Up & Coming Weekly

Where the Stars Shine E! celebrates 20 years of celebrity worship TV by DEAN ROBBINS E! marks its 20th anniversary with special programming. E! Celebrates 20 Years of the Celebrity Revolution, for example (Friday, 9 p.m.), looks back at the star-centric culture the network has covered and, to some degree, created. If you doubt the E!’s brilliance, check out the 20th-anniversary edition of The Soup (Friday, 10 p.m.), which trashes the network more wittily than you ever could. Joel McHale gets free rein to viciously rip on E!’s red-carpet cover- age, reality shows and untalented stars (Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian et al.). He reveals the network’s unofficial slogan: “You keep watching, so we keep doing it.” Most of us can only dream of being so sarcastic about our employers in public. The fact that E! lets him do it — encourages him to do it — allows the network to be your ironically tawdry source for celebrity worship rather than simply your tawdry source for celebrity worship. I don’t think branding gets much shrewder than that. True Beauty Clint Eastwood Marathon Monday, 6 am (TCM) TCM celebrates Clint Eastwood’s birthday with a 24-hour marathon and a screening of the documentary The Eastwood Factor. I’m an Eastwood fan myself, but given his chief theme — vengeance — I worry about watching 24 straight hours of movies like Magnum Force, Dirty Harry and Hang ‘Em High. By hour 24, I can’t prom- ise that I won’t spill out onto the streets with a mob of other classic-movie buffs seeking bloody revenge on criminals and corrupt officials. Maybe a 12-hour marathon would have been more prudent. Athletes on the Move — XTERRA Triathlon at Fort Bragg by ASHLEY YOUNG Like rugged bike rides, running through the woods or swimming in lakes? Then the XTERRA Triathlon is for you! Sunday, May 30, beginning at 8:30 a.m., Fort Bragg will be hosting an XTERRA Triathlon at Smith Lake, which is located on the eastern side of Fort Bragg. XTERRA is a company that holds off-road triath- lons and Fort Bragg is the only military installation to host an XTERRA event. The triathlon will consist of a 1000m swim, in Smith Lake, an 18 mile mountain bike ride and a four mile trail run. Smith Lake is shal- low, with its maximum depth at eight to ten feet, the bike ride is across rough, dirt roads and the trail run will be in and out of the woods. This triathlon has been held annually at Fort Bragg for four years and all elements of the race will be the same as last year except the trail ride will be in the opposite direction along its original path. In the past, winning participants completed the race within two hours and ending competitors finished after four to four and a half hours. Fort Bragg offers athletes a chance to push themselves to the limits at the 4th Annual XTERRA triathlon on May 30. While the triathlon is not a training technique used by Fort Bragg there are usually many military competitors in the race. Thus far, 80 people have signed up to participate and they are hoping for 100 by May 27, the closing date for registration. Registration fees are $70 for individual participants and $120 for a relay team. The fees will be used to pay for costs associated with the triathlon such as race tee-shirts, swimming caps, food, water, etc. Competitors are asked to bring their own bikes. There are no age requirements or restrictions and currently a 14-year- old has registered to compete. Though only five or six women have regis- tered, they are invited to compete in the race. 20 UCW MAY 26-JUNE 1, 2010 “Just be trained, prepped and ready for an outdoor experience,” said Derek Weller, a Co-race Director for the Smith Lake Triathlon. Weller stresses to competitors that the bike route is pretty tough and the running trail goes both up and down hills. Prizes will be given away to participants based on placing, different qualities and at random. The first place winner will receive a trophy and other participants will receive prizes. In the past, Weller has given prizes to the youngest and oldest competitors and to the com- petitor with the dirtiest shoes. There will be eight stations set up along the bik- ing and running courses where spectators will provide water and encouragement to competitors. Families are also allowed to come and stand along the course ways to cheer participants on. The race will be held as planned in the event of rain, but will be postponed or canceled if it thunderstorms. While there have been no serious injuries in the past competitors are required to sign a liability waver and through that are insured by USA Triathlon. Qualifying points can be made through XTERRA and points will be awarded to the top 15 competitors to finish. From here participants can go on to national or international levels to compete in triathlons. For more information please visit www.fortbraggmwr.com/xterra/index.html. ASHLEY YOUNG, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 editor@upandcomingweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Monday, 10 pm (ABC) For its new season, the reality series gathers the most amazing-looking men and women you’ve ever seen and pretends to judge them on their outer beauty. But, using hidden cameras, it assesses their inner beauty as well — their kindness, compassion, consideration for others, etc. With these people, the search for good qualities is generally fruitless. “I enjoy looking at myself in the mirror,” said a typically narcissistic contestant from last season. And another: “On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m a 20.” I don’t blame them for being shallow and conceited; with looks like that, they don’t really have any reason to be decent human beings. Instead, I blame True Beauty for its approach. Searching for kindness and compassion among these stunning specimens merely gets in the way of viewers’ fantasies. Just drop the annoying concept, ABC, and let us salivate in peace. Nurse Jackie Monday, 10 pm (Showtime) Edie Falco has one of TV’s most expressive faces. In this week’s episode of Nurse Jackie, she takes us from real joy to real despair in the course of a mere 30 minutes. The joy comes during the early stage of Jackie’s car trip with her husband and two girls. The drug-addicted nurse leaves the mess at All Saints Hospital behind, including the lies she told to obtain her painkillers. We can feel her relief as she plays car games with the kids on the open road. Then comes the despair: Jackie loses the pills she’d brought along to get her through the trip. Just as we felt her relief, we now feel her desperation as she searches for the drugs on her hands and knees. I kept hoping she’d find them so we could get back to the nice feeling from the beginning of the episode. There’s Falco’s genius. How many actresses can get you rooting for their characters to take drugs?

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