TVSquad

Ugly Betty's Henry is going to Harper's Island. Actor Christopher Gorham has been cast on the new mystery Harper's Island. Good for Chris, but what about his other character, Henry, the lovable geeky accountant on Ugly Betty? That remains in question.

On Harper's Island, which CBS is calling a Ten Little Indians/Twin Peaks-style horror mystery in which a wedding party on a Seattle island find themselves cut off from the mainland with a murderer on the loose. The killer is doing away with characters week after week and everyone is a suspect or a victim.

In addition to Christopher Gorham, actor Bill Pullman (Sleepless in Seattle) is also in the show as a jovial, drunken Uncle Marty.

Controversy and rumors sure like to swirl around you when you're a TV ratings powerhouse. In today's American Idol controversy, Simon Cowell is accused of planting a British pop star in this year's pool of contestants.

Tom Lowe wowed the judges at the Seattle auditions (see video here), earning a coveted golden ticket to Hollywood. Lowe told Simon, "I was at BMG Records in London at the same time that you were there."

As a member of the British boy band 'North and South', Lowe released a couple of singles. He reportedly split with the label in 1998.

Reader Amy asked us if it was true that an early screening of Reno: 911 Miami was showing in Seattle. I immediately checked every site I could think of to find information, and came up empty. Thankfully, our sister site Cinematical did find some information, and yes, RENO: 911 MIAMI IS SCREENING FOR FREE TODAY in Seattle, Boston and Phoenix. Click here to see where exactly. According to Cinema Blend, all showings are at 7:00pm, and one deputy from the series will be at each event. I recommend you call the theater to make sure that time is correct, though.

Apologies for getting this news to y'all at the very last minute, but my typically awesome online detective work left me empty-handed this time. I have failed you, and to punish myself, I'm going to watch nothing but the Oxygen Network for the rest of the day.

Oh yeah, one last important thing: to get into these free showings you'll need to show up with a print out of your MySpace page. It's easy to sign up for one, so if you live in any of those cities, get crackin'. Then come back here and tell me how awesome it was.

Minutes before the clock strikes eight and I'm stuck in Seattle for a couple of hours, listening to obnoxiously terrible voices and belligerent rebuttals. I start to wish that Idol would shorten their time slot to 90 minutes. That would never happen, though. Not with 57 million viewers the night before! Crazy. And, after the first few moments I was pretty glued to the TV screen anyway and was reminded why it's the best reality show on television.

It's real. No one could ever script something like it. No one would believe it. We all know to expect really terrible singers and off-the-wall characters in the audition episodes. But, I'm constantly blown away by the people who show up for the audition. Sometimes I feel like I need to tell my friends in foreign places that those people occupy less than one percent of America's population ... I hope ...

(S06E02)We're in Seattle for episode two, and it is raining cats and dogs. That doesn't stop nine thousand hopefuls from standing outside all day to wait their turn to shine. By now, most of us have already heard that the Seattle contestants were the worst ever in Idol history.

But it doesn't seem that bad on my end. Maybe I'm easily amused. Or maybe I'm just happy that Paula is awake and coherent tonight. Randy also seems in a better mood. And Simon is barely rude to contestants who clearly need to have their delusions shattered.

Late last week, Paula Abdul appeared drunk or stoned on a morning television show in Seattle. She was doing a live satellite interview with the affiliate from New York. In the interview, which I posted last week, Paula swayed back and forth on camera and she slurred her speech.

Last night she appeared on The Tonight Show and explained her behavior to Leno. She said that she had two television stations asking her questions in her earpiece. Instead of calling an end to the interview(s), she just went with it. She thinks she was answering questions from Alabama while appearing on television in Seattle. She denied being drunk or on medication, but she couldn't really explain away her slurring. Maybe that's just how she talks now? Paula said it's a big deal out of nothing and all she was trying to do was have fun with a challenging situation.

Do you guys believe her?

With each new season of American Idol, Paula Abdul seems to lose a little more of her ability to communicate. The woman hasn't spoken in a complete sentence for years. If she makes it to season 10 of American Idol, she'll be communicating by waving her arms and grunting.

This year, I think we're in for a doozy on Paula's part. She was on a Seattle FOX affiliate this morning to promote the next season and, well, and there's no doubt about it: the girl was slurring her speech. Like, drunk-off-her-ass slurring. And she was leaning back and forth a lot, like Stevie Wonder at the piano. A rep for Abdul told People that there were "technical difficulties" with the sound dropping out, presumably of her ear piece.

Judge for yourself after the jump:

Ouch, she's the nice one. Randy didn't think much of the talent that showed up for the upcoming American Idol season's sixth and next-to-last tryout, held Monday, either. He said he thinks "it must be something in the rain water," and tried to explain the ineptness as "wild, insane. Maybe depressed."

Could it be that after only -- what is it -- thirty seasons, America has finally run out of cruise-ship-ship quality singing talent? Seattle hopefuls didn't much like Simon either. "They told me not to come back to your country," he told the Seattle Times, "I feel very unwelcome." So, sounds like plenty of good tape which will be useful for the open-call phase of the show to come out of Seattle.

Is it wrong that, as a 30-year old woman, I am actually considering going to a Kelly Clarkson concert? Clarkson, my personal favorite American Idol contestant/winner, is hitting the road this summer. She launches a 24-city concert tour, called Addicted, on June 30th. The tour kicks off in West Palm Beach, Florida and wraps up in August in my backyard, Seattle. Clarkson will perform her songs from her Grammy-winning album, Breakaway, and will preview songs from her upcoming album, which should be released in late 2006 or early 2007. Her tour dates are listed on her official website.

Dave Chappelle is going to be performing in Seattle this Sunday. You know when Seattle found out? Last night. Tickets went on sale just over an hour ago (10 am Pacific) for $52.50.

It's not just Dave. It's The Block Party Tour featuring Dave Chappelle. Seattle's Paramount Theatre describes it as Dave Chappelle and a "special musical guest". Apparently, it's the road show version of the movie, The Block Party All Stars featuring Dave Chappelle, that's coming out on March 3. In the movie, Chappelle tries to reunite the Fugees. I believe clips of the movie were shown during his Oprah appearance, which showed him bringing people from his hometown of Dayton, Ohio to Brooklyn for a rap/hip-hop/stand-up comedy street concert. Here's the trailer for the movie.

After 13 years of marriage, former Melrose Place actors Josie Bissett and Bob Estes are getting a divorce. And, they're doing it a little Melrose-style. Apparently Bissett filed for the divorce but Estes said he is resisting. He claims Bissett asked him to move out of their Seattle home seven months ago, and he did.

Bissett and Estes met in 1991, before they were ever on MP. Josie Bissett got on Melrose that same year and they married a year later. Estes joined the cast in 1996. Bissett and Estes had two children together, a boy and a girl.

The short-lived series John Doe is airing on the SciFi Channel beginning next week. John Doe premiered on FOX around the same time as Firefly, and suffered a similar fate (John Doe got a full 21 episodes). John Doe is (obviously) a science fiction series about a guy who wakes up on an isolated island, knowing pretty much everything about the world except who he is. Doe, played by Dominic Purcell, helps Seattle detectives solve crimes as he searches for his own identity. It premieres on SciFi on January 20 at 9pm EST.

I never saw this series when it first aired, did you? Is it good?