Fox tries to play down furor over "Glee" graduates

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fox television on Friday confirmed that three lead characters of its high school musical comedy "Glee" would be "graduating" at the end of the upcoming season, but tried to play down a fan furor over their exit. Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said the show's Emmy Award-winning creator Ryan Murphy "probably regrets" going public with the news, and the subsequent confusion over a possible spin-off show for some of the departing "Glee" stars.

Rowan Atkinson released from hospital after crash

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Mr. Bean" star Rowan Atkinson left a U.K. hospital on Friday after a spectacular crash in his McLaren F1 supercar, according to media reports. Atkinson left the Peterborough City Hospital north of London in a wheelchair, said UK broadcaster Sky News.

Emmy show aims for laughs, including for the dead

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This year's Primetime Emmy Awards will feature a healthy dose of irreverence -- and that may even extend to remembering TV performers who have died. "I think the in memoriam segment doesn't need to be a bummer. It can be a celebration of what is left behind," Mark Burnett, who is producing the 2011 Emmy show, told reporters on Friday.

MTV's "Jersey Shore" premieres to record audience

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The fourth season premiere of the hit reality television show "Jersey Shore" delivered a record 8.8 million viewers, making it MTV's third most watched series telecast of all time, the network said on Friday. The episode, which aired Thursday night and featured the usual antics between Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino -- this time while the New Jersey clan visits the family roots in Italy -- marked a four percent increase over last season's premiere.

Simon Cowell predicts "X Factor" will thrash rivals

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Big, brash and confident as ever, Simon Cowell said on Friday that his upcoming "The X Factor" would thrash the competition on U.S. television and topple "American Idol" as the nation's most-watched show. Cowell, both executive producer and acid-tongued judge on the U.S. version of "The X Factor" called the singing contest a "game changer" and said it was "completely different" in style and content from his old vehicle "American Idol".

Fox stays mum on Jennifer Lopez, "Idol" talks

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jennifer Lopez's future as a judge with "American Idol" is still up in the air, after Fox television on Friday declined to confirm or deny reports that she had signed on for a second season. Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly told a meeting of TV critics he had no headline-making announcements -- "maybe like confirm Jennifer Lopez or something. No luck there."

Andrew Dice Clay: back on TV and turning heads

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Around 20 years ago, Andrew Dice Clay was a major star on Hollywood's comedy radar with chart-topping CDs, large audiences on TV and sold-out venues as big as Madison Square Garden, but it all came crashing down. The brash style of the "Diceman" with his raunchy, adult-oriented rhymes and sexually-charged jokes, made numerous audiences laugh but offended others. He was banned from MTV, and his stardom began to fade in the mid-1990s.