With the success of Raising Hope, Fox is giving another domestic comedy a try. The network has cast Emmy nominee Mike O'Malley and Rachael Harris as a married couple for the single-camera comedy pilot Family Album, Deadline reports. The project centers on Dave (O'Malley), a gung-ho ex-jock who returns from a family vacation a new man, inspired to "bond the crap out of his family." Harris will play his wife and a stay-at-home mom.
Christine Lahti is scrubbing in again at CBS. The Chicago Hope alum will once again play a doctor in CBS' medical-family drama pilot imaginatively titled The Doctor, Deadline reports.
The Ukrainian version of The Bachelor looks like it will surpass the original in grand gestures and sweeping statements. Dancing With the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy will star in the first-ever edition of the romance reality series that debuts on March 17 on the Ukraine's STB network.
Andy Whitfield isn't the only Spartacus: Blood and Sand actor to be replaced for the second season. Lesley-Ann Brandt is also leaving the Starz series, and her role will be recast, Deadline reports. In the prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, Brandt played body slave Naevia to Lucretia (Lucy Lawless), who eventually becomes the lover of Crixus the gladiator in the original series' first season. Brandt reportedly decided not to renew her contract to appear in the second season. She just began a recurring role on CSI: NY and recently appeared on an episode of Chuck.
Aaron Ashmore has been granted another life after being killed off Smallville in 2009. He's joining Syfy's Warehouse 13 to play ATF agent Steve Jinks, according to EW. Unlike his Smallville role as reporter Jimmy Olsen, Ashmore will play an agent who boasts at least one special power: the ability to tell when somebody is lying.
Len Lesser, best known for playing Jerry Seinfeld's beloved Uncle Leo on Seinfeld, has died. He was 88. The veteran character actor died on Wednesday from pneumonia related to cancer. He was surrounded by friends and family in his Burbank, Calif., home at the time of his passing.
Former Bachelor contestant Melissa Rycroft and husband Tye Strickland welcomed daughter, Ava Grace, Wednesday afternoon, People reports. Melissa Rycroft and husband expecting baby "Our lives have changed so much in the last two years and today we've been blessed with the best change ever, our beautiful baby girl," Rycroft tells the magazine.
Not since the chess showdown between Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue has a competition between man and machine received so much attention. IBM's supercomputer Watson took on former Jeopardy! champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter for their final matchup Wednesday. Jennings earned $24,000 overall and Rutter $21,600, winning prizes of $300,000 and $200,000 respectively.
Bruno Mars has dodged a bullet in court. The Grammy winner pleaded guilty to felony possession of cocaine Wednesday in Las Vegas. As part of the plea deal, Mars has been placed on probation for a year and must pay a $2,000 fine. He was also ordered to take a drug counseling course online and perform 200 hours of community service. If he abides by these requirements and keeps a clean record, the case against him will be dismissed.
Sorry, Elvis, but there's a new king in town on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The cast of Glee has surpassed The King as the act with the highest number of songs to rank on Billboard's Hot 100. Glee surpasses the Beatles for most Billboard Hot 100 chart entries
Justin Bieber has answered burning questions of sex and healthcare in a new Rolling Stone interview, on newsstands Friday. "I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them," Bieber says. "I think you should just wait for the person you're... in love with," he added, sidestepping an abstinence-before-marriage question. Bieber has been photographed holding hands with Wizards of Waverly Place star Selena Gomez.
Anna Nicole, an opera about the late blonde bombshell Anna Nicole Smith, will make a controversial debut in London on Thursday. Described as "a celebrity story of our times that includes extreme language, drug abuse and sexual content," the opera will run for six sold-out shows beginning Feb. 17 at the prestigious Royal Opera House, according to the venue's official site. Mark-Anthony Turnage, the man behind 2003's Jerry Springer: The Opera, also composed Anna Nicole.
Jennifer Lopez is in demand in 2011. Not only did she join the American Idol judging panel for the show's 10th season, but she and husband Marc Anthony received a surprise invitation to the Super Bowl, complete with Secret Service. That's right, President Obama invited the couple to watch the Packers take on the Steelers. Lopez and Anthony accepted the invitation and revealed on the Grammys red carpet Sunday what the First Family likes to eat for the Big Game.
LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian won't be celebrating Valentine's Day with an intimate candlelit dinner. The newly engaged couple revealed at the Grammys Sunday night that they'll be eating pizza with a couple of very special guests. And although TV Guide Network's Chris Harrison tried to learn more details about their upcoming nuptials, Rimes told him, "You'll be the last to know."
Oprah Winfrey will get another emotional visit from the past... but not from a long-lost relative. The talk show host will reunite with Iyanla Vanzant, an inspirational speaker and spiritual life coach who was featured regularly on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the late '90s, in the days before Dr. Phil McGraw. Vanzant is one of the founders of the Inner Vision spiritual workshop along with her daughter, Gemmia Vanzant, who died in 2003 of cancer.
Roseanne Barr is joining the celebrity reality show world with her own series on Lifetime, the network announced Monday. Over the course of 16 half-hour episodes, the comedian will try to run a 40-acre macadamia nut and livestock farm in Hawaii. Her writer-musician boyfriend Johnny Argent and his son Jake will toil alongside her.
Kim Kardashian has big plans for Valentine's Day, but it doesn't include boyfriend Kris Humphries of the New Jersey Nets. Kardashian tells TV Guide Network's Chris Harrison on the Grammys red carpet Sunday that she'll be doing a girls' night out since Humphries is busy working on Valentine's Day.
Los Angeles newscaster Serene Branson suffered speech difficulties on the air Sunday night while covering the Grammys, causing the audience watching the broadcast to wonder about her condition. In the disturbing video, Branson started off her report by saying "a very, very heavy," but then devolving into gibberish. The network cut to an earlier report while they sought medical attention for Branson.
Residents of Portlandia will continue to get their quirk on, thanks to IFC's renewal of the comedy Monday. Three episodes into the original six-episode freshman season, IFC has ordered a 10-episode second season that will debut in January. The first three episodes were viewed by 1.1 million total viewers.
Columbia Pictures gave comic book fans a Valentine's Day gift by releasing a sneak peek of the Spider-Man reboot starring Andrew Garfield: a new photo of the star in the suit and the film's official title.The image shows Garfield fully suited up -- mask and all -- as the nimble vigilante in his classic crouched pose ...
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena more than made up for its relatively tame episode the previous week with Friday's bacchanalian excesses. When Titus is away (buying slaves), the House of Batiatus will play (with slaves). Ludus business went well enough: Syrians Ashur and Dagan finally earned their place through combat (although Ashur didn't deserve the victory), Gnaeus took up the net and trident (to fight, not fish) and Crixus made peace with Barca. To impress yet another wealthy, connected Roman who heard of the notorious Batiatus parties, the Unholy Three conspired to get Titus out of the way visiting Neapolis. At the Batiatus orgy, male and female slaves were equally used and abused, Tullius party-crashed and wounded Gannicus in an unfair fight, Gannicus and Melitta acknowledged they had feelings for each other, Titus gave Batiatus an ultimatum to get rid of Lucretia and Tullius ended poor Gaia's search for a husband by killing her during their tryst. This show is really getting good ... we mean good in a horrifying kind of way.
Dustin Clare tells TVGuide.com what it's like to play the new gladiator on the block on Starz's Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
