TV Bites: Getting to Know Joe Halderman's Paranoiac Side

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This morning, the New York Post published part of the conversations between Robert "Joe" Halderman and David Letterman's wire-wearing lawyer in November, when the two met to "negotiate" the terms of Halderman's screenplay based on the Late Show host's staffer affairs. Records reveal that Halderman planned to sign a confidentiality agreement but still hold onto all of his proof in the event that someone fire him, burn down his house or kill him: "As I said to you, the only way to be sure that I never talk to anybody is for somebody to kill me. Well, you know, I don't want that to happen." [NYP]

Simon Cowell plans to bring David Bowie out of retirement, SpongeBob SquarePants is renewed, and more TV Bites after the jump.

· Who says David Bowie wouldn't like to judge a cheesy reality competition? Not Simon Cowell, who has discussed how much he'd like the music mogul to guest on the X Factor. Other talent that Cowell has extended invitations to include Eminem, Dr. Dre and Leonard Cohen. Although his plans seem ambitious, if anyone in the U.K. deserves those stars it's Cowell, who attracted a third of Great Britain's population to tune into the season finale on Sunday. [The Sun]

· SpongeBob SquarePants has hosted some of entertainment's most impressive guest stars this season including Johnny Depp, Tina Fey and Craig Ferguson. And now even bigger talent can visit Bikini Bottom in the show's next 26-episode season that Nickelodeon just ordered. [Reuters]

· Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley was not quite ready for Precious but is ready for Tyra Banks. The larger than life personality will replace Paulina Porizkova as the fourth judge on America's Next Top Model this season. [Zap2It]

· Although Men of a Certain Age started out strong, with 4.4 million viewers watching its premiere, the series fell almost 20% in its second week. Is it time to write that episode guest starring Doris Roberts and Brad Garrett already? [THR]



Comments

  • Men of a certain age not being able to keep it up? Shocking.

  • Seriously -- what is the over-under on erectile-dysfunction drugs pushed between segments of that show? That alone would scare me off. The extent of my regular TV viewing these days is probably Monday Night Football, and I've pretty much got the Cialis chest pains/nitrates/drop-in-blood-pressure warnings memorized. Haunting!

  • Martini Shark says:

    How many in L.A. coffee houses right now are banging out their treatment centereed on a struggling writer who uses an extortion of a television personality as a ruse to sell a screenplay. I see Michael C. Hall as "The Talk Show Host", and Tom Sizemore makes a comeback as the bi-polar writer.

  • Dave says:

    MOCA got 5.4 in the first outing, not 4.4. And so far not one erectile dysfunction ad!