TVSquad

Last night, USA Network invited some of their favorite advertisers -- and a few reporters -- to their upfront presentation, held at The Modern, a sleek restaurant and lounge located at New York's Museum of Modern Art. It was an opportunity for USA and NBC Universal executives to crow about the network's continued success as well as let advertisers know what's coming up in 2008 and how they can combine their advertising message with the unique "characters" that USA offers.

All that's well and good -- be ready for more product placement and ad pods that other networks have recently adopted -- but the best part about an upfront presentation are the stars that the network drags out to schmooze and booze with those advertisers. And USA brought the big guns, including Tony Shalhoub from Monk, Debra Messing from The Starter Wife, Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell from Burn Notice, Dulé Hill, James Roday, and Corbin Bernsen from Psych, Kathryn Erbe and Chris Noth from Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the WWE's Triple H and Shawn Michaels, and Mary McCormack from the network's new show In Plain Sight. I got to speak to a few of them; audio of those interviews is after the jump.

Good news for Debra Messing and all of the others involved in the miniseries The Starter Wife. After garnering some pretty decent ratings and several Emmy nominations, USA Networks has given a full series order to the comedy-drama based on the successful novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer.

Former Will & Grace star Messing will return as Molly Kagan, the former Hollywood wife who is now experiencing a second chance at life after her recent divorce. Also returning will be the executive production team of Grazer, Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott. There is no information as to when filming will begin for the premiere season of The Starter Wife or when the first episode will air.

Everyone knows that Debra Messing has small breasts, including Messing herself. But NBC execs wanted her to have bigger ones.

At a panel discussion during the Tribeca Film Festival, the Will & Grace star disclosed that she wore "chicken cutlets," a form of silicone breast enhancer, when she shot the pilot of the show. But when the show was picked up by NBC, she didn't want to wear them anymore. After seeing the next couple of episodes, the president of NBC called the producers, wanting to know where her breasts went. They wanted her breasts back, but she refused to wear them.

The USA six hour miniseries The Starter Wife presented a half and half panel as the closing event at Friday's TCA ... half of the panel was here in Pasadena, the other half in sunny and gorgeous Australia. Based on the novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer, the series is being shot down under, which doubles as Malibu, and follows the trials and tribulations of Gracie Pollock (Debra Messing) as a freshly dumped (via cell phone just beofre her 10th anniversary) "starter wife".

The miniseries is airing a bit oddly, if you ask me. Not that you did, but since I'm telling the story here, let's pretend like it happened. They're airing the first episode as a two hour show, and then four one-hour episodes after that. All on the USA Network this May. While that may be a bit odd, the show looks like it'll pull in fans of Sex and the City, and is directed by veteran Jon Avnet.

It also stars Joe Mantegna who had the two zinger quotes of the evening:

• Joe Mantegna, on starter wives: "I've been on the same starter wife for 32 years."
• Joe Mantegna: on hearing writer and executive producer Josann McGibbon say that she'd been bitten by a leech in Australia, but that it wouldn't have happened in Los Angeles: "Did you just say there's no leeches in L.A.?!"

Debra Messing will star in The Starter Wife mini-series on USA Network this spring and summer. She'll play the "newly single and utterly fabulous" Molly Kagan. The series is based on the novel by the same name, about how the 40-something Kagan redefines herself after getting a divorce.

The whole thing is part of Ponds' anti-aging campaign, as Ponds is co-producing the flick. The organization is hosting a contest in advance of The Starter Wife to find the five 40-something women "who best embody the Pond's brand of grown-up beauty."

The six-hour event premieres May 31 and runs through June 28.

(S05E05) I'm beginning to think of this as the Brian & Stewie show. Again this week, their story was much better than the Peter story. With Peter's injured hand, the setup was good, but it kind of headed downhill from there. The opening with Quagmire smuggling the fireworks into the country ("Yeah, that's just as fun."), Chris playing David Koresh and the heavy handed FBI agent, and Stewie ignoring Peter's missing fingers while asking for more juice was great. Finally something for Meg to do too.

(S08E23) There are those who are die-hard fans of Will & Grace, which premiered on the NBC schedule back in 1998. Then there are those who despise the show, which is about the relationship between Grace Adler (Debra Messing) and her gay friend Will Truman (Eric McCormack). The fans love the back-and-forth between the two characters and the dynamic of their relationship. Those who hate the show may be uncomfortable with the subject matter (homosexuality) or the cartoon-ish characterizations of Will and Grace's friends Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes) and Karen Walker (Megan Mullally ), or the fact that it's just not funny.

I fall under neither category. I liked Will & Grace, but was not a huge fan. I'd watch it if I happened to see something interesting going on, and I'd laugh at a few of the lines (not as heartily as I would laugh during an episode of Scrubs, though). Yet, Jack annoyed me sometimes and the influx of guest stars on the show was somewhat distracting. In fact, over the last few years I didn't really follow it at all.

However, as this would be the last episode of the series, I decided to give it a review. My opinion on the last show of the series? Meh.