Tina Fey Books It
Alive and kicking from New York, it's Tina Fey's book deal!
Amid reports of particularly egregious bidding wars, Fey's rep has confirmed the Saturday Night Live cum 30 Rock cum Saturday Night Live star has continued in her quest for media domination and indeed signed a book deal.
Details are being kept under wraps, with no official word on subject matter, release date or the value of Fey's contract.
What has been confirmed is that Little, Brown & Company will release the would-be best-seller.
Last week both the New York Post and Observer reported that Fey was entertaining offers in the $5-6 million range and that the tome would not be a memoir, but "nonfiction humor," most likely a collection of humorous essays.
While Team Fey and her publisher are mum on the money, reps for both did confirm that the deal included a gift to the nonprofit group Books for Kids to help stock school libraries in New York City.
Deal Sheet: Heidi Heads Up Victoria's Secret Patrol
• Heidi Klum's latest runway project involves some seriously scantily clad catwalkers: The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show features the likes of Klum, Alessandra Ambrosia, Selita Ebanks, Doutzen Kroes, Adriana Lima, Marisa Miller and Miranda Kerr "in this holiday infused lingerie runway show" taking place at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach and airing Dec. 3. Bells won't be the only thing jingling.
• Jimmy Kimmel is making his fourth go-round at the American Music Awards, airing live on ABC Nov. 23. The producer calls Kimmel "a masterful host...audiences can expect a great night." Quips Kimmel: "I agree...completely."
• Yet another degree of Kevin Bacon. His ubiquitous self will produce a new Showtime series, The Booths, centering on actor/assassin extraordinaire John Wilkes Booth and his thespian bros. No word yet whether Bacon will play a role.
KimKim Joins TomTom's Stable of Voices
Kim Cattrall has driven plenty of people mad with her sultry coos. Now she'll help drive them to slightly more concrete locations.
The Sex and the City maven is the latest celeb, and first female, to lend her pipes to the TomTom GPS navigation system, signing on to give directions, and more, to owners of the device.
"Putting my voice on GPS systems is such a unique way for me to reach out and connect with my fans," Cattrall said. "I am thrilled to be able to entertain my fans by giving them turn-by-turn directions to make their trips more fun and exciting."
Some of the fun and exciting Samantha Jones-inspired bons mots to be included with Cattrall's service will include the phrases, "This is the city, darling. Anything goes," and "Don't touch my Manolos."
Casting Couch: Will Smith Still Is Legend; Opposite Attracts Hathaway; McAdams Sleuths Up Sherlock
He will survive...again. Probably to the chagrin of any movies aiming to open on Independence Day.
Warner Bros. is ramping up development on a prequel to the 2007 smash I Am Legend, which will see Will Smith reprising his role as one of the lone survivors on a zombified Earth.
Director Francis Lawrence is expected to take the reins again in the story of how New Yorkers came to be stricken by a deadly plague that turned them into nocturnal, blood-sucking creatures.
I Am Legend raked in $256 million domestically but [spoiler alert!] didn't really set up a Smith-starring sequel, prompting studio executives to start brainstorming other ways to keep the lucre flowing.
Meanwhile, in other Hollywood wheeling and dealing:
Casting Couch: Affleck Gets Company; Crystal's New Fairy Tale
Greed isn't so good for Ben Affleck.
Hollywood is looking to turn the economic meltdown into box-office gold, with Affleck in negotiations to topline The Company Men, as a victim of Wall Street's corporate downsizing.
ER's Emmy-winning writer-producer John Wells will make his feature-directing debut on the project, per the Hollywood Reporter, based on his own screenplay.
Next up for Affleck is the romcom He's Just Not That Into You, followed by the political thriller State of Play and the Mike Judge romp Extract.
In the day's other top deal doings:
Economic Downturn Takes Toll on Tintin Men Spielberg, Jackson
Maybe the Fed will step in to help bail out Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson.
The Oscar winners are scrambling to find a new backer for their dream franchise Tintin after Universal balked at the filmmakers' $130 million budget for an ambitious trilogy of films based on the Belgian boy wonder.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the studio unexpectedly pulled out after deciding that a cofinancing partnership with Paramount Pictures wasn't worth the risk to its bottom line in today's difficult economic environment.
Breaking News
Merger Fans Have Strong Showing in SAG Election
The actors looking to move forward are one step closer to taking the bull by the horns.
Unite for Strength, the platform launched by Screen Actors Guild members such as Kate Walsh, Amy Brenneman and Doug Savant who have been ready to vote on a new contract for months, won six of a possible 11 Hollywood seats on SAG's national board, according to ballot results announced Thursday.
Sex Ed and the City? Bushnell Books It
Talk about your graphic novels.
Candace Bushnell is doing her best to milk the cash cow that is Sex and the City completely dry, announcing plans to publish The Carrie Diaries, two young adult novels that will take readers back to the lady Bradshaw's more formative high school years.
In other words, think Candies, not Manolos; Medium rather than Big.
HarperCollins has the enviable task of publishing the teen tomes, the first of which is due out in fall 2010.
Nip/Tuckers Hope to Carve Out Pay Raise
The cast of Nip/Tuck is looking for an extreme paycheck makeover.
As shooting on the sixth and final season kicks off today, reps for stars Julian McMahon, Dylan Walsh, Joely Richardson, Kelly Carlson and Roma Maffia are in the midst of tense negotiations with producers of the hit FX series.
McMahon and Walsh's agents are said to be asking for $250,000-per-episode for playing plastic surgeon pals Christian Troy and Sean McNamara. That's approximately double their compensation for season five in 2007, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Exclusive
Ryan Seacrest, Paris Hilton Hook Up...for TV
We were beginning to worry about our pals Paris Hilton and Ryan Seacrest. She's struggling to find a BFF; he's saddled with Simon Cowell.
But now, happily, they have each other.
The two stars and their respective production companies, Paris Hilton Entertainment and Ryan Seacrest Productions, are joining forces to develop a new scripted TV series.
"Paris knows exactly how to have fun with herself. She works hard but doesn't take herself too seriously," says Seacrest.
The deal comes in the wake of Hilton's winking online presidential campaign, which has become a huge hit. Seacrest, Hilton and her right-hand man, Jason Moore, will produce.
The series concept is still being worked out, but Seacrest did offer one tantalizing clue:
"This show will be loud."
Deal Sheet: Douglas, Damon Hot for Liberace; Sea Monsters Hatched; Audrina Gets Foxy
How's this for a Behind the Music?
Steven Soderbergh has begun developing a biopic of Liberace that he plans to direct with Michael Douglas as the ivory tickler, according to Variety ; Matt Damon is in talks as his litigious ex-lover.
With a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, The Horse Whisperer), the film would focus on the legendary entertainer's flamboyant yet closeted life, including his showdown with onetime paramour Scot Thorson, who successfully sued for palimony shortly before Liberace died of AIDS in 1987.
Here's a peek at the day's other big deals:
Lauren Conrad Books It
That Pulitzer Prize is as good as hers.
After proving her mastery of the spoken word as the protagonist of The Hills, Lauren Conrad is staking her claim on the written word, signing a three-book deal with HarperCollins based on her Hollywood experiences—presumably, the minutiae not already chronicled on TV.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the book series, which follows an average teen who becomes a reality star, could potentially be developed as a film or (uh, another) TV project.
While the books will be based on Conrad's gal-about-town shenanigans, the young adult tomes will officially be classified as fiction, with the first in the series set for release in the summer of 2009.















