Despite already having two identities, teen phenom Miley Cyrus has legally changed her name, according to ET. The artists formerly known as Miley Cyrus will now be known as Miley Ray Cyrus (sound familiar?).... NBC's American Gladiators is doing so well that it's already set to expand to 90 minutes for two eps. Now, The Hollywood Reporter says, it will be enjoying a companion spin-off in the form of Gladiators 2000, a mid-'90s series featuring teen contestants that was hosted by none other than a young Ryan Seacrest (albeit pre-hair highlights).... Starz has greenlit a TV adaptation of Crash, which will be the network's first original series. The film's director, Paul Haggis, will be back to cowrite and produce, along with Don Cheadle and Bobby Moresco, among others. Let's just hope it fares better than, say, a certain Irish mob drama. — Anna Dimond
read more
Ellen Page in Juno by Doane Gregory/Fox Searchlight
Sid Ganis president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and actress Kathy Bates have just announced the major Oscar nominations for last years films and for my money there are some real surprises among themThe critically acclaimed comedy Juno which is also doing strong business has been recognized in a major way especially surprising since traditionally comedies often get short shrift in the major categories Written by first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody starring up-and-coming Canadian actress Ellen Page and directed by Jason Reitman it took a best-picture nomination and major category recognition for the key players a best-actress nom for Page original screenplay for Cody and director for Reitman Tommy Lee Jones nabbed a best-actor nomination for the sober Iraq War picture In the Valley of Elah directed and written by 2005 Oscar-winner Paul Haggis Crash and ignored in all other categories like every other fiction film dealing with the
read more
NBC is finally rising from the dead. First, they saved the cheerleader, now they’ve sucked us into family drama at its finest. Did everyone love Joey "Ice Cream" — “because under pressure, I’m like ice” — as much as I did? He is the greatest, most unreliable narrator I’ve ever listened to. The year of his story changed not once, not twice, but three times. He definitely has a talent for exaggerating the story to his advantage by placing himself into every situation as if he is the fifth Donnelly brother. I especially liked his description of the Irish: “The Irish have always been victims of negative stereotypes.... People think we’re all drunks and brawlers. And sometimes that gets you so mad all you want to do is get drunk and punch somebody.” I have a feeling the detectives will eventually lose their patience with Joey. The book across the face is definitely going to leave a mark.So, how much does Kevin owe the Italians? Even aft...
read more
Now that the relationship between Paramount and Tom Cruise has soured, might the Mission: Impossible franchise be turned over to another of Hollywood's biggest stars? A rep for Brad Pitt tells the New York Daily News that rumblings of the fair-haired hunk heading up the next Mission are "totally made up".... Justin Long and Maggie Q are joining Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard, playing a sidekick for McClane and a world-class hacker, respectively.... Charlize Theron and Tommy Lee Jones are in talks to play a police detective and a father searching for his supposedly AWOL (but perhaps murdered) Iraq War-vet son in Crash director Paul Haggis' next project.
read more
Question: Welcome back, Michael. I'd like some Entourage scoop please! Actually, you've been away for awhile, make that two scoops!
Answer: Sounds fair to me. Vincent's dreams of starring in the big-screen epic "Medellin" may come true after Paul Haggis drops out as director. And Drama's TV series with Edward Burns debuts to less-than-stellar reviews. But it's one particular critique — and critic — that has him all bent out of shape.
read more
Brad Garrett, 'Til Death
After attending the networks' upfront presentations all week, the Biz has this analysis of the coming season. (Click here for next fall's grid and new-show descriptions.)
CWYou've got to wonder what went wrong in CW's new-series development process if the network had to bring back 7th Heaven — even though the show lost a reported $16 million for WB this past season.
But the decision to have CW's inaugural schedule made up of established shows from WB and UPN may end up being a blessing. Many of the shows have small but rabid followings, and promoting new shows on a new network will be tough. The fans of shows like One Tree Hill and Veronica Mars will track them down on their own. Viewers in the 18-to-34-year-old demographic that CW targets don't watch networks, they watch shows. (According to recent survey, only one in four 1
read more
William Fichtner, Invasion
ABC's Invasion is back with a bang tonight (10 pm/ET), sharing the first of two new shocker-filled episodes... before taking a five-week break. (Do not get me started.) Still, what's ahead is super stuff, led off by this week's episode, which is fittingly titled "The Fittest." TVGuide.com enjoyed a rather candid convo with none other than shady Sheriff Tom Underlay himself, film vet William Fichtner.
TVGuide.com: Invasion is so much fun. You must be camped out by your mailbox waiting for the next script, eh?William Fichtner:
read more
Question: When a film wins for best picture at the Academy Awards, who gets to take home the Oscar? Does each of the executive producers get to take one home or is there just a single statue that they all have to share? I've wondered this for many years, and I figured it was finally time to end my silence!
Answer: This is a very timely question, and one with implications beyond how many Oscar statuettes the Academy has to have made for various best-picture winners. First, the award does go to the producer or producers, not to the director — the auteur-vision thing notwithstanding — or to the executive producer(s). For some years now, there's been concern among the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about what's been dubbed "credit creep," and specifically the proliferation in recent years of credited producers, coproducers, executive producers, coexecutive producers and associate producers, and there's been a
read more
