TV Bites: ESPN Fulfills Your Fantasy of Sweaty, 3-D Athletes

· ESPN is gambling that its viewers would really like to be watching those college football games on their big screen TVs in 3-D and is launching the industry's first 3-D network, ESPN 3D this summer. The new outlet will feature 85 live sporting events beginning June 11 with the 2010 FIFA World Cup match. ESPN has been testing 3-D for years, even showing a USC-Ohio State college football game in 3-D in select movie theaters. [THR]

CNN bans Kathy Griffin, Mischa Barton tries her hand at prostitution, and more TV Bites after the jump.

· Congratulations to Adam Carolla who sold an untitled comedy pilot to NBC. The Man Show host will star in the project, about a contractor who embarks on rebuilding his life after a divorce, and produce the show with Jackhole Industries, the company he shares with Jimmy Kimmel. [THR]

· Ellen Page has dipped her toe into the television advertisement pool. Surprisingly, she is not promoting hamburger phones, orange tic tacs or blue slurpies but Cisco. [New York Magazine]

· CNN has banned Kathy Griffin from its network after the comedienne again rang in the new year by dropping unexpected profanity into her CNN live broadcast with Anderson Cooper. A CNN executive proclaimed that Griffin was "a total embarrassment to the network that calls themselves 'The Most Trusted Name in News." [Popeater]

· The economy is so bad right now that Mischa Barton will recover from her fast-cancelled The Beautiful Life by working the streets...as a prostitute named Gladys on Law & Order: SVU. [<a href="

http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/01/mischa-barton-to-play-a-prostitute-on-law-order-svu.html">Zap2It]

· Dawson is about to explore his womanizing ways. James Van Der Beek has scored a recurring role on NBC's Mercy as a serial dating ICU chief harboring a dark secret. [<a href="

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60405G20100105?type=televisionNews">Reuters]

· Martin Lawrence is executive producing a "sexy comedy" for TV One called Love That Girl! that targets a black audience. The show features The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's Tatyana Ali as a young divorcee who returns home to Southern California, takes a job with her family's real estate business and lives with her unemployed brother. [<a href="

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3iff920e6ff97162aef8a49e845eaa73ea">THR]