The onscreen Catherine Zeta-Jones is quite the contrast to the off-screen one. While off screen, she prefers 67-year-old hubby Michael Douglas; on screen she prefers her 25-year-old nanny. Or, at least, her character Sandy in “The Rebound,” a mother of two and recent divorcee, does.

There’s a lot to like about “The Rebound,” available on DVD and Blu- ray tomorrow, but it ends up too much like typical rom-com fare than it needs to be. Director Bart Freundlich (who has directed some great episodes of Showtime’s “Californication”) talks about how he was inspired by the New York set films about relationships by Woody Allen in an interview on the DVD, but “The Rebound” never lives up to that kind of potential. It’s tame when it needs to be excessive and excessive when it needs to be tame.

Sandy (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is living a typical suburban life with her two kids and husband when she stumbles across a tape of her husband cheating on her with a neighbor. After packing up the kids and heading to the city, she meets Aram (Justin Bartha), a young coffee shop employee living in the apartment beneath hers who agrees to start babysitting for her as she works late and goes on disappointing dates. As Aram becomes more and more responsible for the children, Sandy realizes she enjoys spending her late nights at home with the mature-beyond-his-years nanny than spending them with dates who have a bad habit of talking to her while they utilize a porter potty (Eh, it’s the city. Who can judge?).

Sandy and Aram begin seeing each other but have to face a world that scoffs at the idea of their 15-year age difference. Sandy’s friends see Aram as nothing but a rebound, and she becomes confused as to whether he is or isn’t. Thus, “The Rebound” presses forward trying desperately to be the next Woody Allen pic; the problem is there’s none of the subtlety or depth of Allen’s work. (more…)

Alec Baldwin’s political career is likely over before the first campaign check could be cashed thanks to this week’s imbroglio with American Airlines. Baldwin got the boot from his airline seat after failing to obey the orders given by the flight crew.

News of the incident first leaked via Twitter, and Baldwin himself used the social media site to savage the AA employees who dared to ask him to follow safety regulations. As a result, Baldwin de-activated his Twitter account, and according to The New York Post his reps aren’t sure if he’ll fire it up again.

How could New Yorkers trust Baldwin to run the Big Apple when he can’t even handle his own Twitter account?

It’s not the first time Baldwin bullied blue collar workers via Twitter:

On Sept. 7, Baldwin badmouthed a man making his coffee at Starbucks.

“Starbucks on 93 and B’way. Uptight Queen barrista [sic] named JAY has an attitude problem,” he tweeted.

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Batman has bested such fiendish villains as the Joker, the Riddler and the Penguin. But his next enemy could be a gaggle of incoherent protesters clogging the fine streets of Gotham City.

‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ the anticipated third chapter in director Christopher Nolan’s Bat-saga, is expected to start shooting in New York City at the end of the month. And, if the Occupy Wall Street crowd isn’t dispersed by then, Nolan might find his meticulously planned sequel held hostage by the movement.

Under its code name “Magnus Rex,” the Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures production will arrive in the nation’s biggest city for 14 days starting Oct. 29, according to a casting notice recently issued by producers. And, according to a person briefed on actors’ schedules who requested anonymity because production details were being kept confidential, cast members have been told the shoot could include scenes shot at the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Some actors have been all too eager to support the OWS movement. But will their attitude change if the group starts affecting their precious product?

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Comedian Sean Kleier went around New York City’s hot spots with a megaphone and a camera. In each location he began reciting the president’s epic speech from the movie, Independence Day.

Bob Hope plays The Lemon Drop Kid, so named because of an affinity for a certain kind of candy. The Kid grifts his way through life bottom feeding in the rackets as a racetrack tout steering suckers to this bet or that in order to keep the odds profitable for the house. After he mistakenly convinces a gangster’s gal to change her bet from a winner to a loser, he’s thisclose to being on the wrong end of a gangland killing when he manages to fast talk Da’ Boss into a little time to come up with the $10,000.

It’s Christmastime in New York City and the Kid hatches a scheme to cash in on holiday sentiment through the cynical deployment of an unwitting cast of colorful characters dressed as Santa Claus and filled with goodwill hoping to collect money for an “old dame” retirement home that will never open after the Kid embezzles every penny to save his own skin and a little extra for himself.  Along the way he lights up his old flame Marilyn Maxwell and coins a standard with the definitive version of “Silver Bells.”

Based on a Damon Runyon story, The Lemon Drop Kid naturally offers up a host of those ever-fascinating Runyonesque characters personified here by greats such as William Frawley, Jane Darwell, Lloyd Nolan, Tor Johnson and many others.  (more…)

In this episode, “NewsBusted” covers:  (more…)

There is no question the Obama administration and most Democrats thinks conservative talk radio is something that should be eliminated from the “new” American culture.  We documented that in the book Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio.  Now, the administration is stepping up its subtle attack on conservative talk radio stations. 

In 2008, Arbitron, which measures radio audiences nationwide, began rolling out its latest measurement technology called the “Portable People Meter,” or PPM.  It’s a pager-device that automatically registers what someone is listening to at any moment.  It’s the measurement of real time listening as opposed to the “old” system that required a listener to recall and write down once a week the stations they could remember they heard.  Most radio executives feel this system is the future for radio audience measurement.  When the New York ratings came out last fall, it showed conservative talk radio was even stronger than previously noted under the old audience measurement system and that minority radio stations were not as popular.  Well, you know the rest of the story. (more…)

Most 12-step programs start out by requiring that people understand that they’re powerless over their addiction and that only by turning their lives over to a Power greater than themselves can they be restored to sanity.  Far be it for me to suggest that I am that Power, but clearly someone has to step in and try to rescue these poor liberal souls.  Even the most harebrained among them deserves that much.

First, though, they have to acknowledge that Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, Dick Durbin, Charles Rangel, Harry Reid and Charles Schumer, are not moderates, but, rather, leftists with a Socialist agenda.  Furthermore, they must recognize that the New York Times, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, CNN, the three major networks, the news magazines and the New Yorker, are not objective in their reporting of political events, and neither are Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher, in their commentary.  If these entities and individuals are not on the payroll of the DNC, they certainly should be.  They certainly put in longer hours than Howard Dean. (more…)

Copied below is the ACTUAL letter that I sent to and was signed for by Lorne Micheals (and assistant) today over at NBC. I know that the writing is a little less snippy than usual, but please take into account that this man could squash my nuts into oblivion. There’s plenty of room for suggestions, so I encourage you to chime in.  And bear in mind, Lorne may be stopping by here.

Dear Mr. Michaels

I write this letter not as a disgruntled fan, but as a true admirer of what SNL stands for (and as a fellow Canadian/American). We both know how popular it is to mutter things like “I liked SNL, back when it was good” or “SNL used to be cool, but now their writing sucks etc.” Trust me; I’m as annoyed by those folks as you are. I truly believe that you have one of the most talented casts ever assembled over there at NBC. (more…)