Ali Larter

Entries that mention Ali Larter, the eighth wonder of the world

Film

Google will now calculate an actor’s Bacon number for you

13 September 2012 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Kevin Bacon

Everyone knows about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon by now. In case you’re not everyone, here’s how it works. The theory is that everyone in the world (well, actors at least) is separated by no more than six other actors from Kevin Bacon. The number of degrees of separation of that actor from Kevin Bacon gives you that actor’s ‘Bacon number’. So if the actor is in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 1; if the actor appears in a movie with someone who’s been in a movie with Kevin Bacon, their Bacon number is 2; and so on.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon has become a party game for film nerds but now Google has ruined it for everyone who has a smartphone. All you now have to do is type “Bacon number” followed by the actor’s name and Google will not only tell you the Bacon number of that person, it’ll also tell you how it worked out that number.

As a test, I typed in the names of some this ere blog’s favourite actors. Here are their Bacon numbers according to Google – turns out they’re all twos, apart from Audrey Fleurot:

  • Ali Larter: 2
    Ali Larter and Bruce McGill appeared in Obsessed
    Bruce McGill and Kevin Bacon appeared in National Lampoon’s Animal House
  • Joanna Page: 2
    Joanna Page and January Jones appeared in Love Actually
    January Jones and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class
  • David Tennant: 2
    David Tennant and James McAvoy appeared in Bright Young Things
    James McAvoy and Kevin Bacon appeared in X-Men: First Class.
  • Richard Armitage: 2
    Richard Armitage and Elijah Wood appeared in The Hobbit: Part 1
    Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon appeared in Beyond All Boundaries.
  • Amber Heard: 2
    Amber Heard and Emma Stone appeared in Zombieland
    Emma Stone and Kevin Bacon appeared in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
  • Scarlett Johansson: 2
    Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray appeared in Lost in Translation
    Bill Murray and Kevin Bacon appeared in Wild Things.
  • Audrey Fleurot: 3
    Audrey Fleurot and Omar Sy appeared in Intouchables
    Omar Sy and Robert De Niro appeared in Micmacs
    Robert De Niro and Kevin Bacon appeared in Sleepers.

Give it a try with some of your favourites and let us know the answers below.

US TV

Review: Men at Work (TBS) 1×1-1×2

29 May 2012 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

Men At Work

In the US: Thursdays, 10/9c, TBS

Oh no. Just as you thought it was all over, a cable also-ran has decided to fan the embers of a dying trend. You may recall that the big trend of the Fall 2011 was “sitcoms that deal with the (alleged) difficulty of being a man in the 21st century”. We started with the rapidly cancelled How To Be A Gentleman (which CBS is currently burning off), before slowly moving down through the various circles of Hell that were Last Man Standing and the rapidly cancelled Man Up!. Eventually, we hit rock bottom with ABC’s rapidly cancelled Work It, with unemployed men dressing as women to get jobs (rather than getting additional qualifications at evening classes, etc).

Now we have Men At Work, which follows the misadventures of four “hip young professionals” who work together – “the four serve as each other’s wingmen as they help each other navigate work, friendship and women.”

“Give me strength,” you might think. You might think you need a wingman, too, to help you navigate through lame sitcom ideas.

But, as we run through Men at Work‘s qualifications, our hearts can only sink more. For starters, it’s on TBS, the only channel the tagline of which needs to be said in a sarcastic tone of voice: “Very funny.” In case you don’t believe me on that, you clearly watched neither Glory Daze nor 10 Items or Less (although I understand some of you might have liked My Boys for some reason).

Then there’s the writer/creator. It’s Breckin Meyer, who was of course the stoner in Clueless and is one of the stars of TNT’s misogynistic Franklin and Bash. And certainly, Men At Work has shares that show’s poor attitude towards women. It even has a new vocabulary to abuse women with. How innovative.

But despite all this, the first two episodes of the show weren’t actually that bad. In fact, in a couple of places it was quite clever and made me laugh.

I’m still not watching any more of it because it’s a misogynist buddy comedy, but colour me surprised all the same.

Here’s a trailer. Incidentally, it’s all set at a magazine and is mainly about journalist. I wonder if I’ll have anything to say about that as well after the jump.

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Fox’s upfronts 2012-3 – a rundown and clips from the new shows

15 May 2012 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Yesterday, we had (multiple) looks at the new shows that NBC is planning for 2012-3. Today, we’re going to take a gander at the shows Fox has in the pipeline.

Seeing as Fox is a considerably more successful network than NBC – it does at least have a few successful shows, even if House is on the way out – it’s commissioned fewer new shows than NBC to fill its empty slots, so we’re only going to be looking at The Mob Doctor with My Boys‘ Jordana Spiro, Ben & Kate, The Mindy Project with The Office‘s Mindy Kaling, Kevin Williamson’s The Following with Kevin Bacon, James Purefoy and Natalie Zea, and The Goodwin Games with Becki Newton and Scrubs/The Unit’s Scott Foley.

Yes, for some reason – mercury poisoning, temporary insanity – Fox hasn’t picked up The Asset with Ali Larter. Nutters.

My general conclusion: the shows may look as bad as NBC’s, but Fox knows how to make better trailers.

My specific conclusion: The Following looks passable thanks almost purely to James Purefoy and The Goodwin Games actually seems okay. The rest need euthanising.

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