I’m feeling pretty badly for Lily Allen right now. Apparently her new television show, Lily Allen and Friends, was so bad that her audience - chosen from her online ‘friends’ - walked out during the taping for BBC three. The show was to be a major launching pad for the revamped network, but might not be quite what they were looking for.

More than a third of the studio audience refused to watch the entire recording of Lily Allen and Friends because it was “horrible” and “limp”, according to the Daily Mail.

“We were all told when to clap and laugh but a lot of people, including me, were very uncomfortable,” one disappointed fan said.

“I do think she’s got a nice voice but she didn’t sing at all — I think everyone was expecting she would.”

A jammed autocue saw the ‘Smile’ singer revert to handwritten cue cards, but only to launch into an attack on the criticisms people had dealt her on online chat forums during her interview with comedian David Mitchell from British sitcom Peep Show.

“It was terrible: even David Mitchell had to remind her not to criticise the very people who would be watching the show,” another fan said.

ninemsn

The show then relied on a YouTube-style video of animals mating for laughs. Cuba Gooding Jr, another guest on the show, summed it up pretty accurately by saying “I don’t know what’s sicker, animals having sex or you clapping.” Then again, this is what the internet has brought us, along with endless spam about ‘Forward this on or you’ll die in the next 3 days and your dog will turn into a squirrel and you’ll switch genders at the mortuary.’ It’s not entirely inappropriate to use internet footage when the show is being marketed as an interactive show, tied in with a website, and is youth orientated. After all, America’s Funniest Home Videos uses endless reams of footage of men getting hit in the crotch.

Also, given what Lily has been through in the last few weeks, it might be nice to cut her some slack. She’s just suffered a miscarriage, split up with her boyfriend, and now she is performing on her first ever episode of a television show that had technical problems. I suspect that the reason many people left was due to how long it took to record the show, rather than actual issues with the content.

Although, I could be wrong. Check out the BBC three promo for the series below. It looks a little strange.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Lily Allen and her unnamed guest are shown outside Finch & Partners’ Pre-BAFTA Party on 2/9/08, thanks to WENN. She looks a little worse for wear.

It’s over! Bring on “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “Dirty Sexy Money.” Well, not so fast. Yes, the three-month strike by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached a resolution. But reports are surfacing that we won’t see the results of the agreement for at least another eight weeks.

A deal has been reached to end the Hollywood writers’ strike, according to a U.S. media report.

“It’s over,” former Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner told CNBC. “They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. “

[From The National Post]

The terms of the agreement have not been released, but the WGA has stated several times throughout the strike that they would only sign an agreement that gives TV and film writers a percentage of the residuals from DVD sales and Internet downloads of programs - a market that has been raking in billions of dollars and that producers, studio heads and actors already receive. However, Eisner did say that many of the media production companies, especially the smaller, independent ones, were expected to make some cutbacks in staff. He also said many of the writers who went on strike are unlikely to return to the same big-money contracts they’d had as individuals with the studios.

So, what’s next for the writers– and more importantly, when do the “little people,” such as film crews, production assistants and such, get to go back to work? Many industry insiders think the production process will start slowly.

Churning out fresh episodes of hit dramas and comedies after a lengthy production shutdown is more complicated than simply hitting the “power-on” button of a remote control.

Industry executives say it will likely take eight weeks to restore favorite shows like House, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, and Desperate Housewives to prime time once the strike ends.

Not all of the roughly 65 scripted series bumped off prime time by the writers’ strike will come back this year.

With dramas and single-camera comedies unlikely to get more than six weeks on the air from the time they return until the end of the broadcast season in late May, network programmers have some tough choices to make.

Hits like CSI, House and Grey’s Anatomy, are “no-brainers” to bring back this spring, one network executive said.

Lower-rated shows whose futures already were in doubt will either be placed on hold for possible relaunch in the future or be canceled altogether, in part because networks lack the time to build up marketing campaigns for them, he said.

Scripted series that come back will share the airwaves with many of the reality TV and game shows that have flooded the networks in recent weeks as strike-proof programming.

[From Stuff magazine]

The WGA has not issued an official statement saying they’ve accepted the agreement, but if Michael Eisner is talking about it, something must have happened. Hopefully everyone will be able to get back to work– and we will be able to watch some decent television before the summer hiatus.

Note by Celebitchy: This means the Oscars will be happening after all. They’re set to air on February 24. The Vanity Fair Oscar Party has been canceled, though, so celebs will have to get wasted at another venue that night.

Photos are of the WGA march on Hollywood Boulevard on 11/20/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Star Jones just can’t seem to hold a job anymore. TMZ is reporting that truTV, formerly known as Court TV, has ceased production on Star Jones’ new talk show. The show, simply titled “Star Jones,” has the tagline, “If it’s on your mind, it gets the Star treatment.” The tabloid site posted a copy of a press release announcing a “mutual” parting of ways, signed by truTV’s General Manager, Marc Juris:

Due to the rebranding and programming refocus of the network, truTV and Star Jones Reynolds have mutually agreed to cease production of the Star Jones show. The final episode of the program is scheduled to appear on Friday, Feb. 1. The Star Jones program, which has aired at 3 p.m. (ET) weekdays, will be replaced by Arrest & Trial.

Star will continue as a contributing legal expert on our weekday IN SESSION trial coverage. We appreciate the work she has contributed over the last few months and look forward to the next phase of our relationship.

[From TMZ]

I didn’t bother to watch the show, and I guess I’m not alone. The most attention the show received was after the death of Heath Ledger, when Jones spoke out about the excessive media coverage. Even that wasn’t’ enough to get people to actually watch the show. Her last original episode aired on Thursday, and dealt with the issue of registered sex offenders.

Court TV became truTV on January 1. The network became a phenomenon during the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995, and made a name for itself by covering the court trials of celebrities and other high profile cases, such as the Menendez brothers. However, the network is changing its image, moving away from airing court proceedings, and offering more reality show-type programming.

Star was part of the original lineup of co-hosts on ABC’s estrogen-fueled talk show, “The View.” She left the show after a feud with Barbara Walters, who was reportedly upset with Star’s incessant talk about her impending nuptials to Al Reynolds. Walters also allegedly had a problem with the way Jones pimped out her wedding in order to get free merchandise, including tuxes, dresses, shoes, and even airline tickets. Star announced that she was leaving the show on the air, without discussing it with her co-hosts. Later, both Walters and Jones said the decision was mutual, but the shocked look on Walters’ face on air suggested otherwise.

So far, Star has had nothing to say about the latest job loss. But if there’s one thing we know about her, it’s that she can’t keep her mouth shut for long.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Star Jones is shown at the 10th Annual Angel Ball on 10/29/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Marie Osmond will be starring in her own daytime talk show set to launch in 2009. She agreed to the deal for an undisclosed amount of cash with syndicator Program Partners. The title of the show is—you guessed it—“Marie.”

“I like the philosophy that Program Partners brought to the table,” Ms. Osmond said Tuesday at a NATPE press conference announcing the show. “They’re giving me the freedom to do some things that I feel strongly about, and the timing is right for a show like this.

Ms. Osmond first hit the airwaves in 1976 in prime-time series “Donny & Marie.” She returned to television first in the 1995 ABC sitcom “Maybe This Time” and then with brother Donny in 1998 to co-host “Donny and Marie,” a talk/entertainment show from Sony that lasted two seasons.

“Marie Osmond is unique in this industry,” said Josh Raphaelson, co-founder of Program Partners. “She is a star with an authenticity that makes her relatable to every woman in America.”

[From TV Week]

Marie cha-cha’ed her way back into the spotlight with a controversial appearance on “Dancing With the Stars” last season. During the run of that show, Osmond fainted on live television, which some later claimed she staged. She also lost her father during the show’s run, and announced that her teenaged son was entering rehab. She finished in third place, after a bizarre performance in which she dressed as a giant doll. At the time, the performance was ridiculed, but now it looks like all that exposure has paid off.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Marie Osmond is shown at Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on 1/29/08 announcing her talk show. It’s not set to launch until Fall, 2009. Maybe it’s delayed because of the writer’s strike, but why announce it now if it’s not coming out for at least 18 months? Thanks to PRPhotos.

Just like the strikes in the olden days, the WGA strike is leaving people scrambling for guests. Wait, no. The strikes in olden days left people scrambling for food, not actors. It’s close, though, and certainly every bit as frightening. Human beings can live for months without food, but can only live for a maximum of seven days without Brad Pitt. Around day 5 your kidneys shut down, and the liver tends to go around day 6. The hosts of late night television, back on the air but without any actor guests, have been scrambling to fill their vacant spots in a desperate attempt to save keep us alive. The Screen Actors Guild has cruelly forbade any of its members from appearing on any non-WGA sanctioned shows. That effectively means they can only show up for David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, whose production company Worldwide Pants has come to its own agreement with the WGA. So what’s a late night host to do? Bring in other late night hosts as guests of course!

The talk-show hosts, who both returned to the airwaves last Wednesday without their respective writing teams and with picketers outside their respective studios, are turning into unlikely allies in the late-night race, with both agreeing to appear as guests on each other’s shows next Thursday, in the wake of a writers’ strike-induced guest drought.

“If Jay and I can come together and guest on each other’s shows, surely there is hope for peace in the Middle East,” Kimmel said in a joint statement released by ABC and NBC Sunday morning.

“There are only a few people in the world who know how tough this job is,” Leno said. “Jimmy is one of them. It will be fun to discuss who’s a good guest, who’s a difficult guest and everything else that comes with sitting behind these desks.” The mutual back scratching will help fill not only headlines but what’s proving to be hard-to-populate guest slots for the late-night shows since their return to air.

[From E! News]

I’m no expert, but it seems to me that writers and actors are incredibly loyal to their unions. And something tells me they have long memories. Jimmy Kimmel seems to have done himself quite the disservice recently by voicing his opposition to the writer’s strike.

And while Leno has teetered on the brink of violating guild rules since returning to the air, penning his own monologue jokes, despite supposedly standing in solidarity as a striking writer, Kimmel himself has voiced disapproval of the strict code and unwavering solidarity he’s meant to display with his unemployed wordsmiths.

“I don’t want to depart too much from the party line, but I think it’s ridiculous,” he said on his first night back of the strike and SAG’s insistence that members avoid the late-night shows that did not score a WGA-sanctioned agreement. “Jay Leno, he paid his staff while they were out. Conan did the same thing. I don’t know. I just think at a certain point you back off a little bit.”

Later, he stripped his opinions of all party-line vestiges, saying flat out, “I’m pissed off, I’ll be honest with you.”

[From E! News]

I’m pretty sure Jimmy Kimmel is going to find concrete in his shoes within the next three days. Wait, these are writers… so he’s probably going to find ink in his shoes. Maybe a few random letters stripped off his computer’s keyboard. Nothing teaches you to shut up like some blue ink stains and your favorite S and A keys smashed to pieces.

Michael C Hall stars as a serial killer with a conscience in the dramatic series Dexter, which recently completed its second season on Showtime. Dexter’s day job is as a forensic blood expert with the Miami police department where he works with his sister, Debra Morgan, an up and coming homicide detective. On screen the two play siblings who have playful camaraderie and help each other out, and offscreen they’re said to have been dating for around four months:

[Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter] “have been seeing each other secretly for some time,” a source tells Star. “They were keeping it quiet because Michael is still married.” The former Six Feet Under star, 36, filed for divorce from his wife of four years, actress Amy Spanger, in 2006. Although it’s still pending, Michael and Jennifer, 28, finally decided that four months of sneaking around was enough!

[From Star Magazine, print edition, January 14, 2008]

I’ve only seen the first season of Dexter as I live overseas and don’t have access to the second season yet, but I’m looking forward to it. It took me a while to get into the show as the premise is so odd, but once I watched a couple of episodes I was hooked and my husband loves it two.

Dexter and Deb are just brother and sister by adoption on the show as Deb’s father, a homicide detective, adopted Dexter. I won’t give away much more of the plot as it’s a worthy series to rent and watch in its entirety. Considering that these two play siblings by adoption it might be a little easier for them to step out of their characters and fall in love. Hopefully they aren’t too burdened by the plot of the show. It seems outlandish enough not to be taken seriously by the people who work on it, although it sucks you in, kind of like Prison Break.

Michael C Hall is a talented actor and Six Feet Under is one of my favorite shows of all time. It’s nice to see him finding success again on Dexter.

Images are promotional photos for Dexter season one and two. It’s confirmed that it has been picked up for a third season by Showtime, although it’s likely to be delayed by the writer’s strike.

Update: The first season of Dexter will air on CBS on Sundays starting 2/17. It will be edited for to meet broadcast TV standards. [via ONTD]

David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert will return to their respective talk shows this week. Letterman’s company has struck an agreement with the Writers Guild of America that allows him to use writers for “The Late Show.” Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show” is controlled by Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, and also has the advantage of falling under the interim agreement and being able to use writers. Leno and the rest of the late night hosts will have to make due with whatever they can muster that doesn’t violate the WGA contract. That is expected to entail longer celebrity interviews and more off the cuff audience interaction. “On the street” segments are also anticipated.

The first celebrity guest booked on Letterman’s show is Robin Williams. Both Letterman and Ferguson have an added edge over their talkshow host competitors in that guests don’t have to cross picket lines to appear. Williams is one guest who certainly wouldn’t need a scripted Q&A to appear, however. He is particularly gifted in off the cuff absurdity which can sometimes be hard to follow.

Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart are expected to be scrambling to come up with material that’s not prepared. They rely on scripted segments for their shows and will be hard pressed to ad lib. Under the WGA contract they can’t even use ideas that are prepared ahead of time by writers. These two strike me as cleverer than most, so we’ll have to see how they deal with the situation. It will also be interesting to see if Letterman and O’Brien have shaved their “strike beards,” or if they’ll grace us with their unshaven faces at least for one night.

As for how the writer’s strike continues to affect television, I read an interesting article that compared the 1988 strike to the current strike and said that there’s evidence that television lost 10% of its viewership almost permanently after the five month strike from March to August. This current strike could result in a nearly 30% drop in television viewers and could go a long way toward strengthening the audience for online content and web-based shows. And we may have to make due with more open-ended interviews with lesser-known celebrities on the talk shows. Maybe that’s an added benefit to refusing to cross picket lines - celebrities don’t have to worry about sounding stupid if they can’t rehearse their answers ahead of time.

Here’s a link to a wikipedia article that has an updated list of how many episodes are available for specific shows.

Thanks to the NY Times and The Wall St. Journal for the details for this story.

Letterman is shown on 10/20/05 with a horse, but I swear to you this picture is captioned “Madonna Visits The Late Show with David Letterman” by the photo agency, PRPhotos.

AOL TV has released a list of the ‘50 Sexiest Women on Television, Ever’. Normally I can’t stand a list that has the title ‘ever’, because it sort of suggests that this is it for sexiness. People are going to keep on being sexy, no matter how much time passes. Or at least I hope so, because otherwise I’m going to have to enjoy sunsets at the beach in my old age, instead of sexy young lifeguards.

The top 50 features a few obvious choices from the past few generations - remember when Teri Hatcher wearing only Superman’s cape became the most searched for image on the Internet? (And when you consider what other raunchiness you can find on the Internet that is quite an accomplishment.)

There’s also Sarah Michelle Gellar, Carmen Electra, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jennifer Aniston, and any Star Trek fan’s favourite Jeri Ryan, aka Seven of Nine.

TV’s Sexiest Women - Ever

1. Pamela Anderson - Baywatch
2. Farrah Fawcett - Charlie’s Angel’s
3. Lynda Carter - Wonder Woman
4. Heather Locklear - Melrose Place, Dynasty, T. J. Hooker
5. Eva Longoria - Desperate Housewives
6. Diana Rigg - The Avengers
7. Barbara Eden - I Dream Of Jeannie
8. Katherine Heigl - Grey’s Anatomy
9. Catherine Bach - The Duke’s of Hazzard
10. Tina Louise - Gilligan’s Island

AOL

Oh, Pamela Anderson back before she became a big breasted joke, running down a beach in slow motion in that skimpy red bathing suit. She deserves the sexiest woman on television crown, she’s the reason that Baywatch is the most watched show in the world. I doubt it’s for the storylines.

Hungry actors have been known to do some desperate things to break into the business. Taking terrible roles in “Anaconda 3,” jumping on the casting couch, or kissing your brother. What? Yeah. Kissing your own brother. I’m fortunate enough not to have a brother, so I can write this without getting the willies that the rest of you are experiencing right now. Can you imagine wanting to be in a movie so badly that you agreed to kiss your brother not once, but twice? And we’re not talking a cheek peck. We’re talking a real kiss. “Grey’s Anatomy’s” Chyler Leigh’s first movie was a pretty cheesy looking family film called “Kickboxing Academy” which costarred her real-life brother as her love interest. Can we say disgusting and unnecessary? How many seventeen-year-old male actors are out there? The casting people really couldn’t find anyone else?

A video has hit the Web showing Grey’s Anatomy newcomer Chyler Leigh, who plays Meredith’s neurotic half-sister Lexie, kissing her older brother. No, don’t worry. Not in the Angelina Jolie-James Haven kind of way. Rather, Leigh, 25, performed her intra-familial liplock in the interest of her craft!

Internet-savvy Grey’s fans have discovered footage of the then 15-year-old star’s inaugural movie role in 1997’s Kickboxing Academy. In an odd choice of casting, the film’s producers cast her brother, Christopher Khayman Lee, as her love interest.

And that’s not all. The siblings have not just one - but a handful - of kissing scenes. Let’s all channel our inner Meredith Grey and ask: “Seriously?!?!?”

[From Us Weekly]

Those casting agents must be the laziest people in Hollywood. They probably said, “Well we have this girl, we like her for the role. And we could go outside the door and look at the next five guys in line, or we could just take the guy that came in with her, make them kiss, and call it an early day. Yep, let’s go with that.” From the snippets shown of the movie, it seems that Leigh’s brother isn’t just some random guy she kisses, but actually plays her love interest. I don’t want to be totally puritanical, but where were their parents? Why in the world didn’t they object to something so creepy?

Here’s a few snippets of the kiss, if you can stomach it. And I mean “if you can stomach it” not because the quasi-incest is so gross, but because the guys who made the “mocumentary” YouTube video of it are beyond annoying.

10 years of overusing the word “bam” have finally caught up to him. Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show on the Food Network has been cancelled. “Emeril Live” will film the last supper on December 11th.

The Food Network has confirmed that “Emeril Live’’ — once the flagship of its primetime schedule — will cease production of new episodes in mid-December after 10 seasons.

[AP]

The beloved cliché-driven chef has put in his time on the channel devoted to the love of cooking. A rep for the network confirmed that he is still under a contract and will continue with his other show “Essence of Emeril.” He will also take part in various specials and other Food Network opportunities. Emeril also issued a statement via the rep expressing his gratitude.

“I am deeply appreciative to all the unbelievable staff — many who have been with the show since the beginning — and all the loyal viewers, and the many talented guests who have appeared on the show through the years. I look forward to continuing my association with the Food Network with `The Essence of Emeril,’ and I have lots of new ideas cooking.”

Possible reasons for the cancellation include a drop in ratings and Emeril’s bloated showbiz salary. The Alton Brown driven show, “Good Eats,” replaced “Live’s” 8 pm spot and increased viewers by 13% . The showy aspect of “Live” was also hard to swallow with a live audience and a band that seemed to provide little appeal. Basically, the network is making room for the fresh meat arriving. Guy Fieri, to name one of the up-and-comers, has been picked up for two more seasons.

Honestly, I haven’t watched anything Emeril-related in years. I just don’t think he creates everyday food that the faster-paced American public lives on. (Although cooking for me usually starts with something that comes from a box.)