Last week, the CW gave the official go ahead for the new Melrose Place pilot episode.  The pilot was co-written by the Smallville producers Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin and will be directed by Davis Guggenheim, director of Al Gore’s award winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Announcements are now being made as new cast members are selected.  The first announcement out the door is Michael Rady, from Swingtown and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.  Rady will play Jonah Miller, an aspiring filmmaker a la Kevin Smith who really just spends his days as a video monkey for the rich, shooting weddings and bar mitzvahs.  This kind of reminds me of Billy in the original who was an aspiring writer.

Next, we have Katie Cassidy, recently seen in the movie Taken, daughter of David Cassidy (yes,from The Partridge Family).  Katie Cassidy will be playing Ella Flynn.  Ella is apparently an up and coming publicist and sexually confused sometimes lover of the much anticipated David Patterson character, son of Jake Hanson from the original series.

SWEET!  I can't wait to see who is next.

Davis Guggenheim, the Oscar winning director of the Al Gore documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth” will be taking charge on the set of the new Melrose Place show.  Many Melrose Place fans may think along the lines of “Whoopie!  Some hippie tree hugging, polar bear loving guy is going to give us a new drama”, but it is interesting to note that Davis Guggenheim is married Elisabeth Shue the really hot sister of Andrew Shue, AKA Billy Campbell from the original series.

There is no official word however about Andrew Shue returning for the new series, but at least it makes for a better chance of a cameo appearance!

Even with all of the developments as of late, there is still no word of when the pilot will go into development.

Melrose Place Season 5 Volume 1 has been release on DVD this week.  You can pick it up for about twenty bucks over at Amazon.com.  This first volume only contains the first 19 episodes of the 34 episode season, but it is sure to be an action packed DVD set.  I can’t wait to see what is included as extras on the DVD!  If you have it, please drop me a line and let me know.  This ad supported site has me eating ramen noodles for now, so I will have to wait a bit to get the DVD set for myself… :( (Psst, over there, on the right...)

The producers of Smallville have now been named as the official producers of the new Melrose Place show.  With that said and done, they have also revealed the names of the new characters!

David Patterson – David is the now grown son of the original character Jake Hanson.  He is a total chick magnet with ripped abs and a black book that would make you jealous.

Ella Flynn – Ella is David’s sexually confused sometimes lover with an attitude

Jonah Miller – Jonah is a Kevin Smith (creator of Clerks, Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob and Chasing Amy) fanatic opposed to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.  (Isn’t it kind of ironic that Kevin Smith himself has styled his own movies and is an admitted fanatic of the 1980’s teen flick producer John Hughes, creator of The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller just to name a few)

Riley Richmond – Jonah’s fiancée and a schoolteacher.  Unlike her fiancée, she is drawn to the Hollywood glitz and glamour.

Auggie Kirkpatrick – Auggie is a total hippie and a recovering alcoholic.  He is the super nice guy that sees the good in everyone.  I am sure that will change!

Violet Foster – Violet is the hick town girl turned bad.  Let’s just say that her boundaries will be explored…

This should be exciting!  I am looking forward to seeing what the new show will be named still.  I am expecting it to be simply Melrose, but we will have to wait and see.

I am sure that all of you have plenty to say about this, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Lisa Rinna is not one of the first names that come to my mind when I think of Melrose Place and her character Taylor McBride was never a favorite.  Don’t get me wrong, she went further and was more interesting than the two quickly missing first season characters (what were there names? Rhonda and Sandy, whatever, no one cares…). 

Anyway, Lisa Rinna has been all over the internet buzz for her recent appearances on Dancing with the Stars and for talking about her injections and lately for basically begging to get on the new Melrose Place show. 

She was quoted as saying "Tell them I'm available, ready to go. I'm very professional and hardworking!" and then goes on to say  "I'm way down on the totem pole. You know, this one doesn't want to do it, that one doesn't want to do it, so I'm just hoping that they get down far enough to me, where they're finally like, 'Oh, just call Lisa…Just hire her, for God's sake! Stop her begging!' "

At least she is not living in la-la-land and knows that she was not an obvious choice, but it does seem a bit sad and desperate.  Of course if it works and she does land a role, she will be laughing her butt off all the way to the bank!

Lisa, if you want another forum to get yourself out there, just email me and we can set up an interview!

Grant Show, the actor that played Jake Hanson in the original Melrose Place series, has changed his mind and is now saying that he would be interested in returning to the new Melrose Place show or to 90210.  He says that his return would require a stipulation however, which is that Jake would have to have a relationship with Kelly Taylor played by Jennie Garth.  Fans will remember that it was a short lived relationship between Jake and Kelly that sparked the Melrose Place spinoff from Beverly Hills 90210 in the first place.

“That would be the only angle that would be really interesting,” Show said after the Golden Globes awards show “They never really explored that in enough depth.”

Um, that is probably because Kelly was a teenager and Jake was much older.  That is why Jake broke it off with her.  That and the fact that she was a spoiled rich girl and he was just struggling to make it in the world also doomed their relationship.  They had nothing in common and it was not explored because it was not that interesting.

What strikes me as odd is that he would make this a stipulation at all.  I wonder what the real motive is and what Peter Facinelli, who played Carlisle Cullen in Twilight and plays Jennie Garths husband in real life, thinks of this stipulation…  Who knows, life is strange in actor world I suppose.