Sideshow: Shhh, Michael Strahan to be 'Live!'
We open today with two exciting, historic TV industry moves. First up, Live! With Kelly has announced it has hired a permanent replacement (it's Michael Strahan) for the irreplaceable Regis Philbin. In a sadistic move, the producers of the syndicated morning gabfest won't actually say who it is (it's Michael Straha
We open today with two exciting, historic TV industry moves.
First up, Live! With Kelly has announced it has hired a permanent replacement (it's Michael Strahan) for the irreplaceable Regis Philbin. In a sadistic move, the producers of the syndicated morning gabfest won't actually say who it is (it's Michael Strahan). Get on with it, pals! We've been driven to distraction by the wait - eight months and 22 days and 59 guest hosts. Seriously, who is it (it's Michael Strahan)?
Broadcasting & Cable and TMZ say Kelly's bosses have eschewed the movie and TV stars and chosen a delightful media personality, Michael Strahan, 40, the Super Bowl-ringed former New York Giants footballer whose 6-foot-5-inch, 275-pound frame will be an interesting counterpoint to Kelly's 5-foot-2½-inch, 110-pound fluffiness. TMZ says Strahan's agent was spotted outside the studio "grinning from ear to ear." Proof!
Kimmel in a three-way duel
Jimmy Kimmel
, who next year will celebrate the 10th anniversary of his late night gabfest
Jimmy Kimmel Live
, is getting his wish: to compete with the big boys. ABC announced Tuesday that starting Jan. 8,
Kimmel
will move to the 11:35 p.m. time slot, which has been the site of a years-long skirmish between NBC's
Jay Leno
and CBS's
David Letterman
. (
Nightline
will move to 12:35 a.m.)
"I have been quietly hoping for this," Kimmel says. "It's a thrill to go up against the big guys." The comic is approaching true stardom: He hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner this year and will host his first Emmy Awards on Sept. 23.
'The Office' is closed
Empty out your desk and file out in an orderly fashion: NBC's
The Office
is being shut down. Blame
Steve Carell
, who left the workplace mockumentary last season, abandoning costars
Rainn Wilson
,
John Krasinski
, and
Jenna Fischer
to a ratings drop of unimaginable proportions (16 percent). The ninth and final season premieres Sept. 20. "We are planning a very big, exciting last season," exec producer
Greg Daniels
said Tuesday. "We are going to have a lot of familiar faces coming back." Not Carell!
Yes, Michael J. Fox is back
Yes, it's true:
Spin City
star
Michael J. Fox
, who left series TV a dozen years ago after finding out he had Parkinson's disease, will be back next year on a sitcom created for him by NBC, says USAToday.com.
The semiautobiographical show will star Fox as a New York man who has to face the challenges of being a husband and father after he is diagnosed with Parkinson's. A 22-episode season will debut in fall 2013.
Officially over for the Salahis
Tareq
and
Michaele Salahi
's divorce has been finalized, says TMZ. The couple, who earned accolades, fame, and (even more) fortune and self-respect by crashing a 2009 state dinner at the White House, are protected from each other by a prenup
and
a postnup. That didn't stop Tareq from filing a $50 mil lawsuit against
Journey
guitarist
Neal Schon
, who ran off with Michaele last year. (It's been settled, as in he actually got some money!) What's next for Tareq? Having been schooled on domestic and foreign policy as a star on
Real Housewives of DC
, he's running for governor of Virginia.
Take my daughter & you'll die
In a courtroom speech ripped straight from the potboilers,
Gabriel Aubry
's lawyer told a judge that if his ex-belle
Halle Berry
moves to France as she plans, she'll share
Princess Diana
's tragic end, hounded to her death by paparazzi, says TMZ. The lawyer is trying to stop Halle from taking the couple's daughter,
Nahla
, to live with Halle's new beau
Olivier Martinez
in the land of
pommes frites
and Dijon mustard.
Tidbits 'n pieces
Taylor Swift
, 22, and her bf, high school kid
Conor Kennedy
, 18, have taken things to a new level. The New York Daily News says Swift joined Conor and his family Sunday to visit Conor's mom
Mary Richardson Kennedy
's grave. . . . Novelist-scholar-filmmaker-actor-humanitarian
James Franco
is now a fashion designer. Denim purveyor 7 for All Mankind on Tuesday unveiled the Franco-fashioned "James Franco X 7 for All Mankind Limited Edition T-Shirt Collection." Say that 7 times.