Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec on the American Spirit

Photo by Craig Sjodin/ABC

On Shark Tank, Robert Herjavec is the nice shark. He's always sympathetic, hates when Kevin O'Leary is too mean and has even teared up during a pitch. At a recent set visit to the Shark Tank, we talked to Robert about the American spirit, how he'd do as a pitcher in the tank and what makes a good investor. Here's want he had to say.

On the American Spirit
"We're all successful in our own way but we come to it at such a different cross section. Everybody that comes out there has a dream. Fundamentally the reason the show works is people want to be successful. I don't think anyone wakes up and says. 'I want my life to suck today.'"

On Sending the Wrong Message to the Pitchers
"People are coming out here and they have a dream and they've worked so hard to get here and sometimes we get on to the numbers, it's all about the money. And I always worry that the message we're sending out to people is to be successful you've got to worry about money. I don't think anybody ever started a great business because they wanted to make a little more cash. They had a dream. They wanted to better their life."

On Advice for Potential Pitchers
"You've got to make an impact right away. Keep in mind, we're filming twelve hours a day. We get a little cranky. Our eyes glaze over. You gotta make an impact right away. I think you've got about have five seconds to make an impression."

On What Makes a Good Investor
"A good investor is just not cash, it's being able to provide value. Because a lot of these businesses need to know which way they go. Do they zig? Do they zag? Which way do they go? And sometimes it's so frustrating when some of the other sharks who have no experience in my field come across and say, 'I know what to do,' and I'm like, 'No you don't.' And that's part of the problem is that sometimes we all get into the habit of thinking we know everything about everything."

On How He'd Fare in the Tank
"I don't know if I'd do well. I have a really hard time when people aren't polite and I find some of the sharks sometimes are a little rude to people. And I don't know if I would do well with that environment."

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Meredith Vieira

 

--> Disney-ABC Domestic TV/ Ida Mae Astute

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things; a TV shows that inspires us to be better. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

In 2002 Meredith Vieira took over the coveted hosting spot from Regis Philbin for the syndicated version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. She came to the gig with a sense of understanding that others might not. After all, Vieira had once been a competitor on the general knowledge game show herself. Just a year before taking the reins from Reeg, the former Today show host competed on the series.

In a recent exclusive interview, Meredith recounted, “When they had a celebrity week with Regis for charity, I was one of the contestants and I was so nervous… And I got physically sick before the game in the green room. So that tells you just how nervous I was and I went on to win $250,000 so I felt vindicated, more so for my charity than for me.”

Dianne Burnett Talks About Her Marriage to Her Ex-Husband Mark

In her new book, The Road to Reality: My Journey as a Real Life Survivor, Dianne Burnett gives a behind-the-scenes look at the life of one of reality TV’s most prolific producers — her ex-husband, Mark. They met long before he was a television legend and she was by his side when he launched both Eco Challenge and Survivor.

Unfortunately in 2003, Dianne discovered that she could not “outplay, outwit and Outlast” her husband and then marriage came to an end. In a recent exclusive interview she talked about what she learned from her marriage.

Dianne admitted that the greatest lesson she took away from her union with Mark Burnett was forgiveness. She conceded, “Opening your heart, it can get broken. And you just have to learn to forgive. Why is it such a terrible thing when a marriage comes to an end? That’s just our belief system that if a marriage comes to an end it’s horrific. I’m excluding any kind of abuse, physical or mental. But if something comes to an end, why do we feel like that’s the be all, end all. If we just shift our thinking that this is just a chapter ending and this happened for a reason. We’re on our destiny. We’re on our path.”

Our Emmy Day Highlights

Photos by Pop Culture Passionistas

Our day on the Emmy Red Carpet, doing interviews on behalf of the Television Academy Foundation's Archive of American Television, was more studded than ever this year. We credit our position, right next to the Extra platform. It provided us, not only with much needed shade in the 95º Los Angeles heat, but also with access to the stars waiting in line to talk to the Mario Lopez. Here are a few of the highlights. Stay tuned to this page and our Facebook and Twitter profile for photos and videos to come.

Tina Fey Joins The White Shadow
The red carpet was buzzing and we were watching for the next star who we could grab and talk to. When right in front of us a shadow appeared, a White Shadow to be exact. Ken Howard, a current guest star on 30 Rock approached and we chatted with him for a moment, telling him we were big fans of his '70s show. And as if that weren't thrilling enough, he called over his good friend and co-star, Ms. Tina Fey — definitely our biggest get of the day. They talked for a second about life on the 30 Rock set and then the Shadow disappeared leaving us alone with Tina. And despite the numerous comparisons of Passionista Nancy's looks to Ms. Fey's (personally we don't see it) we caught on camera the ultimate proof that we are, indeed, two separate people.

Dick Cavett Lost His Emmy
As huge fans of the golden age of TV, one of our most exciting moments of the day took place when we met talk show host Dick Cavett. After getting over the fear of interviewing one of the best interviewers ever, we had a nice time with Dick and his wife. He regaled us with a story of losing an Emmy. No, he did not get a nod and lose to another performer. He won the statue, but accidentally left it behind at a photo shoot. He looked directly in the camera and pleaded for its safe return.

Jon Cryer Cites Bobby Brady as an Influence
When Jon Cryer came over to talk to the press in our area, he displayed the faces he had been practicing for the day — his "I'm pretending to be happy for the winner face" and his "Oh, my god, I actually won face." Much to his surprise he used the second look later in the ceremony when he took home the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Two and a Half Men. Perhaps he should share the honor with "the actor who played Bobby on The Brady Bunch" who he cited as an acting influence in our interview with him.

A Downton Abbey Sandwich
We admit, we came late to the Downton Abbey party. At last year's Emmys we heard raves about the first season which took home the award for Best Miniseries in 2011. Not big fans of the period piece as a genre, we reluctantly sat down to watch the story of the British aristocrats. We were sucked in by the end of the first episode and now we're hooked. So we were thrilled to find ourselves in a Downton Abbey sandwich on Sunday when Joanne Froggatt (who plays Anna Smith) was being interviewed by Mario Lopez on our left and Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Crawley) was speaking to the press on our right. We also spoke with the show's creator Julian Fellowes and got a glimpse of the men of the Abbey at the ball after the show.

Not-So-Good Luck Charms
We had a great chat with Jeff Schaffer, producer from Curb You Enthusiasm. He told us he loves coming to the Emmys and losing to Modern Family. We answered back that we thought this was the year Curb would knock the Pritchett-Dunphy family off their Emmy pedestal. But Jeff did not agree. As he walked away we wished him luck and asked him to think of us when Curb took the statue. He promised he would and called us his good luck charms. Let this be a lesson to you that we are neither very good predictors nor very lucky. Modern Family took the title of Outstanding Comedy Series for the third year in a row.

What's Kenley Doing in That Dress?
On Season 10 of Project Runway, the current contestants designed a red carpet look for a past player. Ven Budhi won the challenge, creating a navy blue cocktail dress for Season 5 finalist Kenley Collins. They announced she would be wearing the creation to the Emmys and so we had our eyes peeled watching for her. And then suddenly, there she was a vision in — floral. She was indeed accompanied by Ven and wearing an original Budhi design, but it was not the dress he made for her on the show. She told us she wanted a print, so he came up with a new design.

Reality Show Near Misses
Each year the red carpet is dotted with more and more reality show personalities. We were thrilled this year to talk to Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons from Top Chef, Bertram Van Munster and Elise Doganieri co-creators of The Amazing Race and Bruno Tonioli from Dancing with the Stars. But we also had a few near misses. First Phil Keoghan from The Amazing Race was wisked off by his publicist after she told us we'd be his next stop. Then Ms. Kathy Griffin walked over to our section of the carpet saying, "Who wants to talk to me?" We looked right at her and as she approached, a publicist swooped in with another interviewee… leaving Kathy to talk to KCAL. And, in perhaps the most disappointing moment of the day, we saw our hero, Bravo's Andy Cohen, dart past all press on his way down the carpet and into the theater. We did get a great shot of the back of his head as he got away.

The Late Arrival
This is our third year covering the Emmys so by now we know that even though the carpet is closed and the show has just about to begin inside, we need to hang back. Inevitably after the buzz has died down, you hear a roar from the bleachers as the big name late arrival star, who is far too important to walk the carpet with the plain folk, quickly scurries past the remaining press and into the Nokia. This year, as predicted, we heard the screams and waited to see who would turn the corner. Who did we not see yet? Who felt the need to sneak in late? None other than Nicole Kidman, nominee for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries, and her American Idol hubby Keith Urban. Well worth the wait.

For related stories check out:

Our Picks for the 2012 Creatve Arts Emmys

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A Visual Guide to The Planet of the Apes

 Courtesy of Fox

We believe that there’s no finer type of entertainment than a movie or TV show that contains a talking (non-human) primate. Clearly we were influenced at a very young age by what we consider to be the most under-rated movie of all time — the original Planet of the Apes.

If you’ve never see the Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall classic, well frankly, “Damn you all to hell.” You’d get the joke if you’d seen the flick. Now stop reading (because we’re about to get into some serious spoilers) and go directly to Amazon and download it now. Trust us, it’s worth the $2.99.

Now for those of you that have soaked in all the old-school make-up glory, let’s continue. We remember the Saturday night when our parents went out and left us in the care of our older brother. He sat us down in front of the TV and let the “Apes” magic unfold. We loved every second of it and remember having our tender young minds blown for the very first time at the ending.

Pip from Season 2 of The Voice Has a New Single

Photo courtesy of Pip

Now that Season 3 of The Voice is in full swing, we caught up with one of our favorite singers from Season 2 — Pip. Phillip Andrew Arnold, known as Pip since his then-two-year-old nephew couldn't pronounce his name, captured our hearts with his bow ties, suspenders and booming pipes. Sadly he didn't make it past the quarter-finals, but the experience has helped him define himself as an artist and has kickstarted his career. In a recent exclusive interview he talked about being on the show, finding his musical style and his new single, "Who Cares."

Pip has been performing since a young age, but at the time The Voice auditions came around, he was going to school to become a pharmacist. He won a chance to move to the front of the line at an open call in Atlanta and earned a spot in the Blind Auditions. All four judges turned around when he sang "House of the Rising Sun," but Pip chose Adam Levine as his coach.

He talked about what was going through his head during the audition, "I was ready for no one to turn around and had my rejection speech ready… when they each turned around it got more and more real. I got more nervous the more they turned around. I finally went with Adam because, one, he turned around first, but mostly because he sold himself. I felt like he wanted me to be an artist and see where he could take me."

He went on to explain why he got more nervous as each judge pushed their button, "When they turn around you're like, 'Oh my gosh, that's Christina Aguilera. That's Blake Shelton. That's Cee Lo.' And it's such a strange thing because it makes it all real. It also makes you realize that you're going forward. When some one turns around, it's on. You're on to the next round."

In that next round he was on Team Adam and talked about what he took away from being coached by the Maroon 5 singer. "The biggest lesson I learned from working with Adam was probably just to stick true to yourself… He always said there's a time when you're with the people who know what their talking about to listen to them and there's a time to make sure you stand up to what you know you are as an artist... He really thought we should stand up for ourselves individually and make ourselves an individual artist and not be swayed by what other people [wanted], even if it seems like something that might be [good]. But if it's something that really isn't true to yourself as an artist you shouldn't do it."

TUNE IN: House Hunters Renovations

Photo courtesy of HGTV

Each night before we drift off to sleep, we put on HGTV for our nightly dose of House Hunters or House Hunters International. We find it soothes our frayed nerves from the hectic day and sends us off into dreams of far away lands and comfy surroundings. Now The Home and Garden channel is offering a new show in the franchise, House Hunters Renovations. Potential homebuyers will tour three fixer uppers and choose one to purchase. Then they'll follow the process of what happens when they start renovations to turn the house into their dream homes. House Hunters Renovations premieres on Sunday, September 23 at 11 p.m. EST/10 p.m. Central on HGTV.

Lori Greiner Still Loves Taking a Dip in the Shark Tank

 Photo by Michael Ansell   

Lori Greiner made a huge splash when she dove into the Shark Tank last season. The new kid on the block shocked everyone when she wrote a $500,000 check on the spot to invest in an after-pool cover-up called the ShowNo. She took that product all the way to a deal at Disney World. But it was an item called Readerest, which attaches people’s glasses to their clothes, that helped her surpass the $3 million mark in under a year.

Of course, turning a profit on a great concept isn’t a new notion for Greiner. She’s been doing it on QVC for over ten years with offerings like the Safekeeper Mirrored Jewelry Cabinet and the Mega Mighty Hands Easy Opener. These are just a couple of the 350 products she’s developed. In fact she holds 110 U.S. and international patents.  

At a recent press event, Lori admitted that she has a knack for creating and finding the next big idea. “It’s just my thing. I can tell instantly if a product’s going to be a hero or a zero, because I see a product, I know what it does, I know immediately.”

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Trevin Hunte

Photo by Tyler Golden/NBC

Each week we take a look around our pop culture world and try to find one moment that stood out as the most inspiring. It might be a celebrity who is doing charitable things, a TV shows that inspires us to be better or a philosophy that we should all strive to live by. Here is this week's most inspiring pop culture moment.

Every contestant on The Voice has a story. Each one more touching than the last. But the singer that inspired us most was Trevin Hunte. The 18-year-old from Queens, New York, was a victim of bullying all through high school. In a recent confernce call interview he said, "For me when I was growing up I wasn't the most vocal type of person. I was always the type of person to always stay in the background. And I used to get picked on when I was in school… It was hard for me growing up.” He even had a teacher tell him he would never amount to anything, so why even try.

But Trevin did try and when he tried out and made the blind auditions for The Voice, he thought his luck may have changed. He sang his heart out in his rendition of “Listen” from Dreamgirls. And he inspired Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera and Blake Shelton to turn around and convince him to join their teams. In the end he chose Team Cee Lo. He stated, “In the back of my mind I've always wanted to work with Cee Lo mainly because I'm also a songwriter and I feel like if we were to come together and make something it would be something very epic. But I got to say when Christina turned around for me first it was kind of crazy and in my head I was actually startled and I was going back and forth. But I just listened to my heart and I listened to my mind and it told me to go for Cee Lo.”

And he hopes Cee Lo will hep him bring out a range of styes in him. “I just hope that I can show people that I have a other side to me. I feel like I do have a powerful voice but I feel like people put me in a box as far as singing strong ballads. And I think with being on the Cee Lo Team I could have a chance with doing some pop and even venturing out to do some country and switching it up and making it Trevin.”

And you may be surprised to hear what he would like to say to that teacher that encouraged him to give up. He said, “I would like to thank her actually. I’m very thankful that she said that because it took that for me to actually turn it into something positive. And I guess that's why I passed the blind auditions. I'm just so grateful and thankful to have made it past the blind auditions. And I thank her for that honestly for pushing me.”

See how Trevin does on The Voice on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. EST/7 p.m. Central on NBC.

For related stories check out:

This week's inspiring pop culture moment: Lovetown, USA

This Week's Inspiring Pop Culture Moment: Yolanda Goins

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The Cast of The New Normal Talk About the Show

Photo by Trae Patton/NBC

The New Normal premiered last week and we just have one question to ask — what was all the fuss about? What was with the station banning the offensive content and people up in arms about showing a gay couple on TV. Is it just us or is this topic old hat? We’ve had same-sex couples on TV for decades and at least in more recent years, very accpted on mainstream shows like Modern Family and Brothers & Sisters. Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story, Nip/Tuck) has done it again and brought us a heartwarming yet funny look into a non-traditional world. In a recent conference call interview, we spoke to the show’s stars Georgia King, Justin Bartha and Andrew Rannells about Ryan, their co-stars and what it means to be a family.

Andrew pointed out that the characters on The New Normal could be anyone’s relatives, “The family that we're creating is perhaps no different than yours…. It's a group of unlikely folks that come together to create this family and it might seem awfully different than a lot of peoples families. It might seem a little specific but I think that the story we're telling is really universal and my hope is that people will see themselves in the story.”

Georgia added, “I would like the story to remind people how beautiful, no matter what your family is, how absolutely wonderful and beautiful it is to have family and have connection and have unity and very much love. And it's so important of our story, it's just quite funny if anything because there's so much controversy and so much negativity. So it's really because it's really a very positive story.”

And with all the controversy swrling around the series, there’s one point that seems to get lost in the shuffle, “The show is a comedy,” Andrew pointed out. He continued, “We've been talking a lot about what it means politically or what it means socially but it's still just a really funny show about family and about these relationships. And so I was really attracted to initially the story but also by the humor of it. I really fell in love with.”

Eva Longoria Gives a Sneak Peek at the ALMA Awards

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Photo by Mitchell Haaseth 

It’s amazing that Eva Longoria has found the time to return as Executive Producer and co-host of the 2012 NCLR ALMA Awards again this year. But the super-busy actress-entrepreneur-activist- philanthropist wouldn’t miss the chance to honor the Latino community that is so near and dear to her heart.

In fact, she’s been working with National Council of La Raza, the organization that created the ceremony since she was an up-and-comer on The Young and the Restless. Now she’s one of the hottest stars on TV.

And to top it off she’s been using her celeb status as co-chair of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Which even lead her to deliver a speech at the Democratic National Convention last week.

But in a recent conference call interview, she made it clear that nothing would keep her away from the ALMAs. “It’s been crazy because I've been campaigning a lot for the President. And it's been great. It's usually harder. Whenever I was on Desperate Housewives, that was a little harder. But you make it work. It's a very important show.”

Mitch Albom Introduces You to The Time Keeper

Courtesy of ABC/Hyperion

We love a good book that tugs at your heartstrings. So needless to say we’ve read all of Mitch Albom’s books. Ever since he spent his Tuesdays with Morrie, we’ve been hooked. We usually cuddle up with a cup of cocoa and some tissues and pour through the entertaining but inspirational tomes in a day. So we’re very excited that Mitch has a new offering — The Time Keeper.

We were excited to get an exclusive interview with the best-selling author about the book, in which he travels back to the world before people kept track of time. His main character actually becomes Father Time, but the protagonist must suffer for teaching people to count the minutes he’s created by living his days in a cave.

As Mitch explained what happens next, “He’s given a chance to come back to Earth during our time. And he sees what the world has become with Blackberries and iPads and digital displays. And he’s charged with finding a very young person and a very old person to see if he can teach each of them what the true meaning of time is.”

Eric McCormack Has Left Will Truman Behind on Perception

Photo courtesy of ABC/TNT

To many TV fans Eric McCormack will always be Will Truman from the series Will & Grace. He was the buttoned-up, lovable gay lawyer who liked to have everything in its place and took his style very seriously. Eric’s new role on Perception could not be any further from this iconic character. Dr. Daniel Pierce is a paranoid schizophrenic and a neuroscience professor. He is often disheveled, never fashionable, and always unbuttoned — literally and figuratively.

Perception premiered in July and we spent the summer completely forgetting Will Truman and falling in love with Daniel Pierce. McCormack takes on the persona so completely, that even the biggest of W&G fans would not remember it was the same actor in both shows. In a recent exclusive interview we asked Eric how he managed to shake the old, beloved character and become a new one.

He responded, “Time helps for one thing. I don’t know that I could have done this three weeks after finishing Will & Grace. You need distance from a character for sure. But also, I think what happens sometimes is, particularly with a show like Will & Grace, you start to confuse yourself and the character in terms of how you move and how you speak. There’s a lot of that left over. I and started to realize, that’s not me that is a lot of the choices I made. So now I can make new choices and I can look at a character fresh.”

He also credited the people at TNT and in particular the network’s president Michael Wright with encouraging his transformation. He recalled Wright saying, “I don’t want you to look like you. I don’t want to shave. I want you to look totally different.” Eric continued, “I was given free reign to completely reinvent myself and be true to the character.”

Despite the fact that Daniel is a brilliant mind who knows everything there is about human behavior, his brain is his own worst enemy. But because of his in depth understanding of how people think, he is tapped by the FBI to help solve murder cases. He puts his puzzle solving ability to good use and oftentimes consults his own hallucinations to sort out the details in his head.

Iyanla Vanzant: ‘Human Beings Are Crazy’

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

Iyanla Vanzant is an author, speaker and life coach, who has helped millions heal relationships. Her new series, Iyanla, Fix My Life premieres on OWN on September 15. We had the pleasure of sitting with Iyanla recently to talk about the new show, her old show, why we’re all broken and Mary J. Blige. We give you the wise words of Iyanla Vanzant.

On the Fundamental Reasons People Need Fixing 
"We're crazy as hell. We're crazy. Human beings are crazy and they lead messy lives. In part because we don't know how to just be people. In part because we think we have to be perfect people. And when I see your imperfection it makes me nervous about my own, so I'm coming after you. I want you to be worse off than I am. We are crazy. And we live in a society, in a world, in a social structure that encourages, programs, conditions, us to reach out instead of rich in.

“On Iyanla, Fix My Life I want you to reach in. In my last book Peace from Broken Pieces, I acknowledge none if us are immune from crazy. None of us are immune from breakdown. None of us are immune from dysfunction. Everybody's got a little bit of it and we're not okay with it. In Piece from Broken Pieces I say, 'Not until you go within, begin with in.' In Iyanla Fix My Life I show you how to get in there. The guests are a gift. They're not the focus. The focus is the hundreds of thousands of people watching. The guests are courageous. The guests are chosen to demonstrate what we need to do because we're crazy.”

On Her Greatest Teachers in Life
“My children, because children bring to life the subconscious issues of the parents. So when I look at my children and I saw their challenges, their struggles, their difficulties, I knew what was going on in my mind. So they've been the greatest teachers for me. Externally I have to say my birth mother, who died when I was three. And you know why she was my greatest teacher? Because she taught me nothing. And I had to OJT — on the job training. She taught me nothing about being a wife, nothing about begin a mother, nothing about being a woman. And I had to make it up on my own and then un-learn it. Had she been here I wouldn't have had that opportunity.”

On What She Learned from Her Series Starting Over
“That you don't have to be perfect to make a powerful contribution. There's no time when you're going to be totally healed or whole, well when you're dead, that's when you're healed… When I did Starting Over was probably one of the lowest times in my life. I had just buried my daughter, just ended a marriage, in the process of surrendering my home to the bank, filing bankruptcy, working through some wonderfulness with the IRS and I was still able to do a powerful work in a very authentic way. Because I think at your worst point, the quickest way to move through it is to be a contribution as opposed to focusing on your problems. If you focus on your problems and keep giving them attention, they're going to grow. If you ignore them and do something else, I don't mean act like they're not here, but do something meaningful it helps you work through it.”

The Serious Side of Pop Culture

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

We take our pop culture very, very seriously and our loved ones are often amazed that we’ve managed to make a living, focusing on such frivolous topics as The Bachelor and Jell-O art. But we can only imagine where our paths might have led us if Boston University had offered college courses dedicated to pop culture back when we were in college.

Luckily for our parents, we didn’t realize that the subject had been seriously studied by academics as far back as 1967. According to the When Pop Culture and Academia Collide infographic, that’s when Dr. Ray Browne wrote the first journal on the study of pop culture. Two years later he established the Popular Culture Association, which now operates out of Syracuse University.

Our Picks for the 2012 Creatve Arts Emmys

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

In just a few days the Passionistas will put on their Sunday best and head off to our first Emmy day of the season. The Creative Arts Emmys are this Saturday, September 15, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will honor the men and women behind the scenes of your favorite shows. Plus there’s a few on-camera names sprinkled in to make it exciting.

There are over 75 awards given out on the precursor to the big night, so we can’t go through them all — or we could, but we’re guessing you wouldn’t read it. So instead we’ve chosen our highlights for who we hope will walk away with the golden statues on Saturday night.

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
Glee — Dot-Marie Jones as Coach Shannon Beiste
Saturday Night Live — Maya Rudolph, Host
Saturday Night Live — Melissa McCarthy, Host
30 Rock — Elizabeth Banks as Avery Jessup
30 Rock — Margaret Cho as Kim Jong-il
Two and a Half Men — Kathy Bates as Charlie Harper

While we absolutely loved Melissa McCarthy hosting SNL this year, and Margaret Cho as Kim Jong-Il was pretty hysterical, our vote goes to Dot Marie Jones on Glee. Sure the show itself has seen better seasons, but Dot had a great story line dealing with domestic violence and brought many a tear to our eyes doing it.

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm — Michael J. Fox as Himself
Modern Family — Greg Kinnear as Tad
Nurse Jackie — Bobby Cannavale as Dr. Mike Cruz
Saturday Night Live — Jimmy Fallon, Host
30 Rock — Will Arnett as Devon Banks
30 Rock — Jon Hamm as Abner and David Brinkley

We’re glad Michael J. Fox is coming back to TV next year, so he can get another shot at more Emmys. And while we’re big fans of both Will Arnett and Jimmy Fallon, we have to pick Jon Hamm for his 30 Rock bits. We adore him when he embraces his comedic side and besides he won’t ever win for Mad Men until Bryan Cranston is off the list and Breaking Bad is off the air.

Liberal Actress Ellen Barkin Goes Conservative on The New Normal

 

  Photo by Timothy White/NBC

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There’s no confusion when it comes to Ellen Barkin’s political leanings. The extremely liberal actress has made headlines stating her opinion and often takes to Twitter to express her POV. So the fact that she’s playing an uber-conservative great-grandmother in the Ryan Murphy sitcom The New Normal might throw some of her followers for a loop. But in a recent conference call interview, Ellen talked about taking on the role, which is so contrary to her own beliefs.

Ellen understandably jumped at the chance to take on the part when Ryan Murphy offered it to her. She conceded, “Any actor who wouldn’t be interested in bringing Archie Bunker types back into the conversation at this point in our history would need to have their head examined. So the appeal was great… Right off the bat this is a very un-P.C. character, but she is whip smart, she is extremely well-informed and extremely articulate.”

Ellen commented on the inevitable comparisons being drawn between her character, Jane Forrester, and that of one of TV’s very first most controversial conservatives. “Archie Bunker, he was very un-P.C. But every now and then, I remember the Edith Bunker rape episode, you saw a humanity in Archie where, you know it wasn’t just coming from hate. It’s not just hate. It’s fear of the other.”

Shark Tanks' Mark Cuban Invests in the Person, Not the Idea

Photo by Craig Sjodin/ABC

We got a chance to go on another set visit with the cast of Shark Tank this summer and it was just as much fun as the last time. If you're already a fan, get ready for a great full 22-episode season and if you haven't seen the show, we strongly urge you to take the plunge. It's truly fascinating to watch these real life business deals happen in real time, with real money. This year QVC queen Lori Greiner joins the panel of sharks full-time. By her side will be Robert Herjavec, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Daymond John, Kevin Harrington and Mark Cuban. Each with their own strengths and investing personalities.

What we found most interesting this time was the various approaches the sharks take to deciding which business to put their money into. Surprisingly the Dallas Maverick's owner throws a little more caution to the wind than some of his fellow sharks. Maybe it's simply because he has more cash to play with, but he takes into consideration the potential of a business and an entrepreneur when making his choices. It's not just about the bottom line.

Unlike some of his fellow investors, Cuban does not just throw money at a company and send them on their merry way. He gets personally involved in each one and he uses the skills of one entrepreneur to help another in an area where they may not be as strong.

One of our favorite businesses from last season was Steve Gadlin, who's company, I Want to Draw a Cat for You, was considered a joke by most of the sharks. But Mark saw something in Steve, besides his nifty little cat dance, that the others didn't. He explained, "The reason I invested in him, wasn't so much because it was all about drawing cats, but because he was so creative and he was technical. So when you take creativity and a little bit of craziness and add some technical ability to it, not only has he been able to do the cat stuff and really built it up and pay me my money back, he's actually been able to help me with other businesses in terms of the technology."

So Cuban invested in Steve's abilities, not just the pitch. And Steve has helped Mark with other Shark Tank business by creating websites and coming up with ideas. Cuban added, "I wasn't really investing in him to draw cats, but that's worked out. It was more to get access to him for everything else."

Joy Behar Tackles Pop Culture for Say Anything!

  Nick Step

Joy Behar kicked off her new Current TV show Say Anything! with an in depth interview with her new boss, Al Gore. The new show is certain to focus a lot on heavy duty political topics, like voter suppression, given the nature of her personal liberal leanings and that of the cable station itself. But Joy will also be covering a lot of pop culture topics, too. Fully primed to cover a wide variety of subjects after 15 years on The View, here are just a few items that she touched upon in a recent conference call interview:

40 Shades Of Grey

“I thought it was kind of a boring book to tell you the truth, and I was too tied up mostly to read it… After the first 40 shades, it starts to really get tedious.”

The Naked Prince Harry Photos

“Oh, Rupert Murdoch said, ‘Cut him a deal.’ Yes, well, Rupert Murdoch, of course, given this position that he’s in right now, any kind of distraction, I guess, would be good. And any time you can find a male member of the Royal Family that looks good naked you should run with it.”