HBO has sent "Treme," the new project from "The Wire" creator David Simon, to series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, certain aspects of the deal for the New Orleans set drama are still up in the air, including how many episodes the pick-up is for and when the series will premiere, though it's expected that a fall launch will be in the cards. Simon created "Treme," set in post-Katrina New Orleans, with Eric Overmyer ("Homicide"). "The Wire" veterans Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters star, along with Steve Zahn, Khandi Alexander, Melissa Leo, Kim Dickens and Rob Brown. The series is believed...
HitFix Staff

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The Wire creator David Simon is developing a new series at HBO set in New Orleans titled Treme.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the size of the series order is still being determined, with the network eyeing a fall debut.
Treme is a post-Katrina-themed drama that chronicles the rebuilding of New Orleans through the eyes of local musicians.
Simon co-created the project with longtime New Orleans resident Eric Overmyer, after the two former Homicide writers had discussed doing a show set in the Big Easy for years.
"New Orleans is one of the most unique and essential American places, which is also very vulnerable," Simon said.
The Treme cast is led by another New Orleans native, Wendell Pierce, and includes Steve Zahn, Clarke Peters, Khandi Alexander, Melissa Leo, Kim Dickens and Rob Brown.
The series will continue to be filmed in the Crescent City, where the pilot was shot.

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Chicago – After participating in close to 25 interviews in 2008 for HollywoodChicago.com, the mechanics of each sit down are interestingly similar. The reporters gather at a pre-determined spot (usually a Chicago downtown hotel).
And then either one-by-one or part of group, we are led into the inner sanctum of the actor or director’s interview room. Then, getting anywhere from 14 to 40 minutes, we get to ask questions.
Sometimes there are phone interviews. Nothing is more surreal than sitting in the home office, surrounded by everything that is familiar, and talking to one of the industry’s most notorious playwrights or an admired character actor.
The goal of each profile became the opportunity to either ask a question the interviewee had never heard, or to get a nugget of information that distinguishes the film or television show that they’re promoting. It is a terrific challenge.
After assessing all of the 2008 interviews,
adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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One of the things we've frequently lamented here at AfterElton.com is that when it comes to the umpteen million cop dramas and crime procedurals dotting the broadcast television landscape, there is nary a male gay cop or detective to be found. 
Oh sure, we can be the murder victim (a drag queen or transgender person), the murderer (a closet case), or a witness (distraught partner proving the show is tolerant and diverse), but when it comes to actually carrying a badge, we never seem to be up to the job.
Thanks to NBC's new cop drama Southland, from ER's executive producer John Wells, that's about to change when the show premieres April 9th. That's right, someone in the photo above is gay! Learn more after the jump!
After the Southland panel during Thursday's Television Critics Association in Los Angeles, I spoke with Ann Biderman, an executive producer on the show,
michael

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Chicago – ABC’s news series “The Unusuals” debuts next Wednesday, April 8th, 2009, but we have a sneak peek of the show starring Amber Tamblyn (“Joan of Arcadia”), Jeremy Renner (the upcoming “The Hurt Locker”), Harold Perrineau (“Lost”), Monique Gabriela Curnen, Josh Close, Kai Lennox, Eddia Alvarez, Terry Kinney, and Adam Goldberg. We have a clip called “Subway Chase” for you below. Check out the premiere on April 8th at 9pm Cst.

Official Synopsis:
Like a modern-day “M*A*S*H,” “The Unusuals” explores both the grounded drama and comic insanity of the world of New York City police detectives, where every cop has a secret. It also helps to have a twisted sense of humor, since every day could be your last.
Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn) has just been transferred to the NYPD’s Homicide unit from Vice and is instantly thrown into a setting of bullets and bodies.
adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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I have a new favorite television character. For a while there, Brandon Walsh was my favorite. Then when Tiffany Amber Thiessen came to 90210, Valerie Malone stole Brandon's spot. I had had enough of his goodie-goodie routine and was onto something with some edge. Then I went soft for Rachel Green. While I was on Rachel, I flirted with the idea of Jack McPhee on Dawson's Creek. After these two, I fell for Edie Falco's Carmela Soprano. But, now I have a new one: Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson from The Closer.
When The Closer was advertised as a new television series four years ago, it didn't look that interesting to me. In fact, I paid so little attention that I kept thinking: "Nearer to what?" Once I became aware of the hard letter "s," the show still didn't seem worth a watch. After all, I was a Law & Order fan.
Erin Burris

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Chicago – One of the best shows on basic cable returns this week with the fifth season premiere of “The Closer,” a dark, gut-wrenching episode that hints at a potentially series-altering summer for the beloved mystery series.

Television Rating: 3.5/5.0 Headed by one of the best performances on television from the excellent Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer” has always been a show that has been unafraid to go below the surface of its darkest stories and the fifth season premiere is a brutal and riveting one. The show has always expertly segued between dark humor and grisly murder, but there’s barely a smile, much less a chuckle, in tonight’s debut.

The Closer
Photo credit: Karen Neal
A woman and her children are gunned down in their own house. After the husband is interviewed and seems innocent, the Major Crimes unit and Brenda are lost for a suspect before stumbling on to
adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey!
Q: Both the men on The New Adventures of Old Christine ping my gaydar (and are really cute, but that’s a different issue). Is either gay? – Randy, Lakewood, Co
Clark Gregg (left) and Hamish Linklater with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss
A: Neither Clark Gregg nor Hamish Linklater are gay. Both are married to women — Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer Grey in the case of Gregg.
Linklater did play a gay man in 2006 opposite Brothers & Sisters’ Luke Macfarlane (also playing gay) in The Busy World Is Hushed, a play at New York’s Playwrights Horizons. Gregg, meanwhile, played a gay guy on a 2003 episode of Will & Grace.
Q: Mickey Rourke????? Puh-leeeeeze! – Tommy, New Haven, Ct
Mickey Rourke wins a 2008 best actor Golden Globe for The Wrestler

Photo credit Jason Merritt/Getty Images
A: You make an extremely trenchant point, Tommy. All the Monkey
dennis

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