Amy Locane Convicted Of Vehicular Homicide

Melrose Place actress Amy Locane was convicted yesterday of vehicular homicide and assault by vehicle. She was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter. Amy will be sentenced on March 1st and faces 5 to 10 years in prison for the homicide charge. She has to serve 85% of that time before getting paroled. She also faces another 3 to 5 years in jail for the assault by auto charge, Amy's blood alcohol level was almost three times over the legal limit in 2010 when she slammed her SUV at 50 mph into a car that was turning into a driveway. Amy killed the passenger and injured the driver.

Oprah Gets Highest Ratings In Two Years - Heather Locklear Can't Save Melrose

E! has a post up summarizing all of the ratings numbers for this week and the two I found most interesting were that Oprah had her highest ratings by far over the past two years when she had Sarah Palin on the show. Well, maybe Sarah Palin needs to head over to Melrose Place because it doesn't look like Heather Locklear is going to be able to save the show. In her first appearance the show did manage its highest ratings of the year but they were still dismal and about 30% lower than the 90210 numbers. About an extra 250K people watched Melrose this week compared to last week. Unless those viewers come back again next week and bring five people each, the show won't be renewed for another season.

Melrose Place Producers Lied And Lied And Lied Some More

Let me start out by saying that Ashlee Simpson getting fired off Melrose Place made yesterday afternoon joyous and makes those blind items out there almost kind of moot. Anyway, tempering my joyousness is the fact that Colin Egglesfield also got fired in some sort of network sacrifice.

I know the show sucks, but there are some redeeming points and Colin Egglesfield was one of them. In most polls of the 40 people who actually watch Melrose, Colin's character Auggie is by far the favorite male character if not the favorite character on the whole show. So, of course the network fires him. This is why you work for CW and not CBS.

Yesterday EW and Mr. Aussielo broke the news first. Michael interviewed the show runner and this is what he had to say about the firings.

So it was always the plan for Ashlee to leave after episode 12?
SLAVKIN: Yes. Because we felt that once the murder mystery was resolved, the tone of the show was going to shift into a much more fun, romantic, sexy upbeat kind of show, and [her] character would move on.

Same thing with Colin?
SLAVKIN: Colin was always meant to be the ultimate suspect. And his brooding alcoholic [character] tonally didn’t fit the paradigm moving into post-murder mystery Melrose Place.

How did Ashlee and Colin take the news?
SLAVKIN: They’re total professionals and they took it like professionals. When you go into a show you never know what’s going to evolve and what the possibilities are. But because they knew ahead of time [that leaving was a possibility], it wasn’t a complete shock.

OK, so after reading that you say to yourself Ashlee didn't get fired because she is the worst actor short of Tommy Wiseau and instead knew it was coming. So, Ashlee ends up looking good. It also sounds like Colin knew he was going be let go after this arc and that there was nothing poor Slavkin could do about it. Uh huh.

Well, today, E! managed to get a hold of Colin and this is what he told them.

You were initially hired to be an ongoing series regular on Melrose Place, right?
Yes, definitely. I was slated to be in 10 of the 13 first episodes, but I had a multiyear contract.

What happened to change that? How did you learn they weren't going forward with you and your character?
I got the call this morning from our producers, Todd [Slavkin] and Darren [Swimmer]. They were really saddened, and you could tell it was difficult for them to break this news to me. They said it was a network decision, and they said the network thought Auggie was a little too dark, with his alcoholism. They felt like in the landscape of Melrose they wanted to change the tone of the show. So that's the explanation that they gave me.

And this morning was the first you'd heard of it?
They said that it wasn't anything against me or my talent or anything. There was never any discussion that they weren't sure what they were going to do with me or my character. And it wasn't like I was getting in fights with crew members or punching people out.

So, there you have it. The producers lied to the actors, lied to Entertainment Weekly and Michael Ausiello, and then lied again because they told their wives they were working late. I don't know about that last part, but I don't know how you fire the most popular member of your cast. It doesn't matter if you watch the show or not, you don't fire the fan favorite because what few fans you do have will say bye. Dumb, dumb move.

Bye Bye 90210 And Melrose Place

The season premiere of 90210 and Melrose Place were last night. You probably didn't notice, because no one actually noticed. The numbers were horrendous for the two shows. 90210 was down 50% from last year's premiere and Melrose had even lower numbers than 90210. So, it didn't surprise me at all when I got a phone call this morning and on the other end was someone telling me that Melrose is going to have a tough time getting a full season order. Right now they have a 13 episode commitment and were shooting episode 8 yesterday. If the numbers don't improve they might not even get to air all 13 episodes, and 90210 isn't long for the world either.

Last night America's Got Talent was a repeat for an hour and it still had 6 times the number of viewers as 90210 or Melrose. I guess they should have just left a good thing alone.

Melrose Place Is Doomed

Usually producers worry about stunt casting when they need a little boost to the ratings. They don't generally start with it at the outset of a television series that will get big ratings initially. I'm at a loss to explain any other reason why the producers of Melrose Place have cast Ashlee Simpson in a starring role on the new show. I don't know who owes whom or who has pictures of someone, but Ashlee is not the first person I think of when the word actress comes to mind.

Oh sure, she was on 7th Heaven and so you are saying she has experience and she must be good. Need I remind you that Jessica Biel and Haylie Duff were also on the show. Let me take that back. I actually think Haylie Duff would be good on Melrose. I don't share the same opinion about Ashlee being on the show. The only reason I can think of to have her on the show is to attract viewers and her husband, and not because she is any great shakes as an actress.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the description of Ashlee's character is a person with, "disarming naiveté [that] masks the calculating, shrewd sex kitten within." Uh huh. Let me know when Ashlee figures out what naiveté means. I really had high hopes for this show. After the mostly painful disappointment of 90210, I was hoping the producers would make more of an effort in their casting.

Of course they could just be signing her up for a quick death also. I mean you need those season ending cliffhangers. Maybe Dr. Kimberly Shaw could make an appearance and kill Ashlee. That would be good television, and make for a much better season the next year. The only thing that could possibly make this better is if they cast Jessica Simpson as her mother.

Mischa Barton To Melrose Place

Apparently Mischa Barton has had a change of heart about the whole television thing. It's amazing what not getting any jobs and running out of money will do to someone's artistic integrity. Mischa is the same person who vowed never to do television again because it was mindless and horribly constraining and The OC was even worse because she considered it a soap.

Well, a few years without a real job and the next thing you know she is going to be on Melrose Place. According to Korbi TV, Mischa is auditioning for a role on the show. Aaaah, Mischa you had to audition? You really have dropped really far, really quickly. But if the show does well than Mischa can hang around Hollywood for another six or seven years doing nothing and bitch and complain and moan about her talents are being wasted on a show when she could be showing off her acting skills in feature films and getting nominations and awards to go with a series of boyfriends who never last longer than a few dates, because, well it is Mischa Barton. Mischa allegedly turned down the role of Georgina Sparks on Gossip Girl, but I don't think Mischa has turned down a paycheck in awhile no matter where it came from. Plus, but the time they cast Michelle Trachtenberg's part on the show, Gossip Girl was already a decent hit and there was no way Mischa would have turned down a chance to be on a hit.

I personally don't care that much about Mischa. I just keep writing about her in the hopes that her sister will read a post and get in touch with me. I would love to meet her sister. In fact, I would love to sit down with her sister for a few hours and get some answers that I think she is ready to give.