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With spring right around the corner, it’s time to welcome in everything the season has to offer, from fresh flowers to pretty pastels. It’s also time for new seasons of two popular springtime Food Network series. Both “Spring Baking Championship” and “Spring Baking Championship: Easter” are returning this weekend in a special back-to-back premiere. It all begins on Monday, March 6 with “Spring Baking Championship” at 8 p.m. Et and “Spring Baking Championship: Easter” at 10 p.m. Et. You can watch Food Network with a 7-Day Free Trial of Philo. You can also watch with Sling TV, Directv Stream, Hulu Live TV, fuboTV, or YouTube TV.

How to Watch 'Spring Baking Championship,' 'Spring Baking Championship: Easter' 2023 Season Premieres When: Monday, March 6, 2023 at 8:00 Pm Est TV: Food Network Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Philo. 7-Day Free Trial$25 / month philo.com About 'Spring Baking Championship,...

All you foodies out there looking for something to watch that’ll surely have you breaking your New Year’s resolution to diet, the Food Network has got you covered starting in March with new seasons of “Spring Baking Championship” and “Spring Baking Championship: Easter.” And TheWrap has an exclusive peek at what’s to come.

The two competition series make a return with more sweet treats to drool over. Jesse Palmer is back as the host and puts a dozen bakers to the test in challenges that showcase their skills in the kitchen, all while adding that springtime touch – you know, flowers, garden parties and all that. Chefs and Food Network fan favorites Nancy Fuller and Duff Goldman return as judges and are joined by chef Kardea Brown (“Delicious Miss Brown”) to kick off the season with a special two-hour, super-sized episode on March 6 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt.

Some days are for rom-com movies, and some days are reserved for binge-watching the process of creating eerie-looking Halloween-themed desserts.

While sweet mummy treats or slimy monster cakes might not make you drool — the sinister, chilling, but oh-so intelligently made confectionery in “Halloween Baking Championship” will definitely keep you hooked.

The TV-g-rated spooktacular baking show is a spinoff of the popular baking series including “Kids Baking Championship,” “Holiday Baking Championship,” and “Spring Baking Championship.” In this competitive baking show, bakers from different parts of the world come together to create sinister-looking treats by following Halloween-theme challenges that are hair-raising, to say the least. The goal is to woo the judges and take home a ginormous cash prize of 25,000.

As the competition proceeds, the judges eliminate contestants based on their preparations. The best contestants move through rounds, with the challenges becoming more and more complex. The champion of the “Main Heat...

Even if you can't serve the ball with the best of them at the 2013 Us Open, you, too, can score with these tasty treats right at home. In the spirit of the final Grand Slam event of the year, which kicks off Monday, celebrity chef David Burke and pastry guru Zac Young are whipping up tennis-themed white chocolate treats, complete with tequila and key lime juice. Guests at Thursday's 14th annual BNP Paribas Taste of Tennis in N.Y.C. will get a chance to sample the Williams sisters-worthy confections as well as a variety of dishes created by tennis stars and celeb chefs alike.

No awards watching experience is complete without popcorn and NYC's Flex Mussels has created the perfect 'Red Carpet Corn' Awards season is finally in full swing and HollywoodLife.com has the perfect addition to your Sunday night watching experience! Flex Mussels' Executive Pastry Chef Zac Young has turned popcorn into a glamorous affair and we have the simple steps so you can whip up your own Red Carpet Corn! We tried it during the 69th Annual Golden Globes on Jan. 15 and with the Oscars on Feb. 26 -- you must whip this up! Red Carpet Corn Ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup corn syrup 1/2 cup water 1 tablespoon rendered bacon fat 2 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoon kosher salt 7 cups popped popcorn 1 cups roasted unsalted peanuts 2 pounds of bacon, fat rendered and crisped in the oven Directions: Scatter bacon, popcorn and cashews on silpat-lined sheet tray. In a large sauce pan cook sugars,...

Courtesy of the event Blt Steak serves Bacon-Crusted New York Strip with Jalapeño Mashed Potatoes and Cabernet Gastrique to foodies attending the Chefs & Champagne event in the Hamptons.

Saturday’s steamy weather certainly didn’t dampen the mood at The James Beard Foundation’s annual Chefs & Champagne event held at Wolffer Estates in Sagaponack, New York.

The carefully prepared delights of 42 chefs and the free-flowing champagne cooled things down perfectly.

Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse was the evening’s honoree, but...

All photos credit: Getty Images

30 Rock, True Blood, Russell Simmons and Ricky Martin were just a few of the honorees at the 22nd annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York on Saturday. (Note: this is the first of GLAAD's three annual events. The second will be held in Los Angeles in April, and the third in San Francisco in May.)

This weekend's NYC shindig was presented by Rokk Vodka, which also sponsored a private reception and an after party. Plus, no doubt the next morning's hangover.

The Excellence in Media Award was presented to hip hop artist Russell Simmons for his activism in repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and for his strong support of marriage equality.

Ricky Martin received the Vito Russo Award and gave this acceptance speech:

True Blood was honored for outstanding drama series. Actor Denis O'Hare accepted on behalf of the show. Meanwhile, Tina Fey accepted 30 Rock's...

You Think They Talk About Gawker This Way?

Well, Christmas is almost upon us and I have to say this week I received just about the nicest gift I've received in a very long time. Actually, it was a gift for the whole staff and we got it from ... you guys!

TigerCub started a forum thread he titled Merry Xmas Ae Staffers that was all about saying thanks for the site and the work we do. And he even did caption pics for it! (Of course, picture captions are my turf, but I'm willing to make an exception this time.)

Reading the comments you guys left on the post about the site, well, it means a lot to all of us here. Writing for the online world can be a rough and tumble experience as folks are usually not shy about sharing their opinions. That's mostly a good thing as...

I have to admit, the winner of this one surprised me quite a bit. Last week's voting split up Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke Macfarlane), because one was cheated on, and one was a cheater, and each had separate journeys to make as a result. I fully expected the wronged Kevin to run away with the vote, but it was Scotty you sided with.

There was something humanizing about revealing that Scotty wasn't just be perfect kitchen utensil for the Walker family, and you guys responded by giving him an astonishing 52.77% of the vote. His television husband was a distant second at 19.77%

 

 

Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) only managed 14.48% of the vote for negotiating the power structures of their relationship, and perky Zac Young brought up the rear at 12.97%.

With Scotty reigning over all the Gays for the week, we're sure that appetizers will be served,...

We’ve spent much of today tracking the Top Chef: Just Desserts truck in NYC, which has been serving up free ice cream, cupcakes, truffles, and “compost cookies” to regular pedestrians and important bloggers. The thing’s made at least three stops within a four-block radius of the EW office since this morning. (I had a huge scare around 12:30 when the truck was pulling away — only to discover it was just rolling down the street to 30 Rock. Almost had to go Pretty Woman on them. “Big mistake. Big. Huge! I have to go blogging now…”)

Archana Ram will be...

Hot on the heels of Top Chef’s upset win over The Amazing Race for Outstanding Reality Show at last month’s Emmy Awards, Bravo is launching the latest spin-off in their growing Top Chef franchise: Top Chef: Just Desserts.

For fans of Top Chef, a new show featuring the best pastry chefs from around the country competing against each other is as natural as putting chocolate and peanut butter together. It’s especially welcome since on the original Top Chef desserts usually get short shrift as something requiring lesser skills than savory cooking.

Definitely not getting short shrift in the first season of Just Desserts is Team Gay which includes, not one, not two, but three out pastry chefs: Zac Young, Yigit Pura and Tim Nugent. AfterElton.com recently had the chance to chat with Young and Pura when they appeared at the Television Critics Association Press Tour where...

To Full Frontal Or To Not Full Frontal

When I saw the first headline trumpeting news about Justin Long's inadvertent full frontal nude scene in his upcoming movie Going the Distance, I knew how the story would end before I even started it: namely, that particular scene would not end up in the movie. Americans as a whole are still supposedly way too squeamish to actually be confronted with a guy's junk onscreen, especially in a romantic comedy like Going the Distance.

Justin Long

Which doesn't make sense given that Nanette Burstein, Gtd's director, was supposedly so taken with Christina Applegate's shocked reaction to Justin's junk that she filmed the scene that way ten more times before eventually deciding not to use it. Or someone decided she shouldn't use it. Btw, imagine if this were a gay director who did that. Tongues would be wagging even though...

TORONTO -- Veteran actor Richard E. Grant makes his writing and directing debut with "Wah-Wah", a startling portrait of his own startling and unusual childhood, growing up in Swaziland in the waning days of the British Empire in Africa. No one will accuse Grant of wallowing in nostalgia. His parents were monsters and the colonialists awash in gin, snobbishness and adultery. The young boy developed a facial tic -- an exaggerated yawn -- from all the stress. Even so, the film has an air of not quite bemusement, but perhaps a kind of forgiveness and an eye for comic details that puts things into perspective.

As both an extraordinary portrait of white mischief on the Dark Continent and a debut of a potentially interesting filmmaker, "Wah-Wah" should connect with audiences in specialty venues in North America and Western Europe.

Grant himself made his film acting debut in "Withnail and I" (1987) as the uproariously drunken thespian. Turns out he didn't have to search far for inspiration.

At age 11, when we get our first glimpse of the life of Ralph Compton (Zac Fox), his mother Lauren (Miranda Richardson) doesn't go to great pains to hide her lovemaking to a married man from her son, who must fake sleep in the back of the family car. When she finally does run off with her lover, Harry Compton (Gabriel Byrne), no teetotaler in the first place, turns into a raging drunk. Willing to join him in his debauchery is the other man's wife (Julie Walters), who wants to seduce him.

Things get so bad Ralph demands to be sent to boarding school. Returning three years later, things initially seem even worse to Ralph (now played by Nicholas Hoult). Recriminations between his parents, now divorced, have only escalated. And his dad has married a brassy American named Ruby (Emily Watson).

Ralph gets past a bad first impression to grow fond of Ruby, who treats him as a friend and refuses to emulate all the stuffed-shirt mannerisms of the burnt-out Brits. She makes fun of their silly expressions such as "toodle-pip" and "hobbly-jobbly," calling it so much "wah-wah."

Her gift of a puppet sparks Ralph's interest in creating a puppet theater and, we surmise, the lad's interest in a career in the performing arts. But dad's drinking is much worse, especially whenever his ex-wife turns up. One night, Harry gets so drunk he takes a shot at Ralph with a pistol. Appalled at his own behavior, Harry goes on the wagon just as the country prepares to celebrate its independence from Britain.

The great thing about a memoir is all the little details that paint the big picture. Such as the lipstick-smeared cocktail glass, from which his mother took her last drink before walking out, that Ralph treasures for years. Or the colonialists' forced deference to Lady Hardwick (Celia Imrie), who in Ruby's opinion is no lady at all. Or how the last vestiges of racism slowly give way to wary friendships between whites and blacks.

However, Grant doesn't probe his memories far enough. We have no idea what turned his mother into such a horror. Surely there was more to it than boredom and the heat. And her desertion can't be the only explanation for his dad's relentless alcoholism. And what did Ruby ever see in him and the fraught situation that caused her to marry into so much grief? "Wah-Wah" is more a work of memory than of imagination.

The two young actors are quite good at playing the baffled but eventually rebellious Ralph. Watson is a joy to watch, throwing off her British heritage to become a complete Yank. Byrne does humanize this man in so much deep pain. Alas, Richardson is allowed not even a tiny window into the woman's wretchedness, not even one saving grace.

Shooting in Swaziland, cinematographer Pierre Aim and designer Garry Williamson splendidly recapture the colonialist past of white linen, teatime and cricket.

WAH-WAH

The Works present a Loma Nasha/Scion Films/Wah Film Prods. production

Credits:

Writer/director: Richard E. Grant

Producers: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Pierre Kubel, Jeff Abberley

Executive producers: Joel Phiri, Jeremy Nathan, Ronnie Apteker

Director of photography: Pierre Aim

Production designer: Gary Williamson

Costumes: Sheena Napier

Music: Patrick Doyle

Editor: Isabelle Dedieu

Cast:

Ralph at 14: Nicholas Hoult

Ralph at 11: Zac Fox

Harry: Gabriel Byrne

Lauren: Miranda Richardson

Ruby: Emily Watson

Gwen: Julie Walters

Lady Hardwick: Celia Imrie

Running time -- 99 minutes

No MPAA rating...