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    TV Wonderland

    Behind the scenes with Joan Rivers at Fashion Police — and Jimmy Kimmel, too!

    Clifford Pugh
    Nov 4, 2013 | 12:11 pm

    HOLLYWOOD — It's barely 8:30 in the morning, but a perfectly-coiffed Joan Rivers, in a tailored metallic gold jacket with fur collar and dripping in jewelry, looks like an affluent, plastic-surgery lovin' lady-who-lunches on her way to lunch.

    Until she opens her mouth. Then the Joan we know and love comes forth.

    At 80, Rivers remains one of the hardest-working entertainers in show business, so it's not surprising that she's first on the set of Fashion Police, sitting in her customary chair, rehearsing lines as she looks into a teleprompter before the panel — Kelly Osbourne, George Kostiopoulos and Dancing With The Stars contestant Christina Milian, who is subbing for regular Giuliana Rancic on this episode — arrive.

    Why has Fashion Police been so successful? "We love each other as a group," Rivers explains. "And E! lets us say just about anything."

    For the next two-and-a-half hours, during a recent taping of the hit E! show, Rivers is all business, with a lot of laughs in-between. Make no mistake: It may be called Fashion Police, but it's the Joan Rivers show. Without her sometimes tasteless, always acerbic putdowns of foolishly-dressed notables, the show would be a real snoozefest.

    During a break Rivers engages in conversation with the 30 or so "guests" on the set. Because the studio located in a nondescript office building that houses most of the E! operations is so tiny, there is not room for much of an audience. Since the show has become a hit in the U.S. and is shown in 160 countries, parent company NBC Universal has offered a much bigger studio on the Universal lot, Rivers says, but she won't move from this studio where the show has been taped for three years. "I'm superstitious," she says.

    CultureMap was allowed to observe a recent taping, with a plea not to reveal too much about how the magic happens. A TV taping can be tedious and a bit messy — it's a bit like watching sausage being made — but Fashion Police proceeds crisply, although the segments are shot out of order and, occasionally someone muffs a line, so it has to be re-shot.

    The "guests" on this day are predominately gay, as are many of the show's regular viewers, and the show's warm-up comic Nina Manni and head writer Tony Tripoli urge us to laugh heartily, which isn't that hard to do. "I need you to all embrace your inner gay man and get rowdy like you're at the Abbey after three martinis," Manni says, refering to a popular Los Angeles bar.

    (Upon hearing we're from Houston, Tripoli reveals that relatives started the Truluck's chain of seafood restaurants. "I'm in the wrong line of business," he laments.)

    To keep our stomachs from growling at the early hour, a large basket filled with chocolate bars and assorted candies is passed around, and as a reward for attending the show we receive a plastic sheriff's badge, officially designating us as a member of the "Joan Rangers."

    As any viewer of the show knows, many of Rivers' jokes skirt the edge, and we are told to laugh even if we find a joke shocking. On this show, Rivers picks on regular targets Anne Hathaway, Tom Cruise, Peter Dinklage, Paula Deen, Oprah Winfrey, Betty White and the Kardashian clan in an especially funny joke about Kim and Kanye that is too R-rated to recount here.

    Overseeing it all is Rivers' daughter Melissa, who stands behind a camera and communicates with the control room while finding time to banter with the audience about her tattoos, boob jobs and love of shoes. Melissa is wearing a killer pair of Chloe ankle booties, which she proudly shows us during a break.

    It's our lucky day because instead of featuring a no-name starlet, a staple of the show as it expanded to an hour, comedienne Margaret Cho is a guest and she and Rivers easily exchange jokes like the pro's they are for a good 10 to 15 minutes. Only about three minutes of their conversation makes it into the televised show. (Off camera, Cho and Osbourne, who are both heavily tattooed, show off their favorites.)

    During a break, Rivers takes questions for the audience, talking about Michael Jackson, Cher, what she wears and why the show has been so successful. "We love each other as a group," she explains. "And E! lets us say just about anything."

    Jimmy Kimmel's world

    I was hoping to also get a behind-the-scenes look at Jimmy Kimmel Live! and made that clear with the show's publicity team. But when I arrived for the 4:30 p.m. taping of the popular late-night ABC show, a publicist escorted me and a guest to the green room, where drinks and food were available, along with an adjoining game room, with pool table and old-fashioned video games. She told us to watch the show here and about 15 minutes before it ended, she would escort us to an outdoor stage to watch John Mayer perform.

    Even though we were disappointed, it's hard to complain when you're in a room with free food and booze — along with a TV that shows NFL football games on a rival network.

    When I protested, she explained there were only 180 seats in the auditorium. Then she disappeared and we never saw her again.

    Even though we were disappointed, it's hard to complain when you're in a room with free food and booze — along with a TV that shows NFL football games on a rival network. By the time the Kimmel show started taping at 6 p.m. (despite the title, it's not "live," although it is taped as if it is) and the TVs in the green room switched to his show, nobody was paying attention. Which is just as well, because it seemed like an off night for the talk show host, with an opening monologue that fell flat and only the charisma-challenged Mayer and a supporting actress in the ABC soap, Scandal, on hand as guests.

    We stayed around to watch Mayer perform on the Sony Studio Stage. On TV, it looks like the stage is on a cool rooftop, but it's actually in a depressing asphalt parking lot behind the Kimmel studio on Hollywood Boulevard. Kimmel introduced Mayer and then quickly disappeared (it was a Thursday night and Kimmel doesn't work on Fridays) and, after two Mayer songs, we vanished, too.

    Guest Christina Milian, left, joins Kelly Osbourne, Joan Rivers, Margaret Cho and George Kostiopoulos on Fashion Police.

    Fashion Police cast Christina Milan, Kelly Osbourne, Joan Rivers, Margaret Cho, George Kosptiopoulous
      
    Courtesy photo
    Guest Christina Milian, left, joins Kelly Osbourne, Joan Rivers, Margaret Cho and George Kostiopoulos on Fashion Police.
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    Movie Review

    28 Years Later revives zombie franchise for new generation

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 20, 2025 | 5:00 pm
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
    Photo by Miya Mizuno
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later.

    The 2000s brought two of the best zombie movies ever made in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. Both films, despite being made by different filmmakers, featured intense action with fast-moving zombies, harrowing sequences, and real emotional connections with their main characters. Now the original director and writer — Danny Boyle and Alex Garland — have returned with the first of a possible three sequels, 28 Years Later.

    The rage virus from the first two films that turns humans into insatiable monsters has successfully been contained to the United Kingdom, and one group of survivors has managed to band together on a small island off the coast of England. We’re introduced to the group through Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife, Isla (Jodie Comer), and his son, Spike (Alfie Williams).

    Isla is sick with an unknown illness, while Jamie is set to take the 12-year-old Spike on his first trip to the mainland to hunt zombies. That trip not only gives Spike an education as to the different types of feral zombies that now populate England, but also a clue that other people have survived there. When he discovers that one of them may be a doctor, he makes plans to take his mother there in hopes of finding a cure for whatever ails her.

    While the first two films were notable for their brisk pace that kept the potency of the stories high, Boyle and Garland almost go in the opposite direction for much of this film. The first 90 minutes are relatively slow, with only a couple of sequences that raise the blood pressure. The final half hour or so go a long way toward filling that void, so it’s clear that the filmmakers were biding their time for the story to come in the sequel. A bit more balance in this film would have served them well, though.

    What they do show involves some weird, wild stuff that is objectively upsetting, even for fans of the genre. The zombies have evolved in strange ways, giving them a variety of body shapes and abilities to suit the environment in which they live. These storytelling choices may thrill some and have others scratching their heads. Another human character living on his own (played by Ralph Fiennes), appears to have gone the way of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, with a revelation that is bone-chilling.

    Boyle, who’s directed everything from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire, doesn’t have a signature style, and he makes some choices in this film that test your patience. He occasionally employs an odd technique in which the film stutters, for a lack of better term. It’s a bit jarring, especially since it doesn’t seem to improve the storytelling. He also inserts scenes from older films involving medieval warfare that emulate the bow-and-arrow weaponry used by characters in this film, but the exact connection he’s trying to make is unclear.

    The young Williams has a lot put on his shoulders in the film, and he proves to be up to the task of carrying the story. He isn’t precocious or annoying, instead reacting almost exactly like you’d expect a boy of his age to do when faced with extreme situations. Taylor-Johnson and Comer are good complements for him, drawing him out with their polar opposite characters. Fiennes makes a huge impression in the final act of the film, while Jack O’Connell makes a very brief appearance, teasing a bigger role to come.

    It’s difficult to fully judge 28 Years Later because it’s designed to only give you part of the story; part 2, The Bone Temple, is due in 2026, while a third film will follow if the first two do well. This film has its moments and winds up on the positive side of the ledger, but it’s also a frustrating experience that could have used a more stand-alone story.

    ---

    28 Years Later is now playing in theaters.

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