I finally got to see the "Pieces of April" cast show. It was really sad how they were calling it the best work of their lives and now, several months later, I know it came out to mediocre reviews and bad box office.

It's official: Katie Holmes is the luckiest sonofabitch in Hollywood. That, or she sold her soul to the devil.

Didn't Patricia Clarkson get nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Pieces of April? Personally I thought she did better work in Station Agent this year, but I don't get to choose.

Total agreement with you on the KH lucky thing - I think I posted something like that when this episode first aired.

Yes, Patricia Clarkson got nominated for Pieces of April but I am just happy she got nominated because I love her.

I forgot about Patricia Clarkson being nominated. Okay, I take that part back. But Katie Holmes? The devil. You could totally see the envy in Favreau's eyes.

Saw my first full ep tonite. My love for Rory Cochrane knows no bounds. I thought he was hilarious when Vince Vaughn was hounding him to tell a story - Vince basically told the story for him then forced Rory to recount it. But as someone who recently quit smoking (again and hopefully for good), I really wanted a cigarette so badly after watching them smoke for a half hour. Mmmmmm nicotine.

I loved the episode with the cast of Elf. James Caan was practically infatuated with Will Ferrell. Talking about Night at the Roxbury:

WF: Some people say it shouldn't have been made into a movie.
JC: (pointing from across the table) Loved it...I was the first on line.

I've been a JC fan since I was a kid and I thought it was great how the tough guy had such a soft spot (and respect) for the funny guy. And much deserved respect at that, he was great in Elf.

The worst part about the show is Favreau. I know it's his brainchild, but he is so full of himself, and I have seen him hog an otherwise interesting conversation.

But I love the show, so I can't be all that critical.

I loved that too, mainly because at first RC had this look like he had absolutely no idea what the hell Vince was talking about and then as he finally tells the story it turns out that Vince was right. And the story was so random that he clearly couldn't just have forgotten about it before Vince reminded him of it.

I really want to see the "political" discussion and what Brian Cox said about America.

I also laughed when Brian Cox was like "Hey, we have been in the same movie."

Double post because it has been two months and in honor of the new season.

I really think Ron Livingston should be the new host or at least a regular because that man cracks me up. "The Carter shit kills."

Faision Love doesn't believe that ships were capable of trans-atlantic journeys in the 18th century? The man needs to take a history class or two.

I thought what FL was saying was that if ships were used to transport slaves, some of those ships should still be around somewhere. The real point of his argument, if I understood him properly, was that black people were native to America and therefore didn't need to be brought over for slavery to occur.

Slavery aside, what a hilarious episode! Poor Gina Gershon. From All about Eveto Showgirls.

I like the way Ron Livingston phrased it about Showgirls: "When did you know?"

It reminded me of a conversation from the last episode to feature Faison Love, where the actors talked about whether they feel confidence that they're making a good movie, or if the knowledge that it's going to suck kicks in pretty early. Michael Rapaport claimed to have a strong track record of predicting that the final product would suck early into shooting.

I like that Faison continued to alienate and insult directors. His first appearance was hilarious, from his dissing of Spike Lee, John Singleton and others, and his impression of Ice Cube as director: "Move the thing! Yo, moo da thing!" So it was fun to see him slamming Torque and mocking music video directors: "Bentley, ass, cut. Bentley, ass, cut. All right, get the n***a with the gold chains."

No he stated that they didn't have the ability to make ships. And while that may have been the point of his argument it remains a stupid and ahistorical argument. Not to mention there are ships from that period that were used as slave ships he just needs to go to the Ivory Coast.



Yeah that cracked me up, even though it was a just another version of the last time he was on when he said all people who were in those movies wanted to know was where their Bentley and their gun was.

It was part of a comedy act. I don't know if Faizon actually believes it, but it makes for a funny joke - research would just ruin it. Of course, it would have been good if he said something like "f--k it, I don't know".

I was concerned that he might have been a bit too much, but once we got past this bit, he was cool. Liked the slamming on "Torque" - I wonder if he has thoughts on that craptacular "The Big House" he's in. Or on "The Parent Hood" that he appeared on. I mean if you have such scorn for crap directors, why continue to appear in crap? At a certain point, you have to point the finger at yourself.

The best part of the show was when Dennis Farina said that Barney Miller was the best description of cops. Also, I agree with mbridgii on Faison's choice of movies.

Anyone else watch the most recent installment and kind of feel like Ernie Hudson should have stuck to bottled water? Dude was blithering.

I saw it, and yeah, boy. Maybe he was star-struck over sharing cigars with Danson?

But I was shocked when he said he was 58, older than Teddy boy. I'd've guessed 10 years younger.

Though I am kind of glad he didn't because it was the only thing interesting about that episode.

I too was shocked that he was older than Ted.

I missed this episode. Weren't they airing Fridays at 8, rerunning Mondays? I checked Friday and it wasn't on, so I thought the series was over again.

I don't know what time it was on because I have a season pass for it on my TIVO but it definitely aired on Friday. THough you really didn't miss anything.

Just saw the episode with Luis Guzman, Barry Pepper, Jennifer Espisito and Stephen Dorff.

It ended with me being even more secure in the knowledge that Stephen Dorff is a big old tool. He looked so out of place and seemed to be searching for something, anything, to talk about. But I do love me some Luis. That man is funny.

That he is. I swear he told like two stories but he managed to drop more names than anyone. I hope he isn't actually friends with Owen Wilson. I loved when Jon and Jennifer both excused him of getting off on photoshoots.

Luis was great, I don't think I realized how short his arms were.

I just wanna know: Is Barry Pepper auditioning for his own talk show? He was like Torquemada with the questions! Did anyone else pick up a little tension when he let slip John Travolta's $20 million dollar paycheck for "Battlefield Earth"? It seemed like there was some more he wanted to bitch about but stopped himself. I thought JT did that role for free.

See, I thought Stephen Dorf came off better than my memories of him. I thought he was a tool before this show, and now I think he's not that toolish. I do think that Pay-per-view should start airing "John Walters dishes the Oscars". I'd pay $20 bucks to see that. Waaay better the Plastic Rivers women.

Luis Guzman who's credit list completely amazes me. He and Katie Holmes are on my list of "People who must have a deal with the Devil."

ETA: I don't think Favreau mentioned "Rudy". I wonder if Kevin Smith's harrassment has started to sink in.

iMissEthan, the show's now on Fridays at 10.

I felt kinda bad for Dorff. Yeah, I think he's toolish, but everyone was giving him such shit to his face and he clearly hasn't been making the caliber of movies as the rest of them (though I don't think Jennifer Esposito is any great talent and she seemed to be riding her appearance in Summer of Sam really hard).

I also felt kinda bad for Hudson. Another sitch where everyone at the table had current--or-huge--careers, and no matter what, at 58, he's still the Ghostbusters guy. God, Ted Danson looks horrrrrrible.

I love this show, but I also used to love Favreau, and the more I watch it--or maybe it's the more eps with Kevin Smith I see?--the more he irks me. In last night's ep, with Tracy Ullman, Peter Dinklage, etc., he kept bringing up Miramax and Swingers and I was like, OY! Give it a rest, man! I also thought it was awesome that Tracy Ullman threw the "I'm moving to Canada" thing in Alec Baldwin's face. Through his whole rant about actors and politics, I kept wanting someone to ask, "What makes actors' opinions so damned special and important?" and the smirk they kept cutting to on Favreau's face made me wonder whether he was thinking the same thing.

That was the point of Alec's rant. It's not that actors' opinions are special but as citizens of this country they have a right to speak out. I also thought he had a good point that if he was speaking out against Lieberman and others who use election years to attack Hollywood no one would have a problem with it. Or if he was supporting the the status quo, Bruce Willis doesn't get crap for talking in interviews how the war in Iraq was a great idea and W. is doing a good job.

And it was awesome that she mentioned the leave the country because that was picked up from a german publication that never did an interview with Alec or Kim, who the piece was was actually written about, and was never confirmed by the publication.

Is Carrie Fischer back on the drugs because she seemed much more scattered than usual.

Carrie seemed her regular, scattered self to me. She also seemed to be wearing the same blouse that she wore on a previous appearance. I just know I've seen that ill-fitting garment on her someplace else.

I didn't really like this week's episode. Alec Baldwin can be an interesting guy, but he seemed a bit out of sorts there. Maybe he felt a little like he was too big for the room, but then realized that he wasn't really.

Even he admitted that the career isn't exactly where it used to be - that would have been an interesting conversation. But we had to listen to end BS conversations about who-knows-what. Besides, it's not that Alec doesn't have a right to speak his mind. It's just that he only is able to get national coverage because he is a celebrity. No matter how much the average person might know, he/she is not going to get that kind of coverage. Even if I agree with him, I don't want to hear from him or Bruce Willis, unless it is related to their work.

Favreau really does need to let go of the "Swingers" references. I realize that is his claim to filmmaking, but it's as though it is the only thing on the resume. When Kevin "shut up already, damn" Smith calls you out on it, it's time for new material.

I was a teenager when Ghostbusters came out and for the longest time he was that guy but now he is Warden Glynn...forever and always.

I enjoyed the Alec Baldwin episode. I thought he was refreshing and honest. Carrie Fisher always cracks me up. She is a nut but also very down to earth and, for lack of a better word, normal to me. Her story about Eddie Fisher's face lifts making him look Asian cracked me up.

huh. I never noticed that Favreau constantly talks about Swingers. I mean, I realize that he mentions it but it always seems relevent to the topic at hand so it doesn't seem desperate to me.

It's relevant because it is a movie, but no matter what the industry-related topic, there seems to be a "Swingers" story. I'm not saying he shouldn't mention it again, but it has reached drinking-game status. The key phrase to look for is "When we were making 'Swingers'..."

I still don't care about Alec Baldwin's politics, but he was interesting. There was something about this grouping that didn't seem all that comfortable, though. Baldwin didn't seem as comfortable being there as one might imagine, given interviews he's done elsewhere.

If one happened to see "Oz", that is the dominant image of Ernie Hudson; otherwise, he is "Ghostbusters" guy. Meanwhile, Ted Danson is still Sam Malone to many who haven't moved on. I don't think Ernie has lost any more work due to the GB role. It's more a function of not enough parts for black actors - particularly in that age group - even though I don't think 58 when I see Hudson.

I admit, I've never watched Oz--I am a wuss and can't handle it--but I have seen Hudson in other roles. I think the reason I see Hudson as Ghostbusters guy and Ted Danson as Ted Danson is that Danson is much more a "star" in the public eye. Not that that's a good thing, but he's just more visible as a personality.

Aside from talking about Swingers, I've noticed that recently Favreau references "Zooey," as in Deschanel, from Elf, in about every episode. I don't know if he's crushing on her or just thinks she gives him indie cred or what, but she's worth adding to the Dinner for Five drinking game. (I do think she's awesome, so maybe I'd be mentioning her all the time, too.)


mbridgii, I know exactly what you mean about Alec Baldwin. I really liked how he acknowledged that his career had had peaks and valleys, and appreciated his honesty, and I liked how devoted he was to a good part and doing stage work and not just being a "star." Something about the political conversation bothered me, though. It's not bad that he takes politics seriously, but that doesn't mean I want him to be my congressperson or governor.

Carrie Fisher's a little crazy, but she does crack me up.

I'm pretty sure Carrie Fisher wore that shirt to The Daily Show.

If Alec Baldwin got more jobs where he gets to do funny voices, I would spend all my money on him. It never gets old for me. Maybe 'cause I'm 12. (And also, that dessert he was eating looked so good, it totally made me raid my fridge.) Interesting -- his take on his career as being reactive: It's not how many calls you get, it's who's calling you. (Marty Scorcese v. Larry Scorcese --hee!). He seemed kind of struck by actors needing to direct, produce, or write, as if taking more charge of one's show biz career was an anomaly. I'd have thought that a guy like AB would have his own production company so he wasn't always waiting by the phone, but that didn't seem to occur to him. Or am I misreading his comments?

I was amused at the little collective dig to Tracy Ullman that Britons aren't necessarily as good at American accents as they think they are.

I love Peter Dinklage. I enjoyed how everybody else at the table was quite manifestly envious of The Station Agent. Even Favreau tried to mask it (unsuccessfully) with his "Oh yeah, I had to hire him for Elf, 'cause I'm the man" shtick.

OK, on the surface, an episode featuring Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Charles Durning, and Charles Nelson Reilly doesn't exactly scream "watch this". However, I went into this week's episode thinking that it would be surprisingly good. I mean, you have four actors who have known each other forever and must have an infinite number of stories to tell about the industry, right?

So how was it the most boring episode I've ever seen? Maybe they didn't want to tell the really juicy stories, so they proceeded to bore the living crap out of the few remaining people that sat through to the end.

Where were the Hollywood stories? Endless minutes on World War II? Thank you for serving your country, Mr. Durning, but it was obvious that even he was bored with that line of questioning. These people have made countless movies, yet the extended segment on "All Dogs Go To Heaven" was a waste of time.

The biggest drain was CNR. Has he even made a film? The only credits that I saw pop up with his name were old TV shows that weren't popular ever (except for "Match Game", but that's hardly acting).

I'm thinking that some others from the Reynolds camp would have been much more interesting. Say, for example, Hal Needham, Jerry Reed, Ned Beatty, Ossie Davis. Many of the people from "Evening Shade" would have been interesting.

No wonder they didn't promote this one during the week. Next week looks much more promising (Delroy Lindo, Colin Quinn, Danny Aiello, and John Waters). Though I have to look at Quinn as the CNR of this quartet.

Yeah, I was surprised by how boring this show was as well. Though I always go back and forth on whether Burt Reynolds is a dick or not and what I decided last night is regardless he is a very good friend. I found most of the WWII discussion boring, but I thought it was endearing how much he talked up CD.

Yeah, it's great that Burt admires CD so much, but there are some conversations that are just not interesting for viewers. In the end, it's Favreau's fault for not stirring the conversation better.

He also did loads of theater work, which is where he first met Gene Rayburn, and is an acting coach and director. The only thing that bugged me about the show was Jon Favreau talking about Elf again, but that could just be because Will Ferrell annoys me so I refuse to see the movie.

Bad, bad idea. I had forgotten all about Dom Deluise until seeing this Friday. Has he been kissing Burt Reynold's ass like that for 30+ years? I remember him doing that a long time ago, but I figured then it was for work, since Burt had some juice in the business. Now what does it get him? That was just pathetic. I hope this one doesn't get rerun, it was painful.

Oh, I don't think he's kissing his ass anymore (if he ever did). They are actually really close. Maybe he really does admire his friend.

Yeah, I actually think that was the problem with the show. They have all been friends for so long so they have all heard each others stories so they don't ask any questions that bring up interesting stories because they already no the answers.

It would have been better to have BR and CD or BR and DD on with two other people who didn't know them. With other people in the mix it wouldn't seem as odd to bring up stories because everyone at the table doesn't already know them.

The other problem for me was that BR and DD were just on another episode with two other people. Perhaps it was a rerun from another season, but I know I saw it recently. That episode was much better because they were matched with two non-old fogeys. Favreau shoulda mixed it up by adding a female and one younger indie star. And what's up with repeating guests so soon?

I thought this episode was good and a vast improvement from last week. I absolutely loved the looks of disgust exchanged between JW and DL when CQ was telling the story of how he kept showing up several hours late for his call time on New York Stories.

Also, Jon made me laugh when DA was talking about how Woody Allen would love to work with DL but was probably too intimidated to ask and he starts relating a story about telling Robert DeNiro that Woody really wanted to work with him and Jon quips "we are talking about black people not people who date black people."

The latest episode was a fairly mixed bag for me...Issac Mizrahi really bugs me, and Faizon took a while to really contribute anything (if the conversation is actually shown chronologically, which seems unlikely). But Alan Cumming was touchingly naive and charming, and Amy Irving was a nice wild card at the table.

But the whole hamburgers/fish debate was remarkably fresh version of that dog-tired gays/hets communication gap. The palpable discomfort/playfulness was a lot of fun.

And the call-back over the closing credits...how cool is it that a conversation at the Algonquin roundtable ended with "Touche, motherfucker!"?

Also, "Not this network: no commercials...and no viewers." Snerk!

It was an OK show. The closing credit comment made me laugh out loud. Funniest moment of the evening.

I was laughing at how Amy Irving kept referring to her children as "bastards".

"My son was a bastard, but I just married his father so he's not a bastard anymore."

I liked the episode. I actually watched this right after I was watching the extras on the X2 DVD, so getting a recap again from Cummmings about the make up, was boring.

I couldn't hear/make out Amy Irving's comment in the end about the cost Faizon's hamburger being $69.

Tou...che motherfucker

Ok, I love David Cross, but this ep was a snoozefest to me. The whole SNL thing between Cross and Molly Shannon was awkward. Surprisingly, George Hoosenwhatsit, the director, whom I'd never heard of, had interesting things to say, but I'd rather have heard less from him and more from Cross on Mr. Show, or Shannon on comedy, or whatever.

Also, this is the ep where my respect for Favreau hit an all-time low. I so, so admired him when he did Swingers, when he did Elf, even when this show started. But the more I watch... When he started puffing on that cigar and telling David Cross that he saw SNL as a stepping stone, that the only reason he did Second City was to get to SNL, and the only reason he wanted to do SNL was to get bigger movie roles, it just smacked of condescension and presumption to me. As if he were funny enough to land on SNL. As if he's really that great of an actor. Mr. Rudy's Nerdy Best Friend. Molly Shannon, as much as her schtick can annoy me from time to time, has more funny in her fingertip than he does. Plus, she was so modest and discreet in real life, nothing like Mary Katherine Gallagher. If Favreau had even an ounce of self-deprecation, maybe I'd like him more.

This show is starting to slip. I think it's the inclusion of too many TV people who have little to no film experience.

I like Ray Romano well enough as a stand-up. I tolerate him as a sitcom star. But he's made, what, three films? One I only heard of on "Dinner", and another a cartoon. Nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation - besides the sparkling self-entertainment query.

Even worse was Ron Eldard. Was he even in a movie? The one time I saw his name, it had his "ER" credit attached. He wasn't even a regular there.

I'm starting to dislike Favreau as well. Between the constant "Swingers"/ "Made" references and his behavior at the "Celebrity Poker Showdown", he just reeks of self-importance.

Ron's been in a number of movies including one I adore, The Last Supper and most recently The House of Sand and Fog plus he does a lot of theater. I have no problem with him being on the show because he has in fact been in several Independent films and had decent sized roles in larger pictures like Sleepers, Mystery, Alaska. Bastard out of Carolina and Black Hawk Down. Plus he was on the brilliant (but cancelled) Bakersfield, P.D..

That said Ray was a drag on the conversation.

I actually thought Ray was somewhat funny--a surprise to me, because I am no fan of Everybody Loves Raymond. I was actually quoted once in an USA Today article as someone who Hates Raymond. But yeah, he's no movie star. At least he copped to the fact that Welcome to Mooseport totally tanked. Oh, and that movie you only heard of on this show? Eulogy? Has been bumped by the studio at least three times. As he said, he made it before Mooseport. And it costars Favreau's masturbation material, Famke Janssen.

Yeah, Ron's done a lot of theater, so he has more credibility to me than Ray. Is this show supposed to only include movie stars? Or are theater actors and TV actors also included purposefully?

In terms of Hollywood experience, I think Ray deserves to be on this show more than someone like Faison Love. Ugh. I know he can be funny, but he annoys me. Has he ever been in a movie that didn't suck? Has he ever actually acted in a role? I got so pissed off when he was making fun of stuffy theater actors in front of the brilliant Alan Cumming, who has done more quality theater AND film than Faison could ever do in 20000 lifetimes.

Crap. I feel like I have singlehandedly killed off this thread with my negative comments. Peter Falk. Richard Lewis. Discuss!

I just think this show has outlasted its usefulness because of the apparent inability to obtain enough interesting people for a dinner conversation. So many of the last episodes have included people from TV, or who have only a couple of movie credits.

Nothing against the TV people, per se. Someone like Ted Danson, who has also done films and seems to have stories to tell, is interesting. Judd Apatow was good because he had shows that were different, and didn't mind sharing stories about the cancellation.

It all goes back to Charles Nelson Reilly. I'm sorry, I learned upthread that he has done a lot of theater; to me, he is the Will to Brett Sommers's Grace on "Match Game". He had nothing to say in the episode he was in. I give Faison Love only enough credit to commend him for referring to crappy movies as crappy. But when you keep appearing in crap, I think you lose the right to criticize.

I know a lot of people didn't like the Durning/Reynolds/Deluis/Reilly show, but I really enjoyed it. I liked old Hollywood stories; these guys worked with the previous generation of actors from the 30/40s/50s. I also liked hearing about Charles Durning's WW2 experiences, which he was quite modest about, but he served in the 101st airborne, and "glided" into Normandy on D-Day. That is some serious shit.

Hated the show with Amy Irving, because I hate Amy Irving. You'd think all she had to talk about was her itchy vagina. So interesting. Not.

I just can't stay away. Okay, did anyone see the ep with Catherine Kellner, Rosie Perez, Beverly D'Angelo and Cathy Moriarty? And was it just me, or did Favreau seem awfully quiet--maybe even bored? I think it must've been the only episode with four women at the table with him, and there was a noticeably different dynamic. Again, I don't know if he was bored, or just overwhelmed by the estrogen (most of these women were very chatty and opinionated, in any case), but I liked it!

I think it was more that they were so able to carry on interesting conversation without prodding, that there really wasn't much need for Favreau in that episode. I loved the stories that they told; this is the kind of insight that this show was meant for - not the kind of tripe that has passed for conversation this season.

Speaking of which, though I am a big fan of Kevin Smith, he totally entrapped Favreau into a "Swingers" reference. It went something like:

Smith: So, where do most people recognize you from?
Favreau: something, but not what Smith was looking for[/]
Smith: [i]Prodding further, i.e Where specifically
Favreau: blah blah, "Swingers" blah
Smith: I was wondering how long before the first reference

Total setup! It's much more satisfying to wait for the catch.

Obviously, Smith is gunning for Favreau (like he said). Because soon after, he said something about a statement from Jon sounding rehearsed. Meanwhile, half his statement from his last appearance (the one with Affleck) came straight off his "Evening with Kevin Smith" DVD.

Yes, I'm that big a fan that I bought that. But that kind of thin-skinnedness does not become you, Kevin. Leave that for Michael Moore.