Glenn Close has signed on with FX to star in a new pilot, which will start production in February. Close will play Patty Hughes, America’s foremost high-stakes litigator. The character was written specifically for Close, which explains why she is about to enter her first foray into television.

Allen Coulter is set to direct the pilot, which is slated to begin production in February, and is as of yet untitled.

Close already has a close relationship with FX, if you are wondering why she chose FX instead of one of the big three networks. She scored an Emmy nomination for her series debut as a regular on FX’s gritty cop drama “The Shield,” during her season-long run on the series.

Maybe CBS shouldn’t have ordered those additional three episodes earlier this month of the Stanley Tucci series. CBS has yanked the series from the schedule after airing only three episodes due to damn low ratings, which got lower as each episode aired. There are actually 8 episodes that have been taped, so perhaps the remainder will show up online for fans (really, were there any?) to watch the remaining 5 episodes.

So what do you think the odds are that people skipped the series because they also had no clue what the 3 Lbs stood for? (It actually stands for the weight of the brain).

The Tuesday 10 p.m timeslot that this show appeared in has not done well for CBS this season. Before 3 Lbs got its shot, Ray Liotta’s series Smith also tried and failed to succeed in that same slot. And it is worth noting that Smith also lived on in cyberspace with the remaining unaired episodes available for download online.

For those of you who love Christopher Gorham’s nerdy accountant character on Ugly Betty, you will be happy to learn that Betty’s love interest is now a recurring character on the breakout hit series. And chances are he could end up a series regular for the second season of Ugly Betty, which sources say is pretty much a given that ABC will renew for next season.

Ugly Betty stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade, Alan Dale as Bradford Meade, Tony Plana as Ignacio, Ana Ortiz as Hilda, Ashley Jensen as Christina, Becki Newton as Amanda, Mark Indelicato as Justin and Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater.

Nia Long has been tapped to guest star in three episodes of Boston Legal this season. She will play Vanessa Walker, a disciplined, ambitious, micro-managing new associate from the New York office of Crane Poole & Schmidt. She will arrive in Boston to solicit Alan Shores help.

Fans will remember Nia in Big Momma’s House and Are We There Yet.

Boston Legal stars James Spader as Alan Shore, Julie Bowen as Denise Bauer, Mark Valley as Brad Chase, Rene Auberjonois as Paul Lewiston and Craig Bierko as Jeffrey Coho, Constance Zimmer as Claire Simms, with Candice Bergen as Shirley Schmidt and William Shatner as Denny Crane.

And is it just me, or does that sound like a potential set-up for a spin-off?

No word on airdates yet.

There are a lot of B-listers I would consider for the role of Hurley’s dad, but Cheech Marin? Yes, the Born in East L.A. is more of a cult celeb these days, but somehow I am having a tough time picturing him in the role of Hurley’s dad. It’s right up there with envisioning Wayne Brady playing the brother of Neil Patrick Harris in How I Met Your Mother.

But then again, Lost can pretty much pull off anything, so I am sure after watching the episode we will all be noting the family resemblance between the two

Cheech Marin will appear in the February 28th episode of Lost, titled “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” which will be a Hurley centric episode and SpoilerFix has the scoop that Mr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack will also be in the episode. And since we now know that Hurley’s Mr. Cluck’s boss was also Locke’s boss at the box factory, we have to wonder if that will play a role in this upcoming episode.

It has been a long time coming, but NBC has finally given Crossing Jordan a season premiere date for its sixth season, as well as a “new” timeslot.

Crossing Jordan’s season premiere will be January 21, 2007, airing on Sundays from 10-11pm. This is a better timeslot than the former Friday night slot (which NBC had given it for its original season premiere), which can be a dead zone for shows, but it also means it will no longer be airing back to back with Las Vegas, which remains on Friday nights.

It will be interesting to see how Crossing Jordan fares now that it will no longer air opposite powerhouse hit Grey’s Anatomy, which has moved to Thursdays for its third season. But now in that time slot is new show Brothers & Sisters which has been doing better than expected in the ratings.

The popular CMT show, The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search, is back for a second season to see who can bar dance the best and win the top prize of $25,000 and a prominent job at Coyote Ugly.

Last season saw Lil Lovell work the potential coyotes to singing, dancing and bartending success. Kassie Miller won the first season, and not only sid she get a job, but she is now recording an album and also appeared in the video for the Steve Holy hit “I’ve got a brand new girlfriend.”

The dates for auditions are:
downtown Doubletree Hotel in Nashville on Friday (Dec. 1)
Memphis (Dec. 3 at the downtown Marriott)
Charlotte, N.C. (Dec. 9 at American Ballroom Dance Club in Pineville, N.C.)
New York City (Dec. 11 at Ripley-Grier Studios)
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Dec. 14 at the Hollywood Beach Marriott).

All audition times in all cities are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For those of you still cranky over the whole Loralai and Christopher wedding will be happy with next week’s episode. Loralai and Luke share a meaningful moment, while Christopher (who of course witnesses the entire exchange) gets cranky himself and begins to question whether Loralai really loves him or if he was rebound guy (you think?)

The December 5th episode:

Lorelai dreads each day that she meets with her mom and a prominent party planner in anticipation of the upcoming wedding party. Meanwhile, Lorelai and Christopher can’t seem to agree on plans for their future, and she usually gets her way; Logan is in town and Rory takes him to the Yale cafeteria, where they run into Marty, and Rory explains the whole awkward reunion she had with Marty and their subsequent deception with Lucy; and Luke decides to talk to a lawyer about April.

A hint about their meaningful moment… it involves Liz’s baby.

Source

It is tough to be a series when over half of your viewers have stuck around simply because they watched the series that airs right before yours. And that is the case with The Nine which has seen its previously decent viewership of 18 million during the Lost heyday earlier this season to just over half of that now that Lost is on hiatus.

ABC is planning to air an episode of 20/20 this Wednesday instead of The Nine, a series which revolves around a large cast who all survived a hostage standoff during a bank robbery. ABC has not said when the series would return, but chances are good they will save it until Lost is back on the air, and return The Nine to its previous timeslot. That is, if another megahit doesn’t take over its timeslot.

It’s a wrap! The Bachelor Lorenzo Borghese chose Florida teacher Jennifer Wilson, 24, leaving 23-year-old L.A. publicist Sadie Murray - who will only be remembered for being a virgin and telling anyone who would listen - without a man.

To those watching the episode, it was no real surprise, the connection between the two of them was much more apparent, especially with all that “looking to the future” talks the pair had. And he gave her a ring - albiet not an engagement one, so they could see if their relationship could survive outside the craziness that makes us all love reality tv so much.

If you want to see how they are outside the show - and presumably because they are still together - Lorenzo and Jennifer will be appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly this morning to proclaim their love…. or make it painfully obvious they just aren’t that good together.

Well, can’t say you didn’t see this coming. Frank Agnello, grandson of Mafia boss John Gotti, was stopped by police after blowing through a stop sign. Once pulled over, cops smelled the unmistakable scent of pot wafting from the car.

They then searched the 2006 Chrysler Pacifica and found assorted painkillers, including OxyContin as well as pill morphine.

Agnello is now the proud owner of charges for criminal possession of a controlled substance and marijuana. If convicted, he faces up to a year in prison. Juliana Buckley, who was also in the car, is also facing the same charges while a third person in the car got off.

So I wonder if Victoria’s meltdown over the charges will make it to air

Heroes, which has been a surprise hit for NBC this season, has already been picked up for airing in the UK. BBC has picked up rights to air Heroes on BBC2. It is scheduled to begin airing in 2007, although dates have not yet been announced.

In an unusual step, FOX plans to release a special DVD following the 24 sixth season premiere. The DVD will include the first four episodes. It will be the 6th day, with times between 6am and 10am, with a preview for the following hour.

The DVD will be released January 16th.

Guess The CW execs don’t realize that girl-on-girl can actually *improve* ratings, but guess they must have been worried about boycots that kind of action can bring to mainstream networks circa 1989. But alas, a lesbian kiss between guest star Patty Hearst and actress Keri Pratt got axed.

Apparently, it sounds like it was a go right until the two actresses got on set. The NYPost has the gossipy scoop, as always.

Patty Hearst hit the small screen last night for a campy cameo in the CW channel’s “Veronica Mars.”

Playing an heiress trustee of the show’s Hearst College (get it?), writers gave the former Symbionese symbol a fake kidnap subplot and even a lady love interest.

But when it came time to kiss actress Keri Pratt, the suits decided that (Democratic Congress be damned!) there would be no lesbian lip-lock.

“I meet Keri and I’m like, hello,” Hearst told me yesterday.

“We didn’t know until we were on the set we couldn’t actually kiss. We were all set for that.”

And to think, this could have gotten a lot more people really interested in the show… imagine the buzz with a Patty Hearst girly lip lock!

Gotta love the All Star Editions. Reality show Amazing Race will be returning for its next season in the All Star format, bringing back some of their most popular (or most notorious!) teams to compete against one another for the top prize.

And yes, what would an all star edition be without the love-em-or-hate-em couple of Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich will be on the show (yes, they both were on the all star edition of Survivor, which Amber won), as will a cast of other favorites from the previous ten seasons.

And of course, what would an All Star edition be without those not chosen throwing a public hissy fit. Chip and Kim McAllister posted their temper tantrum via a MySpace video, which they ended up pulling down after a day. And season nine winners, BJ and Tyler, posted their hissy fit on the CBS Former Racer’s Blog, which is actually meant to provide commentary on the current season airing on CBS. And of course, they had to turn it a charge of discrimination against gay couples. Puleeeze.

All the nitty gritty

NBC is turning the hit Thank you for Smoking into a new series, with Rick Cleveland (Six Feet Under) as writer and executive producer and David O. Sacks, who produced the indie flick will executive produce the series for Room 9 Entertainment and NBC U Television Studio.

The series will pick up after the movie ends, with Nick Naylor opening his firm and being the spinmaster while on the unpopular side of client’s PR issues. No word yet on who will play Nick Naylor, I suspect it will be a difficult role to cast if they want to pull it off. But with the premise of the series, it could be hard not to pull it off.

Source

Gotta give them credit for trying something a little bit on the wacky side. Their January 18th episode will be an entirely musical episode, with a healthy dose of Avenue Q inspiration working behind it.

Former Avenue Q star Stephanie D’Abruzzo will appear in the episode in a role written especially for her.

The episode will features songs by Avenue Q composer/lyricists Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. The episode is called “My Musical” and is tentatively scheduled to air on NBC Jan. 18, 2007, at 9 PM ET. “The general plot,” supervising producer Debra Fordham told Playbill.com, “is that a woman comes into Sacred Heart, our hospital, complaining that she constantly hears music, yet all her tests come back normal. Is she just crazy? Or is something else going on?” Fordham specifically wrote the part for D’Abruzzo after seeing her in another off-Broadway show this past spring.

Source

ABC has picked up the Bachelor for its tenth season, due to the surprise success of the nineth edition has been having this season on Monday nights. No word yet on when it will air, but rumor has it we could see a new bachelor on the air as soon as Spring 2007.

ABC is bringing back its smash reality show Dancing with the Stars for a fourth season this spring. And rumored start date would put the first episode airing in March, so ABC could air the finale during the important May sweeps period.

ABC does have a dilemna on their hands though. If they air in the same Tuesday - Wednesday format they had used for the third season, Dancing with the Stars would air against the FOX megahit American Idol. And that can be a death sentence for just about any series!

And celebs will probably vie for those dancing spots - as we have seen with Mario Lopez, the series can take a third tier forgotten has-been and make him or her a star again.

Let’s dance!

Following the lead of 24, FOX is also giving American Idol the four-hour two-day season premiere extravaganza in January. The first date is January 16th.

We also learn a whopping 110 girls are making it to Hollywood Week, as well as the official celeb judges that hit the auditions.

Cowell, as well as Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and host Ryan Seacrest were joined by guest judges on the audition trail: Jewel in Minneapolis, Olivia Newton-John in Los Angeles and Carole Bayer Sager in New York.

Some 110 women and 60 men were selected to make it through to Hollywood, Lythgoe said.

“It’s going to be tough on the girls,” he said, because almost twice as many will be competing for the female spots in the final 24.

I can’t wait for American Idol to start, Wheee!

Source