matt.mitovich

S.I.'s Swimsuit Cover Girl Revealed!

And I'm telling you... who it is, right now. Beyoncé, whose apparently tireless publicist should be (if not is) in line to win a Nobel Prize, pours herself into a yellow and pink bikini for the cover of this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit spectacular. The cover line touts, "The Dreamgirl as You've Never Seen Her." (Meaning not posing for photographers on a red carpet?)According to the AP, the swimsuit annual features a music theme, as the barely clad models drape themselves on the likes of Kanye West, Aerosmith, Gnarls Barkley and Panic! at the Disco.

Wed, Feb 14, 2007

Short Cuts: Charles Gibson, TV's Sexiest Duo and More!

ABC's World News with Charles Gibson mustered a rare ratings win  its first in seven months, actually  last week over NBC and Brian Williams, 9.7 million total viewers to 9.5 mil.... CBS Sports' James Brown will take a turn as coanchor of the Saturday Early Show for two weeks this month and another two in April, as the program seeks a full-time sub for Russ Mitchell.... Kate-Sawyer? Der-Mer? Cast your vote for TV's sexiest couple in TVGuide.com's new poll!

Wed, Feb 14, 2007

Ratings: Good Evening, Miami!

Monday's ratings rundown: An extra, 8 pm hour of 24 drew an audience of 13.13 million total viewers, placing second behind Deal or No Deal (16 mil), but faring far better than a typical Prison Break. CBS' entire comedy lineup took hits: Mother (9.82 mil, down almost a mil week-to-week); The Class (8.97 mil, down 700K), Men (15.62 million, down two mil from last week's season high); and Rules of Engagement (13.5 million, down 1.4 mil from its premiere). Heroes (14.68 million) took a 3-1 lead in its weekly 9 o'clock face-off with 24 (13.69 mil), with each series up juuuuust a hair. CSI: Miami hit a season high, delivering 19.85 million viewers, a 1.6 mil bump from last week. Studio 60 (6.55 mil, down 720,000) and What About Brian (5.55 mil, down 200K) each slipped.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Aw, Heck, Just Some Random Thoughts....

As previously shared in my Today's News blog, but now aggregated here for your pondering pleasure:February 9, 2007 OK, Jim Carrey's upcoming feature, The Number 23, has a rather unsettling PR campaign: I'm getting daily e-mails about (what I presume are) current real-life crimes/tragedies that somehow involve the number 23. Is gossip columnist Cindy Adams almost impossible to read sometimes, or what? Fabricated example: "Mel Gibson. Braveheart. You know the drill. Yada-yada-yada. Lindsay. But that's old news if you-know-who is to be believed." Um, wha?!  I'm thinking/fearing we're gonna be stuck with this Sienna Miller for a bit, yes? How awesome is that new "Cancel or Allow" TV spot in Apple's "PC Guy" campaign?!February 2, 2007 This whole Tyra Banks/"I'm not fat!" thing has to be one of the biggest non-stories to get such massive media play. Personally (and "until now," one of you will snark), I have steered clear of breathing a word about it, because...

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Renew News: Battlestar Keeps On Flying

As first scooped by the Ausiello Report, Sci Fi Channel is expected to announce on Tuesday that Battlestar Galactica has earned a 13-episode, fourth-season pickup, to premiere in January 2008.... Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program, which only premiered Feb. 1, has been granted a second-season order.... A&E brings back my college chum Sam Mettler's Intervention for a third season on Mar. 16.BATTLESTAR UPDATE: The official Sci Fi press release says Season 4 will be "a minimum of 13 hours."

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Coming Soon: 24 Vet's News Hour, and More

As a sort of "test drive," Fox News Channel will premiere 24 producer Joel Surnow's The 1/2 Hour News Hour, a right-leaning version of The Daily Show, this Sunday at 10 pm/ET, then air a second episode on Mar. 4.... USA Network has given a series order to Burn Notice, a drama starring Jeffrey Donovan as a secret agent whose espionage careeer is mysteriously sabotaged, to debut in June. Gabrielle Anwar costars.... TBS has announced a summer premiere for The Bill Engvall Show, a domestic comedy starring the Blue Collar Comedy Tour headliner and Nancy Travis.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Oprah Presents... One More Mitch Albom Movie

The third book of Mitch Albom's to be adapted by ABC (following Five People You Meet in Heaven and Tuesdays with Morrie), For One More Day is being developed as a two-hour "Oprah Winfrey Presents" movie event, to shoot in July and premiere in December. Albom will pen the teleplay and exec-produce, says Variety, while Lloyd Kramer, who helmed Five People, will direct.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Police Confirm Tour, But Evasive About New Album

Undoubtedly elating Sonya, my unrequited high-school crush whom I haunted with "Every Breath You Take" more than one too many times, Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland announced on Monday that The Police will reunite for a tour kicking off May 28 in Vancouver, hitting Europe, then swinging by the States for dates in such cities as New York, Boston, Denver and Las Vegas. Recalling the genesis (oops, wrong '80s group) of this reunion, Sting tells the AP, "I woke up one morning about three months ago and this lightbulb went off: 'I'm going to call Andy and Stewart and tell them we should tour.'" As for the differences that splintered the trio in 1984, Sting dismisses them as artistic, not personal. "[They] were all about music. Also, hairstyles." The group, meanwhile, sidestepped questions about a new CD possibly being born of the tour.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

At the Movies: Deadwooder Not Afraid of the Dark

Per Variety, Ian McShane will star in the fantasy pic The Dark Is Rising.... Jennifer Garner will produce and possibly star in Devil in the Junior League, a comedy about a lawyer who agrees to help a socialite scorned if she will make over his trashy wife.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Matthew Lillard and Efren Ramirez are set for an American Summer, playing a pool boy and gardener who squat in a Beverly Hills mansion and become neighborhood pimps. I can't decide who should sue first: Joel Goodson, Deuce Bigalow or Axel Foley.... Bend It Like Beckham's Gurinder Chadha is in talks to helm Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, a comedy based on the best-selling 1999 novel.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Fall 2007: NBC's Bionic Woman Is a Brit

Meaning she's, what, a £3 million woman? Here's more on that and other casting bits for the new pilot season, courtesy of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter: After eyeing some faces better known to the U.S. audience, NBC tapped Michelle Ryan (of the BBC's EastEnders) to play Jamie Sommers in its revisiting of The Bionic Woman. Jimmy Smits has landed the lead in CBS' untitled drama centered on a Latin American family in the rum business. The Practice's Steve Harris will play an imposing but physically unfit veteran cop in CBS' Protect and Serve.  Matt Lanter (aka Heroes' Brody) is an undercover narc posing as a high schooler in ABC's Judy's Got a Gun.Also, NBC has pushed production on Kath & Kim to summer, but says the show is still in the running for the fall.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller Are the Hardy Boys

Twentieth Century Fox has signed Tom Cruise and his sometime impersonator, Ben Stiller, to play The Hardy Men, a Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum)-directed action comedy based on The Hardy Boys. According to Variety, the plot finds the onetime sleuthing siblings grown up and estranged, then reunited to have a three-way with Katie Holmes' Nancy Drew crack one last case.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Short Cuts: Medium, Sexy Smarties and More!

Patricia Arquette will take orders from her "little brother," In Case of Emergency's David Arquette, when he directs an upcoming episode of Medium, says Reuters.... Best-actress nominee Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal) won't be on hand for the Feb. 25 Academy Awards, as she is due for a knee operation.... Finesse Mitchell: Live, a concert tape starring the onetime SNLer, arrives on DVD today.... Mohinder? Sayid? Who is TV's sexiest brainiac? Cast your vote in the latest TVGuide.com poll!

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Anna Nicole: Birkhead Tried to Save Smith, But "Was Pushed Aside"

Ongoing developments in the tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith.... Larry Birkhead, one of the leading candidates in the paternity suit surrounding the late Anna Nicole Smith's surviving 5-month-old daughter, says that he tried to save Smith from the sort of drug use that felled her son last September and may have played a role in the bombshell's own demise, but was effectively shut out of her life. "I tried [to save her]. I watched over her to make sure she was safe, and once I was basically pushed to the side... I had no control over what she did," he tells the New York Daily News. Adds a source close to Birkhead, "He told [Smith], 'If you do not stop your lifestyle, now that you're pregnant with my baby, I will go for custody.' That's when she ran away." Birkhead was hoping for a reconciliation late last summer, says the source, but Smith instead moved to the Bahamas to await Dannielynn's arrival and put Howard K. Stern's name on the birth certificate, leaving Birkhead now "crushe...

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

Another Pickle for Idol Sweetheart's Pop

American Idol alumna Kellie Pickler's father, Clyde, who wrapped up a three-year prison stay last May, is back behind bars. According to Us, Pickler's pop is facing multiple charges  including assault on a female, communicating threats and assault with a deadly weapon  and is being held on $20,000 bond after his wife claimed last Wednesday that he threatened her, saying, "You know that guy I stabbed in Florida that didn't die? Well, it's gonna be different this time, because you are going to die." Yeah, not the best ramp-up to Valentine's Day.

Tue, Feb 13, 2007

ABC Sitcoms' 9 pm Time Slot Is Lost to Lost

ABC has temporarily sidelined (because I know how some of you bristle at the word "shelved") the Wednesdays-at-9 sitcombo of According to Jim and In Case of Emergency so as to lead in to the fresh Feb. 14 and 21 episodes of Lost with encores of the show's previous eppy. (For example, "Not in Portland" will air this Wednesday following Knights of Prosperity.)Now, I could be snarky here and say, "Hey, Lost, how about that much-ballyhooed 'No Repeats' mantra?" But 1) slotting a "refresher" episode in front of a new one isn't what they meant, and 2) I'm a better person than that. The worst part of this? You will have to wait another two weeks for my saucy Q&A with ICE guest star Jane Seymour.

Mon, Feb 12, 2007

Anna Nicole: Prince to File Paternity Challenge

Ongoing developments in the tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith.... (Our previous reportage can be found here and here.) Prince Frederic von Anhalt plans to file a paternity challenge to gain custody of Smith's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn  even though wife Zsa Zsa Gabor has told him, "If you bring a baby home, it's over." OK, who here ordered crazy? (AP) Smith was taking 10 different types of medication as she recovered from two recent breast surgeries, at least one of which was to correct a problem caused by an earlier augmentation. If taken in an "improper mix," the meds could have resulted in her death. (MSNBC) A photo circulated by TMZ.com and purportedly showing that Smith's hotel-room fridge contained TrimSpa rival Optifast shakes, as well as methadone, has been deemed "staged" and "sick," by her attorney. (New York Post)  In the wake of Howard K. Stern's Saturday reunion with Dannielynn, the infant's other prospective father, Larry Birkhead, h...

Mon, Feb 12, 2007

Fall 2007: Battlestar's Lawless Joins the Wives

Up-to-the-minute casting news for the upcoming pilot season, courtesy of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter: Why didn't we see this coming a mile away? Lucy Lawless has scored the role of "ruthless, bitchy" Tanya in ABC's Football Wives. UPDATE: Speaking of BSG.... Some fresh Ausiello scoopage! CSI's Louise Lombard has landed the title role in Judy's Got a Gun, ABC's drama about a woman juggling single motherhood with her job as a detective. I like to think of it as "Close to Homicide." 24 alumna Sarah Clarke is Famke Janssen's younger sister and best bud in NBC's drama about a female cop. Bridgette Wilson-Sampras is (kinda of course) a promiscuous neighbor in ABC's Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Ana Claudia Talancón (The Crime of Father Amaro) has the title role in Whitney, HBO's comedy about a beautiful, self-confident woman who manipulates men. Big Day's Miriam Shor has joined CBS' 1970s-set Swingtown. John Francis Daley (Kitchen Confidential...

Mon, Feb 12, 2007

The Hot Chicks: Dixie Trio Triumph at Grammys

The Dixie Chicks were the big winners at Sunday's Grammy Awards, taking home no less than five hunks of gold, including kudos for record, song and country album of the year. Comeback kid Mary J. Blige and The Red Hot Chili Peppers were the evening's second-most honored, walking away with three wins each. Among the night's spectacles were a blink-and-you-missed-it reunion for The Police (remembering that saucy "Roxanne"), Justin Timberlake dueting with (oh-so-nervous) "My Grammy Moment" winner Robyn Troup, and a powerhouse vocal tribute to James Brown by Christina Aguilera. For a full list of winners, lotsa "glammy" photos and more, check out TVGuide.com's complete Grammys coverage.

Mon, Feb 12, 2007

Grey's Cast Involved in Grammys Bash Clash

Sources tell the New York Post's Page Six that at a Friday pre-Grammys soiree fronted by Rolling Stone and Justin Timberlake, Grey's Anatomy cast members T.R. Knight, Kate Walsh and Sara Ramirez were chilling in the VIP section when a bodyguard for Sean Combs told them to vacate their table, and thus make room for Puffy's posse. "This guy... started demanding, 'Get out! Get out now! Move it!' T.R. was furious," an eyewitness tells the paper, adding, "I don't think Puffy knew who T.R. was." After Knight exchanged words with Combs, the Grey's trio were led to another table. A friend of Combs' tells the Post, "He wasn't aware of what was going on," while a rep for the singer says, "There was no [altercation]." "There was no altercation," eh? We've heard that one before.

Mon, Feb 12, 2007

SOAPnet Prescribes a Spin-off for General Hospital Fans

As detailed in TVGuide.com's Soaps News column, the SOAPnet channel has greenlit General Hospital: Night Shift, a spin-off of the long-running ABC serial featuring some of the daytimer's characters in contained, single-episode stories. (But no vampires. Yet.) Same characters? Inconsequential stories? Sounds like just an extended promo, if you ask me. But our Daniel has the deets.

Mon, Feb 12, 2007

Box Office: Eddie Murphy to Hannibal, "Chew on This!"

The critically railed comedy Norbit, starring Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy, topped the weekend box office, earning $33.7 million. That easily bested second-placer Hannibal Rising, which feasted on $13.35 mil in its own debut.Rounding out the top five were Because I Said So ($9 million), The Messengers ($7.2 mil) and Night at the Museum ($5.75 mil).

Mon, Feb 12, 2007

Road to Oscar: Big Wins for Sunshine, Other Faves

With the Oscars just weeks away, some last-minute wins at other awards shows: Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker earned top acting honors at Sunday's BAFTAs, aka the British Academy Awards. Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed (where's my DVD?!) were the big winners at Sunday's Writers Guild of America Awards, in the original- and adapted-screenplay contests, respectively. Cars was named best animated feature at the 34th-annual Annie Awards, but Flushed Away (aka the "mouse got flushed down the toilet movie," which my sons are dying to see... on DVD) came away with the most wins: five.

Mon, Feb 12, 2007