martin short

Martin Short will be joining David Krumholtz in the new Fox comedy series 'Tax Man.' Short will be playing an obnoxious, overbearing boss in the vein of Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy on '30 Rock.' That description might be a bit of an exaggeration.

While Martin Short did give an impressive dramatic turn on 'Damages,' he's no Alec Baldwin. He plays the little neurotic guy much better than he could play a confident businessman with ethical issues like Jack Donaghy. He'd be better off playing characters like Leo Bloom in 'The Producers'.

The combination of David Krumholtz and Martin Short is an interesting one. It would be worth tuning in just for that. Hey, both have even appeared in 'The Santa Clause' movie franchise.

Can Short pull this role off? It's television and anything is possible. Short could create a character that is a combination of Jack Donaghy and Leo Bloom, maybe with a little Ed Grimley thrown in for good measure.

(S03E09) "We'll find Patty's humanity and we'll drive it through hardcore." - Gail Sturmer

What is up with that horse? In a previous review, I wondered if maybe Patty Hewes was harking back to an earlier time in her life when she wanted a pony. But it's hard to imagine Patty being so innocent and carefree and, you know, the pony-coveting type.

On the other hand, she doesn't seem like the bad guy when you put her in a room with Arthur Frobisher. Hence her comments when Frobisher, Terry Brooke and Gail Sturmer sat down for a meeting.

"The Arthur Frobisher that I know: foolish, vain, pathetically insecure, a despicable bully," she told the would-be filmmakers. "He stole from his employees and manipulated the system to escape life in prison with a slap on the wrist."

If there's anything Patty loves, it's seeing the bad guys behind bars, even if she herself manages to escape all of that turmoil for her wrongdoings.

(S03E08) "What is the point of doing anything unless you're doing good?' - Arthur Frobisher, on his Whirlwind Initiative to spread the word about wind power

So Arthur Frobisher is back, trying to rebuild his image with the wholesome message of wind power. He seems a little out of place to me, though. Like they stuck him in there just to bring him back, but he doesn't really fit into the big picture here. The scenes with him and Terry Brooks almost seemed like they were in the wrong season.

And Matthew McConaughey? That seemed like an odd placement in the show, for some reason. I guess I sort of think of 'Damages' as being in an alternative universe or something.

(S03E07) "You're not a Tobin, Mr. Winstone. Keep acting like a Tobin, and I'll punish you like one." -- Patty to Lenny

Well, the plot on 'Damages' is certainly thickening, and I'd be disappointed if it did anything less. It's reminding me more and more of a John Grisham novel, especially after last night's episode.

We've got feuding families, people with lots of secrets, various attorneys and public officials, and now even a bank in the Caribbean. And yes, lots of mind games between Patty and Ellen.

As the folks at Moviefone.com point out, blue is the hot color for movies these days, especially if your name is James Cameron. Well, it's not going to be a sequel to 'Avatar' or another Cameron pic or even an updating of 'The Blue Lagoon,' but Neil Patrick Harris has agreed to be in 'Smurfs: The Movie.' (Not to be confused with 'Smurfs: The Opera.')

Actually, Neil will be all voice for the role. Sony's concept for the big screen version of 'Smurfs,' the popular '80s Saturday morning cartoon series, is live action mixed with animation, under the direction of 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' auteur Raja Gosnell.

Exactly which of the smurfs Neil will play remains shrouded in mystery. I suspect he's getting his pick, as long as it's not Papa Smurf. That role's already been claimed by Jonathan Winters.

(S03E05) "It's not my birthday." - Patty to Alex

Hmmm ... such cryptic messages in this week's episode of 'Damages.' First the wacky dream. Dreaming about a horse in your home probably isn't so crazy, unless you're Patty Hewes and the dream includes bloody hands and feet.

Let's analyze: Patty harking back to a more innocent childhood perhaps? Nah, too straightforward. Maybe the horse signifies Danielle's child, and Ellen's message that "it's a big responsibility" and "are you sure you're ready for it" denotes Patty's willingness to take care of Danielle and her child. Well, just the child now. The "blood on her hands" isn't so hard to figure out, but her feet? It must suck to be Patty with all that running around in her head.

(S03E04) There was family dysfunction all around in this episode of 'Damages.' We had Patty dealing with her son, Ellen dealing with her sister (and jerk of a dad), Tom dealing with his in-laws (who seem like very sweet people), and the ongoing strife within the Tobin family.

And swirling around it all was Patty Hewes, who always knows more than she lets on -- but maybe not enough, as evidenced by her phone call to ... someone in that least scene.

(S03E03) "Tonight's been educational." - Patty

Educational it was, both for Patty Hewes and viewers alike, as last night's 'Damages' proved that it can tell one helluva narrative without any of those pesky "six months from now" flashes. 'Flight's at 11:08' isn't the first episode to put the back and forth, past/present/future jumps on the back-burner, but it is the earliest it's happened in a season. Normally, those narrative devices don't fade away until the climactic moment later in the season when everything collides. What we got instead was a bit of different angle for 'Damages' as last night's episode was driven by the characters and not the over-arching plot.

(S03E02) "Yeah, sure. That's Tommy. He's a good egg. I helped him, he helped me." - The Homeless Man

The questions kept flying tonight on 'Damages' as details from last week's stunning revelation continued to unfold -- in six months time, Tom Shayes is a dead man and now we have a better idea as to why. The only problem with that? There are still eleven episodes left, and assuming this season plays out like the first two, we're gonna have to wait until the last possible second for answers. Fortunately for us, there's plenty of other plots playing out as well.

Josh Duhamel confessed to being a devoted Martin Short fan and delivered a tribute to Short's classic character Ed Grimley on 'Live with Regis and Kelly' today.

During an interview with Kelly Ripa and Short, who was filling in for Regis Philbin, Duhamel shaped his hair into a point using gel and hairspray, hiked up his pants, and performed Grimley's trademark spastic dance.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S03E01) "Do you think this could have been done to you on purpose?" - Det. Vic Huntley

Patty Hewes for the people? No way. In tonight's season three premiere of Damages, Patty (Glenn Close) may have been appointed by the government to recover billions of stolen assets from scheming financier Louis Tobin (Len Cariou), but let's be honest here -- this is Patty Hewes.

When her name is on the line, you better believe that's all that matters. She's set on finding all that money, but it's to make her look good and has nothing to do with the welfare of Tobin's thousands of victims. With a stellar record as of late (Frobisher and UNR), losing this battle would be a huge blow to Patty's public image. So, knowing all that, what do you think about Det. Huntley's question now? Could someone have tried to kill Patty on purpose?

If you thought the first two seasons of 'Damages' were intense, things get amped up in the season 3 opener.

We won't spoil the shocking surprises, but there's plenty of new cast firepower as well, including Martin Short playing a tough-as-nails lawyer to a Madoff-like family called the Tobins, who are struggling with the fallout of their patriarch's fraudulent activities. Naturally that means plenty of potential sparring time with Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), especially with billions of dollars at stake in the season-long tale. Things will get ugly, which will be fun for the cast and creators.

Season three of the hit FX show 'Damages' premieres Monday, Jan. 25, at 10 PM ET. The legal thriller has a history of making us think things are going one way, and then spinning the story in a completely different direction.

The season two finale is a good example of that. All season long, we'd been teased about a showdown between Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) and Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne). But did it turn out the way you thought it would?

If you haven't watched season two yet, read no further. Spoilers after the jump.

When Damages burst on to the TV scene in the summer of 2007, it turned everything upside down. Creators Glenn and Todd A. Kessler and Daniel Zelman took a tired television genre and re-invented it so well that it became hard to pigeonhole Damages in the very category that spawned it. It was so much more than a legal thriller and the drama's tense plotting and unique time shifting storytelling technique made the show worthy of scholarly debate -- blink and you'll miss something important.

Now entering its third season, Damages is prepped to turn the legal world on its head again when FX's superb thriller returns this Monday night, January 25, at 10 p.m. ET. Based on the first two episodes, Glenn Close and the rest of the top-notch cast make the same case that they did the previous two seasons -- this is must see, can't miss television.

I'm not sure if this is up there with "Jingle Bells" and "White Christmas," but last night Martin Short entertained viewers of The Late Show with the song "Don't Commit Suicide on the Holidays." He even gives a little wink and nod to Dave about what he went through this year.

[Watch clips and episodes of The Late Show and other shows at SlashControl.]