Theatre

Doesn’t jury service ever end? Fingers crossed, very soon…

Doctor Who/Theatre

• Sylvester McCoy and William Gaunt are to appear in a couple of plays at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Film

• The animated sequel to Hellboy, featuring the voices of most of the original cast, is due out on DVD on 5th March.
• Disney has optioned rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars as a potential franchise.
• Gwyneth Paltrow is to star in Iron Man.
• The Rock and Terence Stamp are joining the cast of Get Smart.

British TV

• Life on Mars is back next month. Spoilers aplenty. I’m sure you’ll all be delighted to know that Torchwood‘s exec producer Chris “Cyberwoman” Chibnall is one of the writers again.
• For some reason, UKTV History has chosen Alan Titchmarsh to host a show in which the public can nominate their favourite historical sites.
• Lizzy “Most evil woman in Britain” Bardsley from Wife Swap is up in court on child cruelty charges.
• Ricky Gervais denies calling British viewers idiots.
• Complaints about racism in Celebrity Big Brother have almost reached the 10,000 mark [registration required]. Keith Vaz is to raise the matter in Parliament. Further coverage at Organ Grinder, including clarification of just how insulting Jade’s mum was to Shilpa. It also includes this class quote from Shilpa’s publicist: “Shilpa is God’s child. Jack is God’s child. All human beings are ultimately connected by a single abounding energy. So, how does it matter who belongs to what race, religion, country, colour or creed?” You just don’t get that from British PRs.

US TV

• CBS will make some of its new shows available online first, come the Fall.
• Two more pilots for ABC.
• Details of the plots of the forthcoming Stargate movies.
• J Lo and Alexa Junge are developing a sitcom about Latina nannies.
• Not much in Ask Ausiello this week, although there are some juicy-ish Lost and Ugly Betty spoilers.