Laura Linney
Multiple Oscar nominee and three-time Emmy winner Laura Linney will give series television a try in Showtime's new half-hour series about cancer, the cable channel announced.
See photos of Linney throughout her career
The series, tentatively titled The C Word, will also be executive produced by Linney, who stars as a suburban wife and mother who explores the emotional ups and downs of a cancer battle. She is, however, able to find the light side of the dark situation.
"Cancer is not usually the subject of half-hour comedy, but Laura saw what we did in this complex show," Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's president of entertainment, said in a statement. "She will no doubt make this character both heartbreaking and disarmingly funny, and we're thrilled that she has chosen this show for her foray into series television."
Linney earned Emmys ...
read more
Bryan Cranston by Mathew Imaging/WireImage.com
The 60th annual Emmy Awards set out to honor TV history and ended up making a little of its own. As expected, AMC's stylishly adult 60s-era drama Mad Men took home the best drama prize, the first ever for a basic cable series. The upstart channel delivered a much more shocking triumph in Bryan Cranston's surprise (but well-earned) win for Breaking Bad. "She's bald, too," marveled the actor, who shaved his head to play Walter White, a cancer-ravaged teacher-turned-meth dealer. Best known for outrageous comedy roles like the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston is a well-liked star who was considered an underdog in a strong field that included fellow AMC leading man Jon Hamm of Mad Men, House's Hugh Laurie (amazingly, still empty-handed), Dexter's brilliant Michael C. Hall, In Treatment's brooding Gabriel Byrne and Boston Legal's showboating James Spader.
read more
Daniel Radcliffe in My Boy Jack by Patrick Redmond/ Masterpiece Theater
I love it when TV can be both very, very good as well as good for you. Such is the case with a logjam of terrific historical dramas competing for attention this Sunday. Two of them had me fighting back tears (and occasionally losing the fight), and then there’s Showtime’s The Tudors, that stimulating royal tonic of sex, religion and other courtly intrigues. Not a lot of boo-hooing while watching this Henry VIII romp, but rarely a dull moment, either.The quality honors this weekend go to HBO and PBS. HBO for concluding its remarkable John Adams miniseries with an episode of quiet, pained humanity as the nation’s second president (Paul Giamatti) goes into retirement with about as much grace—which is to say, very little—as he conducted himself in the political arena. Grumpy, discontent, impatient to the end and convinced he’ll be forgotten by time, John never lets up. There’s a terrific scene in which he’s invited, in his 90s, to view the portrai...
read more
Why not start off a glorious spring week — a week that continues the welcome rollout of shows returning from long strike hiatus — with some positive thoughts? Starting with the return of Bones to Fox’s schedule. For those keeping track in this confusing midseason, Mondays are now the new Tuesdays for Fox. And once House kicks back in with new episodes starting April 28 (a House repeat airs next Monday), Mondays will almost feel like the new Thursdays with so many choices on the suddenly overstuffed night, as Fox’s first-rate drama combo faces ABC’s blazing-hot Dancing with the Stars, CBS’ terrific comedy lineup and the ever-popular CSI: Miami, as well as a cult fave in the CW’s returning Gossip Girl and NBC’s ubiquitous Deal or No Deal. Whew.But back to Bones, one of TV’s most purely enjoyable procedural crime dramas. Yes, there are icky remains to deal with (a body boiled in a sulfurous mud pit), but the fun of Bones is in the playful in...
read more
Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney in John Adams by Kent Eanes/HBO
Cheers (or should I say "Huzzah!") to Laura Linney for her glorious portrayal of Abigail Adams in HBO's rousing miniseries John Adams. It's easy to understand the Founding Father's devotion to his First Lady: She's headstrong yet steadfast, fiercely protective of her family and knows how to handle a gun. Where can I find a woman like that? The Savages star should've won an Oscar or two by now, but she can rest assured she'll win her third Emmy (after Frasier and 2001's TV-movie Wild Iris) for this truly revolutionary performance.
read more
We’ve always been fairly certain that Gary Busey is cookoo for Cocoa Puffs, but after last night’s red carpet incident where he went after Ryan Seacrest in the middle of another interview and kissed Jennifer Garner on the neck, we’re positive that’s the case. Beyond wanting to know why this guy is so whacked, what we’re dying to know is, why the hell was Gary Busey even there in the first place?
read more
Hayden Panettiere by Chris Haston/NBC Photo
Hayden Panettiere is in talks to star in I Love You, Beth Cooper, a coming-of-age comedy in which the Heroes heroine would play a high school's hottest cheerleader who gives a nerd the night of his life after he confesses his love for her in his valedictorian speech.... Also per the Reporter, Timothy Olyphant is a newlywed whose honeymoon turns sour when he and his bride are stalked by killers in A Perfect Getaway.... Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Antonio Banderas and Romola Garai will star in The Other Man, based on a Bernhard Schlink book.
read more
Bridget Moynahan by Bob D'Amico/ABC
Capping a gestation that lasted more than twice as long as Six Degrees, Bridget Moynahan on Wednesday gave birth to Patriots QB Tom Brady's son. ET says Brady, who is currently courting mannequin Gisele Bundchen, arrived at his ex's hospital bedside promptly and with flowers in hand, taking a day off from preseason practice.... Laura Linney, next seen bossing around ScarJo in The Nanny Diaries, is engaged to longtime beau Marc Schauer... Though the Entourage hottie has claimed he's merely researching a documentary on paparazzi, Adrian Grenier continues to be spied acting "very couple-y" with Paris Hilton, says the New York Daily News.... Ryan Philli-who? Reese Witherspoon and new squeeze Jake Gyllenhaal are still going strong.
read more
Maybe because Masters of Horror sucks so very, very badly this season, Showtime, says the Hollywood Reporter, is developing a new spookfest — The Canyons, a spine-tingling soap opera from American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis and Dave Kalstein. In the proposed series, a group of presumably hot twenty- and thirtysomethings "encounter violent situations and anxieties that are briefly manifested as monsters." In other words, me, after watching another disappointing MOH.... According to Variety, Laura Linney has sealed a deal to star opposite Paul Giamatti in the HBO miniseries John Adams.
read more
Best-actor winner Philip Seymour Hoffman has signed on to play brother to Laura Linney in The Savages, a comedy-drama about adult siblings caring for their estranged and ailing elderly father. Filming begins in April in New York. Also, if you're itching to see this year's best picture — and, I don't know, never splurged for that VCR or DVD player — Crash is being re-released theatrically this Friday on about 150 screens, says Variety.
read more
