A 19-year-old user of Justin.TV and well known forum troll committed suicide in front of an Internet audience yesterday. [Mashable]
The trailer for comic book god Neil Gaiman’s animated stop-motion fantasy flick Coraline — directed by Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame — is now online. [i09]
Along with Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money, ABC has decided to cancel its quirky, critical darling Pushing Daisies implying that we only like shows about dead people when they’re Six Feet Under. [Variety]
Gossip Girl‘s Josh Schwartz is in negotiations to write a teen version of the X-Men franchise called X-Men: First Class for FOX based on the short-lived Marvel Comics series — perhaps the leap from Manhattan prep school kids to teenage mutants is not as great as we think. [THR]
MTV wants to do a celebrity version of The CW’s Beauty and the Geek “where average geeks compete for semi-famous vixens.” We anticipate the unwelcome return of Tila Tequila. [THR]
Paris-based Aldebaran Robotics has introduced a really flexible new robot that should be available for purchase by general consumers (expect to shell out around $12,600) in 2010. It reportedly plays soccer well, if you’re looking for a vicarious athletic thrill. [Wired]
Scorsese scores another Stones film: Apparently MICK JAGGER can’t get no satisfaction with documentaries. SHINE A LIGHT — MARTIN SCORSESE’s film that follows THE ROLLING STONES for two gigs — came out earlier this year, but Jagger’s in talks with the director again. He is allegedly buying up biographies in preparation for another film and has said he wished he could change things on Shine a Light.
Maybe this is how he makes amends: he makes another movie. [Gigwise]
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30 Rock and Mad Men to collide: Don Draper making out with Liz Lemon — no, seriously. NBC has tentative plans to have MAD MEN’s JON HAMM do a multi-episode arc on 30 ROCK, where he would play TINA FEY’s love interest. The network is currently in advanced talks with Hamm, but sources sound pretty sure that this is going to happen. [EW]
Heroes axes two producers: After struggling in the ratings during its third season, HEROES fired co-executive producers JESSE ALEXANDER and JEPH LOEB yesterday. NBC was allegedly frustrated with the direction of the show’s creative production. Both producers have worked alongside creator TIM KRING since Season 1.
Maybe now someone will finally die. [Variety]
Gossip Girl season extended: The CW has asked for more episodes of GOSSIP GIRL, ONE TREE HILL and 90210 this season. Over the weekend, the network informed executive producers JOSH SCHWARTZ and STEPHANIE SAVAGE that Gossip Girl will now consist of 25 episodes. The other two shows will have 24 episodes each. Three extra episodes of Blair and Chuck? What more could anyone ask for? [EW]
Weiner rumor just a rumor: LIONSGATE shot down a Defamer rumor late last week that they were looking to replace MAD MEN creator MATTHEW WEINER for Season 3. Weiner allegedly asked for $10 million a year, and the company was said to call around looking for other options, such as AARON SORKIN. But an insider crushed the rumor, saying that Weiner is the show. Thank God. [NY Magazine]
It’s November sweeps season: Get your spoilers while they’re hot. [TV Squad]
-Iza Wojciechowska
In an intuitive extension of the kind of cross-marketing that teen-friendly shows like ONE TREE HILL, THE HILLS, and GOSSIP GIRL have been doing for years (and notably, BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 and THE O.C. before them) THEWB.COM (otherwise known as the place where you can stream old episodes of BUFFY) will debut 20 episodes of ROCKVILLE, CA, an original music-focused Web series from JOSH SCHWARTZ in 2009.
Schwartz is a well-known indie rock patron — you could argue that he launched DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE into the mainstream — and this sounds like an easy way for him to get to hang out with a few of the bands who he admires.
Already slated to appear at the Peach Pit After Dark Bait Shop Rockville, a fictional music club that in real life is L.A.’s Echo, are buzz bands like THE DUKE SPIRIT, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, LYKKE LI (we told you!) and PASSION PIT.
Does this show sound like something you’d watch or fast forward through?
Poehler finally a baby mama: Saturday night was certainly lively this weekend, as AMY POEHLER and WILL ARNETT’s first child was born. The actors welcomed ARCHIE ARNETT into the world October 25th, as SETH MEYERS, Poehler’s co-anchor on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE‘s “Weekend Update” announced the birth during the segment. Let’s hope their next kid doesn’t get stuck with the name “Jughead.” [EW]
New Kaufman film hits the screens: SYNECHDOCHE, NEW YORK — CHARLIE KAUFMAN’s directorial debut — opened Friday. After creating phenomenal screenplays for films like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND it’s easy to see that over six month’s worth of buzz is not unwarranted, but a story that centers on a theater director obsessed with death has left some critics cautioning against the film’s overarching gloom. [LAT]
After the jump, some comforting news for fans of MAD MEN.
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If you’re not already watching JOSH SCHWARTZ’s romantic comedy/spy series CHUCK, then you should go out and rent the first season stat.
This show is like The O.C. meets ALIAS, and unlike its major competitor in the time slot (also a Schwartz creation), doesn’t make me feel like an aspirational 15-year-old while watching.
Last night’s episode featured a guest appearance from NICOLE RITCHIE as a karate-chopping trophy wife with ties to the Russian mafia. I was surprised by how not annoyed I was by the tiny starlet’s presence on one of my favorite shows — especially when she went head-to-head with Special Agent SARAH WALKER in a bloody locker room cat fight scene.
For those of you who caught the eyeliner smearing/dress ripping romp, which of these ladies would you be more afraid of at the Barneys Warehouse sale?
Leave your responses below.
