When the biggest band in music history first made their way across the pond in February 1964, there was only one place to make their stateside premiere--
The Ed Sullivan Show. During a trip to London, the variety show host saw in same superstar quality in The Beatles he famously found in Elvis. When Sullivan arranged for the Fab Four to appear on the show three weeks in a row (with top billing for low cost), he struck gold. For their first live U.S. television performance, The Beatles reeled in approximately 73 million viewers, accounting for more than 40 percent of the country’s population. (The Jonas Brothers simply cannot compare.) Though their historic appearances first hit DVD in 2006, this week you can transport yourselves back to the moment The Beatles strummed their electric guitars, shook their mop tops, and made teenage girls across the country cry, with a remastered version including previously unreleased material.
The 4 Complete Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Beatles comes out on DVD on Tuesday, September 7.
For those of you have been holding your breath for a follow-up to Terry McMillan’s 1992 smash
Waiting to Exhale, it’s finally time to let it out. This week sees the long awaited publication of
Getting to Happy, the sequel to the book that inspired both a Whitney Houston movie and a rabid fan base. In
Getting to Happy McMillan revisits the same four heroines of her breakout novel, now solidly into middle age and helping each other through a series of unexpected upsets in their lives. Whether or not it ends up being as much of a landmark as McMillan’s early novels, this return to such beloved characters is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser.
Getting to Happy hits shelves on Tuesday, September 7.
A quick history lesson: before it was an unsettling series on Showtime,
Dexter was a bestselling crime series courtesy of Jeff Lindsay. The series, which follows altruistic serial killer Dexter Morgan as he doles out vigilante killings, gets another installment this week with
Dexter is Delicious, which takes the series’ typical “ick” factor to a whole new level as Dexter uncovers, and is sought after by, a group of murderous cannibals. Seeing the expert killer go head to head with flesh-eating bad guys is definitely entertaining, and definitely not for the faint of heart.
Dexter Is Delicious comes out on Tuesday, September 7.
Once the hottest new act in pop music (before marrying his cousin and losing his teen fans, that is), Jerry Lee Lewis is now established as music’s old guard, a fact bluntly acknowledged in the title of his latest album,
Mean Old Man. The piano-pounding “Great Balls of Fire” singer plays up his status as rockabilly royalty with covers of classics like “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Bad Moon Rising” as well as an all-star roster of collaborators that includes Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, and Ringo Starr, to name just a few. Lewis best summed the album up himself, telling
Rolling Stone, “It’s unique and very groovy, and I sound great on it!”
Mean Old Man comes out on Tuesday, September 7.
For her fourth novel, Julia Glass has crafted a sensitive exploration of the life of a man in his twilight years in
The Widower’s Tale, which follows 70-year-old Percy Darling as he reflects on the death of his wife and the troubled family growing up around him. Both a timeless love story and a savvy look at the dynamics of the 21st century American family, the book has already earned a coveted plug from
Oprah, and a review in the latest issue of
O calls it “an enchanting story of familial bonds and late-life romance.”
The Widower’s Tale comes out on Tuesday, September 7.
From Lindsay Lohan to Mel Gibson, this summer was full of high-profile legal drama. But two “ordinary” people had their own scuffles in midst of the heat that caught the public’s attention. Though they’re largely associated with half-cans of Coke and forced smiles, America learned that there’s more to flight attendants, thanks to this summer’s unlikely hero, Steven Slater. The JetBlue steward reportedly quit his job in the most dramatic of ways: cursing out a plane full of passengers, grabbing a beer, and sliding down the aircraft’s inflatable slide. While many commended him, Slater will head to court in New York this week on
charges of reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. Slightly south of Slater’s drama,
Jersey Shore’s Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi caused a media fury when her drunken antics in Seaside Heights, NJ in July… all while wearing a “slut” tank top. With
charges of disorderly conduct and creating a public nuisance, Polizzi faces $2,000 in fines and her trial begins on Wednesday.
Steven Slater’s trial begins on Tuesday, September 7, while Snooki’s trial for begins on Wednesday, September 8.
As
Project Runway continues to fall from its high style pedestal, the Sundance Channel is offering those viewers who need their fashion fix (and can’t make it to New York Fashion Week) some new programming with
The Day Before: Full Frontal Fashion. Director Loïc Prigent brings viewers behind the scenes at six top fashion design houses in the not-so-calm before the Fashion Week storm and The Boston Globe says what unfolds is “absolutely gripping,” calling she show “hands-down the best fashion reality programming on television.” From Narciso Rodriguez to Alexander Wang to the first featured designer, Diane von Furstenberg,
The Day Before gives fashionistas all the backstage drama. The only downside is that the series only includes six episodes, proving sometimes, less is more.
The Day Before: Full Frontal Fashion kicks off on Sundance Channel on Wednesday, September 8 at 10 p.m. EST.
Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein famously took comic books to a new level, beginning in the 1960s. His contribution to the art world is often argued--some deem him a mere copyist. But New York’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery in Chelsea is setting out to prove Lichtenstein did much more than mimic with their latest exhibition
Roy Lichtenstein: Reflected. The gallery will display a dozen of the artists’ paintings throughout his career, all of which use mirrors, doubling, and reflections as a common motif. Though his career was cut short when he died of pneumonia in 1997, Lichtenstein challenged the idea of authorship by reflecting on images in pop culture in both a smart and light-hearted fashion. He proved imitation can do more than flatter.
Roy Lichtenstein: Reflected opens at Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York on Thursday, September 9.
Though it may seem a like a local event reserved for the elite citizens of the island of Manhattan, New York Fashion Week is going global for the second year in a row with last year’s hit event Fashion’s Night Out. Sponsored by style bible Vogue, fashionistas and retailers from Beverly Hills to the Bronx to Brazil to Boston will take part in the celebration on Friday. Though Fashion Week officially begins in New York on Thursday, the fun doesn’t truly begin until Vogue gives the say so. After that, the festivities, which have now moved from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, will bring the best of Spring/Summer 2011 fashion from Derek Lam to Diane von Furstenberg and Carolina Herrera to Calvin Klein.
Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week begins on Thursday, September 9.
