The other day, I met Chelsea Handler and Chuy Bravo. Jealous? You ought to be. Chelsea Lately is apparently the choice late-night show. ¹

This funny gal kept it seriously real on Carrie Prejean’s interview on The Today Show.

¹According to the 2009 Teen Choice Awards²
²According to Wikipedia

I’d also like to give some play to a Saturday night newcomer, Wanda Sykes, whose show, The Wanda Sykes Show, airs Saturday nights. I thoroughly enjoyed it at a time when people actually watch TV, Monday afternoon. Check out the round table at the end and play along with “Know Your Asians” (at 35:29) in her “Inappropriate Games” segment.

Jocelyn Matsuo (jocelyn@hulu.com)
Video Editor

If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for sending information my way (jason.kilar@hulu.com) and we’ll handle the rest.

Jason Kilar (jason.kilar@hulu.com)
CEO, Hulu

No. 12: Lean on Me
What’s a high school drama without a rendition of “Lean on Me?” When the gleeks decided to rally about the troubled couple, they chose a cheerful, gospel-twinged version of the standard to let Finn and Quinn they’ll be there to carry their load. Sing it, Artie!

No. 19: Endless Love
Things kicked off with a Rachel-Mr. Schue duet of “Endless Love” (originally performed by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie). It was meant to inspire the other glee clubbers to find a ballad that gets in touch with their emotions and, in this case, it worked too well. “When I’m singing with him, it’s like I’m seeing him for the first time,” Rachel revealed in a voiceover. “And he’s super, super cute!” But this Spanish teacher is no stranger to schoolgirl stalkers: a former student, the aptly named Susie Pepper, downed the world’s hottest pepper when Mr. Schue told her to find someone her own age. She was left in a medically induced coma for days. Freaky!

No. 18: I’ll Stand By You
Meanwhile, Finn was freaking out about fatherhood with Kurt, who encouraged the hunky football player to channel his baby-daddy woes into song; The Pretender’s “I’ll Stand By You,” in particular. But when Finn’s mom caught him singing “Won’t let nobody hurt you…” to a sonogram, the secret’s out. Best part of all this? Kurt used the ballad project as a way to get closer to his crush: Finn.

No. 17 Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl
Looking for advice on how to handle Rachel’s obvious crush, Mr. Schuester turned to Miss Pillsbury. The guidance counselor sagely advised Will to use song to get his point across, and so he turned to a classic teacher/stalker ballad: The Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” mashed up with Gary Puckett and the Union Gap’s “Young Girl.” Only problem is, this lesson didn’t go exactly as planned.

Off the Charts: You’re Having My Baby
This week we’re introduced to Quinn’s parents: boozy, Glenn Beck-loving conservatives; the perfect couple. But when Finn sprung a dinnertime ballad on the family, that façade cracked. It could’ve had something to do with Finn’s choice of song. It left no doubt that Quinn’s been harboring a little secret, and Mr. Fabray wasn’t supportive of this new development: he gave his daughter 30 minutes to pack her things and get out of the house.

Which ballads would you have liked to see on last night’s Glee?

This week also signals the beginning of a new partnership between Hulu and EMI, and to kick things off, we’re bringing you a new page devoted to Norah Jones. It features music videos and concert footage from The Fall, as well as all the essentials from Jones’ previous releases, Not Too Late, Feels Like Home and Come Away With Me; and live performances such as her 2004 show at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, where country greats Dolly Parton and Gillian Welch joined her on stage. But before you dig in, find out what Jones had to say about shooting with Elmo and working with The Lonely Island guys in our exclusive interview below. — Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com), Editor

Hulu: We’re talking about the new collection of your videos and concerts here on Hulu, but I also wanted to ask you about your new album, The Fall. What’s the story behind the name?
Norah Jones: Well, I just really like that it has some different meanings, so it can be kind of interpreted. For me, it relates to the album with all the meanings. I don’t know, it stuck in my head one day and I couldn’t think of anything else.

And I love the cover. Is there a story behind it? It looks like something you’d see in Vogue.
That’s funny. [Laughs] It was the photographer’s idea. She wanted to use a bunch of dogs because she likes working with animals. I thought it sounded fun. We ended up just loving the Saint Bernard so much that we got some shots with just him. He was so beautiful. So yeah, it’s meant to be kind of playful and theatrical.

What influenced some of the sounds of The Fall?
A lot of different things. I really wanted some heavy drum grooves on this album. Listening to stuff like Tom Waits, but also younger bands like Santigold. I don’t know, I did a song with Q-Tip last year that had me kind of wanting some heavier drum grooves in my own music. Just a lot of different things.

You collaborated with a lot of great people on this album, like Ryan Adams and Will Sheff. How did all of that come about — did you approach them?
Well, Ryan’s been an old friend of mine for a while. We were just hanging out, and I ended up playing him a song that I wasn’t able to finish, that I couldn’t come up with any lyrics to. And he just took it and made it great.

It’s nice to have friends like that.
Yeah, it’s fun. I mean, he’s so quick creatively. He finished the song in like five minutes — he wrote all the lyrics and changed them all around. He’s amazing.

Now that we have a lot of your older material on Hulu, are you planning to go back to look at any of it?
I might someday, but I’ve seen it so much. But yeah, it’s always like walking down memory lane, like a photo album or something.

You know, last week happened to be Sesame Street’s birthday, and they hand-picked a collection of clips from the last four decades for us. Your appearance with Elmo was among them.
That’s cool. It’s so funny, because having done that, whenever people come up to me and tell me anything about my music that they like, or whatever, more than anything else, I’ve gotten comments about that Sesame Street performance.

What was it like working with Elmo?
It was amazing. It just happened during my first album when everything was really big and crazy. When we got the call to do Sesame Street, it was a no-brainer. Everybody’s grown up on that show. It was so amazing being on the set, too, because it’s exactly the street you remember from when you were a kid. They were so welcoming to us, and they let us take pictures on the set and everything.

This was a little bit of a surprise to me: you collaborated with The Lonely Island [the Andy Samberg-Akiva Schaffer-Jorma Taccone group behind "I'm On a Boat"]. What was it like working with them on “Dreamgirl” one of their tracks?
Oh yeah, I love those guys. It was great. They’re super-nice guys, and they’re just really fun. They asked me if I’d sing on it, and they were super-sweet about it. They’re just funny, you know?

Given that connection, are we going to see you on Saturday Night Live any time soon?
I would love to, I love that show, but you know, they don’t have a lot of bookings — so we’ll see.

We’d even suggest that you should be the next musical act to crossover as a host.
Yeah, right.[Laughs] I would love to do that someday, but I don’t know if I’m big enough for them anymore!

If Taylor Swift can do it…
Well, Justin Timberlake was so good. He’s got a whole other career if he wants it — he’s so funny. I don’t even really know his music that well, but he won me over just by seeing a sketch on SNL.

You never know, you could be next! Thanks for your time, Norah — good luck with the new album.
Thanks!

Carey Mulligan is the breakout star of your film. She was also in Pride & Prejudice (2005), but how did you discover her?
Director Lone Scherfig: She was just in a pile of casting tapes. She had done very little, so it was chance. I knew that we probably had to find someone unknown because [her character] Jenny is so young. She was always my first choice — but we saw her again and again, and now I feel really bad that we took so long to make the decision. It’s been going so well, so maybe she doesn’t have to go through all that again.

I hope so, too! An Education is set in 1961. How did that particular time period play into the film? What did that mean for Jenny?
I think it’s really important. The way London was changing at that time is so in sync with how she’s changing. The way she’s bursting with energy for a future she can’t describe because she doesn’t know what it is yet is the way London was shaking the war off its shoulders, wanting to do things for fun and to have much more appetite for life, for art and for literature — and music in particular. That became so much more dominant straight after she [would have] entered Oxford.

I known here in the U.S. right now, that time period is really resonating with our culture — if you look at Mad Men, for example.
It’s a bit different. Maybe what is so attractive with Mad Men is that it’s a period where they, in some ways, were more liberated and also more innocent than it’s the case now. It’s a bit different in England because Jenny, she’s among the last generation of women who had that little future and so few possibilities. It’s almost as if Lynn Barber, who wrote this story, had been fighting at that. What that means is that women since Lynn could relax and take for granted that they had the right to do the things that they like to do, to try and to find individual futures for themselves and to live that future, or live that adult life, at least, if you have an education.

But my guess is about America is that it’s this combination of innocence and freedom that attracts you. Here in Denmark, as well, it was more liberated than it is now, and was definitely more innocent and less dangerous. I mean, when I was a teenager, the world was a lot safer than it is now for my daughter as a teenager, which meant that I could have a lot more fun. It wasn’t risky the way it is now.

Were you familiar with Lynn Barber’s story before you started this project?
It was just a 10-page article in a literary magazine. Later on, I think Penguin commissioned some more chapters, and she oddly became a journalist for Penthouse. She almost went too far because I know her, and I think she’s a woman who’s had a very rich, varied and happy life that is right for her. Her only regret seems to be that she now thinks that she should have been a better wife to her husband, whom she met in Oxford. But apart from that, she has fulfilled a lot of her dreams, and she’s a brilliant writer.

But no, I wasn’t familiar with her or her work, but obviously I started reading it when I got the job, to get to know her better and to portray her better. But Jenny is different. Lynn is more sarcastic, more of a fighter, and her piece has much more self-irony. Because Nick Hornby and I are not her, we could describe her with some warmth that’s not in her piece.

Speaking of Nick, what did he bring to the screenplay? Did he make any significant changes to Lynn’s story?
The story is short, so he fleshed it out. There are a couple of characters that are his, especially the teachers, but the structure and a lot of the details are actually in her original piece. I think he’s given it a tone that’s definitely Nick Hornby — and jokes, too. He’s really humorous. [Lynn] says that Alfred Molina’s role (as Jenny’s dad) is a lot more sympathetic than she had imagined. I hope we have added something as well. It’s just layer upon layer, and as long as we’re telling the same story — a group portrait of a girl and the people her surrounding her, particularly David … the more time we spent on it, the more time [it was] in this development situation, the more detail you see, the more contrast and the more integrity. But it’s the same piece that we’re all working on, and that was really important to me as a director that everyone was making the same film, that everyone contributed to the package and tried to strengthen it and get as many facets as possible but not be over-inventive, just tell the story as well as we possibly could.

I really enjoyed Alfred Molina’s performance. Can you tell us what he brought to his character?
He has really good timing. He’s very musical, and so is Nick. That means that lines are something where Alfred Molina feels immediately at ease and pitches them very well from the beginning. Also, [Alfred] felt that he knew that world very well — he grew up in Notting Hill and he thought that Jack who he portrays was definitely someone that he knows, and that Jack and England have a lot in common at the time, the xenophobia and the fear of everything: the fear of food, the fear of excess of any kind, and also the insecurity because he didn’t have an education, so that’s one of the reasons why they would let someone like David into their home. He seems worldly, and they’re afraid to be prejudiced as well. So they let him in and let him run off with their little girl.

I wanted to ask you about the clothes. I loved the costumes in this film, particularly Helen’s [a friend of David's who takes Jenny under her wing], but also Jenny’s as well. I read that you brought mood boards to your meetings with Odille Dicks-Mireaux, the costume designer…
That was about Paris, though, it wasn’t about clothes. But I did a board for each of the characters because it is a character-based film. I thought that’s a good place to start, to ensure that if I have a language problem, that’s not going to be our problem, that we’re all speaking the same language. A lot of film people, it’s helpful to have visual examples rather than to explain. So it was clothes, but it was also photos of real people at the time and props. Because a lot of people on the crew and in the cast had not experienced that period, it was also about communicating that London was not that “swinging” yet, and it wasn’t that long ago. It may be a period film, but a lot of the things are the same still.

She and I had a really good collaboration, and all of the costumes are just real clothes that have been saved. We only made one single dress, which was the nightclub singer’s dress. It was a copy of my Barbie doll’s ’60s dress. Because the singer is so small, she didn’t fit into any of the clothes that they had at the prop house. But it was so easy, and they have so much stuff in England, it’s probably the biggest place in the world for that kind of thing, and because the actresses are so beautiful, they just jump into anything, everything just fits. It was a good way for me to go and talk to the cast about the characters and to be at the costume fittings because then you get to express the character’s style and what would be in his pockets. I do the same thing with the props department, which kind of wristwatch would she have, who gave it to her, it’s a very concrete and specific way of building characters. It’s a good place to start dialogue with the actors, rather than sitting at reading tables.

Thanks, Lone, for speaking to us about the film. An Education is in theaters now.

We recently spoke to Regan when she was visiting New York to promote the Season 2 premiere of Legend of the Seeker. She’d flown in all the way from New Zealand, where she’d just finished shooting episode 10, and she was kind enough to speak to us about her co-star — “He does have abs of steel, that Craig Horner” — and their relationship, but the actress also told us about a brief encounter she had with a Hulu fan: “During the hiatus, I was in New York and this guy stopped me to say, ‘You’re the chick in the water on Hulu,’” she said. “I guess there was some picture of me smiling in the water on your home page. It was so cool, I was like ‘Yeah, that’s me! I’m the chick in the water on Hulu, sure!’” Keep reading to see what else Regan shared with the Hulu team. — Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com), Editor

Hulu: Before Legend of the Seeker, you were on a lot of dramas: The Black Donnellys, Six Degrees, New Amsterdam … What drew you to this fantasy role, which must have been a bit of a departure?
Bridget Regan: Oh, it was totally a departure. I actually knew nothing about fantasy. I hadn’t seen Lord of the Rings, and I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I just really liked the part. I liked Kahlan. I liked who she was, and I liked that it was really different than anything I had ever done. I liked that she was really tough and a total badass, but that she was really feminine and cared, was really passionate about what she did and what she was fighting for. I loved it. I liked that it also wasn’t casual. I grew up doing theater — I went to drama school — and there’s something really theatrical about this show. It’s heightened, and not “oh, let’s just play it casual, whatever…” sort of acting. It’s heightened and high stakes and life and death. I love it.

What’s it like playing such a strong female role? I can’t think of many others like yours on TV right now.
No, there aren’t! And that’s why I love it so much. I would audition for roles, and casting directors would be like “Oh, we love her, but she reads just a bit too mature.” It was like I couldn’t find my place often — I mean, I got lucky and got to do all the great New York shows, some pilots in L.A., some movies here and there, and a Broadway show. But I never found a part that embraced that side of me. You know, I’m not a teeny-tiny little thing. I’m 5-9; you can’t push me over — I’m solid. [Laughs] So I needed a character to play that was like that. You know, Kahlan’s tough. She’s really, really tough, and I love it because it’s empowering to play. I get to let off steam beating up grown men every other day.

The books obviously have a cult following, and a lot of them feel pretty passionately about the show. Were you taken aback by all the attention?
I mean, I knew of that section in the bookstore where the paperbacks lived — I’d passed by it, but I’d never really gone into that aisle and looked at them. I really had no idea what I was in for. I kind of surprised myself by how much I loved the books. I tore through Wizard’s First Rule and I’ve probably read it a dozen times now, because I always go back and re-read it to remind myself who she is and how I fell in love with her. I fell in love with her in that book. You know, there was no script when I auditioned, there were just the books. Craig and I auditioned with scenes pulled verbatim, dialogue from the books. I was a bit scared going into it — “Oh gosh, what am I in for, what am I doing?” — but it was kind of a good scary. It was scary and exciting, and I thought I should do this, take the plunge. It’s actually turned out to be really, really cool, and I’m proud that I did it, because it wasn’t an easy decision to pack up my life and move.

Speaking of which, how is life in New Zealand?
It’s pretty super. It’s so different than New York — I mean, I live in a house with a yard, where I lived in an apartment the size of my closet. It was one room, and it was above a pizza place on 14th and 7th in Manhattan. You walk outside, and you’re smacked in the face with New York City. There are no trees! And now I live in this lush landscape. I’m kind of like the odd man out. There are Americans there, and there’s diversity in New Zealand, but it’s certainly not like New York, where it’s such a melting pot.

Can you bring us up to speed with the show? Last time we saw Richard and Kahlan, they defeated Darken Rahl. What’s happening with the Season 2 premiere?
It’s kind of funny, I think we were all expecting a cliffhanger at the end of Season 1, and it felt like we won. We did it, and now we’re patting each other on the back. We’re celebrating for about two minutes when we’re totally attacked by this creature which is known as a “screeling.” We learn that these are from the underworld, which is kind of like hell. We learn that when we killed Darken Rahl, because he’s this powerful, magical force and Richard used all these forms of magic to kill him, it actually caused this sort of explosion and the earth opened up. Now there’s this crack that separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. These crazy creatures are coming out to get us, and then we learn it’s not just these creatures — people are actually coming back from the dead, so it’s a bit like we don’t know what to expect. We don’t know what we’re dealing with. The Keeper is out to get us. That’s where we start Season 2. Our goal is to find this tiny little Stone of Tears, which is going to help us seal the rift in the underworld. So that’s the journey in Season 2, to find this stone.

The show is full of lots of action. Do you do a lot of your own stunts?
I do nearly everything! Sometimes they won’t let me jump off a horse or roll down a hill because they’re scared I’m going to break something, but I do all my fights. My stuntwoman, Dayna Chiplin, she choreographs them now, which is great because she wears the dress and she knows what it’s like to move in that thing. We have a ball together, I absolutely adore her. [During fight scenes], they shoot facing me and sometimes from behind, but they also shoot Dayna when they cover the “baddies” as they call them. When you see the back of me, odds are it’s Dayna.

Have you had any mishaps on the set?
Oh, there are so many mishaps. I went to the emergency room last year when I accidentally punched a shield during a fight. Everybody thought I broke my finger, but I kept going “It’s fine, it’s fine, let’s keep going, let’s shoot.” But they said, “Nope, you’re going to the emergency room.” And I was right! It wasn’t broken; they were just being wussy with me.

And what’s it like working with your co-star, Craig Horner, who plays Richard?
I adore working with Craig. We got so lucky that we like each other as much as we do, and that we have a connection. We don’t have to work at the connection between Richard and Kahlan. It’s just kind of there. When I look at him, the ground comes in underneath me, and I just feel “Yup, he’s Richard and yup, I’m Kahlan.” You just kind of play like you’re little kids in the background and you believe. I think you kind of need that sort of thing in a fantasy show. You kind of need that playful, childlike attitude towards it. He’s totally got that — he’s such a little kid at heart. And he’s the best movie quoter I’ve ever known. He’s so good. You give him any movie, and he could just go verbatim on and on and on. Get him to do Fight Club or Home Alone — he loves Home Alone.

The onscreen chemistry between you and Craig has caused a lot of people to wonder whether you’re dating. Can you define your relationship for us?
Craig and I are very close. We’re very good friends, and we’ve had a wonderful relationship over the year and half, but it’s just been that.

I just had to ask… On that note, thanks for talking to us, Bridget, and I hope we get to do it again soon.
And thanks for supporting us on Hulu, we love it!

Lohaus is currently working on another documentary that will follow the experience of Vietnam veterans and the 10-year battle it took to have PTSD recognized as a mental disorder. He took a break to talk to Hulu about When I Came Home, which he screened at a benefit for Services for the UnderServed (susinc.org) on Veteran’s Day. — Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com), Editor

Hulu: How did you decide to do a documentary about homeless vets?
Filmmaker Dan Lohaus: Back in 2002, I was interested in making a documentary about homeless Vietnam vets; that was really the focus of this film. I had found there are over 150,000 homeless Vietnam vets. I wanted to look at their experience when they come home. Staggering numbers of Vietnam vets ended up in prison when they came home, or ended up ending their lives prematurely. That statistic, that there were over 150,000 homeless Vietnam vets, just really made me angry. I just felt like so many of these guys were in their late 50s or early 60s, and had been out in the streets for years. This is kind of the final chapter for them in terms of being ignored and forgotten when they came home in the early ’70s.

So that’s where it all started, and as I started filming homeless Vietnam vets out on the street, the war in Iraq started. Once that war started, all the Vietnam vets started telling me to keep my eyes open for kids coming out of Iraq, because they were like “This VA is so backlogged, we can’t even get help from the VA. We’re still fighting for our benefits, and we just don’t understand how a whole new generation is going to come and get taken care of.” Then I started seeing little articles on the Internet about homeless Iraq veterans. The first one was in the Boston Globe, about a woman named Vanessa Turner. She’d gotten back from Iraq and ended up homeless in the Boston area. Basically, at that point I decided this is ridiculous; I couldn’t believe this was happening again. I wanted to find homeless Iraq veterans to include in the film and kind of show how history’s repeating itself. And then [in late 2004, early 2005], I found Herold [Noel] in New York. It just took off from there.

Who is Herold?
Herold Noel, he was in the Army, in the 37 Cavalry out of Fort Stewart, Georgia.

How did you find him, and why do you think his story is representative of others?
He was the subject of a cover article for this newspaper here in New York called The Indypendent. They did a cover story about Herold called “The Invisible Soldier.” I just couldn’t believe it — here was this guy in my neighborhood, going through this. At the same time, I had been going to this one organization in [Bedford-Stuyvestant] called Black Veterans for Social Justice, where I had found a couple other Iraq vets, but they weren’t quite ready to be in the film. It just so happens that Herold was also going to Black Veterans for Social Justice to try to get some help. My contact there told him “Hey, if you want to be in a movie, there’s this guy looking for homeless Iraq vets.” Herold was just really determined. The first day I met him, he said “I want you to document this, I want you to show people what a soldier has to go through when they come home. I want you to follow me to the end of the earth with your camera. I want the country to see what we have to go through.” He was a perfect subject. Right after the first day of filming, he was obviously the main subject for the film.

Where is he today?
He’s still in New York. He’s actually working with a non-profit, Urban Neighborhood Services in Coney Island, and he started a veterans’ project there. He’s really trying to reach out to low-income vets that are coming back to the neighborhood where he kind of grew up, just trying to make sure they know where to go for help. He’s just trying to make sure that what happened to him doesn’t happen to anyone else.

It seems like the subject of homeless Iraq war veterans is quiet, not something you hear about in the press very often.
Back in 2003, when I was first starting to see little articles on the Internet, I had a list of organizations that help homeless veterans. I would call them and say, “Hey, are you guys dealing with any homeless Iraq or Afghanistan veterans?” They’d say, “No, we’ve had maybe one come through our program, but they’re doing OK now. We’re ready for them; we’re expecting to see them.” Now, if I call those same organizations, every one of them has 10 or 15 homeless Iraq or Afghanistan veterans in their program. According to the VA, there’s somewhere around 2,000 at this point, but it’s so frustrating, because it’s the same thing that happened with Vietnam vets. I just feel like it’s a generation getting swept under the rug. There have been some stories about them here and there, but I really feel like people don’t know. When they hear what my movie’s about, the first thing they say is, “What? There are homeless Iraq veterans? That’s ridiculous.”

Before this, were you all that aware of homeless veterans? Was this something you’d already been involved with?
Yeah, I had been working in the non-profit world and helped start a couple of organizations that help employ homeless people and, ever since college, volunteering at soup kitchens and stuff. I think along the way, I met a lot of Vietnam vets. I think I was aware in the back of my head that there were a lot of Vietnam vets on the streets, but it was only when I started doing research on it that I really found out the numbers. It’s pretty staggering. One in four homeless people is a veteran, which is kind of staggering. Twenty-five percent of our whole homeless population are vets. I was aware of homelessness among veterans, but it was only when I said “OK, I’m going to do some research; I think I want to do a film on this,” when I really discovered the numbers.

What moment most stands out for you from shooting this film?
The first thing I filmed was the San Diego Stand Down for homeless veterans in 2002. The Stand Down is meant to be a three-day event where homeless veterans can come off the street and live as a community. They actually get like a coat check for all of their stuff. There’s no drinking, there’s no drugs. They just come in off the street, they live in these military-style tents, and they live in a little community together where they can get not only hot food and new clothes but dental care, too, and they can get hooked up with benefits counselors. They’re constantly hearing speeches from formerly homeless veterans. The event is all about motivating these guys to see that there is an option to get off the street, and that there are people out there that care about them. So I went to this event, and there were 1,000 homeless veterans that came in off the street. Of that 1,000, over the course of the weekend, about 400 or so kind of saw the light and were ready to jump into a program. They had kind of had enough and were inspired by everybody there. This was the very first thing I was filming, I was like “Oh my God, we’re about to see 400 homeless veterans get taken off the street. They’re ready to go, they haven’t drank in a few days, they’re signing up for these programs.” In the course of filming, I was trying to see if I could follow someone who was going to get into a program. That’s when I learned that, in fact, even though 400 vets had made the choice to try to get into a program, there were literally only seven spots available in San Diego County. It just became so frustrating.

So here’s this great event called Stand Down that really connects with these vets, it gets them off the street, it gets them to come in and start thinking about what they need to do to get out and get off the street. I was so frustrated when I learned that only seven guys would get a shot at getting into a supported housing program. It just became really obvious to me. If the money was there to create these supportive housing communities — and there are some great models out there like US Vets, which has supportive housing communities across the country, and there’s one in San Diego called the Veterans Village of San Diego, which has like an 85 percent success rate. It was just really frustrating. It became really clear to me. A guy in the movie, the founder of Stand Down, really says it best: “Why is it that we keep asking why there are so many homeless veterans when we don’t ask where are the resources?” It just became really clear. If the government would put the money into supportive housing programs in combination with the Stand Down event, we could literally get these guys off the street. It was really tough for me. That was the first thing I filmed, I got to know a bunch of these guys who decided that was the weekend they were going to get off the street, and I watched them have to pack up and go back out on the street. It just really, really pissed me off, but I think it was a good thing because it pissed me off enough …That was a real point where I decided I was going to have to make this film.

Are you seeing that the same factors that contributed to Vietnam veterans becoming homeless are the same for the new Iraq war veterans?
I think overall, it’s definitely different. It’s 40 years later, but some of the same things are happening to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. I think, in general, the nation is familiar with the term post-traumatic stress disorder, which is good. I think it’s basically, if you’re affected by war and you’re coming home with PTSD, oftentimes, it’s tough to hold a job. If you can’t find a job, it’s hard to pay rent. It’s a downward spiral that I think veterans of any war can fall into. Just like Vietnam vets … We have 1 million Iraq or Afghanistan veterans who are waiting on decisions from the VA on their disability claims. That’s a staggering number. It was at 600,000 earlier this year, and now it’s at a million. There are literally a million veterans who are not able to work right now who are waiting for a decision from the VA on whether they’re eligible to receive benefits and how much they’ll receive. If they’re unable to work because they’re injured, and if they’re waiting on these benefits, I don’t know how we expect them not to end up homeless. I think vets are a very proud people. For some vets, they maybe didn’t leave a good home situation. Once again, they’re coming back to an economy that’s hurting. I think there are similar factors for any generation of vets that come home. When vets don’t get the proper care they need for PTSD, a lot of them will to start to self-medicate. That’s a factor in that whole downward spiral, as well.

To learn more about this film and how you can help homeless veterans in your area, please visit to WhenICameHome.com.

But in a surprising turn of events, the longtime rivals are joining forces to co-host the 2010 Oscars in March. “I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin,” Martin said in a statement. “I don’t play the banjo but I’m thrilled to be hosting the Oscars – it’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” Baldwin added, referring to Martin’s current gig, touring with a bluegrass band. To mark this new truce, the Hulu team looked back at some classic Martin-Baldwin appearances on SNL. — Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com), Editor

Baldwin Gets Mugged
In this sketch from Season 31, Steve Martin’s on a hot date with a married woman (Kelly Ripa), and things appear to be going well — until she mentions that Alec Baldwin is about to tie him for the most times hosting Saturday Night Live, that is. Cue a hasty departure from the restaurant as Martin rushes to Studio 8H to secure his position as the king of late night.

Martin Asks for a Raise
The same night, Martin approaches executive producer Lorne Michaels in hopes of getting a raise. After all, the paycheck for hosting duties is still $5,000, the same as it was when Martin delivered his first monologue in 1976. When Michaels refuses, Martin threatens to walk off the stage, but the SNL honcho has the ultimate bargaining chip: Alec Baldwin.

Going Platinum
In this bit from Season 32, we’re treated to a look at the Platinum Lounge backstage at Studio 8H, when host Alec Baldwin tries to give cast member Mya Rudolph a tour. Strangely enough, Baldwin’s frenemy, Steve Martin, is hanging out in the lounge, too, and offers to Baldwin a drink. Look for a pair of surprise cameos (sad as one of them may be) as the two catch up over a glass of Scotch, and Martin reveals his nefarious side.

A Baldwin Classic
In “Platinum Lounge” (above), Baldwin references an older sketch that he’ll never live down. A riff on a talk radio show, it features Baldwin as baker Pete Schweddy, a guest on NPR’s “Delicious Dish.” He’s there to talk about his Christmas goodies — everything from zucchini break to fruitcake — but one specialty is his best. They’re delicate and tender, but bigger than you might expect.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have a long history with Saturday Night Live. Which of their characters have been your favorites?

“Dancing With Myself”
When we think of the 1981 Billy Idol hit “Dancing with Myself,” we don’t think acoustic guitar. (Fun fact: Billy Idol originally released this song as a member of the band Generation X; he went on to hit the jackpot when he released a pop version as a solo artist.) But wheelchair-bound Artie sang us a sensitive version as he rolled through the halls of McKinley High and cast wistful eyes at stuttering Tina in the cafeteria.

“Defying Gravity”
Mr. Schue got Kurt’s attention when he told the club the had to go a more traditional route and sing “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. After all, Kurt has an iPod playlist dedicated exclusively to songs from the Broadway show. But coach had Rachel in mind — and good thing, because it’s her go-to shower song and ringtone — and wouldn’t budge until Kurt’s dad got involved, claiming his son was being discriminated against because of his gender. The only way to settle things? A diva-off, where Kurt and Rachel sang for the rest of the club. Whomever hit the High F and won their fellow glee-ks’ votes would get the lead. Listening to this clip, it’s clear one of them threw the competition.

“Proud Mary”
This one’s for Artie: the grand “Proud Mary” finale made full use of the wheelchairs Mr. Schue picked up for a song (pun intended) at the St. Ignatius thrift store. The glee-ks bopped and rolled across the stage in an upbeat rendition of the Creedence Clearwater Revival/Tina Turner classic, giving due respect to their “handicapable” friend.

See the full episode here and tell us what you think: did “Wheels” deliver? Which musical number was your favorite?

Impeccable Quickstep: Mya
While most of the stars faltered a bit during the ballroom round, one of them really shined: R&B star Mya, whose quickstep seemed impeccable to our eyes. In fact, Len gave Mya a bit of a scare following her performance, telling her that he was disappointed — but not for the reasons she expected. (Turns out, the cranky old judge was upset he had nothing to criticize for once.) No surprise that Bruno Tonioli was the most enthusiastic of the judges, telling Mya and her partner Dmitry that “this quickstep is like vintage Champagne. After you taste it, nothing else will do.” Their scores: a pair of tens from Bruno and (surprise!) Len; a nine from Carrie Ann Inaba.

Smokin’ Samba: Mya
Dmitry’s ridiculous moustache aside, Mya’s ’70s disco-inspired samba tore up the dance floor, and the crowd ate it up. “Your hips were hypnotic,” Len told her. “You have produced tonight two dances of the highest standard, with no gimmicks.” As far as the judges were concerned, Mya’s hips don’t lie: they earned the team the first perfect score of the season. We’ll let Bruno speak — er, screech — for himself in the clip below.

Futuristic Paso Doble: Joanna Krupa
In the future, fashion will come with lights, women will wear blue lipstick, and men will use lots of hair gel — if this performance is any indication of life in the 2020s, anyway. And though swimsuit model Joanna Krupa called it her hardest week so far (evidenced by her quickstep in the ballroom round), she and Derek really came together for a synchronized reinvention of the paso doble. A slight wobble by Joanna cost the team a point in an otherwise perfect routine: they earned a nine from Carrie Ann and two 10s from Len and Bruno.

Last Dance: Aaron Carter
Though Aaron Carter didn’t exactly shine during his ballroom number, his ’90s samba earned him triple nines from the judges. A tribute to his childhood days as a pop star, his dance evoked all of the great boy bands of that era. He looked completely at ease on the dance floor, and although Carrie Ann said “I thought you were hittin’ it,” the voters didn’t necessarily agree. The samba was Aaron and Karina Smirnoff’s last dance in the competition. Anyone have a Kleenex? Aaron’s sure to be shedding some tears over his departure.

Do you think the voters were right to send Aaron home? Of the four stars advancing to the semifinals — Joanna Krupa, Mya, Kelly Osbourne and Donny Osmond — who’s your pick to win?

The collection also features shows like Mail Call with everyone’s favorite honorary Gunnery Sergeant, R. Lee “Gunny” Ermy; War Stories with Oliver North; and Carrier, a favorite here at Hulu HQ. We also included a number of soldier-related documentaries and news stories for true-life stories of the brave men and women who serve our country. Among titles like Return to Tarawa, Nanking, and PBS’s Medal of Honor are two new documentary features: Jerabek, a candid look how the death of U.S. Marine Ryan Jerabek — killed in a firefight in Ramadi nine months after his high school graduation — impacted his family in Green Bay, Wisconsin; and When I Came Home, a documentary that chronicles the struggles of Vietnam and Iraq war veterans who end up homeless when they return to U.S. soil.

We’ll be posting interviews with filmmakers from each of the new documentaries in the next few days. In the meantime, everyone at Hulu would like to say a collective “thank you” to all of those who have served or are serving our country.

Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com)
Editor

DogTown has all things adorable rolled neatly into one program: kittens, bunnies, ponies, piglets and puppies who need care, and the nice guys who volunteer to help them. This series just warms my little heart. Be prepared for your eyebrows to try to kiss each other and your bottom lip to stick out further than when you’re doing your fish impression.

This docu-series about the Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, is just what it takes to cure a little case of SAD or cynicism.

Jocelyn Matsuo (jocelyn@hulu.com)
Video Editor & Lover of All Things Cute

To celebrate their big 4-0, the team at Hulu asked our friends at Sesame Street to pick some of their favorite clips from over the years. The collection features everything from Norah Jones singing “Don’t Know Why” to bits I remember from my childhood, like “Grover and a Fly in My Soup.”

Hulu had the chance to speak to Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer for Sesame Street, last week as the show ramped up for its Season 40 premiere. The 21-year veteran of the show basically grew up with the likes of Grover and Kermit the Frog, and today, she guides the creative vision for the show. So what’s it like working with a bunch of a bunch of puppets? She tells us all about it below. — Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com), Editor

Hulu: One of my favorite things about Sesame Street is the timelessness of certain segments. Have certain ones proven to be consistently popular through the years?
Sesame Street’s Carol-Lynn Parente: One of the things about the show is that not only do we have a lot of history with different segments, but different characters. Each one has kind of its own cult following. It kind of depends on who you’re talking to in terms of what’s popular, but we have a pretty good, consistent appeal across the board.

You’ve had a ton of celebrity guests over the years.
Yeah, it’s sort of a who’s-who of celebrities, the ultimate list. Season 40 is particularly star-studded with everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker to Cameron Diaz and Adam Sandler and Ricky Gervais and Kobe Bryant and Eva Longoria [Parker]. We’re just very fortunate in that we get lots of requests from celebrities, so we don’t really have to go after these guys — they come to us. We try really hard to fit as many of them in as we can, which is so much fun.

How do those sketches work? Do they come up with ideas?
It’s different with everyone. A lot of time, what we do is wait until we have the booking, and then we assign a writer to a project. Sometimes there’s something that we’re parodying about some project that they’re in. Occasionally they want to get involved in collaborating. So Ricky Gervais this year actually wrote his piece, the song that he’s in. It’s really a lot of fun when the celebrities get into it.

What’s it like working with the characters?
Wow, I’m probably the luckiest person on Earth, because I get to come to work with Big Bird and Cookie Monster and Elmo every day. Not everyone can say that. You know, aside from just having a whole lot of fun, these performers are really the best in the business. The show attracts the best in the business across the board, from writers to directors, too. But the performers are real artists, because they’re making characters and emotion out of just these very simple felt and fur puppets.

Do you have as much fun off camera as you do onscreen?
You know, we really do. I think that’s the reason this show is so much fun to watch. There is just as much fun if not more on the set. These guys are really amazing performers. Our outtake reel at the wrap party is an awful lot of fun.

How do you come up with new ideas for the show?
We’re lucky because we have amazing writers. The model of Sesame Street is unique. Part of the foundation of the show from the very beginning was that writers work with producers and researchers, all in tandem. That’s how we get not only really funny scripts — because we have very funny writers — but also educational ones, because they’re working every step along the way with researchers.

The show has seen some of its cast and extras grow up on the set. Do any of them come back to visit?
They do. It’s sometimes just a very small world. We had a crew member that came by, just a rotating crew member — you know, you sometimes need someone to fill in for someone who’s out — and he was actually on the show when he was a kid. We’ve had a press reporter that also came on the show and was one of the extra kids back in the ’70s. It’s very surreal for them to be back on the set.

What’s in store for Season 40?
What’s amazing about Season 40 is that it’s really a complete format change. The show has gone through evolution over 40 years — I think that’s the secret to its success; that it’s kept up with the times and made changes, really, because it’s a real neighborhood. And just as those real neighborhoods that the show was modeled after have changed, so has the show.

The show format was modeled after variety-type show like Laugh-In, in a very magazine-like format, that’s not the case anymore. In fact, now there are entire networks devoted to preschool programming. We’re an hour-long show, which is a long time for preschoolers, and that’s unique in the preschool programming world. We decided to think of our hour as a block. It’s formatted that way so we have four anchor shows within our hour, and a brand-new show as part that block is Abby’s Flying School with Abby Cadabby, who’s taken the form of 3-D CGI, and so she will appear in the show in puppet form, but she has her own format, this show within a show. It’s really part of that evolution of what kids are watching, what they’re used to watching, that style of graphics animation. And it allows us to be more physical than we can be with puppets, which is great.

Thanks, Carol-Lynn! Good luck with the 40th season.

Think our collection is missing a shining Sesame Street moment? Tell us which in the comments section. We’ll include some of our favorites in a brand-new collection.

Hulu: What sparked your interest in the relationship between porn and Internet technology?
Vanguard’s Christof Putzel: If you use the Internet, it’s hard to ignore the existence of porn. It shows up in your inbox as spam, as links to your unrelated search inquiries. It’s everywhere. It’s no secret that pornography has been at the cutting edge of media for decades. Pornography is what we have to thank for some of the expansion at the early days of the Internet. So what I was interested in was, in this day and age when mainstream industries like the movie business and the music business are all struggling to figure out how to best utilize the internet and not keep losing their shirts, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how the porn industry was doing. It’s traditionally been one step ahead of mainstream businesses when it came to distribution formats.

What were some of the biggest surprises you encountered while working on this story?
I think that I was most surprised by just how much the adult industry is hurting as a whole. There’s a common misconception that anyone can make a dollar dabbling in Internet porn. While there might have been some truth to that 10 years ago, even the well-established companies are having trouble staying in business today. There’s just so much free pornography out there on the Internet, whether pirated or homemade. Many consumers just see the need to pay for it anymore. That’s kind of ironic, that the same technologies that helped push the industry forward — you know, things like cheap cameras and faster Internet connections — are today bringing it to its knees.

Did you find that you were shocked by any of the things that you saw?
Oh man, yeah. I was shocked by a lot of things when I visited Kink.com’s offices. I’m no prude, but the porn that Kink was producing was unlike anything that the darkest, most warped part of my conscious could come up with. Their business model is based on appealing to those with niche fetishes. So it can be a bit much to handle for an unfamiliar outsider, like myself. The company houses its offices and production studios inside the old San Francisco Armory building. When you walk through the hallways, it has this dungeon-castle type atmosphere. The first room that I was taken to was the blacksmith’s workshop, where they build all the cages and the props. When I walked in, the blacksmith was trying to figure out how to construct a device that could simultaneously send electric currents from a car battery to various parts of the female anatomy. That was just like, “Oh, just another day at the office” for them. And then I was escorted into a room that contained multiple shelves lined with various electronics: a KitchenAid cake mixer, a leaf blower, chainsaw; all modified to perform the task that their website implies. But perhaps the most surreal machine was a replica of the beloved Johnny 5 robot from Short Circuit. That movie stirs up fond childhood memories for me, it’s a 1988 classic. It kind of threw me a little bit when the robot followed me around the room.

Do you feel like you ever became more comfortable around all of it?
I think what was most shocking was just how normal I found everyone to be. You have this feeling that it’s gonna be like a kid in a candy store. It was actually just a lot of people working. I guess as someone who works in media production for a company that has a giant website and is into new media, I think I had a preconceived notion of the types of characters who would sink so low to take a job in an industry that’s widely considered to be at the bottom of the barrel. But every employee that I met appeared very cheerful, and genuinely ecstatic and grateful for the opportunity to work there. And they were smart. Many of them had turned down job offers at mainstream companies to have the opportunity for more creative freedom. The guys in the IT department really felt like they were on the cutting edge, Internet-wise. They felt that they were getting challenges and opportunities that they couldn’t get at other companies. I think that’s what I found most shocking. It kind of blew away my stereotypes.

As far as being desensitized, I think that no; it was still a pretty new experience for me to see people having sex right next to me. I think it was hard for me to become desensitized because, in both instances, when I went to Kink and when I went to Wicked, I actually went and interviewed and talked to them first, and got to know them a little bit. So then seeing them take their clothes off and have sex felt wrong in a way. I think that’s why it was a little hard to become desensitized.

Of course, you touch on this a bit, but how did the insiders feel about their jobs?
You know, that was another one that blew me away. The interns at Kink.com couldn’t be more ecstatic to be cleaning [props], hoping for the chance to be promoted to one day be producing or directing their own porn, or at least play a larger role in the production process. I think that was another part that was just so shocking. Everyone I met genuinely believed in what they were doing. The common perception is that there is a lot of abuse in the industry, and while I’m sure that still exists, the people that I encountered were definitely doing what they were doing because they wanted to be. I’d say people like TomKat [seen in the web extra] seems to absolutely love her job. The geeks in the IT departments, I think one of them said to me “We’re a company where you can fulfill not only all of your sexual fantasies, but all of your technological fantasies, as well.” That’s a geek thing to say, but he clearly likes it.

What also became very clear was that, to stay afloat these days in the adult entertainment industry, you’ve got to work really hard at it, and you’ve got to really want to stay afloat — because otherwise, you’ll go under. I think that a lot of the characters from back in the day that might have been sluggish to get online and stuck in their ways, or technically just not very bright, I think they’re being weeded out.

Can you touch on some of the innovations from porn that are now present in mainstream Internet technology?
E-commerce. The first pioneers of e-commerce were in the adult industry, pushing further what kind of credit card transaction could take place over the Internet. Affiliate marketing was pioneered and embraced by porn online and quickly became a system basically every mainstream company that advertises on the web uses. Kink certainly was the first one to be doing multiple galleries of photos, high-speed streaming video. At the time I interviewed them, Kink.com was the only company who had figured out how to stream high definition live on the web. It’s fascinating to see these guys in the basement building the technology out of wood and spare parts, and figuring out how to do it. I thought that was very telling.

How is the rise of Internet porn affected the more established porn companies?
It’s affected them tremendously. The technology has kind of caught up with itself. The same technology that pushed the industry forward is now killing its profits. It’s doing that mainly through privacy, where people are just ripping off DVDs and putting them online through tube sites and bit torrent sites. The genre’s changed, where people like gonzo and amateur porn, which is incredibly cheaply produced and it’s very short. Now people just want to see two or three minutes of porn and, you know, get it over with, and aren’t necessarily sitting down in their living rooms with a DVD that they just bought to watch a whole storyline unfold. A lot of people were predicting, like all the format wars — BetaMax vs. VHS, DVD — whatever porn chose would win. A lot of people were predicting that Blu-Ray and the HD DVD war would be decided by porn. And it wasn’t. The theory of why it wasn’t was because the Internet had been involved this time. People want to watch porn in privacy, on their laptops or on their iPhones. They don’t necessarily need the high-def value and surround sound that the living room would require.

Last year, the biggest-selling porn DVD wasn’t from any big porn companies, it was Paris Hilton. She’s what they call the “accidental porn star”. That’s giving these big companies a serious run for their money and putting a lot of them under. Now the challenge that they’re facing is how do they continue to innovate? How do they provide a service people will pay for? Essentially, it’s what everyone else is trying to figure out — journalism, Hulu. Everyone’s trying to figure out how to make a dollar off of this. Some of the more innovative companies are trying to provide experiences that can’t be pirated, being more interactive, creating communities, doing things live. I think you see at the conference, there’s an on-demand service that syncs with a machine you can attach to yourself and watch things in sync. That’s an experience you won’t be able to pirate. That’s what’s coming next. I think that, like everyone else, they’re just scratching the surface.

What was that experience like?
I was kind of so flabbergasted at the time that something like this existed. But you know, yeah, I got where they were going, definitely. … I don’t know if that’s the future, but it’s very telling of what they discovered that they need to provide in order to survive.

Changing gears a bit, what will you be covering next on Vanguard?
Right now I’m editing a piece about cocaine trafficking in Europe and the growth of the Nigerian mafia. Cocaine use in Europe is at an all-time high, and in order for South America to meet the demand, they have started trafficking cocaine in high volumes through West Africa for geographical and proximity issues. It’s creating quite a stir. It’s called “The Cocaine Mafia.”

What have been some of your favorite assignments for Vanguard?
I think we have the greatest job in the world. We travel around, getting to meet people and understand situations that most people would probably even know. I think that going to Mogadishu was certainly probably one of the most intense reporting experiences I’ve ever had. We went there with our own private militia of 16 armed guards and were some of the first Western journalists to report from there in 15 years. I’d say that it was a petrifying but amazing experience. Definitely one of my favorites.

I’ll be that the porn piece seemed kind of safe after some of your other assignments.
You know, it did. I think Vanguard has covered a lot of doom and gloom. I covered Africa multiple times; disease, drugs, death, destruction, war, fighting, and honestly, I need to lighten it up a little for myself. So that’s kind of why I chose this story. I needed something a little lighter, just to take a break. I think that this season needs to be broken up a little bit and provide people a little something different. If you use the Internet, it’s almost part of your everyday life.

Have you had any scary experiences in general, stuff we could share with our users?
There’s a great scene in Mogadishu. There are two great moments in that story: one when we’re first entering Mogadishu for the first time and we’re basically stopped at gunpoint, and we think we’re about to be executed. There was another moment where we were trying to hide up on a hill while filming the largest public prayer gathering in a mosque in 15 years. We’re hiding up on the hill when everybody, the thousands of people below us, turned and faced west to begin praying and we realized that we were to the west and everyone was staring right up at us. I think the line in the piece was, “If there was ever any secret that two white guys were hanging out in Mogadishu, that cat was now out of the bag.”

I went and interviewed these skinheads in Russia and I ended up in the middle of the woods in this training camp. I was really trying to understand what was behind these guys’ motivations. When I discovered that this guy I was talking to was genuinely ecstatic watching himself beating people up, it was my first realization that I was interviewing a psychopath. That was pretty scary.

For more about Vanguard, visit their website.

Justin Timberlake: Host with the Most
Few artists from the Billboard charts have managed to resonate with the SNL crowd as well as the guy who brought sexy back. Whether he’s wearing a Chess King button-down in digital shorts like “Motherlover” or rocking a white leisure suit as Robin Gibb in the hilarious “Barry Gibb Talk Show” sketches, Justin Timberlake is gold as far as SNL is concerned. Here, he shares some family history in a little sketch called “Immigrant Tale.”

Paul Simon: The Original
Long before Justin Timberlake was born, singer-songwriter Paul Simon paved the way for generations of musical guests looking for hosting duties. His monologue was self-effacing, good-spirited — and still funny after all these years.

Sting: The Rocker
Promoting his 1991 release “Soul Cages,” Sting put on a punk rock wig to channel his inner Billy Idol for this classic sketch featuring the who’s-who of 1990s SNL. In the end, the sketch served as a vehicle for the late, great Phil Hartman to deliver his belligerent Frank Sinatra impression, but Sting did a respectable job as the snarling rocker.

Queen Latifah: Crossover Artist
Though her 2004 movie Taxi — also starring Jimmy Fallon from SNL — bombed in the box office, Queen Latifah is one of the few music artists who can hold her own in front of the camera. In this fake commercial, she played up the stresses of being one of the only two black women in her office. Fortunately, she had just the cure.

Ludacris: Sharing the Spotlight
In November 2006, actor-rapper Ludacris stepped aside for the debut of the much more talented Blizzard Man (Andy Samberg at his dorkiest), whom ‘Cris lauded as “Marvin Gaye mixed with a little Stevie Wonder.” And though Samberg is definitely the scene stealer here, Ludacris’ performance proves that the SNL writers can’t go wrong when they ask their double-duty hosts to just play themselves.

Janet Jackson: Tongue-Tied
Granted, when Janet Jackson — that’s Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty — hosted, she was no stranger to acting. After all, she starred in “Good Times” in the 1970. Her “SNL” gig was nearly 30 years later, though, so it’s no wonder she tripped up in this tongue-twister of sketch that was full of innuendo.

Jon Bon Jovi: ’80s Flashback
While Amy Poehler is the true star of this ’80s flashback sketch, a cloud of Aqua Net fumes brought a bandana-clad Jon Bon Jovi to life, straight from the “Slippery When Wet” era. For those of us old enough to remember “You Give Love a Bad Name,” it’s a delight to hear that the young Jon Francis Bon Jovi, Jr., was just another fat kid who played the French horn.

Steve Martin: Role Reversal
SNL alum Steve Martin was no stranger to hosting duties when he headlined the late night show last January — after all, it was his 15th time delivering a monologue — but this time, things were different. Martin also performed “Late for School” as musical guest. In addition to his folksy banjo ditty, he presented one cool digital short: “Laser Cats 4.”

Garth Brooks: Alter-Egos
In November 1999, the second time country singer Garth Brooks hosted SNL, his alter ego, Chris Gaines performed as the musical guest. The writers played up this peculiar lineup with an ongoing gag about a bizarre love triangle between Brooks, Gaines and Chris Kattan’s “Mango” character.

Let’s experiment and little and play this actor/movie game (besides, I like getting comments, so please post your turns). You’ve probably done this before: 1) name a movie or TV show, 2) the next person responds with an actor from that movie or TV show, 3) the next person names a different movie or TV show that the actor has also been in. Then repeat.

I’ll start with a classic:

A show: Arrested Development
Starring Tony Hale (Buster).

Tony Hale also appeared in Andy Barker P.I.,
which also starred Andy Richter (Andy)

Andy Richter, of course, now appears on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.

The Tonight Show stars Conan O’Brien, who appeared on The Simpsons …

That leaves it wide open. Now it’s your turn — bonus points if the show or movie is on Hulu, but don’t just cheat with the search function. Unleash your comments, and check some of the links out on the way — I limited it to worthwhile suggestions.

Jocelyn Matsuo (jocelyn@hulu.com)
Hulu’s Name Game Champion

“At this point in the history of motion comics, ‘Gifted‘ is the very best motion comic book out there,” Adams told us. “There will be some in the future that will be as good if not better, but right now it’s the best one.” It’s the early days of this medium — you can catch a motion comic version of Marvel’s Spider-Woman, Agent of S.W.O.R.D. on Hulu, as well, and we’ll have more chapters from the Astonishing X-Men next month — but Adams thinks there’s much more to come, especially as uses motion comics are used to promote feature films. (He tells us there’s motion comic material for a Predator-like character in the works, but that’s all he can say.) Learn how Adams defines –or rather, doesn’t define — motion comics and get his take on Joss Whedon’s graphic novel talents in Hulu’s exclusive interview below. — Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com), Editor

Hulu: Can you tell us about motion comics and what they are?
Neal Adams: Well, first I can tell you what they aren’t. They aren’t a replacement for comic books. They are an adjunct to comic books. They are, in some ways for some people, an easier way to read a comic book, because the comic book kind of reads itself. They are not animation. They are not animated like an animated adaptation, which is when you have some designers in Czechoslovakia or Thailand or India draw thousands and thousands of drawings that have to look very similar to the other ones so that the characters can animate, and so they use the least number of lines that they can to create the animation. They’re not computer animation, and they’re not movies, which are adaptations of comic books. Sometimes you can recognize what went on in the comic book in the movie, and sometimes — most of the time — you can’t.
These are the comic books. They are word-for-word, comma-for-comma the writing of the writer. They are line-for -line, drawing-for-drawing the drawings of the artist, except that the words are turned into voices and the drawings have become animated through manipulating them with computers. You know, you can draw a line and you can turn it into rubber on the computer. You can make it move up, you can make it move down; you can turn it into a face, you can do things with it on the computer that is not what an artist does by redrawing it. So the line that’s in the comic book becomes the line that’s in the motion comic. The only difference is you’ve added the dimension of motion so you can watch it happen. It’s a new form. I don’t want to get all high and mighty or anything, but it’s a new form of entertainment that never existed before.

You’ve explained this before, haven’t you?
I’ve explained it before, to people I’ve tried to sell it to at Marvel and DC Comics. We do this kind of thing in advertising. We do, in effect, a motion comic of a commercial that the advertising agency takes out and tests before they spend a lot of money to do the commercial. Sometimes those what used to be called “animatics” are actually better than the finished commercial. So my little company, Continuity, has done that for over 20 years. We have tried to get some folks in the comic books business to give it a try to see whether or not it can be turned into another form of doing it. Well, a whole series of events had to take place for it to happen, but, by golly, it happened. It turns out that Marvel is, as usual, the first one to open the door and try something new.

You’ve been involved with some of the biggest names in comic books — names like Superman, Batman and X-Men. How did you get your start?
I started when people thought that comic books were toilet paper. In America, once we attacked communists, we also then attacked comic books. Comic books, for a long time in America, were considered to be the kind of thing you never wanted to show your kids and you never wanted to read yourself. So there’s been this long climb upward. When I began, everything was pretty much in the doldrums and everyone was telling me, “You don’t want to do comic books because pretty soon — a year or two, maybe three — they’ll be gone.”

I started at a very bad time and, by golly, those of us who persevered and kept on going, we changed the standards as much as we could to make them not so much more adult, but to appeal to a broader audience. Some people say there are certain movies and certain movies that are meant for kids, some are meant for adults, some are meant for everybody. The wonderful thing about comic books is they’re a medium that everyone can understand. We don’t limit the language. Comic books are, in fact — and always have been — the only kind of book that a kid buys with his own money. This is not an insult to children’s books, which I think are wonderful, but children don’t go out and buy children’s books. Their parents do. Kids will take their own money and buy a comic book. They’re also not magazines. A lot of people think of them as magazines, but they’re not. They’re periodicals and books. Magazines make their income from advertising. If you pick up Vogue or whatever magazine you feel like picking up, what you’ll find is 80 percent of the magazine is advertising. Comic books survive on entertainment. They’re like going to the movie. There is some advertising in comic books, thank goodness, but not so much that it gets in the way of the story.

It’s a very weird and unique medium. In fact, I’ve spoken with some French folks who have opinions about America and have opinions about culture. If you scratch a French fellow who is interested in this sort of thing, he will tell you that America is responsible for three forms of art: jazz, musical comedy and, guess what, comic books.

How have you seen the business change recently?
I don’t see that there’s a limit. I think the limit is going to be about quality. One of the amazing things about the Astonishing X-Men that we’ve done is that it’s a motion motion comic as opposed to a cut-out dolls motion comic. It actually has motion to it. There’s a wide variety of motion comics that go from no motion to extreme motion. We’re on the extreme motion end, not on the no motion end. So there’s a great variety of that stuff. It’s available for many reasons. For example, some movies are going to be promoted with motion comics. There’s an educational program that I’m myself involved in with the Disney Corporation doing motion comics about the Holocaust. The Disney Corporation is providing them to schools. There’s going to be five in the first half of the year, basically stories about Mayor LaGuardia in New York, the ship that can’t find a port to let the refugees off, Ann Frank, things like that; really significant stories done in a form that, like motion comics, are very palatable and very, very interesting. You just don’t get bored. That’s not to say that educational things are boring but, you know, it has to do with the “boree” rather than the “borer.” The “boree” is sometimes more easily bored with one form or another. It’s very hard to get bored when you’re given good and interesting information in a form like this.

It almost takes a certain kind of person to read a comic book, to be a comic book geek. But it’s very easy, once you see the video, for you to then turn to the comic book and go, “Oh, I get it. I may read this very quickly, but it may have more meaning.” And so they go back and they look at it with a different point of view. In fact, one of the things that we do when we show people Astonishing X-Men, is I put copies of the graphic novel in the room with people as I show it to them. As they’re watching, they reach for the graphic novel to see “Is that in there? I didn’t get that from that. What is that? Was that really in there?” And they go ahead and read it and look at it to see if we were really following the comic book, or there was some nuance that they missed, this is really good artwork, or oh, that’s the guy who wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So the connection is being made in a very important way to people who aren’t necessarily comic book geeks. I think that’s what happening here, and not the way a movie does it. You can go to an X-Men movie and never pick up an X-Men comic book, because it’s an entertaining movie, and it’s never exactly the comic book. It’s very hard to look at these and not pick up the graphic novel.

You referred to Joss Whedon of Buffy fame, who also wrote this “Gifted” storyline for Astonishing X-Men. Can tell us what it was like working with him?
We would have preferred that Joss to stop by and give us some input, but of course he’s been busy working on Dollhouse. On the other hand, I’ve done some directing for commercials and stuff, and from the point of view of my directing this thing, he has a better economy of words since he’s used to writing for film and television. He knows when to stop having this person talk because all you’re watching is talking heads. He knows what his limits are and he knows how to use them. He knows how to cut back-and-forth between characters, because he’s so used to doing this. He’s the very best person to be first out with a really good motion comic. I guess there may be a better script writer out there, but is there someone more used to the form of both comic books and film? I don’t think there is. He was the perfect guy for us to work with.

Can you give us a little taste of what to expect with this series?
First of all, “Gifted” is one of Marvel’s best series of graphic novels. It has an awful lot to do with the potential of having superpowers and what the inevitable result can be. You could put another culture in danger. I don’t want to tell people where this culture is, or what kind of danger it represents, but what is known is that one of the X-Men is going to present such a disaster to another culture, and that culture has to go and try to find that X-Men and do away with him, or do something to change the history that’s going to unfold. So you have a story that starts at one time and goes back in time and starts to evolve forward while you’re watching the story of the X-Men, so you get a real classic tragedy in comic book form.

Of course, one of the things about Joss, if you watch Buffy or his other stuff, is that he likes action. You’re not going to turn too many pages before you get to some big knock-down, drag-out fight. Of course, we love that. You’ve got guys going behind the computers going, “Who’s going to handle that thing where the guy bashes the guy and throws him through the wall and they end up on the other side of the wall and then crash into the third wall?” And I say, “You want to do that? Oh, OK, I guess. Hmm…yes, make me a cup of coffee and I’ll let you do it.” People just love that. We have some people who are very strong in the soap opera sense. I’m not saying that girls are more sensitive than guys, but I will say that our best soap opera person is a girl, and she milks the emotion out of the characters using the animation tears coming to the eyes and going down her face.

What’s so wonderful is that we can pass these pieces out and look for people’s strengths to see how they handle that particular scene. You wouldn’t think that handling drawings and creating animation would do that but, by golly, it does. If you watch this little epic unfold, I think you’ll see what I’m saying is true. You’ll get a lot out of it drama wise, and you’ll forget that you’re watching drawings move. You’ll think you’re watching things happen.

The movie was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And from the iconographic opening credits to the tense final showdown, the movie proved to live up to its title. And yet despite its name, this Western had no clearly defined “good guy” or “bad guy”. There was no cavalry riding in to save the day, no Indian enemies, no settlers to save. Just three men, hardened by the day to day in a rugged west, trying to make a few dollars and the best of several rapidly deteriorating situations.

Even watching this now, I’m still amazed at the long stretches between dialogue, which really gives you the sense of the barren loneliness in the early western desert when often only your horse, canteen and a revolver stood between you and death.

I was hooked. It was a few years later that I learned it was actually the third in a series of westerns starring the enigmatic Clint Eastwood as “the Man with No Name”.

The first movie, A Fistful of Dollars, is still is one of my favorites. While new to most of the American audience at the time, it is actually a credited remake of an Akira Kurosawa movie, Yojimbo (starring Toshiro Mifune) and was later remade as Last Man Standing (starring Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken). One of my favorite things about Fistful movie is how easily a classic story has been translated from and mimicked in these other periods.

Far grittier than other Westerns that had preceded it, A Fistful of Dollars introduced Eastwood as the new Western hero, or more appropriately, the anti-hero. Establishing Eastwood’s character from the opening scene, director Sergio Leone follows the enigmatic traveler to a well, where he stops for a drink of water, and is then begrudgingly dragged into a small-town gang war. Playing on the gangster’s fear and greed, Eastwood quickly manages to turn the tables on them by playing both sides against each other. Besides the classic storytelling, Eastwood’s cool character is a deadly shot and you can’t help but cheer him on against the gangs.

For a Few Dollars More introduces Lee van Cleef’s tough-as-nails character Mortimer while he’s on a bounty hunt. Through clever flashbacks, we learn that Mortimer’s sister had been killed by the fugitive El Indio and Mortimer is tracking him for the reward. Enter Eastwood’s character, who is also tracking El Indio, but for far less than revenge. Eventually, Eastwood’s character orchestrates a duel between Mortimer and El Indio, and surprisingly in character, makes sure it’s a fair fight. Although this was another atypical western for the 1960’s, Eastwood’s character eventually rides off into the sunset with his questionable moral standing intact.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the most brutal of the three. Looking for buried Confederate gold, it juxtaposes three hardened men against each other with a backdrop of greed and loose, shifting alliances between our anti-heroes. This is an emotional movie where you’re meant to identify with each of the characters, even though you may not like what you see. If you haven’t seen it yet, the Mexican standoff at the end is worth it alone.

The greatest thing about these movies is that they’re not a typical trilogy – you can watch one movie without feeling like you’re missing something from the other two. But fortunately for you, Hulu is able to provide all three of these classic westerns for the month of November. So throw on your poncho, strap on a six-shooter and get ready for a wild ride.

Mark
Hulu’s Content Gun For Hire

“There’s a lot of stuff going on. Some of the scenes near the end of the episode were really fun to shoot. It’s an action-packed episode with a lot of drama. It’s actually kind of sad, too,” Scott Michael Foster (who plays Cappie) told us. “There’s a lot of stuff going and emotions are high. It’s always cool to shoot scenes like that, because we always want to make sure we have good finales for the audience.”

Now that Cappie’s back together with Casey, he has to break the news to a possibly less-than-supportive Evan. “When we were reading the scripts and finding out where they were going to go with this storyline, we wanted for them to all stay friends and be happy,” he said, “but drama has to come from somewhere, so it’s definitely hard for the three of them to have a relationship. You’re going to see how it all affects them in the finale.”

Ready to see what happens? Here’s the full episode.

Rebecca Harper (rebecca.harper@hulu.com)
Hulu’s ZBZ Wannabe

Hulu: First, can you tell us why you decided to do a series about Hong Kong?
Chef Yan: Well, if anybody has traveled to Hong Kong, it’s a city that not only never sleeps, but it never slows down. Hong Kong has always been considered the gourmet paradise and the Mecca of great foods. Being an international city and colonized by the British for over 100 years, Hong Kong is the crossroads of all the great foods. You have some of the best Western restaurants, French restaurants, Italian restaurants, Russian restaurants, Southeast Asian restaurants, and you also have the best Chinese restaurants. They actually refer to Hong Kong as the “fragrant harbor.” There are more restaurants per capita in Hong Kong than anywhere else in the world.

How did you decide which dishes and which parts of Hong Kong to focus on for this series, since Hong Kong is such a diverse large city?
I actually trained in Hong Kong. When I left Guangzhou, China when I was 13, I actually spent six years in Hong Kong working in restaurants. And after I graduated from college, I went back to Hong Kong to work. I worked for a food magazine, so I have a lot of fond memories, and I have some favorites of Hong Kong. Normally what I do in the Hong Kong Series, basically, is to feature the uniqueness of Hong Kong and what makes Hong Kong so different. Each show actually has a theme — for instance, bamboo. In Hong Kong, when they build high rises, they don’t use steel racks. They use bamboo scaffolding, all the way up to the 30th or 40th floor, so it’s very, very unique. You see people climbing up and down the bamboo scaffolding. And then the whole theme is on bamboo, talking about the use of bamboo in China and Southeast Asia. We talk about using bamboo shoots, cooking bamboo shoots, when whole bamboo is used, and when the bamboo leaf is used to wrap Chinese tamales in dim sum restaurants. Each one is about what makes Hong Kong so unique.

In another program, we talk about water. Hong Kong is an island, a peninsula island that is all surrounded by water. You water everywhere: you see deep water, you see the bay, the harbor, and then you see seafood restaurants everywhere. There’s an abundance of seafood from all over the world, not only the surrounding area. The whole series is about life, food, lifestyle, arts and the excitement, and what makes Hong Kong so unique.

Which episodes are your favorites?
They’re all my favorites. Otherwise, I wouldn’t put them in the series. I’m a world traveler. Normally my focus is not just on featuring one subject matter and one theme, but also to give people a broad understanding and an introduction to a great city. You see London, Paris, Tokyo, and New York and Los Angeles… Hong Kong is probably if not the most, then one of the most exciting cities in the world. You ask anybody who has visited Hong Kong, and they never forget all the excitement, all the energy. You go to New York – -and I love New York, I love London — but you only see part of New York, or part of London. You only see the theater district or Times Square, a certain area that never sleeps. But in Hong Kong, the entire city never sleeps. If you’ve ever been to Hong Kong, you’ll notice that it’s not just part of Hong Kong, but the entire city of Hong Kong is always bustling. There’s 7 to 8 million people living in a place that’s smaller than Chicago.

How often do you travel to Hong Kong?
I go there eight times years. I just landed, and I’m going back there in November and December. I do shows in China and Hong Kong, and I bring a lot professional chefs. I bring a leisure, gourmet tour as well as professional chefs to Hong Kong and China.

And why did you decide to put this series on Hulu?
Hulu is a great medium to reach a good audience. People who are interested in information, interested in entertainment would be browsing around Hulu and watch the programs. It’s also a new medium and excited. I’m very excited to partner with Hulu, and hopefully this is not the end, but the beginning.

I read that you’ve hosted over 3,000 cooking shows …
Yeah, I’ve done more cooking shows than most people. Not necessarily all people, but most people. I started doing the cooking show in 1978, 1979, for 30 years now.

How do you keep finding new ideas?
Well, I travel a great deal. I’m passionate about food and I love to eat, and I have a lot of friends everywhere. Everywhere I go, people always give me the best. Because of that, they inspire me. Being a guy that loves to eat — some people love tennis, some people love hiking, some people love swimming or surfing. I happen to love to eat and love to cook. Also, when you eat different food, like Cuban food, or Russian food, or Burmese food, you also understand the culture and the backdrop of the people. It’s a fascinating thing, a study of anthropology, of history and lifestyle when you go to a restaurant. Like when you go to an Indian restaurant, you see the decor. You go to a Thai restaurant and you see the wood carvings and the embroidery. You go to a Vietnamese or Cambodian restaurant, you see something. So the restaurant is a reflection of the culture and heritage. Just like people collecting stamps, you can study a lot about the people and their history. Food and restaurants are the same. Food is an expression of the chef and the owner. It’s how they want to present themselves and what kind of target audience they want to reach. For me, it’s always a cultural and culinary journey when you go into a restaurant, and it’s the same thing when I travel and when bring the program to people. I constantly learn from the chef, from the people, from home cooks. You cannot possibly know all the cuisine and the culture in the world, so by traveling, I bring all my memories and all my experiences with the people to the audience. I hope Hulu will continue to be in the forefront of bringing all this information and excitement and entertainment to people.

And when you’re at home, are you the one that cooks?
I always cook for myself. People always ask my wife, “Who cooks at home?” My wife always points her finger to me. When I’m home, I cook. I have three refrigerators and two sinks, and a big counter and a professional cooktop in my house. Everything is given to me by GE Monogram, so I can cook at home. I entertain a lot at home. When I’m home, I invite all my friends and neighbors to come and have dinner. A lot of times, I ask everybody to get involved, though. I normally cook one or two items, and they bring the dessert and salad and everything. Food and cooking brings everyone together. I hope my program on Hulu will bring more excitement and fun to the people that love food and travel, because all my programs are a combination of traveling and food and cooking.