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NBC musical dazzles critics... mostly

(NEWSER) - If you watched the Super Bowl, you just might have heard of Smash, NBC's new drama about the making of a Broadway musical. It premiered last night, and critics are (mostly) giving it a standing ovation:

• The buzz has gotten so intense that the conversation isn't even about whether it'll be good. "Good? Darling, it's great!" gushes Mary McNamara of the LA Times . The creators have "managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television," an impressive, unprecedented feat.

Critics: New reality show 'upsetting,' 'uncomfortable'

(NEWSER) - Joan Rivers’ new reality show on WE, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, follows the 77-year-old comedian as she moves in with her daughter in Los Angeles. It’s as artificial as the botox Rivers extols:

• The show is “upsetting,” writes a pained Linda Stasi in the New York Post . From pushing her daughter to pose nude to giving “away all of her living room furniture,” “it's all so wrong that as much as I love her, I have to say, in this case, ‘Joan Knows Worst.’”

Sadly, it won't make you look like a Twilight character

(NEWSER) - So you’ve already bought the Edward Cullen panties , and you’re not sure how to continue expressing your love for all things vampire? Consider a "vampire facelift." No, it doesn’t make you thirst for blood, but it does take blood from your body and injects it in your face. “Alas, it won't make your face immortal or make your skin paler or anything like that,” Dr. Anthony Youn tells Salon . More»

Better acting won't widen appeal of tween vampire romance

(NEWSER) - The talky third installment in the Twilight saga has better acting and a more coherent plot line than its predecessors, say critics. But while fans of the teen vampire romance series certainly won't leave disappointed, Eclipse doesn't have much to offer the uninitiated.

• "With roughly 20 minutes of its 2-hour running time devoted to characters doing something besides alternately moping and declaring their eternal love for each other, Eclipse stands as the most action-packed entry yet in the Twilight series," writes Genevieve Koski at the AV Club , praising new director David Slade's more dynamic action sequences.

Ancestry.com unveils Robert Pattinson's relation to Dracula

(NEWSER) - This is sure to send all those Twilight-obsessed tweens into a tizzy: Robert Pattinson, aka Edward Cullen of the Twilight films, is related to Dracula. At least, he’s related to Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula character, the AP reports. Twilight author Stephenie Meyer is also, conveniently enough, related to Vlad. More»