The Return of Jenny McCarthy
The Call Sheet sifts through the day's glut of Hollywood news to find the stories even non-industry types care about. Today: Jenny McCarthy has a new show, J.Lo has ruined reality TV for everyone, and Cougar Town is in trouble (again).
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Remember Jenny McCarthy? She was the Playboy model who went on to co-host Singled Out and write a couple books and act in a couple things and seemed sort of charming and funny but then she went insane and started telling people not to vaccinate their children? Yeah, well, she's back! She was going to have a daytime talk show a little while ago through Oprah's company, but that never happened, possibly because of all the vaccine stuff. But now she's landed a gig at VH1 to host The Jenny McCarthy Show, which will "feature McCarthy skewering everyone and everything in pop culture, news, fashion, TV, movies and the web, and will also include guest panelists and celebrity interviews." Hm. That sounds a littttle familiar, doesn't it? Why don't they just call it Jenny At Nightly? First VH1 rips off Watch What Happens Live with that bizarre Mob Wives recap show, and now they're going for Chelsea Lately? Guys, aim higher. Really. Aim a lot, lot higher. [Deadline]
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Back in November Brett Ratner said that whole stupid thing about how "rehearsal is for fags" and everyone was like "Ohh brother" and he got fired from his gig producing this year's Oscars even though he apologized a lot. After the firing, the whole matter seemed done, over. Well, it's been a few months, so now of course it simply must be brought up again. Ratner and GLAAD have announced that Bretty-boy will be directing a new video campaign featuring "a diverse group of Hollywood celebrities, athletes, musicians and politicians ‘coming out of the closet’ as supporters of equality." So, OK, that message is good and all, of course! Celebrities tell people what to think whether we like it or not, so this could actually do some good. But... If only there wasn't that slight whiff of self-congratulation about the whole thing. Eh, we suppose that's inevitable when someone like Brett Ratner is involved. Ah well. Have fun, Brett. [Vulture, GLAAD]
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It seems that because of J.Lo's exorbitant $15 million/year American Idol judging salary, now everyone wants to get paid the big bucks to yell things at strangers who think they have talent. Xtina Aguilera's making a ludicrous 10 million bones to press her magic chair button on The Voice, and Howard Stern is going to make $15 million and force production to move to New York for his new gig on America's Got Talent. This is getting out of control! Cheap-to-produce reality television is becoming not so cheap-to-produce! Used to be they'd pay reality hosts and judges with a sandwich and one half-hearted album plug per season, but now it's like the goddamned gold rush over there. Everything's crazy now. That's basically the tenor of this article. Everything is just nucking futs these days. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Uh ohhh. Cougar Town came back to the airwaves last night after a long hiatus and it did not do well in the ratings. A long break between seasons and a schedule shift left it down 47% from last year, with a meager 4.8 million folks tuning in. Despite a ton of "guerilla marketing" and various things, the wine-soaked boozebags of Cougar Town just couldn't get people onboard. That's too bad. It's actually, despite a lot suggesting otherwise, a fairly charming show. Not always (or ever, maybe) laugh-out-loud funny, and a little too comfortable in its call-backs and various other repeated quirks (much like Bill Lawrence's old show, Scrubs), but it's solidly entertaining and the cast is great. But now there's this, and we're just not sure they have any second chances left. This may be it, we're afraid. [Entertainment Weekly]
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Justin Kirk is officially returning to Weeds for an eighth season. Which, good for him and all, but eight seasons? That seems like a lot of Weeds. We oddly haven't missed an episode, but it's really time to just let this thing burn out. (Get it? Weed?) Everyone on the show is very talented and everything, but they seem awfully tired. Plus Nancy has become an abject monster who really should just be sealed shut in a cave for the rest of time to think about what she's done. It's just all gotten to be a bit much, is what we're saying. But, oh well. Good for Justin Kirk. Hopefully this doesn't interfere with that Angels in America sequel, Angels 2 the Mysterious Island. That's gonna be great. [Deadline]
