day 339

ashlee simpson heads to the unemployment line

just yesterday, execs over at the cw announced that an additional 5 episodes of melrose place (and 9 more eps of the vampire diaries, their biggest hit ever) had been ordered in addition to the in production 13. and, today, the creative forces behind the show are making some major changes to the apartment-themed dramedy. my guess is that these changes may have resulted in the episode pick-up. two of the shows current stars - ashlee simpson and colin egglesfield - are being let go. why change a show that works? well, because it's not working - and, yes, there's a distinction. by "work" i mean the show is creatively strong, but it's not "working" because no one is watching. the duo of simpson and egglesfield are victims of wrapping up the season-long murder-mystery plot early. yep, the "who killed sydney?" question is now set to be answered in december instead of may. according to exec producers todd slavkin and darren swimmer, ashlee and colin's characters were only going to be around through the mystery because they play the most vital roles. uhm, is it just me or does that mean one of them did it? or both? i mean (if you watch the show) we've been lead to believe they're involved, but we don't know for sure. i also think this creative turn around has to do with the series finally nabbing heather locklear.

the original melrose placer was originally asked back for the murder-mystery plot but passed because why would you want to kill of the defining character of your career? that left the door open for laura leighton's sydney's return and resurrection - the character died in the original show. once the execs were able to land locklear, it's understandable they want to shift the focus to her. rumors are circulating that locklear is returning as "special guest star," the same title she held when she was a series regular on the original series. slavkin and swimmer say heather's amanda woodward is around indefinitely and has more to do than just torment ella (katie cassidy, above) at the pr firm they work at. also, in the post-murder-mystery era of melrose 2.0, the show will become more light hearted and comedic. basically, it will be an entirely different series. s and s are explaining all these changes as just the normal evolution a show takes, but i see it as the ceedub handing down some orders: change or be canceled. the beautiful life: tbl anyone?

day 277

miley cyrus is a manic depressive

the title above is a blatant lie and completely fabricated allegation based upon this sample off miley's new walmart exclusive ep, the time of our lives. the "extended play" cd goes on sale next monday, august 31st and features songs ranging from "let's rock out in my bedroom with my stuffed animals" to "i'm going to sit alone in the corner now and cry." basically, it's music for everyone. the track listing is as follows: 1) "kicking and screaming," 2) "party in the usa," 3) "when i look at you," 4) "time of our lives," 5) "talk is cheap," 6) "obsessed," and 7) "before the storm (live)." i can only imagine that the "before the storm" recording comes from cyrus's surprise appearance at the jonas brothers' dallas concert earlier this summer (viewable here). the whole point of this disc is to draw up interest and promote miley's recent fashion endeavor, mileycyrusmaxazria, available exclusively at walmart. why they didn't just name the line "miley&max" or simply "miley by max azria" is beyond me. we all know she didn't design it; maybe she chose which checkered fabrics were best and signed off on all the british flags screened on every item, but that's about it. from the sounds of this sampler, miley's lead track - "party in the usa" - is the best offering and you don't even have to step foot in a wally world for that - you can get it on itunes.

famous faces join melrose

first of all, check out these steamy promos for the series relaunch of melrose place, coming this fall to the cw.

the slogans "menage a tues," "tuesday's the new humpday," and "tuesdays are a bitch" are a bit much, right? or maybe not enough. i like the last too, but "menage a tues?" really? i think the cw is expecting too much brain power out of its audience. anyway, back to that casting news that i teased. it looks like the newly named mrs. channing tatum, jenna dewan (of step up fame...if you can call "hey it's that girl from that one dance movie" fame), is set to be melrose's new resident bitch. well, at least for two episodes. the actress has been tapped to play a young studio exec interested in seducing budding filmmaker jonah, played by sisterhood of the traveling pants' and greek's michael rady. in more exciting news, it looks like melrose's most famous face from its fox predecessor, heather locklear (the mom from that hilary duff movie the perfect man/lilly's mom on hannah montana, for my less 90s knowledge inclined readers), is set to reprise her role of amanda woodward. the bitch is back! this news comes from people mag so basically is comes from the bible of all things pop culture. if it's wrong, people has some serious 'splaining to do. heather originally wouldn't come back to the show because of the plot line laid out for her character; amanda was supposed to be the landlord of the melrose place apartments. problem? (spoiler) the landlord gets killed off in the first episode and her death is the main mystery of season 1; former cast member laura leighton decided to take that gig instead. her character, sydney, had already been called off in the first edition of the series, so what's another death? but, after much negotiation, the producers have apparently worked out the perfect plot for ad exec amanda and heather is ready to come back (willing that contract negotiations go well - you know she wants the $$). the new version of melrose kicks off september 8th. to get a sneak peak of what it's like to live at melrose place, hit up melroseplaceapts.com.

day 246

mischa's not so beautiful life

current psych ward patient mischa barton is screwing up a lot of stuff (aside from her life). amidst rumors that the former oc actress's hospital stay was preceded by a three-day coke binge, the producers of her new fall show, a beautiful life (watch an extended preview above), are taking the show in a separate direction that could exist with or without mischa. plan b would keep mischa's character, sonya, involved in the show - at least in the pilot - while a separate character, jane, with a very similar story line to sonya's, is current being casted. sonya and jane are supposed to be supermodels who are starting to get a little too old and a little too pudgy to compete with the younger models just entering the scene. and they all live together. having two characters who are virtually the same could be a really interesting plot device - competition, scheming, etc - or extremely confusing (as in who is who?). filming on a beautiful life has already been pushed back a week from tomorrow's start date due to sets not being finished on time; though, i feel like they did the push back just to give barton a little extra time to pull it together. the good thing about life is that mischa isn't the only recognizable name attached - sara paxton, corbin bleu, and elle mcpherson all costar on the show. in other cw show news, jennie garth has just inked a deal to return this fall for season 2 of 90210 in the same recurring capacity as the first season. this is really good news after the new show runner said she wasn't all that interested in focusing on the original cast (which is what makes the show!). jennie's kelly will play a big role in the whole annie having (maybe) killed someone. 90210's new partner show, melrose place, also has a semi-famous face coming aboard. well, actually, they have a couple. nip/tuck's kelly carlson (kimber) will be a recurring guest star on the apartment-themed relaunch as a prostitute ring madame who lures at least one of the melrose residents - med student lauren - into working for her. carlson obviously has huge range as an actress as she plays a porn-star/entrepreneur on nip/tuck. the second face you might recognize is brooke burns (known for hosting dog eat dog). the actress will be playing the young wife of original place-er thomas calabro, who returns as michael mancini. she should be playing arm candy as she was once bruce willis' fiance.

vh1 brings divas back...sort of

after a four year hiatus of the concert series divas, which brought together the likes of the most iconic female singers of the 90s and before (like celine dion, whitney houston, and aretha franklin), the mtv-for-older people channel is brining back the special. surprisingly, though, the line-up isn't all that impressive. there hasn't really been a "diva" since the last special, mostly because that style of music has come and gone, replaced by synth beats and autotuned tracks. the 4 confirmed "divas" are leona lewis (known in america as a one-hit-wonder with "bleeding love"), adele ("chasing pavements"), kelly clarkson (the one act with more than one hit stateside), and - most surprisingly - miley cyrus. yes, tween "sensation" miley cyrus is being crowned a "diva" by vh1. the only explanation for this has to be to gain ratings and bring attention to the show that everyone has forgotten about. the cool thing about the choices is that we'll get to see the 4 women perform together multiple times. i cannot wait to see miley try to hold her own against voices like leona and adele. the show will air september 17th on vh1.

day 187

no stories

i don't really have anything to talk about today, but i thought i'd post a ton of youtube videos.  how does that work for you?  first up, the trailer for vanessa hudgen's new movie, though it seems like the studio thinks aly michalka (of aly and aj) is the bigger star - she's billed first and featured more heavily in the promo.  it actually looks semi-good; like an age appropriate almost famous meets a battle of the bands competition.  

and, if you wanted a taste of the cw's new shows, clips from them have been released.  these are most likely the same ones the network showed at their upfront presentation earlier this week.  first up, the beautiful life - mishca barton's new drama.  yay! she's working again. though, it seems like the show is going to focus more on sara paxton (that blonde you recognize from various disney projects and children's movies).  i'm surprised no clips have been released that feature corbin bleu, since this is his first project away from the mouse house.  i'm surprised that in the theme of recycling old fox shows (90210, melrose place) that the ceedub didn't choose to title this models, inc, a short lived program that was spun off from melrose.  

and, speaking of melrose place, here's clips from it.   this show doesn't look to be as polished as 90210, which isn't a good thing.  it basically looks like a soap opera for primetime, instead of a primetime soap (and, trust me, there's a difference).  for example, desperate housewives = a  primetime soap.  hopefully they'll improve it a little between now and september when the show premieres.  things that bother me about this relaunch is that it won't take place in the same universe as the current 90210, even though the original series was a spin-off.  why?  because rob estes, now the dad/principal on 90210, was an original cast member on the fox version of the show, but now plays a different character in the zipcode show.  second, jessica lucas is a main cast member on the new show, but played a different character (drug detective kimberly) on 90210 in the middle of the first season.  oh well, it will probably still hold my attention for an hour.  and spoiler alert - laura leighton (as sydney, one of two returning characters to the rebuilt place) is getting killed off in the first 10 minutes of the series.  yes, they brought back an original cast member (they even brought her back from the dead - sydney was killed off in the first go around) just to kill her.  but, leighton will still be a recurring guest star, seen in flashbacks throughout the season.  okay, now that you've read my babbling, you can see the clips.

and, finally, the cw is getting on board with the twilight trend and launching a vampire series, based on the so-called "bestselling" (i hadn't heard of them until the series was being developed) vampire diaries books.  the network dived back into the canadian/degrassi casting pool to find their star nina dobrev, who most recently starred in mtv's high school musical rip off american mall (shenae grimes, who plays annie on 90210 is also a former degrassi star). dobrev is joined by former lost star ian somerhalder as the seemingly evil vampire and by paul wesley (the robert pattinson of this series), who you might know from his army wives role as the soldier who emmalin falls in love with.  here are the clips - the show looks like it's filmed really cinematically.  probably should have been a movie, but wouldn't have survived in a post-twilight world.  

day 116

melrose loses mischa 

mischa barton will not be joining the cast of the cw's melrose place 2.0, despite reports that she was confirmed to star.  instead, mischa is headlining another cw pilot that sounds like it'll be quite scandalous.  from the mind of ashton kutcher, a beautiful life follows a group of models living in a co-ed co-op together in nyc. marton will be the focus of the series, playing sonja, a supermodel struggling to hold onto her career.  well mishca's been struggling for a while so this should be easy for her to do, right?  i can totally see a gossip girl cross over with the show.  they could even cast mischa's former oc sister willa holland to reprise her crazy model character from gg.  the show should go into production in the next month or so, with a pick up yes or no decision by august.  the show could be paired with melrose place in the fall, especially because it sounds a lot like the failed melrose spin-off models, inc.  it's just good that barton has realized that she's not a movie star, but a teen tv star - no matter what show she winds up on on the cee dub.  in other casting news, it seems like bond may finally be getting back to its roots.  casting for the past few bond girls has focused on unknowns, but the hollywood "it girl" (think halle berry, denise richards, teri hatcher) may be making a comeback in the form of frida pinto.  the slumdog millionaire actress caught producers' eyes when they were casting for quantum of solice, but was considered too young.  now that the next blonde bond installment is in the works, frida is everyone's first choice.  her being in the movie might actually make me want to see it.  and, finally, one of my favorite, the cult classic heathers (think mean girls with guns), is getting the broadway treatment. the dark teen flick is currently undergoing readings for a stage transition with veronica mars star kristin bell in the lead role. if the show does happen, it will hit the stage - at the earliest - in 2010, hopefully with bell attached to star.  

day 113

mischa's melrose drama

with reports everywhere linking mischa barton to the cw's melrose reboot, people are wondering why the network hasn't confirmed her as cast.  well, apparently mischa's diva ways are getting in the way of a final decision being made.  the people behind the show have been pursuing the former oc star to take on a role but wanted to see the actress audition for the parts first.  here's the problem: mischa thinks she's above auditioning.  that's when interest in barton went from 100% percent to almost none - why would the producers of the show want to work with someone who isn't interested in going through the creative processes.  the kicker is that mischa is apparently desperate for a paycheck and has now asked (yes, asked!) to audition for the roles available.  the creative team wasn't going to appease mischa's diva behavior because the show is an ensemble drama and there is no one star.  if they had just given the actress a free pass into the cast, she would have then thought she was the star and the rest of the cast was beneath her.  but, because interest was once so high in nabbing mischa, i wouldn't be surprised if the network announced her casting in the next week or so, giving them not only one (ashlee simpson is already attached), but two, names to promote and bring buzz to the show.  

abc to get witchy this fall

the alphabet net has green lit a project that will bring 80s favorite the witches of eastwick to the small screen.  the simply named eastwick will meet somewhere between the updike novel and it's film adaptation, bringing both into modern day.  the story follows 3 witches in the suburban town of eastwick, rhode island, following their relationships and affairs. basically, its  a supernatural desperate housewives.  this will be the third time someone has tried to bring the witches to television.  the first time was in 1992, with 3 unknown actresses in the roles.  the second attempt, 10 years later in 2002, a pilot was filmed starring kelly rutherford of gossip girl, marcia cross of desperate housewives, and lori loughlin of full house and 90210.  that pilot was the jumping off point for this new version, which is set to star rebecca romijn of ugly betty, lindsay price of lipstick jungle, and jaime ray newman, who was most recently seen as a promiscuous medical intern on nip/tuck.  this is probably the most all star cast seen to date and abc is said to be very interested in the project.  it also puts the nail in the coffin of nbc's lipstick jungle.  price is the second star of the series to attach herself to a new pilot, with kim raver working on other projects.  however, if lipstick jungle does get renewed by the peacock net, price and raver will have to (probably begrudgingly) pull out of the pilot projects and return to the nbc drama.  i'm excited for this - it seems like abc is finally getting back to the sitcoms, which is something that's missing from tv.  when networks decided to get rid of the sitcom, they thought the medium was dead.  really, the audience just wasn't interested in what the networks were pushing - the sitcom has always been viable.  look at cbs's monday nights.  

day 112

britney pulls a janet...sort of

at last night's concert, britney spears had a little wardrobe - and microphone - malfunction.  after her "i'm a slave 4 u" number, britney was lowered below her stage for a costume change.  apparently, during the "slave" performance, britney's lady business had been exposed because of her leotard shifting.  if the vajayjay flashing wasn't enough, when britney went into her changing space, she exclaimed "my pussy was hanging out!"  that little statement was broadcast to the entire theater via the singer's live mic.  check out the video above to hear.  my question is why her microphone was on.  or even connected to be turned on.  why not just use a dummy mic?  britney is a known lip syncher and the video's audio of the song sounds like a recording.  so, again, why would her mic be on/why would she need her mic connected to the sound system?  it's not like she's been talking to her audience during the performances.

melrose place gets a new resident

looks like pete wentz is going to be a stay-at-home dad.  ashlee simpson is set to go back to work as an actress, the medium which gave her her start.  the singer has been cast as violet in the 90s soap relaunch.  violet is a girl from a small washington city who has arrived in lalaland to wreck havock.  should be interesting, right? this means ashlee joins katie cassidy, alexis bledel's love interest from the sisterhood of the traveling pants movies, and quite possibly mischa barton.  this is ashlee's first "serious" acting role since she was a regular on the cw's mother channel, the wb, with 7th heaven. simpson recently guested on csi: ny with her husband pete.  that little taste of acting must have gotten the new mom the itch to act once more.  the show finally has a "big name" to lead the cast, but i'm still not sold on it as a well thought out concept.  the audience was there for 90210, but does melrose have a modern audience?  that's something we'll have to see in the fall when the show launches alongside the zip-code themed drama.  and, why is ashlee - who is 24 - playing a character who supposedly just graduated high school?  i hope they bump that up to "college graduate."

another spears to sing?

now that jamie lynn spears has conquered tween television and teen motherhood, the lesser known spears sibling is hoping to become a singing sensation.  the 17 year old singer/actress has reportedly been in nashville recording country demos to send to the industry's big agencies in hopes of a record contract.  yeah, she doesn't even have a label yet! spears is hoping for a jessica simpson like career turn around.  the most singing jamie lynn has ever done was the theme song for her now defunct nickelodeon show zoey 101, which her sister britney actually wrote.  this is another story that will be fun to watch.  can you see jamie lynn as a singer and mother?  i guess she needs something to do now that she's completed her g.e.d. 

day 105

the jobros underwhelm

what was expected to be one of the biggest opening weekends at a the box office ever was a big flop.  the brothers jonas' 3d concert flick came in at number 2 at the weekend box office, behind week-old madea goes to jail.  but how did this happen? everyone was expecting the disney backed movie to come in at a minimum of $30 million, but didn't even crack $15 million.  the film brought in only $12.7 million, which was behind even secondary estimates that the brothers would bring in $17 million.  when i say everyone was expecting the film to be huge, i mean everyone.  major studios held off releasing any new movies this past weekend, knowing that the jonas movie was headed for box office gold.  little did they know that tyler perry's madea would be able to crush tween cash.  the jonas brothers could even be in 3rd place.  official numbers haven't been calculated yet for the weekend's box office and, if they fall short of the $12.7 expectations, slumdog millionaire could bump them into third.  the questions still exists, though: why did it underperform?  a lot of the blame is being placed on hannah montana's shoulders.  miley cyrus' 3d concert experience from last february gave industry estimators the platform to base the jonas movie's numbers. the miley/hannah concert movie brought in $31.1 million its opening weekend in about half as many theaters as the jonas movie.  the thing is, however, that miley's movie came out pre-recession; the jonai's, on the other hand, came out right in the middle.  there's also the idea that the jonas brothers just aren't as popular on screen as their music is; last summer's disney channel original movie, camp rock, starring the trio underperformed expectations on cable and disney has pushed

 back the release date for the brothers' new tv show.  how will disney remedy the conundrum that is the brothers jonas?  that remains to be seen. 

casting couch

some big stars are taking on some interesting new projects. keira knightly is set to headline the sci-fi flick never let me go.  theme-wise, the film seems very similar to 2005's the island, which starred ewan mcgregor and scarlett johannson, with clones made for organ harvesting being at the center of the plot.  knightly will play 1 of 3 clones who grew up in a secluded boarding school who have to find a way out of being used.  this will be knightly's first foray into the world of science fiction and her robotic acting style will be put to use perfectly in the part.  jason bateman is keeping himself busy, adding another project to his in-development comedies the baster and the arrested development movie.  the tv and big-screen funnyman will reteam with his juno director, jason reitman, to star alongside george clooney in up in the air, a workplace comedy all about getting even.  as for tv news, the cw now has some stars for its in development projects.  katie cassidy has been cast as ella flynn in the melrose place reboot while the twilight inspired vampire diaries will be headlined by steven r mcqueen.  both actors are famous due to family ties - katie's dad is david of the patridge family and steven is the grandson of the hollywood icon steve mcqueen.

day 85

melrose gets some residents 

the see-dub's reboot of beverly hills, 90210 spin off, melrose place, finally has some residents, according to entertainment weekly.  while no cast members have been announced yet, we will have some "familiar faces" on our hands.  david paterson is the son of original melrose place character jake. he's supposedly a good looking guy with an "omnisexual lover," ella flynn, who works in pr.  other characters include a struggling filmmaker and a school teacher, a "hunky hippie" with a heart of gold, a female med student, and a small town teen who is making her splash in the city in a sexy way.  these characters all sound intriguing, but where's the twist? these are all pretty straight forward.  the cw is apparently going after original melrose cast member heather locklear to reprise her "special guest star" status, while lisa rinna has been desperately seeking a comeback as her original melrose character.  the guys behind smallville are currently calling the shots behind the scenes of the new show (after one tree hill's creator backed out to focus on his original show), so it should be interesting.  the cw's melrose place (which originally aired, alongside the original 90210) will start this fall. 

chris brown update, day 2

the chris brown debacle just keeps getting more and more twisted.  it appears that chris threatened to kill girlfriend rihanna, instigating the assault that took place saturday night.  things got heated after the duo left clive davis' grammy bash, with chris having to pull over to the side of the road.  rihanna then pulled chris' keys out of the ignition and threw them out of the car, infuriating the r&b singer.  he then searched outside to find the keys to no avail, getting back in the car and choked the barbados beauty.  rihanna then lost consciousness and sustained the injuries i reported on earlier.  brown was released after posting the $50,000 bail and is set for a trial in march.  chris has also lost more work, with his recent (and popular) got milk? ad campaign being taken out of print, effective immediately, and with some radio stations refusing to play his music altogether, while rihanna is gaining more and more support, with covergirl upping the amount of times her ads run in magazines and on tv this week.

gray day for grey's?

next season on grey's anatomy may look a lot a bit different.  two of the shows leads - katherine heigl (izzie) and george (tr) - are reportedly being let out of their 7 year contract deals, allowing them to leave the show that launched their careers for other opportunities.  this news comes from the mouth of james pickens, known for his role as chief webber.  however, he might not be the most credible source.  according to other sources, katherine and tr have not been officially let out of their contracts.  abc has yet to sign off on the termination and is still negotiating with the stars.  both actors have repeatedly asked to leave the show because of "unfair work environments" - katherine for lesser pay (even though she is not the star) and tr for the homophobic tirade that made headlines last year.  while tr's character has already been lessened this season, katherine's izzie has become a focal point of the current season and is a fan favorite character.  therefore, losing tr? not so bad.  losing katherine? tragic.  ratings are sure to drop if katherine leaves the show.  and, what exactly would these stars be doing outside of grey's? as for tr, i have no clue.  grey's is really his only major work.  katherine has a semi-successful film career, but i see her going the jennifer aniston route - mediocre films that pay the bills but don't advance her career.  not exactly the fame the two of them currently have.