Just like the chocolate and peanut butter for which I nicknamed him, two people with nothing in common but journalism degrees and the great state of Arkansas, have finally come together to make a "delicious" TV show. Will you watch?
Check it out on BET, 11 p.m. EST/ 10 p.m. Central time.
Well, it's official! I was hired to do some writing n' such for T.J. Holmes' new show for BET, better known as "Don't Sleep!"
For those of you playing at home, I worked on the pilot last winter and many, many moons ago used to pretend to stalk T.J. for poops n' grins on the Internet. Life is incredibly funny in how a guy I started writing about during this blog's beginnings in 2008 is the same guy I wound up working for in my first scripted TV writing gig. Be sure to check out the show, premiering in October on BET! Along with script writing and blogger duties you just might catch me on as the occasional panelist. I'm already (silently) featured in the show's promos, but I hate those promos because I'm wearing the sweater of doom and I'm about 25 lbs heavier than I am now.
I am going to burn this sweater. Best believe it. Check out the video after the jump. (BET.com)
T. J. Holmes, of guy I used to hilariously fake Google stalk fame, left CNN last year only to re-emerge with BET Networks, signing a multi-platform deal. Part of that deal was a shiny new show. And now, BET and Holmes have announced what that show will be -- a comedy news half-hour, a la The Daily Show or Real Time with Bill Maher. Only this time it's, Don't Sleep with T. J. Holmes.
The responses have ranged from excitement and praise to puzzlement. But I think it's a good thing. But then, I'm also terribly, terribly biased. But for more reasons than you expect!
Danielle Belton | 7 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged BET, Don't Sleep With TJ Holmes, TJ Holmes, media, television, the snob 
President Barack Obama is delivering the State of the Union address tonight. In the past, I enjoyed watching MSNBC coverage of events like these -- not so much for the slant -- but for the hope that Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough would be forced into a small room again to talk to each other, then try to eat each other's heads while Rachel Maddow pleads for peace. Because, that's just more fun. The chin-checking and unchecked ego is simply better TV, than watching Katie Couric be clip and dry when she really wants to be chipper and funny as everyone sits around a table at CBS and tries to divine meaning out of whatever the First Lady is wearing. I'm just not feeling that. I want my quasi-lefty blowhards. I want my bloviating Keithy.
Tuesday night accidental internet star Antoine Dodson performed his accidental hit "Bed Intruder" in skinny jeans and a do rag with one of the Gregory Brothers from Autotune the News. Apparently Dodson thought he was going to present an award, but wound up performing. BET can be sneaky like that sometimes. (Via Jezebel)
Danielle Belton | 13 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Antoine Dodson, BET, BET Hip Hop Awards, Bed Intruder, hip hop, meme, music, pop culture Monday, August 30, 2010 at 12:30PM in EntertainmentSnob, He Said/She Said, MusicSnob, PopCulturalist, PostRacialist
What happened to the female MC? Documentary filmmaker and producer Ava DuVernay and BET go on a quest to mark the rise and decline of the woman rapper.
Danielle Belton | 10 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Ava DuVernay, BET, black women, documentary, film, gender issues, hip hop, media, music, rappers 
From DayLifeWell ... it wasn't bad, was it? The BET Awards? It was kind of OK! Much better than last year, but then last year was like something you scraped off your shoe. There was no place to go but up. Prince seemed pleased (even though he only sat around for less than an hour of the three-and-a-half hour show). Chris Brown tried to call it a comeback and broke down crying (more on that later). And El DeBarge got out of prison just in time to impregnate all the women with his smile. Let's take that walk down recap lane, shall we?
Danielle Belton | 74 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged BET, BET Awards, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince, limits, music 
They came for Prince and I said nothing.
BET is trying to trick me into watching it again (IT WON'T WORK!) by honoring Prince tonight at their music awards. Remember last year around this same time when BET tricked us into watching their awards because they said they were going to do a "tribute" to Michael Jackson as he had just died and all we got was Jamie Foxx in highwaters, drunk Ving Rhames, Zoe Saldana announcing that the original Uhura was incontinent and Ciara warbling "Heal the World?" Yeah. Fool me once!
Anyway, part of me wants to see how badly they'll screw up Prince. I'm sure it's not a coincidence that the year after they (dis)honored MJ they would give ol' Prince a-go. Both MJ and Prince were two very different sides of the same funky coin, drawing lots of influence from the Godfather of Soul, James Brown but spinning it in different directions. Michael was about mass appeal. Prince is more of an acquired taste. But once you get a taste for it, dear God, insatiable becomes your name!
I keep trying to imagine what they would do to honor someone as multitalented and wonderfully bizarre as Prince, but outside of having Alicia Keys sing "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore" for old times sake and digging up Ginuwine to bust out his 90s version of "When Does Cry" I seriously don't know how they're going to pull this off. I bet Prince doesn't either. I bet Prince, like me, is going to watch with anticipation just so he can have something to flame about later. And I bet Prince is all, "If you don't get the whole show to be performed by Beyonce in drag while Lenny Kravitz and Slash wail on their guitars featuring Janelle Monae doing the beat box AND the Mash Potatoes in a robot costume, I'm walkin' out!"
Anything below this would be an insult.
Danielle Belton | 23 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged BET, BET Awards, Prince, entertainment, music, pop culture 
