Maura Tierney was forced to back out of Parenthood last year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Tierney underwent treatment and has since returned to the television industry. She will appear on Rescue Me, on which she appeared as Tommy Gavin’s love interest in the fantastic Season 5. Tierney, somewhat shockingly, will return to Tommy’s life having just received treatment for cancer.

Peter Tolan, along with Denis Leary (who plays Gavin), co-created the show and after Tierney was cleared to return to work, Tolan talked with the actress about returning to the show to play a cancer survivor…

Tolan says Tierney, who will appear with what he calls a “buzz cut,” even helped fine-tune the story.

“We wrote like dopes. We haven’t had cancer, and we wrote stuff that was a touch melodramatic perhaps,” Tolan says. “She got me on the phone one time, and we had the most fascinating conversation. She tried to explain to me what it felt like and what was going through her mind. … It actually took me a long time to figure out what she was saying.”

“It’s about survival and anger — it is anger at survival,” Tolan says of the new story line. “That was one of the things that Maura said. Even though she got a clean bill of health, her initial response was not relief. It was anger and, ‘Why did I have to go through that?’ And that fits right into Tommy’s, ‘Why did I have to experience what I’ve experienced? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just die than to go forward in fear?’

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

ABC rolled out their cast for season 11 of Dancing With The Stars last night and one of the members of the cast is Jersey Shore’s Mike Sorrentino.

The Situation, amazingly, is one of the show’s biggest stars and figures to add a certain amount of intrigue to the show on a weekly basis. I may even watch because of him.

The problem for Sitch and the Dancing producers is that he’s currently filming the third season of Jersey Shore and won’t be available to start training until two weeks before the Dancing season starts. The other contestants begin rehearsal next Monday in preperation for the Sept. 20 premiere.

The first day Sitch will be able to start training will be on Sept. 20.

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

Will Forte quietly announced last week, via his publicist, that he would be leaving Saturday Night Live after eight seasons.

Forte had not opened up as to explain why until an interview with JoBlo.com where he said that he left to be closer to his family and also because eight years is just a long time to do the same job week-after-week.

It seems like everybody always says that their goal is to be closer to their family when they leave a prime entertainment job like Saturday Night Live, but with SNL it has to be different. The hours are notoriously brutal and the collective fear and tension of having to produce a show from scratch has to particularly brutal.

Forte was pretty adament in his desire to leave, but show creator Lorne Michaels tried to convince him to stay for one more season…

“SNL” producer Lorne Michaels attempted to convince Forte to stay one more year but Forte says he had already extended his original seven-year contract an additional year and that, in the end, “Eight years is just a long time.” Michaels, Forte says, was “incredibly supportive” of the decision to leave.

Though Forte says he’s “really going to miss” being a part of the cast, he may not have to wait long to return. “Oh my God, I would do anything ["SNL"] asked me to do! If they ever wanted me to come back and do a “MacGruber” for one episode, I would do whatever they want…I don’t plan on being a stranger from those guys.”

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

With an increasing splinter in today’s TV, it’s a good year for the Emmys when they just match what they did the previous year.

Behind that logic, the 2010 Primetime Emmys must feel good that the Jimmy Fallon-hosted show matched 2009’s ratings with 13.5 million people watching small (but breathtaking) cable shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men take home the biggest awards of the night.

One of the biggest things that helped the Emmys’ ratings was the move to August, which meant less serious competition from other programs, specifically regular season Sunday Night Football.

The NY Times has the details…

In the ever-more-fragmented world of television, that’s a victory for NBC. About 13.5 million viewers tuned in, according to the preliminary data, up just 32,000 viewers from last year’s telecast.

Those extra tens of thousands are enough to make Mr. Fallon’s Emmys the “top-scoring Emmy Awards in total viewers in four years,” NBC said, if the preliminary numbers hold, that is. The awards sank to an all-time low of 12.2 million viewers in 2008.

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

Dancing With The Stars is one of the most beloved shows on television and it has seemed to fall into a groove about how to properly pick contestants that a wide array of people will be excited to watch dance.

This year figures to be no different with the following celebrities set to star in the ABC show’s 11th season. The most surprising thing is the amount of young celebrities who will compete this year. Here’s the list…

The women are actress-singer Brandy, “Dirty Dancing” star Jennifer Grey, comedian Margaret Cho, Audrina Patridge of “The Hills,” “Brady Bunch” star Florence Henderson and Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The men are singer Michael Bolton, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of “Jersey Shore,” David Hasselhoff, former quarterback Kurt Warner, Disney Channel star Kyle Massey and former basketball star Rick Fox.

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Grey figures to be the early favorite because of her role on Dirty Dancing, but she’s now 50 so this competition should be pretty wide open.

Are you planning on watching? Which contestants stand out?

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

Well Project Runway fans, we saw the many faces of Gretchen this week. And how! The challenge they were given this week was breaking the final twelve into two teams of six. They then had $1000 budget to create a six look collection.
Michael Costello was the first person called to pick since he had immunity from last week. And….then he made what most would call the fatal mistake of picking Gretchen. April cracked me up in her little testimonial as she chided Michael for picking Gretchen, likening her to Hitler in terms of being a dictator.

April was the person called to begin assembling the other team. In the end Team #1 consisted of Michael C, Gretchen, AJ, Ivy, Christopher, and Andy. Team #2 was April, Mondo, Casanova, Valerie, Michael D and Peach.
The two teams were given various trends to pick for Fall 2010 and then were given their choice of textiles. Team #1 became “Team Luxe” with Menswear that women can wear and the choices of camel and gold. Team #2 became “Team Military/Lace” with the military vibe accentuated with Lace. Cream, Blue, and Black. So given that Team Luxe had won 4 challenges amongst them and Team Military/Lace was sitting on a goose egg with zero wins you would think Gretchen and her merry band of designers would have walked away with the win right? Not so fast….

Team Military/Lace pulled off the upset. And it was awesome. Not only did they mesh as a team and respected each other, but their collection was cohesive and told a story complete with the military accents. Team Luxe, while their collection had six individual looks – from an awful shirtdress to clothes that the proportions on all of them were just out of whack. There was no cohesiveness. And it showed.

When Heidi, Michael, Nina and guest judge Georgina Chapman, co-founder of Marchesa started questioning the losing team Gretchen acted as spokesperson as she had through out most of the challenge. Basically bullying everyone to fit her concept and not theirs. Gretchen pleaded with the judges at first that they were a group and were united together. Once they realized one was going home since they couldn’t pawn the loss off on Michael Costello since he had immunity, Gretchen started pointing fingers at everyone but her. The final two came down to Gretchen and AJ, and sadly since AJ had made the horrible shirtdress he got the boot. Gretchen deserved to go on her behavior alone.

There was a fantastic bright spot from this challenge. Casanova, who had shown no reason why he should even stick around, ended up winning from the Team Military/Lace. It was a great lace shirt with an open back and military inspired cream pants with the gold military buttons. He pulled one out, even after his diva moment, when it looked like the whole team might have to pick up his slack.

The show this year has been having more of Tim, and though I have said it once, I will say it again. MORE TIM! They showed him yelling at Team Luxe about allowing Gretchen to manipulate them the way they did. It is refreshing to hear more of his input and opinion. Especially when calling out Gretchen for being a bit of a snot. Till next week………….

Billy Joel has signed off on an all Joel-episode of Glee, the legendary singer recently told Access Hollywood.

The announcement came as Hollywood, as many TMZ-type celebrity shows are wont to do now, got to talking about Glee.

Joel was nonchalant about the decision to have an all Joel-episode of the breakout Fox program…

Have you ever seen ‘Glee’?” Shaun asked.

“Yeah,” Billy confirmed.

“Would you sign off on a ‘Glee’ episode of Billy Joel?” she continued.

“I already have,” Billy confirmed, breaking news about the hit FOX show.

“So, have they started the process?” Shaun asked.

“I have no idea. All I know is I said, ‘Yeah! Go ahead. Use my stuff,’” Billy revealed. “I was in a chorus when I was in high school, why not?”

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

Heidi and friends mixed it up this week on Project Runway. The designers were handed the opportunity to make an outfit complimenting world renowned designer/milliner Philip Treacy. These hats were nothing short of masterpieces in their own right. Treacy has designed for such stars as Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Each of the models all came out wearing different hats and each designer had the chance to either stay with their model or pick the hat the loved the most. Every one stayed with who they had been with. There were a couple of Treacy’s designs that really stood out. April picked the “Cat in the Hat” one, which was red and white and had a pointy top. It did look like something straight out of Dr. Seuss. You were hoping the Cat himself would show up to help.

Michael Drummond had a hat that looked like a warrior princess. It was very architectural in shape. He ended up designed a short sleeve top out of a fabric that looked like cardboard with a plunging neckline. The shape worked, it set the model’s face off flawlessly while keeping the attention on the hat. Drummond also made a really cute orange crinkle skirt that went with it as well. The judges loved it.

Kristin ended up with the orchid hat. It was a stunning masterpiece. Seriously. However, she didn’t do tit justice by making a black dress that while flowed with the pops of pink, did not set the hat off at all. It faded next to the dress.

Michael Costello picked the circle hat that had cat like whiskers around his model’s eyes. After starting with a dress that he was nervous about and so was Tim, he started over. Bolstered by being able to talk to his son on Father’s Day Michael pulled it off by creating a sleeveless dress with a Grecian inspired bodice. It was flowy, and effortless. I think we have just begun now to hear from this contestant.

April….oh April. Not sure what she was thinking when she started with her booty shorts…but they were just plain ugly. She told Tim she was making a resort wear outfit. It looked more like a black jacket and a diaper. Yes, I said it, a diaper! And that hat, well it spoke of whimsy and magic. A diaper should only be so lucky to be worn with it.

Needless to say, Michael Costello wins it all with his last minute dress. The bottom two came down between Kristin and April. And I was expecting April to go. She had been there twice before. In a surprise move the judges let Kristin go. Which was probably the right decision in the end. She could have done a lot more with that gorgeous hat.

In a follow up from last week designer Ivy was okay and returned and yippier than ever. Man, all she did was say how horrible everyone else’s design was and hers was perfect. Not a fan of that girl till she can win a challenge and prove herself that she isn’t all talk.

Lastly the best line of the night comes from Peach. She was explaining to Tim that she was going to make a short skirt on her dress. Tim with his ever present concern: “How short?” Peach: “Well 15-16”, but you know, not enough to show the good china.” Tim cracked up. Hilarious. I hope she stays for the one liners alone!

A week before the actual Emmy Awards ceremony on NBC, 88-year-old Betty White has won an Emmy for best guest actress in a comedy series for her hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live.

The legendary television actress took home the award Saturday evening at the creative arts ceremony. The award is White’s fifth. She has won awards for her work on Golden Girls and The Mary Tyler Moore Show over 30 years ago.

White did not attend Saturday’s award show.

You can read more about the creative arts ceremony right here.

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

Kings of Leon have exploded in the United States over the last two years, primarily because of new tracks “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody”.

As a result, a pretty substantial (and worrisome) portion of the band’s fanbase doesn’t have any sense of their discography.

This presents problems at the current batch of KOL shows when the new fans show up, the band mixes some new unreleased songs with tracks off their first record and the new fans of KOL without the sense of their history are left confused.

“The other night there was someone on the front row and we had played a new song, and then we played ‘Trani’ which is off our first album,” Nathan Followill told Absolute Radio. “I saw the girl look at another girl and say ‘Is this another new song?’. So it’s like a lot of them don’t know the difference.”

Ugh.

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