matt.mitovich

Short Cuts: Julie Andrews, ScarJo and More!

Julie Andrews will be honored with the lifetime-achievement award at the 43rd-annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, being held Jan. 28.... G4 has ponied up $16 million for shared syndication rights to Cops.... The amount of time people spend watching TV shows via video-on-demand or DVR recordings has doubled in the past year. The same study by Leichtman Research shows that 12 percent of U.S. households now have DVRs, versus 3 percent two years ago.... Sources tell the New York Post's Page Six that Scarlett Johansson was a "nervous wreck" when she recently braved her first Brazilian waxing at the Oasis Day Spa. What's more, the crew of aestheticians reportedly couldn't stop admiring the actress' body. Not news per se, but a fine thought to start off a Monday morning.

Mon, Sep 25, 2006

Ratings: CSI Is Taught an Anatomy Lesson

This is where the ratings get fun, folks. Cutting to the chase for a moment, Grey's Anatomy's new time slot (and those multiple video-playing online ads, I suppose) paid off big time, as the ABC drama bested 9 o'clock-hour stalwart CSI in their premieres' head-to-head clash. The overnight tally: Grey's 25.15 million total viewers, CSI 22 mil. Of note: CSI's most recent season finale drew 25.05 mil, whereas Grey's was watched by 20.9 mil. ABC can also claim bragging rights to the droolworthy 18-49 demo, where Grey's snagged 50 percent more than CBS' crime drama.Rewinding to 8 pm, Survivor: Cook Islands led the pack with 17.7 million, followed by a Grey's clip show (13.4 mil) and NBC's My Name Is Earl/The Office combo (each with about 9 mil). Leapfrogging to 10 pm, we had a bit of a horse race as ER, still showing a pulse in its kazillionth season premiere, admitted an audience of 15.5 million, edging out newbies Shark (CBS, debuting with 14.9 mil) and Six Degrees (ABC, with 13.3 mil)...

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

McOopsy! Canucks Spoiled with Wrong Grey's Episode

Canadians tuning in Thursday night for the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy can be forgiven for being all confused, seeing as CTV accidentally aired the second episode of the ABC drama's new season. In a statement, the Canuckcaster blames "a satellite-feed error at the source" ? that's so not getting them off the hook with Shonda Rhimes ? and says that Episode 1 will air in its entirety on a special day and time to be announced. For any of my fellow Americans who want to know what happens in that second episode: Mer was, like, all indecisive about her future with Derek; George proved inept at his relationship with Callie; and Yang came to a realization about how much she loves Burke.

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

Casting About: Heather Locklear Does Angels

Lifetime's Nora Roberts-a-palooza continues, with Heather Locklear set to star in the TV-movie Angels Fall, about a lady chef who tries to put her life together after a shooting spree at her restaurant.... Gabriel Byrne will front In Treatment, HBO's upcoming half-hour drama about a therapist who isn't the calm, cool and collected gent that his patients see.... Laura San Giacomo, who will reunite with Just Shoot Me costar Enrico Colantoni during a Veronica Mars mini-arc this season, has been cast opposite Holly Hunter in Grace, a TNT drama pilot about an Oklahoma City policewoman who is visited by an angel.

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

Rock Star Supergroup Is Kinda Renamed

Per a settlement reached by the SoCal punk group Supernova and the makers of CBS' Rock Star: Supernova, the band to be made up of competition winner Lukas Rossi, Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted and Gilby Clarke will now be known as Rock Star Supernova. (Yes, minus the colon. After all, only real men can handle the rename-with-colon thing.)

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

SNL Boss Explains Cuts, Unveils WU Team

Addressing the streamlining of Saturday Night Live's ensemble for the new season, Lorne Michaels tells the Associated Press that since the only alternative was to put out fewer shows, he chose to bid farewell to Horatio Sanz, Chris Parnell and Finesse Mitchell instead. "Like a garden that gets overgrown, [SNL] needed to be pruned," he says, adding that the smaller cast also means "everyone gets enough playing time." Michaels also confirms that "The Needlers" will reunite at the WU desk when Seth Meyers, having bested three others up for the gig, replaces Tina Fey alongside Amy Poehler. SNL returns Sept. 30, with Dane Cook as host. TV Guide hears that Earl's Jaime Pressly will front the show the following week.

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

Madonna May "Tell" NBC to Stuff It

Now that NBC has gone public with its wishy-washiness over whether to include the "Live to Tell"/mock-crucifixion number in its Madonna concert special, word is that the Material Girl may elect to nix the telecast in its entirety. The New York Daily News reports that Madonna's peeps, if asked to cut the provocative sequence, are prepared to pull the November special, as each side is contractually allowed to should the final product not meet with their approval.

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

At the Movies: Pitt to Take Over Cruise's Mission?

Now that the relationship between Paramount and Tom Cruise has soured, might the Mission: Impossible franchise be turned over to another of Hollywood's biggest stars? A rep for Brad Pitt tells the New York Daily News that rumblings of the fair-haired hunk heading up the next Mission are "totally made up".... Justin Long and Maggie Q are joining Bruce Willis in Live Free or Die Hard, playing a sidekick for McClane and a world-class hacker, respectively.... Charlize Theron and Tommy Lee Jones are in talks to play a police detective and a father searching for his supposedly AWOL (but perhaps murdered) Iraq War-vet son in Crash director Paul Haggis' next project.

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

Legal Briefs: La Bamba Star Charged with Battery

Prosecutors have charged Lou Diamond Phillips with domestic battery, in connection with an Aug. 11 incident where the actor reportedly got into a physical fight with his girlfriend, "push[ing] and drag[ging her] across the house." Phillips' arraignment is slated for Oct. 18.... Sandra Bullock's film company is suing Tennessee's state mental-health agency to ensure that the actress' attorneys are notified if Thomas James Weldon, a man she has accused of stalking her, is released this month from a mental-health facility.

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

Office Star "Fired Up" Over Spoiled Romance

Speaking with TVGuide.com on Thursday morning, The Office's Jenna Fischer took issue with the New York Times' recent reportage of a major spoiler  that is, where things stand with Pam and Jim when the NBC comedy returns tonight  though not for the reason you may think. "I'm fired up about it because it's a major newspaper and it's not accurate," Fischer tells us. "I don't want to say too much more because I don't want to give away what the truth is, but... it's not accurate. I have not read anywhere where anybody has gotten the whole deal."For the first half of our fresh Q&A with Fischer and leading man John Krasinski, go to Interviews & Features.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Ratings: Kidnapped's Samplers Go Missing

Wednesday's Dancing with the Stars results show won the 8 o'clock hour with an audience of 14.9 million, followed by the debut of CBS' Jericho (11.4 mil), Bones (7.4 mil), and the season premieres of The Biggest Loser (6.4 mil in its first hour) and America's Next Top Model (christening the CW with 4.9 mil). At 9 pm Criminal Minds led with 15.6 million viewers, followed by the first of two Grey's Anatomy repeats (10.6 mil) and Loser's back end (7.9 mil). In fifth, behind Top Model's second hour, Justice drew 5.6 million, down almost two mil from the previous week.CSI: NY premiered at 10 pm to 15.9 million viewers, trailed by no, not the debut of NBC's Kidnapped, but the second Grey's encore (10.5 mil). With a sampling audience of 7.5 million, Kidnapped bowed in third.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Housewives Casts Mystery Lady, Hunky Hero

Desperate Housewives, which begins its third season on Sunday, has announced the casting of Oscar-nominated songwriter-actress Kathleen York as Monique, a beautiful redheaded mystery woman, and Matt Roth (husband of new recurring Housewives player Laurie Metcalf) as Art, the buyer of Paul Young's home who is befriended by Lynette after he plays hero in a bank robbery. Which sitcom vet almost nabbed Roth's role? Check out Ask Ausiello for that and other scoops on Housewives' new season.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Entourage Boys Will Party On

HBO has given a green light to a fourth, 12-episode season of Entourage. The inside-Hollywood drama about hot property Vincent Chase and his posse recently interrupted its third season to save the back eight episodes as companion pieces for the final salvo of The Sopranos, airing early next year.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Milano, Vegas Boss Eye New Series

Alyssa Milano is attached to star in Me and Everyone Else, a half-hour ABC comedy about a 30-year-old, take-charge woman fancied by the producers as "Rhoda with a sex life" ? a reference lost on anyone younger than 30.... Las Vegas creator Gary Scott Thompson has two new projects in development for fall '07: CBS' Protect and Serve, about L.A. street cops, and an NBC drama about a policeman who, after losing his family in the World Trade Center attacks, follows his ex-wife to Hawaii.... MTV has greenlit eight half-hour episodes of Adventures in Hollywood, a reality series that will tail Academy Award-winning rap group Three 6 Mafia.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Spaceballs Finds Its G4 Spot

Long rumored to be in the works, Mel Brooks is officially developing his 1987 feature comedy, Spaceballs, as an animated series for the G4 cable network, to premiere in fall 2007. Brooks will voice two characters in the show, says the Hollywood Reporter, and cowrote the pilot with Thomas Meehan.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Also at the Movies: Jolie Has a Fine Atlas

Per Variety, Angelina Jolie is set to star as Dagny Taggart in a film adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.... Brazilian beauty Alice Braga is Will Smith's leading lady in I Am Legend.... Katie Cassidy, who reportedly beat out Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Speed TV's Debbie Beal for the role of Lucy Ewing in the Dallas feature film, is in final talks to play Pi Delta Pi's queen bee in the Revenge of the Nerds redo.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Jesse Bradford will star opposite Elisha Cuthbert in My Sassy Girl, a remake of a hit South Korean romantic comedy.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

You Saw It Coming: Jungle Cruise, the Movie

Pillaging an idea that worked (and then some) with Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney Pictures is fast-tracking a big-screen adaptation of Disneyland's 51-year-old Jungle Cruise attraction, in which parkgoers encounter wild creatures during a riverboat excursion. No less than Smallville cocreators Al Gough and Miles Millar are in talks to pen the script. Teacups is next, you read it here first.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Vanished Star to Appear on Off-Broadway

Gale Harold, currently doing his darndest to crack a labyrinthine mystery on Fox's freshman thriller Vanished, is joining Carla Gugino and Blythe Danner for the off-Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, starting previews Oct. 20, Playbill.com reports. <PLAYING DUMB> Gee, how will Gale ever juggle a New York City stage gig and his front-and-center role on Vanished? </PLAYING DUMB>

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Game Off for the CW?

Author Staci Robinson has filed a $40 million lawsuit against the CW and producers of The Game, claiming that the Girlfriends spin-off copies the concept and characters of her unpublished novel, of which she showed an early manuscript, in 2001, to Mara Brock Akil, now a Game exec producer. Robinson's suit seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent the CW from premiering the show on Oct. 1. And just like that, this show got interesting.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Diaz Charges Photog with Assault

Cameron Diaz, who just this past spring fought hard and successfully to suppress nudie pics taken of her years ago, has another photographer-related headache. The actress on Wednesday filed a police report accusing a paparazzo of assault with a deadly weapon, when he jumped out of some bushes, tried to take a photo of Diaz and SexyBeau Justin Timberlake, then got into his car and drove it straight at the duo. Thankfully, in true Charlie's Angels style, the action suddenly went slo-mo, and Diaz and J.T. each did triple somersaults over the hood of the oncoming car, landing safely and in Praying Mantis positions.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Stork Report: Twins on Board for Two ABC Stars

Both Desperate Housewives' Marcia Cross and the wife of Grey's Anatomy's Patrick Dempsey are expecting twins, says Us. Cross' rep isn't confirming the upgrade, while Dempsey reportedly has two boys on the way.... Country crooner Brad Paisley and his wife, According to Jim alumna Kimberly Williams-Paisley, are expecting their first child together in February.

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Ratings: Dancing Defeats Deal, Standoff Hits Low

Tuesday's two-hour edition of Dancing with the Stars, watched by an average of 18.1 million total viewers, gave ABC easy wins in the 8 and 9 pm hours, first besting new episodes of House (13.4 mil) and NCIS (13.1 mil, a 16 percent drop from last year's premiere), as well as NBC's own juggernaut, Deal or No Deal (10.7 mil), then surpassing CBS' The Unit (12.1 million viewers), Law & Order: CI (returning to an audience of 11.6 mil), and Standoff, which hit a series low with 7.9 mil.The 10 o'clock title went to Law & Order: SVU, whose season premiere was watched by 14.4 million, versus Boston Legal's 11.6 mil and newbie Smith's 10.7 mil. Despite placing third in its bow, CBS' Ray Liotta starter is considered to have opened strongly, retaining 88 percent of The Unit's total audience.

Wed, Sep 20, 2006