Author: Tabloid Baby

Simon Cowell’s American Inventor is getting an extreme makeover when it returns in June for a second season. Former heavyweight champ and grill hawker George Foreman will show up as a brand new judge, as will former talk show host Pat Croce and Sara Blakely, the inventor of Spanx footless and Assets butt-slimming pantyhose (whose [...]

Who needs call centers in India? Sanjaya Malakar‘s unexpectedly uninhibited and totally bizarre performance last night, aided by a deft director who kept cutting to a little girl who’d been weeping through the entire show (a tribute to the evening’s British Invasion theme, of course) was one of the most memorable moments in American Idol [...]

“As long as she needs me…” She may not have much of a neck, but Melinda Doolittle again showed tonight that she’s heads above the other finalists on American Idol. She’s a professional. She makes a living as a background singer. She comes with a vocal coach and stylist. At 29, she’s the oldest contestant, [...]

We showed you the sexiest. Now what about “The Wimpiest”? You know, the metrosexuals, weaklings and girliemen of the television world. Not that we’d ever single them out. We’re fans of Top Design here. But the boys at Stuffmagazine.com have just sent over their list of The Wimpiest Men on TV. So who do they [...]

David Letterman, the least-healthy of the late night talk show hosts, has gone home sick today. So his scheduled guest is filling in as host of The Late Show tonight. Adam Sandler has been rehearsing with the show’s writers and producers all this afternoon. He’s called in Don Cheadle to take his place as lead [...]

Recent ass-crack flasher Evangeline Lilly and recent papa-of-twins Patrick Dempsey are the sexiest stars on TV. That’s according to the poll in the new TV Guide that hits Thursday. The two ABC stars, Lost‘s Kate and McDreamy from Grey’s Anatomy, were selected by the magazine’s editors. Can you guess the rest? They’re after the jump…

ABC fulfilled its part of the bargain with Heather Mills’ appearance on Dancing with the Stars last night. The woman known in most of the English-speaking world as the hard-boiled, attention-grabbing fantasist who married Paul McCartney in his lowest hour, then played dirty pool in her effort to fleece him in divorce, is now “an [...]

Phil Spector sported a new hairdo as jury selection in his murder trial began today. Who knows what Sanjaya Malakar‘s got in store when he faces the American Idol jury later this week?

Tina Fey is using 30 Rock‘s six-week hiatus to drum up some heat for the show that actual airings could not. The sketchwriter-turned-sitcom-creator-and-star says she’s gotten a big signal NBC will renew the struggler for a second season. “I literally just got off the phone with (NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly) and still tells me [...]

The networks and their production factories have made a mint importing game and reality shows from Europe, so why bother looking through headshots of washed-up comedians to host them? Despite the performances of Denise van Outen as Billy Bush’s gurning, face-pulling second banana on Grease: You’re The One That I Want, Éamonn Holmes‘ cancellation after [...]

Internet parodies of TV and movie trailers, from Shining clip to Ken Burns’ The Office, have served as calling cards for would-be Spielbergs and Shyamalans, and add to the perception that any of us are as funny and creative as the pros who dish up all that dreck on TV and movie screens. Zeroes (above), [...]

Surya Yamanchili, in his final hours as the most-recently fired Apprentice candidate, is the latest to weigh in on the worldwide debate over Tvgasm’s report on suspicions that Sanjaya Malakar’s stay on American Idol is being extended by bloc voting in India– specifically from workers and technology in outsourced call centers. Surya, like Sanjaya, is [...]

The publicists for Jeopardy! teased us all week with the promise that on “Friday, March 16th, 2007 … and for the first time in 23 years… Jeopardy! history will be made.” They weren’t kidding. Watch it above.

While some of us who remember Carol Burnett as the celebrity who sued the National Enquirer (and won) for reporting that she appeared drunk and rowdy in a Washington D.C., restaurant, a new generation can know the comedienne as the old lady who sued the cartoon Family Guy for a few seconds’ throwaway gag. Watch [...]

First Star Jones, now Taylor Hicks. Simon Cowell’s least-favorite American Idol is the latest television creation to suddenly lose the fat and wind up looking like a different person. The 6’1” singer from Alabama says he’s gone from 215 to 193 pounds (that sounds a little specific) since he won on Idol last May– not [...]

Richard Hatch, who won $1 million on the first season of Survivor, then went to prison for not paying taxes on the prize, says he’s “an innocent man in jail.” And never mind Gitmo. The infamous gay “naked fat guy” says he was tortured behind bars by Jerry Springer! The Survivor villain-turned-winner-turned-loser was convicted last [...]

Ever wonder why you can’t sell your original pilot idea? That’s because you’re up against dabblers like Steven Spielberg. Showtime is developing a half-hour comedy from DreamWorks, The United States of Tara, based on an original idea from the aged wunderkind. The single-camera Sybil-in-the-suburbs comedy follows the life of a wife and mother of two [...]

Jeez, what happened to Star Jones… er, Star Jones Reynolds? Is that her or Mr. Reynolds in the center picture? Anyway, Star’s going through radical image rehabilitation on the way to being taken seriously on her new Court TV show. They even gave her glasses, and you know what that did for Ashleigh Banfield and [...]

Are outsourced tech support workers in India using their speed-dialing phone resources and technical expertise to keep Sanjaya Malakar on American Idol? That’s the chatter we’re picking up on blogsites catering to the Desi community (“Desi” in this case referring to people of South Asian descent spread throughout the English-speaking world– see MTV Desi). Leading [...]

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, former Clinton adviser and an architect of the Democratic takeover of Congress, has given urgent advice to new Democratic congressmen. And it’s not “Keep away from the pages.” It’s “Stay away from The Colbert Report!” “Don’t do it. It’s a risk and it’s probably safer not to do it,” he’s quoted as [...]

We liked Surya Yalamanchili from the first time we saw his picture on the website for our pick early on to win the job in The Apprentice 6. He looked different. He had that Bollywood thing happening. And though he was only 24, he had the credentials to go all the way. Then he switched [...]

Tyra Banks got more than Oprah, Rachael Ray got more than Dr. Phil, Regis got nothing and CBS leads the pack with 57–including 33 for its soaps Guiding Light and As the World Turns– in nominations for the Daytime Emmy Awards. The Ellen DeGeneres Show only got 12 (including host), but was still the most-nominated [...]

What goes around comes around. Hours after Simon Cowell urges Ryan Seacrest to “come out,” and we show a clip of Ryan flirting with Anderson Cooper, we learn that Anderson is getting his chance to hit on– or take a hit out on– Simon Cowell. The Coop will front a 60 Minutes Simon Cowell profile [...]

Simon Cowell actually asked Ryan Seacrest to “come out” of his “closet” on American Idol last night. Which reminded us of the time last month, when Ryan filled in for Larry King and it looked like Ryan and Anderson Cooper were about to come out together. Make sure you watch the clip to the very [...]

ABC is about to turn the entire nation into a retirement home. They’re going to dedicate six hours of prime time television to bingo. Bingo. National Bingo Night will debut May 19th. While a contestant plays in-studio, viewers at home can print out bingo cards at ABC.com, play along and go back online to redeem [...]

We spoke to Surya Yalamanchili, the latest The Apprentice 6 firee, this afternoon, and he’s still stinging from backstabbing teammates who did him in last summer and the “brutal edit” that made him “look like a robot.” Surya was our pick early on to win the job as Donald Trump’s sidekick. So in Part I [...]

Court TV is changing its name. The drastic move is part of an overhaul that’s set for later this year. They new owners at Turner will revamp the networks daytime trial coverage, start a two-hour afternoon block with talk shows hosted by Star Jones and Nancy Grace, and add new reality shows in prime time. [...]

Not long ago, there were so many Law & Order episodes and shows, there was talk of spinning the brand into its own network. Today, with the franchise spread thin across the prime time schedule, TNT, Bravo, and USA, NBC is looking to cut costs– and possibly, one of the shows. Creator Dick Wolf, who [...]

And you thought the Antonella Barba scandal was sleazy? Poor American Idol. After weeks of being overshadowed by her sexy photos on the Internet, the producers finally got her off the show and prepared to do something good– using Idol‘s ratings power to raise money for the poor in Africa and the United States– and [...]

Professional reality TV contestants Rob & Amber Mariano talk about last night’s dramatic ending to The Amazing Race: All Stars. We don’t see a recap yet, so we’ll save any EPISODE SPOILERS for… after the jump…

Now we know why Regis Philbin is being replaced as host in the next season of America’s Got Talent. He’s having heart bypass surgery. The 75-year-old told his audience on Live with Regis & Kelly that he’s going in for the operation this week. “Well, listen, I gotta tell you something. I had been feeling [...]

The Anna Nicole Smith story is about to be dramatized on TV. Though any similarities to the real Anna Nicole story will be purely coincidental. Roger Friedman at Fox 411 says he got word that Law & Order: Criminal Intent will soon begin shooting a ripped-from-the-headlines version of the sad and wacky saga, with Kristy [...]

We’d figured Nikki Cox could float– but wouldn’t you know it, she bounces, too. We’re still reeling from the news that she was bounced from the cast of NBC’s Las Vegas– and she’s already bounced back into a new show. Nikki’s signed to the CBS sitcom pilot, The Stumps of Hollywood. That’s the show about [...]

The Fox News Channel has ordered up 13 episodes of its right wing answer to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, after pulling in close to a million and a half viewers on two tryouts. The Half Hour News Hour was most notable for not mentioning President Bush or Iraq in a combined hour of political [...]

Lindsay Lohan’s bad boy father, Michael, is set to walk out of prison at 9 a.m. on Tuesday– and into the reality TV show he’d left behind more than two years ago. The controversial Lohan, who’s scheduled to be released from the Collins Correctional Center near Buffalo, N.Y., will be feted at a “welcome home” [...]

We’d heard a couple of days ago that Rosie O’Donnell would be demonstrating her depression therapy on The View this morning. But seeing it was something else indeed. And it seems to put the whole Rosie thing into perspective.

Good timing for American Idol last night, sending Antonella Barba packing just as the show kicks into its Bono-inspired save-the-world mode with the “Idol Gives Back” charity event for kids in Africa and (probably because the British producers assume that the majority of the Idol audience are selfish Yanks who don’t care about Africa) here [...]

Lane Garrison, the actor from Prison Break who didn’t get much notice until after he got arrested in real life, is in for some real publicity. He’s going to be charged with manslaughter. The 26-year-old is expected to surrender this afternoon in connection with the car crash that killed a teenage passenger and injured two [...]

“I feel for you, cause you’ve taken a lot of stick in the media. I think you’ve handled yourself well throughout, and I don’t think anyone should be put in that situation. But I’m not going to patronize you here…” As the situation mushrooms from a naughty half-naked photo scandal to charges of discrimination, racism, [...]