Sideshow: Shyamalan on the small screen

M. Night Shyamalan is coming to the small screen. The Chester County filmmaker, who shot to fame in 1999 with The Sixth Sense, will be making his first scripted TV series for Syfy. Proof is the story of a tech billionaire's son who, after his parents die, offers a huge sum of money to anyone who can truly establish that there is life after death.

Shyamalan will write and executive-produce the series with TV veteran Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). He will also direct - at least the pilot. Shyamalan, who turns 42 this week, recently completed work on the film After Earth with Will Smith and Smith's son Jaden.

Shyamalan has some history with Syfy. In 2004, when it was still known as the Sci Fi Channel, the outlet presented a special, The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan, that was little more than a transparent plug for his movie The Village.

- David Hiltbrand

Pontius Pilate once asked, "What is truth?" Well, yeah. What the heck is it? What the heck was going on a couple weeks ago with Katherine Jackson, mom of deceased pop deity Michael Jackson? She went on "vacation" to Arizona to be with her kids, Michael's sibs, who say it was cool. Michael's kids (her grandkids), Paris, Prince, and Blanket, say it wasn't. They didn't know about it and, in panic, reported her missing. In a July 25 statement, she denied she'd been kidnapped. But, um, well, on Thursday, (1) Katherine was reinstated as the kids' guardian. A judge had temporarily given that office to TJ Jackson, son of Michael sib Tito. And (2) in a statement to a California court, Katherine now says that on vacation, her cellphone was taken away, her room had no working phone or TV, and she was never told the kids were looking for her. There's a family battle over MJ's will, in which, according to reports, the kids get lots and the sibs get bupkis; she's caught in the middle. Much more, one feels, to come.

Pop superstar Stevie Wonder (a.k.a. Stevland Hardaway Morris) has filed for divorce from fashion designer Kai Millard Morris, citing irreconcilable differences. Married in 2001, they've been separated since October 2009, according to TMZ. He's asking for custody of their children, Kailand, 10, and Mandla, 7. . . . Much the same for Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash (a.k.a. Saul Hudson), seeking divorce from wife Perla Ferrar, and joint custody of their sons, London Emilio, 8, and Cash Anthony, 6. They, too, married in 2001. He filed before, in 2010, but called it off. TMZ says this is a bitter-bitter divorce, no prenup, though Slash is open to paying spousal support. . . . Pop god Usher and ex-wife Tameka Foster married in '07 and divorced in '09. In their big custody battle over their children, Usher Raymond, 4, and Naviyd Ely, 3, the next hearing is Aug. 13. Usher wants it postponed in light of the death of Foster's son, his former stepson, Kile Glover, who died July 21 from injuries sustained in a watercraft accident. She says Usher's solicitude is bogus and wants the hearing to go on. . . . No, Katie Holmes did not enroll daughter Suri in a N.Y.C Catholic school after all; she's now in Avenues, a new private school set to open in the fall. . . .   

A lot of celebs will be taking sides in the prez wars between now and Election Day, but few will be this hilarious. Jenna Jameson, Queen of Porn, says she likes Mitt Romney. "When you're rich," the pneumatic entrepreneur tells L.A. station KCBS, "you want a Republican in office." The New York Daily News calls it "the unlikeliest - and least helpful - endorsement of the 2012 campaign season." JJ is nostalgic for the Bill Clinton years, when times were high for porn. "I wish that Clinton would run again," she says.