Inqlings: Fox preps for 11 p.m. newscast
Fox29 is preparing to enter the 11 p.m. news wars within the next few weeks. I hear that 5 p.m. anchor and 10 p.m. interim coanchor Kerri-Lee Halkett has been tapped to anchor the half-hour 'cast, whose format is still being tweaked to make it stand out from the Big Three. (The titles "The Last Word" and "The Final Word" are being considered.) John Bolaris will do weather, and there will be a sportscast, too.
Fox29 is preparing to enter the 11 p.m. news wars within the next few weeks.
A station rep said: "While we continue to believe that our best long-term options include expanding our news programming into additional dayparts, we have no firm plans to do so at this time."
Still, I'm hearing that the launch probably will be on or about Aug. 11, following nearly two weeks of 11 p.m. special reports from Eagles training camp at Lehigh University.
Soul party
A certain sports-championship-starved town will get a chance to party, if the Philadelphia Soul win the Arena Football League title on Sunday. The city will throw a parade in the team's honor, city spokeswoman
Melanie Johnson
told me. Plans are in the early stages but include a late-afternoon motorcade west on Market Street to City Hall, culminating in festivities in Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall, she says.
The day has not been selected but would be within a week of the win, says Johnson, who remembers riding her bike to the city's last championship celebration (the 76ers in 1983).
Soul co-owner Jon Bon Jovi is on the record as promising a free Bon Jovi concert if the team wins.
J Roll to roll on 'Cribs'
MTV will finally show the episode of
Cribs
that visits the Gloucester County house of Phillies shortstop
Jimmy Rollins
. (I wrote about it four months ago when the show turned up on On Demand, but the network pulled it quickly for unknown reasons.)
At 1:30 p.m. Sunday - yes, it conflicts with the start of the Phillies-Braves game - J Roll will lead the eight-minute video tour of his house, where he seems proudest of his vibrating king-size bed. "That's a great place to make the magic happen," he tells the camera. He also shows his dining room and his kitchen, which he says "actually gets used." Also in the spot are his girlfriend, Johari Smith; his Akitas, Kato and Kenja; teammate Ryan Howard; his spa and pool; and his rides, a Mercedes CLS 55 Carlsson and a Bentley Continental Flying Spur. The episode was shot last year.
The champ
Philly's
Kelly Park
, 39, turned up Tuesday on
Carson Kressley's
Lifetime show,
How to Look Good Naked
. She told Fancast (Comcast's online video site) that she bonded well with the
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
alumnus: "He was extremely spiritual, and highly intelligent. I must say, I was a bit shocked by that. . . . Being a gay man, Carson was very sensitive to my issues. Because he's been through it; he's been through something. I could relate to what he's been through, being a woman of color. Both of us had faced, and overcome, adversities in our lives."
Briefly noted
Paul Gluck
, who ran news operations for TV stations such as KYW and WHYY before heading to Drexel University last year to lead the Kal and Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies, is bound for Temple University, his alma mater. Starting this fall, he'll be an associate professor, teaching media courses and helping the university start a cable TV channel.
Talker Irv Homer, who's bounced around the radio and TV dial, is doing a live Internet show at www.irvhomer.com from 6 to 7 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.