Blog Posts by Carrie Bell

Originally a 2009 midseason replacement, "Castle" has become ABC's little crime drama that could over 4-1/2 seasons, consistently churning out clever crime stories, continually growing in the ratings, and sporadically being rewarded with People's Choice Awards. On Monday, the ABC show will achieve another important series milestone -- the airing of its 100th episode.

[Related: 'Castle' Creator: '100 Episodes Is a Miracle']

To mark such a special occasion, creator/executive producer Andrew Marlowe and his writer wife Terri Miller wrote a script that pays its respects to famed mystery director Alfred Hitchcock. But doing just a straight tribute is for the birds, so...

"The challenge is not to do just an homage to Hitchcock, but to do something fresh and different. I've seen lots of shows try to do a Hitchcock episode and fail because they just try to imitate it," Marlowe told Yahoo TV! exclusively at the on-set cake-and-champagne celebration at the end of February. "The homage is just a

Between frustrating physical challenges, perturbed partners, getting lost, stubborn donkeys, and speed traps, "Amazing Race" competitors found plenty to whine, sigh, cry, scream, and complain about on Leg 7. Ironically, the team that bellyached the least -- even after they worked out that their demise was afoot and one of them got peed on by a goat -- was the one that got booted.

Still bouncing around Botswana -- which, according to Wynona "smells like a big ball of dung," -- the teams had to drive to Boro Village. Sounded easy enough, although Pam stepped in poop, Max and Katie couldn't find their way back to where they'd parked the car, and the YouTubers got extremely lost. They four-wheeled through the bushes and rolled up onto a beach full of kids. Joey's theory was that their GPS-dependent generation can't follow spoken directions or read maps.

Two teams were even pulled over for speeding -- the country singers and the newlyweds -- and had to make a time-consuming stop at

The coming winter strikes fear in the hearts of all who reside in the seven kingdoms of Westeros. But for a handful of "Game of Thrones" actors, it's just another day at the office.

"Clearly, they don't trust us to fake being cold," John Bradley (Samwell Tarly) says in the warmth of a Beverly Hills, California, hotel room as he talks about why they were sent to shoot in the winter wonderland of Iceland instead of re-creating the freezing frontier far beyond the wall on a soundstage. "The costumes help keep you warm from the neck down, but your face gets the brunt of the wind. The wind is absolutely chronic. You can't move your face or open your eyes, and when you are doing tight shots, your face is what you need, your tool to work. We did one shot where me and Kit [Harington] were this far apart [gestures about two feet], and I couldn't see Kit for eye line."

"It was a complete whiteout. We were stuck on a hill for hours. The crew was so close to walking off, and eventually they

Natalie Dormer's mouth hung open in sheer disbelief. She could not believe the words spewing out of her teen co-star Sophie Turner's mouth at the "Game of Thrones" junket last week in Beverly Hills, Calif. Clearly shocked, Dormer exclaimed, "Are you serious? We can't be friends anymore."

Judging by her reaction, you'd think Turner was divulging Season 3's biggest secrets. But all of you who fear spoilers can exhale, as she did not reveal who her character's groom will be, whether she'll ever escape King's Landing, if she'll reunite with her Stark siblings again, or if she is on the receiving end of any more of King Joffrey's punishments. Nope, all Turner did to horrify Dormer was admit she is "a fiend" for "Jersey Shore," "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo," and "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

"Is this a generational thing? Am I showing my age?" questioned Dormer, who eschews reality TV in favor of more critically acclaimed fare like "House of Cards" or "Breaking Bad." Turner just

After Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Gwendoline Christie walk into a room, it takes but a minute to realize the actors are perfectly matched sparring partners in real life as they are as characters Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth on "Game of Thrones." The only difference is their weapon of choice is sarcasm, not swords.

Paired at last week's Beverly Hills, Calif., junket for Season 3 of the series inspired by George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, the war of wit and words began immediately when a reporter asked if the empty chair between them at the roundtable symbolized the rift between their "GoT" alter egos.

"Yes, yes it does," Christie (Yes, she really is that tall!) deadpans.

"I was going to sit there, but she was very quick to put her bag down," Coster-Waldau counters.

"It's his handbag. He makes me carry it," Christie adds, putting on a meek voice.

Coster-Waldau dropped his head, shaking his unruly blond locks. "Gwen, you have to realize when it comes into print,

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains storyline and character spoilers for the third season of "Game of Thrones."

With 27 series regulars and hundreds of guest stars, day players, and extras wandering in and out of Westeros and points beyond, keeping track of who's who on "Game of Thrones" is almost as big a feat as planning the Battle of Blackwater Bay. That task isn't going to get any easier when Season 3, which was shot by three units across five countries and promises plenty of fresh faces, begins March 31 on HBO.

Arguably, the most major addition to the cast was Ciaran Hinds. One, his resumé is as respected as Tywin Lannister's and almost as long as the feared coming winter, with "Rome," "Harry Potter," "Political Animals," and "There Will Be Blood" among the highlights. Two, he is portraying Mance Rayder, the ex-Night's Watchman who united 90 clans into one Wildling army currently moving in on the Wall. Rose Leslie (Ygritte) admitted at the junket last week in Beverly Hills to being

Leg six of "The Amazing Race" sent the remaining teams more then 6,000 miles away from their controversial tour of Hanoi, Vietnam and landed them in Botswana, or as Mullet Man Chuck refers to it -- where "The Lion King" was made. (We're guessing after the hailstorm of criticism CBS and the series received last week, they're probably thanking their lucky stars that it wasn't a double-leg stay in Vietnam.)

After landing in Africa and racing to sign up for one of three charter flights, the racers were headed to Makgadikgadi Pans National Park in some very small planes through what seemed like fairly turbulent air. At the park, they hooked up with three legit Bushmen each. The barely clothed, blurred-butted Bushmen took one brave (or not in the case of Max, Joey, and Mona) soul out into the Kalahari to dig for a scorpion to capture and put in a mason jar. For a somewhat unexplained reason, the natives were putting the scorpions in their mouths before handing them over to players to

Usually, it is "Amazing Race" contestants with loose lips that stir up controversy for being insensitive, offensive, or ugly Americans while dashing around the less scenic or underprivileged countries of the world on the competition reality show. But with last week's Vietnam-based episode, it was the producers and network that found themselves on the receiving end of public backlash.

Veterans, conservative newscasters, politicians like Arizona Sen. John McCain, and plenty of the show's fans were upset that the show filmed at the site of a crashed U.S. B-52 bomber, and featured a segment where players had to listen to a pro-communist anthem being sung in front of a portrait of Ho Chi Minh and then find one of the song's lyrics in a sea of propaganda posters. Vietnam War veteran and American Legion National Commander James E. Koutz sent a letter to CBS Thursday, asking that the network apologize for "its disgraceful slap-in-the face administered to American war heroes. We only wish