Blog Posts by Mike Krumboltz

"Stars Earn Stripes" is a new reality show in which celebrities (does Dolvett Quince count?) compete in military-themed exercises. Cash prizes go to different military charities.

Sounds like good harmless fun. After all, who wouldn't want to watch Nick Lachey yelled at by a humorless drill instructor? Well, apparently, plenty of people. A backlash is building, thanks in large part to Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a host of other Nobel Peace laureates.

An open letter from the dignitaries and addressed to NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt read: "This program pays homage to no one anywhere and continues and expands on an inglorious tradition of glorifying war and armed violence. Trying to somehow sanitize war by likening it to an athletic competition further calls into question the morality and ethics of linking the military anywhere with the entertainment industry in barely veiled efforts to make war and its multitudinous costs more palatable to the public."

Read More »from 'Stars Earn Stripes' draws fire

After he won the gold medal for the decathlon at Montreal's 1976 Olympics, Bruce Jenner became known as being one of the world's great athletes. Today, it's safe to say that most folks think of Jenner not as an Olympic medalist but rather as the husband and stepfather to the Kardashian conglomerate.

Which is a shame, because Jenner, 62, is a lot more than the hapless hubby he appears to be on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." The man is a pioneer not just in athletics, but also in how athletes marketed themselves. Following his victory at the '76 Olympics, Jenner famously left his pole vault equipment behind at the stadium, declaring that he had no further use for it -- he was on to something new.

That thing was acting. Unfortunately, his choice in projects left something to be desired. He starred in "Can't Stop the Music," a musical featuring the songs of the Village People. Shocker: The film tanked. He had some modest success when he replaced Erik Estrada in the TV series "CHiPs."

Read More »from The Bruce Jenner that was

Mabel Pantaleon, a 31-year-old actress who had a minor role as a server in a Season 3 episode of Showtime's "Dexter," has reportedly gone missing in New York City.

Pantaleon was last seen at her Harlem apartment on Sunday morning. News of her disappearance first appeared in the New York Post. According to the Post, Pantaleon suffers from manic depression. Foul play is not suspected at this time. ABC News reports that Pantaleon accused her family of "being terrorists" before going missing.

Sylvia Pantaleon said her daughter "saw something on the Internet and got very upset, and she started saying a lot of weird things. ...She said, 'I'm leaving from here, all of you are terrorists, you're not my mother.'"

Mabel Pantaleon had been in a nursing program at New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn. She recently left the program to focus on acting. According to IMDb, she also appeared in an episode of the now-canceled "Mystery

Read More »from 'Dexter' actress Mabel Pantaleon goes missing

Meyers as Henry VIII...Jonathan Rhys Meyers will really sink his teeth into his new role as Dracula. Meyers, who played Henry VIII on "The Tudors," has been tapped to play the vampire in a 10-episode series for NBC.

Meyers is no stranger to playing icons. In addition to his long-running role as Henry VIII on "The Tudors," he also played the one and only Elvis Presley in a 2005 miniseries. Meyers won a Golden Globe award for his performance as the up-and-coming rocker (think pre-electric jumpsuit) intent on changing the world of music.

... and as Elvis (Jaffe/Braunstein Films Ltd./Everett Collection)While it can be argued that the Elvis miniseries stayed pretty close to the source material, the upcoming version of "Dracula" is taking some liberties with the classic Bram Stoker tale.

Deadline reports that in this version, Dracula will arrive in London, where he poses as an American entrepreneur and scientist. Of course, that is but a ruse. Dracula's real goal is to exact revenge on the people who ruined his life many years before. Dracula then falls for a woman who appears

Read More »from 'Elvis' actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers to play Dracula

Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role as George Jefferson on "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons," has died at the age of 74 of natural causes at his home in El Paso, Texas. TMZ initially reported the news; it was later confirmed by People magazine.

Hemsley got his big break on "All in the Family." His character, the wise-cracking George Jefferson, was so popular, that Hemsley was soon given his own spinoff. "The Jeffersons" ran for 11 years and had one of the best, most beloved theme songs in television history. Following the end of the "Jeffersons" run, Helmsley starred in another sitcom, "Amen," in which he played the paternal Deacon Frye.

Hemsley’s role on “The Jeffersons” was a landmark. As Entertainment Weekly put it, George Jefferson was the “first black character presented as an arrogant, intolerant bigot -- the black Archie Bunker -- George was also one of TV’s first upper-income blacks, appearing nearly a decade before 'The Cosby Show' began its own long

Read More »from 'The Jeffersons' star Sherman Hemsley dead at 74

Batman's newest adventure "The Dark Knight Rises" is expected to obliterate the box office this weekend. But bat-fans raised on Christopher Nolan's interpretation might not know that Bruce Wayne and his winged alter ego weren't always so edgy. Back in the 1960s, Adam West starred in a live action TV show and, unlike the Christian Bale version, this Batman was anything but brooding.

In the swinging '60s, Batman was a groovy crimefighter, man. As played by West, the Caped Crusader patrolled Gotham City with Robin (Burt Ward), battling hapless crooks and their even more hapless henchmen with needlessly complex plans.

The dynamic duo got into some pretty bizarre situations during their three-season run. There was a surfing contest with the Joker (complete with board shorts), an ill-advised "Batusi" dance opposite future Bond girl Jill St. John, and a Pied Piper plot in which Batman played the flute to rid Gotham City of robotic mice.

And those aren't even the craziest. Check out

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Matthew McConaughey spoke with Larry King on "Larry King Now" about an upcoming role that required he lose some weight -- a lot of weight.

On King's program, which airs on Hulu and Ora TV, McConaughey said he's lost 15 pounds so far and has another 15 to lose for his role as Ron Woodruff, a man who contracted the AIDS virus in the 1980s. McConaughey says, "I should not look healthy by the time I'm doing that role."

[Related: Larry King Coming to Hulu in Deal With Ora TV]

As difficult as it can be to drop 30 pounds, McConaughey says he is trying to put a positive spin on his diet. "I'm looking at it as a clense... It's a bit of a spiritual cleanse, mental cleanse."

The actor, who is drinking a lot of tea, insists that the first 10 days are the hardest. "It takes a while for your body to understand that it has to feed off itself and that you're not going to give it something else from the outside."

[Related: Matthew McConaughey Talks 'Killer Joe's' NC-17 Rating]

The film, titled "The

Read More »from McConaughey slims down for role

Mila Kunis is, by any estimation, beautiful. But when she was in high school, some of her classmates had their doubts.

Chatting with James Franco (her co-star in the upcoming "Oz: The Great and Powerful") in Interview magazine, Kunis, 28, admits to receiving some harsh criticism after she appeared in a spread for Stuff magazine at the age of "16 or 17" when she starred in the popular Fox sitcom "That '70s Show." Like many lad-mag photo takes, Kunis says her body was "enhanced" in post-production.

Kunis says it "was a horrible thing to do, because then you have these boys who assume that you look this way when you don't.... So I showed up to class, you know, out of the shower and in sweatpants, which is the way I look when I show up to work at 6 AM and is not necessarily the way that I look when I walk out of the hair-and-makeup chair at 10 AM. But I think for a 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kid, that's a hard thing to fully understand... It's uncomfortable.”

"In real life," Kunis says, "I

Read More »from Mila Kunis' airbrushing nightmare