Just as we'd suspected, Mad Men's Sal Romano (played by Bryan Batt) won't be returning to the brown, bedroom-flanked corridors of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce for season four. Don Draper's gruff dismissal of Sal's emerging homosexuality culminated with the character's firing, and now one of the most provocative players on the show is gone without fanfare. Mad Men has eliminated excellent roles before their time in the past, and now we honor three sullen presences whose stints in bitchin' cinematography ended without fitting resolve.
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In one of the more surprising casting choices announced in the new year, Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker is said to be in final negotiations for a leading role in CBS's upcoming Criminal Minds spinoff, a testament to either the hard economic times or else the scarcity of solid feature film roles these days. After all, the star of The Last King of Scotland just earned an Academy Award in 2007, the golden ticket for most actors and actresses to their pick of Hollywood roles for at least several years. If Whitaker is already cashing his Oscar pass in for a lucrative role on a CBS procedural, what other recent Academy Award recipients might be ready to lead a crime procedural spinoff on the Tiffany network?
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Just got out of the Sundance press screening of Twelve, Joel Schumacher's attempt to fill the niche carved out last year at the fest by The Informers. The most notable part of the movie (apart from the critical laughter that greeted the closing credit quote from Albert Camus)? That'd be the first act presence of NYC Prep's ambiguously gay PC Peterson, who gets no lines but is nevertheless a heavily featured extra, playing a partying prep schooler (no!) who makes out with and feels up a girl (no?) and then prematurely ejaculates (oh). Camille is going to be irate about this for some reason!
Jersey Shore's first season was filled with friendship, first-time larks into face-pummeling, amorous confessionals worthy of Plato's Symposium, blurred crotches, situations full of situations, and inadvertent promotions for Mystic Tan's newest color swatch "This Farmhand's Been Dead for Days Brown." We all learned something about turning walkovers in a short skirt and thong, and we'll pass it on to new generations as we hold the spirit stick. But have the joys of the seminal Jersey squad depleted? Rumors of a contract standoff with MTV may force the troop into retiring their flagship cast. It's for the best.
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The first week night after the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien ceased taping -- Monday, January 25, 2010 -- will go down in the television history books as having aired some of the grimmest and most demoralizing programming in recent late night history. David Letterman would have surely contributed a substantial segment had he taped a new show, and alas, the Late Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (RIP) aired repeats, leaving a post-Cocolypse wasteland where Jay Leno asked respected NCIS actor Mark Harmon to grope breast implants while Chelsea Handler and Jon Stewart joked about sex with animals. Click through for those clips, as well as the others you missed last night while brushing up on your Family Feud history.
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· Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker is in final negotiations to star in a Criminal Minds spinoff. The new series, which centers on a group of profilers who work outside the FBI bureaucracy, will be introduced on an episode of Criminal Minds in the spring. Whitaker will star as Cooper, the dynamic and mysterious squad leader, and receive a producing credit on the project, which will be produced by ABC Studios, the Mark Gordon Co. and CBS Studios. [TMZ]
Paula Abdul considers dancing again, one Jersey Shore cast member tests her reporting skills, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Among classic game shows, Family Feud is one of the most well-known and longest-running institutions. Though it went off the air for a few moments in the '80s and '90s, the 100-people surveys and familial showdowns have remained a touchstone of syndicated TV for the better part of the last generation. Now, as comedian Steve Harvey takes the reins from John O'Hurley, Movieline advises the newest "Number One Answer" man with lessons learned from each host in the show's history. Fear not, Mr. Harvey, we tell you exactly what to retain and what to throw away. Kiss this, Richard Dawson!
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Bernie Madoff may be safely tucked away in a Butner, NC federal prison for over a hundred years, but that does not mean that he is safe from Glenn Close. In tonight's third season premiere of Damages, Close's brilliant-yet-savage litigator Patty Hewes is responsible for recovering the assets from Madoff's nearly identical cable avatar, Louis Tobin (Len Cariou), who was just arrested for the largest securities fraud in history.
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On Conan O'Brien's final Tonight Show, he earned one of his biggest laughs when he said that if HBO decided to make a movie about the recent late-night fiasco, he'd "like to be played by Academy Award-winner Tilda Swinton." I just finished interviewing Swinton at Sundance to promote her new film I Am Love, and I decided (without any authorization from HBO whatsoever) to make her a formal offer for the red-headed role. Do we have a rare bit of good news for the beleaguered O'Brien?
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Diddy became the latest celebrity to flaunt his wealth for MTV's Super Sweet Sixteen cameras on Saturday, when the entrepreneur threw his son Justin Dior a birthday bash featuring performances by Fabolous, Lil' Kim and Jim Jones, appearances by the Jersey Shore cast, one gold throne, one red ribbon-adorned Maybach, and John Candy's mortal remains (we think?). [NY Daily News]
Jennifer Lawrence isn't the only actor to make an impression in Winter's Bone -- as her terrifying, tattooed uncle Teardrop, John Hawkes (Deadwood, Me and You and Everyone We Know) goes from antagonist to unlikely ally in a riveting arc. Movieline sat down with Hawkes and several others from Winter's Bone yesterday and we'll have more from that chat soon, but until then, Hawkes was happy to talk about another recent arc he's done on the upcoming sixth season of Lost.
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The SAGs, along with the Golden Globes, are often (rightfully) regarded as precursors to Oscar night. You can bank on Academy Awards wins for Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz because honoring anyone else, at this point, would seem pointed and rude. But in wake of this weekend's top-notch SAG telecast, I propose the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences use the actor-heavy festivity as a template in another way -- as a beacon of swiftness, silliness, and proper utilization of Sandra Bullock. If Oscar's willing to descend from his gilded high-horse, he can glean at least three insights from Saturday night's proceedings. (Full list of SAG winners follows, also.)
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Just because Conan O'Brien retired gracefully from the Tonight Show on Friday does not mean that the war on Jay Leno is over. The Wall Street Journal published the proof yesterday in former Movieline contributor Joe Queenan's damning editorial, which alleged that Leno's reign of terror at NBC is eerily similar to Adolf Hitler's annexation of Central Europe in the 1930s. And if history has taught us anything, Queenan predicts that Leno will not stop at reclaiming the Tonight Show -- the host will try to get his grease-stained hands on NBC's entire late night line-up. All in all, an interesting essay comparing NBC's failure to one of the greatest misfortunes in world history -- even more interesting knowing that the Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp., which also happens to own the network currently trying to woo O'Brien.
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· It may have seemed strange that the first season of MTV's breakout hit Jersey Shore ended last week without any announcement of a renewal. The reason, it turns out, was because the fist-pumping stars refused the network's initial offer of a $10,000 signing bonus on top of $5,000 per episode. MTV responded with an offer for $10,000 per episode with a guarantee for a 12-episode season. The cast allegedly has until the end of the day to respond, otherwise MTV will find replacement cast members. The network is not opposed to mixing new stars in with the old. In case you were wondering, The Situation and Pauly D. are the most hesitant to sign on for another year. [TMZ]
ABC taps into Privileged talent, CBS invests in Pittsburgh (again), and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Jersey Shore concluded its first season last night with a spectacular, near-weepy finale. Pauly D packed up his ones and twos, the gents played air-hockey together one last time, and Sammi was who cares. But for the last installment in our Softy Guido contest, a new wuss is declared. Let's hug our boys and get through this together.
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