FIRST LOOK: The News in Brief, July 11, 2002

Six Feet Under star heads to Broadway, Bergen makes peace with Quayle, 24 cast shake-up, more

By Mark Armstrong Jul 12, 2002 12:20 AMTags
COURTHOUSE: Talk-show ringmaster Jerry Springer sued by the son of a former guest who was killed by her ex-husband just hours after their "love-triangle" episode aired. Jeffrey Campbell claims The Jerry Springer Show created "a mood that led to murder," the Associated Press reports.

I. AM. OUTTA HERE: Funnyguy Dennis Miller wrapping up his HBO series next month after nine years. No word on what he's doing next, but HBO says the final original episode of Dennis Miller Live will be August 30.

ROASTED QUAYLE: Former Murphy Brown star Candice Bergen telling reporters she actually agreed with former Vice President Dan Quayle's speech 10 years ago in which he criticized her series for its spin on single motherhood. "His speech was a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did," she said.

STITCHED UP: Disney announcing that its latest animated hit Lilo & Stitch will get a straight-to-video sequel and its own TV series. The sequel, tentatively titled Stitch! The Movie, is due out in 2003, while Stitch! The TV Series will hit the Disney Channel in fall 2003.

RECOVERING: The Price Is Right host Bob Barker undergoing prostate surgery Wednesday at George Washington University Hospital. Doctors say the procedure "went exactly as planned" and the 78-year-old host was expected to make a full recovery.

STRIKEOUT: Tuesday's controversial Major League Baseball All-Star Game, ending in an improbable 7-7 tie in the 11th inning, attracting just 10 million viewers and pulling the worst ratings ever for baseball's "midsummer classic."

ANOTHER DAY: Actress Sarah Wynter (The 6th Day) named the new female lead opposite Kiefer Sutherland on 24 next season. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she's expected to play a rich woman who gets caught up in the Counter Terrorism Unit's latest mission.

LEGO LAND: Miramax teaming up with Lego for its first computer-animated movie, based on the toymaker's Bionicle action figures. The studio is eyeing a 2004 release date.

OUT OF THE FUNERAL HOME: Six Feet Under star Michael C. Hall heading to Broadway, signing on to play lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago starting July 30. The following week, Hall's wife Amy Spanger will join the cast, playing murder suspect Roxie Hart.

SPEED DATING: NBC ordering six episodes of Around the World in 80 Dates, a new reality series following a single guy as he goes on 80 dates with women in romantic locales throughout the world.

SUE AWAY: A federal judge allowing the wife of California Congressman Gary Condit to go ahead with a $10 million libel lawsuit against the National Enquirer, which claimed she "attacked" missing intern Chandra Levy.

SOMETHING TO CROWE ABOUT: Ally Sheedy signing on to star in the Court TV original movie The Interrogation of Michael Crowe, airing later this year. Variety reports she'll play the mother of a boy accused of killing his sister.

NOT SO SHALLOW: The Gwyneth Paltrow comedy Shallow Hal debuting as the number one DVD and VHS rental, taking in about $14 million in rental revenue for the week ended Sunday.

MOURNED: Ivan Moffat, the producer-screenwriter who was nominated for an Oscar in 1956 for his adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel Giant, died of a stroke July 4. He was 84.