Sometimes, two seemingly mismatched things from disparate backgrounds and decades can come together in unlikely harmony. Just tap Catherine Zeta-Jones on the shoulder the next time you spot her sucking face with Michael Douglas and ask her. Or, alternately, you can watch the video above:
Last night, Britney Spears returned to her legitimate sitcom stunt-casting roots for the first time since her Will & Grace guest spot of two years ago. This go-around, she was called upon by lesser-threatening CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother to play Abby, a dermatologist's receptionist smitten with the show's main character.
Jericho, CBS's excellent postapocalyptic drama set in rural Kansas has been cancelled. Again. Jericho drew a large following among the tech demo. Besides the obvious sci-fi draw, Jericho explored themes of government intervention and self-sufficiency, which are passionate topics among the more tinfoil-hat Libertarians of the Web. But shows that please netizens aren't moneymakers.
· There will be nuts. [THR]
· Midway Games' wafer-gobbling CEO David Zucker is relieved of his duties by the ghostly specter of Sumner "Blinky" Redstone. [Variety]
· Even though Rita Marley is its executive producer, the Marley estate is refusing to license Bob's music for the Weinstein's biopic. (It's Martin Scorsese's fault.) [THR]
· It's hypersensitive elephants vs. African-American drag queens duking out for top spot at the Easter Weekend box office. Oh well, we've been meaning to re-grout our bathroom for a while now, anyway. [Variety]
· Brad Ingelsby, a 27-year old who until last week lived with his parents in Pennsylvania, sold his first script The Low Dweller for $650,000 against $1.1 million, with Ridley Scott directing and Leonardo DiCaprio set to star. We now pause to take in the screams of anguish pouring out of every Starbucks and Coffee Bean in the greater L.A. area. [Variety]
After the chilling lessons of last night's South Park, in which paparazzi and handlers carried on mistreating the surviving bottom-third of Britney Spears's blown off head as if nothing at all was wrong, we thought we'd take this opportunity to instead focus on some of the more exciting and positive things going on in her life. For one, Britney released an album this year! It's called "Blackout," it's available on iTunes, and mark our words when we tell you, this thing is going to pop up on more year-end Top Ten lists than you can shake a stick at. (We wish we were even kidding.) Moving along:
· The beauty of Jewno is in its attention to detail. To wit: a bagels, lox, & cream cheese phone. [YouTube]
· Prince at Coachella! [LAT]
· Today in sci-fi: First glimpses of the Starfleet Nerdcademy. Arthur C. Clarke dies in Sri Lanka at age 90. [aintitcool.com, Reuters]
· Watch Adam Carolla call Carrie Ann Inaba a "bitch" on last night's Dancing with the Stars premiere. [TMZ]
· CBS's godawful sitcoms post higher ratings than ever since returning from the strike. Seriously, though. Just the pits. That Christine one? And the Big Bang one? Ugh. [THR]
· Kirstie Alley has signed a deal with Harpo to develop "future television projects, including a possible daily strip format." We hope that just means a five-episode-per-week syndie, and not that Alley will be prancing around again on the Oprah stage in a bathing suit with any regularity. [ETOnline]
We have to admit, when we first heard that Britney Spears would guest star on the struggling How I Met Your Mother, we had our doubts. Would she really find enough sanity-laced moments during the day to play a Working Girl? Had all the gurney trips and 5150s left her sharp enough to memorize lines and interact with actual actors? Would the length of time required to remove all umbrellas from the Fox lot overlap with her scheduled appearance? But apparently our (and Neil Patrick Harris') worries were for naught. Britney has officially shown up, donned her costume, and put her acting skills to the test. Click through for the first shot taken of Brit playing secretary alongside fellow guest star Sarah Chalke:
· HBO shakes things up in their original series development department, moving longtime president Carolyn Strauss into a new, not-quite-fired-but-let's- see-what-some-new-blood- can-do-about- never-letting- John From Cincinnati -happen-again position. [Variety]
· Hollywood StrikeWatch 2: The Bickering. SAG and AFTRA can't seem to decide whether basic cable should be included in the upcoming actors negotiation, leading to a flurry of strongly worded letters and "near-constant sniping" between the two unions, who'll ultimately air out their differences in a choreographed rumble in the Farmers Market parking lot, set to the music of Leonard Bernstein. [Variety]
· Marvel Studios has sold the exclusive broadcast rights to FX for a package of five of their movies, including the upcoming Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, along with three more, yet-to-be-determined titles. (We're pulling for a She-Hulk Vs. She-Thing, starring Rachel Bilson and Mischa Barton.) [Variety]
The second installment of our newish feature, Scrambled Eggs, comes to us courtesy of an eagle-eyed friend of Defamer, People Paula. But before we get into the contents of the clip at hand, we'll give you a quick refresher on what exactly makes a Scrambled Egg. It's a term we invented to describe those glorious moments that happen in television shows when a bored (or possibly stoned) editor cuts an inexplicable and altogetherly out-of-context image into a scene, likely as an inside joke for themselves. Got it? Good.
Now that your memory has been rebooted, we are glad to present this Scrambled Egg from Wednesday night's episode of Big Brother. As the Chenbot attempts to engage the castmembers of the 412th season of the show in some casual conversation while they dangle from some sort of unusual swinging device (forgive us, we haven't followed the show since the days of Dr. Will and Mike Boogie), the show's sleep-deprived editors make what can only be described as an unusual choice for a cutaway shot.
Before agreeing to sell to AOL for $850 million, Bebo president Joanna Shields tried to sell the company to News Corp., Google, Yahoo and CBS. Didn't happen. Bebo gets too little traffic in the U.S., sources from those companies told BoomTown. Microscopic revenues probably didn't help Bebo reach its hoped-for $1 billion pricetag, either. In 2006, Bebo revenues were $7 million, with just $3 million in EBITDA — Wall Street's favored measure of operating profit. Last year, total revenues climbed to $20 million, $5 million in EBITDA. So that's a price-to-earnings ratio of 160. Oh, maybe AOL CEO Randy Falco's valuing it on growth, you say? Let's run those numbers.
Tomorrow, Hulu will finally open its doors to the wider public. Rumor has it Time Warner and Viacom soon plan to join the site, which is backed by NBC and News Corp., through nonexclusive distribution deals. CBS digital guru Quincy Smith, however, remains pessimistic: "If the Web is just another way to watch TV, I think I'm going to slit my wrists." Below, the best friend of former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel's daughter in the kind of short form clip Hulu hopes the public will take to.
On Friday we asked if former Good Morning America producer Ben Sherwood was in talks about running CBS' Early Show following the departure of disastrous producer Shelley Ross. Since then, TVNewser spoke to "insiders" who said Sherwood talked to CBS executives about the job, and we got a tip that Sherwood was seen last week having drinks with CBS Evening News producer Rick Kaplan, who is running the Early Show on an interim basis. The tipster said the two were seen "far, far away from the office." (Photo via BenSherwood.com.)
CBS Interactive chief Quincy Smith says he can charge advertisers $20 per thousand views, higher than the rate CBS gets for prime-time television. As SAI points out, this may be more due to CBS's relatively small supply of Web content and viewers, rather than rapacious advertiser demand. Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck yesterday said advertisers would spend $1.35 billion on Web video in the U.S. in 2008 — about 1.6 percent of what they'll spend on TV.
Steve Friedman, a director who recently departed the Shelley Ross-terrorized CBS Early Show, is teaming up with another ex-CBSer to show needy clients how "the crazy quilt world of new media and old media work together." And you know that you're dealing with experts, because they have a wacky, new media name for their firm: Vir2L Media. That's the way these internet types spell things these days, seriously! They should have great success as consultants telling clueless corporate types what to do, as long as nobody uses The Google and gets them confused with Vir2L Studios, which already existed before they picked their name. Such a wild, wild media world. [TVNewser]
Oh, poor dejected Dan Rather. Dumped by his network, left out of self-congratulatory media parties and solitarily pursuing a vanity lawsuit. Well, at least he has the gab fest of that is the View. Today, he got to pontificate about the election, as well as explain his conspiracy theories about why he was fired from CBS. Joy Behar even called him a "sex god." About four minutes in, Barbara Walters asks Rather about his lawsuit, and Rather gets all Howard Beale-lite. His paranoia got our paranoia going. What personal vendetta is Barbara Walters pursuing by asking Rather about his crazy suit? Did ABC News bigwigs tell her to bring up the case to hurt CBS News? Was 9/11 an inside job? Video after the jump.
· It's official! E! has picked up eight episodes of Living Lohan, a realitainment showcasing the highs and lows of everyone's favorite momabler, Dina Lohan, as she moves the family from Long Island to Las Vegas for little Ali's career. Ali records an album, the two live in a suite at the Palms (coincidentally owned by exec producer Phil Maloof), and we get a shattering glimpse into the heart of momabling darkness. Be afraid. [Variety]
· Confused about what the hell the Warner Bros.-ingested New New Line is going to wind up looking like? Guess what—so is Warner Bros.! [Variety]
Last night was the television news magazine 48 Hours 20 Year anniversary party, or we like to call it, the 175,320 Hours party. Dan Rather, the show's original host, was not invited, which makes sense since he's suing the network for wrongful termination. Seriously, it would have been way more awkward if he went. [NYMag]
