UPDATE: Tonight Saturday Night Live head writer and Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers entertained at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — that annual media-politics-showbiz schmoozefest in Washington DC. I’ve been to the White House Correspondents Dinner, and, if history is any judge, then comedians…

UPDATE SATURDAY 7 PM: Almost 23 million viewers in the U.S. watched the coverage of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton from 6AM to 7:15AM ET on Friday across 11 networks. That outpaces the estimated 17 million who tuned in for Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981, which was carried by the Big…

Here’s the latest news from SAG. For the latest Hollywood Guilds news, see my post from earlier this week: Los Angeles, (April 30, 2011) – The Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors today unanimously approved the creation of a Merger Task Force to work with their AFTRA counterparts in developing a formal plan…

Back when I saw him in late February at Harvey Weinstein’s Oscar night party for The King’s Speech, Quentin Tarantino told me that his script for a Western was just pouring out of him easily, that he’d finished a draft and expected to turn in a final version within two months. As a web leak of the cover page of his…

Will this further shake CBS’ commitment to scripted programming on Fridays? Last night, a Royal Wedding special at 8 PM (1.7/6, 8.6 million) delivered a rare decisive No. 1 finish in the hour for the network among 18-49 and outranked the network’s scripted entries in the slot this season — Medium, The Defenders and…

WASHINGTON DC: New MPAA chief Chris Dodd will deliver his first speech about Hollywood issues to a non-industry audience next week. He did tell me, though, that he’s preparing to enlist the government’s help in fighting piracy overseas. [Nikki UPDATES: Fat chance, since Dodd is a longtime Democrat, and the Republicans…

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday granted the NFL’s request for a temporary stay on an injunction that lifted an owner-imposed lockout on players. That means the lockout is back on, just a couple of days after a Minneapolis judge’s decision had lifted it. Now the appeals court will review briefs by players…

Cartoon Network’s VP original series Rob Swartz is leaving the cable network after a three-year stint to return to his alternative series roots, this time as a producer. His last day is today. At CN, Swarz led the development and current teams and oversaw development and current programming for all of CN's original…

Eight months after its original premiere date, NBC’s hourlong anthology comedy Love Bites will debut in its original Thursday 10 PM time slot. Love Bites‘ premiere is set for June 2. Once a high-flying prospect, Love Bites was prominently featured at NBC’s updront presentation last May when it was assigned the…

EXCLUSIVE: After an extensive search and lengthy negotiations, Dylan McDermott has been cast as the male lead in FX’s drama pilot American Horror Story, from Glee co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. Additionally, FX is also making a deal with McDermott to develop, write and potentially star in another series…

EXCLUSIVE: I’ve just learned that CAA is negotiating a deal for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s next movie that will pay him “top-dollar” money — even though no one knows if the 63-year-old is still a star who can open a movie. Filmmaker Al Ruddy — yes, the 81-year-old Godfather and Million Dollar Baby producer — bought a…

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (April 29, 2011) -– NBC revealed that it will add more star-power to its new vocal competition series "The Voice" with singers Reba, Monica, Sia (Furler) and music producer Adam Blackstone joining the series as new advisers who will lend their experience and talents to musician coaches…