Ox Notes: August 14, 2008

My favorite Dancing with the Stars 7 rumor thus far has 80-year-old Adam West -- TV's Batman -- joining the cast. West also starred in the awful film Zombie Nightmare, which prompted one of my favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 comments, regarding the slow-ambling title character: "John Goodman on Hume Cronyn's back could outrun this guy."

Speaking of MST3K, EW has an article about a new project by Joel Hodgson and the other refugees from the Satellite of Love, called Cinematic Titanic. The new show, available on DVD, is pretty much the same as MST3K, only without robots.

Variety reviewed Top Chef: The Tour.

Olympian Michael Phelps spends his downtime watching the nature documentary Planet Earth on DVD. He has good taste.

In other Olympic news, People reports that soccer superstar David Beckham will take part in the closing ceremonies, presumably taking the torch on behalf of London, host of the 2012 Games.

According to Variety, TV critics, who normally spend August reviewing advanced copies of pilots of new fall shows, are freaking out because they have nothing to review. The writers strike earlier this year put production behind schedule, meaning that networks will likely be tweaking their premiere episodes until the last minute.

The New York Observer has an article about the real star of Gossip Girl, 15-year-old Taylor Momsen. The CW created a Season 1 highlight reel to catch viewers up on the major plot points before the second season premieres on September 1: