If you love the funny, have we got some good news for you: Amy Ryan has signed on for at least five episodes of The Office for next season.

While The Wire star is most famous for her dramatic roles, her portrayal of HR representative Holly Flax in The Office's season finale made her look like a comedy veteran — not an easy task among the seasoned Jenna Fischer, Steve Carell, and Rainn Wilson.

Ryan's chemistry with Steve Carell, and the charm and sweetness Holly Flax displayed with the other Dunder-Mifflin employees (especially Kevin) opens up a world of questions for season 5: Is there a Michael-Jan-Holly love triangle in the works? Will Holly catch on that Kevin is not really "slow"? And perhaps, the most pressing: What in the world will Michael put on that mix CD he promised Holly? (I mean besides REO Speedwagon.)

Ryan told Variety: "I don't know what they're going to do with the character, but as it was written, there's certainly a lot of potential. It's a funny thing to enter a show that you're a great fan of — and it's nice to tell lighter stories. I love the dark, grittier side of life, but it's nice to take a break from that, put a skirt on and brush your hair." … continue reading

The Golden Globes have been canceled, but the the writers’ strike didn’t prevent the live broadcast of the Critics' Choice Awards from pressing on last night. But the strike it did have its effects. Many winners noted that they were speaking off the cuff because they wanted to respect the strike and did not write speeches.

Host D.L. Hughley’s commentary was incredibly awkward, and it seemed that all his jokes were about race. Probably the oddest comment of the night for me came when Hughley dubbed Brad Pitt an “honorary black person” for seemingly no reason. And several times Hughley told the crowd that they needed to lighten up and laugh once in a while.

Despite that, there were many bright spots during the evening. For one, it seemed that every two minutes Pitt and AfterEllen.com’s No. 2 hottie, Angelina Jolie, were on the screen, looking just as fabulous as ever.

Additionally, there were some fantastic female winners throughout the evening.

Nikki Blonsky, breakout star of Hairspray, won the award for Best Young Actress.

Blonsky shared the award for Best Acting Ensemble with the rest of the Hairspray cast, which includes Queen Latifah (AfterEllen.com Hot 100 No. 55), Amanda Bynes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Allison Janney, Brittany Snow and, of course, John Travolta in drag. … continue reading

I haven't been to the theater for about a month and am starting to experience withdrawal. In an effort to stave off physical symptoms, I searched the arts section of The New York Times for interesting theater articles. I came across this one by theater critic Charles Isherwood. Without rehashing the entire article, it's basically Isherwood observing that while actors used to go from Broadway to Hollywood, it's now more common to go from Hollywood to Broadway. He highlights Claire Danes as an example of the new trend and Amy Ryan as an anomalous exception.

Three guesses which model I prefer.

I had actually been thinking about these two actresses prior to reading the article, so I found it particularly interesting. I've been following the coverage of Claire Danes in Pygmalion — because I like her and I because I feared it was poor casting.

And less than an hour before I read the article, an actor friend had been raving about Amy Ryan's performance in Gone Baby Gone. … continue reading