Controversial season of 'Top Model' begins

TV
Tyra Banks may be calling the new season of "America's Next Top Model" cycle 15, but that gives me dog-food commercial flashbacks. I'll just keep on thinking of it as "the season with the teensy waist girl." There was a brief flurry of gossip stories reporting that one of the contestants, 6-foot-2-inch Ann, has a waist so small judge J. Alexander can span it with his hands. In the show promo, Banks seems to think that's just great, but later she backtracked with comments about body image and health and well, you know. It will be interesting to see how Ann's teeny waist is treated on the show, which we assume was taped before Banks decided it was politically incorrect to approve of it. (Premieres Sept. 8, 8 p.m., The CW.)

The Cat in the Hat remains one of childhood's favorite book characters, a goofy, not-very-catlike cat who is always making a mess out of poor Nick and Sally's house. But in a new series, "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That," the funny feline puts on a scientist hat. The animated show helps preschoolers learn about science, from giant sea worms to the making of honey. (Premieres Sept. 6, PBS, check local listings for times.)

Movies
So were Joaquin Phoenix's rapper dreams real or just an invention aimed at creating a goofy documentary? Phoenix made some headlines by growing a messy beard and making an incoherent appearance on "David Letterman" and then kind of vanished. Now the film that his pal Casey Affleck was shooting throughout all the weirdness, "I'm Still Here," is hitting theaters. Does anyone really care any more if Phoenix's music career was all a joke? The film could offer some pop-culture interest, but once the first critics have seen it and revealed the joke-or-no-joke answer, will anyone care?  (Opens Sept. 10.)

A wedding film in which the maid of honor and the bride fight over the groom? Wow, never seen that before. Except we have. But there's something sweet about the trailer for "The Romantics," which stars Katie Holmes as the jealous maid of honor and Anna Paquin as the bride. The preppy group of pals who gather for the wedding include Josh Duhamel, Adam Brody, Malin Akerman and Elijah Wood, so dearly beloved, we may be in luck. (Opens Sept. 10.)

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DVD
Michael Douglas often plays a confident, top-of-the-world guy — Gordon Gekko, anyone? But in "Solitary Man," he goes the other way, playing Ben Kalman, a car magnate whose professional and personal lives are both collapsing. Roger Ebert said the role was one of Douglas' finest performances, and wrote "it's a serious comedy, perceptive, nuanced, with every supporting performance well-calibrated to demonstrate to Ben that he can run but he can no longer hide." (Out on DVD Sept. 7.)

Helen Mirren enchanted audiences with her eerily realistic portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in 2006's "The Queen," for which she won the best-actress Oscar. But she's equally outstanding in "Prime Suspect," a British TV drama in which she plays no-nonsense Det. Jane Tennison at Scotland Yard. Now that complete series is on DVD in a nine-disc boxed set. A royal gift indeed. (Out on DVD Sept. 7.)

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is TODAYshow.com's movies editor.