People: Erin Andrews, Robin Thicke, Paula Patton, Tamron Hall, Piers Morgan and more!
Erin Andrews will replace Brooke Burke-Charvet as the host of “Dancing With the Stars,” People reports.
The Fox Sports reporter, 35, will take over as Tom Bergeron’s co-host for season 18 of ABC’s dancing competition. Andrews is no stranger to the series, having competed on season 10 of “DWTS” with pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Andrews tweeted about her new job Monday:
“Very excited! I have HUGE shoes to fill RT @GMA: #DWTS Announcement: Joining @Tom_Bergeron as a co-host this season will be @ErinAndrews!”
Despite the new gig, Andrews assured fans she will still cover the NFL. She gave a shout-out to former New York Giants player Michael Strahan, who juggles co-hosting “Live! With Kelly and Michael” and working as a Fox football analyst.
“And yes, I’m still a part of the @FOXSports family,” she tweeted. “It will be a BUSY fall. getting tips from @michaelstrahan on how to balance it.”
Burke-Charvet, 42, hosted the show for seven seasons. On Friday, she released a statement to E! Online.
“I have enjoyed seven seasons co-hosting ‘DWTS’ but understand the need for change considering the position of the show at this juncture,” Burke-Charvet said. “I’ve always been one to embrace change and [I’m] looking forward to pursuing opportunities I previously wasn’t able to entertain because of contractual obligations to the show. I’ve seen my fair share of shocking eliminations in the ballroom, but this one takes the cake.”
The show also recently fired bandleader and orchestrator Harold Wheeler, as well as his 28-member band.
ABC declined to comment.
“Dancing With the Stars” returns March 17.
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Paula Patton and Robin Thicke are ending their longtime marriage.
“We will always love each other and be best friends; however, we have mutually decided to separate at this time,” the singer and the actress told People on Monday in an exclusive statement.
The pair, who first met when Thicke was 14, have been married since June 11, 2005, and welcomed son Julian Fuego April 6, 2010.
Thicke, 36, long had been very expressive about his marriage to Patton, 38, saying last fall, “We’re pretty sure we’ve loved each other for a few lives.”
Their last public appearance together was just weeks ago at the Grammy Awards, where Thicke performed and Patton attracted all sorts of attention for her dramatic zebra-striped dress.
While the spouses’ tendency to gush profusely about each other has held rumors of trouble on the homefront at bay, reports of possible strife-causing activity on Thicke’s part have shadowed the couple for some time, E! News reports.
“I don’t know if I would still be alive in some ways if it wasn’t for Paula,” Thicke said in the September issue of Prestige magazine. “She’s been my rock, my muse, my inspiration, and I love her.”
Thicke had a breakthrough last year with the international hit “Blurred Lines,” which was nominated for several Grammy Awards. Patton has appeared in the films “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” “Idlewild,” and “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” The Associated Press reports.
Patton also appeared in Thicke’s music videos, including “Lost Without U” and “Love After War.” She was the inspiration behind most of his music, and she appeared on the cover of his 2003 debut, “A Beautiful World.”
Patton has spent time this month in Vancouver shooting her latest film, “Warcraft.” She was seen there as recently as last Wednesday, popping into a spa for a facial.
Thicke, meanwhile, canceled his concerts that were scheduled for last Thursday and Friday in Orlando and Atlanta and was spotted at Disneyland Sunday with Julian.
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NBC says Tamron Hall is joining the third hour of the “Today” show as a co-host, The Associated Press reports.
Hall will supplement a team already comprising Al Roker, Natalie Morales and Willie Geist.
A regular “Today” show fill-in host, Hall has recently interviewed Hugh Jackman and Mariah Carey. She is also the anchor of MSNBC’s “NewsNation.” She joined MSNBC in 2007.
She is the host of Investigation Discovery’s “Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall” and TLC’s “Sister Wives.”
“Today” executive producer Don Nash said Hall brings “wit, enthusiasm and a keen sensibility” to the team.
The third hour of NBC’s “Today” airs at 9 a.m.
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CNN’s prime-time talk show “Piers Morgan Live” is coming to an end, the news channel said Sunday, People reports.
Morgan, who three years ago succeeded Larry King in the 9 p.m. time slot, was drawing lackluster ratings. In contrast, King had a 25-year run on CNN.
The airdate for Morgan’s last show has yet to be determined, CNN said in a statement.
Morgan is a former U.K. tabloid editor who reinvented himself as a TV personality with stints as a judge on “Britain’s Got Talent” and its U.S. spinoff, NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” and as a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice.”
He hosted BBC’s “You Can’t Fire Me, I’m Famous” and did interview shows and documentaries for ITV.
Morgan told The New York Times that his show lately has “taken a bath in the ratings” but that he and CNN president Jeff Zucker were discussing a new role for him at the channel. CNN’s audience has tired of hearing a Brit weigh in American cultural issues, Morgan said in a story posted online Sunday.
Morgan’s future with CNN is undetermined, the channel said.
Last fall, the already struggling “Piers Morgan Live” faced increased competition from a revised Fox News Channel lineup that included a strong new performer at 9 p.m. with Megyn Kelly’s “The Kelly File.”
Morgan served as editor of the Daily Mirror from 1995-2004. He has been questioned in connection with Britain’s long-running phone hacking scandal, which has led to numerous arrests, resignations and the closure of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid.
Earlier this month, Morgan confirmed that he was interviewed in December by British police investigating the illegal interception of telephone voicemails. Morgan, who said he had given a previous witness statement, has consistently denied wrongdoing.
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No stranger to voicing his strong opinions, Alec Baldwin is now saying he’s had enough — of public life and New York City, People reports.
“I’ve lived this for 30 years, I’m done with it,” the actor and former MSNBC host, 55, states in his bylined New York magazine cover story that hit Sunday night.
“I’m aware that it’s ironic that I’m making this case in the media,” he writes, “but this is the last time I’m going to talk about my personal life in an American publication ever again.”
He blames some of the events of 2013, which, he concedes, “was actually a great year, because my wife and I had a baby. But, yeah, everything else was pretty awful.”
Baldwin acknowledges 2013 had him challenging accusations of homophobia, which cost him his reputation, his gig on MSNBC (he calls the network “as superfluous as Fox”) and his faith in the media, which he dubs “Hate Incorporated.”
“I haven’t changed,” he insists, “but public life has.”
He also slams media personalities Anderson Cooper (the “self-appointed Jack Valenti of gay media culture,” says Baldwin; Valenti ran the Motion Picture Association of America, which rated movies for their content) and Rachel Maddow. Baldwin calls her a phony and says she tried to get him fired from MSNBC.
“Now I loathe and despise the media in a way I did not think possible,” he says. “Paparazzi today are part of a network that includes the Huffington Post and, much to my dismay, even NBC News, in their reliance on tabloid reporting.”
Casting his net beyond the press, Baldwin assesses the place he has called home since 1979. “I just can’t live in New York anymore,” the Long Island native writes. “Everything I hated about L.A. I’m beginning to crave. L.A. is a place where you live behind a gate, you get in a car, your interaction with the public is minimal. I used to hate that. But New York has changed.”
Elsewhere in the 5,000-word essay, Baldwin touches upon his abandoned political plans and the backstage skirmish with Shia LaBeouf during last year’s short-lived Broadway production of “Orphans.”
“LaBeouf seems to carry with him, to put it mildly, a jailhouse mentality wherever he goes,” Baldwin writes. “He had that card, that card you get when you make films that make a lot of money that gives you a certain kind of entitlement. I think he was surprised that it didn’t work in the theater.”