Were you so psychically drained from another one of Brody and Jayde's epic battles that you fell asleep at 11 PM? Fear not, because Movieline has compiled the best moments from last night's late night into one neat, commercial-uninterrupted package. From Penelope Cruz's Oscar night memories to George Lopez's strangest new segment, look no further than Movieline's Late Night Highlights.
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Whether flicking a cigarette at Mandy Moore or ripping her shirt off in mock religious fervor, Eva Amurri established in 2004's Saved! that she is a credible, and often intimidating, actress -- not just Susan Sarandon's daughter. This fall, the Brown alum embarked on a meaty ten-episode Californication arc as Jackie, one of Hank's (David Duchovny) brightest college students, who just happens to moonlight as a stripper. The revealing role, which immediately unearthed an avalanche of internet buzz, re-established that the 24 year-old can command a scene, regardless of whether or not she is clothed.
Last week, the actress spoke to Movieline about her arc on Californication, that rumor that she and her mother took pole-dancing classes together and her career aspirations.
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· Nearly a month ago, George Clooney isolated the single remaining twist on TV cop dramas with his TNT pilot Delta Blues. The hourlong series will center on a Memphis police officer who moonlights as an Elvis impersonator, while bunking with his mother. And now, Clooney has found the star for his project in My Name is Earl alum, Jason Lee. Another day, another role pigeonholing Lee as a pastiche of various American stereotypes. [Reuters]
Aaron Sorkin drops hints about his next television project, Hillary Clinton sides with Betty Draper, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Ken Ober's untimely and rumor-laden passing has inspired a surge of nostalgia for his game show Remote Control, the first program on MTV to eschew music entirely. Less remembered is the influence of Ober himself, whose sardonic emcee skills led to a wave of fuddy-duddy television hosts with less-than-genteel methods of engaging contestants. Ober's ripple effect, it turns out, continues even today.
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During yesterday's Oprah Winfrey Show, Sarah Palin mistakenly called Levi Johnston's upcoming Playgirl spread "porn," a claim that Oprah immediately corrected for her television audience. There was a slight smirk and glint in the host's eye as she said the four-letter word; a reaction that hinted that today's "Porn and Erotica"-themed episode might be a carousing raunch-fest --Oprah Gone Naughty. And when today's show opened with a warning that the following material might not be appropriate for children (note: there was no such warning before the show about the woman whose face was chewed off by a chimp), it seemed that Oprah might finally be finding her freak.
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On tonight's Melrose Place, Heather Locklear re-assumes her role as resident diva Amanda Woodward, regains control over wayward publicity firm WPK, and hopefully knocks the show's meager ratings out of cancellation territory. Locklear already jolted Melrose Place with ratings electricity back in the early '90s when the 90210 spin-off was underperforming, so tune in tonight to see whether Locklear's lightning can strike Melrose twice.
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Last night, the New Moon stars pounced like shapeshifting werewolves onto the late show circuit to promote this month's second apocalyptic box office event. With a week full of talk show appearances ahead of them (listed here for your Twilight TiVoing pleasure), Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner threw down some of their their meatiest segment-ready anecdotes on Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien and The Jay Leno Show, both relating to rabid Twilight fans they've encountered. (Note: If you are a mid-forties mother from Denver who once offered Lautner your Team Taylor panties at a Barnes & Noble signing, you might not want to click through.)
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It's not much of a secret that The Jay Leno Show's ratings have plateaued, but apparently -- and here comes a leftover Halloween scare -- its writing has as well. Thunder-crash! In last night's episode featuring Taylor Lautner, Jay sent out correspondent Brian Unger (formerly a Kilborn-era Daily Show correspondent) to ask Los Angeles pedestrians about how "green" they are. Hilarious straight from the start, as you can guess. But the head-scratchiest moment occurs when Unger mocks the cleanliness of the Los Angeles River, reusing a joke that Conan loosed within his first hours in California.
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If you've ever considered breaking your contract with the cable network who continues to edit your reality show, consider Jon Gosselin's plight. In the past year, reality television's most notorious father of multiples violated his contract with TLC repeatedly to collect money from The Insider and a few assorted Vegas casinos who paid him to shlub around their pool parties. Gosselin then accused the network of violating child labor laws (after learning that he would be booted from Jon & Kate Plus 8), and now he is paying the ultimate price in the edit room.
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· Everybody's favorite Full House father is pulling himself out of the How I Met Your Mother sound booth to shoot seven episodes of an upcoming reality show for A&E called Bob Saget's Strange Days. The hour-long episodes will chronicle the comedian's travels into far-flung pockets of America, where he will try to entertain biker gang members, Amish teens and mail order brides. Let's hope that he doesn't revisit his Ron Jeremy and Full House set list. [Variety]
Speidi wages war on The Today Show, Chris Elliott gets a life at Cartoon Network and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Oprah Winfrey opened her widely anticipated interview with Sarah Palin this morning loaded for bear, but as we have learned, the former vice presidential candidate is always loaded for wolf. The host immediately confronted Palin about her public support for Barack Obama last year, asking, "Did you feel snubbed?" Palin responded in the negative, and as the hour-long segment unfolded, and the two strayed from politics to personal life, they settled into a comfortable back-and-forth. Palin is bound to share some of the same anecdotes as she continues her media blitz this week for her already bestselling book Sarah Palin: Going Rogue (coming out tomorrow), but here are a few disclosures uncovered by the Queen of Media herself.
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It may seem like Mya and partner Dmitry Chaplin outclass the other Dancing With the Stars contestants, but Donny Osmond has bested a crew of flashier adversaries before -- like, for instance, when he had to kill all those other Osmonds to make it in Hollywood. I look forward to more of his smiley scheming this evening.
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There were several brilliant moments in last night's episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, including the discovery that in the ten years since Seinfeld went off the air, George Costanza developed an iPhone application called iToilet that allows you to locate the nearest public bathroom. (Alas, he invested with, and later lost his fortune to, Bernie Madoff.) Another was a tongue-in-cheek parody of Michael Richard's racial slur-laced tirade at the Laugh Factory in 2006.
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Last Wednesday, Glee's alto-castrato Kurt, played by Chris Colfer, competed in a "diva-off" for the solo in Wicked's "Defying Gravity." The plot, it turns out, was inspired by Colfer's real life high school talent show experience: "Every year I'd beg to sing 'Defying Gravity' and every year they turned me down because I was a boy and they said it was a girl's song; and every year I protested, saying that there are no lyrics that indicate gender specification whatsoever [...] One day on set, [Glee creator] Ryan Murphy told me he was coming up with a Kurt versus Rachel plotline, and for whatever reason, I started talking about this, and the next thing I know it was in the script." [New York Magazine]
· NBC has lured Larry Charles, the writer-producer behind Seinfeld, director of Borat and Bruno, and director-producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm, back to the Peacock for a semi-scripted series. The pilot, which has been ordered, will introduce a group of small town sci-fi fans who decide to make their own episodes of their favorite show after it ends. This could be another layer of the Seinfeld-meta-reunion onion, or at the very least, a job opportunity for Michael Richards and Wayne Knight. [Reuters]
My Little Pony gallops back to television, Fox pushes Tabasco sauce for Fringe and more TV Bites after the jump.
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