Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ post-Seinfeld, Emmy-winning success helped fuel rumors Jerry Seinfeld was also returning to the small screen. Though it turns it was just a bout of unsubstantiated gossip, it appears we’re entering a snowball effect of post-sitcom returns.
It’s Ray Romano who’s dismissing the idea that, after appearing on a smashingly successful, long-running sitcom, future prospects are cursed.
With Brad Garrett scoring with his own sitcom Til Death, Romano is sketching his own television return — with a TNT drama. He’ll star in and co-produce (with Raymond’s Mike Joyce) Men of a Certain Age, a one-hour script where Romano is a 40-something divorced dad intent on becoming a pro-golfer. Uh huh.
But Ray isn’t the only returning sitcom-er. Also snagging a deal at TNT is Eric McCormack with Truth In Advertising, a Chicago ad industry drama, set to premiere in ‘09, that comes after fellow Will & Grace vet Debra Messing scored a successful turn in USA’s miniseries The Starter Wife.
Which has us holding out for the remote, infinitesimal chance The Golden Girls‘ Betty White will be popping up on a fall season near you.
The only thing we love more than deep-tissue massages are hot stone massages. But, apparently, there’s someone out there even more passionate about his full body rub-downs! In today’s Whodunit, Gatecrasher continues to trace the history of the Manhandling Masseuse, while Page Six confounds us with lesbian legislators, bald billionaires and speed-happy starlets. (Oh, the alliteration!)
Think you know which married actor can’t keep his hands to himself? How about the follically impaired billionaire has been getting around with a cane (and possibly just “getting around?”) If you’ve got the scoop—or even just a harebrained theory—let us know Whodunit!
Someone with experience of our often-cited massage-therapist-loving Hollywood star writes in with a description of exactly how he hits on them: “He tells the therapist that he’s had so many massages he’s become an expert – then tries to get him on the table so he can massage him.”
WHICH state legislator is about to come under heavy fire from gay activists because she’s not supporting the gay marriage bill? They say that although her legal residence is in Brooklyn, she really lives with her lesbian partner in Manhattan . . . WHICH rehabbed starlet was in for addictions even worse than alcohol and cocaine? She’s still battling a crystal meth habit . . . WHICH bald billionaire had friends worried because he was walking with a cane? He laughed off speculation he threw out his back while overexerting himself one night in the sack.
• CBS just renewed Dave Price weatherman gig on The Early Show, and now might be lookin to him for replace Bob Barker on The Price Is Right. Hopefully there’s room in the budget, since it’s rumored Les Moonves had to pay Barker to retire and get him out of his contract, which required the show go dark for a year after his departure. [P6]
• With no Kitson or D&G at rehab, what’s Nicole Richie to do but check out for the day and get a Centurion card workout? [Scoop]
• The Mississippi news producer who booked Borat for an on-air segment is regretting not using a news professional’s first line of defense: Google. [Fox 411]
• Jay Leno will leave the Oscar hosting duties to the lesbian. [Planet Gossip]
• Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are teaming up for a new sitcom loosely based on their lives: two best friends, both writers, one gay, one straight. And their hot young assistants. Oh, the power to produce a show based on the life you wish you had. [THR]
• When young Hollywood and young socialites pair up, they can’t get past the doorman. [P6]
• While we thought Dave Chappelle was having a mental breakdown, it turns out that all he wanted to do was to trash white people a little more than usual. But damn those caucasian bosses, they wouldn’t have any of it. [AP]
• Nerve goes to the gossip columnists for sex advice and, somehow, we were included. [Nerve]
• Kate White spends 10 hours a month perfecting the craft of the perfect Cosmopolitan cover line. With two million newsstand sales, it’s 10 hours well spent. [Forbes]
• More Paid $ix fallout: News Corp. is denying, on Richard Johnson’s behalf, deceased landlord-slash-media powerplayer Lou Rudin ever gave the Page Six editor a rent-controlled Upper West Side flat, though former NYTer Blake Fleetwood stands by the story. [Daily Politics]
• Meanwhile, Jared Paul Stern will answer Gawker’s questions, but not ours. It’s nice to know he’s still got kind words for Page Six, the institution. [Gawker]
• Egads! Sometimes the Washington Post news desk and editorial board don’t match up. [Washington City Paper]
• Meanwhile, President Bush wants WaPo to apologize for its “reckless reporting” regarding White House intelligence. [E&P]
• Leaks don’t only come from the White House; they arrive from the taping of Will & Grace’s series finale, too. (Spoiler warning.) [MNH]
The show is getting so bad that we sorta wish Dateline: Hollywood wasn’t a satire site.
8 NBC AFFILIATES WON????????T AIR ???????BOOK OF DANIEL????????; ALL 230 REFUSE TO AIR ???????WILL & GRACE???????? [Dateline Hollywood]