lifetime

Lifetime’s Plan to Poach ‘Project Runway’ From Bravo Just Got Snipped

8:55AM Kyle Buchanan | Designers, gather round: we’ve got an announcement. Though the sixth season of Project Runway is filming right now in downtown LA, it may be a long time before the episodes see the light of day — if ever. Already pushed to January 2009, Runway has just been rocked by a new development in the contentious lawsuit hatched when the Weinstein Company moved the show to Lifetime over the fierce protestations of proud gay parent Bravo. Now, the judge in the case has ruled against the Weinsteins, unravelling their plans like an errant thread pulled too far: More »

Bruce Willis to Put Shyamalan Lessons To Use in Directorial Debut

4:05AM STV | Returning to his Blind Date/Hudson Hawk roots as a sensitive, almost Bergmanesque observer of angst and insecurity, Bruce Willis will make his directorial debut and star in the “indie psychological drama” Three Stories About Joan. And if you still harbor doubt about the film’s chamber-drama cred, 10,000 B.C. star Camilla Belle is attached to star. [Variety] Lifetime outbid six other networks for the rerun rights to How I Met Your Mother, which execs are reportedly considering spinning off with the Lifetime original series How I Survived Your Father Knocking Me Up at 15. [THR] After the jump: Ben Affleck loses his job, Billy Crystal reclaims his own, and the world contemplates another Star Wars movie. More »

3:30AM Defamer Hollywood | At this point, 24’s seventh season has been hit with more obstacles than the beleaguered Jack Bauer — so what’s one more? After suffering through a WGA strike, a one-year delay, and a stint in jail for lead Kiefer Sutherland, the Fox drama is once again shutting down production, says EW. Producer Howard Gordon tells the mag that he was unhappy with the scripts for hours 19-24, so the show will power down until writers can start from scratch. Still, thanks to the eight episodes banked before the strike, producers don’t expect the season premiere to be delayed any further — which is more than can be said for the Lifetime debut of Project Runway, now pushed back to January 2009. Originally slotted for this fall, where it would have followed quickly on the heels of its Bravo swan song, producers couldn’t make the abbreviated schedule work. The delay lends Lifetime the extra time it will need to craft an all-important needlepoint challenge and secure the participation of “fashion legend” Meredith Baxter Birney as final judge at NY Fashion Week. [EW] More »

9:00AM Seth | RumerWatch. Whore star Rumer Willis gets more work! She’s been cast in an episode of Lifetime’s Army Wives set to air October 12, in which she’ll play “the wife of a soldier who has been injured in Iraq.” Congratulations, Rumer Willis! [TV Guide] More »

Lifetime’s ‘Untitled Fat Friends Project’ Needs A Title!

6:40AM Seth | A press release from Lifetime touts a new slate of unscripted entertainments from the cable network. While we’re certain the kitchen island therapy of Mom’s Cooking and the ladies-only seances going down over at clairvoyant Lisa Williams’s show are sure to connect with their audience, it’s their third announced series—what some might call a calculated attempt at jumping on the “Plus-Size Sideshow” bandwagon, as the NY Times dubs it—that most stood out: More »

Ben Affleck Totally Typecast As Harried Perfumier

5:50AM Seth | · Ben Affleck will star in Mike Judge’s Extract, about the trials and tribulations of “a flower extract factory owner.” We know the punchline is “Ow My Essence of Citrus Blossom!” We’re just not sure how the rest goes. [Variety] · The Zurich Film Festival will bestow their highest honour, The Golden Herring, upon the franchise-defibrillating achievements of aging action mercenary, Sylvester Stallone. [Variety] · NBC Universal has acquired U.K.’s Carnival Film & Television, the first step in their ruddily cherubic child-king’s seven-year plan towards world domination. [THR] · The House Bunny and Legally Blonde writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith have sold ABC Studios a script for a potential series based on their “champagne-and-therapy-fueled” creative process. Working title: Set-Ups and the City. (Now who wants a show about our malt-beverage-and-hackery-fuelled creative process?) [THR] · Lifetime ordered six episodes of Blonde Charity Mafia, a documentary series about young fundraising socialites in D.C. Couldn’t they have squeezed the word “Sluts” in the title somewhere? That would have really sold it. [Variety] More »

Did ‘Project Runway’ Apply Too Much ‘Lipstick’ Last Night?

4:35AM Defamer Hollywood | Perhaps cognisant of the fact that this is their last season to milk Project Runway for all it’s worth, Bravo parent company NBC Universal has been cramming the show with so much obvious corporate synergy that you can practically hear Tim Gunn muttering, “This concerns me.” Still, last week’s challenge to create an outfit for the Olympics (currently being broadcast on NBC and NBC-owned channels!) was just a drop in the fierce, organza-draped bucket compared to the corporate chutzpah on display during last night’s episode. With guest judge Brooke Shields in the house, the designers were challenged to create a look for her character on season two of the barely-renewed NBC drama Lipstick Jungle. Thanks to Molly McAleer, we’ve assembled a video of all the times the show’s title was uttered last night — even when it sounded suspiciously ADR’d in! Who could have known that “Lipstick Jungle” would surpass “licious” and “Holla at your boy!” to become this season’s biggest catchphrase? [Bravo] More »