Lauren Potter News

Click here to get a first look at guest star Kate Hudson performing the Stevie Wonder classic 'Uptight' from tonight's episode, courtesy of EW.com

Life is Stevie Wonder-ful on an all-new episode of GLEE on FOX. In the episode, the members of New Directions take on the greatest hits of music icon Stevie Wonder. Get a first listen to all the songs from the episode here!

The power may have been lost at McKinley High on FOX's hit musical dramedy series Glee last night, but there was no shortage of mega-wattage musical magnificence to set the night alight anyway - particularly for the Broadway babies among us, given the major tributes to A CHORUS LINE and ANNIE. Yes, indeed, 'Lights Out' was Glee at its very best. Oh, yeah - and Frida Romero, too (you read that name right)!

Astrology, action and ardent love anthems populated last night's GLEE, highlighted by some of the most heart-pounding and heart-breaking moments shown this season thus far - seemingly shocking school shooting paramount among the surprising sequences and harrowing shocks that punctuated the slow-burner that heralded GLEE's eleventh-hour return (after a few weeks off) with a bang.

Liberally utilizing tried and true heartstring-tugging tropes masterfully displayed in holiday entities as diverse as LOVE, ACTUALLY, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, HOLIDAY INN and even showing some Chanukah action sure to set virtually anybody's menorah fully alight thanks to the Puckerman brothers, GLEE's Christmas episode - this year, aptly titled 'Love, Actually' and written by Matthew Hodgson and directed by HAIRSPRAY and ROCK OF AGES movie musical helmer and a recent participant in this very column, Adam Shankman (available here) - was all in all a quite quintessential quintet of seasonal joy, cheer, and, well, glee, broaching the quoin of many and any a viewer's heart valves in so pleasingly enacting its ample entertainment value over the course of the episode's five featured segments within the winning framework. While the split-location structure of the series as dictated by the new style of GLEE 4.0 is assuredly more pronounced than would be the case had the proposed NYC-set spin-off gotten the greenlight by FOX, the cast and creators are making it all work and it is more seamless as it goes on - and the addictive, giddy, all-consuming glee of it all that drew us all in in the first season is still there to relish by Santa's sleigh-ful.

"Prom-asaurus" proved that GLEE can still pack a powerful pop culture punch when required to do so; and when it wants to - and spike it with some effervescence and make it pop, too. Even those among us who don't partake in drinking the GLEE Kool-Aid, all must agree that there was more than one episode's fair share of fun, frivolity, twists and tunes, with some very fitting dramatic and musicals moments that we have by now come to anticipate from the genre-hopping musical dramedy enterprise - all of it integrated effectively into the stream-lined storyline, as well. Prom. It's all about prom this time of year and GLEE always makes a point to pay tribute to the month of May in this way. It is in pop culture melding mega-moments like last night's One Direction cover by way of GLEE - "What You Makes You Beautiful" - that we are again reminded of the special place GLEE holds in the American pop pantheon of the 21st century - using real, of-the-moment pop songs and utilizing them to comment on current events while musicalizing and dramatizing the lives of high school students. The classic cuts that come along are a bonus, really, when one considers GLEE from this viewpoint, though the contemporary covers have become the bread and butter of song sales for the mega-music-selling series - "Teenage Dream" by Blaine & The Warblers, as well as the Troubletones's Adele "Someone Like You/Rumor Has It" mash-up sold nearly as many copies as their predecessors - the originals - as far as iTunes sales go. Though FOX channel-mate Simon Cowell of course discovered and shepherds the international pop smash super group One Direction, their musical appearance on GLEE this season marks the continued exposure of the of-the-moment boy band phenomena we have not seen the likes of in over a decade - not since the days of N*SYNC and the Backstreet Boys - after the New Directions success with The Wanted's "Glad You Came" a few episodes back and their upcoming continued presence, no doubt, in addition. What makes GLEE must-see-TV week after week is more often than not the try-anything approach of the creators and cast - some sequences shockingly come off brilliantly and hit all-too-squarely their intended targets, while others fall far short and flop completely, even embarrassingly so. To crib a phrase from One Direction's hit single, what makes GLEE beautiful is that GLEE does not always know what makes it beautiful - experiencing drama coming to us delivered from that rocky, risky-to-mount precipice is sometimes frustrating, sometimes rewarding, but almost always somehow more than merely satisfying.

GLEE star Lauren Potter (Becky Jackson) is starring in the new comedy web series LEADER OF THE PACK created by Richard Redlin launching appropriately on March 21st - World Down Syndrome Day

BroadwayWorld brought you the winners as they were announced throughout the evening; check below for a complete list!

Nominees for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards for outstanding performances in 2011 in five film and eight primetime television categories and for the SAG honors for outstanding action performances by film and television stunt ensembles were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center's SilverScreen Theater in West Hollywood.

Showcasing six of the show's strongest supporting performers in a vast array of arresting ways in the first ten minutes was merely one of a myriad in the embarrassment of riches on view as GLEE roared its way back after a multi-week Winter hiatus last night. From GREASE done grandly and giving Amber Riley and Chord Overstreet a duet to linger in the memory - "Summer Nights" - to Helen Mirren's unexpected and unquestionably brilliant narration for Becky (Lauren Potter), and, the piece de resistance: Jayma Mays backed up by Jane Lynch and Dot Jones on the Laura Nyro-penned Fifth Dimension stoned-soul classic "Wedding Bell Blues" - ingeniously accredited to "Will!" in this iteration. While the opening sequence of the show packed a wallop and stood as clear evidence that at this stage in Season 3 GLEE is far from treading water and very well may be the most polished and smooth and consistent it has been since the first episodes of Season 1 (and even then). Matt Morrison and Kevin McHale - backed up by Harry Shum, Jr. and the boys of New Directions - strutted out the recent Maroon 5/Christina Aguilera hit "Moves Like Jagger" in a mash-up with the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash" with sleek stylishness to spare and some ferociously fierce moves. REAL HOUSEWIVES reality star Nene Leakes as the synchronized swimming coach certainly made a strong first impression in her over-the-top and hilarious characterization of a, well, over-the-top and hilariously-written character (Sue Sylvester better watch out for her). Speaking of strong writing, co-creator Brad Falchuk wrote the 'Yes/No' episode and it was directed by a helmer of many of the show's best in previous season - an actor in his own right - Eric Stolz. Three knockout musical numbers in the first fifteen minutes in addition to the two aforementioned cameos was only the start of an episode evidencing the most consistently entertaining show on TV in top form as we head into the meaty middle of GLEE Season 3. Three proposals in, and all signs point to 'Yes' for GLEE in Season 3 - let us hope Rachel follows suit in her response to Finn when the show returns in two weeks with the highly-touted Michael Jackson tribute episode.

Nominees for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for outstanding performances in 2011 in five film and eight primetime television categories and for the SAG honors for outstanding action performances by film and television stunt ensembles were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center's SilverScreen Theater in West Hollywood. Several Broadway favorites made the cut, including recent Kennedy Center inductee Meryl Street (The Iron Lady), Tony winner Viola Davis (The Help) and more!

Nominees for the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® for outstanding performances in 2011 in five film and eight primetime television categories and for the SAG honors for outstanding action performances by film and television stunt ensembles were announced this morning in Los Angeles at the Pacific Design Center's SilverScreen Theater in West Hollywood.

We've got the first complete set of photos from the special episode of GLEE airing after SUPER BOWL XLV on Sunday, Feb. 6 (approx. 10:30-11:30 PM ET; approx. 7:30-8:30 PM PT) on FOX.

GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS VIEWING PARTY AND POST-SHOW CELEBRATION 2011: FOX celebrates the Network's Golden Globe Nominees and winners with Jennifer Lopez at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, January 16, 2011. ©2011 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: KristIan Dowling/PictureGroup/FOX