
Kyle Chandler in Friday Night Lights by Van Redin/NBC Photo
Remember how Charlie Brown used to end up on his back every time he went to kick the football after Lucy pulled it away? Well, that was me, in the pre-dawn of Thursday morning at the TV Academy building in North Hollywood, as the first Emmy category (for best drama series) was read aloud. Amid a gaggle of impatient media crews and anxious publicists, I once again felt sucker-punched by the cluelessly inexplicable whims of the Emmy nomination process. (Go here for a list of nominees.)The football analogy applies because, once again, the Emmy system dropped the ball, failing to acknowledge NBCs critically worshiped freshman underdog Friday Night Lights, instead finding room for ABCs cartoonishly lurid freak show Boston Legal (on the basis, so I hear, of a rare detour into quality with a post-Katrina episode). A chagrined Academy source tells me that Friday Night Lights came close, but speculated that it may have flown too far under the radar in a way overcrowded field. Hea...
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Freddy Rodriguez by John Sciulli/WireImage.com; America Ferrera by Eric Liebowitz/WireImage.com
They said it wouldn't last. And apparently, they were right. Six Feet Under alum Freddy Rodriguez is joining the cast of Ugly Betty as a spoiler in our heroine's budding romance with longtime crush Henry.I'd join you in crying foul, but given the character description that I fed you in the Independence Day installment of Ask Ausiello, I have a hunch we're going to take to Rodriguez's Betty counterpart as readily as we did to Christopher Gorham's endearing Henry. Heck, the newbie Gio, who runs the sandwich cart at Mode sounds as appealing as Betty herself: ambitious, aggressive and lovable.So what does it all mean?If I were a betting man, since Gio is expected to stick around for the whole season, I'd wager that Henry will be spending more time around his own cubicle than Betty's. And since Rodriguez is almost a decade older than America Ferrera, I'm thinking Papa Suarez might have something to say about Gio robbing the cradle. Then again, Rodriguez has such a baby face...
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Question: Can I please be the first person you give Ugly Betty spoilers to for Season 2?
Answer: It may be over before it began for Betty and Henry. I hear producers are bringing on a new twentysomething love interest for America Ferrera. The character's name is Gio, and he runs the sandwich cart at "Mode." He's described in the script as "ambitious, aggressive and lovable," and it sounds like he'll be sticking around all season.
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America Ferrera and Eric Mabius, Ugly Betty
Are Betty and Henry ever going to get together? Have faith! "It all comes to a head by the finale [May 17]," says Christopher Gorham, who plays Henry. "By the end, there will be some resolution between Henry and [girlfriend] Charlie and a new complication with the love triangle. Henry really steps up for Betty — and pays the price. The thing is," he adds, "Henry and Betty needed to break up. By taking herself out of the picture, Betty made him realize how great she is. They are going to move toward being together."
Hope this isn't rude, but we really want to know: Is Betty still a virgin?"Uh… no," says the show's executive producer Silvio Horta. The only guy she's ever been with is Walter, a fact alluded to in the episode called "The Lyin', the Watch and the Wardrobe."
Are we ever going to find
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Becki Newton, Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty's scene-stealing bad girl Becki Newton talks to TV Guide about shaking her booty, stalking Tim Gunn and finding love. (ABC's Ugly Betty airs Thursdays at 8 pm/ET.)
TV Guide: How do you get in touch with your inner vixen to play Amanda? Becki Newton: I think of the girls I used to meet at New York City auditions. Girls have a great way of sizing each other up with a look that can debilitate everyone. I was usually the victim of that. I've always been more the Betty than the Amanda. But after years of studying those girls, I've learned how to channel it.
TV Guide: You felt like Betty? Newton: Always. I think everyone does. The Amandas of the world are covering up a lot of pain by trying to be the one who makes other
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Despite reports that America Ferrera is being forced to reprise her role in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a producer of the sequel insists theres nothing ugly about the negotiations. The full truth of the story is that America was ambivalent at first, says Alcon Entertainment producer Andrew Kosove. But shes very pleased with the screenplay and much more comfortable about her involvement now. Shooting will begin June 2 in Greece for Ferrera and cast mates Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively, who play a group of girlfriends bonded by a special pair of jeans. If the film series follows that of the books, two additional sequels may be in store. But Kosove says, At some point the actresses really will be too old to play these characters. I think honestly that was some of the ambivalence at this stage. reporting by Bekah Wright
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According to the Hollywood Reporter, America Ferrera is being squeezed into a sequel to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, much to her chagrin. During her ABC hit's hiatus, the actress had wanted to do the film An Invisible Sign of My Own for Betty producer/pal Salma Hayek, but the producers of Pants have the option to force her to do a sequel, and now that she's a bigger star than Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn combined, doggone it, that's exactly what they're doing.
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Warner Home Video has issued a statement saying that due to "time constraints," solicited fan testimonial videos will not be included on the Veronica Mars Season 3 DVD set as planned. I knew I shouldn't have done mine naked.... Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) on Monday presented America Ferrera with a copy of the resolution she introduced to the House of Representatives, commending the Ugly Betty star on raising the profile of Latinos in popular culture.... The interminable penguin movie topped the DVD sales chart last week, while The Pursuit of Happyness was the No. 1 rental.... CNN's American Morning is replacing anchors Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien with rising stars John Roberts and Kiran Chetry.
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This is my first blog. I know that I should probably be embarrassed, only blogging for the first time at the age of 32, but I'm not. I'm an old-fashioned type of guy and I believe in waiting to blog until you're ready. So what have I been waiting for? Betty. Like Henry, the quirky accountant I portray on Ugly Betty, I guess I just needed the right heartbreakingly sweet, smart, funny, four-eyed, metal-mouthed beauty to bring me out of my shell. That said, if I'm not very good at it, please be patient. It is my first time.I wasn't supposed to be on this show. I wasn't available to audition for the pilot episode because I was starring in another show at the time. But I'd known about the project from the beginning. Before he'd written a page, I remember Silvio (Horta) describing the project to me, over lunch on the Paramount lot. We'd worked together before and had kept in touch. The conversation went something like this
Chris: "What are you working on?"Silvio: "Blah blah blah blah...
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Ellen Pompeo
Question: Is Ellen Pompeo leaving Grey's Anatomy?
Answer: Yes. And Hugh Laurie is leaving House. And Jason Lee is leaving My Name Is Earl. And America Ferrera is leaving Ugly Betty. And Michael C. Hall is leaving Dexter. And… see where I'm going with this?
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