TeleChimp | TV Journalism

Random but true: ‘American Idol’ castoff Alex Lambert is moving in with Miley Cyrus’ ex. It’s not that the immensely talented, but quickly eliminated, Lambert and Justin Gaston are the best of friends — the two aspiring musicians are among the cast of Simon Fuller’s new Internet reality show documenting six soon-to-be-stars living together in the Hollywood Hills. Model Giglianne Braga and actors Kara Killmer, Amanda Phillips and Ben Elliott round out the cast of ‘If I Can Dream.’

Lambert was booted from ‘Idol’ a few weeks too soon to make the cut for this year’s national tour, but fans who failed to vote for the 19-year-old singer rallied after his departure with a 20,000-signature petition. It was too late to save his ‘Idol’ career, but fans’ support paid off when Lambert nabbed a spot in the ‘If I Can Dream’ house. Lambert tells PEOPLE what his fans can expect to see on Hulu.com every Monday at midnight: for one thing, no mullet.
During his ‘Idol’ tenure, Lambert’s mullet was a oft-repeated topic of conversation, but the young singer shares that he’s had a haircut since the show. “I still have a mullet a little bit,” he reassures his fans. “It’s just hair. It’ll grow back.”

Lambert also dashes the hopes of any fans who thought his ‘Idol’ defeat might have made Lambert available to a non-celeb dating pool. “I have a girlfriend,” he admits. “Her name is Raylee. She really understands me and believes in me. I’m kinda broke, so we never go out anywhere fancy, but usually I just jam out and she tells me what she likes and I usually write her a song every week and play it for her.”

The top 24 ‘Idol’ contestant says he keeps in touch with Siobhan Magnus, one of season 9′s current front-runners. “We text every once in a while,” Lambert confirms. “She was one of my best friends on the show. Everyone else was spastic and crazy and always wanted to do something, and me and Siohban would sit and eat for like three hours.”

It’s still unclear how Lambert is able to appear in the new series — the singer moves in Thursday, but ‘Idol’ contestants are famously prohibited by strict rules that limit appearances for a period of three months. There’s no confirmation on whether Fuller’s involvement has given Lambert a free pass on signing a new contract.

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An interesting comment was posted on Hibberd’s story about Thrones. The commenter states that he was talking to the Paint Hall studio manager today and apparently HBO is thinking of booking 2 hangers within the studio for the next 5 years.

I just wanted to let you know I was down at the set where Game of Thrones is filmed in Belfast today and I was talking to the Studio manager who told me that HBO have been inquiring about provisionally booking 2 hangers in the studio for 5 years. I wonder if this means they intend on having a set end date, obviously if it bombs they won’t need 5 years.

More positive signs. Although the 5 year thing is probably just HBO trying to get as good a deal as possible and doesn’t mean they are going to order a whole 5 seasons up front. I suspect that if the show really bombs, they will just cancel their booking with the Paint Hall and pay whatever fee that may result.

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With all the negative entertainment news out there, here's a little bit of positivity from the world of television awards. Nope, I'm not talking about the glamorous Emmys that are slated to air August 29, 2010, although these awards are handed out by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, too.

Rather, these awards go by the name of "Television Academy Honors" and are given to particular TV show episodes, documentaries, and other programs that exhibit a "conscience." The awards were created in 2008 in the hopes of recognizing shows that portray real life in thought-provoking and inspiring ways.

The winners of this year's "Television Academy Honors" will be recognized at a May 5th ceremony in the Beverly Hills Hotel:

* CBS's CSI, Coup de Grace: The CSI team deals with racial prejudice when they take on the case of an off-duty cop who shot another cop.

* FOX's Glee, Wheels: The Glee Club supports Artie by performing a musical number in wheel chairs.

* HBO documentary, Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?: This film shows how some children have coped with their grandparents having Alzheimer's.

* National Geographic Television, Explorer, Inside Death Row: The program includes interviews with three death-row inmates as well as follows the lives of their families as they cope with their family member's death.

* ABC's Private Practice, Nothing to Fear: When one of the practice's cancer patients wants to commit suicide, he enlists the help of two doctors, Pete and Sam.

* HBO's film, Taking Chance: Based on real-life events, this film follows a military escort officer who is bringing the remains of a fallen soldier back to the U.S. from Iraq.

* Discovery Health's documentary, Unlocking Autism: This film looks at autism from a scientific perspective as well as through real-life stories.

* Current TV's Vanguard, The OxyContin Express: The documentary exposes how prescription drug addictions are a growing problem through interviews with addicts, prisoners, and law enforcement.

What other shows of the past year have stirred talk around your dinner table or the water-cooler at work? If you were going to honor any other shows for their emotional stories and thought-provoking ideas, what would they be?

Below are a couple of sneak preview clips from Monday's upcoming episode of Gossip Girl, "The Sixteen Year Old Virgin." The first one deals with the title character and subject. Jenny confides in Serena that tonight is gonna be the night she becomes a woman ... or something like that. She says Damien is the right guy, and S reluctantly supports her. Not sure if Serena is the best confidant for J on this issue, but she did at least try to stress the importance of making sure she's ready. Nate's reaction is pretty priceless too ...

Action/adventure channel AXN will launch a high-definition version in south-east Asia from May. Carriage on two unnamed platforms has already been secured.

SPE Networks is rolling out the HDTV version in south-east Asia following its launch in South Korea in March 2009. In South Korea, AXN HD is available on DTH platform, SkyLife, as well as all three IPTV platforms – Korea Telecom’s Qook TV, LG Dacom’s myLGtv and SK Broadband’s broad&tv.

Ricky Ow, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SPE Networks, Asia, said: “With the HD wave gathering momentum in Southeast Asia, and the rewarding results we received in Korea, we believe the time is right to expand AXN HD’s presence in this region. Besides the two major platform deals, we are also negotiating for additional carriage so that more viewers will get to experience AXN’s brand of high impact action and top-notch entertainment in the best visual quality.”

AXN HD’s programming includes NCIS: Los Angeles, CSI, CSI: NY and CSI: Miami.

The AXN brand was started by SPE in Asia before expanding to Latin America and Europe.

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The Power of Three is making a comeback. Zenescope Entertainment revealed this week that they've obtained the comic book rights for "Charmed," a supernatural-themed TV series that aired on the WB Network for eight seasons. Created in 1998 by Constance M. Burge, the series followed three sisters — Piper (Holly Marie Combs), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Paige (Rose McGowan) — who were descended from a long line of good witches and tasked to face the forces of evil. Zenescope's "Charmed" comic book series will pick up with an original story that takes place after the series' eighth season. Paul Ruditis and Raven Gregory ("The Gift") are co-writing the title with artist Dave Hoover ("Captain America"). Ruditis has written several books based on TV series — including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Roswell" — in addition to two "Charmed" novels. "The key to this series success is to strike a nice balance in creating a brand new, intriguing storyline for fans of the television show while also not alienating Zenescope and comic book readers who haven't really followed it before but might want to now that it's a comic," said Zenescope Editor-in-Chief Ralph Tedesco. "The great thing is that Paul and Raven have done just that with this story arc," continued Tedesco. "Anybody will be able to pick up this series and follow it whether or not they ever watched the show before. Moreover, fans of the show are going to be thrilled when they see where this story goes." Given the newfound freedoms of the comic book medium, it may even be possible for characters like Prue (one of the original Halliwell sisters portrayed by Shannen Doherty) and Cole Turner (Julian McMahon) to return in some form. Both characters were written out of the "Charmed" TV series when their respective actors left the show. "Charmed # 0" will be released in June and the first issue will debut at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July.

WELL, only yesterday I was defending the Kate Winslet-Sam Mendes marriage breakup as having no "ulterior reason" – that is, no scandal, and no "other woman.""I KNOW nothing about sex because I vas alvays married," said Zsa Zsa Gabor, long ago. Now, according to the tabloids, it seems Sam was seeing somebody else, namely, actress Rebecca Hall of "Vicki Cristina Barcelona." So, this makes it look like the rabid British press was right after all. But I don’t think so. Kate and Sam were just finished with one another. No scandal!

Although there wasn’t any official mention of Game of Thrones at today’s TCA event, we did get an update via Matt Roush of TV Guide Magazine. Here is what he tweeted from tonight’s event:

HBO programming chief tells me they’ll see full pilot of Game of Thrones in 2 wks. Dailies look good; more scripts written. Fingers crossed.

Good stuff. As I suspected, Benioff and Weiss sound like they’ve been busy writing scripts. Sorta surprised they will be screening the pilot in only two weeks. Initial reports had mentioned Modern VideoFilm would be working on the pilot in Feb, so either that was moved up or they are no longer involved. Either way, I’ve been told not to expect an announcement until March. But still, in two weeks a few lucky individuals will get to watch the pilot episode to Game of Thrones!

The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd checks in with a great article from HBO’s TCA event that contains some exciting info. Check it out!

HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo says the dailies for highly anticipated fantasy series “Game of Thrones” look “fantastic” and the project looks very strong for a series pickup.

“Everything looks fantastic,” said Lombardo, who’s become a fan of the George R.R. Martin books upon which the project is based. “The director got great performances. Unlike a lot of projects like this, everything was shot on location. It has such a rich texture that it looks more expensive than it actually was.”

The network spent $5 million-$10 million on the pilot to bring castle Winterfell to life. Lombardo says executives are “sitting on pins and needles” waiting for a rough cut in two weeks.

“The fantasy is so incidental, it has a very adult tone,” Lombardo said. “You forget it’s fantasy while you’re watching it, and that’s what I love about it.”

The pilot will employ some CGI, for backgrounds, the story’s “direwolves” (a mixture of real animals and CGI) and dragon eggs.

Also, like in the books, each family in the story will have its own color pallet for clothing and armor.

If all goes well, Lombardo said, “Game of Thrones” will be on HBO in spring 2011 — “March or April.”

“I would be surprised if it doesn’t [get greenlit],” Lombardo said. “It has everything going for it.”

So excited right now! The head of programming at HBO is a fan of the books! Sounds like we are this close to a series pick up. Don’t know when it will be forthcoming, but it seems like just a formality at this point. I mean, they are already talking premiere dates!

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