Sara Paxton
Mischa Barton didn't turn up Tuesday at a panel to promote her new show, The CW's The Beautiful Life: TBL. But she had a good excuse: Executive producer Ashton Kutcher said she was unavailable because she was on set shooting the series.
Barton was hospitalized after Los Angeles police said they escorted her to a hospital for an undisclosed medical problem July 15. Her spokesman told The Associated Press on July 27 that she had been released. "Mischa's in New York working today on the show," Kutcher said at the Television Critics Association's fall TV tour in Pasadena, Calif. "She was never unavailable for a day of work."
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Medium
Medium will pay tribute this season to Night of the Living Dead — which couldn't be more appropriate, given the show's recent history.
NBC dropped Patricia Arquette's supernatural crime drama last season, but it was quickly revived by CBS, whose production division produces the show.
See pictures of Patricia Arquette
"I'd been told unofficially we were getting picked up," Arquette said at Monday's Television Critics Association fall-TV tour. "I was about to buy a house, then I got told we got dropped. I was unemployed. And then I got a job. It was like, you're hired, you're fired. You're hired!"
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Accidentally on Purpose
Yes, the new Jenna Elfman sitcom Accidentally on Purpose is about a career woman in entertainment journalism who finds herself impregnated by an unsuccessful slacker.
But it's not inspired by Knocked Up, executive producer Claudia Lonow said at Monday's Television Critics Association fall TV tour. In fact, it's based on the real life of Time movie critic Mary Pols, who wrote about her unexpected pregnancy in the memoir Accidentally on Purpose: The True Tale of a Happy Single Mother.
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Craig Ferguson
When a guy's as funny as Craig Ferguson, the best thing to do is get out of his way. So without further setup, here are the five funniest things he said Monday at the Television Critics Association's fall press tour.
5. On his slip-ups: "I would prefer as a viewer to watch the mistakes. I am my own blooper reel, as it happens."
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Wayne Brady
As one piece of television history dies, another is being revived: CBS will replace Guiding Light, television's longest-running drama, with a revamped version of the classic game show Let's Make a Deal, the network announced Monday.
Watch free, full episodes of Guiding Light online
The new game show will be hosted by comedian/actor ...
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Nina Tassler, Ben Silverman
CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler has outlasted NBC's Ben Silverman at the top of a network — and she isn't above a little gloating.
Silverman, the departing co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, once said that other network executives were "basically D-girls" — industry slang for young, attractive female development executives with little pull.
Give us your TCA questions
Tassler was asked during a panel at the Television Critics Association's fall press tour Monday what she thought about Silverman's departure, and quipped, "I'm really just a D-girl, so I wouldn't comment."
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Battlestar Galactica
Syfy's Battlestar Galactica received the top honor and The Big Bang Theory picked up two awards at the 25th Television Critics Association Awards, a lively, untelevised affair recognizing critics' favorites.
HBO earned three awards, the most of any network, but AMC had the best average, picking up a major prize for each of its scripted shows. Mad Men repeated its win for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston was honored for Individual Achievement in Drama.
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Keith Olbermann, Bill O'Reilly
Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly take pride in not backing down from anyone, especially each other. But did they give in to their bosses by agreeing to conclude their feud?
The MSNBC and Fox News hosts have engaged in an often-personal war of words for years. But they put their differences aside — or at least agreed to stop talking about them on-air — because of an intervention by the heads of their companies, The New York Times reports.
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Forest Whitaker
Can the Sundance Channel's Brick City inspire change in America's grittiest inner cities? The panel the show assembled for Friday's Television Critics Association press tour suggests it's possible: It featured members of the rival Crips and Bloods gang sharing the stage with a police director from Newark, N.J., where the documentary is set.
Sundance is presenting Brick City as a street-level portrayal of inner city life that offers more nuance and optimism than HBO's The Wire. Executive produced by Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, it features Newark's mayor, Cory Booker, whose campaign to unseat Newark's previous mayor was the subject of the Academy Award-nominated documentary Street Fight.
Check out photos of Whitaker
Booker spoke ...
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Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J
Paula Perrette, the goth beauty of NCIS, will guest in the second episode of the CBS spin-off NCIS: Los Angeles, executive producer Shane Brennan announced Friday.
Get scoop on new and returning shows in our Fall Preview
Perrette's character, Abby Sciuto, will appear in a "fun little cameo" and help solve the case, Brennan said at the show's Television Critics Association fall press tour panel.
He also hinted about how the NCIS storyline that ended with Chris O'Donnell's character, Special Agent G. Callen, taking a bullet will continue on the spin-off. "It's four months later and it's ...
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