Dirt

• FX has canceled Courteney Cox's tabloid drama Dirt, TV Guide reports.
• The Weinsteins have acquired the rights to adapt Allison Winn Scotch's novel Time of My Life for the big screen, writes ComingSoon.
• Meanwhile, Variety has the news that House executive producer Katie Jacobs has nabbed the rights to the New York Times bestseller Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon — And the Journey of a Generation.
• Amber Tamblyn has taken the lead in an ABC drama pilot called The Unusuals, about the crazy characters at a New York police precinct, Zap2it reports.
• If you want AC/DC's new album, you'll have to go to Wal-Mart to get it, Billboard reports.
• Despite declining ratings, TV networks are actually bringing in more money from advertisers after this year's upfronts, writes the Hollywood Reporter.
• The Chicago Tribune finally found a premiere date for the final season of The Shield: Sept. 2.
• According to Variety, David Schwimmer will head to Chicago to star in a stage production of Our Town.

Photo courtesy of FX

As has now been pretty well documented, I didn't make it all the way through the first season of Dirt. That's the bad news. The good news is, when I say I really enjoyed the first episode of the new season, it really means something.

Lucy (played, of course, by Courteney Cox, who I recently interviewed) is back after being stabbed at the conclusion of the first season. Don is getting his schizophrenia under control. And there's a host of new characters entering the Dirt atmosphere to make things interesting. Here are the top five things that worked for me in tonight's premiere:

1. Lucy is back — and she has a reason to be a little nice sometimes, or at least a little more conflicted about what she's doing. After all, it got her stabbed. She's still tough, and she'll still do anything for a picture, but now she's seen the dangers of it close up, which I think makes her a more interesting character.
2. Don is a little less crazy. He's on medication for his schizophrenia, which means fewer faux-artsy visions — though, at least
   in the first episode, he still talks to his cat.
3. Farber Kaufman. This new character, played by Ryan Eggold, is my favorite of the new additions — both because of his journalism-golden-boy-gone-to-the-dark-side story and his flirty relationship with Willa.
4. The ripped-from-the-headlines plot lines are an improvement, as far as I'm concerned — including one that introduces the recurring character of a starlet who seems like Paris, Britney, and Lindsay all rolled into one teeny blond body.
5. A character points out that Don Konkey's name sounds like "Donkey Kong." It's a little thing, sure, but it immediately made me like the show about three degrees more.

Dirt premieres tonight at 10 p.m. To check out a preview and a clip from the first episode, just read more

Courteney Cox has been all over promoting the second season of Dirt lately, and last night she had some help from her friends and her man. David Arquette, Helen Hunt, and David Spade were all in the house for the season premiere in LA. We can't wait for the first episode to air this Sunday, and if you're big fans of Lucy Spiller like we are, be sure to check out Buzz's interview with Courteney for enough juicy tidbits to hold you over through the weekend.

More pics of Courteney and her posse, so just read more

Dirt, the FX series starring Courteney Cox as a tough-talking tabloid editor, returns Sunday for its second season. I've already admitted I wasn't a huge fan of the show in its first season, but having checked out the way this season starts, Dirt may have gotten me back. The show seems lighter this year, with more self-contained plots and a few intriguing new characters. I'll write more about the show before Sunday's premiere, but today, I wanted to share some of what Cox had to say about the show in a recent conference call with reporters, where she touched on her own relationship with the paparazzi, how Lucy changes this season, and this season's new approach to celebrity stories. Here are highlights:

• On why they're going for the ripped-from-the-headlines approach: "We usually do a hybrid of celebrities and then add to the story maybe what happened to cause this to happen to them or sum it up in a different way, just for fun. It’s definitely relatable this year and I think it makes for just a more exciting television show. . . . I think there’s a fine line that the producers, even me as a producer, will take. We don’t ever intend to hurt anyone. And as a matter of fact, sometimes we make the characters sympathetic just by showing our creative version of what their life must be like or how they got to the place where they did something outrageous. It’s all in fun. It’s much lighter this year and it’s funnier, and I don’t think anyone’s going to get upset. And if they do, it wasn’t intentional."

Lots more from Cox, so read more