Turn On:
Feed your bottomless appetite for Paris Hilton dirt on Wednesday night, when Fox offers a special episode of "The Simple Life 2: Road Trip," in which people who dealt with Hilton and Nicole Richie during the filming of the show discuss their experiences: "Driving Us Crazy: The Families and Bosses Tell All" (8:30 p.m. ET).
Morning Briefing:
Too busy gambling to eat? Question: Where might one find the words "Jamie-Lynn DiScala," "online casino" and "eating disorders foundation" all in the same sentence? Answer: In a press release sent out this week by Internet gambling site Casino Fortune: "Casino Fortune (www.casinofortune.com) today announced a strategic partnership with actress Jamie-Lynn DiScala in a joint effort to market the online casino while raising awareness and money for her eating disorders foundation, The Jamie-Lynn DiScala Foundation." According to the press release, the gambling company's internal research has found that much of its largely female clientele is dogged by "problems with weight and body image" similar to those experienced by the actress who plays Meadow Soprano on "The Sopranos." Who knew?
What is it with professional football and unexpected exposure? ABC apologized on Tuesday for running an intro to "Monday Night Football" in which "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan, shown alone in a locker room with Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens, dropped her towel, requested that Owens skip the forthcoming game and then jumped into his arms. Though Sheridan is filmed only from the back and from the waist up after she drops tow, the jokey ad, to promote her hit show, apparently raised the ire of enough football fans to move ABC to express regret over its airing. "We have heard from many of our viewers about last night's 'MNF' opening segment and we agree that the placement was inappropriate," ABC said. "We apologize." (Associated Press)
Get out your remotes: Stay tuned for TBS' "The Real Gilligan's Island," premiering Nov. 30, in which two teams dressed as Ginger, Mary Ann, the Professor et al will be marooned on a desert island and <a target="new" href=""engage in competitions based on plot lines from the original '60s show. Actresses Nicole Eggert and Rachel Hunter will appear as themselves, but dress as Ginger. "I had to wear the gown almost the whole time," Eggert, formerly of "Baywatch" and "Charles in Charge," said. "It was very distracting and hot as hell." (Associated Press) Another reality show to look forward to: an episode of a Spike TV reality show called "Stuck on ODB," in which a contestant was linked to Ol' Dirty Bastard for five days via an electronic ankle bracelet and was docked money out of a cash prize each time he was separated from the rapper by more than 10 feet. The show was filmed last summer and may air in the next few months despite ODB's death on Saturday. And then there's UPN's "R U the Girl With T-Boz & Chilli," in which TLC's Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas search for a female singer to replace the late Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes. (N.Y. Post)
Also: Vincent D'Onofrio is back in the hospital and undergoing tests after he fainted again on the set of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," prompting one show insider to again speculate that the Bush-bashing actor's swoon may have had something to do with the outcome of the presidential election (Lloyd Grove's Lowdown) ... Michael Jackson is being sued for breach of contract by a former producer and business associate of his, J. Marc Schaffel, who claims the pop star owes him more than $3 million in unpaid loans and fees (Associated Press) ... Kitty Kelley contends, via her Random House lawyers, that a lawsuit filed against her by a freelance writer who says she plagiarized his work in her Bush family book is "meritless" (Associated Press) ... Star Jones ripped into her "View" costars Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Meredith Vieira on the air for breaking the "rules" at her wedding by rearranging the seating cards at their table and at Joy Behar for bringing a camera and having the "audacity" to try to take a picture of the bride (Page Six) ... Nicole Kidman is being romantically linked with Steve Bing, the wealthy producer who fathered Elizabeth Hurley's son and denied it (Rush and Molloy) ... And Richard Blow, the former executive editor of "George" magazine who took a lot of flak for writing a book about John F. Kennedy Jr. after his death, is changing his name to Richard Bradley, though he insists the moniker change has nothing to do with the controversy over that book but that it was simply "the right time for a change." Bradley is his mother's maiden name (Keith Kelly)
-- Amy Reiter
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