Simon Cowell closing a 3-year "Idol" deal for $45M a year
The "Idol" judge, who has one year left on his contract, is finalizing a deal with Fox to keep him on the show. Fox won't comment, but the head of CKX, the parent company of 19 Entertainment, says that Fox, "in their negotiations with Cowell, have asked us to pre-approve him not only for 'American Idol' '09, which has begun taping, but they have also asked us for approval for '10 and '11, indicating to us that they're finishing their negotiation with Cowell. We did grant approval for that quite obviously."
Oprah's $1 trillion lawsuit dismissed
In fact, Oprah Winfrey was never served with the lawsuit.
Fox reunites Will Arnett with "Arrested Development" masterminds
Will Arnett and Jim Vallely are teaming up with Arnett again to make him a Beverly Hills jackass who falls in love with a tree-hugger.
Greg Grunberg: I've been asked back for a "Lost" cameo
Says the "Heroes" star: "If NBC will allow it, I will go back."
Kathy Griffin & Levi Johnston kiss and tell on "Larry King Live"
"I woke up this morning, in your arms, spooning," Griffin said to the father of Sarah Palin's grandchild.
CW unveils more "Gossip Girl" WTF promos
"No headbands!"
In fact, as the Wall Street Journal reports, "Behind the smooth-talking, chain-smoking, misogynist advertising executives on 'Mad Men'is a group of women writers, a rarity in Hollywood television. Seven of the nine members of the writing team are women. Women directed five of the 13 episodes in the third season." Matthew Weiner, for his part, didn't intentionally hire mostly female writers, but he's grown to love their emotional honesty, which has resulted in a freewheeling writers' room.
“I definitely have reached out to her,” says ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson, who has a long relationship with Paula, “first and foremost to say I was sorry about the situation and also that we’d love to see her on ABC." He adds: "We’d love to have her on ‘Dancing,’ whether as a contestant or participant of some sort, judge. I think she’s a huge talent. There’s a lot made about who she is. I think there is a sensitivity and emotion there that balances out ‘Idol.’ We’d love to get a piece of that.”
The title, says Bill Lawrence, is more a hook than a premise. "If this show every week is about what young guy is Courteney (Cox) going to sleep with, that's the Samantha character from Sex and the City and that's not the show," he says. PLUS: Lawrence says his working relationship with Cox is the 
The coroner's office said that Mays last used cocaine just days before its death. The medical examiner "concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and thereby contributed to his death," the office said in a press release. The report also noted that Mays wasn't under the influence of cocaine when he died.
As its 8th and final season kicking off tonight, "Monk" is going out having redefined the modern hero, says May McNamara. "With his many fears — ladybugs, heights, milk, harmonicas and above all germs — Shalhoub's Monk is a balancing act of contradictions," she explains. "Equally irritating and endearing, he doesn't just refuse to apologize for his skewed vision of the universe, he uses it to see what others do not. "Monk" is a symbol of the Accept Yourself generation, a genuine post-Oprah detective; if he were a more recent creation, he would have Asperger's syndrome."
Don't bet on the former "Idol" judge appearing on "SYTYCD" or any other hit show, says Tim Goodman. "Listen, this is very simple: You're not going to see her on Fox again," he says. "And, if there are still miracles in this industry and she manages to pop up on another network, it will be an inferior product and she'll look like she's slumming. That much is obvious. This much probably needs to resurface as a reminder: Abdul has no obvious talent to monetize anymore. Her star was always hitched to "Idol," even when her personal behavior seemed hell bent on ruining it. She was printing money over there and, given the events of the last couple of days, apparently highly unaware of how blessed she was."
Can a singing show last long on TV? "Sometimes things find a niche audience and oftentimes those are very high-quality things," says exec producer Brad Falchuk. "I don't think we have that problem. I think we are for a broad audience. Our intent always is to make something (everyone can enjoy)."
