Frequently Nude Actress to Play Sarah Palin
Move over Tina Fey, there's a new Sarah in town. And she just might take her clothes off. Or not. Probably not. Also today: more pilot news including a Who's the Boss update of sorts, more Survivor is coming your way, as is more Zach Braff.
- Merciful maraudin' mooses! It's been announced that copper-headed exhibitionist (and, y'know, really good actress) Julianne Moore has been tapped to play northern winterdemon Sarah Palin in HBO's movie adaptation of Game Change, the much buzzed-about book chronicling the 2008
communist takeoverpresidential election. An interesting choice! Moore doesn't often play real people (the last one was murdered incestuous socialite Barbara Baekeland) and, as a colleague pointed out, her accent work is spotty at best, but she has got a certain flinty warmth in common with our future Tea Queen. And hey, Moore has shown a willingness in the past to (artfully) bear it all, so maybe we'll be treated [shudder] to the full Todd's Country. [EW] - All right, pilot time. Ready... go! Beloved wine-eyed TV actress Judith Light has been cast in Other People's Kids, an ABC laugh-tracker about a younger guy who falls in love with an older woman who has kids and meddling ex-in-laws. Light will play one of those in-laws! What, Holland Taylor was busy? I'm pretty sure she's not busy anymore, guys. Meanwhile, The Tudors actress Natalie Dormer has
moved off campusjoined the cast of Poe, the detective show about the poet solving crimes. [Deadline] Jeffery Tambor, hot off suddenly dropping out of his commitment to La Cages Aux Folles on Broadway, has been snapped up by NBC's Bent, the one about Amanda Peet having the hots for her surfer contractor. Tambor will play Peet's wacky dad, a former actor who wants back in the biz. What, Holland Taylor was busy? (Also: Bent is a strange, strange name for this show, isn't it? I mean, what, is there also a subplot about gay British WWI soldiers?) [Deadline] Jeremy Sisto has been cast in ABC's Suburgatory (still hate that name!), playing a teenager's dad. A teenager's dad! God, it all goes so fast. Seems like just yesterday he left his Cranberries CD in the quad. I wonder if his foot still hurts. [Deadline] - Both Survivor and its host Jeff Probst are stuck on CBS Island for two more go-arounds, as a deal has just been made for seasons 23 and 24. Unreal. But now what new ways will they find to spice up the formula? My esteemed friend and colleague Brian Moylan suggested the other day that they bring back a bunch of people who were the first ones voted off in their season, and I think that's great. You listening, Probsty? Hire this kid as a producer! He's gold! (Plus if he left I could do Glee recaps, which you know would be nothing but Sam/Blaine slash-fic.) The locations of the two new seasons have not been determined. [THR]
- Apparently Charlie Sheen has endorsed Rob Lowe to be his replacement on Two and a Half Men. Well, good for him. Why would that happen though? Why ever? Does anyone actually think this is going to happen? They're just going to cancel it right? I mean, they have to. The integrity of this character-rich show, that has aged so gloriously and precisely over these past seven or so seasons, really stands to be sullied by replacing one of the organs of this beautiful, living, breathing organism. Also, Rob Lowe to replace Charlie Sheen? What, was Holland Taylor busy or something? [EW]
- Wistful life realizations alert! Pop-indie auteur Zach Braff will have a play produced by Second Stage in New York this June. It's called All New People and is about when you recently sat down to watch Degrassi for the first time in a long while and were like "What the fuck? These are all new people." (I'll see myself out.) No, it's about "35-year-old Charlie, heartbroken and wanting to spend time away from the rest of the world. He goes to an island ghost town as the perfect escape until his solitude is interrupted by parade of misfits who show up and change his plans: a hired beauty, the townie fireman and an eccentric British real estate agent find themselves together in a beach house." Hm. OK. Sounds like a play I wrote in college, only that took place at an empty carnival during a freak summer snowstorm. But I wrote another play about four people in a beach house! Braff, have you been snooping around in my Documents? Anyway, hopefully there's a part in the play where the actors go to yell into the great abyss, and it's just them walking over to the Spider-Man theater and screaming. [THR]
[Photo via Getty]