TV Tonight
Series Premieres- Shonda Rhimes continues her domination of ABC with the launch of Private Practice. Buzz is that the first show is so-so but will improve dramatically in the coming weeks. Also launching is the Bionic Woman remake (see yesterday's review). Neither show has been well reviewed but I wouldn't count out either especially Private Practice.
From today's NY Times review on both shows:
NBC’s show, which is more about fembot martial arts and slick Matrix-ish special effects than about character development, is oriented toward young male viewers. There is no such excuse for ABC’s Private Practice, a spinoff of Grey’s Anatomy, which is also on tonight and supposedly offers a postfeminist sensibility that is more playful and palatable than the overearnest women’s lib of the Lindsay Wagner generation.
Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery (Kate Walsh), a top-notch surgeon, has left Seattle to heal her broken heart in Los Angeles, where her best friend has founded a private wellness clinic. She is no longer surrounded by the kind of strong, tough, ambitious surgeons played by Sandra Oh and Chandra Wilson. Instead her new colleagues collectively offer one of the most depressing portrayals of the female condition since The Bell Jar.
OUCH
News
3rd La Femme International Film Festival which focuses on women filmmakers highlighting their commerical releases for a worldwide audience. Fest runs from Oct 11-14 in LA. Gala on Oct 14 will celebrate the work of Martha Coolidge, Rosanna Arquette and Lea Thompson and Sara Risher. La Femme
The FX cable channel has handed out a series commitment to Queen B, a female workplace drama from the creator of Nip/Tuck Queen B (Hollywood Reporter via Reuters)
The gala royal performance of Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane based on the book by Monica Ali has been canceled for the first time since 1958. The filming was protested last year and it looks like Prince Charles wants to stay away from controversy (except of his own making) Film will show at London Film Fest. Royal Pulls Out of Gala
Castings
"Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren and Robin Wright Penn have joined the cast of State of Play also starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Jason Bateman (he has had an amazing career revitalization over the last two years).
McAdams will play a reporter in the middle of a career-making story, as her newspaper investigates the death of the mistress of a fast-rising congressman. Mirren will play the newspaper's steely editor. Wright Penn will play the congressman's estranged wife. She becomes romantically involved with the pol's former campaign manager (Pitt), who leads the newspaper's investigative team. Norton plays the congressman and Bateman plays the other lead reporter." (Variety)
"Universal Pictures has set Jennifer Aniston to star with Aaron Eckhart in Traveling, a drama that marks the directing debut of Brandon Camp. Aniston will play a floral designer who works in a Seattle hotel where a charismatic self-help guru is conducting a weekend seminar on coping with grief. As they get to know each other, she factors heavily into the guru's realization that he practices none of the principles he teaches." (Variety)
