What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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February 23 - 29, 2020 WHATS UP! T5 BY MICHELLE ROSE TV Media Liberty Belle goes to Wash- ington: Actress Betty Gilpin is probably best known for her role as Debbie "Liberty Belle" Egan in Netflix's 1980s wrestling- themed comedy series, "GLOW." But for her next TV gig, the former "Nurse Jackie" actress has joined the all-star cast of FX's "Impeachment: American Crime Story" and will portray conservative media pun- dit Ann Coulter. The third season of Ryan Mur- phy's anthology series re-exam- ines the events leading up to the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton, but from the per- spective of three key women: Linda Tripp, Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky, who is also a producer on the series. With this role, Gilpin is basi- cally stepping out of the wres- tling ring — after all, "GLOW" is slated to end after its next sea- son — and stepping into a "no holds barred" political one. Coulter first rose to fame as a political commentator and au- thor during the sex scandal that rocked Washington, D.C. Her le- gal experience with the Paula Jones case paved the way for her 1998 book "High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Cast Against Bill Clinton," which ar- gued for impeachment. Of course, Coulter isn't the only media figure in this story who dominated the headlines in the late '90s. Billy Eichner of Funny or Die's "Billy on the Street" (Eichner also played out- burst-prone Craig in "Parks and Recreation") will star as Matt Drudge of the "Drudge Report," which was the first media outlet to break the news of a White House affair in January 1998. Casting is largely complete, but "Impeachment" probably won't be ready in time for a late September premiere. The delay is due to Murphy's busy sched- ule and directing duties for the upcoming Netflix movie "The Prom," which should wrap up filming soon. But production on "Impeachment" should begin in a few weeks (March 21 is the filming start date) and is ex- pected to continue until Octo- ber. So look for FX to announce a new release date this summer or fall. Brockovich is 'Rebel': It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since Julia Roberts por- trayed environmental activist Erin Brockovich on the big screen — a role that earned the actress an Oscar, a BAFTA, a SAG and a Golden Globe award. These days, the real-life legal consultant is busy working with "Grey's Anatomy" and "Station 19" showrunner Krista Vernoff to bring her life to the small screen, too. And ABC is clearly keen on the project: it just gave "Rebel" (that's the series title) a put-pilot commitment. Whereas the 2000 movie fo- cused on Brockovich's role in the early '90s case against Pacif- ic Gas and Electric, the TV proj- ect will more closely resemble Brockovich's life today. Katey Sagal ("Sons of Anarchy"), who is currently recurring on ABC's "The Conners," has been cast in the lead role, though you might not recognize the character's name. Sagal will play Annie "Rebel" Bello, a legal advocate without a formal law degree (sound famil- iar?). Fearless and funny, Rebel puts a lot of heart into every case and she's determined to win at (practically) any cost. Brockovich is on board as an executive producer. Vernoff wrote the script and, more im- portantly, "Rebel" is her first project under the overall deal she and husband/producing partner Alexandre Schmitt signed last year with ABC Stu- dios. Code Brown: If you read and loved "The Da Vinci Code," this next piece of news might have you looking forward to the 2020- 21 season already. It appears bestselling author Dan Brown and NBC are team- ing up for a possible TV series centered on Prof. Robert Lang- don, the puzzle-solving charac- ter from five of Brown's bestsell- ing books (and three film adap- tations): "Angels & Demons," "The Da Vinci Code," "The Lost Symbol," "Inferno" and "Origin." The network has already handed a pilot order to "Lang- don" that would focus more on the early adventures of the Har- vard symbologist (as it turns out, it's not an actual field of study). If the pilot makes it to air, it seems safe to assume we'll be seeing some high-pressure code deciphering and a race against time to thwart a conspiracy. Just don't expect to see Tom Hanks in the lead role. There hasn't been any word of his in- volvement, or any other casting news for that matter. But it also means that, for the first time, we'll see Langdon portrayed on screen by someone else. NBC first announced "Lang- don" last June as one of the first projects to receive a production commitment. Daniel Cerone, whose writing and producing credits include "Dexter" and "The Mentalist," was initially tapped to pen the script, but it seems the task now falls to Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie ("The Event"). They'll also serve as ex- ecutive producers alongside Ron Howard (he directed the three film adaptations) and his producing partner Brian Grazer, as well as Imagine TV executive Anna Culp and chairman Samie Falvey. BEANS BOB BOUNCE BOUND BUNGEE BUNNY CAPER CAT CHILDREN DANCE DART DIVE DOG DOLPHIN FLEAS FLING FLIP FROLIC GAZELLE GRASS- HOPPER HARE HOPSCOTCH HURDLE HURL JOY JUMP KANGAROO LEAP LUNGE POGO STICK RABBIT SCRAMBLE SKIP SOAR SPLASH SPRING SPRINT TOAD TUMBLE VAULT WHIRL Look Before You Leap Betty Gilpin in "GLOW" WORD SEARCH STARS ON SCREEN Solution on page T23