Source: True Blood on Facebook

HBO announces June 14th as start date for season 2, pass on the good news!

Source: Michael Ausiello @ EW

An NBC spokesperson declined to comment, but a Peacock insider is confirming what I first told you back in November: Lipstick Jungle has been canceled.

The show's leading lady, Brooke Shields, told E! that cast and crew received the bad news late last week. "I think a lot of people were really sad, but I think we hung on a really long time," she said. "It was three great years that we've been working on it."

Mourning Lipstick's official demise? Share your grief in the comments section.

Source: TV Guide

On Life, ( ...a bit spoilery, I guess... ) Or maybe ever again, since I'm hearing that the season finale has been retooled to convey much more closure, which is not a good sign for the on-the-bubble series.

Source: Michael Ausiello @ EW

You know what they say about great minds...

A week after I floated the idea of Brittany Snow playing a young Lily in The CW's forthcoming Gossip Girl spin-off, the former American Dreams ingénue has emerged as the front-runner for the role! This Just in: Her deal has closed! It's official!

It's Emily VanCamp all over again!

The GG offshoot will be set in Los Angeles and chronicle the teen years of Kelly Rutherford's alter ego.

Snow joins a cast that includes Krysten Ritter (as Lily's older sis) and Jericho's Shilo Fernandez (as brooding valley punk).

The backdoor pilot will air May 11 as part of a regular Gossip Girl episode. The show is considered a lock to land on The CW's fall schedule.

In conclusion, I have this message for Snow's agent: At least half of that 10 percent commission is mine, mine, mine! (But I'll settle for a third.)

Source: Korbi @ Zap2it

Die hard Scrubs fans lamenting the May 6th finale of their favorite show, during which J.D. will exit the building for good, have been holding on to one silver lining as of late: Executive Producer Bill Lawrence and his team are already hard at work on a new comedy starring Courteney Cox, which I first told you about back in October. Casting for Cougar Town is currently underway and sources close to the project tell me Dawson's Creek alum Busy Philipps has landed a leading role, playing Cox's character's younger partner-in-crime.

As a Busy Philipps fan, I like this thought. You?

UPDATE: ABC has indeed confirmed to me that Busy Philipps will be playing Laurie, best friend to Cox's character Julia.

Source: Michael Ausiello @ EW

NBC's Amy Poehler-fronted Parks and Recreation just went from Must-See TV to Wild-Horses-Couldn't-Drag-Me-Away TV.

Sources confirm to me exclusively that the hilarious Chris Pratt has been added to the dream ensemble. The Everwood grad (and future Mr. Anna Faris) will play the unemployed musician boyfriend of Rashida Jones' nurse character.

The well-pedigreed Parks and Recreation -- The Office's Greg Daniels and Michael Schur are producing -- premieres Thursday, April 9.

The only thing that could make this show better is if they hired Cheri Oteri to play Poehler's wacky assistant. (Hint, hint, Greg Daniels. Nudge, nudge, Michael Schur.)

Source: TV Guide

Angela Bromstad, NBC's president of primetime entertainment, announced at Thursday's TCA Winter Press Tour that the Peacock has picked up new seasons of The Office, 30 Rock and The Biggest Loser.

NBC's The Office is in its fifth season and will enjoy an hour-long après-Super Bowl showcase on Feb 1, while 30 Rock currently is unspooling its third cycle.

Now in its seventh cycle, The Biggest Loser just last week weighed in with its largest audience ever (11.82 million viewers) for a season opener.

Bromstad also confirmed that ER's final run is being extended by three episodes, so as to allow John Wells a bit more time to ready Southland, his new police drama taking over the Thursdays-at-10 time slot starting April 9. ER will now sign off April 2, with a three-hour "extravaganza" featuring a two-hour retrospective.

We have to wonder: Might the three additional weeks also afford ER's creator more time to woo George Clooney back for a last hurrah? Bromstad told TVGuide.com with a laugh, "I'll let you ask John Wells that!"

Source: TV Guide

As Tracy-Jordan-as-white-girl once said on 30 Rock: "Lipstick!" -- or, in this case, Lipstick Jungle!

NBC announced today that Zombie Brooke Shields and Co. will live to multitask another day, as reports of the show's death may have been greatly exaggerated after all. "We officially have not canceled Lipstick Jungle," said Angela Bromstad, the president of NBC Universal's production studio. "I think there are alternatives we may look into. It's all a conversation for the fall," she said.

No such reprieve was forthcoming for the apparently-still-dead Christian Slater drama My Own Worst Enemy, though Bromstad waxed optimistic about Life and Friday Night Lights, saying that she feels "very strongly" about both. "What we're intending to do is make sure that we have a good amount of pilots to choose from. We're going to have to beat existing shows [with ones showing more promise] or bring those shows back," she said.

Hooray?

Source: TV Guide

When we heard, yet again, via the Hollywood Reporter, that producers are planning a Gossip Girl spin-off, we couldn't help but be skeptical. Ever since the CW teensplosion hit the airwaves, there have been whisperings of several spin-off concepts in development, and the powers that be have systematically denied each and every one of them.

But guess what, folks? TVGuide.com has confirmed that this one actually exists! Executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage have confirmed that an official Gossip Girl spin-off series is in the works that will tell the backstory of young Lily and Rufus in love in 1980s Los Angeles. "We didn't want to upset the chemistry of our cast -- all of whom are crucial to the show," Savage told the Reporter. "Nor did we want to dilute New York City as a character."

The spin-off will debut as a backdoor pilot as a flashback episode of Gossip Girl that will air on May 11.

What do you think about what I will refer to as "The Ballad of L. and R." until an official title is announced? Will you watch?

Source: Michael Ausiello @ EW

Disco is dead. Again.

CBS president Nina Tassler kicked off the net's portion of press tour this morning by confirming the obvious: Swingtown has been cancelled.

"We're not going back to Swingtown," Tassler said. "At the end of the day the show was well executed, it was well received, the performances were great, the writing was great. It was a risk, we took it, and we're proud of it."