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Joe Pantoliano does not want his infamous The Sopranos character to be remembered as "a head in a bowling bag". Access Hollywood obtained a letter that "Joey Pants" wrote to Sopranos creator David Chase, expressing his anger over a photo spread appearing in the April edition of Vanity Fair (see the photo here).

The photo, taken by Annie Liebowitz, features the legendary characters who've been whacked over the years, including actors Drea de Matteo, Vincent Pastore, Annabella Sciorra, and Steve Buscemi. Pantoliano refused to appear in the photo, so Liebowitz improvised by having a headless mannequin hold one of the actual head molds used from the episode where Tony kills Ralphie and puts his head in a bowling bag.

Joe Pantoliano is not letting the canceled CBS drama Waterfront die an anonymous death.

Pantoliano and other members of the Waterfront crew, including the girl who plays his daughter on the show, showed up at the Tazza Cafe in Providence, RI the other night to show two episodes of the series for the crowd. The show was about the mayor of Providence and a lot of it was filmed on location. CBS pulled the series without even showing a single episode, saying it was too expensive and that there were creative differences.

But Pantoliano says its more than that, and uses as an example CBS' decision to put 3 Lbs in the slot vacated by the now-canceled Smith. 3 Lbs is a Paramount show. Paramount is owned by the same company that owns CBS, Viacom. Waterfront is a Warner Brothers show, and Pantoliano thinks that CBS wants to air one of their own shows instead of another show.

He wants to finish the episodes they were working on and show them to the public and see if they like it or not.

[via TV Tattle]

You know, I used to love hearing the yearly announcement about which major celebrities will lend their voices to the upcoming season of The Simpsons. I think I liked it because I knew the writers would make good use of those voices, either making them a new character or somehow integrating a cartoon version of the celebrity into the plot (for instance: "Hi, I'm Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins." "I'm Homer Simpson, smiling politely."). But it seems like lately the list just shows how "with it" the producers of the long-running series still are, and the voices seem to be somehow forced into the episodes, either in pop culture asides or something the family watches on TV.

This year's list is no exception. Fox announced that the following celebrities will lend their voices for the show's 18th season: The White Stripes, Dr. Phil, Natalie Portman, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen. Also, Joe Pantoliano and Michael Imperioli will appear as Fat Tony's henchmen (Fat Tony, of course, has been voiced by Joe Mantegna since the beginning of the series). That last bit particularly screams "shoehorning", because Fat Tony's henchmen have been voiced by cast regulars for the last 17 years; why give them celebrity voices now?

Congratulations to Julia Louis-Dreyfus! CBS just signed on for a second season of The New Adventures of Old Christine. Maybe now everybody can stop talking about that 'Seinfeld curse' that she parodied on SNL last week. I watch the show and I think it has some funny moments, but it's not great like The Office or My Name is Earl or Scrubs. Doesn't even come close. Also renewed by CBS is Close to Home and renewal of The Unit is still up in the air. The network ordered 13 episodes of The King of Queens (that's still on?) because Kevin James is shooting a movie with Adam Sandler this year.

Also, CBS picked up five new dramas:

It looks like Love Monkey, which was yanked off of the CBS Tuesday night schedule after only three episodes, is really and truly dead, according to E! Online.

According to the Watch With Kristin column the potential talks with UPN and then the CW did not pan out. In addition, it seems that the lead Love Monkey, Tom Cavanagh, is up for a new pilot, while Larenz Tate, who played Shooter, will be starring with Joe Pantoliano in a new CBS drama series called Waterfront.

With Pantoliano's luck in television lately (the cancelled CBS dramas Dr. Vegas, and The Handler) Mr. Tate may be looking for another series sooner than he thinks.

Now that pilot season is wrapping up, it's casting season in L.A., where mega-stars or yet-to-be-discovered actors sign on to all sorts of new shows in hopes that the networks will pick them up for the fall line-up. There are a lot of big names this time around. Check it out:

• Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) and Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) will star in the ABC drama pilot Brothers & Sisters, a soap-style drama about adult siblings.
• Heather Locklear is in negotiations for a leading role in the ABC comedy pilot, Women of a Certain Age. Locklear would play a recently widowed woman who starts a new life with her two best friends.
• Ron Livingston (Sex and the City, Office Space) is one of two leads in a FOX drama called Primary, which is about a male and a female hostage negotiator who balance their love lives with their jobs.
• Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos) has agreed to star in CBS' Waterfront, as the charismatic and "ethically-challenged" mayor of Providence, R.I.
• Steven Culp, previously known as Rex Van De Kamp on Desperate Housewives, will appear in the ABC drama, Traveler, about three Yale graduate students who become a national security risk when one of them frames the other two for an art museum bombing.
• Swoosie Kurtz will take on a supporting role in the CBS comedy, Play Nice, which stars Timm Sharp and Sara Rue (Less Than Perfect) as a brother and sister who run a toy company.
• Jonah Lotan, who has been playing Spenser Wolff this season on 24, will take on a role on the FOX thriller, Beyond, which is about the space race.

[Via The Hollywood Reporter]

Bravo is teaming up with PlanetOut, the largest gay media company in the nation, to create a broadband channel at OutZonetv.com. The website will feature various reality and documentary series targeted for a gay and lesbian audience. The president of Bravo says it's a far less expensive risk to launch original programming on the web than it is to create a brand new cable channel.

Outzone is the third broadband broadcasting project for Bravo. Last year, the company announced it was shutting down Trio on the air and putting it exclusively on the web. It also created a spin-off web channel, BrilliantbutCancelled.com, which currently offers episodes of only one show, EZ Streets, starring Joe Pantoliano.