TV Bites: Oscar-Winning Directors Demme and Condon Flock to HBO

· HBO is getting into business with some serious Academy Award talent this pilot season. The newest catch being director Jonathan Demme, who will co-write a pilot with Walter Mosley based on Mosley's detective novel series, The Long Fall. Demme is slated to direct the pilot episode in which an ex-boxer turns private investigator. Last fall, the premium cable station premiered Bored to Death about a quirky author-turned P.I. Mosley and Demme will executive produce with Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. Playtone is also behind Big Love and The Pacific at HBO. [Deadline]

Another Oscar-winner explores showbiz blogging at HBO, Joe Simpson hops onto the Nickelodeon express, and more TV Bites after the jump.

· HBO will examine entertainment blogging in a new series, Tilda, created by Oscar-winning writer-director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Chicago) and Tell Me You Love Me creator Cynthia Mort. The half-hour comedy series will focus on a "powerful female online showbiz journalist with a no-holds-barred style." Hmmm. Condon will direct the project if it goes to pilot. [Reuters]

· Joe Simpson Fans Worldwide (JSFW) unite in your support for the father/manager's foray into tween comedy. The creative genius(?) behind Jessica and Ashlee Simpson's careers is developing a series loosely based on his own experience, about a psychologist raising two daughters in Texas. Simpson will cooperate with veteran tween series producer Tommy Lynch (South of Nowhere, The Secret World of Alex Mack) and scribe Emily Cutler (Carpoolers) on the project. [THR]

· Senator Al Franken took a stand against the potential Comcast/NBC Universal/GE merger on Capital Hill yesterday. [Deadline]

· With Ugly Betty's last season slashed by two episodes, producers are fast-tracking Betty's brace removal. Series creator Silvio Horta revealed that the big event will take place in "an It's a Wonderful Life-esque journey." [EW]

· Why Lindsay Lohan has agreed to showcase her cluttered home for The Insider cameras is still a mystery -- but a mystery that Lohan's mother, Dina, supports: "She's growing up and she's been though a lot...She's trying to move forward." Also casually mentioned in the same article, Dina Lohan is executive producing her own TV talk show. [People]