Best Bets: "Watch The Throne," the "SYTYCD" finale and "The Help"
(CBS) This is the week music fans have been waiting for: "Watch the Throne," the Jay-Z-Kanye West collaboration, is being released today.
The anticipated release is among the entertainment highlights for the coming week.
In production since last fall, the album features the singles "H-A-M" released in January and "Otis" which came out last month. A tour to support it begins in October.
Also releasing albums this week are alt rockers Barenaked Ladies ("Snacktime"), country singer Luke Bryan ("Tailgates & Tanlines") and "Dukes of Hazard" star Tom Wopat ("Consider It Swung").
Dance fans will get a new winner on Thursday when the Fox summer hit "So You Think You Can Dance" concludes with the crowning of "America's Favorite Dancer." The two-part finale starts Wednesday night and continues on Thursday. Actress Katie Holmes and director/choreographer Kenny Ortega, who put together Michael Jackson's "This Is It," will be guest judges.
This week also sees the reunion of former fiances (and now enemies) Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi on ABC's "Bachelor Pad," which premieres Monday on ABC. Also premiering on ABC is "Karaoke Battle USA," a Friday night summer offering.
On the big screen, Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Allison Janney, Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain will bring author Kathryn Stockett's beloved characters to life in the movie adaptation of the bestseller "The Help." The movie has a ready-made audience since the book about race relations in the 1960s South has been on one bestseller list or another since it was published in 2009.
Also debuting this week is the Jesse Eisenberg-Danny McBride action adventure vehicle, "30 Minutes or Less."
Bookworms may look for Jennifer Close's "Girls in White Dresses" and Kevin Wilson"s "The Family Fang" to hit store shelves Tuesday.
Close's book follows a circle of friends who attend one shower and wedding after another while dealing with their own loneliness and heartbreak.
Wilson's widely praised novel about performance artists gives a whole new meaning to the term dysfunctional family and may just leave you thinking more fondly of your own relatives in time for those summertime family reunions.