TV/ FIRST "CHARLIE'S ANGELS" PIC OUT: ABC has released the 1st photo from its 1 hour "Charlie’s Angels" drama pilot starring Minka Kelly, Annie Ilonzeh and Rachael Taylor. Based on the 1970s classic, the remake is a modern take on the "Angels," which originally starred Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett. The new pilot is set in Miami. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar wrote the script and are executive producing the Sony Pictures Television and Flower Films project with among others, Drew Barrymore.
TV/ CHERYL COLE CONFIRMED AS "X FACTOR" JUDGE: British pop singer Cheryl Cole will be a judge on Simon Cowell’s "The X Factor,” Fox announced today. Cole, a former member of Brit pop group Girls Aloud, had been a judge on the British version of "The X Factor" In a statement, Cole said: "I'm so excited to be taking part in the American version of "The X Factor". I absolutely love it here in the UK and with the talent they have out in America, I'm sure we're going to find someone very special. I can't wait to get started. I just can't decide whether I am more excited to find and nurture the talent or for the unbelievable amount of amusement and entertainment I will have watching Simon doing everything and anything he can to beat me. He's tried to beat me for three years in the UK, and hasn't even come close. His ego must be so bruised. America is gonna love this". Cole joins former Def Jam executive LA Reid at the judge's table; there will be a third judge named soon, and speculation has been focused on Cowell's former "American Idol" co-star Paula Abdul. Auditions are currently being held in several US cities. The series debuts this fall.
FILM & TV/ JACKIE COOPER DIES AT 88: Jackie Cooper, who went from Oscar-nominated child star to TV executive and director while amassing scores of acting credits, including playing Perry White in the 4 Christopher Reeve "Superman" films, has died. He was 88. Cooper died Tuesday at a convalescent home in Santa Monica. Cooper enjoyed a 60-year acting career. Before Shirley Temple won the world’s hearts, he was the most popular and widely recognized child star of the early 1930s and the first kid to shine in “talkies.” His pug nose, crinkly smile and pouty lip endeared him to a nationwide audience, 1st as Jackie in Hal Roach’s "Our Gang" comedies. Cooper was so popular, he was known as “America’s Boy.”.Cooper acted in 15 "Our Gang" shorts between 1929 and 1931 before his uncle, director Norman Taurog, cast him in the title role of "Skippy," which was based on a comic strip. Cooper earned a best actor Academy Award nomination for the film, the 1st child actor to do so and still the youngest to receive an Oscar nom for a leading role. A sequel, "Sooky," followed that year. The films launched Cooper to stardom, and he went on to star opposite Wallace Beery in 3 films: "The Champ "(1931), pictured top, "The Bowery" (1933) and "Treasure Island" (1934). He then went on to star in numerous other films for the remainder of the decade. As a teen, he showed his maturity and acting skills in 1940’s "Seventeen" and gave an inspiring performance as a trumpeter in "Syncopation" (1942) before joining the Navy during World War II. During his tour of duty, Cooper attained the rank of captain. After the war, Cooper found movie roles harder to come by, enduring such low-budget pictures as "Stork Bites Man". He then left Hollywood, touring in stock companies and performed on Broadway and TV. Cooper also produced, directed and starred in 2 series: "The People’s Choice," on which he played a nature lover elected to the city council who had a talking basset hound, and "Hennesey," playing a naval medical officer. For a period during the 1960s, Cooper thrived as a TV executive, such as packaging series, including "Bewitched, pictured above with star Elizabeth Montgomery, and sold them to the networks. He parlayed that experience into another phase of his career: He began to direct episodic TV in the 1970s and ’80s. He won a pair of Emmys for helming "M*A*S*H" and "The White Shadow". He directed multiple episodes of those shows along with such series as "Black Sheep Squadron," "Quincy, M.E.," and "Cagney & Lacey". Cooper also acted in spurts from the 1950s through the ’80s and guested on dozens of TV series including "The Twilight Zone," "Hawaii Five-O" and "Murder, She Wrote". He was most recognizable to latter-day audiences for playing Daily Planet editor Perry White in the 4 "Superman films" starring Reeve from 1978-87. Cooper virtually retired from show business in 1989. He is survived by his family.
Zsa Zsa Gabor, the 94 year old actress, was rushed to the hospital again, in what is another of a long string of life threatening conditions. According to media reports, her breathing was strained so a doctor was summoned to her home and conducted a check-up. He detected water in the lungs and ordered her rushed to UCLA Medical Center where doctors are trying to relieve the water in an attempt to save her life. In the last year, the star of stage, screen and television has suffered numerous health problems including a hip replacement in July 2010, a partial leg amputation resulting from complications from the hip replacement surgeries and stroke during the amputation which left her unable to recognize friends and family. She has been hospitalized several times this year for issues including pneumonia and a urinary tract infection. Zsa Zsa, the middle daughter of 3 glamorous Gabor girls, was also a one-time Miss Hungary in 1936. Her filmography includes more than 40 films and dozens if not hundreds of television appearances.
Interest in a new book about Navy SEAL Team Six continues to skyrocket in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden. "SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper" is being rushed into stores this week, ahead of its originally scheduled May 24 publication date. St. Martin’s Press said it has almost quadrupled the print run to 70,000 copies to meet the demand. On Amazon the book has moved from ranking No. 20,000 and into the Top 10 bestselling books for the web retailer. CAA was brought in last week to handle movie rights. According to media reports, author Howard Wasdin, a member of SEAL Team Six in the '90s, and Stephen Templin, a Navy vet and professor at Meio University in Japan, are now at work on a series of "SEAL Team Six" novels. St. Martin’s Press describes "SEAL Team Six" as a “dramatic, behind-the-scenes chronicle that takes readers deep inside the world of Navy SEALs and Special Forces snipers".
A prequel to Mario Puzo's "Godfather" novel will be published in June 2012. Based on an unproduced Puzo screenplay, "The Family Corleone" takes place before the Corleones' rise to power and tells the story of how young Vito Corleone fought his way through New York's criminal underworld to become the powerful "Don" introduced in "The Godfather". Ed Falco is the author of "The Family Corleone". In a statement, Grand Central Publishing said: "Guided by Mario Puzo's own unproduced screenplay, Ed Falco thrillingly brings back Puzo's classic characters in a prequel that both honors the original, and stands on its own as a "Godfather" novel for a new generation of readers." Puzo shared adapted screenplay Oscars with Francis Ford Coppola in 1972 and 1974 for their work on "The Godfather" and "The Godfather, Part II," respectively.
The Broadway musical "Sister Act," which earned 5 2011 Tony Award nominations this week, including Best Musical, will embark on a US national tour that will launch in fall 2012. The tour will reflect the current Broadway production, which has been revised since its 2009 London debut. An upcoming US tour is also to be based on the Broadway production rather than the London original. "Sister Act" is also poised to debut in Milan this November, with Vienna and Berlin to follow, as well as a Korean production in early 2012. "Sister Act," based on the film of the same name, also received 2011 Tony nominations for Best Actress ( Patina Miller), Best Original Score (Menken/Slater) and Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Victoria Clark).
THEATRE & TV/ MARIAN MERCER DIES AT 75: Marian Mercer, who won a Tony Award for her performance in the hit 1960s musical "Promises, Promises," died on April 27 in Newbury Park, California. She was 75 and lived in Agoura Hills. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Mercer won her Tony for a character who appeared in only 2 scenes. But Marge MacDougall, the comically soused floozy that hero CC Baxter picks up in a bar, proved to be a gem of a cameo role for the tall, blonde and brassy actress, equipped as it was with some of bookwriter Neil Simon's best jokes, and one of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's zippiest numbers, "A Fact Can Be a Beautiful Thing". At the time, the New York Times review called her "a tiny-voiced hustler with a heart as big as a saloon". Mercer also won a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award for her work. Mercer made her Broadway debut in the ensemble of Frank Loesser's "Greenwillow" in 1960. She also appeared in "Little Mary Sunshine," "New Faces of 1962," "A Place for Polly" and took part in a revival of Noel Coward's "Hay Fever," alongside Shirley Booth, John Williams, Sam Waterston and Roberta Maxwell. She returned to musicals with a 1978 Sammy Davis, Jr., revival of "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off," and was the original star of John Guare's "Bosoms and Neglect "in 1979. On television, Mercer was a regular on "The Dom DeLuise Show," "The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters," "The Sandy Duncan Show," "The Andy Williams Show" and the long-lived 1980s sitcom "It's a Living." She also had recurring roles on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," its sequel, "Forever Fernwood," "St. Elsewhere," and "Empty Nest." She is survived by her family.
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