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The CW Picks Up Canadian Comedy 18 to Life to Save Its Summer (and Possibly Its Fall)

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:36:32 +0000

Don’t like most of the new scripted shows the broadcast networks are rolling out this summer? Blame Canada! ABC’s just-renewed Rookie Blue, along with CBS crime dramas Flashpoint and The Bridge, all hail from up north — and in just a few short weeks, the CW will try to convince Americans to embrace yet another Canadian creation. Vulture has learned that starting August 3, the Gossip Girl network will begin airing the CBC-produced comedy 18 to Life, a half-hour mash-up of Meet the Parents, Away We Go, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager starring Michael Seater (Life With Derek) and Stacey Farber (Degrassi: The Next Generation, because all young Canadian actors are apparently required to apprentice there before doing anything else); they play two teens who impulsively decide to pull a Bristol-Levi and get hitched over the objections of their respective (and wacky!) parents. The CW is hoping Life, which the CBC originally developed as a potential ABC sitcom back in 2008, will give the network a much-needed summer-ratings boost, and in the process, help promote its new fall fare.

The CW has always been ratings starved in the summer: Last week, for example, the network averaged fewer than one million viewers. Serialized dramas like Gossip Girl and 90210 (the CW’s bread and butter) don’t repeat well, while tight budgets have usually left little room for investing in first-run summer shows (we’re just going to forget about Hitched or Ditched, the short-lived reality series the network burned off last June). While the CW certainly needs a boost to save face, there are larger financial issues at stake: Because nobody’s watching the CW in the summer, the network doesn’t have a base from which to promote fall freshmen the way other broadcasters do. NBC, for example, wallpapers America’s Got Talent with promos for its upcoming Undercovers and The Event.

Will 18 to Life and the previously announced reality show Plain Jane (which starts July 28) be enough to turn the CW into a summer player? Probably not, but they might at least give the network some semblance of a pulse in the weeks headed up to its fall rollout, which begins September 8 with the return of America’s Next Top Model and the debut of drama Hellcats. And because Life is an acquisition of an already aired show, it’s a good bet the CW isn’t paying much for the rights to air the show (the network declined to talk dollars). Meanwhile, Vulture checked out the pilot on YouTube (it’s since been taken down) and … it’s not bad! While the setup is far-fetched (our heroes get married on a dare) and the parents are caricatures, Farber and Seater have major chemistry and the hip soundtrack kept giving us Juno flashbacks. Also: Not a single character says “eh.”

So far, the CW is planning to air two episodes of Life per week (Tuesdays at 9 and 9:30 p.m.) for six weeks. The CBC has already ordered a second season of the show, and the CW has an option to air those episodes next summer should season one generate any sort of Nielsen momentum. And if it gets viewers high on all things Canada, they’ll have more to choose from soon: IFC will air the eight-part Kids in the Hall reunion miniseries starting August 20; season three of cult hit Being Erica is set to hit SoapNet early next year; and, if Life does well, a Bob and Doug McKenzie reunion show is all but inevitable.

Jerry Seinfeld Really Likes to Use His Name to Help Colin Quinn

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:39:07 +0000

When we saw Colin Quinn’s funny Off Broadway one-man show, Long Story Short, we knew that Jerry Seinfeld had been a good friend to him: There is no doubt that by producing and directing longtime pal Quinn’s show, he got it double the attention it would have had without him. What a mensch! The lending of his name, however, goes into overdrive in the show’s program, which features four short paragraphs about Quinn and a veritable Wikipedia entry on Seinfeld, listing just about every credit in his career — as if, you know, we forgot that he created the little sitcom about nothing. But you do have to admire his restraint for not renaming the show Jerry Seinfeld’s Long Story Short, Featuring Colin Quinn.

Lindsay Lohan reported in rehab ahead of jail term

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:38:37 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lindsay Lohan was reported on Thursday to have moved into a sober living facility in Los Angeles, less than a week before she is due to start a 90-day jail term.

Read the whole story on Reuters

Singer Robbie Williams to rejoin Take That

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:38:21 +0000

LONDON (Reuters) – British singer Robbie Williams has rejoined former band Take That to record their first album together since he walked out on them 15 years ago, the group announced on Thursday.

Read the whole story on Reuters

Whoa. The full ‘Social Network’ trailer is trippy

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:37:10 +0000

And it sure doesn’t make Mark Zuckerberg look good. The first full theatrical trailer for the Facebook creation story is full of backstabbing and Ivy League treachery.

Read the whole story on CNet

Vulture Premieres the Poster for James Franco’s Howl

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:35:08 +0000

A bearded, bespectacled James Franco stars as Allen Ginsberg in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s Howl, the story of the poet’s classic work and the uproar it caused. Also featured in the film — which hits New York and San Francisco on September 24, and Los Angeles on October 1, with a national rollout to follow — are Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Bob Balaban, Alessandro Nivola, Treat Williams, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeff Daniels. It’s a handsome cast and Oscilloscope Laboratories has given Vulture an exclusive first peek at Howl’s handsome poster.

Howl Trailer: James Franco’s Allen Ginsberg Doesn’t Disappoint

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:35:33 +0000

James Franco does a mean, understated impersonation of Allen Ginsberg in this excellently edited trailer for Howl, a biopic of the poet centering around his most famous poem’s obscenity trial. The trailer cuts between the trial—with Treat Williams and Mary Louise Parker on the stand, and Jon Hamm, in full Don Draper gear, as Ginsberg’s lawyer—, black and white footage of Franco reciting “Howl” in a club, and color footage of Franco, with a very neat beard, giving on camera interviews. The whole thing really moves, and is polished and accomplished enough that by the time Franco is howling at a psychedelic sky, it seems like a cool, zany touch.

Amber Tamblyn Joins House For Temporary Stint

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:35:17 +0000

With Olivia Wilde checking out of Princeton Plainsboro for a while to shoot a movie, House will be receiving a new female doctor this fall. Amber Tamblyn is coming on for a multi-episode stint in which she’ll play a “whip-smart med student” whom House adds to his diagnostic team, despite the fact she hasn’t been cleared to treat patients. With the news, the chances of David Cross coming on as House’s wacky college roommate have now (marginally) improved! [Ausiello Files/EW]

Angelina Jolie jolts a man’s world: action films

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:35:12 +0000

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The National Organization for Women should send Angelina Jolie a nice cheese basket (or vice versa).

Read the whole story on Reuters

Spies uncloaked in new film and no, it’s not "Salt"

TommyE — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:35:09 +0000

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ever since 10 Russian spies were arrested in the United States last month in what seemed a throwback to the Cold War, people have wondered how the secretive sleuths still can be operating in 2010.

Read the whole story on Reuters