Carson Daly Will Never Go Away
The TRL host of yesteryear just keeps hanging on. Also today: pilot casting news sees the return of some old favorites, V may be flying south, and Megan Fox is funny now apparently.
- Some fourteen years ago, America came down with a terrible case of Carson Daly, and man if we have not been able to shake it since. We've tried everything! We moved him from the afternoons and into the dark recesses late-late-night, but still he persisted. We even threw Tara Reid at him, as Tara Reid is a germ that can usually destroy anything it comes in contact with. But no, Daly fought her off without slowing down. And now, all these years later, his show Last Call with Carson Daly has been renewed by NBC for an 11th season, the network citing the show's highest-ever ratings. Gahhh! And that's not it. Daly is also going to be hosting that new singing show The Voice in primetime. Yeah. He's everywhere. He's that kind of condition. You live with it chronically for a long time, so long you forget you have it. But then every once in a while it flares up and you're like "Whaa?? Oh man, I forgot I had this." Carson Daly is Ménière's disease, basically. Fitting that he would eventually make us deaf. [Deadline]
- OK, pilot time. Kevin Zegers, who won a César Award for his work in Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch, has been cast in the pilot Georgetown, the one about all the sexy young folks of D.C. Zegers has been guesting on Gossip Girl this season, though he is of course best known for playing the role of Steven Westover in the Sundance favorite MVP: Most Valuable Primate. [THR] Remember China Moon and Blink and The General's Daughter? No? Well, remember 12 Monkeys? Good. What do they all have in common? Madeleine Stowe, thriller queen of the 1990s. She was big and then she disappeared, reemerged on a show that got canceled quickly in 2007, and disappeared again. But now she's back! She's been cast on a pilot opposite Emily VanCamp. She'll be playing one half of a wealthy and powerful Hamptons couple who ruined VanCamp's family's life, and now VanCamp has come for revenge. The show is called Revenge. That actually sounds like kind of a fun plot? I mean, it's no Nico the Unicorn (Zegers and company won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for that one), but it still sounds good. Yay Stowe! [Deadline] Jason Street himself, Scott Porter, has landed the lead opposite Rachel Bilson on The CW's Hart of Dixie, which is basically Doc Hollywood with a girl. Or Arachnophobia with a girl and without the spiders (I think). The point is, a big city doctor moves to a small town, hilarity ensues. And romance, in this case. [Deadline]
- Is Megan Fox funny? Right, exactly. So what then is Judd Apatow thinking putting her in a movie? Yes, it's rumored that Fox might be wandering into the bright quasar of comedy, with a big part in the funnyman auteur's next movie. This is the one that has Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann revisiting their roles from Knocked Up. So I would guessss then, that Fox will play some sort of temptation for Rudd? Like Jessica Alba in Little Fockers. If that's true (which, again, it could not be), that's annoying. What about hiring a comedian! Like Jen Kirkman? She is pretty and funny and it is believable that she and Paul Rudd('s character in that move — I mean, it's not much of a stretch, right?) could have some chemistry. When it's just the bland, boring hot girl it's so much less convincing. Ah well. At least they haven't stunt-cast Betty White. [THR]
- The season two finale of ABC's troubled alien invasion drama V aired last night, and it did not fare so well. With 5.2 million viewers, it was down 14% from last season's finale, even though lots of other networks were airing reruns. Apparently the whole thing was really violent and gory, which is kind of exciting, so maybe it's too bad more people didn't watch it? Has anyone here stuck with it? Did you eventually stop feeling really bad for Elizabeth Mitchell? Because that's why I stopped watching. It had nothing to do with Scott Wolf. Well, maybe a little to do with Scott Wolf. Or a lot. [EW]
- Oh dear. Another late '90s relic just won't go away. It seems several of the original cast members of American Pie, that teenage sex comedy about gross people doing gross things grossly, have signed on for another one of those things. The hope is to actually have it open in theaters this time, unlike the most recent ones like Band Camp and The Naked Mile and whatnot. (Just for reference, The Naked Mile opens with Stiffler's cousin or brother or something ejaculating on his grandmother, causing her to have a heart attack and die. Gooood work, everyone!) Of course Eugene Levy, who has been in every single one, is back for this latest one, but so are Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott (despite his recent troubles?). Tara Reid, Jennifer Coolidge, Mena Suvari, and Thomas Ian Nicholas are in talks. Ha, in talks? What are any of them doing that they'd need to be in talks? You take what they offer you, kids. C'mon. It ain't 1999 anymore. [The Wrap]
- Emma Roberts, niece of Julia and daughter of Eric, is making a Hollywood move. She's decided to get a formal agent, after years of just working with a manager. So she's set up a lot of big meetings and is trying to position herself as "the next Natalie Portman." Well, there she goes. All grown up at 20 years old, making career moves. She's had to beat a lot of odds, knock on a lot of doors, to get to where she is today, so I wish her luck. [Deadline]
[Photo via Getty]