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Video Gallery: House‘s 8 Best Moments

Natalie Zutter — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:11:59 +0000

Fox’s medical drama House has officially been cancelled, with a series finale to come in May. Like I said yesterday, the series was showing its age, so it’s ready to go off the air. However, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t one of the more piercing, wickedly funny, utterly compelling shows out there from 2004 onward. In honor of its passing, I’ve compiled a list of the seven best moments.

Now, I’m biased, because I was a diehard fan up til about season 3; my strongest memories of bizarre medical plotlines and romantic entanglements are from the early seasons. That said, there are some moments from later seasons included. (I grabbed as many videos as I could, but strangely, there aren’t a lot of clips on YouTube, so in some cases I’ve substituted photos.)

“Three Stories”

You need to watch this whole damn episode (1×21), is what it comes down to. House gives a lecture about three cases of leg pain, but over the course of his story and several flashbacks that fans learned to scrutinize for every possible detail, we learn that he’s actually telling the story of his crippled leg. With the episode coming at the end of the first season, it was perfectly timed to begin to delve into this antagonistic character’s deep-seated pain — because of, as we learned, a decision that he never got to make — and addiction.

“It’s Never Lupus!”

Every show needs a running joke—for House, it’s diagnosing every mystery patient with lupus. House himself doesn’t, of course; his team always returns to that idea, despite him telling them that it can’t be. One of the show’s better moments was the first clip from this video, when House reveals that he stashes his drugs in a lupus textbook because… You get the idea. I loved it when the show got this self-aware.

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House Creator David Shore Thanks Fans For Supporting The Show

Natalie Zutter — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:13 +0000

After eight years of bringing us unbelievable medical cases, a riveting mix of drama and bittersweet humor, and one of the most unique interpretations of the Sherlock Holmes character, Fox‘s medical drama House is ending.

The news broke today, after creator David Shore pushed the network to tell him one way or the other. At the end of 2011, both parties had agreed to push off the decision til after January 1, but Shore, obviously sensing some unease, decided that he’d rather have advance warning to prepare an adequate series finale for May.

We knew that the show was nearing its last legs when series regular Lisa Edelstein left last year, but it’s definite now that the network has confirmed the decision. While it’s difficult to see such a brilliant show go off the air, it’s worth nothing that it had been losing steam for some time now, with cast shake-ups that couldn’t restore the snappy repartee of the first few seasons, and the writers throwing the cantankerous Dr. House into increasingly unrealistic situations (rehab, jail, and so forth). We’ll always remember the good times, but it’s time.

We can always count on E!’s Kristin dos Santos to get a statement from the creators; here’s what David Shore, Katie Jacobs, and star Hugh Laurie had to say to fans:

After much deliberation, the producers of House M.D. have decided that this season of the show, the 8th, should be the last. By April this year they will have completed 177 episodes, which is about 175 more than anyone expected back in 2004.

The decision to end the show now, or ever, is a painful one, as it risks putting asunder hundreds of close friendships that have developed over the last eight years – but also because the show itself has been a source of great pride to everyone involved.

Since it began, House has aspired to offer a coherent and satisfying world in which everlasting human questions of ethics and emotion, logic and truth, could be examined, played out, and occasionally answered. This sounds like fancy talk, but it really isn’t. House has, in its time, intrigued audiences around the world in vast numbers, and has shown that there is a strong appetite for television drama that relies on more than prettiness or gun play.

But now that time is drawing to a close. The producers have always imagined House as an enigmatic creature; he should never be the last one to leave the party. How much better to disappear before the music stops, while there is still some promise and mystique in the air.

The producers can never sufficiently express their gratitude to the hundreds of dedicated artists and technicians who have given so generously of their energy and talent to make House the show it has been – and perhaps will continue to be for some time, on one cable network or another.

The makers of House would also like to thank Fox Broadcasting and Universal Television for supporting the show with patience, imagination and large quantities of good taste. The Studio-As-Evil-Adversary is one of the many clichés that House has managed to avoid, and for that the cast and crew are deeply grateful.

Lastly, the audience: some have come and some have gone, obviously. This is to be expected in the life of any show. But over the course of the last eight years, the producers of House have felt immensely honored to be the subject of such close attention by an intelligent, discriminating, humane and thoughtful – not to mention numerous – audience. Even the show’s detractors have been flattering in their way.

Making the show has felt like a lively and passionate discussion about as many different subjects as could possibly be raised in 177 hours. The devotion and generosity of our viewers has been marvelous to behold.

So, finally, everyone at House will bid farewell to the audience and to each other with more than a few tears, but also with a deep feeling of gratitude for the grand adventure they have been privileged to enjoy for the last eight years. If the show lives on somewhere, with somebody, as a fond memory, then that is a precious feat, of which we will always be proud.

Everybody Lies.

We can only hope that Shore and Jacobs go on — together or separately — to create an equally compelling, intelligent, snarky show. Because I do believe that House as a series showed audiences that they could dive into a fast-paced, technical-jargon-heavy show and still find its heart.

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Who Should Join Anne Hathaway in the Cast of Les Miserables?

Lucia Peters — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:13:58 +0000

You may or may not be aware of this, but a movie version of the international musical theatre sensation Les Miserables is currently in the works. This isn’t the first time in recent memory someone has tried to put Victor Hugo’s novel on the screen, but it IS the first time that it’s been done in musical form. And it’s racking up a pretty good cast, too: Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe signed on as escaped con Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert respectively a while ago, and just this week, Anne Hathaway joined the team as Fantine, the ill-fated singer of “I Dreamed a Dream.” So that got us thinking: Who ELSE might shine in this star-studded cast? We have no idea if any of these actors can sing, but hey, that’s never stopped anyone in the past (Sweeney Todd, much?). Here are our picks for the cast of the new Les Mis:

Young Cosette: Mackenzie Foy
Sure, she may be a vampire, but wouldn’t Twilight’s Renesmee make just the sweetest and most heart-breaking young Cosette? Imagine her singing “Castle on a Cloud.” Are you melting yet?

Old Cosette: Lea Michele
Because of course she’d have to be in it somewhere. It may as well be as romantic lead Cosette.

Marius: Nick Jonas
He’s already played the part in London—twice—so why not give it a shot onscreen? I’ll confess that I wasn’t really that taken with his performance in London (or at least, what little of it I’ve seen on YouTube); but that may just be because I think the character has an enormous stick up his arse. I can’t really blame Nick for that.

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Hollywood Jobs: Dustin Paddock, Script Coordinator For House

Celine Geiger — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:58:13 +0000

Dustin Paddock is a network TV veteran with over a decade of prime time production experience under his belt. He is currently the Script Coordinator on FOX’s medical drama House. Dustin met me at Miracle Mile hotspot Sheddy’s in Los Angeles to discuss the highs and lows of the gig, why he refers to himself as “a closer,” and what Hugh Laurie is like in real life.

How did you get your start?

Gradually—I moved step-by-step up the ladder from the bottom. After college, I drove out to L.A. in my hatchback, and got my first job as a production assistant at Dick Clark Productions. About a year after arriving in L.A., I got my first job on a primetime series, The Drew Carey Show, which was also my first job on a major studio lot—Warner Brothers. I was there for a year, then jumped to another sitcom to be the Assistant Production Coordinator—but I went back to working as a production assistant so I could work with writers and learn more about writing. I got on a new hour-long show—Get Real starring Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg—originally as the writer’s assistant, but, a week on the job, the Script Coordinator they were looking to hire backed out, and they gave that job to me. I’ve been a Script Coordinator ever since.

Explain to me what exactly it is that you do.

In a nutshell, when the writers are done writing their script, they give it to me and I do everything that needs to be done to it before it goes to anyone else. I like to use a baseball analogy. I like to refer to myself as the closer: I come in at the end of the day and do what I do to finish the job.

What are some of the things that need to get done before a script can be distributed to cast and crew?

You always have to create a title page, a cast list, and a set list [for every script], so I make those lists and I attach them. All the scenes get a number; if a writer moves a scene, you have to renumber the scenes so that they’re in the new order. You have to keep track of every line that gets deleted or changed from draft to draft. Pages also get “locked,” so that if you’re gonna add text to page 5, but you have more text than will actually fit on the page, you have to create an additional page—page 5A—between page 5 and 6 [so you don’t push page count].

It sounds like there’s a lot of technical stuff you have to just learn on the fly.

Yeah. A lot of it is grammar and logic and continuity. For example, if a character is age 24, and then later on in an episode they refer to them as age 30, you have to check with the writer and fix it before it gets published.

Every episode of every show—every word gets scrutinized. If you change one word, you might have changed something five scenes later, or the entire plot, especially with all the medicine in a show like House. My job exists because they need someone to keep track of everything.

You’re in charge of so much detail! How long does it all take to put one script together?

When I was starting out, it would take me sometimes four hours to put a script out for production. It was a laborious process until I started to get good at it, and to trust myself. Now it takes me two hours or less. And a lot of the time, you’re working at night. The writers will work all day on the changes and give them to you—and then you basically start your job.

So, your hours are totally unpredictable.

I never know what night I’m gonna stay late. Some nights I’m done by 5pm, some nights I’m done at midnight.

How do you manage your social calendar?

I actually don’t mind if I’m working late. It’s kind of hard sometimes; my wife has to understand that I’m not gonna be home every night at 6. But after hours, the atmosphere in the office changes. It loosens up a little—you might have dinner brought in or eat dinner with the other writers. And you can use the downtime to write your own material. Not only are you there in the environment with working writers, seeing a new script every week or so—you have time to work on your own stuff, and you can’t beat that.

Photo: Alex Solether – it was taken outside the House stages (Stage 14) on the FOX lot.

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Gallery: The Handsomest Fellas at the GQ Man of the Year Awards

Liana Maeby — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:26:18 +0000

GQ honored its Men of the Year last night at an event in London and, unsurprisingly, a ton of handsome men were in attendance — many of whom even have adorable English accents! It’s super rainy here in New York, so I think I’ll spend the rest of my day looking at this gallery and inventing lives with my fantasy boyfriends. Feel free to join me.

(via WENN)

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Celebrity Reading List: 15 Celebs Who Have Written Novels

Lucia Peters — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 17:14:21 +0000

Things I found out recently include the fact that the sisters Kardashian are making their fiction debut in November with a novel entitled Dollhouse. Says Kim, “”The novel is based on our lives but we’ve added a lot of crazy fictional twists and turns. You’ll have to decide for yourself which story lines are true to life, and which ones we dreamed up.” But Kim, Khloé, and Kourtney are far from the only celebs who have tried their hand at novel-writing. I can’t speak as to how much these shining literary achievements owe to a little thing we call ghostwriting, but some of them aren’t so bad. Others… well, take a look for yourselves!

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10 Music Videos With Celebrity Cameos for When You’re Sick of Katy Perry

Molly Horan — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:26:34 +0000

For everyone who’s enjoying Glee stars Darren Criss and Kevin McHale alongside Crushable’s spirit animal Rebecca Black in Katy Perry’s new video Last Friday Night (and that should be everyone), but needs something new, we have just the thing: more celebs popping up in music videos. But music video cameos are far from a new invention – these classic videos feature some of our all-time favorite random appearances.

The Killers “Mr. Brightside” (Eric Roberts)

Your age is immediately apparent when you describe Mr. Roberts; Julia’s brother or Emma’s dad. (Side note – who plays checkers in a smoking jacket at a brothel? Next he’s going to order a sherry and demand a manservant play him in a game of connect four.)

Soul Asylum “Just Like Anyone”(Claire Daines)

Adorable Claire Daines isn’t as happy with her jutting skin spikes as Lady Gaga. But at prom it’s revealed she’s not some kind of teenage stegosaurus, she has wings. So, outfitted in her Juliet costume she flys off to a world where Leonardo DiCaprio never made The Man in the Iron Mask.

Stone Temple Pilot “Sour Girl”(Sarah Michelle Gellar)

Oh my god the vampires finally got Buffy!

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Sex On The Wire: Jake Gyllenhaal Hates Shirts

Drew Grant — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:56:14 +0000

• Birth or Not: The new site where you get to decide whether a couple keeps their child! Hopefully not, lest this child grows up to find out their parents put its birth to a vote. (Gawker)

• Jake Gyllenhaal is shirtless on the cover of Entertaiment Weekly, and here are 49 other pics of him doing similar things. (Buzzfeed)

• A MTF con-woman posed as a doctor and gave fake breast exams to two other women at a bar. Look, if you’re dumb enough to let a tranny give you a breast exam at a bar, having a lesbian massage your boobs is the least of your problems. (MSNBC)

• We hate cancer as much as the next person, but not really sure how having sex with a dude. (Lemondrop)

• Facebook will delete your account if you’re too attractive. Here’s how to uglify yourself. (Urlesque)

• Here’s a tough one: F/M/K for Hugh Laurie, Anthony Bourdain, and Rahm Emmanuel. Go! (The Hairpin)

• Sex.com was finalyl sold! For $13 million! (The Registar)

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Crushable Books: ‘Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House M.D.’

Drew Grant — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:30:08 +0000

The philosopher Jagger once said “You can’t always get what you want.” If Barbara Barnett, author of Chasing Zebras: The Unofficial Guide to House M.D. were to finish up that stanza, she might counter with the argument that sometimes some might find that they get what they don’t need. Say for instance, a 429 page Wikipedia entry in book form. Which nobody really needs per say, but as a House fanatic, I am all too happy to display it on my shelf prominently so people can see in book form what TV shows I like to watch.

If this sounds like a superficially callous assessment: well, like I said, I am a fan of House. Not just the show, but Hugh Laurie‘s portrayal of the broken Sherlock Holmes diagnostician, Chia-pet hair and all (dude is actual bald, but I refuse to believe it). Chasing Zebras is unnecessary in a world where, if I wanted to look up who played the terminally ill Eddie in that episode where Amber died (it was Meat Loaf, duh) I could IMDB it in arrhythmic heartbeat. Yet it also gets to stand in that great library of literature about pop culture shows like Lost, 24, and The Simpsons. Immensely popular shows like House cut a swath across all brands of people: your mom likes it because she likes the soap-opera element, your hipster friends like to think of themselves as smart and cynical as the quippy doctor, your nerd roommate like picking apart all the scientific inaccuracies in the show, and professors love love love to put their PhDs to use by apply academic conventions to alleviate a hit show into high-concept meta-speak.

So it’s actually a relief to read a book that’s not a “Philosophy of House,” but written by an actual fan. Barnett loves the show, as is evidenced in her very thorough guide to every episode up to the 6th season. She neatly divides each storyline into its plot components as well as fun detours: “A fine bromance” (the relationship between House and his patient Wilson, er, Watson); Gross-Out Moments (if you don’t want to watch someone get a needle stuck in their eye, don’t check out episode “Paternity” in the first season); the namesake “Zebra of the Week.” The zebras referred to in the book are a reference to an early House-ism, “When people hear footsteps, they think horses, not zebras.” Except that House’s team is all about the “zebras”: the weird, undiagnosable illnesses that almost kill a patient every week before the brilliant, crippled House figures out the mystery and swoops in to save the patient’s life. Barnett’s book reads like her fan page devoted to the show over at Blogcritics, “Welcome to the end of the thought process,” but without the hyperlinks.

But if you thought the guide was all there was to the book, you’d be wrong: there’s 169 pages of character bios, ethical and moral analysis, and detailed explanations of every pop culture Easter Egg the show has hidden for its super fans. (Although if they were really super fans this book would be unnecessary, as they would already know that when House dressed in a Victorian costume for an 80s party in season 6, he wasn’t mistaken about the century, it was creator David Shore‘s allusion to Hugh’s role in the music video for Annie Lennox‘s hit, “Walking on Broken Glass.”)

Look: I like this book. I’m not really sure who this book was intended for, since it’s always easier to link than use footnotes, and the casual House fan might not need to lug around something they can basically read online for free. But I enjoyed the fact that I didn’t need to read this book sequentially, and could pick random chapters at leisure. When I wanted to relive all the sexy, nail-biting tension of the House’s pursuit of Cuddy, I was able to find the crucial first moment of their romance located in the episode where this dude turns out to be chowing on a Bezoar (a hairball formed from too much antacid). And I had forgotten what hooked me onto this show in the first place, which was the episode where the kid has Anthrax AND Leprosy. I mean, come on! And man, when Dave Matthews was the idiot-savant piano prodigy with Red Forman from That 70s Show as his father? Totally the best. And what about the one where Kutner just fucking kills himself because Kal Penn had to go work for Obama? I cried so long after that episode that Gawker started worrying about me. Or how about the season 4 double-finale with Amber?

You know what, I think I figured out who this book was written for. It was written for people like me, who wish they had thought to write this book.

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Video Gallery: Best Of British Guys Playing Americans

Liana Maeby — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:18:34 +0000

What’s the point of having an British accent if you aren’t going to use it? These days, it seems like every-other American TV character is played by a Englishman. From Chuck Bass to Bill Compton, our networks are a testament to the new British Invasion. We don’t begrudge these blokes their roles, but we also wouldn’t mind hearing a little London from time to time. Check out our gallery of the best Brits-as-Americans.

Stephen Moyer in True Blood: Stephen joined a cast of New Zealanders, Aussies and Swedes to play Southern vampire Bill Compton. True blood pudding, anyone?

Ed Westwick in Gossip Girl: Ascots, scarves and Oxfords — who could play the inimitable Chuck Bass but a Brit?

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