'Wet Hot American Summer' goes back in time

That's three-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper, spectacularly cheesy in a pink shirt, teaching wide-eyed kids all about his passion for theater.

And yes, that's his stage partner Amy Poehler, equally giddy and every bit as exuberant, in the preposterous, eagerly anticipated Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. 

The 2001 cult movie about counselors at a sleep-away camp, a flop that morphed into an unlikely fan darling, returns  Friday on Netflix as an eight-episode prequel set earlier in the summer of 1981.  The original cast, including Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Cooper and Poehler, is back for a hot-blooded romp at Camp Firewood, a low-rent institution in Maine. And they're joined by new additions including Jason Schwartzman,Josh Charles, Lake Bell and Jon Hamm. More than a decade later, the actors play (slightly) younger versions of their original characters, clad in standout '80s garb: cut-off denim shorts, friendship bracelets and tube socks. Some spent only a day or two on set.

"We’d been talking about it in a sort of pie-in-the-sky kind of way for a really long time," says co-creator Mike Showalter. "Around the time of the 10-year anniversary of the movie, there were some retrospectives, (and) there was some excitement around this thing that keeps on going."

Schwartzman came on board after he geeked out over the original, which earned $295,000 at the domestic box office but had a steady afterlife on DVD and Netflix.

“I saw it shortly after it came out and it instantly was something I knew I’d be referring to and drawing on from here on out. It had a profound effect on me, to say the least,” he says. “It was a feature film that felt like anything could happen at any moment. That was an exciting thing for me to watch.”

Being on set, he says, was “super-surreal. I’m looking around at these people who have had a big impact on me as these characters. You need a character like my guy, a camp counselor who is a bit of a fuss bucket. He’s the guy who’s the same age as them in theory, but he would not get invited to hang out with them very often. He plays by the book. He likes having authority.”

Like the original, the series is truly an ensemble. Some of the actors have soared professionally — Cooper starred in last year's American Sniper, and Banks directed the summer hit Pitch Perfect 2 and has a key role in the blockbuster Hunger Gamesmovies.

This time, summer kicks off at Firewood with the arrival of campers — who engage in a burp-off, among other misadventures — and an undercover reporter (Banks) set out to write an exposé. One counselor (Bell) elicits lustful looks. Another (Rudd) preens and does push-ups. Ben and Susie (Cooper and Poehler) craft the mother of all theater productions, with the help of a washed-up stage veteran (John Slattery). And across the lake, a rival preppy counselor (Charles) seethes and plots.

Charles, who also is appearing on this season’s Masters of Sex, based his character, Charles Blake, on the villains from classic ‘80s movies such as Pretty in Pink and The Karate Kid. “Doesn’t he know that caviar and corn dogs don’t mix,” snarls Charles upon spying his girlfriend being wooed by Rudd.

Charles was a "big fan" of the original film. “My friends were in it and the idea to be with them, for a couple of weeks, giggling, was too good to be true,” he says. “I didn’t bother to ask questions.”

What did he take away from the experience? “That I love to laugh. I love doing comedy. And how fun it was to have a little bit of a hair extension with Blake? That wisp of blond, that frosted hair, it was the icing on the douche cake.”

Bell was a new mom when she turned up to play a teenager, after being offered the role by her friend David Wain, who wrote (with Showalter) and directed both Wet Hotprojects and appears as an Israeli soccer coach.

“This was the first job I did after giving birth. Because I am friends with most of the people on the cast, I felt it was a safe place to re-enter the world of acting. It was like family,” she says. “I was loopy on hormones. Having to play sexy time with my friends, it was hard to keep a straight face. I was breastfeeding between takes. I was feeling like a maniac. I hid behind my hair.”

In the original film, Michael Ian Black’s McKinley was in love with Cooper’s Ben — they wound up getting hitched by the lake. For him, coming back was a no-brainer.

Does he have any insights about Wet Hot American Summer's bizarre enduring appeal?

“I have no idea because it’s so stupid in the best possible way. Maybe it’s unabashed silliness. It’s so gleefully dumb. It’s so exuberant,” Black says. “If you’re looking for anything beyond what you’re seeing in front of you that very second, you’ll be disappointed. It exists moment to moment, just like youth.”

Trevor Noah addresses Wyatt Cenac comments, defends Jon Stewart

What does future Daily Show host Trevor Noah have to say about his predecessor cursing out a colleague in public?

“What happened there with Jon (Stewart) is exactly what the writers room is for,” Noah said at a Television Critic Association panel, which our Bill Keveney attended.

Noah was referencing the story former Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac told on the WTF podcast, about how Stewart made him, a correspondent, cry for expressing concern over a segment’s racial insensitivity.

But Noah understands why the heated exchange happened, and thinks it’s OK.

“You’re supposed to fight about things,” he said. “What you’re trying to do is find the best way to tell the best joke about what’s happening in the world we’re living in. … You hope you get to a point where you’re really passionate about a subject because then when you get the show on screen, we’ve already had this fight. … It’s being handled.”

He went on:

“Any joke can be seen as offensive. That’s the great thing about ‘The Daily Show.’ We have a diverse staff: male-female, black-white, young-old. The whole point of having a great writing team is trying to find the best voice for the show.”

How Jason Segel transformed for 'Tour'

There were serious doubts when Jason Segel was cast as the tragic genius David Foster Wallace inThe End of the Tour.

Segel, 35, has made a career portraying affable, endearing personalities — from Gary, BFF to a muppet named Walter in The Muppets, to goofy Marshall in TV's How I Met Your Mother.

But in Tour (opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles), Segel steps up to the complex role of Infinite Jest author Wallace, who struggled with depression and killed himself in 2008 at age 46. The film depicts a five-day interview with Rolling Stone writerDavid Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg).

"We sometimes buckle when someone we know takes on a more dramatic role," saysTour director James Ponsoldt. "Perhaps it shows the limits to our imagination."

The doubts have turned to accolades for a performance The Hollywood Reporter calls "heartbreaking" and even early awards talk for Segel.

Here's how Segel made the transformation.

Employing the hair and bandanna: Wallace's unorthodox look is striking right off and a significant discussion point in Tour. Segel couldn't grow his hair out while shooting the end of Mother, so he relied on hair extensions.

"You can take the bandanna, the long hair or those clothes, individually," says Segel. "But when they all came together, that's when I felt really comfortable to walk out as David Foster Wallace."

The filmmakers took pains not to fixate on a physical imitation of the author. "We basically tried to get as accurate as possible without making it feel like an impression or a sketch," says Segel.

Reading Wallace's work: The voluminous writings — especially Wallace's seminal 1,079-page Infinite Jest — were key to understanding the author. Segel, who wrote The Muppets and is working on The Lego Movie spinoff Billion Brick Race, started there.

"It's a massive undertaking as a reader. And that puts in perspective what a massive undertaking it was as a writer," says Segel.

Every week, he'd read 100 pages and discuss the work on Sunday with three friends in a book club. "It was one of the best experiences I have ever had," says Segel. "To have four people with different life experiences and having this (book) resonate speaks so much to the writing's universality."

Miranda Sings hits USA TODAY's top 10

Here’s a look at what’s new on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list…

Spell check!:  Miranda Sings’ self-help book – er,Selp-Helf book – is a hit, landing at No. 6 this week. (The full list will publish on Thursday.) It’s a case of YouTube success translating to the publishing world.

The creation of 28-year-old Colleen Ballinger, “Miranda Sings” is a nerdy would-be superstar with smeared red lipstick who can’t sing or dance. But just try not laughing at her online parody of Taylor Swift’sShake It off video.  Miranda’s silly videos have millions of hits, and she’s big on social media.

In the book Selp-Helf  (Gallery), Miranda offers such gems of wisdom as (misspellings are intentional!):

“Marriage:

“Now that you’ve been on a date, your ready for marriage.

"Marriage is about 3 things:

1.       A dress

2.       a cake.

3.       making other people jealous."

Miranda’s Summer Camp comedy tour launches on Aug. 5.

Average age of cars on U.S. roads breaks record

The average age of vehicles on the road in the U.S. is rising, even as consumers snap up more new ones — a paradox attributable to substantial increases in reliability.

The typical car on the road in the U.S. is a record-high 11.5 years old, according to a new IHS Automotive survey.

Yet Americans are buying cars at an annualized rate of more than 17 million vehicles, marking a high not seen since before the Great Recession. In fact, U.S. vehicle owners bought 42% more cars than they scrapped in 2014, according to IHS. The number of light vehicles registered in the U.S. hit an all-time high of 257.9 million units.

How are vehicles getting older, while Americans are buying newer cars, too?

Simple: They're either keeping the old ones along with the new ones — know anyone who bought a new car and kept their old one in the driveway? — or the vehicle made its way into the used-car market, where someone else bought it..

"Vehicles are simply lasting longer than ever before," Mark Seng, global aftermarket practice leader at IHS Automotive, told USA TODAY. "The consumer is hanging onto their vehicle longer than ever before."

Automakers have substantially improved the reliability of their vehicles. Although it's still possible to buy a "lemon," it's getting increasingly difficult.

Analysts say that most of the major automakers have overcome major quality issues. Now, industry surveys such as the J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study typically examine minor quality issues such as ease-of-use of infotainment systems.

The number of vehicles on the road that are at least 25 years old is about 14 million. That's up from about 8 million in 2002. Those are vehicles made in 1990 or earlier.

Meanwhile, the number of vehicles that are 16 to 24 years old is 44 million. That's up from 26 million in 2002, according to IHS.

"There’s quite a bit of evidence of these vehicles lasting longer, staying on the road longer, people hanging on to them longer," Seng said.

For the aftermarket industry, this is encouraging news. Newer cars don't need many repairs — and are likely to find their way into dealerships to be fixed when they do have problems.

Independent vehicle repair shops are also capitalizing on the wave of older vehicles needing repairs, Seng said.

"As the vehicle gets older, they get nearly all of that repair business, as opposed to that dealer channel," he said.

IHS projected that the number of vehicles that are older than 12 years will rise by 15% over the next five years.

Detroit's bond rating improves from junk status

DETROIT — Seven months out of bankruptcy, Detroit won a crucial vote of confidence Wednesday in its ability to borrow as the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s rated as investment grade $245 million in bonds the city will soon sell to pay for upgrades to its police and fire departments and other critical public services.

S&P rated the bonds at "A/stable," considered an upper-medium grade and a significant improvement for a city whose ratings slid well into junk status as its financial condition careened toward collapse and the nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing in 2013. The sale is the city's first step toward rebuilding its credit-worthiness in the public bond markets.

"When you've lost your financial credibility over many years, you have to rebuild it one step at a time, and today is a big step," Mayor Mike Duggan told the Free Press.

Duggan said another big step was the city balancing its budget last year for the first time in a decade, and he and the City Council are on their way to a second balanced budget for 2015-2016.

Delamaide: Wall Street is in Hillary Clinton's corner

WASHINGTON — Behind the scenes, Hillary Clinton's campaign for president belies the Wall Street reform rhetoric that she uses to appeal to left-wing Democratic voters.

It was Deep Throat's reputed advice to reporters in the Watergate scandal that made "follow the money" the iconic slogan for those seeking to ferret out corruption in U.S. politics.

But the political slush fund in Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign seems quaint in the wake of Citizens United, super PACs and the even darker pools of campaign funds that are the forms of corporate payoffs to politicians nowadays.

Much of the money is impossible to follow as dubious non-profit organizations mask the identity of their donors and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce fights efforts to make companies disclose their political contributions.

However, we can still see the tip of the iceberg through the tatters of campaign finance law that remain. And what that tip tells us is that Wall Street is still squarely behind Clinton.

Moreover, the drip feed of policy prescriptions that Clinton has embarked on (there's more to come "over the course of this campaign," she says) obscures the fact that there's not really that much reform there.

Her proposals for reforming capital gains tax by scaling up the amount of time it takes to get truly favorable rates, for instance, met mixed reviews. Some critics say it won't accomplish her stated goal of getting companies to look beyond quarterly profits.

In any case, it's small potatoes compared to forthright calls by her rivals for the Democratic nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, to break up the banks and impose more drastic restrictions on bank activity.

In fact, Clinton has rejected the idea of reintroducing a Glass-Steagall Act to separate commercial banks from investment banking, saying the issue is "more complicated" than that — echoing excuses by the Obama administration for not following through on more aggressive financial reform.

One of the things making it "complicated" might be the unstinting support Clinton is getting from Wall Street.

An analysis of the most recent federal campaign contribution data by the Huffington Post found Clinton in the lead in donations from Wall Street with $432,610 from bank executives, employees and their spouses.

Republican hopefuls Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio trailed with $353,150 and $105,669, respectively.

Again, this is the tip of the iceberg, because it doesn't include funds flowing into many super PACs and the very dark 501(c)(4) organizations like Americans for Prosperity that ostensibly promote social welfare but are shams for political advocacy.

This is on top, in Clinton's case, of the millions she and her husband, the former president, collected in "speaking fees" in the months prior to the official declaration of her candidacy, including from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and other Wall Street firms.

These ties are well known, but the fact that this support continues in the face of Clinton's leftish rhetoric tells us Wall Street is not too worried about anything Clinton may do if she were to win the election.

This susceptibility to influence by mega-donors is not confined to Wall Street or financial services.