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  • Posted 9/11/14 at 10:46 PM
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Daily Show Correspondent Named ‘Weekend Update’ Co-Anchor

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NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 28: Comedian Michael Che performs during "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on February 28, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Peter Kramer/NBC/Getty Images)

There are now enough comedy news shows on TV that they can poach each other's on-air talent. The New York Times reports that Michael Che, who made his first appearance as a Daily Show correspondent in June, will replace Cecily Strong on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update." Executive Producer Lorne Michaels said Strong asked to be featured in more sketches this season, and the move will allow her to do so. Michaels said "Update" had "struggled to find an identity last season," since "what had come before had been pretty brilliant." Strong served as co-anchor during Seth Meyers final 12 shows, and was then joined by Colin Jost, one of SNL's two head writers. Che will be the segment's first African American anchor, and he and Jost will form "Weekend Update"'s first all-male fake news team.

Apparently, there won't be an Anchorman-style news team brawl. »

Veronica Mars Spinoff Web Show Play It Again, Dick Gets a Trailer

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Turns out that Veronica Mars web show isn't quite a Veronica Mars spinoff: Play It Again, Dick is actually about Ryan Hansen (Dick Casablancas) making a Veronica Mars spinoff. Meta! He'll play himself and Dick, and so will fellow former Neptuners Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) and Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls). The webisodes premiere on September 16. Don't worry: According to this trailer, Dick will be saying the words sausage fest.

BoJack Horseman Is the Funniest Show About Depression Ever

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BoJack Horseman coming exclusively to all Netflix territories in mid-2014.

BoJack Horseman is a weird cartoon about a washed-up sitcom star (who's a horse), a snappy social criticism of the entertainment industry, and the kind of in-jokey cartoon designed to tickle the internet. It's also one of the most aggressive portraits of depression I think I've ever seen. Look past the anthropomorphic animal characters and the satire of toxic celebrity culture: This show is radically sad. I love it.

That's wordplay. »

16 Shameless Product Placements in TV and Movies

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Some movies are as refreshing as a crisp Sprite on a summer's day. Some movies are as satisfying as TGI Friday's $10 Endless App special. And some are as in your face as Google Glass when it comes to product placement. Here are 16 movies that really wanted you to buy something.

Let’s start with what is perhaps the most shameless product placement in history. »

Neil Patrick Harris on Gone Girl, American Horror Story: Freak Show, and Trading Hedwig for Waffles and Chicken

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Now that he has wiped all the glitter off his face from his successful Broadway run in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Neil Patrick Harris is figuring out what to do next. There are a lot of options! His first stop was to team up with LG Electronics to serve as an art ambassador and advisor for a digital arts competition in which students from nine schools use Ultra HD 4K resolution as the canvas for their creations. (The winners will be displayed at the Art of the Pixel Gala at New York's Gotham Hall on September 17.) While he eagerly awaits the unveiling of the winner, NPH took a break to chat with Vulture about the program, passing the Hedwig torch to Andrew Rannells, creeping people out in Gone Girl, and how he’d be a perfect fit for American Horror Story: Freak Show.

“I only have one sentence! And it’s not even a creepy sentence! I’m just saying a regular sentence!” »

The Bridge’s Franka Potente on Creepy Mennonite Bookkeepers and Why Run Lola Run Still Works in the Twitter Age

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A mysterious Mennonite bookkeeper laundering Mexican drug cartel money and killing anyone in her way, Eleanor Nacht — the villain played by Franka Potente on season two of the FX crime drama The Bridge — is an in-charge woman attired like the Church Lady. For the German actress, the murderous character is a far cry from Run Lola Run’s red-haired dynamo and the initially reluctant sidekick she played in first two Bourne movies. Vulture phoned up Potente to discuss the role, tattoos, and being a PETA spokesperson who will act in fur.

“The crazier the part, the better.” »

Composer Brian Reitzell Explains His Psychotic Music for NBC’s Hannibal

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The score for NBC’s Hannibal might be the closest someone’s come on TV to soundtracking the experience of losing one’s marbles. That someone is Brian Reitzell, who’s composed and supervised soundtracks for Sofia Coppola, Rian Johnson, and Peter Berg. Reitzell released a solo album, Auto Music, earlier this summer and now has the original score for Hannibal’s first two seasons. Reitzell got on the phone with Vulture to discuss creating a “constant heightened state of reality,” preparing a Hannibal concert, and how bad commercials suck. [This conversation is spoiler-free.]

"In the dark it’s the best, because it’ll really come at you." »

Watch Janelle Monae Groove Her Way Down Sesame Street

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Janelle Monae danced through Sesame Street with an adorable crew of kids in bow ties and sang "The Power of Yet," which is a catchy way of saying "practice makes perfect." And it worked: After a few tries, Big Bird finally learned how to dunk. Thanks, Janelle!

Can Thursday Night Save Network TV?

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Here’s how big Thursday-night TV used to be: During the mid-’90s, when NBC populated the evening with Friends and Seinfeld and ER, some 75 million Americans made a point of watching at least a portion of that lineup every week. Two decades on, like everything else in TV, the numbers for that night are a whole lot smaller. Last season, the combined average audience on Thursday for ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox was around 33.5 million viewers — or about the same as the audience for ER or Seinfeld alone at their peaks. More distressing for the networks, nearly 7 million viewers had abandoned Thursdays in just the previous year. With dramatic declines like these now common throughout the week, after decades of Chicken Little predictions about the impending demise of network TV (or the notion of one or more of the Big Four moving to the somewhat friendlier climes of cable), it seems as if the sky is finally falling.

The night remains critical to broadcasters for a basic reason: It’s where the money is. »

Would You Like to Learn More About American Horror Story: Freak Show?

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Oh, man, there is so much good stuff in this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming season of American Horror Story: Freak Show. If you're like us and just cannot wait for details on the cast and their particular specialties, read below. If you'd rather be surprised about who's what, we'll put a spoiler alert right here.

Read More  »

Michael Douglas on Bad Guys, Stage Fright, and Ant-Man

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Michael Douglas was up at the Toronto Film Festival this week touting The Reach, where he stars as an avaricious big-game hunter who commits an accidental murder in the desert, then chases the innocent tracker (Jeremy Irvine) who happens to witness it. Douglas has played a lot of villains over the course of his career, but his Reach baddie is perhaps the most cut-and-dry of any of them, an out-and-out monster who drives an ultra-jacked SUV, barks evil orders into a satellite phone, and screams at our poor hero, "Why don't you just DIE!" What made Douglas go so far to the dark side? He sat down with Vulture a few days ago to explain, as well as to chat about his next project, the Marvel movie Ant-Man.

“Most of my career’s been in that grey area.” »

Should I Root for a Mad Men Spinoff? Your TV Questions, Answered

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Welcome back to Stay Tuned, Vulture's TV advice column. Each Wednesday, Margaret Lyons will answer your questions about what to watch, when to watch it, whom to watch it with, and how to feel about the whole thing. To submit your own questions, you can email staytuned@nymag.com, leave a comment, or tweet @margeincharge with the hashtag #staytuned.

Mad Men will end next summer. Surely AMC is thinking about ways to extend the franchise, Better Call Saul style. Could this ever work? Would you want it to? Is it okay if I want it to? —LB

Plus: Where's my new Jim and Pam? »

Sarah Lawrence Student Says Catfish’s Nev Schulman Punched Her ‘Repeatedly’ in the Head in 2006

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In his new book, In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age, Nev Schulman — the boyish host of the MTV show Catfish — writes about the time he was “tossed out” of Sarah Lawrence College for punching a girl in the face. In the passage, Schulman explains away his behavior by saying he “hadn’t been aware of” the fact that the person he punched was a woman, because she was “short, stocky, crew-cut-styled.”

So it struck many former students at Sarah Lawrence as hypocritical when Schulman tweeted a selfie from an elevator on Monday night, condemning former Ravens running back Ray Rice for domestic abuse against his wife, with the message “Real men show strength through patience and honor. This elevator is abuse free.”

The anecdote Schulman shares in the book is also strange, not just because of the casual tone... »

37 Observations About Season 1 of Married at First Sight

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If you’ve missed Married at First Sight these past couple months, you’ll be enthused to know the groundbreaking reality show is currently casting its second season. Or you should be, at least, because the news means you have plenty of time to catch up before season two begins. The FYI Network’s (formerly Bio) standout original docuseries debuted in July and wrapped up its inaugural experiment last night. When the nuptials settled, two of three couples who were blindly matched and married by four experts — psychologist Dr. Joseph Cilona, sociology professor Dr. Pepper Schwartz (who does indeed go by Dr. Pepper), sexuality expert Dr. Logan Levkoff, and leather-jacket-favoring humanist chaplain Greg Epstein — decided to stick with their vows, while one pairing called it a divorce.

The blindfolded Bachelor/Bachelorette, basically. »

Yes, Chris Pratt Is Hosting the SNL Premiere

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NEW YORK, NY - JULY 29: Actor Chris Pratt attends The Cinema Society with Men's Fitness & FIJI Water host a screening of "Guardians of the Galaxy" on July 29, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for FIJI Water)

Chris Pratt will host the 40th season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 27, with musical guest Ariana Grande, NBC announced today. (Just as we predicted!) Sarah Silverman will host the following week, with musical guest Maroon 5. This is Pratt's first time hosting and Grande's first time as musical guest, but Silverman was a cast member in the '93–'94 season, and this will be Maroon 5's fifth time on the show. (Plus, Adam Levine hosted in 2013.) Now it's time to place bets on whether or not Amy Poehler will appear on the premiere in support of her Parks and Rec co-star ... Let's bet yes, just as a gesture of hope.

Jimmy Fallon Signed Britney Spears Up for Tinder

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Last night on Fallon, Jimmy claimed that he signed the recently single Britney Spears up for Tinder, while Britney stood there looking confused. (To her credit, she was clearly acting confused.) They then went over the pros and cons of dating her, which is a weird premise considering the No. 1 con isn't even mentioned: A very complicated background check. Now you know!

Sons of Anarchy Director Paris Barclay on Season 7, the Brutal Premiere, and What Lea Michele Has to Do With It

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Be advised that this interview with Sons of Anarchy executive producer and director Paris Barclay contains spoilers for the season-seven premiere, which aired last night. Strangely, it also contains a spoiler from this season of The Bridge.

He has also directed episodes of The Good Wife from Glee. »

Sing Along With Jeff Goldblum’s Jurassic Park Song

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Jeff Goldblum led Seth Meyers's audience in a sing-along rendition of a snippet of the Jurassic Park theme song last night. Given that it's just a few lines — "It's Jurassic Park / scary in the dark / I'm so scared that I'll get eaten" — it's constitutionally impossible not to want more of the song, but such is life. One never has enough Jurassic Park songs, nor enough of Goldblum singing them. Goldblum performs the song as part of his jazz show in L.A., so perhaps a more complete version will emerge someday?

Sons of Anarchy Season 7 Premiere Recap: The Final Bloody Ride

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The female black widow is a dangerous creature. The widower — with a wife taken brutally, too soon — is equally venomous, especially in the world of Sons of Anarchy, the Shakespearean, violent motorcycle drama on FX that began its seventh and final season last night. The premiere episode, “Black Widower,” creates a parallel between Gemma, the deadly matriarch, and Jax, the vengeful husband. And the only person Jax will talk to on the outside is his mother. It turns out a boy can love his mother too much.

Enter Marilyn Manson. »

Bieber Performs a Striptease at ‘Fashion Rocks’

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NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 09: Singer-songwriter Justin Bieber presents onstage at Fashion Rocks 2014 presented by Three Lions Entertainment at the Barclays Center of Brooklyn on September 9, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Three Lions Entertainment) View the video

Now for your daily dose of Bieber antics: After apparently being booed during his surprise appearance at tonight’s Fashion Rocks event in Brooklyn, Biebs attempted to placate his audience with a good, old-fashioned striptease. (His grandma must be so proud!) "I actually don't feel comfortable unless I'm in my Calvins,” he explained, before stripping down to his boxer briefs. Tasteless, certainly, but at least nobody got hurt, robbed, or arrested. Nice work, everybody.

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