Paris Hilton's Wednesday-night visit to Larry King Live was underwhelming yet nonetheless witnessed by 3.2 million total viewers, giving the CNN talker double its Tuesday tally and a rare win over Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, but coming up well short of King's all-time ratings high.Next stop for Paris: Hawaii, where she touched down on Thursday sporting a black wig and a straw hat — and maybe, just maybe, the Bradys' cursed tiki?
Cameron Diaz is set to star in The Box, a horror thriller about an unhappily married couple who find a mysterious wooden box that brings its opener wealth, yet at the same time kills someone else.... Transformers hottie Megan Fox (nice pic at right, thanks, Photo Department!) has joined the cast of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, playing a [Stre-e-e-etch] young Hollywood starlet.... Jim Carrey will star in Sober Buddies, a comedy about a software exec assigned a Sober Buddy to keep him straight en route to a critical Las Vegas meeting. Alas, said Buddy (Carrey) falls off the wagon mid-trip.... Live Free or Die Hard took in $9.1 million on Wednesday, its opening day.
Rita Ragone, a former makeup artist for ESPN's Cold Pizza, filed suit on Wednesday against the sports network, Pizza cohost Jay Crawford and panelist Woody Paige for sexual harassment, claiming that almost immediately after she started work on the show, she was subjected to verbal come-ons, dirty jokes and lewd gestures (such as the grabbing of her backside). ESPN suits "condoned the repulsive behavior," the court papers claim. An ESPN spokesperson deems the legal action "without merit" and denies the allegations.
July 8, at 8 pm/ETTV Guide Network celebrates Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria's wedding to Tony Parker with Eva & Tony: Desperately in Love, a half-hour special recounting the couple's courtship.July 4, 8 pm/ETMyNetworkTV presents the Taste of Chicago 2007 Fireworks Spectacular, featuring performances by Broadway in Chicago's High School Musical, Wicked and The Color Purple.The Weekend of August 3ABC Family presents an encore of Part 1, and then the new Parts 2 and 3 of Fallen, starring Everwood's Paul Wesley (as a half-angel/half-human) and Malcolm in the Middle's Bryan Cranston (as Lucifer).August 5, 8 pm/ETStyle Network premieres Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, a reality series looking at the over-the-top world of Kimora Lee Simmons.
Following Wednesday night's elimination of three Toronto-based crooners, Canadian Idol executive producer John Brunton sounded off on the ongoing problem of regional voting boxing (day?) out the country's largest city. Calling the triple-diss "disgraceful," Brunton tells Reuters, "No competitor from Toronto has made it to the top 10 since Season 1, four years ago, and that's pathetic. While the rest of the country is buzzing about... their hometown heroes, Toronto is not supporting the local talent found in its own backyard. I'm fed up with [it]. They deserve more."In related news, Degrassi: The Next Generation returns tonight. See Interviews & Features for a preview!
Responding to a string of stories about Jacko deemed "untrue, defamatory and malicious," the KoP's rep has issued the following laundry list of denials (as shared by the New York Daily News):Michael Jackson...... is not on any type of meds, including painkillers.... does not believe that brother Randy has stolen money from him, nor does Michael think any kin would steal from him.... has never used or instructed his security detail to use force on a reporter.... is neither selling nor losing his share of the ATV/Sony partnership (including the Beatles catalog).... is concerned that his assistant, Grace Rwaramba, is being constantly assailed by Fox News' Roger Friedman.I think all that's missing from the list is a denial that he goes out drinking with Paris.
Jon Cryer and Kyra Sedgwick will announce the nominees for the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on July 19 at 8:40 am/ET. The kudoscast airs Sept. 16 on Fox.... Alec Baldwin has declined to be roasted by the Friars Club on Oct. 19. In his stead, says the New York Post, Pat Cooper will take merciless hits.... Emmy-winning writer-producer Alex Reid (Malcolm in the Middle) has inked a two-year deal with ABC Studios, where Reid will coexec-produce Samantha Who? and develop new projects.... Comedian Richard Jeni, who killed himself in March, had a history of mental illness and was hospitalized last year for suicidal depression, says a coroner's report cited by the AP.
Multiple law-enforcement officials tell TMZ that according to toxicology reports, Lindsay Lohan had nearly twice the legal limit (.08 in California) of alcohol, as well as traces of cocaine, in her bloodstream when she crashed her Mercedes into a curb the morning of May 26. Lohan, who was in the car with two friends at the time, was taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries, then arrested on suspicion of DUI. It was later disclosed by the police that a "usable amount" of cocaine had been found in Lohan's vehicle. Barely two days afterward, Lohan was photographed collapsed outside a Hollywood hot spot, prompting the hard-partying starlet to check (back) into rehab, where to this day she is still seeking treatment.Per TMZ, the Beverly Hills Police Dept. could present the case to the DA in the next few days, provided Taggart doesn't get waylaid by the banana-in-the-tailpipe trick again.
CBS has ordered a fifth installment of Tom Selleck's sleuthing series: Jesse Stone: Thin Ice, to start shooting in August in Nova Scotia. Hallmark Channel has grabbed rights to the previous four entries, with the first set to air Aug. 4.... USA Network has greenlit 11 episodes of To Love and Die, a series starring Shiri "Don't Call Me Amy From" Appleby as a gal with abandonment issues she believes can be resolved if she could track down the father (Tim Matheson) she never knew. (Oops, turns out Dad is an assassin-for-hire!) The cast also includes Frances Fisher, Christine Adams, Kristin Datillo and possibly Ivan Sergei. Look for an early-2008 premiere.
Half Nelson's Ryan Gosling will play husband to Rachel Weisz (and thus the father of a murdered girl) in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Lovely Bones.... Twelve years after they worked together on The Quick and the Dead, Russell Crowe may play the boss of Leonardo DiCaprio's idealistic CIA agent in Body of Lies, a spy thriller helmed by Ridley Scott.... Per Variety, Mena Suvari is a wife who tests her war-pilot-turned-writer-husband's devotion in unusual ways — inviting a young Italian beauty into their bedroom, even — in The Garden of Eden, based on the Ernest Hemingway novel.
Friday, July 6, at 1:30 pm/ETRetirement Living TV premieres Now Playing with Gary Collins, dubbed as "Entertainment Tonight for baby boomers."The week of July 23Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse pays tribute to Donald Duck with a week of quacktastic episodes, culminating with the brand-new "Donald's Hiccups" (July 27 at 8:30 am/ET).Some DD trivia sent over by Disney:• According to The Guinness Book of World Records, Donald Duck's voice is the most popular voice to imitate, ever.• Only two people have ever performed Donald's voice: Clarence "Ducky" Nash (1934-85) and his protégé, Tony Anselmo (1985-present).• Donald Duck made his screen debut in 1934's The Wise Little Hen. • Donald first met Daisy in 1937, and has been wooing her ever since.Friday, September 7CBS presents the fourth annual Fashion Rocks special, featuring musical performances by the likes of Aerosmith, Alicia Keys, Avril Lavigne, Carrie Underwood, Fergie, Jennifer Hudson and Martin...
Actor-director Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky & Hutch's Starsky) has filed for divorce from Tracy, his wife of 10 years. Citing irreconciliable differences, Glaser seeks joint custody of the couple's 9-year-old daughter, Zoe. (Glaser has a son, Jake, from his first marriage to the late Elizabeth Glaser).... R&Ber Usher and his fiancée Tameka Foster are expecting a child together this fall, says the AP. The child will be Usher's first, Foster's fourth.
Reminder, tonight at 10 pm/ET marks the series finale of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as well as the return (albeit just repeats) of Men In Trees, starting with the pilot episode.... TNT/TBS have snatched up cable rights to Rush Hour 3, six weeks before it even hits theaters. Per Variety, the price tag will be 12 percent of the domestic gross.... Steve Martin is penning his autobiography, Born Standing Up, to hit stores in November. (I just started Chevy Chase's bio and it's... OK).... Bridge to Terabithia and Ghost Rider topped last week's DVD sales and rental charts, respectively.
ABC Studios has extended its options on the actors associated with Football Wives, the BBC-adapted sudser pilot that was not picked up at the May upfronts, suggesting the network may tackle the project after all. One of the Alphabet's highest-profile pilots this development season, Football Wives stars Gabrielle Union, Lucy Lawless, Kiele Sanchez (sigh, Nikki...), Ving Rhames and James Van Der Beek. Should ABC ultimately "pass," sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that several other networks, including NBC and Fox, have expressed an interest in it.
Jason Dohring, aka Veronica Mars' love-to-hate-him/hate-to-love-him Logan, has found another role with some real bite to it. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Dohring is joining the new CBS drama Moonlight as Josef, an ancient vampire. Interestingly, Dohring is replacing 60-year-old Rade Serbedzija, now that the character has been reconceptualized as a young and mischievous hedge-fund trader.Speaking of fall-TV recasts, Hidden Palms' D.W. Moffett (a TVGuide.com celebrity blogger) is joining the CW's Life Is Wild, replacing Brett Cullen as the relocated-to-South Africa family's pop.Moonlight is slated to air Fridays at 9 pm/ET, Life Is Wild Sundays at 8. Here is the complete 2007-08 prime-time schedule.
The new season of CBS' Big Brother, premiering July 5, offers a twist bigger than the Alice in Wonderland-style house detailed in today's Interviews & Features. As teased there by exec producer Allison Grodner, gone is the America's Choice element, which will be replaced by a far more interactive gimmick: an "America's Player" who will have the chance to reap big bucks by executing tasks chosen by viewers via text-messaging/online voting. Example: the "AP" might be asked to get flirty with someone in particular, or vote a certain way at elimination time. Dance, monkey, dance!What sorts are in the mix this season? The 14 houseguests range in age from a ripe 20 to a creaky 44, and they include a former pro football player, a shoe salesman (whoa, Bundy!) and a singular married person, and no less than three restaurant/bar employees. In other words, the service at your local Houlihan's might be a bit slower than usual this summer.Check out TVGuide.com's exclusive gallery for a sneak...
There was a drinking game to be played Wednesday night — I know the wife and I repeated a certain two-syllable word throughout the Q&A — as Paris Hilton presented her freed self on Larry King Live. Sporting the-best-money-can-buy hair extensions, lush lashes and an olive branch extended to her detractors, Hilton (as I predicted) had not much to say that hasn't already trickled out via phone calls to Babs, Ryan Seacrest et al. Instead, she stuck to the script that jail was hard, really hard, and that the (alleged) party-gal behavior that brought her to this juncture is all behind her now.Among the choicer sound bites:• The strip search "was the most humiliating experience of my life, taking my clothes off in front of someone you don't even know."• "I'm really not into [partying].... It is not going to be the mainstay of my life anymore." (OK, so it was a 'mainstay,' yet you aren't into it?)• Asked point-blank if she has ever done drugs or had a drinking ...
Oprah, Sephora. Sephora, Oprah. If you tend to buy whatever the big O is selling, have I got a boutique for you. The queen of talk is opening a store in Chicago's West Loop area, the AP reports, kitty-corner from the Harpo Studios where she tapes her show. Construction is under way, but thus far there are no details on when the doors are expected to open or what will be on the shelves. Probably no Hermes scarves, though.
Academy Award winner Holly Hunter considers herself and her first foray into series television to be in especially good company, now that the timeslot for Saving Grace — about a hard-living lady cop touched by a rather unorthodox angel — has been changed to Mondays at 10 pm/ET, leading out of Kyra Sedgwick's own TNT drama (starting July 23). "What they’ve done with The Closer is kind of phenomenal, and what Kyra has done is really fantastic," Hunter told TVGuide.com during a Wednesday conference call. "So yeah, I think it is a vote of confidence by TNT, and we're all pretty excited about it."I think the sentiment Holly is looking for here is, "Thank yew."
Although he initially didn't sign up for Dancing with the Stars' live tour, Season 4 champ Apolo Anton Ohno is proving he's a real winner by joining the show for five East Coast performances. Also, fellow hoofer John Ratzenberger will do a single turn when the tour hits his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut.... Spike Lee will make his Broadway directorial debut with a spring 2008 remounting of the World War II dramedy Stalag 17, says the New York Times. Though no casting has been announced, Lee wants "a name" for the lead, and vows that no rappers are on his shortlist.... Per Playbill.com, Duke of Hazzard Tom Wopat is joining Faith Prince and Harvey Fierstein in A Catered Affair, an upcoming B'way musical based on the 1956 movie of the same name. — Reporting by Raven Snook
A few Tuesday ratings bits:• America's Got Talent dominated the night, averaging 11.4 million total viewers over its two-hour run.• Another 120 thou yelled "Cut!" to On the Lot (2.29 mil).• At 9, Shaq's Big Challenge debuted to just 4.42 million, albeit a 720K increase over the previous week's According to Jim repeats. UPDATE: Speaking of Jim, ABC apparently isn't done with the sitcom after all. Blame the Ausiello Report.And jumping back to Friday, the Stargate SG-1 series ender was watched by 2.2 mil, the sci-fier's best performance since its September 22, 2006, mid-season finale.
Laurence Fishburne is adapting the best-selling novel The Alchemist into a feature film fancied as "Harry Potter meets Indiana Jones." Fishburne will also direct.... Rapper 50 Cent is in final talks to join Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the crime thriller Righteous Kill, playing a drug dealer who helps track a serial killer.... Djimon Hounsou is a mixed-martial-arts coach in Get Some, an indie drama also starring Sean Faris, Amber Heard (Hidden Palms) and Cam Gigandet (The O.C.).... Alfred Hitchcock's first film, The Lodger, is being remade as a modern-day urban thriller set in Los Angeles.... Oliver Platt will play television exec Bob Zelnick in Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon film.