Gorgeous Texan Jake Pavelka sent thousands of hearts soaring during last season's Bachelorette when the commercial pilot returned to the show after being dismissed by Jillian Harris to warn her about a smarmy suitor will ill intentions. Tonight, Pavelka returns to ABC to hopefully find love among 25 women that range from a Nebraskan nanny to a woman allegedly sleeping with a crew member.
Before the holidays, Movieline spoke to Jake as he relaxed in sunny Dallas, about discovering the therapeutic elements of the show, the preparation that goes into each exotic date and his short acting career playing a young Chuck Norris.
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Guest judges on Project Runway used to be unceremoniously declared; Parker Posey appeared on Season One's finale, Debra Messing on Season Two's. But in the years since, Runway has garnered a rep for roping in A-listers, which has, somehow, played a large part in rendering the show less fun. Who cares what Lindsay Lohan or Victoria Beckham or Sandra Bernhard (still a mystery, that one) thinks of the newest batch of jerry-built pencil skirts? Their inclusion, quoth the immortally umber Michael Kors, is "tacky, tacky, tacky." And better yet, who cares about what Season Seven's opening guest judge, perhaps the most irrelevant contributor yet, will have to say during the January 14 premiere?
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· Luke Wilson will take a break from hawking AT&T phone plans to star in Mike White's upcoming HBO comedy pilot opposite Diane Ladd and Ladd's real-life daughter Laura Dern. The single-camera project, Enlightened, centers on Dern's character, Amy, "a self-destructive woman who after a meltdown has a spiritual awakening and becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work." Wilson will play Amy's drug-addled ex-husband and Ladd will co-star as Amy's mother. [THR]
Cyndi Lauper, Bret Michaels and Donald Trump collaborate onscreen; Casey Wilson finds life after Saturday Night Live; and more TV Bites after the jump.
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After an intense double-elimination process that left Howie Mandel and Ann Coulter in tears, Movieline has selected the defining 5 television figures of the decade. Some dispensed jokes, others news, and still more gave us brilliant scripted television. And as for our #1 choice, he gave us the cruelest gems of all.
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If you're anything like Andy Rooney, you'll be counting down the last hours of 2009 alone and miserable, nursing a single-serving of coffee ice cream and a year's worth of regrets. Fortunately, the usual cast of New Year's Eve television hosts will be available to shout at you from Times Square, throw to firework celebrations in Sydney, Australia and introduce drunken bands fulfilling promotional obligations. If that programming won't cut it, the Lifetime Network is broadcasting its viewers' favorite movie of the year (which happens to star LeAnn Rimes) and MTV will recount the nine biggest stories of the year with the help of the Jersey Shore cast members. Other options ahead.
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Kudos to General Hospital producers who have stretched James Franco's handful of days on set into a rich two-month arc full of intrigue and corpse art. That feat meant that in some episodes, Franco's character did not appear at all, while in others his part was limited to mysteriously brandishing a bracelet, shouting meaningfully or shaking a paint can sinisterly for his entire two minutes on screen. Some Franco fans may have felt gypped, wading through an hour of tertiary mob plot just for twenty glorious seconds of Franco...until yesterday, when General Hospital gifted us with the best possible James Franco New Year's Eve scene of all.
Hint: It involves a seductively removed napkin holder and an overplayed Temptations song.
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· Most television viewers are all for reality competitions where the underdog has a chance to win: American Idol, More to Love, Dance Your Ass Off. They can handle bad singing, bad dancing, but bad stand-up comedy is an entirely different animal, especially when NBC is considering bringing back Last Comic Standing, the comedy competition that one Drew Carey endorsed as fraudulent. The one in which producers offset judge voting just so that the morbidly obese or cerebral palsy-afflicted contestants make it to the next round. Most reality shows may be heavily manipulated behind-the-scenes, but please NBC, spare us your fixed Last Comic. If Bill Bellamy needs a network gig that badly, how about you implant him as the hilarious new T.A. on Community, no one will even know the difference. And if you have to bring one show back from that mass peacock grave, how about Kath & Kim? [EW]
Glee goes original, another Spelling gets a reality show, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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It could have been the biggest year of your life -- maybe you finally got attention (and a small jail sentence) for your homemade hot air balloon or sold the network on that Conveyor Belt of Love series that you brainstormed while high on ketamine -- your year will never meet the cloud-grazing highs and mermaid girl-exploiting lows of Oprah Winfrey's. This year alone, the world's most important Chicagoan (that's right Mr. President) traipsed the globe in a campaign to win the Olympics, hosted a Mad Men-themed episode because she could, sought on-air sexual guidance from Jenna Jameson, announced her retirement from broadcast and financed an Oscar-favorite film. Pretty much the only things she did not do were host Saturday Night Live and play beer pong with Jimmy Fallon -- but you better bet your bottom dollar that she could have if she wanted. After the jump, Movieline revisits Ms. Winfrey's 2009 triumphs.
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Whether you think Saturday Night Live's best days lay ahead, ended in 1992, or were over by the time Joe Piscopo came aboard, one thing is for certain: Its best days are not now. Kristin Wiig is forced to resuscitate so many sketches that it seems unfair, and hosts unused to comic material are chosen frequently. Now, Movieline reflects on its SNL coverage and sheds light on the bad, ugly, and slight good of its 35th season.
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It was a year chock full of transition for the after hours set; Conan O'Brien moved to Los Angeles to head the Tonight Show, Jay Leno left the Tonight Show to slaughter NBC's scripted programming with a prime time experiment, George Lopez gave TBS an hour long chola makeover and David Letterman flip-flopped between beloved, blackmailed, and back again. So let's take a moment to remember each of those major blows, as well as the head injuries and scuffles that came along with them, after the jump.
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This season, Saturday Night Live has relied on a steady stream of hosts who weren't even old enough to drink at the after-party, but starting in January, the show will bump its median age up a tad. Ex-basketballer Charles Barkley will host the first show back on January 9 (because...?), while Sigourney Weaver will take over hosting duties a week later. Perhaps we'll get an Avatar flashback where Grace Augustine auspiciously orders her Na'vi-sized belly shirt from the ultra-accommodating Stanford bookstore? [EW]
In a year of turmoil, reality TV remained its slutty, money-grubbing, and Seacrest-laden self. That's consistency we applaud. Instead of trying in vain to name the year's greatest reality star (whatever, Lambskanks, you can't force me), Movieline reflects on the entire 12 months, reacquaints you with its investigations into Audrina Patridge's confusion and Tim Gunn's contempt, and affixes a bow to this gift of a year.
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· Attention all prime time stars with so-so ratings: try knife play! Sure, Two and a Half Men was not faltering before Charlie Sheen's alleged yuletide death threats, but the incident sent Monday night's repeat straight to a ratings win with 11.1 million viewers. In other Charlie Sheen news, "someone" leaked information about Brooke Mueller's history with cocaine and DUIs. Meanwhile, Sheen's ex, Denise Richards is threatening to "spill [her] guts" for the right price. [NYP]
Tyra Banks is a nightmare, Joe Halderman channels Tiger Woods's mistresses, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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In the past ten years, a tragically short television life became a badge of honor for some television series; certain shows were just too smart, quirky or under-advertised to be appreciated by the mainstream. Like most rock stars whose early deaths made them icons, hasty cancellations have immortalized some of this decade's best programs. After the jump, seven series that flamed out too soon.
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If you're going to commit to watching one new television series in 2010, make it Better Off Ted, ABC's critically beloved yet under-appreciated workplace comedy that has been flying under the radar since its premiere last year. The series stars Jay Harrington as the head of research at a heartless technology company, who battles his emotionally devoid boss (played magnificently by Portia de Rossi) while juggling single fatherhood and an interoffice flirtation. ABC recently announced plans to burn through the rest of Ted's second season in January by airing four episodes in two weeks, but fans and critics hold out hope that the deserving series will finally find its audience.
Last week, Movieline caught up with Harrington just before he returned to Boston for the holidays, and discussed Better Off Ted's disappointing numbers (and fantastically loyal fans), sexual harassment and cadaver clubs at Veridian, and Ted's shot after the Rose Bowl.
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