By Julie Nicholson

 

On the movie front Robin Williams and Toni Collette will star in The Night Listener based on the bestseller by Armistead Maupin. Robin Williams will take a pay cut to play a gay radio DJ who befriends his biggest fan over the telephone.

Matt Damon is negotiating to play Marco Polo for Warner Brothers in an historical epic based on Polo's autobiography about his travels appropriately titled Travels.

Sharon Stone is in London filming Basic Instinct Two: Risk Addiction. The single mom adopted her second child by a surrogate expected to give birth any day.

New mom Courtney Cox-Arquette will be playing a recovering alcoholic actress in the upcoming HBO series Rehab and Denise Richards Sheen (soon to be un-Sheened) will be staring in the new UPN dramedy Wildfire.

Amityville Horror star Melissa George will team up with Vegas star Josh Duhamel in the suspense thriller Turistas about a group of young travelers who become marooned on a remote Brazilian beach town after a bus accident, can you say…Lost?

And on the small screen Kenny Rogers will host The Gambler (there's a no brainer) based on gambling teams competing in Indian Casinos. The teams will travel around the country by bus.

Not one but two reality shows starring Martha Stewart by reality guru Mark Burnett are scheduled for this fall: Martha, a daytime talk show in which the domestic diva will be dropping in unannounced on fans to help with dinner or to arrange the interior. Can you imagine opening your door to find Martha Stewart? How inferior I'd feel letting her into my messy interior! And Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Something tells me the words "You're Fired" will flow ever so easily from her lips.

And in yet another attempt by a network to steal American Idol viewers, NBC is making a US version of a British show to be titled Hit Me Baby One More Time, in which five has-beens... sorry, former chart toppers, have a chance to reclaim their lost careers by performing a cover version of a current hit along with a past success. The studio audience will get to determine their favorite (sounds mighty familiar) in a battle of the bands type of vote. I don't think American Idol has to worry.

ABC's Grey's Anatomy, made all the more yummy by Patrick Dempsey's anatomy, got an early pick up and has been green lit for 13 episodes next year. This show became the most watched mid season replacement since Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman premiered in 1993.

While preparing for their recent ABC variety special, Nick & Jessica's Tour of Duty, Nick Lechay described his time spent in an F-16 Fighter Jet as, "They teach you how to eject and stuff, it was so cool." Hard to imagine that kind of vocabulary coming out of someone exiting an F-16... please step away from the heavy artillery!

 

 

 
home
© Melt Magazine 2005