Musician-coaches from ‘Voice’ to return
The four musician-coaches who have helped make “The Voice” a summer hit will be back for the next round of the vocal competition.
NBC said Thursday that Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton will all return when “The Voice” resumes in midseason next year.
The series concluded its first cycle Wednesday. The coaches (don’t call them judges) work with the singers throughout the competition.
A major success for NBC, the two installments of “The Voice” ranked in third and fifth place in total viewers last week.
Short meets ‘Mother’
Martin Short, who portrayed numerous wacky characters on “SCTV” and his Jiminy Glick series on Comedy Central, is joining the cast of CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother.”
Short is slated to play the boss of Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) at an environmental law firm during a multi-episode arc.
Though mostly known for his comedic turns, Short last season played a dramatic role on “Damages” and has also done other dramatic work on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
Pino to ‘L&O’
Danny Pino and Kelli Giddish have signed on for NBC’s long-running cop show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” when it enters its 13th season next fall.
Pino starred for seven seasons on CBS’ “Cold Case” as Detective Scotty Valens. He’ll step into the vacancy left by the recently departed Christopher Meloni, who played Detective Elliot Stabler.
Giddish appeared last season in NBC’s “Chase” as U.S. Marshal Annie Frost.
Both will play detectives in the Special Victims Unit of the New York Police Department, joining a cast headed by the series’ veteran star, Mariska Hargitay.
Greet ‘The Host’
“Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer’s next big-screen project has a release date.
Distributor Open Road Films announced that the movie adaptation of Meyer’s apocalyptic sci-fi novel “The Host” will arrive in theaters March 29, 2013.
It stars Saoirse Ronan (“Hanna,” “The Lovely Bones”) in a story of one of the last holdouts against an invasion by entities that take over human minds while leaving their bodies intact.
Andrew Niccol (“Gattaca”) wrote the screenplay and is directing.
Published in 2008, “The Host” is Meyer’s follow-up to her best-selling “Twilight” series. The final “Twilight” book is being adapted into a two-part movie, the first installment debuting in November.
‘Twilight’ hours
A popular spot for “Twilight” fans to have their pictures taken in Forks, Wash., is gone.
The facade of Forks High School came down last month as the building is demolished to make way for a new school.
The Peninsula Daily News reported that a campaign to raise $287,000 to save the 86-year-old facade raised only a few thousand dollars.
It was one of the sites in the Olympic Peninsula town visited by fans of the teen vampire-romance books and movies, which were set there.