· Keri Russell might rejoin the television ranks for her first regular role since Felicity. The potential project, Wilde Kingdom, is Fox's latest comedy pilot from Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz, which already stars Will Arnett as a Beverly Hills jackass. Russell would play a tree-hugging woman whom Arnett's character falls in love with -- only to realize that she does not feel the same way about him, his lifestyle or his values. Hurwitz will direct the single-cam pilot, which he co-wrote with Arnett and Development writer-producer Jim Vallely. [THR]
Judy Greer and Jason Biggs find comedy pilots, Mr. T. shatters Seth MacFarlane's dreams, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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I had the weirdest dream last night. I really wanted a new Conan O'Brien show, and I thought I was about to get it. I don't even know what it was called. It wasn't The Tonight Show, it wasn't Late Night, it may not have even been a show. It seemed like just some environment, Pandora without the towering blue Species That Shall Not Be Named or those six-legged horses or the floating iridescent mollusks tumbling out of the sky, but you know. That kind of stage-lit extraterrestrial space. Halogen and hairspray, a desk, and there was Triumph, chomping, chomping.
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Last night's massive ABC special The Bachelor: Jason and Molly's Wedding united two troubadours of love. We had Jason Mesnick, who once valiantly tried to marry someone else, and his new bride Molly Malaney, who was still available for his call. Movieline's TVLine department had much to say about the epic, rain-drenched nuptials.
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Starz has been anxious to get underway on the second season of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (even renewing the series before it premiered), but the network may have to wait a little longer. Star Andy Whitfield has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and will begin treatment immediately, pushing back the start of production, which was set to begin in just a few weeks. Between Whitfield's diagnosis and the Hodgkin's lymphoma that Michael C. Hall has battled, it's a scary season for pay-cable leads. Get well soon, guys! [EW]
Conan O'Brien's Twitter account has garnered 600,000 followers since its February 24 debut, meaning he's the most beloved canceled TV star since at least Tony Danza. Any Twitterer who bequeaths us the line, "Hey gang! Look for me at the Oscars tonight. I'll be in the parking lot, wearing my prom tux and listening on the radio" is a worthy Internet institution. But on March 5, Coco added to his legacy by randomly choosing one Twitterer to follow -- a Michigan native named Sarah Killen. Since then, two things have happened to Ms. Killen. 1) She's picked up 18,000 followers. 2) She's picked up everything she ever wanted.
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The most awkward moment from Sunday night's Oscar telecast was the acceptance speech hijacking from one Music by Prudence key player, Roger Ross Williams, to another, Elinor Burkett, or as Jon Stewart ID-ed her, "the woman who runs the snack counter at my synagogue's Purim festival." But there is only one person in Hollywood who could present Roger Ross Williams with the opportunity to re-do his speech on live television and then, miraculously, make the moment only more awkward. And that person is Larry King.
After the jump, Movieline breaks the awkwardness down into seven cringe-worthy components.
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In a skin-crawlingly mean-spirited rant delivered on his radio show yesterday, Howard Stern, egged on by sidekick Robin Quivers, laid into Oscar-nominated Precious star Gabourey Sidibe. Calling her "the most enormous fat black chick I've ever seen," Stern predicted that "she's never going to have another shot. What movie is she going to be in? Blind Side 2? She can take out the whole front line...Listen honey, now you got a little money in the bank, go get yourself thin. You're going to die in like, three years."
Audio, and delicious comeuppance, after the jump.
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In a skin-crawlingly mean-spirited rant delivered on his radio show yesterday, Howard Stern, egged on by sidekick Robin Quivers, laid into Oscar-nominated Precious star Gabourey Sidibe. Calling her "the most enormous fat black chick I've ever seen," Stern predicted that "she's never going to have another shot. What movie is she going to be in? Blind Side 2? She can take out the whole front line...Listen honey, now you got a little money in the bank, go get yourself thin. You're going to die in like, three years."
Audio, and delicious comeuppance, after the jump.
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You know an Academy Awards show is boring when the best fodder for late night programs is a non-celebrity stage-crashing. Last night, both David Letterman and Jon Stewart paid tribute to the Oscar's breakout star, Elinor Burkett, with one using an orange wig and the other, wildlife. Those clips, as well as the other highlights you missed last night while weeping over Ticketmaster's denial of a Conan O'Brien comedy tour, after the jump.
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Last week, Sarah Palin took advantage of her appearance on the second night of the new Tonight Show with Jay Leno to test out that stand-up routine that she had (certainly not) been tinkering with for the past few years. A few nights later, Chelsea Handler told Jay Leno on-air that he had been "way too nice" to the former governor of Alaska, Megan Mullally dissed the routine to Movieline and Palin celebrated her controversial debut by wreaking havoc on an Oscar gifting suite. But it was another claim -- by studio audience members who had witnessed Palin's segments first-hand -- that got more media coverage and an official response from NBC.
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What better way to start a bright, sunny spring morning than by hearing the minute-by-minute details of Harry Smith's colonscopy? The Early Show anchor will one-up his intrepid colleague Katie Couric by undergoing the procedure live on Wednesday's episode; Couric reported on her own colonoscopy during an Evening News segment back in 2000. You know, kind of like the Census? But with colonoscopies. Use the bathroom before you come to work tomorrow, Early Show staff. [AP]
· Nick Nolte is in final negotiations to join the Michael Mann-directed HBO series Luck, about the world of horse racing. The series, created by horse-owner David Milch, previously cast Dustin Hoffman in the lead role an intuitive veteran gambler. Kevin Dunn also joins the cast as a prodigious misanthrope who is the ringmaster of a syndicate of misfits. If negotiations go through, Nolte will play the trainer of a top racehorse. John Ortiz and Dennis Farina round out the cast. Nolte's last major TV part was over three decades ago, in an ABC miniseries called Rich Man, Poor Man. [THR]
Tom Cavanagh finds another role as an Ed, Jean Smart lands a tropical vocation, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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At the filming of The Oprah Winfrey Show's "After the Oscars Party" episode at the Kodak Theatre today (which I attended, nerds!), Mo'nique proved she had not been changed by her win. During commercials, the comedian hollered at one hooting audience member who claimed she was from Mo'nique's native Baltimore. "Yeah, I know where that is," Mo'nique called to her, as Oprah's hair was straightened and fluffed by assistants. When the audience member kept calling from the upper balconies, Mo'nique leaned forward and bellowed, "You need to sit down!" The teensy Sandra Bullock, seated next to her, laughed and didn't seem frightened.
After a groundswell of support from nearly a half million Facebook users, Robert Pattinson and sassy older women everywhere, Betty White has confirmed that she will be appearing on Saturday Night Live. The comedienne, who has experienced a renaissance this year after playing the wacky, matchmaking grandmother in The Proposal, receiving a SAG Life Achievement Award and starring in a Superbowl Snickers commercial, told People magazine that she doesn't "know why or how" she has so many supporters now, but "it's been wonderful." Now, onto the details of that much-rumored performance at Studio 8H.
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On Friday, Movieline relayed the news that the rumored Conan O'Brien vengeance tour -- a live performance circuit that would cleverly skirt that clause in the comedian's exit deal with NBC which stipulated that the comedian could not appear on television before September -- would kick off with an April 30 appearance in Phoenix, Arizona. Ticketmaster had posted the event on its website with minimal details and a guarantee that Coco Nation could purchase tickets on Monday, March 8, but when eager fans flocked to the site at 10:00 MST this morning, they realized that Ticketmaster had unceremoniously yanked the event from its website.
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