Entertainment News Round-Up (YEEE--HAAAH!!!)

I had no idea what I was gonna write today, so I cast about the 'Net for some random entertainment news...let's see what I came up with.

Hey! This is exciting. At least, it is to me. Hong Kong Phooey: The Complete Series comes out on DVD next week. The set contains all thirty-one episodes of one of TV's greatest super-hero spoofs, not to mention one of the few shows that Hanna-Barbera produced during the 70's that was even watchable (Remember The Hair Bear Bunch and Inch High, Private Eye? Yech! I still cannot believe that I ever liked either of those shows. Sure, I was a kid, but that's no excuse.), on two discs that also contains commentary on three episodes, a documentary entitled "The Phoo-Nomenon", and complete storyboards for the episode "The Batty Bank Gang".

In movie news, Talladaga Nights: The Ballad of of Ricky Bobby topped the box office over the weekend, and was probably hugely popular with NASCAR fans too stupid to know that they were being made fun of.

In second place was Barnyard: The Original Party Animals (subtitles are very in this week), despite reviews that could charitably be described as lukewarm. To me, the film appears, based on the promos I've seen, to be a cheaply produced quickie whose sole puropse for existing is to cash in on the popularity of computer animated films.

Meanwhile, CNN.com reports that Heath Ledger will be following in the footsteps of Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Hamill. He has been cast as the Joker in The Dark Knight, the sequel to last summer's Batman Begins. Hopefully, unlike Romero, Ledger will actually shave off his moustache before putting on the makeup.

Finally, your chance to be insulted by a snotty Brit has come around again, as auditions for season 6 of American Idol began today, as reported in the Columbus Dispatch. The audition nearest me appears to be Monday's at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. This blogging thing hasn't made me rich, so maybe I'll take my shot at a singing career.