TVSquad

Holy crap. Everybody's favorite Scientology war bride, Katie Holmes, has apparently used those perfect chompers of hers to gnaw through her ankle shackles and score an acting gig. Holmes is set to guest star on Eli Stone this fall. Producers are staying mum on any details, but sources say that she is signed up for one episode of the fledgling drama.

Holmes got her big break on TV, playing Joey Potter on the uber-popular teen soap Dawson's Creek. She also had a few impressive turns in movies, such as Pieces of April and Thank You for Smoking before meeting Tom Cruise and taking an extended hiatus from the business.

Holmes also gave up her role in the Batman franchise before dipping her toe back into acting waters with the critically panned Mad Money. She is set to film her episode later this month and then spread her wings further by traveling to New York to star in a revival of Arthur Miller's play, All My Sons.

I guess in a world where a wrestler and an action hero can both be a governors, anything is possible. Eddie Izzard, cross-dressing stand-up comedian who's currently playing Traveler Wayne Malloy on The Riches, is thinking that in ten years or so, he might want to go into politics. Yes, you heard me.

In an interview with Newsweek.com, Izzard feels that he might want to participate in European Union politics. What's his big issue? "People are very worried about sovereignty and the loss of sovereignty. I think the stakes are if we don't make the European Union work, then the world is screwed. End of story."

Things are looking good for Ronald D. Moore as Battlestar Galactica wraps up its run on SciFi. Brad already posted about the new show for Fox, Virtuality. Now comes word that the former Star Trek scribe has a new deal with United Artists. It seems Tom Cruise has tasked Moore with creating an original sci-fi trilogy. Feel free to insert your own Scientology joke here.

Details of the trilogy are, quite obviously, scarce at this point. That being said, if you want to go out and make a big budget sci-fi epic, having Tom Cruise on board is a great first step. It means this thing has a solid chance of actually coming to fruition. And while I'm not the biggest Tom Cruise fan, I'm on board to give anything Moore pens a shot.

[ Reuters via Yahoo ]

Don't you just love the web? News traveling so fast, ideas extrapolated and speculated upon based on the simplest of facts. That said, here's a sweet little tidbit that I found amusing. Tom Cruise was spotted on the Los Angeles set of the new Star Trek feature film. He reportedly was visiting writer/director JJ Abrams. The two men, you'll recall, collaborated on Mission Impossible 3.

This exclusive, courtesy of JFXOnline, revealed that Tom stuck around the set for a couple of hours. Prior to this sighting, there had also been talk last fall that Abrams had wanted to enlist the superstar to make a brief cameo appearance in the revamped Star Trek opus, telling the story of how creator Gene Roddenberry's original characters came to be. How Captain Kirk made it out of the Star Fleet Academy (in The Wrath of Khan he said he cheated on his Kobyashi Maru simulation test), as well as the first time Kirk met the half-Vulcan, half-human Mr. Spock.

Rosie O'Donnell has been campaigning very heavily to be the new host of The Price is Right. Personally I can't think of a worse choice for the job. I'm sure I will ruffle plenty of feathers with this list but if I can do anything to make sure she doesn't replace Bob Barker, it's worth making enemies.

5. She is too self-absorbed to care about the contestants.
Rosie can't stop talking about herself long enough to run a show like TPIR. With her as the host, Viewers would be lucky to get to see on spin of the wheel.

(S05E18) And so ends a short, inconsistent, Family Guy season. I don't know if we should chalk it up to Seth MacFarlane being spread too thin with American Dad and The Winner to watch over, or just the show coming up on 100 episodes. Something just wasn't quite right at Family Guy HQ this season though.

Splitting Images is a celebrity lookalike company in the U.K. They have a ton of people that can be hired for your next party, corporate event, or other entertainment-related function, though some of the lookalikes look more like the celebs than others.

For example, these guys look like Rowan Atkinson so much that they could probably commit some crime and he'd be blamed for it, and this guy could probably do the same for Bing Crosby, if he wasn't, you know, dead and all. But a lot of these people seem to be stretching things a bit. Do these woman really look enough like Pamela Anderson? And does this guy really look like Mr. Spock? I guess wearing a costume and/or having a pic taken in a particular setting helps.

Of course, you could get a Leo Sayer lookalike, though hiring the real Leo Sayer now would probably be cheaper now.

[via Marty Beckerman]

(Part 4 of 5)

Katie.

Meredith.

Rosie.

They all made big news and big career moves that changed the face of some very popular programs. This whole domino effect started in April, when Katie Couric announced the "worst kept secret in television" that she was going to replace Bob Schieffer as the sole anchor of the CBS Evening News. She spent her summer conducting town hall meetings with regular folk to find out what they want in a national newscast. And her first broadcast made worldwide news because she debuted Vanity Fair's photographs of the elusive daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. The excitement over Katie lasted for about a week.

Once again, ABC news woman Barbara Walters is hosting her list of The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006. As usual, she's picking public figures from entertainment, politics, sports and business. ABC has released the names of six people on her list, including Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy), Anna Wintour, Andre Agassi, John Ramsey (JonBenet's father), televangelist Joel Osteen, and Terri Irwin. Last year's list included Jamie Foxx, Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Camilla Parker-Bowles, and Tom Cruise- who totally wigged out in 2005. The special airs on Tuesday, December 12th at 10 pm.

Whether you like her or not, I think Rachael Ray deserves to be on this year's list. 2006 was definitely her year. To that, I'd add Barack Obama (who should've been on her list in 2004) or Nancy Pelosi. And, probably Angelina Jolie.

Who else should make this list?

Funny series of screen caps over at TV Newser. I guess MSNBC went "Breaking News" crazy over the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes wedding, and actually had a whole series of neverending stories at the bottom of their screen all day long. Hopefully they covered other news that day too.

Did they cover other celebrity stories like this too? "Breaking News: Bob Barker to retire," or "Breaking News: Ben Affleck buys a Mocha Frappucino at L.A. Starbucks."

Maybe - maybe - they could have had one "Breaking News" report at the bottom of the screen, when the couple were actually married. But did they actually have to go add "Breaking News: Tom Cruise arrives at castle" or "Breaking News: Ex Penelope Cruz sends white roses"? Jeez. They could have had a bunch more. "Breaking News: MSNBC puts up a Breaking News logo about Tom/Kate wedding" and "Breaking News: Jennifer Lopez and Brooke Shields among invited guests."

Oh, wait, they actually did have that last one.

Nip/Tuck writers are running a storyline about Scientology. Creator Ryan Murphy says he's curious about it and not just planning to go this way just for the publicity or the controversy. Too late. Anything involving Scientology becomes controversial. This story arc also happens to include Brooke Shields who bore the brunt of Tom Cruise's anti-psychiatry rants during the year of his melt down. Shields plays a doctor will play a shrink. Just a coincidence says Murphy, who feels Brooks Shields seems "psychiatristy" to him.

It looks like they will be using Scientology pretty extensively, with Kimber and Matt taking long saunas together and "auditing" each other. Nip/Tuck will explore the way people might use a belief system the way plastic surgery is used, and try to open up a religion that's name and celebrity followers is known, but which keeps a lot of its beliefs and rituals secret. Seems a logical step for the series, Matt is one of the most confused characters in the history of original cable series, always looking for an answer in some new extreme way. Kimber and Christian aren't far behind.

[via Defamer]

Brooke Shields announced on Jay Leno's show that Tom Cruise has personally apologized to her for saying things on The Today Show (and elsewhere) that she was wrong to take anti-depression medication.

Wow, celebrities can just go over to another celeb's house? How does that work? Do they call first and say, "you home? I was thinking about coming over." Or do they just get into their car and drive over and ring the bell?

"Yes, who is it?"
"It's Tom Cruise."
"Who?"
"Tom Cruise."
"Please leave or I'll call the police."
"No, I'm not joking, it's really me Brooke."
"Tom Cruise the actor?"
"Yes, yes, Brooke, it's me!"
"Prove it."
"Prove it?"
"Yes."
(Tom explodes into maniacal laughter)
"Oh, it is you. What do you want?"
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the stuff I said about depression and medication and your career."
"Oh, I understand Tom...hold on, I'll buzz you in...is Suri with you?"

When celebrity news happens, South Park is ready! We all saw them make fun of Tom Cruise last year but now Comedy Central is digging up an older episode to go along with this whole Mel Gibson thing. On Wednesday, the network will air 2004's The Passion of the Jew, which poked fun at Mel Gibson back when The Passion of the Christ was all the rage. In it, Mel acts crazy and Cartman's actions suggest that Mel may be an anti-semite.

Coincidentally, the network also published full-page ads that show the Park kids in front of a celebrity Scientology center and says, "C'mon, Jews... show them who really runs Hollywood." It has nothing to do with Gibson, and everything to do with that infamous Tom Cruise/Trapped in the Closet episode that has been nominated for an Emmy.

Television actress Leah Remini (King of Queens) is one of the few who has seen and even held Suri Cruise, the spawn of Tom and Katie Kate Holmes. There's all sorts of speculation about why we haven't seen the three-month-old baby yet, including theories that she doesn't exist and that the Cruises didn't get offered enough money for baby photos. (Personally, I think they are simply keeping the child away from cameras but it's more fun to say that little Suri is an alien who has already been beamed to another planet)

In its July 31st issue, People magazine reports that Remini held little Suri during a visit to the couple's home in Los Angeles. She tells the magazine that Suri looks just like Tom and Kate and is "beautiful". Why does Remini get to see and hold her? I'm guessing it has something to do with her religious affiliation.

IGN has a lengthy two-part interview with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, whose show has been on for ten years but has probably received more press in just the last year due to controversial episodes that ruffled the feathers of more than a few, including Isaac Hayes, Catholics, and their own bosses at Comedy Central. The best parts are included in the second part of the interview, when Comedy Central president Doug Herzog actually chimes in to give the network's side of the story as to why they chose not to show an image of Mohammad during the second "Cartoon Wars" episode, despite the religious icon being shown, without incident, three or four years previously. In fact, Parker mentions that when the Danish cartoon controversy ignited he thought it was because they had finally seen that particular episode.

What they also point out, and what I found especially interesting, is that South Park, in many ways, got its start online when people began downloading precursors such as "The Spirit of Christmas" and "Jesus vs. Frosty." These days, it's also one of the top downloads on iTunes. As Parker points out, "It doesn't lose anything. It's not like you're waiting for the kick-ass visuals and the surround sound or anything. So on an iPod -- it's a perfect iPod thing. So I think it's great." The series has gone through a lot of changes, both visually and even politically, but it still maintains the same kind of minimalist charm.