TVSquad

This seems like an odd one. ABC is bringing the 2002 Jennifer Lopez movie Maid in Manhattan to the small screen.

I'm a sucker for romantic comedies, and I actually liked the movie (probably one of the few who did). But even I think it's a weird project to be adapting into a TV series.

The movie features Lopez as Marisa Ventura, a struggling single mom from the Bronx who works as a maid at a posh Manhattan hotel. Ralph Fiennes plays a rising politician who mistakes her for a wealthy socialite. They fall in love, yada, yada, yada. Those two stars had very little chemistry (and yet I still liked the movie).

Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl. Gossip Girl.

That's pretty much been the talk this summer. It's on the CW and doesn't get great ratings, but everyone is talking about the cast romances and the clothing and the ad controversy. It's the "buzz-worthy" show of the moment, and a lot of people are getting sick of it. And that list of people seems to include America Ferrera.

I'm not a body language expert (my degree is actually in psychotherapy) but I just know that the clip after the jump shows the Ugly Betty star about 33 seconds away from walking off the set as Blake Lively goes on and on about Gossip Girl. Which would be fine if Lively and Ferrera weren't there to promote something else, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. E's The Soup caught Ferrera's reaction and showed it to the world.

It's coming. The table is set, the players are on the field, the sails are raised, and the pretty maids are all in a row. Of course, I speak of the 2008-09 television schedule. In just a few short weeks viewers will be able to dine on a number of favorite and new dishes that are being served by the networks as well as the increasing number of cable channels who are delving into original programming.

While other fall seasons have come and gone with nary a whimper, this season may be different. Due to the prolonged Writers Strike many shows ended their seasons quite early. Programs like Life, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, and Heroes haven't aired original episodes since the end of 2007. Heck, there hasn't been a new episode of The Shield since June of last year! So, the beginning of the 2008-09 season will be a second chance for some of these shows, particularly the ones that premiered last season, to show their worth to fans and the networks.

One of the best things about moving your show to New York? New York guest stars. Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa have signed up to play themselves on the September 25th season premiere of Ugly Betty. Conveniently, Ugly Betty's star, America Ferrera, announced the casting news while she was a guest on ... Live With Regis & Kelly.

In addition to the morning duo, other guest stars lined up for the new East Coast version of Betty include Ripa's husband, former All My Children star Mark Consuelos and Long Island native Lindsay Lohan. Lohan is reprising her role as Betty's high school rival for five episodes.

I'm a sucker for shows that are filmed in New York, so I'm super-psyched about this season of Ugly Betty. Now that they've already snagged Regis & Kelly, what other New Yorkers should Ugly Betty try to get as a guest star? Personally, my fingers are crossed for Anderson Cooper. But then again, my fingers are always crossed for Anderson Cooper.

You can always count on Ugly Betty to feature tons of guest stars each season. There are the celebrity cameos, the hot love interests, and the over-the-top divas. Yet another guest star was recently lined up for the show's third season, and while his love interest status is unconfirmed, he definitely belongs in the "hot" category.

Former All My Children star Mark Consuelos is taking on another soapy role in a guest spot on the telenovela-inspired Ugly Betty. Although the powers-that-be haven't revealed any major details about his role, TV Guide did discover a few bits of info.

While Ugly Betty's move to New York City might not have been good news for the show's crew, Queens residents couldn't be happier to have the Suarez family in town. Fans welcomed the comedy series with a block party-style celebration in Jackson Heights, Betty's home base.

Actors America Ferrera and Tony Plana attended the event and thanked fans in both English and Spanish. The Ugly Betty cast and crew have already been seen filming in their new, more authentic surroundings. As Allison mentioned, America Ferrera was recently spotted riding a motorcycle in Brooklyn (dressed as Betty Suarez, of course).

I wanted to wait a bit before I posted about the ABC showrunner panel, because a) I already posted about the "news" from Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl's statements, and b) I wanted to think about why these panels seem to be so much more informative than the individual show panels?

We'll get to that more later. On the panel were Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (Lost), and Greg Berlanti (seemingly the rest of ABC's schedule). As you'd expect, Rhimes got the Heigl questions, Lindelof and Cuse got the most esoteric questions, and Chery made the most jokes. The funniest line, though, came from Horta.

I've always enjoyed jingles, you know, those catchy commercial tunes that get in your head and never leave. "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." See, after all these years, it's still there. I wonder if Gene Simmons would have liked that McDonald's jingle?

We'll soon find out what the Kiss star likes in musical commercial craftsmanship because Gene Simmons has been tapped as one of the judges on the CBS reality show Jingles. It's a competition show, from producer Mark Burnett, he of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Survivor and The Apprentice fame. We'll just forget about the ones that didn't fly, like On the Lot (that was painful to watch), Pirate Master (unwatchable) and Rock Star: INXS (truly a train wreck).

Jingles should be pretty challenging for contestants; it's hard to fake it when it comes to writing words and lyrics. The winner gets a contract with an advertising agency and $100,000.

Including gay characters on your TV show is good, unless it's two lesbians who fall in love with a straight man, as they do in a storyline on New Amsterdam. FOX learned that the hard way when they received a failing grade from GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) on their second annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index. The index measures the "quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television."

Even though GLAAD gave FOX a failing grade, the network's cable counterpart, FX, received top honors for cable channels. The advocacy group praised them for including the most original programming that featured members LGBT community. Special notice was given to Nip/Tuck, which had a gay, lesbian, or bisexual character in every episode. Rescue Me's commitment ceremony storyline was also viewed favorably by the group.

Ugly Betty's Henry is going to Harper's Island. Actor Christopher Gorham has been cast on the new mystery Harper's Island. Good for Chris, but what about his other character, Henry, the lovable geeky accountant on Ugly Betty? That remains in question.

On Harper's Island, which CBS is calling a Ten Little Indians/Twin Peaks-style horror mystery in which a wedding party on a Seattle island find themselves cut off from the mainland with a murderer on the loose. The killer is doing away with characters week after week and everyone is a suspect or a victim.

In addition to Christopher Gorham, actor Bill Pullman (Sleepless in Seattle) is also in the show as a jovial, drunken Uncle Marty.

First there was Walter, then Henry, then Gio and now Jesse? For a girl whose called ugly, Betty Suarez gets an awful lot of appreciative looks and more from the fellows, does she not?

The new man with eyes for Betty is named Jesse and actor/musician Val Emmich has been cast in the Ugly Betty role. The role is recurring -- kind of like Freddy Rodriguez when he started as Gio -- but since he's a potential love interest with UB, he could be bumped up to regular.

With the show now filming in New York, perhaps a young hot guy like Val Emmich is just the ticket for Betty. Emmich's done a lot of Manhattan TV shows -- Hope & Faith, 30 Rock, Third Watch -- so he's going to sound like a New Yawker.

Here come two more lists of the ten actors and actresses that are finalists for Emmy nominations in the supporting comedy categories. As with the other awards, there are some surprises on the list, and some notable omissions. For the ladies, the headline is that last year's winner, Jaime Pressly (My Name Is Earl), didn't make the cut. Surprise finalists include Conchata Ferrell (Two And A Half Men) and Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live). I don't mind seeing Conchata on the list because she is consistently funny on the show, but I don't know that there is enough to her role for her to actually garner a nomination when you consider the competition.

On the other side of the coin, the defending champ, Jeremy Piven (Entourage), is back. None of the boys over at SNL managed to make the leap from Variety to Comedy that Poehler did.

As the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences tries to whittle the submissions down to actual nominees, it's interesting to take a look at who has made it to the semifinals. It's not a nomination, but it's one step away. Today comes word of the finalists for best comedy actress and best supporting drama actor. There are some surprises.

Chief among those for me is Sarah Silverman. I honestly hadn't even considered her in the running. I'm not much of a fan, but I do like that she is being considered for the simple fact that the base the nominees are drawn from can always use some expansion. And if she is the most surprising inclusion, the most surprising snub just might be Teri Hatcher. Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross, and Felicity Huffman all made the cut, but not Hatcher. Ouch. The rest of the finalists, and the supporting actors from a drama, after the jump.

The Emmy nominations won't be announced until July 17, but we can tell you right now without a doubt that Ugly Betty's Rebecca Romijn will not be among the outstanding supporting actress in a comedy category at the Emmys. No, we're not psychic. It's just that her spokesman has confirmed that her name was never actually submitted. DOH! And why was that, you wonder. No good reason, said her rep, "It was an oversight."

According to L.A. Times' Tom O'Neil, this isn't really that far-fetched an occurrence. Tim Allen, at the height of his Home Improvement success, missed a chance for an Emmy nomination when somebody fumbled the ball. The next year, his paperwork was hand-delivered, accompanied by the University of Southern California marching band.

Romijn's omission -- on the surface -- looks like a mistake. Yes, it's true that her status on the show is going from series regular to recurring, but I don't believe she purposely kept her name out of the running to in some way act out in protest against the show. It makes no sense? How is she hurting Ugly Betty by not getting an Emmy nomination? No, this was a screw up, nothing more.

One sign of a show's success is the ability to attract stars in guesting roles. Army Wives, which has been setting new records in ratings for Lifetime, has been a blockbuster hit and now they're starting to book flashy guest stars.

Ana Ortiz, Hilda Suarez on ABC's Ugly Betty, is going to be turning up on Army Wives this summer prior to her return as Betty's big sister on Betty in the fall. Ms. Ortiz will go to Charleston, where AW is filmed, before clocking in to the new New York studios for Ugly Betty.

Ana is going to be playing Sandi, a waitress who becomes involved with Roxy and Trevor in a legal way, something about a lawsuit. While it's hard to project, there are clues in that description that can start the wheels turning. First off, if she has a connection to Trevor and Roxy and we know Trevor is currently in Iraq, will Sandi's story take place after he's home? Or maybe Sandi is a girl from Trevor's past who turns up at Fort Marshall looking for him and finds that he's overseas but has left behind a wife -- Roxy -- and her boys, whom he adopted.