Well, guys, after seven years and 120 columns (more or less), it’s time for Uncle Stevie to grab his walking cane, put on his traveling shoes, and head on down the road. I can’t begin to tell you how much fun – how drop-dead cool – these years at EW have been. I’ve worked with […]

10. City of Thieves, David Benioff Lev Beniov (a fictional version of the author’s grandfather) is barely surviving the 1942 siege of Leningrad when he hooks up with a charismatic army deserter named Kolya. The good news is that they become fast friends. The bad news is that if they don’t find a dozen eggs […]

10. MORNING JOE (MSNBC) The commercials are endless and there are too many white guys in ties, but this is still a fine way to start the morning. It’s like a big Thanksgiving dinner. Joe Scarborough is the sometimes irritating, sometimes amusing uncle who talks too much (and donates too much, according to […]

10. Green Zone Matt Damon is at his decent-Everyman best as a U.S. Army chief warrant officer who discovers that the Iraqi WMD thing – and, hence, our reason for going to war – is a hoax. Greg Kinnear is nearly as good, playing a smarmy State Department type anxious to perpetuate the cover-up. Here’s […]

According to Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers, his name causes one of two reactions in rock fans: instant recognition or a blank stare. John Lennon called him ”my favorite group,” perhaps because the artist in question was a genius when it came to double-, triple-, and quadruple-tracking his own voice […]

If you check the Pop of King archives at ew.com/king – a thing I urge you to do often – you’ll see that I’ve touched on most aspects of the pop cult, from TV ads to the annoying DVD ”extras” self-absorbed filmmakers feel compelled to throw on their discs. The topic I’ve written about least […]

Though it’s been years, I still remember how shocked I was when, after taking my wife to see Forrest Gump, she told me she hadn’t liked it. I couldn’t understand how it was possible to dislike such a good-natured movie. Her response was that Gump was based on a faulty assumption. ”He says life is […]

I sort of dig on Glenn Beck. He reminds me of certain people you encounter in big cities. You know, the ones wearing robes, sandals, and signs proclaiming that the world is going to end because American men are eating too much red meat and American women are wearing their pants too tight. He’s crazy, […]

There are some bummer stats from our Please Don’t Let This Be True Department. According to ParaPublishing.com (quoted on the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop page), a third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives, and 42 percent of college grads never read another book […]

We’ll get to the entertainment portion of our program shortly, but first the news. A floating drilling rig operated by British Petroleum exploded in the Gulf of Mexico not long ago. Now endless gallons of loose oil are killing fish in the water, wildlife on shore, and playing hell with the ecosystem. Once it gets […]