TVSquad

When CBS promoted the 60 Minutes interview with Andre Agassi that aired this past Sunday, they said that he was only talking to one person, Katie Couric, as if this was the only place you'd be able to hear Agassi talk about his new book (Open) and the revelations that have surfaced (especially his crystal meth use in the late 90s).

So what exactly was so "only talking to one person" about this interview? KVBC did an interview with him about the book, he's on Live with Regis & Kelly tomorrow morning, on The Late Show tomorrow night, and he's on Jimmy Kimmel Live on November 23. He also did an interview with People.

A lot of people have wondered what happened to Matt LeBlanc. After Joey died, he seemed to fall off the face of the Earth. Even Friends cast members who aren't in the public eye a lot (like David Schwimmer) have been keeping busy and you often hear about them being in a movie or performing on stage. But no one really knew what LeBlanc. was up to (besides wondering about a Friends reunion movie).

Now we know. LeBlanc has signed on to star in a new comedy for Showtime titled Episodes. It will be one of those behind-the-scenes looks at a television show and will be produced by Friends co-creator David Crane and Mad About You producer Jeffrey Klarik.

You know, ever since Friends went off the air, rumors have cropped up again and again that there would be a big screen version of the show, presumably picking up the storylines from the grand finale. Of course, if you remember the great stories on Joey, maybe post-Friends storytelling isn't such a grand idea after all.

However, at least one person is sure that a feature film is coming. James Michael Tyler, who poured the coffee at Central Perk as Gunther (he also ogled Rachel), was asked about the movie version and Tyler said that Friends: The Movie is definitely on.

So no one told him life was going to be this way, but it was, at least for a few days. A gentleman in Brixton, South London named Steve Misiura watched every single episode of Friends in a non-stop marathon. That's 84 hours of Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey, and Phoebe loving, fighting, and drinking coffee. He actually broke the world record for watching TV, which was at 72 hours straight. I think this is a record someone here at TV Squad should try to break.

Of course, this being the age of the web, he kept a blog about it and uploaded pictures from the event. The picture above is Steve about 80 hours into his marathon. He began to hallucinate and get various ailments.

I think it would have been OK, record-wise, if he had interrupted his marathon at some point. He could have just used the excuse "I was on a break!"

This month we're taking a look at celebrities who did TV commercials.

Whenever you get into any profession, you have to start at the bottom. The TV business is no exception. The stars you see in prime time today probably cut their teeth working in TV commercials. Heck, some of them still do TV commercials even after they become big stars (but it's often overseas...shhhhhhhh).

After the jump, a sampling of TV commercials from years ago that star celebrities who are now household names. If you're old enough to remember these commercials, you'll probably say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I remember this ad, but I didn't realize that he was in it!"

There are many Thanksgiving traditions we all enjoy: the turkey, the stuffing, watching football, fighting over the drumstick to see whose wish comes true, and putting up with family members you avoid 363 days of the year (you see them at Christmas too).

There's another tradition, this one TV-oriented: Friends!

We all speculated as to what role Jennifer Aniston will play when she guest stars on NBC's 30 Rock later this year, and now we know what part she'll play. It's actually one of the choices we came up with.

Aniston will play an old friend of Liz Lemon who starts to stalk Jack Donaghy. The character is described as an ex-roommate of Liz's from Chicago who is a "free-spirited, Fatal Attraction-like stalker." Well, let's hope that she isn't completely like that. We don't need any gunshots to the chest or bunny-boiling on 30 Rock. The character's name is Claire Harper.

So we've had Aniston and David Schwimmer on the show. I think all of the Friends people should appear on 30 Rock at some point.

Thanks to the success of the Sex and the City movie -- and talk of more to come -- the rumor mill has been bubbling with other TV shows making the leap to the big screen. In the case of Arrested Development, it sure sounds like the truth.

However, the Friends feature is a rumor that has no legs. Warners owns the property and on July 4th, even though all U.S. offices were closed for the holiday, denied the rumors via the London office.

Jayne Trotman, Warner's director of publicity, said of the Friends movie, "(There's) no truth in the story."

Just to be sure, Matthew Perry's press rep also denied the rumor. She told the BBC that nothing is happening and the rumor is just that, a shred of news with no value attached to it.

If there is one rumor that never dies it's the one about the possibility of a Friends reunion. Since the series finale aired in May 2004, rumors about a reunion popped up here, there and everywhere. Sometimes the rumor takes the form of "there will be another spinoff" (remember Joey?) but most of the time it's a "there are talks about a movie but one of the stars doesn't want to commit." This week's revival of the rumor is of the latter kind.

What can I say about Friends that hasn't already been said? You either like the show or you don't. I think a lot of people look at the show as "just another sitcom" about friends who hang out somewhere, one that was overhyped and one where the stars where overpaid. The hype I can't argue with and the pay, well, more power to them if they could get it. But I also happen to think that for a while there, several seasons in the middle of the show's 10 year run, it was one of the best sitcoms of all-time. It was remarkably well-written, clever, and at the same time had at its core a really big heart that all the copycats that followed couldn't recreate.

But what about this DVD set? Should you go out and buy the complete set?

Since the last episode of the hit series Friends aired in May 2004, rumors have been flying around as to if and when a reunion would happen. Over the years, there have been reports that some of the actors didn't want to be part of a reunion, at least, not for a while. None of these reports were properly confirmed. However, this week comes the confirmation that David Schwimmer, who played the character of Ross, will not take part in a Friends reunion if there ever is one.

Other than our occasional snarky remarks about Joey . . . okay, my occasional snarky remarks about Joey . . . we haven't heard too much from Matt LeBlanc lately. Well, he's back in the news, but not for good reasons.

According to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court LeBlanc's former business manager, Camille Cerio, is suing the former Friends star for back pay of one million dollars. Cerio, who claims she was LeBlanc's manager back in 1994, says the actor signed a letter approving payment of 15 percent of his earnings from "pilot and series derived from Friends Like Us (the name of the Friends' pilot) and subsequent jobs derived henceforth". In normal English this means she should've been paid for LeBlanc's roles on Friends as well as Joey.

Some TV commericals just fade away, and you can't even remember what product they were pitching. But some commercials are just burned into your brain.

This is one of those commericals. It must be on dozens of videotapes I have of old TV shows. I remember this like it aired yesterday, even though it's 20 years old. It's a Heinz ketchup commercial, with an-oh-so-hip-in-an-80s-way guy tilts a bottle of ketchup on the roof of a building, then walking all calm and cool down the stairs to the street and getting a hot dog in his hand just before the thick, rich ketchup falls from the bottle. He even gets the girl at the end! Oh, and the dude went on to have a role in a TV show you might have heard of. (And the music! "Jane's Getting Serious!" Whoa, flashback.)

Personaly, I think the ketchup pours a little bit too neatly, considering it fell from a few stories. (Check out the video after the jump.)

I guess this holiday season will be the season of the complete set. First The West Wing, then Alias, now comes word that a DVD set containing all of the Friends episodes will be released on November 14.

Note to family: you probably won't be getting any gifts from me this year.

Not only will the set include all 10 season sets from the show, there will be tons of extras, including 25 commentaries, 25 documentaries, a gag reel, and trivia. In this special set will also be a 60 page collector's book with the history of the show, photos, and the original pitch the creators made to the network.

Like most sets, it will go for around $300, but Amazon and other places will have it for much less.

It seems there was more to Matt LeBlanc's recent "I'm getting divorced" announcement than we originally thought. It turns out that LeBlanc has been involved in some extracurricular activities with his doomed sitcom co-star Andrea Anders.

LeBlanc, who's currently gasping for air on the painful to watch Joey, walked out on his wife and two year old daughter back in January. Friends of LeBlanc's soon to be ex-wife say she was, "absolutely blind-sided by what transpired." She wanted to try couple's therapy, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen since she confronted him and LeBlanc admitted to his deeds.

I always find it weird to hear news about a celebrity that isn't in line with a character they're known for. But at the same time, you know what? The guy is only human. And this is America ... go walk out in your front yard right now. There's probably a couple getting divorced in the street as you read this.

[via The Boston Herald]