My Cross to Bear

By Gregg Allman with Alan Light?(Morrow, 400 pages, $27.99)

Any one of Gregg Allman’s stories about his life could lure a reader into his new memoir, but the 64-year-old Allman begins My Cross to Bear with his biggest moment of shame, the induction of the Allman Brothers Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

“It should have been the greatest week of my life, but instead I hit an all-time low,” he writes. “The Allman Brothers Band, the band my brother started, the band with our name on it, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I flat-out missed it. I was physically there, but otherwise I was out of it — mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I was drunk, man, just s—faced drunk, the entire time. Welcome to the story of my life.”

Given such a forthright enticement, Allman has no trouble hooking readers with the unflinching details of his highs — musical and otherwise — and lows. He writes in a charming, Southern gentlemanly first-person voice with help from Rolling Stone scribe Alan Light and contributing author John Lynskey, who has chronicled the Allman Brothers over the years. My Cross to Bear is essential reading for ABB fans.

Lead singer, songwriter and keyboardist for the band since its formation in 1969, Allman never knew his father; he was only 2 when his dad was murdered by a hitchhiker. He lost his brother and band mate Duane Allman, one of rock’s most revered guitarists, to a motorcycle accident in 1971 just as their band, guided by the production genius of the late Tom Dowd, was ascending to the A-list.

His five marriages failed and one of them, to pop culture fixture Cher, made him People magazine fodder in the 1970s. He had to testify against his band’s roadie for selling drugs to him and was blasted as a “narc” by Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia. He’s struggled with drug and alcohol addictions, battled hepatitis C and had a liver transplant.

Allman doesn’t spend too much time explaining why his marriages failed and gives only cursory mention to his five children. But the book’s detail-rich examination of key events in his music career gives Cross its dramatic momentum and value.

The musician doesn’t skimp on dishing on the final acrimonious departure of founding member Dickey Betts from the band in 2000 or on his conflicted relationship as “baybrah” of Duane Allman. The book’s most indelible moments focus on the relationship between the two.

At times, the memories are hilarious. One morning when they were children, Gregg was already working his mother’s last nerve for some infraction or other. Big brother, sitting in a wet bathing suit on a hard flat chair and already understanding the theory of amplification, seized on the moment by breaking wind, “like a [expletive] moose” and framed baybrah.

“Duane was able to keep a straight face, and he went, ‘Gregory — at the table?’ My mother gave me one look and said, ‘Get up from the table and go to your room.’ ”

Other stories aren’t as amusing, such as when Allman reflects on his last memory of Duane. The two fought over cocaine. Allman writes that he gave Duane $100 to buy a gram, but he never got the drug. Incensed, Gregg stole into Duane’s house while he was sleeping the next morning, found his brother’s stash, “poured out about half a gram, and snorted it up.” As soon as Gregg returned home the phone rang and Duane was furious and asked whether he had taken his coke. “The last thing I ever said to my brother was a f—— lie, man. ‘No, I did not,’ I told him.”

Duane apologized. “ ‘I sure do love ya, baybrah,’ and he hung up. That was the last time I ever spoke to my brother. … I have thought of that lie every day of my life, and I just keep recrucifying myself for it. I know that’s not what he would want — well, not for long, anyway. I know he lied to me about the blow in the first place, but the thing is, I never got the chance to tell him the truth.”

The book’s tone is so open and engaging, My Cross to Bear could appeal even to readers whose knowledge of the band begins and ends with Ramblin’ Man.

The latter category, Allman writes, would include ex-wife Cher, whom he met at one of his solo shows in 1975.

“Cher wasn’t hip to the Allman Brothers at all … she had heard Ramblin’ Man, but everybody had heard that song,” he recalls. (Interesting trivia: Cher’s pop single Half-Breed denied the Allman Brothers their only chance for a No. 1 single on the Oct. 13, 1973, Billboard Hot 100 chart.) Nevertheless, Allman was smitten, even if he later confesses that she can’t sing. “God, she smelled like I would imagine a mermaid would smell … I’ve never smelled it since, and I’ll never forget it.”

The book’s unfussy style also increases its value in helping readers understand how these major league musicians persevere despite the pitfalls. Simple: “A player has got to play,” Allman writes after doctors warn him to take it easy post-transplant. “(I)f traveling and making music is what takes me, I can’t think of a better way to go.”

Productions coming to DVD and/or Blu-ray on Tuesday include the following. (Titles with an asterisk are on Blu-ray as well as DVD.)

Movies — The Aggression Scale*, Coriolanus*, Gone*, Goon*, Love Never Dies*, Man on a Ledge*, Memorial Day*, A Necessary Death, Summer With Monika*, and We Need to Talk About Kevin*.

TV — The Diamond Queen (documentary about Queen Elizabeth II); Drop Dead Diva: Season 3; Maverick: The Complete First Season; The Queen’s Palaces; Rookie Blue: The Complete Second Season*; and True Blood: The Complete Fourth Season* (also reissues of the first three seasons in Blu-ray/DVD combo packs).

Kid/family — The Garfield Show: Summer Adventures (six episodes); and Lancelot Link Secret Chimp: Complete Special Collector’s Edition.

Sources include www.tvshowsondvd.com, www.joblo.com. For information, please consult those sites.

Don’t miss:

Hatfields & McCoys — Over the years, most of us have heard of the famous 19th century clash of backwoods clans. But few of us actually know what got the rumble rolling, or that it very nearly launched a war between Kentucky and West Virginia. This six-hour miniseries, airing over three nights, provides all the details and then some. It’s bolstered by vivid performances from Kevin Costner as Devil Anse Hatfield (yes, that’s his real name), and Bill Paxton as Randall McCoy. Also featured in the standout cast: Tom Berenger, Powers Boothe and Mare Winningham. 9 p.m. Monday, History. Read Rich Heldenfels’ review in Sunday’s Channels.

Other bets

Sunday: Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna are our hosts for the National Memorial Day Concert 2012. The annual tribute to military personnel features performances by Trace Adkins, Natalie Cole and Daughtry. 8 p.m., PBS.

Sunday: Mermaids: The Body Found either could be very intriguing — or just one whopper of a fish story. It’s a special claiming that the mythical sea creatures may have actually existed. 8 p.m., Animal Planet.

Sunday: Good news: The bloody mayhem continues on Game of Thrones. In the latest episode, Stannis’ (Stephen Dillane) fleet launches an all-out assault on King’s Landing, forcing Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) and the Lannisters to fight for their lives. 9 p.m., HBO.

Monday: Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman make lots of love and even more war in Hemingway & Gellhorn. It’s a TV film about the turbulent romance between writer Ernest Hemingway and courageous war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. 9 p.m., HBO.

Tuesday: We’re expecting a lot of skin and sin from The Catalina. It’s a new reality series that follows the daily adventures of young employees at a hotel in Miami’s South Beach. Up first: A spring-break pool party. 8 p.m., the CW.

Tuesday: On the third season opener of Workaholics, our slacker buddies have their first LSD experience, which happens to coincide with a business trip. Why does that not surprise us? 10:30 p.m., Comedy Central.

Wednesday: The thrills should be off the leash with Dogs in the City. It’s a reality series that has pet expert (and comedian) Justin Silver working to solve all kinds of canine complications. 8 p.m., CBS.

Wednesday: The 18th season of America’s Next Top Model concludes with the crowning of its winner. But first, one of the finalists is taken to the hospital after suffering a panic attack. 9 p.m., the CW.

Thursday: Breaking Pointe is a new reality series set in the world of ballet. It focuses on a fiercely competitive dance company in Salt Lake City, where the drama never ceases and members constantly have to be on their toes. 8 p.m., the CW.

Friday: Most kids have competed in a spelling bee. So why not a National History Bee? The first such event has brainy students from all over the country vying for a $50,000 scholarship in Washington, D.C. 9 p.m., History.

Saturday: We find the title of the latest episode of Flipped Off to be intriguing: “Nightmare on Deal Street.” It has Russell trying to ignore Shawn’s fears about buying a home in which the last resident died. 10 p.m., A&E.

A classic Western series comes to DVD on Tuesday, and I couldn’t be happier.

Maverick: The Complete First Season (Warner, 27 episodes, $32.95 standard DVD) presents the TV series that made James Garner a star and set the tone for many later characters he would play — roguish sorts with their own codes, starting with a man Garner has called both an anti-hero and a reluctant hero.

That would be Bret Maverick, a gambler who, though handy with a gun and his fists, preferred to outsmart his opponents either with a deck of cards or an elaborate scheme.

Although the series began simply with Garner as Bret, heavy production demands led to the addition of Bret’s brother Bart, played by Jack Kelly, who first appeared in the eighth episode of the premiere season. Kelly then starred in some episodes apart from Bret’s, so two crews could work at once, while other episodes found the brothers teamed.

As a young viewer of Maverick, which premiered in 1957, I always preferred the Bret episodes. People involved with the show have noted that the Bret episodes were often more comedic than Bart’s, mainly because Garner was more adept with light material than Kelly. Garner left the series a few years later, and it tried to keep going with still more Maverick kin, but it was never the same without him.

And from the beginning of the series, you can see how Garner made Bret a charmer with a sense of humor. The show also set him up with engaging rivals such as Samantha Crawford (played by Diane Brewster) and Dandy Jim Buckley (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). This was one of those DVD sets that I started watching and found very difficult to quit.

Viewers more familiar with current TV should note that these episodes are in black-and-white, and that there are signs of wear and age on some episodes. (These early episodes also include an instrumental version of the theme song, not the memorable, later vocal rendition.) Moreover, TV storytelling had a different pace in the ’50s, not least because there was more time to tell a story. These episodes last about 50 minutes, eight minutes longer than many TV dramas these days. Movie buffs, meanwhile, should be aware that the first three episodes were directed by Budd Boetticher, acclaimed for his work on a series of Randolph Scott movie Westerns. (Check out the five-movie DVD collection The Films of Budd Boetticher.)

There are no on-disc extras in the Maverick set. The set does include brief printed descriptions of each episode. And I love the show as much as I did when a kid.

Also on video on Tuesday:

We Need to Talk About Kevin (Oscilloscope, $29.99 DVD, $34.99 Blu-ray/DVD combo), an impressive movie but one that is so disturbing, I won’t be watching it again anytime soon. Based on a novel by Lionel Shriver, it involves a mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton), who is confronted more and more by the malevolence of her son (played as a teen by Ezra Miller). That evil has led to a horrible event, and the movie shifts back and forth in time to portray the Eva/Kevin relationship. Eva is hardly an ideal parent, but the terror in the movie is that, even if she were more loving, Kevin may just have been a menace from birth.

I am not always a fan of Swinton’s work, but she is very effective here, and Miller is genuinely terrifying. While Lynne Ramsay’s directing is at times artier than necessary, it swiftly and unceasingly fills the movie with dread.

Extras include a behind-the-scenes piece, an interview with Shriver and a segment honoring Swinton at the Telluride Film Festival.

Oscilloscope, by the way, is part of the legacy of Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, who died recently. He founded the company and modeled it on independent record labels, and its DVD and Blu-ray releases have been noteworthy for their excellent packaging and bracing array of titles.

Actor Ralph Fiennes acted in and directed Coriolanus (Anchor Bay, $26.98 DVD, $29.99 Blu-ray/DVD combo), which — with a script by John Logan — turns Shakespeare’s tragedy into a well-paced, modern-dress, action drama. Fiennes is the title character, a Roman general who can win battles but not people’s hearts; indeed, he doesn’t much care for common folk. Fiennes is very watchable and has assembled a high-powered cast, including Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave and Jessica Chastain. It’s very much worth seeing. Extras include a five-minute making-of segment and commentary by Fiennes.

Down video road: The Hunger Games comes to DVD and Blu-ray on Aug. 18. The Sarah Silverman Program: The Complete Series, with 39 episodes from three seasons, hits DVD on June 19. Deliverance will be in a 40th-anniversary Blu-ray set on June 26. The same day brings The Christopher Nolan Blu-ray Collection with the writer-director’s Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Memento, Insomnia and Inception in one package.

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com and the HeldenFiles Online blog (www.ohio.com/blogs/heldenfiles). He is also on Facebook and Twitter. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

Forum 360: (Time Warner Cable 23) Topic: Food trucks. Moderator: Ellen Botnick. 12:30 p.m. Monday; 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Tuesday; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, 10:30 a.m. Thursday; 2:30 p.m. Friday; 4 p.m. Saturday and 3:30 p.m. next Sunday.

Meet the Press: (NBC) Former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich; Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Md.; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

This Week: (ABC) Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Face the Nation: (CBS) Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.; Ed Gillespie, adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign; Robert Gibbs, adviser to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.

State of the Union: (CNN) Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; Peter Chiarelli, retired Army vice chief of staff; Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America; Tim Tetz, legislative director of the American Legion.

Fox News Sunday: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Catholic archbishop of Washington.

It just doesn’t matter that Phil Phil won America’s favorite talent contest say Malcom X Abram and Rich Heldenfels.

Read The Heldenfiles, the blog by Rich Heldenfels

The 19th-century conflict between the Hatfield and McCoy families became the definitive feud of American history. To this day it provides a shorthand way of describing a hate-laced, unbending, seemingly endless battle between two groups. But what in fact happened between the Hatfields and McCoys?

The History channel offers a very long answer with the three-part miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, starring Kevin Costner as “Devil Anse” Hatfield and Bill Paxton as Randall McCoy, the patriarchs of the feuding clans. It premieres from 9 to 11:06 p.m. Monday, 9 to 11:05 p.m. Tuesday and 9 to 11 p.m. Wednesday. History has also tied other programs to the Hatfields/McCoys theme, including back-to-back episodes of Pawn Stars airing at 8 p.m. Monday.

Costner, who is also a producer of the series, has demonstrated a need to take lots of time to tell a story, and Hatfields & McCoys follows that pattern. At times, it seems as if the program is going to last as long as the decades consumed by the real-life feud.

But that time demonstrates how pervasive, and complicated, were the events in the feud. Not only did they involve two large families, but also lawyers, judges, at least one minister, the governors of two states and the U.S. Supreme Court. Periods of seeming peace would end suddenly in capricious bloodletting. (CBS News reported a few years ago on a rare disease afflicting the McCoys, which may have caused some “hair-trigger rage and violent outbursts.”) And when one side was attacked, the other had to respond in kind.

The drama, which draws heavily on historical accounts of the feud, traces it to hard feelings between Anse and Randall during the Civil War, feelings that carried into the postwar years. Although they lived on opposite sides of a river — McCoy in Kentucky, Hatfield in West Virginia — their paths repeatedly crossed and their interests conflicted, usually with lethal results.

While the patriarchs loom over the action, the story spins far beyond them. Key players include Anse’s son Johnse (Matt Barr), who falls in love with Randall’s daughter Roseanna (Lindsay Pulsipher), to the dismay of both families. Perry Cline (Ronan Vibert), a McCoy family lawyer, takes advantage of the feud for his own gain, as does “Bad Frank” Phillips (a quite scary Andrew Howard), a gun for hire with an old grudge against the Hatfields. While Anse seems to drive the feud, his brother Wall (Powers Boothe) keeps getting dragged into it because of his position as a local judge. And there’s Jim Vance (Tom Berenger), Anse’s violent uncle, who repeatedly plays a pivotal role in the feud. So does Nancy McCoy (Jena Malone), unscrupulous and driven.

The cast is good, with many effective scenes. But I still felt too often that the tale could have been more tightly told — and more dramatic as a result.

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com and the HeldenFiles Online blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/heldenfiles. He is also on Facebook and Twitter. You can reach him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal popular culture writer

In 1997, the first Men in Black movie offered a clever blend of comedy, extraterrestrials and action, heightened by the amusing pairing of the chatty Will Smith and the laconic Tommy Lee Jones.

A sequel followed five years later. It was neither as amusing nor as successful as the original film, and it seemed as if all concerned realized they should not push the idea any harder.

Tommy Lee Jones (left) and Will Smith star in Columbia Pictures' Men in Black 3. (Wilson Webb/Columbia Pictures)

Now, a decade after the second film, we have Men in Black³. It has some laughs, but there is also a great deal of melancholy in the affair, and not only because Smith looks startlingly old in the early scenes. It’s not a bad film, and it ends with a nice flourish. But I expected something livelier and funnier.

Men in Black³ finds agents J (Smith) and K (Jones) still dealing with alien misbehavior on Earth. Their now long partnership has become frustrating to J because K never reveals his emotional self, and J cannot understand what closed K off so completely. But his attempt to understand his partner is interrupted when the dreaded Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords) escapes his lunar prison and heads to Earth, bent on revenge against the man who caught him: K.

Boris’ scheme involves going back in time to 1969 and his last confrontation with K and killing the agent. It appears at first that he has succeeded — J’s many years with his partner have been erased — so J must also go back in time to stop Boris and save K. That allows him to meet a much younger K (played by Josh Brolin) and to get a peek at what the man was like before events turned him into the sorrowful K.

Men in Black³ should have had a great opportunity in the 1969 scenes, and it takes advantage of some, including its showing of earlier versions of the agents’ gear. But there are even more moments when the movie is uninspired. A visit to Andy Warhol’s studio lasts far longer than necessary. And while Brolin — who has worked with Jones — knows how to replicate his older co-star’s moves, the young K is not that much more open than the older version, so Brolin and Smith fall into rhythms we have already seen often enough via Jones and Smith.

Indeed, in the latter stages of the movie, the most watchable part involves Griffin, an alien who can not only see the future but multiple futures, depending on which course people take. Griffin is played by Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, Boardwalk Empire) as a sweet presence who rejoices in the good paths the future follows — but is tinged with sadness at seeing the tragic turns life may take.

And Griffin’s view of life fuels the movie as a whole, especially in an ending that, touching though it may be, explains K’s emotional journey a bit too well.

In the end, there were just enough good bits in Men in Black³ to keep it from being just an attempt to rake in more money from an old, beloved franchise. But there were not enough to make me recommend it wholeheartedly. And the use of 3-D, while good at times, is so sparing that you should skip paying the 3-D premium and get what you can from the 2-D’s comedy and drama.

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and Ohio.com, and in the HeldenFiles Online blog (www.ohio.com/blogs/heldenfiles). He is also on Facebook and Twitter. Contact him at 330-996-3582 or by email to rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES: G.I. Joe won’t be going into action on the big-screen this summer, after all.

In this film image released by Paramount Pictures, Channing Tatum, left, and Dwayne Johnson are shown in a scene from "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." (AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Jaimie Trueblood)

While it’s not uncommon for studios to shuffle opening dates, it is rare for such a big-budget movie to get the bump so close to its release.

Paramount executives told the Reporter the move was made so the studio would have time to convert “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” into a digital 3-D version.

Action films often get most of their revenue from 3-D showings, which cost a few dollars more per ticket and can boost a movie’s prospects to make its money back.

Paramount did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.

By Rich Heldenfels

Beacon Journal pop culture writer

If it’s Thursday, this must be the mailbag.

Q: On the May 6 episode of “Harry’s Law,” one of the people they were defending was a very nice-looking, tall, “English” man. He looked so familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Who was he and what have I seen him on?

A: That was actor Steve Valentine. You may remember him as Dr. Nigel Townsend on Crossing Jordan, the 2001-07 NBC drama starring Jill Hennessy. His extensive credits also include acting the series I’m in the Band and hosting the reality show Estate of Panic. Born in Scotland, he has also worked as a DJ, standup comic and magician.

Q: My favorite shows are “Ringer” on the CW and “Missing” on ABC. I heard that both shows were canceled. If so, why? And is possible they could be going to another network?

A: Both shows were indeed left out of their respective networks’ plans for next season. Ringer looked like a good bet before the season began, with much-liked star Sarah Michelle Gellar playing two roles in the thriller. But it was a bad show, at least at first, and lost some of the people drawn to it. As the Huffington Post reported, the series “premiered last September to mediocre ratings at 2.8 million, but slipped down to 1.2 million by the season finale.” The president of the CW did tell the Hollywood Reporter that the network plans to do something else with Gellar: “She will be back on the CW in some form.”

As for Missing, the drama starring Ashley Judd as a butt-kicking former spy searching for her abducted son, a writer for TV.com snarked that its demise proved “America is not really interested in 40-year-old female action heroes who spend all their time running after planes and falling to their knees to cry.” Which doesn’t seem fair, since I think that at least once she ran after a train before she cried. But, as EW.com pointed out — accompanied, by the way, by a photo of Judd crying — the series “never really found an audience.”

Q: Turner Classic Movies recently ran a movie called “Jamboree!” from 1957. Is there anywhere I can buy it?

A: The movie, about a pop-singing duo, remains of interest for its inclusion of musical performers such as Frankie Avalon, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins and Count Basie, and of disc jockeys from the era, among them Dick Clark and Cleveland/Akron personality Joe Finan. It has been released on DVD; if your local retailer cannot get it, I have seen it for sale online at www.wbshop.com.

Q: I am a big Herbie fan. I have all the Herbie movies on DVD. Can you please tell me if there will be anymore Herbie movies?

A: I am guessing that you are referring to Herbie the Love Bug, the Volkswagen that starred in an array of movie and TV ventures. I do not know of plans for a new production but would not rule one out considering how long the screen history is and how much Disney likes to revisit projects. This project began with The Love Bug with Dean Jones in 1969, then stretched through Herbie Rides Again (1974), Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), Herbie Goes Bananas (1980), a short-lived Herbie the Love Bug TV series in 1982, a TV-movie version of The Love Bug and, most recently, Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005).

Q: What can you tell me about the skeleton called Geoff on the Craig Ferguson show? When did he start? I don’t often stay up that late, but I’ve seen some of a few shows lately and he is hilarious.

A: The robot sidekick — full name, Geoff Peterson — made its debut in 2010. Ferguson, who calls his Twitter followers the Robot Skeleton Army, wanted a robotic sidekick on the show. According to Entertainment Weekly, Grant Imahara of the Discovery series MythBusters “tweeted to Ferguson that, if the late-night host could get Imahara’s Twitter-follower number to exceed 100,000, he’d build Craig a robot sidekick.”

Ferguson, a Mythbusters fan, made that happen. Then Imahara came up with Geoff, which he described to NPR.org as “a biology-class skeleton on steroids.”

He can speak and move — and may be the only late-night-TV sidekick to get a photo display in the magazine Popular Mechanics.

•

Do you have a question or comment for the mailbag? Write to the Akron Beacon Journal, 44 E. Exchange St., Akron, OH 44309 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com. Please mark the email or envelope with “mailbag.” Letters may be edited for publication. Please do not phone in questions. Individual replies cannot be guaranteed.

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/heldenfiles. He is also on Facebook and Twitter. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.

Dancing with joy, features writer Lynne Sherwin and pop culture writer Rich Heldenfels celebrate the win of Donald Driver in America’s favorite dance competition.

Read The Heldenfiles, the blog by Rich Heldenfels

Akron’s own John Lithgow will be back in town on Feb. 7 to deliver a University of Akron Myers Lecture in EJ Thomas Hall. Awaiting more details.

"Bristol Palin: Life’s Tripp," the new reality series, will premiere June 19 on Lifetime. From the official announcement:

Viewers will get the chance to experience the life of one of America’s most famous young mothers, Bristol Palin, in the all new docuseries, Bristol Palin: Life’s a Tripp, premiering Tuesday, June 19, at 10pm ET/PT with back-to-back episodes. Two new episodes will subsequently air every Tuesday, showcasing Bristol’s journey growing into womanhood with her young son, Tripp.

 With never-before-granted access to Bristol’s real-life experiences, the show follows her everyday life as a single mother living under intense media scrutiny that comes from her lineage as the daughter of former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The series follows Bristol’s move from Wasilla to Los Angeles with Tripp and her sister Willow, and back to Alaska as she deals with parenting and disciplining her toddler without Tripp’s father. Giving viewers a unique look at the difficult decisions she has to make for her relationships, career and family, Bristol Palin: Life’s a Tripp will capture how these true-to-life challenges test her resolve as she single-handedly writes the next chapter in her and Tripp’s life.

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino is talking about life before and after rehab with MTV. The full interview is here. An excerpt where he talks about how bad things had gotten is below.

Read The Heldenfiles, the blog by Rich Heldenfels

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES: He already has a Super Bowl ring, and now football star Donald Driver can add the Dancing With the Stars mirrorball trophy to his awards collection.

In a photo provided by ABC Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd hold up their trophies after they were selected "Dancing with the Stars" champions Tuesday May 21, 2012. They won the ABC dance show Tuesday after wowing audiences and judges with his kickin' country-themed freestyle routine. (AP Photo/ABC/ADAM TAYLOR)

Streamers and confetti rained down from the ceiling, filling the ballroom as they celebrated. Driver’s wife and children joined him on the dance floor.

With just one point separating the three finalists, it was up to the viewers to pick the winner.

He and his fellow finalists, Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins and Cuban actor William Levy, each earned perfect scores for their last performances Tuesday. Jenkins came into the final contest with a perfect 60 points; Driver and Levy each had 59.

Judges’ scores combined with viewer votes determined the result.

Contestants eliminated throughout the show’s 10-week season reunited for the two-hour finale. Martina Navratilova, Gavin DeGraw, Jack Wagner, Jaleel White, Sherri Shepherd, Melissa Gilbert, Roshon Fegan, Maria Menounos and Gladys Knight all donned costumes Tuesday for one last dance.

Knight did double performance duty, also singing “The Way We Were.” Kelly Clarkson also performed on the show.

The next round of “Dancing With the Stars” will feature contestants from past seasons.

I took at look at this trailer for the new version of "The Great Gatsby," directed by Baz Luhrmann, and found it wrong in so many wavs, from the excess of some scenes to the thuggy look given Leo’s Gatsby. Is it that "Gatsby" simply can’t be adapted or that the people who try have no sense of what the book is? The Redford version was sluggish (although I liked Bruce Dern’s performance) and the TV production unwilling to see the world Nick saw. Of course, the trailer here may be misleading, as trailers so often are. But it does not make me optimistic.

I was very pleased with the results on "Dancing With the Stars" on Tuesday, as will be clear later when the last video chat with Lynne Sherwin is posted here. I was and am convinced that the show wanted a Katherine/William final and to the end it appeared the judges wanted a Katherine win. (Will anyone be surprised if Katherine and William sign deals with Disney soon?) But Donald was consistently the most charismatic, powerful dancer on the show, and the judges should be embarrassed by their fawning over lesser performers.

I saw "Men in Black 3" on Tuesday night and was less than thrilled. I had hoped for better, as I explain in my review, which I will post here later. Now I move my enthusiasm on to "The Dark Knight Rises." Speaking of which, Warner is issuing a Christopher Nolan Blu-ray box. The official word:

The Christopher Nolan Blu-ray™ Collection makes its debut June 26th from Warner Home Video. The Collection includes Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Inception, Insomnia, and Memento. Timed to the upcoming release of Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, the Collection includes all the films’ original special features  … as well as a premium book featuring production stills, notes and insights on the making of each film. Each Collection will also include Movie Cash good for up to $8 off one admission ticket to see The Dark Knight Rises at participating theaters between July 20, 2012 and August 5, 2012. Christopher Nolan Blu-ray™ Collection will be available for $49.99 SRP

Because of my moviegoing and the more immediate need to see "DWTS," I have not yet caught up with the "Glee" season finale or the "American Idol" performance show. More on the latter, at least, after the results tonight. I have seen differing predictions, some for Phil-Phil, some for Jessica. My preference for Jessica has been repeatedly expressed, and I wanted a Jessica/Joshua final, so Phil winning would be a bummer, as well as a continuation of the show’s white-boy-winning pattern. Of course, "DWTS" went against the grain, so maybe there will be good "Idol" news, too.

Read The Heldenfiles, the blog by Rich Heldenfels

By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal pop culture writer

The commercial broadcast networks have announced their plans for next season. I’m scared.

There’s a beast in New York City. A very scary building. A rogue submarine with nukes. A serial killer, a global power outage, Hannibal Lecter and various mobsters.

On the plus side, we can expect help from a comic-book hero and Sherlock Holmes. And, when they’re not making us nervous, the networks hope to make us laugh.

Scott Speedman, Robert Patrick and Andre Braugher star in ABC's Last Resort. (ABC/MARIO PEREZ)

That’s a somewhat sketchy overview of the new TV season on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW. Each presented its programming plans last week to begin luring advertisers — and to start intriguing audiences. Clips of some new shows went online almost immediately, and more than one announcement came with listings of Facebook pages and Twitter hashtags for series.

Now, with cable often offering its own popular shows and with summer full of network series, the fall broadcast season may seem largely irrelevant to you. But it still remains the place where the biggest TV hits debut, and where many people go for fun as summer gives way to autumn’s chill and winter snow.

It’s very early in a process that usually leads to name, casting and schedule changes before shows hit the air in the fall. Still, I feel some guarded enthusiasm — for, say, Last Resort, the nuclear-submarine saga, or The Mindy Project, a new comedy from The Office writer-actress Mindy Kaling, or Matthew Perry’s latest comedy, Go On.

You may just be wondering whether your favorite current show is coming back. See the accompanying lists of returning shows and of canceled shows. (Again, these lists are just commercial broadcast shows.)

For now, let’s look at each weeknight and what the networks are up to — and up against — in the fall. You can read more about all the networks’ plans at www.ohio.com/blogs/heldenfiles.

Monday

From 8 to 10 p.m., it will be a reality-competition faceoff, with ABC’s Dancing With the Stars against NBC’s The Voice. CBS during that time will stick with comedy: How I Met Your Mother, the new Partners (two best friends, one gay and one not, each have recent romances), 2 Broke Girls and Mike & Molly. (Two and a Half Men moves to Thursday.) Fox, which programs only 8 to 10 p.m., brings back Bones in tandem with Mob Doctor, about a surgeon (My Boys’ Jordana Spiro) who is paying off her brother’s gambling debt with work for a crime boss. The CW, also 8 to 10 only, will have 90210 followed by the final season of Gossip Girl.

At 10 p.m., ABC keeps Castle and CBS, Hawaii Five-0, while NBC premieres Revolution, set in America 15 years after the world has lost all electrical power.

Tuesday

There will be eight comedies spread across four networks on this night, with the 9 p.m. hour holding six of them: Happy Endings and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 on ABC; New Girl and the new Mindy Project (Kaling as a doctor with tricky personal and professional lives), and two new shows — Go On and The New Normal on NBC. Matthew Perry plays a sportscaster dealing with the death of his wife in Go On, while Normal involves two gay men who want to have a baby, and the woman who is their surrogate. The other two comedies, on Fox in the 8 p.m. hour, are the returning Raising Hope and the new Ben and Kate, about very different, adult siblings sharing a home. (Glee heads to Thursdays.)

Also on Tuesday: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and the new drama Vegas (lawman Dennis Quaid vs. mobster Michael Chiklis), all on CBS; Hart of Dixie and new comedy-drama Emily Owens, M.D,, on The CW; results shows for DWTS and The Voice and, in the 10 p.m. hour, Private Practice on ABC and Parenthood on NBC.

Wednesday

Six more comedies, with ABC keeping a four-comedy block of The Middle, Suburgatory, Modern Family and the new The Neighbors (family moves into housing development where everyone else is extraterrestrial); it completes the night with new drama Nashville, about the clash between a country-music veteran (Connie Britton) and a rising star (Hayden Panettiere). (Revenge moves to Sunday.) The other two comedies are NBC’s in the 8 p.m. hour: Animal Practice (veterinarian’s ex starts running the animal hospital where he works) and Guys With Kids (new dads). NBC finishes the night with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the new Chicago Fire, from Law & Order maestro Dick Wolf.

Fox fills its two hours with The X Factor. CBS stands pat with Survivor, Criminal Minds and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The CW will offer Arrow, a new drama inspired by the Green Arrow comic books, and the returning Supernatural.

Thursday

ABC will try to make inroads in a very competitive 8 p.m, hour, with Last Resort, a new drama about a nuclear-submarine crew forced into conflict with pretty much the entire rest of the world; Andre Braugher stars. The network will follow it with Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal.

If you’ve been intrigued by the modern-dress Sherlock on PBS (which ends its second season tonight), then maybe you’ll consider Elementary, with a modern Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu) in New York; it’s CBS’ 10 p.m. offering, following returners The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men and Person of Interest. (The Mentalist moves to Sunday.)

NBC has a familiar lineup with 30 Rock (in its final season), Up All Night, The Office, Parks & Recreation, followed by Rock Center With Brian Williams. (Community and Whitney move to Friday.) Fox has the X Factor results show followed by Glee. The CW plans Vampire Diaries and the new Beauty and the Beast, derived from the ’80s TV series of the same name.

Friday

There is only one new network series on the night, Made in Jersey, about a working-class lawyer in a fancy Manhattan firm; CBS is using it on an all-New York night, bracketed by CSI:NY and Blue Bloods. The CW has America’s Next Top Model and Nikita; Fox will show Touch and Fringe (in its last season), and NBC will go with Whitney, Community, Grimm and Dateline NBC.

ABC will start the fall with Shark Tank, Primetime: What Would You Do? and 20/20, but adjust that in November to be comedies Last Man Standing, the new Malibu Country (Reba McEntire as a newly divorced country singer), Shark Tank and 20/20.

Saturday

The CW does not program Saturday and other networks barely do. ABC will fill it with college football, Fox will use it for sports (bringing back Cops at midseason), NBC has reruns and CBS has two hours of reruns followed by 48 Hours Mystery.

Sunday

The night where prime time begins at 7 p.m. has changes but only one new show: 666 Park Avenue, an ABC drama about the spooky doings at a fancy address. It completes the network’s lineup of America’s Funniest Home Videos, Once Upon a Time and the transplanted Revenge. CBS has 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, The Good Wife and the moved Mentalist. NBC will have NFL football, and Fox will follow football coverage with animated series, including The Cleveland Show, The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy and American Dad. The CW does not program Sunday.

So that gives you a taste of what the early fall will hold, at least until shows start to collapse in the ratings. And there is plenty planned for later in the season, from The CW’s Sex and the City prequel with a 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw to the ABC comedy How to Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) to CBS’ twentysomething-sitcom Friend Me to Fox’s serial-killer drama The Following and NBC’s Hannibal, about the evil Dr. Lecter. It will be another busy TV year.

ALSO SEE:

Returning shows on the commercial broadcast networks

Canceled and ended network shows

Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and Ohio.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter and in the HeldenFiles Online (www.ohio.com/blogs/heldenfiles). He can be reached at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.