michael.ausiello

Scott Speeds Out of L.A.

In anticipation of the seemingly inevitable actors strike on July 1, card-carrying members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) are busy searching for an answer to the question: How many films can one thespian make in three months? Well, Felicity heartthrob Scott Speedman is preoccupied with a query of his own: How many road trips can one twentysomething male squeeze into his spring/summer hiatus? "I need to take a break," Speedman tells TV Guide Online on the Felicity set, where he's taping the show's season finale. "I don't feel like acting right now. I'm going to get out of Los Angeles for a while... and refill and get excited about acting again... I'm not going to work just because of a strike." As it is, the Duets star believes Hollywood's obsession with quantity over quality will show in the end. "Studios are rushing a bunch of s-

Fri, Apr 13, 2001

Felicity Coed to Re-Enroll

Former Felicity heroine Amy Jo Johnson  who was written off the show last fall after a handful of episodes  will likely return to the WB drama sometime next season. Of course, that is if there is a next season. "It's at least for one episode, but it's a good episode," Felicity executive producer, J.J. Abrams, tells TV Guide Online of Johnson's comeback. "I love the story, so I'm hoping if we get picked up [for a fourth year], we'll be able to do it." When last we saw Johnson's angst-ridden Julie, she had quit college in the wake of her father's death. And although Abrams isn't revealing specifics about how the coed will be reintroduced, he does hint that it will be part of an ongoing plot involving other members of the show's ensemble. "My favorite stories are usually ones that open up a new possibility for someone else," he says. "And I think the story we have in mind cou

Thu, Apr 12, 2001

Felicity: She Shoots, She Scores

After a four-month winter break, Felicity  the WB's little college dramedy that could  returns in exactly one week with the first of six new episodes and an answer to the loaded question: Who was gunned down at the title heroine's holiday mixer? Unfortunately, it's a puzzle some fans have already solved. "We were shooting a scene the other day at the library, and there were a lot of extras [on the set] and our new prop guy was explaining to them who the [victim(s)] was," groans leading lady Keri Russell. "I was like, 'Oh great.' Every single one of those 20 kids are going on the Internet right now, saying, 'I know who it is.'" Well, the fact that anyone actually cares who got shot is a marked improvement over a year ago, when Felicity  still on the mend after a disastrous move to Sunday nights  was itself knocking at death's door. "I was 100 percent sure we were cancel

Wed, Apr 11, 2001

Uphill Battle for Jack &#038 Jill

Tomorrow night, Jack &#038 Jill closes out its sophomore season on the WB with a possible wedding between the show's title characters (played by Ivan Sergei and Amanda Peet). But if the couple actually make it down the aisle, their honeymoon could be a short-lived affair: Insiders speculate that the buzz-starved series will fetch a cancellation notice from the network. As part of the WB's unique programming strategy, Jack &#038 Jill moved into Felicity's Wednesday night timeslot in January  kicking off 13 weeks of consecutive original episodes. However, J&#038J failed to capitalize on the impressive ratings gains made by the resurgent college dramedy  which returns next week with the first of six all-new installments. As a result, "it's got less a shot [at being renewed] than Felicity does," points out Stace

Tue, Apr 10, 2001

Survivor's Jerri Gets Last Laugh

Survivor's queen meanie, Jerri Manthey, is discovering that being labeled a bitch by all of America can be very good for business. The aspiring actress recently was cast as a gold-digging phantom menace in the Los Angeles stage comedy Lady Macbeth Gets a Divorce, and if she has her way, it'll be the first of many shady characters to come. "Being typecast as a bitch is a welcome thing," Manthey tells TV Guide Online. "I think playing the villain is much more interesting than playing the girl next door." The 30-year-old ex-Outbacker  whose role in the 1999 Showtime movie, That Championship Season, remains her most notable acting credit to date  describes her Macbeth alter ego as a villainess, but "in a perky sort of way... I play a 25-year-old woman who's dating a 70-year-old man, and she comes to New England to visit his relatives." Now, that doesn't sound so harsh. "Well, the underlying theme is poisoning," she ad

Mon, Apr 9, 2001

Survivor's Witch Reunites with Colby

Survivor's diva from Down Under, Jerri Manthey, has an ultimatum for her 26-year-old Barramundi boy toy, Colby Donaldson: Any hope of a reconciliation rests squarely on his broad shoulders. "He's going to have to be the one to approach me if he wants to reconcile stuff," she tells TV Guide Online. "Otherwise, I'll just move on." Manthey's indifference stems from recent Survivor episodes in which Donaldson revealed  via on-air confessionals  his true feelings for her. "I was a little bit hurt by some of the stuff he said," she sighs. "I thought some of it was kind of unnecessary, [like] when he said, 'Jerri doesn't deserve to win if for nothing less than the way she's treated people.' I don't know where that came from. Somebody got in his head." The 30-year-old aspiring actress  whose flirtatious relationship with the Texas-based auto designer injected the sex-starved series with some much-needed spice  admits, howev

Fri, Apr 6, 2001

American High Drama

Survivor isn't the only reality series vulnerable to controversy. A student from American High  relaunched on PBS last night after a brief four-episode run back in August on Fox  is charging that the show "poorly portrayed" her as a clingy girlfriend whose life revolved around a guy. Now, High's "principal," executive producer R.J. Cutler, is responding to the flak. In this week's TV Guide, 18-year-old High star Sarah  who in the show's initial episodes was seen doting over beau Robby  was quoted as saying she got "torn apart by the media" as a result of Cutler's depiction of her. (The couple have since graduated and broken up.) "There's a tendency [for the press] to boil the kids down to labels," Cutler tells TV Guide Online. "Bad-boy Morgan, Jock-with-a-soul Robby, Dependent-girlfriend Sarah. And it was heartbreaking for her to be called [that]. "But Sarah is not por

Thu, Apr 5, 2001

NYPD Blue Love Triangle?

Charlotte Ross is as anxious as anyone to find out with whom she's going to be paired romantically on NYPD Blue. The two-time Emmy nominee  who joined the force March 6 playing tough gal Det. Connie McDowell  has pretty much narrowed it down to two finalists: Rick Schroder or new lieutenant Esai Morales. "My guess would be that it's either going to be Rick or Esai," Ross tells TV Guide Online. "But at first, I was wondering if they were going to make me a lesbian." Such a development would come as a crushing blow to Blue's male recruits, many of whom are single and, as Ross jokingly points out, in hot pursuit. "I don't think they've brought in a new female in a while because [co-star] Henry Simmons said to me, 'Did they bring you in for me?' I'm like, 'I don't know, but I think I'm having an interoffice relationship.' And he goes, 'Did they say interracial?'" Or

Wed, Apr 4, 2001

Angels on the Outs

Joss Whedon  creator and executive producer of the WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel  has a bone to pick with 20th Century Fox, the studio behind Angel as well as the freshman smash Dark Angel. Fox's decision to pit Dark's sci-fi siren Jessica Alba against vampire sire David Boreanaz on Tuesday nights has resulted in a steep ratings decline for the Buffy spinoff, and Whedon's out for blood. "The fact that they put [Dark Angel] on opposite a show that they produce, thereby hurting it, shows that they really don't care," Whedon tells TV Guide Online. "Their big picture is clearly so big that whatever I think and whatever I am doing doesn't matter, and I resent that. But I am not the 'Big Picture Guy.' I'm just making my shows." Ma

Tue, Apr 3, 2001

Survivor Witch Still Wicked

Jerri Manthey's first shot at post-Survivor redemption has been an unqualified disaster. The Outbacker  dubbed the Wicked Witch of the West by her fellow castaways  appeared on CBS's The Early Show Friday morning and did nothing to dispel the public's perception that she's, well, evil incarnate. Consider: Regarding Kel Gleason and the now-infamous beef jerky scandal, Manthey is holding fast to her controversial and oft-disputed theory that the 32-year-old Army intelligence officer was packing meat. "I am 99 percent sure he had beef jerky," she insisted, noting that Gleason was a goner long before she made her charges public. "[While] hiking to our camp, Kel, because he's in the military... was literally barking orders at us and telling us when to stop and when to drink water. And everybody was looking at him like, 'Who is this guy?' None of that made the show. So when the beef jerky thing came up, [it] was immediately assumed by

Mon, Apr 2, 2001

Eco-Challenge's Playboy Connection

The female contestants from Survivor: The Australian Outback may look like they were plucked right from Hugh Hefner's Playboy manse (save for Mad Dog, natch), but for the latest chapter of the adventure race show, Eco-Challenge (debuting Sunday at 8 pm/ET on the USA Network), producer Mark Burnett did one better: He recruited actual Playmates. Team Playboy X-treme  one of 76 co-ed teams competing in the 320-mile race  features former pin-ups Danelle Folta (Miss April 1995), Jennifer Lavoie (Miss August 1993) and Kalin Olson (Miss August 1997). Prior to Eco-Challenge, the trio have participated in a number of expedition races, and Burnett insists that's the primary reason he brought them on board. "They're very, very fit," he says. "They're real athletes. They aren't just jumping out of the cover  you couldn't do it. They're real extreme athletes... and they applied."

Fri, Mar 30, 2001

The Long and Short of Oscar Success

Michael Dudok de Wit  the best animated short Oscar-winner who was awarded a $2,500 high-definition TV set for delivering the shortest acceptance speech  insists that he was not gunning for the high-priced prize. "When I was informed about the TV set, it sounded more like a joke than something serious," the Holland-born filmmaker tells TV Guide Online. "When you're on-stage, you don't time [your speech]. Someone asked me if there was a clock. There definitely wasn't a clock, or if there was I didn't see it." De Wit's brief remarks  in which he thanked his two producers and his wife  clocked in at a mere 18 seconds. "It felt like I was doing a standard speech," he says. "It just so happened that all of the [other winners] had speeches that were longer than standard." (He means you, Ms. Roberts.) As TV Guide Online reported Wednesday, de Wit elected to donate his state-of-the-art tube to the Los Angeles children'

Fri, Mar 30, 2001

No Backlash for CNBC's "Money Honey"

CNBC's Wall Street sensation Maria Bartiromo  aka the "Money Honey"  is pleased to report that beleaguered investors are not taking their market frustrations out on her. "I'm the messenger," she tells TV Guide Online. "People realize it's not my fault." Actually, the trailblazing journalist (she's the first person, female or male, to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange) has seen her popularity rise as the Dow and Nasdaq have plummeted. To wit, her program Market Week with Maria Bartiromo  which celebrates its one-year anniversary Friday with a one-hour special  is CNBC's fastest-growing show. "It's been an unbelievable year," marvels Bartiromo, who admits that all the economic upheaval has made her job that much more thrilling. "Just following the minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour daily fluctuations of the market has been very exciting." Bartiromo  who the National Review once call

Wed, Mar 28, 2001

The Turning Pointe

Rumors of Grosse Pointe's death and dismemberment have been greatly exaggerated. Or have they? Although the network swiftly denied a recent report in Time claiming the revered yet ratings-challenged soap spoof  which wrapped its freshman season last month  had been axed, talk persists that the former bane of Aaron Spelling's existence will never see a second year. WB entertainment co-president Jordan Levin  who just announced to TV Guide Online the imminent renewal of the network's other low-rated critical darling, Gilmore Girls  confesses that he can't make the same declaration about Grosse Pointe. However, he insists that should not be interpreted as any kind of cancellation notice. "We all love the show. We're thrilled with the critical support it has received, and it is a show that wil

Wed, Mar 21, 2001

Girls Power: WB Drama to Return

Score one for fans of quality television: The WB is on the verge of renewing its acclaimed freshman drama Gilmore Girls for a second season. "I think you'll see that Gilmore Girls is a long-term piece of the WB's schedule," WB co-president Jordan Levin tells TV Guide Online, adding that the series is a shoo-in to return next year. Gilmore Girls  which revolves around the bond between a young single mom (Lauren Graham) and her teenage daughter (Alexis Bledel)  was instantly hailed by critics as one of the season's best new offerings. And viewers seem to be catching on: Gilmore Girls has gradually developed into a modest Thursday night hit for the WB, particularly among young women. "We are thrilled with the creative performance of the show this season, as we are with the ratings trends," adds Levin. "It's a show that we're extremely proud of." It's also a show t

Tue, Mar 20, 2001

Survivor Jeff Responds to Rumors

Acid-tongued ex-Survivor contestant Jeff Varner doesn't understand why fellow castaway Alicia Calaway so quickly dismissed talk that a romance was brewing between the two of them. Appearing Thursday on CBS's The Early Show, the 32-year-old fitness trainer  and the latest player booted out of the Australian Outback  was asked if her tight relationship with Varner had progressed beyond the platonic stage. It was a suggestion she laughingly denied. "I wish she would have played into that [rumor] a little more," Varner tells TV Guide Online with a chuckle. "I would have sat there and ridden that thing like a horse." The 34-year-old adds that, "Alicia and I are great friends. A big part of our relationship is a very humorous sort of banter back and forth. We have a great time." Well, on the subject of significant others... Is the Greensboro, N.C., native spoken for? "At the moment, no," he confesses. "And with everything going on, I don't

Mon, Mar 19, 2001

James Caan Goes to Hell and Back

James Caan  who returns to the small screen Sunday night in the fact-based FX movie A Glimpse of Hell  reveals that he initially rejected the role of football star Brian Piccolo in the beloved 1971 TV pic Brian's Song for fear that it would tarnish his career. "At that time, when you did television, they thought you were out of the business," admits Caan, whose role in The Godfather earned him an Oscar nomination. "I turned [Brian's Song] down four times because of that stigma, which I think is all baloney. I think it's terrible." Caan points out that one of the reasons more and more film actors are being drawn to the boob tube  particularly cable  is the quality of the work. "Selfishly, I feel that I [have a chance to] act," he confesses. "They're doing stories that are character-driven, story-driven... they're [not] hanging me from some wire behind some green screen." It's that level of excelle

Fri, Mar 16, 2001

Judgement Day for Kathie Lee

Kathie Lee Gifford has a message for those TV critics assessing her performance in the E! original movie Spinning Out of Control: Be fair. Regis's former sidekick  who plays a pill-popping, sex-crazed sitcom star in the pic (premiering Sunday at 9 pm/ET)  admits that while "she hopes" reviewers will be impartial in their judgement of her, she's not lying awake nights worrying about it. "What can I do? I did the best work I can do, and I loved every minute of it," she tells TV Guide Online. "It's out of my hands now." So far, reviews of the film have been mixed at best, with People magazine declaring that the film "is sometimes clever" and Gifford "vaults almost gleefully over the top." That's much better than the scathing notices that greeted the release of her highly touted pop CD, Heart of a Woman. Making matters worse, the universally panned disc sold a measly 36,000 units, and the media seemed to have a field day repor

Fri, Mar 16, 2001

Alien 5 Still Alive

Sigourney Weaver was bouncing off the walls at news that she would pocket a record $25 million for going another round with those jaw-dropping slimebuckets in a fifth Alien flick. If only it were true! "The amount was thrilling," she tells TV Guide Online. "I'm supporting my husband's [Manhattan] theater, so he was thrilled that he was going to be able to sign up for another five-year lease." It's not just the amount of her paycheck that Weaver's disputing ("I would have to kill a few people to get that salary," she laughs). The Oscar-nominated actress insists that there are no "immediate plans" to do Alien 5. "As far as I know, there is no truth to any of it," she says of British tabloid reports, which surfaced last month. "My agents both called me and said, 'This is in the paper,' and I said, 'You gotta be kidding me!'" That's not to say that Weaver  who plays a con artist opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt in the comedy Hear

Thu, Mar 15, 2001

Felicity Steals Creek's Thunder

The back-from-the-brink resurgence of Felicity this fall  in terms of ratings, and some say, quality  has come at the expense of its WB lead-in, Dawson's Creek. Although the North Carolina-taped saga attracted a larger viewership than its Wednesday night cousin last fall (Felicity, currently on hiatus, returns April 18 with the first of six new episodes), there's no denying that in terms of buzz and critical acclaim, Keri Russell &#038 co. have emerged the clear winners. In fact, many critics, in their praise of Felicity, took the opportunity to bash Creek as nothing more than its inferior Wednesday night companion. TV Guide's Matt Roush called the college drama, "By far the gem in that network's assembly line of youth-oriented serials... especially when you consider the creative decline of the WB's tiresomely se

Wed, Mar 14, 2001

Ousted Survivor: "Jerri's a B#@*&!"

Jeff Varner, the conniving Internet project manager who became the latest castaway to get booted from Survivor: The Australian Outback, seems to agree with the rest of America about contestant Jerri Manthey. Appearing on CBS's The Early Show Friday morning, the 34-year-old Internet project manager from Port Washington, N.Y., admitted that as he watches the episodes play out, he can understand why Manthey is getting such a frosty reception with viewers. "In the game, she is a bitch and I can't stand her... and she needed to go," he groaned, adding that had he and his fellow Kuchas seen her true colors, they would have targeted her at Tribal Council instead of innocent hottie Colby. "She sat there with two votes beside me, and we had no idea. "The only time we ever knew anything about Ogakor is when we came [together for] the [Immunity] Challenges," added Varner. "And we just could sort of gauge their body language. And Jerri was alw

Mon, Mar 12, 2001

The Truth Behind Gunmen's Lone Crossover

X-Files creator Chris Carter had absolutely no interest in pumping the first few episodes of his spinoff series The Lone Gunmen with cameos by X symbols Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny and Robert Patrick. "I think that that's a cheap way to get ratings," Carter tells TV Guide Online. "We wanted the show to stand on its own, to live and breathe on its own." Well, judging by the ratings for last Sunday's premiere, Gunmen got by without a little help from its friends. The quirky Fox series attracted a promising 13 million viewers and won all the major adult demos. Still, Carter "wouldn't rule out" an attention-grabbing visit by one of his X-Files leads down the line, and reveals that he's already scripted a crossover for supporting player Mitch Pileggi (Assistant Director Skinner). "I don't want to give [the story] away, but I can tell you that [Skinner] gets very, very close to the character of Jimmy Bond (

Fri, Mar 9, 2001