You may have seen Neil’s recent Tweet, in which he commented that he’d seen a lot of negative reactions to his opening number for the Oscars. While we don’t really think he’ll ever see this, we wanted to put together a bunch of the best reviews, for your reading pleasure. If you know of a review that we missed, please get in touch and we’ll add it to the page!

“NPH opened the show with a rousing, Broadway-style musical number. He was on fire, a vibrant presence on that stage and — as we soon learned — an impossible act to follow for co-hosts Baldwin and Martin.” ~ MTV

“An outstanding song-and-dance number from Neil Patrick Harris trumped the ho-hum opening monologue of hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.” ~ LA Times

There were understandably a lot, so we’ve given them a page of their own. You can read the rest here!

Posted by: Rach at 11:50 pm | · Filed under: Public Appearances | Comment
Tags: Oscars, Public Appearances, Reviews, TV Appearances |

First things first – if you haven’t seen Neil’s opening number, you can see it on the Oscars website.

In an interview conducted at the Governors’ Ball, he talks to E! about the performance, and his appearance on Glee, which starts filming today.

We’ll be continuing to add to our gallery throughout the day, with both pictures from the ceremony and the Governors’ Ball.

Posted by: Rach at 10:55 am | · Filed under: Interviews | Comment
Tags: Interviews: Online, Oscars, TV: Glee, Video Update |

Despite Tweeting to the contrary following rumours earlier in the week, Neil did indeed perform the opening number at tonight’s 82nd Annual Academy Awards. He technically didn’t lie, as Martin Short was nowhere to be seen; though it’s thought that Mr Short was supposed to join him but a recent family emergency kept him away.

We’ve started to add pictures to the gallery, and the album will be updated as more come in.

Posted by: Rach at 2:08 am | · Filed under: TV Appearances | Comment
Tags: Gallery Update, Musicals, Oscars, Public Appearances, TV Appearances |

The Associated Press reports that Neil has recorded the narration for a PBS film focussing on service dogs.

Neil Patrick Harris is the narrator of a PBS documentary exploring the bond between service dogs and those they help.

Harris recorded the narration this week for “Through a Dog’s Eyes,” which is set to air next month.

The film details how dogs learn to serve people with disabilities and how animals and humans are paired. An Iraqi veteran who became a quadriplegic after a car accident and a 6-year-old with cerebral palsy are among those featured in the film.

The “How I Met Your Mother” star says he was impressed by the strong emotional connection between the service animals and those who rely on them. He owns two dogs.

The film “Through A Dog’s Eyes” will air on PBS stations on April 21st.

Posted by: Rach at 11:17 am | · Filed under: TV Appearances | Comment
Tags: Documentary, PBS, TV: Through A Dog's Eyes, Voiceover & Narration |

Nikki Finke has just broken the news that Neil will be starring in the new Smurfs movie. Directed by Raja Gosnell (Never Been Kissed, Scooby-Doo), the movie will be an animation/live-action hybrid, and Neil will be playing the movie’s lead “human” character.

Filming begins in April, while HIMYM is on summer hiatus.

Posted by: Rach at 8:24 pm | · Filed under: Movies | Comment
Tags: Movies, The Smurfs |

According to allheadlinenews, Neil will be joining Grey’s Anatomy actress Sandra Oh to judge Sesame Street’s first ever animation competition. The contest will mark the first time in the show’s history that animators will have the chance to submit a piece of work to be featured on an upcoming episode of the show.

Posted by: Rach at 11:42 am | · Filed under: Cartoons & Animation | Comment
Tags: Aniboom Awards 4 Sesame Street, Competition, TV: Sesame Street |

It’s all over the internet; Neil has officially signed on to guest-star in an upcoming episode of Glee. Confirmed by eonline’s Watch with Kristin yesterday, the episode is currently being written and will see Neil star as ‘a character who is “really funny and really mean.”‘ Ultimate Gleeks adds that Neil has confirmed his role will be one episode only.

And confirmed today is the news that we posted about two days ago; Neil has officially been confirmed to direct three performances of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl in August this year. The performances will take place August 6-8. The cast is yet to be announced, but Tim Weil has joined the production as musical director. The Hollywood Bowl tickets page is here, however tickets are not currently available until the Hollywood Bowl box office reopens in the spring.

Posted by: Rach at 8:03 pm | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: Directing, Hollywood Bowl, Rent, TV Appearances, TV: Glee |

According to BroadwayWorld.com’s Rialto Chatter, they’re hearing that Neil is set to direct 3 performances of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl.  The show is due to take place from 6-8 August this year, as part of the Hollywood Bowl’s summer programme. The cast and further details will be announced at a later date.

You can watch a behind the scenes first look at Neil in Batman: Under the Red Hood here. Neil appears in the second of two videos, if you want to watch the first one, it’s here.

Neil has been nominated for best Performance in a Comedy Series at the Prism awards, an awards ceremony to honor “media that address issues related to drug, alcohol, tobacco use, mental illness, bipolar disorder, depression and suicide”. HIMYM has also been nominated in the Best Comedy Series category, for the “Last Cigarette Ever” episode.

Posted by: Rach at 12:05 pm | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: Awards & Nominations, Batman: Under the Red Hood, Directing, Rent, TV: HIMYM, Video Update |

A little while ago there were some rumblings on Twitter of Neil taking part in a short film, but we couldn’t really find any details. Now we have a few – Dracula’s Daughters vs the Space Brains is a short film in which “Marketa, a vampire, must find untainted human blood to save her sister from the menace of the space brains,” and is now on Facebook and Twitter.

The short film will premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival on March 19th, at 11.30pm as part of their Midnight Shorts program. Directed by Ezekiel Zabrowski and Frank Ippolito has a 4 minute run-time.

Posted by: Rach at 9:43 am | · Filed under: Short Films | Comment
Tags: Dracula's Daughters vs the Space Brains, Film Festivals, Short Films |

IGN has a first look at Rock of the Dead, a new Wii game from Epicenter, and it features voice work from Neil, with Felicia Day as his love interest for the game. According to their report, the game is similar to Typing of the Dead, in which zombies are killed using a QWERTY keyboard, but instead you use a Guitar controller (Guitar Hero/Rock Band controller compatible) to strum the bad guys to death.

The game doesn’t feature licensed music in the same vein as Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but it’s definitely music-focused. The team commissioned bands to create “rock” versions of classical music (Public domain, anyone?) and they sound pretty good as a backdrop to the action. According to Epicenter, the team has licensed Rob Zombie/White Zombie tracks for appropriate parts of the action. And I can’t forget to mention that the team commissioned the assistance of Neil Patrick Harris himself for the character lead in Rock of the Dead, who provides the cheesy outer-monologue and one-liners. Felicia Day’s the love interest here (Neil’s partner in crime in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long), and the game’s script was handled by the writer of The Witcher.

Posted by: Rach at 4:40 pm | · Filed under: Video Games | Comment
Tags: Rock of the Dead, Video Games, Voiceover & Narration |