NBC Universal held its annual Summer Press Day yesterday where the stars of its summer TV lineup (network and cable) came out to chat about their shows. Here are just a few of the tidbits I learned from some of NBC’s stars.
Howie’s Got “Talent”
Howie Mandel is replacing David Hasselhoff as a judge this season on NBC’s summer variety hit talent competition “America’s Got Talent.” Now, I think most people who are fans of Howie Mandel know that he has obsessive-compulsive disorder and is a germaphobe. Well, apparently nobody told Piers Morgan that! The snarky British judge was shocked when he first met Howie. “I went, ‘Hi I’m Piers,’ and he said, ‘I don’t do that,’” Piers explained. “I said, ‘You don’t do what? The most conventional greeting in the history of mankind… you don’t shake people’s hands?’”
Piers was unaware of Howie’s ‘knuckles only’ policy. “We got rid of the Hoff and unbelievably we found somebody even crazier,” Piers joked. “Welcome to the mad crazy world of Howie ‘keep your germs off of me’ Mandel!”
Fellow judge Sharon Osbourne knew about the germ issues and told me she took it upon herself to torture poor Howie on a daily basis (at the judge’s table) by touching him constantly. ‘I love to do it just to get the reaction from him,” she laughed.
It turns out Howie and Sharon are neighbors. “I look down onto his garden. There is a horse trail and you literally take the horse trail from my house down to his and it’s no more than two minutes. Sharon revealed that when she and Ozzy first moved in they used to spy on Howie and their other neighbors with binoculars! That’s the Sharon I know and love!
“America’s Got Talent’s” new season begins June 1 on NBC.
Lowe’s NBC Return
Rob Lowe is saying goodbye to ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters” and hello to NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.” The switch from drama to comedy may seem like a strange one, but “Parks” star Amy Poehler told me Rob might surprise some people. “Well, I think you are going to see a side of him maybe that you haven’t seen,” she said. “He is a really funny guy and the character written for him is really funny.”
Rob’s character plays a state auditor, who along with new cast regular Adam Scott, comes in to slash the budget at the Pawnee office. “He’s the good cop, to Adam’s bad cop,” Amy explained.
“He’s really hilarious,” Adam added. “I mean if you are a ‘West Wing” fan, it’s like Sam Seaborn, his ‘West Wing’ character, just kind of amped up to like 11.”
We know he’s funny. Remember Rob in “Wayne’s World”? Rob’s first episode airs May 13 on NBC.
Wagner on “Warehouse 13”
SyFy’s number one series, “Warehouse 13,” returns on July 6 for its second season. I’ve learned the producers have landed the Bionic Woman for a guest star. Lindsay Wagner, who played iconic bionic detective Jamie Sommers in the 70’s will the play the in-house psychologist in charge of the “Warehouse” team. The show is about FBI agents who are in charge of guarding a storage facility, which house super secret artifacts. Also dropping by this season will be Jewel Staite and Sean Maher from fan boy favorite “Firefly.”
Lady Gaga’s “Double Exposure”
Last November, the high priestess of pop posed for a photo to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Hello Kitty. The photo of Lady Gaga sitting on a throne wearing a dress made of Hello Kitty dolls got people talking. Well, it turns out she was also being shot for a new Bravo Reality show called “Double Exposure.” The series, which launches June 15, follows photography duo Marcus Klinko and Indrani as they create iconic images with some of the world’s biggest celebrities including Gaga, Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez. In a rare move, celebrities allowed the docu-series cameras inside their top-secret photo shoots. Gaga, Lindsay Lohan, Naomi Campbell and rapper Eve will also all be featured in the series. This show has “Bravo breakout hit” written all over it!
Damon on “30 Rock”
Matt Damon is popping up on the “30 Rock” season finale next month and Jack McBrayer, who plays the hilarious Kenneth, spilled the beans on Damon’s guest spot. “Tina Fey’s character, Liz Lemon, has to attend three weddings. So, I think he’s involved with those somehow,” he told me. It also sounds like Damon’s character will be involved in a cliffhanger ending. “I don’t know what the finale will entail necessarily, but maybe we’ll see him again, we’ll see,” he cryptically told me. “I don’t think he dies in an explosion. So, there is always the chance.”
Then again, “30 Rock” fans know not every storyline gets a proper ending. “I mean every finale we’ve had a cliffhanger, but sometimes they just kind of skirt over,” Jack explained. “I think at the end of season two I was in a hotel room in Beijing with a gun pulled on me and we never mentioned it again!”
So, basically, that means Damon’s cliffhanger, “May or may not resolve itself,” according to Jack.
Oh Kenneth, how you tease us!
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