UPDATED: "90210" Gets More Residents

Those of you hoping to catch Hilary Duff on the revival spin-off pilot of Beverly Hills 90210 are just plain out of luck.

Duff has turned down the role of Annie Mills, a drama-obsessed Wichita teenager who relocates to Beverly Hills with her middle-class family, including her father (who takes over as principal at West Beverly Hills High), adopted African-American brother, and her Olympic medalist mother Celia.

Producers had sent Duff a copy of the 90210 pilot script--written by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas--with the hope that she'd sign onto the project. The role of Annie Mills will now be played by Shenae Grimes, best known for her work as Darcy Edwards on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Celia, Annie's Olympic medalist/personal trainer mother, will be played by Lori Laughlin (Summerland), which I have to admit is pretty good casting.

In other 90210-related news, I hear that Jennie Garth IS negotiating with CBS Paramount Television to join the cast of 90210. Garth recently dropped out of CBS comedy pilot My Best Friend's Girl, lending speculation that she was going to jump ship to BevHills.

Rob Thomas' pilot script had Garth's 90210 character, Kelly Taylor, working as the fashion teacher at West Beverly Hills High... so it's only a matter of time before the studio is able to close the deal and make an official announcement about her attachment.

UPDATE: Ryan Eggold (Dirt) and Jessica Walters (Arrested Development) have also now been cast in the drama pilot presentation. Walters will play Tabitha Mills, the alcoholic, ex-actress grandmother to Annie whose Beverly Hills home the family moves into after her latest Betty Ford stint. I'm personally surprised by Walters inclusion and, while 90210 should be on their hands and knees praising whoever landed the former Lucille Bluth, I can't help but feel that this project is far beneath Walters.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Saturday Night Live (NBC; 8:30-10 pm); Beauty and the Geek (CW); According to Jim/According to Jim (ABC); American Idol (FOX)

9 pm: Shark (CBS); Reaper (CW); Dancing with the Stars (ABC); Hell's Kitchen (FOX)

10 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Women's Murder Club (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Last Restaurant Standing on BBC America.

On the thirteenth episode of this addictive British import, the remaining three couples are surprised when Raymond unexpectedly turns up at their restaurants and pokes his nose into every single decision they've made up until that point, tasting the food and seeing if their service is up to his high standards... and uncovers moldy ingredients, undercooked food, and unhappy customers.

10 pm: The Riches on FX.

Due to the writers strike, Season Two is wrapping up a lot sooner than was originally expected. On tonight's season finale ("The Lying King"), Wayne and Dahlia are forced to confront the widening chasm between them; the Bayou Hills deal is hanging by a thread after foul play; Didi and Ike get closer; and Rosaleen convinces Cael to stay with the Travelers. Sniffle. I'll miss you, Molloys.

Have a Burning Question for Team Darlton, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, or Michael Emerson?

Lost fans: you don't have to make your way to the island via Ajira Airways in order to ask a question of the creative team or the series' stars. Televisionary is taking questions from fans to put to Lost 's executive producers/showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Matthew Fox ("Jack Shephard"), Evangeline Lilly ("Kate Austen"), and Michael Emerson ("Benjamin Linus") for a series of on-camera interviews taking place this weekend. If you have a specific question for any of the above producers or actors from Lost , please leave it in the comments section below . I'll be accepting questions until midnight PT tonight and, while I can't promise I'll be able to ask any specific inquiry due to the brevity of these on-camera interviews, I am looking for some insightful and thought-provoking questions to add to the mix. So who knows: your burning question might get asked after all.

Continue reading full story...

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season ...

Continue reading full story...

See You in Another Life: Thoughts on The Series Finale of Lost

"No one can tell you why you're here." I'm of two minds (and two hearts) about the two-and-a-half hour series finale of Lost ("The End"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and directed by Jack Bender, which brought a finality to the story of the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 and the characters with which we've spent six years. At its heart, Lost has been about the two bookends of the human existence, birth and death, and the choices we make in between. Do we choose to live together or die alone? Can we let go of our past traumas to become better people? When we have nothing else left to give, can we make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good? In that sense, the series finale of Lost brought to a close the stories of the crash survivors and those who joined them among the wreckage over the course of more than 100 days on the island (and their return), offering up a coda to their lives and their deaths, a sort of purgatory for found, r...

Continue reading full story...

[Televisionary]

Search This Blog