TNT’s mob ties
TNT is prepping a miniseries it hopes viewers won’t be able to refuse.
The cable channel’s latest project involves the life story of Sam Giancana, the Chicago mobster reputed to have played a key role in helping John F. Kennedy take the White House in 1960, Reuters News Agency reports.
The untitled six-hour project will detail not only his role in high-level politics and Hollywood, where he was friends with such celebrities as Frank Sinatra, but also his struggle to raise a family amid the chaos. After Mr. Giancana’s wife died as a result of a rheumatic heart, he was left to raise three daughters. He died in 1975.
Executive producer Mark Wolper optioned the rights from writers Dimitri Logothetis and Nick Celozzi, who had acquired them from Mr. Giancana’s daughter Francine, who is Mr. Celozzi’s cousin.
’Hazzard’ roots
MTV is digging up “The Dukes of Hazzard’s” roots for a new special on the 1970s and ’80s show, Associated Press reports.
Oxford College, where the Duke boys’ car the General Lee first jumped into television lore, will host the cable network’s new special on the rerun favorite. The Covington, Ga., college served as the backdrop for “Hazzard’s” first five episodes 26 years ago.
The special is designed to hype “The Dukes of Hazzard” movie, starring an MTV-friendly cast including Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson. The film hits theaters Aug. 5.
Travis Bell, president of the General Lee Fan Club and organizer of the annual “Dukes of Hazzard” reunion in Covington, will serve as historian for the 30-minute program, called “Your Movie Show.”
Stewart’s lament
Domestic-design diva Martha Stewart got a new name while serving time in prison for lying about a personal stock sale — M. Diddy.
Stewart revealed her temporary moniker to a Vanity Fair author for the magazine’s next issue, Associated Press reports. The article also features Stewart slamming her prosecutors for using her fall to deter those who might be tempted to trade illegally on insider information.
“Of course, that is what it’s all about,” the magazine quotes Stewart as saying. “Bring ’em down a notch, to scare other people. If Martha can be sent to jail, think hard before you sell that stock.”
Stewart is currently serving five months under house arrest at her Bedford, N.Y., estate after five months in a West Virginia federal prison. She is scheduled to go free early next month.
The incarceration hasn’t hurt her television career. She has two shows planned for the fall season — a one-hour daytime talk show, “Martha,” and a version of the NBC reality show “The Apprentice.”
She tells the magazine that her take on “The Apprentice” will be different from Donald Trump’s and that she does not want to be portrayed as mean and harsh. She says she would never use the catchphrase “You’re fired.”
“We are trying to come up with other ways to say it,” she says. “For instance, if someone is from Idaho, I could say, ’You’re back in Boise for apple-picking time.’”
She may be a whiz at home decorating, but it sounds as though her catchphrase chops could use some sharpening.
Compiled by Christian Toto from staff and wire reports.
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