TVSquad

Lifting its name from a Green Day song, the E! network is launching a series called Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Much like its True Hollywood Story, this series is about the rise and fall of Hollywood stars. Many of the subjects chosen for the series are dead, while others have just plain screwed up their lives after becoming famous.

Here's a list of the stars to be featured. Which one of these things is not like the others?

• Chris Penn, deceased brother of Sean Penn;
• Krissy Taylor, deceased sister of model Niki Taylor;
• Mitch Hedberg, deceased comedian;
• Leif Garrett, former teen idol and current joke;
• Lauryn Hill, singer who... WTF?

MediaBistro is reporting that E! True Hollywood Story may be going the way of a drug-addled former child star -- down the slow slide into oblivion.

E! is cutting 15 staff jobs and paring down the program -- having ordered only 21 episodes, less than half the typical order, for the year. I, of course, didn't realize that there were more than 50 original episodes of the show ordered every year. For some reason, I only catch the Blossom one.

While no one likes to see anyone lose their job, I'm sure E! will find a new way to edit together clips of pop culture detritus for our consumption.

This Sunday a new E! True Hollywood Story covers Punky Brewster and its star Soleil Moon Frye. Punky Brewster, when it aired in the 1980s, was the most popular sitcom for ages 4 to 4 and a half, or so the ratings grid that only exists in my head claims. Really, though, the show wasn't very good. Though I suppose my eight year old self would argue differently. I suppose for a light comedy about child abandonment it was pretty okay. The special, I assume, will cover all the seedy goings on that happened behind the scenes, such as cocaine and heroin use, cockfighting, and chickens doing blow and getting in knife fights backstage. I'm not sure if any of that is actually true, since I just made it up, but we can all watch it Sunday evening and find out for ourselves, then we'll come back here and compare notes.

[via Sitcoms Online]