Today's eyebrow-raiser: A CBS press release for Tuesday's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show special touts the "breakout performance of the decade" from Grammy winner Justin Timberlake. Breakout performance? Of the decade? I'm thinking... fearing... "SexyBack" being sung as Britney's ex sports a red-lace T-back? Did the Super Bowl teach this boy nothing?
Missed out, did ya, on this summer's fancy-shmancy Christie's auction of memorabilia from all things Star Trek? Well, It's a Wrap (the prop and wardrobe outlet, not the roll-up chain) and Paramount are hosting a new offering of out-of-this-world artifacts. This latest online auction, kicking off Stardate 60956.0 (aka Dec. 15) on eBay and ItsAWrapHollywood.com, will feature items from Trek's five series and 10 films, including Observation Lounge furniture from Next Generation, a Klingon Bat-Leth sword, and "hero costumes" worn by the likes of Spock and Picard. Get in on this one, gang, because from here on, all that's really left is, like, an open jar of the foundation makeup used by evil Kirk in "The Enemy Within."
Per the Hollywood Reporter, John Krasinski is in talks to join George Clooney in Leatherheads, a 1920s-set romantic comedy to be directed by Clooney. Provided the spring film shoot can be worked into his production schedule for The Office, Krasinski would play a college-football sensation who is recruited by pro team owner Clooney, only to see his fiancée (Renée Zellweger) fall for his boss. Awwww, poor Jim. But hey, man, it's Clooney we're talking about. Chin up.
After years of protecting the rock, NBA star Tony Parker finally went out and bought one. Desperate Housewives firebrand Eva Longoria tells E! News' Ryan Seacrest that she and her baller beau are set to tie the knot. "I always promised you that you would hear it first, and here we are: Tony and I are engaged!" Longoria gushes in an interview airing Thursday, going on to describe the actual proposal as "perfect, personal and sweet."Extra, meanwhile, has obtained the court papers that, as of Nov. 17, officially dissolved the marriage of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards. As such, the Pentagon has downgraded the Flying Laptop Alert to blue.
Isn't it funny (interesting, not ha-ha) how things shift when you take DWTS and Lost out of the mix? Look at this Wednesday night:— The "fall finale" of Jericho (10.34 million total viewers) drew the series' best ratings since Oct. 25. (Don't forget to visit WhoDroppedTheBomb.com now through Feb. 14, Jericho's return date, for new clues, video and such.)— Bones (8.87 mil) enjoyed its best outing since Sept. 6, placing third in the 8 pm hour behind the Rockefeller Center tree-lighting thing.— With 5.76 mil viewers, America's Next Top Model hit a season high (and thus an all-time high for the CW network). In turn, lead-out One Tree Hill surged 1.7 mil week-to-week to set its own season best.— Up 1.4 million versus last week, Criminal Minds (17.95 mil) hit a series high.— The news wasn't good, though, for Day Break (4.75 million), which lost another 350,000, and placed fourth at 9 pm behind Biggest Loser and a repeat of Bones.
New light has been shed on NBC's mid-season slate, detailed in this column Wednesday afternoon. Variety reports that The Black Donnellys and Raines will land on Monday and Friday, replacing Studio 60 and Las Vegas, respectively, when they (finally) premiere in early March. At that time, Studio 60 will have four episodes remaining in the can, though it is not certain when they will air. Also, the Season 2 bow of America's Got Talent has been bumped from January to summer. (That one was keeping me awake last night, yep.)Over at CBS, Stanley Tucci's 3 LBS has been declared brain-dead (as Variety aptly puts it) after three airings, and placed on hiatus. Filling CBS' Tuesdays-at-10 time slot, starting Dec. 19, will be crime-drama encores. I'm sorry, Amy Smart was dissed for this?
Glenn Close, who has a season-long stint on The Shield under her belt, is reteaming with FX as the star of a legal-thriller pilot revolving around a high-stakes litigator, Variety reports. Meg Ryan, meanwhile, is attached to star in The Best Awful, an HBO miniseries adaptation of Carrie Fisher's follow-up to her Postcards from the Edge novel.
Shortly after appearing on Wednesday's The View admittedly sloshed, Danny DeVito offered an olive branch to queen bee Barbara Walters, "to apologize for anything that could be construed as unfortunate," his publicist tells ABC News. DeVito's appearance on the talker followed an all-nighter of partying and downing limoncello with pal George Clooney, and was peppered with such colorful anecdotes as the time he and wife Rhea Perlman set the White House's Lincoln bedroom a-rocking.
You mean, we might get to see Ashlee practice her lip-synching? According to Reuters, NBC is considering broadcasting Saturday Night Live's Friday-night rehearsal sessions on the Internet. "Sometimes it's a lot more interesting than the show," NBC Universal's chief digital officer said at a Wednesday industry conference, where I'm figuring he was accepting the Understater of the Year award.
The Hollywood Reporter's fifth-annual accounting of the biz's best-paid actresses names Nicole Kidman this year's biggest breadwinner, earning as much as $17 million per film. This marks the first time that Julia Roberts, MIA from the live-action circuit this year, didn’t top the list. Rounding out the top 10 were Reese Witherspoon, Renée Zellweger, Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz (at $15 million each), Halle Berry ($14 mil), Charlize Theron and Angelina Jolie ($10 mil), Kirsten Dunst ($8 to 10 mil), and Jennifer Aniston ($8 million).Meanwhile, I'm reading in the Post that Sean Connery turned down hundreds of millions to play Gandalf in the LOTR trilogy. Someone alert NOW.
Mel Gibson, recently vilified himself for spouting racial slurs, identifies and sympathizes with Seinfeld's Michael Richards, whose epithet-laden rant landed him in his own pot of hot water. (I know, shocker, right?) "I feel really badly for the guy," Gibson tells Entertainment Weekly. "He was obviously in a state of stress. You don't need to be inebriated to be bent out of shape. But my heart went out to the guy." Speaking of ridicule and inebriation....
A pal of Lindsay Lo's tells the New York Post's Page Six that the actress, apparently having had her fill of her Hollywood hellion ways, has attended "several" Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, "and has hopefully decided to turn her life around — this time for good." Lohan, spotted just yesterday morning at an L.A. AA meet, is lensing a film with Keira Knightley for the next five weeks, after which, her pal tells the Post, "she will really get serious about getting sober, and drop out of the limelight for a while."
Scary, right? Let me explain. Black Eyes Peas frontwoman-turned-solo artist Fergie has been tapped to host the Hollywood portion of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, airing Dec. 31 on ABC. In addition to overseeing the West Coast feed, Fergie will perform (music) as well as introduce fellow acts Natasha Bedingfield, Meatloaf and RBD. I can just see Monica and Ross rocking out to "London Bridge," can't you?
Per Variety, Eddie Murphy and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura are at work on Beverly Hills Cop IV. "Axel Foley is one of the great action-comedy characters," says di Bonaventura. "I'm lucky enough to help bring it back".... George Clooney's next two projects: White Jazz, based on the last volume of James Ellroy's "L.A. quartet," and Belmont Boys, about seven racetrack regulars who attempt a major heist.... Meryl Streep has joined the cast, along with Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon, of Rendition, playing a government official.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Clive Barker is developing a thriller centered on teens who unlock a curse associated with the death of Edgar Allan Poe.
CBS' Numbers and the CW's Everybody Hates Chris took top honors Wednesday at the eighth-annual Family Television Awards. Among the other winners: Dancing with the Stars (in the reality-show category), Ugly Betty (new series), Ghost Whisperer Jennifer Love Hewitt (for fostering early-onset puberty), Monk's Tony Shalhoub and Deal-maker Howie Mandel.
Illinois senator and possible presidential contender Barack Obama visits The Tonight Show on Friday.... Perhaps as soon as Dec. 7, the NFL Network will begin offering live webcasts of its Thursday and Saturday telecasts to Verizon FiOS and DirecTV subscribers with Verizon broadband hookups.... A&E has greenlit a 20-episode second season of Gene Simmons Family Jewels.... Sofia Coppola and boyfriend Thomas Mars welcomed their first child together, a girl named Romy, on Tuesday.... Celine Dion has canceled five performances of her Las Vegas show, as well as an appearance at Monday's Billboard Music Awards, due to a highly contagious respiratory infection. Mycoplasma bronchitis rocks.... Ice Age: The Meltdown topped the DVD sales and rental charts last week, unseating The Da Vinci Code in both instances.
NBC on Wednesday unveiled its mid-season schedule, and the major moves and premieres are as follows:Tuesday: Starting Dec. 26, Dateline NBC claims the 8 o'clock slot. Where are the Panthers now playing, you ask?Wednesday: Friday Night Lights airs at 8 (effective Jan. 10), followed by Deal or No Deal.Sunday: The reality competition Grease: You're the One That I Want (and The Title I'm Already Fed Up with Typing) airs at 8 pm (premiering Jan. 7), followed by The Apprentice (the Southern California-based Season 6 starts Jan. 7, with the first two outings airing 9:30 to 11) and Crossing Jordan (returning Jan. 21).Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday: No changes.Still MIA: Jeff Goldblum's Raines and The Black Donnellys will debut sometime "in spring 2007," says the press release.UPDATE: TV Guide's original Matt, Matt Roush, has penned a Dispatch expertly surveying NBC's moves. Check it out.
"In a move that may cause a black hole of stupidity to implode in the middle of Las Vegas," as the New York Post's Page Six so snarkily puts it, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton have supposedly been tapped to cohost the 2006 Billboard Music Awards, airing live from Las Vegas this coming Monday night on Fox. Accordingly, the view from the front-row seats is now being sponsored by the Gillette Daisy.UPDATE: Britney has abruptly and mysteriously bailed on the gig, Us is reporting. "We really don't know the reason," a source at Fox tells the mag. "But we're disappointed." Brad Garrett is said to be next on the net's wish list, so please, totally forget that Gillette Daisy imagery, thanks.
Nia Long, whose recent film credits include the two Big Momma's House movies, will appear in at last three episodes of ABC's Boston Legal, playing a micromanaging associate from the New York office of Crane, Poole & Schmidt who arrives in Boston to solicit help from Alan.... Also per the Hollywood Reporter, Christopher Gorham has been upgraded to recurring status on Ugly Betty, where he has twice guested as Betty's nerdy accountant love interest.
No, the title isn't redundant. Bravo has ordered a third, six-episode season of the Emmy-nominated Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, to air in 2007.... With the Season 4 finale of The Biggest Loser set for Dec. 13, NBC has gone ahead and greenlit another round of the weightloss competition.... The CW has announced a Jan. 3 Season 3 premiere for Beauty and the Geek, which, following its two-hour debut, will inherit Top Model's Wednesdays-at-8 slot.
HBO is adapting Preacher for TV, a popular Vertigo comic series about a Texas holy man, possessed by the supernatural coupling of an angel and a demon, who journeys across America with an old girlfriend and an Irish vampire, to find God.... Ponch himself, Erik Estrada, Jack Osbourne and La Toya Jackson are among those on board for Armed and Famous, a CBS reality series that puts C-listers through reserve-police-officer training, then send them on patrol, with loaded guns and all. Recipe. For. Disaster.... E! is developing Paradise City, a weekly series to be produced by Ryan Seacrest and that offers a look at the young adults who live and work in Las Vegas. I can offer no better public service announcement than to assure you this is not a sequel to E's Taradise.
Netting five nods each, including best picture, Little Miss Sunshine and Half Nelson lead the pack for this year's Spirit Awards, which honors independent films. Other best pic noms went to The Dead Girl(starring Brittany Murphy), the Spanish-language Pan's Labyrinth, and American Gun. The lead female category is filled by Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson), Catherine O'Hara (For Your Consideration), Elizabeth Reaser (Sweet Land), Michelle Williams (Land of Plenty) and Robin Wright Penn (Sorry, Haters), while Nelson's Ryan Gosling, Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking), Edward Norton (The Painted Veil), Forest Whitaker (American Gun) and Ahmad Razvi (Man Push Cart) will duke it out amongst the gents.