Speaking of The Ice Storm.... Allison Janney (who, let's face it, is first and foremost C.J. Cregg) has joined the voice cast of Fox's The Pitts, an animated series based on the short-lived 2003 live-action comedy series about the Spearses the unluckiest family in the world. Janney will voice the mom, while (as previously reported) Dylan Baker, Lizzy Caplan and Andy Milonakis will bring to life Dad, daughter Liz and son Petey. If a table read set for next week goes well, The Pitts will be ordered straight to series.
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As reported earlier today, the folks behind American Idol are reviving Match Game. I may be in the minority here, but my restrained response to this news was something akin to "Woo-hoo!" I loved that show — both in its heyday and in reruns on the Game Show Network — if only because it's the strangest anthropological documentation of 1970s comedy, sexual mores and substance abuse that you're ever going to find on network television. It was pretty subversive for a game show (see examples on YouTube), with more cigarette smoking, daytime drinking and winking sexism/sexual innuendo than your average episode of Mad Men.So we asked you who you'd put on the show's inaugural panel. Who are today's Richard Dawsons, Brett Sommerses, and Charles Nelson Reillys? And you responded in kind, with some very interesting suggestions. (Mario Cantone? Genius. Jimmy Fallon? Eh.) That said, here are my humble suggestions for the inaugural sextet. —1) Pamela Anderson: If anyone knows her wa...
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Seth Rogen, Scrubs' Elizabeth Banks and Kevin Smith muse Jason Mewes will star in the Clerks director's next comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Says an excited Smith: "Getting Seth in this flick is like suddenly growing an extra six inches in the crotch."... Grownup Panic Room moppet Kristen Stewart has landed the female lead in Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novel about a girl who is not named Buffy who is in love with a vampire who is not named Angel... The curtain will go up on Dolly Parton's stage adaptation of 9 to 5, the 1980 classic comedy she made with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, on Sept. 21, 2008, in L.A. Allison Janney stars. No, not in the old Parton role, in Tomlin's role. As if....Tim Burton has sealed a deal with Disney to direct and produce a live-action-plus-performance-capture animation version of Alice in Wonderland and remake his own stop-motion short, Frankenweenie, as a full-length feature. Both will be shown in 3-D, and if we're lucky, Alice ...
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Jason Alexander (who got his start as a Broadway hoofer) recently seized the reigns of Los Angeles' Reprise! theater series. For his first offering, he's thinking of starring in a reading of The Odd Couple opposite Martin Short. "I want to do an absolute crowd-pleaser," Alexander told Playbill.com (which must be why he nixed the idea of a Bob Patterson adaptation).... A musicalization of 9 to 5 will enjoy a star-studded reading later this month, as West Wing's Allison Janney channels Lily Tomlin and Bebe Neuwirth takes on Roz, the office suck-up. The Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman roles will be filled by stage vets Stephanie J. Block (Pirate Queen), Megan Hilty (Wicked) and Marc Kudisch.... Even in death, Law & Order's Lenny Briscoe gets justice: The Snapple Theater Center is rechristening its third-floor house as "The Jerry Orbach Theater." Snappleholic Michael Ausiello is green with envy. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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Having now fully recovered from her recent back injury, Ellen DeGeneres has rescheduled for this Friday a special installment of her talk show to be taped aboard a Delta 767-400 flight from Los Angeles to New York. Lucky passengers — including, coincidentally, West Wing alum Allison Janney — will be entertained by the host, a definite upgrade from the usual flimsy airline headphones paired with an in-flight presentation of Catch and Release. Ellen's airborne eppy airs Tuesday.
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