austin powers

Weeks ago when it was announced that Rob Lowe was leaving ABC's 'Brothers and Sisters,' the spin from ABC was that they desperately wanted to keep Rob in the fold and would be working to develop a new television project for him.

Guess what? That was all a lot of hooey. Or exaggeration to the point of sounding more optimistic than true. Today, Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly reported that Rob Lowe will be joining the NBC sitcom, 'Parks and Recreation.' This is a great move by Rob, turning to comedy rather than jumping into another dramatic series. And if you think Rob's not good at comedy, you don't remember his letter-perfect imitation of Robert Wagner's character #2 -- as a younger man -- in 'Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."

(S02E15) Chuck was in a weird place last night. The character, that is, not the show. The show picked up on a storyline from a few weeks back and set up a future episode with a new character that seemed to me a nice contrast to the Casey-Sarah-Chuck triple play.

Remember "Chuck Versus the Suburbs," when Andy Richter's corpse was dragged away in a body bag? Well, he wasn't resurrected on Fringe, like one commenter suggested. No, he's dead and his body included a belt that contained some top-secret data, most importantly, the identity of the Intersect, i.e. Chuck.

The timing of the discovery couldn't be worse, though, because Chuck had just decided to "dump" Sarah as a fake girlfriend, feeling that they had no fake/real future. Of course, be careful what you wish for, Charles. More after the jump.

(S07E09) What does it say about this special holiday episode of Monk that the wittiest, most clever and memorable minute was when they unfurled the promo for the series return in 2009, using the music from Magnum, P.I. and dubbing the show Monk, P.I.? The USA marketing guys really hit a home run with that ad; it was brilliant.

Sadly, "Mr. Monk and the Miracle" was a sub-standard episode and hardly worth the moniker of "special." The mystery was rather simple -- about the most complicated piece of evidence was the hand print in the refrigerator -- and when Michael Badalucco (The Practice) appeared as Leland's pharmacist, you kind of knew he was involved in some way. Yet while the show wasn't up to the best of Monk standards, it did have a moment or two to redeem it.

Well, this is one crappy way to ring in the holiday season. Mike Meyers and his wife of 12 years, Robin Ruzan, have decided to call it quits. I'm resisting the incredible urge to make a So I Married an Axe Murderer joke here, but it's Christmas, so I'll let it slide. Just this once.

Though, hopefully his mojo is still intact.