Kyle Chandler for Pope!
Today in show business news: Coach Taylor is headed to Rome, Christina Ricci has a surprisingly old daughter, and Kirstie Alley will soon be on TV again.
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Kyle Chandler is going celibate. Friday Night Lights's beloved Coach Taylor is headed back to television, for a role that will have him wearing a dress. Or a tunic. Or whatever they call it. The point is that he's playing a Catholic in a Showtime pilot called Vatican, which is about all the political maneuvering and whatnot in the modern-day Catholic Church. Chandler's character is progressive by Catholic standards, which I'm sure will find him running afoul of lots of stuffy squares. Matthew Goode is on the show as well, playing "the Pope’s closest confidante." Ohhh, like that sexy one Ratzinger had? Hm?? While this could potentially be an interesting show — though it being on Showtime suggests it'll be a bit trashy — it's hard to think about Kyle Chandler in this kind of role. He's such a salt of the earth, controlled twang kind of a guy. Putting him in priestly garb and sending him to St. Peter's seems strange. And a show all about priests? Will there be any women? I mean, probably, what, Chandler's character has a secret lover or something? But that's probably about it, lady wise. Which, actually, is a good thing. Too many women on TV. Time for the men to take it back. And what better men to take it back than a bunch of Catholic priests, and not just any Catholic priests, the ones in management, who've done such a good job these past few centuries. Terrific. [Entertainment Weekly]
iCarly actress Miranda Cosgrove has been cast in a NBC sitcom pilot, playing Christina Ricci's daughter. Yes. Christina Ricci's daughter. Her teenage daughter. Her 17-year-old daughter. Granted, the show, called Girlfriend In a Coma (like the song — not, sadly, based on the Douglas Coupland novel), is about a teenager who has a baby she didn't know about while she's in a coma, so was a young mother, but still. Miranda Cosgrove! As Christina Ricci's daughter! It's pretty insane. I don't like it. What's next, Selena Gomez as Kirsten Dunst's granddaughter? [Deadline]
TV Land has picked up Kirstie Alley's new show to series. It's called Kirstie's New Show, because otherwise how the hell would you know that it's Kirstie Alley's new show. It's about "a Broadway star who finds her life turned upside down when her son turns up looking to reconnect with his biological mother after his adopted mom dies." Rhea Perlman and Michael Richards costar. No, Rhea Perlman is not playing the son. Although that would be sort of inspired. Anyway, there's a video about the show getting picked up. Yup. Here it is. [The Hollywood Reporter]
A new four-hour miniseries about Cleopatra is headed to cable, but don't get too excited. It's going to be on Lifetime: Television for Headaches. Meaning, cheaper than cheap sets, terrible writing, and worse acting. Ugh, Lifetime movies are the worst. I mean, some are great fun, but they always look like they cost about $12 to make and were filmed over a long weekend in some guy's back yard in Tsawwassen. I wish HBO was doing a Cleopatra miniseries. (I guess they kinda already covered her in Rome, huh. Sigh. I miss Rome.) Heck, I wish USA Characters Welcome was doing a Cleopatra miniseries over Lifetime, even TBS Very Funny would do a better job. On Lifetime it's going to be so junky and dumb and will look terrible and then no one will want to do anything like it for a while. Lifetime ruins everything. [Deadline]
Jennifer Lawrence is going back to work for her Silver Linings Playbook director David O. Russell. She's just joined the cast of his untitled movie about Abscam. Who will she be playing? Oh, y'know, just Christian Bale's wife. Yeah, 22-year-old Jennifer Lawrence playing 39-year-old Christian Bale's wife. Sure. Cool. That's great. David O. Russell likes setting J.Law up with older men! Very interesting! Interesting thing he's got going on there. Wooftie-doo. [Deadline]
Here's a second trailer for The Host, the movie based on the Stephenie Meyer novel. It shows lots of action and kissing and, best of all, plenty of Diane Kruger as the main villain. She kicks a door down! Good for her. Stephenie Meyer is terrible, and director Andrew Niccol hasn't a made a good movie since Gattaca, so there's really no reason to think this will be good, but, what the hell, I'm still kind of curious about it. If only in the hopes of seeing some weird-accented Saoirse Ronan vs. Diane Kruger butt-kickin'.
