We Americans see so few films from Uruguay that when one as accomplished as The Pope's Toilet (El Baño del Papa) comes along, it's difficult not to over-praise, while simultaneously gliding over its some of its subtler accomplishments. First off, the movie is the collaboration between two men -- César Charlone and Enrique Fernández -- who share the responsibility for both writing and directing. How they managed to put together something so seamless would make a fine question for an interview.The Pope's Toilet tells an imagined story within the framework of a real event: the planned visit in 1988 of the penultimate Pope to a small, and rather impoverished, town in Uruguay. The townspeople make plans to profit by the papal visit through whatever means they can: selling everything from chorizos to cotton candy to the crowds who will gather from nearby Brazil (the town is near the border of the two countries). The main characters comprise one family -- dad, mom and teenage daughter -- who, divided among themselves, take a slightly different approach, from which comes the movie's title. In the process of telling their story, the filmmakers show us the life of this town, the family, its neighbors, local law enforcement (we learn a lot about a kind of benign smuggling operation that keeps many of the citizens afloat), and even a little about the local media and the Pope's retinue.

L'Innocente

Tullio Hermil (Giancarlo Giannini) is a wealthy, handsome Italian aristocrat who believes (and shades of Dosteovsky must be intentional here) that he leads a free, full life. For him, this means abjuring conventional social attachments, especially religious ones. He has been married for years to a beautiful, seemingly docile woman. But, having cut himself off from social obligation, and having no temperament for the life of an ascetic, the only way he knows to feel alive is through the passion and agony of romantic affairs. This life has served him well enough, and he thinks he knows all about how to live fully.

House

This week on House, the team labored to stay focused on a case while reeling from a tragedy that hit very close to home.The episode started with a man (guest star Meat Loaf Aday) who for all intents and purposes was on his death bed, even to the point that loved ones were paying their final respects. "I never got you to Rio," he tells his wife with his last breaths. But suddenly, his wife Charlotte gasps, chokes and starts to collapse. This prompts the husband, Eddie, to rise up and plead (best he can) for help.House's team, save for an MIA Kutner, gathers to review Charlotte's unusual case as well as Eddie's inexplicable recovery. House scoffs at talk that the husband is actually on the mend, countering, "He just had an adrenaline surge when he saw his chance to hit the singles market."The wife rebounds. And then ails again. The husband grows able to stand. What is going on?Foreman and Thirteen visit Kutner's apartment, but there's no answer. (As Remy puts it, "House didn't ask us to find out where he wasn't.") So they go inside, and find their colleague.Dead. In the bedroom. Shot in the head. By his own hand.House, as much as he does with the most complex of medical case, is anxious for answers about Kutner's suicide. "He didn't say anything ... to any of you?" he asks/accuses the team (aka the "idiots who worked along side him 80 hours a week hadn't seen this coming").Thirteen trots out data about how 25 percent of suicides exhibit no signs of depression; House suggests those 25 percent simply had oblivious friends. Ouch.Cuddy reaches out to House, who maintains he's "fine, despite what Wilson will say." Did he spy any clues? "I know [Kutner's] fantasy football team cratered," House quips. "I figured he'd have been over that.""I'm sorry for your loss," Cuddy says. "It's not mine," deflects House. Cuddy: "Then I'm sorry you don't think it is."House's quiet anguish/frustration surfaces again when the team (minus Taub, who says he feels "pity, yes" but not "guilt") visits the couple who adopted Kutner after his parents were shot dead in front of him as a youth. House suggests that Lawrence couldn't deal with not being who he was, a Choudhurry, instead "hiding" behind an Anglo name. Before he is kicked out by the outraged Kutners, he leaves.Back at the hospital, House notes that Taub didn't ask about the visit with the parents. Taub says he doesn't buy that suicide is always a cry for help. "It's a good thing you got some [help]," House tells Taub, who failed his own suicide, "or you might've tried again and gotten it right."Working the medical mystery, House determines that after her initial collapse, Charlotte faked her illness, to hold onto Eddie. Apparently, we will learn, she loves him more than he has ever demonstrably loved her. But when Charlotte's leg atrophies, House's theory is tossed.Yet House is far more greatly vexed by the mystery of Kutner's death. Cuddy suggests that he's so hurt because Kutner was the team member most like House. "If he thought like me," says House, "he'd know that living in misery sucks marginally less than dying in it." Cuddy beseeches Wilson to step in, saying House "needs a friend." Wilson hesitates, until he learns of the outburst at the Kutners' home."It's OK not to be OK," Wilson tells House, finding him at Kutner's apartment. Turning CSI, House observes that Kutner was open about his pain as a stranger in a strange land/family, hanging photos of both "the good and the bad." When Wilson claims that House doesn't so much care about Kutner as he is frustrated to not solve the mystery of the suicide, House says that Lawrence didn't kill himself — "He was murdered."Back with the medical case, Charlotte tells the team her heart is Eddie's if she goes first. Not content with the "if" in that thought, she steals some drugs and shoots herself up with enough god-knows-what to collapse and seize on the floor. That ultimately leads to House's "a-ha" moment.Meanwhile, Thirteen aka Remy Hadley finds and reaches out to an AWOL Foreman, but he hurts her by insisting that, as always, he prefers to work through pain/difficult things on his own. Dejected, Thirteen walks away.House asks "incurable romantic" Cameron to get Eddie to consent to dying on the table in the name of donating his whole liver to his wife; Charlotte, though, can't be in on the jig. Flying in the face of the song title "I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)," Eddie agrees to that plan, only to have Cam get cold feet when she observes that he might not actually be dying!House tells Eddie his heart failure is in fact curable, but he still wants to die for his wife. "You'd rather trade the certainty you'll live for the uncertainty that she will?" House asks. Eddie says one way or another, he will end his life to (maybe) save Charlotte's.Taub finds a fix to the situation by telling Charlotte the truth about "the plan," infuriating Eddie ... and spiking a fever in Charlotte. House confronts Charlotte about her beach trip to "Hawaii," and she confesses she in fact strayed on her husband to have the Rio escape she had always wanted but never got. As most of the team readies for Kutner's funeral, Wilson again talks to House. You're in pain, because you never saw it coming, Wilson notes. Also, he suggests, House's sadness is not about missing any signs but why he missed them. Is he losing his gift of observation?As Kutner is ceremonially cremated and the pyre burns, as "Foreteen" find each other again, and as Taub breaks down privately at the hospital, House takes one final pass at Kutner's apartment. He scans through photos until he finds one which might behold the simple explanation. No, Kutner wasn't planning some vengeance on his parents' killer or anything of the sort.

Heroes

Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. The series tells the stories of ordinary individuals from around the world who mysteriously develop superhuman abilities, and their roles in preventing disasters, usually foreseen in images produced by precognitive painters. The series emulates the aesthetic style and storytelling of American comic books, using short, multi-episode story arcs that build upon a larger, more encompassing arc. The series is produced by Universal Media Studios in association with Tailwind Productions,and it is filmed primarily in Los Angeles, California. The executive producers are Allan Arkush, Dennis Hammer, Greg Beeman and Tim Kring.
The critically acclaimed first season's run of 23 episodes garnered an average of 14.3 million viewers in the United States, receiving the highest rating for any NBC drama premiere in five years.The second season of Heroes attracted an average of 13.1 million viewers in the U.S.,and marked NBC's sole series among the top 20 ranked programs in total viewership for the 2007-2008 season.A total of 24 episodes were ordered for the second season, but only eleven episodes were broadcast, due to the 100-day strike by the Writers Guild of America.The dispute led to the initial postponement and eventual cancellation of a six episode spin-off titled Heroes: Origins.Heroes returned with its third season on September 22, 2008.A digital-internet extension of the series, Heroes 360 Experience, later rebranded as Heroes Evolutions, was created to explore the Heroes universe and provides insight into the show's mythology. Other official Heroes media include magazines, action figures, tie-in and interactive websites, a mobile game, a novel, clothing and other merchandise. NBC Universal announced on April 2, 2008, that NBC Digital Entertainment would release a series of online content for the summer and fall of 2008, including more original web content, wireless iTV interactivity, graphic novels available for mobile viewing and webisodes.Heroes has garnered a number of awards and nominations. The series was nominated in eight categories at the 2007 Primetime Emmy awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, and was also nominated for Best Television Series-Drama at the 2007 Golden Globes.[citation needed] The series won a People's Choice Award in 2007 in the category of Best New Drama, and was named Program of the Year in 2007 by the Television Critics Association and Best International Program at the 2008 BAFTA Awards.NBC plans to produce a fourth season of Heroes, as Heroes is one of NBC's best performers in the 18-49 demographic, as well as having strong international appeal and viewership. The network plans to order 18-20 episodes

Altered Voyages SF Elements

One change some were hoping for hasn´t happened: seaQuest and ABC´s Lois and Clark are still opposite one another on Sunday nights 0 with Fox now throwing The Simpsons into the same time slot. "I have always tried to focus my attention soley on the job I have," Burke says, "and not on where it´s marketed or sold. I find most guys who spend a whold lot of time worrying about what the other guy is doing aren´t doing their own jobs as well as they ought to. I hope they keep seaQuest on the air, I hope it plays well, but when they start talking about demographics, and time slots, and reaching frequency, and all that stuff, my eyes spin in my head."Eastlake has an impressive background in both action-adventure shows, including Street Justice and Hawk, and the highly regarded The Equalizer. On that unusual, intelligent series, Eastlake was the story editor during the 1986-87 season, wrote seven episodes, winning the Mystery Writers of America´s Edgar award for Best Television Episode. He also wrote segments of Murder, She Wrote (coincidentally, opposite seaQuest on Sunday nights), Airwolf, and "V."He knows science fiction, and is perfectly comfortable with calling seaQuest by that honorable label. The show, Eastlake says, "is trying to do science fiction/action, but most of the episodes have a strong human component, a strong allegorical, emotional or moral component, depending on the story. I grew up on Robert A. Heinlein, a wonderful social anthropologist. What I´ve always loved is social science fiction; I think the different cultures Isaac Asimov would create, or the military cultures David Drake creates, or Andre Norton. I read everything Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle write, including the right-wing allegories.Burke started as a broadcast journalist and producer of documentaries; in 1986, he began as a writer and story editor on Crime Story, later becoming supervising producer on Wiseguy. He created the submarine-less UNSUB for NBC, and created and executive-produced Tribeca for Robert DeNiro´s company of the same name. Because Universal had treated him more than fairly, when they asked him to take over seaQuest, he agreed even before he knew what the show was about. Burke came aboard seaQuest partway through its troubled first season, and got mixed signals from Amblin Entertainment and NBC."When I got here," says Burke, "I was told I was doing a family drama - adventure, action, a sort of family-oriented show. I was touted off one direction, then touted back on it. There were many different points-of-view as to what the show should be. The consequence of that situation was that the show didn´t quite know what it was the first season; that always happens unless the person with the passionate vision is driving it."The perception of science fiction was very different among the various people involved. For me, science fiction is The Twilight Zone - contemporary moral dramas and dilemmas that we face as society and individuals right now, places in the context of another world or another time. There´s another camp that thinks science fiction is anything with a guy in a rubber suit who disintegrates before your very eyes. It´s really a little of both, I guess."During season two of seaQuest, Burke has nothing at all to do with the stories the series will be doing; instead, he´s concentrating on the show´s physical aspects. "I´m very committed to trying to make the Florida environment work, because it takes us physically underwater. I can put all my actors in futuristic SCUBA gear and and really see them function underwater. I´m trying to encourage those in charge of the scripts to utilize the water environments as much as possible. I will then polish out what comes to me in terms of making an outdoor location work. We are a show about the sea; we are a show about being outside in some ways, even if it´s underwater - and now we can do that."But he does go along with the idea of making the show more science fictional. He feels the first season´s best episode was the one in which the seaQuest found an alien ships, although like almost everyone else, he also thought the one about the Alexandria library was excellent. "That was Steven Spielberg´s idea, a very good show. Boy, please put that in writing, because there were people who liked that script who got down on the show when it was finished because there was no overt aggression."Burke directed one of the other best episodes himself, the one in which the crew has to confront a South American dictator. It did have some, um, repercussions, Burke laughs. "I´ve just been writing a letter to the ambassador from Brazil, who was not real happy." Burke will be directing at least one second season episode as well. "I think it´s very important for people who do what I do to have a sense of the problems on the set. It´s a gargantuan effort to get a show done in severn or eight days. So, I´ll do it once to get to know the crew, to get them on a first-hand, first-name relationship with me, and so I understand the vagaries of their faily business, as it applies in this environment." Les Sheldon and Bryan Spicer, who between them directed all the other best shows of the first season, will also be returning.

Altered Voyages

As the mighty submarine seaQuest sets sail again on the rocky seas of TV series competition, at least one issue from the first season that troubled some fans will be addressed. "I think you´ll see the stories taking a stronger science-fiction bent," says co-producer David J. Burke.And supervising producer Carleton Eastlake concurs. "It´s odd that you´ll be seeing shows that are a little more colorful in terms of dealing with the future, while at the same time, they´re going to be more human." Well, most of the cast will be more human; there are doubts about two of the five new cast members.In addition to the acknowledgement that this series is, after all, science fiction, there have been other changes aboard the seaQuest - and to the sub itself, of course, since in the first season finale, it blew up really good. The bridge has been redesigned so that the crew sitting around the edge face inward now. The idea, Burke says, "was to bring the actors closer emotionally by having them face one another." Other than the substantial changes to the bridge, though, the newly-built ship will look much the same - like a long, drawn-out squid.Or, suggests Burke, a manatee. The show has shifted its production base from Hollywood to Florida. "we were shooting some test footage at Sea World," Burke explains, "with whome we hope to have a very good relationship; they have enormous facilities and can provide us with some interesting things. A manatee was floating by the camera, and looked startlingly by the seaQuest - which looks like a manatee in a flat hat."Rumors floated around the nation´s computer bulletin boards that NBC had ordered the production to become "younger and sexier." Burke admits that, "Since the day I got there, they´ve asked us to make it sexier, but they´ve not asked us to make it younger. We´re having a wardrode change" to reflect that instruction. "Everybody was wearing these sort of stove-pipe jumpsuits that were totally unisex. Stacy Haiduk had a spectacular figure, but you couldn´t tell from the neck down is she were a man or a woman. So the uniforms will be a little more contoured, a little more relaxed. The science side of seaQuest won´t be in uniform, though."Captain Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider), Commander Jonathan Ford (Don Franklin), Lucas Wolenczak (Jonathan Brandis), Ortiz (Marco Sanchez) and O´Neill (Ted Raimi) are all due back, but four crew members have gone ashore permanently: Hitchcock (Stacy Haiduk), Krieg (John D´Aquino), Dr. Westphalen (Stephanie Beacham) and Security Chief Crocker (Royce D. Applegate), have left the show.

Cast bid Sheridan adieu

LOS ANGELES - FOR the cast and crew of 'Desperate Housewives,' it was a Saturday afternoon of warm hellos and bittersweet goodbyes, as they greeted an auditorium filled with cheering fans but also bid adieu to one of the show's leading original cast members.
Nicollette Sheridan, who plays Wisteria Lane's saucy 'Edie', makes her final appearance as a series regular on the episode airing on Sunday. Co-star Teri Hatcher, whose sweet 'Susan' was often at odds with Edie, got misty-eyed when recalling the filming of Sheridan's final episode.
'I made a scrapbook as my sort of parting gift, and it reminded me of how great those two characters were together,' she said.
Excepting Sheridan, most of the 'Housewives' principals participated in a panel discussion on the show as part of the two-week PaleyFest, an annual festival celebrating television held by The Paley Center for Media.
Sheridan's relationship with 'Housewives' creator Marc Cherry has been described by some as contentious. Sheridan was recently quoted in 'TV Guide' as saying she felt 'Housewives' writers were unjustly ignoring Edie. But cast mates on Saturday said Sheridan's last days on the set were amiable and professional.
'Her attitude made them completely bearable,' noted actor James Denton, whose plumber 'Mike' was the longtime object of Edie's affections. 'It could have been tough and sad, but she was so great.
Denton noted that Sheridan made a point to thank the show's writers and cast, who were gathered at the table-read of the script for the first episode that she will not be in.
'She said, 'While you're all together, I'm here to say thank you for everything. You guys are great. You guys are awesome,' Denton related. 'She walked out of the room and Felicity (Huffman) looked at me and said, 'classy,' and it sure was.'
Veteran character actor Kathryn Joosten, a two-time Emmy winner for her portrayal of nosey neighbour 'Mrs. McCluskey,' said she would miss Sheridan.
'She was my playmate. We got to throw barbs at each other,' Joosten said. 'I won't have anybody to fight with.' -- AP

Bethesda Plans Fallout TV Show, Movie

It could take a decade for Bethesda to make Fallout 4 but the franchise won't be neglected in the mean time. According to a couple new trademark filings, Bethesda is considering a movie and television series based on Fallout. Dwell On It noticed that Bethesda had recently applied for a Fallout trademark for "Entertainment services in the nature of an on-going television program" and for "motion picture films about a post-nuclear apocalyptic world". Trying to turn a game into a movie is old hat by now but a television show? That sort of thing isn't attempted very often, at least not lately. A guy and his dog wandering the wasteland, solving people's problems while searching for the water chip to fix their vault? Meh, worse ideas have been greenlit. ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda, has some pretty big entertainment industry players on its board of directors: producer Jerry Bruckheimer, CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves, and MGM chairman and CEO Harry E. Sloan. With those three backing them up, Bethesda's got more than enough clout to get a Fallout show or movie off the ground. Just filing a trademark doesn't mean they're actually going to produce anything just yet, though.

Smallville

In an attempt to lure red-blue blur for a big story in her newspaper, Lois dons sexy leather outfits that squeaks when she walks and puts on an identity as "Stiletto". In the newly-released clip for the April 23 episode of "Smallville", Lois has agreed to meet the red-blue blur in an alley but finds Clark there instead. Lois believes that she needs the big story to secure her reputation as a star reporter but the red/blue blur continues to elude her. However, after Chloe is mugged, Lois steps in to fend off one of the attackers and uses the opportunity to pretend a new superhero, Stiletto, has come to town and is giving exclusives to Lois. Clark is concerned Lois will hurt herself pretending to be a superhero but after he is captured by thugs with kryptonite, Lois steps in to save the day. The episode that centers on Lois, will not be the only one. Executive producer Kelly Souders recently answered a Q&A at TV Guide, saying "Lois fans will be excited to hear you'll be seeing more of Lois in the future. She's fascinating and we'll never stop digging into what makes her tick."

'Harper's Island'

In the third episode of "Harper's Island", more will be murdered in different ways. Five have been killed on the ill-fated island, but it is only the beginning. Abby is trying to figure out whether it is John Wakefield or a copy-cat of his so-called 'work'. Titled "Ka-Blam", the episode will air on April 23. At least one person will die per episode in the new series airing on CBS. The producers have set 13 episodes only in the first season and at the end of it, all questions will be answered and the murderer is unveiled while only a few survive. "Harper's Island" is a murder mystery about a group of family and friends who travel to a secluded island for a destination wedding. They've come to laugh, to love and, though they don't know it, to die. As the wedding festivities begin, friendships are tested and secrets exposed as a murderer claims victims, one by one, transforming the wedding week of fun and celebration into a terrifying struggle for survival