Today’s lunchtime perusal of the news has surfaced some chum of entertaining variety:
- From the “Turning a New Paige” Department: I’m sorry to report that Trading Spaces has been cancelled by TLC, after 8 years. When hosted by Mindy Paige Davis Page, this was an enjoyable show, and might have lasted (especially in these budget-based times) had they kept to the original formula! The hostless years, the excessive focus on Doug and Hildy, the “bonus” rooms, and the gimmicks lost the viewers. When Paige came back, some of us came back as well, but not enough. Too bad. I miss that genre: RIP While You Were Out. RIP In a Fix. RIP Clean Sweep… and now, RIP Trading Spaces. As for Paige, she’s bouncing back: she’ll be hosting the new syndicated series “Life for Dummies”.
- From the “Lived a miner forty-niner and his daughter Coraline” Department: Everyone’s talking about Coraline the movie. It appears there’s another version on the horizon: MCC Theatre in New York will be doing a musical version of the story starring Jayne Houdyshell (55) as Coraline (9). Previews begin May 7. This version features music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt and a book by David Greenspan.
- From the “I’m Not Dead Yet” Department: The infamous MyNetworkTV has announced yet another new programming model. This network, which is literally the ashes of the UPN (the
phoenixpigeon that rose from the ashes, if you can call it that, is “The CW”), has already abandoned the telenovelas and sitcoms no one watched. Their mainstay was wrestling. That stays. But any pretense of being a mini-net is gone. MyNet announced that it would feature a two-hour off-net block of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” as well as a movie night. They’ll program 10 hours a week, mostly syndicated stuff. This is just like the old days pre-UPN, going back to the days of independent KCOP-13 and KTLA-5, and what brought us such programming as Hercules, Xena, and all that ilk. My opinion: MyNet is toast. Stale toast. - From the “I Bet They’ll Find a Way To Charge a Fee” Department: I’m sure you’ve heard it by now: Ticketmaster and Live Nation are merging. Bad news for many, because both orgs charge such outrageous service fees — fees that often add up to more than an additional ticket. I avoid them if I can, going straight to the box office, or using services such as GoldStar or LA Stage Tix. Life is too short to be ripped off by Ticketmaster.
- From the “Casting Notes” Department: Casting has been announced for the tour of Fiddler, which will eventually be hitting the Pantages. No surprise here: Topol (72) will be the lead. He may be good, but I think he’s a bit long in the tooth for the role. Tevye’s not that old (remember, his youngest is purportedly around 5 or 6). Speaking of Tevya’s, the previous one on Broadway, Alfred Molina, dropped out of Uncle Vanya at the Taper. This resulted in a hole, which is being filled by Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles in Olenna. Haven’t decided whether to see that yet.
