New faces, new dramas, same pool.
That could refer to Press Tour itself, since most of the conference involves around 250 electronic and print journalists being trapped in a hotel, but no. This happened to be a CW publicist’s intro to the panel for “Melrose Place,” which is aining for as much multi-generational attention as possible.
Executive producer Todd Slavkin expects the new “Melrose Place” to attract the teen audience The CW so deeply covets as well as their older sisters and brothers (and mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles). Reminding critics that the original has only been off the air for 10 years, that means the 15-year-olds who watched it back then are now 25 and presumably bored. “‘Melrose Place’ is a huge international franchise, that title,” he said.
People also remember the cast with no small amount of fondness, so the news that Josie Bissett and Daphne Zuniga would be back, and the producers are pitching woo to Grant Show, is promising. Doug Savant and Marcia Cross are busy with all the happenings on Wisteria Lane, so we doubt Matt Fielding and Dr. Kimberly Shaw will return. Courtney Thorne-Smith is still kicking around, although she may want some “me” time, having recently been set free from TV purgatory, aka “According to Jim.” But Slavkin added, “The door is always open for Heather Locklear.”
Does the same go for Andrew Shue? He seems fairly available these days. Just sayin’.
Ashton Kutcher's younger inner self.
From “Melrose” to models: Ashton Kutcher, executive producer of “The Beautiful Life,” would like you to know that the character of fresh-off-the-farm Chris is actually based on series supervising producer and former top male model Adam Giaudrone, not him. Although Kutcher’s road to fame began in Iowa, when an older woman saw his underaged self in a bar and told him he should be in pictures, Kutcher says his story more closely mirrors that of Raina’s, that waif you see in the picture to the left. Weird, huh? We thought so.
And, for the record, in spite of Mischa Barton’s widely reported struggles of late, “She was never unavailable for a day of work.” What else can we call that detail but… magical?
Elsewhere on the schedule:
CW entertainment head Dawn Ostroff would not specifically tell us if this is “Smallville’s” last season, only she hopes that it’s not. Ditto for “Supernatural“: “We’re hopeful it will stay on the air for a long time.” However, just forget they ever mentioned anything about a “Gossip Girl” spinoff, which Ostroff told us was not likely to happen.
