As the former head writer for Dawson's Creek, Greg Berlanti is probably a fountain of insights into whatever led a pre-assimilated Katie Holmes to ditch her once promising career for a life of home-imprisonment and engineered-child rearing. AfterElton recently interviewed the openly gay Brothers and Sisters EP, but instead chose to focus on the show's matter-of-fact approach to gay content. And to what can we attribute those refreshingly frank, four-way conference calls in which the titular siblings gossip candidly about their gay brother's recent one-night stand? Why, the mere fact that the really gay-sounding dude who used to answer the phones at ABC back in '97 is now their VP of Drama Development:

No sooner had some semblance of normalcy finally returned to the Grey's Anatomy set, with a fully rehabilitated Isaiah Washington using his newly acquired anger-management tools to temper his castigations of line-flubbing co-star T.R. Knight with the far less incendiary, "Nice job, ffffforgetful!" comes news of further dissension among the horny-physician ranks. The recent announcement by ABC of a possible spinoff for Kate Walsh's character, Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd (aka Dr. Ex-Mrs. Dr. McDreamy) has, notes Star magazine, received a chilly reception from the rest of the cast:

• Surly Maer Roshan only talks to Yusef Jackson. Yusef talks to Ron Burkle. It's called plausible deniability. You know, allegedly. [NYO]
  

· Jesse Jackson lets the industry know that it can't fool him with Oscar nominations (and likely wins) for Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, and Eddie Murphy, as he sees right through this obvious stalling tactic putting off an oft-promised dehonkification of Hollywood. [Variety]
· ABC might not be revealing exactly what their Grey's Anatomy spinoff will be about, but they're conceding this: Taye Diggs is going to be in it. We're sure they'll find something for him to do involving cradling the adorable, sickly babies Dr. Addison just saved from tragic demises. [THR]
· Fox plans on giving Steven Spielberg's On the Lot reality competition a leg up by premiering it after one of the last American Idol installments of the season, hoping that viewers will stick around even when they figure out that Ryan Seacrest won't be showing up to console the losers. [Variety]
· Today's evocative verb referring to what Idol did to its competition last night: "tramples." [THR]
· The stunt-casting of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as president and VP in a bit dramatizing every liberal's most disturbing nightmare helps the premiere of Fox News Channel's Daily Show knockoff The 1/2 Hour News Hour to big debut ratings. [Variety]

· Is it starting to feel like ABC's getting a little desperate to squeeze the life out of its hits? They've now signed up Housewives creator Marc Cherry to a four-year, eight-figure deal to stay with the show through its seventh season, during which the only remaining unexplored plotline will involve Eva Longoria and Teri Hatcher waking up to find themselves trapped in each other's bodies. [Variety]
· Today in theoretical WGA strike saber-rattling: A Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. study says a strike, whether "real or de facto," would "not be good news for areas of Los Angeles County with exposure to the business." The LAEDC also recommends that studio executives who find themselves suddenly impoverished by a labor stoppage "burn piles of stockpiled scripts for warmth." [THR]
· The DreamWorks Obamamaia fund-raiser may have raised $1.3 million for Barack, Hollywood blood money the candidate's campaign has no intention of giving back, no matter how pissed off Hillary was by David Geffen's crack about the Lincoln Bedroom. [Variety]
· American Idol producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick are tasked with trying to make the moribund Emmy telecast a little more exciting, a goal they hope to achieve by handing Paula Abdul a garbage bag full of prescription painkillers and then sending her out on stage as host and sole presenter. [THR]
· Rules of Engagement's early success following Two and a Half Men leads Var to postulate that audiences might be craving more formulaic, multicamera sitcom crap. [Variety]

Jerry Springer appeared on Good Morning America today to unveil the new cast of Dancing with the Stars, ABC's hit reality competition that gives la crème de la D-list crème one more shot at foxtrotting their way back into America's hearts. This season, producers have amassed arguably the most illustrious group yet of besequined washouts to grace those polished floors with their varying degrees of technical skill, culled from worlds as disparate as professional sports and Beatle-marrying famewhoredom, with the requisite former boy-band members, pageant queens, and stars of Beverly Hills 90210 thrown in for good measure:

Have you ever found yourself bumped out of the trance once reliably induced by a claustrophobic, emotionally fraught exchange between Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey in one of Seattle Grace's conversation-enabling elevators by the thought, "This contrived sexual tension is nice, but I really wish I knew what McDreamy's ex-wife was up to right now"? If you're the one, please immediately wrap your head in tinfoil, scrawl the word STOP on a nearby wall in your own feces, and smash your TV's screen with the commemorative stainless steel vibrator from your Sex and the City: The Complete Series box set, as ABC's Steven McPherson is clearly burgling your thoughts: Today's WSJ reports that the network is planning a two-hour Grey's Anatomy special that will serve as a back-door pilot for a potential spinoff centered around Dr. Addison Montgomery-Shepherd, the show's "sexy neonatal-surgeon" character. As yet, there's no plot or title (let's just slap Dr. Adddison: Baby Saver on the project and be done with it), but these are minor concerns when there's a "white-hot" property to be exploited before the public tires of distressingly skinny doctors in labcoats fucking in unoccupied hospital rooms, then spending the next five episodes whining about the experience.

· Want to read more about the Dixie Chicks' big night at the Grammys? Of course you do. [Variety, THR]
·Reese Witherspoon unexpectedly ditches Endeavor (her home for just a year) for CAA after being promised that if she signed with the evil agenting monolith, the committed mother's young children would never be featured as lunch specials at their new headquarters. Rumors that the agency's pitch also included an ominous pledge to "take care" of ex-husband Ryan Phillippe should he ever "become a problem" are unconfirmed. [Variety]
· The Grammys recover nicely from last year's humiliating buggering at the hands of American Idol, as seeking refuge on an Idol-free Sunday night leads to an 18 percent boost over 2006's all-time low ratings. [THR]
· MTV Networks announces a "sweeping round" of layoffs in a variety of divisions, with the death toll expected to reach 250 staff positions. Happy Monday! [Variety]
· In today's WTF? casting news (but really, doesn't each new Cage gig announcement elicit that kind of reaction?), Nicholas Cage is attached to star in Disney's live-action adaptation of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Luckily, he'll play the sorcerer, not an off-puttingly intense dancing broom. [THR]

· More on Rupert Murdoch's "Borat boo-boo," a slip-up weird beyond its inherent inaccuracy because News Corp. neglected to mention a Borat sequel while it was bragging about how much the original film had boosted its quarterly earnings, and for Fox's previous bitching that Bruno was too expensive for the studio to purchase. [Variety]
· Julia Roberts will star in the ensemble drama Fireflies in the Garden, which "explores the complexities of love and commitment in a family torn apart when faced with an unexpected tragedy," shorthand for, "My Oscar is feeling a little lonely all by itself up on that mantel." [THR]
· "I've finally admitted to myself that I am afraid of my own lawyer." Var's Peter Bart looks at how entertainment lawyers have scared the town shitless. [Variety]
· ABC wins Thursday night with another great Nielsen performance by Grey's Anatomy, which is on such a roll that the network is considering making public at least one ugly feud from the Grey's set each month. [THR]
· In a completely unsurprising move, Disney is making a big-screen spinoff from its wildly successful TV movie High School Musical. [Variety]

Katherine Heigl's on-camera admonition of rage-prone Grey's Anatomy co-star Isaiah Washington backstage at the Golden Globes was the scold her 'round the world, and led directly to the actor checking himself into a career-salvaging stint in gayhab. The actress appeared on Good Morning America this morning, where she described a cautious optimism among her fellow cast members that things seem to be returning back to normal since Dr. McPlays-Well-With-Othersy returned:

• Inside The 'Lost' Writers Room [Defamer]

To supplement the Survival Guide intended to get Lost fans up to speed on this season's intricately plotted story lines following the prolonged hiatus that finally ends tonight, ABC has just released this behind-the-scenes video clip of the show's writers' room, hoping that offering a glimpse into the hit series' creative process will make for a more fulfilling experience for its loyal viewers. As Lost's detail-obsessed producers are wont to hide clues in the show's promotional materials, we'd encourage everyone to pay close attention to the magical, top-hat-wearing turtle on the index card, which almost certainly will play a crucial role in unlocking all of the mysterious island's secrets over the course of the next 16 episodes.

· British exhibitors yank Night at the Museum from theaters to punish Fox for violating the sacred DVD release window, further threatening to have Ben Stiller drawn and quartered should he attempt to promote the DVD on British soil. [Variety]
· With no American Idol to contend with, ABC makes Thursday night its Nielsen bitch. [THR]
· Penelope Cruz will supplant Scarlett Johansson as Woody Allen's chesty object of age-inappropriate lust in his next film, which will shoot in Barcelona this summer. [Variety]
· After failing to agree to a "workable content-sharing agreement," Viacom demands that 100,000 clips featuring its content be immediately removed from the YouTubes, a move that could make embeddable video of The Hills tragically hard to come by. [THR · Producer Dino De Laurentiis threatens that if his Hannibal Rising prequel is a success, he can take the character even younger in future installments like Hannibal Lecter: Cannibal Baby. [Variety]

With his elective stint at gayhab nearly complete, it looks as if rageoholic Isaiah Washington's Dark Night of the Gay-Bullying Soul will finally see dawn, as People is reporting the actor is scheduled to return to set Thursday with a sound body, clear mind, and taking his newfound slur-sobriety one day at a time:

The LAT reports that recently ousted Paramount lieutenant Gail Berman is joining forces with long-ago ousted ABC executive Lloyd "I Totally Came Up With 'Lost' And All I Got Was This Lousy, Short-Lived Gig At Yahoo!" Braun to form the creatively named multimedia (TV/internet/movies/short-wave radio plays, if that's what the kids are into) production entity BermanBraun (or the slightly jazzier Berman/Braun, if you listen to Variety; really, the jaunty little slash makes all the difference). But before you start placing bets on where their new company will make its home, there are at least two destinations you can scratch off the list for obvious reasons:

· Sundance hands out its awards, with Padre Nuestro winning the dramatic competition's grand jury prize, the John Cusack-starring Grace is Gone winning the drama audience award, and Brazilian corruption film Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) taking the documentary jury prize. [Variety]
· Will Arnett joins Will Ferrell's ABA basketball comedy Semi-Pro as a "hard-drinking sports commentator," probably reducing the chances that audiences will get to see him in knee-high tube socks and nut-hugging shorts, but increasing the chances he will appear in a mustard-colored sportsjacket while openly swigging from a whiskey bottle at courtside. [THR]
· CBS is forced to cancel Armed and Famous after American Idol's Nielsen death ray disintegrates its audience, while ABC moves fledgling Knights of Prosperity out of Idol's competition-annihilating path. [Variety]
· Night at the Museum holds off Pursuit of Happyness to continue its five-week reign atop the international box office. [THR]
· Hoping to lock up the coveted Ron Silver endorsement, Rudolph Giuliani plans to visit L.A. to raise money for his exploratory committee for a 2008 presidential run. [Variety]

While his Grey's Anatomy co-star Isaiah Washington is currently excising his bullying demons in a 28-day gay-rage detoxification program, an unnamed "source" tells The Scoop that Ellen-tattling slur-victim T.R. Knight is still so incensed over the way the events were handled, he's plotting to depart the hit series:

· If companies like Time Warner are serious about a commitment to new media, then why can't Peter Bart get someone from TW on the phone who knows how to work his fucking TiVo? [Variety]
· In signing a new overall deal with CBS Paramount Network Television, CSI executive producer Ann Donahue reveals the softer side of CBS Corp.'s future galactic despot Les Moonves: "'Over the summer I had a family member (hospitalized) in grave condition,' Donahue said. 'Leslie, Nancy and Nina called me and not only offered their help, but they cut through a lot of red tape and saved a life. I will be at CBS for as long as they want me.'" [THR]
· NewsCorp is finalizing a deal to bring MySpace to China, but will have to make concessions to the government to bring the site in compliance with local regulations, like limiting each user to a single person in their friendspace (female friend requests must be immediately deleted) and requiring all profile comment to be approved by the Glorious Chinese Emoticon And LOL Censorship Board. [THR]
· Grey's Anatomy, which will finish the week as the number one non-Idol program on television, shows no ill Nielsen effects from the post-Globes Isaiah Washington fiasco, meaning that the slur-happy actor will probably still have a job once he completes his stint in network-ordered GayHab. [Variety]

Just two days after meeting with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to begin the long, arduous process of personally apologizing to every advocacy group listed in his publicist's "What To Do When A Client Outs A Popular Co-Star In A Fit Of Rage, Then Runs Around Repeating Anti-Gay Slurs Backstage At A Globally Covered Awards Show" crisis management file, Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington is already moving on to the next step in the rehabilitation process that may allow him to keep his job: the obligatory trip to a treatment facility where he can hide out until some of the career-hampering controversy dies down. Reports Life & Style (exclusively!):

As ABC lawyers continue to pore through the "Legitimate Grounds for Shitcanning" paragraph in Isaiah Washington's contract, the disgraced Grey's Anatomy actor with the well-documented prejudice against Hollywood's hard-working sodomites has been taking every possible measure to save his job reach across sexual preference lines to make amends. Washington fired his longtime publicist Cynthia Snyder, presumably for her failure to stuff a cocktail napkin into his mouth before the fatal slur could re-emerge; in her place he hired Kelly "I managed to get the world to stop talking about R. Kelly peeing on a 14-year-old and start talking about 'Trapped in a Closet!'" Mullens and her partner in damage control crime, Allen Mayer. First order of business: Getting Washington into a roomful of Gays. Reports the AP: