Ed Harris doesn't like the M-word.
"Someone called it a miniseries, and I wanted to throw up," says the star of HBO's Empire Falls. "It's not a miniseries — it's a damn movie!"
If so, we hope Harris doesn't see the cable network's promos, which bill the star-jammed adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer-winning novel as a "miniseries event." In any event, HBO will split the three-hour-plus small-town drama over the evenings of May 28 and 29 — all the better to qualify for a best miniseries Emmy.
You can't blame Harris for his unfamiliarity with TV terminology: He hasn't appeared on the small screen in nearly 10 years, since his 1996 TNT Western Riders of the Purple Sage. "I've been asked to do a bunch of TV stuff, and I came close a couple times," Harris explains. "But nothing quite grabbed me as much as I needed to be grabbed."
Then came Empire Falls' Miles Roby. When Harris first read the novel, he
read more
Vincent D'Onofrio is beat. Getting into makeup on the Manhattan set of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, he doesn't just have bags under his eyes — he's got a full set of luggage. "You can never get enough sleep," the 45-year-old actor says of his brutal shooting schedule. "You wake up, you look like me. It takes about three hours to start getting your face back."
The demands of playing polarizingly bizarro NYPD detective Robert Goren for the past four seasons finally caught up with D'Onofrio late last year; he collapsed on the set twice and had to be hospitalized for exhaustion.
Help is on the way. Next season, Chris Noth will reprise his L&O role as Det. Mike Logan in half of Criminal Intent's 22 episodes, relieving both D'Onofrio and equally weary costar Kathryn Erbe, who admits, "This is the season we cried uncle." (As reported in yesterday's Entertainment News, A
read more
Ray Liotta's real-time tour de force as a dying alcoholic defibrillated ER's ailing ratings in November. So it's no shock that the NBC medical drama has lined up more big-name guest stars for February sweeps.
First up, on Feb. 10 is Sissy Spacek, who'll play the long-lost birth mother of Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes). How did ER land the Oscar-winning actress? "I'm a huge fan of [executive producer] John Wells," Spacek says. "We worked together on [the 2004 indie film] A Home at the End of the World, and since then, he's been sending me ER scripts. This one just spoke to me."
"The show has a pretty solid reputation for actors and if it didn't have that, we would've never had a snowball's chance in hell of getting her," executive producer Dee Johnson says frankly. "As far as I know, [Spacek appears in only] one episode, but it's not like she drives off a cliff at the end, so nothing's impossible."
read more
She may have been snubbed by the Golden Globes, but Eva Longoria ain't complaining these days. Her insta-breakout role as suburban adulteress Gabrielle Solis on Desperate Housewives has made this 29-year-old Young & the Restless alumna one of TV's hottest (in every sense of the word) young actresses. Here, Longoria dishes with TV Guide Online about her show's best-comedy Globe, her desire to defeat CSI and her 90210 memories.
TV Guide Online: Why are people so fascinated by Gabrielle's affair with John (Jesse Metcalfe)?
Eva Longoria: It's the journey to find love and happiness, and no matter what route that takes you, audiences like that. It's very entertaining. I do a lot of awful things to get there, but in the end, it's still a pure hope of getting love, so that's what the audience is attracted to. People appreciate it and think it's funny — I don't think there's going to be a lot of 40-year-old women running off
read more
If you missed CSI: Miami's tidal-wave episode in November, you won't catch it again soon.
In the aftermath of the real-life tragedy in Southeast Asia, the network has no plans to rerun the 90-minute "Crime Wave," in which Horatio Caine (David Caruso) and Co. investigate two murders as a tsunami engulfs the city's beaches. "We would never be so insensitive," says a network source. CSI: Miami's makers agree: "If it would remind one person of all the lives that were lost, it's not worth it," a show insider says. "Our job is to entertain, and when it intersects with tragedy, it's just terrible. We certainly don't aim for that."
CBS wasn't the only network to respond to the disaster with caution. Disney Channel pulled four shows off its schedule, including episodes of Even Stevens and The Proud Family that featured scenes of tidal waves, an earthquake-themed installment of Lilo & Stitch: The Series and the unfortunately
read more
As the truth sinks in, we have to accept that, yes, our favorite TV family really is calling it quits. But not just yet. The Barones have come back for 16 more episodes of CBS's smash hitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, which ends its run in May. Here, Ray Romano ponders his farewell season — and life after Raymond.
TV Guide Online: Why did you decide to come back for one final season?
Ray Romano: It was the stories. The whole thing wasn't the money, as much as it is [$1.8 million an episode] — and I apologize for that to everybody out there. It was all about, "Are we running it into the ground?" We just didn't want to compromise the quality of it.
TVGO: What's up for Raymond this year?
Romano: I [co-wrote] one of the first three [episodes]. The ones I write usually involve sex, so it's a lack-of-sex themed show. I believe I'll get lucky one evening, then the wife ends up having a big fight with the mother, which I
read more
On last season's Gilmore Girls finale, Lorelai (Lauren Graham) finally heated up her long-simmering romance with short-order cook Luke (Scott Patterson). Of course, we at TV Guide Online are too impatient to wait until Sept. 21 (when Season 5 begins) to find out what happens next. So here we catch up with Graham, who dishes her TV love life, fires back at GG's critics and tells how she spent her summer vacation (with Vin Diesel and Jeff Bridges!).
TV Guide Online: Are Luke and Lorelai now officially a couple?
Lauren Graham: We're going down that road. It's time to do that, but the story has to stay complicated and not easily resolvable because that's good storytelling. I do know that this year we have David Sutcliffe back [as Christopher, Lorelai's ex], which is a relief. Last year, it was decided that Lorelai couldn't say to Rory, "Your dad can't drive you to Yale because he's on another network." [Sutcliffe co-starred
read more
What liberal media? Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson now headlines two shows — and Fox News Channel doesn't air either of them. The cohost of CNN's Crossfire is crossing over to PBS with a new talk show, Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered (debuting tonight; check local listings). TV Guide Online turned the tables on Carlson, grilling him about Britney Spears, his bow-tie habit and potential chat-show rivals Rev. Al Sharpton and Howard Dean.
TV Guide Online: So what kinds of guests should we look forward to seeing on Unfiltered?
Tucker Carlson: Only the most interesting. Anybody who has a talk show gets frustrated by the endless chase after name guests — some of whom are good, most of whom are not. Typically in Washington, the mindset is get the guy with the best title. I want to get the guy with the best information and the ability to convey it. Someone who doesn't use euphemisms and government-speak and doesn't bu
read more
"This movie is going to raise holy hell, and I may never work again," says director Sidney Lumet of HBO's Strip Search, a provocative drama about civil liberties in the post-9/11 era that airs April 27. The story cross-cuts between two degrading interrogations: In China, an American student (Maggie Gyllenhaal) gets grilled about her political activities, while in the U.S., an FBI agent (Glenn Close) gives a Saudi scholar (Bruno Lastra) the third degree. Now here's the kicker: Both sequences use the exact same script, implicitly equating the countries' treatment of suspects.
The filmmakers maintain they're simply taking dramatic license to tell a cautionary tale. "Am I saying we're a totalitarian country? No," says writer Tom Fontana. "Am I saying we could become one? Absolutely."
Such contentions have already stirred controversy among conservative watchdogs. "The premise is preposterous and insulting," says Media Research
read more
It was a move that surprised absolutely no one — except Sam Solovey. On last night's Apprentice, Donald Trump finally canned Sam. From Day 1, the 27-year-old Internet entrepreneur from Chevy Chase, Md., created static with his teammates. But if you think the experience has humbled him, think again.
TV Guide Online: Why was it such a struggle for you to stay on the show?
Sam Solovey: I have a strong personality. I have a lot of big ideas. I was thinking out of the box, which I do in business, and it's been successful for me. And it didn't work in this environment. I may have been a threat. A lot of people in the working world think one-dimensionally, and I don't, and that often throws people off.
TVGO: Do you think trying to sell a cup of lemonade for $1,000 hurt you?
Solovey: I was actually very close to getting that sale. I'd be willing to go back to those people today and present them with the same offer, and I think they w
read more