The ShowBuzz Weekly Forecast
If you've missed a couple of big Oscar movies, this could be a good week for you. Also, if you'd rather go to the multiplex, there's a new confection starring audience favorites Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant.
Heads up for Valentine's Day! You may have all kinds of high-minded objections to an occasion that calls for stuff like paying $75 for a dozen roses or the influx of red Teddy bears at the local drug store. But you can count on this: Your girlfriend, wife or other significant other will be looking for something on V-Day.
So, understanding your dilemma, those crazy sentimental Hollywood executives have come through with a couple of alternatives: a couple of love stories that are being released Feb. 14.
Hey. If you are without roses or red Teddy bears, a date at the multiplex might save your relationship.
In addition to all things red and romantic, there are a couple of DVDs in release that are sure to lighten the hearts of everyone who cares about the Oscars, which are coming up Feb. 25. And there's even a new book from one of the queens of sentiment, Danielle Steel.
And you thought it was going to be a dull week.
MOVIES
On a day for sweethearts, how can you resist Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore? He's the guy from "Four Weddings and a Funeral"! She's the gal from "The Wedding Singer"! And they are the co-stars of "Music and Lyrics," in which he plays a fading singer and she plays the woman who takes care of his plants.
With these two, you know it can't be long before he's got songwriter's block and she reveals a hitherto unsuspected knack for coming up with words.
Of course, there are bound to be complications; for instance, Barrymore's character recently has been wounded by Cupid's arrows and so does not fall as easily into Grant's arms as you might assume.
Photos: "Music and Lyrics" London Premiere
In a very different story, "Daddy's Little Girls," the road to love also is not without potholes. But, in this case, there are three really appealing moppets who have doubts about the new love interest (Gabrielle Union) of their father (Idris Elba).
But it turns out that Idris is not the only one with a wary relative or two; Gabrielle's dad (Louis Gossett Jr.) also objects to the match. And let's face it: if Gossett were opposed to your boyfriend, you'd have to think twice.
Photos: "Daddy's Little Girls" In Hollywood
So those are the two big movies that are being released on Valentine's Day. Once we've moved past it, there are a few new ones coming out Friday, Feb. 16.
"Ghost Rider" is the big-screen adaptation of the Marvel comic book series about a motorcycle stuntman (Nicolas Cage) who sells his soul to save his girlfriend. Things don't work out very well for him (can't trust those dark forces), but then he mysteriously acquires fantastic superpowers. Along for the ride is Eva Mendes and, in a clever casting move, Peter Fonda, who was one of the original easy riders — in "Easy Rider" (1969).
Also out this week is a political thriller, "Breach," starring Ryan Phillippe and Chris Cooper, and another fantasy adventure for kids, "Bridge to Terabithia," in which a lonely boy and girl discover that their imaginary world has become all too real.
TV
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in America. Once each minute in the U.S., someone dies from it. And, all too often, early symptoms go unrecognized until too late.
PBS is spotlighting this crisis and what positive health steps you can take on "The Hidden Epidemic: Heart Disease in America," which airs, all too fittingly, Valentine's Day at 9 p.m. ET (check local listings). Following the documentary, Larry King of CNN and the Larry King Cardiac Foundation hosts "Take One Step for a Healthy Heart," a half-hour discussion featuring medical experts who offer strategies for improving your odds of beating heart disease.
On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast. When the skies finally cleared, the survival of a major American city hung in the balance. Now a two-hour documentary, "New Orleans," examines that city's history and survival: a small French settlement surrounded by water that would become the home of America's biggest party, Mardi Gras, and its most original art form, jazz; the site of explosive struggles with both integration and segregation, and a proving ground for national ideas about race, class and equality.
This "American Experience" film tells its story with firsthand interviews as well as through archival photographic material and footage miraculously spared from Katrina-wrought devastation. It airs on PBS at 9 p.m. Monday (check local listings).
He was brilliant yet petty, vindictive but visionary. The reign of President Nixon saw the end of the Vietnam War, the dawn of progressive initiatives at home, and a promising new relationship with China. Yet Nixon, the only president forced to resign from office, was done in by paranoia, insecurity and illegal activities.
This conflicted legacy is examined in "Nixon: A Presidency Revealed," a documentary premiering 8 p.m. Thursday on the History Channel. A remarkably illuminating portrait, it draws on newly released Oval Office and Camp David recordings of private conversations, as well as interviews with many of the key players in the Nixon saga.
Melvin Van Peebles has blazed a trail through the jungle of the entertainment world. At 74, he is best known as an innovator in independent film with the release of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" in 1971, but a new documentary portrays him as a wildly versatile personality who also flew Air Force sorties over the Pacific, studied astronomy in Amsterdam, wrote novels in self-taught French, composed music using his own notation system, wrote stage plays and traded options on Wall Street.
"How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)" presents Van Peebles' life story as told by Gordon Parks, Spike Lee, Gil Scott-Heron and others. Directed by Joe Angio, it airs 9 p.m. Thursday on the IFC Channel.
MUSIC
Van Morrison has a certain sound, evocative, poetic and yet straightforward and accessible, so it makes sense that his music is often used on movie soundtracks. Therefore, it also makes sense that someone has thought to gather those songs into "Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits." Of course, there is "Brown-Eyed Girl" (used to great effect in "Sleeping With the Enemy" and "Born on the Fourth of July"), as well as a previously unreleased version of "Moondance." The problem is that some of the tracks are not the versions used on the soundtracks in question. But, hey, it's still Van Morrison.
Looking for music to play poker by? Then "Ricky Jay Plays Poker" might be just for you. It's packaged with a DVD, so you also get a lesson in the language, history, art and literature of poker, not to mention a custom poker pack from the U.S. Playing Card Company.
The compilation of tunes includes such gems as "Ace in the Hole," performed by Anita O'Day; "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," Bob Dylan; "Wild Card," Tex Williams, and, from the Broadway show "Fiorello," the number "Politics and Poker," performed by Howard Da Silva.
Photos: Star-Studded Poker
Thanks mainly to the charismatic and eccentric Johnny Depp, pirates have become a source of new fascination for everyone, particularly little boys. So Disney is releasing a collection called "Pirates of the Caribbean: Swashbuckling Sea Songs" with such piratical standards are "Yo, Ho, Ho (And a Bottle of Rum," "Blow the Man Down" and that Disneyland anthem "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life For Me)." A title that might be new to the listener is "The First Mate Is a Monkey."
BOOKS
If we were to write a book about sisters, it would feature four women who work as a housewife, a schoolteacher, a librarian and maybe a pharmaceutical salesperson.
However, Danielle Steel has written "Sisters" and so the siblings in question are a supermodel, a TV producer, a promising young artist and an attorney. Of course, they are all knock-outs and, of course, a horrible tragedy prompts them to unite, even to the point where they all move into a New York City brownstone to help one another heal.
In "The Double Bind," Chris Bohjalian tells a story that moves between modern-day New England and Long Island in the '20s. Laura, a college girl, is trying to get her life back together after being brutally attacked during a bicycle ride in Vermont. An avid photographer, she starts working at a homeless shelter, where she befriends an older man who turns out to have a glamorous past. When Laura begins to delve into the mystery, she runs into unexpected trouble.
The big story on the pop culture front this past week was the sudden death of Anna Nicole Smith, and you can count on many books about her in the near future. One of these is an updated version of "Great Big Beautiful Doll: The Anna Nicole Smith Story" by Eric and D'Eva Redding. Eric Redding is a photographer who met Smith in the early '90s and became her manager for a couple of years. He recently to talk about the woman he knew and to give his opinions on her sudden death.
THEATER
John Mahoney, whom many will remember as Martin Crane in the long-running sitcom "Frazier," has a major role in a revival of the play "Prelude to a Kiss," which begins preview performances on Broadway on Friday, Feb. 16. It's a kiss from his character that sends a newly married couple into an existential tailspin. But they come out of it with a new appreciation for what it means to be connected by love.
"A Very Common Procedure" is a drama about a married couple and the wife's doctor, which already had a run at San Francisco's Magic Theater under a different title. It opens, yes, on Valentine's Day in New York's West Village.
DVDs
This is a great week for those who didn't catch some major Oscar nominees in the theaters.
"The Departed" is up for Best Picture, and it just may give Martin Scorsese his first Academy Award for directing. It also features a nominated supporting performance by Mark Wahlberg.
"Flags of Our Fathers" is up for only two minor awards (sound mixing and sound editing), but it is the Clint Eastwood-directed fraternal twin of "Letters From Iwo Jima," which is up for four Oscars, including best picture and best directing.
Photos: "The Departed" New York Premiere
The release of "Half Nelson" is a boon to Oscar watchers who are anxious to see the much-touted lead performance by Ryan Gosling. That is the sole nomination that went to this movie, about an inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit who forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.
Another big Oscar nominee, "Babel," comes out next week on Feb. 20.
Also in release this week is "Marie Antoinette," starring Kirsten Dunst as the young and doomed queen, and for fans of classic TV, "Beauty and the Beast: The Complete First Season," where you can reacquaint yourself with the tortured romance between feisty New York assistant D.A. Catherine (Linda Hamilton) and the mysterious man-beast Vincent (Ron Perlman). This was a cult favorite even during its run back in the late '80s.