The past few weeks have been trying ones for anyone who cares about TV and the potentially devastating impact the ongoing writers’ strike could have on the current season and beyond. Which is why, being a cockeyed optimist and all, I’ve been cautiously thanking the fates ever since hearing that the Writers’ Guild and the producers’ alliance are going back to the negotiating table on Monday. No guarantee, of course, that this will mean a quick end to the standoff that has shut so much production down already. But hey, it’s Thanksgiving week, so let’s stay in a thankful and hopeful mode, OK?In that light, here are 10 more reasons to be thankful about the current week in TV as we head into the Thanksgiving break.1. We’re still in a sweeps month, which has allowed us most nights to live blissfully in denial that a strike is even happening, since new episodes continue to abound (including over most of this long holiday weekend). Depending on what happen...
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Heroes hot property Hayden Panettiere has signed with the William Morris Agency.... Frasier alum David Hyde Pierce is fronting the Alzheimer's Association's Champions campaign, which aims to recruit one supporter for each of the more than five million people living with the disease.... A September 4 DVD release date has been set for both I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Fourth Season and Rules of Engagement: The Complete First Season (yes, all seven episodes).
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In honor of the Tonys, airing Sunday, June 10, on CBS, Live with Regis and Kelly will showcase a slew of Broadway babies next week. Monday brings a Spring Awakening; Tuesday finds David Hyde Pierce hawking Curtains; on Wednesday, Raúl Esparza makes for great Company; Thursday Christine Ebersole brightens Grey Gardens; and on Friday Mary Poppins goes "Supercalifragilisticexpidalidocious".... Cheers star Rhea Perlman makes her West End debut in Boeing-Boeing this summer, as per Playbill.com.... Broadway.com reports that the American classic Gone with the Wind is being turned into a British musical, set to hit the stage in spring 2008.... An actor in the problem-plagued production of London's Lord of the Rings was injured by a piece of hydraulic stage machinery. He was treated with medicine, not magic. — Reporting by Raven Snook
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AfterElton.com is reporting that David Hyde Pierce's people are finally confirming that he is gay. And by his "people," I mean his representatives. Gays, of course, have always known he is gay. I mean, come on. The website got the official yep after calling to check on an Associated Press story that mentioned the Tony nominee's partner, Brian Hargrove. Of course, even before this, Out magazine included the actor formerly known as Niles on its "Gay Power List."
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After 18 seasons and 400 episodes, Fox's The Simpsons (Sundays at 8 pm/ET) has attracted more than 350 celebrities to offer their voices to animated doppelgangers. Some have played themselves (Steve Buscemi, anyone?), some new characters (Reese Witherspoon as Rainier Wolfcastle's daughter, for instance), some old characters (Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub, who reprise their roles from 24 on May 20) — and in one instance, a mix (Elizabeth Taylor played herself and voiced Maggie's first word). Throughout, producers have attract
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