One of TV's favorite Friends is coming back to the small screen.
According to Variety, Showtime has picked up the pilot The End of Steve, which stars Matthew Perry as an unhappy TV talk show host whose egomaniacal streak is tested when he's stuck working on a daytime show out of Rochester, N.Y. Despite his bitterness, who does try to find professional and personal happiness by ...
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Matthew Perry and veteran producer Peter Tolan (Rescue Me, The Larry Sanders Show) are teaming to produce The End of Steve, a Showtime pilot in which TV's onetime Friend will star. As reported by Variety, Perry will play the host of a local talk show who, thoroughly embittered whenever the cameras are off, strives to find professional and personal happiness — including but not limited to romance with the station's morning show host.Showtime entertainment president Robert Greenblatt, who has been trying to develop a project with Tolan for two decades, calls this opportunity "a twisted match made in heaven." — Matt MitovichMore pilot news:• Emancipation for Wilmer Valderrama
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Matthew Perry will play the adult version of High School Musical heartthrob Zac Efron in 17, the Big riff in which a suddenly baby-faced father enrolls in the same school as his kids.... Liev Schreiber has joined Jude Law and Forest Whitaker in Repossession Mambo, about a credit union that cuts bodies instead of checks.... Jake Gyllenhaal has been cast in the lead in a Joe Namath. Well, he does have very nice legs. — Ben Katner
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Is Dancing with the Stars pro Julianne Hough dating Entourage's E, aka Kevin Connolly? "No, no, no," she tells People. They just "talk on the phone a lot." Oh, OK. They're girlfriends.... Tuesday on Today, Everyday Italian host Giada De Laurentiis revealed that she has a bun in the oven. She and hubby Todd Thompson are expecting a girl in April.... Nelson Aspen reports that Lost boy Dominic Monaghan was spied in the arms of a woman who was not girlfriend Evangeline Lilly at an L.A. cantina.... Could they be an odder couple? The New York Post recently caught Mandy Moore and Matthew Perry on a date. — Ben Katner
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The New York Post's Liz Smith herself admits it's a "long shot," but nonetheless reports that some NBC mucky-mucks believe Britney Spears could be just the ticket to play opposite Matthew Perry in a new sitcom. The tentatively titled Occasional Wife has the Friends alum attached to play a guy who persuades a young, wacky artist to pose as his missus, so as to bolster his career. Assessing Spears' fit for the female lead, one Peacock insider tells Smith, "There's something about her that just connects with the audience.... They want her to succeed now in spite of her adversity." Or at least deliver one more decent music video. Speaking of which....Today's Brit bits:• Spears' "Gimme More" video is not debuting today on TRL, says Extra.• Barely 24 hours after a judge odered Spears to submit to random drug and alcohol testing, the pop tart was spied cruising L.A. hot spots Hyde and Winston's — but probably just to snack on buffalo wings, I'm sure.• Appearing on Wedne...
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