There's a new Time Lord in the universe! Matt Smith has been cast as the replacement for David Tennant in the BBC's sci-fi series Doctor Who.

Smith will be the 11th actor to play the most popular Time Lord known to earth. So who is Matt Smith? The 26-year-old British actor is best known to BBC audiences from The Ruby in the Smoke (??) and BBC2's Party Animals. Neither of which has been shown here on the other side of the pond.

But here's a photo in case you're curious.



Well, at least he's got the Doctor's signature tossled hair! Should be interesting to see what they come up for the younger doc.

According to Britian's Telegraph, Smith has the personality to be the Doctor. Unassuming and "normal," this boy from Northampton isn't a product of a starry acting school. In fact, as a teenager, Smith wanted to be a footballer before an injury sidelined him, and he did a stint at the National Youth Theatre instead. The Evening Standard called him "funny and charming," based on a prior interview.

I can't find anything as to when the good Doctor will reappear on U.S. TV, but I'll be looking forward to the next Christmas special (which doesn't usually air around Xmas time here) to see the Doctor "regenerate" from Tennant to Smith. Based on 2008's schedule, the Sci-Fi Channel should pick it up sometime in the spring.

"I had to spit it out into my napkin," Padma Lakshmi, in Bravo's promo for tonight's episode of Top Chef. I don't know about you, but unless she said that after the quick fire challenge, whoever's food she's referring to is going home ...
This is exactly what I love about this show ... the judges' snarky comments! That's what last week's opener was missing, so I'm glad to see it's starting already. Whatever the dish is, I wonder if it'll compare to Season 3's notorious broccolini side dish. I can't remember who made it, but head judge/chef Tom Colicchio called it "the single worst dish in Top Chef history." While guest judge chef Anthony Bourdain said it was "horrifying!" Really, horrifying!! Food? (Dibs to Elfman for reminding me about the "horrifying" quote, thanks).
Top Chef airs tonight at 10 p.m.

So here it is already Wednesday, and I'm still catching up from the weekend. Long story short, dating couple Terence & Sarah were the unlucky last place finishers on the Amazing Race this week. They were eliminated.

Terence & Sarah
Lots of mistakes were made as the season winds down. A Fast Forward was offered at the beginning of the leg, and although they made it there first, Terence & Sarah had to opt out since Terence is vegetarian and it involved eating meat. This ultimately led to their demise. (Nick & Starr easily finished it and came in first again.) Ken & Tina forgot to read a clue at the bottom of a glass of milk, then returned their cow costumes and had to go back for them. And frat boys Andrew & Dan took a cab to the Pit Stop instead of going on foot (as the clue advised) and had to go back to the last challenge and walk it in.
During a commercial break, we got a promo for this week's Survivor, which has Randy thinking of asking Bob for his "immunity idol." Bob's idol is fake, he made it while on Exile Island last week. Should be interesting ...

Over on Wisteria Lane, the Deperate Housewives' lived thru a nightclub fire that saw the demise of Edie's creepy husband's mysterious doctor - at Dave's hands no less. Everyone else survived, making the episode quite a yawn. The most exciting thing for me was near the end when ABC chose to give us a promo for LOST, starting Jan. 21! Mark your calendars ...

HBO's True Blood was equally boring. Bill completed his sentence, turning the young girl into a vamp. Seems the vamps in this series can only be turned by being burried after they're bitten. Sookie and Sam got closer. Tara got arrested on suspicion of DUI and is bailed out by a strange woman whose agenda we don't know yet. Jason's new girlfriend got murdered by the mystery killer, while the two were tripping on vampire blood. Jason asked to be locked up, believing that he did it and must have been the killer all along. And Sookie rescinded her invitation to Bill after he ruffed up Jason, when he came home to find them together (remember, a vampire must be invited into your home or he can't enter). This Sunday is the finale and we're supposed to find out who the killer is ...

And what the hell is going on over at Seattle Grace? While I'm enjoying Grey's Anatomy again, and I love Denny Duquette, how are they going to explain last week's ending. Izzy, who is desperately trying to let her dead fiance, Denny, go, finally gave in at the end and touched him .... WTH? Can't wait to see where this goes tomorrow night.

Bye-Bye Cody
Last night saw Hannah Montana costar Cody Linley leave the dance floor for the last time on Dancing with the Stars. I guess Julianne Hough didn't have to speed thru her surgical recovery afterall.

Bravo's Real Housewives of Atlanta came to a impasse last night with the show culminating in a dinner where the girls tried to get Kim, Sheree and NeNe back together as friends. It didn't work. Which leaves everything open for an all out brawl next week on the Reunion show (Tuesday, 9 p.m., Bravo).The only other highlight was Project Runway's Mychael Night showing up to offer some fashion design tips to Sheree. Next week, following the reunion, the original real housewives are back for season 3 of the Real Housewives of Orange County.

FX's Sons of Anarchy builds to next week's finale tonight at 10 p.m., while over on Comedy Central, the boys of South Park skewer Twilight.

Over on PBS tonight is the second episode of Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work. I'm totally into this one. It's a guilty pleasure I can't deny (hey, I admit it, I just love the way they talk). And tonight's episode is supposed to feature preparations for the Queen's birthday celebration and a visit by Tony Blair and his wife to the Queen's Balmoral estate.

And speaking of lovely-voiced Brits, Twilight star Robert Pattinson stops by the Today show tomorrow to promote, what else, the most anticipated movie of the holiday season. His co-star Kristen Stewart will appear as well. Today airs from 7-11 a.m. on NBC.

Yeah, just another excuse for
a pic of Pattz
In other Brit news (and I know this is a little late): BBC announced that Scottish actor David Tennant will leave the long-running science fiction series Doctor Who. Tennant has played the show's time- and space-traveling alien hero since 2005. He will appear in a Christmas special and four hour-long episodes to be aired in 2009 and 2010, but when the show returns for its next season there will be a new Doctor. Oddly enough, besides the Doctor, Tennant is best known for playing Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire.

The Doctor
And as long as we're on the subject, a new trailer for Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince is supposed to be attached to Twilight and debuting in theaters this weekend.


Bad Boy Bruno
Bruno sighting: Production on NBC's Medium was temporarily shut down earlier this month when an unruly extra in a tense courtroom scene turned out to be Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen, in disguise, filming his next movie. Security forcibly removed Cohen from the jury box and production resumed.
The film is tentatively titled: Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable. Now that's a mouthful.

Sexy Jackman!
And finally, congratulations to Hugh Jackman, People magazine's newest Sexiest Man Alive. I couldn't agree more!The saucy-aussie, who will next be scene on the big screen in Baz Luhrman's Australia with Nicole Kidman, sure is one tall drink of water. And let's not forget, we'll get to see him in his rugged sexiness this summer in his very own Wolverine flick. Now that's something to look forward too! Yum!

Sexier Wolverine!

Just for fun, I couldn't resist sharing this popular youtube video with you. It's from last Friday, somewhere in Texas where news junkie Geraldo Rivera was covering Hurricane Ike. Although he's off camera when the wave hits, watch him role thru the shot, a total wipe out!! Enjoy!

Well last night I took my own advice and decided around 7:30 p.m. to click on over to the Sci-Fi Channel and check out the pilot episode of Lost. Within minutes I was totally absorbed in one of my favorite shows and, since Sci-Fi was airing four episodes back-to-back until 11 p.m., I got totally lost in Lost and missed everything else on TV last night.

It looks like regular Monday evening programming may be off my schedule until further notice ... I mean, I even missed The Hills (horror of horrors!). It never even crossed my mind until this morning. Good thing MTV will continue to air the episode only about 1,000 more times this week. (Of course, I'm kidding, The Hills has really been going down hill, pardon the pun, this season, I'm sure I didn't miss a thing.)
I did manage to pry myself off the couch close to 9 p.m. to make sure I taped Prison Break on Fox. This is one of those shows that I used to love, but like many relationships, has been going on too long. If I didn't like the characters so much, I wouldn't still watch.

Prison Break had a great premise in the first season. Like it's name, the whole show centered around Michael Scofield getting himself sentenced to the same high security prison where his brother, Lincoln Burrows, was serving on death row, awaiting his final sentence for "murdering" the vice president's brother. I write "murdering" because the guy was alive all along.

Once inside, Michael hatched an elaborate scheme to break his brother out, over the course of the season. Along the way we met various shady characters, none more ominous than Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, who could hold his own with Hannibal Lecter any day.

Season One ended with the big break-out. Season Two followed the escapees as they ran from the feds. Season Three had most of them imprisoned in a sleazy fortress in Panama, and guess what, they broke out in the finale. So far, Season Four has the group of escapees forced back together by the government to find "Scylla" some kind of electronic black book that details the inner functions of "The Company." Oh, and Sarah (who was beheaded last season) is back, alive and well. Like I said, this show has gone on long enough, give these guys a happy ending already.

TV on DVD Tuesday: Hurray, Torchwood Season 2 comes out on DVD today. If you haven't seen Torchwood, you don't know what you're missing. I LOVE this show!! Torchwood, which I discovered on BBC America (America's fastest growing new network), is a spin-off of another popular BBC show Doctor Who. In fact, the word Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who (go ahead, figure it out). The show centers on Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), who heads up the super secret government agency that finds and controls aliens coming thru a rift in time in Cardiff, UK. Darker and not nearly as whacky as Doctor Who, I always describe Torchwood as sort of X-Files meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For more information check out their BBC America website at http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/262/index.jsp

And speaking of Doctor Who, Dark Horizons says that British actor David Tennant held out for a Doctor Who movie deal when signing for a 5th season of the popular show. Can't wait for that! Also, I'm glad to see Tennant coming back as the Time Lord, when previous reports had The Doctor "changing" again with Robert Carlisle taking the lead.

House is back for its fifth season tonight at 8 p.m. on Fox, followed at 9 by Fringe, JJ Abrams new thriller about disastrous happenings in our world. I highly recommend this show. If you're a fan of Lost, Heroes or even Alias, you might want to check it out.

Big Brother 10 crowns a winner tonight at 9 p.m. on CBS -- as if anyone still cares. This was definitely the dumbest season with the dumbest contestants yet. What can I say, it's impossible to top last summer's scheming Evil Dick, his slutty daughter Danielle, and masochistic Jen.

DVR Alert: Tomorrow Ellen Degeneres gets a rare sitdown with Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer. They'll be discussing her latest book and final in the Twilight series "Breaking Dawn." Also, on her website, Ellen promises to try her best to get Stephenie to finish writing "Midnight Sun", the anticipated retelling of "Twilight" from Edward's point of view (all the books are written from Bella's POV). An unfinished manuscript of the book was leaked on the Internet a few weeks ago, and a devastated Stephenie has put the book on hold indefniitely. Also, hopefully, they might show a clip from the upcoming "Twilight" movie.

And for all you Nip/Tuck fans, the doctors are in. Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh returned to the set yesterday to begin filming Season 9 of the popular F/X series. Nineteen episodes have been ordered for 2010/2011.But don't fret, there are still 8 or more unaired episodes from Season 8 that will debut sometime in January. Bad-boy Dr. Christian Troy, hey that rhymes, is one of my all-time hotties -- till we meet again ...