Miss USA avoided being stripped of her title, but what about her unmentionables? Donald Trump and Miss Universe organization execs are mulling an offer from Playboy to have Tara Conner, who is currently getting squeaky-clean in rehab, pose for an upcoming cover, the New York Post's Page Six hears. A sticking point, says a source: "It would have to be in good taste" — i.e., non-nude — in keeping with the issue's theme of, "Um, what's the point?"
After less than five months on the air, Will & Grace alum Megan Mullally's syndicated daytime talker has been silenced, with original and repeat episodes to air through January. A replacement has not been announced.... Fox is putting the finishing touches on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. Hosted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy, the program will feature the standard morning mix of lifestyle and entertainment news. The hourlong show premieres Monday, Jan. 22, at 9 am/ET, on most Fox stations.
Dancing with the Stars fave (and by "fave," I mean the voters' second-favorite dancer) Mario Lopez will host this year's Miss America pageant, to be held Jan. 29 in Las Vegas. I already know how this one ends: Zack casts the deciding vote not for girlfriend Leah Remini, but for Kelly. (It was on at the gym last weekend.)
Olivia Newton-John has agreed to appear on the first two episodes of NBC's Grease: You're the One That I Want, NBC's new reality contest premiering Sunday at 8 pm/ET. That allows her another 90-some hours to shimmy back into those hot pants.
United 93 is the best-pic pick of the Austin Film Critics org, which honored Children of Men's Alfonso Cuarón as best director, and handed the top acting kudos to Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed) and Ellen Page (Hard Candy). Austin's supporting slots went to Jack Nicholson (The Departed) and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel).The Kansas City Film Critics Circle, meanwhile, also honored United 93 for best picture and best director (Paul Greengrass), then went with the Forest/Helen ticket in lead, and Michael Sheen (The Queen)/Catherine O'Hara (For Your Consideration) in supporting.
Emilie de Ravin, aka Claire on Lost (you remember Lost, yes?), has separated from her husband of six months, actor Josh Janowicz. The pair had tied the knot last June, in Melbourne.... National Geographic Channel correspondent Lisa Ling (you remember the pre-Hasselbeck View, yes?) got engaged to Chicago-based doc Paul Song over the holidays.
Aussie authorities have handed over a video of crocodile hunter Steve Irwin's fatal September face-off with a stingray to his wife, Terri, and destroyed all copies so as to prevent the grisly footage from circulating to the public, reports the AP. "It was wholly appropriate that we took all possible steps to ensure something of such a personal and tragic nature did not fall into the wrong hands," Queensland state coroner Michael Barnes said in a statement. "This is in line with the wishes of the Irwin family."
Today celebrates Matt Lauer's 10-year anniversary with the talker on Friday.... Holiday-season attendance at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC has soared — to the tune of some 50,000 extra vistors — thanks to Ben Stiller's Night at the Museum. Yet, despite Happy Feet, things are still slow in Antarctica.... Fans of The L Word can bid online (at eBay) for a chance to appear in an upcoming episode. Proceeds benefit the nonprofit organization Queer Lounge.... Blue's Room, an interactive, 10-episode spin-off of Blue's Clues, premieres Jan. 26, at 10 am/ET, on Nick Jr.
Paraphrased, for your easy digestion...Barbara Walters, on Wednesday's The View: The Donald is not bankrupt, so please don't sue ABC. And yet I must insist that I never told him I regretted hiring Rosie. [Pause] Welcome to 20/20.Donald Trump, to Inside Edition: Pure CYA. I may teach a Learning Annex course on it. Pay me $299.That's right — The Apprentice has a new season premiering soon. How did you guess?
In a press call to mark Heroes' Golden Globe nod (for best drama), as well as his own in bid for supporting actor honors, Masi Oka told TVGuide.com that when the series returns on Jan. 22, whereas the first half of the season was about each character's discovery of his/her ability, "The second half is more about the realization of it, and then the growth with those powers." Oka also previewed that as more heroes' paths intertwine, there will be "some wonderful, wonderful twists."As for Hiro himself, Oka teased the friction between son and father (to be played by Star Trek's George Takei in two episodes, starting Jan. 29), and offered hope for new and not-quite-as-ill-fated romance for his alter ego. Having tried (yet failed) to save Charlie-the-waitress, the actor says, "I've heard from [series creator] Tim [Kring] that somewhere down the line — I'm not going to say when — there will definitely be another love interest for Hiro. From what I understand, it's going to be a n...
Soon-to-retire New York Giants running back Tiki Barber is in demand from big-name broadcasters, Reuters reports. Among the contenders looking to add Barber to their team: ABC/ESPN, which the New York Post says offered the big guy a four-year, $10 million contract to contribute to both Good Morning America and the sports network's football coverage. (Sources have since been deemed that tale not true, however.)In related news, as a kid I loved Disney World's Riki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room.
How is Russell Crowe's Provence-set feature, A Good Year, playing in, well, Provence? Do I have to bleep out the word merde? Phrased differently, the French press have summarily derailed the film's depiction of their country, with one newspaper's critic blasting it as "appalling from start to finish," saddled by "clichés of an ochre Luberon made for a loaded Anglo-Saxon elite." I'm not 100 percent sure what that means, truth be told, and I studied French in high school — got a lot of D's, mind you — but I think it translates into "le film le sucks."More at Reuters. Le parapluie vert!
General Hospital Emmy winner turned Las Vegas head-turner Vanessa Marcil got engaged on New Year's Eve, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively. Here, however, is where things get a bit quirky: Marcil isn't confirming who popped the question. What this reporter does know is that two bridal showers are already in the works — one in NYC, the other in London. Who might Marcil's lucky, lucky betrothed be? When last we officially spoke, she was being squired by Ben Younger, the writer-director of the Uma Thurman-Meryl Streep comedy Prime. But again, the actress — who has a son by Brian Austin Green, and at one fleeting time was wed to a circa-Dream a Little Dream Corey Feldman — isn't saying. Perhaps more importantly, how does this factor into the New Year's resolution Vanessa shared with me just this past Thursday?
A Today Show piece covering the Saturday, pre-dawn execution of Saddam Hussein was streamed from MSNBC.com a whopping nine million times on Saturday alone, the website Lost Remote reports. The most popular version on YouTube: a mash-up, set to Madonna's "Hung Up," fashioned as a Pam-Jim shipper vid.
ABC has greenlit production on a pilot for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, an adaptation of the big-screen thriller that, in addition to its assorted cinematic merits, introduced a boy named Brad to a girl named Angie. Doug Liman and Simon Kinberg will reprise their roles as director and scribe. Set six months after where the film left off, with the Smiths now residing in a new house in a new suburb, Kinberg likens the TV version to "Married... with Children with guns," telling the Hollywood Reporter, "It is a show about any married couple trying to balance professional and home life." Eyed for a fall 2007 slot and set to shoot in March, casting on the pilot has yet to be determined. Good luck with that. Maybe the Today's News blog readers can help Mr. Liman out with casting, what do you say? Too bad Eric Dane is busy. (But Charisma Carpenter isn't!)
Finally, a departure from The Departed. The film-critics organizations from Utah and Oklahoma have each honored United 93 with their best-picture awards. The Sooners, however, named Martin Scorsese best director, while Utah gave that kudos to Children of Men's Alfonso Cuaron. Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker, Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal) and Jackie Earle Haley won the acting categories in Oklahoma, while Utah opted for a Mirren/Sacha Baron Cohen/Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)/Michael Sheen (The Queen) ticket.
Las Vegas physical improbability Nikki Cox tied the knot with Ghost Whisperer's Jay Mohr in a Friday-night ceremony held in Los Angeles, People reports.... Jessica Simpson and her nonboyfriend, musician John Mayer (whom she has not been dating), were spied "full-on making out" at a New Year's Eve bash thrown by Christina Aguilera, a spy tells the New York Daily News. Simpson's pa, Joe, meanwhile, reportedly owes the Kennedy Center Honors folk some $15,000 for prettying up Jess for the "9 to 5" number that was ultimately yanked from the telecast. But I digress as I giggle.
Rather than scramble to find a full-time replacement for Ed Bradley, who was felled by leukemia on Nov. 9, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager says the show will instead finish out the season by spreading the veteran reporter's workload around. "It's a long-term project to find the [person] who can show the abilities that are expected of a 60 Minutes correspondent," Fager tells the AP. As for any perceived onus to replace the newsmagazine's lone African-American on-screen reporter with another, Steve Kroft says, "It would be a mistake to address that [issue of diversity] just for the sake of addressing that."
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Heroes breakout star Masi Oka is in talks to play a supporting role in 21, a based-on-a-true-story feature about a group of men who, schooled in the art of card counting, win millions of dollars gambling.... The Lord of the Rings' Ian McKellen is "fantasizing" again, having signed on to narrate Stardust, which will star Claire Danes, Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer, and concern a young man's bid to retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the faerie realm.... And in case you missed it over the holiday weekend, the fourth Indiana Jones film is finally a go, to shoot in 2007. Details here.
To help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Huntsville, Alabama, institution, Star Trek icon William Shatner will emcee the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame induction banquet in June.... Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have been renewed through the 2011-12 season because, really, I'm sure their fates were up in the air.... James Lipton has a stack of note cards waiting for Matt Damon on tonight's Inside the Actors Studio, airing 8 pm/ET on Bravo.... Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve bested the ratings of Carson Daly's NBC special, which in turn trumped Cat Deeley's fete on Fox. Swell coat, though, Cat!... Speaking of New Year's, the lingering confetti slush in Times Square is brought to you by Target.
A new year, a new embarrassment. Britney Spears' manager is seeking to snuff talk that the popstress collapsed shortly after ringing in 2007, due to excessive partying that, by some accounts, included helping drain a $5,000 bottle of Dom Perignon. "She was not drunk. She was just tired and falling asleep," the rep tells the Associated Press, accounting for reports that Spears was led/carried out of Las Vegas' PURE nightclub by her bodyguards. "There is nothing out of the ordinary here." Indeed, as TVGuide.com's own Angel Cohn just noted, the demands of motherhood do take their toll on a person.
While never one to set any personal-betterment goals, that does not preclude me from aspiring to amp up my performance as TVGuide.com's news blogger (Today's News: Our Take) and the domineering-yet-amiable overlord of the Interviews & Features column. Henceforth and herewith, thusly, I present my News Year resolutions, to which I refuse to be held accountable 364 days from now:— To finally land that (conspicuously) elusive interview with Alyson Hannigan, the only How I Met Your Mother cast member yet to indulge me in a fun Q&A. Is she afraid I will ask some lame, "When is Buffy returning?" question? Don't be, Alyson. Just call.— To resolve the question of whether a "blast" e-mail from an actor-friend's BFF is "for print," because right now I'm sitting on a huge piece of celebrity engagement news. Hellllppp!— To get to the bottom of the deepening "streaming Day Break episodes gone missing at ABC.com" mystery. Right now, I suspect that Vinnie Terranova's hand...