Okay, let’s clarify that. Jennifer Love Hewitt, star and producer of Ghost Whisperer, is now engaged to her long-time beau, Scottish actor Ross McCall. Huh! And here I thought she was still with Alec Baldwin. When did that end? Anyway, the video below, of her song BareNaked, confirms that she should stick to acting.

Cool Tools is a new show on the DIY Network that’s hosted by comedian Chris Grundy. It’s basically a fun look at power tools, garden tools and the like, include trips to weird places - such as a chainsaw museum.

If you don’t get the network, you can also check out DIY Network’s Cool Tools website. The site contains video snippets, a Cool Tools gift guide, product specs and more.

The show premieres on Thanksgiving, Thurs Nov 22, 2007, at 8 pm, with a 2-hour special that appears to be 4 episodes.

When (The) Big Bang Theory first premiered late this Fall, I thought that it had a lot of potential but needed something else to make it stronger. This is because most of the actors are generally unknowns, with maybe the exception of Kaley Cuoco (8 Simple Rules, Charmed) and Sara Gilbert (The Class, Roseanne).

However, with the Hollywood Writer’s Guild strike still on (though with negotiations due Nov 26th), reruns are already on. The first episode showed again tonight and it’s even more rip-snortingly funny than I remember it.

The geek element runs strong in the two main male characters, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons). In later episodes, he writing seems to have tempered Leonard’s geekiness and even thrown him a bone, romantically speaking.

If you haven’t seen the show and enjoy a fun comedy, check out Big Bang Theory

If you’re lamenting the lack of new episodes for your favorite TV show, check out AOL Video blog’s suggestions for shows you should be watching. Just note that this article/ photo gallery is from Nov 5th, so the Hollywood writer’s strike might  might have affected these shows as well.

The really big one might be Back to You, starring Kelsey Grammar (Frasier, Cheers) and Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond). It’s not bad, but it’s so far it’s a far cry from the incredible writing of Frasier. There is a lot potential with these two great actors and supporting cast.

However, I think there’s far more potential with Big Bang Theory, starring Kaley Cuoco (8 Simple Rules) and mostly unknown male actors. The writing is funny, the characters quirky.

As for Pushing Daisies, it’s fantastic. I’m just wondering how long it can go. The writing is brilliant, the narration amusing, and the characters so very fascinating.

The New York Times reports that fewer people are watching the new Fall TV series, possibly due to all the video available online, including full TV episodes (both at station sites and through illegal torrent sites). This is likely compounded by the fact that a few of the better ones have not come out yet, and by the ongoing Writer’s strike.

To this list of threats, you can add timeshifting services such as Orb, who offer a combined desktop and web suite of applications that let you watch your local broadcasting pretty much from any Internet connection. It’s like a TiVo for the web. Just hookup a TV capture card to your computer, send in your cable TV feed. Run Orb desktop software in the background. Now, go anywhere in the world, get to a computer connected to the Iternet, and use Orb’s browser software to watch whatever is on TV back home (or whatever you’ve previously recorded - video or audio).

It’s a fact that without the Writer’s strike in Hollywood being resolved that writers, actors , production staff and others are affected. In fact, there are five unions in Hollywood, so a lot of the industry and economy are affected. Us viewers are last in line, from this point of view. But as far as TV networks go, Bloomberg writers Sarah Rabil and Gillian Wee say that CBS is likely to be the most affected by the strike. Fully two thirds of their revenue is from TV, and from “scripted” shows. (Networks running reality shows, on the other hand, could gain a big market share.) On top of the existing strike, CBS faces their own potential walkout by 500 news writers for TV and radio.

Yikes. Huh? Devilishly handsome actor Jerry O’Connell - now married to lovely Rebecca Romijn, ex Stamos) is in a new ABC sitcom, Carpoolers. Did I miss something? First, Miguel Ferrer appears on the new Bionic Woman (which isn’t too bad). I’m thinking, did Ferrer leave the gripping Crossing Jordan, one of my fave TV shows after I finally discovered it.

Now O’Connell is a new show, and a sitcom to boot. After he was on Crossing Jordan for so long, I just can’t get into a funny O’Connell character. And did I miss the announcement that Crossing Jordan was not coming back? I seriously hope not. Time for a bit of research. (By the way, if you ever get a chance to see the movie Stand By Me, based on the Stephen King Novel, watch for a very young, very chubby O’Connell, as well as Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland, Casey Siemaszko and others.)

Every season and every episode of Smallville has been leading up to this episode: one of the most gut-wrenchingly sad variations of the Romeo and Juliet I’ve ever seen on TV or read in print. It’s hard to describe without giving away too much - in case you haven’t seen the episode.

All I’ll say is that Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang) and Tom Welling (Clark Kent) deserve Emmy nominations for their roles for this episode alone. Such depth of character, passion, and emotion in such young actors. If they don’t get at least a nomination, then there’s something wrong with the process.

And kudos to the writers for so many years of thought-provoking Smallville episodes, giving the young Clark Kent character (pre Superman) the Achilles heel of human emotion despite his otherworldly origins. Who knew that so much gripping drama could come out of one of the oldest comic book characters. And how can a young man so powerful feel so much pain?

I’m watching the first episode of The Next Pussycat Doll and I have to say I’m a bit shocked. (I’m getting to that.) Now in case you think I’m a dirty old man watch scantily clad young women, consider that I wanted to be a classical, jazz and ballroom dancer in my youth. I have performed several times. So I watch most “dance” TV shows out of interest.

Here’s a quick summary. Of the eighteen girls selected out of thousands, two are amazing singers, a few are great dancers, a few more can dance and sing, and the rest just want to win because it’s cool. A few have had hard lives. Unfortunately, one girl got sick with a virus and infected several other girls very quickly. Here’s why I’m disappointed: who ever did the final clip selection decided to show two of the girls actually hurling. You read that right. They showed the actual stream of vomit. How classy.

It’s hard to watch one of these girls and say they have both singing and dancing talent, and can take choreography well, as well as be sexy doing it. Let’s face it. That’s what they Pussycat Dolls sell: sex appeal in performance form. But I’d warrant most of their “concert” attendees are young females wanting to be them, not young men.

Fortunately, nine young women were culled at the end of the episode. And the two young ladies with the best voices got in based on their ability to also dance. Truth is, the girls than didn’t get picked lacked something or other - more refinement than anything. All nine of the girls picked deserved it. Nothing controversial yet, other than the showing of vomit. Let’s hope that they don’t top that next week. They will have rapper Lil Kim, though.

Teri Hatcher Too Old For TV?
BuddyTV asks that question, based on the fact that 42 yr old Teri Hatcher herself has said that. Her Desperate Housewives schedule requires her to sometimes work 14-hr days several days in a row. Being a single mom to an eight-year old surely makes her life even more hectic. Hatcher is planning to switch to work behind the camera.

George Lucas Shifting To TV
George Lucas, who needs no introduction, is going to start shooting Indiana Jones 4 in June. But after that, he’s planning on focusing on television (e.g., the animated Clone Wars series).

Babelgum Still In Beta
Despite my invite to Joost, the IPTV client put together by the founders of Skype, I haven’t covered it here because I’ve been writing about it elsewhere. But I promise I’ll get it to it. Another IPTV client I’m hoping to cover is Babelgum, which is also in beta like Joost. I have yet to receive an invite, so a review will be some time in the future. Meanwhile, you can read more about Babelgum and it’s founder, also the founder of FastWeb.

The very first movie I ever paid money to see (in a theatre) was Star Wars. I’ve watched it on TV for free dozens of times since. Not as many as some people, who’ve seen it literally hundreds of times, but a lot. So I’m definitely one of those that have been hoping for some sort of Star Wars TV series. In fact, I can’t understand how the Star Wars merchandising empire that Spielberg and Lucas catalyzed never capitalized on a Star Wars series franchise the way Star Trek has.

Such a series, or series of series would have been immediately successful, even with the greenest of actors and minimal amount of special effects. It couldn’t lose. And yet, it’s never happened, beyond an animated series or two, and a few fan tribute films.

What’s more, George Lucas confirmed that any Star Wars TV series is years away, during a talk at the Museum of Television and Radio. However, there is an animated series, Clone Wars, in development, and it appears a live-action series will follow, but not right away. I guess I’ll just keep wondering why they’re taking so long to put together what could be the most popular sci-fi series ever.

Vincent D’onofrio, who plays quite possibly my all time fave TV cop, Detective Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, wants to pursue additional film roles and direct as well, so he’s giving up his badge. I don’t know if he’s a method actor, but something tells me he is, considering he says he wants to be a character actor and not a leading man.

It’s a shame that he can’t be clone, as it’s going to be criminal without him on the show. I personally am not a fan Chris Noth’s Detective Logan character, though I did like him as Mr. Big in Sex and the City (which, by the way, is coming back; the female cast has signed contracts).

Nicole Richie, daughter of former Commodore  and singer Lionel Richie, and one half of the dumbest pair of actors ever to have their own TV show (The Simple Life) had a collapse - possibly due to anorexia. Richie and Paris Hilton are proof that you can be stupid, insensitive and utterly untalented but get a TV show because you’re mildly attractive and the daughter of well-known and/or powerful people. I don’t wish Richie badly, but heaven forbid we have to endure another season of The Simple Life. Despite what Paris Hilton says in the video above, I am NOT waiting for another season.

Zudeo is a new video download site similar to YouTube, but with some important differences. Zudeo is powered by the Azureus 3.0 peer-to-peer torrent client. That means to view the high-res videos they offer (thanks to various publishers), you have to download and install a client.

Unfortunately, the install process wanted to install a Java .JAR file and that just wouldn’t complete on my PC. So I can’t test the software. Which is weird because I’ve previously installed Azureus. Too bad for me.

The Zudeo doesn’t playback videos that I can see, however, you can copy the provided HTML code for each and paste it into your web page or blog. Except that it’s only a still snapshot (or text) and a link. No live video playback. I guess at high-definition file sizes, that’d be crazy.

So too bad for me, and too bad for you if you can’t get the Zudeo client to install. Disappointing, to say the least. Not exactly viral streaming video, but at least higher quality than YouTube, if you can get it to work for you.

30Rock’s Alec Baldwin, the beau of the young pneumatic Jennifer Love Hewitt, has a recorded message (Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Channukah, Happy Kwanzah, Hello) that you can send to your friends. You have to pick choices from several drop-down lists, including your friend’s name, the greeting, where they live, their work and hobby.

Very bizarre. Your friends can live in any of the 50 states or somewhere in Canada (no effort to list the 10 provinces). And what their job has to do with the greeting, I’m not sure - especially since none of my friends’ jobs are listed. And hobby? Seriously? Who thought this ridiculous promo up? Several of the drop-down lists in the registration form don’t work. And my favourite hobby isn’t listed: making fun of his girlfriend’s show Ghost Whisperer. So I chose “Hooking up with skanks.”

Of course, it’s all intentional, a humorous way to promote 30Rock. One of the questions is “Alec should come to their”, with the choices being bedroom, dining room, family room, garage, garden, etc. This is followed by the very important “They Have”, with the choices being nice abs, nice biceps, nice breasts, nice behind, and others.

So I put in a request that Alec say Happy Holidays to me in my garage, and tells me I have a nice behind. Except that NBC’s very advanced website can’t say my three letter first name. So I substituted my friend’s Scottish name, and digital Alec couldn’t say that either.

But other than the poorly done Flash interface, the message itself is actually really well done, without sounding computerized. And you can send the message by phone or email. So if Alec Baldwin calls you this holiday season, you’ll know why.

What’s even cooler? Bidding for 10 minutes with a celebrity to win a Skype internet phone and raise money for the Young Storytellers Foundation. Unfortunately, I missed the bid for girl-next-door sweetie Jenna Fischer of The Office, whose 10 minutes went US$630.

powered by performancing firefox

VideoJug is a streaming video site like YouTube and loads of others, but they’ve focused on how-to videos. I just watched a fun video on juggling three balls. (I used to teach people to juggle, so it’s always a treat seeing stuff like this.) Now in addition to the video tutorial, there’s also a text transcript of the instructions, as well as download links for iPod, PSP, and mobile phones (3GP). They were also smart enough to allow embedding, so their videos can viral like those on sites like YouTube.

Now Pete Cashmore at Mashable says that while he thinks it’s a neat app and a nice effort, he’s not sure how much demand there will be. I think that once people know about VideoJug, there will be a demand. IPTV in any form is going to be hot. In fact, every librarian and school teacher should know about it, and could use the site as a teaching aid. Okay, well the existing videos aren’t about anything you’d learn in school, but who knows what future content there’ll be. And someone may just want to know how to make a rainstick, which was filmed at London’s Children’s Museum. Or there’s a load of videos on how to make a variety of meals from a dozen different cuisines. I can see myself using these on my cooking sites. Mmmm. Pardon me, it’s time for a snack. How to cook a chicken curry in ten minutes anyone? That’s better than my time of 20 minutes.

Quite possibly the most informative of all the videos there is the How to make a How-to film, which you can see below. So if you have doubts that anyone will bother contributing content to VideoJug, you may be surprised. (On that note, I’ll mention that sometime in the future, I will be releasing several instrumental tracks I composed a few years ago for royalty-free use over at my Sound Alchemy Online website. I just have to figure out which tracks I’ll be releasing.)

Russell Shaw weighs in on Fox TV’s new ad-supported full-length, high quality videos of eight popuarl TV shows. Odd thing, but I only watch two of these eight, including my fave Bones, but now that it’s online, I might watch Til Death as well. Problem is, the Full Throttle media player plays in a web browser window (my plugin is for Firefox), and that means I can’t watch and work at the same time without having to open two Firefox browser windows.

It’s doable, I suppose, but not as convenient as a separate sizeable window like Democracy Player. Unfortunately, attempts at watching Fox video content in both Firefox and in IE 6.x were unsuccessful. After the 15 second Burger King ad played, nothing appeared. It’s possible that you have to live in a certain area to be able to watch it. If so, I’m not there.

Fox isn’t the only American broadcaster releasing full-length content online. CBS and NBC both announced their intentions a week or two ago. And there’s lots of competition in the ITPV/ streaming video market. Does this mean that The Venice Project, from the founders of Skype and Kazaa (peer-to-peer file sharing network), is doomed? I don’t think so.

While one report indicates that YouTube is third in streaming videos served, behind Yahoo and MySpace, the Wall Street Journal says that Google is discussing buyout talks with YouTube. Offering price is around US$1.6B. [via CRN] Russell Shaw talks about why he isn’t surprised, and points to an early article discussing which six companies are likely to buy YouTube. This news actually surprises me consider that Google already has Google Video. But then, it doesn’t rank for traffic. Now, I’m wondering whether Google will use the acquisition (if approved) to display contextually-determined video ads in other video content.

PureVideo.com is a search portal for online video content from numerous sites. It searches through the meta information that videos are usually tagged with, but it’s not particularly intelligent. I searched for dead rockstar Marc Bolan, and it found one video, even though I know there are several at YouTube alone. (The video was at Grouper.com, and was of a babyfaced Billy Idol and Generation X performing on the final March Bolan TV show. It’s quite possibly the worst Idol performance I’ve ever seen. Considering how horrible his singing is in the video, I’m surprised his career went anywhere.)

PureVideo gave a lot of false results that included the word “marc”. I also could not enter quotes or double quotes to specify an “exact match” term. Then again, the service is still in beta, and once the bugs are ironed out, this could be a useful tool.

[sources: Search Engine Journal; lists other video search engines]

According to a recent report by Telephia, the “prime time” for mobile TV viewing is in the late afternoon. Cellular News has a breakdown by time slots and demographics. The age demographic may surprise you: 50% of mobile TV users are 25-36, not younger like many people believe. However, as they grow older, I’m guessing their tolerance level for a tiny screen will decrease, due to age-related eye problems. The ethnic makeup of viewers is fairly diverse, but males make up 70%.