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Oops, few days late. Well no biggie. There have been a lot of small casting news and deals this week, but I'll try to keep it short since most of them might just be rumors, like Nicki Minaj becoming a judge on American Idol. This could happen, but it has been rumoured that Mariah Carey is not happy with that, and that Coca-Cola (sponsor of American Idol) is resisting too since Minaj is a spokes-person for Pepsi. But anyhow, the life goes on in Hollywood and a lot is going on.

From top left: The Simpsons, Parks & Recreation, 30 Rock, Friends

If I had to choose a TV show that has been in the news all week it would be Glee. Ryan Murphy has been tweeting very actively from the set of Glee. Fox also released a small promo video which features the new guest star Kate Hudson. EW also got ahold of this pic from set. Hudson shared her musical gifts on Nine, the film adaption of the musical. Murphy also tweeted a picture of Blaine (Darren Criss) in a Robin outfit, possibly for a Halloween episode, and a picture of Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Isabella (Sarah Jessica Parker). Murphy is also busy working on New Normal and American Horror Story (Which has been releasing very bizarre teasers for the new season, such as this). Also the second season of the Glee Project just wrapped up, with Blake Jenner winning the seven episode role on Glee. I didn't watch this season at all really, so I don't know about him, but I guess he can do something right if Murphy hired him.

As you all know by now, Jennifer Hudson is part of the new season of Smash, but the good news from the set just keep on coming. They have cast Sheryl Lee Ralph to play her characters mother. Ralph originated the role of Deena in the original Broadway cast of Dreamgirls. She has also had multiple small roles in TV and film. I just hope she's got a singing part in Smash too.

Last week I wrote about Sean Hayes joining Smash too and now he has scored another guest spot on one of my favourite shows, Up All Night which returns on Sept. 20th. He plays an old friend of Ava (Maya Rudolph) from her singing-career past. Hayes has actually been very actively guest starring on different shows like Hot In Cleveland, Parks & Recreation and on 30 Rock few years ago.

Speaking of Parks & Recreation, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) is getting a new romantic interest played by Xena. Well that's the name that comes to mind when I see her, but I'm talking about Lucy Lawless of course. She will play a single mother that comes to the parks department with a problem which Ron will help solve and she will appear in at least two episodes.

Then some quickies. John Slattery is joining the upcoming season of Arrested Development and he will appear on multiple episodes. He is of course best know for his role on Mad Men, but he has guest starred on many comedies and showed his comedic skills. Raising Hope is also getting some star-power as Chris Klein joins the cast as the "almost" long-lost brother of Jimmy (Lucas Neff). I have no idea how he is "almost" long-lost, but that's how THR described the role.

While others are adding stars to their cast, SNL just keeps spreading the sad news. Now there has been word that Abby Elliott would be leaving too.  And this rumour is fairly true too. Now it means that three of the best SNL actors are leaving, and four maybe since Jason Sudekis has been rumoured to part with SNL too. Lorne Michaels has a lot of casting to do before the 38th season kicks off in September.

Another sad report came out today from the Dunder Mifflin paper company. NBC reported that the ninth season of The Office will be its last one. Though it is sad that it will end, I'm not surprised. The show lost a lot of its edge after Steve Carrell left and now many of the cast members are getting busy with other projects. This week there were even first casting news from The Office spin-off The Farm. Majandra Delfino was cast to play Dwights (Rainn Wilson) sister. And I think its good that they go out while they are having fun and now they have time to wrap up the show nicely rather than getting brutally axed at some point.

Many movies announced some castings too. Last week I mentioned that Paz Vega had joined Nicole Kidman in the upcoming Grace Kelly biopic, and now few more actors have joined them. Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction, Incredible Hulk) will be playing Prince Ranier III and Frank Langella (Cutthroat Island, Frost/Nixon) will play Father Tucker, the priest who wed Grace Kelly and Prince Ranier, but I assume he will do more than just that.

Nina Simone, the famous jazz/gospel/soul singer is getting a biopic too, with Zoe Saldana attached to play her. Simone was also a well known civil rights activist, so I suspect there will be a political side to the film too. Especially as Saldana is not know for her singing. Saldana has previously worked in films such as Star Trek, Avatar and Colombiana.

At one point in the past I was pretty sure that the Clint Eastwood A Star Is Born-remake would never happen, but now as Beyonce is available once again I'm starting to hope again. Bradley Cooper is the latest guy to be rumoured to play the male lead. This would be the third remake of the original 1937 film starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. I would really like to see this happen, since Beyonce sure knows how to put on a show, like she once again prove at the UN where she filmed her newest music video for I Was Here to celebrate the World Humanitarian Day. I know I don't usually post music videos, but this was just stunning and touching too, I could watch it over and over again.

 Quick animation news too. Ellen DeGeneres is almost sure to reprise her role as Dory from Finding Nemo in the upcoming sequel. She has voiced her interest to come back for a sequel multiple times, and now that the sequel is actually happening she is pretty much guaranteed to join in. There is no word yet on how big the role will be, one site even suggested that the new movie would be kinda Finding Dory, since she has incredibly short memory span, but who knows, maybe it will be just a small cameo. The other animation news I'm talking about is of course the release date for Despicable Me spin-off movie for the minions. These adorable morons will hit the theaters in December 2014. In case you've missed what the minions are, here is a reminder, who wouldn't wanna see a full movie with these idiots:

Kristen Stewart has been getting some pretty grim news lately, you know with the cheating and all. Now there have been rumours that she would have been kicked out from the Snow White and the Huntsman sequel. It was suggested that the sequel would be more like a spin-off for the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and Rupert Sanders would still be directing. Now Universal has denied all rumours that Stewart would be out, but they do say that the new movie will focus more on the Huntsman, so they kinda admit that they are planning to downplay Stewarts role a lot.

Elle Fanning has scored a movie role too. She will play a struggling teenager who discovers that a classmate of hers who died in a tragic accident wished to be her friend, but she didn't have any idea. The movie is called Olive's Ocean and it is based on the book of the same name. Fanning will next be seen on my favourite upcoming film, Maleficent.

 Then some trailers again. First one is for the short movie Partysaurus Rex, which I wrote about last week. This trailer pretty much sums up what the film is all about:

The second one is sorta old one for Lawless, since it has only few news shots, but those are the scenes that result in the higher rating. Well anyways, the movie is about bootlegging brothers with some romantic aspect but overall it seems like a pretty raw movie. And it has some pretty big names on it too: Tom Hardy, Shia LeBoeuf, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce.

The last one is also based on a true story about a family surviving the devastating 2004 tsunami at Indian ocean. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts star and Juan Antonio Bayona directing this film called The Impossible. The trailer is beautiful and terrifying at the same time, I predict that no one will leave the cinema with dry eyes. I'm getting teary eyed just watchin the trailer, and with that U2 cover playing on the background, its going to be a cryfest.

Good thing I noticed before posting that the last trailer was in Spanish,  luckily I found the English one too. That's all folks! New post coming next week!