The movie reviewer for ABC has died. The ABC news story is after the jump ...

I'm adding a link to Roger Ebert's tribute, since Ebert knew Siegel and knows something about illness, too. Also, Ebert quotes a line from Siegel that, even when you're not fighting death, says something about how a critic operates in the middle of real life:

Are we done? Please, please, tell me that's it. ...

(Because studios get hinky about movies being reviewed too soon, this is not a review. More like notes from a viewing of what could well be the summer's biggest movie. To the notes, then:)

One of the smartest things about "Transformers" is that it knows that the basic idea is pretty ridiculous ...

If you haven't watched this week's episode, don't go to the jump. ...

Only so many hours in the day, right? Some things have to be put off. For instance, I have never sat and watched "Titanic" from beginning to end. And, until recently, I had never read a Harry Potter book -- a situation I rather aggressively remedied ...

I think that I have written before about the way watching TV has come to require watching TV. But the evidence keeps piling up, as in this announcement today:

ESPN, ABC and the National Basketball Association (NBA) will significantly expand their global relationship with ESPN’s most comprehensive digital rights package negotiated with any major professional sports league and enhanced television coverage in an eight-year extension beginning in 2008-09, it was announced today. ... Under the terms of the new deal, the NBA will deliver content for 17 ESPN platforms, including: ABC, ABC HD, ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN2, ESPN2 HD, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPN International, ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN360.com, ESPN Mobile Publishing, ESPN Mobile TV, ESPNU and ESPN podcasts. The deal will also cover all new platforms ESPN creates or develops relationships with through the end of the agreement in 2016.

A new project for Lifetime, which sounds highly reminiscent of Michael Keaton's 1996 movie "Multiplicity." Details after the jump ...

Discovery Channel says it has found Hatshepsut, a female pharoah. (But shouldn't we be cautious? As B.B. King once said, "Nobody loves me but my mummy. And she may be jivin' too.")

Released details after the jump...

Oxygen may want to exploit you...

I am not, for the most part, very good at vacations ...

I've been on an extended break from the office, and have spent the bulk of it soaking up sun and going through the Harry Potter novels in order. (I'm a couple of hundred pages into the fifth at this point.) Will have a few notes later.

Small world, though. Here we are, on the coast of Florida, and the bride is channel-flipping one evening and comes across the Beacon Journal's Phil Trexler being interviewed by Nancy Grace.

Tommy Gavin and his guys are in a state of confusion. I know the feeling ...

My friend Alan Sepinwall has a post-finale interview with David Chase; even if you've read excerpts, you can find the whole thing here

Strange as it may seem, considering what I do for a living, the bride and I went to a movie this afternoon. And one question immediately comes up: Why wasn't Linda Cardellini the female lead?

I wrote a few notes for tomorrow's Beacon Journal, which I am posting after the jump ...

The medical drama has decided not to renew the contract of Isaiah Washington, who caused a storm last season with his use of anti-gay slur ...

During a break from compiling Paris Hilton news, I found this in the e-mail basket:

Emmy®-nominated actress Frances Sternhagen (Sex and the City) will return this season to TNT’s THE CLOSER as Brenda’s slightly overbearing mother, Willie Ray Johnson. And now we’ll meet Brenda’s dad, the tough, but charming Clay Johnson, played by Emmy-nominated actor Barry Corbin (Northern Exposure, TNT’s Monty Walsh). Clay is a retired military officer who owns auto parts stores around the metro Atlanta area. Both are slated to appear in episodes ten (August 20), eleven (August 27), fourteen (December) and fifteen (December).

I've been skeptical about fan campaigns to save shows, but this one seems to have worked ...

Didn't get to the "House" season finale until the weekend ...

Around this time in 1997, my friend Tom Feran and I were working on our book "Ghoulardi," about Ernie Anderson and his TV creation. The book came out that fall, and sold well, and made us some new friends. ...

TNT offers "Sopranos" stars in a "Law & Order" marathon, after the jump ...

Spent the evening at a screening of "Ocean's Thirteen." Cool ..

Episodes, I mean. Although it's beginning to feel as if there's no need for a reunion movie ...

As you may have realized from a previous post, this has been a weekend of family business, so it was only this evening that I finally got to "Studio 60" ...

Took a day off from work today but the pop culture never stops ...