Veteran character actor Edward Herrmann has died, TMZ reports. He was 71.

Gilmore Girls ended in May, 2007. Like any show that ends, its final episode set off an avalanche of hopeful rumors that we might one day see Lorelai, Rory, and the whole gang minus Dean sipping coffee and talk-talk-talking once again—this time on a screen as big as all Stars Hollow.

Well, now that NBC has traveled a few months back in time and given Leno the "Tonight Show" back, they've wasted no time in filling his crucial 10 pm spot: Look forward to Jerry Seinfeld, "Law & Order," and "Parenthood."

Only three years ago, Blake Lively was just That Blonde Girl from The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants, and America Ferrera was just the Token Dorky Sidekick. Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn, on the other hand, were bonafide TV stars. My, how things have changed. With the film's sequel debuting next month, we take a look at how each of the leading ladies has done career-wise since the original racked up nearly $40MM at the box office in 2005. While there’s a bit of bad news for the original's biggest stars, there’s an alternate way of looking at this role reversal: any actress’ status as the perennial “buddy” can obviously change with one little show that could.Blake Lively/Bridget: With only one credit behind her before the first Pants, 1998’s Sandman, Lively got her big break as Bridget the jock. Even though no one knew who she was at the time, she built her buzz by appearing in a few cheesy movies like the Justin Long vehicle Accepted. But now, thanks to Gossip Girl and its sultry appeal (ratings be damned!), Lively is arguably the boldest name on the sequel’s marquee. America Ferrera/Carmen: Cast as the not-so-pretty one who most magically fit into the same jans all four girls kept handing off, America is obviously the biggest success story when it comes to acting cred (an Emmy), ratings (Ugly Betty), and general public appeal (we don’t even want to think about counting how many magazine covers with the hed “America The Beautiful!” she’s appeared on in the last two years). Amber Tamblyn/Tibby: Having blown away TV critics as the lead in Joan of Arcadia the same year Pants came out (and racking up Golden Globe and Emmy noms along the way), Tamblyn was a shiny bright new fixture on the circuit. But the only notable film Tamblyn has appeared in since? The Grudge 2. Oops. The only reason we can think of for Amber’s dimming star? Michelle Trachtenberg. Sort of the more telegenic, tabloid-friendly version of Tamblyn, with all sorts of Pete Wentz/Ashlee Simpson sloppiness to keep the kids entertained. Alexis Bledel/Lena: Pants came out at the height of Gilmore Girls’ gooey success, just before new writers took over and turned the show into an even faster-paced linguistic mess of confusion. And Bledel was the biggest draw among all four, cast as the “pretty” one with the heftiest romantic plotline and most cinematic backdrop (finding love in Greece). But the only upcoming flick on Bledel’s radar at the moment — aside from Pants 2 — is a comedy with Michael Keaton (which would've been a great gig in the late 80s, but today? Not so much). And the last time we saw her out and about was at the 2006 fashion shows alongside then-boyfriend Milo Ventimiglia — while Milo’s struck gold in Heroes, Alexis has yet to find a similarly cozy rebound gig. [Photo credits: Getty]

Overshadowed by uplifting stories about the heroic efforts of celebrity Scientologists to save their neighbors from the rapidly spreading flames of the Griffith Park wildfire are the heart-sickening tales of the blaze's true victims: We speak, of course, of Gilmore Girls fans, who, having just learned that their favorite show won't be coming back next season, had to endure the fresh tragedy of discovering that the one of the series' last original episodes was pre-empted by, like, totally boring! WTF! local news coverage of the fire. They would not suffer silently, however, and flocked to KTLA's GG message board to pillory the station for its unspeakable cruelty. A sampling of their pain follows:

• Hey, who tagged our office? And what the heck does it say?
  

· Rory and Lorelai will banter adorably no more forever: The CW announces that Gilmore Girls will air its final episode on May 15. We're not too sad, as we're sure the network has alternative MILF-related programming ready to take its place in the Fall. [Variety]
· Chris Von Goetz and Kevin Crotty are named co-heads of the TV lit department at ICM., which had been leaderless since the merger with BWCS. All we really care about: How nice are their shoes? Are we talking Whitesell nice or WMA nice? [THR]
· George Clooney and producing BFF Grant Heslov will co-write a dramedy, about how the CIA used Hollywood to stage a fake movie project (which was so well-faked Var and THR wrote about it) to sneak hostages out of Tehran in 1979, for Warner Brothers. [Variety]
· 28.1 million Idol fans tuned in to watch the final performances of The One Who Thinks He's Justin Timblerlake—As If! and The One Now Free From Being Forced To Wear Funny Hats By Cruel Wardrobe Assistants on Wednesday night. [THR]
· HBO will air a concert featuring the real Timberlake (suck, it Richardson!), its first one in four years. [Variety]

Things got a little tense at a TCA panel for The CW's fall schedule yesterday afternoon when a reporter, obviously still disoriented by the network's media-distracting visual assault, violated a sacrosanct rule of the press tour: While a show's star is politely dodging questions about her issues with how her character had been written recently, you do not ask her new showrunner about the time he left his wife to write a play about how badly he wanted to copulate with Heidi Klum. Reports the LAT:

The Televisionary blog was curious about David Rosenthal, the guy taking over as showrunner of Gilmore Girls from beloved series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, who is leaving the series along with her writer-producer husband Daniel Palladino. (The official story: They wanted a multi-year contract, but studio Warner Bros. would only offer them one year.) As it turns out, Rosenthal is a curious choice to guide the mother-daughter story for multiple reasons, not the least of which being the time, according to a quoted LAT magazine article, he abruptly quit his gig at Spin City and divorced his wife so he could focus all his energies on writing and mounting a creepy, mysogynistic play about his obsessive desire to sleep with Heidi Klum: