It's not Christine Baranski, but this'll do nicely. The sublime Rachael Harris (Notes from the Underbelly, Fat Actress) will play even-tempered sidekick to Cybill Shepherd's Katey Sagal's unhinged sitcom diva in that stuntastic episode of CSI penned by Two and a Half Men scribes Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn. And should there be any lingering doubts that Lorre and Aronsohn modeled Sagal and Harris' characters after Shepherd and Baranski, both of whom the writers worked with on Cybill, this next little tidbit should erase them: Sources confirm what I hinted at last August, that the duo first offered the second-banana role to Baranski herself. That's right, they wanted Baranski to play Baranski! But for whatever reason — possibly this one — she wasn't able to do it. Um, have I told you lately how much I'm looking forward to this episode?
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It was gadget-geek heaven at the Sony Cierge Spring Preview party. The event, held Wednesday at PaliHouse in West Hollywood, gave the by-invitation-only members of the Cierge program a sneak peak at the latest Sony cameras, PCs and TVs. Wearing a sparkly silver minidress, Dancing with the Stars' Stacy Keibler checked out Sony's ultra-thin OLED flat-screen television with some gal pals, while Rachael Harris of Notes from the Underbelly strolled around with her husband, actor Adam Paul. Of her ABC comedy, Harris lamented that the remaining eight episodes might not ever see the light of day. "It's disappointing," she said. "But what can you do?" Staying for the evening's big draw — the Sony PlayStation SingStar karaoke event — were Allison Janney and Missi Pyle. Before jumping onstage with Pyle to launch into Elton John's "Rocket Man," Janney told us, "I need to sing tonight because I'm doing [the stage] musical 9 to 5 and I'm trying to get my voice into shape!" The two recei...
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Alec Baldwin will represent a child (Elle Fanning) who sues her parents for breeding her to save her cancer-stricken sis (Dakota F.) in My Sister's Keeper, an adaptation of the Jodi Picoult novel.... Also per Variety, Tom Cruise's Valkyrie has had its release pushed back from July 4 to Oct. 3, 2008.... Notes from the Underbelly's Rachael Harris is Robert Downey Jr's coworker in the musical/drama The Soloist.... Also per the Reporter, Rhona Mitra is the wife of Mad man Jon Hamm's police chief in the indie thriller The Boy in the Box.... Jason Ritter, Jesse L. Martin and Tracie Thoms will star in the romantic drama Peter and Vandy.... Mischa Barton is a psychologically unbalanced ex-girlfriend in Homecoming, to be directed by Morgan Freeman, says Page Six.
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Our first birth on the show is tonight! Or last night, if you're reading this Thursday.... I missed my deadline, and well, you know how that goes… lame. Me. Not TV Guide.Shooting the hospital scenes for this episode gave me a lot of appreciation for all those who don scrubs on Grey's Anatomy. It's one of my very favorite shows, and I now understand why they get paid the big bucks. They're not paid to act — they're paid to shoot hospital scenes… that take forever. Especially if all the principles have lots to say around a body on a table. There are, at one point, five of us in a scene and we're all standing around mom-to-be Melanie Paxson's hospital bed. So we had to do several scenes in the same room, and instead of shooting each scene individually, we did each scene directionally. What that means is that the camera stayed in one spot through a taping and then it was moved to another spot and we shot the scene all over again. Still nothing? OK, the point is it made...
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In this episode titled "Oleander," we gather for a meal at one of the hottest new eateries in L.A. The food is great, and the people are very cool. I love doing the group restaurant scenes because you get a nice taste — pardon the pun — of each of the characters and how they all relate to each other. Plus, when we’re not rolling we get to catch up and try our best to crack each other up. Melanie Paxson gets the award for the best, most embarrassing story. It didn’t happen to her but to a friend of hers, and it took our breath away. All I can say is, it involved a girl, a guy and a city. Sad that I can’t go into detail, but I fear Melanie might sue me. This is the thing about blogging... I start to write just for myself and then I realize millions of people are reading my blog. Millions! And I need to be really careful about what I write. It’s very precious. I worked on Evan Almighty last summer and I loved when we were shooting, but I also loved when we...
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