Chris Albrecht, the programming architect who built HBO into a pay-cable powerhouse with shows like 'The Sopranos' and 'Sex and the City,' has been named president and CEO of Starz Media, a group that includes not only the Starz pay channel, but also Overture Films, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Film Roman.

The former Family Ties star has been busted again, this time for an assault he barely remembers.

Brian Bonsall, the actor who played little Andy Keaton on Family Ties, has been picked up in Colorado for assault. Police arrested him for smashing a bar stool over his friend while the two were drinking. Drugs may also have been involved since the police report said, "He and Trujillo both are bipolar and like drugs. Bonsall said that he takes a lot of drugs and sometimes those drugs make him forget things."

It gets worse. Prosecutors believe he violated his probation from his previous assault involving a former girlfriend and filed a warrant for his arrest, so now he could face serious jail time.

What is the deal with television stars and their need to drive drunk? Of all people, Matt Roloff is charged with drunk driving. He's the father on the popular TLC reality series, Little People, Big World. The actual arrest happened back in mid-June but he made a court appearance on the charges yesterday. Deputies pulled him over at about midnight, and he failed a sobriety test.

I'd be interested to see how he handles this with his kids. I'm a fan of Little People, Big World and am especially entertained by Matt, who always seems to have some big project happening out on his farm. Even though the Roloffs have a tough time keeping their house clean, they seem to be raising good kids.

By the way, what do you think of Roloff's mug shot? The smile is a little creepy... almost like Tom DeLay, but not quite.

Jason Wahler will spend the next two months in jail. No, you can't lock him up for simply being an idiot. He actually had to do something, like punch a city employee and a tow truck driver. Last year, the 20-year old co-star of The Hills and Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County blew his top when a tow truck was blocking the road as the driver tried to move an illegally parked car. Wahler reportedly got out of his vehicle and yelled racial slurs at the city worker and tow truck driver (both of them black) and then actually punched them both before being subdued. Blood-alcohol tests show Wahler's level was .22.

On top of his two months in jail, pretty boy will also have to attend a one-day program at the Museum of Intolerance. The judge was probably pretty strict with the guy because he was recently arrested in North Carolina for underage drinking and resisting arrest.

Sounds like a great role model for the impressionable MTV crowd.

John Ventimiglia, the actor who plays chef Artie Bucco on The Sopranos, made a plea deal that keeps him out of prison for drunk driving and drug possession charges. Ventimiglia will plead guilty to drunk driving, for an incident on May 1 near Brooklyn where cops saw his car weaving on the road. As part of the deal, Ventimiglia will undergo regular substance abuse testing and a drug abuse program, as well as lecture high school students on the evils of alcohol.

(S01E22) This is interesting. The title of this episode is either "Everybody Hates Dreamgirls" or "Everybody Hates Jail," I've seen it listed as both. Odd.

Anyway, last night's episode focused on Chris having to sell thirty boxes of cookies to pay for a field trip to Washington DC. Of course, his teacher informs him that if "his people" can't pay money for the cookies, they can always use food stamps. Meanwhile, both his younger siblings get chicken pox, and their father offers to stay home while Rochelle goes to see Dreamgirls with a friend, rather than going with Julius for their anniversary as they originally planned.

Those Weather Channel field crews must take their jobs very seriously. Three members of a video crew were arrested last week for trespassing on the property of a woman who was killed in a tornado. Family members of the victim, Sherry Bruce, say they asked the weather crew to leave the property six different times within 30 minutes, but the crew reportedly refused to leave. The sheriff of the Tennessee town where the tornado struck says claims that he gave the crew permission are a big, fat lie. Edward John Lazano Jr., Bradley Reynolds, and Jorma Brandon Duran are all released on $500 bail.

Well, looks like Luke Duke, otherwise known to you cityfolk as actor Tom Wopat, has got himself into a heaping hunk of trouble, and there ain't no Bo or Daisy Duke to help him out of this pig slop.

Turns out Mr. Wopat, who played the dashing Luke Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard from 1979-1985, faces a charge of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) from the fine police of Ringwood, New Jersey. Seems that Tom was pulled from his Ford Bronco Wednesday night (the General Lee was in the shop; too many jumps over the ravine) after hitting some orange traffic cones and nearly slamming into a Ringwood police car. He was charged with the DWI, and one count of reckless driving, then released into the custody of his girlfriend.

Uncle Jesse, Luke could sure use some of that southern-fried advice right about now.

 

A judge in New York decided that charges against Desperate Housewives actor Cody Kasch (he plays gun and hockey stick-wielding teen Zach) will be dropped if he stays out of trouble until June of 2006. Kasch was arrested in May for smoking pot in public.

So does this mean that he won't fight the charges? If I remember correctly his publicist or manager said the next day that he wasn't smoking pot, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, rounded up with other people arrested at the scene. Is Kasch happy that this is the way it's going to end, or does he think people will think he did do something and is getting off? Did he make a deal not to fight the charges? Any lawyers out there?