Getting to know new 'Parks and Recreation' stars Rob Lowe and Adam Scott

What will Rob Lowe and Adam Scott be doing when their characters arrive at Pawnee, Ind.'s "Parks and Recreation" department?

"We're going to gut it with a machete," Scott told a room of reporters Monday at NBC's press day in Pasadena. Lowe and Scott will play a pair of state auditors charged with cutting the department's budget by almost half. 

Series executive producer Mike Schur alluded to the ripped-from-the-headlines budget cuts arc last month when word leaked that "Parks and Recreation" regular Paul Schneider would be leaving the show.

"What's nice about the show is that it deals with the real impact of people losing their jobs," pregnant star Amy Poehler said. The comedy "comes from them deciding which programs should stay and which should go -- and who's in charge of that." 

Lowe and Scott's characters -- Chris and Ben, respectively -- have a "good cop, bad cop" dynamic, said Schur.

"Rob comes in and flashes those pearly whites and makes everyone feel good and happy," he said. "And then Adam comes in and starts slashing things right and left... Ron Swanson, of course, couldn't be happier."

It's been reported that Ben will become a love interest for Poehler's Leslie Knope -- but the actors say initially they'll butt heads. 

"Leslie's gone from big ideas to triage, so that's been fun to play," Poehler said.

"I come in and my character is fairly cynical," Scott said. "Leslie's idealism tests that."

The show is in the middle of production on Season 3. Poehler recently wrote an episode that will revolve around an all-night telethon with special guest and former Indiana Pacers player Detlef Schrempf. 

-- Denise Martin

Kathy Griffin, Levi Johnston to crash 'Sarah Palin's Alaska'?

Kathy Griffin and Levi Johnston are still buds. In fact they recently paid a visit to Sarah Palin's home in Alaska for an episode of "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List."

The sixth season of the Bravo reality show premieres June 15, and Griffin on Monday told reporters that she and Johnston got together to do some ice fishing and see Palin, who will begin filming her own series, "Sarah Palin's Alaska," for TLC this summer.

"My lover Levi Johnston is doing so well," Griffin said when asked for the status of their relationship. "We did an episode of 'My Life on the D-List' in Wasilla [where Palin resides.] We went to Wasilla, Alaska -- or as Levi calls it 'The Silla' -- and we went to Sarah Palin's house and knocked on her door..."  

What happened after that? You'll have to tune in.

"Don't act like that is not gonna be some good [TV]," Griffin said.

Johnston, meanwhile, is also shopping his own reality show.

Last month at the Anchorage stop on her "Life on the D-List" comedy tour, Griffin was escorted by Johnston on stage where she told the crowd that Palin was "the gift that keeps on giving."

Griffin and Johnston made headlines last summer after they indulged in some heavy duty flirting on "Larry King Live" and showed up together at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards.

For the new season of "My Life on the D-List," Griffin also participated in what she billed as "the first televised Pap smear," which she completed Saturday at the Palomar hotel while wearing "a bikini and stripper shoes."

The reason? "It was supposed to be a serious episode about women's health and preventing cervical cancer." Be warned: Griffin revealed that the process begins with her getting vajazzled.

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

The following takes place between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.: '24' shuts down

Jack Bauer has cheated death a few dozen times, but he couldn't avoid cancellation.

Tonight, the news becomes official: The clock will stop ticking on "24."

After putting the tireless Counter Terrorist Unit agent to work for eight extra-long days, snapping necks between his thighs and protecting presidents (except when they're evil), Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly has ordered that Jack stand down at this season's end. 

Although everyone on set reacted to the news emotionally, no one is perhaps sadder than the man who brought Jack Bauer to life.

"We've done eight years we're very proud of, and we're very excited about going into the film world with this," said Kiefer Sutherland in an interview with The Times. "It's very sad, the only thing tempering this from being all-out heartbreak is the fact that we have this sense of accomplishment. That's the only thing holding people up. Because, for me, and all these people who've been with us since the beginning, it's a very special thing and it's very sad to see it end."

Termination comes in the middle of Day 8, which has been, well, a mixed bag so far, and network executives at Fox seem to think that the Kiefer Sutherland-starring action drama doesn't pack the punch it once used to.

"Everyone concurs that we want the show to end as close to peak form as possible," executive producer Howard Gordon said."If they said tomorrow that you have a ninth season, it's not something we'd be up for because we realize Jack's story in the real-time format has been told. Jack is a wonderful character who can live past the '24' real-time franchise. As far as doing this high wire act...this is far as we can take it."

The ratings have reflected that. The most recent episode of the show drew 8.7 million viewers on Monday -- down 34% from Season 7's average of 13.3 million. While the ratings have cooled, the cost of producing "24" has continued to increase. And critics panned the first several episodes this season. Cancellation was hinted at earlier this month. 

The timing of getting the axe could be brutal for loyal viewers. While it's still too early to tell -- "24" turns in a game-changing episode a couple of times over the course of a season -- the show may be headed out the door on a less-than-explosive note: This season began with Jack -- or, as Kim's daughter has dubbed him, "Grandpa Jack" -- attempting to get out of the torture biz but being unable to resist the call to duty when CTU finds itself needing the Power of Bauer one last time.

But it's been slow going: The main stories have revolved not around Jack kicking butt but on his loose-cannon love interest Rene, and a not-so-urgent plot involving missing nuclear rods. Jack has also been overwhelmed with what well may be the lamest of the series' C-story lines (among them, a truly terrible waste of actress Katee Sackhoff.)

But Sutherland and Gordon said writers are working on a finale that he thinks will give the franchise a talked-about send-off.

"We began the season knowing it really could be the end," Gordon said. "We swung for the fences. We're taking some risks and it's going to a place that I gotta say is pretty challenging. My feeling is that when the seconds tick down, I hope people are sitting forward saying they want more. How it ends is far grayer and more complex and more '24' like than anything else."

"What I do like about the ending and what I can say about it is that it's very definitive about where Jack is going to end up," Sutherland said. "It can be perceived as a cliffhanger on some level, but there's no questioning his options. That's something we've never been able to do in the context of this series."

Also comforting for the fans: Jack may not be retiring just yet. Sutherland is eager to get started on a "24" movie. The film side of 20th Century Fox has already hired a writer, Billy Ray, behind the film adaptations "State of Play" and "Shattered Glass," who pitched his own version of a bad day for Bauer. (The movie would send Jack to Europe.) Sutherland personally brought in Ray's idea to the studio.

At its peak, "24" helped transform Fox into a ratings powerhouse in the early 2000s. Alongside shows like "American Idol" and "House," it vaulted the network into to the No. 1 spot among the coveted adults 18-49 demographic. "24" changed television in more ways than one.

"What I've enjoyed is that it's been part of a monumental shift in what television is compared to what it was...it became the home of drama, a phenomenal outlet for actors and writers," Sutherland said.
 
Over the years, Jack's methods extracting crucial knowledge from terrorists have included tractor-flipping his enemies and, one more than one occasion, snapping their necks with his thighs. According to the official "24" Wiki, he's killed at least 238 people on-screen. A debate about the show's depiction of torture has raged over the years.

The show's creative merits earned it both Emmy and Golden Globe awards for drama and actor Kiefer Sutherland. "24" has also received Emmy Awards for writing and directing, and last year Cherry Jones won an Emmy for supporting actress in a drama.

Known as one of the most grateful actors in the TV business, Sutherland said he is "doing everything in my power not to think about" the fact that there are only two weeks left of production.

"We’re still working, and I’m desperately trying to keep my head in that and I think everyone else is as well," he said. "I know the end will be a very difficult day, and I would love to have avoided it. It’s hard. I broke it down the other day: I've worked on '24' more than half of my professional career. We've made 196 hours of TV...close to 100 movies. That's a very successful career in itself. I think Gene Hackman and my father are the only two people who've made more stuff than that. So it would be silly for me to pretend the end of this would not have a huge impact on my life."

The series finale of "24" airs on May 24.

-- Denise Martin and Maria Elena Fernandez

Photo credit: Fox

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Jamie Oliver says he's 'not about being a food Nazi' on his new ABC series

Jamie Oliver had a tough time this week convincing David Letterman that eating healthfully was possible in America. (Said Letterman: "Soccer. Remember soccer? Well that didn't work either.") Fortunately, Oliver doesn't back down easily.

Still best known as "The Naked Chef" Stateside, Oliver several years ago spent 18 long months shooting a show aimed at changing the British school lunch system for the better -- and he succeeded. Now he's taking on America. In ABC's "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," he sets his sights on Huntington, W.Va., which has been labeled the most unhealthy place in the country. There he finds kids who eat pizza for breakfast and can't identify fresh tomatoes. (In the first episode, one guessed they were potatoes.)

Well Oliver won't stand for it. He wants you to get angry. He tells us why:

 

Johnny Weir discusses 'Be Good Johnny Weir' season finale and the possibility of a second season

 

Johnny Weir was minding his own ice-skating business when TV producers James Pellerito and David Barba approached him after the 2006 Olympics. They wanted to do a movie or a TV show about the young American athlete who has won over audiences with his charisma, flair and style, as well as his skills on the ice. They wound up doing both.

Weir agreed to be followed by cameras, reasoning that "I'm gonna be crazy whether there's a camera here or not, so let's film it," he told The Times during an interview in Los Angeles after the Vancouver Olympics ended.

So, for the last four years, cameras have been trailing Weir and collecting footage for his 2009 Sundance Channel movie, "Pop Star On Ice," and his current Sundance Channel TV series, "Be Good Johnny Weir."

The TV series ends its first season Monday night in an episode that will include footage from the Vancouver Olympics. Although no decision has been made about a second season, Weir said he hopes there will be one.

In the following video, Weir discusses how the TV show was created, how he felt when he first watched it, and his (scary) manager Galina.

In this video, Weir talks about the prospects of a second season for "Be Good Johnny Weir."

-- Maria Elena Fernandez and Denise Martin (follow us on Twitter @writerchica and @denisemartin)

Photo: Johnny Weir performing at the Vancouver Olympics: Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

Videos credit: Maria Elena Fernandez



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Johnny Weir's Weird World ... and we kinda love it.

Johnny Weir on faux rivalries, who he admires, and being called 'fierce' by Larry King

Exclusive: Aziz Ansari to host the 2010 MTV Movie Awards

Perhaps this is why Aziz Ansari has been studying up on "Twilight."

Insiders tell Show Tracker exclusively that the comedian and "Parks and Recreation" star is in final negotiations to host the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, slated to air live June 6 from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City.

Last week, Ansari spent a couple of days live-tweeting his first-ever viewings of "Twilight" and its sequel "New Moon":

"Never thought I'd see a dude pull up in a Subaru Forrester with such authority. ... #TwilightAziz"

(As of last Thursday, the comedian was still unsure about whether he was Team Edward or Team Jacob.)

"Twilight" swept the evening at the 2009 ceremony -- five awards including the one for best movie -- and stars Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart turned up to present a special extended trailer for "New Moon." (With the third "Twilight" film, "Eclipse," premiering June 30 -- and with MTV long leading the charge in all things "Twilight"-related -- one presumes viewers this year will get a similar treat.)

Meanwhile, it's safe to say demand for Azari is only going to skyrocket from here: He's costarring in the Jonah Hill-Russell Brand comedy "Get Him to the Greek," out June 4; his new stand-up comedy tour, "Aziz Ansari: Dangerously Delicious Tour," kicks off this summer (tickets on sale for most cities); and NBC just picked up "Parks and Recreation" for a third season, complete with new cast members.

Nominations for the 2010 MTV Movie Awards have not yet been announced. A spokeswoman for MTV declined comment and Ansari's reps could not be reached.

-- Denise Martin (follow me on Twitter @denisemartin)

RELATED

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Making bureaucracy work: How 'Parks and Recreation' overcame bad buzz

The Sunday Conversation: Aziz Ansari sure can pick a fight

Photo credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Drama geeks give a cheer: 'Glee' could be adapted into a stage musical

"Glee" as theatre -- it could happen!

Licensing company Music Theatre International is in talks with the creators and producers of "Glee" to turn the hit Fox show into a musical for the stage. 

Nothing is definite, but word is that the project is in the early stages of development. According to Variety, there is no indication whether the show would be aimed at amateur -- high school, included -- or professional troupes.

Some "Glee" fans-slash-budding thespians already had their shot at singing and dancing in the show itself, which in February held a nationwide open casting call for three new roles. The process was filmed and will be turned into a reality show that will air leading up to "Glee's" Season 2 premiere this fall.

The "Glee" cast will hit the stage for a live concert tour hitting the road in May. It includes stops in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago and New York.

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Fox

A&E and Discovery race to land Sarah Palin's Alaska-themed reality show

Two cable networks are bidding on the reality show Sarah Palin is pitching about Alaska.

According to Variety, it's come down to A&E and the Discovery Networks, companies that recently butted heads over the launch of two shows on Discovery's TLC that appeared to knock off A&E's highly rated "Intervention" and "Hoarders."

A&E and Discovery are said to be finalizing their bids and a decision could be made in the next few days. The trade reports that the show, which is being produced by Mark Burnett, could cost the winner about $1 million an episode. Burnett and Palin did pitch the project to the major broadcast networks, but they ultimately all passed.

Entertainment Weekly's initial report on the project described the show as "a travelogue-type documentary in which the former vice presidential candidate gives viewers an intimate look at her home state of Alaska."

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Sarah Palin addresses National Tea Party Convention in Nashville Feb. 6. Credit: Ed Reinke / Associated Press

Showtime sets summer premiere dates for 'The Big C' and 'The Real L Word'

Showtime will debut three new series -- among them, the dark comedy "The Big C" and the reality show spin-off of "The L Word" -- this summer.

"The Big C" stars Laura Linney as a repressed suburban wife and mother who reclaims her life after a terminal cancer diagnosis. Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe will have a recurring role as a smart-aleck student.

Showtime will also launch "The Real L Word," a reality show inspired by Ilene Chaiken's long-running soap opera about straight and lesbians friends living in Los Angeles, and "The Green Room with Paul Provenza," in which well-known comics give viewers unprecedented and candid access to their creative process. Participants will include Roseanne Barr, Sandra Bernhard, Eddie Izzard, Paul Mooney, Bob Saget and Jonathan Winters.

Summer will also see the Season 6 premiere of "Weeds" and the Season 8 premiere of "Penn & Teller."

The complete summer schedule is as follows:

Thursday, June 10

"Penn & Teller" 10 p.m.
"The Green Room with Paul Provenza" 10:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 20

"The Real L Word" 10 p.m. 

Monday, August 16

"Weeds" 10 p.m.
"The Big C" 10:30 p.m.

-- Denise Martin

Are viewers over Jessica Simpson? Ratings are in for her VH1 show 'The Price of Beauty'

Not gonna lie: It isn't pretty.

Just 1 million viewers tuned in to the Monday premiere of Jessica Simpson's "The Price of Beauty," a new VH1 documentary series chronicling her journey around the world in search of what beauty means in different cultures.

To put that in perspective, the premiere was beat by far less-hyped programming on cable, everything from a rerun of "NCIS," a TruTV series called "Operation Repo" and BET's "Rip the Runway" to Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" and History Channel's "Pawn Stars."

The results are surprising: John Mayer had put Simpson back in the spotlight when he compared the former couple's bedroom activity to "sexual napalm" in an interview for Playboy magazine. And Simpson herself went all out to promote the show -- Oprah and David Letterman had her on earlier this month -- speaking candidly with anyone who would listen to her talk about Mayer's comments, being called fat in the media and her return to television (Simpson's first since MTV's "Newlyweds").

Ratings for "Price of Beauty" even paled in comparison to VH1's last high-profile launch, the reality series "Fantasia For Real," which last month debuted to 2.3 million viewers. (On the other hand, "Fantasia" numbers have since cooled significantly, and VH1 overall is in a bit of a slump: In February, the channel drew an average 644,000 viewers in prime time -- off 20% from February 2009.)

Could it be that viewers are suffering Simpson fatigue? Happy to see her as they page through the tabloids, but not wanting to tune in for a full half-hour? Or maybe no one's yet realized the show isn't entirely about Simpson. In its review of the show, Time magazine gave the series credit for being a less trashy reality TV option:

"While Simpson can be, shall we say, less than culturally sensitive at times (she gets a Thai massage and says she assumed it came with a "happy ending"), she comes across not snarky or superior but as a good-naturedly clueless American willing to learn something. It's not 'Frontline,' but it's a refreshing change from VH1's dating shows."

-- Denise Martin

Photo: VH1

'Parks and Recreation': Mike Schur tells us why Paul Schneider is leaving the show, plus more details on Adam Scott and Rob Lowe

It's true, "Parks and Recreation" fans -- Mark Brendanawicz is not long for Pawnee.

A report earlier today hinted that Paul Schneider, who plays Pawnee city planner Mark, would be leaving the NBC comedy, recently renewed for a third season.

"Parks" co-creator and executive producer Mike Schur confirmed the news exclusively for Show Tracker, explained what will happen to Mark's character (on the positive side: Schneider may not be gone for good), and revealed more details about the incoming stories for Adam Scott and Rob Lowe.

We're upset. What happened?

Mike Schur: Well, the fact that you are upset is in part at least why this is happening. Let me start from the beginning. The God's honest absolute truth is this character, Mark, is at least partially based on a real guy that [co-creator and executive producer Greg Daniels] and I met while we were doing research. His career had a very interesting trajectory, which is he worked for the government for a long time as a city planner and he got so fed up with the lifestyle and the red tape and the bureaucracy, that he ... moved into the private sector. Then he got so fed up and tired of how gross corporations are that he moved back to the government. He oscillated back and forth multiple times.

When we first cast Paul, we told him that the idea would be Mark would leave and then ideally he would come back in a different capacity working for a different company. And then he would leave again and come back, and so on... It's not something you usually do on TV shows but we thought it was a good way to illustrate both the positive and negative aspects of working for a government. It was one of the first things we talked about with him.

What happened was in the wake of "Bright Star" [a film in which Schneider co-starred] and winning a lot of awards, Paul now has this film career that is just taking off in a big way. [Show Tracker notes Schneider's major credits include "Lars and the Real Girl" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."] And the movie opportunities he's getting are incredibly cool interesting movies, not the summer blockbuster movies that can be scheduled around TV actors when they need to be.

So, in the end, it was a combination of us always knowing that the character would always leave some day, the timing of this movie, and then sort of feeling like, well, the way the character's gone...we were all on the same page here and we decided to write the character out.

But the goal and the aim is to have him come back as soon as his schedule permits and as soon as the arcs we're writing call for it. We very much want him back and he has told us he very much wants to come back in the future. It really is one of those mutually beneficial situations. And we're hoping we can have him back in Season 3.

What will happen to Mark between now and the end of the season?

He's going to remain in the world of the show in a way that not only allows but hopefully demands that he'll reenter it. He's not going to be killed in some weird accident.

Maybe an obvious question, but where does that leave Ann and Mark's relationship? Post-Valentine's Day, things seem to be up in the air between them...

Mark's relationship with Ann comes to a crossroads toward the end of the year. It's something we're building toward. Most of the beats in that story haven't aired yet, ironically, because we let Rashida Jones (Ann) out of two episodes because she was shooting a David Fincher movie. Two episodes from now begins that arc.

When the Adam Scott news broke, some begun speculating that he might be a replacement for Paul -- true?

He's really not. The story that Adam Scott and Rob Lowe are coming in for ... they're not new city planners sitting across the hall. It's not like the government is firing Mark and replacing him with Adam's character. Adam is from a different world. It's not the same thing.

Variety said Adam would be a love interest for Leslie...

It's not wrong. But it's funny to say he's a love interest for Amy's character when he hasn't shot a scene yet. It's kind of silly. It's not right or wrong, if that makes any sense?

Adam's character is entering the world, he's about Amy's age, he's a man and he's single? I think that's where that came from? Look, no one ever conceived April and Andy would be romantically involved until we shot this one episode and said, "Hey, they have chemistry!" So we taste it, that's more the way we do things here. We like to get actors we think are good and just throw them into a big stew and mix it up and see what happens.

Can you tease anything else about Rob Lowe? We heard he's in for two episodes this season, and six more -- at least -- next season. He's been tweeting his excitement all day.

That's correct. He was super funny in the table read. He and Adam both were fantastic. It was very exciting. He and Adam come in as part of a team sent in from a distant land to try to help the town of Pawnee through a rough patch. There are all these stories in the news now like Kansas City is closing half of their public schools now, and, I don't know if this actually happened, but the entire state of Idaho was threatening to shut down the Parks department...and Idaho is essentially just one large park. Most cities and towns in the country right now are going through these rough patches involving plummeting tax revenue and layoffs. So we're doing a torn-from-the-headlines thing about Pawnee and Adam and Rob's characters come in to help them fix their budget problems.

OK, sounds good. We're still kind of bummed about Paul leaving though...

We really like him as an actor and as a human being, so we're hoping that it all works out and he can come back. We hope that he won't just do award-winning movie after award-winning movie...

-- Denise Martin

Photo: Paul Schneider (Christina House / For The Times); Amy Poehler and Paul Schneider (Gina Ferazzi / For the Times)

RELATED:

Making bureaucracy work: How 'Parks and Recreation' overcame bad buzz

The Sunday Conversation: Aziz Ansari sure can pick a fight

A&E vs. TLC: Which is more obsessed with obsession?

Uh oh. TLC's become obsessed with people with unhealthy obsessions. That's A&E's turf!

TV's history of copycat shows is littered with the short-lived and the canceled -- remember those "Lost" copycats? "Invasion," "Surface" and "Threshold"? We barely do! But a pair of TLC shows premiering in the next few days have hit rival cable network A&E especially close to home.

On Sunday, TLC will premiere "Hoarding: Buried Alive," a series expansion of the one-hour special it aired in October, "Hoarders: Buried Alive," about the most compulsive of pack rats. The theme and title is, well, a mite close to A&E's "Hoarders," which happens to be its second-most watched show, launched in August 2009.

Then on Wednesday, TLC's got "Addicted," a series featuring interventionist and former addict Kristina Wandzilak as she takes on the cases of those struggling with serious addictions. (The first episode revolves around Amanda, 31, who is addicted to heroine, crystal meth, pills and alcohol.) Again, it's not dissimilar to A&E's "Intervention," also about, er, interventions. "Intervention" won the Emmy in 2009 for best reality series, is now in its eighth season, and continues to reign as A&E's No. 1 rated program.

Asked about the, uh, programming coincidence, A&E VP of communications Dan Silberman would only say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."