April Love, a local PR rep for Lisa Wu Hartwell, confirmed to me that both attorney Phaedra Parks and model Cynthia Bailey (left) are now new castmates on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” which began shooting its third season this month.

Mediatakeout broke the news about Bailey earlier today.

I reported the rumor about Bailey being in the running in February.

Love doesn’t know about how Bravo will deal with seven housewives and how they are going to pare the cast down to something more manageable during the season.

If anything, it’s smart for Bravo to shake things up and shift the dynamics, which were starting to get a wee bit tiresome toward the end of season two.

The four original housewives (Kandi Burruss came on year two) have three-season contracts. It’ll be interesting who will stick around for a fourth season – if there is one.

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Continue reading Confirmed: Phaedra Parks, Cynthia Bailey new castmates on ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ »

“Glee” addicts have been gaping for air while Fox gave them a nearly four-month hiatus. The campy show doesn’t come back until April 13.

But if you want to see the dancing and singing six days early, there’s a “Glee” screening Wednesday, April 7 at 8 p.m. at The Plaza Theatre on 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. in Atlanta. The cost: $15.And no, Fox is not trying to get you to pay something that’s free on TV. Rather, it’s for charity.

Here’s press release information:

ALL proceeds will go to the GRAMMY Foundation’s® “GRAMMY In The Schools” music education programs for young people. Tickets are on sale now exclusively at www.ticketsforcharity.com. Get your tickets today before they sell out!

Here’s one of the promos Fox has been using to build anticipation.

<object width=”560″ height=”340″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/LK3CgkgM0Ag&hl=en_US&fs=1&”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” …

Continue reading Need a sneak peek of ‘Glee’? »

“Real Housewives of Atlanta” cast member NeNe Leakes in a statement last month said she’d deal some “tough love” on her son Bryson Bryant (left, with last month’s mug shot) for getting caught and arrested for a minor pot possession.

TMZ initially reported today that Bryant was arrested a second time in a month, this time for an illegal weapons possession. But at about 1 p.m., they corrected the item, saying he actually had just turned himself in based on an outstanding warrant related to an additional charge related to an initial March 7 pot possession charge. Gwinnett County fed TMZ the wrong information at first. The actual news wasn’t all that newsy in the end.

TMZ does not state what the additional charge is. I’ve left a message with the PIOs at Gwinnett County police to see if they can clarify the situation.

According to the docket, he entered Tuesday afternoon at 1:58 p.m. and left at 3:35 a.m. this morning. He is out on a $5,700 bond.

Here is his latest mugshot, …

Continue reading UPDATE: TMZ reports NeNe Leakes’ son turns himself in for outstanding warrant »

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Shannen Doherty left “Beverly Hills 90210″ and “Charmed” in a bit of a cloud.

This time, voters booted her out of “Dancing With the Stars,” the first of the 11 celebrities ousted. She was not able to overcome her “bad girl” image to generate any real fan base. Despite not being the worst dancer by any stretch, she clearly didn’t get the votes.

Doherty did the show for her ailing dad, who loves DWTS, but she never comes across as terribly warm or likable.

“I think that dancing isn’t really my thing,” Doherty said, with a certain level of stoicism. “I’m an actor and it’s what I love to do. I did this for my dad. It’s fate. My partner is hurt. I wouldn’t want to go on without Mark.”

The even more shocking news: Pamela Anderson in the bottom two. Despite passable grades from the judges and arguably the biggest name recognition on the show, the DWTS voters …

Continue reading Who got booted out first on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ »

AP photo

Martin Luther King Jr.’s life has taken on a hagiographic glow more than 40 years after his assassination in 1968. He not only has a national holiday named after him, but his name is attached to schools and streets nationwide.

From that perspective, it’s hard to imagine how unpopular he was the year he died. Part of the reason: his 1967 “Beyond Vietnam” speech, in which the civil rights leader railed against the United States for the war in Vietnam.

Newspaper editorial writers who supported him pilloried the speech, saying he was unqualified to discuss foreign policy. Black supporters, even within his own ranks, abandoned him. Pastors wouldn’t allow him to speak at their churches. Money to his organization dried up. His Harris Poll numbers dropped markedly. In 1968, three quarters of Americans and a whopping 55 percent of black Americans had a negative image of MLK.

Talk-show host Tavis Smiley, who has started doing quarterly hour-long specials for PBS this year, …

Continue reading Tavis Smiley tackles Martin Luther King Jr.’s anti-Vietnam War speech »

Best-selling author, commentator and humor columnist Hollis Gillespie can now add “reality show participant” to her resume.

For TV Land’s new show “First Love, Second Chance” airing tomorrow night at 10 p.m., Gillespie goes back to the future, spending two weeks with a former boyfriend of hers from the mid-1980s, Chris Chaput. Each immerses themselves briefly in the other person’s world.

Chris was a world champion skateboarder in the 1980s and his free-wheeling lifestyle broke them apart. Hollis eventually settled in Atlanta with her quirky friends. He runs a skateboard company in California.

According to the promo:

Though they discover some of the old chemistry, Hollis struggles to trust Chris, whose memory has some telling lapses. For his part, Chris has concerns about Hollis’s very different lifestyle and friends. And when Hollis meets Chris’s ex-wife in California, tension between the couple escalates.

A note she posted on her Facebook page yesterday: “Hollis …

Continue reading Atlanta’s Hollis Gillespie on Wednesday’s TV Land show ‘First Love, Second Chance’ »

WSB-TV’s quarterly celebrity interview specials hosted by Monica Pearson (”Closeups”) have disappeared off the air with no fanfare after two decades and more than 170 celebrities.

“I miss it,” Pearson said at the recent Frank and Tanya Ski Local Legend luncheon. “I enjoyed it.”

With the growth of Web gossip sites and a multitude of entertainment news shows, celebrity interviews are no longer all that special, she said. “By the time we aired an interview, it was old hat,” she said. “There are too many other access points.”

Another factor: Pearson is planning to retire in 2012. “The reality is Chuck [Dowdle] is gone. John [Pruitt] is leaving soon. Next will be me,” she said. It’s going to be Jovita Moore and Justin Farmer taking more and more of the responsibilities, she said.

She thinks the gradual transition will keep WSB strong and the shift not so jarring. “The quality of work is there,” she said. “Our reporters are the best in the city. The numbers will stay there. Jovita …

Continue reading ‘Monica Pearson Closeups’ no longer a regular feature on WSB-TV after more than 20 years »

Original ideas? Who needs them when you can revive “The Apprentice”?

The lousy economy has given NBC a new twist on the show by gathering as many humbling sob stories as possible so viewers will be able to connect with the “Apprentice” Average Joes. The original version died in 2007 after six cycles, quickly losing its steam with tiresome, hubris-filled contestants and boring advertorial-sized challenges. NBC has since subsisted on a celebrity version, now in its third season.

“The Apprentice 2.0″ is coming to Atlanta for open auditions on Wednesday April 7 at the Marriott Buckhead Hotel at 3405 Lenox Road, NE, Atlanta. (Atlanta has had several contestants on the show in the past, though nobody has won.)

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Wristbands will be distributed at 8 a.m and …

Continue reading ‘The Apprentice’ is back with an Atlanta open casting call April 7 »

Kim Peterson at a war rally in 2003 at Centennial Olympic Park. PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Teagle/AJC

Kim “The Kimmer” Peterson has not uttered his signature phrase “Semper Fi” in more than three years despite the fact his fans have been clamoring for him to come back.

Good news: the former WGST-AM afternoon host is finally back – sort of. Josh Price at the Conservative Beacon Web site has convinced the Kimmer to do a 30-minute weekly podcast on his Web site for a test ten-week run. And the Kimmer got one of his old advertising sponsors Solomon Brothers Fine Jewelry to sponsor it.

The Kimmer has been offered a couple of jobs here in Atlanta but from a financial standpoint, he didn’t think they were worth it. He’s doing this for fun, he said.

“I do miss working,” he said. “But it’s kind of hard to complain about doing nothing, too.”

Over the past three years, the Kimmer has missed the chance to talk about Obama, the health-care bill and the economic downturn which has caused his …

Continue reading The Kimmer gets a podcast gig »

ABC is bringing back the surprisingly durable reality show “Wife Swap” Friday but is probably more concerned about its sci-fi remake “V,” which returns Tuesday after a long winter break.

The show’s ratings fell off sharply over four episodes so its future is as much in doubt as the human race, as it gets ready to fight off the aliens.

TNT is reluctantly letting go of “Saving Grace,” a victim of high costs. It begins its nine-episode concluding run Monday night.

USA carts out two of its dramas this week: “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” Tuesday and “In Plain Sight” Wednesday.

And CBS is hoping to nurture yet another medical drama “Miami Medical” on Friday night, a tough night to launch shows nowadays.

MONDAY
“Dancing With the Stars” 8 p.m. ABC — Everyone gets a second dance. Pamela Anderson can stand there and jiggle and garner votes.
“10 Things I Hate About You” 8 p.m. ABC Family (second-season debut) — Kat, suspended, sneaks into school to take a test. Foolish or …

Continue reading TV best bets with return of ‘Saving Grace,’ ‘Law & Order: CI,’ ‘In Plain Sight,’ ‘V’ »