LOS ANGELES – On the day of her appearance on ABC’s CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP, Charo (of LAUGH-IN and LOVE BOAT fame) is revealing that the show, in a roundabout way, saved the life of her beloved calf Manolito. The longtime vegetarian and animal advocate rescued the orphaned calf shortly before filming started with the intent of educating viewers about compassion for farm animals and the cruelty of bullfighting. Little did she know, for liability reasons, ABC has a strict "no pets" policy for celebrities who appear on the show.

There are obvious spoilers in this article. If you have not watched the season 5 finale of GAME OF THRONES, do not read any further.

Still here? I'm warning you, if it gets spoiled...not my fault.

You certainly are persistant, I'll give you that.

Last chance to bail!

INCOMING SPOILERS...

Jon Snow is DEAD and he got what he deserved. I won't mix words here and I'll be as blunt as possible. Jon Snow is brave, kind hearted and always seeking to do the right thing. Those type of people usually die first in the Seven Kingdoms. Instead, Jon went from being a bastard to Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

Despite the formal declarations of Jeb Bush and Donald Trump announcing their bids for the Republican presidential nomination, the continued handwringing over a white woman running an NAACP office—and doing a good job running it from what I understand—the continued tensions in the Ukraine and St. Louis’ own struggle with violence and an out-of-control homicide rate that is doing wonders for tourism, the big news in this town today was, of course, the St. Louis Cardinals. More specifically, it was the news that they are being investigated by the FBI for hacking the Houston Astros proprietary database.

He's always been a good man -- even though he's still just a kid all these decades later.

I'm talking about good old Charlie Brown, of course, the underdog front man of Charles Schulz classic PEANUTS cartoon strip.

This fall, a whole new generation will be introduced to the PEANUTS gang -- Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus, Freida, Franklin, Schroeder, Pig Pen, Peppermint Patty and Marcy -- and naturally the irrepressible Snoopy and his best buddy Woodstock.

For the most part, I haven't had a lot of interest in upgrading my video game systems to the current generation.  The only games I really play at the moment are Lego and Disney Infinity with my kids, and various games on my 3DS.  So I haven't been paying a lot of attention to E3 this year...but then I saw BioWare finally announced a trailer for the next MASS EFFECT game. I have nothing but love for the MASS EFFECT series, and this game might actually be enough to get me to buy an X-Box One...

WORLDS UNITE -  This year’s Mega Man/Sonic crossover has been odd at times, since quite a bit of the story has said you need to read “WORLDS UNITE BATTLES #1” to follow what’s going on.  Thankfully that is finally coming out this week (along with MEGA MAN #50).  I do love a lot of the twists in this story, like Mega Man and Sonic both being taken out of action real early, and the Sonic Boom reality being involved too.

Today at E3 (the year's biggest video game conference), Microsoft made a bevy of announcements in hopes of moving ahead of the competition and scoring a victory in the ongoing console wars.

Devoted Xbox 360 owners were reluctant to part with the aging console when Microsoft introduced the Xbox One back in 2013. It was a hard sell; convincing gamers to throw away 8 years of games for a new console. Old, trade-in games would be banished to the bargain bin, only to be scooped up by those who refused to conform.

The Xbox One (along with other next-gen consoles) was not backwards compatible. Today, in what could be the biggest announcement from Microsoft, changes all of that.

The Xbox One is now backwads compatible!

by Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Graham Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA #1 by Marguerite Bennett, Stephanie Hans, Kieron Hillen, Marguerite Sauvage

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

• RIP Dusty Rhodes

• Money in the Bank Predictions

STARFIRE #1

This 2 CD set from Rockpalast features something not usually found on Live CD’s. While the entire first CD and half (give or take some minutes here or there) of the second features the the post-1977 era (which took the life of Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gains, Cassie Gains and others) version of the band led by Johnny Van Zant and recorded in 1996, the last half of the second CD features 4 songs from a 1974 concert and features Ronnie Van Zant. (Steve and Cassie Gaines, brother and sister, were not members of the band yet in 74’).

So you have a new music single and video debuting, "Havana," and I understand that this is inspired by the story of your parents coming to America from Cuba. Can you elaborate on that story a little bit?

My dad came from Havana. My mom came from Santiago. There was just a lot of crazy things that happened and challenging sacrifices they had to make to get to this country. You know, in pursuit of the American dream.

TNT's MAJOR CRIMES succeeds because it doesn't have a single star -- it has a constellation of stars that put all their light on telling the story, and let the show be the object of focus. One of these terrific actors is Raymond Cruz, who portrays Detective Julio Sanchez. We stole of few moments of Cruz's time to talk about his character's evolving story on MAJOR CRIMES, which airs Monday nights on TNT.

The big question for MAJOR CRIMES fans right now is, "Does Julio Sanchez have a grip on his anger issues?"

You know, he's working on that. [laughs] As you know, things don't happen overnight. What's great and fascinating about the show is you get to see someone who has to deal with things in real time, over a period of time. He just returned from a five month suspension without pay, he's attending counseling, he's living with his mother.

Today on the official YouTube blog, Google announced that this summer they will launch a gaming channel called: YouTube Gaming.

While it won't exactly be ESPN for video games, it will bring you a 24 hour gaming network right to your phone, tablet or computer. With channels dedicated to your favorite games, your digital desires will be always be at your fingertips. For years now, people have been live streaming the latest sporting events when forced to attend social functions. Now, you'll be able to do the same with the latest video games!

The difference is you don't have to pay a premium to do it.

From the blog post:

When I saw that there was going to be a fourth JURASSIC PARK movie, my 90’s heart fluttered with excitement. After all, I’d grown up with these movies. I was even more excited when I saw that Steven Spielberg would be directing it, after his hiatus from the series after directing LOST WORLD (JURASSIC PARK II).

The movie takes place twenty-two years after the events of the original JURASSIC PARK, when a bunch of scientists supposedly worked out the kinks (you know, all those dino related deaths) enough to open a Disney-esque theme park called Jurassic World to the public, on the original island off the coast of Costa Rica.

Characters

You're sitting at home watching TV, when a preview for a movie comes on. It seems interesting enough but you aren't rushing out to buy tickets or calling your friends to find out who wants to go. You may even tell yourself you'll wait until it's available to rent or maybe when it drops on Netflix you'll watch it. Time passes by and you soon forget that it was a movie you wanted to see. Then one day you notice it on the channel guide, but you have other things to do so, maybe another time.

A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST is one of those movies.

As ridiculous a movie title as it sounds, it's relevant in more ways than one. Which is a reminder that the movie is not only silly and juvenile, but it's also smart.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (June 11, 2015) – While Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock are prepared to take care their “Unfinished Business” on June 19, Bobby Lashley and James Thompson’s score will need to be settled somewhere down the line.

Thompson has been forced off the main card due to an undisclosed injury suffered during training and as a result, Dan Charles (9-2) has agreed to fill-in on short notice against “The Dominator.” The fight will still take place on the main portion of the Spike-televised card.

Charles, will be making his fourth appearance for the Scott Coker-led promotion, last competing in the main event of 2014’s “Monster Energy Cup.” After dropping two fights, “The Man” has bounced back to with two straight wins to earn a shot against a heavyweight title contender the likes of Lashley. The 29-year-old Phoenix, Ariz. Native has ended seven of his nine victories before reaching the judges’ scorecards.

I'm a notoriously fickle television viewer.  Simply put, I won't stick around long for a new show that doesn't wow me, and I'm more than happy to drop a show once it falls into a rut.  Time is precious and my shows have to be top notch.  I'm not a fan of procedurals and reality shows, but otherwise, I'm willing to give just about any other genre a chance. I never know what will dust my fancy, but when it does, oh my, I'm sold.

When the new TNT regime took over, they got rid of quite a few shows I loved like PERCEPTION, FRANKLIN AND BASH, and SULLIVAN AND SON.  I haven’t given up on TNT entirely;  they still have THE LIBRARIANS, and some of the new shows they launched this year look entertaining.  Critical Blast got an early look at the first two episodes of PROOF: “Pilot” and “Til’ Death.” 

Dracula. Fu Manchu. Saruman. Count Dooku.

Christopher Lee portrayed these and countless other notable characters in his decades spanning career, sending chills up our spines with creepfests like THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH. Those who've been around a while will always see him as Dracula, a role he portrayed in several of the classic Hammer horror films, or as the evil Chinese crime lord, Fu Manchu.  Millennials will more likely remember him for his role as Saruman in Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS films, or as Count Dooku in the later STAR WARS films.

The actor passed away last Sunday, according to The Guardian, of "respiratory problems and heart failure." He celebrated his 93rd birthday two months ago.