Your popWire for 6/26/2009 (Updated With Added ‘Leverage’!)

This was a stunning and, in pop culture terms, pretty brutal couple of days.  Three iconic figures, who meant different things to different generations, left us this week.  But let’s take a few moments to sweep the melancholoy aside, and take a look at what’s been passing for pop culture news elsewhere. 

Let’s fire up the popWire.

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1. “Leverage” returns to TNT on July 15th (yay), and if Gina Bellman and Beth Riesgraf weren’t enough feminine diversity for you, now Jeri Ryan (“Star Trek: Voyager”) is coming along for the ride.  Ryan will have a recurring role this season as a former “associate” of con-lady Sophie Deveraux (Bellman) who takes a shine to the Leverage team.  And now, a moment of silent thanks for this newest incarnation of “must see TV”!!!!

2. While the Beatles remixed and remastered catalog hits CD on 9/9/09, the same day that Beatles: Rock Band arrives for all the game platforms, the question remains, “What about the return of the Beatles to the burgeoning world of vinyl?”  EMI announced this week that music of our lives returns to the audio format that first gave us the Fab Four next March.

3. Rosie Radio is coming to Sirius XM’s Stars Channel, with Rosie O’Donnell hosting her show from the greenhouse on her New York estate.  Apparently, her “make-up” appearance with Howard on the Stern show earlier this year served as an impressive audition.  On Thursday (6/25), Stern himself endorsed Rosie’s upcoming show, though he kvetched at length on how he was the linchpin in getting Rosie on Sirius’s radar, but was then shut-out in getting Ms. O’Donnell on the Stern-specific channels.

4. Everyone has a different take on what the expansion of the Best Picture Oscar field to ten nominees will mean to the awards and the movie industry.  The Wrap has an article on how the indie community thinks this makes room for more independent/small-scale flicks at the big table.  Variety’s coverage offered the idea that animation, documentary films or “even a comedy” would benefit from the increase.  The AP’s overview is full of mixed opinions, other than this really is the Pixar Rule that’ll fast track “Up” into the top ten.  The newly cash-infused DeadlineHollywood thinks this is a really bad idea, which cheapens the “branding” of the nomination, and was totally orchestrated by the major studios and stacks o’cash.

5. Marvel Comics makes a big play for female readers with next week’s release of Marvel Divas.  Something of superhero version of “Sex & The City”, this affiliation of girlfriends features the Black Cat, Firestar, He*lcat and Photon in a very soapy and comedic environment which is still dead center in the middle of the Marvel Universe.  You go, girls!

6. Salon’s Heather Havrilesky posted a review of the Fox pilot for “Virtuality“, from “BSG” producers Ron Moore and Michael Taylor.  The pilot is being aired as a TV movie tonight (6/26), and Heather’s point was that she liked it – quite a bit – but the pilot-oriented cliffhanger ending makes for a dissatisfying stand-alone viewing experience.

7. The online hype machine is kicking into high gear for Sony’s August 14th release of “District 9“.  This high-concept film, shot in documentary style, posits a world where extra-terrestrials have come to Earth and been taken in as refugees – think along the lines of the Palestinian/Israel dynamic.  But now, in District 9, unrest may be building to a dramatic breaking point.  Directed and co-written by visual-effects professional Neill Blomkamp, the film is executive produced by “LOTR” wizard Peter Jackson.  You can peek at the trailer over at the L.A. Times and the official D-9 site.

8. Lettterman beat Conan in the overall late-night ratings for the week of June 15th-19th, which were also the “Tonight Show”s lowest numbers in almost seventeen years.  I’d feel more celebratory, if I didn’t like the Cone-Bone so much.  One related bit of information though, mostly fueled by DeadlineHollywood, is that this ratings heat may finally consume NBC’s head of programming Ben Silverman.  Interestingly enough, NBC may get help with this sticky situation from the U.K.  Troubled British network ITV is in search of a new chief executive, and Silverman, with U.K. TV experience during his Reveille TV days (when he brought “The Office”and ”Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” to the U.S.), just may be their top choice for the job.  Insiders alledge that NBC Uber-Boss Jeff Zucker would be more than willing to let the “glorified ad salesman” (Zucker’s words?) hop the pond.  The king of cool, Silverman – think Will Arnett on ”30 Rock” – tells the Hollywood Reporter that all this talk is just so much hooey,  and he’s just getting warmed up at NBC.

9. While we’re talking NBC, don’t forget Jay Leno returns in his 10/9 Central five-nights a week variety show on September 14th.  CBS is loading the cannons with the marketing program code-named “Project LENO“.  The “Late prime Enhanced News Opportunity” includes co-op ad dollars and tons of tools to get CBS affiliates to promote their 11/10 PM news along with their cool lead-in shows… that aren’t variety shows but the big budget procedural dramas viewers have shown they love.

10. In much more astral news, The Digital Bits site has a beaucoup of “Star Trek” Blu-Ray news, allegedly from the German divison of Paramount Home Entertainment.  They have the European home video date as October 5th(a Monday).  There are a slab of supplimental documentary shorts, including one called “The Shatner Conundrum”, and deleted scenes with titles like Spock’s Birth, Capturing the Narada, Young Kirk, Johnny and Uncle Frank, Amanda and Sarek Argue After Spock’s Fight, Interrogation and Escape from Prison, Sarek and Amanda, Bedroom and Kobayashi Maru: Original Version, Kirk Apologizes to Gaila and Sarek Sees Spock Prime.  Engage!!!

11. Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of “Watchmen” is getting a limited theatrical run before coming to video on July 21st.  It will screen publically in New York, L.A., Dallas and Minneapolis over the weekend of the 17th, and the July 25th Comic-con screening will be “BD Live” linked so you can watch along at home on your own copy.

12. Finally, thanks to the Hollywood Reporter, take your first look at the teaser poster for “Dexter” season 4 (below).  Zoiks.

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