At the risk of evoking the great Larry King....• Now that the Oscars have come and gone, can I call for a moratorium on Eddie Murphy write-arounds? (A "write-around" is a feature offering not a single new quote from its very subject, but rather dusty, regurgitated sound bites and interviews with friends and friends-of-friends.) Entertainment Weekly offered a spectacular write-around at Globes time, but every single other one came across as inane filler.• Similarly, how about a cease-and-desist on running "goofy" Anna Nicole Smith headshots alongside serious updates on her death and baby girl's uncertain future? Good pics exist, so why are certain oulets avoiding them and instead going for giggles?• Speaking of Anna Nicole, what a sweeps it turned out to be for the network newscasts. Add in Britney's theater of the bizarre and a few Nor'easters and voila! Juicy headlines and promotional come-ons.• ABC's pre-Oscars red carpet special was, in a word, terrific. Not o...
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Rachael Ray has been renewed for two more batches, through the 2009-10 season. I'm a Giada man myself.... Norman Lear's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: Volume One arrives as a three-disc DVD on Mar. 27.... Per Reuters, ESPN has tapped Mike & Mike in the Morning hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic to serve as its Arena Football League announcing team. (Arena football is back? Have I been under a rock?)
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Denis Leary and wife Ann Lembeck at the BASH for New York's Bravest
While actor/comedian Denis Leary is familiar to many as a result of his years in the entertainment industry, the star and cocreator of FX's Rescue Me wants those who follow his work to also follow a cause that's equally close to his heart: his charity. To increase awareness of the Leary Firefighters Foundation, he held the Sixth Annual BASH for New York's Bravest fund-raiser this past Friday at New York City's famed Cipriani restaurant on Wall Street.
Leary suits up as FDNY Ladder 62 firefighter Tommy Gavin on FX's hit dramedy, but his passion for the work firefighters do extends far beyond his day job. He started his foundation in 2000 after his cousin, firefighter Jerry Lucey, and a childhood friend, Lt. Tommy Spencer, lost their lives in the line of duty while battling a blaze in the actor's hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts. In orde
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When you reach 5,000 episodes, you deserve a celebration, so Jeopardy!, that game show of a certain age, will do it up big with two weeks of Celebrity Jep. TV Guide has learned that among the 30 names hitting the buzzers for charity for November-sweeps broadcasts are hopefully smart-and-nimble Desperate Housewives guys James Denton and Doug Savant, Law & Order franchisees Sam Waterston, Christopher Meloni and Kathryn Erbe (all competing against each other), Anderson Cooper, Rachael Ray, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short and Regis Philbin, who says he wants to make up for the "broken buzzer" he had during his last time on the show.Additional reporting by Ileane Rudolph
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CBS is taking it easy on us today, scheduling just four sessions, including the eagerly awaited Katie Couric panel and a Q&A with the cast of CSI (sans William Petersen). We're also having lunch with Rachael Ray, and my Aunt Joan will flay me if I don't hit her up for VIP. tickets to her new talk show. I cannot go back home to New York without those tickets. BREAKFAST9:10 am: Omelet stations! Egg-cellent! CBS NEWS Q&A WITH KATIE COURIC9:40 am: America's sweetheart is 10 minutes late. Maybe she's having last-minute wardrobe issues. Wow, could I be any more sexist? 9:45 am: America's sweetheart is 15 minutes late. Maybe she's on the phone renewing her restraining order against Ann Curry. 9:46 am: Katie's finally in the house — and she's eschewed her signature short skirt for a simple tan pantsuit that screams "serious newswoman!" A CBS publicist blames her tardiness on one of the omelet stations setting "off the fire alarm." Hmmm... I didn't hear a fire alarm. 9:47 am: ...
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The EvidenceI'll be honest: I might watch one more episode. You never know — the show is on pretty late, there could be nudity or something. If it lasts a few more weeks, the "item" gimmick is going to turn into the "will I watch?" gimmick. This week's items were weak at best. Another white guy with a buzz haircut, some aspirin pasta and that crossword puzzle that didn't even have any blood on it. So what if the bat had brains on it? It's after 10 pm — show us some good stuff already. Some evidence that the show will be worth watching. I'm not caring about the crime in question. Wet boxing gloves just don't do it for me. At least start off by using aspirin's chemical name, acetylsalicylic acid. Sounds cooler, and makes me want to know what it means
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