In a bold programming gambit that officially solidifies 2009 as the Hollywood Year of the Lycanthrope, Fox is developing Bitches, a "dramedy about a quartet of female friends in New York who are werewolves."
Vandals have done well by Fox this year, but the latest defacement of the studio's marketing efforts — this time for its rambunctious-dog dramedy Marley & Me — breaks entirely new ground. (Warning: Spoilers follow.)
Paula Abdul is now freely admitting she was scared shitless the day she came face-to-face in the Idol audition room with a longtime obsessive fan who'd later commit suicide outside her home.
With the holidays now officially upon us, we can think of no more festive activity than gathering around Elisha Cuthbert, dousing her arm in lighter fluid, and setting it ablaze.
End of Days Day continues here at Defamer with a proud e-alert belched from the bowels of the Fox network's Century City headquarters, informing what's left of the world that cartoon kingpin and deeply closeted spray-on hand-tanner Seth MacFarlane has been named EW's Smugest Smartest Person in TV. Fox couldn't be prouder of the money he makes for them, according to their press release:
Ron Howard, TV's Opie, just directed the film version of Frost/Nixon, because the man knows Oscar-bait when he sees it. And also, sure, because it's politically relevant or something. Howard, the very definition of American Middlebrow, is not a political director, though this year he endorsed Obama because he is a Hollyweird liberal (like his godless pal Andy Griffith). At a recent screening of the film, Howard mentioned how the lessons of Nixon became newly relevant during the Bush administration. Shocking! Good thing Fox News anchor and noted objective journalist Chris Wallace was there to set him straight! Nixon was a crook, see, and Bush is a hero.
What do you do when your big sweeping Oscar-hopeful epic that cost $130 million dollars does a shallow swan dive at the box office? You completely change the party line on the entire movie! Well, that's what Fox is doing about Australia—Baz Luhrmann's continental Nicole Kidman/Hugh Jackman period romance—at least. Though the film initially was being thrust at us as Titanic but with Aborigines and a lot more plastic surgery, it's now been shifted (or downgraded) to an artsy "adult" (not that kind of adult) flick. So its disappointing $20 million Thanksgiving numbers aren't disappointing at all anymore!
Bill O'Reilly and Chris Matthews are both famous cable news shouty persons, yes, but beyond that how much do they have in common? Both cling to a Northeastern Working-Class Catholicism that colors their broadcast personae even though they've both been rich and famous long enough to leave most of the lessons behind besides the strict moralism. But Matthews is an old Democrat working for liberal-leaning MSNBC, and O'Reilly is a culture war conservative with GOP in-house propaganda machine Fox. One more thing they share: they're not particularly liked by their peers! Matthews is seen as an overenthusiastic, affection-starved dog, at least if last April's devastating Times Magazine profile is to be believed. O'Reilly is just seen as a dick, if Michael Wolff is to be believed.
When we broke the news that Fox had canceled MADtv, we also cited rumblings that Fox was going to keep its other late-night offering, the little-watched Talkshow With Spike Feresten. At the time, we assumed that Talkshow wasn't long for this world either, since it has now aired for two years (with top-tier guests like Vanilla Ice!) safely out of the public eye. Au contraire, say Fox spokespeople, who are attempting a new strategy designed to grow the series into their own Tonight Show. So what's their plan, and what is this show anyway?Says Broadcasting & Cable:
Alan Colmes, television's most beloved representative of the liberal Lizard People, has finally decided to leave the Hannity and Ineffectual Lizard Person show behind. Colmes will abandon his longtime partner Sean Hannity, who probably won't notice that he's just bullying a mop in a suit now, and develop his own weekend show. Maybe on the weekend show he'll invite a rotating series of louder, more charismatic alpha conservatives to shout him down or ignore him outright? Otherwise it'll just be an hour of Colmes trying to get a word in edgewise against dead air. Beckettian, really. [TVNewser]
♦ Alan Colmes, the "liberal" who supposedly serves as co-host of Hannity & Colmes with Sean Hannity, is leaving the Fox News program at the end of the year. [HuffPo]
♦ A daily news program hosted by Christiane Amanpour is in the works at CNN. [NYT]
♦ Despite screwing up nearly everything he touches, NBC golden boy Ben Silverman may see his contract renewed in the next few weeks. [NYM]
♦ USA Today has announced plans to cut staff. [E&P]
♦ Twilight was No. 1 at the box office this weekend, raking in $70.5 mil. [LAT]
♦ Forbes is not being sold to a shady Russian billionaire. [SAI]
Fox News mastermind, old Nixon image reformer, and all-around American democracy-damaging propagandist Roger Ailes leaked the news to Drudge that Roger Ailes is getting a contract extension at News Corp. Developing! Ailes, the president of Fox News, has been focused on launching and building the Fox Business Network for the last year, which he failed at, miserably, and meanwhile Fox News itself has begun a long-overdue tailspin into delusional irrelevance, with cranky Brit Hume retiring and Shep Smith the channel's sole voice of reason as Hannity and Greta Van Susteren run wild. So hey, Ailes will remain at the wheel through Obama's first term, probably. Maybe he can right the ship and transform it into a coherent (if still nutso) voice of opposition? Or maybe it will continue to be a madhouse of feverish conspiracy and paranoia. Either way, Roger, like his Fox Business Network, will not sweat the recession.
♦ When Barack Obama mentioned on 60 Minutes that he was reading a book about FDR, what book was he referring to? At least one publisher wants to know. [NYT]
♦ National Geographic is getting into the videogame business. [THR]
♦ Pepsi has dumped its longtime ad agency, BBDO Worldwide, in favor of TBWA/Chiat/Day. [NYT]
♦ Rosie O'Donnell is planning to appear on three episodes of Rachael Ray's cooking show this month. [NYDN]
♦ ESPN has outbid Fox for the broadcast rights to college football's Bowl Championship Series, beginning in 2011. [WSJ]
♦ Maxim has named NBC's Amy Robach as "hottest news anchor." [TVNewser]
♦ Just in time for Christmas, Fox News' Sean Hannity is sponsoring a series of "Freedom Concerts." [HuffPo]
♦ Here's video of a stilted Arianna Huffington filling in for Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last night, in case you missed it. [Gawker]
Some days I wonder if Facebook would have been better off restricting its social network to college students, as it did when it first launched. Watching Steve Doocy, an anchor on "Fox & Friends," talk about updating his Facebook status in this clip confirms my opinion. His profile picture, which shows him "playing Santa," does nothing to reduce the skeevy-old-guy vibe. A tip to Doocy: When you're maxed out on friends, you can set up a Facebook fan page for your virtual acquaintances, saving the stalker-friendly details for people you actually know. And it requires no more egotism than was necessary to get the anchor chair in the first place.
♦ The Times has the skinny on "Martin Eisenstadt," the supposed McCain consultant who leaked info to the press. (He's an aspiring filmmaker, not surprisingly.) In the meantime, MSNBC's retracted its story. [NYT, AP]
♦ You might be enjoying CW's Stylista, but the ratings thus far haven't been especially encouraging. [NYO]
♦ Two new cast members, Michaela Watkins and Abby Elliott, will join Saturday Night Live beginning this weekend. [NYT]
♦ Showtime is developing an hour-long show by Stan Lee about a gay superhero. [Variety]
Though the high-profile political season has gifted Saturday Night Live with some killer ratings, it apparently hasn't floated all sketch comedy boats. Rumors started circulating today that Fox's MADtv was canceled in the middle of its fourteenth season, so Defamer checked in with one of our operatives to get the scoop:"It's true," said the highly-placed source. "We're finishing out the season, then we're done." Fox had been experimenting with potential MADtv replacements over the last few years, though none of its hush-hush, taped pilots ever made it to series. We're hearing, though, that the network has currently decided to keep its other late-night offering, Talk Show with Spike Feresten. Developing!
