TV TIDBITS!

�� TNT has renewed Southland for a fifth season.

�� Showtime has renewed The Borgias for a third season. The new season will air in 2013.

�� Should ABC choose to cancel Cougar Town, it may get a second chance on cable. According to Deadline.com, TBS is in early talks to pick up the Courteney Cox comedy should ABC give it the boot.

�� Rob Lowe has signed on for another cheesy Lifetime movie.  After starring as killer Drew Peterson for the network, the Parks and Recreation star has signed on to play Florida prosecutor Jeff Ashton in Prosecuting Casey Anthony. The film will follow Anthony’s murder trial from Ashton’s perspective.  Anthony was charged with killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. She was acquitted of the charges.

�� The Simpsons’ Bart Simpson has had quite a string of love interests for a ten-year-old, and they’re all getting ready to return to the Fox show.  Zooey Deschanel, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sarah Silverman, who have all voiced Bart’s former girlfriends, are returning for season 19.   As for why they’ll be back, Simpsons consulting producer Tim Long told EW.com, “We thought it might be fun to borrow/pay homage to/steal an idea from High Fidelity and have him go on a romantic pilgrimage and visit the girls that he dated and try to figure out how the hell he screwed things up with each of them.”

TV TIDBITS!

�� HBO has picked up the new anthology series True Detective, a cop drama starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. HBO has given the series an eight episode order. The show revolves around two detectives whose lives become entangled while searching for a serial killer in Louisiana. While McConaughey and Harrelson will star in the first season, should the show continue, it will be with an entirely new cast and storyline, similar to FX’s American Horror Story.

�� ABC still hasn’t decided the fate of Private Practice, but Deadline.com reports it may indeed return next season. The site claims the network is in talks to pick up a 13-episode sixth and final season of the Shonda Rhimes drama.

�� Deadline.com also reports that CBS is expected to announce at its upfront presentation later this month that Two and a Half Men will be returning for a tenth season. Ashton Kutcher, who replaced Charlie Sheen this season, will be back next year.

MISCELLANEOUS MOVIE NEWS!

�� Jason Segel and David Krumholtz have signed on to make a cameo in End of the World, the directorial debut of Seth Rogen and writing partner Evan Goldberg. Emma Watson is in talks to join the cast as well. The film, originally called The Apocalypse, stars Rogen and Jay Baruchel as themselves, holed up in apartment as they deal with the end of the world. James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson will all play themselves in the film as well.

LIFE TO CELEBRATE ROLLING STONES’ 50^TH

On May 22^nd, LIFE Books will celebrate the Rolling Stones’ 50^th anniversary with the release of The Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Rock n’ Roll. The book will chronicle the band’s rise, with more than 140 pages of photos and stories.

UNRELEASED BEATLES PHOTOS ON THE AUCTION BLOCK

Previously unreleased photos of The Beatles will be up for auction on May 19^th. The BBC reports that the pictures, including 20 black and white images, were shot in London in 1964 during the filming of A Hard Days’ Night.  The pics were taken by studio props manager Peter Allchorne even though photos were banned from the set.  Allchorne, now 87, is selling the photos via Omega Auctions in Cheshire, England.  His daughter said he was never a fan of the band, and didn’t realize the goldmine he had in his possession.

NEW CRUE DVD IN JUNE

Motley Crue is planning to release a new DVD this summer. The band, who kicks off a North American tour with KISS on July 20^th in Bristow, VA, will release Motley Crue – Kickstart Live 2011 on June 5^th. The DVD was recorded at various concerts across North America last year.

EDDIE VAN HALEN WANTED TO JOIN KISS

Gene Simmons says Eddie Van Halen once approached him about joining KISS, and he’s very proud to say he talked him out of it.  Simmons says that in 1982, when KISS fired guitarist Ace Frehley, he and Eddie were having lunch and Eddie said David Lee Roth was driving him crazy and he wanted to join KISS. “I remember feeling proud of what I said. I said, ‘Don’t do it. Stay with the band you started. There’s no role for you – you’re too big. You cast too much of a shadow to be the guitar player in KISS,’” explained Simmons. “And he went back and he was miserable for 20 or 30 years. But it would never have worked. Not even close.”

�� Fox announced yesterday that they have renewed Fringe for fifth and final season, which will consist of 13 episodes. “We are thrilled and beyond grateful that FOX – and our fans – have made the impossible possible: Fringe will continue into a fifth season that will allow the series to conclude in a wild and thrilling way,” said co-creator and executive producer J. J. Abrams. “All of us at Bad Robot are forever indebted to our viewers and the amazingly supportive FOX network for allowing the adventures of Fringe Division to not only continue, but to resolve in a way that perfectly fits the show.”

�� Jennifer Morrison is returning to House. The actress, whose character Dr. Allison Cameron was last seen in season six, has shot a cameo for the show’s May 21^st series finale.  Of course, she isn’t the only familiar face returning for the drama’s swansong. Olivia Wilde, Amber Tamblyn and Kal Penn are all set to appear in the episode, which is titled “Everybody Dies.”

�� TLC has announced a new special Obese & Expecting, which follows four moms-to-be who are morbidly overweight. The show will debut May 17^th, with the network possibly turning it into a series. On the same night TLC will debut Birth Moms,  which follows three women at a Utah adoption center who are deciding whether or not to give up their child.

�� Fox has announced that the 2012 Teen Choice Awards will air Sunday, July 22^nd.

MISCELLANEOUS MOVIE NEWS!

�� Christina Ricci has joined the cast of the sequel to The Smurfs. Most of the original cast is expected to return including, Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, Katy Perry and Anton Yelchin. Ricci will voice a new character named Vexi, an evil version of Smurfette. The sequel is due out July 31^st, 2013.

�� The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Rooney Mara will star in the big screen adaptation of the best-selling novel Brooklyn. The story, set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the 1950s, stars Mara as a young woman torn between her family and the American man she falls in love with.

�� Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels have signed on to star in a sequel to the 1994 comedy Dumb and Dumber. The original film’s co-writer and co-director Peter Farrelly confirmed the news, adding that the film will begin shooting in September. The original spawned a prequel, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd, which starred Derek Richardson and Eric Christian Olsen.

��  Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison is developing a remake of the 1987 comedy Summer School. The original, directed by Carl Reiner, starred Mark Harmon as a high school gym teacher forced to teach a summer English class.

TYLER TAKING ON CAMP COUNSELOR ROLE

He’s already a frontman and a judge on American Idol, but starting May 2 Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler will be one of many big-name camp counselors on the next installment of Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy Camp which this time is taking place at the infamous Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Additional musical mentors making their way to the mansion include Yes drummer Alan White, Quiet Riot and Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rudy Sarzo, Heart guitarist Howard Leese and Kip Winger, among others.

LAWRENCE TOO FAT FOR HUNGER GAMES?!

While the blockbuster The Hunger Games received generally positive reviews, there was some negative feedback about the film, with a few critics suggesting star Jennifer Lawrence was too big to play Katniss Everdeen, a teen who was supposed to be malnourished.  The Hollywood Reporter called Lawrence’s “lingering baby fat,” an issue, while Variety suggested evidence of District 12’s poverty-stricken environment “barely even seems to register” thanks to Lawrence’s body shape. The worst comment came from a reviewer at the website Hollywood Elsewhere, who called Lawrence a “fairly tall, big-boned lady” who was too large to be a romantic interest for Josh Hutcherson.

Q-Before her movie career took off, Lawrence starred in what TBS comedy, which lasted two seasons? The Bill Engvall Show

TV TIDBITS!

�� Designer Tommy Hilfiger has been named image advisor for American Idol. Beginning Thursday, March 15^th, Hilfiger “will mentor the contestants to define their performance identities and help guide their style transformations.”

�� Bravo’s Andy Cohen and E!’s Giuliana Rancic will host the Miss USA pageant, airing live on NBC from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas on June 3^rd.

�� ABC has given the go-ahead for the summer singing competition Duets, in which Kelly Clarkson, Robin Thicke, Lionel Richie and Jennifer Nettles (Sugarland) travel across America to find two singers to be their duet partners. Each week the celebrity and their picks will take the stage and perform in front of a live audience. By the end, one singer will win a recording contract with Hollywood Records.

�� Entourage’s Jeremy Piven is in talks to star in the 10-episode ITV drama series Mr. Selfridge, which will trace the life of American entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge, who launched the famous London department store Selfridge’s in the early 1900s.

�� One Tree Hill’s Robert Buckley and The Finder’s Mercedes Masohn will star in the ABC drama pilot 666 Park Avenue, about a young couple (Rachael Taylor and Dave Annable) who accept an offer to manage an historic New York City apartment building, only to experience supernatural occurrences that complicate and endanger their lives.  Buckley and Masohn will play a married couple living in the building.

�� Deadline.com reports that 20^th Century Fox is in talks with Netflix about keeping Terra Nova alive. On Monday, Fox announced they were cancelling the Steven Spielberg-produced series.  So far discussions with Netflix are said to be in the very early stages.

�� Aidan Quin will star alongside Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu in CBS’s drama pilot Elementary, a contemporary telling of Sherlock Holmes. Miller stars as Holmes, a former Scotland Yard consultant who winds up in New York after going to rehab for his addictions. Liu will play Joan Watson, Holmes’ “sober companion,” who works with him as he consults for the NYPD.  Quinn will play an NYPD captain who worked with Sherlock at Scotland Yard.

�� Party Down’s Ken Marino, currently on the big screen in Wanderlust, will star alongside Judy Greer in the ABC comedy pilot American Judy. The series stars Greer as a cosmopolitan woman who marries and then moves to the suburbs where she must juggle step-kids, her mother-in-law and the ex-wife of her hubby.  Marino will play the husband.

�� The Descendants’ Amara Miller (she played George Clooney’s younger daughter) has landed a role in NBC’s White House comedy pilot 1600 Penn, about a dysfunctional first family, whose out of control eldest son (Josh Gad) returns home and becomes the glue holding the family together.  Miller will play the president’s youngest daughter. Bill Pullman will play the president.

�� CBS has renewed The Talk for a third season.

HULK HOGAN SEX TAPE UP FOR GRABS!

TMZ reports that a sex tape featuring Hulk Hogan is currently being shopped to major porn outlets. The site reports that footage shows Hulk getting undressed in front of a brunette, who is not his ex-wife Linda or his current wife Jennifer McDaniel. In a clip viewed by TMZ, Hulk takes off his shirt and brags, “I started to work out again.” Also clear in the video is Hulk’s thong-shaped tan line.  Hulk tells TMZ that the video was “secretly filmed” without his permission, and calls it an “outrageous invasion of privacy.” Said Hulk’s lawyer, “[Hulk] neither approved of the filming nor the release of the same.  It is clearly an outrageous invasion of privacy and breach of trust if it is genuine.  We will take all necessary steps to enforce both civil and criminal liability.”  So far there’s no word on whether anyone has purchased the tape.

Q-What was the name of Hulk’s wrestler character in 1982’s Rocky III? Thunderlips

TEBOW DENIES BACHELOR RUMORS!

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has shot down reports he’ll be the next man looking for love on ABC’s The Bachelor. "Haha rumors can be crazy!" the NFL player, 24, wrote. "Even though I've watched the show before, I'm definitely not gonna be on the Bachelor." The rumors began earlier this week, when Bachelor host Chris Harrison told Access Hollywood Live that he had approached Tebow about joining the show. Said Harrison, “I think he’d be a great Bachelor, don’t you?”

PHILLY CREAM CHEESE PULLS GCB ADS!

Philadelphia cream cheese has pulled its advertising from the new ABC dramedy GCB after receiving complaints from consumers.  The company, which is owned by Kraft, said in a statement  that their customers’ “opinions about our advertising are important to us." GCB, based on the book Good Christian Bitches, is being criticized for its derogatory portrayal of Southern Christian Woman. Earlier this week, New York Councilman Peter Vallone called for a boycott of the show.

TV TIDBITS!

�� The writers of NBC’s Parks and Recreation still aren’t sure whether Amy Poehler’s character Leslie Knope will win her race for city council, so just to be safe, they’ve shot two different versions of the season finale. According to Deadline.com, the cast filmed one version where Leslie wins, and another where she loses. Co-creator/executive producer Mike Schur said they shot the two endings partly, “in case we changed our minds,” and partly to throw the public “off the scent.”

�� TLC has cancelled American Muslim after only one season. Ratings for the show were never great, and it even sparked controversy when Lowes pulled ads after customers complained the show didn’t portray Muslims as extremists.

�� Sigourney Weaver has signed on to star in the USA six-hour original series Political Animals from Brothers & Sisters creator Greg Berlanti. Weaver will play Elaine Barrish, the divorced former First Lady, and newly appointed Secretary of State, who throws herself into her work after the end of her marriage and her loss of the presidential nomination.

�� Torchwood star John Barrowman (he played Captain Jack Harkness) will star in Shonda Rhimes’ ABC period drama Gilded Lilys. The series revolves around the opening of the first luxury hotel in New York City in 1895, set against a backdrop of vicious family rivalries. Barrowman will play Julius Ashford Lily, the charming son of the Lily family, which was recently brought down by scandal.

MISCELLANEOUS MOVIE NEWS!

�� Forest Whitaker is in talks to star in The Butler, Precious director Lee Daniels’ film about Eugene Allen, a black man who worked as a butler in the White House under eight presidents, from 1952 to 1986. Whitaker will play the title role, while Oprah Winfrey is in talks to play his wife.

��  Warner Bros. is moving forward with a sequel to Project X, which earned $21 million in its opening weekend last week.   The film centers around a trio of high schoolers who throw a party that quickly gets out of hand.