Orange juice, television, and Simon Cowell

[jlh]

Around here there's been a lot of talk about the redesign of the Tropicana cartons, mostly about how it sucks, and makes the formerly quite distinctive cartons look like everything else in the juice aisle. Well, you'll be glad to hear it's been charged a failure and much of the old iconography is coming back to a diary case near you. The ads with cuddling dads, however, are staying—which is awesome.

Anyone else watching United States of Tara? I have to say, one episode of that cheered me up from the gloom that four episodes of BSG put me into. It's a very well done show, great acting, great characters. I've always really liked Toni Collette, and it's nice to see a show that gives John Corbett, playing his usual amazing-husband role, a little more to do. The kids are great, too, and there's Rosemarie DeWitt from Rachel Getting Married, and Patton Oswalt, and Nathan Corddry being his usual awesome self. Diablo Cody is the creator and exec producer, though there isn't a clear through line from Juno to Tara; it's more about a sensibility (sort of like Alan Ball with American Beauty and Six Feet Under.) I definitely recommend!

Simon Cowell was recently quoted saying that when he dies he wants his body cryogenically frozen so that they might bring him back to life in the future, saying that "I would be doing the nation an invaluable service." Pretty typical Cowell stuff, except that he said these things at a dinner with the Prime Minister at Downing Street. Oh Simon, never change.

Comments

[piperki.livejournal.com]

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked...

HAHAHAHA a Grandma-style rant, just like I'd deliver. I love it. I don't buy fresh OJ (too expensive) so I hadn't noticed. You go farther down the page and read how Arnell, the ad agency, described it as "Breathtaking Design Strategy." Yeah.

[longtimegone]

The Tropicana redesign did suck :)) I'm glad to see the old coming back :D

[aethelflaed2.livejournal.com]

Most of the season of Tara is on the DVR.

[lillijulianne.livejournal.com]

god, simon, you are a gift.

i should get hold of tara...toni collette is so good. one of those actresses i just watch enthralled no matter how small her role is- her bit in "the hours" is so stunning.

ah, john corbett. i so hate that IRL he's a republican and dating bo frigging derek, finalist for most undeservedly rich and famous person ever. i'll always love chris in the morning.

[rymonrocks.livejournal.com]

"Pretty typical Cowell stuff, except that he said these things at a dinner with the Prime Minister at Downing Street"

I just want to know how he got onto that subject, or knowing Simon, he probably just blurt it out because the dull coversation was killing him.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Tropicana is the brand I saw at the grocery store last week that had changed its look and went "omg who thought that would look better than before?" It was something -- something I don't buy which is why I've forgotten what it was. But whatever it was looked really weird.

he said these things at a dinner with the Prime Minister at Downing Street

*cracks up*

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I've been watching Tara. I find it...okay, I guess. I like the husband and the son, fine the daughter boring. I'm more interested in it now that they seem to have injected this hidden alter personality because now it's kind of scary. I think my problem with it before is it was hard for me not to see the mother's situation as self-indulgent drama. I liked the character of Tara as herself, but I don't know...I didn't like Juno that much either and I think something about that hangs over this show for me. But I don't hate it.

[sisterpandora.livejournal.com]

Simon's ego will never fail to amaze or entertain in a head meets desk sort of way.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Well, and also in that article, that they designed the Obama-like new Pepsi logo. I like the new font, but the logo feels weird.

And you wonder if they did their due diligence on this, which would include looking at all the competitive packaging, as well as the packaging in situ, because if they had, they would have seen what we all saw.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about her in The Hours. She was amazing.

Well, Bo Derek did star in a movie. And she's beautiful in that way, so she's such a type. But even though IRL he's really kind of a drag, I love that he keeps playing the nice guy hubbie in these very strong-woman-centered stories, like this and SatC and Greek Wedding. And his character here is hilarious.

Also the son is by-the-way gay, in that he's 15 or 16 and totally out, and totally accepted by his family, and it's a non issue for the show. (Well, his parents and sister and aunt; his grandparents were on the last ep and were talking about whether he had a girlfriend, but they were presented as never listening to anyone anyway.)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

The daughter I might like mostly because she leads me to Corddry. I admit to this. But I find her entire attitude to be great, esp the way her moods change, and sometimes she's up for dealing with her mother and sometimes she is NOT.

What was it that you didn't like about Juno? Did you post about that? And of course, not meant in an accusatory way!

I didn't add Tara to my tivo until this week (thanks showtime for your billion reairs) so I think until now I was feeling maybe about it. But I feel the need for a tonic at present!

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Totally because he was bored, good call.

The PM's reply was that the people would not be as pleased to thaw him out as they might be to thaw out Cowell, which I find charming and delightful.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I bet it was, or maybe it was Pepsi, which is the same company.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

It's like, I think it can't get bigger and then it DOES. For both of them, actually, which is why they're so well matched.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

True, and thank you for pushing me a bit to watch it! I've been remembering and managing to catch each week eventually on the re-airs, but did put it on my tivo finally the other day.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I didn't really *dislike* Juno, exactly. I don't really have any criticisms of it--I could actually say plenty of things I thought were interesting in it! But it still didn't really do it for me in some way. Maybe I was aware of being set up or something? Like everything seemed really artificial or something.

I'm so glad you identified Nate Corddry. Every time he comes on he looks familiar and I immediately love him but I can't remember where I've seen him. That's it!

But I am totally up for talking about the show. This week's made me totally laugh out loud with poor Charmaine's breasts. Was not expecting that. Well done, show.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Thank god for the OJ package redesign. I got so frustrated the other day trying to find the low acid Tropicana in the store shelf I just gave up and bought Minute Maid instead. THE HORROR.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I am not one of those "omg change no" people, but the design totally sucked.

[longtimegone]

:D Agreed. I don't have an issue with a new logo, but...just not that one. :)) I seriously had to check the carton twice to be sure it was Tropicana!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about Juno some more, trying to remember the movie...and I think the main thing I found really distancing was just that it seemed really obviously not about a teenager who was pregnant. I mean, leaving aside stuff like "Planned Parenthood doesn't work that way" and "Why wouldn't she get an abortion again?" it was just kind of weird to have her presented as a teenaged girl who got pregnant with her teenaged boyfriend. I couldn't really say it was a big flaw in the movie, because it's not like it was trying to deal with the realism of a teen pregnancy or even being a teenager. But I found the teenaged scene a little off-putting because of it. In a review of Tara somebody referred to Juno as not so much a character as a "cypher with an attitude" and that hit it for me. I felt like there were a lot of non-human but sometimes interesting creatures running around the movie.