What made Elisabeth Hasselbeck great on “The View” could hurt her on “Fox & Friends”
Hasselbeck was a major draw because she brought tension to the show by disagreeing with her “View” co-hosts, says Richard Lawson. But there won’t be that kind of tension on “Fox & Friends.” As Lawson puts it, “Her talent, if you can call it that, is being the oppressed one, not part of the dopey morning affirmation to the choir. She’s going to lose all her potency, again if you can call it that, when everyone around her agrees with her.” PLUS: Hasselbeck was a “vital ingredient” on “The View” over the past decade, and the Winners & Losers from Hasselbeck’s exit, including “loser” Barbara Walters.
Paula Deen comic book will proceed, despite N-word controversy
Bluewater Productions, which has published biographical comic books on celebrities like Ellen, will release its Paula comic in October.
Jef Holm: The next “Bachelor”?
“The Bachelorette” winner is reportedly a frontrunner for next season.
Heisenberg’s “Breaking Bad”-inspired hats will soon be for sale
The San Francisco hat maker that designed Walter White’s original pork-pie hat is producing a limited set of new hats, which will make their debut at Comic-Con. PLUS: “Breaking Bad” finale will screen at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and NYC museum will have a “Breaking Bad” exhibit.
“Face Off” is bringing back 8 former contestants for Season 5
It’ll be veterans vs. newbies.
Bravo is developing a drama series based on Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House”
“Fortune” from playwright Theresa Rebeck and John Wells harkens back to the old Bravo.
Mark Burnett envisions his “Bible” sequel airing on NBC for many years
“It could run in the same way as ‘Game of Thrones,’ 12 hours year after year,” he says. “I don’t think for a minute that ‘A.D.’ lasts for just a season.”
Bill Hader’s new post-“SNL” gig: T-Mobile pitchman
Watch Hader’s new ads for T-Mobile’s “Jump” plan.
“Seinfeld’s” inspiration for Kramer has become “Rev. Kramer”
Kenny Kramer is now offering to marry couples now that he’s a fully licensed minister.
Meet the designer of Bill Cosby’s iconic “Cosby Show” sweaters
Dutch designer Koos van der Akker says his Cosby sweaters didn’t become a big deal until after the NBC sitcom ended.
Idris Elba: We’re eyeing an origin story for a “Luther” movie
“It”s a long process,” he says of making a film based on the BBC series.
Disney has become a TV company
Most Disney profits these days come from ABC and its cable networks.
What happened when a photographer attempted to debunk “Portlandia” stereotypes?
Turns out many of those stereotypes are true, as Kirk Crippens reveals in his “Portraitlandia” exhibit.
“Workaholics” star Adam Devine’s advice: “Don’t go to college, follow your dreams”
“Unless you’re a doctor, then go to college,” he says.
Paula Abdul: I stayed away from “STYCD” for so long because I needed “Idol” distance
This week, though, “I just felt it’s time,” she says. “When I was asked, I was like, ‘You know what? It’s time.”
Rod Stewart would never do “The Voice”
“Over my dead body,” he says. “I haven’t the time and I”m sure they wouldn”t ask me. I’m not really into television.”
“White Collar’s” Marsha Thomason welcomes a girl
Thomason gave birth last month to Tallulah Anaïs.
Why is “Game of Thrones” working with big-name bands?
Members of Coldplay, Snow Patrol and the Hold Steady have been collaborating with the HBO series.
Check out the “It’s Always Sunny” dressing room
For “Josh” Groban.
A “Professional TV Guest Star” writes his memoir
Fred Stoller’s new book is titled, “Maybe We’ll Have You Back: The Life of a Perennial TV Guest Star.”
How “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” represents America
The Bravo reality show “perfectly encapsulates our recessionary obsession with and disgust for wealth.”
Mae Whitman discovers her “Parenthood” mom’s “Gilmore Girls” DVDs
They were found lying on the street.
Chris O’Dowd’s “Moone Boy” hits Hulu
The “Family Tree” star co-wrote and stars in the coming of age comedy about a 12-year-old boy in Ireland in the late ’80s.
“Orange is the New Black” has a lot of fun with “Women in Prison” tropes
“Creator Jenji Kohan hasn’t just given us an intriguingly compromised lead character,” says Maureen Ryan, “she’s also created an entire world, an alternately sly and sad pressure cooker that offers an enticing range of complicated relationships and unstable power dynamics.” PLUS: One of TV’s best female-female dynamics, the first four episodes are astounding, and Jenji Kohan talks “Orange.”
NBC’s “Camp” is mediocre and filled with cliches
The Rachel Griffiths drama pales in comparison to other fictional summer camps, like the one on “Wet Hot American Summer.” PLUS: “Camp” is surprisingly smart, and there’s lots of blandness.
“The Bridge” marks a milestone in FX drama history
It’s not just a serial killer drama, says Matt Zoller Seitz. It’s something bigger; it’s a statement on How We Live Now. “The Bridge,” he says, “is a grubby, oddly mournful tale of the relationship between haves and have-nots of the U.S. and Mexico: a sprawling yet low-key drama about how money, drugs, tourism, prostitution, and deep-seated historical resentments lock nations in a symbiotic relationship in which it’s sometimes hard to tell who”s the parasite and who”s the host. Not everything in the series works.” PLUS: This excellent drama could’ve gone wrong so many ways, it turns engrossing fast, its location helps sell the story, and “The Bridge” was modeled on “The Wire.”