Brett Butler Is Doing Great

11.18.11 Written by Matt

Brett Butler, the star of ’90s hit show “Grace Under Fire,” battled troubles with addiction even while her show aired. So what’s been going on in the 13 years since it went off the air? Oh, you know, the usual: “everything but crack and needles” and living in a homeless shelter.

“I almost died like Michael Jackson. … I was dying of addiction,” she said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight’s Nancy O’Dell.

“I did everything but crack and needles pretty much,” she added. “I had a variety of things given to me by doctor, and other things. I’m not doing it to be coy, but I’m not going to go through what I did. I did it ’til the wheels came off.”

She went in and out of rehab, and after the show was canceled, she moved out of her L.A. mansion to a farm in Georgia, where she lived with 15 pets, but she soon ran out of money and found herself in a homeless shelter. [THR]

You can watch the video of the interview at that THR link. Butler’s now attempting a comeback doing stand-up in L.A. while filming a reality show about that and her-self-professed psychic abilities because OF COURSE there’s a reality show.

I’d like to see a reality show that brings together washed-up celebrities whose reality shows failed. Brett Butler can join David Hasselhoff, Sinbad, MC Hammer, and Roseanne in a house with ever-deplenishing stocks of booze. Like, it starts out with a full bar, but after that there’s only Thunderbird, and after that cooking wine, and eventually they’ll have to huff paint thinner and magic markers. Whoever stays high the longest without dying wins.

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‘Breaking Bad’s’ Blue Meth Survived the Zombie Apocalypse

10.24.11 Written by Matt

Last night’s episode of “The Walking Dead” (S2E2, “Bloodletting”) had a subtle but notable nod to its fellow AMC hit “Breaking Bad”: when white-power survivalist Darryl pulled out his bag of illicit drugs — both street and scrip — he mentions that meth in his collection, and the telltale crystals are blue, just as if they were made in Walter White’s laboratory.

AMC didn’t immediately respond to queries on Monday morning about whether this was a deliberate shout-out from the “Walking Dead” producers or just a manifestation of our own desire for new installments of “Breaking Bad.” And it’s not immediately clear how crystal meth that is cooked in Albuquerque would make it all the way to Atlanta (carried over by an industrious zombie, no doubt). But it wouldn’t be the first time the two shows have collaborated: KNB EFX, the special effects company of the “Walking Dead” co-executive producer Greg Nicotero, helped design a memorable scene for the “Breaking Bad” finale, featuring a character who can make return appearances only in flashbacks or as a member of the undead. [NYT ArtsBeat]

Okay, thanks for WAY too many words about that, New York Times. Here’s the only conversation we need to have about this: ”Oh hey! Blue meth on ‘The Walking Dead’!” … ”Neat.”

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Well Now It Makes Sense

09.30.11 Written by Matt

Back in 2000, “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone went to the Oscars wearing the same dresses that had previously been worn by Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow to the awards show. Last night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” they revealed how they worked up the nerve to do the stunt: they took acid.

Parker: “We thought of it the week before… We had tuxes as a backup because we thought we were gonna chicken out, and we did. And we were like, ‘Let’s not do that, let’s not do that.’ But then we were like, “Let’s take a little bit of acid.” So we did that and of course an hour later we were like, “WE GOTTA WEAR THE DRESSES.”

Stone: “It made that whole thing just make sense.”

There’s video below, and it’s funny to watch as Parker goes on to say that they were coming down as the ceremony was going on and how they hoped that they didn’t win.

Me? I don’t need drugs to wear a designer gown. Looking beautiful is its own high.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Discovery Gets High With ‘Weed Wars’

07.20.11 Written by Matt

Today’s lamest headline is thanks to Discovery, which will soon announce a new docu-series called “Weed Wars,” featuring marijuana activist Steve DeAngelo and his work at the Oakland Harborside Health Center, the country’s largest pot dispensary.

The show will follow the journey of the plant from germination to harvesting to sales at Harborside, which has opened up a second location in San Jose despite “constant police monitoring and security sweeps,” says to the network. [EW]

So I guess the police sweeps are the “war” aspect of “Weed Wars”? It seems like every other reality show is some kind of war. “Storage Wars.” “Whale Wars.” “Cupcake Wars.” “Wedding Cake Wars.” The only war seems to be the one against irony. If TV networks named movies, The Social Network would have been called Friendship Wars.

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Ninja Turtles Against Weed

04.20.11 Written by Matt

It’s April 20th, which means that plenty of idiots are out there saying, “Huh huh huh… 4/20, dude.” I’ve got nothing against marijuana use, and I’m all for its legalization, but I’m a little too old to get excited about an arrangement of numbers on the calendar. It’s like Pi Day: no one but mathletes should make a big deal out of it.

However, since this is the Internet, I don’t stem the tides, I swim with them. So here’s a PSA from the ’90s in which the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles help young children say no to fourth-grade drug dealers. This is how ALL young people are introduced to marijuana, of course: confronted at their locker by older kids who dare them to try a joint in the hallway between classes. It’s almost TOO subtle.

[via BuzzFeed's collection of anti-drug PSAs. YOU ALL RIGHT! I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!]

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