He's still got it. The upcoming movie Michael Jackson's This Is It, due out a full month from now, has blown past several sellout benchmarks, outpacing Harry Potter and Twilight in sold-out shows, according to a rep for MovieTickets.com. It's also walloping the Hannah Montana concert movie, per Fandango. Each site reports hundreds upon hundreds of sold-out shows—over 700 showings of the film are already sold out.

Pop Vox has the answers to five panicky questions you have right now:

When can I see it? Not until Oct. 28—which is what makes these sellouts so unprecedented. Most movies don't sell out 500-plus theaters until the last week before they're released (if ever). On MovieTickets, This Is It hit 100 sellouts on the first day it went on sale (Monday), and throttled up to 500 by Wednesday. "The ticketing trend shows no signs of abating," Rick Butler, Fandango's chief operating officer, said in an e-mail from the site.

How long is it out? Just for two weeks—a limited platform that's helping to account for some of the presale mass hysteria, the site analysts say. It's also being marketed as the biggest music event of the year. After initially slotting the "special, limited, two-week, worldwide engagement" for an Oct. 30 opening—a conventional Friday release—Sony moved the film to a Wednesday-night release, something typically reserved for huge blockbusters. Which, inarguably, This Is It is shaping up to be.

What the heck is this movie—a concert or a documentary? It's both. Parts of it are a 3D concert movie, showing clips from rehearsals for the 50-date tour that Jackson was set to start over the summer. And the rest is a kind of eulogizing documentary, with footage culled from more than 100 hours of film that AEG Live sold to Sony Pictures. (Those 100 hours were filmed during concert rehearsals throughout the spring and early summer.) 

Who's directing it? Kenny Ortega, the same man who brought you the High School Musicals and who was, at the time of Jackson's death, overseeing his tour. "As we began assembling the footage for the motion picture, we realized we captured something extraordinary, unique and very special," he said in August. "It's a very private, exclusive look into a creative genius's world."

Michael is big, but will he beat Miley? As her alter ego Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus holds the record for best-performing concert movie. Her Best of Both Worlds 3D movie earned $31.1 million, with a per-theater average of more than $45,000. And yet, to date, This Is It is outpacing Best of Both Worlds in presales quite significantly. Brace for an upset (or would it be the expected outcome?).

by Jennie Yabroff

When, in Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov dreams of throwing his arms around a horse that has been beaten to death by its master, his reaction to the violence indicates his morality. One hundred fifty years later, there is still no more effective yardstick of a character’s humanity than his or her treatment of animals. When one character kills another human being, the possibility of his redemption is debatable. But if a character kills an animal, all bets are off. We know Glenn Close is a little wacko even before she boils Michael Douglas’s daughter’s bunny in Fatal Attraction, but once the rabbit hits the pot, justice demands Close not live to see the final credits.

The Stepfather—Oct. 16, 2009

(Editor: This is part of a recurring series in which we dish on new trailers—then solicit your feedback. Tell us if you'll see the movie below in the comments.)

THE LOOK: This remake of an ’80 horror flick starring Terry O’Quinn (which, truthfully, isn’t too bad by ’80s horror standards) has gotten a reboot, with Dylan Walsh as the pathological patriarch, and a radiant Sela Ward as the doomed single mother. Penn Badgley of Gossip Girl steps in as the suspicious son, which is perfect for him since his day job is all about the strains of a blended family.

THE FEEL: The trailer has the of a generously budgeted Lifetime movie, and you can tell that its final sequence of “exciting” quick cuts all take place within the same 10 minutes of the movie. Still, the titular character is more psychologically fascinating than most suspense/horror baddies, and the plot appears to hew closely to the original film.

GRIPES: Because of the plot structure, this is a trailer that can’t help but spill all the beans ahead of time. It’s not a tease, it’s a full reveal. The only reason to watch the movie is to fill in the fine details and check out Sela Ward. Seriously, she looks great at 53.

Photo courtesy of Alain de Botton.

Over the last decade, British author Alain de Botton has built an empire out of his cotton-candy approach to big ideas. In a fistful of hits—including Status Anxiety, The Architecture of Happiness, and The Consolations of Philosophy—as well as numerous BBC and PBS documentaries, he’s offered a clever look at Western civilization, all from the mercilessly pragmatic perspective of what helps people live more fulfilling lives. But while his style has certainly sold books—more than 5 million worldwide—it has also drawn gob-smacking levels of professional scorn. The New York Times’s Jim Holt called his work “piffle dressed up in pompous language,” feminist critic Naomi Wolf wrote that “40 pages into his newest offering I was ready to hurl it across the room,” and Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker described de Botton as “an absolute pair-of-aching-balls of a man—a slapheaded, ruby-lipped pop philosopher who's forged a lucrative career stating the bleeding obvious in a series of poncey, lighter-than-air books.”

De Botton explained his thinking to Pop Vox:

by Daniel D'Addario

The Material Girl has released a lot of material over her career, so it's only natural that she would release a greatest hits album. Or two. Or three.

Yeah, that's right. Today Madonna drops her third career-spanning greatest-hits collection, Celebration. The 36-track, double CD album covers just about all of her classics ("Like a Prayer," "Ray of Light," "Material Girl") and all of her reinventions (geisha, cowgirl, a brunette), and she even has some new songs. They are (are you ready for this?)  Celebration, a trying-too-hard disco track with a thin veneer of sex ("I guess I just don't recognize you with your clothes on," she tells a dance partner), and "Revolver," a double-entendre-laden collaboration with Lil Wayne.

But hold on! Madonna, you forgot to include some of your greatest hits on your greatest hits album. Even if you've rereleased some of these songs before, Celebration is supposed to be, well, a celebration of your entire pop star career. Here's what we would've liked to have seen included:

Cover image, Vanguard Press.

by Daniel D’Addario

Photo, Brian Ach / WireImage-Getty Images

Photo: Henry Spencer / Getty Images

by Jennie Yabroff

Cupcakes inspire a surprising amount of animosity for what would seem an innocuous dessert item. Ask most anti-cupcakists about the bases of their objections, and you’ll hear the same thing: cupcakes are dry, flavorless sugar bombs. But according to Pam Nelson, owner of Butter Lane Bakery in Manhattan, there’s no reason a cupcake can’t be moist, delicious, and not-too-sweet. “Our mantra in developing our recipes was less sugar, more flavor,” she says. A few secrets to perfect cupcakes, after the jump.

by Jennie Yabroff

The opening scene of the 1980 movie Fame begins with an aspiring actor delivering a confessional monologue. A gangly, pale kid with pouffy red hair who is struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality and obsessed with his mother, he admits that he always worries people won't like him when he goes to a party.  The fear doesn't seem entirely unfounded. As an actor, he's quite promising. As a person, he's a bit of a mess.

by Ramin Setoodeh

The Deschanel sisters: Zooey, at right, and Emily, at left. Photo, Sara De Boer / Retna-Corbis.

by Jessica Ramirez

I don’t like to say it aloud—I have two sisters and I know how competitive they can be—but in this case, it’s true. Emily Deschanel makes her younger sister Zooey look bad. It’s not Emily’s fault she’s so damn good at playing Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist on Fox’s hit TV show, Bones. I mean how do you outshine a woman whose character uses the airbag explosives of the car she’s buried in to try and dig herself out of a grave. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about watch Episode Nine, Season Two. Then punish yourself for not knowing by listening to one of Zooey’s songs.)

We sat down for a 7 Things with an old Pop Vox pal this week, Wolverine and Australia star Hugh Jackman. First order of business: congratulating him on the big Emmy win for his Oscars writing team. He demurred, and in turn congratulated this year's Emmy and Tony host, Neil Patrick Harris, for possibly being the best host ever. Click the player to view!

(If you missed the opening Oscar montage for which Jackman's writers won—or just want to relive the magic—click below to view.)

by Daniel D’Addario

by David Ansen

At the end of Capitalism: A Love Story—the movie Michael Moore trumpets as the culmination of all his work—the cinematic provocateur  issues a rousing call to arms: "Capitalism is an evil. You have to eliminate it."  A radical proposal, to be sure. But how can this be accomplished?  Well, his manifesto argues, to upend a system that has resulted in the top 1 percent of the population enjoying most of the wealth, its up to the other 99 percent (that's us, folks) to exercise the power of the ballot box.  In other words, Democracy can bring down the system it has historically always supported.  Just how this revolt is going to come about… well, that's where Moore's movie is frustratingly vague.  By watching this movie? Is anyone holding his breath?

by Barbara Kantrowitz

Courteney Cox was always my favorite Friend. As Monica, she was clearly gorgeous, but still felt the pain of her former fatty self. And she was such a klutz, which provided fertile territory for physical comedy. With that history, I was honestly rooting for her to succeed in her new show Cougar Town, which premieres tonight on ABC. But where Monica was sweet, Cox’s Jules is just plain sour. She’s a 40-something divorcée, which means just one thing on TV in 2009: she obviously must be prowling for hot, panting sex with ripped guys only a few years older than her teenage son. One word: yuck.

The email arrived at 2:53 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17. The subject? "Pavement."

"I'm getting tickets tomorrow," wrote a friend, somewhat mysteriously. "Who wants?" For a moment, I was confused. Pavement, perhaps the best indie-rock band of the Nineties, broke up in 2000.

Luckily, a clarification landed in my inbox five seconds later: "Oh, right, details: Reunion show. Tue, Sep 21, 2010 07:00 PM. Not sure how much tickets cost."

That was all I needed. "Count me in," I typed. "Even though I’ll probably be getting married the weekend after."

The fact that my friend pitched the tickets without providing any information on price, location or, at first, timing--and that I agreed to purchase them almost a year in advance, despite what many people might consider a rather "important" conflict—should come as no surprise to fans of Pavement, whose members confirmed plans last Thursday to reunite in 2010 for a concert in New York's Central Park and a series of unspecified "dates around the world." Nor should it shock them that the Central Park show sold out instantly, forcing the band to schedule a second gig the following day—and then, when that sold out, too, to tack on an additional show the day after. As one headline put it, "Holy S**t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" People—especially 27-year-old yupsters like me—like Pavement. A lot.

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The former Republican congressman shaking his booty—like, actually—for a cha-cha on Dancing With the Stars. How 'bout that outfit? Gotta say, we love this line: "It's hard for me to go left."

by Nicki Gostin

by Joshua Alston

Photo, courtesy of ABC.

by Ramin Setoodeh

Matt Damon is receiving some of the best reviews of his career for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant, and he deserves all the praise. Damon plays real-life FBI whistleblower Mark Whitacre, who tries to expose his company's price fixing tactics, only to later discover that this own tactics are under investigation. It's not just that Damon embodies his character's nerdy, jittery disposition. He only embodies his character's doughy body. Damon put on 30 pounds for the role. "I started eating like crazy and drinking dark beer," Damon told Entertainment Weekly. "Between meals on set, I'd eat a No. 1 Value Meal at McDonald's and then Doritos on top of it. It was absolute heaven." It might even get better, Mr. Damon. You'll probably land an Oscar nomination for this performance.

Our TV guru Joshua Alston divines who'll take home a primetime, statuette-shaped doorstop in '09. The 61st Emmy Awards airs Sunday Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. ET.

For the writers and cast of every comedy that is not 30 Rock, I have good news and bad news about this year’s Emmy Awards. The bad news is that Tina Fey has already taken home an Emmy this year, at the Creative Arts portion, which are handed out early. Granted, it wasn’t for 30 Rock, her insatiable Emmy beast (this year it garnered a record 22 nominations), it was for her now-iconic performance as Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. Still, it could mean that there remains a Fey frenzy among Emmy voters, which could mean another 30 Rock sweep. The good news is that Fey’s show came up short in the categories it usually excels in: guest actors. All five of the actors nominated for guest spots on 30 Rock went home empty-handed. Though, in the case of the actresses. they lost to none other than…Tina Fey.

The point is that predicting Emmy winners is hardly scientific. However...

Like Dan Brown before him, Fox 5 news anchor Ernie Anastos's way with words has been translated into  every language. Well, almost: in the gazillion multilingual Google results for the outburst, the famous phrase in question is mostly (hilariously) not translated. Does the fact that there's no Sanskrit for "chicken f--king" discredit the theory that Anastos was going for some well-known, folksy idiom?

• In Russia!... комплімент своєму колезі Ніку Грегорі, сказавши, що "тільки суворий чоловік може зробити м'який прогноз", а потім додав: "Keep f--king that chicken". ...

• In France! Au cours d'une lumière au cœur des échanges avec WNYW Fox 5 collègues, Anastos dit Weatherman Nick Grégoire à «garder f--king que le poulet". ...

• In Taiwan! 勵志、溫馨的國片「2分20秒」，導演薛少軒力捧泳技不錯、有陽光笑容的姪子薛宇庭當男主角，扮教練的黃...<詳細內容>. 本日最夯. Ernie Anastos: "Keep f--king that ...

• In Sweden! Men tungan ville inte lyda och han råkade säga "keep f--king that chicken". Den kvinnlig nyhetspresentatören vid hans sida spärrar upp ögonen och drar efter ...

• In Colombia! Vean la cara de la mujer al escuchar el "Keep f--king that chicken" ("Vete a tirarte a un pollo") que pronunció el conocido Ernie Anastos por la cadena FOX. ...

• In Peru! Ernie Anastos le dijo al ´hombre del tiempo´ de la cadena Fox Channel 5 que ´vaya a f--larse a un pollo´. El presentador de noticias Ernie Anastos de la ...

By Kurt Soller

Poor Jennifer Aniston. She’s heartbroken again, and it was a dirty breakup this time. Her boyfriend—a rock musician—cheats on her, and she discovers it by picking up a lipstick-stained wine glass. It’s a fictional breakup, of course—at the beginning of her new movie, Love Happens—but her twisted face and emotional stuttering are straight out of real life, where we're used to seeing Aniston on the receiving end of a guy's bad behavior. While most heroines from romantic comedies are perpetually down in the dumps (see: Sandra Bullock, Rachel McAdams or even Julia Roberts), Aniston is playing her own version of cinema verite: it’s impossible to tell whether her character’s pain is any different from her own. Watching her like this feels strange, but familiar. We’ve been force-fed so many details of her romantic rumblings that any time a man cheats on her, walks out on her or refuses to marry her (As Ben Affleck does in He’s Just Not That Into You), we’re reminded of the days when Brad Pitt mattered so much that boutiques were selling t-shirts that said Team Aniston and Team Jolie.

Jay-Z's new Blueprint 3 earned the rapper his 11th No. 1 berth on the Billboard 200 chart of U.S. album sales─enough to crush Elvis's record and become the solo act with the most No. 1 records in the chart's half-century history. Jay will also have the second-most No. 1 albums among all acts, ever─bested only by The Beatles, who have 19 No. 1 albums.

Coincidentally, the slew of remastered Fab Four albums (which we reviewed here) also saw major coups over the weekend. While the rerelease of 1969's Abbey Road had the biggest take, with 89,000 units sold, the total sales for all Beatles music through Sunday night was 626,000. According to Billboard, "Since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991, the Beatles have never sold less than 1 million albums in a year."

You're just over halfway there, Jay!

Colin Firth, to thee we sing: the Brit was named best actor at the Venice Film Festival last Saturday for his turn as a gay, English lit professor in Tom Ford's film adaptation of A Single Man, the Christopher Isherwood novel. And yesterday, the movie was snapped up mere hours after screening at the Toronto Film Festival, immediately sparking Oscar buzz for Firth's performance. (The awards-happy Weinstein Co. bought the movie for between $1 and $2 million.)

Prior to this week, most of A Single Man's buzz has centered around its fashion-designer director, whose retro-sexy aesthetic permeates the trailer (click above to view). But we're more thrilled at what this means for Firth's career. In the past 15 years, the actor has played either an iteration of Mr. Darcy (a character he first immortalized in the BBC's 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries), a novelty (dog collar-ed in Mamma Mia!; beret-ed in Girl With a Pearl Earring); or the semitragic, buffoonish Brit (the divorced novelist in Love Actually; Amanda Bynes's shepherd in What a Girl Wants). We can't wait to see him finally stretch his legs.

by Malcolm Jones

Mark Twain’s A Double-Barreled Detective Story is a novella-length parody of whodunits. Much of the action takes place out West, in a mining camp where at one point a young man is visited by his uncle, who turns out to be none other than Sherlock Holmes. By the time Holmes appears, the implausible coincidences in the plot have begun tumbling over each other with such rapidity that the appearance of the English sleuth seems merely routine.  At any rate, it quickly becomes apparent that Twain has introduced Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation for the sole purpose of mocking the stories that recount Holmes’s exploits. And no one is more skeptical of Holmes than his nephew, who thinks to himself, “Anybody that knows him the way I do knows he can’t detect a crime except where he plans it all out beforehand and arranges the clues and hires some fellow to commit it according to instructions.”

Today is Lost Symbol day—or, just another day that Dan Brown will deposit a ginormous check (see Malcolm Jones' review of the book here). The king of the beach read tackles the secrecy of the Freemasons in his latest thriller, and leans on boldface names from art history to create several high-stakes puzzles. (If "puzzles" sounds too pedestrian for $29.95, slip on Doubleday's rose-colored glasses: "Dan Brown's novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes," per the back cover.)

In Brown's earlier novels, those boldface names have typically been legends of Italian history─Galileo, Bernini, da Vinci, and more. But this time we traverse north: please welcome 538-year-old Albrecht Dürer, a German woodcutter and engraver responsible for some groundbreaking, northern Renaissance graphic design you've probably never seen. (Not that this Dürer rhinoceros engraving won't soon be on the sides of buses everywhere. Tourists stampeded to see Bernini's fountain after it was featured as a murder weapon in Angels & Demons).

Despite the fact that Dürer is intrinsically a lot less sexy than da Vinci, the Freemasons' indignity at Symbol is expected to be appreciably "milder" than that of Opus Dei or the Roman Catholic Church. Still, we did find a few select glove slaps. As we learn on page 239, at least one character is under the impression that Masons like "playing dress-up with a bunch of old men"!

I do beg your pardon.

by Joshua Alston

Patrick Swayze, the heartthrob star of some of the '80s and '90s most well-loved films, died Monday after a 20-month struggle with terminal cancer. He was just 57. In memory of Swayze and in honor of his still highly popular oeuvre, we pay tribute with these YouTube scenes.

The Telegraph has a story today about a floundering British film called Creation, which opened the Toronto Film Festival to fanfare, premieres in Britain this Sunday, and has been picked up by distributors in every area imaginable, "from Australia to Scandinavia." The movie homes in on the life of Charles Darwin at its most conflicted, when the 40-something scientist (Paul Bettany) mourns the loss of his young daughter and finds himself disenchanted with religion.

But the biopic hasn't found a U.S. distributor yet─something The Telegraph and The Hollywood Reporter both hitch to America's conservatism. The former points out that "only 39 percent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution," while THR mourns that "[it] would be a great shame if those with religious convictions spurned the film out of hand as they will find it even-handed and wise."

It's easy to blame ol' puritanical America, the land in which The Passion of the Christ is still the top-performing R-rated movie of all time. But we're gambling that Creation is a casualty of the economy more than the stateside moral temperature. Variety assessed the film as a "handsome historical piece" likely to nab "respectable critical support," but predicted it would top out as a "medium specialty performer." In today's market, a sales pitch guaranteeing "medium specialty business" will fall on deaf ears. The mandate of Summer 2009: Biggest Box Office Ever was fast and clear: sequels are in, subtlety is out. Even the eminently bankable Adam Sandler couldn't sell a nuanced dramedy about death and despair. If he can't, a balding Bettany in breeches almost certainly can't.

Not that the economy is an excuse. It's our humble opinion that being too cheap is far more damning than being too devout.

by Joshua Alston

by Joan Raymond

Last night's sophomore year finale of HBO's True Blood, the summer's most talked-about show, did exactly what it was supposed to do. It made me want season three to start next Sunday night. But it's going to be nine whole months until my beloved vampires, shifters, and Bon Temp townies get together for some beer or blood down at Merlotte's, which has to be the coolest bar. Ever. As far as finales go, Beyond Here Lies Nothin'' did wrap up the season's major story arc in typical gory, campy True Blood fashion. (Bye, MaryAnn. It was fun.) But like all good serials, it  left me with a few nagging questions, all of which are making my head hurt and my eyes go all crazy black like I'm one of MaryAnn's minions. (Spoilers ahead!)

by Ramin Setoodeh

I don't know how it looked on TV, but from Radio City Music Hall last night, the MTV Video Music Awards were like (to steal the title of a Britney Spears song) a circus. And we had our favorite ringleader presiding over the ceremonies, Madonna—remember the time she kissed Christina Aguilera and Britney, or how she stared down old versions of herself in a music dance tribute? This year, the Material Girl opened the show, but all eyes were on Jackson: Michael Jackson, who Madonna paid tribute to in a heartfelt soliloquey. "Long live the King," she said, after recounting a special dinner she had with him in '90s, which ended with the two of them holding hands. (Eww. Don't worry. It was strictly platonic.)

Then Janet Jackson took the stage—to a roar from the crowd—for a dance medley (that requiring no singing) dedicated to her late brother, including her duet "Scream" and "Bad." And there were plenty of other Michael references from everyone from Nelly Furtado to Russell Brand, the evening's host. "Tonight is dedicated to the great Michael Jackson," said Brand. "Let's honor Michael Jackson tonight by loving each other in his memory." How sweet. But the VMAs are also about pop artists loving themselves. It's like a high-stakes version of your high school battle of the bands, where superstars try to outdo each other by coming up with the night's most over-the-top acts. Here were the eight biggest surprises of the night:

by Joshua Alston

Image: NBC

Retouched photos are a fact of life in the entertainment industry. But it's rare that you get something so shoddy from a respected source like NBC. The floating, poking hand isn't even touching Jay's face, and is of a completely different skin tone. And check out the jawline and shadows—we know Jay has a big head, but c'mon. It looks like his face was blown up, then transposed back onto tiny suit shoulders. In a bigger version of the pic, you can marvel at the liberal and oh-so-obvious application of the blur tool on his forehead and hand, where, our photo editors point out, all veins and age spots have been removed. (Either that or "it's a 30-year-old's hand," as one of them joked.)

The nagging question here is, why? The dude's a middle-aged comedian, not Kelly Clarkson. Who's not going to watch him if he has wrinkles? And who can believe there isn't a normal, fairly recent headshot of someone who's been on television for 27 years? (This promotional image, released specifically for his new show, was uploaded to NBC's publicity site Aug. 24.)

By Kurt Soller

Photo courtesy of Fox.com

For five seasons, So You Think You Can Dance has been ruling the summer airwaves, playing pinch hitter while most of the other reality-television competitions are on hiatus. But, due to what Fox calls "audience demand," the dance competition will be running its first fall season starting Wednesday. It's a risky gamble: do you mess with a good thing in a relatively safe spot, or do you let the rising star out to play with the Yankees? Either way, So You Think You Can Dance is going to need some major support to compete against the prime-time bullies. Last season's premiere (in the summer) had just under 8.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen. To raise those numbers, I'm here to tell you why everything you think you know about So You Think You Can Dance is wrong. Ready? Here goes:

So you think the music's gonna be lame?
In the summer of 2008, before anyone was groaning about Lady Gaga, she was just that strange, androgynous woman who performed her single, "Just Dance," on some bizarre reality dance show known as So You Think You Can Dance. "Wait, who's that?" many viewers wondered─and the blogosphere has gone crazy when, season after season, SYTYCD has used musicians who aren't overplayed (hello, American Idol) but, rather, are just at the cusp of stardom. Sure, many of the dances are to songs by Roisin Murphy or Metronomy that hipsters love and the general public hates, but you have to give the producers credit for recognizing radio's breakout jams─like "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls, which was used in the first season─before the albums even hit the stores.

So you think it's just like American Idol?
American Idol has certainly changed the way we all watch (or avoid?) reality competitions─and it's true that AI and SYTYCD share the same multi-night formula, likely because they share the genius of Simon Fuller, who created both shows. But the difference here is simple: contestants on American Idol remaster subpar versions of songs that are already great (enough Whitney, OK?). But on So You Think You Can Dance, a canon of America's best choreographers (like Wade Robson and Mia Michaels) are charged with creating dances─pieces of work you'd pay to see at Lincoln Center─that have never been shown before. To me, that's the difference between watching your friends perform drunken karaoke and spending a (free) night at one of America's most interesting cultural events.

So you think you're gonna have to deal with some cheesy host?
... which Cat Deeley is not. She may be chirpy sometimes, yes, but she also has a great way of towering over contestants while looking incredible─and she's willing to make fun of the judges without it seeming like some campy Ryan Seacrest radio act. It also helps that she's tall, beautiful, and genuinely compassionate─or at least good at acting it when contestants get voted off.

So you think dancing is awkward?
And we'll give you some credit there: Dancing With the Stars can be cringe-worthy; America's Best Dance Crew seems too focused on Randy Jackson. Previous dance shows have been all boy-band, or all jazz hands. No thanks there. The real joy of So You Think You Can Dance comes from the variety: in one episode you'll watch a ballroom dancer do a contemporary routine, a Latin dancer do a waltz, or some hip-hopper try to tango. In a world where it's hard enough for dancers to get work (especially outside of Broadway), it's good to see that there are people so talented at their craft that they can both pop-lock-it and pas de deux (that's ballet, for the uninitiated). Because of this, the show has won three Emmys for outstanding choreography─but it's the viewers who really benefit from the talent on display.

So you think I'm lying? Well, watch tonight, and come back here to tell us what you thought.

by Joshua Alston

by Kurt Soller

Photo courtesy of CW.com

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By Kurt Soller

When he wasn't grinning, this guy screamed things like, "All of you are potential millionaires. Wow!"

Douglas Keister/Corbis

How does Michael's final resting place compare to those of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Liberace, Valentino, and 17 other famous people? Click here to scroll through our photo gallery of celebrity gravesites.

by Joshua Alston

ABC announced today that Charles Gibson, host of its nightly news show World News Tonight, will retire at the end of this year and be replaced in January by Diane Sawyer, the current co-host of Good Morning America. The major significance of the decision is obvious: two of the three nightly network newscasts will now be anchored by women. It was a watershed move when Katie Couric became the first woman to be the solo host of a network newscast in 2006─but while Sawyer’s ascension to World News is less splashy than Couric's due to the latter's historical significance, it’s very likely that Sawyer will avoid the tumultuous start that Couric had. Unlike Couric, there shouldn’t be a betting pool going on about how long it will take Sawyer to quit. Here’s why:

Sawyer's not the first.

Simply put, Sawyer will benefit from not being the first woman to anchor a newscast, and therefore won’t be judged as harshly as was Couric. There’s much less fanfare associated with being appointed the second female news anchor, so the perception will be that she was the best person for the job, not that a network executive was trying to punch a hole through a glass ceiling merely for its own sake.

She'll avoid Couric's mistakes.

The biggest error Couric made in her initial broadcasts was trying to shake up the format of the nightly news. She tried to make it cozier and more informal, doubling down on the early criticism that she lacked the hard-news bona fides to host the show, rather than doing everything in her power to combat that perception. The result of her early experimentation was a severe ratings dip after the novelty of female-anchored news wore off. Sawyer will come in with the knowledge that Couric lacked─the fact that people watch the nightly news in order to have the day’s stories read to them in a grave voice. That’s all.

Sawyer has gravitas.

Although it seems like Couric and Sawyer are making the same transition─host of morning show to host of nightly news─their paths are the opposite. Couric cut her teeth at Today, which is why her appointment to The CBS Evening News was met with such skepticism. Sawyer, on the other hand, is a more seasoned newswoman, with a firsthand knowledge of politics. She worked under Richard Nixon and was once suspected of being the loose-lipped “Deep Throat,” whose whistle-blowing led Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to unravel the Watergate scandal. She was a correspondent for 60 Minutes and a host of PrimeTime Live. All her news experience made her placement on GMA the eyebrow-raiser, not her upcoming return to news.