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The official word is out–Sean “P.Diddy” Combs will star in a reality-based series for MTV, but it will not be a show about his private life, as previously rumored. Combs and MTV announced Wednesday that they would be collaborating on the show Making the Band II, in which the music mogul will find and create a hip-hop band, Reuters reports. The 10-part series, which will show candid scenes of the music business, will begin Oct. 12.
Celebs
Arnold Schwarzenegger is saying so long to the William Morris Agency after five years, during which time he’s made such less-than-stellar films as The 6th Day and Collateral Damage. Variety reports there is no word on where he’ll land but Schwarzenegger is currently taking meetings around town.
Melissa Cho, the American woman accused of harassing Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling with letters, phone calls and visits to her Edinburgh home, has been deported from Scotland back to the U.S., Britain’s Home Office told Reuters Thursday. This happened before Cho could make a second appearance in court on the charges. The case has now been dropped.
Actress Penelope Cruz will head a U.S. branch of the Sabera Foundation, a nonprofit organization which supplies food, shelter and education to impoverished Indian women and children. The group will hold a fund raising event in Los Angeles Oct. 10, the proceeds of which will go toward the building of new hospitals and schools in Calcutta. Other charter members include Melanie Griffith and model Esther Canadas.
Former Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy and his wife have donated $1 million to the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. The Nimoy Fund for Emerging Artists will support a variety of projects by new artists, officials told the Associated Press Tuesday.
Movies
Gabrielle Union (Bring It On) will join Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the sequel Bad Boys 2. She’ll play Det. Marcus Burnett’s (Lawrence) sassy half-sister who becomes Det. Mike Lowrey’s (Smith) love interest. Production starts soon in Miami, Fla.
Meet funny guy…Tommy Lee Jones? Hot off his wacky adventures in Men in Black II, Jones is taking another comic turn in next film project Cheer Up, which he is developing with Bel-Air Entertainment. In it he will play a hardened FBI agent assigned to protect a group of rambunctious college cheerleaders from gunmen after the girls witness a murder. It’s a comedy, folks, trust us.
Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums) is looking at a starring role in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s The Big Bounce. He will play a charming drifter (easy enough for Wilson) who hooks up with a beautiful, thrill-seeking criminal who is planning her deadliest scheme yet. You may or may not remember, Ryan O’Neal starred in the 1969 version of The Big Bounce.
