According to The Hollywood Reporter [via Yahoo News] Iraqi television will most likely air a “tasteful” video of Saddam’s execution in which he will be hanged.

Iraqi National Security adviser Mouffak al Rubaie is quoted telling CBS news “We will tape everything.”

Even though the article goes on to talk about how most likely it won’t be aired here, I think that this video is going to surface somehow. YouTube! Or some other site will find it, and it’ll be one of the most watched videos since Kramer’s racist rant.

I don’t think I’ll watch it, as I don’t believe that you can make a hanging “tasteful.” I’m sure that all the major cable news networks will receive the footage and then cut it down to about five short clips that they’ll play over and over in a little corner on your TV while they talk ad nauseum about the hanging.

Courteney Cox stars in this new drama premiering January 2nd on FX. She is also an executive producer on the show that will follow her character, an executive editor at two tabloid magazines (Lucy Spiller).

The review at Showbuzz seems favorable as they say, “The series is a surprise in several ways. It deftly layers glamour’s standard trappings over a surreal heart of darkness — Lucy’s favorite paparazzo is schizophrenic, and we see his pained hallucinations as he pains his celebrity targets.”

It sounds really fascinating and I look forward to Courtney Cox shedding the weight of Monica Gellar. I have always thought Cox had more versatility as an actress than Aniston did - and I hope that Dirt showcases that for her.

ABC is premiering a new comedy next week called Knights of Prosperity. It was originally scheduled to premiere in Oct. but was moved to Jan. to distance it from the fall frenzy of new shows.

Stephen McPherson of ABC Entertainment told the L.A. Times, “We feel it’s so good, it deserves to have a strong launch.”

I have seen the pilot episode already, and the question is, “is Stephen McPherson right?� While ‘Knights of Prosperity’ is not the funniest show I’ve ever seen, it has potential. And in this fall season where serial-dramas rule supreme, ‘Knights’ is a breath of fresh air.

The premise of ‘Knights’ alone, makes it worth checking out. A group of down-and-out guys, form a criminal band, they name it “The Knights of Prosperity,� and come up with a plan to rob none other than Mick Jagger. Anyone who wants to steal from Mr. Jagger is a friend of mine.

The criminal band of miscreants is led by janitor Eugene Gurkin (Donal Logue, “Grounded For Lifeâ€?). Who is the one who actually comes up with the master plan of robbing the front-man for the ‘Stones.’ Other members of the gang include a taxi driver Gourishankar `Gary’ Subramaniam (Maz Jabroni, “E-Ringâ€?), a local night-club bouncer Rockefeller Butts (Kevin Michael Richarson, “Clerks 2â€?), and a attractive Hispanic waitress Esperanza Villalobos (Sofia Vergara, “Big Trouble).

‘Knights,’ has a great cast, and the characters they play are so off the wall they’re funny. There are actually a few cameos from Mick Jagger on the pilot episode, of him showing off his new house in a sort of MTV “Cribs� way.

With the number of new sitcoms this year completely dwarfed by the number of new dramas, there isn’t a big selection of new comedies to choose from. ‘Knights of Prosperity,’ definitely deserves to be found by an audience, and have a good run. Whether fiction or not I just want to see someone rob Mick Jagger.

With Lost on hiatus, and Daybreak being canceled ‘Knights’ will have to fill one of the spots. What is disappointing about this whole thing is that ABC has already shown that it doesn’t want to stand up to American Idol, by moving Lost forward an hour. But, it’s willing to throw out a fledgling sitcom right when American Idol will be on the air. ‘Knights’ won’t last, that’s my opinion. Not because it’s not a good show, because it is, but because ABC seems willing to feed it to the wolves.

[tags] Knights of Prosperity, ABC, sitcom, comedy [/tags]

I have only caught a few episodes of Friday Night Lights because I discovered it a little late in the game. (No pun intended.) However, I’ve been surprised by how much I enjoy it. The concept isn’t that unique, but the execution is. I think the cast is an excellent set of actors and actresses and the storylines are interesting enough that it can appeal to both teens and adults.

If you are interested in giving this show a try during the holidays while your other shows are taking a break, tonight is a good night to decide it. NBC is running three episodes back-to-back. I believe they are spread out from the first half of the season to give you a peak at several of the key storylines. I’m going to check this out tonight, for sure. It has been picked up for the rest of the 2006-2007 season so I’d like to keep up with it weekly from this point on and tonights’ three-play will be a great start.

If you like what you see and want to catch up fully, you should watch the rest of the episodes online at NBC. I am hoping to do that if I get a chance. Have you seen any of the first half of the season? Would you recommend any specific episodes to watch?

Where I have nothing against an Arrested Development marathon (one of my all-time favorite shows) - I would also like to mention that ABC is hosting an Ugly Betty marathon on New Year’s Eve. Ugly Betty may not be everyone’s cup of tea (My husband calls it a Disney Channel Show for grown ups) - you should give it a try if you don’t have anything better to watch. It’s just a cute show. It’s not going to be the starting-point for watercooler talks at work - but it may be something your family can all watch together. There aren’t a lot of shows like that out there right now that I actually like, so I was happy to find this one to actually make me laugh consistently.

[tags]Ugly Betty, ABC[/tags]

Just letting everyone know that G4 (for some weird reason) is having an 11 hour marathon of one of the funniest shows ever.

Christmas Day they’ll be showing 11 hours straight of Arrested Development. I miss the show, and wish it was never canceled. But, it did give us 3 hilarious seasons. So, if you’re a fan and for some reason don’t have the DVD’s, check it out.

Lost’s Evangeline Lilly had her home destroyed in a fire this week. Luckily both her and her two roommates were out of the house when it occurred, but it seems everything was destroyed. E! News reports:

The TV star’s rented Kailua residence was gutted by fire early Wednesday. Fortunately, Lilly and her two roommates weren’t home at the time of the blaze and no one was injured. A spokesman for the Honolulu Fire Department says the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Evangeline Lilly is one of those actresses who seems so real when I’ve seen her on talk shows. She doesn’t carry a chip on her shoulder or have an ego that needs to be knocked down a few notches. This kind of loss is especially hard around the holidays and hopefully she has a strong support group there to help her out. She has always seemed really easy to relate to - which makes this seem even more sad.

[tags] Evangaline Lilly, Lost [/tags]

Well! It sure has been an exciting week in the world of The View, hasn’t it?

Evidently, Rosie O’Donnell got snarky the other day talking about how Donald Trump “allowed” Miss USA to keep her crown. I thought that whole press conference regarding that decision was ridiculous as well, so I was right there with Rosie (not that I watch The View or anything) during her tirade. But then? Donald has gone on since to say such gems as this in an article at the New York Daily News:

“When I saw the tape, I said, ‘You’d better be careful or I’ll send one of my friends over to take your girlfriend!’ ” Trump told The News. “I imagine it would be pretty easy to take her girlfriend away, considering how Rosie looks.”

And how about this one on Access Hollywood:

“She’ll say anything that comes to her unattractive mouth. She said I went bankrupt, I’m worth much more than 5 million dollars, she said lots of things . . . . She says things that come to her mouth, she’s not smart, she’s crude, she’s ignorant and to be honest I look forward to suing Rosie. I’m gonna sue her and I look forward to it. She’s really very dangerous for the show.”

Brilliant. Of course, Rosie brought her girlfriend to the show today saying, “I was afraid to leave her at home in case someone with a comb over stole her.”

[tags]Rosie O’Donnell, The View, Donald Trump[/tags]

According to a post on TV.com, a member on the ABC LOST forums posted the following:

The ABC execs have asked the creators of LOST just how much time and how much money it will take to get them back on the air early!

Let me make it clear that this is only a request from the ABC Execs. This doesn’t mean that it will happen. Many of the mid-season series have tanked, Show Me The Money, Help Me Help You, Day Break have all been cancelled. They are in a panic and don’t want to further lose that Wed. night foothold. This is why they want to see if it can be brought back early.

They are about 1/2 way through with the remaining episodes.They are looking at several options, including the dreaded re-run. From what I’m hearing, the producers are holding their ground at the moment and sticking with the scheduled haitus.

If they go through with this, there would be a return date of either January 10th or January 17th. This all hinges on whether or not the production can keep up and not miss a week. This would be great for ABC, making them the most fan-friendly network! ABC Listens!

Let’s hope this is true. In the mean time, head over to what should currently be called (Not) watchinglost.com for your fix of LOST.

Is anyone else becoming completely disillusioned with news in general?

This week has been full of news stories that have been national headlines on all the cable networks, but don’t seem to be actual news.

First off there were the climbers stuck on Mount Hood. While this is truly a sad and tragic story, is it really news? Is it news that we should be updated on every half hour? I live in Utah, people are lost in avalanches all the time during the summer, and they’re never on national news.

Then we have our national news broadcasts interrupted to hear Miss America blubbering over how The Donald let her keep her crown. Does anyone even watch the pageant anymore? Why is this news? Only 7.75 million viewers watched last year’s show.

News in general, but Cable News specifically is getting ridiculous. It seems that all the “news� shows are actually Ricky Lake with political agendas. Yelling and screaming at each other like children is common place. It’s sad really.

The media is one of the most powerful tools of our time, and it’s being wasted in the name of entertainment and celebrity. A few weeks ago Muhammad reported on an MSNBC story where they covered the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes wedding for over three hours.

The question then becomes, who are we to blame for our current state of “the news?� Are we to blame the news channels (empires) or are we to blame ourselves? America has a very unhealthy addiction to everything celebrity, and it’s hurting the way we get our news. But, then again the news corporations are just that…CORPORATIONS, feeding us the information THEY want US to hear. No wonder I like to watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report more than regular “news.� At least they KNOW they are entertainment while regular “news� pretends it isn’t.

Did you know the Survivor finale was on this past Sunday? The only reason I knew was I saw it on my TiVo and thought, “Hmm…since when did Survivor start showing on Sundays?”

Evidently the Survivor finale was watched by the fewest people ever in the history of Survivor.

An estimated 16.43 million viewers watched Sunday’s two-hour finale which had Yul Kwon crowned the winner. That’s down from 21.2 million for the finale of “Survivor” a year ago December and down from the 17.1 million who tuned into May’s finale.

I’ll admit. I started watching the season, and even continued to TiVo it every Thursday, but I just never go around to watching it each week. The characters seemed more interesting than usual, the challenges were good, the scenery was spectacular - but something about the show is just getting boring. I almost hate that I stopped watching it because one of my favorites from the first half of the season won, but there were just too many other shows to watch this season. I’m glad to see I’m not the only one not sticking with the show, but I am surprised the numbers have dropped so much.

What about you? Did you watch this season?

[tags]Survivor, Reality TV[/tags]

I would like to blame watching a Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentation movie on my husband. He saw the previews and said, “That looks like it would be good,” so we watched it. It is his fault. I would never, ever watch such a movie on my own. Never.

Now that I’ve written my disclaimer, I must admit something: It was actually good. I mean, it was sappy and cheesy and all the other things you would expect from a holiday movie on TNT, but it was also sweet. It was about a guy, Robert Harlan, who let success go to his head and his family fall to the wayside. He ends up thinking he is going to die and tries to right his wrongs before Christmas. It’s a premise that has been done 100 times over, but I thought Rob Lowe and Paget Brewster did a great job making the characters seem real, even if their situation seemed a little unbelievable.

(What kind of savings did they have if they stayed living in that nice house on the “part-time teaching job” that the wife had?)

Then there was Frances Conroy of Six Feet Under fame who played the book agent with the good intentions. She did a great job making you feel like she was really trying to keep him from falling into the trap the popularity could bring a new author. She was very sympathetic and I appreciated her efforts to try to keep him grounded.

My only major complaint was the “twist” at the end, which I won’t ruin in case you want to catch the movie on your own. It seemed a little forced and ruined the sweet sentiment of the movie.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie. Of course, I’m a wee embarrassed to admit it, so let’s keep it between you an me. Okay?

Hey, I just wanted to point everyone’s attention to the new promo that’s on YouTube right now for the new season of The Shield.

It starts out with a view of a flyover of L.A. and then zooms in on Vic and Shane standing in front of Lem’s grave. If you’re a fan you’re sure to find it chilling.

Season 6 returns sometime in April.

Check it out here:

After Stephen King talked about how he would end LOST, some fans decided that they too would like to take a shot at coming up with a way to end the hit TV show.

Of course, a prize was at stake (an autographed LOST screenplay) to help get the creative juices flowing, and the results are nothing short of extraordinary.

You can read what the finalists came up with and vote for the best. If you think you have a better idea, well, that’s what the comments are for. If we get enough entries, we might even launch our own version of the contest.

I first started seeing promos for Dexter while watching Weeds and the hook had me, well, hooked. Dexter is a CSI blood spatter expert working for the Miami police helping catch bad guys. The thing is, Dexter is also a serial killer himself. The idea is pretty off beat but the show is one of the best I’ve ever seen. I think I even got chills when Showtime announced a second season for Dexter. Yeah, its that good.

Last night was the season finale of season one and for a show that has been leaving us on the edge of our seats each week they good and truly gave us the ending we deserved. My gut tells me they weren’t sure they would get a second season pick up and played it safe so they wouldn’t leave fans hanging and by doing so gave me one of the most satisfying season finales of any show I’ve ever seen. If you want the truth, I may have teared up a little. And I’m not the kind of person who gets emotional about TV, Movies, Books, or, well, much of anything.

I very badly want to go into details about the show and the finale but I’ll refrain because the joy of Dexter watching things unfold and peeling back the layers one at a time. If you haven’t been watching Dexter yet, catch up before next season. I can’t recommend this show enough. I can’t find anywhere to watch them online yet as they aren’t up on sho.com or iTunes yet, but you can catch them “On Demand” until the end of Jan. and I’m sure the DVD will hit stores before next season as well as replays on Showtime. Watch it, that’s all I’m saying. And if you decide you don’t like it, leave it on anyway because I don’t want there to be any chance of this show getting canceled.

[tags]Dexter, Showtime, Darkly Dreaming Dexter[/tags]

Sometimes Saturday Night Live is painful to watch, it is so un-funny. Maybe the host is cold, or maybe the skits are boring. Many times it seems like both are true. However, in my humble opinion, the December 16th episode with Justin Timberlake as the host was one of the funniest I’ve seen in awhile. My favorite of the show was the digital short, but there is a chance it might not be considered safe for work. There is your warning.

This Cup O’ Soup skit, on the other hand, is safe for work AND hilarious.

I think the reason why Justin Timberlake is a good host is because he doesn’t mind making an idiot of himself to get a few laughs. Add his Hip Hop Kids in for good measure, and I think he hit the SNL hat-trick. Three good skits in one episode. If only all hosts could be so lucky.

10. The 4400: This show is a treat to watch. It’s really starting to come in to its own. This summer was a fantastic season and the storylines are really branching out. Now it’s all about what the world will do, will some of them sacrifice themselves to have 4400 abilities?

Now that Collier is resurrected, like a Messiah from the future, what will NTAC do? What can they do? Is he really on the good side or the bad? So many questions need answering in this show, but it’s just too good. I’m grateful for the forward trend in creating original series to run over the summer, and the USA Network is right at the top.

9. Psych: Another USA show that really stuck out this year was the freshman comedy, Psych starring James Roday and Dule Hill, who make a hilarious duo. Roday plays Shawn Spencer who has a photographic mind and wickedly sharp wit. The show is hilarious, and fun.

Shawn Spencer pretends to be psychic, when really he can just remember things really well, why…? Because he can. Check out this show if you haven’t already, you won’t be sorry. It’s starting back up in January.

8. Heroes: Although I haven’t caught too many of the episodes, the show itself has garnered quite the cult following, and some critical praise. I did find the first episode very trite, but the production values alone are what kept me watching. I must admit that I’m not all the way caught up on this show, but come January 1st, I’ll be there for that marathon.
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I read something incredibly disturbing today. So disturbing that even Entertainment Weekly agreed with me:

Yes, there were some mildly awkward moments — no matter what, we do not, I repeat, we do not want to hear about Thumper, Lady Martha’s sex toy.

Are you confused? Well, Howard Stern interviewed Martha Stewart, of course. Doesn’t that seem like a match made in heaven? Or something you would hear about right after reports of pigs with wings? Yeah. I thought so too.

Evidently it really happened. You can even read the report from the show here, about eight or so sections down the page. (Evidently there was some delay due to Martha’s lawyer’s problems with the release.) I had to look away during several sections of the show because there are just some things I don’t want to think about Martha doing.

Your wishes have just been answered Earthling. Production on the new season of Futurama, scheduled for a 2008 release, is underway. It is still uncertain if the new episodes will be broadcast on television or be limited to a DVD-only release. If you’re like me, you probably don’t care, as long as the season is being produced, and there are going to be evil alien nudists involved.

ToyFare chats with David Cohen.