Smash
Days after receiving an early renewal for Season 2, Smash was honored by GLAAD's Media Awards Saturday in New York City.
Two of the show's producers, Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, accepted the Vito Russo award for special recognition. Zadan said being gay was "part of who I am, so it...
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Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard
Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard and Phylicia Rashad are among the actresses cast in Lifetime's remake of Steel Magnolias, which will consist of an all-black cast, the network announced Monday.
Latifah, who will also executive-produce the TV movie, will portray...
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Katharine McPhee, Megan Hilty
Resist the urge to pigeonhole or, worse, dismiss NBC's Smash as a "Glee for grownups." It's more original and exciting than that, bringing a thrilling charge of bold creative energy to network TV's mid-season that the fall largely lacked. Smash (premiering tonight at 10/9c, and maybe you caught wind of it during the Super Bowl?) is a musical show-stopper, a lavish and dishy wallow in the glittery yet ...
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Smash, Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty
Thanks to NBC's relentless marketing and PR campaign, much is already known about Smash, a big-risk series about the making of a Marilyn Monroe musical. At the center of the sudsy backstage drama is American Idol's Katharine McPhee, who stars as an ingénue pitted against a more seasoned Broadway chorus girl to play the iconic blonde.
If the premise sounds hopelessly niche for a broadcast network in desperate need of a hit (thespians! show tunes! jazz hands!), both NBC and critics high on the series have been working hard to change your mind. Advanced word on Smash is that it's the anti-Glee (especially if you've tired of that show's pop song-happy chorus of high schoolers), The West Wing but on Broadway (should you miss Aaron Sorkin's defining sense of a workplace), and a game-changer for NBC (if you went bananas for the first episode, which NBC screened in theaters and made available on-demand and online weeks before Monday's official premiere).
Watch Smash right now — then tell us what you think!
Is it all just hyperbole?
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Smash
Scene: A massive converted warehouse somewhere in Brooklyn, late 2011. The lights come up on the cast of an ambitious network drama about the making of a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe as they screen the series' pilot during a catered lunch break. Once the credits roll, so do the waves of applause...
As anyone who's read the copious critical raves knows, Smash — the most faaabulous show that's not on Bravo — is all that and an orchestra seat. Produced by Steven Spielberg, created by Emmy nominee Theresa Rebeck (NYPD Blue), loaded with tunes by Hairspray Tony winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and boasting a cast so good you'd think it was on cable, this stage-door soap is either gonna be a knock-'em-dead blockbuster or one of TV's splashiest misfits.
It's risky for sure. There's a reason...
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Julia Roberts
Lifetime is developing an updated version of Steel Magnolias with an all-black cast, Deadline.com reports.
Check out the rest of today's news
Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are set to produce the TV movie, based on...
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Milo Ventimiglia
Milo Ventimiglia is eyeing a return to TV with a new comic-based drama at NBC, Deadline reports.
The 33-year-old actor is attached to star and executive-produce Rest, a project based on a 2008 comic book series...
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Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies
Question: Recently I overhead a coworker saying how awful they thought Pushing Daisies was. I, of course, interjected that I love it, while sadly consigning myself to the fact that this is going to be a love-it-or-hate-it show (and that chatter may unfortunately turn away viewers who would potentially enjoy it). Perhaps I'm a child at heart, but I can't help but cherish Chuck's enthusiasm, the whimsical effects, the expressions Chi McBride uses and storyline twists such as sword-fighting with an Asian confederate's descendant. I then decided to try out Viva Laughlin, despite the warnings of you and other critics. I thought if nothing else, it could be a guilty pleasure, "so bad it's good." I was wrong. It was mind-numbingly awful, with no pleasure of any kind. My biggest fear, though, is that this will discourage networks from taking chances on musical shows in the future. Though I don't think there will ever be a musical on the level of CSI or Desperate Housewives in popularity, I do ...
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Brothers & Sisters by Justin Stephens/ABC
Brothers & Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz has inked a two-year, seven-figure deal with ABC Studios to stay on as the an executive producer for the Sunday serial and develop new projects.... Also per Variety, Mark Steines has signed a multiyear deal to continue coanchoring Entertainment Tonight/applying Kiehls twice daily to Mary Hart's legs.... Hairspray producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have landed a lucrative production deal at CBS to produce movies and miniseries for the tube.
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