Ox Notes: July 17, 2007

It's official: Mandy Patinkin has left Criminal Minds -- due to "creative differences," of course.

Donald Trump won't let The Apprentice die. He's bringing it back for a celebrity edition, although Rosie O'Donnell says she definitely won't be participating.

Joey McIntyre reports in his latest Dancing with the Stars tour blog entry that his dream came true when the cast was partying at a club after a recent show: Edyta Sliwinska asked him to dance. And Cheryl Burke proved that she's a regular gal when she told The Buffalo News that what she misses most about home when she's on tour is doing her own laundry.

When reading about NBC's fall premiere schedule at Zap2It, I noticed a handy feature at the site: a photo gallery of TV premiere and return dates that covers the entire year. It's organized by date, and you can flip through the pages one at a time or choose a date from a drop-down menu to see the shows that are debuting or returning on any network or cable channel that day.

So if you're already trying to come up with an excuse for why you can't attend your grandma's birthday party on September 28, just tell her, "Sorry, Grams. That's the night Las Vegas returns."