BY ALI GOLDSTEIN/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK/GETTY IMAGES. Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, and Alec Baldwin in a 30 Rock scene.
Update, 5/11: NBC tells Vanity Fair that it has renewed Parks and Recreation for a 22-episode season and ordered 13-episode seasons of Community and 30 Rock. The network declined to say whether these would be the final seasons for any of the series.
A trio of devastating television developments today: NBC reportedly plans to raze 75 percent of its beloved Thursday-night comedy lineup. The rumored casualties: 30 Rock, Community, andParks and Recreation—all three of which represent some of the smartest (if only moderately watched) comedic output by any network right now. Instead of canceling the shows outright, the Peacock network will reportedly announce shortened final seasons for each at next week’s annual “upfront” presentation in New York City. The fourth Thursday-night sitcom, The Office, which is in its eight season, is predicted to remain on the air.
The network has already confirmed series orders for six new comedies, including Go On, from NBC alum Matthew Perry; The New Normal, from Ryan Murphy; 1600 Penn, the White House comedy starring Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman; Anne Heche’s Save Me; and Animal Practice, a veterinary-clinic-set sitcom starring Justin Kirk. Judging by NBC’s recent comedy batting average, at least one of these shows should make you laugh.
Next year will mark 30 Rock’s seventh season, the fifth for Parks and Recreation, and the fourth for Community. Earlier this year, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin, who has won two Emmys for his portrayal of Jack Donaghy, alluded to a near-future exit from the network, when he covertly tweeted, “I think I’m leaving NBC just in time.” To deal with this blow, we defer to a piece of Jack Donaghy’s immortal wisdom: “We all have ways of coping. I use sex and awesomeness.”
Sure, Rihanna may have enjoyed herself when she hit up a strip clubrecently. But was the singer actually rushed to a New York City hospital for exhaustion and dehydration after allegedly partying too hard while attendingthe 2012 Met Gala on Monday night?
Not surprisingly, such speculation began to run rampant after the Barbadian beautytweeted a pic of her arm…with an IV in it!
So what’s the deal?
Well, hold off on calling 911, folks, because this rumor is…
The Urus is likely to cost from £150,000 with a sales target of 3,000 per year. With the Chinese market soaring that shouldn’t be a problem
Concept: Lamborghini Urus
NOT for the first time, Lamborghini is going off-roading.
It did so in the 1980s with the outrageous Countach-powered LM002.
Now the car you see before you is a concept that Lamborgini has been showing at the Beijing show.
It may be a concept but it’s almost a dead cert that Lamborghini is going to build it, not least because it needs another model in its line-up just in case sales of supercars do a wobble. Which they often do.
Also, Lamborghini’s boss says that virtually all Lamborghini owners also own a top-end SUV like a Range Rover.
Since I’ve got a Range Rover and recently owned a Gallardo for a couple of months I can’t argue with that.
Outside: It's a dead cert this will go into production, says Richard Hammond
Inside: You'll have to wait till 2016 to get to see this view
There are a couple of issues to get out of the way before we get too excited.
First the name: it’s called the Urus. It sounds like some part of a bloke’s toilet system but it’s actually an ancient animal that’s related to the modern bull. Right.
The next slight issue is the powerplant. The Urus will be built on the next generation Audi Q7 platform, as will Bentley’s Falcon luxury SUV and the next Porsche Cayenne.
No problem with that but the word is that Lamborghini is thinking about using Audi’s new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 backed up by an electric motor.
The company is talking about around 600bhp and a top speed of 186mph. The performance is not a problem, I’m just not sure about a V8 and a hybrid system.
The original: Lamborghini's 1980's off-roader
Off the road: The Countach-powered LM002 was presented in 1986
Lamborghinis in the early 70s used a V8 engine (in the little Urraco) but we’ve got used to Lambos having at least 10-cylinder engines.
The Urus is likely to cost from about £150,000 with a sales target of 3,000 cars per year.
With the Chinese market going into warp drive that shouldn’t be a problem.
Lamborghini could make a few extreme versions perhaps powered by the Aventador’s V12 engine, as long as it would fit under the bonnet.
I’d have thought a 4×4 with 700bhp would be too much for many multimillionaires to ignore.
They’ll have to wait until 2016 though before Lamborghini has the Urus in the showrooms.
When the 2012 NFL Draft kicks off Thursday night, the first pick sure looks like Andrew Luck. Meanwhile, Robert Griffin III is all the rage. The 2011 Heisman Trophy winner is expected to go second. But just because RG3 lit it up at Baylor doesn’t mean he’ll do the same in the NFL. Success against Stephen F. Austin does not guarantee success against the New York Giants, and the list of Heisman winners who bombed at the next level is not exactly short. Witness these 10 busts from just the past 25 years. Lotta QBs, just sayin’… —Monty McMahon
Sorry, this is one of those Nicholas Sparks-adapted tearjerkers that elicits more snickers than swoons.
Zac Efron, 24, visibly struggles playing Logan, a personality-free Marine sergeant in Iraq who cheats death when he stumbles upon a photo of a pretty blonde. Once home, Logan finds his mystery girl (Taylor Schilling, 27) in a small Louisiana town — yet instead of explaining his connection, he clams up and takes a job at her family-run kennel.
The two strike up a slowly paced romance illustrated in a series of sunny, Lite FM-scored montages that resemble Country Time Lemonade ads. Then again, at least the interludes detract from the stars’ wincing dialogue (“You should be kissed every day, every hour, every minute!”) and their baffling lack of chemistry. Even the shower-sex scene is merely lukewarm!
Substitute store-brand cranberry juice for Cosmos, slip on thrift store flats instead of Manolo Blahniks, shrink a Park Avenue apartment and move it to Brooklyn, and stick four female twentysomethings with thankless jobs and you’ll get Girls, HBO’s hyped new Judd Apatow-produced comedy series that’s essentially the starkly realistic byproduct of the fantasies Sex and the City instilled in its younger audiences.
Created by and starring one of the funniest females in the biz, Lena Dunham, the series, which airs every Sunday at 10:30 p.m., follows four (the three others including Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet) privileged young women trying to navigate their life in New York City.
After last night’s impressive premiere episode, we’re sure you want to know more about the women who fearlessly portray the show’s engaging characters. We did a bit of Googling and made this cast guide for you and anyone who’s just as curious. Consider it the after-show introduction to the stars of the Girls.
Lena Dunham Who she is on the show: Hannah Horvath
As Hannah Horvath, Dunham is the girl of the show whose lofty ambitions far exceeds her will to actually accomplish anything, yet her naiveté makes her the endearing lead. She believes herself to be the “voice of her generation,” yet she hasn’t penned more than the memos she writes for her internship. After being cut off by her well-to-do parents, she’s attempting to land a paying job, yet she doesn’t realize her own quirks make her unhirable. Most crippling of all, she’s convinced of a relationship with a scrawny man-child to whom she seems to mean nothing more than a perennial hook-up.
The week started with a bang (unfortunately, it was a head hitting the floor) and ended with a pop (of the champagne celebrating the engagement of the year).
So, our bases were covered. Read on to catch up on everything important from the seven days just passed—as well as some of the little things you may have missed.
A new publicity still has surfaced of Anne Hathaway suiting up as Catwoman in director Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises, the long-awaited finale to his epic Batman trilogy. And by the sexy look of her costume, the villainess certainly harks back to her cat burglar origins in the comics.
Of course, she’ll be uttering a PG-13 purr, as that’s the rating the helmer and distributor Warner Bros. just snagged from those Bully-happy folks at the Motion Picture Association of America, who cited intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language after viewing the flick this week.
The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters July 20.
Huzzah! Television’s most adorkable half-hour comedy, New Girl, has been picked up for a second season. What fresh misadventures will the second season bring? And what does the well deserved series extension mean for the likelihood of a Schmidt-centric spin-off? Have our dreams of Who Gives a Schmidt?, starring Max Greenfield and Chloe Moretz as his caustic little sister, been dashed against the rocks?
There’s more good news for the (many, we hope!) of us rooting for Jess’s new relationship with wealthy, 40-something helicopter parent Russell (Dermot Mulroney). Mulroney told The Los Angeles Times, “I’ve finished my run, and they’ve finished doing this season. But I’ve been harassing [creator Liz Meriwether] about how to get Russell back on.” The return of Russell! We love Russell. We feel like the employees of Instagram right now.
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