· Megan Mullally, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, Bebe Neuwirth and Debbie Allen will star in MGM's remake of Fame. They are still looking for the breakout star who will play Coco Hernandez, forced to undress in tears as she capitulates to the perverted whims of a phony director and his "screen test." Coco will never be the same. [THR]
· To recoup some of his holding company's staggering $US1.6 billion debt, Sumner Redstone reluctantly sold his majority stake in Midway Games Inc.—which also meant relinquishing the prized Ms. Pac Man bow he loved wearing to industry functions. [Variety]
· NBC tasted a rare victory last night thanks to a fierce battle between some Vikings and some Bears, neither of which had anything to do with Rosie O'Donnell. [Variety]

After the jump: Can Martin Scorsese save HBO?

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· Arrested Development: The Motion Picture holdout Michael Cera has a secret movie—Paper Hearts, a part-doc, part-scripted movie chronicling his relationship with Charlyne Yi, which will hopefully shed some light on their WTF? romance. Sundance buyers: start your engines! [THR]
· CBS and Barry Sonnenfeld are developing Things a Man Should Never Do Past 30, a series based on the book of the same name. [THR]
· Studios and networks opt out of the over-the-top, Emmy-style campaigning when it comes to seeking a Golden Globe, leaving Hollywood Foreign Press Association members despondent that they didn't also receive a mid-century Brazilian rosewood desk bearing Mad Men Season 2 DVD in its drawer. [Variety]

After the jump: Harvey Levin still sleeping with Satan! Ask us how we know!

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· Lionsgate will distribute More Than a Game, the documentary about LeBron James's high-school years that will be cross-promoted by Nike, Coca-Cola, State Farm and other brands in a much-needed boost for the otherwise underexposed NBA superstar. [Variety]
· Fed up with the "barren" film landscape in the US, Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader is taking his career-defining transgressions to the world's one remaining bastion of angst, fear, profanity and sex: Bollywood. [THR]

After the jump: What legendary newslady will spend today in Chicago scarfing up sloppy Obama seconds?

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· Kiefer sighting! 12 million of them, in fact, as Sunday night's 24: Redemption returned Jack Bauer to sneering, skull-cracking form with modest (at best) ratings. His next appearance is scheduled for January — when 24 returns as a series — or in a heartwarming holiday video, should the inspiration strike this year. [THR]
· Let's hear it for Catherine Hardwicke! Her $US70 million weekend for Twilight made it the highest opening gross ever for a woman director. [BBC]
· Steven Seagal's law-enforcement hobby is evidently serious enough for A&E to feature him in Steven Seagal: Lawman, a new reality series showcasing the actor on duty as a deputy sheriff in Louisiana. [Variety]

After the jump: What actress is set to join the Mile-High Club with George Clooney?

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· The CW dumped its Sunday night Media Rights Capital time buy, an experiment in third-party programming gone awry. From now on, all their schedule outsourcing will go to tween drama factories in India, with Rumor-Mongering Child Goddess and Maa Tujhhe Salaam 813223 set to premiere mid-January. [Variety]
· SAG and the studios will meet in a marathon negotiation session—their first in four months—which should give them plenty of time to quibble over Hulu residuals as workmen repossess the desks, chairs, and office supplies around them. [Variety]
· Universal inks a deal with the estate of Robert Ludlum that would give them exclusive rights to any more Bourne books coming down the pipeline, including but not limited to The Bourne Code, The Bourne Diet, and The Bourne's Just Not That Into You. [Variety]

After the jump: Which former SNL shlub is now channeling some Justin Therouxesque, bespectacled sex appeal?

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· ABC Family has picked its cast for 10 Things I Hate About You, with Gregory Peck's grandson Ethan Peck chosen for the role created by Heath Ledger. Those are some massive shoes you're filling there, young man. Big, big shoes. No pressure. But just know that with this part comes the dreams and tears of millions of Ledger fans worldwide. But no pressure. But, like, it does, so just keep remembering that. [THR]
· The story of Missouri journalist Linda Trest who blew the cover of "Sergeant Bill," the meth-lab-busting con man who terrorised a community is soon to become a major motion picture from Paramount. We think it's a drama but it could work just as well as a comedy. [THR]
· "Spotted: John Malkovich at Pinkberry, being so touched by the plight of migrant children who cross illegally into the United States that he said he plans to make a documentary about it!!!" [Variety]

After the jump: Come with us on a shit-blowing-up journey of a lifetime.

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· The O.C. and Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz has been hired to write X-Men: First Class, featuring a "younger set of mutants." Pyro's gonna go totally psycho on Rogue and burn all her dress designs! [Variety]
· McCain-stumping cultural barnacle Patricia Heaton continues to work, this time in ABC sitcom The Middle, about which we could give a shit. [THR]
· Disney and Imax have paired for a five-movie deal that begins with Robert Zemeckis's motion-capture A Christmas Carol, and probably ends with 10,000 amazingly lifelike chihuahua-asses shaking in your face. [Variety]

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· CBS's Monday night sitcom lineup won the night, with How I Met Your Mother earning a season high. NBC saw modest gains, too, except for Heroes, which matched last week's series low of 7.6 million. Bring back the slovenly puppeteer! His powers to enact drama-class exercises were kick arse! [THR]
· The King of Kong and Four Christmases director Seth Gordon is attached to Universal's Suicide Squad, about a Kentucky Derby heist. [THR]
· Cosby brought him here, now it's time for Obama to do some TV landscape changing of his own: NBC is developing a sitcom based on the book Making Friends With Black People. "It seemed like a good opportunity to strike while the iron is hot," said author Nick Adams. Sounds like a great idea. [Variety]

After the jump: Whoa. Whooaa.

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· Vin Diesel AbandonedFranchiseWatch: XXX: The Return of Xander Cage will reunite Vin Diesel with director Rob Cohen for another helping of the Xtreme actioner no one remembers or wants! [Variety]
· Aaron Eckhart will head his first action movie in Battle: Los Angeles, playing a marine platoon leader fighting an alien invasion of our fair city. Don't use the rubber bullets, Aaron—it'll just be a P.R. disaster for your department when the footage winds up on the news. [THR]
· Innovative Artists has "undergone the most significant overhaul in the agency's 26-year history." And what do these sweeping changes entail? Everyone gets a title! Watch out Hollywood: The Vice Associate Director of Scripted Reality Affairs is on line 1, and she sounds angry! [THR]

After the jump: Which on-the-cusp-of-It-boy-status actor is partaking of It Boy ritual, "one for them, one for me?"

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· DreamWorks is in talks with Clint Eastwood to direct ghost movie Hereafter, which Spike Lee will later decry as featuring only white ghosts. ("Where are the black spirits?! You mean to tell me sheets don't come in brown? Another chapter of African-American afterlife history whitewashed by The Man.") [Variety]
· The 18th Environmental Media awards (first we're hearing of them, but we're usually tied up this time of year at the Tire Fire Honors) singled out Into the Wild and 30 Rock, the latter commended for "its great strides in recycling older, less-overhyped sitcoms." [Variety]
· Because there's no better way to kick off the weekend than a gloomy economic prospectus, enjoy this collection of downward trends and projected fat-trimmings sure to make 2009 your liquor-store-robbingest best! [THR]

After the jump: What surely-no-longer-virginal Disney Channel star is about to get her own show on a tanking network?

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