Entertainment.

[Littledragon]

Backstreet Boy Nick Carter to rehab.

SANTA ANA, California (AP) -- Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter was ordered into a three-month alcohol treatment program after pleading guilty to drunk driving.

Carter, 25, entered the plea Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court. The judge also ordered Carter to pay $1,200 in fines, placed him on three years' informal probation and restricted his driving privileges for 90 days, said Deputy District Attorney Tate McCallister.

Carter, who wasn't in court Tuesday, was pulled over March 5 in downtown Huntington Beach. He was charged with one count of driving under the influence and one count of driving with a blood alcohol level above 0.08, the legal limit.

The singer has said through his publicist that he was on prescription medication at the time "and was unaware of its interaction possibilities."

The Backstreet Boys, whose hits include "I Want it That Way," "Shape of My Heart" and "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely," recently reunited after four years. Carter, the youngest of the group, released a solo album in 2002.

 

[GlimmerMan]

I read less when I was in my third year at uni.

 

[Littledragon]

What was ABC thinking?

NEW YORK (AP) -- ABC's extraordinary cancellation of "Welcome to the Neighborhood" less than two weeks before its premiere proves that reality television can only handle so much reality.

With a threatened lawsuit and accusations the network was tone deaf to bigotry, ABC may have traded a major headache for the temporary embarrassment of throwing out a series that was already finished.

But executives must surely be hearing uncomfortable questions about how ABC got so close to the brink in the first place.

The six-episode summer series, which was to debut July 10, was heavily promoted and given the plum "Desperate Housewives" time slot. ABC saw it as the potential hit follow-up to "Dancing With the Stars."

"Welcome to the Neighborhood" followed three families in a comfortable cul-de-sac near Austin, Texas, given the chance to choose who moves in when a neighbor moves out of a 3,300-square-foot home on their block. Each family is white, conservative and initially interested in neighbors like them.

Instead, they have a rainbow coalition of choices: a black family; a Hispanic family; an Asian family; two gay white men who've adopted a black boy; a couple covered in tattoos and piercings; a couple who met at the woman's initiation as a witch; and a white family where mom is a stripper.

After the usual reality show contrivances -- voting a family out each week after a competition to give one family immunity -- the winning family gets the house.

The idea is to see preconceptions, even prejudices, break down as the white homeowners get to know the competitors as people instead of stereotypes.

But you can't show a transformation without illustrating what people are transforming from.

"Why should people of color and others ... be humiliated and degraded to teach white people not to be bigots?" said Shanna Smith, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance. "That's not good for race relations in America."

Within the first two episodes, one man made a crack about the number of children piling out of the Hispanic family's car. The citizenry of the business-owning Asian family was questioned and displays of affection between the gay men were met with disgust.

Anger about the series even united the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (which found it "really disturbing" to watch privileged couples vote out families they don't like) with the Family Research Council (which worried that conservative Christians would appear like overly judgmental buffoons).

Smith said it was illegal for homeowners to pick and choose neighbors. Her group was readying a lawsuit, saying the series frustrated all their efforts to see that people are not discriminated against in seeking housing.

'I'm surprised by the negative reaction'
The protests clearly blind-sided ABC.

"I didn't think that people would be this nervous," Andrea Wong, head of alternative programming at ABC, said before Wednesday's decision to ditch the show. "Because I really think it's such a positive show and such a good thing to put on TV and cause viewers to look at themselves, I'm surprised by the negative reaction to it."

ABC's lawyers gave "Welcome to the Neighborhood" the go-ahead, and it apparently didn't disturb Wong when the family that shared her Asian-American descent was the first to be knocked out.

Wong was not giving interviews after the cancellation. Series producers Jay Blumenfield and Tony Marsh also weren't talking.

Smith, who had seen tapes of the first two episodes, was disturbed at a lack of balance. Competing families couldn't address biases because remarks weren't made in their presence; besides, they were on their best behavior to win a house they could otherwise not afford.

ABC said last week that "given the sensitivity of the subject matter in early episodes we have decided not to air the series at this time."

"You only sort of get half the story in watching the first two episodes," Blumenfield said before the cancellation. "You see the harshness, the entrenched points of view. These things kind of melt away as the humanity comes out. It was astonishing to watch and I think everyone felt very positive at the end."

The progression was telegraphed by the tattooed Sheets family, the most instantly reviled by the homeowners. Yet the Sheets quickly bonded with the neighbors when they realize they're all Republicans, and one couple came to see them as versions of themselves a decade earlier.

In talks with network President Alex Wallau, Smith said she was convinced ABC meant nothing malicious in preparing the show, and that ABC was unfamiliar with housing law.

"We're still concerned it's not gone forever," she said, "and if there are any other attempts to air it, we are prepared to take legal action to stop it."

Since producers clammed up after ABC's abrupt decision, Marsh wasn't available to address the irony of his words from just a week earlier.

"One of the horrible things that is happening right now in this country is that people are so afraid of a healthy debate," he said. "Somehow if you put out a strong point of view you're either painting someone improperly or you're offending the people who might oppose that view. We don't believe that preconceptions and prejudices are something to hide. They're something explore and hopefully get over."

The only good news for ABC is that for viewers, this is a tree falling in a very distant forest. Since the public won't see it, it will be hard for the public to get worked up.

There's also good news for one of the eight competing families: the winner will still get the house, even if their moment of joy has been censored. To keep the secret, the family had not been allowed to move in until after the series was supposed to conclude in late August.

An ABC spokeswoman declined to say who won.

 

[Littledragon]

'Housewives,' 'Sellers' lead Emmy pack.

(CNN) -- The "Desperate Housewives" have little to be desperate about now.

The ABC hit, which ended the 2004-05 TV season as one of the highest-rated series on the air, received 15 nods Thursday morning as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominations for the 57th annual awards.

"Housewives," the story of a group of women on intrigue-infested Wisteria Lane, earned picks for three of its actresses -- Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher -- as well as a nomination for best comedy series. However, the show's fourth "Housewife," Eva Longoria, was overlooked. Longoria was also the only "Housewife" not to earn a Golden Globe nomination.

The show tied NBC's "Will & Grace" for most nominations for a series.

"Everybody Loves Raymond," which wrapped its final season in May, earned 13 nominations, including nods for best comedy series and best actor in a comedy series (Ray Romano).

The HBO films "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" and "Warm Springs" each had 16 bids, to top all nominees. HBO also led all networks in nominations with 93.

A few newcomers managed to break into the Emmy ranks. "Lost," another hit ABC show, was nominated 12 Emmys, including best drama and best supporting actor (Naveen Andrews and Terry O'Quinn). Hugh Laurie, of Fox's medical drama "House," earned a nod for best actor in a drama.

In a pair of surprises, the low-rated Showtime series "Huff," about a therapist with his own issues, picked up a nomination for its lead actor, Hank Azaria, and the NBC series "Medium" received a best actress nomination for its lead, Patricia Arquette.

Emmy did stick with some tried-and-true favorites, including "Will & Grace" and NBC's "The West Wing." The latter show, which has been considered on the wane, earned its sixth straight nomination for best drama over critical favorites "Nip/Tuck," "Rescue Me" and "Alias."

Also snubbed were The WB's "Gilmore Girls" and UPN's "Veronica Mars," two shows that have earned decent ratings and good reviews.

"Peter Sellers" and "Warm Springs" were nominated for best TV movie. Other nominees in the category were "Lackawanna Blues," "The Office Special" and "The Wool Cap."

Major nominations
"Sellers" lead Geoffrey Rush was nominated for best actor in a TV movie or miniseries. Other nominees in that category are Kenneth Branagh for "Warm Springs," Ed Harris for "Empire Falls" and William H. Macy for "The Wool Cap."

Actress nominees in the miniseries-movie category are Halle Berry for "Their Eyes Were Watching God," Blythe Danner for "Back When We Were Grownups," S. Epatha Merkerson for "Lackawanna Blues," Cynthia Nixon, the former "Sex and the City" star, for "Warm Springs," and Debra Winger for "Dawn Anna."

Best miniseries nominees include "Elvis," "Empire Falls," "The 4400" and "The Lost Prince."


Geoffrey Rush as Peter Sellers in "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers." The film tied for the most nominations with 16.The most popular show of last season, "American Idol," was nominated for best reality competition. Also in that category are "The Amazing Race," "Survivor," "Project Runway" and "The Apprentice."

The nominees for best drama series are "Deadwood," "Lost," "Six Feet Under," "24" and "The West Wing."

The nominees for best comedy series are "Arrested Development," "Desperate Housewives," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Scrubs" and "Will & Grace."

The nominees for best actor in a drama are Hank Azaria ("Huff"), Hugh Laurie ("House"), Ian McShane ("Deadwood"), James Spader ("Boston Legal") and Kiefer Sutherland ("24").

The nominees for best actress in a drama are Patricia Arquette ("Medium"), Glenn Close ("The Shield"), Frances Conroy ("Six Feet Under"), Jennifer Garner ("Alias") and Mariska Hargitay ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit").

The nominees for best actor in a comedy are Jason Bateman ("Arrested Development"), Zach Braff ("Scrubs"), Eric McCormack ("Will & Grace"), Ray Romano ("Everybody Loves Raymond") and Tony Shalhoub ("Monk").

The nominees for best actress in a comedy are Marcia Cross ("Desperate Housewives"), Teri Hatcher ("Desperate Housewives") , Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), Felicity Huffman ("Desperate Housewives") and Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm in the Middle").

In supporting categories, nominations went to Jeffrey Tambor of "Arrested Development," Peter Boyle and Brad Garrett of "Everybody Loves Raymond," Jeremy Piven of "Entourage" and Sean Hayes of "Will & Grace."

Actress nominees were Jessica Walter of "Arrested Development," Doris Roberts of "Everybody Loves Raymond," Holland Taylor and Conchata Ferrell of "Two and a Half Men," and Megan Mullally of "Will & Grace."

Joining Andrews and O'Quinn of "Lost" in the drama series supporting actor category were William Shatner of "Boston Legal," Oliver Platt of "Huff" and Alan Alda of "The West Wing."

Nominees for supporting actress were Sandra Oh of "Grey's Anatomy," Blythe Danner of "Huff," Tyne Daly of "Judging Amy," CCH Pounder of "The Shield" and Stockard Channing of "The West Wing."

"The Sopranos," a perennial Emmy front-runner and last year's best drama series, wasn't eligible this year because it had no new episodes during the Emmy qualifying period.

The nominations were announced by Michael Imperioli ("The Sopranos," "Law & Order") and Jami Gertz ("Still Standing").

The Emmys are scheduled to air live on Sunday, September 18, on CBS.