White House responds to Jimmy Kimmel’s China controversy

White House responds to Jimmy Kimmel’s China controversy
Since more than 100,000 people signed a White House anti-Kimmel petition, the Obama administration was compelled to respond, saying that ABC and Kimmel had free speech rights. The White House noted, though, that ABC and Kimmel have repeatedly apologized for the sketch gone wrong.

Claim: Seth Meyers has hired the 1st-ever black female writer for a network late-night talk show
Comedienne Amber Ruffin — who participated in “SNL’s” recent black female casting call — is joining Meyers’ “Late Night” staff. Ruffin also happens to be an alum of Meyers’ comedy troupe alma mater — Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago.

CeeLo Green: I feel a little jaded that “The Voice” hasn’t produced a big star
“Believe it or not – I think the only thing that jades me just a bit about ‘The Voice’ is that we have yet to discover and, you know, unleash to the world the new, the next big thing, a true star on the big stage,” he says.

A congressman from Portland recently watched “Portlandia,” and thought it was real
“I watched the first three episodes before I realized it was a comedy and not a documentary,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer. “I mean, these are my people.”


Ashton Kutcher takes a “Two and a Half Men” selfie with “#Legends”

Check out his Instagram with Garry Marshall, Tim Conway, Carl Reiner and Steve Lawrence.


Creator of “Breaking Bad’s” Saul Goodman used to be HBO’s go-to political writer

Peter Gould is co-creating “Better Call Saul” these days, but he used to write scripts on Bush and Clinton. PLUS: Betsy Brandt wants to join “Better Call Saul.”


How Tina Fey & Amy Poehler became best friends

The Golden Globes co-hosts first met an a Chicago improv class in 1993. PLUS: Watch a history of Fey & Poehler being hilarious.

“Real Housewives” drove Rosie O’Donnell out of her Miami island neighborhood
“We were on Star Island,” Rosie recently explained. “And it was getting a little crazy with all those tour boats and that Miami Show …The Beverly …The Mom of Miami, whatever it is, Housewives.”


Is MTV doing a disservice to gay rights by having females “Faking It” as lesbians?

The new show’s fake lesbian storyline, some say, will make lesbianism a joke. PLUS: “Faking It” creator defends the show.


Cory and Topanga’s “Girl Meets World” son is making $8,000 an episode

August Maturo’s contract will give him a raise of up to $9,261 per episode if the show makes it to Season 4.

Steven Bochco: My TNT series “Murder in the First” is better than my ’90s series “Murder One”
Like the original “Murder,” the new “Murder” follow a single case over the course of the season. PLUS: Bochco says “I’m just old” these days.


“Parks and Rec’s” 100th episode: Was that the beginning of the end?

It seems like most of the characters have little room to grow at this point.

“The Simpsons” does another special couch gag
This one from animator Bill Plympton.

Why are TV’s politicians no longer inspiring?
Instead of Jed Bartlet, we have Frank Underwood.


“The Carrie Diaries” tackles the ’80s AIDS epidemic

“We’ve always been leading up to it and felt a lot of responsibility to tell it in a real way but also to (do) it as real storytelling versus melodrama or something preachy,” says exec producer Amy B. Harris.

Maggie Smith’s actor son Toby Stephens won’t watch “Downton Abbey”
“It’s not really a show I enjoy – It’s just not really what I enjoy watching,” he says.

“90210” and “Melrose Place” alum Jessica Lucas joins “Broadchurch” remake
She’ll play a reporter on “Gracepoint.”

Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” ad turns 30
The classic ad premiered on Jan. 10, 1984.

In Season 3, “Girls” gets mean
The 3rd season is disappointing, says Richard Lawson, because the show has gotten mean and harder to love, trending toward dark satire rather than loving hyperbole. “Girls,” he says, “was never exactly a ‘nice’ show, but it never used to be this mean.” PLUS: We’re not supposed to like these characters, hating is the price “Girls” has to pay for beating haters at their own game, Season 3 is more implausible than ever, the “Girls” are actually growing up this season, how Lena Dunham’s directing makes “Girls” more emotionally resonant (and polarizing), and ranking the guys of “Girls.”

HBO’s “True Detective” is simply awesome TV
“There is something invigorating about watching a show this searching,” says Willa Paskin. “Its mood, its details, its performances, its genre pleasures are so exacting and exceptional that it can be fearlessly eggheady. It’s a rejoinder to HBO’s other show that wants to be about big ideas, Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Newsroom,’ a series that stomps and snorts and screams about the shortage of smart, demanding, mind-expanding television for intelligent people without actually being any of those things. ‘True Detective’ is all of them, without the tantrum, just the goods.” PLUS: Performances trump storylines, “True Detective” goes off track in Episode 2 and gets stuck in an “arty statsis” in Episode 3, the murder mystery is beside the point, and Matthew McConaughey has never used his handsomeness to greater effect.

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