Raise your hand if you saw this coming: Donald Trump and MTV are collaborating on Pageant Place, a reality series that will find Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA cohabitating in a New York City apartment. (It's like the Justice League, only with whiter smiles.) Says Variety, semi-disgraced former Miss USA Tara Conner will serve as a "den mother" to the three title-holders.... Uber-emotional Anna Nicole Smith Judge Larry Seidlin has committed to develop a fall 2008 court show with CBS Television Distribution, says Broadcasting & Cable.... A new Speed Racer animated series is set to launch next year on Nicktoons.... Nick Jr. has renewed Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! for a second season.
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South Park presents its first-ever episode in HD today via the Xbox Live Marketplace. The Comedy Central series debuts its 11th season Wednesday.... NBC News vice president Alexandra Wallace is the new executive producer of Nightly News with Brian Williams.... Cartoon Network's Adult Swim premieres Blood +, a series based on the anime Blood: The Last Vampire, on Saturday, March 10, at 12:30 am/ET.... Hawaii Five-O: The First Season is now available on DVD.... Are you a Southern California resident looking to hang with Tara Conner and this year's 52 Miss USA contenders? Check out the contest at UniversalStudiosHollywood.com.
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Miss USA Tara Conner has been secretly rehearsing to star as Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago, sources tell the New York Post. Word is that Conner's singing is pretty good, her dancing not so much, and her acting "nonexistent." But hey, tickets these days are only, what, $150?... Tony Danza waved his finger and mouthed "Stop" to two (I'm guessing) tourists who were brazenly videotaping his Wednesday performance in The Producers, but to no avail. When the curtain came down, Danza told the astoundingly unclassy pair to "Get the hell out," his rep tells the Post.... Carmen Electra will sing and dance — and presumably wear precious little — as the costar of a magic-variety show with Dutch illusionist Hans Klok, bowing May 12 in Vegas, says Us. You know, I had heard that Carmen could make Klok disappear....
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As part of her first post-rehab sit-down, Miss USA Tara Conner admits to "inhaling" during the hard-partying days that almost robbed her of her crown. "I have done cocaine, yes," she tells Matt Lauer on Thursday's Today. She then adds, "It feels good to get that off my chest." Speaking of which, Conner will not be accepting a lucrative offer — a cool million, by one account — to pose for Playboy. "She just didn’t feel it was appropriate," a spokesperson for pageant boss/King of Appropriate Donald Trump tells the New York Daily News.
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Fresh out of rehab, semi-shamed and tiara-retaining Miss USA Tara Conner will grant her first interview to Today's Matt Lauer on Feb. 1 — the first day of sweeps, coincidentally. Conner will also recount her saga on the Feb. 3 Dateline.
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