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Are You Excited About Helen Hunt's Possible Return to TV?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:15:09 -0700

Last week, I told you about Maura Tierney's departure from the new NBC midseason drama, Parenthood. I was admittedly bummed, even though her recovery obviously takes priority. It's just that after watching the pilot, I thought Tierney was perfectly cast in the role.

Well, now the word is that NBC has reached out to Helen Hunt as a potential replacement for Tierney on the show.

Hunt is reportedly still mulling over the offer, but I'm already jumpy over this news. She's been off the Hollywood radar for a while, but I've always thought that she was one of the most talented actresses out there. I loved her on Mad About You and throughout her film career - As Good as It Gets, Cast Away, and don't forget Girls Just Want to Have Fun! Tierney would've been amazing in the role, but Hunt is a worthy substitute and I just know she'd deliver the complexity, which a drama like Parenthood needs. What do you think - are you excited about Hunt's possible return to the small screen?

Maura Tierney Drops Out of Parenthood

BuzzSugar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:29:04 -0700

Well this news is a big bummer - Maura Tierney will no longer be appearing in NBC's upcoming series Parenthood due to her ongoing breast cancer treatment. The show was moved from Fall to midseason when Tierney learned of her illness, but now she's dropping out altogether.

I loved Maura on ER and really enjoyed watching her in the pilot, but of course her health is the most important matter here. Luckily NBC says she's expected to recover and we wish her all the best as the network searches for her replacement.

Maura Tierney's Illness Pushes Parenthood to Midseason

BuzzSugar — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:30:51 -0700

On the sad, worrisome news front, Maura Tierney has fallen ill recently, and the production start date for NBC's new show Parenthood, based on the 1989 movie, has been moved from late July to late September. Thus, Parenthood will now premiere midseason, instead of its previously scheduled premiere date of Sept. 23. Another new NBC show, Mercy, will now begin in September instead of midseason, though it isn't clear yet which time slot Mercy will take. Apparently "NBC is re-evaluating its fall scheduling plans that now will include the simultaneous launch of two new medical dramas, Mercy and Trauma."

NBC has said that Tierney is "undergoing medical evaluation," and the network is "unable to release further details and ask that you respect her privacy at this time." Weirdly, this is the second unfortunate thing to happen to Parenthood, as NBC Vice President of Drama, Nora O'Brien, died unexpectedly on the set of the show in Berkeley, California back in April.

Please get well soon, Maura!

Peter Krause, Maura Tierney to Play Siblings in Parenthood

BuzzSugar — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 07:30:01 -0700

Meet the Bravermans: Peter Krause and Maura Tierney have signed on for starring roles in NBC's TV remake of Parenthood, playing new versions of the characters made famous by Steve Martin and Dianne Wiest.

They join Dax Shepard, Craig T. Nelson, Mae Whitman (who?), and the previously cast Erika Christensen as the potential members of the sprawling Braverman clan. Here's a quick breakdown of the who's-who so far:

Krause will play Adam Braverman, "a married man with two children who is a lunatic beneath the surface."
Tierney will play his sister Sarah, the single mother of . . .
. . . Whitman's character, a rebellious 16-year-old.
Shepard's character is the youngest Braverman, a slacker.
Christensen is their sister Julia, a corporate attorney.
And Nelson will play the clan's father, "a Vietnam vet-turned-actor/hippie."

I was a little skeptical of this project at first, just because a TV adaptation of Parenthood failed once before, but I'm starting to get a kick out of this cast. I'll give anything with Krause a try at least once, so I'm starting to hope that this one makes it through pilot season and onto our TVs. What about you?

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Movie Preview: The Go-Getter With Zooey and Jena

BuzzSugar — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:15:27 -0700

Zooey Deschanel and Jena Malone are in this movie The Go-Getter. You know who else is in it? Judy Greer and Maura Tierney. M. Ward apparently has a role, too, and his music is included in the trailer (which makes sense, given She and Him). The movie itself was a 2007 Sundance feature and from the trailer it looks like your standard quirky indie Sundance fare. But anything that features Zooey is, in my opinion, worth giving a shot.

The plot goes like this: "When his mother dies, a teenager (Lou Taylor Pucci) takes a road trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car's owner (Deschanel) and with himself as well."

The Go-Getter opens in select theaters June 6. To check out the trailer, read more

The Go-Getter - Trailer

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Link Time! 4/17

BuzzSugar — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:30:36 -0700

Maura Tierney apparently wants her character to be killed off ER, so TV Squad wonders: How should Abby die?
FilmExperience has the lowdown on Baz Luhrmann's challenge for young filmmakers.
According to Cinematical, there's now an R-rated trailer up for one of this year's most well-received Sundance movies, Hamlet 2.
Vulture has video of Jason Segel's five best moments on the short-lived series Undeclared.
Got a question for Neil Patrick Harris? Popwatch needs more ideas for what to ask him in an upcoming interview.
Stereogum has some thoughts on Lily Allen's new tunes "I Don't Know" and "I Could Say."
Awesome! A Pop Candy reader writes about her experience as an extra on the set of Lost.

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Movie Preview: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in Baby Mama

BuzzSugar — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:30:32 -0800

As you may know, I believe Tina Fey can pretty much do no wrong. A while back I was thrilled to learn that she and Amy Poehler were teaming up to make a motherhood-themed comedy Baby Mama, and I've been dying to see a trailer ever since. Finally - it's here!

The premise is simple, and allows for plenty of humor: Kate (Fey) is a high-power professional woman who, when she can't get pregnant on her own, pays a stranger named Angie (Poehler) to be a surrogate mother. They become an odd couple indeed when Angie comes to live with Kate, disrupting her clean, professional lifestyle. The rest of the cast list boasts some great names, like Romany Falco (Conrad on Weeds!), Greg Kinnear, and Maura Tierney.

I'll be first in line to see Baby Mama when it opens April 18. To check out the trailer for yourself, read more.

If it says "Loading," still try to click on the Play button to play the video. If that doesn't work, try refreshing the page. The trailer can also be found here.

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TV Tonight: ER's 300th Episode

BuzzSugar — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:30:00 -0800

Think quick: Where were you when ER premiered in 1994? The show launched the career of Noah Wyle, made George Clooney a household name, and outlasted its fellow 1994 premieres Chicago Hope, Party of Five, and Friends. Tonight, ER reaches a milestone that few series ever do: its 300th episode.

I loved the show all through my high school years and into college, but when the original cast started to dwindle, I drifted away, too. Still, I've had a blast playing with this interactive timeline of all of the doctors on the show and reminiscing about the various guest appearances (remember Kirsten Dunst as a teen prostitute?). It may not be as relevant, as watched, or as high-profile as it was a few years back, but ER must be doing something right to make it this far.

To watch a preview for tonight's episode, which finds the doctors treating 300 patients in a single day, just read more

Source and NBC

Diggers: A Quietly Charming Slice of Life

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 May 2007 12:23:12 -0700

Diggers is less like a movie than a moment, a few minutes of poking your head into someone else's life. It's a small, quiet movie where nothing much happens, but its subtle charms make it worth a look - especially because it's already available on DVD.

Diggers focuses on a ragtag group of of clam diggers growing up on Long Island in 1976. It's a hardworking but mostly comfortable life - until a big corporation starts encroaching on their turf. In the midst of the storm is Hunt (played with a quiet sweetness by Paul Rudd), a slacker-digger who oversleeps one morning and later finds his father, whom he was supposed to dig with that day, dead in the water. The death prompts Hunt and his friends - the angry Frankie (Ken Marino, who also wrote the movie), lowbrow pot dealer Cons (Josh Hamilton), and ladies' man Jack (Ron Eldard) - to re-examine their own lives, so read more

For Hunt, that means developing a flirtation with Zoey (Lauren Ambrose), a city girl visiting Long Island. It's clear that Hunt isn't completely resigned to the digger life - he's also a wannabe artist who takes black-and-white Polaroids of everything - and Zoey encourages Hunt's desires to escape. I'm not quite sure what to make of Zoey; she's written like a city sophisticate, but Ambrose plays her as something more suspicious, like she's hiding a whole history we don't really ever see.

But it hardly matters, because at its heart, Diggers is a buddy film. I couldn't help being reminded of Beautiful Girls, another movie about a clan of old friends. In Diggers, the guys are so used to being around each other that their greeting is the finger and their banter is sharp but old-sweatshirt comfortable. Their dramas are small but not insignificant, and that's what ultimately makes Diggers feel real.

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Gilmore Girls's Amy Sherman-Palladino Scores HBO Show

BuzzSugar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:52:18 -0700

There's been awesome news lately for Gilmore Girls fans - first, Lauren Graham got cast in Maura Tierney's role in Parenthood, and now the beloved show's co-creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, has just scored a deal to write and executive produce a show for HBO.

The premise of Palladino's new show isn't too far from Gilmore Girls: it'll focus on three sisters and their complicated relationships with their mother and each other. It is far from Stars Hollow, though; the sisters, all writers, share the same apartment in New York City (guess NYC rent prices are still high in a recession).

I'm so stoked for this project and even more intrigued that it'll air on HBO - will there be cussing and sex scenes mixed in with the lightning fast dialogue?