Jessica Biel to star in ''Die a Little''

Jessica Biel set to Die a Little
Hottie du jour Jessica Biel is preparing to star in the thriller Die a Little, based on Megan Abbott’s acclaimed 2006 novel about a schoolteacher whose life is thrown out of whack when her detective brother falls for a mysterious woman. Although the book is set in the 1950s, the movie will take place in the present. Biel, who optioned the book and will serve as a producer on the film, will play the femme fatale, not the bookworm. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pushing Daisies picked up for full season
The most buzzed-about new show of the fall, Pushing Daisies, a mystery procedural about a man (Lee Pace) with the power to bring people back from the dead, has been given a new lease on life as ABC has ordered nine additional episodes through the end of the season. Packed with stylish stars (Chi McBride, Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth) and original visuals, the show has been a critical favorite — but a supposed financial burden for producer Warner Bros. Its three airings have averaged a respectable 11.1 million viewers. Pushing Daisies is the second new-show-pickup for ABC this fall: Less surprisingly, the network also ordered a full season of Private Practice, the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff. (Variety)

Robert Goulet awaits emergency lung transplant
Tony Award-winning singer Robert Goulet, 73, remained heavily sedated in a Los Angeles hospital on Tuesday while awaiting a lung transplant. The crooner, best known for his turn as Lancelot in the original Broadway production of Camelot and for his cameos in movies like Atlantic City and Beetlejuice, was diagnosed with interstitial pulmonary fibrosis after seeking medical care on Sept. 30. A message on his website called his condition ”rare but rapidly progressive and fatal.” Goulet’s wife, Vera, told the Associated Press that doctors informed her that lung transplants are 88 percent effective, but so far a donor for Goulet hasn’t been found. (AP via Yahoo!)

Redford speaks out at Lambs‘ Rome premiere
While in Italy for the debut of his contemporary political drama Lions for Lambs, director-star Robert Redford spoke out about the United States’ current involvement in overseas affairs. ”Our country has hit a point where we have lost so much — we have lost lives, we have lost sacred freedoms, we have lost financial stability, we’ve lost our position of respect on the world stage,” said the filmmaker, who appeared at the premiere alongside costar Tom Cruise. ”For me, the film is about the effect and the consequences of the last several years in my country and how that plays out in the area of the media, education, and politics.” While Cruise kept mum on political issues, Redford implored America’s youth to get involved. ”Young people have to take command of their voice. Are they going to become active politically or are they going to move away from it because they are disgusted, disillusioned, and they don’t respect it because there is no morality and leadership?” he asked. ”If that happens, we may have a continuation of what we had. Otherwise, they can take a strong position for themselves.” Lions for Lambs opens Stateside on Nov. 9. (Reuters via Yahoo!)

Prison Break spinoff may be in the works
Fox has ordered a script for a possible spinoff of its series, which would be set at a women’s prison and follow a character named Molly, who will pop up on Prison Break later this season. No actress has been cast yet to play Molly, who gets a life sentence for murder but later learns that many of her loved ones, whose deaths she was avenging, are still alive. (Hollywood Reporter)

FunnyOrDie.com and Tony Hawk to launch extreme sports site
The creators of the popular FunnyOrDie.com website have announced the formation of ShredOrDie.com, a page aimed at the extreme sports community. Created in partnership with skateboarding entrepreneur Tony Hawk, the site will feature short videos from users as well as from celebrities like Lance Armstrong, Christian Slater, and snowboarder Shaun White. The move could boost the Will Ferrell-backed FunnyOrDie.com, which has seen traffic decline sharply since its ballyhooed launch last April. (Hollywood Reporter)

Fishburne to put on Thurgood robe for Broadway
Laurence Fishburne will return to Broadway next spring in the one-man show Thurgood, George Stevens Jr.’s biographical portrait of the late legal pioneer and Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall. A star of movies including Boyz N the Hood, What’s Love Got to Do With It?, and the Matrix series, Fishburne previously appeared on the Great White Way in a 1999 production of The Lion in Winter. Before that, he won a Tony Award in 1992 for Two Trains Running. The limited-engagement play is set to begin previews on March 30. (Variety)

Costner adopts creepy New Daughter
Kevin Costner has agreed to star in the independent spine tingler New Daughter as a father whose girl (Pan’s Labyrinth‘s Ivana Baquero) starts acting strangely after the family moves to a farm near a burial mound. The film is adapted from a 2005 short story by John Connolly. Long removed from his early-1990s peak in popularity, Costner doesn’t appear to be spooked by the thriller genre, even after his serial killer drama Mr. Brooks underperformed at the box office last summer. Spanish director Luiso Berdejo is on tap to direct the chiller, which should go into production early next year. (Hollywood Reporter)

Pelosi pacts for more Journeys With George
Call it The Devil Wears Brooks Brothers. Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) and Mandate Pictures have announced plans to make a fictionalized adaptation of the award-winning HBO documentary Journeys With George, which chronicled journalist Alexandra Pelosi’s experiences covering George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign. Pelosi, who’ll write the screenplay, is a daughter of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The drama would focus on a hard-driving TV producer who must deal with life issues while covering a presidential race, and, yes, may aim for a Devil Wears Prada-on-the-campaign-trail sort of vibe. (Hollywood Reporter)

Celebrity News

People.com: Actress Gretchen Mol and her husband, director Tod Williams, have welcomed their first child, a boy they named Ptolemy John Williams.