IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED...
Controversy be damned! Despite that whole Monday Night Football towel-dropping debacle, ABC is once again enlisting the ladies of Desperate Housewives to help promote its sports division. According to sources, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria and Nicollette Sheridan taped an NBA-themed spot on the Housewives set Wednesday. "It was very noncontroversial," an insider says of the ad, which will air Christmas Day during ABC's coverage of the Miami Heat-L.A. Lakers game. "They were all sitting on Gabrielle's porch — fully clothed — saying something like, 'And that's why we love this game.'" Oh, they're just asking for trouble with that one. |
24 WATCH
Fox has announced that 24 will launch its pulse-pounding fourth season with a two-day, four-hour season premiere Sunday and Monday, Jan. 9 and 10 (8-10 pm/ET). The show will then settle into its regular Monday 9 pm/ET time slot the following week. |
NYPD BLAH
So much for Andy's happy ending on NYPD Blue. Despite an Internet campaign being waged by Andy/Connie fans, a Blue spokeswoman says there are no plans for Charlotte Ross to reprise her role as Dennis Franz's MIA spouse for the cop drama's March 1 series finale. I suppose we can also rule out that David Caruso cameo. Bummer. |
PEACOCK DOWNSIZES
In an effort to trim costs, NBC will produce fewer episodes of Medical Investigation and Crossing Jordan this season, TV Guide Online has learned. The network has trimmed both show's episode orders from 22 to 20. NBC did not return my phone calls, presumably to avoid the long-distance charges. |
WOMAN ON TOP
On last night's third-season finale of UPN's America's Next Top Model, kooky Amanda and then snooty Yaya were eliminated by Tyra Banks and Co., leaving self-proclaimed diva Eva the last poser standing. In addition to the prizes Miss Tyra runs down in every episode (sometimes twice), the new CoverGirl received an unexpected humping by Janice Dickinson. |
LONG AND SHORT OF IT
He's done it: Martin Short has found a character even more sexually repulsive than his Jabba the Hutt-like alter ego, Jiminy Glick. (No, he's not playing David Gest.) This February, the actor-comic-contortionist will guest-star on Fox's Arrested Development as a 90-year-old former fitness guru (think Jack LaLanne, only much, much scarier) who offers to help bail out the bankrupt Bluths in exchange for a one-nighter with Portia de Rossi's Lindsay. If she says no, I hear Janice Dickinson's game. |
FALLIN' FOR MICKEY
Alicia Keys is developing an animated series for The Disney Channel about a Nancy Drew-esque girl detective, sources confirm. The Grammy winner, who became an animaniac after doing an episode of Disney's The Proud Family, will produce as well as pay lip service to the main character. The show probably won't debut until early '06. |
GUESS WE WEREN'T INVITED
Apparently, Latin heartthrob Enrique Iglesias and tennis pinup Anna Kournikova are married — and have been for weeks. Although the blessed event supposedly took place in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Kournikova's publicist told US Weekly, "We never comment on her personal life." In other words, she didn't get invited, either. |
HE WILL, HE WILL ROCK US?
Gotta say we're a mite skeptical about it, but '70s hitmakers Queen have replaced one-of-a-kind front man Freddie Mercury in anticipation of their upcoming tour. (The group's original vocalist succumbed to AIDS in '91.) Who's the lucky guy? Paul Rodgers (late of the blues act Free), who impressed Mercury's surviving band mates when he joined them for several performances earlier this year. Good luck hitting those high notes, pal. |
ODB UPDATE
Rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard's death last month at the age of 35 has been ruled an accident by the medical examiner working his case. A founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, the former Russell Jones was found to have cocaine and a prescription pain-reliever in his system at the time he collapsed in a recording studio. |
THE FUR IS FLYING...
...off the racks in China, but animal lover Pamela Anderson is trying to stop it by appearing topless in an eye-catching new PETA billboard. In the picture, the Baywatch babe, her back to the camera, is surrounded by falling snowflakes; below her image is the slogan "Give fur the cold shoulder." But censors overseas have yet to OK the ad, in which one of the actress' breasts is partially visible. "We may end up having to crop [the photo] a little bit," says PETA's Jason Baker. (Janet's nipple strikes again!) |
INTENSIFIED, THE CLONE WARS HAVE
The U.K.-based producers of ABC's Wife Swap are suing Fox for copyright infringement, accusing the network of ripping off its hit reality show with the "virtually identical" Trading Spouses. They're seeking $18 million in damages. |
IT'S NOT RIGHT, BUT SHE'S OK
Whitney Houston rear-ended a bus with her sports car Wednesday while the troubled singer was driving near her home in suburban Atlanta. No one was hurt, but Houston's Porsche reportedly sustained a fair amount of damage. She was given a citation for failing to yield and not divorcing Bobby Brown — both misdemeanors. |
RUNNING WITH A RECAST
Annette Bening has replaced Julianne Moore as the star of Running with Scissors, Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy's upcoming big-screen adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' memoir. The project will begin shooting in the spring, right around the time Murphy should have been prepping a third season of Nip/Tuck. Now we probably won't find out who the freakin' Carver is until around 2010. |
DRUGS FOR SALE!
Showtime has picked up a full season of Weeds, a comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker as a mom who makes her living selling marijuana. Meanwhile, Variety reports that Showtime is expected to make a decision about a third season of Dead Like Me any day now. |
