Move over, street urchins. James Franco is the new king of New York. I mean, he just keeps getting work here. He's most recently been cast in a film by the head of NYU's graduate directing program, Jay Anania. He'll star as an Orpheus or Dante type figure who journeys into the heart of a crime syndicate to rescue his beloved. Anania is quoted as saying of Franco, "I was immediately struck by his inventiveness and talent." He then quietly added "Plus he looks like a butterscotch sundae. I mean, just look at him." And we all nodded. [Variety]

Since Joe Carnahan is directing the new A-Team reboot, one would guess it'll be intense. Further proof of that comes from the potential casting of area badass Liam Neeson, who might play Hannibal. The Mr. T role has yet to be cast. Let's change it up! Regina King! [Variety]

Oh that's cute. Bryce Dallas Howard has cowritten a movie called The Originals that might be directed by her daddy, Richie Cunningham. The movie is about a bunch of quarterlifing twentysomethings who all reunite when a beloved old teacher falls into a coma. Sounds like Opie ought to apply some of the ol' Beautiful Mind soft-focus. [THR]

Donald Sutherland, Rufus Sewell, and Ian McShane (among others) have all signed on to the big, sweeping "maxi-series" Pillars of the Earth, based on the Ken Follett novel about... medieval English architecture. Oh, but it'll be more exciting than that! Don't worry. Sadly, no US distributor has picked up the TV rights yet. [THR]

John Malkovich has to schlep over to Kalovy Vary in the Czech Republic, where some nice townsfolk are honoring him at a little film festival they've cobbled together out of small stones and withered root vegetables. Maybe he'll make friends with a goat. (Just kidding. It's a lovely town.) [Variety]

Heyyyyy nerds. Your beloved/behated (depending on where you fall) Katee Sackhoff (Lieutenant Peet's Coffee & Tea on Battlestar) will be joining the cast of 24 next season. She'll play a smartie pants data analyst who has a secret past with another new character, played by the behated Freddie Prinze Jr. [THR]

Canceled series My Name Is Earl might be getting resurrected, albeit in lower budget format. TBS is considering picking up the Pilot Inspektor Sr. series for 13 episodes. Guys, Jamie Pressly is an Emmy winner. I do not think she does basic cable. Oh wait. That doesn't mean anything anymore. I just mean... I don't think she does TBS. [THR]

Image via Getty

Be excited for: Flash Forward, the new ABC mindbender about the Hoffs/Drawler Funeral Parlor, Joel McHale's comedy about community college, and a second season of Parks & Recreation. These are shows that the networks are pitching to ad folks as exciting members of their new fall lineup. My Name Is Earl might be canceled. So. He giveth, and He taketh away. [Variety]

Marcus Nispel, who directed that beautifully-filmed-but-scary-and-awful Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, is in talks to steer The Last Voyage of the Demeter, about the Bulgarian boat that Dracula is aboard and everyone dies. It's in Bram Stoker's book, which was based on Francis Ford Coppola's movie, I'm pretty sure. [Variety]

Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to Japanese manga series Death Note, which they plan to make into a live-action movie. The series is about a guy who gets a magical power which enables him to kill anyone just by writing their name down on a piece of paper. We hear Dick Cheney's a fan. [Variety]

I... hm. So? Well. Here's the— Eesh. OK. Hot Tub Time Machine. Is the name of a movie. And it's about exactly what it sounds like it's about. John Cusack and Rob Corddry are in it. And now so are Crispin Glover, Lizzie Kaplan, and Kings boombalottie Sebastian Stan. It's about old friends who travel back to 1987 in a magical hot tub. I guess it's like a throwbacky kinda comedy? 80's comedy pastiche/homage? About a time traveling hot tub? The world is maybe out of ideas? [THR]

Jim Carrey might star in The Beaver, that buzzed-about comedy about a guy who has a relationship with his beaver hand puppet. So Jim Carrey wouldn't be the beaver. Even though he looks like... Anyway, Jodie Foster might direct! [THR]

Oh how faaabulous. Barry Levinson is doing a movie about coming of age in 1960's Baltimore. It's totally not Liberty Heights! That was set in the 50's! [THR]

Congratulations. Your life's dream has been realized. Disney has renewed Wizards of Waverly Place for a third season, plus there's going to be a movie this summer. For those of you who would call star Selena Gomez a rat-faced menace, you people are just crazy. And for those of you who harbor illicit desires for that kid who plays her older brother, well... Happy May Day! Ha! [THR]

After the jump: Salma Hayek storms Fox, Jeff Zucker reassures nobody, Earl's preem crashes.

· Completely over the success of Ugly Betty, executive producer Salma Hayek's budding media empire will next overtake Fox with the multiethnic family comedy The New McToms. [THR]
· At an exec powwow in London on Thursday, noted NBCU economist Jeff Zucker insisted that his network's value to GE "only increases if there is less coming from the financial divisions." And the Olympics? "We measure success in ways that are far greater than the bottom line." Indeed, this man has all the answers. [THR]
· And not to pile on, but last night's My Name is Earl and ER premieres were down 29% and 20%, respectively, from last year's bows. But that's OK — maybe NBC doesn't measure success that way, either. [The Live Feed]
· Director Gary Fleder has reupped with ABC to helm every episode of every ABC series produced through the end of time. Or television, whichever comes first. [Variety]

Boomp3.com

It ain’t easy being a smoker at LAX these days. My Name Is Earl star Jason Lee felt as if he had to hike all the way to Northridge in order to find a spot where he could have a very vital stress releasing cigarette before his flight. Lee understands the desire to have smokers separated from the general public, but the cubby hole he was placed into was a bit much. Lee said, “I get it, but couldn’t they give us smokers more room to work with other than this little box. The line to smoke goes all way down to Manhattan Beach. We’re people who have a bad habit, but it’s not a crime. Maybe two or three people could smoke at a time.”

[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

"If you choose to attack me again may I suggest something witty about me creating the show Yes Dear or just simply a joke about the fact that I’m bald. Both true.

"As far as you being psychotic, anyone who thinks NBC wouldn’t do everything they could to promote a great show like 30 Rock, which they own, over a show like My Name is Earl, which they don’t, is a tad nutty.

"Good luck with the Emmys and don’t forget to tune in for the one hour season premiere of My Name is Earl September 25th."

I asked Garcia how it was so many blogs had decided he was a Scientologist. "It started with a story in [the London] Mirror," he said, which had pronounced him a Scientologist because several Earl cast members are Scientologists. "It amused me and, since then, it's just become common knowledge. But I am in fact born and raised Catholic."

"Maybe the reason enough people aren’t watching 30 Rock to make Mr. Baldwin happy is because Alec Baldwin is so unlikable as a person. 30 Rock is a really funny show. And Alec Baldwin is funny as long as someone else is writing his words. When left to his own devices, he sounds like a psychotic narcissist who whines about being rich for 8 pages in The New Yorker."

"Instead of blaming NBC, I think Alec should consider that some people in America may not want to watch a man who cusses out his own 11 year old daughter on a phone message, calling her a “rude thoughtless little pig.” It’s a shame that the people who produce such a funny show have to put up with such a distasteful man on a daily basis. It makes me thankful to have such a wonderful cast on My Name is Earl, a show that is still going strong and has helped bring an audience to 30 Rock over the last few years. You’re welcome, Alec.

Oh, and the reason NBC occasionally puts on an hour-long episode of Earl is because an hour of Earl gets better ratings than an Earl followed by a 30 Rock. It’s called math, stupid."

Huzzah! We've got to admit, nothing warms our cockles like a good ole fashioned catfight between two strong anchors of NBC's Thursday night lineup. We would think that Ben Silverman would be able to bring peace to these warring factions, but then again, it's a crapshoot as to whether or not he's even showing up for work these days. Our only piece of advice at this point is directed to Greg Garcia: if Alec Baldwin decides to ring you up this afternoon, be sure to let that call go straight to voicemail.

PREVIOUSLY: Inside Alec Baldwin: A 'Nudist,' A 'Homosexual,' A Rock Music Aficionado, And a Tormented Soul

boomp3.com



My Name Is Earl star Jaime Pressly struggled to come grips with what is perhaps Los Angeles' best known feature — the traffic. Pressly was surprised to see that even the surface streets were as jammed as the 405 on a Friday night. To combat her raising stress levels, Pressly reached for a cigarette, but that it only calmed her nerves slightly. A passenger in the car in the next lane over jokingly asked Pressly if she could get Earl to put something about fixing the traffic in LA on that karma list. The passenger felt that Earl could probably get more done than Cal Trans ever could.

[Photo Credit: Bauer-Griffin]

*A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

In the parallel universe where this might be funny, Zucker's tacky product-placement gags, writer-prodding jabs ("preferably in the first 17 days!") and generally bloodless deadpan are themselves sitcom gold, and a star is no doubt born. On Earth, however, we fear this is a haunting signal of the Zucker-era tight-fistedness to come: With pilots, upfronts and junkets already slashed from the NBC budget, Zucker moves on to consolidate his entire Thursday-night slate into five SAG day players ruminating on how His Name Was Earl, the minimalist Jenna Fischer/Office spinoff Pam and Zucker himself finally replacing Alec Baldwin in the 30 Rock role he's been eyeing for at least a year. At least one man's spring is off to a good start.

• Has NBC Uni's Jeff Zucker Lost His Mind? [DHD]

"This wound up a really positive thing," Garcia said.

"It didn't turn me off from fast food. In fact, it was really the opposite. The place was unbelievably clean. The people whom I worked with were great. And the work itself was fun. Really. I worked hard — cashiering, cleaning the bathrooms. A few days in, they liked me so much they asked me to join their management team."

And on his way out the door, besides coming clean, Garcia gifted one co-worker whom he had befriended with a cashier's check for $10,000, which left the employee "confused, then excited. It was just something I felt I wanted to do."

But how did the people in charge of the restaurant react when they got wind of who Garcia really was?

"They were concerned at first because they were worried I might be doing some sort of expose," he said. "After we spoke, they felt good about the whole thing. And so did I."

We suppose it remains to be seen whether or not Garcia will actually adapt his fast food experiences for an Earl episode or be content leave it as a fun and heartwarming story he decided to share only with some friends, colleagues and several thousand trade-paper subscribers. In any case, getting off the set long enough to reconnect with one's creative inspiration is an idea virtually any artist toiling in the sheltered world of sitcoms should seriously consider; we look forward to one day hearing a moving story about the lucky exotic-dancing beneficiary of Two and a Half Men star Charlie Sheen's largesse, and how she was able to make a down payment on a new house following the 30-day stint as a Spearmint Rhino DJ the actor used to revive his flagging enthusiasm for a character he's been playing for five seasons.

• Garcia's a regular (or diet) guy [THR]

"Jason Lee, if you haven't heard, has the chickenpox," Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment, announced Sunday at the Television Critics Association meeting in Pasadena. "Jason is actually quite sick and is going to be out of the show for about two or three weeks."

We wish Lee a speedy recovery. The diagnosis is so unusual, however, we can't help but wonder if perhaps there isn't some biblical-type curse shit going down on perpetually doomed network NBC. While it may seem slightly premature to make fire and brimstone proclamations based on a single case of chickenpox, we shall remain on high alert for any further plague-like acts of divine intervention against the embattled network; say, the entire cast of Four Kings being devoured by a pack of feral mountain lions who happen to wander into the studio during a live taping.

• A Pox on "Earl" [E! Online]

I was at Barney's Beanery on the Promenade in Santa Monica last weekend. It was opening day of football season and starting at about noon, four or five girls were walking around with black t-shirts with MONITORS in them with clips of My Name Is Earl playing.

Everyone outside (mostly old tourists) seemed to be more intrigued by the fact that these girls had monitors up their shirts and wondered why they would ever do a gig like that in such a public place on a day of rest and football, rather than what the heck the show My Name is Earl was actually about.

And none of the girls were good-looking.

As galling as we're sure this interruption was to football fans, we think we're finally starting to see some method in this guerilla-marketing madness. NBC obviously wanted all of the attention focussed on the television show flashing across their walking billboards' chests, not on their faces. Annoying, sure, but coolly logical.

• Earl Finally Convinces Us To Skip His Show [Defamer]
• NBC’s Kevin Reilly Feels Sparks Of Impending Success [Defamer]
• My Name Is Earl, Please Don’t Watch My Show [Defamer]

Personally, I'm a fan of Jason Lee and perhaps his new show will rock enough to get me to tune in and/or Tivo it. But I seriously doubt it. Especially after having my page-flipping Sunday evening solitude so entirely disrupted when I came to this ad and turned past it only to jump at the loud sound of Jason's voice coming from straight outta nowhere and telling me "My name is Earl! Do good things and good things will happen to you! It's called Karma!" I quickly ascertained that the voice was not from inside my head but rather inside the page via a small speaker wired to a small pressure sensitive circuit board embedded in it. My first thought was "cute" followed by "man that's a lotta dough and a hard sell," and one that I wasn't buying.

Trouble was when I turned the next page Jason piped up again. "My name is Earl! Do good things and good things will happen to you. It's called Karma!" And again with the next page. And again. After the fourth "My name is Earl" I backtracked to the offending page ripped it out of the mag and then tore the guts out of it (pictured after the jump) to shut good ol' Jason the fuck up and that's where my true flabbergast set in.

They're doing such amazing things with technology these days! We never thought we'd live long enough to see a microchip advanced enough to properly capture NBC's desperation in digital form. After the third or fourth hammer blow, the ad bleats, "Come oooon! Friends is never coming back, asshole, so you might as well check out our new show."

• Someone Oughta Have Earl's People Look Up "Karma" [Blogging.la]