Ben Stiller
Fox isn't wasting any time setting up its development slate.
The network has ordered four comedy pilots and three dramas, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The newcomers join previously announced drama pilot Eva Adams, which is finalizing casting, and fall comedy Boldly Going Nowhere.
Fox President Kevin Reilly said last week that the new comedy slate would be closer in tone to hit series Malcolm in the Middle and The Bernie Mac Show than this season's quickly cancelled Do Not Disturb. Among the contenders are ...
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Ben Stiller, Jack Black and a mustache-rockin' Robert Downey Jr. stopped by BET's 106 & Park to promote Tropic Thunder, but they probably weren't expecting to partake in an impromptu dance-off to Nelly. Stiller started out as a serious contender, but Black basically schooled him once he busted out the pop 'n' lock.
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John Travolta by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
Attached to the big-screen adaptation of Dallas for more than two years, John Travolta has been released from the role of J.R Ewing and "given a nice seven-figure 'gift' to go away quietly," a source tells Page Six. A pal of the former Vinnie Barbarino confirms the news, saying the film's producers "have gone in a different direction than was originally intended."What sort of different direction? Originally envisioned as a dramedy, the talk is that Dallas will now be a "comedic, behind-the-scenes" "show-within-a-show" a la Bewitched, and that Ben Stiller has been offered J.R.'s 10-gallon hat. Wow, there is just so much wrong with that previous sentence.
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Ben Stiller by John Sciulli/WireImage.com
Ben Stiller's Red Hour Films has decided to make a series of Gods Behaving Badly, a popular British novel (being released on our side of the pond Dec. 10) about what happens when the deities of ancient Greece, now roomies in a modest London flat, stop being polite and start getting real.... West Wing Emmy winner Alex Graves will direct Fox's Fringe, the J.J. Abrams pilot about a cute FBI agent who, in another place and time, would've been Veronica Mars.... GSN has ordered 40 episodes of How Much Is Enough?, a new game show in which Corbin Bernsen (Psych) invites contestants to pit their greed against their speed. — Ben Katner
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Elmo by Richard Termine/Sesame Workshop
Ben Stiller (voicing an elf named... Stiller) and The Sopranos' Tony Sirico and Steve Schirripa (as a wannabe Bert and Ernie) are but a few of the stars who will help out with Elmo's Christmas Countdown, a one-hour holiday special coming to ABC. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Ty Pennington, Alicia Keys, Sheryl Crow and Brad Paisley are also set to appear as themselves to perform in musical numbers, while Big Bird, Grover, Oscar, Snuffie and the Count will be representin' for the "I've got someone's hand inside me" set.
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The Chronicles of Narnia courtesy Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Michael Apted is set to claim the reins from Andrew Adamson and direct The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third film in the seven-pic series. Among the returning cast members are (spoiler alert?) Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes.... Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) will helm and cowrite with Paul Haggis the 22nd James Bond film.... Ben Stiller will produce/perhaps star in the comedy In Deep, in which a man fighting a parking ticket gets caught up in a nightmarish chain of events.... Per Variety, a September release is set for National Lampoon's Homo Erectus, a caveman comedy (is there any other kind these days, really?) starring the likes of Ali Larter, David Carradine and Gary Busey.... Frank Miller will adapt Raymond Chandler's Trouble Is My Business as a starring vehicle for Clive Owen.
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This is going to be a different kind of blog tonight as I am frankly stunned, shocked and really pleasantly surprised that Idol pulled this little telethon together so quickly and so effectively. Idol is in a position to do something to help others less fortunate, and I am proud they took this opportunity to do it. They have friends in very high places, and scores of Idol-worshiping celebrities offered their services to help spread the message. Not only that, but they partnered with One.org to bring awareness to extreme poverty. And although the show felt pretty much like a long Ford commercial, I am happy and amazed that they did it. A little more than halfway through the show Ryan announced they had raised $30 million! That’s pretty impressive. So if you haven’t donated, do so now! There were some funny moments, but mostly these were two hours that really touched me. I started to lose it during the segment about New Orleans: After walking back and forth to the bathroom f...
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Mickey Rooney
There's a man small of stature but incredibly big on talent and Hollywood luster at the center of the box-office blockbuster Night at the Museum, which to date has raked in more than $563 million globally. Just before reuniting with ol' Rexy, Mickey Rooney — who in the Ben Stiller-fronted comedy plays Gus, a night watchman with a surprising agenda — gave TVGuide.com a call to tout Museum's Tuesday DVD release.
TVGuide.com: I understand you're on your way to the Museum of Natural History to bid "Rexy" [Night at the Museum's two-ton, 13-foot-tall T-rex model] farewell.Mickey Rooney: That's right. [Chuckles] He's going on a cross-country trip.
TVGuide.com: I wonder if he thinks to himself, "Meh, I'm too
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Twentieth Century Fox has signed Tom Cruise and his sometime impersonator, Ben Stiller, to play The Hardy Men, a Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum)-directed action comedy based on The Hardy Boys. According to Variety, the plot finds the onetime sleuthing siblings grown up and estranged, then reunited to have a three-way with Katie Holmes' Nancy Drew crack one last case.
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Scarlett Johansson and Ben Stiller are this year's recipients of Harvard University's Hasty Pudding awards, given to performers who have made a "lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment" and/or bikinis.... Disney Channel has set a Feb. 19 premiere date for Season 5 of The Wiggles.... Family Ties: The First Season arrives on DVD Feb. 20, or on my desk yesterday, hee-hee.... (Sometime?) today, Nickelodeon will unveil Nicktropolis, a new online community where visitors create virtual representations of themselves.... I Love Lucy cocreator Bob Carroll Jr. died on Saturday, at age 87.
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