TVSquad

Former New Kid on the Block singer/actor Donnie Wahlberg is heading back to series television. Wahlberg will team with and director/producer Jon Avnet for a new TNT series called Morse Code. The title may change, but the set up is Donnie as a war hero who becomes an officer for the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). His beat is Boston, Donnie's hometown. The show is being scripted by Walon Green (Law & Order) and Avent will direct the pilot.

Wahlberg starred in the 2002 NBC drama, Boomtown, a highly touted series that never lived up to the network's expectations. That was the first time Donnie worked with Jon Avnet. More recently, in 2006, he was the star of Runaway for The CW. He received good notices for Spike's FX's The Kill Point in 2007, co-starring John Leguizamo.

Lets rewind back nearly four years ago when Simon Cowell was Jennifer Hudson's maker.

She endured a plethora of disparaging comments from the Idol judge, as he had the audacity to say on live TV that she looked a girl in turkey wrapping, when not dressed to his liking. Cowell often made vocal his feelings that she was way out of her league competing on Idol.

Obviously he was less concerned with her bona fide talents and more concerned with pandering to his American Idol audience. It's a funny thing about talent, if you've really got it, you will be able to persevere over all the BS the world throws at you. Even after landing her roll in Dreamgirls, this former Idol contestant could not catch a break from Cowell, and she was not afraid to show open disdain for the Idol judge.

Until last night...

I often wonder why the networks still spend big money to get the rights to run big screen movies. At one time it was a big deal, when there weren't many options for seeing the movies after they had run in the theaters. But in this day of being able to buy DVDs and rent DVDs and the premium cable networks, are movies still a big draw for the networks?

USA and FX must think so. USA just bought the rights to run Casino Royale for 5 years, starting in June 2009. The cost: $20 million. Meanwhile, FX has picked up the rights for four movies for around the same price. The movies are The Departed, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, V For Vendetta, and The Wicker Man.

I say USA got the better deal.

Ray Liotta is a fine actor, but most people still know him for his role as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese's classic GoodFellas. So, the news that the premiere of his new CBS series, Smith will be completely sponsored by the new Scorsese movie The Departed, with little commercial interruption, makes for a bit of fun entertainment serendipity.

But this is more of a case of corporate synergy and a jam-packed show than the desire to semi-reunite Scorsese and Liotta. Both the movie and the series are owned by Warner Brothers, and the premiere clocks in at close to an hour, leaving little room for commercials. So either the episode had to be severely cut or air in an awkward 90-minute slot; this limited-interruption method helps everyone out. Too bad networks can't do this more often.