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Beverly Hills, 90210 alumna Tori Spelling is set to star a new comedy series for NBC. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the still-untitled comedy centers on an up-and-coming corporate publicist at a large New York firm who is assigned the dregs of the company’s accounts. Spelling will star and co-executive produce the project based on her original idea, with Roseanne scribe Lawrence Broch on board to write the script. And the timing couldn’t be better for New York-themed comedy. Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda on the HBO comedy Sex and the City, revealed in an interview on the Fox News Channel Monday that the forthcoming episodes of the show will be the last.
Celebs
Thousands of people, including Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Queen Latifah and Ice-T, attended the funeral of DJ Jam Master Jay yesterday in Queens, New York. Jam Master Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was buried at a Westchester County cemetery following a funeral service in Allen A.M.E. Cathedral. Mizell’s violent point-blank gunshot murder last Wednesday in the lounge of his Queens studio stunned fans and the hip-hop community. According to The New York Times, police reported little progress in their hunt for the masked gunman.
Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw attended the premiere of Minority Report in Havana, Cuba, yesterday. The director told the audience at the Charles Chaplin theater felt at home on the island and wished to come back many times, The Associated Press reports. On Monday, Spielberg met with President Fidel Castro to discuss U.S.-Cuba cultural exchanges, history, politics and the environment in an eight-hour meeting.
Robert Blake, who is accused of killing his wife Bonny Lee Bakely, will give a jailhouse deposition next week in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her children, the AP reports. Blake has been held at the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles since his arrest last April. A preliminary hearing to determine if Blake must stand trial on the criminal charges is set for Dec. 11.
Movies
Pop singer Mandy Moore, who starred in Warner Bros. Pictures’ A Walk to Remember earlier this year, is being courted by the studio to star in a remake of the 1959 romantic drama A Summer Place, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film, which originally starred Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee, is about two teenagers who fall in love at a summer resort at the same time his married mother and her married father rekindle an old affair.
Warner Bros. is also in negotiations to acquire the film rights to the comic book series Ball & Chain, Variety reports. The series–published by WB sibling DC Comics–centers on a bickering divorced couple who are granted superpowers that only work when they are together. Scribe Scott Lobdell will pen the feature adaptation.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Buena Vista is poised to join the billion-dollar club after the successful opening of its film The Santa Clause 2 last weekend. The studio joins Sony as the second distributor to reach that level in domestic box office this year.
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Magic duo Penn & Teller will use their knowledge of con artistry, magic and carnival tricks for a Showtime series aimed at unveiling TV psychic, alien abduction and fad religion scams. According to Variety, the cable channel has greenlighted 13 half-hour episodes set to bow in January.
Seasoned TV producer Steven Bochco is creating an hour-long drama series for HBO set entirely around the bedroom area of a married New York couple, Variety reports. All scenes in the show will reportedly take place in the confines of the bedroom, bathroom or walk-in closet area. Bochco describes the show as “almost voyeuristic.” The series is set to premiere in early 2004.
