Batman

Pat Hingle, Batman's Commissioner Gordon, Dies at 84

• Jan 5, 2009 04:41 PM ET
• by Adam Bryant
• 9 Comments

Pat Hingle

Pat Hingle, a veteran character actor best known for his role as Commissioner Gordon in four Batman films, has died after battling blood cancer. He was 84.

Hingle, who was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a blood disease similar to leukemia, in November 2006, died just after 10 p.m. Saturday in his North Carolina home, according to The Associated Press.

Born Martin Patterson Hingle, the actor's career ... read more

Jack Supports Hill

• Mar 3, 2008 07:00 PM ET
• by gdinunno

At first we thought there was no way this video was legit and that some YouTuber with too much downtime pieced it all together. But after watching a montage of various movie clips of Jack Nicholson (including Batman, The Shining, and A Few Good Men), the video transitions to a shot of Jack himself approving the message that Hillary is our girl. Will Jack’s endorsement be enough to give her the edge she needs? We’ll have a few more answers come early Wednesday morning after Ohio and Texas cast their ballots on Tuesday! But, of course, we can’t resist the response video that popped up shortly after:Your take: Which video do you think was pieced together better? read more

The Dark Knight: The Joker Revealed!

• Nov 28, 2007 06:45 PM ET
• by Ken Fox

Heath Ledger as the Joker on the January 2008 cover of Empire Magazine

Aside from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Sandman Mystery Theatre and Rex Mundi, I’m really not a very big comic-book fan. But I’ve got to admit I can’t wait for The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan’s sequel to the supremely excellent Batman Begins that’s scheduled to hit theaters in July 2008. The reason: The advent of the Joker, one of the greatest pop-culture villains since Richard III. I’m one of the few people who doesn’t really like Tim Burton’s Batman, mainly because I’ve always hated Jack Nicholson’s buffoonish turn (let the flaming begin). The Joker should inspire giddy fear, not goofy laughs (check out Allan Moore’s classic Joker story arc in The Killing Joke for what I think is the best – and scariest – take on this endlessly fascinating character). So I was thrilled to learn that Heath Ledger had been cast in the role, since he’s a good actor who, I suspect, has a dark side worth explori... read more

What's the Secret to Blockbuster Success?

• Jun 29, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Webb Mitovich

What, if anything, do Star Wars, Mission: Impossible, and Jaws have in common?

What is the formula for blockbuster-movie success? And how does it differ from the recipe for disaster? Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters, an HBO documentary premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET — and based on the new book Boffo! How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, by Variety editor-in-chief and former studio exec Peter Bart — explores those much-asked questions by way of A-list talking heads and fantastic clips from films both great and... so-so. Bart says that  — especially as cohost of AMC's Sunday Morn read more

Got Garlic?
Some kick, but no bite, in vampire drama

• Jun 21, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Roush

Normally I'm a sucker for a good bloodsucker, but I've seen paper cuts go deeper than Blade (Wednesdays at 10 pm/ET on Spike TV), the toothless new TV version of the comic-book-turned-film franchise about a hip-hop, Harley-riding, half-breed vampire who's bad news for his more evil brethren. Where Buffy the Vampire Slayer took a mediocre film and elevated it to TV art, Blade doesn't even try to improve on the loud, flashily hollow movies. It's just more of the same martial artlessness. I kept expecting to see Batman-style OOF! BAM! graphics on screen. "Sun's down. Time to make some friends," mutters Blade (Over There's Kirk read more

What's the Secret to Blockbuster Success?

• Jun 20, 2006 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Webb Mitovich

What, if anything, do Star Wars, Mission: Impossible, and Jaws have in common?

What is the formula for blockbuster-movie success? And how does it differ from the recipe for disaster? The new book Boffo! How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb, by Variety editor-in-chief and former studio exec Peter Bart, explores those much-asked questions, as does an accompanying HBO documentary, Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters, premiering June 29 and featuring almost as many A-list talking heads as fantastic clips from films both great and... so-so. Bart says that  — especially as cohost of AMC's Sunday read more

Before I tell you what you'll...

• Mar 10, 2006 03:00 AM ET
• by Michael Ausiello

Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel

Before I tell you what you'll find in my exclusive interview with Gilmore Girls CEO Amy Sherman-Palladino below, let me tell you what you won't: Any mention of the growing (at least based on the Ask Ausiello feedback I've been receiving) fan backlash involving a certain long-lost "turtle" named April and the tension her presence is creating between Luke and Lorelai. Judge me and my interview skills all you want, but I just didn't go there. That heated discussion would have hijacked the entire interview and, as a result, compromised my primary mission: to seize as much prattle as I could about this season's final six episodes, the show's future on CW and Team Palladino's highly publicized contract talks. Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, as much as I worship the ground AS-P read more

Was My Living Doll a show in ...

• Mar 9, 2006 03:00 AM ET
• by TV Guide News

Question: Was My Living Doll a show in the '70s?

Answer: Yes, My Living Doll was indeed a series, but it ran on CBS a decade or so earlier than you guessed, starting in September 1964. It starred future Batman Catwoman Julie Newmar as a fetching experimental robot left in the care of psychiatrist Robert McDonald (Robert Cummings) after her inventor was reassigned to a post in Pakistan. McDonald named her Rhoda, told everyone she was his niece and set about training her to be an appropriately subservient woman. Of course, nothing's ever that easy, and hilarity ensued when McDonald's neighbor, Peter (Jack Mullaney), fell in love with the mechano-maiden and came ever closer to learning her secret.

Of course, it wasn't all that funny when Cummings read more

Rene Auberjonois: From Benson to Boston

• Feb 28, 2006 03:00 AM ET
• by Matt Webb Mitovich

Rene Auberjonois, Boston Legal

Before "snark" was even a word, Rene Auberjonois was wonderfully full of it as Clayton Runnymede Endicott III, the fancy-speaking foil to Robert Guillaume's titular manservant-turned-civil servant on the '80s comedy Benson. These days — and a sci-fi-fabulous run as Deep Space Nine's Odo later — the veteran actor is sharing a set with fellow Star Trek universe alum William Shatner on ABC's Boston Legal (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET). In fact, Auberjonois' prickly Paul Lewiston recently embarked on a juicy new story arc, one of the many topics covered in this Q&A with TVGuide.com. TVGuide.com: Long before there was The West Wing, befo read more

Las Vegas I don't even know what...

• Nov 22, 2005 03:00 AM ET
• by TV Guide News

Las VegasI don't even know what to freakin' say. I'm speechless, stupefied even! So Moth Woman Monica (Lara Flynn Boyle) — complete with wings and a hideous outfit — goes flying off the Montecito rooftop to what I presume is her death. I just knew the girl should have spent more time snacking on sandwiches. Still, I feel like I stepped into Crazy Land watching all this too-silly-for-words Sin City stuff play out. That's Sin City in the Robert Rodriguez does Frank Miller kinda way. Although at times, I thought I was watching a Batman rerun — POWs, KABLAMs and all. Just a few thoughts: The Montecito Jingle: When the autistic savant kept going over to the monitor to hear Monica's jingle, I thought the song sounded a lot like Rockwell read more