Entertainment picks: Here's to you, Mr Robinson

Martin Freeman (right) goes from The Office's stationery supplies to the dreary world of insurance in The Robinsons.

TV

So much has happened since cameras first infiltrated their less than humble home you could hardly call Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson newlyweds any more. She has since starred as Daisy Duke in the Dukes of Hazzard remake, made a raunchy new music video and appeared on countless magazine covers, red carpets and best-dressed lists around the world. And Nick? Let's just say this second series of Newlyweds (TV2, tomorrow, 10.30pm) is probably his idea. But we're sure he has a really big hit coming out soon.

In case you need further reassurance your family is normal, Martin Freeman (Tim in The Office) stars in new sitcom, The Robinsons (Friday, TV One, 9.35pm), as Ed Robinson, a 32-year-old recovering from a marriage that lasted less than six months.

The show revolves around the contrast between his mundane work life (an actuary at a reinsurance company) and his homelife (he lives with his auntie).

Prime's new, Bafta-winning comedy, Shameless (tonight, 9.50pm) takes a similar approach. Written by Paul Abbott (Clocking Off, Cutting It, State of Play), it is an account of a dysfunctional family living in a crime-ridden Manchester housing estate. During the opening sequence we learn Frank's wife ran off several years ago, leaving him with six kids.

To write the series, Abbott dramatised his own parentless experience, such as "spending about half our household budget on all top-10 singles of that week, just so we could open the windows, whack up the volume and make the street think we were loaded".

Music

Those who went to the Roots' amazing gig in 2003 will be getting to bed early before they play the St James tomorrow night. Why? Because unlike so many hip-hop stars who tour here, the Philadelphian crew are guaranteed to spend more time playing and less time telling us how doped they are. They have also promised a two-hour-plus show to promote their most recent album, The Tipping Point.

And here's a gig worth getting out of Auckland for: Sola Rosa and his live band are playing the Leigh Sawmill Cafe on Friday night to promote his third album, Moves On (featuring Spikey Tee, Mark Rae, Bomb the Bass, Morcheeba & Agent Alvin and Deva Mahal).

Then America's DJ Rectangle returns to play Fu Bar on Saturday night. Even if the name is unfamiliar, you will probably have heard his beats. He is Warren G's producer and has worked with everyone from Eminem to Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. The rest of the time he tours the world, reminding everyone why he won the DMC DJ battle champs in 1993.

Social circuit

A large Hayley front is hovering to the west with all-out Hayleymania expected to hit any day. We're taking early shelter by attending Miss Westenra's showcase performance at St Matthew-in-the-City tonight. Following the huge success of her first album, Pure (two million copies sold, hopefully not to those getting it confused with the Deja Voodo song of a similar name), she releases Odyssey, featuring a song co-written by Westenra.

Theatre

Teen motherhood is a topic Kiwis know all too well and it is the central theme in Dianna Fuemana's new play. My Mother Dreaming, at the Herald Theatre tomorrow until August 14, is about two young mothers who reunite, and the secrets that come out of the closet in the process.

Music is by Emma Paki. Fuemana, cousin of Pauly How Bizarre Fuemana, earned acclaim for her one-woman show The Packer, which toured Wellington, Auckland, Melbourne and the Edinburgh Festival.

Movies

Jessica Alba's last role had her leaping around the screen in a tight suit, looking fantastic. But Fantastic Four was nowhere near. This time, the actress has found her feet in a comic adaptation that is more likely to do good things for her reputation. Sin City, in which she plays a stripper, is Robert Rodriguez' ambitious take on Frank Miller's comic books.

Set in a retro-future (think Pulp Fiction meets 1940s film noir), Sin City is a world where the cops are corrupt, the crooks are evil and the performances are surprising (Elijah Wood is a cannibal, Alba is a stripper and Mickey Rourke is a likeable thug). Sin City goes beyond last year's dull Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in combining live actors with digitised settings, and the result is a bold, graphic and funny translation.

It's not the only good laugh opening on Thursday. The Wedding Crashers follows divorce mediators, played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, in their quest to "boom boom with the bridesmaids" by taking advantage of the champagne and romance at various nuptials.

It all goes pear-shaped when Wilson's character falls for an unattainable woman, and Vaughn's has a quickie with a psycho. The best relationship is the comic pairing of Wilson and Vaughn, whose roles in Starsky & Hutch didn't do them justice.