NEWS BLIPS

Alan Young, who played straight man to the talking horse on the classic TV series 'Mister Ed', told SCI FI Wire that a film version of the classic comedy series is in the works. "There are some plans being made about a 'Return to Mister Ed', in which I will probably play a grandfather," Young said in an interview. "It's planned as a feature."
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Two members of the 'Law & Order' franchise will do a full crossover during the May Sweeps. (Of course!)
Most likely, 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' will begin the case on a Tuesday night and it will go to court on a Friday night during 'Law & Order: Trial By Jury'.

And an added bonus is that Angela Lansbury will be appearing in the episode.

You don't know how closely I came to tripping up and typing in the name "Jessica Fletcher" instead. Now that would have been a fun crossover event! After all, Mrs. Fletcher probably still teaches at that Manhattan University, even though she is fast approaching her 80th year, God bless her.

[Of course it'll never happen, what with 'Murder, She Wrote' being so closely identified still with CBS. But as always, the Inner Toob isn't concerned with practicalities, just the basic utopian philosophy of the TV Universe.......]
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Rock veterans Status Quo are to make a cameo appearance in long-running soap Coronation Street, at the wedding reception of Les Battersby. The band will appear in "more than one" episode of the show in the autumn. Actor Bruce Jones, 52, who plays Battersby in the ITV1 soap, is known to be a fan of the band, which is also popular with his on-screen character. The band will play at Battersby's wedding to barmaid Cilla Brown.
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Sir Ian McKellan will play author Mel Hutchwright, who is invited to address Weatherfield's book club. Sir Ian will appear for 10 episodes in May. "I am nervous but raring to go," he said. Last year, the 65-year-old said his only remaining ambition was to appear in the soap - after fulfilling his other aim, to play a pantomime dame.

The actor once turned down a role as Elsie Tanner's long-lost nephew because he was intimidated by the prospect of appearing with Coronation Street's regular cast.

He added: "I don't know yet what Mel will look nor sound like, but I'm already studying his lines, as rehearsal time is scarce for the five-times-a-week show."

His character's steamy bodice-ripper, "Hard Grinding", has already featured on the soap. [Look for it on the shelves at the upcoming sitcom bookstore, 'Stacked'.]
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Following up on last year's "Summer" campaign -- which featured a series of narrative spots about a group of skateboarders -- Coca-Cola and Berlin Cameron/Red Cell, N.Y., have just released "Girl Band," a docu-style campaign about an all-girl teenage rock group. Like "Summer," the new campaign is a fast-paced, voiceover-driven cruise through the lives of the bandmembers as they write songs, get a gig, shop for clothes, shoot a video and try to let a roadie/admirer down easy.

The effort, directed by Park Pictures' Lance Acord, stars an actual high school rock trio from Ithaca, N.Y., called Kievan Rus. As their site explains, they were still called Kiev during the commercial shoot, but it turns out that name was taken. The track from the spots, "Love is Pain," is an adaptation of a song called "Crushing on Anna" -- a tribute to a former member of the band -- with "Anna" changed to "Danny" and another chorus thrown in. The version in the commercial can be downloaded from Coke's site.