Tom Cruise on Doctor Who?

It seems that too many of the TV rumours lately are all about Who, but get this– Tom Cruise is set to star in a special episode of hit British TV show ‘Doctor Who’.

The ‘Lions for Lambs’ actor is among a host of top US stars, including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Madonna, who the BBC are hoping to get on board for three blockbuster instalments of the British sci-fi series to be filmed next year.

An insider told Britain’s Daily Star newspaper: “BBC producers know they can’t pay these stars what they are used to, but what they can offer is an exciting role in a real cutting-edge show. And the big stars love that kind of kudos.”

‘Doctor Who’ already has a track record of attracting top stars for cameos.

This year’s Christmas special, ‘Voyage of the Damned’, will see Kylie Minogue play a waitress at the 1912 launch party for the famously doomed ocean liner the Titanic, which sank after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage.

The three ‘Doctor Who’ specials will be shot in 2008, but will not hit screens until 2009.

The three episodes are rumoured to be the final time actor David Tennant will play the time-travelling Doctor.

It is also believed 25-year-old actress Billie Piper - who quit the show in 2006 to pursue other projects - will return to play his sexy sidekick Rose Tyler.

The Doctor’s New Girl

The lonely old Doctor has had his lion’s share of attractive female companions in his long run– with the upcoming 4th season of the rebooted franchise will see 3 in 4 years. So how will Donna stack up against the flighty Rose and the serious-minded Martha? And how long will Russel Davies be able to resist before Donna “ain’t bovvered”?

In series 1, pop star Billie Piper and Chris Eccelston helped to bring Doctor Who back to life and up to date to the 21st century. She was cute, flirty, quick-witted, fun and adventurous. Every week, viewers could expect Rose to have changed her hairdo or to be sporting the latest fashions. She works in a shop, hangs out with her mates and her boyfriend, Mickey, she lives in a council flat with her mum and feels like she doesn’t have a whole lot to lose in traveling with the Doctor forever if she can. Over her two years with the Doctor, she developed as a character from just a normal girl to a brave heroine in her own right. However by the time she was shut off in a parallel universe, it was clear that while she may have become braver over time, she was still just a kid with an unrequited crush on a man she would never be able to have, but she was willing to throw away everything– even a reunion with her dead father to travel with the Doctor for the rest of her life. It’s been rumored that Rose Tyler will be returning for one more trip in the TARDIS in a big-screen adaptation of Doctor Who.

After Rose was trapped with her family and Mickey on a parallel Earth, the Doctor came across a smart, ambitious young medical student named Martha. Unlike Rose, who admitted that she didn’t have much going for her in life, Martha has a large family, a successful career on the horizon and big dreams. Martha enjoys traveling with the Doctor and saving the world single-handedly and will be returning briefly in series 4, but in the end she is mature enough to realize that she can appreciate the adventure afforded to her but has a loyalty to her family and her own life. So unlike Rose, who had to be forcibly ripped from the TARDIS, teary-eyed and shaking, Martha is well aware when it’s time for the adventure of time travel to end and the adventure of real life to continue. Despite her willingness to leave the life of high adventure with the Doctor however, she is still involved with the Doctor’s cause and has appeared on Torchwood several times with Captain Jack Harkness.

And then there’s Donna… she was introduced to Who viewers in the 2006 Christmas special when she mysteriously appeared on the TARDIS deck in her wedding gown. Donna is older than the previous two female companions in the new Doctor Who, but seems to be more shallow and naive than either one of them and certainly much louder and more abrasive. She was talked into almost marrying a vicious alien and is completely oblivious to the multiple alien invasions of London over the past several years despite working as a secretary for a Torchwood front company. When the Doctor talks of Cybermen, ghosts, Daleks, giant motherships hovering over the city, Donna just says she must have been hung over or on holiday or something, to which the Doctor takes her to task, accusing her of missing the “bigger picture”. What kind of companion Donna will make is yet to be seen. Shortly after her debut, Russel Davies praised her performance, but said he thought viewers might find the character too annoying to be a full-time companion and then later changed his mind, saying that the character of Donna would make a brilliant companion. So who knows?

Who’s your fave Doctor Who companion and how do you think Donna will fare on the good ship TARDIS?

Raunchy drama boosts ITV2’s ratings

Billie Piper’s new drama, The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, gave ITV2 some of its most successful viewing figures on Thursday night.

The debut of the raunchy drama, attracted an average of 1.8 million viewers and an 11% audience share.

More viewers tuned in to the drama than to programmes showing at the same time on BBC2, Channel 4 and Five, giving ITV2 one its biggest audiences since its 1998 launch.

The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl is based on the online diary, written under the pseudonym Belle de Jour, and is ITV2’s first original commission.

Piper plays Hannah, who has a secret double life as a high-class prostitute.

The drama peaked at 2.1 million viewers and a 12.7% share at 10.05pm.

To date, the highest-rated show on a digital channel was a live Premiership football match between Manchester United and Arsenal on Sky Sports 1 in 2004, with an audience of 2.77 million.

Footballers’ Wives Extra Time holds the record for the most viewers on ITV2, attracting 1.9 million in May 2005.

Source: Associated Press

BB winner Shilpa was ‘not arrested’

Shilpa Shetty’s UK spokeswoman has denied that the Bollywood star was arrested in India over her kiss with Richard Gere.

The Celebrity Big Brother winner was stopped at Mumbai Airport by immigration officials on her way to the opening of the Miss Bollywood musical in Berlin.

But the spokeswoman said she was not arrested or detained.

Earlier, the Bollywood star’s Indian spokesman, Dale Bhagwagar, said: “She called me in the middle of the night and was in tears.”

But UK spokeswoman Teji Singh said: “Every time Shilpa leaves the country she has to show her paperwork, because of the Richard Gere thing.

“There was absolutely no detention, no arrest whatsoever. She was rummaging through to get her paperwork and just stepped aside to a side room so she wouldn’t block the queues.

“She wasn’t crying. She was bunged up with the flu and she was only in there for eight to 15 minutes.”

Hollywood star Gere, 58, caused an outcry when he grabbed Shetty, 32, swept her backwards, and kissed her several times on the cheek at an Aids-awareness event earlier this year.

Gere swooped down on Shetty in April after shouting in Hindi to thousands of truckers “No condom, no sex”.

Shetty went on to defend the actor, saying “so much has been blown out of proportion”, and Gere apologised for causing offence.

Source: Associated Press

Cowell in row over pregnant wannabe

Simon Cowell sparked fury on The X Factor when he let a contestant through to the next stage - before changing his mind because she is pregnant.

Katie Boothand, 24, from Skegness, was five and a half months into her pregnancy when she auditioned in Sheffield, leaving open the possibility that she could have her baby during a live show.

She lives with her fiance, who accompanied her to the audition, in a cramped one-bedroom flat, and said winning The X Factor would secure a future for her family. Before her audition, Cowell told Boothand: “I’m working out the dates here, not great dates are they?”.

The aspiring singer joked that she could have the first child born on the hit show and launched into a rendition of Faith Hill’s There You’ll Be. Cowell said after the performance: “You’re five-and-a-half months pregnant so you’d be having a baby right in the middle of the live shows.”

He said Boothand suffered from a bad lisp but that she has a good singing voice and is “very likeable”. Fellow judge Sharon Osbourne said Boothand “sang very, very well indeed” but asked whether she could cope with the pressure of being pregnant during the show.

With Dannii Minogue the only one to say “no”, the 24-year-old was stunned to learn she had got through to the next stage. But after she left the room, the panel had doubts.

Cowell said: “A part of me thinks we shouldn’t have just done that because she’s five-and-a-half months pregnant. That should have been a ‘no’. It doesn’t feel right, I’m almost inclined to change my mind now.” Louis Walsh agreed, and Minogue said: “I’ve got nothing against pregnant women but you can’t be singing on live TV and giving birth at the same time.”

Cowell gwent outside to tell Boothand: “I think we’ve made a mistake. I absolutely think this is the wrong decision and I know it’s horrible to be given a ‘yes’ but I want to be honest with you, I don’t feel right about this. I’m thinking about you and the kid and everything and I think this is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”

Boothand was devastated: “He knew I was carrying a baby. He knew I was five-and-a half-months pregnant. He knew the complications. At the end of the day, that’s my decision and if I want to enter this competition and go all the way to the end, I will do that,” she said. Her angry fiance threatened to smash the cameras filming their exit as the couple stormed out of the building.

Cowell later defended his U-turn, saying: “This is a girl who would have given birth to her baby in the middle of the X Factor finals. The stress she would have been under would have been unspeakable. You cannot put a competition like this or your ambition over the fact you’re about to have a baby. It is crazy.”

Source: Yahoo!

Leave Britney alone guy offered his own TV show

A teenage Internet ’superstar’ who hit the headlines with his ranting Leave Britney Alone blast on community-sharing website YouTube.com has been offered his own TV show.

Eight million people checked out Chris Crocker’s comedic talents in a week when he posted his short film, in which he posed as the Toxic singer, online earlier this month (Sep07).

Now, Daily Variety reports Crocker, 19, has been approached with a view to starring in his own reality show.

Crocker was an Internet hit long before his Leave Britney Alone skit - thanks to a series of similar performances, poking fun at modern pop culture.

Source: WENN

Hammond couldn’t remember marriage

Top Gear star Richard Hammond forgot he was married in the aftermath of his top-speed crash - and tried to chat up his own wife.

The presenter, 37, nicknamed the Hamster, said he thought his real wife was French.

He tells Friday Night With Jonathan Ross: “I didn’t forget Mindy, I fancied her - thank God - I attempted to chat her up.”

Mindy, who has co-written Hammond’s book On The Edge: My Story, which documents life before and after the crash, said: “He didn’t believe we were married. He said ‘you’re lovely, but I’ve got to stop talking to you because I’ve got to go back to my wife, she’s French’.”

Hammond says of his recovery: “It was a big event, it’s a long old journey. You get to the end of each week and realise you weren’t actually better, and it goes on and on. Whole periods have just gone. I had a 22-second memory, very confusing for weeks (but) I can daydream now, it’s all fixed.

“It was frightening, a real lesson for me. Damage can mend, it’s a big bowl of porridge that revives itself if you’re very lucky … which I was.”

Hammond was left fighting for his life after a 315mph smash in a rocket-powered car last year.

On the same show, Dame Helen Mirren, who recently picked up an Emmy for her performance in the ITV drama Prime Suspect, dismissed her Oscar for her performance in The Queen, saying: “I never thought ever that I’d win an Oscar.

“I think it’s all a bit of a crap shoot .. the whole awards thing is becoming a marketing tool so it doesn’t really mean anything.”

She said of Tony Blair’s role following the Diana’s death: “It was Tony Blair’s finest hour (in 1997). He was one of the greatest politicians we’ve ever had, brilliant in terms of his expertise.”

Source: Associated Press

Corrie scoops top soap award

Coronation Street has beaten off rival EastEnders to bag the best soap gong at the Inside Soap Awards.

It is the first time Corrie has won the title in over a decade and the cast also scooped five more awards at the star-studded bash.

Anthony Cotton who plays barman Sean Tully on the Street and who recently had success with his own chat show, bagged best actor.

Cotton said: “I’ve won the big one this year, and I’m very very pleased that they chose me. I don’t act because of it but it’s nice that someone thinks I’m doing well.”

Rob James-Collier, who plays Liam Connor, took the awards for sexiest male and best newcomer.

Actor Jack P Shepherd won best bad boy for his part as Coronation Street’s David Platt.

But EastEnders wasn’t completely overshadowed by Corrie with the best actress award going to Lacey Turner for her feisty role as Stacey Slater.

Speaking of her triumph the starlet said: “It feels wonderful, it makes me want to go to work every day.”

Lacey also teamed up with on-screen fiancé Charlie Clements, who plays Bradley Branning, to win best couple.

Readers of the Inside Soap magazine also voted Hollyoaks actress Roxanne McKee, who plays Louise Summers, as sexiest actress.

Among the other winners on the night was the Bill, which was awarded best drama for the second year running.