April Bowby, who plays Stacy on "Drop Dead Diva," works on a new business plan with Kim Kardashian's character on "Drop Dead Diva." CREDIT: Lifetime

Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva” needed a little publicity jolt to jumpstart season four, which returns Sunday night, June 3 at 9 p.m.

Two words: Kim Kardashian.

Creator Josh Berman said he heard through the grapevine that Khloe Kardashian was a fan of the show. So the show called Kim’s representative directly and it turned out she knew about the show, too. “I pitched the concept of her character,” Berman said. “She was intrigued. She liked the spirit of the show. So she flew in for three episodes.”

The divisive E! reality show impresario makes an appearance as a fictional coffee shop employee who fashions herself a relationships guru. (The writers have a sense of humor there, ahem.)

“You know you have quite the reputation,” said Stacy, played by April Bowlby.

“I hate when people talk about me,” replied Nicki, Kim’s character.

And …

Continue reading Lifetime’s ‘Drop Dead Diva’ returns for fourth season with a dash of Kardashian »

AMERICAN IDOL: Phillip Phillips is the Season 11 winner of AMERICAN IDOL at the Nokia Theatre on Weds. May 23, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. CR: Michael Becker/FOX

“Idol” winner Phillip Phillips‘ coronation song ‘Home” debuted last week at No. 2 on the Billboard digital songs list with 278,000 in sales.

That’s the best opening week for a winners’ song since Soundscan began tracking downloads in 2003.

But even counting singles sales in CD form, Phillips’ opening week was the third best ever, only behind Ruben Studdard’s “Flying Without Wings” and Clay Aiken’s “This is the Night” from that magical season two.

“Idol Chatter” in USA Today tallied the top 11:

1. Clay Aiken, This Is the Night (393,000 first-week sales)
2. Ruben Studdard, Flying Without Wings (286,000)
3. Phillip Phillips, Home (278,000)
4. David Cook, Time of My Life (236,000)
5. Kelly Clarkson, A Moment Like This (236,000)
6. Taylor Hicks, Do I Make You Proud (228,000)
   
7. Scotty McCreery, I Love You This Big (171,000)
8. Carrie …

Continue reading Phillip Phillips’ ‘Home’ debuts at No. 2 on digital sales chart »

Elle Duncan at the Doggies on the Catwalk fundraiser at Grady High School in January, 2011. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Elle Duncan, who was let go from V-103 last December after seven years, has found new full-time employment as a traffic reporter at 11 Alive.

She starts this Thursday morning from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m., according to 11 Alive General Manager John Deushane, though she won’t be full time until Monday morning.

She Tweeted this afternoon:

So I hope y’all will wake up and turn us on!! So excited to work with the whole 11alive team and get my feet wet in live television!!

She is technically employed with Radiate Media, which provides traffic for radio and TV stations, including WXIA-TV.

Duncan, who has also been a sideline reporter for the Atlanta Hawks, started her media career at 790/The Zone in 2003 with the 2 Live Stews. She moved to V-103 in 2005 to work with Ryan Cameron. In 2009, she moved to mid-days. Eighteen months later, she worked mornings with Frank …

Continue reading Elle Duncan joins 11 Alive as a traffic reporter »

Whitney Houston and her daughter Bobbi Kristina. CREDIT: Dan Steinberg/AP

The world of gossip has a scale of reliability.

On top are places such as People magazine, Associated Press  and Entertainment Tonight. If they report a celebrity is pregnant, getting divorced or was arrested for a DUI, chances are it’s true.

TMZ is very close behind and based on their track record, they are almost always correct. As a result, I will often cite TMZ.

Below them are murkier outlets such as RadarOnline and US magazine. They are sometimes right but wrong often enough that I proceed with serious caution.

So when I read an “exclusive” from Radaronline today about Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina, who lives locally, supposedly walking off the set of TBS’s “Tyler Perry’s For Better Or Worse,” I took it with a serious grain of salt. The story claimed she had left the show in a lurch, forcing them to do rewrites on her recurring character.

I decided not to write anything until Perry had …

Continue reading Tyler Perry denies report about issues with Bobbi Kristina and his TV show »

Holly Firfer, who has done a raft of TV and radio hosting gigs over the years, has nabbed a full-time job at CNN Airport Network.

Starting June 4, Firfer will be providing CNN with special feature travel stories that will be seen exclusively in airports around the country, including (of course) Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. She will also provide health reports for Accent Health, which provides stories for medical offices, and will help out with CNN on breaking news.

You might remember Firfer when she did anchor and correspondence work for CNN and what was then called CNN Headline News. In 2004, she joined Dave FM with Steve Barnes as a morning co-host. After Barnes was let go, she continued to host with Tim Orff until late 2007.

In 2005, she joined WXIA-TV as a co-host of “Atlanta & Company” with Tom Sullivan, a gig that lasted four years.

She has since done free-lance work for CNN and Victoria Stilwell of “It’s Me or the Dog,” as well as weekends on Star …

Continue reading What is up with Holly Firfer? She’s joining CNN Airport Network »

Cinestars’ Brittany Umar joins me to talk about the “American Idol” winner’s health woes, Kim Kardashian’s new role and a new venture for Clark Howard.

Join my Facebook fan page and Twitter.

Continue reading Video: talking Phillip Phillips’ health woes, Kim Kardashian on ‘Drop Dead Diva’ and Clark Howard’s HLN venture »

Anthony Bourdain is hosting a weekend show on CNN. CREDIT: AP

Just a few days after Atlanta-based HLN added the Daytime Emmy Awards to its lineup, CNN is bringing in culinary expert Anthony Bourdain for a Sunday night weekend food show.

Sister station CNN is now entering territory reserved for the Travel Channel or the Food Network, where Bourdain is seen regularly.

CNN said the show will launch in early 2013, using the same production company Zero Point that creates his Emmy-winning Travel Channel show “No Reservations,” which has been airing since 2005. He will be shot on location around the world, examining food, dining and travel rituals in different countries.

Bourdain is sardonic but knowledgeable about food and the restaurant business. He is a blatant out-of-the-box personality for CNN.

Travel Channel spokesperson, in an emailed statement, said the “No Reservations” show, which has aired eight seasons and 127 episodes, just wrapped its final season. They’ve also begun …

Continue reading CNN adds Anthony Bourdain to weekend lineup »

Atlanta-based Cumulus Media officially launched All News 106.7 at 5 a.m. this morning, the first FM 24/7 all-news station in metro Atlanta.

Until this launch, Atlanta was one of the largest markets without an all-news station. John Dickey, chief operating officer for Cumulus, said this format was “long overdue.” WCNN-AM, now sports station 680/The Fan, attempted a local, all-news format in 1988 but it lasted only two years.

About half the news staff of 24 came from the recently disbanded CNN Radio operation, including the station’s first two anchors Michelle Wright and Andy Rose. In its fast-paced first hour, All News 106.7 used Fox 5 for weather, the Fan for sports and ABC News for top-of-the-hour national and international news briefs. Greg Talmadge did traffic every 10 minutes. Commercial breaks were frequent but brief.

All News replaces an oldies format, Atlanta’s Greatest Hits, which survived four years focused mostly on 1970s pop but included songs from the 1960s and …

Continue reading All News 106.7 launches in Atlanta »

Reflecting the waning fortunes of both the record industry and “American Idol,” the contract for the runner up on the show isn’t quite as generous as it’s been in the past.

In fact, runner-up Jessica Sanchez isn’t even guaranteed a record deal, according to Associated Press.

The agreement appears to be the first time in Idol’s history that producers are not offering the show’s runner-up an album deal that in previous years came with a guaranteed advance of at least $175,000, an Associated Press review of the Fox show’s contracts reveal.

“It makes sense. You can’t continue to offer the same sorts of rewards and incentives when the program was averaging 25 to 30 million (viewers), and (now) the finale is barely breaking 20 million,” said Northwestern University assistant professor Max Dawson, who teaches a course on reality television. Wednesday’s finale was the lowest-rated final show for Idol in its history.

“These contracts don’t pay off,” he said, contrasting the long …

Continue reading Phillip Phillips’ surgery postponed; ‘Idol’ runner-up contract less generous than in the past »

I’m off today so I pre-wrote this one to amuse you for the Memorial Day weekend:

AMERICAN IDOL: The Final 13: Clockwise from Top Center; Jermaine Jones, Erika Van Pelt, Jeremy Rosado, Skylar Laine, Jessica Sanchez, Deandre Brackensick, Hollie Cavanagh, Shannon Magrane, Colton Dixon. Heejun Han, Joshua Ledet, Elise Testone and Phillip Phillips, CR: Michael Becker / FOX.

Three months ago, I made some brave predictions on the top 13. I actually didn’t do as badly as I’ve done in the past. My worst miss was Heejun, followed by Hollie.

1. Phillip Phillips. Glory glory! I actually predicted this one right. This is probably a first in the history of my predictions. This is what I wrote at the time:

He is the template that has done well season 7 to 9. He’s a good looking white dude with a guitar, evoking previous winners Kris Allen and Lee DeWyze with a bit more panache. He moves just like Dave Matthews and brings a bit of smokey blues to the table vocally. He embodies songs with a …

Continue reading How my ‘Idol’ predictions three months ago panned out »