Inaugural TV Deals Bring Big Bucks, Controversy

Or at least a movie, pleads Eric Holder

(NEWSER) - The nation's top lawyer has it out for David Simon. AG Eric Holder yesterday ordered the creator of The Wire to start working on another season of the HBO crime drama—and jokingly reminded him that "I have a lot of power." Holder issued his plea to Simon and Ed Burns while appearing alongside three Wire stars at a Justice Department conference focusing on protecting children from drug abuse and exploitation, Reuters reports. More»

And what is 'it,' anyway?

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart has noticed a recurring theme in the coverage of the president’s post-election press conference: The pundits are all eager to know if Barack Obama "gets it," he explained on last night’s Daily Show in a segment titled "The Mourning After." But they’re less than clear on what "it" is. “I mean, as pronouns go, ‘it’ is amongst the vaguest,” Stewart pointed out. “‘It’ won’t even choose a sex.” More»

Thanks, in part, to Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi

(NEWSER) - HBO had critics eating out of its hand at the Summer TV Press Tour, thanks to its biggest, ritziest drama in years. It’s called Boardwalk Empire, and it’s produced and occasionally directed by Martin Scorcese (oooh), written by Sopranos veteran Terence Winter (aaaah), and stars Steve Buscemi (hooray!). With a plot revolving around Prohibition-era gangsters in Atlantic City, the show, set to debut Sept. 19, seems perfectly calculated to make critics swoon, and swoon they did, according to Lisa de Moraes of the Washington Post . More»

(NEWSER) - Some things are certain: death, taxes, and Cinemax showing women with their shoes on having sex late at night. Soft-core porn is "in our DNA," an exec with the parent company of "Skinemax" tells the LA Times . "We're not running away from it." Neither are its premium-cable competitors, which are hardly relegating racier content to late night. Consider HBO's True Blood and Showtime's explicit Californication. More»

Jason Wu creation joins Museum of American History collection

(NEWSER) - The Museum of American History got more fashionable today when Michelle Obama donated the evening gown she wore to the 2009 inaugural balls to the First Ladies Collection. "I am very honored and very humbled, but I have to say that I'm also a little embarrassed by all the fuss being made over my dress," Obama said of the Jason Wu design. "To say that she has changed my life is really an understatement," Wu told Politics Daily . More»