Interview

Yesterday, Oprah announced that The Oprah Winfrey show will end when her contract does, in 2011. This isn't exactly a surprise (the Queen of Daytime has long indicated that she would be unlikely to renew) and she isn't really abandoning us (she'll be launching her own network, the Oprah Winfrey Network, following her departure from the show), but that hasn't stopped people from becoming very upset. Below, a sampling from Twitter:

IAmCollette I'm happy to say, that I've met and shopped with Ms. Oprah Winfrey @ Neiman Marcus. I'm sure she's going to make 2010 unforgettable.

anniegoods Oprah! No!!! Who am I supposed to watch when I'm depressed or feeling ugly?! Ellen and I just aren't that close yet...

mmiddlebrook All ABC-affiliate general managers, please call suicide hotline to discuss Oprah's decision before jumping out the window.

Rob_Olson 2012 is for real, I'm freaking out. Oprah just announced she is ending her show in late 2011. Goodbye Earth.

KrystinByrne is choosing to ignore the @ Oprah announcement in the hope she will be on television forever

harlemsophy That Would Be The Hottest Shit Ever If Oprah Gave Out Polar Bears Ugggghhhhh I Want One

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The time is upon us—no, it isn't holiday season or sale season. It isn't even New Moon. It is—Oh! I feel it coming on!—the time of the year when every person you know turns into a snotty, drippy mess; when children on the subway with their stickly little fingers must be reported to an attendant for immediate evacuation.

I even feel it... The chills, the sneezes, the over-medication that makes me feel... And this year we have one more disease to look forward to in Swine Flu. Luckily, GIANTmicrobes has something for you to cuddle up with in your moment of absolute weakness and pariah-dom, and a topical stocking stuffer in the making. It's the Swine Flu Microbe Plushie, a stuffed form with an adorable red eye that will terrify your hypochondriac roommate, and keep ex-boyfriends and family at bay. This latest addition to the GIANTmicrobe Series follows in the storied tradition of Bird Flu, The Ebola Virus and Gangrene. And at $7.95, it's cheaper than those meds you'll inevitably need, if the Senate has anything to do with it...

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PHOTO BY CRAIG BLANKENHORN

Thanks to tax breaks, Greenpoint, Brooklyn got a real treat this year: Rather than film the upcoming Boardwalk Empire in overpriced New Jersey, HBO leased a New York City plot and literally laid down the sand to reimagine the Garden State's most beloved landmark. 

After extensive research and three months of labor, the studio that brought us the definitive vision of modern day Jersey with The Sopranos has resurrected the circa 1920 heyday of the Atlantic City boardwalk, complete with taffy stands and incubator baby exhibitions. Series creator Terry Winter said that, while he hasn't had a chance to sit down with Nelson Johnson, author of Boardwalk Empire, he used the book and its environs as a jumping off point, though he did fictionalize the characters. Steve Buscemi stars as Nucky Thompson, a character based on the Nucky Johnson of the novel. Buscemi is joined by Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Kelly Macdonald, and enough extras to fill even the most spacious speakeasy. Who wouldn't want to play a part in Prohibition?

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In The Prisoner, AMC's newest series, a man wakes up in a world he doesn't recognize.  This theme of disorientation seems especially relevant to the life of one of the show's female leads, British actress Ruth Wilson. Recently, she learned not only that her deceased grandfather had been both a novelist and a spy, but that he had lived as a secret polygamist, acting as the patriarch of four separate families. I spoke with Wilson about her family, filming in Africa, and the "completely mad" series on which The Prisoner is based. (PHOTO: RUTH WILSON AND JIM CAVIEZEL IN THE PRISONER)


REBECCA SINN: So how did you begin acting?
 
RUTH WILSON: Actually, one of the stories that's come up recently about my family was that my granddad was a spy in the war. I never knew him–he died when my dad was eighteen. Not only that, but he wrote twenty spy novels as a novelist.
 
SINN: Did you know about his secret life before?
 
WILSON: No, and not only that, but he had four wives and never got divorced, so he was a polygamist.

SINN: When did you find all this out?
 
WILSON: Two years ago, maybe? So my dad has all these new brothers and sisters from different families. They had a big reunion–it was insane!  But it turns out that one of my new uncles is an actor and his son is a director.

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