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    Blog Posts by Tara Ariano

    • ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’: New Promo Shows Off More of Season 8′s Guest Stars

      HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has always been a good venue for spotting great comic actors, but more often than not, they're stars of creator Larry David's generation (like Richard Lewis, Paul Reiser, and Richard Kind, among hundreds of others). This new promo, however, indicates that the show is stretching by casting some faces more familiar to today's comedy nerds: I spotted Brett Gelman ("Eagleheart"), Brian Huskey ("Childrens Hospital"), and Chris Parnell ("30 Rock" and "Archer"). Look!

      "I'm yelling for society!" is a phrase I am TOTALLY adding to my lexicon of outrage.

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    • Preview: Jake Gyllenhaal Crosses an Icelandic Fjord on ‘Man Vs. Wild’

      Stay warm, bros (Discovery)Actually, make that "MEN Vs. Wild": When series star Bear Grylls returns Monday, July 11, with a new season of his Discovery Channel show, he'll be joined by actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who I guess had enough time between gigs to go to Iceland and test his survival skills against the country's unforgiving landscape.

      And, okay, we've seen Gyllenhaal trying to cope with extreme weather before — in "The Day After Tomorrow" — but there he could occasionally duck back into the New York Public Library to warm up. Also, it was pretend. So to see him get on a verrrrrry skinny-looking rope (more of a string, really) to pull himself across a yawning chasm is pretty impressive.

      The clip cuts off before he makes it to the other side, but we...probably would have read something about it if he hadn't, right?

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    • ‘Portlandia’ Is Funny Even In a Notice Seeking Extras

      You can get on "Portlandia" without an audition!IFC's sketch comedy series "Portlandia" is about to start shooting its second season, and though it's still too early to know what to expect of Season 2, a peek behind the scenes demonstrates how far the show's comic sensibility extends.

      Simon Hill Casting, a local Portland agency, has posted a notice seeking extras for the second season of "Portlandia." Rather than the usual dry rundown, the notice is shot through with "Portlandia" spirit — so much so that one suspects it was drafted by series creators Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein.

      "Thanks for your interest in being an extra in IFC's 'Portlandia,'" it begins. "I hope you like exclamation points!"

      Potential extras are warned that the gig is not as glamorous or amusing as...well, as "Extras" might have made it seem. "Extra-ing takes all day long and mostly what you do is wait, sit and wait some more. Bring a book, or if you can't read, a shiny object to stare at."

      The notice goes on to assure would-be applicants that the show is

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    • Lady Gaga Scores New Shark Week Promo

      Given the hoopla over Andy Samberg's being named the Discovery Channel's Chief Shark Officer for Shark Week 2011 (starting July 31), he sure keeps a low profile in this new promo! Of course, it's best for even the most charismatic performer not to try to upstage Lady Gaga, whose song "Teeth" provides the spot's very appropriate soundtrack.

    • Watch a Trailer for MTV’s New Zombie Comedy, ‘Death Valley’

      If you love MTV's "Teen Wolf" series but wish the network represented the full spectrum of supernatural creatures/afflictions, there's a new series for you to look forward to. Coming August 29, "Death Valley" is a comedic series about the officers of the Undead Task Force in the San Fernando Valley. And hey, it features Don Draper's little Berkeley-dropout hippie friend from "Mad Men"!

      Tags: MTV Shows

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    • ‘Jersey Shore’ Fight May Have Been Staged, Sock Continuity Suggests

      The tell-tale socks! (Reddit)The tell-tale socks! (Reddit)"Which fight?" Reader, that is a fair question. This is, after all, "Jersey Shore" we're talking about; it could be any one of the roughly 17 dozen fights the show has featured in its relatively brief run thus far.

      In this case, the fight dates from "Gone, Baby, Gone," the tenth episode of the show's second season. The scene: The gang, minus Angelina, returns from the club to find Angelina in a salty mood. When Angelina complains that Snooki has picked up a guy Angelina had been seeing, insults fly back and forth until, finally, Snooki asks one of her roommates to hold her earrings, so...you know what that means.

      But, as Reddit user ThePettingZoo noticed this week, the editing of this fight scene is somewhat curious. Check out these screengrabs, featuring J-WOWWW's amazing disappearing/reappearing socks!

      ScreengrabsScreengrabs

      This doesn't necessarily mean that the fight was staged. Maybe J-WOWWW left in the middle of it to take her white socks off so she wouldn't get any of either combatant's

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