Jesse Plemons, who plays the beloved Landry Clarke on Friday Night Lights, will not return to FNL as a full-time cast member in the show’s fifth and final season.  The news comes via EW.com, who is the absolute source for breaking FNL news.

SPOILERS FROM HERE TO THE END

Plemons’ exodus from FNL doesn’t come as a surprise.  He was always the smartest on in Dillon High and it was pretty much a given that he would be going to college after graduating.  In my opinion, the biggest question mark about Plemons was his age.  He was driving in the first season of the show, but was still around in the show’s fourth season?  How does that make any sense?

Anyway, Plemons received a similar fate to almost every one of the show’s original high school castmembers.  Smash, Street, Lyla, Tyra, Matt and now Riggins are all off the show.

The one thing that people who will miss Landry should keep in mind is that there’s the possibility that we see Landry in the fifth season.  Tyra is expected to return and there wasn’t a definitive end to Landry’s storyline.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

Oftentimes in our culture young celebrities – especially young female celebrities – are expected to be role models for girls of the same age and younger.

16-year-old Taylor Momsen, who plays Jenny on the CW’s Gossip Girl, would like to officially go on record and say that she doesn’t want young girls to look up to her.  In fact, she is blaming the media for not allowing her to smoke her cigarrettes out of the public eye.

“I didn’t get into this to be a role model for 7-year-olds. I have no interest in doing that, you know? If parents don’t like some of the stuff I do then they shouldn’t let their kids watch me.”

“I smoke, so what? Why do people give a s— what a 16-year-old girl who they’ve never met does? It’s not like I’m sitting there going, ‘Kids, you should go buy a pack of cigarettes.’ When I walk outside with a cigarette and someone takes a picture of it and puts it on the Internet, its not my problem. I’m just living my life and I’m not gonna live my life for other people.”

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There you have it.  Jenny Humphrey is not a role model and, if she has her way, neither is Taylor Momsen.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

In the middle of its eighth season, Fox announced Wednesday that the current season will 24’s last.

Hint of the news leaked on the Internet Tuesday night and now, Wednesday afternoon, the guillotine has dropped. The Kiefer Sutherland-starring program will end after eight more episodes because of decreased ratings and rising costs.

But the good thing for 24 fans is that there have been serious talks of making a feature film to properly wrap things up.  So yes, it’s unfortunate 24 is going off the air because it represents the end of a beloved television show, but now, it won’t be a dissatisfying exit.  At least I don’t think it will be.

For more about the end of 24 and how the events of 9/11 made it so popular at the beginning of its run, please read Time magazine’s blog post about the show.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

None other than Brooke Burke, the brunette beauty who won Dancing with the Stars’ seventh season back in 2008 with Derek Hough.

Burke will co-host the popular reality program with Tom Bergeron starting on March 22 of this year, which is the first episode of DwtS 10th season. And while it might not seem that Burke would be a very good host given her speech pattern (or maybe that’s just me), she is very experienced with this type of thing.

Burke has hosted E!’s “Wild On!”, “Rock Star: INXS” and, most recently, TV Land’s “She’s Got the Look.”

So I think Burke should be a pretty good hire, considering that she has a lot of experience and, most importantly, the loyal Dancing with the Stars audience is familiar with her.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

Back in the hay-day of NBC – the days of Friends, Seinfeld and a lineup that was called “Must-See TV” – Jerry Seinfeld was the principle writer and star of the network’s most popular television show.  But as every sitcom eventually does, Seinfeld went off the air, exiting in 1998.

Then, after staying out of the limelight for a decade, Seinfeld returned to the peacock network last year with an idea for a reality show.  That idea is what you see now with The Marriage Ref which, in my opinion, is unwatchable.

The New York Post reports that Seinfeld had such power at NBC that the network immediately green-lighted the project, meaning they didn’t perform any audience testing on it.  Which, in this day-and-age, is absolutely unheard of and a very stupid idea.

“Jerry could have walked in the door with a show based on a guy sitting with a paper bag over his head and it would have been green-lighted,” said the executive. “His name and fame is golden, and the network needs all the help it can get.

“If you know the Yiddish term kvelling, that’s what the executives were doing. They were rejoicing. Jerry’s back! Seinfeld’s in the house again!”

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

The early ratings returns for last night’s Academy Awards indicate that more people watched this year’s show than last years, which might be attributed to the humongous success of Avatar. Or not.  We don’t really know at this point.

Anyway, the Oscars were up 20% from last year, averaging a 27.4 rating and a 41 share.  What this means, in terms of raw numbers, is that it’s more than likely that the Academy Awards were seen by over 40 million people in the United States (the numbers will be out later today).  36 million watched last year’s telecast.

Like I said in this post’s first paragraph, there’s a good chance that the increase in viewers is due to Avatar being nominated for so many awards.  If a movie is seen by a lot of people is nominated in several big categories, there’s a good chance that the Oscars will see its ratings rise. For example, the award show’s biggest audience ever was in 1998 – the year Titanic was up for all of its awards.  It was seen by 55.2 million people.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

Washers and copper metal? Is this a new shop class? Actually it is just another wild trip for the designers of Project Runway. After taking a week off with a clip show last week, the designers again embarked on another chaotic adventure.

This time it was to the hardware store. With a budget of $150 and one day, the designers were tasked with presenting a look that was from their point of view along with an accessory to compliment their look.

One thing resonated with this episode. The guys loved copper metal and for most of them it worked out horribly. Emilio looked to do something different with washers and pink rope, but in the end he didn’t have enough materials, and was forced to make a string bikini. Far out and funky, he had to connect the top and bottom at the last minute, or face a wardrobe malfunction with his model. The bottom half of her outfit looked to drop at any second till he did connect them all.

Another thing that bothered me…where is the screen time for Jonathan and Ben? Are they just that boring? Or are the producers saving them for later? Okay, back to the guys. Jesse had a constricted bodice out of the copper with a skirt made out of netting. However, the netting was sticky and refused to flow the way he wanted. His design was nothing special. And it showed. Perhaps he lost his muse in Megan when she was kicked off the week before.

As much as I hate to say it, I REALLY liked Mila’s outfit this week. Her modern dress made out of paint tray liners was kicky and fun, and straight out of the 1960’s. It was black and white spunky. As much as she is a color block freak, she rocked this challenge. We will have to wait and see how long she can keep up with it before Heidi and friends get bored.

Jay had a wonderful design made out of trash bags that he turned into leather looking pants, and a strapless bodice with a wonderful belt. It was amazing. He was praised by the judges and in the end, beat out everyone else for his second victory.

Special mention goes to Maya. Her grey sheath dress and jacket was amazing, however her necklace made out of keys was fantastic. It was a strong, if not the strongest accessory piece. I wish the judges would have had a separate category for the accessories.

In the end, it came down to Jesse and Emilio. Sadly, Jesse was let go. To quote Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman: “Big Mistake, HUGE.” Emilio should have been kicked off. The judges blew it this week. Now that we are down to the final nine, it will be interesting to see how soon everyone cracks under the increasing pressure. My guess? Not long. Here’s to a better Week Eight.

-Mary B

Follow along with The Gazette’s Diana Nollen and Spencer Willems here.

Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian will be back for a second season.

It comes as no surprise that E! has renewed Keeping Up with the Kardashians spinoff Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami for 10 more episodes, given the show’s huge ratings and the emergence of Kourtney and Khloe as legitimate celebrities.

The fourth season finale of Kardashians was seen by 4.8 million viewers and the spinoff deals with a Miami-based DASH Boutique.

“Millions of people tuned in to E! to see Kourtney and Khloe’s lives change completely this past year, and now fans can follow them on their next adventure in this new season of ‘Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami’,” said Lisa Berger, executive vp of programing at E!. “However, this time it’s a whole different world as the pair must embrace their new life roles and juggle their hectic careers as they head back to South Beach where fun always follows.”

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.

Less than two months after announcing that he was leaving ABC’s Brothers and Sisters, Rob Lowe is reportedly very close to landing a reoccuring role on NBC breakout comedy Parks and Recreation.

Lowe will leave Brothers and Sisters at the end of the current season.

The announcement of Lowe’s negotiations with Parks and Recreation comes via EW.com’s Michael Ausiello, who reports that the veteran actor would appear near the end of this season and then come back during parts of the show’s third season.

It seems to be a very wise career move for Lowe, obviously, because he lands on arguably the best network comedy on television.  If he can do comedy is a completely different question, but I see him as a straight man on Parks and Recreation, a local government/empty suit type that seems to run local governments across the United States.

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This post was written by Eric Van Dril.  For more of his writing, visit RipcordNews.com.