Best Bets: Golden Globes, People's Choice, "30 Rock" and Miss America
(CBS) This week is all about movies, but not the ones that are going to open at the box office this weekend.
With awards season at full throttle, the movies everyone is buzzing about are the Oscar contenders, most of which have been rolled out at the box office over the last six weeks.
The prizes primarily come from critics and industry insiders but audiences will get their say Wednesday when CBS airs the People's Choice Awards. Sitcom star Kaley Cuoco hosts the Los Angeles ceremony, which also features performances by Demi Lovato and Faith Hill. Voting on favorite movies and TV shows is done by fans online.
The day before, the National Board of Review will hand out its film awards at a gala in New York hosted by TV personality Natalie Morales. On Thursday, the Broadcast Film Critics Association will hand out its Critics Choice Awards in a red-carpet ceremony airing on VH1.
On Sunday, one of the biggest awards shows of the season, the Golden Globes, airs from Los Angeles on NBC. Sponsored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Globes honor both movies and TV. Host for a third straight year is brash British comedian Ricky Gervais, who pushed the envelope so far last year that he almost wasn't invited back.
If you are looking to view all the awards contenders, you can catch "Moneyball" on DVD starting Tuesday. Brad Pitt has been snagging some awards and getting Oscar buzz for his role in the movie.
Oh, and at the box office this weekend, you'll find the re-release of "Beauty and the Beast" in 3D and the debut of "Joyful Noise," starring Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah.
On TV, "30 Rock" returns Thursday after being sidelined until midseason. A new season - its ninth - of "One Tree Hill" also starts this week (Wednesday).
New TV offerings include "Are You There, Chelsea," the sitcom adaptation of Chelsea Handler's humorous memoir on Wednesdays; "Caged," an MTV reality TV show on cage fighting on Mondays; "The Finder," a Thursday night "Bones" spinoff starring Geoff Stults; "Rob," a Thursday sitcom starring Rob Schneider; and "Napoleon Dynamite," a Sunday night animated series with Jon Heder reprising his movie role.
Also this week, look for the Miss America pageant from Las Vegas on Saturday night and an "Absolutely Fabulous" 20th anniversary special Monday night with Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley starring as Eddy and Patsy.
Music fans have a few new albums to look forward to Tuesday, including "Fallen Empires from Irish alt rockers Snow Patrol. The night before, Snow Patrol will be playing a special "Live on Letterman" event at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York and appearing later on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS.
Also dropping albums this week are rapper Rick Ross, whose much anticipated mixtape is titled "Rich Forever," and musician-record producer Steve Aoki, whose new release is "Wonderland."
Humorists Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel have a novel coming out Tuesday about two suburban dads who are mistaken for terrorists. John Green's "The Fault Is in Our Stars," a heartbreakingly funny novel for young adults, also makes its debut this week, as does the much buzzed about debut novel "American Dervish: A Novel" by Pakistani-American writer Ayad Akhtar.
Finally, fans of Elizabeth George's 16-volume Inspector Lynley series will be delighted to know that the aristocratic police investigator returns in the 17th novel, "Believing the Lie," that arrives in book stores Tuesday.
