Despite the fact that so many of the shows we follow on this blog involve killing people and blowing things up, many of our favorite actors and actresses are vegetarians.

PETA is holding its annual Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity contest, and here’s the stars from Remote Access shows who are in the running (sorry if I missed anyone!) — and you can vote for one woman and one man, so you can choose your favorite two:

The women

The men

Have you been keeping track of what Dan Rather’s been up to since leaving CBS News?

For the record, he’s been busy suing CBS and reporting for HDNet.

HD who, you say? I’m not surprised. I’m also guessing that’s why he’s got plenty of time to play himself on prime-time TV.

Michael Ausiello of TV Guide is reporting that Rather will return for another cameo on ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money,” when the strike-shortened soap opera is back for its second season in the fall.

Last year, Rather played himself in a dinner party scene in the show’s pilot episode.

This time around, he’ll be interviewing Patrick Darling (Billy Baldwin) about a new book.

Could it be that the rising politician comes clean about his affair with Carmelita? (Hey, where is Carmelita anyway? Did you remember that she was missing?)

(Photos courtesy of ABC)

ABC unveiled its 2008-09 primetime schedule this morning, with few (okay, make that no) surprises.

In addition to hits like “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” the network brought back all of last year’s breakthrough—though not breakout—dramas, which had their freshman seasons cut short because of the writers’ strike.

They include: “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Eli Stone,” “Private Practice” and “Pushing Daisies.”

And as expected (or already announced), the network dumped “Women’s Murder Club,” “Men in Trees,” “October Road” and “Miss/Guided.”

ABC also announced one new drama, David E. Kelley’s “Life on Mars,” based on a British series about a modern-day police detective who is transported back to 1973 after a car crash.

The network also picked up a game show from producer Ashton Kutcher called “Opportunity Knocks,” which ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson called a cross between “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.”

As for comedies,”According to Jim” will be back for its EIGHTH season. (Jim Belushi HAS to have naked photos of someone high up, right?) The worst kept secret in TV was announced, too: That “Scrubs” will move to ABC, now that NBC’s dropped it. Both of those sitcoms will be back mid-season.

Speaking of mid-season, other shows scheduled to air in early 2009 include: “Lost,” “The Bachelor,” “The Goode Family” (an animated series) and a untitled beauty pageant reality show produced Tyra Banks and (again!) Ashton Kutcher.

In other news, “Ugly Betty” is indeed moving production from L.A. to NYC.

And David E. Kelley is coming back to write most of what will be the final season of “Boston Legal.” (Thank goodness.)

So who made up the big winners and losers of the upfronts? Let’s see:

Since ABC’s “Cashmere Mafia” (a.k.a the really terrible “Sex and the City” rip-off) has all but been cancelled, it looks like Lucy Liu’s in the market for another TV gig.

And E! is reporting that she’s in talks to join “Dirty Sexy Money” as a lawyer who faces off against Nick George (Peter Krause).

E! is also theorizing that she’ll be a romantic interest for Nick, too.

What is it with this guy? First Karen, now Lucy Liu?

Not to mention Nick’s married, though his wife was last seen toking up and smooching Jeremy Darling.

As for me, I think Lucy would be better paired with a far hotter “Dirty” star: Blair Underwood.

He’s involved with Karen at the moment, but since she’s double crossing him (we think), I’m guessing that won’t last long.

We’ll find out more this fall when “DSM” returns for its second season…

(Photos courtesy of ABC)

Samaire Armstrong hit the red carpet for a movie premiere this week and confirmed what TV Guide had already reported: Juliet Darling will no longer be in the “Dirty Sexy Money” house.

She agreed that it wasn’t exactly her idea to leave, though she didn’t give a reason why the producers decided to reduce her role.

She didn’t give a reason for her recent stint in rehab either, although she gave a pretty strong hint:

Surround yourself with good people who care about you and take a second to evaluate how you feel mentally, spiritually and health-wise when you’re not doing those bad things… To be able to exist without [those things]… to me, that is better than anything — better than success, better than being on drugs or being drunk. Just being happy inside…. I wouldn’t give that up for anything.

Armstrong was confident of two other things: She will appear in a few “DSM” episodes next season and Juliet WON’T be killed off.

Whew! Thank goodness.

That means “DSM” won’t have to pull a “Prison Break” when they need a ratings boost and have to bring a beloved character back – no matter how ridiculous the premise.

(Photo courtesy of ABC) 

More than a month ago, Rickey over at Riding With Rickey tagged yours truly with a meme. Revenge for a meme I’d tagged him with, I suppose.

Anywho, I kept meaning to hold up my end of the bargain, and I finally have. It’s the movie meme, and the idea is that I’m supposed to look up my 15 favorite movies on IMDB, choose quotes from them, list them here and make you figure out what movies they are.

Aha, but this is a TV blog, I hear you thinking! Never fear, I’ve got that all figured out. No worries, I didn’t choose a bunch of Lifetime women-as-victim movies. Rather, I started with actors from our favorite TV shows. Then, I found relatively well-known characters they played in movies, found quotes from them and posted them here.

So not only do you have to figure out what movie the line is from, but you also have to figure out which actor uttered it. To make things a weeeeeee bit easier, I’ll tell you the actors I selected, but they’re not in the same order as the quotes. I’ve alphabetized the actors, by last name:

Adam Baldwin (Chuck)
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy)
Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm)
Jim Krasinski (The Office)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Chi McBride (Pushing Daisies)
Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)
Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy)
Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)
Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money)
Kiefer Sutherland (24)
Skeet Ulrich (Jericho)
Ray Wise (Reaper)

NO CHEATING. You may not look the quotes up on IMDB and then get all the answers correct. You must use your brain; you know, the part of your brain that stores all that useless movie trivia. You all have it; if you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading a television blog now, would you?

After the break, the quote list:

Wait, let me try that again.

Donald Sutherland almost played Kiefer Sutherland’s TV dad on 24, but had to turn down the part when he learned just how bad a father the writers wanted him to be, he told the BBC’s Newsbeat.

“We had a long dinner and he asked me to play his dad in 24,” he explained.

“I said OK but on one condition, the relationship has to be the same sort of relationship Sean Connery had with Harrison Ford (in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

“He said, ‘I’ll go back and see what the writers have in mind’. He came back and said, ‘No dad, they want you to try and kill me’. I said, ‘No way, that’s not going to work’. So they hired James Cromwell instead.”

Donald Sutherland said he didn’t think they’d ever go for that, but did he watch last season? I mean, c’mon. That’s about all they didn’t do.

The good news he had for 24 fans was that Kiefer’s jail time made him determined to make the next two seasons “the best two years of television in the United States.”

It seems that Kiefer was in solitary 23 hours a day. Here, lemme let Dad tell us about it:

Jail was tough for him. He had 48 days inside, 23 hours a day in solitary. It was very, very cold. There were no windows. He had no community. I also made a deposit at the prison so he could call out. We were given 14 minutes for every call. When he would call, you weren’t prepared and when I got to speak to him I didn’t get to say everything I wanted to. I wrote to him every other day though.

Just makes me have that much more respect for him, so I’m going to believe that if he says the next two seasons are going to bring us the best television in the U.S., I’m going to believe him, dammit.

Donald Sutherland photo: Louis Lanzano/Associated Press; Kiefer Sutherland photo: Courtesy of Fox.

Boo!

Hiss!

One of my favorite Darlings won’t be seen too often when “Dirty Sexy Money” returns to ABC’s lineup in the fall.

TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello is reporting that actress Samaire Armstrong—who plays the fabulously ditzy twin, Juliet—has been downgraded from a series regular to a recurring guest star.

Ausiello says that the producers decided not to pick up Armstrong’s contract option, but would like her to stop by the show as her schedule permits.

No word on whether Samaire’s demotion had to do with the undisclosed issues that led her to enter a treatment facility last year (though she only missed a single episode last year).

The move also might have to do with trimming an already large ensemble cast. In other words: Cutting a salary would save some dolla-dolla bills, which is ironic when you’re talking about a show about billionaires.

And creatively, Juliet didn’t get a lot of play last year, and if they were ditching a Darling babe, it’s not like it was going to be Karen. (Perish the thought! I love that girl’s booze-soaked heart, too.)

Still, it seemed that the character of Juliet had a lot of potential. (Come on, don’t you want to know why the Paris wanna-be is still a virgin?)

Oh well. Perhaps she’ll skip off to the Seychelles with her island boyfriend, promising to return in time for Christmas and another Darling Nutcracker performance…

(Photo courtesy of ABC)

If the writers’ strike hadn’t happened, would “Pushing Daisies” have been cancelled?

Who knows, but when a new show is over budget, behind schedule and has okay ratings, that’s never a good thing.

So when ABC made a post-strike announcement to bring back “Daisies” in the fall—instead of for a handful of new episodes this spring, like established series “Desperate Housewives” and “Ugly Betty” —creator Bryan Fuller saw it as sort of a blessing.

Fuller tells Variety that the extra time gave him a chance to completely rethink the direction of the show, which was in danger of careening off course, and plan the production more carefully.

Dear CBS,

I heard from a little bird that another fan movement was afoot to, once again, save Jericho, because it’s not clear at all that it might get a third season, based on relatively low Nielsen ratings.

So I figured I’d stick my two cents in. Don’t worry; I’ve been assured there’s no plan to send snakes (real or fake) to CBS hq. But don’t be surprised if you get more than a few letters and postcards with the following, 100 percent American, image:

Schumi’s post starts out:

Don’t trend on my love of Jericho. Don’t forget I’m here and I’m tuning in.

Count me…. and count on me!!!!!!!!!!!

Count on me to watch on tv sure.

But…..

Count on me more:
to watch online
to watch onDemand, and
to download your show from iTunes or Amazon
because that is where I’m watching my TV, like millions of others.

I’m a TV independent and I’m damn proud of it.

ABC named nine of its series that will return for sure in the fall:
Brothers & Sisters
Desperate Housewives
Dirty Sexy Money
Grey’s Anatomy
Lost
Private Practice
Pushing Daisies
Samantha Who?
Ugly Betty

Here’s what I want to know:

With the writers’ strike nearing an end—YAhoo!—it looks like many of our favorite shows will be back on the air by spring.

“The Office,” “30 Rock,” “Gossip Girl,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives” and more will likely be able to churn out a handful of new episodes by April.

But others—mostly newbies like “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Pushing Daisies” and “Chuck”—  probably won’t be back until the fall.

Then there’s “24,” which won’t return until January 2009, returning to the show’s standard winter premiere strategy—but leaving fans without their Jack Bauer fix for nearly TWO years.

As for serialized dramas like “Heroes” and “Lost,” the decision is a bit more difficult.

Networks and producers are trying to figure out if it’s worth the trouble to produce just a few episodes for the rest of this season, leaving viewers hanging in the middle of convoluted storylines until September.

“Lost” exec producer Damon Lindelof seems to think the island drama can crank out more than the 8 episodes we’ve been promised this season—but then again, it’s all up to ABC as to when they’d air.

E!’s Kristin Dos Santos got the scoop from show runners for some of Remote Access’ faves, including all of the above mentioned shows.  Check it out here!

(Photos courtesy of ABC, FOX and NBC) 

Looks like ABC may be clean and sexy-free until the fall.

TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello is reporting that even though ABC has three more pre-strike episodes of “Dirty Sexy Money” in the can, they likely won’t air until September.

I’d been wondering when we’d see more of those fabulous Darlings, since I knew there were still a few installments lying around. Especially since it didn’t look like ABC had any plans of airing them during February sweeps, which would have made the most sense—considering the drought of new scripts in TV Land these days.

But all is not lost! Ausiello says that the network will most likely kick off a new fall season of “DSM” with those extra three eps, followed by an order of 10 more. So really, it’s kind of like the show’s been renewed for another year.

A silver lining, I suppose. Waiting to see the Darlings for a few more months is better than never seeing the Darlings again at all…I guess we’ll have to keep guessing where Carmelita went.

(Photo courtesy of ABC)

A day late, but not a dollar short.

GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, announced the nominees for its 19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. As usual, just the TV nominees are listed here. Go to the GLAAD site for the full list here.

Here’s the TV noms:

Drama Series
Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Degrassi: The Next Generation (The N)
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC)
Greek (ABC Family)
The L Word (Showtime)

Comedy Series
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Exes and Ohs (Logo)
The Sarah Silverman Program (Comedy Central)
Ugly Betty (ABC)
The War at Home (Fox)

The Golden Globes Press Conference airs tonight on NBC. Sure, it’s hardly the same drama and pageantry as it usually is with the champagne dinner, but there’s still a whole lotta hardware handed out.

So I snagged the Remote Accessories’ Golden Globes picks from a previous post and reworked it to make it easy for you to see our picks and our predictions for each of the television categories. Come back later to see how right (or wrong) we were.

Will 30 Rock and Damages walk away with armfuls of trophies? Stay tuned.

As I previously posted, the Golden Globe television nominations (by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) were announced this morning and lots of new shows got their due.

Well, my fellow Remote Accessories and I have had a chance to mull these over and here’s some of our picks (and predictions) for winners, after the break

Released this morning, the Golden Globe television nominations (by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) had lots of love for critical (and ratings) darling Pushing Daisies, as well as lots of cable fare, particularly Damages.

Here’s a look at the (television only) nominees, with my picks noted (as well as what I think will actually win):

Best TV drama:
Big Love (my pick — this season was outstanding!)
Damages
Grey’s Anatomy
House
Mad Men (what I think will win)
The Tudors

Best TV comedy or musical:
30 Rock (my pick)
Californication
Entourage
Extras
Pushing Daisies (will win)

I loved this “by the numbers” item on one of the TVGuide.com blogs. Fascinating stuff, at least to me, a total sucker for lists.

Highlights follow, but check out the full post here.

$63,000 — This is the median income for homes that watched ABC’s Big Shots, Dirty Sexy Money and Private Practice. Only NBC’s The Office ($73,000) and its lead-out Scrubs ($68,000) are higher. …
24.1 percent — This is the “lift” in viewership for NBC’s The Office when you include the people who play back the show on their DVRs the same week. It’s the highest percentage, followed by Heroes (22 percent), Reaper (18.7 percent) Grey’s Anatomy (18 percent), House (17.6 percent) and Friday Night Lights (17.1 percent).
45.2 — The median age for NBC’s prime-time audience, down almost two years from last season, making it the youngest of the four major networks. CBS is still the oldest, with half of its viewers aged 52.6 or older. But ABC, thanks to Dancing with the Stars, has seen its audience age the most, going from last season’s 47.4 to 49.

Ah, Christmas.

It’s the time of year when fathers prostitute their daughters, ministers leave the church and transgender mistresses go missing.

What? That doesn’t happen at your house for the holidays?

Well, we are dealing with the Darlings on “Dirty Sexy Money,” after all.

Last night’s episode was a whirlwind of Darling offspring, from Karen and Tripp’s alliance against Simon to Brian’s crisis of faith.

Let’s break it down Darling by Darling, shall we?

Last night’s episode of “Dirty Sexy Money” was a benchmark for the series, and not just because the identity of Nick’s half-sibling finally came out.

“The Watch” marked the moment when “DSM” switched off the soap suds and showed that it could be a pure, honest, excellent drama—instead of a melodrama.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the show’s campy fun: Jeremy’s job was to lighten last night’s heavy load, as he enlisted Lisa’s help in his quest to keep Sofia by making her think he’s a poor, struggling artist. Best line of the night was his at Lisa’s art gallery: “Let’s nude it up!”

(SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!)