"Gilmore Girls" creator gets new gig

Well, I guess we knew a woman as talented as Amy Sherman-Palladino wouldn't be unemployed for long.

Just weeks after she and hubby Dan Palladino bailed on their "Gilmore Girls" because they couldn't come to terms with Warner Bros. TV on a new deal, she's landed with the Fox Broadcasting Co.

Her next project will be a half-hour dramedy that will revolve around two estranged sisters who reunite after one of them agrees to carry the other's baby. Sherman-Palladino will write, executive produce and direct the pilot, which is yet to be set up at a studio.

That doesn't sound terribly promising to me, but I'll take a chance on it. Six years or so ago, if you had told me to watch a show about a single mother and her 16-year-old daughter living in Connecticut, I probably would have passed. I'm still not sure why, but I took a chance on "Gilmore Girls" back then, and now it's my favorite show by far.

So I'll keep the faith. After all, she's earned it.

P.T. Anderson update

Just the other day, I think as I was reading an article about the great John C. Reilly, I was wondering just what happened to Paul Thomas Anderson. It turns out he's cooking up something so crazy it just might be great.

Details are sketchy, but Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" will be a sprawling period piece loosely based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel "Oil!" In it, Daniel Day Lewis (who seems to work about as often as Anderson) will play a tycoon who strikes it rich after gaining oil rights to a family's (Texas, I would imagine) ranch, turning a small town into a boomtown. Paul Dano will play a charismatic young preacher who captivates churchgoers in the town.

That all sounds cool to me. I flat out hated "Magnolia," but "Boogie Nights" was a crazy masterpiece, and this one sounds similar in scope.

It's been quite a run for young Mr. Dano. He currently stars as a young man who has decided to stop speaking in "Little Miss Sunshine" (an aside: How many stars does it take to give a movie wide enough distribution to play in small-town America? Sheesh). And in a project that just fascinates me, he'll be shot on digital video to play a monster in Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's novel "Where the Wild Things Are." I just can't wait for that one.

"Jackass: Number Two" trailer

When I came across this at the IMDB this morning, I just had to stop and enjoy it.

It's apparently the week for dumb MTV comedies that make me laugh out loud. With a third volume of "Beavis & Butthead" out on DVD this week, now comes footage of just what the world needs most: Another Jackass movie.

I was skeptical (sp?) about the first movie, having never seen the TV show, but I saw it after my brother swore it was one of the funniest movies he'd ever seen. He was surely right. The rental car demolition derby is perfection, and there's much more rude, very funny stuff to be found.

The trailer for No. 2 promises the boys have aged very little at all, thankfully. I especially like the skull and crutches logo at the end.

Anyways, for a smile and laugh to start out your Wednesday, click here and enjoy.