Fox announced today that is snuffing out the brief candle of Dollhouse, Whedon's latest series starring Eliza Dushku as a secret agent whose memory is deleted after each of her missions.

The launch of a new Whedon show is treated in nerddom with the pomp and ceremony of a royal wedding and the build-up to Dollhouse's launch seemed a year long extravaganza of set visits, plot leaks and junketeering. But when Dollhouse finally reached the airwaves, it met very mixed reviews and stumbled to find an audience. Grudgingly, Fox brought it back for a second season, but put it on in a doomed Friday night slot.

The life of a Whedon show is only really a throat-clearing prelude to its afterlife in which the failed show is converted into a modern classic. Whedon's last show, for instance, Firefly was on the air for a mere 14 episodes from 2002 - 2003, but that was enough to fuel a big screen adaptation and eternal worship as the platonic ideal in swashbuckling sci-fi dramas.

But first must come the backlash and out there across the internet can be heard the sound a million geeks posting calls to the barricades to protest Fox's treachery, proving to them once again that commerce is the enemy of art and that something as special as Dollhouse is too good to live in such an imperfect world.

And for Eliza Dushku, now that the burden of actually filming is behind her, she can move on to the far more satisfying journey of spending the rest of her decades on the planet touring hotel convention facilities and taking the podium to answer questions about the exact meaning of that look she shot her co-star in episode seven.

• The dream has ended for Shrek: The Musical. The stage adaptation of the cartoon which attempted to change the Great White Way forever with this revolutionary classy dramatic rendition of a farting contest (we're not kidding, watch the clip), finally accepted the call of gravity just under a year after its debut. [Variety]

• The immediate fate of Roman Polanski is unclear today. After reports earlier this week that he would not fight extradition to the US, today the picture is muddier, with his legal team apparently hotly debating the question. [Hollywood Reporter]

• This Is It, the documentary based on what would have been Michael Jackson's concert series, is headed for a big opening, with 1600 of its showings already sold out. [NY Times]

• David Fincher has signed on to produce a TV series based on the British political thriller House of Cards. The novels which were adopted into a classic trilogy of mini-series by the BBC a decade ago portray the rise and fall of a ruthless British Prime Minister. [Hollywood Reporter]

• Signaling to the world's geek community that it is time to hurry up and say their last goodbyes, Fox has announced it is pulling Joss Whedon's Dollhouse from its November sweeps schedule. [Hitfix]

• Technicolor has finally taken its place on the bandwagon to shove 3D - and its accompanying higher ticket prices - down the world's throat, announcing it has found a solution that will allow non-digital equipped movie houses a conventional means of projecting 3D. [Variety]

Fox originally released some NSFW-ish promo pics of Dushku this past month, but brand-new pictures that have leaked definitely put the Maxim in "This exiled-to-Friday show may only be able to hit a 1.5 rating, maximum." Perhaps some nude Nathan Fillion photoshoots could have saved Whedon's last Friday sci-fi offering, Firefly; too bad we'll never now know.

• Eliza Dushku - Dollhouse Promos x29LQ [Superior Pics]

— Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" is going to air on low-rated Fridays. The series was originally scheduled to air with "24" on Mondays. Instead, "House" will open the night, followed by "24."

— "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is also moving to Friday and will serve as lead-in to "Dollhouse."

Ruh-roh! As if to drive the bad news home, Fox has set Dollhouse's premiere date for Friday the 13th of February. Whedon's Firefly famously tanked when Fox scheduled it on Fridays, so perhaps those "Save Dollhouse" campaigns that sprung up when the series was first announced weren't so premature after all. Nerds, commence your letter writing campaigns; Fox, we hope you're prepared to be besieged with truckloads of desperate, Dollhouse-saving Bratz dolls.

• Fox announces midseason schedule shocker: 'Dollhouse' and 'Terminator' on Fridays [THR]

• Four Years Later, The Storied 4-Minute BUFFY: THE ANIMATED SERIES Presentation Stalks YouTube!! [AICN]

• Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Trailer [Slashfilm]

As we reported this week, Gellar, er, Sarah Michelle Prinze (shudder) is set to take over for Kate Bosworth in the upcoming Veronika Decides To Die, Nicholas Brendon claims he is busy "writing and acting" (aren't we all!), and Charisma Carpenter, who CC2K reports said under ten words all night, joked with Seth Green about "collaborating on a series of fitness videos." Which is actually not a bad idea; Charisma could show us how to pick up guys at LA Fitness while Seth instructs tiny-framed guys like himself on how easy it is to lift 10-pounders without needing a spotter. We'd shell out at least two bucks for that DVD.

• 'BUFFY' CAST REUNITES AT PALEY FESTIVAL [AP]
• PALEY FEST 2008: 'BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER' [CC2K]

· NBC puts off indefinitely the production of Heroes spin-off Heroes: Origins, with possible reasons for the sudden shelving including the possible writers' strike, the mess the original series has become in its second season, and a strategic redeployment of hit-recycling development brainpower to that rumored The Office offshoot. Also: The Singing Bee is coming off the air for November sweeps. [Variety]
· Oh, happy day! More reteaming! Onetime Closer pals Julia Roberts and Clive Owen join Universal's Duplicity as "longtime lovers and rival corporate spies" who get together to pull "an elaborate con." [THR]
· Holy fucking reteaming shit! This is possibly the best day ever for Hollywood reunions: Heath Ledger will once again hook up with Brothers Grimm director Terry Gilliam for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. [Variety]

You (hopefully) heard it here first: I'm no longer slated to make Wonder Woman. What? But how? My chest... so tight! Okay, stay calm and I'll explain as best I can. It's pretty complicated, so bear with me. I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked. Hey, not that complicated.

Let me stress first that everybody at the studio and Silver Pictures were cool and professional. We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time. I don't think any of us expected it to this time, but it did. Everybody knows how long I was taking, what a struggle that script was, and though I felt good about what I was coming up with, it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk. I like to think it rolled around the rim a little bit, but others may have differing views.

The worst thing that can happen in this scenario is that the studio just keeps hammering out changes and the writer falls into a horrible limbo of development. These guys had the clarity and grace to skip that part. So I'm a free man.

The rest of Whedon's explanation is here, where he expresses relief that he'll never again have to answer any questions about whether Tom Cruise ever offered to have Scientology's most talented aeronautical engineers build him an actual invisible jet if he'd just cast his struggling actress wife in the title role.

• SATIN TIGHTS NO LONGER [Whedonesque]
• Previously: Trade Round-Up: Silver Trying To Take 'Wonder Woman' Competition Off The Market [Defamer]