ProudMary

OMG, Ryan Gosling! Is it getting hot in here?

I agree with you. I like Ruth Negga a lot and I think she looked beautiful. She's new to the awards show game and deserves a break.

That scene is one of, if not THE best acted scenes ever filmed. I adore Viola Davis and I'm fairly certain she's going to win tonight and probably the Oscar too, but Michelle Williams acting in THAT scene was absolutely stunning. As for fashion, my favorites tonight are Lily Collins and Tracee Ellis Ross. Just saw Janelle Monae getting out of the limo and the top half of her looks adorable; can't wait to see the bottom! I love her style.

I don't know if this will be of any help to you or not but the GG Red Carpet will be streaming live on Twitter here.

Perhaps Chrissy wanted to take a 3.4 mile hike to honor the fact that Kate had missed hers on Turkey Day! /smirk You know, there are HIPAA regulations to protect the health information of average Americans like myself. It may be an unpopular opinion but I believe that the same should be extended to celebrities. Chrissy Metz's health is really none of our business, even if Kate Pearson's is.

I'm a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so I'm excited for this movie anyway but this report today makes it a little sweeter. The cast for that film just keeps getting better and better! http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/sterling-k-brown-joins-marvels-black-panther-961163

I was disappointed that for the second week in a row, we did not get to see all of the Quickfire preparations. I know they didn't show us Shirley's and Sheldon's, perhaps some others also. I'm glad that Sheldon did not seem to be injured from his fall during the stupid part of the challenge where the chefs had to keep running back and forth to the pantry. RE: The top three, Jim's, Sheldon's and Sylva's dishes all looked absolutely delicious. Makes me really wish I could try Sylva's, which drew raves. Must have been quite the standout. Red snapper is high on my list of fish favorites and that crispiness sounded yummy.

Just as a matter of interest, the song that was used in the two movies you mentioned is a completely different song from the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Here is the original version by The Troggs of the song used in the films: https://youtu.be/m_HnBac5jWs And here is the same named theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was written and performed by members of The Crickets, which was the backing band for the late Buddy Holly. https://youtu.be/kuuYvQsN-ak

Esquire Magazine has a fairly lengthy interview posted today with Tom Colicchio where he discusses the Top Chef episode filmed at Boone Hall Plantation along with his activism for food causes. http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/q-and-a/a51967/tom-colicchio-top-chef-interview/

Sweatman's Barbecue in Holly Hill, the first place they visited with the mustard based sauce, is not really all that far from Charleston. It would probably take about 50 minutes and a good portion of the drive would be on Interstate 26. To get to Scott's in Hemingway from downtown is a trek, closer to two hours on smaller roads.

Same here. My first thought was Warsaw as I thought it sounded Polish, but then I saw Vaclav in the name, thought of Havel which brought me to Prague.

Charleston City Paper has followed up on the Eater story with the full 13 year history of what caused the New Year's incident outlined above. Definitely good for a laugh. http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/Eat/archives/2017/01/03/why-thomas-ravenel-lashed-out-at-proofs-craig-nelson

Exit interview with Silvia Barban: http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1130958/top-chef-season-14-silvia-barban-interview

To welcome in the new year, Thomas made a (most likely drunken) appearance on Twitter last night railing against the owner of an Upper King Street bar. Well, if anyone could give temper tantrum lessons, it would be you, T-Rav. Stay classy! http://charleston.eater.com/2017/1/3/14152312/thomas-ravenel-bar-rant Edit: I am assuming this relates to whatever may have occurred at Proof cocktail bar last night. A Google Map featuring "T-Rav Free Zones" has popped up online. I can't stop laughing at this! :D https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/viewer?authuser=1&mid=12FBbC-YpPjR2diqHYnjGkcbziRM&ll=32.788236256131896%2C-79.93786362986089&z=19

I was going to put this in the media thread, but there's a good amount of spoiler-ish info in the article so this thread seemed the better choice. http://comicbook.com/marvel/2017/01/02/agents-of-shield-lmd-episode-titles-hint-at-captain-america-conn/

Only need one degree for this one: William Christopher, the final celebrity victim of 2016, was in M*A*S*H with Alan Alda

It would seem, from her Instagram post tonight, that Lesley-Ann Brandt is pregnant. It certainly will be interesting to see how the writers handle this.

At this point, I would have to agree with you completely but I must admit that I'm a bit surprised because in the first two episodes, she prepared some very good dishes and was even in the top three for the first Quickfire. I thought she was going to be a contender despite her horrid personality. That has certainly not been the case. You can somewhat get away with being a nasty b***h if you've got the goods to back it up in the kitchen. Continual failures and a sour personality? Not so much. And what is it with undercooked beans anyway? Amanda last week and now Emily this week. Perhaps last week, there were time constraints but for this barbecue challenge they were cooking all night. Certainly that should be more than enough time for beans to soften!

I went over to the media thread for dates. We (the general public) found out in mid-March that Top Chef Season 14 would be filming in Charleston. Filming began on May 12th. If I had applied for Top Chef, I would certainly be watching for indications on where they'd be filming. If we are doing that, just as fans of the show, I'm sure that potential contestants are doing the same. Once I knew what city was selected for the upcoming season, I'd be reading up on the types of cuisine that city is known for. In this case they'd have had a lead time of almost two months to study up on the local dishes, even if they only receive actual notification that they'd been cast a few days before they travel.

This. A thousand times. I also think that it's made easier when the cheftestants know that they're competing in one of the smaller cities. If the competition is being held in NY, Chicago, L.A. or any of the more cosmopolitan cities, there are going to be food influences from all over the world so it's harder to pin down exactly what they should be studying for; but cities like New Orleans and Charleston? It's pretty damned evident just what they're going to be expected to cook! Every single chef heading to Charleston should have had a basic recipe in mind for shrimp and grits, biscuits, she-crab soup, Frogmore Stew (Lowcountry Boil), catfish, fried chicken, oysters, black eyed peas or other types of beans, fried green tomatoes, collard greens, hush puppies and barbecue. A quick Google of "Lowcountry SC cuisine" brings up much of what I've just listed. We're only five episodes in, half of those have already been in play and several chefs have had no idea what to do with several of these Charleston staples! It's mind boggling.

My FJ guess was Brigadoon. I don't know why I didn't think of Narnia. I may not have read the books, but I did see the first Narnia film. /facepalm I'm ridiculously excited that it's a Thursday night and Jeopardy is not being pre-empted tonight for an NFL pre-game show! YAY!

Shep has a new business venture, ShepGear that was launched in June. https://www.shepgear.com/

I'm currently binge watching all the episodes on demand as I was reading a year-end entertainment review that had "Better Things" as one to watch. I wasn't particularly impressed with the pilot or the second episode but I figured I'd give the show at least 3 eps. to find its stride. And with this episode, I believe it has. Glad I stuck it out.

I've met Sam. He IS nice! (And I'm usually very good at picking up on phonies.)

In my opinion, Brooke was in something of an awkward position there and took her lead at JT from Emily. Emily was so completely thrown off her game by having to perform in front of former boss Mike Lata that she basically consigned herself to be Brooke's sous chef for the evening. This started right off the bat when the team was discussing the makings of their dish. I never got the impression that Brooke was trying to dominate the decision making. Emily seemed more than happy to ride on Brooke's coattails into the next round and didn't seem to push back on anything. When Tom began to question them at the dining table, it's not as if Emily ever even implied that Brooke planned everything; she wanted it to appear to be a team effort even though it seemed nothing of the sort based on what the editors showed us. People have been sent home in previous seasons for not stepping up to the plate and just coasting. Knowing that Emily was anxious about cooking for a former boss, I think Brooke was, to a certain extent, protecting Emily from looking like the second banana. This is the way I read it. Your opinion is just as valid as mine. :-) As a local, let me just say that I loved this episode. Seeing the cheftestants shop in the Whole Foods where I have shopped is somewhat surreal, but in a very good way! FIG is a fabulous restaurant. I loved seeing the kitchen and watching the dining service there was very cool. I was somewhat surprised, however, that a challenge called the Feast of the Seven Trash Fishes was held at FIG instead of at Lata's other Charleston outpost, The Ordinary which is dedicated to seafood. That would have made more sense but I'm sure there were reasons behind the selection. If I have a nitpick with the episode it's that it wasn't made obvious which of the "trash" fish each team was working with. While it was announced and spelled out onscreen during service, I would have appreciated knowing which fish was which during prep. Only a couple were named. That being said: Triggerfish! It is my favorite fish. Whenever I walk into a restaurant and see triggerfish on the menu as a special,--it's never on the regular menu as it's not always among the fresh catch--I definitely order it. I wish I could have tasted Katsuji and John's dish. That sauce of Katsuji's seemed amazing. Speaking of John/Katsuji: It seemed as if something was left out of the final edit. Why was so much attention paid to the fresh vs. canned tomatoes story-line, even going so far as to have some dishes served with the fresh and some with the canned and then not have the judges say anything about the tomatoes in the dish? I was waiting for the payoff and it didn't happen. I'm glad they sent BJ packing. He had been circling the drain for long enough.