At the onset of the American Idol season, we offered our tips about how to deal with Simon Cowell's departure from the show. Now, as the finale's laser cannons cool and the fifteen metric tons of confetti dumped on the Nokia Theaters revelers is being vacuumed up, it's finally time to say farewell.
Goodbye, Simon Cowell.
The MTV Movie Awards are more known for categories like "Best Kiss," "Most Desirable Female," and the prestigious "Let's-Give-Jim Carrey-An-Award-Since-It's-An-Even-Numbered-Year Award" than for honoring movies of real prestige, but a new promo with host Aziz Ansari, Jeremy Renner in Hurt Locker fatigues, and Justin Bieber suggests the ceremony wants to turn around its rep and award critically acclaimed gems. There's just one problem: The Hurt Locker isn't nominated for any MTV Movie Awards. Oh well. Look at little Bieber flashing some stink-eye!
After the early demise of ABC's sci-fi series FlashForward, speculation is rising that the network may try to retain its crestfallen Lost fanbase with a remake of Alias. Discussions about rebooting J.J. Abrams' fantastic Jennifer Garner series are reportedly in very initial stages, which is sort of exciting if you're a starved fanatic of the original. Still, I hope these early talks never move beyond ABC producers' nostalgic roundhouse kicks in the mirror, because a certain rumor about this potential remake reminds us of the CW's upcoming Nikita, and in the worst way possible.
According to Michael Ausiello, ABC is considering Maura Tierney for the role that Joely Richardson abandoned on the network's new legal drama The Whole Truth. Tierney was originally attached to NBC's Parenthood last year but was forced to drop out to undergo treatment for cancer (Lauren Graham replaced her). The NewsRadio alum will also be reprising her role on Rescue Me during the show's upcoming fifth season. [EW]
ABC's other time-warping supernatural thriller, FlashForward ends tonight. I guess the network cares about frivolous things like ratings instead of my long-standing affection for Gabrielle Union. Still, if there's any episode to watch of FlashForward, it's this one: the show's mystery gets pretty much solved and we're all zapped into a perpetual present. That last part is sort of like the end of most Chekhov plays. Grim!
Jimmy Fallon threw one helluva party last night. You should have been there. And by there, I mean on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's blog, where the host and his writers threw a virtual viewing party of his show. But instead of just providing commentary of Jake Gyllenhaal doing karate, Jimmy performed an acoustic version of the Bee Gees' "You Don't Love Somebody," fantasized about owning a chain of specialty spinach-dip restaurants and cold-called a fan on speakerphone. Oh, and then he told one behind-the-scenes Saturday Night Live anecdote that has never been heard -- at least via NBC's live-stream -- before.
Curse you, Marriage Ref, for making anyone believe that it is acceptable for celebrities to offer relationship advice to strangers. Sadly, Lifetime is making Jerry Seinfeld's evil experiment a trend by developing a similarly-formatted series for Heidi Klum. And they're positioning it as a Project Runway spin-off.
If watching Lost taught you anything -- besides that you never tell John Locke what he can't do -- it's that Michael Emerson is quite good at playing a role that requires him to coerce, misdirect and flat-out lie. So take this bit of news with a slight grain of salt, just because -- well, it's coming from the man who brought Benjamin Linus to life. Appearing on Attack of the Show on G4, Emerson revealed that there will be a 12-14 minute epilogue on the Lost complete series DVD set that will center on what happened when Hurley took control of the Island. Hint: Mr. Clucks for everyone! After the jump, video of Emerson -- doing his best McLovin' impression -- and a crackpot theory as to what the final epilogue might actually be.
Give it up for Jake Gyllenhaal, who appeared on three different late night shows in as many days. On Monday, he busted David Letterman's chops for recycling interview questions. On Tuesday, he anthropomorphized his Prince of Persia weave on Jimmy Kimmel Live! And last night, he sang about hedgehogs with Jimmy Fallon while wearing a yellow jogging suit. Click through for that bizarre show of talent, and the other highlights you missed last night while crying Nancy Kerrigan-style over the American Idol outcome.
Well, Lee DeWyze won American Idol's ninth season. There he is crying for us all, and it's not enough. I'm doing my modified Nancy Kerrigan-in-intense-pain impersonation, personally. "DeWhyyyyyyyyyyze! DeWhhhhhhyyyyze!" I caw. Ugh. That conclusion was a billy club to the knee. You could say the show's ninth season was its worst yet (I know I did.), but a Crystal Bowersox win would've rectified some of the angst. Instead, Idol served a lukewarm DeWyze victory at the end of what was an otherwise tremendous finale, and now the whole 120 minutes reeks of an abandoned paint store. I said it.
Fear not: There's plenty of good for all of us to discuss from last night's celebration -- namely a ranking of the evening's top 10 performances. By the time we're done, we'll make our decision about Idol's real winner. Haterade on tap!
· Last week, Movieline reviewed the trailer for CBS's upcoming cop drama Blue Bloods -- a preview snippet that opened with with the teaser... "From the executive producers of The Sopranos." While Blue Bloods' creators, Mitchell Burgess and Robin Green, were executive producers on the HBO series, Sopranos creator David Chase took offense with the network's marketing. Vulture reports that Chase was unhappy that viewers might mistakenly assume that the Tom Selleck series was from the same person who birthed Tony Soprano, and that woulda been a problem. In response to a request by HBO lawyers, CBS removed the Sopranos credit from some promotional materials. [Vulture]
CBS is locked out of a CIA series, USA Network gets into the limo business, and more TV Bites after the jump.
Though Conan O'Brien's permanent gig on TBS is still months away, the angelic forces behind Team Coco will tide us over next month with a new special. According to our sister site Deadline, sidekick Andy Richter and fellow writer/musician Reggie Watts will star in Team Coco Presents Conan's Writers Live, a one-hour special based on a Los Angeles stage show. Full details follow, including the airdate and our caveats for television variety specials.
Here's one way to ensure that Sandra Bullock shows up to your network event: present her with an award. The Oscar winner's publicist confirmed that Bullock will be attending the MTV Movie Awards on June 6 to accept the MTV Generation Award, but of course, she won't be available for any kind of interview. Her ex Jesse James is more than happy to pick up her slack on that front. [People]
Whittling down American Idol's ninth season to its best performances isn't a difficult task, because the standout moments hold up and resonate weeks (even months) later. The trick is ranking the best riffs of Crystal Bowersox, the finest croons of Lee DeWyze, and the kitschy caterwauls of Siobhan Magnus. Depending on your criteria for stellar Idol showmanship, any of those could rank at #1, but after much nail-biting and revising, Movieline has ranked the best ten Idol performances in a definitive list. Let's fight.
Ellen Page has joined Tilda, HBO's thinly veiled Nikki Finke comedy from Oscar-winning writer/director Bill Condon. The pilot stars Diane Keaton as an intimidating Hollywood blogger and Page as "a morally conflicted creative assistant" in whom Tilda takes a special interest. Guess this means that Stitch N' Bitch (the HBO project that the Juno alum was producing with Alia Shawkat and Har Mar Superstar) is dead. [EW]
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