The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 25 to 29

By Rueben | January 30, 2010

Here are the entertainment news items for this week:

CONDOLENCES

Legendary actress Jean Simmons passed away earlier this week of lung cancer at the age of 80. She won an Emmy for her role in The Thorn Birds and was a two-time Oscar nominee. She appeared in the box office movies Guys and Dolls, Elmer Gantry and Spartacus (among many others).

Long-time soap actor James Mitchell (All My Children) passed away late last week of lung disease complicated by pneumonia at 89 years of age. He was a dancer on Broadway in his early career and he appeared in the movies Oklahoma! and The Band Wagon.

Well-known TV actor Pernell Roberts, who appeared in Bonanza and was the star of the M*A*S*H spinoff Trapper John, M.D., passed away this week at the age of 81 after a battle with cancer.

Legendary author J.D. Salinger (The Cather in the Rye) passed away this week at the age of 91.

Petite actress Zelda Rubinstein, who played the psychic in the classic movie Poltergeist passed away at 76 this past week.

Condolences are extended to the families, friends and fans of Ms. Simmons, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Salinger and Ms. Rubinstein.

Legendary singer Etta James, 72 is currently in a hospital in Riverside, California with a serious infection. Well wishes are set her way.

NEWS

Congrats to the SAG winners who were announced this past weekend.

NBC is going to quietly pull The Jay Leno Show two days earlier than expected with its final “episode” airing on February 9.

Cancellation news broke mid-week that ABC will pull Ugly Betty at the end of its current (fourth) season and the episode order has been reduced from 22 to 20. The show’s bosses were, however, given enough time to create a satisfying series finale, though.

TV SERIES NEWS

Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver will reprise their roles of Jacob and his nemesis on Lost when it returns for its final season.

ABC Family Channel has picked up two new one-hour dramas Huge and Pretty Little Liars:

Huge is based on the book by author Sasha Paley, which is being developed by Winnie Holzman (My So-Called Life) and her daughter Savannah Dooley. The series will follow the lives of six teens and the staff at a weight-loss camp, as they look beneath the surface to discover their true selves and the truth about each other. Pretty Little Liars will follow four estranged best friends who are reunited one year after their best friend and queen bee of the group, Alison, goes missing only to discover they are receiving messages from an anonymous “A” who knows all their secrets. The drama stars Lucy Hale (Privileged), Troian Bellisario (NCIS) Ashley Benson (Eastwick), Shay Mitchell, Laura Leighton (Melrose Place), Nia Peeples (The Young and the Restless) and Bianca Lawson (The Vampire Diaries).

This new season of the ABC drama Castle has been extended by two more episodes, bringing the full season order to 24 episodes.

Bryan Batt will not be back for fourth season of Mad Men when it returns this summer on AMC.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

JoAnna Garcia (Privileged) has landed an as yet untitled sitcom on ABC from Shana Goldberg-Meehan Friends) that will center on two sisters who are at different points in their romantic relationships. One is unmarried and in a long-term relationship and the other (Garcia) gets married after getting knocked up.

Some of the new shows in development at the major networks include:

BREAKOUT KINGS (FOX) – This procedural pilot is about ex-fugitives who are recruited to work as U.S. Marshals .

EDGAR FLOATS (ABC) – This pilot comes from men behind the NBC series Life and follows a police psychologist who becomes a bounty hunter.”

PLEADING GUILTY (FOX) – This pilot is based on the Scott Turow novel about an ex-cop-turned-attorney who works as a partner at a powerful Chicago law firm.

NO ORDINARY FAMILY (ABC) – This pilot come from Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman and is about a typical American family whose members have special abilities. ( Kind of like Brothers & Sisters x Heroes?!)

SHAMELESS (Showtime) – The lives of a very unconventional family will be chronicled in this new pilot from John Wells and stars Emmy Rossum, Justin Chatwin and William H. Macy.

187 DETROIT (ABC) – This pilot is about a fictional documentary crew that follows a top homicide division.

CHAOS (CBS) – This pilot revolves around a group of rogue CIA operatives who combat bureaucratic gridlock, rampant incompetence and political infighting.

JUSTICE (NBC) – This pilot follows an ex-Supreme Court justice who quits the Court to start his own legal practice and comes from none other than Conan O’Brien‘s production team.

MIDLAND (FOX) – This soap is set against the backdrop of an oil business that centers on a polygamist living a double life.

THE REMEMBERER (CBS) – A drama pilot about a female NYPD detective who possesses the ability to remember everything – a gift in her job but a curse in her personal life.

THE UNTITLED RICHARD HATEM PROJET (ABC) – A new drama pilot about a beautiful female detective who teams with a disgraced ex-cop to solve crimes and untangle the conspiracy that sent him underground.

THE WHOLE TRUTH (ABC) – This pilot chronicles the building of a case from the perspective of both the defense and prosecution. It will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

THE CUBE (CBS) – Neil Patrick Harris will host the potential game show based on the ITV series of the same name in which folks try to win big bucks by completing simple tasks inside a chamber designed to induce stress.

NOTE: I am only including the above “show” because Neil Patrick Harris has been tapped as the host.

The CW plans to do a remake of the action-thriller La Femme Nikita, which started out as a French film that was then remade for US theaters as the film Point of No Return and then became a popular series on the USA Network. This new version will have the lead character Nikita going rogue with a new assassin brought in to replace her.

Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and executive producer Dan Palladino are coming back to the CW with a new as-yet untitled project that is supposed to revolve around a family horse farm in the Midwest. Meanwhile Sherman-Palladino also has a deal with HBO for a show about three sisters and their complicated relationships with their mother and each other.

Martin Henderson (Bride & Prejudice) has been cast in the ABC pilot Off the Map from Shonda Rhimes where he will play one of three doctors working a remote medical clinic in the tropics.

Charlize Theron (The Road) has teamed with auteur David Fincher (Zodiac) to develop the HBO drama series Mind Hunter based on John Douglas and Mark Olshaker‘s non-fiction book about the profiling of serial killers and rapists.

Maria Bello, Simon Beaufoy, and Russell Crowe have teamed up to develop the HBO drama project Emergency Sex, based on a non-fiction book by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson. The story is about the larger-than-life exploits of expatriate nongovernment-organization workers who find their sanity tested in the face of atrocities, loneliness and primal desires.

Tony Hale (Chuck), Matt Letscher (Eli Stone) will star in the ABC hybrid comedy pilot Awkward Situations for Men, about an Englishman who moves to the US with his wife and discovers that his everyday behavior clashes with American values and gets him into trouble.

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Vincent D’Onofrio and Kyra Sedgwick will star in the comedy-drama Chlorine that revolves around a family struggling to maintain their well-to-do lifestyle in their overly materialistic New England community.

Kellan Lutz (Twilight) will star with Mandy Moore in the romantic comedy Love, Wedding, Marriage about a husband (Lutz) of a relationship counselor (Moore) who endangers her marriage while trying to save that of her parents. Actor Dermot Mulroney will be the director and Blythe Danner and Christopher Walken co-star.

Zac Efron will star in the adaptation of the graphic novel Fire by Brian Michael Bendis. He will play a college student who is recruited by the CIA, only to find that he has been trained for a program that creates expendable agents.

Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams will star in the romantic drama Take This Waltz that follows a young woman (Williams) who struggles with her infidelities and the budding realization that she may be addicted to the honeymoon period of her relationships. The movie is from actress/director Sarah Polley.

CASTING SCOOP

Sam Page (Mad Men) will guest star in episodes of Desperate Housewives, playing a chef who admires Bree Hodge and her conservative values.  The episodes will start in late February.

Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell will guest star in Ugly Betty, playing a former flame of Wilhelmina.

Alan Cumming is set to guest star The Good Wife later this season, playing an image consultant named Eli Gold hired to help Peter (Chris Noth) make over his image.

Sarah Drew will return to Grey’s Anatomy for the Valentine’s Day episode to air on February 11.

Richard Burgi will appear on episode of Lie to Me as a state governor who is the target of an assassination attempt.

Brooke Nevin (The 4400) will guest star in an upcoming episode of How I Met Your Mother, playing a romantic interest for Ted. Also, Jennifer Lopez is slated to appear on the comedy in March, as a no-nonsense author of self-help books that teach woman how to train men into relationship machines through the power of denial

Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself) will terrorize Booth and Brennan in a slasher-themed episode of Bones that is to air this spring.

Leonard Roberts (Heroes) has been cast as the partner of Dana Delaney’s federal agent character on upcoming episodes of Castle.

John Barrowman (Torchwood) will be guest starring in at least five episodes of Desperate Housewives, as the “Big Bad” at the center of the Angie (Drea de Matteo) mystery.

Mexican pop star Diego Boneta will appear on 90210 as Javier, a young musician who has a fling with Adriana (Jessica Lowndes).

RUMOR PATROL

Oscar winner Forest Whitaker is in final negotiations to star on the Criminal Minds spinoff, which revolves around a new group of profilers who work outside the FBI bureaucracy.

Mel Gibson is in negotiations to star in the spy thriller Cold Warrior about a Cold War spy who comes out of retirement to confront a domestic terrorism threat from Russia by joining with a younger agent.

Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore are in talks to star in a remake of the French comedy L.O.L.: Laughing Out Loud that follows a 15-year-old girl who, dumped by her more sexually experienced boyfriend, who sets her sights on his best friend. At the same time, her 40-year-old divorcee mother is struggling to move on with her life.

Julianne Moore may become the lead of the US adaptation of the crime series Prime Suspect if NBC gets what they want. Other actresses being considered for the lead role are Maria Bello, Tea Leoni, and Christina Applegate.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movies and special will air this weekend and throughout next week:

On Sunday, January 31, Masterpiece Classic on PBS will air part 2 of 3 at 9 PM of the Jane Austen classic movie Emma, starring Jonny Lee Miller (Eli Stone) starring as Mr. Knightley and Romola Garai in the lead role.

The Grammy Awards will air on CBS on Sunday, January 31 at 8 PM.

The new Lifetime movie Lying to be Perfect will reair at 9 PM and stars Poppy Montgomery, as a magazine editor who leads a double life as an anonymous online advice columnist. The movie co-stars Adam Kaufman.

Also, Lost will return for its final season on Tuesday, February 2 for a 2-hour premiere, starting at 9 PM.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, January 30:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, January 31:
Desperate Housewives on ABC at 9 PM
Brothers & Sisters on ABC at 10:01 PM
Big Love on HBO at 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, February 1:
CSI: Miami on CBS at 10 PM
One Tree Hill on the CW at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 9 PM
House on FOX at 8 PM
24 on FOX at 9 PM
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM
The Secret Life of the American Teenager on ABC Family at 8 PM
Make It or Break It on ABC Family at 9 PM
Greek on ABC Family at 10 PM
Damages on FX at 10 PM
Men of a Certain Age on TNT at 10 PM

Tuesday, February 2:
NCIS on CBS at 8 PM
NCIS: Los Angeles on CBS at 9 PM
The Good Wife on CBS at 10 PM
Southland on TNT at 10 PM
White Collar on USA at 10 PM

Wednesday, February 3:
Ugly Betty on ABC at 10:01 PM
Criminal Minds on CBS at 9 PM
CSI: NY on CBS at 10 PM
Human Target on FOX at 8 PM
Life Unexpected on the CW at 8 PM
Nip/Tuck on FX at 10 PM
Mercy on NBC at 8 PM
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC at 9 PM
Leverage on TNT at 10 PM
Psych on USA at 10 PM
Friday Night Lights on DirecTV; check local listings for time
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM

Thursday, February 4:
The Deep End on ABC at 8 PM
Grey’s Anatomy on ABC at 9 PM
Private Practice on ABC at 10:01 PM
CSI on CBS at 9 PM
The Mentalist on CBS at 10 PM
Bones on FOX at 8 PM
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Burn Notice on USA at 10 PM

Friday, February 5:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM (Two-Hour Special)
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8 PM
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
Numb3rs on CBS at 10 PM
Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Starz at 10 PM
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of sci-fi based (and similar genres) news items at our sister site located at http://scifitvzone.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!