sean hayes
Hannibal Lecter TV Series In the Works, TBS Buys Conan O'Brien Comedy Pilot & More
Hannibal Lecter: TV star? Maybe, just maybe.According to Deadline, 'Pushing Daisies' creator Bryan Fuller is at work on a one-hour drama series about the famous cannibal. 'Hannibal' will focus on Lecter's relationship with a young FBI profiler named Will Graham. Lecter's foil Graham is haunted by his knack for empathizing with serial killers. Fuller is executive producing with Martha De Laurentiis, producer of 'Hannibal,' 'Red Dragon' and 'Hannibal Rising.'
The 'Hannibal' project is part of the recently launched Gaumont International Television, run by NBC's former had of drama, Katie O'Connell. In addition to 'Hannibal,' the company is working on 'Madame Tussaud,' a six-hour miniseries from 'The Tudors' creator Michael Hirst.
Over in comedy land, TBS has ordered a pilot from Conan O'Brien. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the multi-camera comedy follows a centers a family man who leaves his day job and returns to his childhood neighborhood. While at home, the character reunites with his old best friend. O'Brien will serve as an executive producer.
In other TV news ...
MTV Renews 'Awkward' for Season 2, 'Sing Off' Lineup Revealed & More TV News
Excellent news for fans of smart, funny television for teens: MTV has ordered a second season of its newest scripted series, 'Awkward.'Written by Lauren Iungerich, the show follows an outcast teen who rises in popularity after an accident leads everyone to believe she tried to kill herself. Awkward. The first season is currently airing Tuesday nights at 11PM following 'Teen Mom.'
MTV's first original series, 'The Hard Times of RJ Berger,' was canceled last week after two seasons.
In other TV news ...
Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth Make Out at 'The Tony Awards' (VIDEO)
Well, we're having a somewhat gay-ish night, TV-recap-wise. (And we mean that in a good way.)And hey! What's that sound that we hear? Ah, yes ... it's 'The 64th Annual Tony Awards' (Sun., 8PM ET on CBS), hosted by Sean Hayes. The Tony Awards recognize excellence in live American theater, and have long been considered to be the classiest of all award shows.
As Sean began hosting the awards, he was joined onstage by Kristin Chenoweth, his current co-star on Broadway. Sean has recently come out as being gay, but that didn't stop Kristin from getting busy with him. She wished him luck as a host, then gave him a slight peck on the lips -- which quickly turned into a much longer make-out session, complete with tongue. Then, he slapped her on the butt.
After Kristin left the stage, Hayes seemed a little embarrassed by the attention, and all the hooting and hollering. So he tried to explain. "I know what you're thinking," he said. "She's too short for me."
Sean Hayes to Host Tony Awards
With his must-see TV days now long behind him, Sean Hayes ('Will & Grace') is gearing up to host the 64th Annual Tony Awards, according to the Hollywood Insider.Hayes, himself a Best Actor in a Musical nominee for his role in 'Promises, Promises,' opposite Broadway fixture Kristin Chenoweth, will take to the fabled stage at Radio City Music Hall on June 13 for the live broadcast, set to air on CBS.
Valerie Bertinelli, Betty White Head to TV Land in 'Hot in Cleveland'
'Hot in Cleveland,' starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick as best friends from Los Angeles whose flight to Paris makes an unscheduled landing in Ohio, has gotten a 10-episode order from TV Land. The 40-something ladies, who are all at a crossroads in their lives, end up staying when they discover how glamorous the Cleveland citizenry finds them.The legendary Betty White plays the brassy, one-liner-prone owner of the property that the ladies rent. The show will begin airing this June.
Kristin Chenoweth's Christmas movie and Promises, Promises, too

Remember back in May when I wrote about Kristin Chenoweth making a Fa La La La La Lifetime TV movie for Christmas? Well, I did, and now the picture is upon us. The 12 Men of Christmas, premieres Saturday, December 5 at 9 p.m. on Lifetime.
So on Saturday night, instead of going to a holiday party or shopping for gifts, gather around the TV and watch Kristin as E.J. Baxter, a New York publicist who comes up with the idea of a hunk calendar using the men of Montana. She goes west to find her twelve Montana men, and -- wouldn't you know it? -- she falls in love with one of the guys. Josh Hopkins from Swingtown. How bad could that be?
TV Land is creating original sitcoms now
Everybody has a love/hate relationship with TV Land these days. We love that they still show sitcoms like The Andy Griffith Show and we like the idea of TV Land, but we also hate that movies and reality shows seem to be taking over the network.But now the network has announced that they are actually going to be creating their own sitcoms. The first two are Retired at 35, which is about a businessman who visits his parents' Florida retirement home and decides to stay, and the second is from Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and Frasier writer Suzanne Martin and called Hot in Cleveland. It centers around a group of Los Angeles women who move to Cleveland.
Hey, look, I'm all for any type of programming on TV Land that doesn't involve a-hole high school reunion members yelling at each other or cougars in a hot tub.
Want to write a comedy for Fox?
Can you write? Do you think you know what makes people laugh? Have you ever tried banging out a sitcom script? If the answer to these questions is yes, yes, and yes, you might want to read on. Fox TV is teaming with the New York Television Festival (NYTVF) in creating a Comedy Script Contest. Wannabe writers are invited -- hell, encouraged! -- to enter an original comedy pilot for a potential Fox sitcom series. The winner (or winning team if you collaborate with someone) will be awarded $25,000 and a development deal with Fox to turn the pilot into real, honest-to-God TV show.Considering the pitiful pros passing as live action comedy on Fox these days -- Til Death, Back to You, Unhitched -- you might think this contest was an act of desperation. It's not.
And now, a post about Debra Messing's breasts
Everyone knows that Debra Messing has small breasts, including Messing herself. But NBC execs wanted her to have bigger ones.
At a panel discussion during the Tribeca Film Festival, the Will & Grace star disclosed that she wore "chicken cutlets," a form of silicone breast enhancer, when she shot the pilot of the show. But when the show was picked up by NBC, she didn't want to wear them anymore. After seeing the next couple of episodes, the president of NBC called the producers, wanting to know where her breasts went. They wanted her breasts back, but she refused to wear them.
Heroes cast participates in online charity auction
To support Greg Grunberg's Pediatric Epilepsy Project, the cast of Heroes has each drawn his or her own character for an online auction. Bidding has begun and will conclude in approximately twenty days. I have to say that Hayden Panettiere gets extra points for using more than one colored marker in her rendering of Claire Bennet and Milo Ventimiglia managed to add a little perspective to his drawing of Peter Petrelli. This isn't the first time television stars have contributed their handiwork to the Pediatric Epilepsy Project, which directly supports UCLA's Pediatric Neurology Department. You can also purchase hand-painted cards by such celebrities as Jennifer Garner, David Schwimmer, Ryan Seacrest, Teri Hatcher, Sean Hayes and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Will & Grace: The Finale (series finale)
(S08E23) There are those who are die-hard fans of Will & Grace, which premiered on the NBC schedule back in 1998. Then there are those who despise the show, which is about the relationship between Grace Adler (Debra Messing) and her gay friend Will Truman (Eric McCormack). The fans love the back-and-forth between the two characters and the dynamic of their relationship. Those who hate the show may be uncomfortable with the subject matter (homosexuality) or the cartoon-ish characterizations of Will and Grace's friends Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes) and Karen Walker (Megan Mullally ), or the fact that it's just not funny.
I fall under neither category. I liked Will & Grace, but was not a huge fan. I'd watch it if I happened to see something interesting going on, and I'd laugh at a few of the lines (not as heartily as I would laugh during an episode of Scrubs, though). Yet, Jack annoyed me sometimes and the influx of guest stars on the show was somewhat distracting. In fact, over the last few years I didn't really follow it at all.
However, as this would be the last episode of the series, I decided to give it a review. My opinion on the last show of the series? Meh.
NBC knows that Will Truman is gay, right?
NBC has a solid history of confusing and/or misleading
previews (check out tonight's West Wing, for example -- and that's all I'll say for now), and the tradition
continues in previews for the final episodes of Will and Grace.The previews all show Will and Grace doing things as a "couple": kissing passionately, Will throwing Grace down on the bed to make love to her, Grace asking Will to be there for her and her baby, and one scene of them walking down the aisle together.
But it's all out of context! The kiss was a kiss of two best friends, the scene with Will and Grace in bed was a flashback to when they dated and he hadn't come out yet, the scene about the baby is Will and Grace discussing her future as a single mom, and the scene of them walking down the aisle? That was the ep where Will gave away Grace at her wedding to Leo!
Of course, maybe it's all misdirection. Maybe the show is going to surprise us all by having Will turn out to be straight (he never can keep a man, can he?), and she and Will get married and live happily ever after! Talk about twist endings.
Will and Grace take a final bow
JustJared has some photos from the filming of the
last episode of Will and Grace (no spoilers - it's photos of the cast taking a bow in front of the studio
audience). The finale will be 45 minutes long, and the DVD of the finale will actually go on sale a mere 5 days after
it is shown on NBC (May 23)!Talk about quick turnaround.
[via TV Tattle]
Things I Hate About TV: Sitcoms that kill off characters
Did you see Will and Grace the other night? If you recorded it or you're waiting for the rerun,
then stop reading right here. Well, actually, you don't have to stop reading right here, because I won't reveal the
spoiler until after the jump. So I should rephrase the above and say that if you haven't seen it yet, don't click
below. OK? OK.Christian group targets Will and Grace
These people are starting to
make Christians look like they don't have a sense of humor. The same group that yelled and
screamed about The Book of Daniel's pill-popping priest who conversed with Jesus is now hollering about
Will and Grace. It's not the homosexual characters on the show that they're taking issue with, or the constant
feeling-up of characters, or the references to alcoholism and pill-popping. They're all upset over the plans for a Britney Spears cameo in which she
plays a Christian chef. They don't like that her character has a cooking segment called Cruci-fixins. The
group, called The American Family Association, accuses NBC of mocking Christ's crucifixion and says the network will
"further denegrate Christianity" by airing the episode the night before Good Friday. On its website, this group is urging NBC affiliates to boycott the episode,
just like it got some affiliates
to do for Daniel. NBC has already started back-peddling, saying that the episode isn't even written yet so the
name of the cooking segment isn't exactly set in stone.God, I'd love to see NBC stick to its guns and stay with Cruci-fixins. That's funny, y'all. Plus, it'll probably help the floundering show's ratings as it ends its run on NBC this spring.
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