- Thursday, April 21, 2011

Author Frey returning to ’Oprah Winfrey Show’

James Frey is returning to “The Oprah Winfrey Show” five years after he was famously eviscerated by the talk-show host for fabricating details of his best-selling memoir, “A Million Little Pieces.”

Mr. Frey will promote his new book, “The Final Testament of the Holy Bible,” which hits stores Friday. The episode will “air sometime in May,” a representative for Harpo Inc. tells the Hollywood Reporter. The last episode of Miss Winfrey’s talk show will air May 25.

Miss Winfrey catapulted Mr. Frey to the New York Times and Amazon best-seller lists after she picked his memoir, which told of his drug addiction and the supposed suicide of an ex-girlfriend, for her book club. After the Smoking Gun detailed how the book was false, she angrily confronted him on her show. She later apologized.

“Oprah apologized to James a couple of years ago, and he appreciated it. So he agreed to go back on her show and talk about everything that’s happened over the last five years,” an insider tells the New York Post, which first reported the story.

Mr. Frey said in 2008 that his new book is his “idea of what the Messiah would be like if he were walking the streets of New York today.” His Jesus, aka Ben Jones, is a heavy drinker who gets a prostitute pregnant, smokes marijuana and fools around with men.

Time 100 honors world’s most influential

It’s time to honor the 2011 Time 100, the 100 most influential people in the world, named by Time magazine. Though a bulk of the list is made up of political leaders and global newsmakers (Julian Assange, Barack and Michelle Obama, Michele Bachmann), plenty of the entertainment industry’s bigwigs have come along for the ride, EW.com reports.

Not surprisingly, the list has Bieber and royal wedding fever: Tween sensation Justin Bieber and soon-to-be-wed Kate Middleton and Prince William make the cut. But Time also has channeled its inner Gleek, placing “Glee’s” Chris Colfer — a.k.a. Kurt Hummel — on the list.

Other pop-culture names to make the cut: “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, “Parks and Recreation’s” Amy Poehler, singer Bruno Mars, “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin, National Book Award winner Patti Smith, Academy Award-winner Colin Firth, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, and Blake Lively, the “Gossip Girl” actress who shocked with her powerful performance in “The Town.”

And of course, what list would be a list without the “Big O” herself? Oprah Winfrey, in the final weeks of her talk show, also is included on Time’s list.

Pair of Henson films to air in high-def for first time

On Memorial Day, Mark Cuban’s HDNet will air a double feature of Jim Henson films, “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The films, which will air for the first time in high definition, will run for one night only, beginning at 8 p.m. May 30. It will mark the first time the pairing has hit the small screen in more than 10 years.

The move comes as “Crystal,” a fantasy flick directed by Mr. Henson and Frank Oz, is coming up on its 30th anniversary in 2012; “Labyrinth,” a Henson-directed George Lucas production, is celebrating its 25th this year.

“As one of the last independent networks, HDNet tries to find content that embodies that independent spirit. No movies are more unique and independent in mind and spirit than Jim Henson’s ’The Dark Crystal’ and ’Labyrinth,’” Mr. Cuban told the Hollywood Reporter.

’Tara’s’ complexity lured comedian Eddie Izzard

Eddie Izzard says he’ll never abandon stand-up, but he’s looking for more than laughs as an actor.

Mr. Izzard decided to guest-star in a multiepisode arc on Showtime’s “United States of Tara” this season because of the show’s complexity, the Associated Press reports.

“I normally try not to do comedies, but it’s a dramatic comedy, a drama with a comedic edge. There seem to be two different types of comedies that exist these days. I thought, ’Let’s go do it,’” he said.

“United States of Tara,” which airs at 10:30 p.m. Mondays, stars Toni Collette as a suburban wife, mom and troubled host to multiple personalities. Mr. Izzard plays a professor who meets Tara when she decides to finish her college degree and signs up for his class in abnormal psychology.

Miss Collette calls working with Mr. Izzard a joy.

“I love his humor, his swagger and all that he has brought to season three,” she said.

Mr. Izzard, 49, said he has wanted to act since age 7 and, at 30, “it started working.”

His varied credits include the Tom Cruise film “Valkyrie,” “Ocean’s Twelve,” its sequel “Ocean’s Thirteen” and the TV series “The Riches.”

Mr. Izzard has put his own stamp on stand-up, delivering amalgams of wide-ranging observations and impressions while sometimes garbed in dresses. That has led people to assume he’s gay, but Mr. Izzard has described himself as a “straight transvestite.”

Compiled from web and wire reports

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