Buzz Bits: Latoya's Packing, Another Hot Brit Swings & Kylie Welcomes '07

Stop in the name of LaToya!

In what may signal the zenith or the nadir of the reality TV trajectory, CBS will debut its newest reality show, Armed & Famous, on January 10th. In the show, five celebrities – Erik Estrada, La Toya Jackson, Jack Osbourne, along with professional skateboarder Jason "Wee-Man" Acuña and former WWE wrestler Trish Stratus, will train and become sworn police officers for the city of Muncie, Indiana – population 70,000 and home to Ball State University. Yes, the stars have been trained, sworn in and armed. They’ll each get partnered with a veteran cop. Already, there have been new reports about producers paying arrested perps to allow their images to appear on the show. I’m more scandalized by the idea of LaToya packing heat.

AND...

New game show alert: (and no, not with bikini-clad women holding briefcases of money) This one is from FOX and its called, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? Adults field questions straight out of elementary school text books. And hope not to be embarrassed. And for a “lifeline?”—they can call up real 5th graders for help. Ha! Who says TV can’t be smart?

James Purefoy: Says boys will be boys... with other boys.

Foxy Brit actor James Purefoy (who stars in HBO’s Rome, and was in Vanity Fair with Reese and A Knight’s Tale) tells OUT Magazine that he’s mostly straight, but he’ll “never say never” to the idea of man-on-man action. I’ll choose to see this glass as half full, thanks.

Actor Steve Buscemi is making William S. Burroughs' druggie, gay-ish novel “Queer” (about being on a quest for drugs in Mexico and South America) into a movie! Buscemi will play the lead character, based on Burroughs. Might it be the junkie feel-good hit of 2007?

Speaking of literary pursuits, Mariah Carey is gonna write a book! It’ll be called 500 Hours, and be a quasi-memoir based on her days in beauty school. I hope the story goes something like this...

Marlee Matlin, Jennifer Beals, Cybill Shepherd in new "L Word" promo pics. Whoa... Photoshop much?

All this week the amazing folks at the AfterEllen blog have been posting the just-released pics from the forthcoming season of The L Word. I’m very excited to see Cybil Shepherd hooking up with Alice this season. And I pretty much worship Jennifer Beals on this show. Check the pics out!

As you heard, Actor Peter Boyle, the curmudgeonly dad on Everybody Loves Raymond, died Tuesday. He was 71 years old. To my mind, the most brilliant thing he ever did was play the monster in Young Frankenstein, one of the best movies ever. Watch this.

Finally, if you’re free for New Year’s Eve, wanna hook up with me and Kylie for this? Yes, I think you do. (And I hope the dance floor is gonna be something like this.)



New Year's Eve in London: Kylie's like, "I'll bring the feathers. You bring your dancin' ass!"