TVSquad

Dancing With the Stars is a show that makes no sense to me. I understand the appeal of it; I'm usually very interested in any program that involves celebrities doing ridiculous things on national television and I know that people love bright shiny costumes, but it still somehow manages to hold no interest for me whatsoever.

With that said, I know that the announcement of each season's DWTS cast is heavily anticipated and rumored for months before the actual announcement. We heard that Dan Marino may be a contestant; a claim that was soon denied. 82-year-old Cloris Leachman was another name floated, as was Magnum, P.I. himself, Tom Selleck. Kim Kardashian and Kathy Griffin were also said to have been approached.

As with most rumors, some of these turned out to be false, but others had some truth to them. Follow me after the jump for the official (and completely insane) cast of Dancing With the Stars' seventh season, along with some twists the producers have cooked up for this go-around.

Seems like the Dancing with the News news is coming fast and furious these days (it must be August). Yesterday Allison told you about Dan Marino not doing the show, and the day before that I told you that Dan Marino was going to do the show. Football players...can't make up their minds (see also Favre, Brett).

Now comes another name thrown into the mix: Tom Selleck! That's the latest rumor for the show. In fact, it's gone beyond the rumor stage and supposedly (emphasis on "supposedly") Selleck has already accepted the gig. Part of me wants to say "don't do it Tom!" but the show really does need an injection of real star power (if the names leaked this week really are accurate, though we know that they got Marino wrong).

There's a long-running joke around our house about the Hallmark channel. Whenever anyone surfs by it long enough to hear a wispy theme song, someone will invariably drop to their knees, lightly press the back of their hand to their forehead, and feign a woman in emotional turmoil. Let's face it, that pretty much describes a lot of Hallmark movies.

So when I read in Variety that Hallmark has 30 movies in the pipeline -- and would be announcing them at the Television Critics Association confab (I guess that's what they call it when it's not the real deal?) -- I knew that a good portion of them would probably have the word "love" in the title.

Yep, sure enough. They've picked up the rights to the next two installments in the Love Comes Softly franchise, based on Janette Oke's series of eight novels set in the Old West.

The seventh title, Love Takes Wing, is in production and will air in the first quarter of 2009, starring Cloris Leachman and Hayley Duff. The final title, Love Finds a Home, is still in the script stage and hasn't been cast.

Have you ever wondered if Mary Tyler Moore can still turn the world on with her smile? You'll be able to find out this Monday on Oprah.

The daytime talk show host will host a reunion of the show. Not only will she get all of the surviving cast members together (Moore, Valerie Harper, Ed Asner, Betty White, Gavin MacLeod, Cloris Leachman, and Georgia Engel), they will also have duplicates of the WJM set and the set for Mary's apartment on the stage (the link above includes a preview of the show - no idea why Oprah is crying).

Veteran writer, producer, and director Stan Daniels worked on several shows over the years. He won three Emmy Awards as a writer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and another three as a creator and producer on Taxi.

Daniels wrote for several other shows as well, including Phyllis (a spinoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show), The Associates, and The Bill Cosby Show. As a director he worked on many sitcoms, including Dear John, Flying Blind, Best of the West, Almost Perfect, High Society, Sparks, and The Good News. His last credit was as the writer and producer of the 1991 animated TV movie The Kid.

Daniels died of heart failure on April 6 in Los Angeles.

A classic sitcom with have a reunion of sorts when cast members of The Mary Tyler Moore Show gather at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards this Sunday night.

Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, Betty White, Gavin MacLeod, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, and Georgia Engel will give out the Best Ensemble In A Comedy Series award. Ted Knight died in 1986. Chuckles the Clown died in 1975.

The show airs on TNT at 8pm. Julie Andrews will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the show, and Dick Van Dyke will be a presenter as well.

[via TV Tattle]

Nope, it's not Lucille Ball or Mary Tyler Moore. It's Cloris Leachman, who won her 8th award over the weekend for her guest performance on Malcolm in the Middle.

If you're confused, it was the Creative Emmy Awards, which is a separate show they hold for several categories a few weeks before the actual televised Emmy show. Not sure why an acting category would be part of this separate show, but then again I don't understand why Ian McShane wasn't nominated at all this year either. Other big winners include HBO and The Simpsons, which beat out South Park's Tom Cruise episode. Here is a full list of winners.

By the way, we'll have complete coverage of the Emmy Awards next Sunday starting at 7pm ET.

Cloris Leachman has agreed to step into the middle of an untitled NBC sitcom about two brothers "on opposite sides of the law", who live next door to each other. She'll play the mother of the law man and the con man. The brothers will be played by Eddie McClintock (Crumbs) and Craig Bierko.

Leachman recently won an Emmy in 2002 as Grandma Ida on Malcolm in the Middle. And, in my humble opinion, she played a marvelous wine-soaked, ex-jazz singer in Spanglish. And, who can forget Young Frankenstein? Or Phyllis? Let's hope this new comedy gives her some good material. This lady is a comedic genius.