david letterman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• The cast of The Family Guy has booked two nights at Carnegie Hall, where they'll perform two uncensored episodes and a few different musical numbers. We've seen them on stage before (the month before they returned to Fox), and we certainly recommend for anyone who's a fan.
• Win a copy of Back to You -- Season One on DVD or, alternatively, a copy of That '70s Show - The Complete Series Stash box set.
  
• From the Nah, Really? department: Paramount is pretty upset over the fact they weren't warned about that South Park episode featuring Indiana Jones being raped (literally) by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Viacom, Paramount, Comedy Central -- it's just another dysfunctional family.
• Here are five shows Sarah Palin should appear on, other than Saturday Night Live.
• After previously canceling and causing quite the uproar, John McCain has decided to appear on Late Night with David Letterman this Thursday.

Is getting the Letterman show back on the air more important than keeping Hollywood's movie writers churning out sequels? Apparently so. Before the recent side deal brokered by the WGA to put Letterman's writers back to work -- Leno can't make such a deal because his show is owned by NBC, while Letterman's show is owned by his own production company -- Nikki Finke speculated over whether the move would cause serious rifts within the ranks of the WGA, specifically between television and film writers, and now that seems to be happening. Finke says that when the deal was being considered, she was contacted by "well-known WGA members, especially feature film writers, angry that the WGA was even contemplating such an agreement." Now that it's happened, she's quoting one unnamed "successful screenwriter" who tells her "I'm going back to work. I have gotten five phone calls tonight from feature writers and every single one of them has said some variation on, 'Bullshit on this. Why am I looking at staying out of work until April when these guys are going to start picking up paychecks on Tuesdays?"

The writer goes on to point out that the Letterman deal creates a wedge for stars to flock to Letterman's show to promote their products -- SAG won't have a problem with that since WGA has given Dave's show their blessing -- thus diluting the effect of the ongoing strike. "If you're going to strike GM, then you strike GM," the anonymous writer says. "You don't say 'We're going to give a waiver to the guys making pickup trucks because they're really good guys. You don't maintain solidarity by letting a handful of guys go back to work."

Finke also says that many angry film writers like that one are now planning to go Financial Core, which means returning to work while using a legal protection to prevent the guild from punishing them. Under the law, union members only have to pay their dues to be union members -- they can't legally be punished for crossing picket lines as long as they inform the union that they are exercising that right.

• Alan Black (1943-2007) - Animator on Yellow Submarine. He died March 5, in London. (Independent)
• Ana Casares (c.1930-2007) - Actress who appears in Red Lips and Kiss Me, Monster. She died March 13, in Buenos Aires. (Variety)
• Calvert DeForest (1921-2007) - Actor who appears in Heaven Help Us and Freaked. He is best known for playing the character Larry "Bud" Melman on Late Night with David Letterman. He died March 19, in Babylon, New York. (Variety)
• Vilma Ebsen (1911-2007) - Dancer who appears in Broadway Melody of 1936. She was also the sister of Buddy Epsen. She died March 12, in Thousand Oaks, California. (Variety)
• Freddie Francis (1917-2007) - Two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer of Glory and Sons and Lovers. He also shot Scorsese's remake Cape Fear and a few of David Lynch's films, including The Elephant Man and The Straight Story. He began as a camera operator, working on such films as John Huston's Beat the Devil and Moby Dick, and spent some time as a director, helming horror movies like Tales from the Crypt and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. He died March 17, in West London. (Variety)
• Eiji Funakoshi (1923-2007) - Japanese actor who starred in Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain and An Actor's Revenge and the monster movies Gamera and Attack of the Monsters. He died March 17. (Criterion)

Ellen DeGeneres takes the stage on February 25 as host of the 79th Academy Awards ceremony -- and if she thinks hosting the Oscars is as easy as showing up and tossing off a few one-liners, she's got another think coming. Luckily, she can learn tons from those who came before her, from revered hosts like Johnny Carson and Billy Crystal to unfortunately maligned hosts like David Letterman and Chris Rock.

Take a look at our advice to Ellen, based on the best and worst moments in Oscar host history, and then help her out with your own pearls of wisdom.

CHECK IT OUT: Do's and Don'ts for Ellen DeGeneres

POST: What advice would you give Ellen?

POST: What are the best and worst moments in Oscar host history?

Comedian and host to the stars David Letterman has been slapped with a restraining order by a New Mexico judge. Judge Daniel Sanchez signed an order preventing Dave from contacting, annoying, threatening, or harming a Sante Fe woman named Colleen Nestler who claims that "the television host has been secretly communicating with her for 12 years via code words, gestures and eye expressions." The good folks over at the Smoking Gun have a copy of her 7 page handwritten account, detailing how Letterman has secretly responded to her "thoughts of love," imploring her to move east. Apparently, he even offered a marriage proposal on his "Marry me Oprah" show. You guessed it, Oprah is one of Dave's many code nicknames for Colleen.

This has got to be my favorite celebrity story of the year. I urge you- nay, plead with you;go read the handwritten account. I promise it'll make you guffaw.  I can barely type through my tears of laughter.  If this woman reads thoughts from Letterman's gestures and facial expressions, I have to wonder what she'd think Conan O'Brien is trying to communicate to her. It'd have to be lewd.