matt.mitovich

Hannah "Mom"-tana? Cyrus Victim of Pregnancy Prank

No, Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus is not pulling a Keisha Castle-Hughes. The rising teen queen was targeted by a (very poorly) doctored-up tabloid magazine article tweaked to suggest that the 14-year-old is pregnant, a Photoshopped falsehood that spread across the Internet and understandably raised eyebrows. "It's 100 percent false," Cyrus' rep tells People. "It's ridiculous and completely untrue. [Miley] just wrapped Season 2 of Hannah Montana and will go on tour beginning Oct. 18."As for the truth about what used to transpire between Tiger and Kitty Carry-all in the doghouse... let's not go there.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Hannah "Mom"-tana? Cyrus Victim of Pregnancy Prank

Brady Bunch Star's Bio Not a Kiss-Jan-and-Tell

Apparently it's not the story of two bi-curious girls named Brady. Though Maureen McCormick's forthcoming autobiography, Here's the Story, is chockablock with revelations relating to the actress' struggles with eating disorders, drug addiction and depression, it does not address any sort of Sapphic experimentation between her and Brady Bunch sis Eve Plumb. Addressing a story that hit the Internet last week and claimed that the book chronicles an on-set affair between Mo and Plumb, the book's publisher tells ABC News, "We are verifying that it is not true."As for the truth about what used to transpire between Tiger and Kitty Carry-all in the doghouse... let's not go there.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Deadwooder Tracks Sarah Connor, More Casting News

Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood) has come on board Fox's midseason drama The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as a mysterious character named Cromartie.... Also from the Reporter, Jennifer Siebel (In the Valley of Elah) has been cast as the ex-wife of Damian Lewis' cop in NBC's Life.... Adam Rose (The Squid and the Whale) has been added to the CW's Aliens in America as a misfit pal of Justin's.... Paul Schulze (Mad Men) is joining NBC's Journeyman as an FBI agent.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Deadwooder Tracks Sarah Connor, More Casting News

In the Works: A Bigger Biggest Loser, and More

NBC has picked up The Biggest Loser for a fifth season, which will for the first time pit teams of two (e.g., husband-wife, BFFs) against each other.... A motley crew of celebrities who have appeared on past VH1 reality series will confront their addictions via Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, an eight-episode series debuting Jan. 10.... NBC will stage in mid-December a Clash of the Choirs, a reality competition in which celeb crooners assemble choruses from their hometowns.... ABC has ordered a script for Foobar, a geeky ensemble comedy set at a software company.... Sex and the City scribe Cindy Chupack is cocreating a romantic-comedy anthology series for NBC, featuring one to three stories a week and an animated short connecting them.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

In the Works: A Bigger Biggest Loser, and More

Ratings: Viewers Say, "Um, Not Yet" to CW Now

This Sunday, as NBC's NFL coverage averaged 16.46 million total viewers from 8 pm/ET on: The debuts of the CW's newsmagazine whatevers CW Now and Online Nation were sampled by barely a million viewers each. That's way less than half of the year-ago Sunday premiere of, say, Everybody Hates Chris. The news was better for Fox, whose 'toons The Simpsons (9.44 mil, +500K), King of the Hill (7.74 mil) and Family Guy (10.65 mil, +1.3 mil) each drew healthy premiere audiences. On CBS, Cold Case was welcomed back by 12.3 mil, a drop of five mil from last year's opener. Lead-out Shark christened its new day/time period with 11.54 mil, a mil fewer than caught its Season 1 finale in May.POLL: What do you plan to watch live tonight? Vote here with your 8 pm and 9 pm picks.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Evil Resides Atop Weekend Box Office

Zombies stormed the Cineplex this weekend as the not-screened-for-critics Resident Evil: Extinction topped the box office with a lively $24 million opening. Rounding out the top five were Good Luck Chuck (debuting with $14 million), The Brave One ($7.4 mil), 3:10 to Yuma ($6.35 mil) and Eastern Promises ($5.7 mil).Amanda Bynes' modern-day fairy tale Sydney White opened at No. 6 with $5.3 mil, while Sean Penn's Into the Wild and Brad Pitt's The Assassination of Jesse James...[/i] opened strongly in limited release, averaging $51,649 and $28,800 per theater, respectively.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

New TV Season Is Pretty and Witty... But Less Gay

An annual report by GLAAD says that the coming TV season is less gay than the one prior, with a total of seven series (versus last year's nine) on the five networks regularly featuring lesbian, gay, bi or transgender characters. The study notes that the only new show to feature a non-hetero person is ABC's midseason Cashmere Mafia, in which Bonnie Somerville swings from both sides of the plate.ABC retained its strong lead in featuring LGBT characters, thanks to the likes of Brothers & Sisters, Ugly Betty and Housewives (which this season has a gay couple moving into the nabe). NBC, with The Office's Oscar, is the only other major to showcase a L, G, B or T.Among recurring LGBT characters, ABC boasts six of network TV's 13. Fox has four (all fabulously animated!) and NBC three.No, I don't know in which category Betty's nephew got counted.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

New TV Season Is Pretty and Witty... But Less Gay

"New" View Ratings Are Rosier than Rosie's

ABC's latest incarnation of The View, featuring Whoopi Goldberg as moderator and Sherri Shepherd as a gabber, thus far is averaging 3.5 million total viewers, a seven percent increase from the 3.3 mil who were tuning in to the Rosie-run edition a year ago.Though the talker got off to a slow start this season  Whoopi drew a million fewer than O'D did on her first day  with Shepherd in place in its second week, it bested Ro by 400,000 heads.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

"New" View Ratings Are Rosier than Rosie's

Heroes Recruits Superman, Hostel Scribes

Askewniverse auteur Kevin Smith is not the only film scribe on board for Heroes: Origins, the spring 2008 offshoot of NBC's hit drama. The trades are reporting Monday morning that both Eli Roth (Hostel) and Michael Dougherty (Superman Returns, X-Men 2) are suiting up to write and/or direct episodes.The six-episode Heroes: Origins will launch in the spring, after the mother ship's sophomore run has ended, and will concern enabled characters not previously seen on the series. Viewers will then vote on which newbies they would like to see join our band of merry men and women for Season 3.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Heroes Recruits Superman, Hostel Scribes

Denzel Takes the Pelham 1, 2, 3, and More Movie News

Denzel Washington will channel Walter Matthau in an update of the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3, in which four hijackers hold a subway train's passengers for ransom. David Koepp penned the screenplay.... Also per Variety, Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac will dance and sing as soul legends begrudgingly reunited on tour in the comedy Soul Men (C. Thomas Howell not included).... Jason Bateman is joining Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in the feature take on the U.K. miniseries State of Play.... Per the Reporter, Ben Kingsley is William Shakespeare in a movie based on Will, a new novel concerning the Bard's deathbed confab with his lawyer.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Denzel Takes the Pelham 1, 2, 3, and More Movie News

Spears in Tears: Britney Faces Up to a Year in Jail

Beleaguered popstress Britney Spears on Friday was charged with one count of hit-and-run as well as one count of driving without a valid California drivers license, both of which stem from her Aug. 6 fender bender and carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail. After the charges came down, Us reports, Spears was spied fighting back tears as she arrived at the office of her (third) attorney (in a week). It has since surfaced that Spears, despite living large in L.A. all this time, has never been issued a Cali license, though state laws would necessitate one (despite her "official" status as a Louisiana resident). But hey, she's country, and that's how they roll.Spears will be arraigned on Oct. 10, aka a day that may live in infamy for us media bloggers.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Spears in Tears: Britney Faces Up to a Year in Jail

Jericho, Boondocks and More Short Cuts

Jericho: The First Season arrives on DVD Oct. 2 in a six-disc, 22-episode set. My copy came packed with (real, not styrofoam) peanuts; yours, probably not.... Tuesday's premiere of CBS' Cane will be fully sponsored by Chevrolet and thus feature limited commercial breaks.... Season 2 of Aaron McGruder's The Boondocks premieres on Adult Swim Oct. 8 at 11:30 pm/ET.... Charles Durning will receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award when the 14th Annual SAG Awards are presented on Jan. 27, 2008.... From Oct. 2 to Nov. 7, Starbucks will give away a total of 50 million free "Song of the Day" downloads, starting with Bob Dylan's "Joker Man," to promote a new iTunes wireless service.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Baby Talk: Dancing Host Drops, Salma's Bebé and More

Dancing with the Stars cohost Samantha Harris welcomed her and husband Michael Hess' first child, a daughter named Josselyn, on Sunday morning, E! reports. Harris' DWTS replacement will be introduced on Monday night's season premiere, an ABC rep tells TVGuide.com. (My money is on Season 1 champion Kelly Monaco). UPDATE: Another champ, Drew Lachey, got the gig instead.... Ugly Betty producer Salma Hayek and her fiancé, François Henri Pinault, over the weekend became the parents of a baby girl named Valentina Paloma Pinault. No other details were released.... Wales-born singer Charlotte Church gave birth to a baby girl late last week, says People.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Baby Talk: Dancing Host Drops, Salma's Bebé and More

Bewitched's Alice Ghostley Dead at 81

Alice Ghostley, who is best known to television audiences for her roles on Bewitched and Designing Women, died on Friday after a long battle with colon cancer. She was 81. In the 1960s, the AP notes, Ghostley received a Tony nod for the comedy The Beauty Part and eventually won the award for The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. From 1969 to '72, she played good witch/ditzy housekeeper Esmeralda on Bewitched. From '87 to '93 she was Designing Women's Bernice, a role for which she netted an Emmy nom.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

Marcel Marceau Dead at 84

It is a sad day, indeed.

Mon, Sep 24, 2007

For Charisma, Trump's Out, Other Big Shots Are In

So much for that car-wash task dream. Buffyverse alumna Charisma Carpenter will not be toiling for the Donald after all on the celebrity Apprentice. Rather, she has booked a one-shot gig on Fox's Back to You, and, more importantly, a recurring run on the new ABC drama Big Shots. Details on Carpenter's Big Shots role are being kept hush-hush, though it is said she has a connection to Christopher Titus' character. Carpenter first appears in the Nov. 1 episode.Maybe she works at a car wash? OK, OK, I'll give up on that.

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

For Charisma, Trump's Out, Other Big Shots Are In

CBS' Mother, Free Fox Episodes Eye iTunes

Conspicuously MIA from the Apple service for its first two seasons,How I Met Your Mother is suiting up for iTunes starting Tuesday, the morning after the Season 3 premiere airs on CBS. Mother also will be available on Amazon's Unbox.Meanwhile, iTunes is now offering for free the first episodes of Back to You, Kitchen Nightmares and K-Ville, as well as Prison Break, American Dad, Bones and 'Til Death, for two weeks starting the day after their respective premieres.

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

CBS' Mother, Free Fox Episodes Eye iTunes

SNL Gets in Tune with... Spoon? Oh, and Bon Jovi, Too

Saturday Night Live has revealed its lineup for the first three weeks of the new season. As previously reported, the late-nighter returns on Sept. 29 with 'baller host LeBron James and musical guest Kanye West. (Have I mentioned how much he rocked the TV Guide after-Emmys party? It was insanity.)On Oct. 6, Superbad auteur Seth Rogen oversees the show, with musical guest Spoon. (No relation to the Loving Spoonfuls, I imagine.) Then on the 13th, we get Jon Bon Jovi as host with the Foo Fighters delivering the tunes.

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

SNL Gets in Tune with... Spoon? Oh, and Bon Jovi, Too

Sex and the City Shoot Spills Big (and Bigger) Spoilers

Unless  and I wouldn't put it past that crafty Michael Patrick King  they are merely staging some "scenes" to be spied/misreported by the paparazzi, the well-documented and -photographed Sex and the City: The Movie location shoot in New York City is letting slip a few plot details. For one, it has been reported that (Possi-spoiler alert) Big springs a mammoth sparkler on Carrie, perhaps setting up the rumored wedding. And on Thursday, paps snapped Chris Noth in a sidewalk scene with a full-term pregnancy-pad-sporting Kristin Davis, indicating that Charlotte and Harry finally got a bun cooking in the oven.

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

Sex and the City Shoot Spills Big (and Bigger) Spoilers

Logo and The L Word Agree, "Lez Be Friends"

The LGBT-friendly Logo cable network announced on Thursday that it has acquired the first five seasons of the groundbreaking Showtime drama series The L Word, which it will bring to commercial television for the first time come summer of 2008. (It's going to take almost a year to edit out all the ------ing, ---ing and double-----ing content.)

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

Justice League Recasts Supe and Bat, More Movie News

Happy Feet helmer George Miller's big-screen adaptation of the Justice League of America comic books will feature Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter, as well as two familiar yet "new" faces. With Christian Bale and Brandon Routh engaged in new entries in the Batman and Superman franchises, JLA is expected to cast other actors, likely unknowns, in the key roles.... Also per the Reporter, Brad Pitt is in talks to play the brother/trainer of Mark Wahlberg's "Irish" Mickey Ward in The Fighter. Pitt would replace Matt Damon, who had to bow out due to scheduling.... Giovanni Ribisi is joining Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez for James Cameron's 3-D Avatar.... Katherine Heigl has optioned rights to the best-selling novel Lost & Found, which she will produce with her mom, says Variety.

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

Rather: Gov't, Big Biz's Influence on News Spurred Lawsuit

Dan Rather on Thursday explained that the increasing influence of the government and large corporations on networks' news reporting spurred his decision to poke the Eye with a $70 million lawsuit. "Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive, with the level of big corporate and big-government interference and intimidation on news," he said on Larry King Live. Relating the topic to his being cast as a "scapegoat" by CBS in the wake of his controversial story on President Bush's military service, he said, "They sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing... they undermined a lot at CBS News."

Fri, Sep 21, 2007

Rather: Gov't, Big Biz's Influence on News Spurred Lawsuit