Her life was marked by professional triumphs, including a Tony Award-winning debut on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s 1946 drama “Another Part of the Forest” and a best actress Oscar for her role in the 1963 drama “Hud.”

But for Patricia Neal, the husky-voiced actress with a strong screen presence, life also was marked by personal tragedies: the death of one of her children and brain damage to another, and her own battle to overcome the debilitating effects of a ruptured aneurism in her brain in 1965 that temporarily halted her career. …
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Television Critics Association who just presented three trophies to the Fox series at the 26th Annual TCA Awards. The event honors the best shows on TV.

The musical series took the top prize of Program of the Year, as well as Outstanding New Program, and Individual Achievement in Comedy for Jane Lynch, the villainess of the group. …
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It’s easy to say that no one is making romantic comedies like “Philadelphia Story” (1940) anymore, because it’s true. But is that really the test? Maybe we’re being too hard on contemporary filmmakers who, after all, reflect their times just as much as politicians and journalists do. I’m getting ahead of myself, however, so let’s back up. …
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Big Brother’s Big Mouth presenter, 22, on getting naked with Craig David, why dead celebs are much nicer than live ones, and how he’s a sitcom mastermind

What’s the worst practical joke you’ve ever played?

When I was at school we did a Jackass film and that was pretty bad. It involved me putting my head in a cowpat. …
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Comic Riffs is a blog devoted to the comics fan. Come in, sit down and put your feet up as we celebrate, contemplate, eviscerate and pontificate on cartoons.

(Post file images / Associated Press and Bloomberg News)

Who knew Kanye West’s sudden embrace of Twitter and the longtime pithy humor of The New Yorker’s cartoons would make for such a viral marriage? …
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We like to keep up on our celebrity pregnancies, you know, just so we can bring something to the water cooler conversations: currently, Christina Applegate Alicia Keys are your two most recently announced celebrity pregnancies. Whenever that news breaks we consult with our favorite online name-generator in hopes of discovering the perfect new name for their kids. …
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According to Jenn Sterger, Brett Favre tried to pick her up by texting her numerous photos of his penis; and if that’s not bad enough, she also said that in one of the pictures “he’s masturbating - while wearing a pair of Crocs.” While Sterger’s claim has yet to be substantiated (how would one do this, and why would one want to? …
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Let’s all take a moment to applaud Kim G. Last night the blond “elderly woman” gave what we hope was her ultimate reality show audition, as she cursed out Danielle “Franken-tit” Staub - over what, I’m not quite sure. How’d she do? For all of the promos, this didn’t reach hair pull or table flip status, but it was a good old-fashioned screaming match nonetheless, albeit really one-sided. …
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DETROIT — President Obama got behind the wheel of a car Friday for the second time since he started receiving Secret Service protection in the spring of 2007 — driving a black Chevy Volt for about 10 feet, haltingly and at a crawl.

Watch the video.

“Pretty smooth,” he announced after emerging from the new electric car, which his administration helped make possible by bailing out struggling General Motors. …
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MSNBC host Chris Matthews might seem an unlikely candidate to deliver a speech on political civility at Ronald Reagan’s presidential library. But he effusively praised Reagan and former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, his old boss, as models of bipartisan cooperation on Tuesday night.

“Things got done for the American people back in the 1980s - good things for the world,” Matthews said in prepared remarks for a dinner in Simi Valley, Calif. …
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Dinner parties are awkward, especially when your boss is the host. You have to dress up, make uncomfortable chit-chat and - worst of all - make a good impression. So is it any surprise that the characters in Dinner for Schmucks try to spice things up by inviting socially inept weirdos as their dinner guests? …
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Is that how we solve our problems? We are the humans; we have brains that should know right from wrong, and killing animals because we think there are too many of them is wrong. We should be able to develop ways to control them without killing them. All they are doing is trying to survive, just as we are. …
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I know both of them and Mark is a tremendous human being,” Michael says. “Hopefully they’ll see her before she gets out and she’ll get in this rehab and get off these prescription meds, and she’ll get her life back.”

Michael hopes that Downey — whose own struggles with drugs and alcohol put the actor behind bars for nearly 16 months in the late ’90s — can help the young actress revive her stagnant acting career when she completes her 90-day rehabilitation program. …
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Beavis and Butthead, matinee idols, teen idol Leif Garrett, S.W.A.T., blaxsploitation, The Red Show Diaries, a new Vacation movie and I join the dark side.

Let me apologize for missing last week’s column, the first I’ve skipped in nearly seven years. My computer went south on me and I had to get it cleaned up. …
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