So this week for a change I’m just gonna start with a non-geek story relating to the world of television which captured my imagination. The founder of an American Muslim television channel, which was launched to counter the negative stereotypes of Muslims after 9/11, was arrested in New York late Thursday for beheading his estranged wife.
Now, ok, we do see tragedies where people lose the plot and commit murder – it’s never a good thing – but surely he could’ve shot her? Strangled even? But Beheading!? The one person employed to break down social barriers and he chooses to go down that road? Its not as like a crime of passion where someone can lose it in the heat of the moment and strangle someone or violently attack. Noone – apart from Robert Mugabe maybe – has an 18inch machete just lying around.

Muzzammil Hassan, 44, was charged with second-degree murder hours after he went to the police and told them his wife’s dead body was at the Bridges TV office in Buffalo, New York.
Maybe I’m getting it all wrong and he wanted to integrate his wife into the American culture by turning her into a redneck….

Ok, T.V news.
Apparently, Justin Lee Collins’ new target in his ‘Bring back…’ series in the UK is going to be the awesome ‘Goonies’. In the past, Justin Lee Collins has put together TV shows where he’s reunited many of the cast of the likes of ‘Star Wars’, ‘Fame’ and ‘The A-Team’ in a series of special one-offs for Channel Four.
Many of the actors who’ve reappeared due to these one offs have gone on to get the odd piece of work from UK bodies as a result. Shaun Astin and Josh Brolin are doing pretty well for themselves, even Corey Feldman has made a reality TV comeback; but I can certainly see a spinoff series, ‘America’s Next Top Mongol’ with ‘Chunk’ as the host.
The ‘Bring Back… the Goonies’ show should air before the end of this year

In a shocking twist, Matthew Fox has stated he will no longer act in TV once his role in ‘Lost’ is over. For those of us who were unaware he was acting in TV and find Fox’s character the most boring in ‘Lost’, this is surprising.
Fox revealed that “I’m pretty sure that (‘Lost’) will be the last television thing that I will do.”
Fox won’t be pulling out of acting altogether, and the movies are likely to be the most logical next outlet for his talents. He’s done a couple of movie roles in recent years, but his commitment to ‘Lost’ has clearly been monopolising his time.
He has, however, revealed that he’d love to take the lead in a biopic of Steve McQueen. By ‘taking the lead’ I assume he means some sort of dog walker.

Patrick Swayze has returned to training for the crime drama ‘The Beast’, according to his close friend Whoopi Goldberg. ‘The Beast’ recently began screening in the UK on FX and I have to say I’m really enjoying it, Swayze coming across really well as a bad ass anti-hero.
Goldberg, who co-starred with Swayze in 1990′s ‘Ghost’, dismissed reports that the actor is losing his battle with pancreatic cancer, insisting that he is in “very, very good spirits”.
Speaking on The View, she said: “He’s sick, there’s no getting around it, but like all of us, we all know at some point we’re gonna die, we don’t know when.
“But as it turns out, there’s no expiration date on his ass. He doesn’t know when he’s going so he’s just going forward. He’s gone back into training for ‘The Beast’ because you know, this show he’s running and jumping and rolling… it’s crazy.”
She added: “He’s good. So whatever you’re reading, just know that he’s kicking butt… He’s living in the moment and doing one day at a time.”
Last week, the ‘Dirty Dancing’ star denied reports that he is near death, claiming that he is “responding well” to chemotherapy treatment.

I am consciously trying not to mention ‘Family Guy’ each week now, but there always seems to be interesting news coming from their camp. This time the story goes that Kanye West has agreed to voice a character for the forthcoming ‘Family Gu’y spinoff, ‘The Cleveland Show’.
Apparently the rapper attended a table read for the Fox project last Thursday, before recording a segment involving a character called ‘Kenny West’.
“We knew Kanye was a big ‘Family Guy’ fan because he invited [creator] Seth [MacFarlane] to his house a year or two ago,” said executive producer Mike Henry, who also voices titular character Cleveland Brown.
“It was surprising to us that [he] was so into it that he came to the table, and wonderfully surprising how cool he was, how funny he was and how unassuming he was.”
Executive producer Richard Appel added: “There was only one line he didn’t love, and he came up with another idea and in a completely modest, nice way said, ‘Would you mind if I changed just this one line?’
“Our feeling was, how many raps have we written? One? And how many has he written? Be our guest!…He read it a couple times through and he just owned the character.”
When asked if West would be returning in the future, Appel replied: “He said he’d be glad to. I said we could write him into the next 21 episodes!”
‘The Cleveland Sho’w is, as said in a previous column, set to debut later this year, with West’s episode scheduled to premiere sometime in 2010.

Lastly, British comedy writer and show-runner Drew Pearce is heading to America to work on a pilot of his superhero-spoofing sitcom, ‘No Heroics’, for ABC. I have to be honest, I never actually saw the series on ITV – I generally don’t do 1,2,3 – but I hear from my entourage that this show was pretty funny.
The ITV original series features a cast of neurotic superheroes trying to fit into everyday life. “I have high hopes for it right now,” Pearce told Wired.com. “I am moving to Los Angeles on the Feb. 22 for three months to run the show.”
Pearce confirmed that the ABC show will be set in the same world as ITV’s production.
“Everyone seems to be excited about the all-new script and characters,” he added. “So, we’re keeping fingers crossed.”

That’ll be it for this week – and remember kids, stay off the slopes…..

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