Miss Guided’s Judy Greer gets a new gig
If Judy Greer was in tears about Miss Guided not being picked up by ABC for the fall schedule, she can wipe her eyes and blow her nose because something else — maybe better — has come along. Greer has been cast as the lead in HBO’s Suburban Shootout. This is the same comedy that has already been announced with Kelly Preston, Rachael Harris (Notes from the Underbelly) and Kerri Kenney (Reno 911).
The comedy pilot is being directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, best known for features like Men in Black and Addams Family (I’ll be kind and not harp on The Wild, Wild West), but on TV is one of the prime players behind ABC’s Pushing Daisies (as well as Notes from the Underbelly which is the connection to Rachael). So, you see, Judy may have landed in a project that’s bound for glory. Well, we’ll see, but it does sound interesting.
Suburban Shootout is the American version of a Brit series of the same name about two groups of women in seemingly pleasant suburbia (Wisteria Lane-like) who are warring with each other. Greer’s character is the newcomer to the development and finds herself in the middle of a gang fight. I’m thinking Desperate Housewives meets Weeds with a dash of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, what about you?
The half-hour comedy should be no-holds-barred since it’s set for HBO, and unlike Miss Guided, Greer can probably count on the show running for a while (unless the pilot goes the way of 12 Miles of Bad Road, the Lily Tomlin dramedy dumped unceremoniously in March — but that was an aberration for HBO).
One interesting note about Judy Greer’s status. According to Hollywood Reporter, the HBO project is “formally in second position” to Miss Guided. That means, she’s still under contract to 20th Century Fox TV which produced the sitcom. The company’s options on the cast doesn’t run out until June 30. If, by some chance, ABC chooses to resurrect Miss Guided before that date, then Judy would be contractually obligated to return to that show which could screw up the HBO deal, but how likely is that to happen?
HBO bails on Lily Tomlin comedy
HBO has decided not to air a new Lily Tomlin comedy series, even though six episodes are in the can. 12 Miles of Bad Road, created by Designing Women writer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, is a one-hour comedy about the Shakespeare family, a millionaire Texas clan whose real estate fortune is mixed up with their eccentric antics. Sounds vaguely like Dallas meets Arrested Development, but whatever the recipe, HBO has given it the thumbs down.
This is highly unusual, considering the high profile of the production. In January 2007, HBO ordered the series. Then in April, they showed a preview of 12 Miles after The Sopranos, presumably because they had faith in the show. Something’s changed, though, because now HBO is giving it up. Perhaps the exit of Carolyn Strauss as HBO president spelled the end of 12 Miles?
Whatever, it’s a blow for Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who hasn’t had a certifiable hit since the glory days of Designing Women, Hearts Afire and Evening Shade all for CBS. She stumbled with the Designing Women spin-off, Women of the House, and the lame NBC sitcom for Emeril Lagasse, Emeril (2001).
And it’s a disappointment for an award-winning star like Lily, who’s conquered TV, theater and film. In 12 Miles, she plays the head of the family, the Miss Ellie if you will, and second in the cast is another superb comic actress, Mary Kay Place of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman fame. Other notables in the cast include Gary Cole (Harvey Birdman), Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Leslie Jordan (Will & Grace), Katherine LaNasa (Boston Legal; she’s also French Stewart’s wife), David Andrews (JAG), among many others. This was not a shoestring production.
Executive producer Harry Thomason and his wife, Linda, are looking for another network to take on the series, including Lifetime.
Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg launch web site
When I first saw the URL for wowowow.com, I thought it had to do with pain. You know, someone is hitting you over the head with a ruler and you’re saying “ow…ow…ow!”
Upon closer inspection I see that it stands for WOW O WOW. It’s a web site that launches this Saturday. It’s described as a site for women over 40, and the people behind it include Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Marlo Thomas, columnist Liz Smith, advertising veteran Mary Wells, publishing exec Joni Evans, and writer Peggy Noonan, among others.
The New York Times says that the site is about “love and marriage, health and fashion” and politics. So they’ll probably be little mention of power tools, cigars, or testicles.
Smith wanted to call the site AllTheGoodNamesAreTaken.com or HotVoodoo.com, but the other women voted against that. Stahl wanted to include the word “broad” in the title some place, which I think is pretty funny and could have played on the broadband aspect. Evans wanted to use HerTube.com, though I think that sounds like a site for gynecologists.
They actually had to buy a porn site in order to get the name wowowow.com.
Lily Tomlin and the I Heart Huckabees Outburst
Yesterday we posted a behind the scenes clip from I Heart Huckabees with director David O Russell going nuts on actress Lily Tomlin. Today we bring you Lily Tomlin’s outburst during the shooting of another sequence AND more importantly, the actresses’ response. But first check out Russell’s outburst in our previous article. Enjoy.
“Oh my God, the one in the car is on there too?” Tomlin asked, referring to one of the two videos, which were shot during two different scenes. In “the one in the car,” Tomlin tells Russell: “Leave me the fuck alone! Do you know what the fuck is going on, period? Fuck you! Fuck you motherfucker!”
“I can’t believe the damn car is in there. I’ve never seen it. Is that when I’m sitting in the seat and really going nuts? Oh my God, I’m gonna die when I see that,” Tomlin told New Times, laughing.
“I love David,” she said. “There was a lot of pressure in making the movie — even the way it came out you could see it was a very free-associative, crazy movie, and David was under a tremendous amount of pressure. And he’s a very free-form kind of guy anyway.”“Adults have fights and go through stuff,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “I know some people are more dignified in the world, that if you transgress against that kind of professionalism, that it’s some kind of great sin, but I don’t see it that way.”
“in a way liberating… now it’s all over, and so what, and I don’t have to keep up some great pretention I’m the most dignified, eloquent, elegant, perfect, smart-thinking, kind, generous person. I’m just a plain old human with a whole bunch of flaws.”