Christopher Egan
Latest Gig: Portraying Edgar Allan Poe in ABC’s Sherlock Holmes-esque crime fighting series POE.
Why We’re Excited: Well, if 13 episodes of holding ones own against Ian McShane (aka. the small screen version of Daniel Day-Lewis) in NBC’s short-lived KINGS proved anything, it’s that Aussie import Christopher Egan is a lot more than just a pretty face. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Liza Weil
Latest Gig: According to Deadline Hollywood, Liza Weil has just been added to Shonda Rhimes’ ABC drama pilot DAMAGE CONTROL, an ensemble based on the career of legendary crisis management consultant Judy Smith.
Why We’re Excited: Umm… if you have to ask, you clearly never saw her scene-stealing after scene-stealing turn as Paris Geller on GILMORE GIRLS. Emphasis on the scene-stealing.

Matt Long
Latest Gig: Sees Long signing onto join BATTLESTAR GALACTICA alums James Callis, Tricia Helfer and Jamie Bamber in Ron Moore’s Harry Potter meets NYPD BLUE pilot 17th PRECINCT.
Why We’re Excited: His work on the WB’s brilliant-but-cancelled JACK & BOBBY (Which by the way if you haven’t seen is a free must watch over on thewb.com) was supposed to be the start of a memorable career, not the end.

Becki Newton
Latest Gig: According to TVLine, “The UGLY BETTY MVP has signed on to star in a CBS comedy pilot that revolves around a blue-collar man who lives under the same roof with his wife, their grown daughter (Newton) and her 12-year-old son, and his recently widowed mother.”
Why We’re Excited: After being the first BETTY cast member snapped up following the ABC show’s UGLY demise, what should have been a seamless transition to her own starring vehicle (LOVE BITES) was stalled courtesy of NBC’s inept management. Suffice to say, Becki deserves better and hopefully a CBS comedy pilot is a step in the right direction.

Emily VanCamp
Latest Gig: According to Deadline Hollywood, Emily VanCamp has landed the lead role in REVENGE, a contemporary re-imagining of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Why We’re Excited: Honestly, as much as we’re contractually obligated to love any project involving an EVERWOOD alum, VanCamp’s arc on BROTHERS & SISTERS was one seemingly never-ending downer. Hopefully the reverse of which is this tale of a mysterious woman (VanCamp) who comes to the Hamptons to exact exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family.

PARENTHOOD
Where art thou GILMORE GIRLS fans? Seriously, we know it’s been a while since the show went off the air, but all the same we can’t help but feel slightly disappointed that nobody has bothered to bring up the completely bizarro albeit totally awesome crossover event on this week’s episode of PARENTHOOD. Are we really he only ones who connected the hilarity that was Lorelai’s (Lauren Graham) son Drew (Miles Heizer) putting the moves on Luke’s (Scott Patterson) daughter Holly (Vanessa Marano) For shame!

COUGAR TOWN
Just when you thought COUGAR TOWN couldn’t get any funnier, comes the recent addition of the unexpected tags to their show’s opening credits in a nod to the split opinion surrounding COUGAR TOWN’s somewhat controversial title. And while we have absolutely no idea how long the writer’s intend to keep this up for, we figure, if THE SIMPSONS can come up with 22 seasons (and counting) worth of couch gags, Bill Lawrence, Kevin Biegel et al should at the very least have five or six seasons in ‘em!

LIFE UNEXPECTED
When the word “unexpected” is part of the title, twists and turns should probably be, well, anything but. Which is why it’s so curious that we’re still reeling over the unexpected last minute developments in Tuesday’s fantastic episode. Suffice to say, the only thing crazier than discovering that Lux was on her way to being adopted by a presumably fantastic foster mom, will be if the CW doesn’t give this little watched gem a chance.

GLEE
The only downside of Tuesday’s poignant and emotional episode that saw our favorite McKinley High Glee Club deal with spirituality in the face of Burt Hummel’s coma and the delectably edible “Grilled Cheesus” via song was that it cost us 9.03 on iTunes! Oh, and while we’re on the subject of Burt Hummel, no doubt wanting to make sure he holds onto the best job he ever had, his portrayer Mike O’Malley took a moment to clarify to People Magazine the following: He’s alive!!! “There’s been some conversation about whether or not at the end of that episode, I did indeed move my finger,” O’Malley says. “I did move my finger. But it doesn’t necessarily mean – Okay, I’ll put it this way – I’m not dead at the end of last week’s episode.” He won’t elaborate on what viewers can expect next week, but says, “I doubt very much that there’s going to be a ghost character.”

GOSSIP GIRL
Full disclosure: Following a disastrous third season, and a ridiculously crowded Monday night viewing schedule, GOSSIP GIRL was thisclose to be dropped as a “Season’s Pass” on our DVR this Fall. That said, serious credit must go to co-creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, who in a span of a mere four episodes has turned this series into one of our week’s most anticipated guilty pleasure thanks in no small part to little exchanges like these:

Blair: “How can I still love you after what you did?”
Chuck: “So you did it just to hurt me. Eva made me into someone I was proud to be. You just brought back my worst self. This means war, Blair.”
Blair: “Chuck–”
Chuck: “Me versus you. No limits.”

In the three short years since we last left Stars Hollow, an awful lot has changed. First, as part of set pieces from TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, the quant fictional Connecticut town was overrun by killer robots sent from the future. Next, went the town’s signature Gazebo, which was demolished to make room for a ghastly fountain in the short-lived ABC series EASTWICK. And why, when Warner Bros put the word out that in exchange for mentioning — that GILMORE GIRLS: THE COMPLETE SERIES is now available for download on iTunes with seasons 3-7 available for the first time ever on any format in HD theTVaddict.com would be offered the opportunity to give away two pieces of Stars Hollow history, we jumped at the chance!

Up for grabs: A “Luke’s Diner” and “Dragonfly Inn” coffee mugs. To enter to win, simply post a comment with what you miss most about GILMORE GIRLS in the comments below. One lucky entrant will be notified via email on April 19, 2010, so please be sure to enter with a valid email address. Not a winner? These GILMORE GIRLS inspired coffee mugs are always available at the WB shop.

Taking the GILMORE GIRLS theme song to heart, where Lauren Graham leads, Alexis Bledel will follow. 

Sources confirm to me exclusively that in an effort to reverse the increasingly-depressing ratings that have plagued NBC’s highly-touted (not to mention extremely costly) dramedy PARENTHOOD, series creator Jason Katims and executive producer Ron Howard have agreed to give the Braverman family a little facelift by replacing Sarah’s daughter played by Mae Whitman with… wait for it… Alexis Bledel!

For those unfamiliar with the show — or a little slow on the uptake — that means Bledel and Lauren Graham will once again be playing mother and daughter.

“After the season NBC has had, the network has far too much invested in this series to sit idly by and watch it get beaten by repeats of THE GOOD WIFE,” whispers a high-placed mole on the condition of anonymity. “And the network has kept Bledel under contract ever since her stint on last May’s ER season finale. They’ve just been waiting for the perfect project.”

While the two Stars Hollow refugees are thrilled by the reunion, we hear rumblings that other cast members aren’t quite so thrilled. “Everyone is afraid the series will turn into a GILMORE GIRLS sequel,” says the source. “It’s completely unfounded, of course. This is an entirely different show with a different feel.” But will PARENTHOOD retain its identity if, as is now being rumored, Amy Sherman-Palladino is brought on board as a consultant?

Expect Bledel’s appearance to be a dream sequence conjured up by us as a way of reminding you that by not checking the calendar, it’s incredibly easy to become the butt of an April Fool’s Day joke!

Since it appears that we are the only TV/DEXTER Addict who didn’t realize that Arthur Mitchell’s daughter Rebecca is played by Vanessa Marano, the very-same actress who first burst onto the scene so unexpectedly as Luke’s daughter, April, on GILMORE GIRLS. It naturally got us thinking…

Would not a small town such as Stars Hollow be the perfect cover for our favorite (Spoiler Alert!) newly widowed anti-hero? Just imagine, Dexter Morgan: Diner owner by day, serial killer by night. It’s the perfect cover! Not to mention, if Taylor Dosey steps out of line even a teensy little a bit….

Perfectly timed to coincide with the start of the holiday shopping season comes this TV Addict’s Deal of the Day. For 24 hours only, Amazon.com is offering up GILMORE GIRLS Complete Series Collection on DVD for a mere $109.99. That amounts to a whopping 58% off the regular price of $258.82 for one of this TV Addict’s all-time favorite shows.

Simply click here to check it out and get ready to enjoy over 42 discs of coffee-induced witty dialogue and romantic hi-jinx.

Inglorious Bastards! Why didn’t anyone — and by ‘anyone’ we of course are referring to the studio behind the new movie POST GRADS — bother telling us that this weekend we could have spent one hour and twenty-nine minutes in a darkened air-conditioned room with GILMORE GIRLS’ Alexis Bledel and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS’ Zach Gilford!? Luckily, this all-but-forgotten release didn’t sneak past our good friends over at theREELaddict.com, which is why we thought we’d share with you their take on Alexis Bledel’s Mission Impossible: The Search for a Post-GILMORE GIRLS Career.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that because my affection for them runs so deep, when it comes to anything featuring Rory Gilmore and Matt Saracen (aka Alexis Bledel and Zack Gilford) it’s very hard for me to maintain any sort of critical objectivity. All the more so with POST-GRAD, since they are almost exactly appearing as they did/do on their respective shows, Gilmore Girls and Friday Night Lights. It’s like some sort of inter-serial crossover fan fiction fantasy come true, which is why in my book POST-GRAD gets away with a lot more mediocrity than I know it probably deserves to.

POST-GRAD begins almost exactly like a deleted scene from the Gilmore Girls. On the day of her graduation Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) speaks to us video blog style, catching us up on her very Rory-like “The Plan” of using her straight A’s to land her dream job at renowned literary firm. She also introduces us to her best friend since childhood, Adam (Matt Saracen), who is a sweet, sensitive, supportive guitar playing guy. If you can’t see where either plotline is going, then you might be one of the few people to be graciously spared the pervasive sense of worn out familiarity that bogs POST-GRAD down.

In addition to those storylines going in precisely the direction you would expect, the film seems to almost want to distract you from it by inexplicably throwing in numerous additional characters and sub-plots that really don’t amount to anything beyond adding superficial quirky sheen to the film. What starts as an attempt to address the ever growing problem of post-grad reality and quarter life crises mixed with a SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL romance, veers in and out of plotlines involving her zany family members. Granted, they are played by an all-star cast that includes Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and Carroll Burnett, who do better with the material than should be possible, but all their plotlines – nor one involving Ryden romancing her older neighbor (Rodrigo Santoro) – don’t amount to anything more substantial than a college course on humor. In effect, it seemed the movie never was sure what kind it wanted to be, and instead we get somewhat of a jumbled, inconsistent film.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that once POST-GRAD moves into its third act it turns completely into a romantic comedy (not that it ever really offered any deep insights into the post-grad experience), one that contributes to an unsettling trend in the genre of ambitious career oriented women being forced to learn that – to paraphrase one character’s apparent sage words – who you spend your life with is more important than what you do with your life. Maybe not an untrue sentiment, but an unfortunate one when in movies that always seems to mean a woman giving up her promising and ambitious career prospects for a boy. It’s all the more surprising when – like here – that narrative path is taken by not just a woman screenwriter, but a woman director.

But, here’s the thing. Despite all of that, it’s still Rory Gilmore and Matt Saracen. That makes a lot of things better in my book, especially when Alexis Bledel and Zack Gilford do demonstrate a cute, sweet chemistry together. Whether scenes involved them on their own or together, it always sort of made me smile to see their television characters unintentionally reprised and brought romantically together. For those of you unfamiliar with either show, or those of you who don’t love those characters, POST-GRAD may be harder to sit through. For me? It just made me a happy fan, and made me wish somebody would make a movie where Chuck Bartowski and Lorelei Gilmore hook up. Grade: C

Good News: The CW is officially developing MELROSE PLACE Version 2.0 for Fall 2009. Bad News: 90210 Version 2.0 isn’t exactly must see TV. Although for some inexplicable reason, we’re still watching. [Source]

Good News: The TV Addict just became friends with HEROES stars Greg Grunberg and Brea Grant. Bad News: And by ‘friends,’ I of course am referring to friends on Twitter, not friends in real life. Even though I know Greg Grunberg and I would so be “BFF” if given the chance! [Follow theTVaddict on Twitter]

While watching last night’s installment of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, this TV Addict couldn’t help but thinking of one thing; GILMORE GIRLS. Weird, I know… but having visited the set of THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES last fall, one can’t blame me for the skewed perspective.

What the average viewer might not realize is that TERMINATOR shoots its series on the exact same Warner Bros. lot that used to be occupied by none other than America’s favorite mother/daughter duo, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. Oddly enough, the similarities don’t end there. Consider the following.

• Overbearing and controlling mother Emily Gilmore was intent on molding Lorelai into the ideal replicant of herself. Lorelai rebelled by running away to Stars Hollow. Sarah Connor ran away as well. Well, time-travelled to Los Angeles to escape a group of power mad robots intent on annihilating the human race. An angry Emily Gilmore or a killer robot — who’s scarier?

• Lorelai raised a teenage daughter with the help of random townspeople. Sarah raises a teenage son with the help of random robots.

• Cameron, being a robot has issues fitting in. Looking back on seven years of GILMORE GIRLS, the same exact think could be said about Kirk. Did anyone even bother to ask creator Amy Sherman-Palladino if Kirk was human? Think about it!

• Did anyone else notice the jeep Sarah drove in last night’s episode? Call me crazy, but is that not the same jeep made famous by Lorelai GIlmore?

Just in case you needed further incentive to tune into tonight’s stellar episode of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS — and judging by the show’s anemic rating, you clearly do — this TV Addict thought he’d remind all of you still suffering through GILMORE GIRLS withdrawal that Matt Czuchry (Logan Huntsburger) shows up in Dillon Texas for the first of four appearances. Czuchry plays a conservative Christian radio show host who not surprisingly, catches Rory’s Lyla’s eye.

Which means, it’s time to help out the perennially under-watched FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and prove you really believe in TV theme songs. Will you really ‘lead where they follow.’ And by ‘they’ I naturally mean GILMORE GIRLS alumni? Lorelai would, as would Sooki. So don’t be an Emily. Don’t miss tonight’s incredible and completely reality TV free installment of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. Airing tonight at 9PM on NBC and Global TV in Canada.

Thanks to KnoxNews.com for the Tip!