closet rejects, donate them - but do it wisely. Certain organizations specialize in distributing specific clothing items. To inspire you to make smarter donation decisions, I have put together a list of helpful suggestions on disposing your closet castoffs:

Shoes. If you are tossing a pair of shoes, give them to someone who really needs them. I recently learned about Soles4Souls, which is an organization that collects shoes and gets them to those in need. In many countries, children cannot attend school or church unless they have a pair of shoes, and Soles4Shoes makes this possible.

Keeping reading . . .

Why a Little Hunger Can Be Healthy

Shape — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:03:43 PDT

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to Cynthia Sass, a registered dietitian with master's degrees in both nutrition science and public health.

With my clients, and in general, I like to focus on the positive, such as what to eat rather than what not to eat and what to do rather than what not to do. But after spending time with my clients, they often tell me, I didn't know what I was doing wrong before; now I get it. I'm always happy to hear that, because it means they're not just following my advice, they're understanding the logic behind my recommendations. That's key because when you're in the dark, you'll just unknowingly perpetuate the patterns that work against you. That said, one of the most common missteps I see that keeps people from getting results is being afraid to get hungry.

Intense hunger, when you can't concentrate, you're irritable, and you want to shove the first thing you see into your mouth, doesn't feel good. But mild to moderate hunger is normal, and it's something you should be experiencing about four times a day. It's a signal that your metabolism is in gear, that you've used up or burned off the previous meal and that it's time to refuel for the hours ahead.

Learn how to create the best eating schedule for yourself after the break!

Film Forum: Did You Get Spooked by Don't Be Afraid of the Dark?

Becky Kirsch — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:30:00 PDT

If you live on the East Coast, chances are you spent the weekend shut up inside - and the box office numbers certainly reflected the effect of Hurricane Irene. That said, there were still plenty of us that made it to the theater, and I want to hear about the movies that you checked out. Did you challenge yourself to keep your eyes open during Guillermo del Toro's latest horror flick, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark? Or maybe you preferred Zoe Saldana's new action flick, Colombiana? Whatever film you saw, tell us about it in comments.

Watch, Pass, or Rent Video Review: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

BuzzSugar — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:26:45 PDT

Katie Holmes and a young Bailee Madison deal with creepy critters in this week's horror film Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. But will the film's cowriter and producer Guillermo del Toro deliver scares that will make you want to sleep with the lights on? Watch our video review to find out.

Name That Movie: Haunted House Edition

BuzzSugar — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:05:32 PDT

In this week's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a young girl discovers the new house she's just moved into with her family is inhabited by creepy creatures. Plenty of cinematic families have suffered similar fates, finding out a little too late that their new dream homes come with dark histories and unwelcome spirits. Unfortunately, some of the scarier scenes in these horror films tend to remain ingrained in our memories forever. Luckily for you, that means you might do well in identifying the haunted house films in this week's quiz!

Question 1 of 3

Name this movie:

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark: Light on Scares

Rose Curiel — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 03:05:00 PDT

In Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, a young girl named Sally (Bailee Madison) moves cross-country to Blackwood Manor, a Gothic estate her architect father (Guy Pearce), and his interior decorator girlfriend (Katie Holmes) are renovating. Soon after arriving, Sally begins to hear eerie voices coming from tiny creatures in the mansion's basement, and what follows is a pretty formulaic approach to a horror film - there's a house with a dark history, an all-too-knowledgeable groundskeeper, and a child whose fears are written off by the adults around her. The story feels all too familiar, and you can pretty much guess what's going to happen every step of the way.

The film is a remake of a 1970s made-for-TV movie that producer and cowriter Guillermo del Toro cites as the scariest movie he ever saw as a child. It's hard not to expect a unique take on a haunted horror film, given the fact that del Toro created such a vivid imaginary world in Pan's Labyrinth. Instead we get a lot of clichés, and one of the only deviations from standard horror movie fare - an intricate mythology surrounding the creatures - emerges as more confusing than scary. To find out more about why del Toro's monster's failed to make my skin crawl, just

read more. The tiny beasts who torment Sally are most terrifying during the first half of the film, when we only catch brief glimpses of their claws and beady eyes, experiencing them through their raspy whispers. Their ability to inspire fear, however, diminishes when they make their first appearance onscreen and we see that instead of the terrifying boogeymen we've been envisioning are scruffy rat-like creatures that have been brought to life with CGI effects. More convincing than the little critters is Madison, who taps into Sally's loneliness and fear with such ease, it's hard to believe she was only nine when the film was shot. We feel Sally's pain and isolation as she cries over her parents' divorce, weeps during a phone call to her mother, and wanders the estate's grounds by herself. Madison steals the spotlight from Pearce, who is largely forgettable in his role as a father who cares more about his career than his daughter. Holmes's character Kim, on the other hand, has a little more emotional depth, as we see her struggle to connect with the distant girl who has recently entered her life, and then goes on to become Sally's ally in dealing with the haunting. If you're a fan of classic horror films that make you scream at characters as they make one bad choice after another, then you will probably enjoy Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. Those who are expecting a more terrifying tale that will stick with them for days might be disappointed, as this definitely isn't the type of film that's going to make you want to sleep with the lights on once you get home.

Photo courtesy of Miramax