Entertainment picks: Kidman casts a different spell

Movies

Do we really need to see a sweet-as-pie Nicole Kidman wiggling her nose for an hour and a half? Don't worry, I won't be, but at least Bewitched isn't just a straight rip-off of the old TV show.

In this movie version, Isabel Bigelow (Kidman), a witch, decides to move to LA and live a normal life. She meets Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell), a film actor who is trying to revive his career by playing the lead role of Darrin in a big-screen remake of the Bewitched TV show. Jack reckons Isabel is the ideal choice to play his on-screen wife, Samantha.

A movie that might be worth checking out is Red Eye, starring the simply stunning Rachel McAdams. You may have seen her in Wedding Crashers and The Notebook - a chick flick that even guys like.

McAdams plays Lisa Reisert, a passenger on a night flight to Miami, who hates flying. During the flight the passenger sitting next to her reveals that he is involved in a plot to kill a high ranking government official. The twist is that if Lisa doesn't help him then an assassin will kill her father.

And for all the surfers out there, The Ride is about a gathering of the world's best big wave surfers at Maui, in Hawaii, on one big day.

TV

Paul Holmes is giving us a real treat this week. Tomorrow night he takes us inside the homes of Don Brash and Helen Clark on Holmes: At Home With Clark and Brash (Prime, 8.30pm). I know you're thinking what I'm thinking - Don relaxing in his leisure suit with wife Je Lan looking up adoringly from his side, and Helen bundled up in a comfy polo neck in front of the fire with husband Peter Davis not saying boo.

Crikey, sorry. The Prime Minister in a polo neck is fine, but spare us the thought of Dr Brash in a leisure suit.

The show will be a relief from the shouting matches of the election debates and perhaps a chance to see a hint of what the pair are really like when they're not campaigning their little hearts out to win the votes of workers at the local Mitre 10 or the Tokoroa timber mill.

Also starting this week on Prime is the channel's first local drama series, Interrogation (8.30pm, Wednesday), starring Scott Wills (Mercy Peak, Shortland Street, Street Legal), Luanne Gordon (Insiders Guide To Happiness, The Strip) and Peter Elliott (Gloss, Shortland Street, Captain's Log).

The show is set in a police station and much of the action takes place in the hardcore environment of the interrogation room.

There's lots of swearing, big bags of fake cocaine, and watch out for the grubby graffiti on the walls of the holding cells.

Meanwhile, in this week's latest reality TV round-up we start with Downsize Me (TV3, 7.30pm, Tuesday). The main part - and most boring part - is when a diet expert and a trainer help someone to lose weight. Snore.

But there's also a bit when a healthy person has to eat an overweight person's diet. Seeing a skinny fitness freak stuffing down, say, four donuts, a couple of mince pies and a milkshake - in that order, of course - has to be good viewing. Doesn't it?

This Friday sees the return of The Osbournes (TV2, 10pm). Let's hope Ozzy has figured out how to use the TV remote.

And finally, all I can say about the second series of US drama Carnivale (which starts on TV One, 11.20pm, Friday) is that there's a reason it's on at that time. I don't know, those randy carnies.

Theatre

If you are up for a bit of murder, power-lust, illegitimacy, and blood-thirst, then check out The Revenger's Tragedy, which starts on Thursday at the Maidment Theatre.

Using satire and black humour, the play tells the story of Vindici who seeks to avenge his wife's murder by getting among the family of her killer, the corrupt Duke. As the Duke was once drawn to Vindici's wife, the Duke's son Lussurioso is now drawn to Vindici's sister, Castiza. Now if that ain't a recipe for a juicy bit of messy self-destruction then I don't know what is.

Music

A little quiet on the music front this week but there's a Greek legend in town, and a few locals to check out.

First up tomorrow night at the Aotea Centre is Greek soprano Nana Mouskouri. The bespectacled beauty, who has only one vocal chord, is into her 70s now and her two New Zealand dates (the other is in Wellington on Thursday) are part of her farewell world tour.

On the local front, easing their way back into the limelight are Elemeno P, who play the intimate Rising Sun venue on K Rd this Saturday. With their new album Trouble In Paradise due out soon, this is one of the first chances to hear some of the band's new songs.

Also pushing a new album are Auckland punks Kitsch, who will tear it up at the Grey Lynn Community Centre on Saturday to celebrate the release of their new album, The Burning Ground.

Social circuit

The place to be drunk as a skunk tonight is the Juice TV Music Awards at the Studio on K Rd. Acts up for awards include everyone from Breaks Co-Op and Goldenhorse to the Nomad and Shapeshifter to Dave Dobbyn and the Checks. For the first time, a lifetime achievement award will be presented.