Recording artist and onetime Dancing with the Stars contender Willa Ford — she of the multiplatinum single "I Wanna Be Bad," natch — has been tapped to portray Anna Nicole in an independent film chronicling the ill-fated model/actress/bombshell's life, Variety reports. The film, to begin lensing next week, will cover Smith's roller-coaster existence from age 17 until her death at 39.
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Scrubs cutie Sarah Chalke got engaged to longtime boyfriend Jamie Afifi last week during a Hawaiian getaway, reports People.... The O.C.'s Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson, who have been dating since 2004, have called it quits, says Life & Style.... Lance Bass and Reichen Lehmkuhl have ended their (same-sex, shhh!) relationship, says People.... Dancing with the Stars' Willa Ford is engaged to NHL star Mike Modano, says Us, and plans to tie the knot once hockey season ends and the groom gets a final count on his teeth.
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Is Dancing with the Stars' Season 1 winner, Kelly Monaco, among those fox-trotting to a venue near you? No, but Season 2 champs Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke will join Joey McIntyre, Lisa Rinna, Joey Lawrence, Willa Ford and Harry Hamlin and their respective pro partners on a 38-city tour kicking off Dec. 19 in San Diego, and finishing Feb. 11 in Atlantic City, N.J. In related news, ABC has announced that Show Me the Money, a new quiz show hosted by William Shatner, will premiere Nov. 22 at 8 pm, replacing Dancing's results show.
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So NBC is going to abandon the first hour of prime time, according to non-visionary chief Jeff Zucker. No more pricey comedies and dramas to fill the 8 pm/ET hour in the future. I guess the handful of shows, mostly comedies, now airing in that hour will migrate elsewhere at some point, whichever ones actually survive. Sounds like surrender to me. Not to mention fewer scheduling options for a lesser range of programming. Be on the lookout for more cheesy game shows and cheaper reality retreads. And what would happen should NBC be lucky enough to stumble across a perfect 8 pm/ET premise like ABC's family-friendly Ugly Betty? This is such a short-sighted blanket philosophy it's as staggering as it is depressing. Was it just two years ago that Friends signed off as one of the highest-rated shows ever, holding down that first half-hour of prime Thursday real estate? How times have changed, and how quickly. And how sad is it for TV's future to see a network simply giving up rather than tr...
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Looks like we're in for another fun season of Dancing with the Stars, the kind of show that defines reality TV as a guilty pleasure. It's hard not to watch this gaudy bauble of harmless fluff without a goofy grin on your face, at times because of the train-wreck spectacle of the terminally rhythm-less (Tucker Carlson, who didn't even dance half of his dance, content to make faces and laugh it all off) and at times because of the sheer joy of performance, whether it's Emmitt Smith's crowd-pleasing playfulness, Mario Lopez's boyish exuberance or Willa Ford's unexpected elegance. (She could be this season's Stacy Keibler.)Handicapping these so-called stars is almost as silly a pastime as watching them, but really, who can resist asking questions like who is this season's Drew Lachey, Lopez or the startlingly buff Joey Lawrence, who looks like Mr. Clean on steroids. My money's on Lopez. Or as judge Bruno Tonioli might call him, the Energizer Bunny, as in: "Do you have extra batteries in...
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