If you happen to be in Brooklyn tonight, stop by The Brooklyn Inn to meet up with Jonathan Ames. The creator, writer and executive producer of the HBO series Bored to Death, just cancelled as part of the premium cable programmer's sweeping original programming line-up shuffle, will be greeting fans of the series who are gathering, at his behest, to mourn the cancellation of the comedy series after three seasons.

HBO’s surprise announcement yesterday the show's demise, along with Hung and How to Make It in America, led Ames to take his case to the court of public appeal, lobbying for the show’s survival and inviting fans to meet him for a drink tonight.

Ames had been a lively tweeter during the show's run, chatting with fans and revealing behind the scenes tidbits to engage the show's audience. But he recently quit Twitter to “lessen the distractions in his life,” only to reactivate his account yesterday to commiserate with fans.Continue reading...

In honor of the Beatles' first anniversary exclusive digital availability on iTunes, with more than 10 million songs sold and 1.8 million albums, Apple celebrates the partnership (and end of animosity) just in time for last-minute holiday shopping.

The nod includes a new TV commercial, above, and a free gift — an e-book celebrating The Yellow Submarine with video and audio clips from the 1968 film, and interactive features that allow the reader to ‘tap’ creatures such as butterflies, starfish and sea monsters to make them come alive.

Cover your ears, Jaws fans, because we have some news you may not like. Universal Studios is officially closing down the Jaws ride, Universal announced Friday. The 32-foot three ton steel and fiberglass shark, which was based on the 1975 movie, was one of the theme park's most popular attractions when it opened in 1990.

The area that surrounds it, which was named after the fictional resort island in the movie, will also be closed "to make room for what will be an exciting new attraction experience," Universal spokesman Tom Schroder said. Fans are biting back.Continue reading...

The lesson of this TV season so far is that there may be room for only one blockbuster singing-competition reality show per country. In the United States, the disappointing ratings so far for The X Factor on FOX could indicate that Americans make available only so much bandwidth for that kind of show, and FOX's American Idol has pretty much sucked it up for the 10 years of its existence.

But in the United Kingdom, there's a different king of the hill: The X Factor has remained the nation's No. 1 program for the last seven years.

To goose viewership, tonight The X Factor' judges will cut a whopping five acts and decide the surviving Top 12 acts live.Continue reading...

"Rovio Entertainment hasn't made a wrong move yet with its massively popular Angry Birds franchise," writes Fortune. "The enraged avian creatures are everywhere, picking up wads of cash in their beaks. The original mobile game is still wildly popular, and now there are plush toys on the market and movie and TV deals in the works. The birds are even getting endorsement deals, such as their appearance in a hilarious TV spot for Google's Chrome browser." Can Angry Birds become Rovio's Mickey Mouse as the cornerstone of an entertainment empire? Read the rest of Fortune's analysis here.

Why have some conservatives apparently shied away from going to see Dolphin Tale, a family-friendly film if ever there was one? Because Morgan Freeman is the star. And because Freeman reminded the country about his liberal politics when he complained on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight, right as the movie opened, that Tea Party opposition to President Obama "is a racist thing."

Ditto for why many liberals have soured on conservative actors including Jon Voight and Gary Sinise. Sinise, star of CSI: New York on television, is a big supporter of the U.S. military and has committed the unpardonable sin of talking with Sean Hannity on the latter's radio show.

The box office, it turns out, is every bit as divided as everything else in America's increasingly political culture, according to a new poll by Penn Schoen Berland conducted for The Hollywood Reporter.Continue reading...

A number of American shows that are running on Canadian TV are being given extra attention by marketers north of the U.S. border in hopes of reaching a whole new audience.

For example, to promote NBC’s Prime Suspect, debut Friday night, Global Television sent out one hundred actresses dressed as detective Jane Timoney, the show’s main character who is portrayed by Mario Bello, into “downtown Toronto as part of a giant flash mob,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

“The response was terrific. We grabbed their attention, and the actresses were carrying iPads with clips from the show,” said Jason Keown, senior director of marketing at Global.

We get it: flash mobs are cheap, fun, attention-grabbing and traffic-stopping. But given that Toronto is rife with flash mobs, the strategy may be wearing thin. (The fact that we couldn't find a video of this on YouTube shows it may not have been all that impressive to passersby.)

Taking a different tack to stand out, Rogers Media is bringing FOX’s Journey to Terra Nova fan experience bus to Toronto to promote the new Steven Spielberg-blessed series, Terra Nova.Continue reading...

It seems the Old Spice Guy ads just will not go gently. We're already looked at numerous parodies and copycats. We've found Old Spice inspiration in the new Dairy Queen campaign. And the pitiful clones. Pity the clones.

Now, the upcoming Shrek spin-off film Puss in Boots has gone the Old Spice route, with "the cat your cat could be like" parody above. Puss isn't the only children's film getting into the parody game.Continue reading...