Linda Holmes

Credit Chris Hartlove
for NPR

Linda Holmes writes and edits NPR's entertainment and pop-culture blog, Monkey See. She has several elaborate theories involving pop culture and monkeys, all of which are available on request.

Holmes began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living-room space to DVD sets of The Wire and never looked back.

Holmes was a writer and editor at Television Without Pity, where she recapped several hundred hours of programming — including both High School Musical movies, for which she did not receive hazard pay. Since 2003, she has been a contributor to MSNBC.com, where she has written about books, movies, television and pop-culture miscellany.

Holmes' work has also appeared on Vulture (New York magazine's entertainment blog), in TV Guide and in many, many legal documents.

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Monkey See
12:59 am
Sat April 28, 2012

Garry Marshall On His 'Happy Days'

Originally published on Sat April 28, 2012 11:22 am

Director Garry Marshall has worked on so much popular comedy in his career — television like Happy Days and The Odd Couple, movies like Pretty Woman and Beaches — that something he's done has probably made you laugh. And now he's written a memoir called, fittingly, My Happy Days In Hollywood: A Memoir.

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Monkey See
11:01 pm
Fri April 13, 2012

The Fourth Stooge: Memories Of 'Uncle Shemp'

This weekend, the Farrelly Brothers' version of The Three Stooges arrives in theaters. You'll see plenty of Larry, Moe and Curly. But who won't you see? Shemp. Or, as NPR's Sue Goodwin calls him, "Uncle Shemp."

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Monkey See
3:57 pm
Sun April 8, 2012

Lena Dunham's 'Girls': Still Sex, Still The City, Different Show

Credit Jojo Whilden / HBO
Lena Dunham stars in HBO's new series, Girls, premiering April 15.

Lena Dunham's new series Girls debuts on HBO on April 15. Dunham, who got quite a bit of attention for being the star, director and writer of the 2010 indie film Tiny Furniture, fills the same three roles in this ensemble show about four young women in New York.

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Monkey See
2:45 pm
Thu April 5, 2012

Kerry Washington On Bringing Washington 'Scandal' To TV

Credit Danny Feld / ABC
Kerry Washington plays Olivia Pope on ABC's new drama, Scandal.

Kerry Washington knows that her new drama, Scandal, will inevitably be compared to another drama about D.C.: The West Wing. Scandal tells Audie Cornish on today's All Things Considered that it even has Josh Malina, a West Wing cast member, for a little of what she calls "secret D.C. credibility."

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Monkey See
11:01 pm
Thu March 22, 2012

'Mad Men' Returns On Sunday, To The Delight Of Its Excitable Fans

Credit Frank Ockenfels / AMC
Jon Hamm plays Don Draper on Mad Men, which returns this Sunday night.

On Friday's Morning Edition, Elizabeth Blair investigates one of television's pressing questions: Why has Mad Men been off the air so long? It's returning this Sunday night with a two-hour season premiere, but it's still puzzled some viewers that it has been off for such a long time.

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Monkey See
3:00 pm
Thu March 22, 2012

Spiders And Fighting And Trees, Oh My: Filming 'The Hunger Games'

Credit Murray Close / Lionsgate
Jennifer Lawrence on the set of The Hunger Games.

There's a movie freshly out this weekend — perhaps you've heard of it.

The Hunger Games?

On Friday's Morning Edition, director Gary Ross and star Jennifer Lawrence talk to NPR's David Greene about the film.

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Monkey See
11:09 am
Wed March 21, 2012

Tebow, Tailgating, And Team Loyalty: Why The NFL Needs Nice Guys More Than Ever

Credit Al Bello / Getty Images
Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos kneels and prays with teammates and members of the New England Patriots after the Patriots won 45-10 during their AFC Divisional Playoff Game at Gillette Stadium on January 14, 2012.
Monkey See
7:24 am
Tue March 20, 2012

Cheaper Clothes And Shorter Stories: On Soaps, Strange 'Days' Indeed

Credit Mitchell Haaseth / NBC Universal
Peter Reckell as Bo Brady and Kristian Alfonso as Hope Williams Brady: still at it after all these years.

It's not easy being one of the last soaps standing, as Neda Ulaby reports on today's Morning Edition. For fans, the shuttering of iconic shows like All My Children and Guiding Light has upended routines that, for some, date back to childhood. When I was in high school, my soap of choice was Days Of Our Lives, which Neda says has changed a lot since that era — well, it's changed and it hasn't.

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Monkey See
1:00 pm
Fri March 2, 2012

Kristin Chenoweth On God, Comedy, And Dolly Parton

Credit Karen Neal / ABC
Kristen Chenoweth stars in the new ABC series GCB.

Originally published on Sat March 3, 2012 2:00 pm

Kristin Chenoweth talks to Jacki Lyden on today's Weekends on All Things Considered, and if the only thing you got from the interview was Chenoweth warbling a bit of the first solo she ever did in church, it would be well worth it.

The Emmy-winning actress stars on ABC's new GCB, a sort of Desperate-Housewives-ish dishy, soapy comedy-drama premiering Sunday night at 10. She's come quite a long way since, as she explains, her father negotiated her first contract.

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Monkey See
11:42 pm
Sun February 26, 2012

'The Artist' Comes Out On Top As The Oscars Regroup And Reminisce

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 10:00 am

It's perhaps fitting that during a year when Hollywood made even more films than usual about the love of film itself, the two big winners at the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday night were the movies most overtly about cinephilia: The Artist, a silent black-and-white film about silent black-and-white films, and Hugo, the story of a boy who meets a reclusive filmmaker and helps him rediscover his love of his art.

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