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TV News: Banks, Orman to receive special recognition -- 'Milk,' 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' and 'Ugly Betty' are among the 185 nominees for the 20th annual GLAAD Media Awards.

TV News: 'City,' 'Girls' get season-two renewals -- With ratings showing some life in January after a moribund fourth quarter, MTV has announced renewals for several programs that helped spark double-digit audience gains.

'The Nederlander Organization has acquired the rights to produce a musical version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,' the organization announced today.' Based on the 'Thriller' video, the musical is authorized by Jackson, which sets it apart from the current Michael Jackson tribute show in the West End....

For decades, ABC and the Academy have run separate, more modest promotions, (usually to the effect of 'Tune in for the Oscars,' announced over triumphal music and images of gold statuettes). Modest wouldn't be the right adjective this year.

ABC new comedies "In the Motherhood" and "Samantha Who" will replace "Ugly Betty" in the Thursday night timeslot. ET has the details behind the network's decision to rest the show!On Monday, ABC announced its Thursday night schedule change, indicating that the Megan Mullally/Cheryl Hines comedy "In the Motherhood" will premiere March 26 at 8:00 p.m., followed by Christina Applegate's "Samantha Who," which is re-launching on its new night at 8:30 p.m.Although "Ugly Betty" is absent from the line-up, the show will return to the network.

Pocket Opera's 32nd season is decidedly different. We're presenting six operas at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (we've done that before), three at the Napa Valley Opera House (again, not new) and four at the Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley (New!)Pocket Opera audiences have a fondness for Offenbach, so we're inaugurating the season with his 'La Belle Helene'. We are also staging two of Donald Pippin's brand new translations: 'La Favorita' by Donizetti and Moniuszko's 'The Haunted Manor', considered by many in Poland to be their national opera. We're thrilled to announce that we're co-producing Moniuszko's opera with the National Endowment for the Arts (New!) and The Polish Arts and Culture Foundation (Even Newer!).With the exception of Handel's Alcina, all the operas will be performed in English, using Donald Pippin's acclaimed translations. Our season usually wraps up with one razzle-dazzle blockbuster- this year we offer two: 'The Barber of Seville' and 'Carmen'.

Now that the Oscar nominations have been announced, it?s time to lament the performances and/or movies that went overlooked. While there are the obvious snubs that surprised everyone, like...

It's that time when thoughts turn to comparing apples with pears, cape gooseberries and subspecies of the Arctic tern: the Costa book of the year is announced tomorrow evening at 10.15pm, after the judges have weighed the relative merits of a populist first novel; a narrative poem; a 700-page children's book; a very slender memoir by a nonagenarian publisher; and a highly wrought literary novel by one of Ireland's most respected authors.So which book should win it? And which book will win it?Sadie Jones's The Outcast has had fantastic commercial success, having been on Richard and Judy's summer reads list. No one could fail to be charmed and moved by Jones's 15-year struggle to get any of her writing to see the light of day: so absolutely good on her, I say. But I must say the book, about Lewis, a child of the second world war who grows up trapped in a complicated web of 1950s repression, misunderstanding and emotional cruelty, was emphatically not for me. I found it stylistically flat

SHREK THE MUSICAL opened at The Broadway Theatre on Sunday, December 14, 2008. Click below to watch Brian D'Aarcy James featured on NBC's WEEKEND TODAY.

It was announced today that James L. Nederlander, President of the Nederlander Organization, has acquired the rights to produce a musical version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller.'Thriller The Musical will feature the music and lyrics of the King of Pop and include songs from the world's all-time best selling album, 'Thriller' and the 7? Multi-Platinum selling album, 'Off The Wall.'This musical will be the exclusive Michael Jackson authorized version of 'Thriller' and Jackson will participate in every aspect of the creative process.