Newsgasm: NBC seeks Grease-y Broadway Idols

The long search to find the next Jeff Conaway ends on Friday, when casting for the reality series, Grease: You’re the One That I Want, wraps up at L.A.’s Venice High School, the site of fictional “Rydell High” in the 1978 Grease movie.

Hopefuls who audition with the song “Greased Lightning” might want to jump on top of the two police cars that have been parked at the curb since the most recent fatal shooting at the school, which might be a better place to cast a musical version of Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

Expect lots of sexy outfits, hissy fits, catfights and diva-like behaviour on the talent competition (and expect the same from the female contestants) once the series premieres January 7th on NBC. Winners will star in a new Broadway production of Grease that begins in June 2007– which is sort of like plopping the American Idol finalists in Vegas instead of taking them on the road.

And speaking of Grease……NBC Universal has slid franchise player Billy Bush, the oily co-host of Access Hollywood into the co-host slot here. And because the series is produced by BBC Worldwide, the Dubya’s shouting Christian cousin will share hosting duties with another British TV personality hoping to make it big in the Colonies. Denise Van Outen (born Denise Outen– she added the “Van” “to give her name an interesting twist”) is a bosomy tart who’s been around the UK telly and stage since the late Eighties and occasionally pops up topless in the tabloids. When she was clawing her way up, she even dated Gary Glitter, who’s now in prison in Vietnam on child sex charges.

And there’s more reality musical fun slated for the first month of ’07. The sixth season of American Idol launches with a two-night, four-hour premiere January 16th and 17th. Not for nothing, Grease star Olivia Newton-John will be among the season’s guest judges.

–Tabloid Baby