From The World of Entertainment . . .

Oy vey. A week after writing on this weblog that "I'm With Her" was to be renewed for a second season, I now learn that the advertisers feel that the sitcom is not doing well enough in the ratings to suit them, which may in fact lead ABC to cancel it. I hope not. If CBS had decided the fate of "M*A*S*H" at the end of its first year based on how well its ratings looked to advertisers, or if NBC had used the same criteria to decide the fate of "Cheers" after one season, both of them would have been cancelled immediately. Understand, though, both "M*A*S*H" and "Cheers" debuted before major entertainment and media conglamorates bought out the Big Three networks, and ABC is now owned by Disney, which is going through a well-publicized state of corporate inertia. So "I'm With Her" may not be given enough time to find a sizable audience to sustain it. It should be given more time. If it's renewed for another season, "I'm With Her" could very well end up being one of the best sitcoms of this decade. The writing has clearly been going in that direction. Of course, ABC should reschedule it and get it away from Fox's insufferable "American Idol," which has crushed all the competition in the 8PM ET hour on Tuesday nights ("I'm With Her" airs at 8:30 ET that night). "I'm With Her" was doing very well in the ratings before Fox's no-talent show returned for its third installment.

Meanwhile, Nia Vardalos - remember her? - is back with a new movie. The flick is called Connie and Carla, a comedy about two women who pretend to be two men playing female impersonators. Say what? Haven't we seen this before with "Victor/Victoria?" And that movie, released in 1982, had heavyweights like Julie Andrews, Robert Preston, and James Garner in the cast. Plus, it was directed by Blake Edwards, who could be a good director when he tried. (Or when he directed Peter Sellers, then all he had to do was remember to yell "Cut!" at the right moment and it would still be great!) Anyway, it's not an understatement that the stakes are high for Vardalos to deliver with this film. One false move, and she becomes a trivia question. But the only co-star of any considerable weight here is. . . David Duchovny. This is a weird setup even Agent Mulder couldn't have figured out.