This Just In: Kim Kardashian to Guest on CSI: NY
Jeffrey Ufberg/Getty Images
• Keeping Up With the Kardashians: Kourtney is pregnant, Khloé is married, and Kim...got a job? Yep, Kim Kardashian tweeted this morning, "Up and on my way to the set of CSI Wish me luck! Have the best day guys! xo." CBS reps confirm that today is Kim's first day of shooting for the Dec. 16 episode of CSI: NY. Kim and fellow guest star Vanessa Minnillo play a pair of hot would-be criminal masterminds.
• Mark Your Calendars: Showtime has announced premiere dates for the new seasons of three excellent series. Crazy mamas Edie Falco and Toni Collette are back at it when Nurse Jackie and The United States of Tara return Mar. 22. The final season of The Tudors, starring Joely Richardson as the last wife of a finally fat Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), premieres April 11. Oh, and for the five remaining humans who haven't seen Twilight, the TV premiere is set for Jan. 23 on Showtime.
• Top Chef: For those who felt defrauded by the lack of a new episode of Top Chef this week, we offer you this exciting (but profane, thanks to Mike Voltaggio) sneak peek of next week's episode, featuring that notorious layabout Padma Lakshmi.
Sammie in Omaha, Neb.: Is there any hope for Trauma? I'm loving the show! It's an entertaining, action-packed drama, plus Rabbit-Nancy is awesome! It's been staying almost even with Heroes in ratings, and the latest episode actually had more overall viewers.
Exclusive
Top Chef Shocker: Does a Front-Runner Go Home Early?
Trae Patton/BRAVO
Hold on to your knives, Top Chef fans, because a shocking elimination is right around the corner.
According to a source, one of Top Chef's four generally acknowledged season-six front-runners—Jennifer Carroll, Kevin Gillespie, Bryan Voltaggio and Mike Voltaggio—has let slip that he or she doesn't make it all the way, saying, "I got kicked off before the end."
The cheftestant in question revealed this info a couple of weeks ago during a casual conversation with a new acquaintance in the jewelry district of downtown Los Angeles. It could be part of a Bravo misinformation campaign, but we trust the source, so we're passing it along to you.
So who is it? We can't tell, but that doesn't mean you can't guess! Here's another clue: He or she has a number of wins under his or her belt, and he or she seemed to be coasting toward the final and very possibly the title of Top Chef!
Exclusive
Top Chef's Mike Isabella: "Robin Is Crazy and Annoying"
Bravo Photo: Justin Stephens
Mike Isabella admits the leek dish he prepared during last night's Top Chef, well, sucked. But he didn't think he'd be the one told to pack his knives and go.
No surprise, but he thought Robin Leventhal should have been sent home.
"In Robin's dish there were beets and zucchini and chickpeas and a Moroccan marinade and goat cheese and mushrooms," Isabella told me earlier today. "It didn't make sense. It wasn't good and it didn't make sense."
That's not all the Washington, D.C.-based chef had to say about his rival. Read on for more…
Natalie Portman Gets Saucy on Top Chef
Natalie Portman doesn't eat meat, but she likes salty talk.
Seriously. Watch the clip.
In an excellent switcheroo, the cheftestants are invited to cook at Tom Colicchio's Las Vegas steakhouse, only to find that they must prepare a vegetarian meal for Portman, her friends and host Padma Lakshmi, who tops herself in the "silly things Padma says" category this episode.
Remember Portman is seriously vegetarian. This serious. Still, check out what happens when Star Wars' Padmé meets Padma and the judges' critique starts sounding like dialogue from a soft-porn movie.
Trust us, something nasty starts up at the table—and for once it's not the food.
________
Need more vegetarian fare? Sample the good-looking gourds in our Pumpkin Pickin' Time gallery.
This Just In: James Van Der Beek Is Forgotten
Glenn Weiner/ZumaPress.com
• OK, We Get It, JVDB! In his latest attempt to prove he's totally not the squeaky-clean Creek boy of yesterseason, James Van Der Beek has taken a role on ABC's The Forgotten, our frenemy reveals, as a dark and shady financial broker. (We're talking to James, Kevin Williamson and other former Creeksters next week, so email any Q's to tvdiva@eonline.com or tweet @kristinalert.)
• Melrose Place Pulled... From Wednesday nights, that is. The CW has yanked repeats of Melrose in favor of repeats of Vampire Diaries, proving boss Kevin Williamson is not forgotten. (And neither are Ian S.'s abs.)
• Even Sweeter Than the Real Top Chef: Yum! There's a spinoff in the works called Just Desserts, with pastry chefs. Word is a certain E! Online columnist would not cry if they asked her to judge.
• Big Bang Throw-Down: Ruh roh! Executive producer Bill Prady promises "a big, giant, knockdown, drag-out fight" for Penny and Leonard, after which she will run into an old flame. We're no mathematicians, but this seems to add up to trouble in geek paradise.
• Dollhouse: If you love this show, tell a friend. Friday night's ratings hit an all-time low. Ugly Betty is also down 14 percent.
Jeffrey: Was that really Jayma Mays singing "I Could Have Danced All Night" on Glee?
Top Chef Drama: "Jennifer Should Have Gone Home Last Night!"
Trae Patton/BRAVO
Laurine Wickett doesn't think last night's elimination challenge on Top Chef was fair.
Can ya really blame her? She was told to pack her knives not for her cooking, but for her lack of skills running the front of the house at the restaurant.
"I think if the judges knew the circumstances and the whole situation, I'm not sure if I would have been the one to go home that night," Wickett told me this morning. "I think if the playing field was equal and all things were fair, I think Jen was kind of instrumental in bringing the kitchen to a halt that evening."
Meow!
What else did Wickett have to say? Read on to find what she thinks of Robin, Michael and Padma Lakshmi's need for salt…
This Just In: Fox Pulls Dollhouse; Neil Diamond Hearts Glee
Carin Baer/FOX
• Dollhouse Pulled: Fox confirms to us that Dollhouse will be off the air for November sweeps. It will return with new episodes on Dec. 4. The fourth episode airs tomorrow night, with guest star Alexis Denisof (Mr. Alyson Hannigan).
• Glee, Part One: This might be the best tweet ever: @neildiamond Hey, so who's this guy Puck singing "Sweet Caroline" so good,so good,so good on #Glee? Loved it!! (@Mark_Salling must be a puddle of goo right about now.)
• Glee, Part Two: A rep for Fox tells us there is "no truth to my knowledge" that Glee is planning to slap back at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's recent diss by doing a spring episode about the Glee club being excluded from a school parade.
• The Big Bang Theory: The hot geek cameo du jour is apparently CBS' Big Bang Theory. Star Trek's Wil Wheaton appeared on this Monday's ep, and now Battlestar babe Katee Sackhoff is set to stop by later this year. Nerds rejoice!
• Top Chef Masters: Mmmm...delicious news! Bravo has renewed Top Chef Masters for season two. But who do you think will win this season of regular Top Chef: Kevin, Jen or a yummy Voltaggio brother?
Rebecca in San Diego: Kristin, is the Lost holdout Mira Furlan (Rousseau)?
Padma Lakshmi: Worst Top Chef Diner Ever?
One Top Chef team named its restaurant Revolt, which is right up there with E. coli as a name you should never pick for an eatery.
However, it was the other team that drew the revolting looks from host Padma Lakshmi in this season's "Restaurant Wars" competition. For this episode, she seemed harder to please than gruff Tom Colicchio, who responds to nearly everything with a disapproving scowl or a sad, bemused grin. (Ash, we think, would agree.)
Things only got rougher when Lakshmi requested extra salt—for a dish she actually said she liked! To be fair, she may have been politely ordering it for her dissatisfied tablemates. (Or perhaps she was feeling under the weather due to her pregnancy? We hope not.)
Still, it could have been worse. At least she didn't ask for ketchup.
You know what always makes a happy diner? Ice cream!
Top Chef's Ash: Padma Never Liked Me!
Bravo Photo, Justin Stephens
Newly eliminated Top Chef contestant Ash Fulk is convinced that Padma Lakshmi doesn't like him...and never really has.
When he was eliminated last night he said he'd like to cook again some day for the judges, but just not Lakshmi.
"Through the whole season, she was not a big fan of mine," Fulk told me this morning. "The whole season, I kept running up against her. Her and I definitely didn't get along. I don't think she liked anything I made the whole time."
But while he and Ms. Lakshmi might not be breaking bread together anytime soon, read on to find out about the bromance that seemed to be brewing between him and tattooed hottie Michael Voltaggio...
Top Chef's Ashley: Prop 8 and the Wedding Challenge
Trae Patton / Bravo
Top Chef contestant Ashley Merriman is not against cooking at straight weddings.
So what was her beef with this season's wedding challenge?
It was all about timing. "My objection was more about the decision to have this challenge at the height of Proposition 8," Merriman tells me.
"It was not about the bachelor and bachelorette. I don't have any problems with them. When somebody comes and wants to propose in my restaurant I'm the first person putting the ring in the chocolate cake."
Fortunately, it wasn't her politics that got her eliminated on last night's show. Read on for the first of my weekly Top Chef exit interviews with the season's 10 remaining cheftestants.
This Just In: Top Chef, Californication Renewed
Kelsey McNeal/BRAVO
Top Chef: Bravo has announced a season-seven renewal for superamazing cooking-competition series Top Chef. And yes, we are mostly doing this item so we can post a photo of Bryan and Michael Voltaggio. What?! You know you lust after them, too really respect their food.
Californication: Good news! David Duchovny remains gainfully employed! Showtime has renewed the debauched-author dramedy, created by Dawson's Creek alum Tom Kapinos, for a fourth season.
Glee: If you haven't seen it yet, check out this sneak peek to see Cory Monteith's dance moves in all their big-galoot football-player glory in the guys' entry in the guys versus dolls sing-off this week on Glee. 'Tis wonderful and excellent and typically Glee-ful.
Brace yourselves for TV tonight, kiddos—it's Monday, aka the second-most-overwhelming night of TV after Thursday, and there's so much to see. Enjoy.
It's Spinoff Season at Bravo!
Virginia Sherwood/Bravo; Michael Lavine/Bravo; Jay Sullivan/Bravo
Bethenny Frankel minus the Housewives? Christian Siriano without the designers? Fabio Viviani and no quickfire challenge?
These are topsy-turvy times, folks, but as strange as these concepts may seem (all except for Bethenny, who is not in fact a wife), embrace them because these breakout personalities are on their way to superstardom in their own Bravo series.
The three docu-shows are currently untitled and in development, but brief descriptions have been provided by the network.
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