If you thought that Conan O'Brien was legally prohibited from appearing on television, you were right. But if you thought that meant that George Lopez could not use his likeness in bits recycled straight from NBC, you were wrong. Until Conan makes his cable debut in November, expect more of those pilfered segments and Desi-Lucille comparisons ("A Latino and a redhead. It's worked before. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. [We'll be a] same-sex Lucy and Ricky!"). Click through to see George Lopez kick off the LOCO fanfare, Kevin "Kev" Eubanks break up with Jay Leno, and the other highlights you missed from last night's afterhours programming.
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Steven Seagal is a movie star, a Tibetan Buddhist, a musician, a martial artist, a writer/producer, a deputy sheriff -- and now, thanks to a lawsuit filed by a former employee of his -- an alleged sexual harasser. Details of the case, along with the reasons why you should be thanking your lucky stars you are not on Mr. Seagal's payroll, after the jump.
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Since the kids on Gossip Girl are too young to get married -- but not too young to own hotels or work in the fashion industry -- the traditional wedding episode that you'd expect to see in the third season of a series fell to the likes of Dorota the maid and her boyfriend, Vanya the doorman. And while their "bedding" -- as Vanya called it in his best John Malkovich-in-Rounders accent -- was adorable, it was like a daisy growing out of a garbage heap. For the rest of the characters, last night's Gossip Girl, "The Unblairable Lightness of Being," offered the usual array of lying, cheating, back-stabbing and even a little heartbreak (say it ain't so, Blair and Chuck!). Oh, and puns. Lots of patented, Gossip Girl-voiced, puns. How did they all rank? To the list!
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Instead of grading yesterday's Dancing with the Stars rumba/tango night using the judges' scores as a rubric, why don't we base the winning performance on what really matters? I'm talking about how close judge Bruno Tonioli came to a staggering heart attack. That's the tell of real artistry. After the jump, we revisit the nine remaining performers' routines, rate Tonioli's bodily response on a scale from 1 (inert) to 10 (meth-splattered convulsions), and reinterpret his critiques as we remembered them. We also listed the real scores for your statistical pleasure.
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· In a coup for much-feared Hollywood bloggers everywhere, Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton is considering joining their ranks for HBO's Tilda. Keaton would play the title character in the half-hour comedy series from Oscar-winning writer/director Bill Condon and Tell Me You Love Me creator Cynthia Mort. And for the hundredth time, the project is allegedly not based on Nikki Finke. In case you missed it, here is Movieline's exclusive casting breakdown for the project. [EW]
AMC makes a Killer casting choice, Syfy makes Roadkill fun, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Mark April 12, 2010 down as one of the most bizarre days for late night announcements in history. First, Conan O'Brien psyched out industry insiders by inking a five-year deal with TBS instead of Fox. And now, Kevin Eubanks has officially announced that he is departing The Tonight Show after 18 glorious years with Jay Leno. To make things weirder, Jay Leno responded to the news by saying that he would miss their date nights.
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Only a couple weeks after S. Epatha Merkerson announced her departure from the pretty-much-deflated Law & Order, producer Dick Wolf appears to have a new L&O iteration for us. According to Deadline, NBC has picked up Law and Order: Los Angeles (aka LOLA) for a 13-episode order this fall. After a generation of arrest and prosecution, can we really handle another version of L&O, let alone one without the oaken timbre of Sam Waterston's voice? TVLine's instant-messaging monarchs are raring to prove we can -- in just a few steps:
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It's only been a matter of hours since Conan O'Brien announced that he will depart network television for TBS, and already, the network has posted a promo on their website celebrating their latest acquisition. The same way that NBC speedily transformed Jay Leno's primetime ads (you know, the ones with the vintage blue convertible speeding down PCH?) into Jay Leno's Tonight Show 2.0 commercials, TBS has hastily doctored Conan's fan art to celebrate the impending Conan era. The evidence, after the jump.
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Your head is probably still spinning from today's announcement that Conan O'Brien will topline a late night talk show on TBS in November, which is shocking because a) Conan and Fox had been dancing the negotiation tango for months and b) Conan O'Brien, former Tonight Show host, is going to TBS. The Time Warner-owned cable channel gave Conan an 11:00 PM position in front of Lopez Tonight (George Lopez has already dubbed the power comedy block "LO-CO"), but what was in the package deal that made it an offer he could not refuse? The LAT provides context:
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Celebrity Apprentice embraced its noxious body odor last night with a challenge concerning Right Guard deodorant commercials. The teams were forced to create two ads, one 30-second version and one 10-second version for "viral" purposes. Because this is Susan Boyle-level material going on. Dame Holly Robinson-Peete felt the occasion warranted discussion of her kids' armpit stank, and Bret Michaels found multiple -- and justified -- reasons to burst into tears. But that's just the beginning! There's two dozen more excruciating moments where they came from.
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America Ferrera will kick start her post-Ugly Betty career by executive producing a multicultural, interactive telenovela for MTV called Pedro & Maria. The series is being developed by MTV television and a few Web platforms including Ben Silverman's new multimedia studio Electus. Pedro & Maria is described as a modern-day Romeo & Juliet that will give viewers the chance to vote on the direction the characters and story lines take. [NY Post]
If you are still on the fence about whether to fork over $30 for Kitty Kelley's unauthorized Oprah biography, Movieline is here to help by sorting out the bombshells after the jump. If you are still intrigued, head on over to Amazon, and if not, why don't you pour yourself a cup of coffee and sink into an easy chair opposite Tony Hopkins or Emma Stone. Oh -- and have your grain of salt at the ready:
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On the morning of Conan O'Brien's first Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television stop, NBC faces some good and some bad Tonight Show news. The good being that the audience has increased more than 50 percent from Coco's average. The bad being that the median age of the audience has also climbed more than 10 years to 56 years old, posing a potential risk to advertisers. Maybe NBC should just rip a page out of the playbook of the late night show with the youngest demo -- Lopez Tonight, which boasts a median age of 33 -- with some Chola makeovers. Si? [NYT]
This morning, there are two people rooting for a televised Jon Gosselin-Kate Gosselin reunion: Jon Gosselin and Jon Gosselin's lawyer. The lawyer, former assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony F. List, has been dropping hints to news outlets this weekend like, "under the right circumstances" Jon is "definitely open" to co-starring with his ex-wife on another television program. Meanwhile, Jon is still asking for legal custody of the children, claiming that his wife is "addicted to the paparazzi." Jon, you can't have it both ways -- you either ask your ex to throw you a pity project after she finishes shooting Dancing with the Stars or you screw her by taking custody of the children. Pick one. [TMZ]
Fox finds another actor to Ride-Along with, NBC casts another Pink House resident, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Before Conan O'Brien starts his 30-city nationwide tour tomorrow night in Eugene, Oregon, he better plan on giving a big hello to Mark Metzger. Who's that? Well Metzger is the general manager and vice president of Eugene's Fox affiliate, KLSR, and he's just one of the people that could prevent Conan from becoming a late night television fixture once again.
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