News Round-up

INTERVIEW: Celebrate The Scrubs Wedding With Kimberly McCullough and Jason Thompson
McCullough tells Sara A. Bibel: "It's fun getting married because it's all paid for. I don't have to do anything except learn my lines."

Thompson adds: "It's kind of like a real wedding. Last night I was memorizing my vows. I got up this morning, took the dog for a walk, and now I'll put on my tux, stand in front of a bunch of people, and regurgitate what I remember."

Peter Ames Carlin looks back at the year in TV
Not that some people in TV aren't trying to give the people what they want. Unfortunately, the second season of CBS' JERICHO, made possible by a guerrilla campaign launched by fans who bombarded network executives with sacks of peanuts (a reference to a line of dialogue in the first season's finale) sank quickly to the bottom of the ratings and was canceled for a second time with no hope of resurrection.

Fans of AS THE WORLD TURNS characters Luke and Noah were more successful in their campaign to allow the gay couple a chance to smooch and engage in "steamy towel fights" just like the soap's straight characters do.

Critic Ben Lyons gets many thumbs down, but not from Brian Frons
Disney-ABC Television Group's Brian Frons, who heads up the creation, production and delivery of shows for ABC Media Productions, voices unqualified support for Lyons.

"This is a guy who, if you sit and talk with him, he really does have an enormous love and knowledge base of movies," Frons said. "Did he spend 20 years as critic for a major newspaper? No. He's very much of the TV generation who don't spend time reading newspapers. I think we have a guy who is giving the information that audiences want to hear about film to make decisions about what to see."

Bear attack video raises some hackles
Put a TV soap star in a plastic box in the bear pen at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, tie a dummy alongside, turn loose the bears, roll video and what do you get?

A whole lotta controversy.

A storm of it has been building since a program called "Bear Feeding Frenzy" first appeared on the Discovery Channel.

State wildlife biologists call the self-proclaimed "documentary" misleading and worse. The bear authority who worked with the filmmakers says he got snookered. And some average citizens - taken in by the show's appearance of having been filmed in the wild - are outraged that television producers would be teaching grizzlies to attack lifelike dummies, tear into tents and break into SUVs.

Former soap star Chris Douglas (ex-Antonio, PASSIONS; ex-Dylan, ONE LIFE TO LIVE) - the man in the plastic box - narrates "Bear Feeding Frenzy" as if it were happening in the wilds of Alaska with many bears. Cutaways from the bears take viewers to various wild Alaska locations.

VOTE: Should the daytime Emmys add guest acting categories?
Tom O'Neil at Gold Derby has put up a poll to see if fans want the new Emmy category.







Second Harvest Heartland, Feeding America, General Mills, and THE BIGGEST LOSER Team to Help Community Lose Weight and Raise Funds to Feed the Hungry
Second Harvest Heartland, theUpper Midwest's largest hunger relief organization, today announced a new partnership with Feeding America, General Mills and NBC's THE BIGGEST LOSER (hosted by Alison Sweeney). Through the Pound For Pound Challenge, for every pound participating dieters in Minnesota and western Wisconsin pledge to lose in the new year, General Mills will donate 10 cents to Second Harvest Heartland -- enough to provide one pound of groceries to someone in need. Funds will be distributed through Feeding America.

Kelly-Marie Stewart loves new role on HOLLYOAKS
It is daunting starting a new job – especially when you have landed a part in a top TV show with soap’s most glamorous girls and gorgeous guys. But HOLLYOAKS' newest face Kelly-Marie Stewart is loving every minute of it.

The ECHO went behind the scenes with the newcomer at the Lime Pictures set, in Childwall, as she filmed for the C4 teen soap. The 24-year-old makes her first appearance in Hollyoaks on January 28 as bubbly, fun-loving practical joker Hayley Ramsey.