Brooklyn Decker lands CBS sitcom pilot

Brooklyn Decker has been priming herself for sitcom work over the past few months, with multiple appearances on FX's "The League" in December and a guest spot on Fox's "New Girl" last month.

Now, if things go well, she might get her own series.

Deadline is reporting that the Matthews native is set to star in a CBS comedy pilot that "revolves around six 30-something friends who each think the other has it better." Decker, who turns 26 next month, will play Jules, "a former model who was discovered in a mall when she was 13."

The show is created by former "Friends" producer/writer Dana Klein and Aaron Kaplan, who was an executive producer on Fox's short-lived "Terra Nova"; the pilot will be directed by James Burrows ("Will & Grace," "Taxi," Mike & Molly," "Frazier"). It does sound a bit derivative of "Friends," and even bears the awkward title "Friends With Better Lives"... but Decker has a strong fan base and a decent co-star ("Don't Trust the B's" James Van Der Beek).

One thing's for sure: The role won't be a huge stretch for Decker. She was discovered in a Charlotte shopping mall as a teenager, and -- of course -- went on to become one of the more famous Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover girls of all-time.

Charlotte native finishes 2nd in 'Jeopardy!' finals

Keith Whitener, 29, of Charlotte, claimed second place and $100,000 in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions episode on Tuesday night.

The Myers Park High School and UNC Chapel Hill grad, one of the top 15 winners ever on the show, was runner-up to Colby Burnett, a history teacher from Chicago who won the $250,000 grand prize. Kristin Morgan, a strategic analyst at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., finished third and took home $50,000.

“I honestly couldn’t believe I had made it [to the final game],” said Whitener, a research chemist, in a press release. “It was really amazing. Just making it to the final was honor enough for me.”

“During the regular season run, there were a few days where I was basically on autopilot, and I wasn’t really worried about how I would perform," he said. "The Tournament of Champions is a completely different animal; the pace was just so demanding.”

Whitener won $147,597 in his initial run on "Jeopardy!"; he hasn’t decided yet what he will do with his winnings.

“It’s a heck of a lot of money. My wife and I may eventually use it toward a house,” Whitener said. “We’re sitting on a little bit of it in case an interesting investment opportunity presents itself, or if I want to strike off on my own after my fellowship at the Naval Research Lab is done.”

Bill Maher slams Trump, Catholics, 'Django Unchained'

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Bill Maher has hung onto his job hosting HBO talk show “Real Time” for 10 years now, despite his penchant for politically incorrect comments that would require most public figures to turn their publicists into human shields.

But he knows that at some point, his bosses at HBO could tap him on the shoulder and put him out to pasture.

“They did it to Johnny Carson when he was 67, and he was still the biggest star in television almost … certainly in late-night,” says Maher, 57. “The grim reaper waits for no man, television-wise.”

So he continues to hit the road with his smug, snarky brand of political comedy: This winter, his weekly schedule typically has included the hourlong show aired live on Fridays from a studio in Los Angeles, followed by Saturday and Sunday shows in various U.S. cities. This Sunday night, he performs at Charlotte’s Belk Theater. (Details: www.ncbpac.org.)

“Stand-up,” Maher says, “you can do till you’re 100. George Burns was booked at the Palladium when he was 100, and he damn almost made it.”

Maher spoke to the Observer recently about Donald Trump, who is suing Maher for $5 million over a joke he made about Trump being descended from an orangutan; President Obama, who Maher calls “Django Unchained”; and the real “Django Unchained” – a movie he found almost as disturbing as Trump.

Q. Is it hard to switch gears like that between doing the TV show and then doing your stand-up act?

No, because they actually feed each other. I love going out into the country because I feel like I take it back to L.A. and have a sense of America that I wouldn’t have otherwise, so I’m not just talking about it from an ivory tower. And I’m very fortunate in the type of material I do, being political, I’m always being given a fresh batch of fun material to work with. I feel sorry for these observational comedians who sit there at a diner looking at the ketchup bottle, thinking, “F---, I’ve gotta come up with a joke about this. What is funny about a ketchup bottle?” And then you finally come up with something and they tell you, “Oh no, George Carlin observed that in 1974.” But … especially with these Republicans, I’ve got funny stuff every week.

Q. And with Trump, right?

Trump! Everywhere I go now, that’s the first thing the crowd yells out. “Trump!”

Q. So have you been really busy fretting about his lawsuit against you?

Oh my God, when this thing goes to the Supreme Court, let me tell you. Ahh, no I don’t know what to tell you about this man. Like I told Conan last week, it’s as if they made Lenny from “Of Mice and Men” a billionaire. … It’s insane. I don’t think he’s even a person. It’s like some sort of ’80s pop reference that I’m having a feud with. It’s like J.R. Ewing and I are fighting.

Q. He was actually in Charlotte earlier this month and was talking up the golf club he bought in Mooresville, which isn’t far from here. Maybe you can check out the course when you’re in town.

I’m not a golfer, but I know that one of his hobbies in life is ruining coastlines, like that thing he had in Scotland, remember that? But yeah, if that keeps him off the streets, fine.

Q. I take you have no interest in ever being on “The Celebrity Apprentice”?

Or any other reality show.

Q. Your thoughts on Obama at the beginning of his second term?

It seems like the ball really is in Obama’s court now. After the State of the Union … and this being his second term, people are wondering what’s he gonna do – I keep calling him “Django Unchained” for the second term – and the Republicans are really … coming across … to the American public as just sulking, just pissed off, reacting out of personal grudge as opposed to what’s best for the country. And we’ll see. I think Obama had a very important lesson to learn in the first term, which is that yeah, it was right to reach out to people … and he certainly did reach out, you cannot blame the guy for not trying. But all he got was the back of their hand and “Go back to Kenya, you f------ Socialist.” So it just seems like he’s taking a different tack now, which is basically to take it to the people and embarrass the Republicans into doing something.

Q. Earlier this month, you made headlines after airing an editorial on “Real Time” that skewered the Pope’s resignation and Catholics in general. There was one story I found that was basically just a transcript of the monologue, and there were 361 comments on it.

Oh really? All positive, I’m guessing?

Q. Absolutely. Why do you think people get so fired up about religion?

Well, because for so many people, it’s what they cling to. Remember what Obama said, “they cling to their guns and their religion”? And with some people, I understand that, I said that in my movie “Religulous,” that if you’re in prison, and you say, “All I got in here is Jesus,” I get that. But for a lot of people, I don’t think it’s really that necessary. It’s yes, frightening when the light goes out at night to think that you may not wake up and if you don’t you’re just worm food, but come on. It’s attached to too much bull----. There’s too big a price to pay for that, and obviously, the point we were trying to make in that editorial, was that … Catholics don’t really follow anything the Pope says anyway. Ninety-eight percent of Catholics use birth control – that’s quite a blowing-off of church doctrine. … They masturbate and they divorce and they have pre-marital sex. OK, so if you’re not really following what the Pope and the Church says anyway, and the Church has been shown to be a safe haven for child molesters, what are you sticking around for. If he quits, you can quit.

Q. Let’s talk about the South. Your views of it?

I play the South so much. I love the South. In the old days, I loved it because it was always more fun to go out after the show. Now that I’m old, I don’t really go out after the show, so that’s out of the question, but yes, it was always more fun to go out in Charlotte or Houston than it was in Boston or even San Francisco is not much of a party town. The South knows how to have fun. But beyond that, I love playing the South. … (Audiences) are pretty much the same all over, people who come to see you and pay money to see you generally are your fans. They generally want you to do well, and then you really want to do well for them. But there is just a little extra bit of love and enthusiasm when I play red states, because first of all I think they expect me not to come there, they expect me to have written off that state as a bunch of rednecks. … What I’ve found is that everywhere, (even in) the reddest of the red states … there are always two or three thousand liberal, progressive, very often Atheistic-thinking people even in places like Alabama. They just are marbled into the woodwork. But they come out when I come out when I come to their town, and so it’s sort of I think a release to be in a room with all people who think like you when you thought maybe you were the only one in town. So there is a really special feeling in places like that. Now, Charlotte is a big, sophisticated city so I’m sure these people are aware that there are people like them. But maybe not so much in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Maybe not so much in Huntsville, Alabama. But … I just think that in general, the feeling in the South is just different. It’s just more laid-back. It’s more friendly. I’m not saying it’s exactly Mayberry if you walk down the street, but there’s more humanity, as opposed to that “don’t look at each other, don’t make eye contact” that you find in Northern, colder cities.

Q. Lastly, since it’s Oscar week, let’s talk about movies. Did you see “Argo” (which won Best Picture Sunday)?

“Argo” – loved it. Great entertainment.

Q. How about “Lincoln”?

Loved “Lincoln.” Loved it, and I saw that and then I saw “Django Unchained” about a week later and I noticed that because they’re up against each other in the same year and they both happen to be talking about similar subject matter, right, it’s about slavery and that whole era … they’re compared to each other. … I had real problems with (“Django”) as far as going from low comedy – like that scene where they can’t see out of their klansmen outfits, it’s right out of “Blazing Saddles” – to go from a scene where Kerry Washington is whipped to that scene, I just couldn’t make that adjustment. I guess some people can, but I couldn’t go back to laughing after I saw her whipped, or the two slaves’ fight to the death in the living room. This I found was very disturbing. And for Steven Spielberg to be able to do a movie about not the dramatic stuff that we think about with Lincoln – (no) battle scenes … just the procedural movement of legislation – and still make over $100 million, I think is an amazing achievement. I just think he is widely perceived as the greatest director, and he’s still underrated.

Q. “Zero Dark Thirty”?

I wasn’t all that entertained. It was OK, but it was a little too documentary-like, and yeah, I didn’t know what all the fuss was about, quite frankly. I liked her other one, “The Hurt Locker,” a lot more. … As far as that whole controversy about the torture, I thought it was bull---- for the movie to present the capture of bin Laden as dependent on that torture because the experts seem to disagree.

Q. And last one – I’m particularly curious, since it has religious themes – did you see “Life of Pi”?

No, I have not seen “Life of Pi.” I have stayed away on purpose. I like Ang Lee a lot and I think he’s a great director, and I’ve really enjoyed a lot of his movies – “The Ice Storm” and “Brokeback Mountain” – but I know people who’ve seen it and they’ve told me, “Bill, you’re probably not gonna want to go see this one.”

Mike Tyson show at Ovens canceled

Tattoo a frown on your face, Iron Mike fans: Mike Tyson’s one-man show, “Undisputed Truth” -- originally scheduled for April 21 at Ovens Auditorium -- has been canceled.

Weak ticket sales seem to be the culprit.

Said producer James L. Nederlander: "I am huge supporter of Mike and this compelling show. Unfortunately tickets sales in certain markets did not support the scope of the tour originally planned, and we've pulled back in a few markets. The tour is still traveling to numerous cities. Mike has been the consummate professional, and I'm proud to bring Mike's talent and story around the country.”

The Champ himself put an even greater spin on the situation:

"Due to circumstances beyond my control," Tyson said, "certain cities on my ‘Undisputed Truth’ tour have been canceled. I am so appreciative of my fans and all of my supporters. I sincerely apologize to anyone that was inconvenienced by these cancelations. I was looking forward to doing a great show for you and hope at a later date that I am still able to do so."

Refunds are available at point-of-purchase locations.

Opera Carolina’s 'Magic Flute' an 'art'-ful classic

Jun Kaneko designed the sets and the costumes for Opera Carolina’s new production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” but the Japanese native is much better known as a sculptor and painter whose works grace art galleries all over the world.

It’s no wonder, then, that the show – which opened Saturday to a sold-out Belk Theater crowd – begins with a video-projected feast for the eyes: shimmery blue lines; followed by a sequence of interconnecting, zagging, crawling lines that play like a giant, colorful Etch-a-Sketch; followed by a montage of pop-art.

Seven minutes later, you’re properly enchanted. And that 32-foot, two-headed serpent hasn’t even begun to hassle our hero Tamino yet.

Mozart’s music and Emanuel Schikaneder’s narrative remain intact in the Charlotte company’s collaboration with Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and San Francisco Opera, where it debuted last summer.

The tale of the earnest young prince who is given a magic flute and goes looking for love and enlightenment still features his goofy bird-catching sidekick Papageno, his fair princess-to-be (hopefully) Pamina, and the mysterious Queen of the Night. Tamino must still undergo trials of wisdom to prove himself a worthy husband. Papageno must still find his way to his Papagena.

But as refreshed by Kaneko (also the man behind last winter’s “Madama Butterfly” reboot for Opera Carolina), the look and feel of this particular “Magic Flute” seems to have borrowed inspiration from a dozen Tim Burton movies, as well as from that drawing app your toddler uses on the iPad.

Every morsel of imagery delights, or stimulates, or seems to give a pop-cultural wink.

There’s something decidedly Spider-Man-like about Papageno’s (Kyle Pfortmiller) bodysuit. If you don’t look at sleazy Monostatos (Julius Ahn) and think Gene Simmons in Kiss makeup, you weren’t a child of the ’70s (or ’80s, or ’90s). And do we detect a little Bride of Frankenstein thing going on there with the Queen (Maria Aleida)?

You might be reminded of different things than I was, but that’s just a testament to how imaginative and evocative Kaneko’s work is.

The fact that “Magic Flute” is 100 percent in English makes this an ideal introduction to opera for all ages, and supertitles help during musical passages (though they did seem to drop out in two or three instances Saturday). However, it’s still nearly three hours long with intermission, so the experience will test younger children’s patience. The staging and costumes may be visually exciting, but the pacing is not exactly zippy.

As for the arias and other vocal arrangements, tenor Shawn Mathey (as Tamino), Korean soprano Yunah Lee (as Pamina), and bass-baritone Tom McNichols (as Sarastro, leader of the temple that’s holding Pamina) all sound strong and confident (though McNichols can be a bit more difficult to understand than the others). Meanwhile, Cuban-American Maria Aleida astonishes as the Queen – as any soprano playing the Queen should; her first and last arias, with their runs and leaps, would leave Mariah Carey stupefied.

The real star, of course, is Papageno. It’s a showy character, the adventure’s comic relief, and Pfortmiller is perfect – bright, quick, flexible, funny. Anyone who gets to slip in a joke about The Clapper in a 222-year-old opera while most of the rest of the cast is always so serious will be an instant fan favorite.

Still, one person got a larger ovation during the curtain call Saturday. That’d be Kaneko. Thanks to him, Opera Carolina’s latest is a true work of art.

There are two more upcoming performances of ‘The Magic Flute’: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 27, at Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. $15-$140. 172 minutes, including a 22-minute intermission. In English, with English subtitles. 704-372-1000; www.operacarolina.org.

Charlotte native's ad could be Super Bowl-bound

Providence High School grad Mark Freiburger, now a Hollywood filmmaker, has created a Doritos commercial that could air during the Super Bowl.

According to a press release, Freiburger, 29, has always wanted to make family films and that was the inspiration behind his ad “Fashionista Daddy.” Click here to view the ad.

Selected out of thousands of entrants, Freiburger and the four other finalists will compete for the chance to have their ads air during the Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 on CBS. Two ads will air -- one selected by America’s votes and one by the Doritos brand team. The finalist whose ad scores highest on the USA TODAY Ad Meter rankings will get to work with director Michael Bay on the next installment of the “Transformers” movie franchise, along with a shot at a $1 million bonus.

People can vote for their favorite commercial on the "Doritos Crash the Super Bowl"-branded app on the Doritos Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/DoritosUSA) and/or on the Facebook mobile app through Jan. 29.

'Banshee' star relishes sexy role

Ivana Miličević has been doing film and TV work for 17 years, but her role on Season 1 of "Banshee" -- which premieres on Cinemax at 10 p.m. Friday -- marks a couple of firsts for the Bosnian-born actress.

It's the first time she's been the female lead on a TV series, and it was her first time in North Carolina, which is where all 10 episodes of the series were shot last year.

In "Banshee," Miličević plays a former thief who has been leading a quietly domestic life in Banshee, Pa., under a false cover for years. Her husband-and-two-kids existence is idyllic ... until her old partner-in-crime/lover (Antony Starr) comes back into her life, having stolen the identity of her small town's new sheriff.

Miličević is hardly a household name, but you've probably seen her on-screen before. She's a former Bond girl ("Casino Royale"), and famously appeared opposite Will Smith in 1998's "Enemy of the State" (as an amused salesgirl in a lingerie shop). She also played an American hottie in the British-based Christmas rom-com "Love Actually."

But she calls Carrie the role of a lifetime for her.

"I just love this part," Miličević says. "It’s very lucky and ... it’s rare for a female character to be written so well, and so emotional, and so in love, and so torn, and so tough, and so sexual."

"I loved the script. ... When I read it, it read very pulpy, and I was like, 'Wow, this is so kind Quentin Tarantino-ey in a way, like Coen Brother-ey, and funny in its heightened reality, but so emotional, because I really can feel this love story. So first and foremost, probably the love story drew me in. Second of all ... look at what I get to play. I get to fight. I get to train. I get to love. I get to be sexy. I mean, if not now, when?"

She also loved North Carolina.

"I’m from Michigan, so some bits of it reminded me of Michigan. Especially in the summer. When I got there, I noticed all the wild blackberry bushes everywhere. So I couldn’t wait for those to ripen. And I was really looking forward to the fireflies."

She also didn't mind that it was one of the hottest years on record.

"I loved the weather. I loved it when it got hot. I was just like, 'Come on, bring it.' ... In L.A., it’s never too cold. It gets a little hot for a little bit. But I’m talkin’ some good old-fashioned humidity. I could handle it. I was like, 'Bring it.' I loved it."

Oh, and "Banshee" marked one other key first for Miličević: It was the first time she'd ever taken her clothes off for a role.

"I've never wanted to. I've never been inspired to. But for this, I was," says Miličević, 38. "I was like, 'Oh, for this, it needs to be done, and it needs to be done well. It needs to not be done with a sheet wrapped around me; it needs to be done like a husband and wife do it. ... I just kind of wanted it to be natural. And I don't really find them gratuitous because ... it's part of the story."

In the series pilot airing Friday night, things get hot and heavy between Miličević and on-screen husband Rus Blackwell -- although her character, Carrie, actually has former flame Lucas (Starr) on the brain.

And yeah, believe it or not, there's character development going on here.

"I was telling my family, they were like, 'Oh, we just won’t watch (the sex scene).' But I said, 'No, you kind of have to, because there’s story points in it. It’s not just there to be there, like, 'Hey, let’s take a moment and get turned on.' "

For more on "Banshee," check out this story.