Many apologies to everyone who reads this blog for keeping you hanging for a few days. Things have been very busy around here, and with this being a Holiday week, things are even busier, so I may have to post at night this week.

Twilight's Edward & Bella
Anyway, this is just a little heads up to what’s been goin on lately. Of course, I saw Twilight, and I will give my opinion in a separate post so as not to bore those who aren’t interested.
I will, however, take this moment to say --- $70.6 million!!! Take that James Bond!! That’s Twilight’s estimated weekend gross so far. And just to put that in perspective …
Going into the weekend, Twilight was expected to take in a big $50 million.
Of the Top 30 openers of all time, of which Twilight is now one, only seven cost less than $100 million to produce. And only one, The Passion of the Christ, cost less than the $35 million Twilight.
According to Box Office Mojo, Twilight has unseated Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing as the top-opening vampire movie of all time.
Twilight also bested Iron Man for top opening day ticket sales, selling $35.7 million to Iron Man’s $35.2 last May.
And at one point on Friday, Fandango reported selling five Twilight tickets per second.
Should be very interesting to see how sales go over the big holiday weekend. See if the fangirls flock back to see the inhumanly gorgeous Edward Cullen, the way they returned over and over to see Titanic’s Jack Dawson. God knows I did, Twilight got my money Friday, Saturday and Sunday, despite the fact that it wasn’t the greatest movie I’ve ever seen. I paid for two uninterrupted hours of Robert Pattinson …
Of course, Summit Entertainment responded on Saturday by immediately green-lighting Twilight’s first sequel New Moon, details to follow …

Two Hours of Pattz -- Priceless!

Last week’s Top Chef didn’t disappoint, long story short, Jill was told to pack her knives and go. I’ll save my rehash for Wednesday before the new episode airs.

Last week’s Survivor offered up an incredible episode that I will recap prior to this week’s. Yes, there will be a new episode airing Thanksgiving night. Not to keep you in suspense, but Randy was ousted. It was one of the great coups in Tribal Council history.

Bye-Bye Randy


This isn’t a new direction for this blog, I will try to continue posting these recaps in a more timely manner, things just got behind last week.

Here’s some TV news to keep you updated.

The LA Times and TV Guide report this week that ABC has failed to order any new episodes of Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money, effectively canceling them when their 13 episodes run out this season.

Scrubs, ending their run on NBC last season, will be seen on ABC beginning Jan. 6 with back-to-back episodes airing for at least the first weeks.

ABC will move Private Practice to 10 p.m. Thursdays, following Grey’s Anatomy. (Yes, I have more to say about the Denny-Izzy storyline, but it will have to wait till later.)


Showtime's Dexter
Everyone’s favoite serial killer, Dexter will continue to keep up his murderous mayhem for Showtime for at least two more seasons! A total of 24 episodes have been ordered up for their top-rated drama. The show is also the network’s best-selling DVD title.
And speaking of Dexter Morgan, Canadian filmmaker Peter Twitchell, an avid Dexter fan, was charged by Edmonton police with the Halloween murder of a man who he lured to a garage through the Internet. The man, Johnny Altinger, reportedly thought he was meeting a women he encountered online. The body hasn’t been found, but police arrested Twitchell after finding a script, in which a male killer lures a cheating husband through an Internet dating scam and decapitates him with a power saw, according to the Vancouver Sun.The killer in Twitchell’s script works for the police, as does Dexter, a Miami blood splatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer.

Fox has ordered nine more episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

And so has NBC, keeping Knight Rider around a little while longer.

According to the NY Post, the creator of NBC’s ailing Heroes, Tim Kring, says the series could move away from its serialized format. They’re hoping to entice fans back by offering stand alone episodes, instead of the current format, where if you miss one week, you’re lost.

And speaking of Lost … ABC is gearing up for the Jan. 21 premiere with great gusto. I’ve seen many promos for it in the past week … and I can’t wait!! You can catch a Lost fix tonight over on the Sci-Fi channel, which is continuing its Monday night minithons from 7-11 p.m.


Serial Billionaire-Dater Padma
Heads-Up Elfman! The NY Post’s Page Six reports today the no man can resist Top Chef hostess Padma Lakshmi (of course, you already knew that). It seems she traveled to Rochester last week to see the Foo Fighters (who are appearing on this week’s episode), and was delighted when Dave Grohl dragged her onstage and introduced her to the audience. Lakshmi stayed on to play tambourine with the band. Backstage, spies reported that drummer Taylor Hawkins “vied for her attention all night.” Sadly, she didn’t give him her number – doesn’t he know she ONLY dates Billionaires!!

Stylist and Bravo reality star Rachel Zoe is looking for a new home. Seems she is totally freaked out after thieves broke into her West Hollywood home and studio last month. Thousands of dollars worth of dresses and merchandise were taken, yikes!

And in Life Immitating Art News: It appears Sopranos’ star Jamie-Lynn Sigler has gotten close with Jerry “Turtle” Ferrara while filming her guest shots on HBO’s Entourage. She’s been appearing as herself on the hit show, and dating Ferrara’s character Turtle. Last week the couple were photographed leaving a pat at the Chateau Marmount in Hollywood holding hands.


Nazi Cruise?
On TV Tonight: If you’re interested in Tom Cruise’s new film Valkyrie, which is due to open in December, you might want to check out the History channel’s Valkyrie: The Plot to Kill Hitler at 10 p.m. It documents the true story on which the film is based.

Over on MTV at 10 p.m. is yet another new episode of that borefest The Hills. Isn’t this season over yet? Oh well, for some reason beyond explanation, I can’t seem to stop watching that utter jerk Spencer Pratt, what will he do next?

The boys on Prison Break seem to be gearing up for some serious action tonight on Fox at 9 p.m. Will they ever get the final pieces of Scylla? The season’s winding down and will end before Christmas to make room for Jack Bauer’s next 24 hours. And speaking of Jack Bauer, I’ll have a 24: Redemption review soon …


Hiya Hugh!
And the sexiest man alive, Hugh Jackman, will sit down with Conan O’Brien tonight to talk up his latest flick opening Wednesday, Australia.
Cheers!

Sorry to have left you hanging yesterday, but there was sooo much on TV Sunday night that I needed an extra night to catch up!Which, of course, now leaves me behind on Monday night ...Anyway, let's begin with the Amazing Race (Sunday, CBS, 8 p.m.)! God I love this show!

Season 13 contestants
Eleven teams of two, each with preexisting relationship, started the race at the Los Angeles Coliseum for Season 13. First stop was Salvador, Brazil, where the teams had to choose a local vending cart, wheel it thru the narrow streets of Salvador to a popular plaza and deliver the cart to Indio in exchange for their next clue.After an overnight hold, the teams encountered their first Detour, choosing between the Hard Way Up and Soft Way Down. In the first, teams had to climb up a stone staircase on their hands and knees, while the second task revealed teams climbing to the top of a 240-feet building and climbing down a cargo net on the outside!Siblings Nick & Starr came out as Team No. 1, while older, hippy couple Anita & Arthur arrived at the Pit Stop last and were thus eliminated. This season is shaping up to be as controversial as past ones ... with Starr already putting the moves on Dallas (of the mother/son team). And tempers are flaring ... looks like next week will be pretty interesting ...To watch this episode or for a detailed recap, visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/
At 9 p.m. Sunday night I couldn't decide whether to watch HBO's vampire drama True Blood or Showtime's season 3 opener for everybody's fave serial killer Dexter. So I pointlessly tried to watch both (you know, just flicking between the two every so many minutes). While I love Dexter, the season opener was just basically set-up, and shortly into it, True Blood captured my full attention with an episode that finally got interesting!This week's ep featured heroine Sookie Stackhouse getting her vampire-love interest to take her to the local vamp bar "Fangtasia" so she could question some fellow bloodsuckers regarding the murder of her coworker. What made this interesting was the we finally got to meet the "leader" of the local vamps, hot, hot, hot Eric!

It was only just a short tease though, but Eric's brief performance was enough to keep me interested and coming back for future eps.
http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/
Back to Dexter - I think my sister (who hasn't watched before, but tuned in just to see Dexter's new boss, played by her fave Jimmy Smits) summed it up best ... "he didn't kill anybody this week. That was disappointing."http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do
Following True Blood at 10 p.m. was another great episode of HBO's current biggest hit Entourage. Poor Johnny Drama, not only is his younger brother the "hot one" and he recently ruined his hot French romance, but now his costars on his first hit in ages made an ass out of him on The View! It was hilarious. Definitely a show worth tuning into. http://www.hbo.com/entourage/

Luckily, Showtime repeated the 10 p.m. season 2 debut of David Duchovny's Californication, so I switched over there at 10:30 p.m. for what was instantly a reminder of why I like this show! When we last saw Hank Moody at the end of the first season, he was driving away from his ex's wedding with their daughter, only to have Karen (his beloved ex) run out and jump in the car too.So Hank and Karen are back together, but things aren't all rosy. The episode started out with Hank getting a vasectomy and then having a hard time abstaining ... you know, till things healed ... it didn't help that during an evening out with his agent Charlie (Evan Handler) and his wife Marcy, they got invited to a sexually loose party in the Hollywood Hills. As usual with Hank, he means well, but things get hilariously out of hand and he ended up in jail by the end and Karen's not willing to bail him out this time ... For more information or to watch this episode, visit http://www.sho.com/site/californication/home.do
Yeah, I also watched Desperate Housewives and wasn't too impressed. But for now I'll stay tuned, mostly because it's all the talk on Mondays around here. At the behest of a coworker, I taped but didn't watch yet, Brothers & Sisters. I know it's a good show, but being that's it's already in the third season, I don't know if I can get into it at this point. Especially with so much else to watch.

And, I'm just about caught up on BBC America's popular new teen drama Skins. This racy British export is the perfect antidote to all the Gossip Girl, new 90210, One Tree Hill, Friday Night Lights dribble on American TV right now. I love it ... of course, you can probably look forward to some Americanized version of this one soon. But I recommend watching the original. Look for more information here http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/328/index.jsp
Still haven't watched Mad Men yet, maybe tonight ... probably not though, because I'm clearing the evening's schedule to watch the DVD of Iron Man. Saw it in the theater and loved it!! And I didn't know anything about iron man going into it. Maybe I'm just really pleased to see Robert Downey Jr. doing something good again!
So I pretty much missed Monday night television. Saw a little of the Lost marathon over on Sci-Fi. And I wouldn't miss The Big Bang Theory - love those guys (CBS 8 p.m.). I'm about done with Dancing with the Stars (taped it but couldn't bring myself to watch it this morning).

Everybody's Favorite Gladiator
However, one bright spot in last night's entertainment came later on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I had put a reminder on the TV that Russell Crowe was going to be on promoting his new Ridley Scott-directed Body of Lies with Leonardo DiCaprio (two of my faves, can't wait for this one!) Interestingly enough, it seems Crowe has a solution to all our financial problems in the US. Since the government wants to "lend" $700 billion to "save" the financial crisis, and there are roughly 300 million American citizens, Crowe's revelation would be to give $1 million to every citizen, allowing them to pay their mortgages and pump money back into the economy. I'm all for it. Shame he can't run for Prez.
On TV tonight: Back for another thrilling episode surely will be Fringe at 9 p.m. on Fox. Dancing with the Stars results show airs at 9 p.m. on ABC.
Over on Bravo at 10 p.m. an all new Rachel Zoe Project airs. I just got into this show over the weekend after a coworker recommended it. I like it! Rachel Zoe is a stylist-to-the-stars and its compelling to watch how her mind/business works. Most of the time, she's running (with her 2 assistants) all over Los Angeles, trying to find the perfect "hero" dress for some celebrity client. For more info visit http://www.bravotv.com/The_Rachel_Zoe_Project/season/1/index.php

And in the trainwreck category, MTV debuts Paris Hilton's New BFF reality competition at 10 p.m. I might actually have to check this one out. I admit, I'm a closet fan of VH1's Flava of Love and Rock of Love. I just can't seem to turn them off - like watching a trainwreck!