A court in Zurich has approved Roman Polanski's bail request, which they've set at $4.5 million. Under the deal, he'd be allowed to leave the alpine prison that holds him and return to his Swiss chalet at the Gstaad ski resort, where he'd be under house arrest and subject to 24-hour electronic surveillance. Until the Swiss Justice Ministry decides whether or not to appeal the court's decision, however, he remains in jail. The 76-year-old is considered a flight risk, but the court concluded the amount is high enough to discourage him from skipping out a second time on justice. Presiding Judge Cornelia Cova wrote this in his decision: "As a responsible family father and with regard to his advanced age, the value of financial security for his family has a greater meaning than for a relatively younger person." The Los Angeles County district attorney's office declined comment, as did Polanski's own attorney. The U.S. made a formal request for extradition on Oct. 22nd. Developing...
· Polanski Is Granted $4.5 Million Bail by Swiss Court [Bloomberg/AP]
Are you having trouble completing your holiday wish list? It might be because Oprah has not aired her legendary "Favorite Things" episode (and that 60s show does not count). Harpo staffers confirmed that Oprah would not be airing the Thanksgiving week special, but did not give a reason for removing her epic give-away from the production schedule this year. [Huffington Post]
· Invictus screenwriter Anthony Peckham will pen the script for DreamWorks' Deep Sea Cowboys, based on a Wired article about a salvage crew who tries to save the dangerous cargo from a capsized Japanese ship and claim its reward. They are aided in the seemingly impossible task by an army of [SPOILER ALERT!] vengeful dolphins. [THR]
Next in Ink: Kat wields a hammer; a serving of Stockard and Timothy; MGM on the block.
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· IGN has an extended clip of a chase sequence from Avatar, which finds Sam Worthington attempting to elude the brutal Thanator, designed by James Cameron himself. Watching it, I couldn't help but think of George Clooney's "What's in your backpack" speech from Up in the Air -- the answer, George, is a CG creature's razor-sharp incisors. (The clip is after the jump, provided IGN's iffy embedding situation sorts itself out.)
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Though she abandoned Twitter in a Miley Cyrus-led exodus, Courtney Love is now posting her barely-decipherable public missives at her Facebook fanpage. You'd be forgiven if you missed the memo about her new online home, but after today, we're thinking a lot more people will know about it -- especially the lawyers for Edward Norton and Britney Spears.
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USA's Burn Notice will be back for a fourth season, claims EW, who says that the renewal was only secured yesterday; reports surfaced in July that the fourth season was already a done deal. The 16-episode season will likely begin next summer following the second half of season three, which commences this January. Coming on the heels of Psych's fifth-season renewal, the USA network once again substantiates itself as a stronghold for our most irascible '80s drama stars. Plus, if Psych doesn't tickle your imbalanced neurons, Lie to Me is officially ready to rivet them with another full season. [EW]
Slowly but surely, MTV has transformed The Real World from a house full of diverse young people to a laboratory that creates drunken meatheads for use in the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Given that, perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised that the channel took the format to its logical extreme with next month's Jersey Shore -- a docudrama about, and I quote, "the hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos" that New Jersey has to offer -- but one group of Italian-Americans is up in arms about the show (the trailer is excerpted after the jump).
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Muppet productions are rarely quiet affairs, but the crew's new cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" is gargantuan in scope -- and now, in viral magnitude. Sixty creatures from the Muppet workshop appear in yet another tribute to a classic band, and this time, no one invoked any dubious vacation spots.
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Woody Allen's always had a way with coaxing his actresses to awards glory, but his newest ingenue may prove a tall order. French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy confirmed that the filmmaker has asked her to appear in his next film (which will shoot in Paris in 2010) and that she's accepted the offer. "I don't know for what role but I said yes," she said. "Perhaps I will be very bad." Couldn't go worse than The Simpsons! [WSJ]
· Rolling Stone has finally discovered Taylor Lautner, and is making him play beach football, for some reason.
· J.J. Abrams did approach Matt Damon to star in his Star Trek reboot...but as Kirk's father, not Kirk himself.
· A clip from The Simpsons featuring the Sarkozys has become a viral smash in France. Maybe it's a little funnier once it's translated?
· Curb Your Enthusiasm managed its biggest season finale in five years, thanks to the cast of Seinfeld.
· Why is Cuddy hooking up with Lucas on House? "He's really well hung," says her portrayer, Lisa Edelstein. Sorry, that deserved a spoiler alert.
According to a new study by TV By the Numbers, "upscale viewers" (meaning viewers in the 18-49 demographic who pull down $100,000 a year) prefer watching Glee to any other show on television. In addition to perky, singing-and-dancing high school students, the well-to-do demographic enjoys winding down with NBC sitcoms 30 Rock, The Office and Community. Curiously, The Suze Orman Show is nowhere on the list. [TVByTheNumbers]
Blogs were abuzz about the curious cover of W that appeared to shear off Demi Moore's hip, and now Pop Culture Madness has uncovered a new wrinkle in the case (one that will soon be airbrushed over, natch). According to their detectives, Moore's head was transposed onto the body of runway model Anja Rubik, and they've got the pictures to prove it. Are we sure this isn't some overly elaborate promotion for Avatar? [Pop Culture Madness]
· Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider's first autonomous DreamWorks project since securing $825 million in movie-rupees will be ... a Shawn Levy film. Real Steel, described as a "Rocky-esque robot tale," was one of the projects Spielberg snatched on his way off the Paramount lot. It will star the always in-demand Hugh Jackman, who'll play a fight promoter in a future where the sport is played by robots. He finds a discarded droid who keeps winning against all odds, until a climactic prize fight when the pummeled boxer wheels over to the ropes, and shouts out to his robo-girlfriend, "A-3N! A-3NNNNNNN!" (I wish I could say, "Thanks, folks -- I'll be here all week," but luckily for you it's Thanksgiving.) [Variety]
Next up in Ink: Judd's hot for Aziz's pitch; BMW wants back in; Tommy Lee Jones has creative differences with himself.
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· And here I thought everyone was nodding off around me at New Moon because of the pacing and dialogue! [TMZ]
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Just a month after sacking showrunner Marc Guggenheim, ABC is halting production on its freshman sci-fi series, FlashForward. The show has been picked up for a full season order but hit a ratings low last week. ABC sources allege that the break was budgeted in production schedules. Meanwhile, ABC's other rookie series, Cougar Town, is already back in production after shutting down briefly last week so star Courteney Cox could deal with a "family matter." [EW]
