Jennifer Lopez by Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
Jennifer Lopez is developing The Amigas Sweet 15 Club, a dramedy about Miami teens who run a Quinceañera party-planning biz, says the Reporter. J.Lo will exec-produce with Jane Startz (The Baby-Sitters Club).... Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun have a pair of projects at NBC: the Lynda La Plante (Prime Suspect)-penned drama Mafia Wives, and a comedy about a has-been hairdresser.... Also from Variety, ABC has ordered 13 more episodes of Just for Laughs.... MTVU this fall will launch Sex Cred with Dr. Ruth, a short-segment series in which Westheimer and college-newspaper sex columnists answer Qs about, well, "short segments" and the like.
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Bones
9:02 am If I didn't know better, I'd swear Fox is trying to kill us. How else to explain the artery-clogging goodie bags awaiting each and every one of us at our work stations this morning. Among the treats inside: chocolate-covered pretzels, M&M's, Whoppers, roasted almonds, Jolly Ranchers and huge gumballs. Do they not realize that most of the critics — after spending upwards of three weeks binging on fried shrimp, pizza, hamburgers and lard-filled pastries — are in detox mode? This is akin to inviting Sue Ellen Ewing to finish off a bender with a wine-tasting at Falcon Crest! Well, I'm not letting the terrorists win this time. I'll pretend like they're not even there.
Executive Session
9:05 I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm going to miss former Fox chief Gail Berman. Sure, we didn't always see eye to eye — she insisted audiences were responding to Quintuplets; I insisted she was plastered — bu
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Pity the struggling young actor. The competition this year for a big break on network TV is stiffer than ever, as pilots angling for spots in the fall lineup have enough familiar faces to pack an I Love the '90s (or even the '80s) marathon on VH1.
Lara Flynn Boyle,
Kristin Davis,
David Boreanaz,
Brooke Shields,
Peri Gilpin,
Julia Louis-Dreyfus,
Fred Savage,
Don Johnson,
Benjamin Bratt and
Dylan McDermott are among the dozens of prime-time favorites cast in prospective shows that network execs hope will turn into the next
Desperate Housewives or
Lost.
And they're being joined by other stars better known for their work outside of TV — including Chris O'Donnell, Dennis Hopper, Ellen Burstyn, Tom Berenger and Aidan Quinn.
Networks desperate for a rat
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We interrupt this portion of the TCA press tour to bring you the showdown of the TV season! In one corner, we have Gail Berman, Fox's embattled entertainment president. In the other, we have 300 rabid, keyed-up television critics, many of whom have been waiting days to confront Berman about accusations that her network is a bottom-feeding copycat that does nothing but steal its rivals' ideas (i.e. ABC's Wife Swap and NBC's The Contender). What's at stake? The very honor of the Fox Broadcasting Company and the future of such alleged rip-offs as Trading Spouses and The Next Great Champ. Here's your ringside seat to all the action:EXECUTIVE SESSION9 am Fox, knowing full well that a good boxing match is nothing without treats, has an impressive assortment of nuts and candies waiting for the press in the ballroom. I wonder if this is their subtle way of asking us to go soft on Berman. Like
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