Esther Kustanowitz: August 2008 Archives

Despite initial reports, the CW will offer a glimpse of the new '90210' to potential advertisers:

While the CW will not make promotional discs containing individual episodes (also known as "screeners") of its teen drama available to critics or media buyers, it does intend to make the show available to industry monitoring services, such as Media Information Services, that view individual episodes and write reports specifically with advertisers in mind.

The Parents Television Council had previously objected to the initial decision to not screen the show for advertisers, maintaining that the show was likely to be as morally questionable as 'Gossip Girl,' which also airs on the network:

"If 'Gossip Girl' is any indication of what '90210' will look like, advertisers have plenty of reason to steer clear of the show. 'Gossip Girl' storylines have glamorized drug and alcohol use along with casual teen sex, including threesomes. Apparently, CW believes this type of content is appropriate to include in the most-watched show among girls ages 12-17, and advertisers shouldn't expect any restraint with '90210.'

Idol Chatter hasn't seen a screener, but we're pretty sure someone hits the Jacuzzi in a bikini before the end of the first episode. Where it goes from there, only Kelly Taylor knows.

Have New York's Upper East Side rich kids set an impossibly high bar for titillation, or will their West Coast Beverly Hills-dwelling teen counterparts kick their six-packs and bikinis up a notch, making the new "90210" a real contender?

When the Parents' Television council called the teen drama "Gossip Girl" (also airing on the CW) "mind-blowingly inappropriate," they didn't mean it as an endorsement. But the show's promoters latched on to the controversy-implying statement and used it in their advertising because they know that the forbidden holds appeal, especially for the intended teen audience.

In the original "90210," the scene was introduced through the innocent eyes of Minnesota-bred twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh; their gradual acclimation into Beverly Hills was both social success and perhaps a corruption of their Midwestern values. But whatever they encountered as school, they always had their stable, if somewhat square, parents to come home to. What kind of context will the new "90210" provide in terms of family stability?

As "The Office"'s "Ryan the temp," we loved him. (Although not as much or uncomfortably as Michael Scott did.) And when he was promoted to corporate, we watched as his confidence was revealed as insecurity. Now, the Hollywood Reporter learned that actor and writer BJ Novak is in talks with Quentin Tarantino about joining the cast of "Inglorious Bastards," about "a band of Jewish resisters in Vichy-era France."

While the Weinstein company has no comment about the truth of this rumor, the Reporter also noted that Brad Pitt is being courted to portray the resistance leader (which would render him the hottest Jew in cinematic history since Paul Newman's Ari Ben-Canaan in 1960's "Exodus"), and "the film is expected to shoot in the fall in Europe and wrap in time for a potential Cannes debut in May."

Earlier this week, we blogged about Mary-Kate Olsen, and the fact that she might receive an immunity deal in exchange for her knowledge about the late Heath Ledger's drug use. But today, federal prosecutors are officially dropping the investigation into the origins of the drugs which contributed to Ledger's death in January.

Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan had been overseeing a Drug Enforcement Administration probe into whether the painkillers found in Ledger's system were obtained illegally. But the prosecutors have bowed out "because they don't believe there's a viable target," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no charges have been filed.

The DEA had obtained a subpoena that could have forced Olsen if she continued to hold out. But the subpoena, issued in April, is no longer valid because it was contingent upon prosecutors pursuing the case, the official said Wednesday. The official added that the case could still be revived if evidence of a crime emerges.

Long an activist against breast cancer, Christina Applegate, 36, was recently diagnosed with the disease during a routine MRI. The cancer was discovered early, and doctors expect her to make a full recovery.

Applegate, whose mother battled both breast and cervical cancer, has been an advocate for breast cancer research. She rose to fame in the 1980s on "Married ... With Children," won an Emmy for a guest role as Jennifer Aniston's sister on "Friends," and now plays an amnesiac in her own sitcom, "Samantha Who?"

I'm a fan of Christina's, not so much from the early "Married With Children" years, where her character was a teenage sexpot who was dumber than a box of hammers. And I wish I could say that I'm addicted to "Samantha Who?", but from the minute I saw those ads, I was instantly uninterested. But what I like about Christina is that all those years on MWC were clearly a training ground for a fine sense of comedy--in addition to being attractive, she's also funny, and has no qualms about making fun of herself in the service of comedy. The role on "Friends" was a delight, as was the raunchy but hilarious and sweet "The Sweetest Thing." (Not a family-friendly movie, but one with an amazingly simple scene rendered sweetly and creatively by Christina and then real-life husband Johnathon Schaech (they divorced last year).

If you watch Law & Order, there's a scene that you're familiar with. The inadvertent accomplice in a crime is being interrogated by the detectives, and there's a moment when they consider their options. Awareness flits across their faces, and...