Television
The big news last week was that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was wearing a protective boot on his ankle while walking to girlfriend Gisele Bundchen’s apartment in New York to bring her flowers. This week the news so far is that Brady has been absent from Patriots’ practices. Get the picture? Super Bowl XLII is going to be about Brady and his foot. There will be in-depth analysis of the foot provided by medical experts, segments about great sore ankles of the past, and commercials for foot powder. Somewhere amid all that foot traffic — and trailers showing Tom Petty gearing up to do the halftime show — the New York Giants will engage in football to try and prevent the Patriots from completing a perfect season. Put your feet up and watch. (Fox, Sunday, 6 p.m. ET)
Movies
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” sounds like some kid’s countdown to summer vacation. Actually, it’s not that much fun, and in fact a lot more profound. “4 Months” is a Romanian picture that won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year. There is no one you’ve ever heard of in it, and the subject matter is rather bleak. But it’s already being hailed as one of the best films of 2008. It’s about two female college friends in Communist Romania. One is pregnant and is terrified about it, so the other takes the lead and tries to help her get an illegal abortion. In doing so, they enter an underground world of callousness and deal-making, and after it they’re never the same. It’s not the feel-good movie of the year, but it will make movie buffs feel good about the power of cinema again. (IFC, in theaters now)
Music
Countless bands operating in the blues and jazz genres have recorded in New Orleans. It’s practically a federal law. While the Blind Boys of Alabama have played live shows there in the past, they’ve never recorded an album there. But that dry spell is now kaput. “Down In New Orleans” features the vintage assemblage reveling in all the great musical mojo that the Crescent City has to offer. Backed by a gaggle of local New Orleans players, “Down In New Orleans” also welcomes Allen Toussaint, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The Hot 8 Brass Band. Some of the highlights include “You Got To Move,” “Down By The Riverside” and “Uncloudy Day.” The city of New Orleans is still in need of major repair after Katrina, but musically it’s as vibrant as ever, as this visit by the Blind Boys of Alabama will attest. (Time Life Records)
DVD
It’s difficult to imagine somebody who has a better life than Larry David who believes that nobody has a worse life than him. That’s just Larry. He can never be happy. Each season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” provides more evidence that being a comic genius is not all it’s cracked up to be. The complete sixth season of “Curb” is on DVD this week, featuring 10 episodes of the sometimes uncomfortably funny HBO series. During this season, Larry takes in displaced victims of a hurricane in an effort to placate wife Cheryl, who is angry with him for the umpteenth time. The two-disc set includes an interview with Larry and Susie Essman at a New York City Y, a look at what happens on the set of the show, and a gag reel. Of course, Larry David might feel that his entire life is a gag reel, and it would be hard to argue with him. (HBO Video)
Books
Whenever John Grisham puts out a novel with a legal term in the title, you can be sure sales will go through the roof. This week it’s “The Appeal.” Eventually you may see “The Docket,” “The Gavel,” “The Bailiff” and “The Legal Document Carrying Case With Wheels.” But for right now, fans of the hugely popular lawyer-turned-novelist will have to settle for “The Appeal,” which is Grisham’s first legal thriller in years. In a twist, the story begins after a court verdict, and it involves a campaign for a seat on Mississippi’s state Supreme Court. With “The Appeal,” Grisham suggests that big corporations often have undue influence when it comes to elections, and indeed they sometimes even buy their way into power. That’s a shocking allegation, I know, but somehow Grisham makes it seem possible. The verdict on “The Appeal” is … well, the parties settled. His readers will gobble this up, and in exchange Grisham won’t wait as long to write his next legal yarn. (Doubleday)