When you think of relationship experts, Alec Baldwin probably isn’t the first person who springs to mind. His marriage to Kim Basinger ended in acrimony and off-screen he comes across as somewhat temperamental and unusually combative .

Baldwin’s utter inadequacy for the role of love guru might be the reason why he’s relegated to dispensing advice from the back of a cab, which is where we find our self-confessed “Internationally Renowned Relationship Expert” in the weekly webseries Alec Baldwin’s Love Ride.

Baldwin, who spends each episode peppering his guests with questions as comedienne Paula Pell rides shotgun, is the first to admit to his shortcomings. It is his hope, he says, that he can prevent the couples he accosts from “avoid[ing] some of the mistakes I have made.”

It’s here where Baldwin’s appeal shines through: He is quick with his wit, although editing certainly helps. When his first guests, Corey and Francesca, reveal their ages, Baldwin immediately—”just to lay the cards at the table”—zeros in on how when Corey was “right around 25 [he was] jamming on some 19-year-old girl.”

It’s easy to understand why Baldwin has gotten into trouble in the past. In the series, he delivers most of his comments and questions in a combative tone: “You want to have kids? Why?” he barks almost accusingly at Toby and Brian, who are now married but met on Grindr.

Despite Baldwin’s blunt gruffness (“Hetero-normative? Do you work at the New Yorker? Are you a fact-checker?”), there’s something fitting about his disheveled appearance. His advice and sentiments eventually come across as well-meaning and sincere. After his interrogation of Toby and Brian, Baldwin, who seems satisfied with their answers, calls them “awesome”.

The appeal of Love Ride is the chance to watch Baldwin playing off-the-cuff like this. Although this series isn’t as high profile as his other work, it’s still a risk: Not every star has the charisma to pull off this kind of one-man spectacle. As the back-seat love doctor, however, Baldwin is right in his element.

BY SAHIL PATEL

Netflix and Amazon famously don’t provide ratings on who’s watching what on their respective SVOD services. That’s going to change soon, though not at the hands of either company.

Starting next month, Nielsen will provide some viewership metrics on content available on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, according to The Wall Street Journal. The measurement firm will be able to do this by monitoring video consumption among those who participate in its nationwide consumer panel.

This will be independent data, unverified by Netflix or Amazon, who declined to comment for the report. Nielsen will use audio-recognition technology to identify which shows are being streamed.

The tracking won’t be comprehensive. For one, Nielsen will only provide data on desktop-based viewership, not accounting for consumption on mobile and connected-TV devices, which it’s said to be still working on. In addition, companies at first will only have access to viewership data for their own content. The ability to compare SVOD ratings with other shows and networks will probably come at a later date, WSJ said. (This means that those hoping to compare how a linear TV show compares to, say, “House of Cards,” will still have to wait a bit.)

The overall goal, according to Nielsen, is to give the TV industry a better idea on how their shows are faring on SVOD platforms. Because the company’s data suggests the worst — that SVOD is eating into TV ratings.

According to Nielsen, TV viewing was down 7% last month among the coveted 18-49 demographic, when compared to the previous year, and 8% in the third quarter overall. Meanwhile, subscriptions to streaming video services grew to 40% of US households in September, up from 34% in January.

Read the full article on the Video Ink.

Photo via Jacob Bøtter/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

When we got our first look at the live-action Cinderella movie starring a beardless Robb Stark and Lady Rose from Downton Abbey, all we saw was a glass shoe. It was a lovely shoe, for sure, but it looked like Cinderella needed a podiatrist more than a dance partner.

The shoes are still there in Cinderella’s first official trailer, which debuted this week, but as the Fairy Godmother tells Cinderella (and the audience), “You’ll find they’re really comfortable.”

From the looks of the mostly chronological trailer, it’s very much the same Cinderella tale we’ve all grown up with. It doesn't appear to different too much from the 1950 Disney film, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This version even has anthropomorphic mice, although we’re not sure if they’ll sing like their cartoon counterparts. Plus, we get to see Cate Blanchett act evil as Lady Tremaine, which should be nothing short of extraordinary on the big screen.

Disney's Cinderellawill be released March 13, 2015.

Screengrab via Disney Movie Trailers/YouTube

Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé are getting into the holiday spirit a tad early, releasing a video their new duet of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” in which they concede the spotlight to a pair of adorable tweens waltzing around a vintage hotel.

In many ways, the video hits it out of the park. It’s got both nostalgia and youth, plus Menzel and Bublé’s powerhouse vocals to carry you along. The performance even manages to avoid the non-PG nature of the song and the sexual assault overtones with a few key lyrical switches, so we thankfully don’t see children singing about slipping something into someone’s drink.

What’s clear is the song works best when you don’t try to be too on-the-nose about it, securing a spot for Menzel and Bublé in the modern canon, even if their moment is relatively sanitized. Sometimes you just need that Christmas jolt, even if it’s not Thanksgiving yet.

Screengrab via Idina Menzel/YouTube

Nickelback's latest single, "Edge of a Revolution," is a glass case of emotion. The song is a sharp departure for Chad Kroeger and his band of storied philosophers in that it is explicitly about... stuff that is bad and sociopolitical. Apparently, Kroeger tells Yahoo Music, that includes the shooting of Michael Brown and the unrest in Ferguson, Mo.:

I don't know if North America is on the edge of a revolution, but I wanted it to feel that way in the song, since it feels that way in so many other parts of the world. You turn on CNN and it's like, "Wow!" We'd have it on for 15 minutes and we'd have to shut it off because it was so depressing. The state of affairs in the world these days is so dismal. And I think that's where the song definitely came from. While we were working, the [shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri] was a major story and there was rioting like crazy. So it definitely felt like the seeds of revolution were being planted.   

The tragic Michael Brown shooting occurred on Aug. 9, and "Edge of a Revolution" came to the rescue on Aug. 18, when it was released as a single. But because it is more or less obtuse in terms of what it refers to (Wall Street gets put on the proverbial Summer Jam screen, and I think it's fresh how Kroeger rhymes N.S.A. with C.I.A.), the world wasn't hip to Kroeger's artistic process for this track until this month.

Certainly, "Edge of a Revolution" is a joke show. The lyrics are hardly fit to caption an eighth grader's doodles. It's also not a particularly brave thing for a rock & roll band to do; hell New York Knicks owner James Dolan wrote a song about Trayvon Martin this summer. The reality is that crunchy white dudes love to riff about hypothetical revolution because imagery about riots and mind control fits nicely with one-note, post "Hey Man, Nice Shot" bass plucking; plucking that looks gnarly if the bass player is simultaneously thrusting.

Look, Nickelback is the type of band you see in Ottawa with a Groupon. It is immune to haters and has thrived as a pop mainstay for almost 15 years. That Kroeger felt inspired to incorporate a tragedy into his trade reveals his humanity and spirit. He's the kind of doorman that calls you "brother" after he checks your ID. The world's collective progress is fueled by these individuals, and I hope to someday buy the man a Molson Ice. "Edge of a Revolution," I'mma let you finish.

HT Riverfront Times | Still Burning/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

If by some miracle you've managed to avoid being reaped into pop culture's obsession with the dystopic Hunger Games franchise, chances are that you might be feeling a bit left out this Friday. With only a few days left till the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, fans are purchasing tickets and finalizing plans.

If you don’t want to be the only one of your friends not at the theater chowing down on popcorn and watching Jennifer Lawrence show off her sweet arrow-slinging skills, you better get to work familiarizing yourself with the crisis in The Capitol. Thankfully for you, the good folks over at Vulture have volunteered as tribute to help familiarize you with two movies' worth of Panem plot.

With this handily explained video, you can familiarize yourself with all the Hunger Games happenings in only three short minutes. Have at it, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Too many thinkpieces have attempted to explain why we’re so obsessed with Adult Swim’s murder-filled infomercial, Too Many Cooks. Since creeping onto the Internet in early November, the clip has pocketed more than 3.3 million views, but if you zoom out a bit, there’s more to the channel’s renewed focus on nostalgia-and-dread-colored infomercials.

These spots air during the channel's 4am ET graveyard shift, which likely makes up a good chunk of Adult Swim’s viewership. Those 3am infomercials you wake up to after falling asleep to a rerun of Seinfeld? The ones that seep into your dreams, obscuring the line between fantasy and reality? Adult Swim’s found a way to make them covert events. It's always had a good grasp on content that makes us so uncomfortable or confused we have to share to get it out of our heads.

Adult Swim's been playing around with the infomercial format for a while, but it hit its stride with Too Many Cooks, which brought more eyes to that 4am dead zone. One of the most notable clips from the new infomercial series is Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster’s The Newbridge Tourism Board Presents: We’re Newbridge, We’re Comin’ To Get Ya!, a godsend for fans of WFMU’s The Best Show, which went off the air last December. Julie Klausner and Gilbert Gottfried also star in this spoof of a small New Jersey town, complete with a catchy theme song breakdown and questionable sports team name. Scharpling’s directorial fingerprints are all over it, and Wurster’s fake directors and professors mimic the cast of oddball characters he did for The Best Show.

Just give Scharpling and Wurster their own show, already.

“Jon and I have done a bunch of different things for Adult Swim over the years,” Scharpling told the Daily Dot. “And we've talked to the execs up there about doing something that involved the world of The Best Show. The infomercials seemed like a great place to do that; they're simultaneously off the grid while being on television. It's a fun place to try the stuff out and see what works. So we pitched Ollie Green on the Newbridge infomercial—she has been a fan of the radio show—and she was into it. So we did it.”

Green, a producer for Adult Swim shows like Delocated and Metalocalypse, pointed out what makes these late-night fever dreams so appealing. 

“Personally, I find all of our 4am original programming—the Infomercials and Off the Air—to be awesome little treats for anyone up at that difficult hour,” she said.

"We've wanted to bring the radio stuff to life for years,” Scharpling added. "Adult Swim were great the whole way through—they cut us a wide swath to do what we wanted and their notes brought out the best from the whole thing.

“Who knows if we'll do more? I hope so.”

Just give Scharpling and Wurster their own show, already.

The Salad Mixxxer

Comedian Kurt Braunohler stars as an oblivious host selling increasingly large vibrators to women dying to get “mixed.” The spot advances from the ’60s to present day, and the aged host still doesn’t quite understand what people are actually using them for. 

Goth Fitness

Goth culture is so hot right now. This clip proves that fitness nuts are actually under the spell of ancient demons.

Adult Swim always manages to find convincingly terrifying children for their spots, and the host of this one is no different. Also, kids’ toys turning into murderous drones: great idea or the greatest idea?

The infomercial obsession with junk science continues, with Rich Fulcher and Matt Besser as hosts. More specifically, the obsession with a shadowy “Miracle Man” fuels the inevitable ending: murder, naturally.

You knew the day would come when your pet would overpower you. 

Since all of our devices have to be "smart" these days, this startup aims to be the "Venmo of pipes." Not the pipes you're thinking of, though a Smart Bong should definitely be a reality by now.

Longmire will live to rule another day.

Just three months after the popular A&E drama got cancelled, Netflix is picking the show for a 10-episode fourth season, set to premiere in 2015, Deadline reports. 

Although Longmire was the channel’s most-watched original-scripted series in the network’s history, its audience skewed older, something advertisers undervalued and made the show not profitable to the network.

Longmire follows Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire, played by Robert Taylor, as he tries to keep the balance between the residents of a fictional county and the Native Americans who live nearby. At its height, the show had more than 5 million viewers who tuned in weekly. What may have been even more gut-wrenching about the cancellation is that Longmire’s third season ended on a cliffhanger, which would’ve been left unanswered had Netflix not come in to save it.

But that older audience, whose median age was 61, was able to start a vast and creative social-media campaign to tweet their support for the show and reach out to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime to save the show from eternal cancellation.

Along with revivals of Arrested Development, Community, and The Killing, Longmire joins a list of shows brought back after traditional television took them off the air.

“When Warner Horizon Television came to us with the idea for a new season of Longmire, we were intrigued because the series is so unique, and consistently great,” Netflix VP of Original Content Cindy Holland said in a statement. “We are thrilled to help continue Walt Longmire’s story for his large and passionate following.”

Some of the show’s stars gave credit where credit was due regarding the show’s revival.

According to Deadline, the cast members, including Taylor and Katee Sackhoff, have already signed on for season 4. But considering the consequences from the season 3 finale, not everyone who signed on will be long for the land of the living.

Production on Longmire is set to potentially start in March 2015.

H/T Deadline | A&E/YouTube

This sequel was a certainty once the first Pitch Perfect became a sleeper hit thanks to the Internet's love of catty girl-powered comedies, Glee-esque a cappella harmonies, and stars Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson. Now, the second film is almost here, and we can honestly say: We missed you when you were gone, Barden Bellas.

The trailer, which premiered on The Ellen Show, packs in everything the first movie delivered, with a special nod to one of its signature numbers. The new movie sees the belles competing against international a cappella teams in a high-pressure competition. The comedy is abundant, but let's face it—we're all really here for the singing. It's a good thing the belles have never sounded better.

Screengrab via YouTube

YouTube’s music awards will return in 2015 with a revamped look and feel, celebrating the best of music and performance on the video platform.

YouTube took a breather in 2014 to rethink the annual awards show, and as a result have moved the proceedings from a splashy live event to an online takeover. In 2013’s inaugural outing was livestreamed to a dismal 220,000 viewers from New York City, despite featuring performances from heavyweights like Lady Gaga and Eminem. Overall the event was glitchy, with mics cutting out and performers missing cues, and it failed to have the kind of “water cooler moments” that other big award shows like the VMAs or Grammys can guarantee.

However, one takeaway from the event is that post-stream clips have been watched 54 million times, a clear contributing factor to YouTube’s decision to approach the awards like a produced music special that lives as a one-day takeover on YouTube. The company is also renewing its partnership with Vice, which produced the first event in 2013.

Awards were previously based on fan voting, determined by their sharing and liking of videos, resulting in the biggest award going to Asian supergroup Girls’ Generation over Western heavyweights. In 2015, the awards will be determined by total user activity and handed out virtually. YouTube has already launched a channel specific to the awards, youtube.com/musicawards.

The relaunch of the music awards comes on the heels of YouTube’s new YouTube Music Key, an ad-free subscription service offering offline video viewing and access to 30 million songs via Google Play. The service is currently in private beta, with eventual membership rolling out at $7.99 a month. Most likely, general access will coincide with the awards push.

H/T Variety | Screengrab via YouTube Spotlight/YouTube

Alt-country singer Ryan Adams is no stranger to conflict, often taking to Twitter to express his displeasure with the media. It’s unsurprising, then, that he voiced his frustration with indie music news site Stereogum Wednesday, accusing it of “exploiting [his] illness for page clicks.”

Stereogum posted a story this afternoon of the singer stopping mid-performance last night at Philadelphia’s Tower Theatre, to take a front-row concertgoer to task for taking multiple flash photos, which could potentially trigger his Meniere’s disease—an inner ear disorder that causes vertigo, nausea, and vomiting, and is affected by flashing lights. Adams was in the middle of his 2001 hit single “Oh My Sweet Carolina,” when he stopped the band, and began sternly lecturing a female fan in the front row, reminding her that he had mentioned his Meniere’s light sensitivity earlier in the show.

After a fellow concert attendee uploaded video of the performance to YouTube, along with Adams’ lecture, Stereogum picked up the story and tweeted it out with a slightly sensationalized caption.

In less than an hour, Adams had replied to Stereogum, insinuating that it was exploiting his illness solely for page views.

It’s not the first time that Adams has gotten touchy with the media. He described to BuzzFeed in an interview earlier this year how he hung up on a Melbourne DJ who asked too many personal questions about his marriage to pop singer and actress Mandy Moore. In 2013, Adams tweeted at conservative talking head Sean Hannity, calling the news host a “little chicken man” and accusing him of being “controlled by fear and hate,” in response to  Hannity tweeting about the lack of role models in celebrity culture.

It’s not even the first time he’s been less than pleased with Stereogum. Earlier in 2013, he tweeted at Stereogum about its take on Morbid Angel’s death metal album Covenant as being “subjective, but so wrong.” Stereogum also extensively covered Adams’ 2008 falling out with singer Courtney Love, who accused Adams of stealing almost $1 million from her daughter Frances Bean Cobain’s trust fund to finance his 2003 album, Rock N Roll. Stereogum has yet to delete its tweet.

Photo via 6tee-zeven/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

For a genre that generally conjures up conservative imagery and down-home values, country music on the whole took a large step forward Thursday when two singers, Ty Herndon and Billy Gilman, both came out of the closet as gay men, in separate statements.

Herndon, who has long been speculated in Nashville to be gay, despite having been married twice before, came out publicly to People in an interview; telling the magazine that he first wondered if he was gay around the age of 10, and began telling family and friends he was around the age of 20. But, being a country singer—even one that only achieved moderate levels of success—forced Herndon to keep his sexual orientation a secret. Herndon claims that both his ex-wives knew he was gay, though he still struggled through two public divorces, bankruptcy, and alcohol and drug abuse. It was an Anthony Robbins sermon he heard five years ago that made the 51-year-old singer realize that he should publicly come out, on the chance that his story might help other young gay men not suffer as much as he did. Herndon told the magazine that being gay “is just an addendum. I'm a gay man, and I'm looking forward to living the rest of my life authentically and happy.”

Inspired by Herndon’s announcement, 26-year-old country singer Billy Gilman posted a five-minute video on YouTube also announcing that he is gay, and that he had been in a relationship with another man for the last five months. Gilman shared with fans that he was terrified to make the announcement, but seeing Herndon speak so openly inspired him to come out as well, regardless of the impact that it had on his career.

Wright went on to tell The Guardian that the bigger issue wasn’t necessarily the powers that be that run Nashville’s recording industry—it was fan reaction. “People in the industry—studios, labels, radio programmers—are generally open and understanding, but the fanbase is a different thing. I wouldn't call the industry homophobic, but they're afraid of the fear lots of fans have about gay people. So they package us as straight, and we let them. Because we all want to be part of the big game."

Reactions on Herndon’s Facebook page were somewhat mixed, but for the most part, fairly positive. Gilman received a similar outpouring of support on Twitter, with a smattering of homophobic comments. Country superstar Leann Rimes tweeted in support of both men, claiming the two made her cry with their decision to speak out.

Warning: This story features graphic video and descriptions of rape that may be triggering.

Shock and awe are par for the course when it comes to Hostel director Eli Roth and goth rocker Marilyn Manson, especially when you combine the two. But neither shock nor awe adequately describes this leaked video, which was released online Wednesday night. The video, alleged to be an unreleased 2012 collaboration between Manson and Roth, depicts a brutally violent rape scene between Roth and pop singer Lana Del Rey, among other macabre scenes, set to instrumental goth rock.

The NSFW video, which was released under the title “Sturmgruppe 2013 Reel” was quickly pulled down from YouTube, but can still be seen on Dailymotion. In addition to the Roth and Del Rey rape scene, the video features a birthday party with balloons emblazoned with the word “RAPE” in black marker and a bloodied woman submerged underwater. According to Gawker, the video was part of a reel for Los Angeles-based digital art group Sturmgruppe, which has worked with Manson in the past on both video editing and cinematography.

The majority of the video footage that made it into the Sturmgruppe reel was also featured in Manson’s music video released in April 2012 for his song “No Reflection,” save for the rape scene and the birthday party with the rape balloons.

So, who’s lying? It’s hard to say. To be fair, Roth never said it was actually this footage that was the collaboration between himself, Manson, and Del Rey—though it does make you wonder, if not this video, what other disturbing tape do they have out there, locked away? On second thought, I don’t even want to know.

H/T Spin | Photo via Neil Krug/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Not ready to grow up? Meet Grace Helbig. She wrote the perfect guide for anyone faced with becoming an adult. Shira Lizar from What's Trending finds out six things you might not know about the YouTube star.

It has always amazed me just how unprepossessing some of the world’s great recording studios are. For every Headley Grange—the luscious former workhouse of Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, and Peter Frampton fame—there’s a handful of less salubrious facilities whose appearances belie the incredible music that was captured within: places like Smart Studios in Madison, Wis., where Nirvana recorded “Polly,” or The Dungeon in Atlanta, where some of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik was laid down. Or Joe Meek’s home studio—from which the groundbreaking track “Telstar” emerged—in his flat, above a shop, on the Holloway Road in London.

This discrepancy between appearance and output is explained by Stephen Stewart, proprietor of Kingston’s Harry J Studios in the delightful Studio Chronicles, a new webseries with a first series focussing on Jamaica. Technology is “only a little part of it,” you see, but what really counts is the “who”: If you have eight or nine minds coming together in one moment, then the result will transcend even the most meager of surrounds.

But that’s not to say that there’s nothing inherently special about Harry J’s—where the Beltones recorded “No More Heartaches,” considered the first reggae single, in 1968—or episode 2’s featured studio, dancehall’s King Jammy’s. You can hear, says Stewart, the “sound of the room” in Catch a Fire, a tone that is “very friendly to vocals.” (That certain acoustic that was calibrated by shooting off a .22 pistol around the studio during its construction.)

Furthermore, although his studio at one time was cutting-edge—with everyone from Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson clamoring to use the same 16 tracks as Bob Marley and the Wailers—now its analog setup, or rather its limitations, are influencing the music. 

“The mindset makes the process different,” says Stewart, “because [if a musician makes a mistake] we’re not able to say ‘oh, we can just cut-and-paste, we can just loop the guitar part.’ It makes your attitude to recording different. If we know that everything is linear … it makes you want to make sure when I say ‘rolling’ that your part is correct from start to finish.”

At the core of Studio Chronicles is an investigation into the creation of art. It goes beyond just the reggae music that features in the first series and asks us how things so grand and powerful can be produced in places that look so ordinary. But by showing how these studios authentically capture a moment in time—while also imprinting their own idiosyncrasies on the final cut—this question is answered for us.

Screenshot via Studio Chronicles/YouTube

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Jimmy Kimmel Live has brought back one of his best recurring gags: reminding celebrities just how much people don’t like them. The late night host released an eighth edition of his wildly popular “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets,” and between John Stamos’ belly button and Lena Dunham acknowledging her nudity, it did not disappoint.

While Kimmel has come under fire before for the potential veracity of the mean tweets in question (many mysteriously disappeared from Twitter, or didn’t exist at all), the show has now taken to lightly camouflaging portions of the angry tweeter’s handle with a barely noticeable blur, which could lead to mix-ups down the road. The tweet at Dunham in particular read from @julia after being camouflaged, but @julia is a now defunct Twitter account for well-known feminist entrepreneur and journalist Julia Allison—someone who likely doesn’t need or want to be linked to slamming Dunham for her body type.

Either way, “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets” remains one of the best segments on the notorious hoaxer’s show, and may we all take it with the giant grain of salt, and even more giant laugh, that Lisa Kudrow did when she got this gem:

“I hope you all have a great weekend. Except you, Lisa Kudrow. F**k you.”

Indeed. 

Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

Kimmel had his crew set up the Kim Kardashian Model Snowblower™—a regular old snowblower with Kardashian’s now infamous Paper magazine cover blown up and affixed to it—on Hollywood Boulevard, along with a whole bunch of fake snow. 

Ostensibly unplanned technical difficulties abounded, which led to the incredibly awkward moment of Jimmy Kimmel Live crew members forced to scoop handfuls of the snow out of Snowblower Kim’s insides.

They eventually did get the machine working, and Hollywood locals were treated to a sight they never thought they’d get to see: falling snow. (They also got to see a life-size version of Kardashian’s ample assets, but that’s nothing special, really.)

Puerile? Sure. But either way, here’s Kim Kardashian pooping out a whole lot of fake snow.

H/T Reddit | Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live

Despite being a tale almost as old as time, the story of Cinderella still has some classic fairytale magic up its sleeve. The first trailer for Disney’s 2015 live-action Cinderella, which was released this week, broke all first-day viewing records for the historic studio.

As The Hollywood Reporterfirst revealed, the two-and-a-half-minute trailer was viewed 4.2 million times on YouTube and over 33 million times on Facebook in the first 24 hours alone. This was the most day-one views on any non-Marvel Disney trailer. While day-one numbers on trailers may seem statistically insignificant, Disney has been struggling to find stable success in adapting its classic cartoon fairy tales into live-action properties. Maleficent, the Sleeping Beauty adaptation with Angelina Jolie, earned an impressive $757.7 million in global box office revenue, but received tepid reviews. Tim Burton’s 2010 adaptation of Alice in Wonderland struggled with bad reviews and low revenue around its release as well, though in the four years since its premiere, it has ultimately earned just north of $1 billion in global revenue.

While the Cinderella trailer does give away basically the entire story of Charles Perrault’s fairy tale—upon which the Disney cartoon was based—the beauty of this remake lies in the acclaimed cast and crew who are at the center of this retelling. Helming the project is Thor director and renowned actor Kenneth Branagh, nearly pitch-perfect in everything he directs. In signing on to direct Cinderella, he no doubt imbued it with a healthy dose of the Shakespearean drama for which he’s known.

Cate Blanchett and Helena Bonham Carter stepped into heavy-hitter roles as the wicked stepmother and Ella’s fairy godmother. It’s unusual to see Bonham Carter ditch her trademark dark-princess black for blonde glittery magic as the fairy godmother, while ethereal Blanchett takes on the sinister stepmother. If there are any Cinderella fans who also love Game of Thrones, they can rest easy knowing that their King in the North is back: Richard Madden plays Prince Charming, in search of Downton Abbey’s Lily James, who plays Ella.

Whether the Cinderella trailer’s initial buzz can survive the four months until the movie’s March 15, 2015 premiere remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Disney’s glass-slipper-wearing princess still has a pumpkin carriage’s worth of cultural magic.

Screengrab via Disney Movie Trailers/YouTube

Somewhere in that great rerun in the sky, Allen Funt, the creator of Candid Camera, is smiling.

America’s love affair continues with all things videos that show people falling off of bicycles, getting smashed by surfboards, and (everyone’s favorite) getting hit in the family jewels by a football. Fox announced it has picked up Jukin Media’s wildly popular YouTube channel, FailArmy, for its Friday night TV roster.

Following in the footsteps of the original “human foibles captured on video” show, Candid Camera, its sibling America’s Funniest Home Videos, and its stupid younger cousin Jackass, FailArmy is a compilation of accidents and self-inflicted injuries that are equal parts cringe-worthy and hilarious. The more outrageous the fail or injury, the bigger the yucks. With more than five million subscribers on its YouTube channel, the move to television is a no brainer. In an August interview, Jukin Media said the show, which has only been around for two years, had surpassed one billion views.

"FailArmy entertains millions of fans online every single day. We're excited to bring the TV audience into our world,” Josh Entman, Co-founder and Chief Development Officer at Jukin Media told the Daily Dot.

The television version, which is scheduled to debut at 8pm EST on Jan. 16, 2015, will have a panel of yet-to-be-announced comedians review each week’s fails and select one to be the “fail of the week.” One could imagine the weekly prize is payment of a large insurance premium.

Screengrab via Fail Army/YouTube