Random Acts

Random Acts of Ali Larter: Supporting modern art

Ali Larter at the Whitney Museum

This week, Ali Larter has been supporting modern art, which is jolly nice of her, if a bit random. Still, she does it a lot, since she’s a bit of a collector, particularly of photography by Lillian Bassman. But this week she’s been to the Whitney Museum’s annual art party and auction.

I think the Whitney is amazing. It has an incredible collection of American art, and I think it’s important, especially in these times, to come out and support, to get the attention back to the museums. I think that art inspires people during difficult times and I hope that there is always funding, especially to keep the programs alive in the schools.

The Whitney houses one of the world’s foremost collections of contemporary American art and programmes provocative special exhibitions by the most promising and influential American artists of the 20th and 21st century.

Look, here’s a BLT at the Whitney. Giant BLTs – now that’s random.

Have you seen Ali Larter acting randomly? If so, let us know and we’ll tell everyone about it in “Random Acts of Ali Larter

US TV

Review: Hawthorne 1×1

In the US: Tuesdays, 9/8c, TNT

There’s a sudden rush to get dramas about nurses onto our screens. We’ve already had Nurse Jackie on Showtime, Mercy is coming to NBC in the Fall and now we have TNT lifting the lid off Hawthorne.

Unlike Nurse Jackie, Hawthorne is one of those caring, sharing angelic types of nurses, who do their best in terrible circumstances, never doing anything bad. And much like its eponymous heroine, the show might have its heart in the right place, but it’s also very, very dull.

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Thursday’s reasonably-sized occupation news

Film

Theatre

British TV

US TV

UK TV

The problems and dilemmas facing ITV

ITV1 logo

ITV is having problems. We all know that. It’s share price is down the tubes, it’s having to cut jobs, its ad revenues are in decline, it can’t afford to do local news any more, its ratings are falling, it’s even having to cancel Primeval.

It’s having problems.

Over the last few days, I’ve been swanning around various people blogs (including Dan’s and Joe’s) and mailing lists, explaining to everyone who hates ITV – which is pretty much everyone – what its problems are and why they’re not all its fault. I should have been doing proper work, I know, but all these years of trade journalism haven’t been for nothing you know, and I do like the sound of my own typing.

Anyway, I thought I’d cobble together all the various postings, try to assemble them into some kind of coherent but occasionally self-contradictory mass, and let you muse on them – and argue the toss if necessary. Note, a lot of it’s been off the top off my head, so don’t quote me for truth or even accuracy on all the details: imagine them as broad sketch outlines of poor ITV’s problems – and why it had to cancel Primeval.

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Meme of the week: What was the last movie you saw in the cinema?

You know how it is. You reach a certain age, you settle down, you get house/kids/a partner/delete as appropriate. Suddenly, going to the cinema no longer seems like a great way to spend an evening, particularly when you have Sky/Virgin/DVDs/an Apple TV and you hate the popcorn-munching, mobile-phone braying, constantly narrating audiences of the local multiplex.

So today’s simple meme of self-awareness is:

What was the last movie you actually saw in the cinema and why?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.